President-elect Donald Trump plans to fire the entire team that worked with special counsel Jack Smith to pursue two federal prosecutions against the former president, including career attorneys typically protected from political retribution, according to two individuals close to Trump’s transition.
Trump is also planning to assemble investigative teams within the Justice Department to hunt for evidence in battleground states that fraud tainted the 2020 election, one of the people said.
Jack Smith himself has been as good as dead for a while. But does Trump really plan to (try to) fire his whole team, who are just prosecutors assigned to a job?
And he wants to keep looking for fraud in 2020? Jesus. The guy is completely obsessed. Even the MAGA sycophants he's surrounded himself with must know there's nothing to find. But I suppose Pam Bondi will put together a team and produce some kind of report. It will go onto the shelf next to her reports on the Biden Crime Family and How the FBI Mistreated Trump.
Trump is not interested in governing. He is only interested in humiliating anyone who ever crossed him, or whom he thinks is a better person that he is. And that includes just about everyone.
+1
"Trump is not interested in governing. He is only interested in humiliating.. "
More accurately, he feels that "governing" means "humiliating (and shooting)" other people.
This is why he complimented th Chinese Government fro Tiananmen Square, why he admires Hitler, and so on.
He's a pathetic moron. Too bad he has so much power.
He's a malignant narcissist. Too bad he has too much power.
He's a delusional liar. Too bad he has too much power.
He's a corrupt crook. Too bad he has too much power.
He's a cruel bully. Too bad he has too much power.
He's a deplorable bigot. Too bad he has too much power.
Of course, it was obvious since the '80s that he was a moron, a narcissist, a liar, a crook, a bully, and a bigot. Somehow the guardrails of democracy didn't keep him from getting power.
Probably because of his dad's money.
It is mor ethan money, there were significant number of actuall Billionaires that to become president and failed. He is also a top-class bamboozler (at least of Americans).
He's not a top class bamboozler. One would have to want to believe his obvious lies or are stupid enough to think he's telling you the truth to fall for his cons. His success is not so much a reflection of him than it is of the US electorate.
Many others try to bamboozle the same people, and Trump clearly does it better than anybody else.
It is pretty infantile to insist that Trump doesn't have any skill.
He wouldn't have gotten where he is without the complicity of so many others.
We all knew this term was going to be retribution and revenge all day every day. Confirmation was not needed or wanted to be honest. The next four years, (hopefully 2) will be non stop revenge and payback. It will be the GOPs test of whether they are willing to uphold our constitution or give in to a tyrant. I'm guessing the latter.
Let’s pray for a stroke and all may be put behind but the two morons who are his spawn. They may take up the hatchet. This will be on our dime!
Well, don't forget Mr VAnce, who will step into the top office and be operated by The Smart People. Kakistocracy all the way! Less stupid, more corruption!
Vance doesn't have hordes of supporters like Trump has. He will have to stay inside the Constitutional order. He will be bad, but orders of magnitude less bad than Trump.
Much as I detest Vance, I'd prefer him in the presidency to Trump. Vance is a total shithead, but I don't think he is insane. What we've got now is a schizoid maniac in control of nuclear weapons.
It has been a decade, man! I can't believe you still don't see how this works.
That's the frame for fixing the election problem. Yes, there are targets for vengeance, but this is how they go about ensuring Republicans don't lose again.
Democrats and all non MAGA political operatives had better stop normalizing what is certain to come. They are not going to be treated as the loyal opposition, but as de facto exiles. They better start to fight back as exiles with the key objective of getting their issues put on the front burner with the media in each news cycle, every day. No Democrat should show up at January's coronation ceremony, and potentially they should hold an alternative event to highlight their opposition. Probably makes no sense to show up at the State Of the Union address, or walk out in mass during Il Duce's fucking speech, or schedule a counter program at another site for their response to State of the Union.
I really have no idea what will work and how to get the media to stop normalizing his actions, but what they are doing up to now, is certainly not working.
Or heckle him the way House Republicans did Biden.
“I really have no idea what will work and how to get the media to stop normalizing his actions…”
Hong Kong style arrests of journalists and media empire owners should do it. Unfortunately that will be immediately followed by Hong Kong style closing of the offending media outlets, so it’ll be too late for those unlucky ones and the remaining media will only survive if they keep normalizing everything.
I really don't think whether they show up at the inauguration will make one iota of difference. What matters for Democrats is the messaging going forward.
And the strawberries. Don't forget about them.
Just got back from seeing the movie. No one else would get the reference.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
Hey, I read the book before I saw the movie. I got it.
As I recall, the mutineers were convicted in spite of the obvious.
Uncanny how much the strawberries (as well as the shirttail incident, Old Yellowstain, etc.) could serve as a metaphor for Drumpf almost seven decades early (except Captain Queeg is far more articulate):
"Ahh, but the strawberries! That's - that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with - geometric logic - that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox did exist! And I'd have produced that key if they hadn't've pulled the Caine out of action!"
And one takeaway that this movie buff can't resist: what a wonderful performance from Humphrey Bogart in a part very much against his perceived image. (Sort of like Edward G. Robinson's turn in Double Indemnity.) How many terrific character performances did we lose when Bogart died only a few years later?
I always thought Queeg/Bogart perfectly embodied Nixon (given that it was in the 1970s that I first read the book).
If you really want to see Edward G. Robinson in a role contrary to his usual image, check out "The Red House" (1947).
Can also file with the report from rumps 2017 Kobach led voting integrity commission to find all them illegals voting in CA causing him to lose the popular vote. Oh wait, they disbanded without a report.
It’s been obvious that Trump is in cognitive decline and a job like this one would only accelerate his condition. In two years he will a doodling fool.
Two years of this chaos and we'll all be doodling fools.
Trump is a caricature of a US president. And Trump voters have made the US a caricature of a democratic republic.
+1
Is anyone even going to mention the phrase "obstruction of justice"?
“If the President does it, it’s not a crime.” Now affirmed by SCOTUS.
Government work pays relatively poorly for lawyers. If Trump fires Jack Smith's team, they will all have new jobs at higher pay within a week. I doubt that they're worried.
Depends on how old they are. If they are close to retirement, they could really get screwed on pensions, health care, etc. But I doubt that even Trump will be able to just fire career civil servants like that. It will be litigated.
And in that sense, the next four years will certainly be a bonanza for the legal profession. Let's see how many national resources we can plow into totally non-productive court cases.
"If Trump fires Jack Smith's team, they will all have new jobs at higher pay within a week. I doubt that they're worried."
Yes and no. Obviously, federal prosecutors choose to be prosecutors, meaning they prefer it to those "new jobs at higher pay" working for biglaw firms. So, they probably aren't happy about that, are likely worried that they'll not be able to come back to Justice when El Trumpo dies/resigns.
Further, obviously federal prosecutors prosecuting a defendant are going to be upset when they lose said prosecution not because the defendant prevailed in court but because said defendant got his ass elected president and therefore in kinglike majesty can just dissolve the proceedings.
Finally, the biglaw firms that might be interested in hiring DOJ folks might also be hesitant to hire DOJ folks that El Presidente hates personally. If a hyperrich $200+ billionaire like Bezos is scared to let something as trivial as a WaPo endorsement of Harris happen, law firms a hundred or more times smaller are likely also going to be hedging. So it's not a done deal that these folks can just saunter into a high-paying job--Trump's likely not finished seeking revenge.
About fraud in 2020:
Of course they will find fraud. All they need is to get some people to tell lies under oath, and maybe fabricate some documents. And then they can use it to harass "those who are responsible for it".
It was difficult to get people to lie under oath until now, but with Trump as president it should be easy.
It seems he plans to use the 2020 elections in the kind of way that Hitler used the Reichstag fire.
Maybe they call call on that ditzy blonde from Michigan.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/melissa-carone-michigan-testimony-not-funny.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2vOKy_PKJAxXAMlkFHTkZOhoQFnoECBUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0xxcaY-xmoyek5ZAysPhNY
It's a good read if you have the time. I think it's more relevant now than when it was written.
If the Felon can "prove" he was elected in 2020, the SCoTUS will give him that third term he's been blathering about. No election needed!
I don't think it will matter what the Supreme Court says or what he wants regarding a 3rd term. At the rate he is physically declining I don't think he'll be alive or more than a bedridden pumpkin even before his 2nd term ends.
A lot of this is just the inertia of lying, if he stops now the rubes start to wonder. This'll continue until some new shiny object comes up to distract both him and them.