Trump to Clinton: “You’re Jailed!”
October 10, 2016
The scorecard for the Presidential debates is: Clinton 2, Trump 0. From my perspective, the second debate wasn’t even close.
The first half hour of the second debate was a Democrat’s dream, as Trump appeared intent on self-destruction. He spoke like a Mafia thug, frequently interrupted Hillary Clinton and insulted the moderators. Trump’s attempts to dodge questions were obvious and clumsy.
It is true that Trump recovered his stride later in the debate, and he landed some punches, rhetorically speaking, on Obamacare and the email issues. But Clinton was poised, polished and tough. She hit Trump hard, and the clash between the two was the harshest, most personal debate I’ve ever seen. Some moderate voters may have been turned off by her comments…but some may have been impressed by her strength.
Some pundits seem to think that Trump had a good night….because he did not implode, as he did in the first debate. That’s a low bar, though. Trump’s mission was to win back suburban, moderate voters whom he has alienated with his previous statements. I can’t imagine that he accomplished that.
Instead, Trump gave us the ugliest, most scary moment of this campaign, when he vowed to send Hillary Clinton to jail if he were President.
Here’s the exchange:
Trump: “I’m going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there’s never been so many lies, so much deception. “
Clinton: “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country”.
Trump: “Because you’d be in jail”.
The second ugliest moment was when several members of the audience cheered Trump’s statement.
Note that Trump did not accuse Clinton of committing a crime. His only stated rationale was that she lied about her email practices.
If lying alone were a crime, Trump would be sentenced for life. Clinton did lie about aspects of her use of email in her public statements, which was reprehensible. However, the FBI officials said that she was truthful in her interview with them. So she did not lie under oath — i.e., commit perjury — which would be a crime.
Furthermore, the FBI decided, after a year-long investigation, that Clinton did not commit a criminal violation through her email practices, although the bureau criticized her for being “extremely careless”. The FBI also said, specifically, that Clinton staff members did not deliberately destroy any relevant emails after they received a subpoena. Trump’s accusation on that issue is false.
The FBI Director, James Comey, a Republican said that the decision not to seek an indictment was straightforward and no “reasonable” prosecutor would pursue such a case. So what would Trump’s special prosecutor uncover that the FBI did not? The likely answer is, nothing.
All of this leads to the chilling conclusion that as President, Trump would try to use bogus legal charges to send political opponents to jail. That may show “strong” leadership in Putin’s Russia, or a banana republic, but it’s a threat to the rule of law and our democracy. Doesn’t Trump understand that our rule of law is one reason why so many immigrants flock to our country…and not to Putin’s Paradise?
The second telling moment was when Trump brutally chopped Mike Pence off at the knees. In his debate with Tim Kaine, Pence had said that the United States might have to take military action — airstrikes — if the Assad government continued to attack civilians in Aleppo. Pence was expressing concern about the humanitarian crisis in that city caused by Syrian and Russian aerial bombardments.
A moderator asked Trump for his views on the subject. “He and I haven’t spoken and we don’t agree,” Trump said.
Trump then defended the Assad regime because it kills ISIS terrorists. Trump either did not know about the huge civilian casualties in Aleppo, or he did not care. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton referred repeatedly to “Russian aggression” in Syria and the need to confront it.
Trump’s abrupt answer demonstrated, again, his problem with impulse control and his inability to speak subtly about complicated foreign policy issues. Mike Pence did a heroic job in the VP debate trying to defuse criticisms about Trump; that was hard work. His reward, a few days later, was to be thrown under the bus. Trump could have finessed the questions, but he had to show — brutally — that he was the boss.
Prospective candidates for Cabinet positions in a Trump administration, take note. One step out of line, and you’re dead. Even if you know the subject matter and the Boss does not.
The mystery, for me, is why this election is so close, and why so many voters remain “undecided”. Many of them talk about being frustrated because they face a choice between two evils. Seems to me that there is only one evil here.
The Wall Street Democrat
