President Donald Trump's effort to intimidate the Supreme Court over his birthright citizenship case is going to backfire on him, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele argued Tuesday evening on MS NOW.
Former federal drug enforcement chief and MS NOW legal commentator Chuck Rosenberg concurred with his assessment.
"If nothing else, the Supreme Court tomorrow, from what I see, can settle that piece that this — you're born here, you're an American citizen, regardless of your parents' status, regardless of your granddaddy's status, regardless of the color of your skin or where you're from," said Steele. "That, to me, is an important aspect of this. The flip side of that coin is what Donald Trump thinks, and I would love to get your thoughts when you look at those two pieces."
"Donald Trump thinks that his way to win the argument is to basically crap all over the judges," said Steele. "Now, I don't know Donald Trump has ever played a sport. Not likely, right?" Laughter spread around the table. "You don't — you can't game the game with the referees by ticking them off and calling them names, right? And so I don't understand what he thinks changes for him when he does what he does on Twitter and elsewhere to go after the justices as well."
"Yeah, there are good strategies in court and bad strategies in court," agreed Rosenberg. "To your point, Michael, I think calling the judges names, bad strategy, bad strategy. Now, I was a prosecutor, a federal prosecutor for a very long time. I actually subscribed completely to what Chief Justice John Roberts said, and people may disagree with me. That's fine. But in my experience, there weren't Obama judges and Clinton judges and Bush judges and Reagan judges. There were judges, right? There were men and women trying to get it right."
"I think most Americans held that view, in large measure," chimed in Steele.
"I hold that view. It's not past tense for me. I hold that view," said Rosenberg. "Now, where do you stand? Sometimes determines where you sit, right. And people look at things in different ways through different prisms. I get that too. But in any event, calling them names not a good strategy."