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coti

(4,612 posts)
Thu Apr 18, 2019, 05:34 PM Apr 2019

No, seriously- the argument that a President shouldn't be indict-able is completely ridiculous.

Many of us have learned of the history of the "policy" at the Justice Department, that it was really just kind of thrown out there offhand, was never all that well thought out and didn't matter at the time.

In a nutshell, the reasoning behind the policy is that the President has too much responsibility to be answerable to the law. That's patently absurd. Anyone want to argue it with me?

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coti

(4,612 posts)
1. Hey, I've got kids. That's a lot of responsibility, you know?
Thu Apr 18, 2019, 05:43 PM
Apr 2019

There's just no way *I* can go to jail, even for something very serious. Think of the well-being of my children, their education and development. Truly, putting me in jail would just do more damage to society in the long run than it will help to maintain these expectations of following the law. No one with kids should be indictable. And there's no VP of raising my kids who can just take over if I'm out of the picture, either (or at least my wife SAYS there isn't...)

Also, I'm a doctor (not really). A brain surgeon. You know, it's not just Presidents who have jobs with a lot of responsibility. And I'm QUITE certain I'm providing more usefulness to the world than that clown Trump. There are literally people relying on me to save their lives every single day of my life. We can't let all of those people down by putting me in jail, where I can't do my surgeries. Obviously, I have too much medical responsibility to others to be indictable, also. I have a level of skill that can't be easily replaced.

coti

(4,612 posts)
4. I know that being able to do LITERALLY WHATEVER I WANT, with no legal recourse whatsoever for
Thu Apr 18, 2019, 05:57 PM
Apr 2019

our society- nobody being able to stop me at all from shooting someone on 5th Ave, as Trump likes to say- seems like an awful lot of freedom, but it's clear that with all these CRAZY entanglements and inconveniences that would result from my life being disrupted, it's just a sacrifice we're all going to have to make. And that will have to go for all the other people with kids, and brain surgeons, too. I don't even know how we've gone this long, allowing parents and good doctors to be thrown in jail. The Founding Fathers were totally out to lunch on this one!

coti

(4,612 posts)
6. It does seem short-sighted of the DoJ that one, and only one, person in our country, based on their
Thu Apr 18, 2019, 06:00 PM
Apr 2019

Last edited Thu Apr 18, 2019, 06:37 PM - Edit history (1)

reasoning, should be completely immune from prosecution. Clearly, if you're going to make exactly one person completely above the law, there should be others. It's about time they start considering how to expand that policy to other very "special" Americans.

coti

(4,612 posts)
8. Unfortunately, the DoJ already made their policy clear with Agnew that VP's are totally indictable.
Thu Apr 18, 2019, 06:12 PM
Apr 2019

That's awkward, when clearly Presidents, parents and brain surgeons should be immune from prosecution. Too bad, VP's! You're in the same boat with all those other poor schlubs having to follow the law!

How did Agnew handle his criminal conviction? Oh, he just resigned. Hmm. Did the country continue on?

But, yeah, that could be an awkward contradiction, with the VP literally being one heartbeat away from the Presidency. What if your VP's been indicted or is even in jail and the President dies? Do you then have to drop the charges? Does the VP get an automatic pardon? You'd think a VP probably has a pretty high level of responsibility before getting pushed into a Presidency, anyway. Again, why didn't James Madison think of these things?

coti

(4,612 posts)
9. Speaking of Presidents dying, it also seems like when that happens, they could have some difficulty
Thu Apr 18, 2019, 06:21 PM
Apr 2019

carrying out their responsibilities. Huh, imagine THAT ever happening! If a President can't be indicted, then OBVIOUSLY the United States would descend into an utterly dystopian hellscape of destruction and chaos if something so crazy as a President suddenly DYING ever happened!

The Surgeon General ought to make a policy or something that Presidents aren't allowed to die- or give hours-long speeches in the rain- because clearly the country just couldn't handle such a thing, as in the EIGHT (wow!) times (almost 20% of our Presidents) when it's happened, where power was immediately and peacefully transferred to the sitting VP (for better or worse later on).

ProfessorGAC

(64,413 posts)
3. It's Not A Law
Thu Apr 18, 2019, 05:48 PM
Apr 2019

We need a dem prez to simply instruct DoJ to rescind that opinion
Honestly, I think this was the kind of thing BHO would have done if he didn't have 6 years of R dickedheadism!

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