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Elie Mystal Explodes on ‘Idiot’ Merrick Garland With 3 Basic Facts Attacking ‘Self-Serving’ Special Counsel Appointment

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There is no shortage of political pundits and legal scholars voicing opinions on Attorney General Merrick Garland‘s decision to appoint a special counsel to continue the criminal investigations into Donald Trump. Most have given the Attorney General a pass out of respect, even after several this week urged him to not hand off the investigation to a third party.

Garland on Friday announced that former DOJ official Jack Smith, a federal prosecutor on loan to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, will take over two criminal investigations into Trump.

The Nation’s Justice correspondent, Elie Mystal, in an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber Friday evening, however, did not hold back his fury over the appointment, asking, rhetorically, if Garland is an “idiot” or “insane.”

Mystal made three essential points.

RELATED – Watch: Merrick Garland Announces Trump’s Presidential Candidacy Announcement Influenced Him to Appoint Special Counsel

Point one: Why didn’t Merrick Garland appoint a special counsel 18 months ago, or after federal agents retrieved classified documents in August from Mar-a-Lago?

Point two: The claim that only now do we know Donald Trump is running for president is inaccurate. “This idea that Trump was going to be a candidate for office is not a new development.”

Point three: DOJ prosecutors have always investigated and prosecuted elected officials. For example, they are currently investigating Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, and did so during the midterms.

READ MORE: The GOP Ran on Gas and Grocery Prices. Their Top Priority After Taking the House? Hunter Biden’s Laptop.

“There’s not a single argument that I have heard in defense of Merrick Garland’s self-serving pearl-clutching press conference that he gave this morning that answers the critical question,” Mystal told Melber, “if he was going to do this, if you believe that this is in the public interest, then why didn’t he believe that it was in the public interest 18 months ago, when he easily could have done the exact same thing?”

Mystal says Trump running for president is not new.

“All the facts that he laid out today are things that were known quantities 18 months ago. People will say, ‘Oh, but Donald Trump wasn’t running for president 18 months ago.’ Wasn’t he? As far as I can tell, Trump still thinks he is the president. So this idea that Trump was going to be a candidate for office is not a new development in the case. Nor is the idea of quite frankly, that Joe Biden was going to be a candidate, is a new development in the case.”

He says if Garland thought his prosecutors couldn’t handle Trump he should have made this decision 18 months ago.

“We know that politicians running for office has been investigated by the Department of Justice in the regular process, of the Department of Justice before. Now Garland thought that his Department of Justice just wasn’t up to snuff, just wasn’t going to be able to bring it all the way home because of the extraordinary situation of prosecuting a president, as opposed to a governor, then he should have made this handoff, he should have made this announcement 18 months ago when everything was just as obvious it was today.”

READ MORE: Kari Lake Claims Supporters Were ‘Disenfranchised’ Because They Had to Endure the Same Conditions Black Voters Often Face

“At the very least you should have made the announcement in August when they seized the documents that Trump stole from the White House,” Mystal charged.

And then he blasted all the reason why the DOJ says Trump can’t be prosecuted at any given point in time.

“We have been told by this Department of Justice that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted. We have been told by this Department of Justice that a person now running for the office of President can’t be prosecuted. We’ve been told by the Department of Justice that a person who isn’t actually running in the midterm elections also can’t be prosecuted.”

“If Merrick Garland thinks that Jack Smith from The Hague is going to take down the partisan pressure on him and make the right wing feel like this is a fair process, he’s an idiot, right?”

 

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US Could Slide Into Putin-Style Rule After Trump Foreign Policy Shift: Journalist

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In a stark warning on the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, The Bulwark’s editor, Jonathan V. Last, suggests that under Trump, America may adopt Putinism as its domestic policy, having already adopted it for its foreign policy.

“Will Putinism take over American domestic politics, too?” Last asks, in an opinion piece titled, “This Is the End.”

“America has adopted Putinism as its modus operandi for foreign affairs,” he says. “Why would America not also adopt Putinism in its domestic affairs? Why would the American regime tolerate free and fair elections or the transfer of power to an opposition party?”

Pursuing the question, Last continued: “Are there examples of expansionist, rogue regimes which ignored international law and attempted to subjugate free people abroad, but respected liberal democratic outcomes that terminated their possession of power at home?”

READ MORE: ‘Dictators’ Tea Party’: Trump’s Board of Peace Ridiculed as New Details Revealed

To those who suggest Trumpism is temporary, Last suggests he disagrees.

“Many people comfort themselves by saying some version of ‘Donald Trump is an aberration’ or ‘This isn’t who we are,'” he writes.

But, he continues, “If Trump was an aberration and his actions did not have sufficient public support, then he would be removed from office. There are two mechanisms for doing so—impeachment and the 25th Amendment.”

“Trump will not be removed from office; which allows one of two conclusions. Either: Trump’s policies are supported by a sufficient percentage of Americans to be viable; or America’s constitutional order is so ossified that it no longer functions to safeguard the will of the people.”

“Neither of these is an alibi,” Last warns, noting that, “either one supports the conclusion that the problem is not Trump. It is America and Americans. This is who we are. Like it or not.”

Last also makes several other predictions:

“The days of intelligence sharing between America and our former allies are drawing to a close.”

“The death of NATO.”

“Germany, Poland, and Canada will acquire nuclear weapons. So will Japan. Sweden, Australia, and South Korea may develop nuclear capabilities as well.”

“Europe will draw closer to China.”

“Greenland will become disputed territory.”

READ MORE: ‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

 

Image via Reuters

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Treasury Chief Draws Ridicule for Wanting to Protect Americans With ‘5, 10, 12 Homes’

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Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was met with mockery after explaining he wants to protect “mom and pop” owners who have up to a dozen homes they’ve bought as retirement investments.

Bessent and President Donald Trump have declared they want to ban large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes as housing becomes more scarce and less affordable.

“We are going to give guidance at some point to see what is a mom and pop, that someone — maybe your parents — for their retirement, [bought] about 5, 10, 12 homes,” Bessent told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“So we don’t want to push the mom and pops out,” he continued. “We just want to push everyone else out.”

READ MORE: ‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, has an estimated net worth of $521 million, according to The Street.

Critics were quick to ridicule Bessent as out of touch.

“Good news for the forgotten man,” declared The Bulwark’s Tim Miller. “The mom and pop real estate investor who has purchased 12 homes can breathe easy, the Treasury Secretary is looking out for you.”

“These people are completely out of touch with how life is for you,” observed The Lincoln Project.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s Press Office commented, “Scott, people are trying to buy 1 house — to live in. Could the Trump Admin be any more out of touch?”


READ MORE: ‘Code Red’: Newsom Tells Europe They’ve Been Played by ‘T-Rex’ Trump

 

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‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

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While facing opposition from European leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, President Donald Trump took time out late Tuesday morning to go on a social media spree, including promoting a post that labeled NATO and the United Nations as threats while declaring that the “enemy is within.”

Trump’s controversial Board of Peace is “falling apart,” according to Bloomberg News UK Political Editor Alex Wickham, who reported that “The UK is not joining the board as things stand,” and that its spokesperson said the UK’s commitment to the UN is “unwavering.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has also announced that he would not join the Board of Peace, which requires at least a $1 billion donation for a country to have permanent membership — which can be rescinded by Donald Trump, who is the organization’s chairman.

“So at what point are we going to realize the enemy is within,” the post Trump promoted began. “China and Russia are the boogeymen when the real threat is the U.N., NATO and this ‘religion.’ I put ‘religion’ in quotes because it’s not a religion, it’s a cult!”

READ MORE: ‘Code Red’: Newsom Tells Europe They’ve Been Played by ‘T-Rex’ Trump

The religion mention appeared to be a reference to Islam.

Former Obama and Biden official Jesse Lee responded, writing: “So is Trump threatening to invade Greenland to counter Russia and China as he has ludicrously claimed, or is this just the beginning of his war against Europe as it seems on its face?”

Trump, or someone with access to his Truth Social account, posted dozens of posts in approximately 90 minutes.

His last post so far, at 11:47 AM ET, read: “No single person, or President, has done more for NATO than President Donald J. Trump. If I didn’t come along, there would be no NATO right now!!! It would have been in the ash heap of History. Sad, but TRUE!!! President DJT”

READ MORE: ‘25th Amendment Territory’: Critics Warn Trump Impeachment Is ‘Not Enough’

 

Image via Reuters 

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