This confirms the narrative his machine has been pushing. It can’t help but mobilize his base.
Morally and legally it’s the right thing to do. Politically, I’m not sure - I don’t know what would be better, but this will likely help him in the short/medium term.
Before I write this, I want one thing to be clear. I find Trump to an absolutely repugnant person, and elevating him to the Presidency has debased the office. I found him unfit for office in 2016, and I don’t believe he should be eligible for 2024.
For better or worse, however, there are a couple of truths about this whole mess as it currently stands. A former President is being prosecuted by the Justice Department of a political rival’s administration. It’s the right thing to do, but it does create a certain precedent that could be disastrous for our democracy. I think Biden saw that, and I think that’s why the Justice Department has waited this long to do anything about it. If his polling numbers were garbage, and he was unlikely to get the Republican nomination, I doubt he’d be getting prosecuted to avoid the appearance of political persecution.
Luckily though, I don’t think Trump is popular enough among independent voters to win the office. Until more polling comes out to tell me otherwise, I don’t think he can beat Biden. He’ll take the Republican primaries in a landslide, but once he needs the independent vote, I doubt he’ll perform nearly as well.
It’ll be a real mess if he catches a conviction too. The man is a walking constitutional crisis.
the absence of prosecution is very much as political as the prosecution.
Not prosecuting what is, in reality, a failed attempt at a coup… is what would be disastrous for our democracy. not that there’s a lot of that left, given the sheer number of dumb-asses that think it was “justified”.
Absolutely concur. I hate that they waited this long to bring charges. I really do think that Biden instructed Garland to avoid prosecution as long as possible to avoid the appearance of this being politically motivated.
The best scenario would have been for Congress to have convicted him during one of his impeachment trials. We wouldn’t be dealing with this bullshit at this point.
Biden was reported to be irritated at Garland’s laziness/cowardice.
I think he expected Garland to, I don’t know, value the survival of the Republic over his future invitations to FedSoc junkets, but we know how that worked out.
The attorney general’s deliberative approach has come to frustrate Democratic allies of the White House and, at times, President Biden himself. As recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments. And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6.
Awesome, thanks. I’ll read this. I’ve been under the impression to this point that Biden wanted to avoid the appearance of prosecuting Trump based upon political grounds, so he wanted to avoid it if possible. I based that on a NYT article I read a week or two ago and I’ll see if I can’t dig it up.
I hate that you feel that you have to preface this with a disclaimer so people don’t dogpile you.
I think Brazil is a nice little preview of what will happen next here in America. Bolsonaro used the Justice system to imprison a political rival, Lula. Lula of course was corrupt, but the fact of whether he’s guilty or not doesn’t matter. He was prosecuted because he was polling well.
He ended up going to jail but then shortly after was released. What happened next? Lula is now president of Brazil and now his administration is trying to prosecute Bolsonaro and throw him in jail.
No matter how you slice it, this prosecution of Trump is bad news. We are in for a rough time and an unclear future. They may ultimately only be helping Trump take over the country.
Pretty much. The parties have vacancy committees. So if Trump got convicted and can’t serve, the vacancy committee will pick his replacement. Probably his running mate, or the second-place candidate.
This confirms the narrative his machine has been pushing. It can’t help but mobilize his base.
Morally and legally it’s the right thing to do. Politically, I’m not sure - I don’t know what would be better, but this will likely help him in the short/medium term.
Before I write this, I want one thing to be clear. I find Trump to an absolutely repugnant person, and elevating him to the Presidency has debased the office. I found him unfit for office in 2016, and I don’t believe he should be eligible for 2024.
For better or worse, however, there are a couple of truths about this whole mess as it currently stands. A former President is being prosecuted by the Justice Department of a political rival’s administration. It’s the right thing to do, but it does create a certain precedent that could be disastrous for our democracy. I think Biden saw that, and I think that’s why the Justice Department has waited this long to do anything about it. If his polling numbers were garbage, and he was unlikely to get the Republican nomination, I doubt he’d be getting prosecuted to avoid the appearance of political persecution.
Luckily though, I don’t think Trump is popular enough among independent voters to win the office. Until more polling comes out to tell me otherwise, I don’t think he can beat Biden. He’ll take the Republican primaries in a landslide, but once he needs the independent vote, I doubt he’ll perform nearly as well.
It’ll be a real mess if he catches a conviction too. The man is a walking constitutional crisis.
the absence of prosecution is very much as political as the prosecution. Not prosecuting what is, in reality, a failed attempt at a coup… is what would be disastrous for our democracy. not that there’s a lot of that left, given the sheer number of dumb-asses that think it was “justified”.
Absolutely concur. I hate that they waited this long to bring charges. I really do think that Biden instructed Garland to avoid prosecution as long as possible to avoid the appearance of this being politically motivated.
The best scenario would have been for Congress to have convicted him during one of his impeachment trials. We wouldn’t be dealing with this bullshit at this point.
Biden was reported to be irritated at Garland’s laziness/cowardice.
I think he expected Garland to, I don’t know, value the survival of the Republic over his future invitations to FedSoc junkets, but we know how that worked out.
I’d love to see a source on this.
No sweat.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/us/politics/merrick-garland-biden-trump.html
Here it is
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/opinion/trump-indictment-cost-danger.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Awesome, thanks. I’ll read this. I’ve been under the impression to this point that Biden wanted to avoid the appearance of prosecuting Trump based upon political grounds, so he wanted to avoid it if possible. I based that on a NYT article I read a week or two ago and I’ll see if I can’t dig it up.
We can’t not prosecute him.
We can’t set the precedent. Yes he’s the first. I hope he’s the only.
I’m going to leave the above statements here. If you object, down vote. So be it.
If you support the rule of law and don’t agree that he needs a fair trial, tell us here.
He should have been convicted in his at least one of his impeachment trials… then we wouldn’t be in this mess…
While I agree, impeachment is political.
Well, regardless of that, it’s a process to remove someone from office and make them ineligible for office ever again…
I hate that you feel that you have to preface this with a disclaimer so people don’t dogpile you.
I think Brazil is a nice little preview of what will happen next here in America. Bolsonaro used the Justice system to imprison a political rival, Lula. Lula of course was corrupt, but the fact of whether he’s guilty or not doesn’t matter. He was prosecuted because he was polling well.
He ended up going to jail but then shortly after was released. What happened next? Lula is now president of Brazil and now his administration is trying to prosecute Bolsonaro and throw him in jail.
No matter how you slice it, this prosecution of Trump is bad news. We are in for a rough time and an unclear future. They may ultimately only be helping Trump take over the country.
What happens if he wins the primary, and then is convicted and ineligible for the office? Does the RNC just pick the runner up or what?
They change the eligibility with their majority supreme court.
Pretty much. The parties have vacancy committees. So if Trump got convicted and can’t serve, the vacancy committee will pick his replacement. Probably his running mate, or the second-place candidate.