In a piece at The Atlantic James Fallows urges that Donald Trump be investigated and potentially prosecuted for his misconduct as president:
As he prepares to occupy the White House, President-elect Joe Biden faces a decision rare in American history: what to do about the man who has just left office, whose personal corruption, disdain for the Constitution, and destructive mismanagement of the federal government are without precedent.
Human beings crave reckoning, even the saintliest among us. Institutions based on rules and laws need systems of accountability. People inside and outside politics have argued forcefully that Biden should take, or at least condone, a maximalist approach to exposing and prosecuting the many transgressions by Donald Trump and his circle—that Biden can’t talk about where America is going without clearly addressing where it has been.
He recommends the following be investigated:
Halting the corrosion is the very least that needs to be done—equivalent to stabilizing the patient. Just as important, investigations should be conducted into three catastrophes during the Trump years that have undermined our health as individuals, our morality as a people, and our character as a democracy.
The coronavirus pandemic may represent the greatest failure of governance in U.S. history, and responsibility for the extent of its ravages falls squarely on Donald Trump. The pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, triggered a business collapse, and worsened every racial and economic injustice in our society. Here was a case where warnings came at an early stage, and where detailed plans to meet the threat were at hand. Trump was made aware of the imminent danger and chose first to ignore it and then to downplay it. Ultimately he resorted to outright mockery of containment and treatment efforts.
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That’s the first investigation. The second, also conducted by a special commission, would look immediately into the cases of children separated from their parents at the border.
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The third investigation (and third commission) would probe the Trump administration’s attacks on democracy itself. American democracy depends on rules, and it depends on norms. The rules largely involve setting the balance between majority power and minority rights.
I won’t defend Mr. Trump against any of those charges, leaving that to those who support him. All I can say is that the charters of these commissions would need to be extremely narrowly tailored. If your objectives are to appease one mob while provoking the anger of another, you could hardly do better than by following Mr. Fallows’s advice. If, on the other hand, your objective like mine (and Lincoln’s) is preserving the Republic, you should take everything Mr. Fallows suggests and do the opposite. Neither he nor anyone he cites does an effective job of proving that Gerald Ford did the wrong thing. What they do is point out that it was the unpopular thing. And it’s darned hard to complain that your political opponents are authoritarians while doing what authoritarians do—investigating and prosecuting your political opponents.
What should happen is that Joe Biden should accept that he will inevitably be a one-term president, bite the bullet, and pardon Donald Trump. Otherwise mind your precedents. If you prosecute Donald Trump for separating parents and children at the border, be prepared to prosecute Barack Obama (and Joe Biden!) for the same offense. If you prosecute Donald Trump for being complicit in the deaths of Americans, be prepared to prosecute Barack Obama as well as others in his cabinet for the same offense. If you believe that Donald Trump corrupted government, what do you think of the admitted transgressions of the IRS? If you think that Trump threatened democracy, what do you think of of Barack Obama’s allowing of Russian interference in the 2016 election?
It may be extremely distasteful not to mention unsatisfying to turn the page and start a new chapter but that’s precisely what is needed. And I think that’s what a lot of Americans voted for in November.
Embarrassing piece of tripe there by Mr Fallows.
There is zero doubt that Trump and family are crooks and have continued that. I guess we need to balance the need to govern vs the need to maintain the rule of law. Unfortunately I think Trump supporters are unhinged so they wont believe any evidence even if they have it in Trump’s own words. We let all of the other crooked politicians go so I guess we let Trump go also.
That said, I would not object to publishing his most egregious stuff. Just dont prosecute.
Steve
That pretty much sums it up. Picking and choosing which crooked politicians are prosecuted based on which political party your prefer? Not a formula for good governance.