Sen. Moran on Supreme Court upholding immunity: 'Democracy is served'

Joining us now is Kansas senator, Republican Jerry Moran, kind enough to join us. Senator, good to see you. What do you think, Neil? I think you summed it up really well. The Supreme Court defined the circumstances in which a former president has immunity. That's not surprising that a former president would have immunity. I think that's an expectation that we would have. You don't want our elected officials, when they leave office, to spend their lives being and under retribution from their political adversaries. But they really left the question how it applies to the particular cases that the president, the former president faces to the DC Circuit and to other courts to determine what's public and what's private activity. And that, I guess, in the overall scheme of a political election, means that we're not going to have trials or, or convictions or acquittals prior to the election. And so maybe that's the that's the take away here, is that the American people get the chance to make these decisions without the intrusion of courts and court activity into the time frame in which they're making those decisions now and now until November. I just wonder, Senator, what you make Speaking of dissent of Justice Sotomayor says she fears for democracy itself, saying that the president is now a king above the law. What did you think of that? Well, our Constitution was created by framers who were making certain that the executive branch is not a king. And I would say that the fear of democracy, certainly we want no person to be above the law. That's an ingrained theory and thought a protocol in our lives. That's important to us. But we also don't want to see what happens in other countries around the world where when an election occurs there, the losing candidate is then subjected to the judicial system more as a political event than as a legal event. And we want the law to be the law. We want it applied fairly and and appropriately. But we also don't want the courts to become so involved in politics, in particularly in a time of an election, that they sway the outcome of election or prevent a candidate from being a candidate for for to prevent a former president from running again, for example. And so democracy is is served by the idea that there is immunity for official acts and there is not immunity for private acts. The difficulty we have here that we seemingly always have in the justice system is how did which is which, Yeah. And we don't know yet. Senator, while I have you here, there are talks of the Justice Department has reportedly varied because the striking a deal with Boeing on on these disasters and plane crashes. We don't know the details of it. We know it could be pending. We know as well that in the middle of all of this, Boeing is going to be buying Spirit Aero Systems. I believe in your state. But what do you make of all of this? Well, we're certainly focused in Kansas on the acquisition of Spirit, our state's largest private employer depending upon the business cycle, employing 12 to 15,000 Kansans, Wichita. And Kansas is known as the air capital of the world because of the number of people who work in aviation, the amount of planes that are manufactured and parts and supplies for Boeing and for other companies. And so the acquisition really is a huge thing. It's annoying to me that Boeing seems to be suggesting that their problems are with Spirit, one of their major suppliers. And yet we have a highly trained, educated, experienced workforce in Kansas that's totally necessary to Boeing and to Airbus and to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman and many other companies. Another thing I would say is that the national focus of course is on the other case, perhaps not the the acquisition of Spirit. What I would say is that Boeing needs to get its act together and be the safest manufacturer in the world utilizing the talents and skills that Spirit can help them do that and a management that probably is a better way than what we've seen in the past with Boeing and Spirits relationship. But the the court case that you know, the prosecution that maybe filed criminal charges against Boeing is the just the take away is for both certainly for me and Kansans, we need Boeing to be a viable solid and a company if they buy back spirit, if they buy back spirit, maybe they get close to that. I'm sorry for the crunch time Senator rudely interrupting you. But thank you very much, Sir. Very good seeing you again. All right, I appreciate it. Thanks.