Trump: “You’d Be In Jail”

I was on the road Sunday night (in Champaign with my wife and HS junior son, looking at the beautiful campus and impressive programs down there), but we still made a point to watch the debate.

Yikes!  There was lots to be distressed about in that 90 minutes, but one of the items that most jumped out at me was his threat to prosecute and jail his political opponent.  Is this America?  Does the man understand democracy?  Here’s some good reading on that theme:

•  Donald Trump: Could He Prosecute Hillary Clinton?
  

  In a presidential campaign featuring many firsts, one of the most startling came Sunday night when Republican nominee Donald Trump, to scattered cheers from the audience, pledged to have the Democratic nominee investigated criminally, should he prevail in November.

  Specifically, in reference to her actions relating to her private email server, he said: “And I’ll tell you what. I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it, and we’re going to have a special prosecutor.”

  When Hillary Clinton replied that it was “awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” Trump quickly added, “Because you’d be in jail.”

  Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tried to downplay Trump’s threat, later saying it was just “a quip.” However, some prominent lawyers and legal scholars took umbrage at the threat and expressed alarm. Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe told Fortune that even threatening such a thing was “incompatible with the survival of a stable constitutional republic,” while carrying out such a threat would constitute an “impeachable offense.”

  …

•  Trump Says That If He Wins, Clinton Will ‘Be in Jail’ – The Atlantic
  • “You cannot say this. This is the way tinhorn cult-of-the-personality despotisms work. The fact that this came out immediately and spontaneously from Trump, like his “that makes me smart!” comment about paying no taxes and unlike his memorized “oh, that was locker room talk” responses about his sex tape, makes it more revealing.”
•  Washington Monthly | “A Republic… If You Can Keep It”
  • “…during the debate, Trump said several things that indicate he is pretty clueless about how our democracy works. … That’s what dictators do. …”
•  Trump Time Capsule #140: ‘Lock Her Up’ – The Atlantic
•  Donald Trump’s Promise to Jail Clinton Threatens Democracy – The Atlantic
  • “The jailing of political opponents is a feature of repressive dictatorships, not vibrant democracies.”