The 45th POTUS - Donald J. Trump

[E.H. Ruddock]

Are we talking about a pardon for specific charges, or just impeachment? Because if it is impeachment, the answer is No. The language is basically “The President … shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”

[Green Habit]

But since Ford pardoned Nixon for crimes he hadn't yet been charged with, can Trump, while in office, pardon himself from criminal prosecution that might come after he's out of office?

This is a big question being asked, actually. I think the Supreme Court will ultimately have to rule on it. But there are many experts that think yes he could.

Trump doesn't need to do it himself, all he needs to do is a sycophantic AG that won't charge him with a crime in the first place.

[Norah]

But since Ford pardoned Nixon for crimes he hadn't yet been charged with, can Trump, while in office, pardon himself from criminal prosecution that might come after he's out of office?

This is a big question being asked, actually. I think the Supreme Court will ultimately have to rule on it. But there are many experts that think yes he could.

Trump doesn't need to do it himself, all he needs to do is a sycophantic AG that won't charge him with a crime in the first place.

Yeah, but my worry is Trump leaves office and on the last day says "I pardon me and everyone in my family from any potential crime they may be charged with in relation to..."

[Anders]

Nothing seems to bite on Trump anyway. Feel this will lead nowhere.

[@SkitchP]

when's the last time we hanged someone for treason?

Alan Thicke.

Chris Cornell

[simple schoolboy]

Am I the only one that just learned that Steve Bannon was involved with Chinese Gold Farmers (World of Warcraft Related)?

[Anders]

[tragabigzanda]

Am I the only one that just learned that Steve Bannon was involved with Chinese Gold Farmers (World of Warcraft Related)?

I heard that on NPR yesterday too.

[Superblood Wolfmoon]

Trump says he wouldn't have picked Sessions if he knew he'd recuse himself

God this guy's an idiot.

[McParadigm]

That whole interview is hilarious

[McParadigm]

SCHMIDT: But you didn’t——

TRUMP: It must have been a very important — must have been a very unimportant meeting, because I never even heard about it.

HABERMAN: No one told you a word, nothing? I know we talked about this on the plane a little bit.

TRUMP: No, nobody told me. I didn’t know noth—— It’s a very unimportant — sounded like a very unimportant meeting.

BAKER: But on the date you clinched the nominations with New Jersey and California and the primaries, when you give the speech that night, saying you’re going to give a speech about Hillary Clinton’s corrupt dealings with Russia and other countries, and that comes just three hours after Don Jr. —

TRUMP: Number one, remember, I made many of those speeches.

[Norah]

I don't know nothin'!

[Simple Torture]

You know, normal stuff:

ARABELLA KUSHNER: [enters room] Hi, Grandpa.

TRUMP: My granddaughter Arabella, who speaks — say hello to them in Chinese.

KUSHNER: Ni hao.

[laughter]

TRUMP: This is Ivanka. You know Ivanka.

IVANKA TRUMP: [from doorway] Hi, how are you? See you later, just wanted to come say hi.

TRUMP: She’s great. She speaks fluent Chinese. She’s amazing.

BAKER: That’s very impressive.

TRUMP: She spoke with President Xi [Jinping of China]. Honey? Can you say a few words in Chinese? Say, like, “I love you, Grandpa” —

KUSHNER: Wo ai ni, Grandpa.

BAKER: That’s great.

TRUMP: She’s unbelievable, huh?

[crosstalk]

TRUMP: Good, smart genes.

[McParadigm]

"Nobody trying to establish wrongdoing better look at my finances," says man with world's greatest genes.

[Biff Pocoroba]

If Mueller does start looking at finances as implied by the NYT, and not just Manafort's & Kushner's, it can get even more interesting than the Russian campaign stuff. And with that interview Trump is not giving an inch.

[McParadigm]

On Paris.

TRUMP: I have had the best reviews on foreign land. So I go to Poland and make a speech. Enemies of mine in the media, enemies of mine are saying it was the greatest speech ever made on foreign soil by a president. I’m saying, man, they cover [garbled]. You saw the reviews I got on that speech. Poland was beautiful and wonderful, and the reception was incredible.

-
On Macron.

TRUMP: I mean, really. He’s a very good person. And a tough guy, but look, he has to be. I think he is going to be a terrific president of France. But he does love holding my hand.

-
On the Bastille Day Parade.

TRUMP: But the Bastille Day parade was — now that was a super-duper — O.K. I mean, that was very much more than normal. They must have had 200 planes over our heads. Normally you have the planes and that’s it, like the Super Bowl parade. And everyone goes crazy, and that’s it. That happened for — and you know what else that was nice? It was limited. You know, it was two hours, and the parade ended. It didn’t go a whole day. They didn’t go crazy. You don’t want to leave, but you have to. Or you want to leave, really

-
On his economic plans.

TRUMP: It’s been a long time. Nothing changes. Wait till you see what we’re going to do on trade.

HABERMAN: Sounds like it’s going to be very interesting.

TRUMP: Much more interesting than anybody would understand.

HABERMAN: O.K.

-
On visiting Napoleon's tomb.

TRUMP: Well, Napoleon finished a little bit bad. But I asked that. So I asked the president, so what about Napoleon? He said: “No, no, no. What he did was incredible. He designed Paris.” [garbled] The street grid, the way they work, you know, the spokes. He did so many things even beyond. And his one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death. How many times has Russia been saved by the weather? [garbled]

[crosstalk/unintelligible]

TRUMP: Same thing happened to Hitler. Not for that reason, though. Hitler wanted to consolidate. He was all set to walk in. But he wanted to consolidate, and it went and dropped to 35 degrees below zero, and that was the end of that army.

[crosstalk]

But the Russians have great fighters in the cold. They use the cold to their advantage. I mean, they’ve won five wars where the armies that went against them froze to death. [crosstalk] It’s pretty amazing.

So, we’re having a good time. The economy is doing great.

[McParadigm]

The full discussion on Sessions actually reads as more damning (and so much dumber) than the excerpts.

-

TRUMP: Look, Sessions gets the job. Right after he gets the job, he recuses himself.

BAKER: Was that a mistake?

TRUMP: Well, Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else.

HABERMAN: He gave you no heads up at all, in any sense?

TRUMP: Zero. So Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. I then have — which, frankly, I think is very unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, “Thanks, Jeff, but I can’t, you know, I’m not going to take you.” It’s extremely unfair, and that’s a mild word, to the president. So he recuses himself. I then end up with a second man, who’s a deputy.

HABERMAN: Rosenstein.

TRUMP: Who is he? And Jeff hardly knew. He’s from Baltimore. Yeah, what Jeff Sessions did was he recused himself right after, right after he became attorney general. And I said, “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I would have — then I said, “Who’s your deputy?” So his deputy he hardly knew, and that’s Rosenstein, Rod Rosenstein, who is from Baltimore. There are very few Republicans in Baltimore, if any. So, he’s from Baltimore.

...

TRUMP: So, now what happens is, he leaves the office. Rosenstein leaves the office. The next day, he is appointed special counsel. I said, what the hell is this all about? Talk about conflicts? But he was interviewing for the job. There were many other conflicts that I haven’t said, but I will at some point. So Jeff Sessions, Jeff Sessions gave some bad answers.

HABERMAN: You mean at the hearing?

TRUMP: Yeah, he gave some answers that were simple questions and should have been simple answers, but they weren’t. He then becomes attorney general, and he then announces he’s going to recuse himself. Why wouldn’t he have told me that before?

HABERMAN: Why do you think it was? What do you think it was?

TRUMP: I don’t know.

BAKER: What would cause you — what would be the line beyond which if Mueller went, you would say, “That’s too far, we would need to dismiss him”?

TRUMP: Look, there are so many conflicts that everybody has. Then Rosenstein becomes extremely angry because of Comey’s Wednesday press conference, where he said that he would do the same thing he did a year ago with Hillary Clinton, and Rosenstein became extremely angry at that because, as a prosecutor, he knows that Comey did the wrong thing. Totally wrong thing. And he gives me a letter, O.K., he gives me a letter about Comey. And by the way, that was a tough letter, O.K. Now, perhaps I would have fired Comey anyway, and it certainly didn’t hurt to have the letter, O.K. But he gives me a very strong letter, and now he’s involved in the case. Well, that’s a conflict of interest. Do you know how many conflicts of interests there are? But then, then Comey also says that he did something in order to get the special prose— special counsel. He leaked. The reason he leaked. So, he illegally leaked.

________

TRUMP: So think of this. Mike. He illegally leaks, and everyone thinks it is illegal, and by the way, it looks like it’s classified and all that stuff. So he got — not a smart guy — he got tricked into that, because they didn’t even ask him that question. They asked him another question, O.K.?
________

TRUMP: He said I said “hope” — “I hope you can treat Flynn good” or something like that. I didn’t say anything.

But even if he did — like I said at the news conference on the, you know, Rose Garden — even if I did, that’s not — other people go a step further. I could have ended that whole thing just by saying — they say it can’t be obstruction because you can say: “It’s ended. It’s over. Period.”

[Simple Torture]

You know, the Super Bowl parade.

[E.H. Ruddock]

That man can't put together a proper complete sentence to save his life. It drives me nuts.

[Green Habit]