Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb trashed Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt as “creepy Karoline” on Thursday after she attacked federal judges who blocked the president’s tariff plans.
Leavitt had opened her Thursday briefing with a tirade against what she called “judicial overreach.” A panel of three judges ruled on Wednesday that Trump’s global tariffs overstepped his authority—a decision now on hold pending appeal.
Leavitt cast the panel as “activist judges,” even though one of them was appointed by Trump himself and another by conservative hero Ronald Reagan.
Asked about Leavitt’s “activist judges” remark on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, Cobb started calling names.
“I don’t think creepy Karoline, when she speaks, I don’t think anybody in America really takes her seriously on a matter of substance,” Cobb said.
“I mean, she’s not learned by any imagination. And I think her comments are clearly so defensive and so ill-informed that people might largely turn her out. She’s wrong,” he added. “Keep in mind, these courts are not trying to participate in international trade matters. All they’re doing is ruling on whether a statute authorizes actions by a president.”
“Did Congress delegate its authority to the president under this statute?” he continued. “And the statute in question has never in history been used in connection with tariffs. So, I think the likelihood is that this statute will be upheld and enforced in a way that precludes the president from trying to pretend that he has these all-encompassing powers.”
Faithfully echoing her master’s voice, Leavitt is making a habit of dismissing judges who rule against the Trump administration as politically motivated. Back in March, she labeled a judge involved in a deportation case a “Democrat activist”—despite the fact he was originally appointed by George W. Bush.
In a whiplash-inducing 24 hours, the U.S. Court of International Trade blocked Trump’s sweeping import tariffs on Wednesday, only for a federal appeals court to reinstate them the next day. The lower court had ruled that the Constitution’s separation of powers bars Congress from handing the president “unbounded tariff power.”
The other two judges on the panel were appointed by former presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.
Cobb served in the Trump White House from 2017 to 2018, overseeing the internal response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. He appears frequently in the media to discuss Trump’s moves, often critically.
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