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McConnell says he stands by past statement that ex-presidents are “not immune” from prosecution
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he stands by comments he made in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol that former presidents, including Donald Trump, are “not immune” from criminal prosecution.
“Face the Nation” moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan asked McConnell if he still believes former presidents are not completely immune from prosecution, as he said in early 2021 a little over a month after rioters who supported former President Trump stormed the Capitol.
The Supreme Court is now considering whether Trump is entitled to broad immunity from federal prosecution, and its ruling in the matter will be critical in determining the fate of his 2020 election trial.
“Let’s put it this way. I addressed that issue on February the 13th” of 2021, McConnell said. “… And January the 6th of 2021. I stand by everything I said then. Obviously, it’ll be up to the Supreme Court to decide whether I was correct.”
Three years ago, McConnell voted to acquit Trump in the impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, reasoning in part that Trump “didn’t get away with anything yet” and could still be held accountable by the courts.
“We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation,” McConnell said on Feb. 13, 2021. “And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.”
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At issue in the case before the Supreme Court, Trump v. United States, is whether the former president can face criminal charges for allegedly official acts while he was in the White House. The dispute, which arose from the federal prosecution by special counsel Jack Smith, is the second to come before the justices in their current term with significant consequences for Trump’s political future.
The highest court could take months to render a decision.
McConnell still endorsed Trump for president, telling Brennan that he has always maintained he would support the Republican nominee for president.
McConnell has said he’ll step down from his leadership role in the Senate in November, although his term won’t expire until 2027. That means, as Brennan pointed out, Trump could be in the White House while McConnell serves out the remainder of his term.
McConnell dismissed the idea of fact checking or influencing Trump when the presumptive GOP nominee parrots misinformation about Russia and Ukraine.
“I’m not going to give any advice to our candidate in the — in the presidential election,” McConnell said. “What I’m focusing on is turning the Senate into a majority Republican.”
Last week, after much negotiating and hand-wringing, the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. McConnell, who spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the bill’s passage, said he apologizes for how long the package took to pass. To Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s credit, McConnell said, Democrats stuck together — it was Republicans who needed to be persuaded.
According to the latest CBS News polling, 79% of self-identified Republicans say the source of information they trust most on Ukraine and Russia is Trump, more so than the Pentagon. Brennan asked McConnell how he would try to counter that messaging.
“I think the single most important thing I can do is make sure my successor is the majority leader, no matter how the presidential election comes out,” McConnell said. “I haven’t been entirely satisfied with this administration. I think the fact that our nominee basically decided not to continue whipping people against the package was a good sign, and I’m going to be advocating increasing the defense budget, no matter who gets elected, and preparing ourselves for the long term, which is China, Russia and Iran.”
Melissa Quinn and Robert Legare contributed to this report
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
