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Donald Trump discussion Thread IX (threadbanned users listed in OP)

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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    What the comments by McCarthy perhaps indicate is that Trump remains too powerful, too popular within the GOP and its base, to be worth throwing to the wolves. Yet. Though you'd have to wonder at what point the partisanship might start to crumble - if ever. Can't help but wonder that most other normal Democracies would have by now cast Trump to the wilderness; partisanship remains a fairly powerful drug it seems.



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,539 ✭✭✭✭aloyisious


    It seems Trump's personal preference as a defence line is along the lines of "infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me". Closer to the day he may decide to call out senior GOP people as RINO's and blow the smoke away should he "think" they are not being loyal to him as "their" candidate of choice.

    McCarthy has to be trying to cover all angles, but to succeed it would be essential he has PM'd [on a burn after reading basis] the other GOP candidates that it is a political manoeuvre by him to keep Trump as happy as possible, mindful of Trump's ability to lash out at all comers. His grave injustice line has to be seen alongside his "done with this guy" statement made in reference to Trump at the time of the Capitol attack, pure posturing.



  • Registered Users Posts: 5,245 ✭✭✭PropJoe10


    I'm sure that if Biden committed a crime, he'll be charged. If he hasn't, he wont. It's not that complicated, to be fair.



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 14,991 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    They've all rowed in behind him , even DeSantis.

    All of them terrified of going after Trump about his biggest issue.

    That's why none of them will beat him in the primary , because they are cowards.



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 20,766 Mod ✭✭✭✭Brian?


    It’s insane that McCarthy is still showing him loyalty and definitely indicates that there is a substantial element of House GOP that are still firmly in the bag for Trump.


    Trump is turning into an American Berlusconi and a lot of GOP voters love him for it.

    they/them/theirs


    And so on, and so on …. - Slavoj Žižek




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  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 19,362 Mod ✭✭✭✭Sam Russell


    Quote ^^

    [Trump is turning into an American Berlusconi and a lot of GOP voters love him for it.]

    Is it his prediction for Bunga Bunga?



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,520 ✭✭✭Brussels Sprout



    Most of those candidates have nothing but contempt for Donald Trump and would love nothing better than for him to be taken out of the race. They just cannot be seen to be in favour of that though as they're all terrified of alienating the base of the party that is squarely MAGA.

    Post edited by Brussels Sprout on


  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 14,991 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    Agree completely.

    What they want is for the DOJ to take him out so they can claim to be "outraged" and make promises to "tear down the deep state" and other tripe.

    Every last one of them is terrified of getting taken out in a primary by a MAGA fruit-cake so they will publicly say that it's a travesty blah blah blah , but privately are wishing with all their might that he gets put in Prison.



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    It all tracks and would agree, but it also amounts to a continuation of indulging and stirring an already riled up cohort of Americans who have form putting their anti-state paranoia into action. Trying to indulge the MAGA maniacs rather than condemn or ostracise their extremism is playing with fire - after the house already burned.



  • Registered Users Posts: 25,402 ✭✭✭✭Timberrrrrrrr


    Apparently there's a tape of Trump admitting he has top secrets documents, Don't know who he is talking to (showing the docs to) but if they don't have security clearance then that's Trump pretty much cooked.





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  • Registered Users Posts: 35,625 ✭✭✭✭BorneTobyWilde


    If Biden committed a crime he should absolutely not be charged, this is a slippery slope US politics is taking. When Trump became president he did it going after Hilary, saying she should be in Jail, but he didn't go after her when he won, it's simply not the thing to do. Trump was president, the so called most powerful man in the world, I think him, and Biden, and Obama, and Clinton all have the power to declassify what they like when they like, it's the privilege of being President, no one should be going after an ex president, elected democratically by the people, this is not Russia.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,520 ✭✭✭Brussels Sprout


    Wow!



    He'll definitely do that if it comes to it.



  • Registered Users Posts: 25,402 ✭✭✭✭Timberrrrrrrr


    Do you think (after he has declassified them with his mind) he should be allowed to show these top secret documents to anyone he wants?



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 14,991 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    If ANYONE commits a crime then they should be prosecuted simple as that.

    The idea that being President should make you immune from criminal penalty is the thing that makes it like Russia , not the other way around.

    Trump didn't "go after" Clinton because there was nothing to go after.

    As regards the President and the ability to declassify documents , you are right. However the problem is that Trump is no longer President and the stuff he took was not declassified before he left - And he's on tape acknowledging that fact so he committed a crime and should be held accountable.



  • Registered Users Posts: 35,625 ✭✭✭✭BorneTobyWilde


    What i think is what ever documents Biden had thrown around his many homes were there as'' moving out baggage'' , I don't think Biden was looking to steal and sell info to anyone.

    The National Archives are sending letters to all living former presidents and vice presidents, asking them to go through their records to ensure there are no classified materials, not because they're suspected criminals, but because movers move boxes, and it happens... I just don't see the issue, no president left or right should be accused of treason, when in fact it's just a case of mistakenly packing mountains of paper work, that just so happen to have something in there that should not be in there.



  • Registered Users Posts: 7,867 ✭✭✭Christy42


    So presidents should be above the law? They should be allowed bribe and steal as much as they like and no one can touch them? We should ignore the entire foundation the justice system is built on?


    Man this is one hell of a pivot from the right. They were pissed when Clinton lied about a blowjob and now presidents should be freely able to commit crime. I can only presume this is the final stage from the he didn't do it, to you have no proof to well you should just let people break the law. The defense has just gotten more farcical as time has gone on.


    Trump does not have the power to declassify anything. If the people wanted him to have that power he would have been re elected. Obama nó longer has the power to declassify. That lies the people currently elected which is how a democracy actually works. Biden has not gone after Trump either and has let relevant authorities handle it. Party of law and order indeed🤣


    (oh and the only reason Trump didn't go after Hilary was because he didn't have any evidence)



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,134 ✭✭✭✭duploelabs


    They key issue that you seem to be missing in all this false equivalence is that trump told the national archives that he'd surrendered all the documents, and then moved the remaining documents when the search happened. Do you understand the difference?



  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 14,991 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quin_Dub


    The National Archives are sending letters to all living former presidents and vice presidents, asking them to go through their records to ensure there are no classified materials, not because they're suspected criminals, but because movers move boxes, and it happens... I just don't see the issue, no president left or right should be accused of treason, when in fact it's just a case of mistakenly packing mountains of paper work, that just so happen to have something in there that should not be in there.

    Indeed and they all complied with those letters , sent back what they found and everybody moves on with their lives - Acting like normal people act.

    However , when they sent that letter to Trump , he LIED to them over and over and over again.

    He got his Lawyers to potential perjure themselves by signing legal documents saying that the had returned everything when he categorically knew that he hadn't

    He then ignored a subpoena and then tried to hide the stuff he had taken before the FBI came to his house to search for them

    And he is STILL LYING about it.

    That is why he is being indicted , not because he forgot some documents in a filing cabinet somewhere.

    This shouldn't be hard for people to understand.



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,005 ✭✭✭✭Rjd2



    Yeah its not taking the documents which is what the problem for him its how he conducted himself afterwards thus the issue.

    Its why noted lifelong democrat erm Mike Pence has nothing to worry about because he did not act an idiot afterwards he was contacted.

    Rgearding the political side of this long term, it probably does no harm in the primary but death by a thousand cuts when it comes to the general especially as their is more to come . The millions who abandoned Trump to vote Biden mainly due to fatigue this won't entice them back , yeah it fires up the base, so what?



  • Registered Users Posts: 40,146 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    are ex-presidents immune from prosecution now? are they allowed break the law without consequences?



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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,260 CMod ✭✭✭✭Nody


    From Reuters.

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump faces 37 criminal counts that include charges of unauthorized retention of classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice after he left the White House in 2021, according to federal court documents made public on Friday.

    The Justice Department made the charging documents public on a tumultuous day in which two of Trump's lawyers quit the case and a former aide face charges as well.

    The charges stem from Trump's treatment of sensitive government materials he took with him when he left the White House in January 2021.

    According to the indictment, those documents include some of the most sensitive U.S. military secrets, including information on the U.S. nuclear program and potential domestic vulnerabilities in the event of an attack.

    One document concerned a foreign country's support of terrorism against U.S. interests.

    Materials came from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, the indictment said.

    Investigators seized roughly 13,000 documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, nearly a year ago. One hundred were marked as classified, even though one of Trump's lawyers had previously said all records with classified markings had been returned to the government.

    Trump has previously said he declassified those documents while president, but his attorneys have declined to make that argument in court filings.

    Waiting now for our Trump fan boys to explain why the lawyers, who are not allowed to put forward a bad faith argument, would not use Trump's mental declassifaction defence in an actual court...



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    According to the indictment, those documents include some of the most sensitive U.S. military secrets, including information on the U.S. nuclear program and potential domestic vulnerabilities in the event of an attack.

    One document concerned a foreign country's support of terrorism against U.S. interests.

    You know. If the "secret" documents ultimately contained prosaic information about, I dunno, government irrigation schemes or something, I'd say the charges of illegality were a bit tenuous or pedantic. Arguments of political hitjobs might be relevant.

    But info about the nuclear program and vulnerabilities? Trump may count himself lucky he's not being charged with treason - cos that's precisely what that kind of pilfering would be regarded as were you or I to take those documents. And of course Trump, the vulgarian and bully, would try to take info about the nukes; it seems entirely on brand.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,097 ✭✭✭✭bucketybuck


    But Trump is recorded as showing these documents to random people, and admitting on tape that they are classified and that he knew he shouldn't be doing it.

    How is this the same as forgetting an envelope in among a box of other paperwork?

    I know you won't answer, but your argument is ridiculous.



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,471 ✭✭✭✭For Forks Sake


    Here's the full indictment against Trump and Nuata, it's all written in plain english with minimal legalese, it paints a damning picture.

    Trump didn't have documenets accidentally on his person as you're trying to paint it, he knowingly moved boxes of classified documents from WH to Mar a Lago, left them stored in openly accessable areas, took documents from them to show to people without any security clearance. and plenty more.

    they also tried to bullsh1t the FBI repeatedly.




  • Registered Users Posts: 717 ✭✭✭I.R.Y.E.D


    "This shouldn't be hard for people to understand"

    You are correct in relation to normal functioning people, but there is a trove of evidence that trump supporters, and the I'm not a trump supporter but folks, do not fall into this category.

    They are basically waiting for some form of violence to occur from todays news so that they can blame Biden for it, the same way they did when the volience occurred after the documents were retrieved from MAL.



  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,344 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21



    This basically.

    The question now is what foreign eyes saw them



  • Registered Users Posts: 16,023 ✭✭✭✭y0ssar1an22


    i presume this ends up in the supreme court?

    in that, it hasn't yet been established how a president declassifies things.



  • Registered Users Posts: 717 ✭✭✭I.R.Y.E.D


    Yes it has and it doesn't include doing so in their minds.

    He is also going to have to find a new defence team as they have bailed knowing he is f*cked, and by his own words and actions and they want to have some sort of career left.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,586 ✭✭✭uptherebels


    What you think is irrelevant. The only slippery slope is putting people above the law.



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  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 14,344 Mod ✭✭✭✭marno21


    Reading into the detail of this, it's absolutely scandalous the level of it. Some of the documents are so classified even the controls on them are classified. The level of secrets in these documents is off the scale.

    Based on the level of classification, you'd wonder what amount of intelligence gathering assets have been compromised by this, and it might point to who has seen these documents in that case. It also must have raised significant eyebrows in London, Ottawa, Canberra and Wellington given that material shared between Five Eyes parties have been compromised in such a manner.



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