There’s a foot of snow outside and I’m low on popcorn (good on booze though).
The age-old problem with lying liars who lie is that their lies eventually come back to bite them in the ass. During Trump’s second impeachment, his lawyers argued that the appropriate place to adjudicate his actions on Jan 6 would be in the courts. Now that he’s facing the courts, they’re arguing that the appropriate place would have been impeachment in Congress, a discrepancy that did not escape the judges in his appeal hearing:
That’s pretty damning. You literally have Republicans overwhelmingly saying 2 years ago that POTUS is not immune and he should face his day in court, and that’s why they wouldn’t convict him in an impeachment vote.
It seems like a bipartisan argument from lawmakers and I expect it to hold a lot of weight with SCOTUS.
True, but I find it hard to get excited about it. Nobody including Trump thought he had any chance of winning this appeal, it was entirely about delay, and the Supreme Court gave him the delay already on the refusal to expedite. So he kind of already “won” this.
The only thing that could rescue this is the remote possibility that the SC refused to expedite because they don’t plan to grant cert. It’s probably wishful thinking, but if they do want to push back against Trump it feels a lot more politically palatable for them to deny cert on this one and effectively send him to trial on the DC charges than to allow him to be disqualified (the Colorado appeal).
A point made on Lawrence O’Donnell tonight - if presidents have immunity for things they do while they’re president - unless they’ve been impeached in the House and convicted in the Senate - then why did Gerald Ford have to pardon Richard Nixon?
And why did Nixon bother to accept? As has also been pointed out, by so accepting he acknowledged that he was liable for prosecution for crimes committed while he was in office.
Right – I forgot that part. Important addendum, I’d say.
For some reason this argument makes me think of Major Major Major Major, who could only be seen in his office when he wasn’t there (if anyone was already in his office when he arrived, they would have to go to the outer office and wait until he left).
And it makes every bit as much sense.
I’m guessing that Trump has selective hearing and selective understanding. Probably, the only thing he remembers about Watergate is Nixon saying, “but when the President does it…”
I really wish someone had asked……
“If Joe Biden believed it was in the best interest of the country to have Donald Trump assassinated by a drone strike, would Biden have presidential immunity or does your theory only apply to Republican presidents?
Followup question:
“And if he quit before an impeachment, does this mean he gets off scot-free, since he can’t be prosecuted according to your reasoning?”
Need answer fast.
I agree, but honestly, you know they’re all thinking it. At this point, fuck politeness, and they should directly ask the question. Let’s get it out in the open.
Okay, that was funny.
Follow-up #2: And if the impeachable offense (e.g. sale of state secrets) occurs during his/her tenure, but is not discovered until the president leaves office – and is therefore no longer subject to impeachment – does this mean he/she is free from consequences?
Maybe, but their eyes aren’t watering because of their sentimental nature.
I hereby propose we commission a Statue of Limitations to be placed in the National Mall. It will be a giant effigy of Trump, giving Congress the finger.
More like Trump and an elephant giving us the finger.
I thought that comments that have been floating around for a couple years now, about how trump smelled bad, was simply trolling to piss him off. But in a recent Kimmel monologue, he played a clip of former Repub Rep. Adam Kinzinger saying the odor coming off trump is a nauseating cologne of “armpit B.O., ketchup and butt”.
For all I know Kinzinger is also trolling, and I’d hate to unknowingly pass on a falsehood, even in regard to the king of all bullshitters. But hey, it’s coming from a guy who would know, which I’d say is a reasonably unimpeachable (heh) source.
But what’s the point? The hands would be so small it would be hard to tell what gesture it’s making.