Donald Trump Promises Retribution if Re-Elected
Yet more evidence of an unfit, unstable candidate.
The Guardian (“Donald Trump vows to lock up political enemies if he returns to White House“):
Donald Trump says he will lock up his political enemies if he is president again.
In an interview on Tuesday, the rightwing broadcaster Glenn Beck raised Trump’s famous campaign-trail vow to “lock up” Hillary Clinton, his opponent in 2016, a promise Trump did not fulfill in office.
Beck said: “Do you regret not locking [Clinton] up? And if you’re president again, will you lock people up?”
Trump said: “The answer is you have no choice, because they’re doing it to us.”
Trump has certainly made intimations in that direction on numerous previous occasions. This is the boldest, most direct statement that I can recall that he plans to abuse the powers of his office to go after his enemies if he manages to win re-election.
Trump has encouraged the “lock her up” chant against other opponents but he remains in considerable danger of being locked up himself.
Funny that.
Under four indictments, he faces 91 criminal charges related to election subversion, retention of classified information and hush-money payments to an adult film star. He denies wrongdoing and claims to be the victim of political persecution. Trials are scheduled next year.
Earlier this month, Politico calculated that Trump faced a maximum of 641 years in jail. After the addition of 13 racketeering and conspiracy charges in Georgia, Forbes upped the total to more than 717 years.
Trump is 77.
I had to chuckle at that. Granted that 77 is at the old end of the average American life expectancy, even a much younger man would have a difficult time serving out a 717-year sentence.
Both sites noted, however, that if convicted, the former president was unlikely to receive maximum sentences. Nor would convictions bar Trump from running for president or being elected. On that score, Trump dominates national and key state polling regarding the Republican presidential nomination.
It’s at least debatable if the Federal charges, which are related to his part in fomenting the Capitol riots, would bar him from office. But we certainly shouldn’t count on it.
In his Tuesday interview on BlazeTV, Trump also said he “never hit Biden as hard as I could have” while in office.
Trump’s first impeachment concerned attempts to find dirt on rivals including Biden, related to politics and business in Ukraine. Now, in Congress, Trump’s Republican allies are threatening to impeach Biden over unsubstantiated allegations connected to his surviving son, Hunter.
While I continue to believe that the first indictment was comparatively weak compared to other crimes Trump had committed up to that point, the idea that he was insufficiently ruthless in abusing his office to go after a political opponent is rather scary.
Trump told Beck that Biden was behind the indictments against him. In fact, all were brought by prosecutors independent of the White House: 44 by the justice department special counsel Jack Smith, 34 by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, and 13 by Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county, Georgia.
Trump also claimed “the woman that I never met, that they accused me of rape, that’s being run by a Democrat, a Democrat operative, and paid for by the Democrat [sic] party”.
That was a reference to civil claims brought by E Jean Carroll, a writer who says Trump sexually assaulted her in New York in the 1990s. Earlier this year, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation and fined about $5m. A second trial is due next year. The judge in the case has said Trump has been adjudicated a rapist.
Also facing investigations of his business affairs, Trump said Democrats and other opponents were “sick people … evil people”.
With Trump, it’s difficult to separate the con from delusion. Regardless, to the extent more evidence was needed of his unfitness for office, he continues to provide it free of charge.
He needs a visit from the nice young men in their clean white coats; they just need to make sure they bring a net with them.
If convicted of a state crime, and subsequently elected, could Trump serve in office while serving time?
Definitely some comedy and irony potential there.
At least, for non-American onlookers; for Americans, perhaps not so much.
This is why I worry. Trump says things like this and he STILL gets support from a sizable percentage of the U.S. population. Who are probably far too willing to “help” Trump in his fascist tendencies.
At what point will the Republican Party realize what they are doing by supporting Trump and his enablers?
“Regardless, to the extent more evidence was needed of his unfitness for office, he continues to provide it free of charge.”
The problems it that, for his base, it’s a feature, not a bug.
As far as Trump is concerned, January 6th was a rehearsal. Next time around those mistakes will be corrected.
‘Old school’ type Republicans, like the obsequious Lindsey Graham or empty suit Marco Rubio, know this is a dangerous man but they fear Trump, they are completely intimidated by Trump.
@JohnSF:
As far as I know, there’s nothing to prevent Trump from being president while behind bars. It’s happened with politicians before, though admittedly never at that elevated level.
@Grumpy realist:
I see no evidence “the Republican Party”, at least the funders and pros, don’t know and support what he’d do.
@CSK:
It would have to be a peculiar sort of prison. Secret service details, the nuclear football, daily briefings, lots of staff coming and going because there will be lots of documents where actual paper will have to be signed with actual ink…
The funny thing is that many of us predicted that we’d be in exactly this situation at some point after the 2016 election went so badly.
Trump has been known to be a criminal for decades. This is not a surprise to anybody paying attention.
The shocked Pikachu face we get from Rs now when he’s held to account even a tiny amount is pretty disingenuous.
@Michael Cain:
Well, presumably he’d pardon himself for the federal crimes, so that would leave the state matters to be resolved. I don’t know how, since this is a contingency no one ever dreamed would happen.
None of this is surprising.
He was saying similar things in 2015, and has never stopped.
Historians will point to this sort of talk and the fact that somewhere around 80 million voters support it, in lesson plans on the 21st century crisis in the American Republlic.
“A republic, if you can keep it” was prescient in that he understood that liberal democracy only works if people actually want it and put in the work to get it.
The danger is that he’s elected. If he loses, not being in power gives him little leverage to manipulate the system. The greater state legislative theory has been defanged by the supremes, with faux electors under indictment in GA and MI, who would be foolish enough to sign up for that duty. The best he could do would be getting his supporters into the streets and since the 1/6 perps have been going off to jail, they’ve failed to show up in great numbers to protest his arrests.
I’m not saying there isn’t a risk of violence and maybe a lot, but nothing that our various governments can’t suppress.
This is precisely why he needs to be sentenced to a lengthy prison stay in a real prison, however VIP the accommodations are. Three simply seems to be no other way, short of a 9mm brain hemorrhage, to shut him up.
One reason he won’t shut up is he feels invulnerable. It’s also necessary to rob him of that illusion.
I think this is an important and ignored element. This January 6 was just a rehearsal meme ignores the fact that there is no indication that the outrage can be sustained. There is no mob in the streets, even when Trump suggests there ought to be. I think if he loses in ’24, there will be a lot of whining but not a lot of action.
Let’s not forget that the GOP has run non-stop investigations trying to find a way to lock some up for many years. We got to have 8 Benghazi investigations so they could try to find something. The Trump DOJ was clearly looking at the Biden from the time they took office. The only reason they haven’t taken more Dems to court is they haven’t been able to find anything.
Steve
Trump’s promises aren’t worth a used sheet of toilet paper.
What happened to locking up Hillary, a project the vast Clinton Derangement Syndrome conspiracy has been working on for my whole entire life? To Mexico paying for the wall? To the hedge fund guys paying more?
He may try for retribution, or he may just engineer more Chinese patents, unexplained Chinese income, and billion-dollar Saudi bribes from himself and his crime family? You never know with a patholgical liar. His signature achievement from the first round was tax cuts for billionaires. My guess is Treason Trump’s primary focus would remain enriching himself and his oligarchs.
@Grumpy realist:
When one of them gets their brains blown out by some MAGA chud for being insufficiently loyal. I’ll bet on Meadows if his removal gambit fails and he has to flip to stay out of jail.
Sigh, Politico and others who are tallying up sentences and coming up with numbers like 717 years are doing incredible disservices to their readership. It’s akin to running meaningless polls in order to create provocative stories. Even if he was convicted on anything, based on sentencing practices and other details of the law (which reporters don’t pay attention to), there’s no way Trump or anyone would get a sentence like that–especially as a first-time offender (yes I get the irony in saying that given the number of offenses that Mr Trump is facing–though the majority of them stem from the same activity).
All that said, the realistic potential sentences he is facing (honestly this is more of an issue at the state level) are still significant for someone of his age. But we’re talking about a few years to perhaps a decade.
@DK: I disagree. His signature achievement was capitalizing on the opportunity to stack the Supremes. That his role was small in that accomplishment is simply reflective of all the other things related to him that are small. (And take that wherever you wish to. 😉 )
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Whatever they may say, I think the MAGAs are far, far less concerned with Trump keeping his promises than they are with him maintaining his facade as a ruff-‘n’-tuff brawler who’s fighting for them.
@Grumpy realist: At what point will the Republican Party realize what they are doing by supporting Trump and his enablers?
I assume this question is rhetorical, since the only answer is never. If Trump appeared at one of his rallies in a gestapo uniform and goose-stepped his way through the crowd, they would cheer him on. The next day his supporters would make up some excuse like “Hogan’s Heroes had nazis, and Hollywood is liberal, so there”.
Never. Give up on hoping for a “road to Damascus” moment. It’s dangerous to continue to act as if (1) they don’t know, and (2) knowing will change their behavior. That’s not the scenario that’s going to lead to the end of Trumpism.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Oop! Hahahahahaha
@Grumpy realist:
When they lose enough elections. Republicans should at least retake the Senate next year. If they do not, and if Biden wins, and if Democrats retake the House, there’s going to be a bloodletting on the right. Doubly so if Democrats then have another decent midterm in 2026 or retain the White House through 2028 and beyond.
The right may be in Trump’s hands now, but Republicans are very very competitive and do not like losing (hence the sore loserism and election denial). There is only so much losing a conservative man will tolerate.
The problem is gerrymandering, the electoral college nonsense, our undemocratic Senate setup, and the stupidity of American voters may blunt what ought to be huge Republican losses. If Republicans win the White House, Senate, and/or House next year, they will keep decompensating.
I tins’t so much a matter of whether El Cheeto gets to make good on his threats or not, but the damage he’s doing to the rule of law and to law enforcement.
There is a need for effective, rational law enforcement in all societies. Flawed and outright racist as the criminal law system can be in America, it’s still better than having none. Or, perhaps even worse, having one the majority of the population doesn’t trust.
Benito’s already managed to sow distrust in the electoral system. he’s doing the same for the DOJ and for state and local AGs as well. the result could be catastrophic.
BTW, I did pay close attention to the 2020 campaigns, including the very long season of primaries, and do not recall Biden saying even once he’d go after El Cheeto. Not once.
@SenyorDave:
@Kingdaddy:
I read an article the other day, can’t remember where, on when and how will trumpism end. The writer’s contention is that it will end as its adherents die off as younger conservatives aren’t buying it. That sounded about right to me.
Trump himself will die, hopefully soon, and the movement will shatter as several other polls try and gain control. Until then we need to button down and wait.
So basically, Trump is promising to weaponize the justice dept. Can you say projection?
@DK: “ if Biden wins, and if Democrats retake the House, there’s going to be a bloodletting on the right.
I hope you’re right but I think it would take a lot more than that for the Republicans to change strategy. I thought we had reached that point in 2008. Following earlier gains in 2006 Democrats then had the House, Senate and the White House. They even kinda sorta briefly had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. What did the Republicans do? They doubled down on the crazy. And it worked.
I think conservative media was steering the ship by that point and the Republicans followed along. It’s what their voters wanted.
@One American:
His ex-wives, dozens of bankrupted properties, and the county of Fulton, GA would like a word.
@One American:
Or, as Trump himself put it, “I whine and whine till I get what I want.”
Fun Fact: thanks to TFG, the average US president has been indicted on more than 3 felony counts…
@One American:
Very very true.
He’s a very successful career criminal, who has never had to pay a price or been held to account for his criminal activity. Kind of an amazing story.