Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

So I looked it up, and actually, it's not just Senate confirmation, the VP nomination would have to be confirmed by both Senate and House, so... Pelosi could stonewall a confirmation as well as still being the next person in the line of succession.

Interesting.

So, in the unlikely case that Pence dies, Pelosi doesn't need to be next in line. There just needs to be nobody next in line to replace Trump (until Biden does in this case) if Trump resigns early, nobody to pardon Trump, and therefore, Trump will

1) face the consequences for his words and actions, or
2) be pardoned by Biden, or
3) die of stress waiting for 1 vs 2 to show up.

[Antiganon]

What do we do in times of COVID-19 when we can't facepalm anymore?

Headdesk has been my go-to for a while now.

[Breccia]

I posted earlier that two of Pence's staff have tested positive.

This is, apparently, incorrect.

It's already up to five.

From the sounds of things, Pence wasn't really around these people all that much recently. He's probably fine, but, he's going to lose access to his best help at a time he can't afford that.

[Zaydin]

I posted earlier that two of Pence's staff have tested positive.

This is, apparently, incorrect.

It's already up to five.

From the sounds of things, Pence wasn't really around these people all that much recently. He's probably fine, but, he's going to lose access to his best help at a time he can't afford that.

Seems like the Super Spreader in Chief has struck again, creating a new outbreak in the White House. It's like he wants to lose at this point considering polling has been making it clear for months that his refusal to handle the pandemic is what is strangling his campaign. That there is a new outbreak starting in the White House three weeks after the first one did, less than two weeks before the election, is pretty much a massive gift to Democrats. "Trump caught COVID during an outbreak in the White House and refused to change his behavior, leading to another outbreak. What makes you think he will change in a second term?"

[Kaleredar]

Interesting.

So, in the unlikely case that Pence dies, Pelosi doesn't need to be next in line. There just needs to be nobody next in line to replace Trump (until Biden does in this case) if Trump resigns early, nobody to pardon Trump, and therefore, Trump will

1) face the consequences for his words and actions, or
2) be pardoned by Biden, or
3) die of stress waiting for 1 vs 2 to show up.

I really, really doubt that Trump will resign.

Nixon was smart to do so and did so in shame.

Trump is far, far too self-centered to do so. Admitting defeat isn't his thing, even if it is the technically "smart" thing to do to avoid the wholly deserved punishment for his crimes.

[Elegiac]

I really, really doubt that Trump will resign.

There's one situation in which I can see him doing so, actually - if resignation was the price of a plea deal for some of the criminal charges coming down the pipe.

Nixon had the benefit of a federal pardon. Trump won't.

[Breccia]

It's like he wants to lose at this point

The term you're looking for is "low energy".

I've been thinking about the October Surprise situation and, recently, I've started to say "Uh...wait, was Hunter Biden's laptop it? Is that all they've got?" Something the FBI didn't think was a problem, something neither Barr nor the Senate are investigating. Well, pretty sure. Hold on.

(checks news)

Huh, the Senate's been talking about this since March. And...nothing?

(checks news again)

Oh here it is, they found no wrongdoing Sept 24. Now, that was before the laptop, but near as I can tell there's been no new investigation -- and even if Trump announced one tomorrow,
a) we've seen US Intel, WH staff, etc etc basically say "Trump's tweets aren't orders, even if he says they're orders in the tweet itself" and
b) they have about a week to find anything damning and also make it public, and
c) somehow have to avoid the appearance of a rigged investigation into a political rival with evidence somewhere between "circumstancial" and "Borat movie", and
d) a massive number of people have already voted, so the point is likely moot regardless.

Why did Trump put all his faith in this? If he thought this was enough, why did he wait so long? If he didn't think this was enough, why didn't he bring up something else?

Is this really all Trump has left? A 60 Minutes interview that went so badly that he aired it himself, what the fuck for I have no idea, he and an increasing number of staff members and family catching the lethal oubreak that's hitting record numbers as Trump says we're rounding the corner, he lost every single debate including one against himself, there's no COVID relief bill and McConnell made it clear that was Trump's fault by
(a) refusing to make a bill of their own, and
(b) greeting Trump's call for an even larger bill than Pelosi's with "no, we're not even going to bring that to the floor"

and Trump thinks that a laptop in the possession of his personal lawyer with no role in law enforcement or government is enough?

...when is he invading Iran, again?

- - - Updated - - -

Trump is far, far too self-centered to do so.

He would totally resign Jan 19th and let Pence pardon him. That's completely in his character. He'd even play it off as a bigly yuge best thing ever done moment. "Isn't that nice, Pence was the 46th President, wasn't that a great thing I did?"

See, Trump must have been told by now that he can't pardon himself and expect it to 100% work. By the time that pardon gets challenged in court, Biden would be President. Look at Trump's usual path through court. A lot of the time, he's crushing someone who he was contractually obligated to pay but then didn't. But when he goes up against an even or stronger foe who doesn't back down, he settles or pleads out.

Point to Trump University.

Point to Trump's charity.

Point to the times he was so racist he was sued by the federal government. Twice.

Trump would rather settle than lose. The only way to do that, is for Pence to do that. And he'll still try to spin it as "I did nothing wrong, but I'm going to stick it to the Democrats before they try to investigate me the way I promised to investigate them!" and get massive applause.

[Kaleredar]

He would totally resign Jan 19th and let Pence pardon him. That's completely in his character. He'd even play it off as a bigly yuge best thing ever done moment. "Isn't that nice, Pence was the 46th President, wasn't that a great thing I did?"

See, Trump must have been told by now that he can't pardon himself and expect it to 100% work. By the time that pardon gets challenged in court, Biden would be President. Look at Trump's usual path through court. A lot of the time, he's crushing someone who he was contractually obligated to pay but then didn't. But when he goes up against an even or stronger foe who doesn't back down, he settles or pleads out.

Point to Trump University.

Point to Trump's charity.

Point to the times he was so racist he was sued by the federal government. Twice.

Trump would rather settle than lose. The only way to do that, is for Pence to do that. And he'll still try to spin it as "I did nothing wrong, but I'm going to stick it to the Democrats before they try to investigate me the way I promised to investigate them!" and get massive applause.

After the election and the writing is on the wall, perhaps so. But that's still certainly admitting a good deal of defeat, and also admitting that Trump committed those crime, because that's what a pardon means.

But it's also worth noting that the speculative president Pence can only pardon Trump of federal crimes... not State or civil matters, which I'm sure any number of his other crimes could certainly fall under.

Whether his moronic base believes he's doing it for bigly huge reasons is irrelevant. It'd be a pretty damning admission of guilt for the majority of the American people, and, as I said, wouldn't even absolve him of all his potential crimes.

- - - Updated - - -

There's one situation in which I can see him doing so, actually - if resignation was the price of a plea deal for some of the criminal charges coming down the pipe.

Nixon had the benefit of a federal pardon. Trump won't.

I just don't see him being 1) smart enough to realize the mountainous shitstorm coming down the pipes at him, at least not enough to be 2) humble enough to admit actual wrongdoing.

He's far too up his own ass on the matter. If Trump had any actual shrewdness or sense of self-preservation, he wouldn't have put himself in a situation to catch COVID or stare into the fucking sun. Yeah, remember when that happened?

It's far more likely he tries to flee the country or take some sort of plea implicating his buddies after leaving the relative gaze of the public eye when Biden is president.

Again, this is all assuming Biden wins. If Trump holds onto the presidency, he can just keep towing his criminal line. It's been made exceptionally clear that the republicans in government will make absolutely no motions to enforce the rule of law when it comes to Trump.

[Poopymonster]

The MAGA cult is apparently so incensed by the fact that AOC and Omar streamed Among Us to encourage people to vote that they're now hacking the game and flooding chat with "Vote Trump 2020" messages. Because the surest way to win people over to your side is to ruin one of their forms of entertainment.

Among Us developers scramble to block massive ‘Eris Loris’ spam attack

Do they hate women that much because of the lack of pussy they give it to them?

It's in the handbook.

[SirBeef]

It's in the handbook.

The best part about her is she lived he last years on welfare. Total hypocrite. Like all of them who will gladly take "government handouts" when they are old.

[Breccia]

Using JH data, hte US has hit 80,000 plus caases twice.

One was Friday. One was Saturday.

Trump said we were turning the corner. Trump lied.

[SirBeef]

Using JH data, hte US has hit 80,000 plus caases twice.

One was Friday. One was Saturday.

Trump said we were turning the corner. Trump lied.

Of course he lied. He opened his mouth.

Also this nearly 30 year old gem. https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/s...66707068874752

[Poopymonster]

Using JH data, hte US has hit 80,000 plus caases twice.

One was Friday. One was Saturday.

Trump said we were turning the corner. Trump lied.

Well we did turn the corner. You know how taking a right would have been reduced numbers and deaths?

We ran the red light and took a sharp left.

[Paranoid Android]

White House raises white flag: “we aren’t going to control the pandemic” https://t.co/wmq7G0IA5Z

https://twitter.com/EricDKoch/status...923720192?s=19

Well they gave up. I hope most Americans become aware of this.

[Breccia]

“we aren’t going to control the pandemic”

Why would you give CNN, of all people, this ammunition?

[Adam Jensen]

Typhoid Trump is heading to a rally in my home state of Maine. I wish Janet Mills could just tell him to fuck off.

[Draco-Onis]

https://twitter.com/EricDKoch/status...923720192?s=19

Well they gave up. I hope most Americans become aware of this.

They gave up a long time ago but the ironic thing is this Trump wants people to forget about COVID so he holds these rallies which cause spikes which make people talk more about COVID. Trump is screwing himself every time he holds these super spreader events not only is he killing his voters he is making COVID dominate the news by being Trump.

[Breccia]

What we need to take from this isn't the WH admitting in public “we aren’t going to control the pandemic”

What we need to take from this is why not. Why aren't we, and by "we" I mean the White House of course, going to control the pandemic?

[D Luniz]

They gave up a long time ago but the ironic thing is this Trump wants people to forget about COVID so he holds these rallies which cause spikes which make people talk more about COVID. Trump is screwing himself every time he holds these super spreader events not only is he killing his voters he is making COVID dominate the news by being Trump.

what gets me is that (and its very likely they are spreading among themselves in those rallies) this is just a week or two before the election that he has convinced most his backers to wait till election day to vote in person. A time period that might see them in the middle of symptoms that would make them being able to vote in person nearly impossible

[Breccia]

Pence "singlehandedly" swaps the narrative from the Fake News Hunter Biden story to himself and his staff, with so many of them testing positive.

It dominated the Sunday talk shows, including Chris "also hospitalized" Christie saying Pence should stay home.

I think everybody's got to put the health of the people they're going to be in touch with first.

You got to keep yourself away from everybody and I'm a little bit surprised

Schumer also correctly pointed out that Pence sometimes wanders around the Senate, and therefore, Pence is actually now a risk to democracy.

Considering the Republicans’ refusal [to] follow CDC guidelines regarding quarantining and contact tracing, I would recommend that you not congregate in the Senate chamber today and that you cast your votes quickly and from a safe distance

Bolded for "circle the part where what he said isn't true". We've discussed the contact racing in particular on these very forums.