Monday, February 08, 2021

The 45th President States The 45th President Is Innocent Of The Charges With Which The 45th President Has Been Charged

Has Donald Trump demanded that he never be referred to as the "former" president?

Rachel Maddow thinks so.

   

It would not be the first time Trump has flipped out and ordered everyone around him to avoid using certain words. In his final days in office, he ordered that the word "Nixon" could never be said.

Maddow wonders whether Trump actually believes he is still the president. (Many QAnon cult members think he is. They believe Trump is running things from an underground bunker and that he has been executing people at the White House. According to Ben Collins of NBC News:
A quick story about bloodlust, QAnon and Facebook:
There's a picture going Facebook right now that refers to the 10 Days of Darkness.
Some Q people believe Trump is still in power and has been secretly executing the Deep State for the last 10 days in front of the White House.

The viral QAnon picture shows the new security fencing around the White House, then places a real picture of gallows that kinda-sorta look like the same infrastructure.
I'm not going to zoom in on the gallows, because that's a real hanging.

The QAnon people used a photo from a Kuwaiti execution in 2013.
They stole these images to claim this is the Deep State being hanged by Donald Trump's secret government in front of the White House, which has QAnon people ecstatic.
Anyhoo . . . Trump's lawyers, in answering the charges against the former president, go well out of their way to always refer to him as "the 45th President". They call him "President Trump" when referring to his actions while in office, but the out-of-office Trump who is responding to these charges is never the "former president" (and certainly not the "ex-president"). Here are all the ways Trump is referred to in the 14-page document:
ANSWER OF PRESIDENT DONALD JOHN TRUMP, 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

The 45th President of the United States, Donald John Trump

It is denied that the quoted provision currently applies to the 45th President of the United States 

Since the 45th President is no longer "President" . . . the Senate presently is unable to remove from office the 45th President whose term has expired . . .

It is denied that the 45th President engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.

The 45th President believes and therefore avers that as a private citizen . . . 

The 45th President asks the Senate to dismiss . . .

It is denied that the 45th President of the United States ever engaged in a violation of his oath of office. . . .

Donald J. Trump fully and faithfully executed his duties as President of the United States . . .

Since the 45th President is no longer "President" . . . the 45th President cannot be removed . . .

It is admitted that after the November election, the 45th President exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution . . .

Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th President's statements were accurate or not . . .

Like all Americans, the 45th President is protected by the First Amendment. . . .

Since the 45th President is no longer "President" . . . the 45th President does not hold office . . .

It is admitted that President Trump addressed a crowd at the Capitol ellipse on January 6, 2021 . . .

To the extent Averment 5 alleges his opinion is factually in error, the 45th President denies this allegation.
 
It is denied that President Trump incited the crowd to engage in destructive behavior. . . .

It is denied that President Trump intended to interfere with the counting of Electoral votes. . . .

It is admitted that President Trump spoke on the telephone with Secretary Raffensperger and multiple other parties, including several attorneys for both parties, on January 2, 2021. . . . 

It is denied President Trump made any effort to subvert the certification of the results of the 2020 Presidential election.  . . . President Trump . . . It is denied that President Trump threatened Secretary Raffensperger. It is denied that President Trump acted improperly . . . 

Since the 45th President is no longer "President" . . . the 45th President does not hold office . . .

It is denied that President Trump ever endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. 

Rather, the 45th President of the United States performed admirably . . . 

The 45th President believes and therefore avers that . . . 

Since the 45th President is no longer "President" . . . the 45th President does not hold office . . .

To the extent there are factual allegations made against the 45th President of the United States . . .

The 45th President of the United States, Donald John Trump . . . avers that the Article of Impeachment lodged against him . . . must be dismissed with prejudice. In support thereof, the 45th President, Respectfully Represents:

1. The Senate of the United States lacks jurisdiction over the 45th President . . .

2. The Senate of the United States lacks jurisdiction over the 45th President . . .

5. The House of Representatives deprived the 45th President of due process of law . . . the 45th President's positions . . . The House of Representatives' action, in depriving the 45th President of due process of law, created a special category of citizenship for a single individual: the 45th President of the United States. Should this body not act in favor of the 45th President . . . such persons as the 45th President . . . the 45th President does not enjoy the protections of liberty upon which this great Nation was founded . . .

6. The Article of Impeachment violates the 45th President's right to free speech and thought . . .

7. . . . depriving the 45th President of the United States of his American right to due process of law. The 45th President of the United States believes . . .

8. . . . Once the 45th President's term expired . . . with a long history of public remarks adverse to the 45th President. The 45th President believes . . .

WHEREFORE, Donald John Trump, 45th President of the United States . . . In the alternative, the 45th President respectfully requests . . . 

Respectfully Submitted,
Bruce L. Castor, Jr.
David Schoen
Counsel to the 45th President of the United States
 

Marjorie Taylor Greene: "The party is his. It doesn't belong to anybody else."

Mehdi Hasan:

There has been this talk about a civil war within the Republican Party, with Trump and people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz and Ted Cruz on one side, and on the other side, people like Liz Cheney and Senator ben Basse, who stand for the more traditional GOP. But talk of such a war implies that there are two more-or-less equal sides. And this isn't that kind of war. It's more of a rout. The Trumpists won.

A recent The Hill/HarrisX poll asked GOP voters: "Would you join a new Trump political party?" 64% said Yes.

Hasan called Greene "a professional troll who happens to have been elected to a job in government that she doesn't particularly want". She said she was happy to have been removed from two committees "because it would be a waste of my time. . . . Now I have a lot of free time on my hands."

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