Johnson pardoned two prisoners in his last days in office. The prison governor allowed the letters from the president to sit on his desk for a while – the next President – Ulysses S Grant – rescinded the pardons and was able to do so because they hadn’t been enacted.
When issuing a pardon ‘The president’ can change his or her mind at any time between issuing the pardon and it being finally enacted. ‘The president ‘ can be two different people.
Unlikely today though? The George W one was the next day after the bad press. I'd imagine any recipient's legal team would be pushing for the paperwork ASAP before Trump leaves office.
thols2
Free MemberThe President can only pardon federal crimes, not state crimes. I don’t know what charges Maxwell might eventually face, but if there are state level crimes included, he can’t pardon those.
Yup. Course, with a normal pardon that doesn't usually matter much because it's all a few years down the line, after states have let things drop because it went federal, but if there's a pre-emptive or really fast pardon then I think states are much more likely to go on the offensive
yes, see Nixon
The answer seems to be maybe. Nixon got away with it since everyone wanted for it to vanish and so it wasnt challenged.
Maybe Trump didn't want to pardon people over the last two weeks or so for fear that it would look like him addmitting to the world that he had lost the election and was doing it before he was kicked out?
Now that it's clear he did lose and he is going to be icked out, he has nothing to lose.
I thought that if a person was pardoned, then this meant that they were guilty. After if you are not guilty then a pardon is pointless. Also as you have been pardoned you are expected to work with law enforcement agencies, to not do so makes you contempt and subject to prison time. Being pardoned is a poisoned chalice.
and he is going to be icked out
Iked out? Does that mean the lizards are coming to get him? I live in hope!
Licked out? Like an all you can eat buffet in a downstairs restaurant in Hebden Bridge? Maybe only for Melania
He's lost his opposition of the Defence Bill, the Congress voted against his veto by an overwhelming amount:
Trumps loses bill.
Linky goes wrong mate.
Don't worry he will sentace a few more mentaly ill people to death before they drag him off the white house lawn
Interesting times ahead. Can this authoritarian movement fully displace democracy, either now or in four years? The rot is years old, it only surfaced under Trump.
https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1345551423455559680
I have to agree with you, the rot is decades old. It started under Reagan, where broadcasting regulations were 'relaxed' to allow for opinion based, non fact based news to proliferate (fox news etc), along with the courting of evangelicals (the far white).
These two measures sowed the seeds of what we are seeing now. Trump isn't an outlier, his emergence, or the emergence of someone like him was inevitable in the light of those fateful decisions the Republican Party made back in the 80's. Cultural Marxism (as Steve Bannon calls it) is nothing new.
10 years this year. America was warned.
I can't believe this thread isn't higher up.
Only because of the US election thread. And perhaps this should have been retitled "former US president Donald J Trump" some time ago.
I'd prefer "disgraced former US president Donald! Trump!"
Will the next thread be about his court cases?
This warmed the cockles of my heart
I’d prefer “disgraced former US president Donald! Trump!”
He's still the disgraced U.S. President. Next week he'll be the disgraced former U.S. President.
Class from Greta there.
This thread needs a little more love today and then symbolically closing forever (we may need a new one for whatever happens next).
So much of concern across the globe right now but the sight of that helicopter lifting off from the White House lawn earlier is one of the brighter moments of the last 18 months for me.
From the very first post on the thread:-
I’ve got a sneaking feeling that he’d be an excellent choice, if only for the comedy value.
Turns out it wasn't all that funny after all.
So long Donald you utter piece of shit.
Next week he’ll be the disgraced former U.S. President.
From the very first post on the thread:-
God, how blissfully naive we all were in 2015. Also from the first page of this thread:
So it’s not entirely in-conceivable that Trump could be in power in the US whilst Boris is in power in the UK. God help us.
If you value your sanity, don't go back and read it!
How it’s going
That is SO good.
Wow.
@mos
Full Member
So it’s not entirely in-conceivable that Trump could be in power in the US whilst Boris is in power in the UK. God help us.Posted 5 years ago
This thread needs a little more love today and then symbolically closing forever (we may need a new one for whatever happens next)
No way - this is 'thick and thin/thicker' thread for that scumbag. It's the 2020 election thread that (hopefully) ends today.
This thread needs a little more love today and then symbolically closing forever
Oh no, there's still the impeachment, hopefully a few court cases and maybe a divorce to come. All good potential entertainment!
I'm hoping the Lincoln Project have a lot of fun stuff to work on over the next few months.
Donald Trump
Gone - soon to be forgotten, like a bad dream.
I think we saw what his really die hard support is on the latest protests, where only a handful of kooks turned up with their guns, and to them he'll likely always be a leader, but to the vast majority of republican voters, he'll be classed as a liability, who brought shame on their party, and remember, those 70m voters were voting for the party, not for the individual.
He'll exist on the web, but have a similar reputation to David Ike.
His die hard support are the rebranded Tea Party. The Republicans embraced them (hence Palin as VP had McCain won) otherwise they would have been sunk.
Donny just turned them into Trumpers/MAGAs. They’ll be a vocal boil on the rump of the Reps as were UKIP/ERG nutters to the Tories.
I think we saw what his really die hard support is on the latest protests, where only a handful of kooks turned up with their guns, and to them he’ll likely always be a leader, but to the vast majority of republican voters, he’ll be classed as a liability
They’ll be a vocal boil on the rump of the Reps as were UKIP/ERG nutters to the Torie
I think its a great mistake to dismiss the MAGA mob as fringe. 47% of the vote that's 70 million US citizens voted for Trump despite the racism, cronyism, vandalism, hatred and COVID incompetence of the last 4 years. Like many I thought Trump was elected on an "anyone but Hilary" ticket and that the system of checks and balances would control him and that Americans are a reasonable people and would see sense and vote him out after his first term- big mistake! Frankly if it wasn't for COVID he'd have been re-elected. The Republican party revealed themselves to be completely evil and Trump taught them they don't need to hide their evil because half of the US voters lap it up.
I’m beginning to think that the Mexicans aren’t going to pay for his wall.
I think its a great mistake to dismiss the MAGA mob as fringe. 47% of the vote that’s 70 million US citizens voted for Trump despite the racism, cronyism, vandalism,
a significant amount of them are core republicans who would never vote anything else. I suspect the extra votes he brought were few.
I suspect the extra votes he brought were few.
I hope no-one in America underestimates the problem as much as you just have.
Millions of previously-disenfranchised people voted for him. The economically suppressed previous non-voter was suddenly given a voice. He allowed them to speak out about their fears (immigrants taking jobs, erosion of their religious way of life) without being immediately dismissed as racist trashbags. Of course, the reason these people are economically downtrodden goes back to years of successive (mostly Republican) gub’mints screwing them over whilst also stoking fears (communism, immigrants, libruls etc). He legitimised these mostly manufactured fears which, it transpires, was quite popular. Those people haven’t gone anywhere and the likes of Cruz are continuing to court them.
I’m beginning to think that the Mexicans aren’t going to pay for his wall.
deserves more credit
I suspect the extra votes he brought were few.
He motivated huge turnout among rural voters who despise urban "elites" (which includes Republican party establishment figures like Romney and Jeb Bush), but somehow got conned into thinking a billionaire real estate tycoon was a working class hero. Those rural voters live in states that have disproportionate influence in the electoral college, so that tipped the balance for him in 2016. Problem is, he also motivated a lot of suburban women who liked Romney to vote for Biden, and he motivated huge turnout among Democrats. There were 25 million more votes cast this election compared to 2016, with 2/3 going to Biden. Biden barely had to campaign, Trump did all the work for him.
Hopefully the reality that Trump took them for suckers is sinking in among the MAGA crowd and the Republican Party will fracture. Here's a link to an article from 2016 that warned of what would happen.
https://theweek.com/articles/609234/even-youre-ready-burn-world-down-dont-support-donald-trump
https://twitter.com/michaelbd/status/1351976953876799491
but somehow got conned into thinking a billionaire real estate tycoon was a working class hero
This is probably a very snobby comment but do you think he was able to pull off this (no mean) feat by naturally having no class, awful taste and very little evidence of education or literacy? I have a sneaky feeling that what they saw in him that looked like looking in the mirror were the stupid, uneducated bits. He does not look like a redneck, he does not have a redneck ancestry, he does not behave in a god fearing way - he just looks and sounds stupid. And I really don't think that it was an act.
do you think he was able to pull off this (no mean) feat by naturally having no class, awful taste and very little evidence of education or literacy?
I think it's a bit more complicated than that. I think people saw in him what they wanted to be. He's crass and offensive, but he can also be quite funny in the way that Rodney Dangerfield was funny. That's fine in an entertainer, but I think his supporters have a cartoonish idea of what governing is about. To be fair to them, people like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are transparent frauds - graduates from elite law schools who pretend to be men of the people. Trump is at least more authentic than them.
