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A damaged and dangerous president is feeling his power
by digby
Against the wishes of his staff, Trump decided to sit down and chat for half an hour with the New York Times yesterday. And he really let it all hang out. Here are a few excerpts on one particular terrifying issue just to give you a flavor:
SCHMIDT: What’s your expectation on Mueller? When do you —
TRUMP: I have no expectation. I can only tell you that there is absolutely no collusion. Everybody knows it. And you know who knows it better than anybody? The Democrats. They walk around blinking at each other.
SCHMIDT: But when do you think he’ll be done in regards to you —
TRUMP: I don’t know.
SCHMIDT: But does that bother you?
TRUMP: No, it doesn’t bother me because I hope that he’s going to be fair. I think that he’s going to be fair. And based on that [inaudible]. There’s been no collusion. But I think he’s going to be fair. And if he’s fair — because everybody knows the answer already, Michael. I want you to treat me fairly. O.K.?
SCHMIDT: Believe me. This is —
TRUMP: Everybody knows the answer already. There was no collusion. None whatsoever.
He said there was no collusion 16 times. Protest much?
Throughout this part of the interview he talks like The Godfather. he keeps saying “I won’t do what I have the power to do as long as I’m treated fairly, which means that everyone will be fine as long as he and his are exonerated. If not — off with their heads.
By that he means Hillary Clinton.
TRUMP: [Inaudible.] There was tremendous collusion on behalf of the Russians and the Democrats. There was no collusion with respect to my campaign. I think I’ll be treated fairly. Timingwise, I can’t tell you. I just don’t know. But I think we’ll be treated fairly.
SCHMIDT: You control the Justice Department. Should they reopen that email investigation?
Here’s the threat:
TRUMP: What I’ve done is, I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department. But for purposes of hopefully thinking I’m going to be treated fairly, I’ve stayed uninvolved with this particular matter.
Be nice and maybe I won’t LOCK HER UP.
And think about what he said there: “I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.”
If the Republican party allows him to do it, he can do it. That’s absolutely correct. The power lies with them. Everything depends upon their integrity, their willingness to defend the constitution and rein in a rogue president who becomes an authoritarian.
Do you feel confident about that?
Then he quoted alleged liberal Alan Dershowitz saying that collusion isn’t crime.
No. 1, there is no collusion, No. 2, collusion is not a crime, but even if it was a crime, there was no collusion. And he said that very strongly. He said there was no collusion. And he has studied this thing very closely. I’ve seen him a number of times. There is no collusion, and even if there was, it’s not a crime. But there’s no collusion. I don’t even say [inaudible]. I don’t even go that far.
He slagged Sessions for recusing himself again and added this:
TRUMP: I don’t want to get into loyalty, but I will tell you that, I will say this: Holder protected President Obama. Totally protected him. When you look at the I.R.S. scandal, when you look at the guns for whatever, when you look at all of the tremendous, ah, real problems they had, not made-up problems like Russian collusion, these were real problems.
When you look at the things that they did, and Holder protected the president. And I have great respect for that, I’ll be honest, I have great respect for that.
He is an authoritarian thug. He believes he has total power. And as I pointed out above, he does — as long as his unctuous sycophants in the GOP support him. Together, they actually do have total power. He can fire the entire top layer of the Justice Department until he finds a toady to do his bidding.
And he can follow his favorite president, Andrew Jackson’s edict when the Supreme Court ruled against him, “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!”
His off-the-cuff comments indicate that he is completely capable of doing such a thing because he’s a deranged, delusional egomaniac who is completely unschooled in the constitution and has no respect for its underlying principles anyway.
This next year is going to be a big test. He has not found humility in the office. He is more grandiose than ever and he’s feeling his oats. If the Democrats can hold him back for a year, we might be able to stop him with a congressional check on his power in 2019. But that hope is all we have. The Republicans have shown they are not going to stop him.
Fasten your seat belts. 2018 is going to be a very tumultuous year, a make or break year. I’ll be here documenting what’s going on and I’ll try to keep my head, but it won’t be easy. This isn’t normal, people. It’s the biggest test of our system since 1860.
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