For what it's worth, I want to point out that it's not all that unusual for a popular politician to retain a loyal following regardless of criminal indictments or even convictions. Marion Barry was back on the DC city council almost the instant he was released from prison. Bill Clinton got impeached and emerged more popular than ever. Adam Clayton Powell, by the end of his career, was pretty obviously crooked (and had a criminal contempt conviction to his name) but his constituents didn't care. Hell, Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, the mayor of Providence, kidnapped his ex-wife’s boyfriend and burned him with a cigarette and a hot log from a fire in front of a police officer and a judge, but was reelected a few years later anyway.
In other words, Donald Trump is just the latest in a long line of politicians who have successfully cast criminal prosecutions as proof that they—and their followers—are being persecuted by their political enemies. Not a lot of politicos can get away with this, but it's hardly uncommon either.
i guess if biden wants to goose his poll numbers he should kidnap and hogtie trump then burn him with cigarettes until he admits guilt for j6
I'd support Joe more if he did.
... and yes, I know that would be wrong. Still, the Defendant is most deserving.
I believe Biden would be immune from prosecution for doing something like that, or worse, according to Donald J. Trump's lawyers. In fact, he'd be perpetually immune, even years after he left office, according to Donald J. Trump's lawyers.
Also, doesn't Vice President Kamala Harris have the authority to unilaterally accept or reject state electors? I'm pretty sure that's also a Trump legal doctrine.
Greg Gianforte was convicted of assaulting a journalist; the following year he was elected governor of Montana.
The next *day* he was elected to congress. He wasn't elected governor until 2020. I strongly suspect he will not be reelected.
Hes the most popular politician in the state with his 49% approval rating.
Tester and Daines are at 40%, reps are in the mid-low 30s.
This is certainly true for a few local pols with relatively small & homogeneous constituencies (Berry, Clayton Powell, Cianci). But there has never been a Presidential candidate with a fair chance of winning who was in as much obvious legal peril as Trump is today.
And, no, Clinton's case is not in any way germane here, for two reasons: First, he was never in remotely comparable legal peril. Second, the GOP impeached him over a matter that a large majority of voters (including many who did not particularly support Clinton) regarded as unworthy of impeachment, and it was this partisan overreach, and not loyalty to Clinton, that handed the Republicans a rare midterm rebuke in 1996.
1998
Thank you for pointing out that Clinton is in now way comparable to these other examples. As you show the public were strongly against Ken Starr’s relentless quest to find anything against Clinton and his willingness to invade the Clintons’ private life to do so. People seem to forget that Starr even allowed Brett Kavanaugh to conduct a long, $2 million dollar investigation of the insane, vicious claim that the Clintons had murdered their close friend Vince Foster. Brett also the one wrote that obscene report of the Starr investigation of the Lewinsky matter. Funny how pervs like Ken and Brett are so judgmental of others.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/why-was-kavanaugh-obsessed-with-vince-foster.html
No wonder the majority of Americans, Republicans included, didn’t trust Starr, (It also helped that Fox News was just getting off the ground so wasn’t a big factor.)
We now know for sure that Starr was a total hypocrite, not the pious man he pretended to be. Starr and his wife begging a judge for leniency for a friend who as a teacher had sexually abused underage girls is clear cut proof of his true morals.
I think that's the same Ken Starr who defended Art Briles (the head football coach at Baylor) back when he was overseeing and condoning a culture of rape and sexual abuse. In fact, I think Starr said "a grave injustice" occurred... which was impugning the "good name" of Art Briles.
So, I guess we know how much Ken Starr really cared about sexual misbehavior.
None of those politicians - as awful (kidnapping! assault!) or mundane (lying to Congress! using drugs!) as their crimes were - tried overthrowing the government. That’s a whole different level of criminality, one in which every single American would be a victim of the crime.
James Trafficant got 15% of the vote while running for Congress....from prison!
Granted The Donald would easily top that if (a big if) he's sent to prison before the election.
What is Bill Clinton doing in this list of people with felonies? Category Error.
Faux balance.
This is pretty common with politicians representing areas with a distinct ethnic or cultural background. They get off being crooked and often nasty because their voters find them likeable and think "Sure he's a crooked SOB, but he's our crooked SOB and he fights for us!"
The examples you give are correct, but I think the more important example is someone like Debs.
The point, for both Debs and Trump, is that plenty of people preferred to simply shout "felon" than ask the question "WHY is this person so wildly popular among a certain group of people"...
Hmm? Because he hurts people they want hurt. I think Biden should adjust policies to try and increase deaths in rural areas but he'd never do that.
That's exactly what I'm talking about.
People who dismissed Debs had similarly idiotic claims about what his supporters really wanted. But it turns out the 30s happened, regardless of their aggressively pretending Debs' supporters did not have some valid points.
The last time we had a governing class that insisted on ignoring what large portions (40% or so) of their population wanted, across Eurasia from Germany to Japan it did not end well. We have essentially the same situation today, from Hungary to Brazil. And people like you think the solution is to make jokes about how they wish the party in power would do more to kill supporters of the party out of power. Yes, that will DEFINITELY turn out well.
what is Clinton doing in this list? Did he commit a felony? Kevin is doing some pretty weird equivalencies here.