Category: Ignorance of Law

Trump Denounces Bombing Suspect’s Hospitalization and Right to an Attorney

Speaking to supporters in Florida Monday, Donald Trump denounced that the alleged NYC bomber would be given hospitalization and legal counsel in accordance with his constitutional rights.

“Now we will give him amazing hospitalization. He will be taken care of by some of the best doctors in the world. He will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room,” Trump said.

The suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghan-born naturalized citizen, was injured in a shootout with the police Monday morning before being apprehended. The FBI said he was “directly linked” to the homemade bombs that appeared over the weekend in New York and New Jersey.

Trump continued: “And he’ll probably even have room service, knowing the way our country is. And on top of all of that, he will be represented by an outstanding lawyer. His case will go through the various court systems for years and in the end, people will forget and his punishment will not be what it once would have been. What a sad situation.”

He argued for the need for “speedy, but fair trials,” as well as a “very harsh punishment.”

He also said that authorities must use “whatever lawful methods are available to obtain information from the apprehended suspect to get information before it’s no longer timely.” (Previously on the campaign trail, Trump has spoken of his enthusiasm for waterboarding and other methods of torture.)

Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday evening, New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo responded to Trump by saying, “Welcome to America. We have a system of jurisprudence. You’re innocent until proven guilty. You have a right to counsel. And you have the right to hospitalization if you’re ill.”

Cuomo added, “Let’s not lose ourselves in an effort to protect ourselves. We want to protect America. What is America? It’s the rights that we’ve established.”

He said, “I fear sometimes with this rhetoric that people are suggesting we lose what’s special about us in a way to protect ourselves. And that doesn’t work. It’s not who we are. Let’s preserve the system. Let’s be fair about it. Let’s keep our heads.”

(h/t Mediaite)

Media

Slate

Trump Surrogate Rudy Giuliani on War Crimes: ‘Anything’s Legal’ During War

Donald Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani on Sunday claimed that “anything’s legal” during war, including the theft of private property.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Giuliani said that the United States should have seized oil fields in Iraq following the 2003 invasion, to prevent the resource from falling into the hands of terrorists.

It is a position that Trump has argued for years, but it has only garnered serious attention since the former reality TV star became the Republican nominee for president.

Asked why such a move would not amount to theft, Giuliani scoffed. “Of course it’s legal,” he said. “It’s a war. Until the war is over, anything’s legal.”

This is patently false. The seizure of private property in war has been prohibited under international law for more than a century.

That Giuliani, a lawyer and former U.S. attorney, would dismiss decades of international law was unexpected, but it was in keeping with Giuliani’s recent adoption of many of Trump’s most unsubstantiated claims.

The tenor and tone of Giuliani’s media appearances on behalf of Trump have caused a number of his former colleagues to worry publicly that the former mayor of New York is throwing away his legacy.

Giuliani went on to claim that Trump never meant that the United States should have literally removed Iraq’s chief natural resource from the country, only that American troops should have remained in Iraq to ensure it was divided up evenly. “Leave a force back there and take [the oil] and make sure it’s distributed in a proper way,” he told Stephanopoulos.

“If that oil wasn’t there, we wouldn’t have the Islamic State,” Giuliani continued. “That oil is what makes the Islamic State so rich. Had we held that oil, made sure that it was equitably distributed within Iraq, we [could] have some say, some control over the distribution of it.”

For Trump, however, the notion of taking Iraq’s oil has always held an appeal as a sort of plunder. Speaking to Stephanopoulos in 2011, Trump explained: “In the old days, you know when you had a war, to the victor belong the spoils. You go in. You win the war and you take it. … You’re not stealing anything. … We’re taking back $1.5 trillion to reimburse ourselves.”

On the presidential campaign trail, Trump has moderated his statements, leaving out the part about Iraq reimbursing the United States for the cost of our blundered invasion of their country.

(h/t Huffington Post)

Reality

Specifically, the Annex to the Hague Convention of 1907 on the Laws and Customs of War, which says that “private property … must be respected (and) cannot be confiscated.” It also says that “pillage is formally forbidden.”

In addition, the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War provides that “any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.”

For example, when Saddam Hussein (the former authoritarian leader of Iraq who Trump admires) invaded Kuwait in 1990, one of the justifications for international intervention was because Hussein seized and held Kuwaiti oil fields.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgfuFLIxKbk

Trump Says He’d Try U.S. Citizens in Guantanamo Bay Military Tribunals

Donald Trump said in an interview Thursday that he would support trying US citizens suspected of terrorism in military tribunals — a controversial proposal that would likely be challenged as unconstitutional.

The Republican presidential nominee told the Miami Herald that he doesn’t “at all” like the idea of trying terrorist suspects in the civilian court system, even though US citizens are constitutionally entitled to due process. He added that he would be “fine” with trying US citizens in military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay, the US naval base that is also home to a military prison housing captured terror suspects.

“Well, I know that they want to try them in our regular court systems, and I don’t like that at all. I don’t like that at all,” he told the Herald. “I would say they could be tried (in military commissions), that would be fine.”

President George W. Bush authorized the trial of non-citizens who engage or support acts of terrorism after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but a US citizen has never been tried in military courts under that order.

Most constitutional experts and several senior Republican senators — including Sen. John McCain — strongly opposed proposals to try Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers and a naturalized US citizen, in military court.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether Trump was concerned about infringing US citizens’ right to due process under the Constitution.

Trump has repeatedly called for toughening the US approach to terrorism, and has suggested he would continue to capture and detain terror suspects at Guantánamo, though he would not commit to imprisoning terror suspects there as prison.

“I want to make sure that if we have radical Islamic terrorists, we have a very safe place to keep them,” Trump told the Herald.

Trump has also called for waterboarding terrorism suspects and “worse” forms of torture, calls that have alarmed civil liberties advocates, international lawyers, and US military officials.

While Trump again criticized President Barack Obama’s policies in combating terrorism, Obama has also drawn fire from civil liberties advocates for authorizing the drone killings of US citizens engaged in terror activities against the US without trial.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution each contain a due process clause. Due process deals with the administration of justice and thus the due process clause acts as a safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty, or property by the Government outside the sanction of law. Due process ensures the rights and equality of all citizens.

Trump: Muslim Soldier Was a Hero, But His Father ‘Has No Right’ to Criticize Me

Donald Trump praised a Muslim U.S. soldier killed in Iraq but in the same breath continued to criticize the man’s father, who spoke out against Trump at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

After a day of backlash over the GOP presidential nominee’s comments regarding the family of Humayun Khan, Trump released a statement late Saturday night honoring him.

“Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe. The real problem here are the radical Islamic terrorist who killed him, and the efforts of these radicals to enter our country and do us further harm,” Trump said.

“While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things. If I become President, I will make America safe again.”

Khan’s father, Khizr Khan, a lawyer who immigrated from Pakistan, addressed the Democratic convention last week, asking what Trump had sacrificed and whether he had ever read the Constitution.

Trump lashed out at Khan and his wife, Ghazala, who stood at his side on the stage, on Saturday.

The GOP nominee said he had “made a lot of sacrifices” through his work and raised questions about Khan’s speech and why his wife hadn’t spoken, suggesting that she “wasn’t allowed” because of her Muslim faith. Ghazala Khan later said she was too upset to take the microphone.

The comments immediately sparked backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.

In his Saturday statement, Trump bashed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for her Middle East foreign policy record and the attack on U.S. personnel in Benghazi and warned against radical Islamism and immigration from certain countries.

“Given the state of the world today, we have to know everything about those looking to enter our country, and given the state of chaos in some of these countries, that is impossible,” he said.

(h/t The Hill)

Reality

This is yet another example of Donald Trump’s ignorance of the United States Constitution. There are no set of rights just for Donald Trump and another set of rights for everyone else. Khazir Kahn and his wife have the exact same rights of equal protection and free speech Trump does.

Trump Surrogate Newt Gingrich Wants “Religious Test” For American Muslims

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and current Trump advisor and surrogate has suggested testing all US Muslims to see if they believe in Sharia, and deporting those who do.

Gingrich said in an interview on “Hannity” on Fox News:

Let me be as blunt and direct as I can be. Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Shari‘a, they should be deported. Shari‘a is incompatible with Western civilization. Modern Muslims who have given up Shari‘a, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door.

The former Republican presidential contender’s comments were in response to the attack in Nice, France that left at least 84 people dead.

Gingrich later tried to backtrack those comments saying:

“This is not about targeting a particular religion or targeting people who practice in a particular way,” he added. “This is about looking at particular characteristics that we have learned painfully, time after time, involve killing people, involve attacks on our civilization.”

*cough *cough bullshit *cough *cough

(h/t BBC)

Reality

The idea to target a single religion for a litmus test to see how “patriotic” their members run counter to every idea that the founding fathers envisioned for this country. It is without a doubt the most un-American suggestion one can have. So it comes to no surprise that Fox News is definitely on board.

The very first amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America explains in its Establishment Clause that there will be freedom from governmental interference of worship.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Many in the West believe Shari‘a to be a brutal system of retributive justice, but really it is a broad term for the set of ethical principles inscribed in the Quran that means different things to different adherents. As TIME reported in the wake of Orlando, “Demonizing every Muslim by equating Shari‘a and terrorism is akin to describing every Christian as a radical fundamentalist; the Bible can also be interpreted as requiring brutal punishments for archaic offenses.”

Fun Fact: In 1997, Newt Gingrich was the first Speaker of the House to ever be disciplined for an ethics violation and was forced to resign as Speaker in 1998 because of his failed leadership.

Media

Trump Defends Constitution Articles That Do Not Exist

Republican Rep. Mark Sanford said Friday that Donald Trump has a “callous disregard for details” that was on full display when the GOP presidential candidate told a private meeting of House Republicans he would fiercely defend articles of U.S. Constitution that don’t exist.

“I think what a number of us have been concerned about is a pattern of laxity with regard to details,” Sanford told CNN in an interview, explaining that details are critical to good governance, one day after he was part of a group meeting with the presumptive Republican presidential candidate. “It is the details that really matter in impacting people’s lives. It is the details that matter frankly in any legislative negotiation.”

The South Carolinian lawmaker, who has been critic of Trump, said that lack of respect for details could make it difficult for the businessman to be a successful president.

“I wasn’t particularly impressed,” Sanford told reporters after Thursday’s meeting at an event. “I think it was the normal stream of consciousness that’s long on hyperbole and short on facts. At one point there was mentioned — somebody asked about, you know, Article I powers and what would you do to protect them and you know, I think his response was ‘I want to protect Article I, Article II, Article XII — go down the list.’ As we both know there is no Article XII.”

Trump’s answer came in response to a question from a House Republican about whether Trump as president would defend the prerogatives of Congress that are laid out in Article I of the Constitution. The issue is highly important to lawmakers who are frustrated by the powers of the presidency, which are defined in Article II of the Constitution but that have expanded in recent years by the increased use of executive authority.

There are a total of just seven articles to the Constitution although there are many more amendments to the founding document, which could be what Trump was referring to accidentally.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to CNN for a comment about the apparent gaffe in the meeting or Sanford’s concerns.

When Trump made his comments “a number of people looked around at each other at that point with a little bit of a quizzical or curious eye,” Sanford told CNN Friday.
Sanford, who still hasn’t decided if he will back his party’s presumptive nominee, acknowledged Trump has successfully connected with voters even as he glosses over the minutia of governing.

“I would say we all love broad sweeping statements. They’re pleasant. At times they’re amusing, at times they’re interesting, but in terms of making a difference in people’s lives, it’s the details that matter,” Sanford said.

Sanford also defended Trump.

While “there seems to be a deliberate lack of detail” from the candidate, there is not “malfeasance” — as Sanford said was on display Thursday in a House committee that was examining Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email usage while running the State Department.

“What we’re left with is a Faustian choice between malfeasance and very callous disregard for details,” Sanford said.

In the meeting with House Republicans, Trump repeatedly stressed the importance of a Republican winning the White House because of the balance of power on the Supreme Court. In the end, Sanford suggested that issue might be enough to tilt him to vote for Trump, something initially he didn’t think he would do.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Sadly this is not the first time Donald Trump displayed a lack of understanding of the United States Constitution, government functions, or how laws work.

 

 

Trump: Mexican American Judge Has an ‘Absolute Conflict’

Trump University logo

Was Donald Trump’s racist suggestion last week that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an American of Mexican descent, could not fairly preside over a lawsuit about so-called Trump University simply an off-the-cuff remark? If so, Trump seems to have decided to go with it. The Wall Street Journal reports:

In an interview, Mr. Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict” in presiding over the litigation given that he was “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers’ association. Mr. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border. “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Mr. Trump said.

Perhaps one reason Trump lashed out at Curiel once more was the release of documents from the case on Tuesday, which painted Trump University in an unflattering light.

(h/t The Atlantic)

Reality

Donald Trump’s claim that a person can not perform their job for the singular reason because their heritage is a textbook example of a racist quote.

The Republican candidate’s insistence that Gonzalo Curiel cannot preside impartially simply because of his ethnic heritage flies in the face of established precedent. Trump’s claim is irrelevant, as ethnicity plays no apparent role in the Trump University case. His argument also sits in uncomfortable contradiction to his prior claims that “the Latinos love me.”

Trump’s statement is troubling for a variety of reasons. Curiel was born in Indiana to parents who had immigrated from Mexico, and Trump has referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and criminals. But the case at hand involves an allegedly fraudulent series of real-estate seminars Trump set up—in other words, it has nothing to do with ethnicity whatsoever. He has discovered that by grossly insulting a group to which a judge (sort of) belongs, he can then argue that the judge is tainted. As Peter Beinart of The Atlantic, among other observers, has pointed out, Trump’s demand that an unblemished judge step down from the case amounts to an attack on the independence of the American judiciary.

(Editor’s Note: Today is a short day so the ‘reality’ section is from our cited source and not our own.)

Trump Dodges GI Bill Question

CNN’s Chris Cuomo asked Donald Trump how he felt about a sneaky no-roll call vote in Congress to strip money from the G.I. bill and re-appropriate it elsewhere and whether we should keep the bill as it is.

Rather than answer the question outright, Trump appeared to dodge by babbling about how he loves the vets and knows so many vets, and they’re tremendous, etc, etc, etc. Cuomo then asked him straight up whether or not he supported the GI bill – and Trump said no.

CHRIS CUOMO: On the military, you raise an important issue. We tried to get your campaign and the other campaigns to hold forth on whether or not they supported the current G.I. bill. As you know, in the Congress, they did this sneaky vote in the House where there was no roll call, and they were going to cut money from the G.I. bill to allow for other expenditures for vets. The vets were very upset. They said ‘no, don’t take money from us and reallocate it. Find the savings elsewhere.’
Do you support maintaining the G.I. bill the way it is right now and even growing it instead of cutting it?

 

DONALD TRUMP: I don’t want to be hurting our vets. Our vets have been hurt enough. We treat illegal immigrants better than we treat our vets. So I’m going to do nothing to hurt our vets. I’m going to only help the vets —

 

CHRIS CUOMO: So is that a yes? —

 

DONALD TRUMP: — unlike Hillary Clinton, that thinks the vets are getting too much. And they’re not getting too much. I’ve traveled, I’ve seen so many vets, I know so many vets now, and I have a lot of friends — I have developed great friendships among the vets. Our vets are being treated so badly —

 

CHRIS CUOMO: So is that a yes, I do support the current G.I. bill?

 

DONALD TRUMP: No. I want to bring jobs back to our country.

Reality

When asked about the specific legislation to cut and reappropriate G.I. Bill funds, Trump ignored the question and instead started playing his greatest hits. Trade deals, jobs, Hillary Clinton, babble, babble, babble. We conclude that Trump clearly had no idea what the subject was otherwise a direct and coherent answer would have been given.

As a candidate to be Commander-In-Chief it is very important to understand the legislation being put forth that would effect the well-being of the men and women under your command. This is further proof that Trump is highly unprepared for the Presidency.

Trump’s opponents and a lot of left leaning media outlets have jumped on him for saying “no” to supporting the popular G.I. Bill in its current form. We’ve listened to his statement multiple times and we feel his “no” response was very meek and unsure, and earlier Trump did claim he was going to do nothing to hurt the vets. Therefor we cannot make the claim that Trump hates the vets that sites like The Huffington Post made.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsdElAPlipI

Trump Complains Primary Rigged Despite His Lead

Trump complains primary system is rigged

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump lashed out at what he called the party’s “rigged” delegate selection rules on Monday after rival Ted Cruz swept all of Colorado’s 34 delegates over the weekend.

The New York billionaire, who has been outmaneuvered by Cruz in a series of recent state meetings to select national convention delegates, said the process was set up to protect party insiders and shut out insurgent candidates.

“The system is rigged, it’s crooked.”

Trump said on Fox News on Monday, alleging the Colorado convention results showed voters were being denied a voice in the process.

“There was no voting. I didn’t go out there to make a speech or anything, there’s no voting. The people out there are going crazy, in the Denver area and Colorado itself, and they’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote. This was given by politicians – it’s a crooked deal.”

Again at a rally in Rome, NY, he accused party leaders of maneuvering to cut his supporters out of the process:

“Our Republican system is absolutely rigged. It’s a phony deal,”  “They wanted to keep people out. This is a dirty trick.”

Trump has 743 bound delegates to 545 for Cruz, according to an Associated Press count, in the battle for the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot and avoid a messy floor fight at the Republican National Convention from July 18-21.

But both are at risk of not acquiring enough delegates for a first-ballot victory, leaving many free to switch their votes on later ballots.

That has set off a fierce scramble by Republican candidates to get their supporters chosen as convention delegates and brought new scrutiny to the selection rules, which vary by state.

Trump, who has brought in veteran strategist Paul Manafort to lead his delegate-gathering efforts, complained about Cruz’s recent success at local and state party meetings where activists pick the actual delegates who will attend the national convention.

Trump accused Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, of trying to steal delegates in South Carolina. Trump won the state primary in February, but Cruz supporters got four of the first six delegate slots filled at congressional district meetings on Saturday, according to local media.

Cruz also succeeded at getting more of his supporters chosen as delegates in Iowa, where he won the caucuses in January, and at last week’s state convention in North Dakota.

(h/t Reuters)

Reality

We are unable to locate the chapter in “Art of the Deal” where it instructs you how to whine after you lose.

Trump being surprised about the nomination process, that has currently given him the lead, is an example of how unfamiliar with the process he knows and how unprepared he is.

To put it in more general terms; How Trump is complaining about the nomination process is analogous to listening to someone completely unfamiliar with baseball who is watching a game for the first time:

  • “Why did that guy run to a base when the batter didn’t hit that ball! It’s called stealing? That’s not fair!”
  • “I thought there was only four fouls! That guy got more! This game is rigged!”
  • “Well if that fielder made an error he should get another try. It’s only fair.”

Perhaps a video like this could help him.

Trump has a pattern of claiming fraud when an election does not go his way, like when he claimed voter fraud after losing Iowa. And his critics say this kind of misdirection is his specialty. By blaming the process rather than his own inadequacies as a manager, Mr. Trump is trying to shift focus after Senator Ted Cruz of Texas outmaneuvered him in delegate contests in states like Colorado, North Dakota and Iowa, losses that could end up denying Mr. Trump the nomination.

Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus has spent the past few days pushing back over Twitter.

However there might be a tactical reason for Trump’s attacks on the Republican primary process. Every time Donald Trump attacks the establishment he strengthens his position as an “outsider” candidate, which plays to his supporters. So there is no downside in the primary for attacking the nomination process to a group largely unaware of how it works.

Media

Fox News Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYlw-bgk2NM

Trump Makes Up The Name of a Federal Agency He Would Axe

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump had a Rick Perry moment during a Fox News town hall Monday night when he vowed to do away with the “Department of Environmental,” an agency that does not exist.

When asked by Fox host Sean Hannity if he would eliminate any federal departments as President, Trump responded “largely, we can eliminate the Department of Education,” a common refrain among conservatives.

But he went on: “Department of Environmental, I mean, the DEP is killing us environmentally, it’s just killing our businesses.”

(h/t Talking Points Memo)

Reality

Let’s put aside for a moment that the DEP does not exist, it’s not even a correct acronym for “Department of Environmental”.

I think what Trump is referring to is the EPA, or the Environmental Protection Agency. When Trump claims that they (the EPA) are “killing us”, he has got that backwards. It is the Environmental Protection Agency who is preventing billionaire business owners, like Donald Trump, from killing us. For example:

Gaffes like this killed former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s chances for the nomination in 2012, when he struggled to come up with the EPA as one of the three agencies he would shutter until Mitt Romney stepped in with an assist.

Instances like these help prove how unqualified Donald J. Trump is for the Presidency of the United States of America.

Devil’s Advocate

Maybe Trump is so efficient, he eliminated the department before anyone was able to hear about it?

Media

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