Trump said he would consider pre-emptive pardons to protect Elon Musk and other close aides should Democrats take control of Congress
Donald Trump said he would be willing to protect Elon Musk and his staff if Democrats take control of Congress after the midterm elections this week.
In an interview for the “Pod Force One” podcast published Monday, Trump said he would move to “protect” the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO if Congressional investigators targeted him.
Trump also indicated that he was weighing pre-emptive pardons for his close aides and others around him should the Democrats pursue investigations, according to Axios. It is a notion that the president has floated before to keep his team from facing prosecution for actions during the first two years of his term.
The blowjob wasn’t really the issue.
The problem was he lied under oath.
At the time, I thought he shouldn’t be removed for that, but in the intervening years I’ve realized I was wrong. You could argue that there was no reason to be questioning him about it, and you could argue that he had a right to privacy.
However, once he’s under oath, he should have to tell the truth.
He should have been removed, because it would have made it clear that presidents need to obey the law.
If he did, with the vast resources the Republicans had, he would have been criminally charged and convicted for it. He wasn’t. It was claimed during the impeachment process that he lied, but what he had actually done was truthfully answer the questions based on Kenneth Starr’s definitions (“sexual relations” was defined, very Conservatively, as PIV sex, and didn’t involve BJs, cigar insertions, etc). It was a perjury trap and he was smart enough to wriggle out.
They also went after him with a number of bullshit civil suits, all of which were thrown out of court.
By the way, I’m not arguing that Clinton wasn’t a sleazebag. Just that the impeachment was based on lies and distortions.
LOL, as if that would have changed right wing behavior. Sure, they would have gladly removed Clinton, for “reasons of principle” (fucking LOL) and then went right on to be as awful as always.
They were trying to get Clinton pretty much all of the 90s and were ecstatic that they got a…stain on a dress. Fucking embarrassing.
He didn’t lie though. They didn’t ask him if he got a blowjob, they asked him if he’d had sex.
That depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is
I don’t know about his guilt. GOP kept changing the goalposts. It was fraud they were trying to get him for and weren’t able. Then they framed the sex as intercourse not blow job and then decided since he didn’t own up to the affair in general that he had lied. Legalese is always in play leaving denial that plain language would capture. He was a cheater in his marriage but he had that in common with almost every other president, VP, Senator, Congressman, on down the line of politicians, including those who were prosecuting him.