August 6, 2023

"It’s a sign of how acrid things have got that Biden’s main tactic is simply to put his opponent in prison."

"I don’t like Trump any more than the next person, but hauling him up in a criminal court is Third World stuff. Who cares he said the election was 'stolen'? Every politician says that when they lose. Hillary Clinton did: is Biden going to 'lock her up'? As for the dodgy dealings in Biden’s family, they’re always obfuscated, hidden, tidied away. Hunter’s laptop, the stuff with Burisma and with China, the crack, the hookers, the affair with his dead brother’s widow. An objective person cannot be shocked by the complaints against Trump while not being horrified by any of this."

Writes Camilla Long (in the London Times). I thought that was nicely concise. It's about how I feel. I especially like "Who cares he said the election was 'stolen'?" And the sly use of Trump's own "lock her up."

NOTE: You need to scroll to the bottom of the column to see this material. Most of the column is about Lizzo (blogged 2 post down).

91 comments:

Ampersand said...

Saying that the election was stolen is OK in the early aftermath. You have a duty to your supporters to competently strategize your response. He didn't. He surrounded himself with Toadies and soothsayers.
You also have a duty to the nation to manage a transition that doesn't hurt the nation.He didn't.

hpudding said...

She has no evidence or even reason to think that all these indictments are a “Biden tactic.” Just a presumption that some/certain (or even all?) political figures should be above the law. Which is the very definition of elitism itself. How irresponsible for her to say such a thing and even more irresponsible for anyone to quote it here so uncritically.

jim said...

Gathering conspirators to retain control after losing an election is third world stuff.

Sebastian said...

"It’s a sign of how acrid things have got that Biden’s main tactic is simply to put his opponent in prison."

This diagnosis is part of the problem. "Things" are not "acrid." The regime is imposing its will. Progs rule.

"hauling him up in a criminal court is Third World stuff."

Not at all. It is progs putting to work the second-strongest government apparatus.

"Every politician says that when they lose. Hillary Clinton did"

But the disparate treatment is part of the point progs are making: take that, you deplorables, and you sentimental "objective" observers. We protect our own, and attack our enemies BAMN.

"An objective person cannot be shocked by the complaints against Trump while not being horrified by any of this."

Enjoy your objectivity. Wallow in your horror. Meanwhile, progs will play their games, comfortable in the knowledge that when the time comes, nice women will still vote for them.

"I especially like "Who cares he said the election was 'stolen'?""

Of course, no one does. But for the moment it is a useful prog trope. The very fact of their cynicism is a way to rub it in: we have the power to spew nonsense, and what are you going to do about it?

Buckwheathikes said...

The American people aren't going to learn anything UNLESS Trump is put in prison and/or prevented from running.

So naturally I'm hoping the Democrats succeed and they put Trump in jail or assassinate him (which I predict they will). Martyr him.

Americans need to know they no longer live in a free country.

Buckwheathikes said...

Joe Biden himself claimed that Trump was an "illegitimate" President and that he stole his election.

The entire point that these people want to make clear to the American people is that Democrats are above the law. Republicans will be jailed if they do the exact same political tactics that get Democrats elected. They are not going to allow the Alinsky Rule Book to be used against them.

They want it known that yes, they did call previous elections "stolen." And they'll do that in the future. But Republicans will be put in jail for doing that.

That's the message.

Freder Frederson said...

Who cares he said the election was 'stolen'?

What an ignorant, irresponsible, and irrelevant statement! Read the freaking first paragra, ph of the indictment. Jack Smith states plainly that Trump could lie all he wanted to. It is when he parlayed those lies into encouraging illegal actions that he crossed the line.

This is rather like the whole Mar-a-lago debacle. If he had said, "oh sorry here are your documents back (like Biden and Pence), nothing more would have come of it. Instead he actively tried to conceal the documents and used the illegally obtained documents to impress people.

Big Mike said...

It's about how I feel. I especially like "Who cares he said the election was 'stolen'?”

To the Democrats you just became very, very dangerous.

Mr Wibble said...

I remember back in the Beforetimes, when dinosaurs roamed the land and George W. Bush was president, when a common refrain online was, "I agree with the dems on social issues, but they aren't serious about terrorism." It seemed, to me at least, that it came mostly from middle-class whites, usually women. It killed the Dem's chances in 2004.

COVID was arguably the same effect in the opposite direction: independents who might have stuck with Trump were successfully convinced by the Dems that he "wasn't serious about COVID."

Now it seems like the Dems may very well swing the pendulum back.

rehajm said...

Once again I do not appreciate the asymmetry applied. The Bidens and the Clintons are real criminals committing countless real felonies and Trump is accused of poorly designed made up crimes. Fuck you if you don't like trump. It isn’t fucking relevant…

mikee said...

It is not just the disparity in prosecutorial judgements being exhibited that is appalling, it is the clearly expressed intention to criminalize one entire half of the country's thought, ideology, belief, expression, and existence. That kinda stinks, and kinda stings.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Trump left the White House peacefully. If you listen to the paid hacks on MicroSoft NBC ... and NBC...(ABC,CBS,NPR,PBS(D) etc..) Trump refused to leave and almost over-turned the election with guns and violence!

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Stop making light of Biden's family corruption. Please.

Chuck said...

What noxious mendacity.

Hillary Clinton conceded her election loss within hours. She did not ask for specious recounts. She did not file meretricious lawsuits. She did not rally supporters saying the election was stolen.* She did not advance any crazy fraud/conspiracy theories. She did not organize a coup.

She did attend faithfully in person, her opponent’s inauguration.

All in the absolute starkest contrast to Trump.

*I know very well that the TrumpWingers want to argue this point. Trump Wingers are in the main too stupid to understand the difference between “Russia interfered, meaningfully, in the 2016 election and so I question his full legitimacy,” versus “Russia colluded with Trump to steal the election.” If you are going to throw Hillary quotes at me — of course you want to do that — give us full verbatim quotes and include a link for the full context. Some clever Althousian might find a somewhat damning Clinton quote in this context. I’ll wager that for every such quote, I can find 10 Trump quotes with utterly false allegations about vote “fraud.”

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Biden, Inc.
Over his decades in office, ‘Middle-Class Joe’s’ family fortunes have closely tracked his political career.
August 02, 2019
Biden, Inc.

This came out prior to the media's collective lock-down on anything negative about the Biden family.

wild chicken said...

Yeah, forget it, Jake. It's politics.

Freder Frederson said...

My mistake, it is the third, not the first, paragraph, that states (and I am paraphrasing here), listen dumbfucks, of course Trump can whinge and lie all he wants, and even contest the decision through legal means, but he went way beyond just crying and lying and descended into illegality.

Chuck said...

Althouse if the full extent of what Trump did was to falsely claim that the election was stolen, and nothing more, we would not be where we are.

Trump would not be charged with obstruction of federal proceedings. There are millions of people who claim the 2020 election was stolen. It is a false, foolish and destructive claim. But they won’t be charged with any crimes.

Trump would not be charged in Florida if he had taken Presidential documents and, having been apprised of that fact, had fully cooperated with NARA, the FBI and the NSC to return them safely. We know that with absolute certainty because Trump DID return lots of documents. And was not, and will not be charged for those particulars.

This one is a profoundly silly blog post.

The Crack Emcee said...

I don't know where anybody thought the NewAge movement was going to take us other than to fascism.

Chuck said...

Althouse if the full extent of what Trump did was to falsely claim that the election was stolen, and nothing more, we would not be where we are.

Trump would not be charged with obstruction of federal proceedings. There are millions of people who claim the 2020 election was stolen. It is a false, foolish and destructive claim. But they won’t be charged with any crimes.

Trump would not be charged in Florida if he had taken Presidential documents and, having been apprised of that fact, had fully cooperated with NARA, the FBI and the NSC to return them safely. We know that with absolute certainty because Trump DID return lots of documents. And was not, and will not be charged for those particulars.

This one is a profoundly silly blog post.

Wince said...

Althouse said...
I thought that was nicely concise.

"An objective person cannot be shocked by the complaints against Trump while not being horrified by any of this."

The mental contortions necessary to propagate this dichotomous perception of "shock" and "horror" required an unprecedented level of coordinated media obfuscation that can only be cut through with clear language.

RMc said...

I don’t like Trump any more than the next person

I don't think I've ever seen an even slightly pro-Trump piece without this disclaimer. It's as if the writers feel like they have to say this if they want to keep their jobs.

Michael K said...

That's the sane reaction to all this. That is why a lot of us think the Democrat Party has gone crazy. Not just this but the tranny thing, drag queen shows for kids and all the rest of the "culture war."

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Lets not forget the corrupt collective left arrested and illegally detained people for merely walking thru the Capitol Building's open and unlocked doors.

I thought the Capitol was a public building? Guess not. It belongs to the leftist Oligarchs.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Why is it all buddy buddy, OK, back-slap, wink-wink - when Democxrats are known crooks and illegal secret money grubbers?

Darkisland said...

Not just put him in prison. He's holding the death penalty over pdjt's head.

they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

We are being asked to believe that this will not be brought into play because of the "reasonableness" or "good faith" of the fascists.

Does anyone think they have either of those qualities?

If pedjt is literally Hitler as so many claim, would killing him, especially under color of law be wrong or unjustified?

If he is, as they claim, responsible for Ashli Babbitt's death, why is he free on bail?

Nowhere near enough is being made of this potential death penalty

John Henry

Gahrie said...

Who cares he said the election was 'stolen'?"

The Left does, because the election was stolen, and not very artfully, so they have to demonize anyone who questions it.

Buckwheathikes said...

You know who the DOJ hasn't arrested: Ray Epps

Here's a man who is on videotape admitting that he led the riot, incited the riot and who is seen actively participating in the riot.

He went on 60 Minutes to announce that he's not a federal agent. I believe him. I think he is an ordinary American citizen who went to DC and emotions boiled over and he decided to lead a riot.

So why hasn't Ray Epps been arrested yet for inciting this riot?

Buckwheathikes said...

You know who the DOJ hasn't arrested: Ray Epps

Here's a man who is on videotape admitting that he led the riot, incited the riot and who is seen actively participating in the riot.

He went on 60 Minutes to announce that he's not a federal agent. I believe him. I think he is an ordinary American citizen who went to DC and emotions boiled over and he decided to lead a riot.

So why hasn't Ray Epps been arrested yet for inciting this riot?

Roger Sweeny said...

No, Biden's main tactic is not to put Trump in prison. He saw how an earlier indictment caused Republican primary voters to "circle the wagons" around Trump, making him the favorite to win the nomination. But Biden knows that in the general election, he will be able to scare a majority of voters or just convince them that Trump is icky, not someone a respectable person would vote for. Most of the media will agree with him about this.

The tactic is to make Trump big. Big for primary voters, and then big bad for the November election. In a nice correspondence of interests, the media also wants Trump to be big cause that means higher ratings, more eye balls and subscribers, and more profits.

blogger said...

The link goes to the Lizzo article.

traditionalguy said...

NB: it’s acrid because the Obama Duo is secretly calling the shots. They have always been “Marxist Activists.”and as such are still 100% committed to destroying everything American. Once they were given a pass as the first blacks. Now they are given a pass as the demented old fool.

walter said...

"Hunter’s laptop, the stuff with Burisma and with China, the crack, the hookers, the affair with his dead brother’s widow."
--
"Pedo Pete" grabbing, sniffing and biting children..enabling child trafficking and rape trees.
But..he can ride a bike!

hombre said...

"Acrid?" Is that British understatement?

The excerpt does more justice to the situation: The Bidens are criminals who seek to hold power for the Democrats with Banana Republic corruption.

Inga said...

A lie in the furtherance of a crime is not protected free speech. Is this a difficult concept? Trump not only lied in the furtherance of crimes he acted in the furtherance of crimes.

minnesota farm guy said...

Ann, Thanks. It's how I feel, too.

Original Mike said...

Matt Taibbi: "If you drop 76 charges on a candidate and he goes up in polls, you might want to consider that you might be part of the problem."

TeaBagHag said...

Amen. If someone has committed dozens of crimes, they can’t be held accountable if they are someone’s political opponent. Sound logic. Amazing take. Well said. Pip pip and all that tommyrot.

Leland said...

+100!

Ann Althouse said...

This is the same link as the Lizzo article, blogged earlier. Scroll down to find this stuff.

Paul said...

But, as in the song, "Hand of Doom" (yea hard rock)

"Now you know the scene
Your skin starts turning green
Your eyes no longer seeing
Life's reality

Push the needle in,
Face death's sickly grin
Holes are in your skin,
Caused by deadly pin"

Might be talking about Hunter... drugs.... or the deadly spiral of getting Trump that the Democrats and Biden have pushed politics to.

rhhardin said...

Acrid would be a Swedish girls' name.

Kate said...

Paywalled. Bummer.

Curtiss said...

Biden is a noted liar and fabulist, although that’s not the Legend created for public consumption. Sometimes I think he believes his own Legend.

Deep State Reformer said...

"Acrid" you say? More like a total devolution to a turd-world s*******. Even Boss Tweed or Mayor Daley didn't do this level stuff. Here in Michigan our AG has filed charges against her opponent from '22 and the Republican candidates for electoral college too. Five year felonies. Francis Fukuyama is wrong about the end of History. These times are the end of liberal democracy. In the future we'll all be one party states.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, paywall.

Gunner said...

Does anyone else think that if Biden or his handlers had just told the Justice Department to ignore Trump since 2021, his approval rating would be ten points higher now?

Martha said...

The Democrats campaign plan —with the mainstream media fully on board —is to scream TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP 24/7 loud enough to drown out any discussion of Biden’s dismal record as President or his nefarious business deals with Hunter. On ABC’s THIS WEEK, Stephanopoulos would not let Republican Presidential candidate Governor Doug Burgum talk about anything but TRUMP despite Governor Burgum repeatedly saying he had nothing to add to the discussion of Trump’s legal troubles and that he wanted to talk about his own Presidential campaign.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Agree with Althouse on the concision and clarity. And I agree with Camilla too. Sadly objectively is a rare quality since teachers turned away from skills based education— the three Rs— to activist grievance based tutoring. The detrimental effects of encouraging students to shirk hard work in favor of clever excuses— the sad legacy of Critical Theory in action— is being felt now throughout higher education and the economy. Someone who has never been challenged to be excellent cannot suddenly self-generate the perseverance needed to do so after reaching adulthood without other exceptional people in their lives. The distractions are legion and ways to numb oneself to failure extremely easy to acquire in 2023.

My heart weeps for the destruction of our education system and perhaps one of the few positive outcomes from COVID was the exposure of just how far we have fallen from seeking Truth and Beauty and rewarding success in schools.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Lizzo and Biden are tied together in more ways than dog bites and bananas in the vagina.

Basically, don't be surprised when people abuse the privileges, accommodations granted them in the name of grievance redress. Lizzo is not the ideal stereotype and Biden is not Trump.

In essence, it ends up creating the very thing it was supposed to remedy.

Biden and Lizzo are symptoms of a larger issue, the impossible human nature symphony people keep disastrously failing to conduct to their satisfaction.

gilbar said...

https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/4137650-even-lies-are-protected-speech-new-trump-indictment-bulldozes-the-first-amendment/
Jonathan Turley: Even lies are protected speech: New Trump indictment bulldozes the First Amendment
Trump was not charged with conspiracy to incite violence or insurrection. Rather, he was charged because he “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won.”
This indictment essentially charges Trump with not accepting the “truth.” There is no limiting principle to this indictment. The government would choose between which politicians are lying and which are lying without cause.

There can be NO EXCEPTIONS to thoughtcrime.
Any and ALL, that question the democrat party MUST be found and "fixed"

Rabel said...

At one point, during a debate as I remember it, Trump said that if he was President Hillary would be in jail.

But the "lock her up" chant came from the crowd at his rallies, where he allowed it but also discouraged it to some degree.

Assigning ownership of the phrase specifically to Trump is a questionable assertion. It belongs mainly to his supporters.

Jersey Fled said...

When Camilla is right she’s right.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Biden, Lizzo and Robot delivery.

gadfly said...

Actually, Camilla Long was totally imprecise. "Every politician says that when they lose. Hillary Clinton did..."

Actually, Clinton conceded that she lost the election on Wednesday, Nov. 9th following election day as is customary.

“Donald Trump is going to be our president,” she said, speaking at the New Yorker hotel in Manhattan. “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”

Since 1789, there have been 58 presidential elections. The Supreme Court was directly involved in settling a dispute in the 2000 contest between George Bush and Al Gore, and five Justices sat on a commission that decided the 1876 race between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden. Only Donald Trump failed to concede in 2020.

And the statement "As for the dodgy dealings in Biden’s family, they’re always obfuscated, hidden, tidied away," there is nothing exposed there except GOP-generated conspiracies. No proof and no charges against Joe Biden or otherwise, except Hunter's tax evasion (which puts him in Trump's class) and gun possession by a drug addict, which is rarely charged.

As for reasons why Hillary may have lost to Trump, there were two obvious reasons. First, there was the Russian hacking of her campaign which was later confirmed by a DOJ investigation. And second, she would probably have been president if FBI Director James Comey had not sent a letter to Congress on 10/28/2016. The letter, which said the FBI had “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation” into her private email server upended the news cycle and soon halved Clinton’s lead in the polls in states where her Electoral College result changed.

JIM said...

The obligatory preface to keep the Cocktail Party invitations coming - "I don't like Trump anymore than the next person".
I guess I should grateful that even dedicated leftists are seeing the malfeasance and corruption writ large.

TaeJohnDo said...

"Scroll down to find this stuff."

Wait! What!? You expect us to read?

You can take the professor out the university...but you can't take the professor out of the blogger.... ';0)

phantommut said...

The main reason I couldn't vote for Trump in 2016 was the "lock her up" crap. I loathe HRC and am sure she broke laws, but I thought she should pay for it at the ballot box and she did.

Valentine Smith said...

It’s beyond my comprehension that the Democrat machine cannot comprehend the huge potential for unintended consequences. If Trump walks or goes to prison they lose. There is a big uh-oh coming for the Dems and more than a year for the ramifications to play out. They really are children wanting what they want regardless of consequences..

Their only hope is to pull off the impossible. The absurd coalition of entitled professionals, infantile 20-somethings, deranged cross dressers and fat cat corporate fascists not to mention the commie teachers’ unions and corrupted medical establishment must completely reverse themselves on the Covid pandemic and pin responsibility where it belongs on Trump.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

It's probably where we're headed but I'm not sure it started out that way. Early on, I think the plan was to just use legal warfare to ensure that Trump was the nominee. Afterall, the Democrats have the DOJ, FBI and a huge state-run media to make sure all the necessary indictments are rolled out in the necessary timeframe to achieve their goal. This is all being done under their belief that Trump is likely to be their best, and maybe only, path to victory next year. Joe could then step in once safely reelected and play the "unifier" card by offering to pardon Trump under conditions he would never again seek elected office. The Dem's and their media could then declare the country healed and then go to work focusing on electing a new Democrat in 2028.

However, I'm noticing a new confidence on the left that they can really get away with anything at this point. After all, no price has been paid for the Russia Collusion hoax, the Hunter laptop lie, the raid on Mar-a-Lago, the slow-walking and different manner in which Biden's classified documents scandal is being handled, and of course Joe's involvement in the Biden family's influence peddling operation (just to name a few). They are now realizing the power of this new one-sided political landscape and are embracing it.

I think the naming of Jack Smith as Special Counsel was a tell. Prior to this, The Dems always went for a fake Republican like Mueller to do their dirty work. They were at least concerned about appearances. Jack Smith is a naked partisan. They no longer care how the public will view the legitimacy of their work.

But who wouldn't feel cocky with the realization that you could do anything to your political opponents or excuse any bad behavior on your side without having to face any kind of retribution? That's the reason I now think a prison term is almost guaranteed. What motivation is there at this point for them not to continue to embrace the authoritarianism they so desire?






chickelit said...

Modern Dems really are nihilists: They have nothing new and fresh to offer so they focus on tearing down.

cfs said...

Corporate media is suddenly concerned, since Trump has said he will have Joe Biden prosecuted for his crimes should he be elected President, such an indictment would be a political prosecution and the product of "revenge" and "retribution". Why in the world would he media think such a thing would happen in the U.S.? For certainly no reasonable prosecutor in the U.S. would bring charges against either a Presidential candidate or a former President. That would be unprecedented and reek of political corruption and thus lower our nation to third-world type "governance".

At least though we can be assured that should Donald Trump win the 2024 election, no one will accuse him of winning by fraudulent votes and balloting or any type of "collusion". No lawsuits will be filed contesting the election results by campaign attorneys such as Marc Elias. To do such a thing might be considered a criminal offense especially should democrat voters go to the streets in protest and set vehicles on fire and attempt to disrupt the Presidential inauguration ceremonies.

Such a response to an election has never before happened in the history of our nation and I'm sure democrat leaders will be the first to tell their supporters the election was secure and to state otherwise would be participating in an insurrection. All democrat leadership will attend the ceremonies and congratulate the new President on his win with hopes that both parties will reach across the aisle in the spirit of compromise and the good of our nation.

LOL! Who says conservatives can't write good fiction?

Bob Boyd said...

acrid - angry and bitter

"Things" have gotten acrid? Okay, but "Things" are not trying to lock Trump up. Those who are aren't motivated by anger or bitterness. They're motivated by the same things that motivate this stuff in the third world, greed, lust for power, fear of exposure and punishment. And they're the hoping anger and bitterness of things will give them political cover, so they create as much of both as they possibly can.

M Jordan said...

The left will regret their handling of Trump post-presidency just as they regretted Harry Reed’s filibuster removal which cost them the Supreme Court eventually. They are operating now on pure emotion — mainly hate — and emotion ultimately always fails you.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Inga - care to name the actions and crimes? with honesty?

hombre said...

"Americans need to know they no longer live in a free country."

Many Americans know that. So what?! If you keep thinking the consequence of Democrats winning is that people will see how bad they are and do something, you're dreaming.

The Democrat Party is run by criminals who went into politics to come out rich. Think Bidens, Clintons, Obamas, Pelosis, Feinsteins, Waters, Sharpton, etc. They are covered by a corrupt corporate mass media and supported by amoral nincompoops in their rank and file. Ultimately, they will have it all and NOTHING CAN BE DONE!!!

Note how they have rum rampant over the rights of January 6th demonstrators, including sanctioning murder - Ashley Babbit (say her name). If you think Biden and his ilk would hesitate to turn F-15s, or whatever, loose on dissidents, think again. After all, MAGAs are a subhuman cult.

BTW, I suspect Althouse knows this.She is an intelligent observer.

Maynard said...

What will the dumb lefties do when they don't have Trump to fulminate against?

I guess the next prominent conservative and/or populist will be worse than Hitler (as are all Republicans in their feeble minds) and even worse that Trump.

Non-thinking, emotional Democrat partisans are so predictable.

Bruce Hayden said...

“A lie in the furtherance of a crime is not protected free speech. Is this a difficult concept? Trump not only lied in the furtherance of crimes he acted in the furtherance of crimes.”

You skipped step#1 - defying actual crimes. Nothing that Smith charged Trump with are actually indictable crimes. For example, his first charge is defrauding someone. Except that there was no money involved, and the Supreme Court has emphatically stated that criminal fraud requires money (or something of monetary value). LawFare, in supporting the charges said that wasn’t true, and found a couple of old cases. But their justification was very likely made before the Supreme Court spoke decisively in May, flatly rejecting a widened use of that term in criminal statutes. The Conspiracy charges similarly skip the first step - that there must be an actual crime. There wasn’t, and isn’t. Very LawFare. And very similar to their LawFare rewrite of the §1001 Obstruction statute (by ignoring Specific Intent and Materiality elements) that they used so effectively against the Trump Administration, until reined in by AG Barr, who held them to the official DOJ OLC interpretation. And the other thing that the Supreme Court reiterated was that criminal statutes must be understood by the public as to the behavior that is criminal. The sort of aggressive LawFare type interpretations used by Smith egregiously violate that requirement. That’s, of course, before we even get to the 1st Amdt issues…

James K said...

It is when he parlayed those lies into encouraging illegal actions that he crossed the line.

What actions were illegal that he encouraged? He didn't assemble an armed force to attack the Capitol. He asked people to protest "peacefully and patriotically." He asked Pence not to sign off on the EC vote until the fraud allegations had been investigated. He encouraged Republicans to reject the electors from states where fraud had been alleged, much as Democrats had done in 2017 (though there were no allegations of fraud in 2017). None of this is illegal except in the fevered minds of Smith and other Trump haters.

Bruce Hayden said...

“This is rather like the whole Mar-a-lago debacle. If he had said, "oh sorry here are your documents back (like Biden and Pence), nothing more would have come of it. Instead he actively tried to conceal the documents and used the illegally obtained documents to impress people.”

Actually, he didn’t try to conceal the documents. Jay Bratt, Deputy Special Prosecutor, requested the documents through Archives (thanks to Archives refusing to do their traditional job of taking everything and securing it) (and a FJB WH order that Archives do whatever the DOJ and FBI told them to). Bratt then refused requests for extensions of time and rolling discovery. Then used their failure to produce those documents under his nflexible deadline to justify the MAL raid.

Here is the big thing though - the documents marked classified were not found together. Far from it. They were found intermixed with other related documents involving calls or meetings at his desk. At the end of the call or meeting, they were then all removed from his desk, ready with a clean desk, for the next call or meeting, and filed chronologically in boxes. The next time most of those boxes were opened and the documents reviewed was after when they were seized in the MAL raid. There were hundreds of these boxes, and all of them should have been under the supervision and protection of the Archives, if they had offered the same services they had to at least the previous three Presidents, that they hadn’t offered to Trump. And the only way to determine which of the boxes contained documents marked as classified (or otherwise included National Defense information) was to go through each of those hundreds of boxes, document by document - which could only be done by those with sufficiently high security clearances. And getting those security clearances was problematic, since Bratt’s other job is as the branch chief for the DOJ’s Counterintelligence and Export Branch, sister organization to the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, which is involved in granting security clearances. Indeed, the judge in that case has pushed the case into mid 2024 partially based on the problems Trump’s litigation attorneys are having getting sufficiently high security clearances to view the documents seized by the FBI. (I have little doubt that Bratt’s plan had been to litigate the case based on the FBI’s word alone about those documents).

The whole thing was a fairly obvious setup from the first.

chickelit said...

“If he is, as they claim, responsible for Ashli Babbitt's death, why is he free on bail?“

The coward who shot Babbit for shits and giggles was fêted as a hero by the left.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Hey now this IS the Age of Aquarius!!!
Where the most unheard of cascading fountain of anomalies all points to ONE WAY then counting stops and when it starts up again the result has all reversed. The anomalies remained and the audits were blocked by Soros.
It stinks on ice. It stinks out loud.
Anybody remember the "RESIST" bumper stickers on the Hillary Hondas?
Who printed those?

BUMBLE BEE said...

C'mon gadfly, who printed those Resist bumper stickers.

Michael K said...


Blogger Inga said...

A lie in the furtherance of a crime is not protected free speech. Is this a difficult concept? Trump not only lied in the furtherance of crimes he acted in the furtherance of crimes.


Which crimes, dullard ? Name them 1,2,3,4 Go on, I'm sure you can describe them.

BUMBLE BEE said...

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/wikipedia-co-founder-confirms-that-the-platform-is-manipulated-by-the-deep-state/
Use your password Inga... look it up!

iowan2 said...

gadfly, this lie has been put and buried 3 years ago.

The Russians did not hack the Dem campaign emails. In fact the emails were NEVER hacked

We have Comey testifying the FBI never did their own analysis, relied on the DRAFT report issued by Crowd Strike.

The CEO of Crowd Strike testified they found no evidence the emails were hacked.

There are 100 of these fake stories you leftist keep using. When are going to understand the Government has been lying to all of us for decades, and it just keeps escalating.

MadTownGuy said...

Roger Sweeny said...

"The tactic is to make Trump big. Big for primary voters, and then big bad for the November election. In a nice correspondence of interests, the media also wants Trump to be big cause that means higher ratings, more eye balls and subscribers, and more profits."

IOW, redux of 2016. It didn't work that time, but this time it could be different.

Leland said...

You also have a duty to the nation to manage a transition that doesn't hurt the nation.He didn't..

By he, do you mean:

Clinton’s staff destroyed all the White House keyboards.

Obama wire tapped Trump’s campaign and had Trump’s NSA arrested for supposedly lying to the FBI, which the FBI had to later admit they lied. All this while Obama’s former intelligence officials fraudulently claimed the Steele Dossier showed Trump was under the control of Putin, who also supposedly interfered with the election.

walter said...

Maynard said...
What will the dumb lefties do when they don't have Trump to fulminate against?
I guess the next prominent conservative and/or populist will be worse than Hitler (as are all Republicans in their feeble minds) and even worse that Trump.
--

Blogger Chuck said...
I do believe that there is not one word -- not a single sentiment -- in this blog post with which I disagree.
I only wish that we could equip DeSantis and Trump with whatever political equipment was necessary to mutually kill each other's political careers. On video, of course; because I want to watch it.
5/20/23, 9:23AM

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

"This is rather like the whole Mar-a-lago debacle. If he had said, "oh sorry here are your documents back (like Biden and Pence), nothing more would have come of it. Instead, he actively tried to conceal the documents and used the illegally obtained documents to impress people."

The law says it's illegal to inappropriately possess classified documents. It doesn't say all will be forgiven if you return said documents with an aw shucks apology once they're discovered. This is a made-up get out of jail free card that was invented to somehow clear Joe any crime. In fact, you can make the argument that Trump, having been President as opposed to Vice President, had a much better excuse for having classified documents in the first place.

btw, is there anyone with an IQ over 3 who believes that Biden's Special Counsel will hold him accountable for this crime in any way, shape or form? Of course not. The media doesn't even mention it as a possibility. They're in on the game. It's all for appearances. Also obvious is the manic rush to bring Trump to trial before the election whereas Biden's Special Counsel reportedly hasn't even conducted an interview with Joe yet. I'm guessing they would rather wait until after the election to release their findings if possible but want to retain the option of exonerating him before the election if the issue rises on the public's radar. Either way, the decision made will be made purely on the basis of benefitting Joe and the Democrats.

For the record, I'm fine with throwing Trump in jail as long as Hilary and Joe go as well. And while they're at it, they should investigate whether Obama played any role in Hilary's attempt to decapitate the head of the US government because she had the sadz over losing an election. If we have time to jail Trump, we can certainly find the time to jail those involved in the biggest scandal in modern political history.

Inga said...

“Inga - care to name the actions and crimes? with honesty?”

Did you not read the indictment? Why don’t you know this?

Count one: conspiracy to defraud the United States, a violation of 18 U.S.C 371
Count two: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, a violation of 18 U.S.C. 1512 (k)
Count three: obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, a violation of 18 U.S.C. 1512 (c)(2),2
Count four: conspiracy against rights, a violation of 18 U.S.C. 241

gadfly said...

The Elephants in the Room

wildswan said...

"Acrid" is another way to say WTF. "Acrid" as in "bad white wine," signifies that educated suburban women or, at least this woman, are turning on The Narrative.
"How does this series of indictments taste - sweet, juicy, delicious? Are you delighted, as hard-core Dems and their Marxist friends are?"
"It's acrid. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. I voted for this. No. I did not vote for this. How is it happening?"
We live in a big country and different groups must deal with the oncoming disillusionment in their own way.

Inga said...

“Here's a summary of the charges Trump is facing in Washington, D.C., for attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election:

One count of conspiracy to defraud the United States applies to Trump's repeated and widespread efforts to spread false claims about the November 2020 election while knowing they were not true and for allegedly attempting to illegally discount legitimate votes all with the goal of overturning the 2020 election, prosecutors claim in the indictment.

One count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding was brought due to the alleged organized planning by Trump and his allies to disrupt the electoral vote's certification in January 2021.

One count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding is tied to Trump and his co-conspirators' alleged efforts after the November 2020 election until Jan. 7, 2021, to block the official certification proceeding in Congress.

One count of conspiracy against rights refers to Trump and his co-conspirators alleged attempts to "oppress, threaten and intimidate" people in their right to vote in an election.”

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/1191493880/trump-january-6-charges-indictment-counts

Saint Croix said...

Matt Taibbi: "If you drop 76 charges on a candidate and he goes up in polls, you might want to consider that you might be part of the problem."

Taibbi is on fire!

Campaign 2024, Official Chaos

Fantastic writing. Some snippets...

The man facing death in prison is in the strongest position of the major candidates.

The sudden stream of criticism from outlets that not long ago were in lockstep support of the administration advances a delusion that’s apparently widespread in elite circles, to the effect that Biden’s troubles are the result of traditional policy decisions, as opposed to the more obvious problem that the party in 2020 nominated a corpse with a slew of known corruption issues.

The cognoscenti never figured out or accepted that the support for protest candidates like Trump or Bernie Sanders even is rooted in wide generalized rage directed their way. To this day they don’t accept it. They keep thinking they can wish it away, describe it away (see Bump’s description of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as “not at this point serious competition”), indict it away. If you drop 76 charges on a candidate and he goes up in polls, you might want to consider that you might be part of the problem. But they can’t take even that heavy a hint.

Absent a big switch, our future is either Donald Trump, who by next year will be in more restraints than Hannibal Lecter on the tarmac, or this DNC dog’s breakfast. Other countries are surely already laughing. It’s getting harder to resist joining them.

Rich said...

A careful reading of the indictment suggests that the prosecution will present eyewitness testimony to each and every fact alleged in what looks like a tight and unbreakable chain of facts. This will be a straightforward narrative retold by eyewitness live testimony, not grainy video of boxes moving around at night. Not one co-conspirator was a White House staffer while several staffers were named by position in the text as having witnessed key events. The prosecution will present compelling testimony from Trump's closest associates; their credibility will be near-irrefutable. (It looks like "everyone" flipped; the prosecution is not going to lack eyewitness testimony to the facts alleged.)

The prosecution has mastery of both facts and law here. Trump has little to refute either aspect of the case coming against him. Trump is throwing cheap public relations stuff at a brick wall of facts. Lies that work for Putin in Moscow are unlikely to work for Trump in Washington; two completely different arenas.

One should go review the ending of the movie "Billy Budd." The rule of law must prevail or the ship of state is lost. Someone is about to get hoisted to the yardarm.

Iman said...

Frustrated teabaghag needs a good rogering.

Gem Quincyite said...

>>Saying that the election was stolen is OK in the early aftermath. You have a duty to your >>supporters to competently strategize your response. He didn't. He surrounded himself with >>Toadies and soothsayers.
>>You also have a duty to the nation to manage a transition that doesn't hurt the nation.He >.didn't.

But we aren't Talking about Barack Obama. try to stay on topic here.

walter said...

"Rich
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Welcome to Althouse!

Temp Blog said...

The problem for Inga the Stupid and Gadfly the Pedo is that none of the evidence claimed against Trump actually showed action toward the crimes alleged. There was no fraud, there was no obstruction by the Executive (remember that Trump was still President at the time of the alleged "crimes"), there was no conspiracy against rights (even the indicment fails to show that Trump directed anyone or anything to do anything at the Capitol). There is no ACTION that would be necessary for criminality. And the indictment (which Inga and Gadfly are too stupid to read and comprehend) tries really, really, really hard to obfuscate that reality.

Leland said...

Inga said...
“Here's a summary of the charges Trump is facing in Washington, D.C., for attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election:


Yes Inga, that's the dogma presented to everyone and you dutifully repeat it as if you have no agency when someone asks you to describe the crime. When a person is asked to be a juror; your role is not to just accept the dogma presented by prosecutor. You are to act as a reasonable person to make a determination of whether the person perpetrated the crime. The first step is for you to understand the crime from your perspective. Is it a crime to attempt to overturn the results of an election through speech? If so, what about those in 2001 went around chanting "Selected not elected"? How about those in 2017 that said Trump colluded with Russia to steal the election from Hillary? Are you saying those people are criminals? That's what the dogma says.

But do you, Inga, have the agency of a reasonable person to explain the crime that establishes what Trump did crossed the line. And to this reasonable person, me, that line can't be protesting within the Capitol, because I debated you years ago when you supported people protesting within the Texas Capital to stop the vote for the act that banned abortion after 20 weeks. You were cool with that tactic then.