Presidents have obstructed justice in the past making the claim that the Trump, being the chief law enforcement officer, is above the law hard to believe. Both Nixon and Clinton were impeached for obstruction of justice but spared from criminal prosecution. The best defense Trump supporters have in this case is the claim that the President was just doing what the Constitution said was allowed by dismissing a member of the cabinet. Presidents have fired cabinet members many times in the past for incompetence, disloyalty, or other reasons and both the courts and Congress have made several rulings upholding this. In the end the president can remove public official, especially cabinet member. The Constitution also states that it would be a violation of separation of powers if the president was impeached for preforming his duties as outlined by the Constitution. This argument for Trump's innocence is much more convincing as the President was firing a person he has the right to fire, but the fact that Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI is clearly proof that he obstructed justice when he told the FBI to drop the case. It is up to our Congressmen to decide on whether to bring these charges of obstruction of justice to the table when it comes to the possibility of impeachment.
1- Do you think President Trump obstructed justice?
2- It seems that no matter what Trump does, his supporters will always be there to defend him. How far do you think Trump supporters will go before realizing they are defending a possible criminal?
3- What are your thoughts on whether or not the Russians interfered with the election and how far up the Trump chain of command do you think the collusion goes?
1) On the surface level, I do not think president Trump obstructed justice. It is his constitutional right to fire those who disobey the law. However, I do think there is more to this story than it may seem. I think that the fact that Trump dropped the charges a couple of months ago is rather odd, and there is a definite possibility that Trump obstructed justice previously.
ReplyDelete3. It is not a question: the Russian's interfered with the election. This is a fact. The question now is how far up in the Trump presidential campaign the collusion goes.
ReplyDeleteAs of now, as a result of the Mueller investigation, we know that Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopoulos all broke the law by either colluding with Russia or lying about contacts they had with the Russian government.
The evidence also suggests that Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. had contacts with the Russian government. However, I am not sure if Trump participated in this collusion at all.
1. It seems questionable what President Trump's impact in this situation is. One one side, he is deemed innocent, but on the other he is perceived as a liar, and with having direct ties to Russia. I believe the most likely case is where Trump is in between these two polarized ideas. Similar as to what Jacob mentioned, it is not necessarily clear that Trump participated at all, but it does seem suspicious.
ReplyDelete2. I think trump's supporters would go very far until their support would even begin to diminish. As Trump stated back in 2016, he said he could kill a man and still have all his supporters. That statement alone should have got him to loose followers, considering Howard Dean lost an election because of him simply yelling "yeah". It also just seems that trump's supporters only give support because they want to stay against the democratic party no matter what, since Net Neutrality was put in place during Obama's time and was recently repealed during Trump's time, the repeal gaining a lot of support from republicans. Overall, it does not seem like Trump's supporters are going anywhere anytime soon.
ReplyDelete1. As everyone has previously mentioned, I don't doubt at all that something shady went down in the election and Russia had an obvious hand in it. However, when we pose these other questions such as how far the collusion goes, does Trump deserved to be impeached, and how crazy is everyone for not turning the country upside down from this event, I think it's important to step back from the situation and just view what's happening in front of us and how "unprecedented" it is, for lack of a better term. We're talking about a man who's been the #1 rated center of attention (literally). He's been under inspection far more than the next ten relevant people combined, and this trend has been nonstop since over a year and a half ago. When answering these questions, it's important to remember this. Every decision he's made or news he's been a part of has been analyzed beyond belief. In my mind, this makes me think about what really happens in the government. I'm not trying to say that events like the Russian involvement happen all the time in every presidency, but it calls into question how involved our government is. Furthermore, Trump is more or less a political outsider from the perspective that he's certainly not trained to handle any of this effectively, let alone competent enough to stay out of headlines. I think at times like these, it's important to step back from all the news, developments, and headlines and just take a collective breath and see how things play out before jumping to conclusions. Clearly, something shady happened in the election. Has it happened before Trump? Did this event specifically involve Trump himself? Should we be offering million dollar rewards to find ways to impeach the president? At the moment, I don't think anyone clearly knows the answer. However, time will tell I guess, and we'll know sooner or later.
ReplyDelete3. Trump has some clear ties to Russia and in the way he is dealing with different hearings and the amount of official who have left positions or been fired because of "possible" connection its almost certain something wrong is happening. Its really tough to say who exactly was involved or how far it goes into the political system but we know for sure that the people held on committee at the moment are there for a reason. Other wise I think it would potentially go up to cabinet positions. This would make sense because they might be help to Russia or doing "favors".
ReplyDelete2. As mentioned in class and in the comments above, aside from the obvious, Trump supporters will support Trump to far extents. Because of Trump's roughly 35% approval rating that will pretty much always be there, there will never be a person that doesn't support him, even though most do to spite the Democratic party. Unfortunately, even if Trump were to sexually assault someone or murder someone on the street, there will still be supporters. Though they may not support him directly, there will be people staying to their Republican sides no matter what. All we know now, though, is that Trump isn't going anywhere sometime soon, and neither are his supporters.
ReplyDelete2. I believe that many Trump supporters will go to far extents to prove their confidence and belief in trump and his administration. Many of his supporters without doubt are racist from the South and don't have the education or knowledge to understand how many of the statements that Trump makes are either difficult to accomplish or in turn will negatively effects them. Previously, Trump has stated that he could shoot someone on 5th fifth avenue and not loose an voters. Even after insulting his followers, Trump still has support because people appreciate his honesty and personality of making blunt comments. It is sad to see that so many Americans continue to support Trump for who he is and not for political reasons.
ReplyDelete2. I believe that trump supporters will go as far as trump wants them to. The unfortunate reality is that trump not only controls what his supporters perceive, but how they perceive it. In a video by Vox (linked below) they explain the concept of the Overton window which is the window of ideologies we perceive as normal or expected. Radical thoughts an actions (like trumps racism etc.) can move that window. As long as trump moves this window slowly a headline like "trump assaults ... " could become just as "regular and expected" as some of the headlines we see today about the Tax Bill (which would have been unheard of just months ago).
ReplyDeleteVideo article:
https://www.vox.com/2017/12/21/16806676/strikethrough-how-trump-overton-window-extreme-normal
1. I think he did obstruct justice, but not by firing Flynn. It was clear that Flynn was guilty and knowing this, Trump told the FBI to drop the case against him. This is an obstruction of justice since it shows that he is favoring Flynn rather than acting along good morals as the Constitution says the president should.
ReplyDelete2. I think that Trump's supporters would continue to defend him, even as a criminal. Trump once said that he could shoot someone, and people would still support him. Moreover, he has made several disgusting comments about women, and he still has female supporters. Based on the past, I highly doubt that being a criminal would stop people from supporting Trump.
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