The Crush of News
The malignant presence of Trump continues to poison the body politic. A few quick takes on today’s consequential happenings.
When you look at the crush of news today, it might seem like the single story concerned with Donald Trump is the D.C. Circuit’s momentous decision to reject his effort to gain absolute immunity from prosecution and free himself to commit more crimes if he were to regain the levers of power. Indeed, the federal appeals court’s unanimous 57-page ruling is clear, compelling and deeply encouraging—and maybe even strong enough to convince the Supreme Court to not weigh in and delay Judge Tanya Chutkan’s election subversion trial.
We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power—the recognition and implementation of election results. Nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the executive has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and to have their votes count…
At bottom, former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches. Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the president, the Congress could not legislate, the executive could not prosecute and the judiciary could not review. We cannot accept that the office of the presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.
Let’s exhale—a brief moment to savor, at least until we hear whether the Supreme Court will or won’t take the case for a final verdict. Let’s also consider several other stories today to see how the malignant presence of the self-serving, election-denying lead insurrectionist continues to poison the body politic.
Intensifying the Lies: More than 60 House Republicans —led by Matt Gaetz of Florida and Elise Stefanik of New York—signed onto a resolution insisting Trump “did not engage in insurrection.” As if that makes it so. But don’t doubt this is all part of the kowtowing to curry favor with Trump. As for Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair, word is she’s resigning, bowing to Trump and opening up the slot for a mind-numbingly passionate election denier to replace her.
So much for the whip: Determined to prove that if Trump was impeached (twice), anyone else can be, too, the House Republicans pushed to impeach Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas over policy differences. But what they really demonstrated—once again—is they are unable to govern (or count votes): Their 216-214 defeat failed to include three Republicans in their thin majority; it made a further mockery of their fatuous effort to blame Mayorkas for everything they don’t like at the border and dilute the criminal reality of their unelected boss.
Speaking of the border: President Joe Biden made clear what he thinks of the Republicans abandoning the bipartisan work to forge a bill to increase border security and get needed funding to democratic ally Ukraine. Their rejection is an insult to America while they prostrate themselves to Trump who’s been busy threatening Republicans if they take away this issue from him. “Every day between now and November,” Biden said, “the American people are going to know the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends.” The president also urged Republicans to “show some spine,” but we all know how improbable that is.
Taking a bullet: For the record, I’ve been writing this while riding a Japanese bullet train between Tokyo and Kyoto. It’s a 280-mile trip completed in a little over two hours. Imagine if there was the political will to create a system like this all over America.
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Here's hoping the Supreme Court will be on as fast a track as you are on that train .🚂
When Trump first asked the court to basically make him a dictator with no rules no laws maybe someone should've considered a psychiatric evaluation instead of a long, never ending court battle