“But Hillary” doesn’t cut it here. Trump chose not to pursue an investigation into her conduct. Trump chose not to indict her. If you want to say Hillary is a crook who should be in jail, Trump is the one you must ask — why didn’t his Justice Department and his FBI pursue an investigation? Why didn’t he appoint a special counsel?
Erick's post takes apart the "But Hillary" argument. Here, I want to address that concerning Trump's declassification of the stuff he took.
To begin with, the declassification of a document doesn't mean it is only declassified as concerns its review by one person. Rather, it means the document is declassified . . . period; leaving anyone and everyone free to read and disseminate that document as he sees fit. If Trump declassified (quoting one of Erick's earlier posts) "plans for invasions of other countries, locations of American spies around the world, classified locations of soldiers, military vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies, classified assessments of nuclear capabilities of various nations," then God help us.
By way of reassurance, however, I don't think Trump could legally declassify stuff of that sort because implicit in any authority granted to a government official is the limitation that such authority be exercised for a proper purpose. Generally speaking, the proper purpose for declassifying a document is that the information it contains is no longer sufficiently sensitive to warrant classification. The former President's mere desire to take this stuff with him doesn't meet that criterion.
Even if Trump could declassify this stuff, he would still lack the authority to possess it. No matter how high one's security clearance is, that alone does not authorize one's access to all that is classified. Rather, one must also have what is called a "need to know." In sum, even if declassified, because Trump no longer had a "need to know" any of this stuff, his access to it was unauthorized. (I might also add this as a distinguishing aspect as concerns Hillary Clinton's transgressions, who as a mere diplomat, was unlikely to be receiving our most sensitive military secrets via that private server because she had no need to know information of a military nature.)
Finally regarding the classified nature of this stuff, now that we know it's not just love letters from Kim Jong Un, I wish someone could please point me to just one legitimate reason for Trump to want possession of information this sensitive after he was no longer President.
I say all this to knock yet another leg out from under the argument that conservatives should now rally around Donald Trump. Whomever it is that said a sucker is born every minute would seem to have been guilty of an undercount. For crying out loud, his 2016 campaign was virtually built around the notion that Hillary Clinton should have gone to jail for what she did. Now he does something every bit as egregious and all he need do is issue the call to the "lock her up" faithful to rally around him . . . and they do it; bringing with them every Republican presidential hopeful willing to put ambition ahead of the best interests of the country.
When Trump said he could shoot someone without losing any support, suckers is what he was talking about. Isn't it time to find a way forward that doesn't go down 5th Avenue?
You cited a poll showing "Trump’s popularity surging with 81% of people interested in his go-forward policy prescriptions." That's the one I seem to have missed.
As for the poll results referenced in this link, they do not support the notion that Trump's popularity is "surging." By way of illustration, I would be included in the 61% who say that Trump's indictment won’t change their views about Trump: I thought he was a butt wipe from Day 1 and that hasn't changed. I also do not think that a conviction should bar him from being President, if that be the will of the American people. That doesn't mean I would vote for him.
Erick - I understand the drip drip drip but will the media ensure that he has the time you needs even if he doesn't have the money. I was a Trump voter and still like the policies that came from his administration, but his flaws and need for the limelight he will think they love him until they don't. He does not need to be the media's useful idiot.
Wait, do you mean to tell me that with the Justice Department having the option of filing charges in D.C., they instead chose to have the jury drawn from the "red state" of Florida, that Trump's case is now before a judge that he appointed, and that any appeal will go to an 11th Circuit also dominated by his appointees?
Eric previously discussed this as a matter of (I believe) venue. The alleged crimes of obstruction, mishandling classified documents, etc., took place in Florida. Therefore, the charges had to be filed in the federal districr in which they were alleged to have occurred.
You miss the point of my sarcasm, Rick; which is that for whatever reason the charges have been filed in Florida, Trump cannot complain of being hauled into a hostile forum. I might add, however, my (admittedly uninformed) belief that charges could have theoretically been filed in any venue where any portion of the alleged criminal activity took place. I think the prosecutors chose Florida (1) to simply sidestep any venue based objections and (2) because they think they could convict him on these facts with a jury selected from the dining room of Mar-a-Lago.
Conservatives look at Hillary and Biden doing things the same way Trump did and not getting indicted, while Trump gets indicted and dragged into courts in 4 different (all equally stupid) cases and rightly see a double-standard, a two-tiered system. You can say Trump is “shackled” by all this and that’s true, but it’s all mostly nonsense so if you advocate telling Trump to throw in the towel you basically are saying all the Dem’s have to do is throw enough crap onto a candidate in lawfare that he becomes dirty and unelectable. And then that’s all they’ll ever do.
You dismiss Hillary’s misdeeds for what reason I don’t know, and you point to photos of stacks of boxes in the ballroom and a bathroom as damning, even though in each of those photos there were tens of thousands of documents and probably only a scant few that were Classified (if any). And you assume that CNN’s audiotape is legit even though they have a bad track record and none of us have actually heard it yet; not to mention it was prior to the feds getting ahold of all his documents, so it may mean exactly nothing even if it’s legit.
I’m pulling for DeSantis right now, not Trump, so I’m not going to bat for him because I’m an always-Trumper. I just hate that the Democrats are going nuclear and we’re all expected to play along.
Michael, did you even read Erick's post? Don't blame the Democrats. Trump did this to himself!
And while I disagree with Erick assigning the decision to Trump (no President should be making prosecutorial decisions), it was his Justice Department that chose not to pursue charges against Hillary. Stated another way, Erick dismisses Hillary's misdeeds because that is what Trump's Justice Department did.
I have been traveling across the country these past two weeks and will head home to the DC swamp in a couple of days. I’ve talked to many ordinary people, not to pundits or political insiders. No one is talking about the Trump indictment. Now that doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking about it, but the vast majority of the people I’ve spoken to are discussing how bad crime is becoming and how high inflation is. There is also a real lack of people working so that service is either very slow or non-existent. There is just a general sense of unease and uncertainty about the future with the prevailing thought being that things are going to get worse. Some are talking about stockpiling food and weapons.
There is no political solution and the culture will not recover for at least a generation or two, if it ever does. I weep for my nation. Only God will save us from the chaos to come.
Pardon me, but this is all so “effing” tiresome and irritating. I am tired of this man, irritated by the predominance if his name and image, and totally embarrassed for our country over his cavalier attitude about what it means to hold such an important position in our nation. I am tired of getting texts and emails raining from the heavens on his behalf asking me for money.
I am sick of hearing every news story about him short of what color his poop is.
I desperately hope he gets out of the race. And you people who are still blindly supporting him need psychiatric help. Every good thing he might have done as President is being erased by his own hand and monumental ego.
Good post. Our country mostly avoided “cult of personality” Presidents until Obama and Trump, though perhaps FDR was due to his longevity. It’s a hallmark of unhealthy cultures.
Trump also willfully showed some of the classified documents to people who did not have a security clearance.
In Texas we are seeing similar behavior unfold in the now-impeached Ken Paxton. Paxton even threatened numerous state House reps if they voted to impeach.
Facts, not emotions, need to rule the day in both cases.
We, Republican voters, do not owe Trump anything much less four more years as president---we don't owe anybody that. We can wish him well, pray for him and hope things turn out well for him. However, we owe it to ourselves and the well-being of America to move on from Trump as a candidate and continue on with the process in choosing someone else. We owe it to our families to get Biden out of the White House and prevent another progressive from taking his place. The problem is that so many think they owe Trump another four years and feel duty bound to deliver them to him. I just don't understand that kind of thinking. Getting rid of Biden is the goal, not rewarding Trump as if he was some kind of idol to please.
I will take incompetent over corrupt any day. What we have with Trump is political incompetency. What we have with Biden and his administration is not political incompetency, but general incompetency and profound corruption.
But hey, old Joe does not do mean Tweets. In fact, old Joe rarely comes out to speak because when he does he tends to mumble an unintelligible mess. So old Joe does not upset the easily upset word people. And keeping the easily upset word people from becoming upset seems to be a pretty good political strategy for the Democrats.
It is sad that we have so many voters that behave like petulant children with arms crossed and a pouty face refusing to play on the play ground because Billy said mean things. Their goal is to get Billy tossed even if it requires destroying the playground in the process.
You offer a (currently false) choice between Trump and Biden. Right now, the choice is one for the Republican nomination: that is, between Trump and some other Republican.
I get really tired of the Lie “ No One is Above the Law .” That said President Trump did some good but he has Stuck his foot in his mouth and only God can save him.
I think through this all the time. Nobody on the Republican side has the ability to get 74 million votes. Therefore we lose. Another 4 years of this of a like regime will be deadly. And even if we do win, do you think any of these folks will be anything more than more of the same. I mean, DeSantis? With a donor base that supports China and all China does? A lead donor that helped bail out SVB? Another lead donor deeply embedded in Sequioa Ventures’ China investments? Please. I’ll take true America First any day. Let DeSantis figure out how to beat Mickey before we turn him on to Xi Jinping.
What were the documents? Are they from the past and still reverent now? Secret documents should have a chain of custody. Who should also be charged for not requesting them back ?
This is great top-surface thinking and writing to fit a confirmation bias backed by hate of Trump.
It is like there are two boxes of material. One contains the common anti-Trump facts and points (like Trump p-grabbing comment). The other contains the anti-swamp facts and points (like the Democrats changing election rules and protocols, $500m Zuckerbucks and the Twitter Files revelations, and of course the great media lies of Russia collusion and Hunter’s laptop).
The first box is very light and full of “news” twaddle, but that is the more common repeat.
The second box is like a ton of bricks, contains real news that spells a real threat to democracy, yet it is only reported by “fringe” independent reporters.
Trump support isn’t about the man… it is about the boxes.
Have you ever heard the saying, "Two wrongs don't make a right?"
My "top-surface" thinking is break the law, go to jail. So much for Box No. 1. Now as for Box No. 2, break the law, go to jail. And so on.
In sum, do the right thing every time, as best we can. Doing the wrong thing today because the wrong thing was done yesterday can only lead to doing the wrong thing yet again tomorrow.
I have this debate with my board of directors. Is is the right thing to allow our sales representatives to take clients to a strip club or topless karaoke bar? Some say yes, some say no. The point is that "the right thing" gets to morality and morality differs from person to person.
To paint moral absolutes is egotistical and/or a sign of ignorance about human behavior and psychology.
And Trump has never been convicted of breaking the law while in office. The likelihood is that Biden is guilty of breaking the law while in office.
But let's say that neither get convicted of any crime while in office. Then there is still that moral assessment we each bring to the table of moral behavior while in office (I give a rat's ass about what Trump did as a billionaire Playboy... even so, his kids are much better than are Biden's kids). My perspective is that everything that the Democrat swamp has done to Trump far FAR exceeds the "wrongs" Trump is accused of. I vote for draining the swamp at this point because I see it as our only real existential threat and the very top "right thing". So, who is the best candidate for draining the swamp?
At least to this point, I am satisfied that nothing that Trump is currently under indictment for occurred while he was in office. Despite my belief that he is guilty as sin for what happened on January 6th, I hope the Justice Department doesn't go there. One administration prosecuting the previous one for what it did, while in office, is a slippery slope that I hope we can avoid.
And Frank, I have to disagree about Democrats doing more harm to Trump than any harm that he has caused. In the latter regard, we can only be hopeful. Again quoting from Erick's earlier post, according to the indictment, Trump took "plans for invasions of other countries, locations of American spies around the world, classified locations of soldiers, military vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies, classified assessments of nuclear capabilities of various nations," and just left them lying around Mar-a-Lago where many people he hardly even knows come and go almost everyday. And unlike what seems to be the case with Biden and Pence, he did not do so by accident, but knowingly and on purpose. Trump chose to step into the dirty business of politics; our spies and soldiers never chose to have their locations revealed by someone who should well have known better.
First, this is an indictment from a Justice Department already proven to be completely committed to supporting the Democrat agenda to destroy Trump. The Justice Department has proven political corruption. They cannot be trusted.
So much wolf crying and the same bleating sheep believing it.
And we are seeing two standards of justice. Mr. Biden had old classified files stored in his Delaware garage next to his sports car. When that news came out, he didn’t sound too apologetic. “My Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” AG Garland appointed another special counsel, Robert Hur, to investigate, but Justice isn’t going to indict Mr. Biden... we know that.
As for willful, how about the basement email server that Hillary Clinton used as Secretary of State? FBI director James Comey said in 2016 that she and her colleagues “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” According to him, 113 emails included information that was classified when it was sent or received. Eight were Top Secret. About 2,000 others were later “upclassified” to Confidential. This was the statement Mr. Comey ended by declaring Mrs. Clinton free and clear, since “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Swamp, Swamp, Swamp.
Jan-6 was nothing except a political and media clown circus from the Democrats and Republican Trump haters... most of which lost their political jobs. The election was full of irregularities. Trump conceded after Congress certified.
And it is yet another strong bunch of evidence of Justice corruption given the treatment of the Jan-6 protestors vs. the previous 18 months of BLM and Antifa violence.
We have a two-tier justice system where the Democrats control. It is part of the swamp that must be cleared.
James Comey is a Republican. His successor as FBI Director, Chistopher Wray is both a Republican and a Trump appointee. If those two are too "swampy" for you, how about Bill Barr. During his time as the tippy top head of the Justice Department, why was none of this stuff concerning Democrats pursued? Might it in fact have been that none of it was worth pursuing. As you keep on saying "swamp, swamp, swamp" to yourself, be sure and keep that head firmly buried in the sand.
And don't tell me what January 6th was. I saw it for myself. Anyone with a shred of integrity who also saw it knows exactly what it was.
Jan-6 was a legal protest. Protected free speech. At best civil disobedience with a handful of idiots that were violent. Nobody was armed. It was not an insurrection. It was not a coup. You people that keep playing that loop have TDS and are stuck on hyperbole that destroys credibility for almost any other topic related to Trump.
The third box, if I may add to your analogy, is what is revealed in the indictment, accusations based on recordings of Trump, notes from his lawyers, etc. I have been watching all the channels to see how it is covered as well as reading multiple newspapers daily.
Today recordings can be digitally faked. And it is all he-said, she-said. The newspapers you are reading are all owned by the big media companies that are controlled by the same Wall Street firms that own controlling interest in the mainstream TV media and big tech... all that support the WEF globalist agenda and oppose Trump.
And we have been here how many times by now... you and I reading the news that we expect to trust only to find out that the news was complicit in a great lie to take down Trump?
Sorry, this stuff is all in the first box. And in consideration of the razor-walking attempt to nuance the difference between Trump having classified documents and Biden having classified documents... it is clear that this is just added swamp hypocrisy and ruling class power abuse corrupting the democratic process in favor of the ruling class.
So, what do those "fringe" guys living in their mom's basement with a computer know that no mainstream media outlet (even Fox) can't figure out. If it's only reported by the "fringe," that's likely because it is BS.
"why didn’t his Justice Department and his FBI pursue an investigation? "
Oh.. maybe the same reason the FBI lied to the FISA court to listen in on Carter Page's phone calls. Maybe the way they bullied Michael Flynn into a guilty plea for no valid reason.
Maybe the same reason the FBI, CIA and others spiked the Hunter laptop story. Maybe the same reason DNI David Clapper lied under oath about collecting phone data of millions of Americans.
Trump could tell Comey, Wray, Clapper, et al, to investigate, but if they refuse to do so, or the investigators fail to really investigate, what's the point?
And didn't Comey previouly say, "No reasonable prosector" would prosecute Hillary even though they found evidence of illegal activities?
Wasn't there an Op-Ed in the WaPo from an 'Anonymous' insider who claimed there were certsin staffers who actively tried to impede Trump by withholding things from him and failing to carry out orders?
The 'Deep State' (Administrative State)is a cancer that's infiltrated the government and works against anything that threatens it... Donald Trump in particular and conservatives in general.
Or there could actually be nothing prosecutable in any of this. Once Bill Barr became AG, Trump had HIS guy, not some agent of the "Deep State." And still, no prosecutions.
As AG, Barr could at the very least have exercised veto power over anyone Wray chose to assign to any such investigation. Indeed, as concerns the investigation into the Russia investigation, Barr hand picked Durham. What I think is that such an investigation would have come up with the same thing that Durham came up with - that being diddly - because Barr especially was in a position to fully investigate and prosecute anything that warranted prosecution. The lack of any basis for prosecution is a much more plausible explanation than that of two of the most powerful men in the world being powerless against an all powerful "deep state."
Erick's post takes apart the "But Hillary" argument. Here, I want to address that concerning Trump's declassification of the stuff he took.
To begin with, the declassification of a document doesn't mean it is only declassified as concerns its review by one person. Rather, it means the document is declassified . . . period; leaving anyone and everyone free to read and disseminate that document as he sees fit. If Trump declassified (quoting one of Erick's earlier posts) "plans for invasions of other countries, locations of American spies around the world, classified locations of soldiers, military vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies, classified assessments of nuclear capabilities of various nations," then God help us.
By way of reassurance, however, I don't think Trump could legally declassify stuff of that sort because implicit in any authority granted to a government official is the limitation that such authority be exercised for a proper purpose. Generally speaking, the proper purpose for declassifying a document is that the information it contains is no longer sufficiently sensitive to warrant classification. The former President's mere desire to take this stuff with him doesn't meet that criterion.
Even if Trump could declassify this stuff, he would still lack the authority to possess it. No matter how high one's security clearance is, that alone does not authorize one's access to all that is classified. Rather, one must also have what is called a "need to know." In sum, even if declassified, because Trump no longer had a "need to know" any of this stuff, his access to it was unauthorized. (I might also add this as a distinguishing aspect as concerns Hillary Clinton's transgressions, who as a mere diplomat, was unlikely to be receiving our most sensitive military secrets via that private server because she had no need to know information of a military nature.)
Finally regarding the classified nature of this stuff, now that we know it's not just love letters from Kim Jong Un, I wish someone could please point me to just one legitimate reason for Trump to want possession of information this sensitive after he was no longer President.
I say all this to knock yet another leg out from under the argument that conservatives should now rally around Donald Trump. Whomever it is that said a sucker is born every minute would seem to have been guilty of an undercount. For crying out loud, his 2016 campaign was virtually built around the notion that Hillary Clinton should have gone to jail for what she did. Now he does something every bit as egregious and all he need do is issue the call to the "lock her up" faithful to rally around him . . . and they do it; bringing with them every Republican presidential hopeful willing to put ambition ahead of the best interests of the country.
When Trump said he could shoot someone without losing any support, suckers is what he was talking about. Isn't it time to find a way forward that doesn't go down 5th Avenue?
https://twitter.com/iapolls2022/status/1667958840640380929?s=46&t=3W3ZcAv16M763tMjiEUvvQ
You cited a poll showing "Trump’s popularity surging with 81% of people interested in his go-forward policy prescriptions." That's the one I seem to have missed.
As for the poll results referenced in this link, they do not support the notion that Trump's popularity is "surging." By way of illustration, I would be included in the 61% who say that Trump's indictment won’t change their views about Trump: I thought he was a butt wipe from Day 1 and that hasn't changed. I also do not think that a conviction should bar him from being President, if that be the will of the American people. That doesn't mean I would vote for him.
Erick - I understand the drip drip drip but will the media ensure that he has the time you needs even if he doesn't have the money. I was a Trump voter and still like the policies that came from his administration, but his flaws and need for the limelight he will think they love him until they don't. He does not need to be the media's useful idiot.
Wait, do you mean to tell me that with the Justice Department having the option of filing charges in D.C., they instead chose to have the jury drawn from the "red state" of Florida, that Trump's case is now before a judge that he appointed, and that any appeal will go to an 11th Circuit also dominated by his appointees?
Those dirty dogs. Have they no sense of fairness?
Eric previously discussed this as a matter of (I believe) venue. The alleged crimes of obstruction, mishandling classified documents, etc., took place in Florida. Therefore, the charges had to be filed in the federal districr in which they were alleged to have occurred.
You miss the point of my sarcasm, Rick; which is that for whatever reason the charges have been filed in Florida, Trump cannot complain of being hauled into a hostile forum. I might add, however, my (admittedly uninformed) belief that charges could have theoretically been filed in any venue where any portion of the alleged criminal activity took place. I think the prosecutors chose Florida (1) to simply sidestep any venue based objections and (2) because they think they could convict him on these facts with a jury selected from the dining room of Mar-a-Lago.
Conservatives look at Hillary and Biden doing things the same way Trump did and not getting indicted, while Trump gets indicted and dragged into courts in 4 different (all equally stupid) cases and rightly see a double-standard, a two-tiered system. You can say Trump is “shackled” by all this and that’s true, but it’s all mostly nonsense so if you advocate telling Trump to throw in the towel you basically are saying all the Dem’s have to do is throw enough crap onto a candidate in lawfare that he becomes dirty and unelectable. And then that’s all they’ll ever do.
You dismiss Hillary’s misdeeds for what reason I don’t know, and you point to photos of stacks of boxes in the ballroom and a bathroom as damning, even though in each of those photos there were tens of thousands of documents and probably only a scant few that were Classified (if any). And you assume that CNN’s audiotape is legit even though they have a bad track record and none of us have actually heard it yet; not to mention it was prior to the feds getting ahold of all his documents, so it may mean exactly nothing even if it’s legit.
I’m pulling for DeSantis right now, not Trump, so I’m not going to bat for him because I’m an always-Trumper. I just hate that the Democrats are going nuclear and we’re all expected to play along.
Michael, did you even read Erick's post? Don't blame the Democrats. Trump did this to himself!
And while I disagree with Erick assigning the decision to Trump (no President should be making prosecutorial decisions), it was his Justice Department that chose not to pursue charges against Hillary. Stated another way, Erick dismisses Hillary's misdeeds because that is what Trump's Justice Department did.
what Trump is alleged to have done is clearly worse. there is no double standard
I have been traveling across the country these past two weeks and will head home to the DC swamp in a couple of days. I’ve talked to many ordinary people, not to pundits or political insiders. No one is talking about the Trump indictment. Now that doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking about it, but the vast majority of the people I’ve spoken to are discussing how bad crime is becoming and how high inflation is. There is also a real lack of people working so that service is either very slow or non-existent. There is just a general sense of unease and uncertainty about the future with the prevailing thought being that things are going to get worse. Some are talking about stockpiling food and weapons.
There is no political solution and the culture will not recover for at least a generation or two, if it ever does. I weep for my nation. Only God will save us from the chaos to come.
Pardon me, but this is all so “effing” tiresome and irritating. I am tired of this man, irritated by the predominance if his name and image, and totally embarrassed for our country over his cavalier attitude about what it means to hold such an important position in our nation. I am tired of getting texts and emails raining from the heavens on his behalf asking me for money.
I am sick of hearing every news story about him short of what color his poop is.
I desperately hope he gets out of the race. And you people who are still blindly supporting him need psychiatric help. Every good thing he might have done as President is being erased by his own hand and monumental ego.
Good post. Our country mostly avoided “cult of personality” Presidents until Obama and Trump, though perhaps FDR was due to his longevity. It’s a hallmark of unhealthy cultures.
Trump also willfully showed some of the classified documents to people who did not have a security clearance.
In Texas we are seeing similar behavior unfold in the now-impeached Ken Paxton. Paxton even threatened numerous state House reps if they voted to impeach.
Facts, not emotions, need to rule the day in both cases.
We, Republican voters, do not owe Trump anything much less four more years as president---we don't owe anybody that. We can wish him well, pray for him and hope things turn out well for him. However, we owe it to ourselves and the well-being of America to move on from Trump as a candidate and continue on with the process in choosing someone else. We owe it to our families to get Biden out of the White House and prevent another progressive from taking his place. The problem is that so many think they owe Trump another four years and feel duty bound to deliver them to him. I just don't understand that kind of thinking. Getting rid of Biden is the goal, not rewarding Trump as if he was some kind of idol to please.
I will take incompetent over corrupt any day. What we have with Trump is political incompetency. What we have with Biden and his administration is not political incompetency, but general incompetency and profound corruption.
But hey, old Joe does not do mean Tweets. In fact, old Joe rarely comes out to speak because when he does he tends to mumble an unintelligible mess. So old Joe does not upset the easily upset word people. And keeping the easily upset word people from becoming upset seems to be a pretty good political strategy for the Democrats.
It is sad that we have so many voters that behave like petulant children with arms crossed and a pouty face refusing to play on the play ground because Billy said mean things. Their goal is to get Billy tossed even if it requires destroying the playground in the process.
"I will take incompetent over corrupt any day."
Kinda bites that 'incompetent' or 'corrupt' may likely be our only choices next November.
But evidence seems to be emerging that Biden may be both.
You offer a (currently false) choice between Trump and Biden. Right now, the choice is one for the Republican nomination: that is, between Trump and some other Republican.
Agree. It was the same in 2015. I think Hillary would have been President if any of the others won the primary.
I see where President Biden is effectively reducing the amount of tobacco in cigarettes thereby nixing the desire. It happens in August 2023.
I get really tired of the Lie “ No One is Above the Law .” That said President Trump did some good but he has Stuck his foot in his mouth and only God can save him.
I think through this all the time. Nobody on the Republican side has the ability to get 74 million votes. Therefore we lose. Another 4 years of this of a like regime will be deadly. And even if we do win, do you think any of these folks will be anything more than more of the same. I mean, DeSantis? With a donor base that supports China and all China does? A lead donor that helped bail out SVB? Another lead donor deeply embedded in Sequioa Ventures’ China investments? Please. I’ll take true America First any day. Let DeSantis figure out how to beat Mickey before we turn him on to Xi Jinping.
What were the documents? Are they from the past and still reverent now? Secret documents should have a chain of custody. Who should also be charged for not requesting them back ?
Read the indictment. They were requested back, and Trump deliberately tried to conceal them. He even tried to get his lawyers to lie for him.
This is great top-surface thinking and writing to fit a confirmation bias backed by hate of Trump.
It is like there are two boxes of material. One contains the common anti-Trump facts and points (like Trump p-grabbing comment). The other contains the anti-swamp facts and points (like the Democrats changing election rules and protocols, $500m Zuckerbucks and the Twitter Files revelations, and of course the great media lies of Russia collusion and Hunter’s laptop).
The first box is very light and full of “news” twaddle, but that is the more common repeat.
The second box is like a ton of bricks, contains real news that spells a real threat to democracy, yet it is only reported by “fringe” independent reporters.
Trump support isn’t about the man… it is about the boxes.
Have you ever heard the saying, "Two wrongs don't make a right?"
My "top-surface" thinking is break the law, go to jail. So much for Box No. 1. Now as for Box No. 2, break the law, go to jail. And so on.
In sum, do the right thing every time, as best we can. Doing the wrong thing today because the wrong thing was done yesterday can only lead to doing the wrong thing yet again tomorrow.
I have this debate with my board of directors. Is is the right thing to allow our sales representatives to take clients to a strip club or topless karaoke bar? Some say yes, some say no. The point is that "the right thing" gets to morality and morality differs from person to person.
To paint moral absolutes is egotistical and/or a sign of ignorance about human behavior and psychology.
And Trump has never been convicted of breaking the law while in office. The likelihood is that Biden is guilty of breaking the law while in office.
But let's say that neither get convicted of any crime while in office. Then there is still that moral assessment we each bring to the table of moral behavior while in office (I give a rat's ass about what Trump did as a billionaire Playboy... even so, his kids are much better than are Biden's kids). My perspective is that everything that the Democrat swamp has done to Trump far FAR exceeds the "wrongs" Trump is accused of. I vote for draining the swamp at this point because I see it as our only real existential threat and the very top "right thing". So, who is the best candidate for draining the swamp?
At least to this point, I am satisfied that nothing that Trump is currently under indictment for occurred while he was in office. Despite my belief that he is guilty as sin for what happened on January 6th, I hope the Justice Department doesn't go there. One administration prosecuting the previous one for what it did, while in office, is a slippery slope that I hope we can avoid.
And Frank, I have to disagree about Democrats doing more harm to Trump than any harm that he has caused. In the latter regard, we can only be hopeful. Again quoting from Erick's earlier post, according to the indictment, Trump took "plans for invasions of other countries, locations of American spies around the world, classified locations of soldiers, military vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies, classified assessments of nuclear capabilities of various nations," and just left them lying around Mar-a-Lago where many people he hardly even knows come and go almost everyday. And unlike what seems to be the case with Biden and Pence, he did not do so by accident, but knowingly and on purpose. Trump chose to step into the dirty business of politics; our spies and soldiers never chose to have their locations revealed by someone who should well have known better.
First, this is an indictment from a Justice Department already proven to be completely committed to supporting the Democrat agenda to destroy Trump. The Justice Department has proven political corruption. They cannot be trusted.
So much wolf crying and the same bleating sheep believing it.
And we are seeing two standards of justice. Mr. Biden had old classified files stored in his Delaware garage next to his sports car. When that news came out, he didn’t sound too apologetic. “My Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” AG Garland appointed another special counsel, Robert Hur, to investigate, but Justice isn’t going to indict Mr. Biden... we know that.
As for willful, how about the basement email server that Hillary Clinton used as Secretary of State? FBI director James Comey said in 2016 that she and her colleagues “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” According to him, 113 emails included information that was classified when it was sent or received. Eight were Top Secret. About 2,000 others were later “upclassified” to Confidential. This was the statement Mr. Comey ended by declaring Mrs. Clinton free and clear, since “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Swamp, Swamp, Swamp.
Jan-6 was nothing except a political and media clown circus from the Democrats and Republican Trump haters... most of which lost their political jobs. The election was full of irregularities. Trump conceded after Congress certified.
And it is yet another strong bunch of evidence of Justice corruption given the treatment of the Jan-6 protestors vs. the previous 18 months of BLM and Antifa violence.
We have a two-tier justice system where the Democrats control. It is part of the swamp that must be cleared.
James Comey is a Republican. His successor as FBI Director, Chistopher Wray is both a Republican and a Trump appointee. If those two are too "swampy" for you, how about Bill Barr. During his time as the tippy top head of the Justice Department, why was none of this stuff concerning Democrats pursued? Might it in fact have been that none of it was worth pursuing. As you keep on saying "swamp, swamp, swamp" to yourself, be sure and keep that head firmly buried in the sand.
And don't tell me what January 6th was. I saw it for myself. Anyone with a shred of integrity who also saw it knows exactly what it was.
Jan-6 was a legal protest. Protected free speech. At best civil disobedience with a handful of idiots that were violent. Nobody was armed. It was not an insurrection. It was not a coup. You people that keep playing that loop have TDS and are stuck on hyperbole that destroys credibility for almost any other topic related to Trump.
James Comey is NOT a Republican.
Trump made the mistake of appointing swamp creatures. It does not matter if they say they are Republican or Democrat... they are establishment swamp.
Trump elected in 2024 will not make the same mistake.
The third box, if I may add to your analogy, is what is revealed in the indictment, accusations based on recordings of Trump, notes from his lawyers, etc. I have been watching all the channels to see how it is covered as well as reading multiple newspapers daily.
Today recordings can be digitally faked. And it is all he-said, she-said. The newspapers you are reading are all owned by the big media companies that are controlled by the same Wall Street firms that own controlling interest in the mainstream TV media and big tech... all that support the WEF globalist agenda and oppose Trump.
And we have been here how many times by now... you and I reading the news that we expect to trust only to find out that the news was complicit in a great lie to take down Trump?
Sorry, this stuff is all in the first box. And in consideration of the razor-walking attempt to nuance the difference between Trump having classified documents and Biden having classified documents... it is clear that this is just added swamp hypocrisy and ruling class power abuse corrupting the democratic process in favor of the ruling class.
Of course, recordings can be forged/altered. However, if you are going to make the charge, you need to back it up with proof.
So, what do those "fringe" guys living in their mom's basement with a computer know that no mainstream media outlet (even Fox) can't figure out. If it's only reported by the "fringe," that's likely because it is BS.
Fringe is in quotes for a reason. Sorry you don’t get out of your NYT bubble.
"why didn’t his Justice Department and his FBI pursue an investigation? "
Oh.. maybe the same reason the FBI lied to the FISA court to listen in on Carter Page's phone calls. Maybe the way they bullied Michael Flynn into a guilty plea for no valid reason.
Maybe the same reason the FBI, CIA and others spiked the Hunter laptop story. Maybe the same reason DNI David Clapper lied under oath about collecting phone data of millions of Americans.
Trump could tell Comey, Wray, Clapper, et al, to investigate, but if they refuse to do so, or the investigators fail to really investigate, what's the point?
And didn't Comey previouly say, "No reasonable prosector" would prosecute Hillary even though they found evidence of illegal activities?
Wasn't there an Op-Ed in the WaPo from an 'Anonymous' insider who claimed there were certsin staffers who actively tried to impede Trump by withholding things from him and failing to carry out orders?
The 'Deep State' (Administrative State)is a cancer that's infiltrated the government and works against anything that threatens it... Donald Trump in particular and conservatives in general.
Or there could actually be nothing prosecutable in any of this. Once Bill Barr became AG, Trump had HIS guy, not some agent of the "Deep State." And still, no prosecutions.
Think about it.
You could be right. But even if Barr ordered an investigation, you would still have guys like Wray, McCabe and Stzrok overseeing the investigation.
Do you really think they would have conducted a fair, thorough and impartial investigation?
Do you really think that they would come back and say, "Yup. We found evidence of illegal activity. Go prosecute."
I sure don't.
As AG, Barr could at the very least have exercised veto power over anyone Wray chose to assign to any such investigation. Indeed, as concerns the investigation into the Russia investigation, Barr hand picked Durham. What I think is that such an investigation would have come up with the same thing that Durham came up with - that being diddly - because Barr especially was in a position to fully investigate and prosecute anything that warranted prosecution. The lack of any basis for prosecution is a much more plausible explanation than that of two of the most powerful men in the world being powerless against an all powerful "deep state."
Bill Barr did investigate Hillary.
But what about...