Trump was the one who most would cite as responsible for the attack on the Capitol building by his supporters just a couple of days ago. He told the crowd to go to the Capitol building, and to show strength. He said you will never be able to “take back the country with weakness, you have to be strong.”
Gee, I wonder how his militant following could possibly have misinterpreted that?
His stooge lawyer Rudy Giuliani outright advocated violence, as he told the assembled crowd, “Let’s have trial by combat!” Later on, likely after the riots and recognizing that he might at least in part legally be held accountable for the melee in the capital, Giuliani claimed that he meant having the election "machines being in combat with each other and the ballots being in combat with each other."
Yeah, right.
Giuliani also doubled down on the allegations of voter fraud, claiming that if they (meaning the Trump team and their loyal supporters) were right, a lot of people in Congress (where the mob would soon head) would be arrested, but if they (the Trump loyalists) were wrong, they would be made fools of.
You know what, buddy? I think that ship sailed a long time ago.
Again, this stuff is just so obvious, is it any wonder that there has been such fallout from it since? About a dozen Trump administration officials have resigned just since that incident on Tuesday, and Trump has lost the loyalty and unwavering support of many of his former political allies in Congress, although by no means has be lost the support of all members.
Now, there is a lot of speculation that Trump may try to pardon himself. There has been talk of that pretty much throughout his entire term, but many feel that with time running out on this administration, with just days left of it, that he will go through with it.
As with almost everything else about the Trump administration, it feels unprecedented, as this is truly uncharted territory. How do we deal with a president who pardons himself? It might have seemed laughable, and almost still feels laughable now, except that with Trump, you have to take this threat seriously.
Not too long ago, self-identified conservatives in this country would often answer worries about increased government surveillance (particularly with the so-called PATRIOT Act) that if you are innocent of a crime, what do you have to hide? Yet, it apparently escapes many of these same people the staggering level of hypocrisy with Trump's insistence on secrecy towards a lot of things, as well as his apparently feeling the need to pardon himself. Again, if there was no wrongdoing, why would he need to pardon himself? If the phone calls to the Ukrainian prime minister of an election official were as "perfect" as Trump has claimed, why could they get him into legal trouble? If what Trump declared during the speech before his idiotic supporters was so innocent the other day, why would he consider the possibility of pardoning himself?
Sheer idiocy. Frankly, it does not take a highly sophisticated mind, or staggering levels of intelligence and insight, to see through this bullshit. All it takes is just an ounce of objectivity and, frankly, common sense. But such things appear to be in short supply these days, particularly among the most Trump supporters in the United States. Just like him, they can never admit to being in the least wrong, or admitting that what passes for logic in their circles does not hold water when it undergoes even the least scrutiny by someone who is not so blindly taken with Trump and his BS as they themselves are.
No president in American history has ever pardoned himself, so again, we may be about to see something that we have never seen before. But then again, that pretty much sums up the entire Trump presidency. It has been a lot of things that we had never before seen and, frankly, things that most of us never want to see again, either. The storming of the Capitol building in order to try and undermine the democratic process and a legitimate election pretty much summarizes Trump and his presidency. Fortunately, it was not a successful coup d'état, but it was an attempt. Trump seemed very enthusiastic about it until, predictably, he received a lot of negative blowback. Then, in typical fashion, he straightened up his act, at least in front of the public eye, and condemned the attack, but again, only after he received very clear and almost universal condemnation from everyone, including formerly close and loyal political allies. Let us be clear, though: that incident was only the latest in what has been a seemingly endless machine of idiocy and outrages that, frankly, this country will be better off having it all behind them. It is insanity, and it is all a reflection of this ridiculous excuse for a "leader."
He may or may not pardon himself (and I am willing to bet that he will). Time will tell. But it sure seems like he is thinking about it, and thinking seriously about it. It is his way of trying to get away with this very bad behavior. The big question is whether it will actually protect him or not. Personally, I believe that he should be held accountable, legally, and that he should stand trial for his crimes, not least of which was his role in the Capitol building chaos last week.
Obviously, Trump is very concerned about how he is perceived. He wants to believe that people view him as a hero, as blindly and unquestioningly as his loyal supporters tend to do. But I have absolutely no doubt that history will not be kind to Trump, and will vomit on his legacy, and all that he stood. I suspect that Trump knows a lot of things without admitting to them. He knows what his own role in what happened in Washington last week was. He knows very well that he lost the election. And he knows that his presidency will be viewed as a joke, and a dark chapter, in our history. That is why he keeps flipping back and forth, going from an inability to condemn outright Nazis and white supremacists early in his administration, to then condemning them when public scrutiny was on him. Now, his most recent idiocy was his inability to condemn those who stormed the Capitol building. In fact, reports suggest that he was pretty much happy with what was going on, until it became clear to him that he lacked support. Then, suddenly, he understood that he had to condemn the violence, and so he did, the next day.
All of it is a scam. Trump himself is a master scam artist. He scammed his way to the White House, and everything about his presidency felt like a con artist attempting to seem like a legitimate, even a great, president. But declaring yourself great does not make it so. Despite stupidity prevailing in this country far too often, even four years of Trump was a bridge too far for a majority of Americans, and he was defeated on Election Day. Let us make sure that his legacy is also defeated once he is finally out of the White House, and only a bad taste in our collective memory.
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