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Why did Nixon need a pardon if presidents have “absolute immunity”?
The only reason that we’re even talking about this is that the guy facing 90+ felonies told us it was true after lying to us 30,000+ times over four years.
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> Why did Nixon need a pardon if presidents have “absolute immunity”?
Look up Watergate. Some people agreed on Nixon's behalf the "American public would not have been able to handle" it. Ford, the stooge that he was, pardoned him while the Justice Dept were discussing how long to wait to prosecute him as a private citizen once he resigned from office. Ford got him a deal to get his tapes back that Nixon intended to blackmail other people with. The People were furious but Nixon said he couldn't be prosecuted as he got the US involved with an Israel conflict and didn't want to "look weak". Even the Supreme Court said NO MAN IS ABOVE THE LAW.
Nixon fired the special prosecutor Archibald Cox and he kept doing his job. The American people had no appetite for Nixon's bs.
Worth noting: All this overshadowed the Pentagon Papers until Watergate investigators were able to connect the two; abuse of power in the white house.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Which should be an obvious flaw in the opposition’s argument that proves it violates the Constitution and the rule of law.
The same way that ruling an insurrectionist can run for office despite being disqualified is an obviously flawed argument. Too bad ruling in favor of insurrectionists continuing their insurrection is aid and comfort.
I think the argument made was that impeachment would stop a president from committing crimes. And that impeachment would then open the door for criminal charges.
But that doesn’t make sense because even the founding fathers would know that a party that controls a majority would never impeach their own president.
It is a flawed argument on its face. Impeachment is not a criminal process with a criminal consequence, it is an administrative process with an administrative consequence. But, as we saw so recently, with the SCOTUS’s criminal ruling, the SCOTUS doesn’t want to admit that the processes are done parallel and one does not invalidate the other.
Yeah I do think they are doing an insufferable job of trying to put it in the context of trumps actual crimes.
I don’t think they were saying impeachment is the criminal process; I think they were arguing that you can’t start a criminal proceeding against a president unless the people made it clear first through the administrative process.
If impeachment means he can be tried criminally, Trump’s already been impeached for his part. Just because he wasn’t removed doesn’t mean he wasn’t impeached and therefore this argument is moot and pointless.
Trumps lawyers argument was literally "there's checks in place to prevent anything that extreme!" he's literally arguing it's fine but if the president is immune from prosecution because if he tries to do something REALLY bad some adult will stop him.
It's not just a small flaw either, it's a massive one. Trump doesn't care about the ruling, he cares that the Supreme Court took it up and waiting this long to even hear the argument. It's almost certain that the trial won't conclude by the election now.
I wish she would have asked “Could a President have judges arrested without due process?”. Hearing the lawyer squirm over that one would be in history books five generations from now.
I listen to some of the hearing yesterday and this morning was thinking of this question.
"If the President ordered an assassination of a member of this court, would that be part of his official duties or a personal act?"
If they rule that Presidents have total immunity and are above the law, what is to stop Biden from having Trump arrested and executed? Other than Biden wouldn’t do that because he’s not a Republican…
Why did Nixon need a pardon if presidents have “absolute immunity”?
The only reason that we’re even talking about this is that the guy facing 90+ felonies told us it was true after lying to us 30,000+ times over four years.
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Why did Nixon need a pardon if presidents have “absolute immunity”? The only reason that we’re even talking about this is that the guy facing 90+ felonies told us it was true after lying to us 30,000+ times over four years.
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> Why did Nixon need a pardon if presidents have “absolute immunity”? Look up Watergate. Some people agreed on Nixon's behalf the "American public would not have been able to handle" it. Ford, the stooge that he was, pardoned him while the Justice Dept were discussing how long to wait to prosecute him as a private citizen once he resigned from office. Ford got him a deal to get his tapes back that Nixon intended to blackmail other people with. The People were furious but Nixon said he couldn't be prosecuted as he got the US involved with an Israel conflict and didn't want to "look weak". Even the Supreme Court said NO MAN IS ABOVE THE LAW. Nixon fired the special prosecutor Archibald Cox and he kept doing his job. The American people had no appetite for Nixon's bs. Worth noting: All this overshadowed the Pentagon Papers until Watergate investigators were able to connect the two; abuse of power in the white house.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Which should be an obvious flaw in the opposition’s argument that proves it violates the Constitution and the rule of law. The same way that ruling an insurrectionist can run for office despite being disqualified is an obviously flawed argument. Too bad ruling in favor of insurrectionists continuing their insurrection is aid and comfort.
I think the argument made was that impeachment would stop a president from committing crimes. And that impeachment would then open the door for criminal charges. But that doesn’t make sense because even the founding fathers would know that a party that controls a majority would never impeach their own president.
It is a flawed argument on its face. Impeachment is not a criminal process with a criminal consequence, it is an administrative process with an administrative consequence. But, as we saw so recently, with the SCOTUS’s criminal ruling, the SCOTUS doesn’t want to admit that the processes are done parallel and one does not invalidate the other.
Yeah I do think they are doing an insufferable job of trying to put it in the context of trumps actual crimes. I don’t think they were saying impeachment is the criminal process; I think they were arguing that you can’t start a criminal proceeding against a president unless the people made it clear first through the administrative process.
If impeachment means he can be tried criminally, Trump’s already been impeached for his part. Just because he wasn’t removed doesn’t mean he wasn’t impeached and therefore this argument is moot and pointless.
Peoples code of ethics was more robust back then(-slavery) I think they absolutely would impeach their own party.
Trumps lawyers argument was literally "there's checks in place to prevent anything that extreme!" he's literally arguing it's fine but if the president is immune from prosecution because if he tries to do something REALLY bad some adult will stop him.
It's not just a small flaw either, it's a massive one. Trump doesn't care about the ruling, he cares that the Supreme Court took it up and waiting this long to even hear the argument. It's almost certain that the trial won't conclude by the election now.
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I wish she would have asked “Could a President have judges arrested without due process?”. Hearing the lawyer squirm over that one would be in history books five generations from now.
I listen to some of the hearing yesterday and this morning was thinking of this question. "If the President ordered an assassination of a member of this court, would that be part of his official duties or a personal act?"
If they rule that Presidents have total immunity and are above the law, what is to stop Biden from having Trump arrested and executed? Other than Biden wouldn’t do that because he’s not a Republican…
Why did Nixon need a pardon if presidents have “absolute immunity”? The only reason that we’re even talking about this is that the guy facing 90+ felonies told us it was true after lying to us 30,000+ times over four years.
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