Opinion: If Trump loses, he'll take this deal

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Joe Lockhart
@joelockhart
My latest on http://CNN.com Trump's own instinct for survival may offer the chance we need for a peaceful transition of power.

Opinion: If Trump loses, he'll take this deal
Trump is nothing if not a survivor with a brand to protect, writes Joe Lockhart. Unleashing followers into the streets, should he lose the election, is really not in his best interest. What can he...
cnn.com

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/20/opinions/if-trump-loses-lockhart/index.html

(CNN)President Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to leave office peacefully if he loses the election. Instead he rails about voter fraud and a rigged election. His untruths and obstinacy are by now an old story, but they remain both dangerous to our democracy and maybe to our lives if the President continues on this path.

Many law enforcement and homeland security experts have raised the alarm about possible violence after a contested election. Nothing in the President's words or behavior suggests that he will be a calming force or will leave the White House without a fight, either in the courthouse or the streets. We all know, after four years of this, that it's a pretty good bet he will make a bad situation worse.

I share many of these worries. But I'm not expecting the worst. Not because Trump will have an attack of conscience -- I don't think he has a conscience. And not because he will put the country ahead of his own personal interests -- that fantasy is no longer even debatable.

I simply assume, as you should, that if he loses next month, the President will put his own interests ahead of the country's, as he always does. And that may actually guarantee a peaceful transition of power.

Donald J. Trump has a powerful survival instinct.

*snip*

[onetexan]

1. BS. After what he's done to this country &the huge number of covid # deaths

Not to mention the horrific treatment of immigrants & esp'ly separation of kids, he deserves to be booted out &prosecuted. No deal. Lets see how many of his rabid racists follow him to jail.

[Nevilledog]

2. I agree with you!

[exboyfil]

3. It is in the GOP's corner

They self deal him then the Democrats can use it to pound for the next election cycle.

What Pence should do is 25th him the day after the election (assuming he can get half of the Cabinet members to sign on) and beg the Democrats in Congress to support the decision which Trump will definitely appeal.

Of course being unprincipled Pence will do no such thing.

As far as the state prosecutors, I don't even see how they can commit to a deal. Why should they?

[Gothmog]

4. I think that such a deal would work

[Thekaspervote]

9. Agree! I would love to see him go to prison...but it isn't going to happen

Imagine having the election, Biden’s wins and in a few days the idiot king is just gone, silenced..how good that would be

I think about the civil war, if Jeff Davis would have been caught, he may have gone to prison but the rest went home. What was Lincoln to do, and where would he have stopped with retribution? Would jailing Robert E Lee been enough, or should it have been his other generals too, or all the foot soldiers? This has been a war, we are about to have a resounding victory. Let’s work to strengthen democracy, fix what’s broken, pair down the powers in the SC, pass voting rights and election laws that are air tight so this never happens again

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. Any more shitty ideas anyone wants to put forth? nt

[greyl]

6. No deal.

[genxlib]

15. Love that soundtrack

I got obsessed with it when I was in college.

[Progressive Jones]

7. I have no problem with his violent removal, if needed, if he loses and refuses to leave. nt

[regnaD kciN]

8. In other words, a Nixon deal...

...resignation for a promise of no prosecution.

Whether it's the "right" thing to do, or maybe even the most pragmatic one, fades into insignificance beyond the elephant in the room: such a deal requires a confidence on the part of the leader cutting the deal that those he makes it with will stick to it.

Nixon had that assurance because, first of all, any crime he might have been charged with was federal, and he knew Gerald Ford well enough to know that he was someone with a history of calming the waters and not rocking the boat. But Nixon also could be confident in "the rules of the game" in politics that meant, for the sake of future comity between the parties, that verbal agreements once made would be honored.

Trump cannot have that assurance, because of his own track record of breaking agreements once he had gotten what he wanted. I doubt it will be possible for him to conceive of an opponent sticking to a verbal non-prosecute deal once he had ceded office. He wouldn't have done it, Trump would reason, so why would he expect anyone who wasn't an idiot to do so? I'm sure he suspects that, whatever verbal promises (and that's all they could be) are made, that Cyrus Vance, Jr. would immediately say "never mind" and convene a grand jury the moment Trump has left the White House and is no longer shielded. After all, Trump will reason, it's just what he would do if the roles were reversed.

(And this doesn't even include his financial situation. The article assumes that, once out of office peacefully, he'll be able to quickly create a new business venture to pay off his creditors. What business venture would enable him to do that? And, more to the point, which creditors? Trump has been careful to shield to whom he owes money -- are they legitimate banks? Or are they "unofficial" Russian sources who might have their own ways of dealing with those who don't pay in full?)

And this is why I think we're in for the bumpiest of rides once the election is called. Trump knows that the only alternatives for his future are between the White House and the "big house," or worse. And that, alone, is going to mean one can expect him to fight for dear life to hold onto power...and, if the American system of government has to die so that he may live, I'm sure that's a "deal" he'd have no hesitation to accept.

[Thekaspervote]

11. Excellent points

[TheBlackAdder]

10. Fuck that. If he wants out, there's Trump Tower Moscow. It's time to blot up those militias.

[Kablooie]

12. If Nixon had gone to prison I wonder if it would have changed anything?

[Volaris]

13. Nope, no deal. You lose, you leave. His own volition, or not, doesnt matter.

Handcuffs or not, doesn't matter
Bloodshed (not that anyone actually wants this) or not, does not matter.

And to that last, if his brain dead, white-wing, magaterrorist dead enders really are dumb enough to decide to pick a fight with We The People and the Federal Government that still answers to us, I have absolutely no sympathy for them and wont feel bad about skipping their funerals.

If he thinks hes gonna hold the shop hostage and get a deal for behaving like a normal american and not burning it down, hes out of his fuckung mind.

NO.

No deals, this time. He took us too close to the brink and this nation must be made to remember forever as a preventative measure. If he has to go to jail for that, fine. If the Republican party gets to destroy itself in service to his ego, ALSO just fine by me.

[Straw Man]

14. I'm thinking he'll seek asylum in Russia ...

... and spend the rest of his days grifting off oligarchs and whining on Twitter about how badly he was treated, as he fades into insignificance.

[genxlib]

16. Under one condition...

I would only give him this deal if he salted the fields on retreat.

I want him to destroy his cult unequivocally. Say that he was only in it for the promotion and money. His followers are a bunch of suckers. The rest of party a bunch of suck-ups only interested in power. That he accepted help from Russia and others. That he doesn't give a shit about evangelicals or abortion. That he was coordinating with FOX all along and they were regularly lying to support him. That he picked staff for loyalty rather than competency. That he thought it was better for him to let Americans die than face the Covid problem. That the Obama birth certificate thing was nothing more than a sham to rile up racists.

etc. etc.

Burn down this monstrous party on the way out. Then we will talk.

Otherwise, go to hell. Or preferably to jail.

I am one of those who doesn't believe he will ever end up in a federal prison (small chance of state) because my 54 years of life have left me cynical about such things.

[Denzil_DC]

17. Sounds like blackmail. n/t