CNN host Jake Tapper on Thursday highlighted some troubling revelations from “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, and the alarming lengths to which Trump might go.
“Well, the book ‘Regime Change’ also details the Trump White House discussing President Trump suspending habeas corpus,” said Tapper. “That’s the fundamental legal concept which prevents the government from indefinitely detaining people without evidence.”
The “Lead” host continued, “It’s an extreme measure that Trump has openly discussed on several occasions, including when he wanted to bypass courts on immigration enforcement and deportation matters.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has openly floated as much, telling reporters in May amid stated efforts from the administration to deport undocumented workers and foreign-born students that habeas corpus can be suspended in times of “invasion.”
Tapper on Thursday went on to play a clip of Trump considering the idea.
The president said during a cabinet meeting in April, “There’s one way that’s been used by three very highly respected presidents, but we hope we don’t have to go that route. But there is one way that has been used very successfully by three presidents, all highly respected.”
Habeas corpus was suspended by former Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Then-President George W. Bush signed the 2006 Military Commissions Act to strip non-citizens deemed “enemy combatants” of the right.
“Regime Change” was released on Tuesday and includes a flurry of bombshells, including that the president once showed off a document claiming he was more powerful than Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. However, Tapper appeared most focused on Americans’ constitutional rights.
He said the book reveals some White House officials were “deeply alarmed,” quoting: “Many inside and outside the White House agreed, with some calling the push to suspend habeas corpus ‘insane’ — believing it would roil the country and cripple the Trump presidency.”
The book’s passage concluded, “But the President was interested.”
Tapper said “Regime Change” also covers the administration discussing the Insurrection Act, which would allow U.S. troops to be used for domestic law enforcement, amid protests in January after federal immigration agents fatally shot Minnesota residents Alex Pretti and Renée Good.
He said Vice President JD Vance “got right to the point” at the time, quoting the book.
The passage in reference continued, “He wanted to talk about the situation in Minnesota. In his view they needed to swiftly invoke the Insurrection Act to crush the unrest. It would be painful in the short term, he said, but in the long term it was the right thing to do.”
Trump has floated invoking the act before, in a clip on “The Lead,” the president told reporters in October that he’s “allowed” to do so and claimed that there would be “no more court cases” and “no more anything” once he does. After the clip, Tapper concluded his thoughts on a rather ominous note of uncertainty, saying, “What might this all be leading up to? Well, we’re going to continue to follow it all.”