For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Head Towards Judgment

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Peter Baker - No major party presidential candidate, much less president, in American history has been accused of wrongdoing so many times.

Posted by tonyroma at 05:58 PM | 5 COMMENTS | permalink

Comments

In all the different ways that Mr. Trump has upended the traditional rules of American politics, that may be one of the most striking. He has survived more scandals than any major party presidential candidate, much less president, in the life of the republic. Not only survived but thrived. He has turned them on their head, making allegations against him into an argument for him by casting himself as a serial victim rather than a serial violator.

His persecution defense, the notion that he gets in so much trouble only because everyone is out to get him, resonates at his rallies where he says "they're not coming after me, they're coming after you, and I'm just standing in the way." But that of course belies a record of scandal stretching across his 78 years starting long before politics. Whether in his personal life or his public life, he has been accused of so many acts of wrongdoing, investigated by so many prosecutors and agencies, sued by so many plaintiffs and claimants that it requires a scorecard just to remember them all.

His businesses went bankrupt repeatedly and multiple others failed. He was taken to court for stiffing his vendors, stiffing his bankers and even stiffing his own family. He avoided the draft during the Vietnam War and avoided paying any income taxes for years. He was forced to shell out tens of millions of dollars to students who accused him of scamming them, found liable for wide-scale business fraud and had his real estate firm convicted in criminal court of tax crimes.

He has boasted of grabbing women by their private parts, been reported to have cheated on all three of his wives and been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, including one whose account was validated by a jury that found him liable for sexual abuse after a civil trial.

He is the only president in American history impeached twice for high crimes and misdemeanors, the only president ever indicted on criminal charges and the only president to be convicted of a felony (34, in fact). He used the authority of his office to punish his adversaries and tried to hold onto power on the basis of a brazen lie.

Mr. Trump beat some of the investigations and lawsuits against him and some proved unfounded, but the sheer volume is remarkable.

"And this is the man we want to be President of the United States again!" -- 48% of the American electorate

#1 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-10-20 06:02 PM

46%, Tony, not 48%

In 2016 the Kumquat Pol Pot got 46.1%

In 2020 he got 46.8%

In both cases, the winner of the popular vote was 48.2% for Clinton in 2016 and 51.3% for Biden in 2020.

AND BOTH OF THOSE ELECTIONS WERE BEFORE THE DODDS DECISION IN 2022.