this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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politics

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The former president raised $4.18 million on Friday alone, the single-highest 24 hour period of his campaign to date.

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[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This confirms the narrative his machine has been pushing. It can't help but mobilize his base.

Morally and legally it's the right thing to do. Politically, I'm not sure - I don't know what would be better, but this will likely help him in the short/medium term.

[–] zigmus64@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Before I write this, I want one thing to be clear. I find Trump to an absolutely repugnant person, and elevating him to the Presidency has debased the office. I found him unfit for office in 2016, and I don’t believe he should be eligible for 2024.

For better or worse, however, there are a couple of truths about this whole mess as it currently stands. A former President is being prosecuted by the Justice Department of a political rival’s administration. It’s the right thing to do, but it does create a certain precedent that could be disastrous for our democracy. I think Biden saw that, and I think that’s why the Justice Department has waited this long to do anything about it. If his polling numbers were garbage, and he was unlikely to get the Republican nomination, I doubt he’d be getting prosecuted to avoid the appearance of political persecution.

Luckily though, I don’t think Trump is popular enough among independent voters to win the office. Until more polling comes out to tell me otherwise, I don’t think he can beat Biden. He’ll take the Republican primaries in a landslide, but once he needs the independent vote, I doubt he’ll perform nearly as well.

It’ll be a real mess if he catches a conviction too. The man is a walking constitutional crisis.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

the absence of prosecution is very much as political as the prosecution. Not prosecuting what is, in reality, a failed attempt at a coup.... is what would be disastrous for our democracy. not that there's a lot of that left, given the sheer number of dumb-asses that think it was "justified".

[–] zigmus64@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Absolutely concur. I hate that they waited this long to bring charges. I really do think that Biden instructed Garland to avoid prosecution as long as possible to avoid the appearance of this being politically motivated.

The best scenario would have been for Congress to have convicted him during one of his impeachment trials. We wouldn’t be dealing with this bullshit at this point.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Biden was reported to be irritated at Garland's laziness/cowardice.

I think he expected Garland to, I don't know, value the survival of the Republic over his future invitations to FedSoc junkets, but we know how that worked out.

[–] zigmus64@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’d love to see a source on this.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No sweat.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/us/politics/merrick-garland-biden-trump.html

The attorney general’s deliberative approach has come to frustrate Democratic allies of the White House and, at times, President Biden himself. As recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments. And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6.

[–] zigmus64@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Awesome, thanks. I’ll read this. I’ve been under the impression to this point that Biden wanted to avoid the appearance of prosecuting Trump based upon political grounds, so he wanted to avoid it if possible. I based that on a NYT article I read a week or two ago and I’ll see if I can’t dig it up.

[–] PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We can't not prosecute him.

We can't set the precedent. Yes he's the first. I hope he's the only.

I'm going to leave the above statements here. If you object, down vote. So be it.

If you support the rule of law and don't agree that he needs a fair trial, tell us here.

[–] zigmus64@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He should have been convicted in his at least one of his impeachment trials… then we wouldn’t be in this mess…

[–] PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While I agree, impeachment is political.

[–] zigmus64@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Well, regardless of that, it’s a process to remove someone from office and make them ineligible for office ever again…

[–] kava@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I hate that you feel that you have to preface this with a disclaimer so people don't dogpile you.

I think Brazil is a nice little preview of what will happen next here in America. Bolsonaro used the Justice system to imprison a political rival, Lula. Lula of course was corrupt, but the fact of whether he's guilty or not doesn't matter. He was prosecuted because he was polling well.

He ended up going to jail but then shortly after was released. What happened next? Lula is now president of Brazil and now his administration is trying to prosecute Bolsonaro and throw him in jail.

No matter how you slice it, this prosecution of Trump is bad news. We are in for a rough time and an unclear future. They may ultimately only be helping Trump take over the country.

[–] SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If there was a god, Trump would die from a heart attack in the near future. The only way to prevent further damage is for the sack of shit to die asap.

But if Trump taught us anything, there is no God or justice in the universe. He's done more to damage our country than almost any single person, and has made a mockery of the concept of equality under the law. It's truly pathetic

[–] 4lan@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How has there not been an attempt on his life already?

[–] ZzyzxRoad@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Because the people who hate him aren't republicans.

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What happens if he wins the primary, and then is convicted and ineligible for the office? Does the RNC just pick the runner up or what?

[–] GarytheSnail@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

They change the eligibility with their majority supreme court.

[–] meldroc@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Pretty much. The parties have vacancy committees. So if Trump got convicted and can't serve, the vacancy committee will pick his replacement. Probably his running mate, or the second-place candidate.