'A devastating blow!' Supreme Court's tough questions for Trump lawyer shock CNN reporter
CNN reporter Erin Burnett appeared to be shocked by the Supreme Court's tough questions for President Donald Trump's lawyers on Wednesday during oral arguments in a case that could decide the fate of the president's signature economic policy.
The court heard arguments in a case concerning Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify imposing sweeping tariffs without Congressional approval. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett appeared the most skeptical of the government's claims that Trump has the unilateral authority to impose the tariffs.
“Can you point to any other place in the code – or any other time in history – where that phrase, together, ‘regulate importation’ has been used to confer tariff-imposing authority,” Barrett asked sharply.
At one point, Roberts described Trump's tariffs as "taxes on Americans," which undercuts a central claim from Trump's lawyers.
Burnett reacted to the arguments during the opening segment of her show, "Erin Burnett Out Front," on Wednesday.
"That is a devastating blow to Trump's repeated claims that it's anything but, and that Americans would not be paying for his trade war," Burnett said.