NY: Convicted Felon Donald Trump!

[LabourJersey]

There's a lot of Twitter chatter about the judge and reporters (namely Tyler McBride) are sharing far too many details about the potential juries - their jobs, how long they've lived in NY, etc.

Didn't want to include the tweets, but is that common at all? Wouldn't releasing that much information lead to jurors being doxxed? And how would that affect the case?

[LabourJersey]

Even Mitt Romney is opposed to this:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna152420

 

that the president “made an enormous error” by not pressuring New York prosecutors to drop their case against Trump. (Presidents can pardon only in federal cases.)

"He should have fought like crazy to keep this prosecution from going forward,” Romney said, referring to Biden. “It was a win-win for Donald Trump.”

Pressed by Ruhle whether that is Biden’s job to pardon Trump, Romney said he believes that Biden should have taken a cue from former President Lyndon B. Johnson, saying that the president could have stepped in and urged New York prosecutors to drop the case.“I have been around for a while. If LBJ had been president, and he didn’t want something like this to happen, he’d have been all over that prosecutor saying, ‘You better not bring that forward or I’m gonna drive you out of office,’” he said.

This a pretty naive take, even for a fairly naive politician like Romney.

Biden isn't LBJ. No President in the modern party system has institutional power like LBJ had in Washington. And LBJ had it just in Washington! This is a New York State case, after all.

[LabourJersey]

So this is going to be an unpopular opinion. But even though I agree with the verdict and I believe Trump is an absolutely terrible person, I think it would be in the best interest of Biden to pressure Hochul into pardoning Trump. It would be a real opportunity for Biden express that he’s a president for all Americans- and it completely strips Trump of his martyrdom argument. We’re in a completely unprecedented moment in American history right now and it is important that Biden take control of the narrative. If he doesn’t, Trump will, and we can only speculate about the violence that he’s willing to unleash on the country in response this conviction.

If Biden actually did this, only to lose to Trump in November, he would be universally and internationally mocked and humiliated. He would historically be known as a man who pardoned his felonious rival only to lose to him.

[LabourJersey]

Also, so much of the responses to this conviction reveal to me how "The Imperial Presidency" has made virtually all Americans think of Presidents as de facto kings.

So much of the debate comes down to, can a President be convicted? can they be convicted fairly? does the political nature of the Presidency make it too dangerous to convict them of crimes they clearly committed?

It's fascinating but a little depressing to see. Too much political and emotional power these days is wrapped into the office of the Presidency. It may be better for democratic ideals nationwide if we roll that back to Congress.