President-elect Donald Trump has signaled to The New York Times that he does not intend to investigate or prosecute Hillary Clinton.
Why is he doing this? It’s got to be a new record for breaking a campaign promise.
Should Hillary Clinton be investigated? Absolutely. Any other citizen would be; why not her? Just as the evidence was overwhelmingly against her the day before she lost the election, the evidence still remains overwhelmingly against her after losing the election. Election results do not change the guilt or innocence of a person.
A central theme of Trump’s campaign was supposedly putting the law above politics. What’s Trump’s motive here? Based on what he says: Because he feels sorry for Hillary Clinton. Because he wants her to “heal.” Earth to Trump: Criminals and sociopaths do not heal.
Trump said he doesn’t “want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”
Since when does feeling sorry for someone make a person above the law?
And what about all the illegal things the Clinton Foundation will now do, even without Hillary in the White House? They know they’re off the hook and in the clear, even under a Donald Trump administration. If this isn’t enabling lawlessness and corruption, along with refilling the swamp, I don’t know what is.
Why does Donald Trump, of all people, care about not hurting Hillary Clinton? She and her supporters feel no such concern for him and his supporters. She still considers the people who voted for him deplorable. She’s insulting and intolerant in the extreme, just as her supporters remain in their bitterness toward anyone who voted for Trump. This bitterness will only worsen over time, in my view. America is badly divided, and the aftermath of this election has shown just how much. Such division is not sustainable, any more than in the years leading up to the Civil War.
Republicans love to turn the other cheek. They love their enemies. They forgive their enemies, even when their enemies are not the tiniest bit sorry. Does Donald Trump think Hillary Clinton no longer sneers at him? Does he think she won’t use her considerable clout and money — now strengthened by no threat of legal sanction– to go after him in any way she can? Did Trump become successful in business by treating adversaries as if they were friends? I doubt it. Then why now?
Democrats and progressives have no such problem with forgiveness. They forgive nobody. While they treat America’s enemies — Islamic fundamentalism — with nothing but courtesy and bribery, they treat their real enemies — Republicans, advocates of private property and individual rights, or anyone else who’s not a socialist Democrat — with far more willingness to annihilate than Donald Trump even needed to apply to Hillary Clinton. All he needed to do with Hillary Clinton is what the Obama administration refused to do: hold her accountable under the law, just like any other citizen.
No, it isn’t proper for a victorious politician (close election or not) to throw his former adversary in jail. But it’s equally bad to hold anyone above the law. Isn’t that what Donald Trump just spent an entire presidential campaign claiming?
Donald Trump is dead wrong on this one. If it’s an indication of how firmly he plans to stand by his other campaign promises, it’s an ominous sign.
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