Commit a crime against others, pardon crimes against friends, dissolve criminal investigation of self.
Totally normal first-day agenda for a supposedly democratic country.
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.
… then we know we’ve officially crossed the line to dictatorship.
We already know that.
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.
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)
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
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.
Plan B or maybe it is plan A is do a money grab, hand over the presidency to Vance, and have Vance do all the pardons, and he walks free.
That would require Trump to trust Vance. The absolute split second that Trump is out of power, everyone will turn on him. There’s no such thing as loyalty, just self interest.
He did say in a recent interview that he would not pardon himself so we know he will do that on day one for sure. I am going to nickname him Mr. Opposite since I won’t acknowledge him as an actual president.
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.
“But mah cheap eggs and bacon!” - every dingaling that voted based on “inflation”.
