Republican strategist Brad Todd called out CNN for not questioning whether former President Biden was laying the groundwork to defy court orders, as the panel went all in on President Trump’s opposition to restraining orders against a couple of his executive actions.
“This is not a new reality. Let’s rewind the tape. A couple of years ago, Joe Biden lost his plan for student loan forgiveness, if you will, at the Supreme Court. His quote was, ‘I will stop at nothing to do this.’ And he then proceeded to give up $48 billion of student loan debt in defiance of the Supreme Court,” Todd said, as CNN host Jim Sciutto pushed back.
Several of the Trump administration’s actions, such as the federal funding freeze and the barring of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to personal data, have been challenged by Democratic attorneys general and several states that took issue with the executive orders. Scuitto wondered whether the Trump administration was laying the groundwork to disobey any future court rulings with regard to his executive action.
Republican strategist Brad Todd called out CNN for not questioning whether Biden would defy court orders after the Supreme Court ruled against his student loan forgiveness plan, as the panel slammed Trump for opposing restraining orders on his executive action. (Screenshot/CNN)
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“When Joe Biden said ‘I will stop at nothing’ when he lost the student loan case, we didn‘t get on television and CNN didn‘t say, ‘I wonder if he’s laying the groundwork to defy the court.’ We don’t, we treat Republican presidents different than we treat Democratic presidents in this conversation,” he added following more discussion from the panel.
Paul Engelmayer, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York and an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued a temporary restraining order on Saturday that sided with 19 Democratic state attorneys general who claimed that giving DOGE “full access” to the Treasury’s payment systems violates the law.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell also filed a new motion Monday ordering the Trump administration to comply with a restraining order issued Jan. 31, temporarily blocking the administration’s efforts to pause federal grants and loans.
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Uniondale, New York on Wednesday, September 18, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
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Sciutto asked CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams to respond to Todd’s argument, calling the idea that Biden did the same thing a “talking point.”
“Certainly, I will give the president this. He has every right to challenge orders. He has every right to say the courts are wrong. He has every right to vindicate his rights. But when both he and JD Vance are making the argument that, well, there will come a day when we simply will not adhere to court orders, that to me is the big problem,” Williams responded.
Todd brought up Biden’s commission to look at expanding the court and accused the former president and the Democratic Party of trying to undermine the integrity of the Supreme Court for several years.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Department of Labor on December 16, 2024 in Washington, DC (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
CNN contributor Alex Thompson argued that Trump was “doing something new” in trying to push the “limits of executive order.”
“Like Barack Obama did with the waters of the United States and the clean power plan and Joe Biden did the student loan act, presidents advancing executive policy to get to the Supreme Court and test the limits is as old as the presidency, this is not extraordinary,” he said.
Williams agreed with Todd’s argument.
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Fox News’ Diana Stancy and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
