No. of Recommendations: 6
So your argument is that the guy with 91 felony indictments would be concerned with the letter of the law and wouldn't put a lackey in a position to do anything against the law during a second administration?
Yeah, pretty much. You'll notice that even though he's always skated really close to the line of what's legal and not, he's managed to spend his whole life lawyered up and staying on the "legal" side of things. Or at least avoided all of the "clearly illegal" stuff. There's a reason he loves to use lawyers the way he does - he likes to be the guy who stretches the laws, not breaks them in obvious ways.
The Georgia voting case is emblematic of that. There's a reason why his efforts to influence Raffensperger took place on a conference call with numerous participants, rather than (fancifully) having a special operations team deliver that message "privately" at 3:00 a.m. in his house. And why he tried to stay in power by having lawyers and allies arguing about elector certification, rather than just declaring martial law or actually using federal power to sway the election. Because he's completely unwilling to knowingly and obviously break the law. He wants to stay juuuuuuuuuust inside the line, where he can avoid taking any real risks.
He ends up breaking the law because he's not that sharp at knowing where the line is, has spent most of his adult life in a closely-held corporation where the lines are different, and can't get good lawyers (or won't listen to them) to keep him inside that line. But there's little evidence that Trump genuinely is willing to break the law in a way that could expose him to actual danger.
When Orange Jesus said, "If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them," you feel comfortable dismissing his threats because they don't have a legal basis?
No, I feel comfortable dismissing that because it's the sort of thing he would say to a crowd of adoring supporters in order to get an applause line, but never actually do when he's in office. It's why he never did "lock her up," why he never did "build the wall." He's a bully, but a cowardly bully who dares little. He doesn't pick risky fights. He doesn't stick his neck out. He'll engage in petty vindictive torments against weak folks that have no real way to strike back at him, but not against bigger targets who can genuinely lawyer up and push back on him.
