In The Before Times

Created
Sat, 08/06/2024 - 05:00
Updated
Sat, 08/06/2024 - 05:00
Convicted criminal Donald Trump wanted to jail his predecessor It’s important that people understand just what crock this new line about Trump never calling for the prosecution of his political enemies is. He’s a liar, of course. But there’s more to this than just Trump’s usual mendacity, which Aaron Rupar ably covers in this free article from his newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. It’s tough to remember now as Donald Trump regularly wails about the need for total presidential immunity, but four years ago, the then-president was a huge proponent of prosecuting presidents. In the spring and summer of 2020, Trump desperately tried to make a big scandal out of “Obamagate” — the idea that President Obama had done, uh, something or other worthy of serious investigation and possible prosecution. (Trump at one point called the non-scandal the “biggest political crime in American history, by far!”) We won’t get too into the details, because Trump certainly didn’t. The below exchange from a news conference on May 11, 2020, underscores that he had no real understanding of what “Obamagate” was even supposed to be. “Some terrible things happened and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again,” claimed Trump. “What is the crime exactly that you’re accusing him of?” reporter Philip Rucker followed up. “You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody,” Trump replied. Trump’s calls for Republicans and DOJ officials to act on his made-up scandal didn’t amount to anything, and the…