The stark question was posed to Trump’s attorney John Sauer by Judge Florence Pan: Was a president immune from prosecution for any unlawful act, at all? Could a president order his political rivals to be assassinated by Seal Team 6 as an official act? Could he sell pardons at his pleasure if he saw fit and then face no consequences for his actions?

“He would have to be impeached and convicted first,” Sauer replied,

  • @CarbonIceDragon
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    5 months ago

    Taken to it’s logical conclusion, this idea would basically posit that all the president must do to become a dictator is take out the whole Senate at once, or just have absolute loyalists in enough of the seats, or a combination of the two. If there’s no Senate, the president can’t be impeached and convicted, and if the president cant be held accountable for anything unless that happens, then they can illegally stop any new elections to get new senators with no consequences (or a new president for that matter) and act with impunity.

    • gregorum
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      325 months ago

      Taken to it’s logical conclusion, this idea would basically posit that all the president must do to become a dictator is take out the whole Senate at once, or just have absolute loyalists in enough of the seats, or a combination of the two

      Didn’t they sorta try that 3 years ago? Shouldn’t that be a huge red flag for this argment?

      • @Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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        295 months ago

        They have a much more rigorous plan for this now. The following is a link to the published 970 page manual on how the GOP intends to take permanent control of the US.

        https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf

        • @NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world
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          145 months ago

          The 2025 Presidential Transition Project is the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative Administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025. Welcome to the mission. By opening this book, you are now a part of it

          Fuck.

          • @Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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            195 months ago

            This is the plan created by the most influential members of the GOP, the most influential organizations on them, and the most influential individuals on them. Over 50 of the most important organizations to the GOP published this thing. If you read it there are whole paragraphs that have been, almost verbatim, said by Trump, and other GOP members, since it’s publishing. This is their schematic to build a modern fascist state. They aren’t hiding it. This isn’t a document they are passing around in tight circles, hiding it from outsiders. This is a publicly posted manifest on their plans to take control of the US government, dismantle the checks and balances of power, and take complete control.

            They even acknowledge that methods they intend to use are legally dubious, then acknowledge that that is why they stacked the USSC.

            • @ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
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              35 months ago

              That’s also why they stockpile guns and ammo. They know that if or when they seize power there is going to be a justified popular uprising against them.

              • @nomous@lemmy.world
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                25 months ago

                I tell people as often as I can, especially trans and PoC friends: start meeting like-minded people now, get some basic medic training (field medics really just need to stabilize people), get a gun or two (a long one and a short one) and learn how to use them. This isn’t a joke, the time is now, the police will not protect us and the world will simply watch as the U.S. sinks into the weird Christian-fascist-corporatism that seems to be growing.

            • @GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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              45 months ago

              What I’m meaning to illustrate is that this reads like “The Protocols” in that it seems to be filled with fear mongering of a deep state that the world needs to be protected from. Promoting a call to arms for conservative voters.

              • monotremata
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                5 months ago

                I see. I was thrown because the “Protocols” took the form of a fake leaked document revealing a fictitious plan for world domination, claiming to be written by Jewish elders, but actually written by an antisemitic propagandist. So given that this is also a plan for world domination and is horrifying those who read it, it seemed like you might be suggesting it was a fake created by left-wingers to discredit the right. Sadly, it’s all too real, and it’s not leaked–it’s all out in the open for those who bother to look.

                • @GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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                  05 months ago

                  Yeah, I can absolutely understand the confusion. I made the comment while I’m at work and was trying to be concise instead of making my comparison perfectly clear.

      • @grue@lemmy.world
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        45 months ago

        Didn’t they sorta try that 3 years ago?

        No, they tried to take out the House of Representatives. It’s clearly a totally different thing. \s