berg80
Diamond Member
- Oct 28, 2017
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A lot of people seem to have forgotten what made Donald Trump’s presidency so dangerous. Wasn’t it just a lot of loudmouthed name-calling, like tweeting that his own secretary of state was “dumb as a rock”? What did he do that was so terrible after all? NATO is intact, inflammatory policies like the so-called Muslim ban and the southern border wall were mostly thwarted, and the economy did well, at least until Covid. We survived — right?
It’s true that the Trump presidency generated hysteria and hyperbole on both sides of the political divide. But it also produced real threats to the Constitution and the rule of law. So it’s incumbent on us to separate the bluster from the genuine menace, the sound and fury from the specific, palpable ways that Trump damaged American democracy.
In “Where Tyranny Begins,” David Rohde, a longtime foreign correspondent and national security reporter now with NBC News, takes up one very serious assault on democratic norms under Trump: the naked politicization of the Justice Department.
Trump was the first president since Nixon to utterly reject the idea that federal law enforcement should operate independently of the president’s personal desires or prejudices. Rather, he sought to use the attorney general, special prosecutors, U.S. attorneys and the F.B.I. as instruments to help himself and his friends and to punish his enemies.
www.nytimes.com
Hyperbole on both sides, I think that's a fair assessment. And it hurt the credibility of the very real observations made about the threat Don posed and poses, then and now.
No doubt Don's minions will counter with the well worn lies about Biden weaponizing the DoJ against Individual 1. But the proof is in the pudding and the bowl is empty. The DoJ had no control over the decisions made by disparate grand juries when they recommended indictments against trump and his co-defendants.
The author delineates some of trump's more serious abuses..........Trump fired the F.B.I. director James Comey after learning that the agency was investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. He browbeat Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the inquiry. He threatened to sack the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller. He had his next attorney general, William Barr, name another special prosecutor to investigate F.B.I. agents involved in the Russia probe. He punished agency officials, like the deputy director Andrew McCabe, who Trump believed conspired against him. He pardoned Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and other cronies. He pressured Barr and other Justice officials to abet his schemes to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
It’s true that the Trump presidency generated hysteria and hyperbole on both sides of the political divide. But it also produced real threats to the Constitution and the rule of law. So it’s incumbent on us to separate the bluster from the genuine menace, the sound and fury from the specific, palpable ways that Trump damaged American democracy.
In “Where Tyranny Begins,” David Rohde, a longtime foreign correspondent and national security reporter now with NBC News, takes up one very serious assault on democratic norms under Trump: the naked politicization of the Justice Department.
Trump was the first president since Nixon to utterly reject the idea that federal law enforcement should operate independently of the president’s personal desires or prejudices. Rather, he sought to use the attorney general, special prosecutors, U.S. attorneys and the F.B.I. as instruments to help himself and his friends and to punish his enemies.
Why Were Justice Dept. Officials Scared to Talk to This Book’s Author?
In “Where Tyranny Begins,” the journalist David Rohde reveals how former President Donald Trump tried to use the federal law enforcement agency to help himself and punish his foes.
Hyperbole on both sides, I think that's a fair assessment. And it hurt the credibility of the very real observations made about the threat Don posed and poses, then and now.
No doubt Don's minions will counter with the well worn lies about Biden weaponizing the DoJ against Individual 1. But the proof is in the pudding and the bowl is empty. The DoJ had no control over the decisions made by disparate grand juries when they recommended indictments against trump and his co-defendants.
The author delineates some of trump's more serious abuses..........Trump fired the F.B.I. director James Comey after learning that the agency was investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. He browbeat Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the inquiry. He threatened to sack the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller. He had his next attorney general, William Barr, name another special prosecutor to investigate F.B.I. agents involved in the Russia probe. He punished agency officials, like the deputy director Andrew McCabe, who Trump believed conspired against him. He pardoned Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and other cronies. He pressured Barr and other Justice officials to abet his schemes to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
