Jose Fly wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 1:46 pm
bjs1 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 4:36 pm
Zorek wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:26 pm
Question 1: Should Trump be arrested and charged?
Arresting your party’s primary political opponent on something this nebulous is a dangerous. The apparent crime is recording repaying hush money as "legal expenses."
You're forgetting
the case of John Edwards.
In remembering the case against John Edwards, we might also remember that he beat all the charges. Both then and now, legal experts note that it is quite difficult to prove these kind of allegations.
And so a Democratic district attorney going after a former President and leading candidate for the Republican nomination for what is by all accounts a hard-to-prove misdemeanor offense just seems ill-advised, in my opinion.
I deeply appreciate the principle that no one should be above the law, and that, in not pursuing this case, we'd be giving the same guy who led the "lock her up" chants a bit of a pass. But if Trump is going to be indicted for anything, let it be for his interference in the 2020 election and the attack on the Capitol. Those actions, and the authoritarian impulse behind them, pose a real and ongoing threat to the country, and so are worth the political turmoil any indictment would likely bring. A shaky case on paying hush-money to a porn star is not.
Zorek wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:26 pm
Question 3: Is Elon Musk right in his observation?
I don't think so. I think an indictment would likely cause Republicans (including the other Republican candidates) to rally around Trump in the short term, and that might give him a boost in his campaign for the GOP nomination. But it also might cause Republican primary voters to conclude Trump simply has too much baggage to win the general election, and go for DeSantis or another candidate instead.
Either way, I don't think anyone wins the 2024 election in a "landslide," and certainly not Trump.
AgnosticBoy wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 10:16 pm
If Trump is convicted, the legally, he can not be president again.
I think that's mistaken. Aside from the age and term limits imposed by the Constitution, the only other thing that would bar Trump from running for President is impeachment. A criminal conviction would not, in itself, prevent him from running.