Today, in totally normal news that’s cool, the President has been calling on the US attorney general to “act”—indict, prosecute—his political opponents in the two weeks before the election.
The president made the remark during an interview with “Fox & Friends,” after days of caustic criticism of Mr. Biden, the moderators of the presidential debates, the news media and, increasingly, Mr. Barr. He recently said the attorney general would go down in history “as a very sad, sad situation” if he did not indict Democrats like Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama LINK
Remember back in 2016, when an ex-president with no power meeting with an attorney general caused pearl-clutching, fainting, and vapors? As a writer in The National Review noted, the optics alone were disqualifying:
That means the appearance that everything is on the up-and-up is just as important as the fact that it is. The most critical thing about decisions the system reaches is not that they are right but that we can have confidence they are arrived at in good faith. LINK
And let’s not forget the coverage at the time, which contrasts nicely with the current situation:
There’s no real furor now, in part, because this tire-fire-on-a-shipwreck of an administration destroyed all expectations for ethical behavior years ago.
Is everyone cool with the President pressuring the AG to prosecute a political opponent two weeks before the election?
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When Trump talks like this—which is most of the time—it’s best to imagine his voice coming over a crackling speaker, broadcast from a state radio station, where he has an old-timey hand-held microphone and talks about how the rebellion the mountains must be crushed before the rainy season.
Was the meeting of Lynch and Clinton not completely and thoroughly explained away and defended at the time? I seem to recall that quite vividly. Nobody on the left even batted an eye.
My favorite thing about this is that Trump is doing that threaten your job if you don’t do what I want thing he always does to Barr like things aren’t going like they are.
Guys guys guys he’s just asking publicly for the attorney general to indict his political opponent two weeks before Election Day. This is totally cool.
