In a recent TV interview, United States President Donald Trump said he did not know whether he needed to uphold the US Constitution.Trump was answering a question on NBC News last week about whether undocumented immigrants in the US are entitled to due process.
“They talk about due process, but do you get due process when you’re here illegally,” Trump asked the interviewer, Kristen Welker, NBC’s Meet the Press moderator.
“The Constitution says every person, citizens and noncitizens, deserves due process,” Welker responded.
She then asked Trump whether he agreed with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said noncitizens are entitled to due process.
Trump: “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”
Welker: “Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much.”
Trump: “I don’t know. It might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials.”
Welker: “But even given those numbers that you’re talking about, don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?” Advertisement
Trump: “I don’t know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.”
That was not the first time Trump had brushed aside immigrants’ due process rights.
In an ABC News interview marking Trump’s first 100 days in office, correspondent Terry Moran asked Trump, “But in our country, even bad guys get due process, right?”
Trump answered, “If people come into our country illegally, there’s a different standard.”
Durin …