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Can the Constitution save us from Trump?

Richard Cohen

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, January 9, 2017, 8:00 PM
93820290.jpg

No one can moderate him
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Donald Trump is a one-man basket of deplorables. He is a braggart and a liar. He is a bully and a demagogue. He is an ignoramus and a deadbeat, a chiseler and either a sincere racist or an insincere one . He is about to be President of the United States. A constitutional coup may be in the offing.

Since winning election, Trump has not moderated his behavior. He still behaves like a brat — his childish tweet zinging Arnold Schwarzenegger for failing to get Trumpian ratings on “The New Celebrity Apprentice” being the most amusing example. Many of the others were just plain lies, the most serious of them being his troubling statements regarding Russian efforts to affect the election. As always, Trump made this about himself — not, as it should be, about a foreign power meddling in our democracy.

Trump turns things on their head. To him, the hacking story was an example of fake news — not the incontestably false news that the Russians were spreading, but the news coming from our own intelligence community. Trump lives in a hall of mirrors — but not alone. Reince Priebus, the outgoing Republican National Committee chairman and now another of the moral eunuchs in Trump’s court, added on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that the release of the intelligence community’s finding was “clearly politically motivated to discredit the victory of President-elect Trump.” Priebus, as my grandmother used to say, knows which side his bread is buttered on.

It is folly to think that aides like Priebus are going to be able to moderate Trump. They are enablers, emptying their consciences and stuffing their egos, and it is even sillier to think that Trump himself will change. He is 70, into the years of ossification, and his political triumph has only convinced him of his inerrant correctness. He thinks he is infallible, a kind of secular Pope, but possibly not celibate. Things will go from bad to worse.

One remote remedy is impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate. It is, as it should be, a laborious process, and requires provable acts of treason, bribery or other “high crimes and misdemeanors” — very high bars indeed and difficult to define. In fact, no President has ever gone the whole way: Not Andrew Johnson and not Bill Clinton.

There is, however, another way. Under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, the vice president, together with a “majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide,” can remove the President for being “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” No doubt the mere mention of incapacitation would summon a horde of lawyers to Washington to contest it or the meaning of every term.

But it is plain that the 25th Amendment does give a role to cabinet members that is not generally considered when they are up for confirmation. This time, however, they should all be asked if they are aware of the 25th Amendment, and, if need be, whether they would be willing to implement it. Some would say that they do not respond to hypotheticals, but a willingness to abide by the Constitution is not a hypothetical. It is, instead, a grave duty.

Is this going to happen? Probably not. We’ll just muddle through a Trump presidency, as we have some others. But the nature and malevolence of Donald Trump have to be borne in mind. He has shown little regard for the Constitution, as exemplified by statements saying that by definition anything a President does is legal, and he is prone to vulgar statements and tactics.

Recall that he was once the most prominent birther, evidence of either racism or a chilling willingness to pander to it. Recall also, as Meryl Streep did at the Golden Globes, that Trump mocked Serge Kovaleski, a physically disabled New York Times reporter, and then denied that he had done anything of the sort. Here was the bully in full repugnance. Here was the liar in full contempt for the truth.

Since his election, Donald Trump has done nothing to allay the concern that he is unfit for the presidency. In about a week, he'll assume the presidency with all its awesome power. Maybe the only thing that will constrain him is his own cabinet. Trump goofed. There are some good people in that room.

cohenr@washpost.com
 

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KING: Americans must call Trump out on lies, not get so used to them that we become desensitized to his dishonesty

Shaun King

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, January 9, 2017, 12:46 PM
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This is our future President, but this is not an honest man.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
If Donald Trump was not scheduled to become the next President of the United States in 11 days, I would find a way to ignore him and the lies he tells on an almost daily basis. Plenty of people get on Twitter and bloviate and exaggerate and lie, but only one of them is about to become one of the most powerful men in the world.

Donald Trump is a liar.

That’s not normal. Well, it’s normal for him to lie, but it is not normal for the incoming President to be a stone cold liar. That’s what he is. I’ve never seen anything like it.

He regularly and consistently looks us right in the face and lies to us. Either he has no moral compass and simply does not mind lying, which I believe is imminently possible, or he lies so often that he has a hard time telling the truth from a lie. It’s likely a combination of both of those things. Whatever the case, it’s disturbing.

Meryl Streep takes down Trump with epic Golden Globes speech

I don’t think I can think of one human being I’ve ever seen or heard in my life who has lied more often, about a wider variety of topics, covering more ground, than Donald Trump. I highlighted the sheer range of his lies just a month ago.

“Over the course of the primaries and presidential campaign, PolitiFact, the widely respected, Pulitzer Prize winning nonpartisan political watchdog, evaluated 340 different statements made by Donald Trump. Sixty-one of them were outrageous “pants on fire” lies. An astounding 114 of them were absolutely false. Another 63 were mostly false. That means 70% of the unique statements made by Donald Trump and fact-checked by Politifact were mostly false, completely false, or outrageous lies. Another 51 of those statements were deemed to be only half true. When it was all said and done, only 4% of what Donald Trump said was determined to be completely true.”

No politician they’ve ever evaluated has been so dishonest. That’s staggering. To be clear, they don’t editorialize. They simply take the truth, compare it up against what people say, and give it a grade. They do this to politicians of every party and persuasion and deemed that 96% of what Donald Trump says is some type of falsehood.

This morning he has done it again. It’s ugly and unacceptable.

Donald Trump says Meryl Streep 'over-rated' in Twitter rant

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Meryl Streep gave an emotional speech at Sunday night’s Golden Globes about Donald Trump’s bullying ways.
(Handout/Getty Images)
Last night, Meryl Streep, in an acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award that she won at the Golden Globes, reminded the audience that our incoming President once openly mocked a reporter with a physical disability from the stage of a rally. Poignant, with her voice cracking, Streep said

“But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hook in my heart not because it was good. It was — there was nothing good about it, but it was effective, and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back.

It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.”

We all knew Trump would reply. He has to. His skin is so thin, his temper so short, that few insults go unnoticed. His response, though, was not simply insulting, it was, as expected, another lie. It’s what he does.

We saw Donald Trump mock Serge Kovaleski of the New York Times with our own eyes. When it happened at a public rally last year, it was widely covered all over the world. It is unmistakably clear that he is mocking Kovaleski. It’s why we have never seen Trump move his arms in such a fashion before or after the incident. He was imitating the man and mocking the limited flexibility and mobility of his arms caused by arthrogryposis.




Trump has now outrageously said he has no recollection of ever meeting Kovaleski and was not aware of his disability, but that is another outrageous lie. He did not meet Kovaleski once or twice. He did not meet him three or four times, or even half a dozen times, but met with Kovaleski at least a dozen times across the years. They met in Trump’s office, at events, and at press conferences. They were so close that Kovaleski described them as being “on a first name basis for years.”

Again, this is not normal.

To fight back against Streep reminding us of what he did, Trump is lying about lies about lies. His lies have so many layers that it often seems like he gets lost and simply cannot keep up. And, in the speech where Trump mocked Kovaleski, it was not just the physical movements that Trump made, but the very words that came of his mouth that tell us he knew full well what he was doing when he mocked the man. Trump said at that 2015 rally, “Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy,” right before he began his physical impression of Kovaleski’s disability.

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Donald Trump mocked a reporter with a disability at a rally on Nov. 24, 2015.
(CNN)
Few lies seem more relevant right now than Trump’s repeated lies about his relationship with Vladimir Putin.

I edited this video last month showing his blatant lies about it. In two presidential debates with Hillary Clinton and in his final press conference, which was seven months ago, Donald Trump repeatedly stated “I don’t know Putin” and “I don’t know anything about him,” but in a 2013 interview, Trump was asked, “Do you have a relationship with Vladimir Putin, a conversational relationship, or anything where you feel you have sway or influence over his government?”


Nodding his head affirmatively throughout the question, Trump replied, without hesitation, “I do have a relationship. And I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today. He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today. And I’m sure he’s going to be seeing it in some form, but I do have a relationship with him.”

Again, this is deeply problematic. Throughout the campaign, Trump not only said he’d never met Putin, but that he didn’t even “know anything about him.” But outside of the campaign trail, when he was asked the same thing just a few years ago, he spoke very earnestly and specifically about their “relationship.”

Whether Trump wants to accept it or not, some things are true and some are not.

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Donald Trump has lied about everything from his well-documented mocking of a disabled reporter to his relationship with Vladimir Putin.
(ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
If you say in 2016 that you don’t know anything about Vladimir Putin, but said in 2013 that you had a “relationship” and had influence with him, then you were either lying then or are lying now.

When Trump told Billy Bush that he forces himself on women, kisses them whether they like it or not, then grabs their genitals, he was either lying to Billy Bush, which seems like the strangest set of lies in the world to tell, or he lied to the world when he said he never really did any of those things to women. Either way, at the root of the matter, which is a clear trend for Trump, are lies — scores and scores of them.

Our incoming President of the United States is a liar. He tells them often. He lies far more often than he tells the truth. We must call him out on it. We must not become desensitized to his lies. We must not get so used to them that they become normal to us.

One of the most dishonest men on Earth is about the become our leader. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t deeply concerned about what comes next.
 

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How to remove Trump from office


By Richard Cohen Opinion writer January 9 at 7:47 PM
Donald Trump is a one-man basket of deplorables. He is a braggart and a liar. He is a bully and a demagogue. He is an ignoramus and a deadbeat, a chiseler and either a sincere racist or an insincere one, and his love for himself is matched only by my loathing of him. He is about to be president of the United States. A constitutional coup may be in the offing.

Since winning the election, Trump has not moderated his behavior. He still behaves like a brat — his childish tweet zinging Arnold Schwarzenegger for failing to get Trumpian ratings on “The New Celebrity Apprentice” being the most amusing example. Many of the others were just plain lies, the most serious being his earlier troubling statements regarding Russian efforts to affect the election. As always, Trump made this about himself — not, as it should be, about a foreign power meddling in our democracy.

[What Trump is really saying in his tweets: I’m weak]

Trump turns things on their heads. To him, the hacking story was an example of fake news — not the uncontestably false news that the Russians were spreading, but the news coming from our own intelligence community. Trump lives in a hall of mirrors — but not alone. Reince Priebus, the outgoing Republican National Committee chairman and now another of the moral eunuchs in Trump’s court, said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that the release of the intelligence community’s finding was “clearly politically motivated to discredit the victory of President-elect Trump.” Priebus, as my grandmother used to say, knows which side his bread is buttered on.

It is folly to think that aides such as Priebus are going to be able to moderate Trump. They are enablers, emptying their consciences and stuffing their egos, and it is even sillier to think that Trump himself will change. He is 70, into the years of ossification, and his political triumph has only convinced him of his inerrant correctness. He thinks he is infallible, a kind of secular pope. Things will go from bad to worse.

Obama, Priebus react to the intelligence report on Russian meddling in the U.S. election
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President Obama and members of President-elect Donald Trump’s team react to the intelligence report on Russian hacking during political shows broadcast on Jan. 8. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
One remote remedy is impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate. It is, as it should be, a laborious process and requires provable acts of treason, bribery or other “high crimes and misdemeanors” — very high bars indeed and difficult to define. In fact, no president has ever gone the whole way: not Andrew Johnson and not Bill Clinton.

There is, however, another way. Under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, the vice president, together with a “majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide” can remove the president for being “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” No doubt the mere mention of incapacitation would summon a horde of lawyers to Washington to contest it or the meaning of every term.

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But it is plain that the 25th Amendment does give a role to Cabinet members that is not generally considered when they are up for confirmation. This time, however, they should all be asked whether they are aware of the 25th Amendment and, if need be, whether they would be willing to implement it. Some would say that they do not respond to hypotheticals, but a willingness to abide by the Constitution is not a hypothetical. It is, instead, a grave duty.

[This is the inaugural speech that Trump should give]

Is this going to happen? Probably not. We’ll just muddle through a Trump presidency, as we have some others. But the nature and malevolence of Donald Trump have to be borne in mind. He has shown little regard for the Constitution, as exemplified by statements saying that by definition anything a president does is legal, and he is prone to vulgar statements and tactics. Recall that he was once the most prominent birther, evidence of either racism or a chilling willingness to pander to it. Recall also, as Meryl Streep did at the Golden Globes, that Trump mocked Serge Kovaleski, a physically disabled New York Times reporter, and then denied that he had done anything of the sort. Here was the bully in full repugnance. Here was the liar in full contempt for the truth.

Content from Taboo on FX
Was Regency London the height of elegance?
On a surface level, of course. But there were also secrets, lies, and treachery beneath those glittering appearances.

Since his election, Trump has done nothing to allay the concern that he is unfit for the presidency. In about a week, he’ll assume the presidency with all its awesome power. Maybe the only thing that will constrain him is his own Cabinet. Trump goofed. There are some good people in that room.

Read more from Richard Cohen’s archive.

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He has been holding interviews and meetings as he prepares to transition into the White House.
Jan. 9, 2017 President-elect Donald Trump walks with Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma after a meeting at Trump Tower in New York. Mike Segar/Reuters
Read more on this issue:
 

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Here's why the press must unite when Trump attacks

S.E. Cupp

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, January 11, 2017, 6:08 PM
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Trump denies newest Russia report
NY Daily News

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Donald Trump came to his first press conference since being elected President loaded for bear, and the press — or rather, certain media outlets — were in his cross hairs.

After giving famously candid and casual press conferences quite regularly throughout the election, Trump has gone decidedly dark after winning, preferring instead to perform a “thank-you tour” for his supporters and engage in Twitter spats with journalists rather than take any of their questions.

On Wednesday, he made it more than clear that as President, he will not take kindly to the media, well, doing its job. And that’s a terrifying prospect for those of us who think free speech and a free press are pretty important pillars of a democracy.

First, let’s clear some things up. Donald Trump is angry that BuzzFeed, which he called a “failing pile of garbage” in his presser, published intelligence reports detailing some pretty lurid — and totally unverified — stories about a Trump trip to Russia.

Trump denies newest Russia leaks, but admits nation hacked DNC

This anger is warranted. A BuzzFeed statement regarding the decision said it was “not an easy or simple call” to publish those documents, but in fact it should have been. Publishing anonymously sourced rumors is not what credible journalism outfits do, leaving Americans to, as BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith wrote, “make up their own minds.” That is why no other outfits published the documents previously, even though they’ve been circulating for some time.

But Trump also blamed CNN for pushing “fake news.” That’s a total falsehood. CNN published a report about the documents being shown to President Obama and Trump, but didn’t include any of the unflattering allegations about Trump, precisely because they were unverified.

Nonetheless, Trump was not pleased, and, after repeatedly implying as much at his presser, he shouted at CNN reporter Jim Acosta that he would not take his questions because “you are fake news.”

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In the crosshairs
(James Keivom/New York Daily News)
In full disclosure, I work at CNN, as a political commentator. But had Fox or MSNBC or CBS or any other network been the target of Trump’s childish and troubling tantrum, I would be equally outraged.

The Trump press conference was not a press conference at all

BuzzFeed’s irresponsible decision to publish the allegations had nothing to do with CNN’s legitimate report. Trump was highly critical of CNN throughout the course of the election, however, even though his own staff says it’s the network he watches the most. His animosity has spilled out on to social media, where Trump supporters baselessly and routinely bash the network and the press in general.

Turning the people against the media is politically useful, for sure, and Trump is hardly the first to play this tune. But no President has been so hostile to the basic role of the press and its importance. It’s not unimaginable that Trump will try banning networks he dislikes from White House press briefings.

But there’s no difference between banning an outlet and refusing to take a question from a reporter at a press conference out of spite.

In 2010, when the Obama administration refused Fox News’ White House pool reporter an interview with “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg, pool reporters from other networks banded together and refused to interview him.

KING: Anything is possible with Donald Trump

As CBS’ White House correspondent put it, “All the networks said, that’s it, you’ve crossed the line.” Another bureau chief said, “It’s all for one and one for all.”



17 photos view gallery
Donald Trump's road to the White House as President-elect

It worked. Fox got the interview.

That spirit has apparently evaporated over the past few years. A spirit of competitive edge and access above all has reoriented the press to be “every man for himself” instead.

If Trump bans a news organization from a press conference or refuses to take questions from an outlet that has accurately covered him, every other outlet should walk out or refuse to give him airtime or print space.

Buzzfeed helped Trump with explosive, unverified dossier release

If he thinks he can silence the press, strong-arm journalists into printing only favorable reports or replace the press with tweets, every outlet should protest, not only the ones he is punishing.

We are at a crossroads in our country, and what we do in response to Donald Trump’s unprecedented antipathy toward one of our most cherished and important institutions — a free press — will define who we are as a democracy. At a time of division and rancor, the press must come together around this common cause: saving itself.

Contact Cupp at thesecupp.com.
 

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Donald J. Trump is the top result when you search for "tiny hands," too.:roflmao:
If you search ‘a--hole,’ ‘bigot’ and ‘fascist,’ Donald Trump’s profile comes up on Twitter
usa-trump.jpg

President Trump is the top result on Twitter searches when searching for "racist," "bigot," "fascist," "tiny hands" and "a--hat."
(CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS)
Elizabeth Elizalde
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, January 25, 2017, 9:02 PM
President Trump loves Twitter, but the feeling doesn't appear to be mutual.

Trump's "@realDonaldTrump" account is the top Twitter profile when you search for "racist," "bigot," "fascist," "tiny hands," "a--hat" and other obscene search terms.

Twitter user Don Amaro made the discovery two days ago when he typed "a--hole" into the search box and Trump's profile came up.

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A search for the word "a--hat" on Twitter brought up President Trump's profile.
(Twitter)
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Johnny Manziel on Twitter, Donald Trump and 'bettering myself'

Trump, in his Inauguration Ball, asked his supporters if he "should keep the Twitter going?"

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1 | 3 A search for the word "fascist" on Twitter on Jan. 25, 2017 brings up President Trump's profile. (Twitter)
He has said in the past that the social media platform is a way to connect with his supporters. He is known for tweeting out posts with grammatical errors.

Trump inherited the @potus handle from Barack Obama when he was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States last week. His new White House account already has more than 14 million followers.

 

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New Developments with the New Administration...like Sanctuary Cities...what does it really mean for us?
 

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Hundreds of bodega workers packed into a square behind Brooklyn Borough Hall to protest President Trump's refugee ban.
 

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Omarosa: Critics will ‘bow down’ to 'President Trump'
BY Joe Dziemianowicz
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, August 17, 2016, 9:44 AM



It’s good to be king, sure. But in the U.S. — not so much.

Omarosa Manigault, Director of African-American Outreach for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, should know that that. But she seems as clueless about our political system as Trump.

In a trailer for a “Frontline” special about the race for the Oval Office airing on Sept. 27 on PBS, Manigault says critics will “bow down” to Trump when, as she predicts, he is voted into office.

“Donald Trump is running for President because he really, truly believes he can turn the country around,” says Manigault. “More importantly, every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump.”

Michael Moore: Donald Trump never actually wanted to be President

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Omarosa Manigault and Donald Trump in 2015
(TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
Yep, the former “Apprentice” contestant really expressed her confidence in the tone-deaf fashion. The remark comes at the 3:10 mark in the trailer.

Memo to Omarosa: Bowing and curtseying is only done for royalty. And opinion is divided among etiquette experts as to whether Americans should ever bow. Miss Manners has said “no bowing allowed,” adding that while we believe that all human beings are worthy of respect, "we do not believe that any one of them is born at a higher level than the rest of us.” Emily Post has said it's okay to bow to indicate respect.

Besides casting Manigault on the first season of “The Apprentice,” Trump produced “The Ultimate Merger” on TV One with her as the star.


Omarosa: "Everyone Will Have to Bow Down to President Trump"


Washington DC - Former Apprentice contestant turned Trump cabinet member Omarosa has strong feelings about President Trump.



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