Newsmax host invokes the Civil War while complaining about federal judges ruling against the Trump administration: “It smells like 1861”
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From the May 21, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Chris Plante: The Right Squad
CHRIS PLANTE (HOST): Vice President of the United States JD Vance says it's time for the American people to get what we voted for, an administration that protects American sovereignty. I believe we voted for that. In an interview with, of all people, The New York Times — why would you do that? They've got a columnist there, Ross Douthat is his alleged name. And JD Vance, vice president, says you cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they're not allowed to have what they voted for. That's where we are right now, JD Vance said. He continues talking to Ross Douthat, The New York Times. Success to me is that we have established a set of rules and principles that the courts are comfortable with, and that we have the infrastructure that that allows us to deport large numbers of illegal aliens, because illegal aliens are illegal. When large numbers of illegal aliens come into the country. But I think whether we're able to get there is a function, of course, of our efforts, but also the courts themselves, JD Vance said. And the vice president continued, I think that you are saying, and I know this is inflammatory, but I think you are seeing and an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people.
And honestly, I think we're seeing that at every turn, aren't we? With some Biden appointee or Obama appointee and even Clinton appointees overturning the executive branch, which was just voted into office by 77 million Americans. And it's — you know, this is — it smells like 1861 around here.
TONY SHAFFER (GUEST): Are you against the administrative state, Chris? How dare you? How dare you, sir? It's insane that we have people who are not elected who somehow believe that they can use whatever loophole. And I'm not a lawyer, but I pretended to be one in front of the Iowa Supreme Court one time. And that's a story for another day. And I got away with it. It was legal. But I think that's the issue that the legality of these rulings — and I heard Judge Napolitano earlier on the network today talk about, you know, well, they're taught in law school that that that basically any ruling has to equally apply across the board. But the problem is, this: no judge actually was elected by all the people of the United States, and therefore his actions have been outweighed — basically inappropriate level of influence over this fact. So I think he's right. And I think Congress — it's time for Congress to do something to limit the power of the judges.