10/17/20: With only seventeen days remaining till the election, you have wonder what kind of people believe Trump deserves a second term.
Yesterday, at a rally in
Michigan, the president stirred the hate again, pouring out vitriol on the
governor of that state.
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“It may be legal for the president to make those requests, but it is not legal for the attorney general to act on them.”
Former Deputy Attorney
General Rod Rosenstein
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According to Mr. Trump, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “crimes” included keeping schools closed during the pandemic, limiting seating in restaurants, and mandating masks to stop the spread of disease. But had Trump forgotten he had already stirred up groups like the Wolverine Watchmen and the Proud Boys (and even neo-Nazis) with this very same brand of hate? A plot hatched by the Watchmen, to kidnap and kill Whitmer, had been foiled by the F.B.I. just days before. In one text message, an alleged conspirator suggested an easy way to dispose of the governor. “Have one person go to her house, knock on the door and when she answers it just cap her.”
Now these same groups are planning to show up armed and ready at polling places on November 3. It’s telling, of course, that neo-Nazi groups would also be rallying to the Trumpian cause.
So, there was Trump, as warped a human being as ever graced the Oval Office, stirring fans to chant, “Lock her up! Lock her up!” in reference to the governor. It was the sound of fascism birthing in America. Trump told supporters his White House predecessor, his opponent in 2016, and his foe on November 3, should all be lodged behind bars.
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Trump leans hard in the fascist direction. |
If you don’t realize how dangerous this man is, I’m not sure you can call yourself a good American. You certainly can’t call yourself an informed one. Recently, Trump attacked his own pick to head the F.B.I. Then he attacked his own pick to head the Department of Justice. Then he attacked former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Trump was furious to learn that a DOJ report on the roots of the Russia investigation would not be ready before the election. He had been counting on all of the men and women who had anything to do with looking into contacts between his campaign and Russians in 2016, to end up being indicted.
As for what Trump wanted from an investigation, frustration with his party makes it clear. “The Republicans, they don’t play the tough game,” Trump assured Rush Limbaugh during a call to his show. “If this were the other side you would have had 25 people in jail for the rest of their lives with what they found.”
Trump was obviously projecting. In accusing Democrats of a desire to lock up 25 people for “the rest of their lives,” he was tipping his orange hand. It was what he’d do if he had the power. Other Republicans, he groaned, didn’t want to “upset the apple cart.” They “don’t play it the same way [as the Democrats], it’s very disappointing.”
Yes, what fun it would be if Trump could simply lock up 25 of his opponents and do it for life.
Trump appeared next on Fox
News to try out his proto-fascist line. “Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for
crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we’re
going to get little satisfaction,” he grumbled. “This was the greatest
political crime in the history of our country, and that includes Obama, and it
includes Biden. These are people that spied on my campaign.”
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ANOTHER INVESTIGATION, into supposedly “unusual” requests by Obama officials in 2016-2017, to “unmask” a Trump adviser who was meeting with Russians, also came up empty this week.
That adviser, Gen. Michael T. Flynn, was indeed meeting with Russians. And we’ve repeatedly listed all the Trump advisers who met with Russians during his first run for office. That list again: Michael Cohen, Flynn, Rick Gates, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, George Nader, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Felix Sater, Roger Stone, and Donald Trump Jr.
“They’re guilty as hell.”
You might even say that Trump summed up his theory of how the rule of law works this week. If you’re not able to see the danger, you probably need to read more about people like Robert Mugabe and Vladimir Putin. “Personally, I think it’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. It’s a disgrace,” Trump said in one interview. He didn’t care what investigators found. “Personally,” he wanted his political opponents to pay. “They’re guilty as hell,” he told a reporter.
No trial required.
This
simple blogger was not the only observer to sniff out danger in Trump’s words. “Many
of us have criticized President Trump for these reckless comments,” said
Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar at George Washington University. And before
Trump fans start imagining Turley is a cog in the “Deep State” machine, they
might think back. He was the only legal scholar called to testify during hearings
in the U.S. House of Representatives, who argued that what Trump had suggested in
his call to the President of Ukraine was not grounds for impeachment. Now, Turley
was definitely worried. The president’s demands for retribution, “undermine
not just the Justice Department but his administration.”
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was even more blunt. “The Department of Justice will ignore the president’s remarks about indicting political opponents just as the department has always done in the past,” he said.
“It
may be legal for the president to make those requests, but it is not legal
for the attorney general to act on them.”
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