Swamp Draining Update
Via Politico, Trump sycophant, Newt Gingrich:
“We’ve never seen this kind of wealth in the White House, and so traditional rules don’t work,” Gingrich said Monday during an appearance on NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show” about the president-elect’s business interests. “We’re going to have to think up a whole new approach.”
And should someone in the Trump administration cross the line, Gingrich has a potential answer for that too.
“In the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon,” Gingrich said. “It’s a totally open power. He could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers. I pardon them if anyone finds them to have behaved against the rules. Period. Technically, under the Constitution, he has that level of authority.”
So, if Trump wants an adviser he should issue blanket pardons for bad behavior?
Nothing authoritarian about that whatsoever…
All snark aside, it is troubling to have major media figures/politicos with ties to the incoming administration to be making these kinds of suggestions.
Rule of law is officially over, isn’t it? It’s government of (rich) men now, & the worst kind of rich men at that.
It’s a media trial run to see how it plays. I’m sure Trump will “leverage” his Monopoly Get Out of Jail Free cards at some point in his presidency, and almost certainly use it on himself and/or family members as a way to get rid of debts/conflicts of interests.
And the media and Republicans/Libertarians will giggle and coo as a response, because it’s “their side” and destruction of democratic norms is nothing compared to those tax breaks.
Right, JFK got by because Jackie was such a good coupon cutter…
So as long as Trump doesn’t get a blow job and lie about it, Gingrich has no problems with anything he does?
I’m not sure why Gingrich would even suggest such a thing, unless his brain is missing its moral compass.
But at least Crooked Hillary and her emails aren’t in the Oval Office! Right?
I wonder if the media has any shame about the part they willingly played in Trump’s con.
The breadth and scale of incompetence and corruption is astonishing. My concern at this point is that it is taking more and more egregious behavior to even register. One wonders if anyone will even notice subsequent scandals. It’s like people are treating this like watching Game of Thrones or House of Cards–not applying reality to it instead of a TV show.
@Jen: And a lot of people will just look upon it as yet another piece of entertainment.
Maybe they’ll realize that this is reality when Medicare is abolished.
@grumpy realist: And, now, we’re getting proposals like this one, which sounds an awful lot like being “a little bit pregnant.”
BTW…Dumb-Don is no longer interested in draining the swamp…which is obvious by the people he has nominated to cabinet posts.
“Drain the swamp”?
Trump and his Administration-to-be ARE the swamp.
@Franklin: “I’m not sure why Gingrich would even suggest such a thing, unless his brain is missing its moral compass.”
There is no implication that he ever *had* a moral compass. The man’s a sociopath.
@Facebones: “I wonder if the media has any shame about the part they willingly played in Trump’s con.”
They have no more shame than Gingrich and Trump.
They’ve already run their ‘mistakes were made’ non-apology non-analyses, and are ready to look forward, not back.