• WoahWoah@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    159
    ·
    24 days ago

    Commit a crime against others, pardon crimes against friends, dissolve criminal investigation of self.

    Totally normal first-day agenda for a supposedly democratic country.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    78
    ·
    edit-2
    24 days ago

    Yeah, we know. I am particularly interested in seeing if he will go the extra mile and try the self-pardon, though. If he does that, and the courts uphold it, then we know we’ve officially crossed the line to dictatorship.

    If he doesn’t, it will only be because people tell him the courts won’t back him on that.

    OTOH, there is always the tiny, tiny chance that the self-pardon is a step too far, and convince Republicans to finally impeach his ass.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      70
      ·
      edit-2
      24 days ago

      There is no way a self pardon will be the line too far. Democrats expect it and the Republican electorate would cheer him on.

      If he crosses a line it will be fucking with other Republican’s money.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      32
      ·
      24 days ago

      … then we know we’ve officially crossed the line to dictatorship.

      We already know that.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        edit-2
        24 days ago

        Don’t be so sure. It is well documented that the Founders felt that no person should be their own judge. But, more importantly, letting the President self-pardon gives that person an enormous advantage that the other branches can’t put in check. It subordinates the other branches.

        Congress and the courts will, of course, go along with Trump’s priorities. But will they go along with diminishing their own power? Recall that even with the immunity decision, the courts left to themselves what is covered under that, so still kept some power in all that.

    • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      23 days ago

      and convince the Republicans to finally impeach his ass.

      Haha, good one.

      let’s hope the dems get the house and a supermajority in the senate in the midterms (they won’t)

      • shiftymccool@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        23 days ago

        Right? Dude sends a crowd of rowdies into the Capitol building to hang the vice president for not lying but, self-pardoning is too far

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      23 days ago

      I suspect he doesn’t pardon himself day-1. No matter how he leaves office, there will be warning (or he’ll be dead). He’ll pardon himself as late as possible so he can tell people that he hasn’t (yet). There’s zero benefit to doing it early.

      That said, he’s really fucking stupid, so I’m tired of predicting what he’ll do.

    • lurklurk@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      23 days ago

      Does he need to yet?

      It’s not like he can be impeached and most of the cases will pause by default as he’s a sitting president. If any don’t he’ll have a tame Attorney General to kill them for him. State level charges could have a theoretical shot, but what state will take that fight?

      The window to hold him accountable was 2020-2024 and the people responsible dropped the ball, sometimes with obvious intention, sometimes from naivité or incompetence

      The problem as usual is that the Democrats bring Debate Club weapons to a knife fight

    • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      23 days ago

      I really fucking don’t think he’ll pardon any of these guys. That would mean he cares for poor people

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        23 days ago

        I’m not sure you understand the full power of the Nationalist Christian movement. It’s not about pardoning the poors. It’s about creating a paramilitary force with fanatical loyally to him, and him alone. He’ll be viewed by them as a savior/messiah even more than he already is by those people specifically. He will be seen as the Chosen One by those people, because he specifically saved them from “unjust imprisonment and political persecution” (for the record, it’s fully justified prosecution, because they fucking rioted and broke into the capital, trying to stop a peaceful fucking transfer of power). This is just a new and horrifyingly fascinating evolution of the große Lüge: continue to reframe an event by pardon people for crimes they actually committed that you’ve consistently told everyone aren’t crimes because you wanted those crimes to succeed.

        • b161
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          23 days ago

          Yep, it’s to let everyone know that you can commit any kind of violence as long as you’re wearing a red hat and the fuhrer will pardon you.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          23 days ago

          because they fucking rioted and broke into the capital

          Agreed with everything you said here, except they planned this. Riots tend to be spontaneous. This was plotted and schemed for months.

  • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    edit-2
    24 days ago

    Not that he should, but it’d be a power move if Biden immediately pardoned everyone involved in the attempted assassinations against Trump. Send a message.

    Edit: I want to be super clear that I’m not advocating for this. Once that door is opened, there’s no closing it again, and it’d be basically the worst possible outcome of all of this. It was in jest. Do not actually support this.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      23 days ago

      No, the power move would be to do something unspeakably drastic with respect to Trump’s physical safety, then pardon himself afterwards. Challenge Congress to fix the loophole that the Courts established.

    • Hylactor@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      24 days ago

      The world feels like: Democrats are the cops, the DNC is the FBI, Trump is Hans Gruber, Bernie Sanders is Al Powell, America is the Christmas party (it even includes a pregnant woman in peril). We’ll say Kamala Harris is Holly Gennero, Joe Biden is Mr. Takagi, protest voters are Ellis, and Gen Z is Argyle. Richard Thornburg has failed us, the power’s been cut, and the hostages are on the roof. But we don’t have a John MacClane. I don’t know what drastic measure needs to be taken. But it would be really great if we could keep the burglars-cum-terrorists from blowing us to smithereens and making off with the loot.

  • DancingBear@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    23 days ago

    It will be interesting to see this play out.

    If he pardons himself, it becomes an instant admission of guilt, which means that he is brazenly certifying that he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

    We also don’t know if it is legal for the executive to pardon themselves. I don’t think it’s ever happened. Ford or Johnson pardoned Nixon, but I think that pardon was given before any trials had started.

    He can’t pardon himself from the state felonies he has already been found guilty of.

    As far as deportations, (and expulsions) Biden’s policy on immigration seems like a carry over from the first trump administration. In the last two years Biden has deported more folks than trumps highest numbers.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    24 days ago

    This is all a result of the weakness that voters allow for in supporting the lessor of two bad options rather than demanding more from our representatives.

    it’s too late now.

    • aaa999@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      23 days ago

      if we demand more from representatives and succeed you dingdongs accuse them of coopting all of the energy. depart, wrecker

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        23 days ago

        she lost because she didn’t feel she needed to have policies popular among her voters, her base.

        The people who lost this election for us were those defending the candidates position on the indefensible, with lines like “But Trump is worse”