Andrew Yang says former presidents should not be arrested

[angrychair]

from Andrew Yang's verified Twitter account:

Imprisoning a former President is the kind of thing that happens in developing countries - America should avoid falling into this pattern if at all possible. The focus should be on winning in 2020 and solving the problems that got Trump into office.

Check out @AndrewYang’s Tweet:

Link to tweet

?s=09

[CatMor]

1. He is saying presidents current and former are above the law.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. Yup.

Crime does pay.

[tulipsandroses]

2. Wasn't going to vote for him but that alone disqualifies him

If any president deserves to be arrested its this one!

WTF???

No man is above the law - Including the president!

If the president commits a crime- He should be arrested.

So is he saying a president should absolved of all crimes? Even murder? He needs to clarify what he means.

[Sanity Claws]

7. That is my reaction too

[hlthe2b]

9. Ditto. No way, no how.

[OhZone]

27. Agreed.

Now I have three I would never vote for in the primaries.

Oh well.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

3. Welcome to the bottom of my lower tier, Mr. Yang!

[Mr.Bill]

4. No, Mr. Yang,

not imprisoning people who committed these kind of crimes is what happens in developing countries.

Post WWII Germany should be our model.

[Thomas Hurt]

5. When did we become a monarchy and reinstitute Divine Right?

[MarcA]

6. Just because a criminal in power will set a pattern is no reason

not to imprison criminals, especially when they are out of power.

[rurallib]

8. If the former president committed crimes should they not pay the penalty?

This country does not arrest anyone in executive positions, private or public.

OK That is a broad statement, but it does happen rarely. Why isn't the CEO of Wells Fargo in the slammer? Did anyone do any time for leading the WORLD to the very precipice of financial collapse in 2008?

I can't recall any former president of any country who robbed their citizens blind and committed murder and torture that ever actually saw the inside of a prison. I am sure there are, but it seems they usually get something akin to asylum in some friendly country.

I am sorry, but the one distinguishing characteristic of our democracy was that no one, NO ONE, is supposed to be above the law. Looks like Yang doesn't like that concept.

If laws are not enforced you can bet they will be broken and ignored as a matter of course.

[George II]

10. Sorry, not a smart thing to say - too "blanket" of a statement.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. If the former president actually committed a crime, hell yes they should be imprisoned

if found guilty and given a sentence appropriate to the crime. Of course you don't prosecute people just because they were political opponents - like what Trump wanted to do to Hillary. But once they're out of office they're just another private citizen and subject to prosecution for real crimes.

I wouldn't ever have supported an inexperienced vanity candidate like Yang anyhow, but I hope those who actually do support him (why, I have no idea), pay attention to this fundamentally antidemocratic statement.

[Pachamama]

12. Bye Bye Mr. Yang....

He had some interesting things to say....but with this, I have nothing to hear from him anymore except for "Bye Bye"....

[IndyOp]

13. Enforce the laws. Third world countries jail leaders as

political power moves and that is not at all the same thing as enforcing the laws.

Dick Nixon should have gone to jail - even if only for a few months - so we could have avoided this nightmare.

[TruckFump]

18. Totally agree on Nixon

I am still pissed to this day about Ford pardoning him.

[RainCaster]

15. He must dropped to the bottom of my list.

Right above any Republican.

[Hoyt]

16. He's talking about political allegations. Like trump's DOJ going after Obama for some trumped up

charge.

[angrychair]

19. It's great to give the benefit of the doubt

But that is his only tweet and despite there being from 6am and having over 1100 replies to it, more than all his other tweets for 4 weeks combined, all negative, he has not made any counter tweet to amend this statement.

As written it appears to imply something completely different than you are and we are not the only people taking it that way.

[Hoyt]

29. I think he assumes people have enough sense that he doesn't have to spell everything out.

Twitter isn't conducive to explaining every nuance to folks quick to shoot someone down.

And I don't particularly like Yang, although he is broaching some subjects that folks need to start thinking about.
_____________

Right now -- with trump, the Racist/Liar-in-Chief in office -- it's easy to want to hold him accountable even after he is out of office. I'd rather hold him accountable in office. Besides, there is no jury in this country who would convict trump. I don't think we should let this unusually cruddy man taint how we view normal circumstances. I would not want trump's DOJ going after Obama for some political charge, or going after Clinton as an opposition candidate fro some trumped up charge.

[marylandblue]

38. He's assuming much too much then. Because this is way more complicated than he is admitting.

It's a problem if you arrest a former President It's a different problem if you don't. He really needs to lay out why he thinks one problem is worse than the other and how his administration would make such an unprecedented decision.

[not_the_one]

39. "I think he assumes people have enough sense that he doesn't have to spell everything out"

You mean like Mueller?

See how well THAT worked out for us?

[Hoyt]

40. People need to quit reading tweets pointing at, and mouthing, each word.

If he were writing a longer piece, that would be different.

BTW — Mueller spent a lot of time absolving trump, Jr, Kush, etc., of any guilt in conspiring with Ruskies.

[TruckFump]

17. Yang is wrong.

There are consequences for breaking the law and no one is or should be exempt.

[treestar]

20. In developing countries, it is the leader's whim, not the law

Dotard would not be arrested for being politically oppositional. It would be for breaking the law.

[dchill]

21. Hey Yang - where did you read for the law?

[blueinredohio]

22. There go his votes.

[Mr.Bill]

23. We are where we are at now

because Richard Nixon didn't die in prison.

[shanny]

37. Bingo.

and eff Jerry our-long-national-nightmare-is-over Ford. Clearly, it isn't--we are STILL living with the fallout.

[msongs]

24. dear adolf, no charges against you. youre free to go. nt

[Progressive dog]

25. Never heard of Andrew Yang before

your OP and would be pleased to never hear from him again. Whether or not former Presidents end up in prison in developing countries has no relevance to us. There is supposed to be equal justice under the law here.

[shanny]

36. So you have missed the multiple posts on this board

with his (mostly) good! policy proposals. But yes, he is way wrong on this one.

[Raven123]

26. He must misunderstand the phrase "Presidential pardon"

[Politicub]

28. Well, okay. Thanks for sharing, Mr. Yang.

[dewsgirl]

30. Yikes, I think Mr.Yang just royally screwed himself.

[FiveGoodMen]

31. NEXT!

[samnsara]

32. is/was this guy running for prez too?

[angrychair]

33. Lol...yep N/T

[Otto Lidenbrock]

34. Gerald Ford should have been arrested for these pants

[shanny]

35. Andrew Yang is wrong on this.

But yes, while crimes should be prosecuted, vindictiveness and political differences should not be.