Yeah, he’s not going to announce now and miss out on all the sweet, sweet ass-kissing and he can’t take the chance that any also-rans will turn against him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t even pick one during the convention. Does a candidate have to have a running mate to start with in the general election? I’m sure he thinks he is the only important part of the ticket and that a VP is just a yes-man he can add at any time.
“The tow truck driver came up to me, big guy, with tears in his eyes, and he said sir…”
I think you’ve just written a two-panel meme (to be rendered by someone moire motivated than I).
That may be correct but it’s relatively superficial. It doesn’t say anything at all about what the chain of command might ultimately say. It may well be the case that if a POTUS or former POTUS put their foot down and simply said “I’m a citizen of United States and there is no law that permits you to stop me from driving and unless you relent I’m getting a court order restraining you from preventing me from doing so” ultimately the SS would have to back down, particularly for an ex-POTUS.
I suspect the reality is that this issue gets confused because while there are universally accepted strong rules/guidelines/protocols that the SS tries its utmost to enforce, at base the actual law involved means that they would have to relent if pressed. There is consequently widespread prevarication on what exactly “can’t” means in this context. I suspect what ex-POTUS’s actually mean is “can’t without upsetting a lot of people, arguably endangering myself etc” not “legally and physically can’t”.
I wonder if the SS could read that as ‘declining SS protection’ and just pull out entirely? In addition to putting the ex-POTUS at additional risk, it does the same to the protective agents.
The President is the boss of the Secretary of DHS, who is the boss of the director of the Secret Service. A pushy, determined President could, if he insisted, drive on public roads, notwithstanding USSS policy. I cited several examples in my Staff Report, linked above, of Presidents disregarding the very earnestly-offered guidance of their protective details, even on 9-11.
An ex-President would have less leverage, I suppose, but could still do it.
Enipla’s having us on. Again, apparently.
Dan
Uh… it was a serious question.
uh…does that preclude an unserious answer? I see a hairhead driving, not enough profile to ID. Oh! Were you the videographer?
Dan
You should be talking to @Atamasama . They shared the video to my question.
Ah, Atamasama is your cite - well, done and dusted.
Actually, I am happy that you don,t seem to be offended, since both you and Atamasama are among my favorite posters.
I dislike (too mild a word) the trumperrhoid so much that I’m disinclined to give him credit for even breathing on his own - the jerk couldn’t even operate a paperclip:
“Who knew that paperclips were so difficult?”
Anyway, we’ve spent enough time on this trump issue, unless Ata chimes in with an actual cite for this video. Thanks.
Dan
I’m not @Atamasama, but that video was apparently first posted on Melania’s Facebook page.
For most people that would be a good enough cite. I mean why would one bother faking something as trivial as driving around? But given that this is the Trump family I’m going to need a DNA sample and full retinal print of the driver before I accept that video for what it appears to be.
Jeeze, Buck, you’re close to impugning Melania and/or facebook.
You go, guy/girl!
(actually I’ve met very few girls/whatever called Buck)
Dan
Here’s an article about the Trump driving video.
Well, the weight of evidence is…oooh…ugh…erk…
(cue clip of trump doing his weight-lifting bit for “Ma”, who would be very proud.)
Thanks for the link.
Dan
Actually I’m very proud of Donald, because he’s said there won’t be any retribution when he gets back in office (
) Doesn’t that make you happy? Weasely sh*t-stain. The words are already out there.
Well, he said he wouldn’t have time for retribution. You know, like when he said he wouldn’t have time for golf.