Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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President Donald Trump’s legal team has made the following claim referring to presidential immunity: “While in office, (the president) enjoys absolute immunity from criminal process of any kind,” spanning “every phase of criminal proceedings, including investigations, grand jury proceedings and subpoenas, indictment, prosecution, arrest, trial conviction and incarceration.” In other words, anything and everything Trump does, or wants to do, is legal, so long as he remains in office.
Think about that and remember this. Everything Adolf Hitler ordered was legal in Nazi Germany, because Hitler said so. Everything Josef Stalin ordered was legal in the Soviet Union, because Stalin said so. The same can be said about every order ever given by every dictator who ever ruled.
For Trump’s legal team to present that argument in a court of law tells you all you need to know about this president’s thought process. You should also keep in mind that authoritarian dictators are not voted out of office, because they call upon their “absolute legal authority” to nullify the vote. Don’t believe for a second that Trump hasn’t thought about that. He’s already made public statements alluding to remaining in office longer than two terms.
I continue to have faith in our democracy, the Constitution, the power of a free press and the American people. But I have no faith in the honorable intentions of Trump or his most ardent enablers.
