Yes, I have been watching MSNBC again, and I am grateful and thankful for the likes of Jason Johnson and Michael Beschloss as guests on this historic day in America. I enjoy watching Joy Reid, but I think she was taking the estabishment group think line that “This is a sad day in America.” Johnson was like, “No, I am happy!” And Beschloss dropped another historical nugget about American presidents and their places as “kings” in our political system. Beschloss confirmed what anyone who isn’t Republican understands: if we had indicted and convicted Nixon, we would not have had a Donald Trump. And Rev. Sharpton reminded us all that Trump is looked down upon in Manhattan, and how appropriate it will be for Trump to be arraigned in the same building as the Central Park Five.
And I am with Jason Johnson. I am not sad today. I’m happy. As Johnson pointed out, our flawed justice system is working! It would have been terribly depressing if there has been no indictment for Trump! And that is what Johnson (and myself) was worried about!
Yes, there is no guarantee that Trump will ever be convicted of his many crimes, but a New York City DA has done something that most in the Washington establishment have fought against for decades. A former president has been charged with crimes. This is something that the Department of Justice should have done at least two years back! From all appearances, this is the same case that the Southern District of New York had the goods on with Trump, but they never fucking did!
And there is NO REASONABLE EXPLANATION PROVIDED FROM THE DOJ ON THIS!
Thus, this leads into the segment with Michael Beschloss. Reid asked Beschloss for his perspective, and he said it out loud: the American justice and political system has treated presidents like kings. And he went further and stated the obvious. If Richard Nixon had been indicted and convicted of his Watergate crimes, we wouldn’t have had a Donald Trump. Instead, President Ford pardoned Nixon.
And Beschloss stated how corrosive this move was on the presidency. Beschloss spoke with Reagan’s Chief of Staff Howard Baker years after the Iran-Contra Affair. Baker let it be known that he had talked with Democrats in Congress, and THEY ALL AGREED THAT REAGAN WOULD NOT BE IMPEACHED OR CHARGED WITH ANY CRIMES! This confirms what the NYT reported many years ago that Democrats didn’t have the stomach to impeach and try Reagan.
And this bipartisan cover for Republican Presidents who commit crimes went up to Donald Trump. Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated in 2007 that there would be no impeachment hearings into the Iraq War. Then, President Obama made the famous, “We are looking forward not backwards.” to wave away investigating of George W. Bush.
What both failed to realize is that this was a one way street with Republicans. They all conveniently forgot about Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Congressman Henry Hyde admitted that Republicans were getting even for what happened to Nixon. That all went down the memory hole.
Then we got Donald Trump.
Beschloss also added that he thinks the DOJ memo on not indicting sitting presidents is just wrong. The infamous memo was written by the Nixon DOJ! And it was not a law but a RULE. But this was written in stone as far as Special Counsel Mueller was concerned who was investigating Trump for his actions with the Russians during the 2016 Election. Mueller decided to let the report “speak for itself.”
Translation: I cannot do anything about Trump’s obstruction of justice.
It was only when Trump tried to extort Ukraine for “dirt” on Joe Biden that it was the final straw for House Democrats. And do not get me wrong, House Democrats did the right thing on both impeachments of Trump. Who let him off the hook was Senator Mitch McConnell and his cronies in the U.S. Senate.
So here we are today. With a Manhattan DA being the first to charge a former president with a crime. And it is here that I want to interject what Rev. Al Sharpton had to say about Donald Trump’s indictment. Sharpton knows Trump, and he told the story about how Trump views himself as an “outsider” to Manhattan. Trump is from Queens, and according to Sharpton, Trump was looked down upon by the Manhattan elite.
So you can guess how humiliating, according to Sharpton, this indictment is for Trump. He is going to appear in the same building where the Central Park Five were arraigned. Those were the black teenagers who were falsely accused of raping a woman in Central Park, and Trump took out a full page ad in the NYT stating the Central Park Five were guilty and deserved the death penalty.
So thank you gentlemen for your comments!