Fox News host Greg Gutfeld was called out after he attacked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for criticizing President Donald Trump's call for a federal judge to be impeached after the judge ruled against his administration in an immigration case.
The Trump administration was already gearing up for a legal battle over the Alien Enemies Act after Trump invoked it on Saturday to justify his deportation of over 250 undocumented immigrants purportedly from Venezuela with little to no due process.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order on Saturday to block the deportations, but DOJ attorneys informed him that two planes had already departed—one bound for El Salvador and the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally instructed that the planes be turned around, but the directive was not followed.
Trump was later criticized for referring to Boasberg as a "troublemaker and agitator" and calling for his impeachment—which prompted Roberts to release the following statement:
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."
But Gutfled was furious, admonishing Roberts' expertise and telling him to "shut the F up" in defense of "a leader who does not have the luxury of opening up his little books to read":
“Oh, yes. Well, I’m glad you asked me that question. Look, John Roberts says it’s not appropriate. It’s not an appropriate response when you disagree with the judge. It is really a surprise to me that Trump doesn’t follow the appropriate protocol."
"When there are rapists and murderers invading our country, maybe a guy in a robe in D.C. can follow all the protocols, but Trump is the effing president of the United States who protects 300 million plus people. He is a leader who does not have the luxury of opening up his little books to read. Oh my God, maybe, he didn’t do it the right way."
"Roberts, shut the ‘F’ up. This is something that a president has to do. He has to do this. It blows my mind how wrong I was in 2016 or 2015 when Trump came down the escalator and we were, I was, I can’t believe he said these things."
"Everything he said was right. They’re sending bad people. What did he say? They’re sending killers and rapists. Do you remember this? Some of them were good people."
Gutfeld went on to criticize Democrats—saying that "political disagreement among parties is normal, but the Dems complain about things that Trump might do"—in detail:
"But when you look at the Dems, you see what they’ve actually done, not what they might do, but what they’ve done. For example, they’re trying to prevent rapists and murderers from being deported. They allowed perverts into female safe spaces. They allow surgical experimentation on kids."
"They defend those who materially support Hamas. They defend no cash bail that expanded recidivist criminality. They- I could go on, my point being, we don’t have to make up the crap that they do. The only way they can survive is by hypothetically imagining what Trump will do next because he’s right in the present moment."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Gutfeld was soundly criticized following his attack against the country's leading jurist.
Roberts has on occasion responded to Trump's attacks against the judiciary.
During the first Trump administration, Trump complained about a ruling from a jurist he described as an "Obama judge," Roberts told the Associated Press that in fact "what we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them."
Toward the end of last year, Roberts, without mentioning Trump by name, cautioned Americans about extremists, saying that "within the past few years, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings." Roberts added that "these dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected.”
