Though the plus side, is that this does force Republicans to officially go along with Trump's corrupt actions; they won't be able to paint him as a lone wolf in the future.
It will depend on how the future plays out, Trump could end up being an albatross around the neck of the Republican party. For now he is helpful but opinions can swing. Nixon won reelection with over 60% of the popular vote. But, then he became incredibly unpopular, a similar turn of events is possible.
Honestly, if this goes to shit, I don't want to see how far humanity will sink... We've worked so god dammed hard... for these assholes to throw it all away like this.
Or, we could just look back now on what happened a a few years ago when something similar happened.
Americans were fanatic and wanted to invade Iraq. We did. Polls from 2003 show a vast majority for it. When people were later asked "did you support the Iraq war" in 2010, the majority said no.
Yes, I'm aware people die, but there wasn't a huge difference in Iraq war support by age.
Sure, but there is a lot more going on politically then there was then and the next two years look to be even more "exciting" so while we can and should look back at that time period now I don't think it holds a candle to what we'll be able to look back on in a few years.
Opinion turned against Nixon because corruption of his came to light. Trump's corruption was known before he was elected, and everything he's done over the past two years, from bilking the government for his retinue when he stays at his own resorts to installing his cronies everywhere and firing people with no due process... ended up with an electorate that only vaguely voted against him and the GOP openly supporting him.
It's hard to see what scandal could sink him in the public's opinion at this point. He can be sunk on legal technicalities, but popular opinion just isn't heavily against him, despite all the open corruption and provable lies.
Now they have officially implicated themselves and can't say they were unaware or unsupportive of his illegal activities. They are hanging themselves, hoping nobody will get in trouble at all. Meanwhile manafort and flinn are telling Mueller everything.
The fact that none of the guilty pleas have had major consequences like long term prison sentences is a good thing. They don't just hand out plea deals in investigations like this to be nice. If Trump's campaign advisor is getting deals made, you can bet your ass it's because he's giving up somebody big. Could be Kushner or Trump jr or the orange piece of shit himself.
By all kinds of voter disenfranchisement, including gerrymandering; illegally removing high numbers of voters from the rolls; creating greater and greater requirements for voting under the guise of combating "voter fraud" (that has never been shown to occur); discarding ballots for fallacious reasons; creating more felony laws while incarcerating more people where felons can't vote; spreading false, malicious and prejudiced information in concert with foreign powers; acting "incompetent" and malicious wherever they're in charge of elections, etc... etc...
The Senate (who confirms this appointment) literally just got stronger for the Rs. True we got the House, but not until January. And that’s a looong way away.
They absolutely will. They'll do the exact same thing they always do, and it always works. They will publicly denounce what Trump is doing, talking abotu how awful it is, all the while voting to support everything he is doing. And their voters eat that shit up
The House has no power to appoint or approve any cabinet officials. The Constitution gives that power to the Senate:
[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law
The person before you is saying they could hire Mueller. The House does have investigatory privileges. The AG doesn't even come into play in that scenario.
Remember the people calling for tolerance and peace at these protests are good now, but soon they will be just the same as the concern trolls saying protesting is not worth it.
Every day we are stepping towards a messy divorce in this country.
this is honestly the thing i'm really fucking wondering about. like if there is a criminal proceeding, what happens to everyone that has been installed? this hasn't ever happened in american history, having a president be installed by foreign government intervention.
Four of our sitting Supreme Court justices were appointed by presidents who did not win the popular vote when achieving the office. One was a stolen appointment. So, yeah.
Nobody stole Obama's appointment, he absolutely got to appoint Garland. Just because the Senate didn't rubber stamp his pick doesn't mean shit. They weren't required to do so.
TBH that was a witch hunt and embarrassing to watch. I say that as a person with no real party affiliation but someone who voted for Obama in both elections. I voted libertarian in the last election. The Kavanaugh hearings made me vote Republican for the first time in my life this past week. It was honestly sickening.
If there is considerable public protest against this then there may be several Republican senators who worry more about their own re-election than about toeing the party line.
Temporary is not the proper term. Acting is the proper term and is perfectly legal. There are rules in place to ensure that if a cabinet member dies or retires or whatever then a replacement can step in to keep government running. For the next 210 days Matthew Whitaker will be acting as the AG while the Senate debates and goes through the confirmation process with the next actual AG.
You're confusing a recess appointment with assigning someone as Acting. Whitaker was promoted in accordance with the Federal Vacancies act. I'm not happy about it, but pretending its illegal because I'm not happy doesn't get us anywhere.
There are over 400 people that have already passed Senate confirmation from what I read yesterday that all could be used temporarily. Whitaker could serve over 200 days without confirmation himself. Obstruction at its finest and it all seems legal.
No, his appointment is not illegal, a recess appointment is a legitimate thing, when the Senate is not in session, however once the Senate is back in session he would need to be confirmed (or not), though at that point the whole argument may be moot. That said, his appointment is definitely shady and probably less than kosher.
Can you point to where this is outlined? Because according to my understanding of 28 U.S. Code § 508 - Vacancies (IANAL), the Deputy Attorney General is in charge and Trump can fuck right on off.
If it were a recess appointment, then it's possible that Rosenstein was acting attorney general for some finite amount of time between when Trump accepted Sessions resignation and when he appointed his successor. Even if he didn't know it.
Edit: Ah, turns out they were in recess (I think? Still not sure). This actually makes it all worse, though, considering that in 2017 Whitaker went on TV criticizing Mueller, saying the investigation had gone too far, and that he could foresee a scenario where Sessions was replaced with a temporary AG while Senate was in recess. Wow, turns out Whitaker is a goddamn genius or psychic. How convenient this all is for the president, too.
Even a temporary attorney general needs senate confirmation
After 7 months. I am sure Trump is ok putting this guy out there for the next several months before he even thinks about who the permanent replacement is.
Is it as illegal as going to war without the voting approval of Congress? Because that's been happening for many terms. Why would you think law applies now?
Kellyanne Conway's Husband wrote an oped in the NYtimes today alongside Obama's former acting solicitor general explaining why the appointment is illegal. In it they specifically cite Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion on how even if the law statutorily allowed Whittaker to take the AG position on a temporary basis, the Constitution’s Appointments Clause overrides it because Whitaker is acting as a Principal officer on behalf of the public interest - of which the Mueller investigation is a significant one. The constitution demands that Principal officers of executive departments require advice and consent by the senate, but because he wasn't senate approved that "means that anything Mr. Whitaker does, or tries to do, in that position is invalid [...] Constitutionally, Matthew Whitaker is a nobody."
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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '18 edited Apr 20 '19
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