Donald Trump’s beat the clock gambit
This is Trump’s Beat The Clock gambit from hell. He’s been caught pressuring Georgia officials to “find” votes or suffer a “big risk.” “It’s going to be very costly,” are words that even a kindergartner can understand as a threat. His words were nothing short of slam-dunk impeachment worthy. But he knows no one will go there in the short time he has left and truly what’s the point? Right now, his only path is to resign in order to get Pence to pardon him. There’s no point in setting up an impeachment in these final days.
But what does give one pause is the notion that this isn’t Trump’s first rodeo in extortion. His barely veiled threats are well rehearsed and dropped like a con artist rolling a target. What other phone calls has he made like this? We know about his Ukraine phone call which caused his impeachment. There must be others we don’t know about and it’s disturbing. Remarkable in itself given Trump’s 24/7 ability to disturb. It’s also noteworthy how frightened Trump must be to make a phone call to people who didn’t want to go to jail. He truly seems oblivious of it. There was never going to be any movement with the Georgia officials, not even if he dangled a pardon. Nobody but a nutjob is going to put their neck on the line at this point.
But then, there’s Mark Meadows, his co-conspirator, and someone in the FBI needs to look at this as committing sedition. Meadows isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer but he’s definitely one of the most unethical and corrupt. His orchestration during that phone call should be enough to give him federal prison time.
How many pardons will Trump be able to give out at the end? The potential list is long, and Trump will surely tire of signing them, but they may not be worth the paper they’re written on. Trump potentially can’t pardon co-conspirators, which Raffensperger seems to understand but, laughably, not Meadows. Dig in, because we’ve got a few more days to go of this sh*tshow. Terrified Trump is only going to get more crazed.
TR Kenneth is the author of the thriller, A ROOM FULL OF NIGHT. You can read all about her at trkenneth.com and on Twitter