Category: Elections

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Donald Trump Elections

A Third Term As POTUS For Trump? Legal Experts Say It Could Happen

Earlier today, the New York Times published an interesting article by Neil Vigdor entitled, “No, Trump Cannot Run for Re-election Again in 2028.”

According to Vigdor, Donald Trump is barred from seeking a third term in the White House because the U.S. Constitution was amended in 1951 to bar such a thing from happening. This came after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to four terms in office.

The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1951, says that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

Kimberly Wehle, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Baltimore and wrote a book titled “How to Read the Constitution — and Why,” said that the measure left no ambiguity and was intended to place a check on the president.

“There was a concern about entrenching power in a kinglike manner,” she said.

Trump cannot run a third time for the presidency, right? Well, when you consider that he has willfully violated just about every existing rule already, is it safe to assume he wouldn’t try to buck the Constitution itself and make himself president for life?

Legal experts weighed in on the issue, with many noting that Trump thinks the law applies to everyone but him.

The Constitution also says he requires the "advise & consent" of the Senate to approve his nominations.

— Joyce Vance (@joycewhitevance.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T13:05:03.320Z

Joyce is right to be skeptical. Criminals find ways around inconvenient laws, and in Trump’s case, the Constitution. He violated the Emoluments Clause with no consequences. He’s getting away with violating criminal laws because of SCOTUS. But (continue to next)

— Jill Wine-Banks (@jillwine-banks.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T15:22:18.756Z

this is even worse because if he gets away with recess appointments, it destroys the foundation of our democracy

— Jill Wine-Banks (@jillwine-banks.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T15:22:18.757Z

Sounds like a potential future case for the U.S. Supreme Court, doesn’t it? However, it’s currently controlled by a 6-3 conservative majority that recently gave American presidents criminal immunity for “official acts.” Does anyone think they’d rule against Trump?

Maybe Trump will simply declare himself Supreme Dictator and then fulfill his wish of being the 21st century’s Adolf Hitler. What could possibly go wrong?

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Donald Trump Elections GOP

Trump’s Fragile Political Coalition ‘May Not Survive’ For Long – Here’s Why

 

According to some in the Republican Party, Donald Trump’s unexpected win last week and the gains made by the GOP suggest that a “political realignment” is underway in the country that will make their party a permanent majority.

However, according to political scientists John Judis and Ruy Teixeira, the coalition Trump assembled for his win is incredibly fragile and may not last long.

Writing in the New York Times, Judis and Teixeira warn that Trump’s new GOP has a “great potential for a crackup.”

“He might try to carry out his promise of deporting millions of illegal immigrants, a project that could not just wreak havoc among families and in communities but also cause economic chaos. Or take tariffs… Unlike most Republican initiatives, tariffs, if successful, work by imposing short-term costs in prices in order to achieve long-term gains in jobs from otherwise endangered industries. It’s the short-term costs — another round of inflation, this time imposed by Mr. Trump — that might endanger the Republican coalition.”

Additionally, they write, there’s the fact that Trump is an incredibly self-destructive and unstable person, which doesn’t exactly bode well when you’re trying to lead people.

“The final obstacle to a strong realignment is Mr. Trump himself, who is consumed with the quest for power and self-aggrandizement, and appears eager to seek revenge against his detractors. Many of his difficulties during his first term stemmed from his own misbehavior, and he continues to revel in division and divisiveness.”

“Trump’s dream of a historic Republican realignment may not survive his second term,” they conclude, and it’s hard to argue against such a prediction. After all, we’ve all seen how the twice-impeached president-elect causes chaos everywhere he goes.

Here’s a personal prediction: Within six months, the U.S. economy will be in a deep recession, Trump will be mired in personal scandal, and the GOP will be looking for a way to excuse his actions.

Check back in May and let’s see if I’m right.

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Donald Trump Elections Kamala Harris Uncategorized

Claims That Trump Won In A ‘Landslide’ Are BS – He’s On Track To Win By About 1%

Within 24 hours of Donald Trump being named winner of the 2024 presidential election, headlines began circulating that suggested he’d done so by a “landslide.”

But the truth is that the election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will be decided by about 1 percentage point, which is nowhere near landslide proportions.

MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell expertly laid out the case against a landslide on his show Monday evening, noting:

“Ballots received in the mail tomorrow will be counted in California. So there are literally millions of ballots yet to be counted in this country, including in the state of Pennsylvania, where thousands of votes remain to be counted to determine the balance of the United States Senate.”

“Republicans will probably have 52 senators next year or 53 if Republicans win the Pennsylvania Senate election. The Democrats will probably have 47 members of the Senate or 48 if Democrat Bob Casey wins the Pennsylvania Senate race.”

The GOP will also have a narrow margin of control in the House.

“We still don’t know which party will control the House of Representatives, but we do know that it will be very close. As of tonight, Republicans have 214 seats in the House and Democrats have 205 seats in the House, according to NBC News, with 16 remaining to be decided.”

And then there’s the Trump-Harris margin of victory, which is getting smaller by the second as more ballots are tabulated.

“In the presidential vote. Donald Trump currently has 50.2% of the vote to Kamala Harris, 48.1% of the vote. But that margin will probably narrow after all the California votes are finally counted, and it is possible that Kamala Harris will end up with only one– 1% of the vote less than Donald Trump, a 1% gap. Right now, she’s at 2% less than Donald Trump.”

“If you hear anyone calling this election a landslide, please stop listening to that person! About elections, at least.”

What qualifies as a landslide? Well, when Bill Clinton won reelection in 1996 by a whopping 9%, even that wasn’t considered to be a landslide.

O’Donnell concluded his summary with this historical reminder of what a landslide looks like:

“The last landslide we had was Ronald Reagan’s reelection in 1984, where he won 49 states in the Electoral College, with only the state of Minnesota voting for Walter Mondale, who was from Minnesota. Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale by 18 points. That’s what a landslide looks like.”

Here’s the video from MSNBC:

 

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Donald Trump Elections GOP

Jim Jordan Whines When Asked Why The 2020 Election Was Fraudulent But 2024 Is Copacetic

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) failed to explain why he thought the 2020 election had been “rigged” but 2024 was free of any interference when asked about it on CNN this morning, instead whining and trying to downplay all of Donald Trump’s discredited conspiracy theories of why he lost to President Joe Biden four years ago.

CNN host Dana Bash began by telling Jordan, “In the run-up to the election, even on election night itself, Donald Trump baselessly accused Democrats of cheating. As soon as the results started to come in and show it going his way he stopped – nothing about that. I haven’t seen you or your colleagues claiming any election irregularities , no rampant voting brought this time. It seems to me that Republicans claim voting fraud and election integrity when you lose and not when you win.”

“No, I mean, again, as I said before, this election I think was the greatest political comeback we’ve ever seen,” Jordan replied with a shit-eating grin on his face. “He [Trump] did something that even Teddy Roosevelt could not do for goodness sake and the country–“

“But you think it was a free and fair election?” Bash asked.

Rather than respond, Jordan said he had seen an interview with a Latino voter who said he had cast his ballot for Trump because he didn’t think Democrats cared about people like him.

 “But last time around he claimed –– your leader claimed that there were problems with fraud.”

When Jordan attempted to talk over the host, she continued to press.

“But last time around it wasn’t so much about the policy differences or the personality differences, there were false claims about election fraud when Donald Trump lost. This time Donald Trump won and you think the election was free and fair. You see there is a little bit –“

Jordan: “I think the Democrats have to ask why we go from getting anyone 81 million to 71 million. What happened to those 10 million people? Maybe it’s not smart to run an election where you have no policies.”

“Why was it different from 2020 when he lost? Is that the only difference?” Bash asked for a third time.

“There were concerns about 2020 with all the mail-in voting that happened in Pennsylvania, they came in without any signature verification which is required,” Jordan claimed. “There were all kinds of concerns with how the 2020 election was run but—”

“There was no widespread fraud,” Bash reminded the congressman, who could only smile like a demented fool.

So 2020 was a fraudulent election, but 2024 is perfect? What a crock of shit!

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Congress Donald Trump Elections Uncategorized

Eric Swalwell Puts ‘Weasel’ Trump On Notice With A Defiant Warning

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is making it clear that if Donald Trump thinks he can run the country without any pushback from Democrats, he’s sadly mistaken.

Swalwell was a guest on MSNBC Thursday, and he told host Ana Cabrera that Democrats are willing to work with Trump on some of his proposals, but they certainly don’t see him as trustworthy.

Cabrera asked Swalwell, “Did voters hand Trump and the Republican party a sweeping mandate?”

“Well, I respect the will of the people certainly,” the congressman replied. “I’m not going to respect the will of a weasel in Donald Trump; somebody who doesn’t understand these same voters don’t want government-mandated abortions. They don’t want a sweep-up and round-up of anyone who looks like an immigrant in this country. They don’t want us to walk away from our obligation to defend Ukraine.”

“There’s a lot we can work on together on if he wants to be serious, if he wants to have security at the border and address the workforce crisis,” he added. “With immigration, you’ll find more Democrats than not who want to be there with him.”

Swawell then issued a very clear warning to Trump and his GOP allies.

“If he wants to carry out grievances against his political enemies, he’s looking at the tallest fence in the post right now as to the effort that will fence in any of his corruption or political grievance campaigns.”

Congressional Democrats can serve as a serious check on the incoming Trump administration. They have oversight committees that can look into any questionable actions. And they also have access to all sorts of information they can make public if they suspect illegal activity. They are on the front lines of the resistance, and it’s time they do whatever must be done to expose the horrors Trump has planned for this country.