Hemingway To White House: How Will You Stop Judicial Coup?

Federalist Editor-In-Chief Mollie Hemingway used her opportunity as the new media journalist in Thursday’s White House press briefing to question whether the Trump administration plans to take any action to stop an ongoing effort by lower courts to impede President Donald Trump’s agenda.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt greeted Hemingway by describing The Federalist as providing “fearless journalism and coverage of politics and culture to millions of readers all over the world.” Her response to Hemingway’s question about whether the White House planned to rein in the “rogue lower court judges” keeping President Donald Trump from executing his presidential goals, however, was evasive.

Hemingway kicked off the first question of the briefing by noting that the corporate media and Democrats attempted to stifle the first Trump administration with the Russia collusion hoax.

“The second Trump administration, to reference what you said at the beginning, seems to be subject to an effort to stymie the agenda using rogue lower court judges. You mentioned that the Supreme Court could and should do something to rein in these lower court judges. Also, Congress could do something about it, but they don’t seem terribly interested in it,” Hemingway continued. “It also seems there’s not much of an actual coordinated effort from this White House to take and tackle this effort from judges, Democrats, and other people using these judges to stymie the agenda. Is there an actual effort by this White House to tackle this issue in a comprehensive way, and if so, what is it?”

Leavitt claimed that there “is an effort by this administration to tackle these rogue judges and the injunctions and the blockades that we have faced in our broken judicial system,” but she did not specify what that effort is.

“I will get to the heart of your question, and I’m glad that we are addressing this in the room today, because nationwide injunctions ordered against the first Trump administration, Trump 1.0, account for more than half of the injunctions issued in this country since 1963. And President Trump had more injunctions in one full month of office in February than Joe Biden had in three years,” Leavitt said.

But she then rattled off a list of “radical injunctions,” including those interfering in Trump’s plans to deport foreign criminals, defund the castration and mutilation of children, fire federal workers, and more.

Hemingway, undeterred by Leavitt’s list, pressed the press secretary again over what “some people are calling … a judicial coup.”

“You’re saying you’re responding to each and every one of these actions, efforts by these judges to delay or thwart the implementation of the agenda. But is there going to be anything more than that, or is it just going to let this operation continue even though it could delay everything for years until the presidency is over?” Hemingway asked.

“The administration is operating under the directive given … from the president that we need to comply with the court’s orders. He’s made that very clear, but we’re going to fight them in court, and we’re going to win on the merits of these cases, because we know we are acting within a president’s legal and executive authorities,” Leavitt concluded, before moving on to another question.