In December 2016, Trump tweeted his willingness to pardon Bill Cosby. Back then, the tweet didn’t seem so weird, among the prolific sea of Trump scandal. But now, as he is starting to hint that he may just pardon himself and his family out of this Russian debacle, that old Cosby tweet is sort of significant.
Since that weird tweet, Cosby was ruled ‘not guilty’, but you can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Cosby was guilty. Would Trump actually overrule a judge’s decision, confident that his hunches were more accurate on the Cosby case?
On Saturday, Trump tweeted that he has “complete power to pardon” himself. It is astonishing, how quickly Trump’s defense has changed. Trump used to be adamant about his innocence in collusion with Russia. The past week though, Trump has been tweeting a lot about pardons. As if to say, ‘Investigations are futile, because I could just pardon myself.’
One would assume, that if the president was innocent, why would he start making threats about pardoning himself if found guilty? You don’t have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to realize how bad this makes you look.
Trump’s attempts at reining in his investigation is not new. Trump already fired James Comey, who was Director of the FBI, for refusing to pledge loyalty to him. Plus, he has repeatedly tweeted threats of firing the new head of the investigation into him. Trump’s lawyer said,
“James Comey ignored that, did not give the president or anyone else at that point when he leaked the information the opportunity to assert that privilege,” Sekulow continued. “And I think that was not only a dereliction of his duties, I think it was a violation of his constitutional oath, and violated criminal statutes.” ABCNews article
Instead of defending himself, Trump is devoting his time to delegitimizing the investigation. Such a course of action is indicative of guilt.
Trump’s change of defense came, the day his little punk kid admitted that he met with Russians to score some dirt on Hillary. Such a statement really blew Trump’s legal team out of the water. They could no longer try to fool the world that Russia wasn’t helping them in the campaign, cause Don. Jr., just admitted it.
After Jr. admitted that his father was guilty of what the senate investigation was trying to determine, Trump changed his tune.
Republicans are also clamoring around Trump, defending his power to pardon himself. Senator Rand Paul, for example, told CNN in an interview that,
“I think in all likelihood he does. I think that some of this hasn’t been adjudicated,” Paul said.
Trump has put republicans in a corner. After endorsing a candidate-turned-president, who could turn out to be a Russian spy, these republican politicians could be kissing their careers goodbye. They have gone too far to turn back now. Their fates are sealed if they remain on the sinking ship.
Are there actually female Trump supporters? I’d love to hear a female Trump supporter’s opinion on Trump pardoning Cosby. He was declared innocent. But Trump’s tweet was before the verdict. I feel it just shows us how easily the president would issue a pardon.
Stay tuned…..
