It’s not Illegal if the President Thinks it
If you haven't actually seen the clip, here you go.
So, I noticed jokes (I think first in an open forum here at OTB) about Trump and telepathic declassification and I thought people were just making fun of the general vagueness of Team Trump on his declassification defense.
And then I saw this:
First, how anyone can take this man seriously is depressing.
Second, if you believe it works that way, then Biden can just think the documents back into classified status. Easy-peasy. (And I know trying to apply logic of any kind is a fool’s errand of epic proportions).
No, we weren’t joking in the least.
Another good part was when he said the FBI might have been searching Mar-a-Lago for Hillary’s emails.
@CSK: I saw a ref to that somewhere and thought it was a joke.
Sigh.
*Where would that be former Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Trump?
@Mister Bluster:
I noticed Trump kind of stumbled/stuttered when he said that, and then his voice trailed off just very briefly.
Did “wherever” mean North Korea? Russia? Saudi Arabia?
Geez, I know this is just a throw away line, Dr. Taylor, but I wish I could find this depressing.
However, this is a former president (and likely future presidential candidate), figurehead of one of only two viable national political parties, appearing on the most watched news network (without any discernible scrutiny) in the most powerful country in the world. “Depressing” just doesn’t feel weighty enough an adjective to describe whatever it is that taking this man seriously represents.
I detest Trump with the power of a thousand suns, but some of you are making the error of attempting to make sense of what Trump says in his off-the-cuff, fractured sentences. While I would not be surprised if he had taken presidential records, including National Security Information to places other than Merde-A-Lardo, his use of “or other places” COULD have simply meant that if the President takes these documents, whether to his “Winter White House” or some other place (Bedminster?), it is legal because he declassified them. Wrong, but possible.
Analyzing his thinking assumes that he is.
Biden should just think Benito into Leavenworth for life.
@dmichael:
It wasn’t his words themselves; it was the way he spoke them, as if he wanted to retract them.
@dmichael:
Consider that already stolen.
Picture Trump picking up a classified document the White House. Maybe some minion says he’ll need to refile it properly when Trump’s done. But Trump wanders off and drops it on a pile of paper on a cluttered desk in the residence. What’s the minion to do? Maybe he asks about it and Trump says, uh, oh, that’s declassified, that’s the ticket. What can the minion do except drop the matter? Trump may believe he declassified stuff in his mind just because his WH minions couldn’t tell him otherwise.
Similarly, I can FOIA documents with my mind, so let’s see ’em, buckaroo.
Tim Miller (www.thebulwark.com) wants to know if we can indict Trump just by thinking about it.
My favorite reaction: Trump says can declassify documents by thinking about it. Prepares insanity defense.
@CSK:
Even Sean Hannity was taken aback by that.
Anyway, lots of people are saying that the FBI were searching for Hillary’s emails at Maga Laro. Stupid people, mostly, but lots of them.
A skilled interviewer might’ve responded by asking him to relate what was in the docs he tried to retain as personal property, since they are “declassified” they are public record now.
Not saying that would’ve been a wise thing to do, or anything.
@Gustopher:
And do those people realize the implications of Trump having Hillary’s emails?
Never mind. Stupid question. I withdraw it.
@Steven L. Taylor: It’s a joke alright; it’s just that the joke is on us. Sadly, Nixon was right, too; in the absence of 67 Senators who want him gone, it’s not illegal if the President does it.
Sigh, indeed!
@dmichael: “Wrong, but possible.”
Again, in the absence of 67 Senators to convict him, not even wrong in a meaningful sense of the word. (I’ll believe the DOJ hypothetical when I see the indictment and arrest warrant, and the Supremes uphold it.)
@dazedandconfused:
When it’s Fox (especially Hannity), it’s not a matter of skill, it’s a matter of complicity.
This country has seen it’s share of stupid celebrities, criminal grifters, and corrupt politicians. The story hasn’t been Trump since The Orange One started to win GOP primaries in 2015. The story is his Enablers. Both the GOP and its media arms have had several chances to rid themselves of this corrupt, celebrity grifter and they’ve passed on the opportunity every time. For Trump, the lack of seriousness is something he was born with – this is likely true of the vast majority of his most sycophantic followers. But, for most GOP politicians, the Republican donor class, and the partisan media, their willingness to accept the unserious Trump is a Choice.
I’d guess I’m preaching to the choir here, but I believe we need to be vigilant in pointing out the real danger is the forces Trump has empowered and not the man himself. While I hope that Trump can be taken down, what we really need is for him to take down the GOP apparatus with him.
@Scott F.:
Easily dispersed if you remove their shepard…
@Steven L. Taylor: “I saw a ref to that somewhere and thought it was a joke”
I figured it had to be, and people were pretending not to get it to stick it to him. Then I saw the footage. He wasn’t joking…
@CSK:
Yeah, that was for his base. You can almost hear them saying, ‘Yeah! They never went after Killary (Shrillary?) the way they’ve gone after Trump!’ He knows just how stupid his base is, and just how far down he can go with them.
@CSK: It’s not clear whether he thinks he really does have Hillary’s 33,000 emails hidden somewhere, or he sincerely believes the FBI thought he might. Either suggestion is thoroughly unhinged.
His next suggestion was that they were looking for the Russia! Russia! Russia! hoax documents. I can’t even imagine what these are supposed to be, given he would surely have published years ago anything that supported his grand Mueller conspiracy narrative. Could it be he stole documents that prove the opposite – that he actually did collude with Russia? The interpreter’s notes of his Helsinki meeting, for example? I no longer discount any possibility with this maniac.
Hannity, needless to say, sat nodding sympthetically through this farrago of idiocy.
And one of Trumpy’s chums, Mr. 9-1-1, decides to wrap up the fight he’s having with his ex-wife over the payments by not showing up to court.
Dude, if you want to argue that you shouldn’t pay the $255K you supposedly owe her, the last thing you want to do is to skip out on your one chance of getting the issue before a judge. Aside from the fact that it pisses off the judge.
Honestly, what is wrong with the guy?!
Y’all are wrong. The president can declassify any document he wishes simply by eating it.
@Tony W: An irrefutable position.
@Tony W:
“The president can declassify any document he wishes simply by eating it.”
Only for meanings of “declassify” as showing a total lack of class.