Psaki: It’s Important for People to Understand that ‘Joe Biden Respects the Rule of Law’

PSAKI: One, I think it’s important for people to understand. Joe Biden respects the rule of law but also respects the separation of branches of power and so when we’re looking at how solemn today is, I mean he nominated attorney general Garland who is operating independently who also named Jack Smith. We all got to this moment and the president was criticized by including members of his party for being slow, not pushing the Department of Justice further. He did that because that’s how the system is supposed to work and we are here because the Justice Department was doing its job. We’ll see how it concludes. We don’t know yet, but I was thinking last night about my former White House colleague, my colleagues I spent so much time with, you know, when this news broke at 7:15, 7:30 last night, Mika, they didn’t have a statement prepared. They weren’t in a war room. Some of them may have been getting in their cars, that’s typically when you finish the senior staff meeting. They did not know this news in advance either. That is how the system is supposed to work and I think it’s important for people to understand that. So, yes, what we’ve seen to just echo Claire from Republicans who have spoken, some exceptions, Asa Hutchinson a little bit is this attack of the justice system, attack of our institutions that have been fundamental to our country for so long. They’re trying to again delegitimize the system and politicize it which is frankly the opposite of what President Biden and the Justice Department currently is trying to do.