Former senior Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod recently had two words for mega-podcaster Joe Rogan: He’s “absolutely right.”
Rogan spoke in a recent episode about a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, being sent to a gulag in El Salvador without any due process and over court objections to him and others being sent out of the U.S.
“(Rogan) is absolutely right. It may seem fine to blow up due process for Abrego Garcia and others now. But if that’s the new normal, how you going to feel when a president is elected with whom you DON’T agree? And all the safeguards are gone? Is that the America we want?” Axelrod posted to X.
It was in response to Rogan saying:
What about due process? ‘No, f—k that.’ Here’s the problem with ‘f—k that,’ the problem with things going in a radical direction and then there’s an overcorrection, so the overcorrection is a lack of due process. The overcorrection is, like, round them up all, ship them to jail. Like, that’s like some things that you say when you’re not thinking things through.
Like, what do you do about all the criminals? ‘Take them all and f—king taken them to El Salvador.’ What about due process? ‘No, f—k that.’ But here’s the ‘f—k that,’ what if you are an enemy, let’s not say any current president, let’s pretend we have a new president, totally new guy in 2028, and there’s this common practice now of just rounding up gang members with no due process and shipping them to El Salvador. ‘You’re a gang member.’ ‘No, I’m not. ‘Prove it.’ … No due process. …
That’s dangerous.
Abrego Garcia had lived in the U.S. for more than a decade and was deported in a move that the Trump administration has said in court filings was erroneous.
But despite a Supreme Court ordering the Trump administration to help facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, the administration has said it has no power to bring him back, a choice being scrutinized by federal courts as potentially in violation of judicial rulings.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen unsuccessfully lobbied the Salvadoran government for Abrego Garcia’s return. He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the U.S. is facing a “constitutional crisis” if the Trump administration does not follow the Supreme Court’s order to push to bring Abrego Garcia back.
It’s a warning Democrats are increasingly amplifying. Rather than debate President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy or the merits of the administration’s invocation of national security to carry out deportations, Democratic lawmakers are zeroing in on the issue of due process, with some noting that the Supreme Court and lower court federal judges found Abrego Garcia was deported without a proper hearing.
“The government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the court’s ruling in Abrego Garcia’s case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
