A President Falsely Charging 'Treason' Is What the Founders Feared

[babylonsister]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/trump-treason/586915/

A President Falsely Charging ‘Treason’ Is What the Founders Feared
Trump’s accusations violate his oath of office.
12:00 PM ET
Conor Friedersdorf


Donald Trump swore to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitution declares, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

On Wednesday, President Trump wrote, “I think what the Democrats are doing with the Border is TREASONOUS. Their Open Border mindset is putting our Country at risk. Will not let this happen!” As having an “open border mindset” is not levying war against America nor giving aid and comfort to its enemies, Trump is guilty of levying a false accusation of unsurpassed gravity and additionally guilty of violating his oath to protect and defend Article III, which defines treason as “only” those offenses.

That same day, the oath-breaker wrote, “So, it has now been determined, by 18 people that truly hate President Trump, that there was No Collusion with Russia. In fact, it was an illegal investigation that should never have been allowed to start. I fought back hard against this Phony & Treasonous Hoax!”

The people who started Robert Mueller’s investigation did not levy war against the United States, adhere to its enemies, or give them aid and comfort. As such, Trump is guilty of levying another false accusation and additionally guilty of violating his oath to protect and defend Article III.

snip//

The Framers were guarding against the possibility that Americans would one day elect a man so morally weak and corrupt that he would falsely accuse political enemies of treason. In 2016, Americans narrowly elected a man who is that degraded. Congress and the judiciary have a constitutional duty to check his abuses of power, and the public has a patriotic duty to oust him from office. But as yet, most Republicans show no inclination to mount a 2020 primary challenge, as if they are content to continue supporting a man of low character.

Their failure, while disconcerting, is not treason, as it is neither levying war against the United States nor adhering to its enemies nor giving them aid and comfort.

[NewJeffCT]

1. Conor should pay attention

The Trump run RNC is busy rigging the Republican primary process so early states can skip any primaries and just nominate and throw all their delegates to Trump.

[inwiththenew]

2. "A republic, if you can keep it."

Looks more and more likely that we can't keep it with each passing year.

[DallasNE]

6. I was Thinking About That Just Yesterday

And thinking that Franklin must be turning in his grave.

[shanny]

10. I think it is already gone

and has been for some time.

While we slept.

[Dustlawyer]

28. What should we expect when we allow legal bribery of our politicians?

When SCOTUS says corporations are “People?”

When abject hypocrisy carries no penalty?

When so many Americans don’t bother to be informed, and when they do they get brainwashed by propaganda from the MSM driven by partisan hacks and advertisers who control the message?

Until we get the money out of our politics, end the revolving door, separate the news rooms from the the business side of the media outlets we will continue on our road to destruction. We do not address these root causes of most of our problems.

[shanny]

31. exactly

[certainot]

25. "a republic, as long as you don't give the fascists 1500 radio stations" should be the modern

version of the quote. that's what americans have done for the last 30 years. so before americans give up on democracy and hand it over to a cloud of orange assholes we first might want to do something completely different and just stop ignoring talk radio

if non-fascist democracy-loving americans had turned off the music for a bit every once in a while and had been paying attention they'd have noticed that limbaugh, working for the gop and or russsian think tanks has led a chorus of a few hundred ignorant racist liars on 1500 radio stations SINCE INAUGURATION in saying that the obama had spied on trump and that obama clinton soros etc were leading a 'deep state' coup against trump. before that they did excuses for trump in the primaries, attacked the establishment gop candidates on behalf of trump/putin, created the whole clinton/benghazi emails event, turned colin kaepernick and kneeling athletes into traitors, and are now stimulating death threats at omar, AOC, and investigators, etc....

limbaugh has also been calling for republicans to get obama and his admin and hillary under oath on their 'coup' vs trump. luckily limbaugh's shows are transcribed so all the GOP and the other radio blowhards and fox can be on the same page without having to listen to the show and yesterday read a list of questions to ask obama and clinton, basically talking to the teabaggers like mark meadows and jim jordan and their counterparts in the senate, by way of the trump base, who are basically all just dittoheads. and if democrats had not taken the house and they had not squashed the investigations they would have subpena'd obama and clinton by now and be trying to get them in jail on perjury. at the least they'll just get more harassment and death threats.

the media and dem reps don't know the best way to respond to barr's 'spy' comment would have been "well, mr barr, that's what limbaugh's been saying for 2 years and he's a proven liar and might as well be working for putin, so...."

maybe the best way for facebook to save a shitload of money looking for russian trolls would be to realize most of their work piggybacks talk radio - and they can just analyze limbaugh transcripts! his website's been displaying them for many years but in the last year or so iheart's been putting them up to so americans don't have to go to his site to know what the russians are going to be repeating, and why omar and AOC and shiff and nadler etc get upticks in death threats, etc. just multiply it by 1500 radio stations.

RUSH: If there were real journalism in America today, there would be questions right now that these real journalists would really want to ask people like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, such as, "President Obama, were you made aware of spying on the Trump campaign while you were in office?"

"President Obama, are you shocked at the possibility of spying on a political campaign in post-Watergate America?" "President Obama, are you supportive of Attorney General Barr's efforts to fully investigate the reasons for this spying?" "President Obama, if FISA courts were deceived in any way by your FBI, would you characterize that as a scandal -- and if not, how would you characterize it?" "President Obama, when you said that you learned about Hillary Clinton's secret email server by reading about it in the papers, were you being honest, sir?

"Because we know that you sent her emails on that server knowing full-fledged that it had an address that was outside the State Department." "President Obama, looking back, are you shocked that the secretary of state would create and maintain a private, poorly secured email server that processed top secret documents for her entire term?" "President Obama, was President Trump correct in his assessment that he was surveilled by your administration?" Now, for Mrs. Clinton -- and you might even think of some better ones for Obama.

"Mrs. Clinton, when did you first read the Steele dossier that you paid for?" "Mrs. Clinton, what was your reaction when you saw BuzzFeed actually publish the dossier despite their admission that it had not been verified or corroborated? Did you feel successful?" "As a former first lady, senator, and secretary of state, you are familiar with investigative reports from intelligence agencies. Were you fooled by the information in the Steele dossier? Did you believe what was in the Steele dossier?

"Did you pay for what you knew was not verifiable or corroborate-able in the Steele dossier?" "Who in your organization gave the Perkins Coie law firm the assignment to secure the dossier from Fusion GPS, and were you aware of the assignment?" "If the FBI, DOJ, CIA, and Director of National Intelligence abused their powers, spying on and undermining the Trump campaign, transition, and presidency, would you condemn those actions?"

"Mrs. Clinton, are you at all worried that the Steele Dossier can be tied to your campaign and that it was thus knowingly used to secure four fraudulent FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign, or did you feel like it was an eminently successful political operation?" I have to take a break. There are obviously a plethora of questions you could create. But the point is, there isn't one ounce of curiosity from any reporter anywhere (in the Drive-By side of things) in any of this.

nd this will go on and on from hi=undreds of the loudest radio stations with some fox visuals to make sure every jury pool in the US has been polluted, to make sure investigators are pressured and harassed, and to make sure no republican senators will vote for impeachment.

all amplified and repeated all day on radio stations licensed to operate in the public interest, with hundreds of them endorsed by at least 88 major university and most pro sports programs

[ArizonaLib]

30. Yes - This is how Reagan won: White Democrats commuting to/from work listening to hate radio

That was one of the surprises on election day in 1980. Now there is Fox news here and Sky in Australia and New Zealand.

[CrispyQ]

35. I don't see the dems waking up to the threat that hate radio is.

They've ignored it for decades & still do. Fucking crazy. I used to think they were the smart party.

[certainot]

36. most of the party and allied org leadership and media heavies live in big cities and every one

else listens to music and believes the rw 'free speech' and 'market demand' bullshit RW radio's been selling for 30 years or falls for the decoy, fox,

[WA-03 Democrat]

3. Impeachment is not an option

He breaks the law constantly. Out!

[Lock individual1 up]

4. Impeachment Hearings Now!

B 4 2 LATE!

+ GJ materials NOW.

[real Cannabis calm]

5. Perhaps, delaying "impeachment hearings" provides more rope for Trump to hang himself...

Please read this Opening Post and especially the replies, to see what delaying impeachment hearings allows Trump to do to himself. Then, after Trump receives a subpoena to testify before Congress, perjury and lying under oath could be added to charges against the suspect (aka) Donald J. Trump:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212002339

[Lock individual1 up]

8. Start with that crime (on tape) then add them up every day for all...

… M$M to show, day after day after day.

+1

[leftieNanner]

11. If the Congress does subpoena him to testify

He will just say no. It will ho to the court and be delayed for ever.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. Leaving Hitler's forces unopposed would have been a quick way to show the world

how awful fascism is.

But the price is too high.

[Ponietz]

17. Precisely

[ehrnst]

26. A better analogy for impeachment with no hope of the Senate removing him

would be invading Vietnam because we thought it would contain Communism.

[world wide wally]

7. Here is what we must understand about Trump.

He puts himself above anyone or anything else including the USA or its Constitution. There is no appealing to his better angels because he has none. The GOP has decided to hitch their wagon to this madman and they will do as he beckons like so many sheep or trained guard dogs.
When we engage in this fight to get rid of Trump, we have to give it all we got and not depend on any divine intervention. Trump will do ANYTHING to win. Winning at any expense is ALL he cares about and we have to think the same way if we ever expect to win this battle. Throw the rules out for this one, This is a pure dogfight.
No mercy
No rules
No fucking up!

[smirkymonkey]

20. +1000

[luvallpeeps]

24. No more bringing knives to the gunfight. n/t

[ehrnst]

27. However, fucking it up would be disastrous. We don't want a suicide mission.

They want us constantly on edge, furious and exhausted. We have to maintain some calm, so we don't start turning on each other, and have the strength to work together.

I think when PEEOTUS senses that we are behind Pelosi, or that he is being mocked more than feared, he sends out Stephen Miller to provoke us again, or makes a statement designed to outrage us.

I think that Pelosi's calm, dismissive delivery when she points out his and Barr's abuses isn't a sign that she isn't aware or prepared to take any opportunity to out manuever him, quite the opposite. She's doing what we should all do - keep our emotional powder dry for the real battle. She exudes confidence rather than fear or rage, and that knocks him off guard. He thrives on creating chaos around him, because that way he can come in and "fix" it, and act like "the adult in the room." We can't afford to give him the perception that he is succeeding with that on a cultural level. We have to be the adults in the room.

In self defense, women are taught that in a situation where they are being sexually assaulted, there will be a moment when the attackers guard is completely down. One cannot be hysterical and take advantage of that. The one who keeps their head is the one who has the best chance of disabling the attacker.

We cannot let them take away hours in our day, our mental strength, our joy in our daily lives. This is the tactic of the abuser. They push the boundaries a bit more every day, and when one doesn't comply, the abuser deploys the mind games and gaslighting to wear the victim down.

Taking care of ourselves so we aren't spinning our wheels about something that we cannot do anything about at this moment is vital.

We are hostages right now. Stay calm and alert.

[shanny]

9. This is why Some Of Us

were VERY opposed to that term being bandied about here on DU and elsewhere.

And still are.

[infullview]

12. By the time we reach the 2020 finish line, the system will be so riggeded, Trump will win again

No matter what the actual vote tally is.

[NastyRiffraff]

14. Trump is the one

giving "aid and comfort" to U.S. enemies. He does that all the time; accuse others of what he himself is guilty of.

[pdsimdars]

15. So why isn't congress doing anything about all these issues? They keep "threatening"

"we're gonna subpoena this or that . . . "
"we'll get those tax returns . . . "
"we'll get that Mueller report . . . "

I am tired of all the outrage and talk. . . . just do it already.

[durablend]

16. Because maybe

They're telling us (without saying a word) that "there's...really...nothing...we...can...do".

Keeping quiet so as to not depress any turnout for 2020.

[panfluteman]

18. Putting Off Impeachment Will Only Embolden Trump. This is All Out War!

Trump keeps on committing impeachable crimes every day of the week. The only way to get closure on this criminal is to kick him OUT! We shouldn't have even given Bar a chance to go through his current song and dance - we should have just subpoenaed the damn Mueller Report!

[Gothmog]

19. Among those Trump has accused of "treason":

Link to tweet

[Smackdown2019]

21. Censor Trump

A couple of representatives tried to censor the orange clown the past two years, but Republicans Congress blocked it from coming to fruit. We need to send him a powerful message of his hate speech and other crazy talk he says.

[cstanleytech]

22. The article is incorrect about one thing and that is the American people did not narrowly elect him.

He did after all get nearly 3 million fewer votes than Hillary so its more accurate to say a minority with the EC elected him.

[zipplewrath]

29. American States

The states elected him by a wide margin. He won states by narrow margins. The people voted against him.

[rlegro]

37. Neither "the states" nor the electorate chose him. The Electoral College did.

And that's a third, archaic entity. Entirely legal as far as that goes, but not a popular choice. In fact, some states are now moving to change the way their delegates to the college will vote in future elections -- favoring the national popular vote.

[tclambert]

23. Trump breaking an oath? Surely you jest. The man is the most honest of any President, or

any person, really. Just ask him. He'll tell you he is. And since he's so honest it must be true.

[UniteTheLeft]

32. Classic fascist tactics

Co opt the legitimate argument and evidence used against you, and claim it as a fault of your enemy.

It barely seems to matter what the truth is so long as he can corrupt enough minds into believing it. There is no doubt to me.. This is something the Trump and his supporters are supremely good at. With all the far-right mouthpieces getting their propaganda, and vitriol spread so virally online, and a conservative cabal of news outlet owners who co opt local newspapers/ local news stations (Sinclair broadcast grouphttps://www.snopes.com/news/2017/07/11/sinclair-broadcast-group-propaganda/) it seems no wonder to me why we lag so far behind.

It's time to stop letting them get away with it. Suggestions anyone ?

[meow2u3]

33. Trump should be censured for his false accusations of treason

He has to be reined in for his threats to the rule of law, as well.

[lambchopp59]

34. I'm getting one of my sick headaches again Abner!!