TRUMP'S 'CIVIL WAR' QUOTE TWEET IS ACTUALLY GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT, SAYS HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR

[RAB910]

President Donald Trump's recent tweet quoting a longtime evangelical pastor who warned of a "Civil War" if Democrats seriously pursue removing him from office could actually be grounds for impeachment, one Harvard Law professor said.

"If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal," Trump tweeted on Sunday night.


The tweet was a quote from Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist pastor who gave the comment during an appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend. Trump added his own parenthetical aside to Jeffress' quote, in which the president asserted that Congress won't be successful in their impeachment efforts.

The president's tweet was immediately met with backlash, and Harvard Law professor John Coates argued that the social media post itself is an "independent basis" for lawmakers to remove him from the White House.

"This tweet is itself an independent basis for impeachment - a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorized power," Coates wrote on Twitter on Monday.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-civil-war-tweet-grounds-impeachment-1462044?piano_t=1

[Cha]

1. ****** can't quit himself.

[blm]

5. Pathological

About everything

[ffr]

24. You rock Cha! #1 again.

[Cha]

28. lol!

Mahalo, ffr! Backacha!

[DrToast]

2. I hate Newsweek and their stupid "all caps" headlnes

[Orrex]

14. WHY? WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

[dalton99a]

3. Absolutely.

[Farmer-Rick]

4. Don't do what the US Constitution says you can do or I'll start a civil war.

The man is crazy. He needs to see a doctor and get some psych meds. What if he starts dropping bombs on us or other countries?

The filthy rich capitalist need to rein him in.

[uponit7771]

6. The NRA Might not be but Russia sure is, they would like nothing more than a civil war or depression

[MelissaB]

7. And... it's Russian propaganda

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212525261

[DemocracyMouse]

13. In relation to tweet, Russian endorsement of civil war hysteria should be making headlines... is it?

[AllaN01Bear]

8. that pastor needs to be removed along with the non prez, his vp and so on.

[RAB910]

9. his tax exempt status should be revoked

[AllaN01Bear]

10. aggreed.

[yellowdogintexas]

16. it would actually be the taxes on the property owned by the church

This is a huge property near downtown Dallas, with a monster of a building and a ton of parking. These would be humongous taxes. Not sure if the IRS would figure in but the city of Dallas and Dallas county would hit them fairly hard. The county could most likely tax the buildings and the parking lots.

The church I attend in Fort Worth has a very large campus and we lease our parking lots during the work week. Some enterprising person in county government decided we should pay the $40,000 in taxes on that money - not the land value. Since all the income from the parking leases goes straight to the Infant Formula fund operated by our mission the taxes were disallowed. However since it is a United Methodist Church the property and buildings are technically owned by the Conference, which complicates the tax situation.

I do not think ministers are exempt from income taxes by the IRS or the property taxes on their homes. Some congregations own the parsonage(es) and their value is part of the ministers' compensation package; we give ours a stipend which helps with down payment and they purchase their own residences which allows them to deduct the property taxes on their personal income tax.

Surely there is a skilled accountant who knows these rules better than I do

[gopiscrap]

25. exactly

I was the foster child of a Lutheran Pastor. A pastor's salary is taxable but also there are a couple of exemptions related to their occupation. Housing is another matter. A pastor could live in a parsonage or rectory, that is owned by the church and the church would be responsible for the taxes that are used for residential living space. A pastor could get a housing allowance of which there is a formula for what is taxable on that allowance or not or a pastor could be getting straight salary in which they rent or buy. IF they rent then no tax break, but if they buy they would get the same break as any other home owner.

[Doodley]

11. Trump is eating the Pastor sauce again.

[CTLib]

12. Lock him up....

Lock him up
Lock him up
Lock him up
Lock him up

[blakstoneranger]

15. Except Everybody knows HE IS BATS..T CRAZY!!

If you really think anybody is going to war over that idiot, you're insane too! That world only exist in trump's mind. He is a megalomaniac, it's not to be taken serious. But congress should and will persist with impeachment because he deserves it, he earned it. doesn't matter whether it's successful or not, it should be done if for nothing else to put him and his flunkies on notice that they are not above the law.

[Captain Zero]

17. As well with his threats toward the whistleblower !

He swore to uphold the laws. The whistle blower LAW is one of those and it says the whistle blower and their anonymity shall be protected by superiors. Sounds like he is threatening to break the whistle blower law. You know he will if he gets a name.

[SunSeeker]

18. K & R

[defacto7]

19. Sedition

[geardaddy]

20. Well, we know which Harvard Law professor doesn't think Dotard did anything wrong...

[cvoogt]

21. that's a reach

Trump is not threatening Civil War in that tweet, but predicting it. Not the same thing. We have all this Ukraine business that's pretty damning, why start parsing tweets like this? I don't think it helps anything.

[Nitram]

22. Trump has made it impossible to distinguish between his stupidity and his constant threats.

[bucolic_frolic]

23. He's not well

It's entering borderline ranting dementia. Most families would evaluate.

[zentrum]

26. He's dog-whistling MAGA's

…..to attack, maim and/or kill us if he's impeached.

He's inciting.

Just the way he does at his rallies.

[Skittles]

27. the man has beeen doing impeachable stuff since he started his "presidency"

seems like he had to force Nancy's hand before anything could happen