Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election
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At least that's what they thought 3 years ago.
Hillary Clinton Could Still Become President if Russia Probe Finds Conspiracy Evidence
By Newsweek Staff On 1/18/18 at 5:00 AM EST
Nearly a year after President Donald Trump's inauguration, a Harvard University professor says 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton could still become commander in chief.
Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman professor of law and leadership at Harvard Law School, penned an essay for Medium in October outlining a series of hypothetical scenarios that could take place should the ongoing probe find that the Trump campaign actually conspired with Russia to influence the results of the election.
If Trump did conspire with Russia, the president "should resign, or, if he doesn't, he should be impeached," Lessig wrote in his essay. Vice President Mike Pence would also have to either resign or get impeached, which would make House Speaker Paul Ryan the president of the United States, Lessig wrote at the time.
Given that there is "no mechanism in American law for a new election," nor "a mechanism for correcting the criminal results of the previous election," Ryan ought to nominate "the person defeated by the treason of his own party, and then step aside, and let her become President," Lessig went on to say.
On Wednesday, Lessig told Newsweek this scenario was still a possibility.
"This is one way it could happen," Lessig said. "But that's very different from saying I think it will happen, or should happen, or [that] the evidence is there for it to happen."
Since the essay was published, there hasn't been "any evidence that's come out that's resolved the question, whether there was some conspiracy to steal the election," the professor said.
"I don't feel that we've seen anything that increases that probability," he added.
If evidence that Trump and his team conspired to steal the election did emerge in the future, however, the president would have to step down, Lessig maintained.
"Absolutely, he's got to resign, and if he doesn't resign, then absolutely Congress needs to impeach him," he said of the hypothetical situation.
Lessig noted that the hypotheticals he wrote about in his essay would apply to only the specific scenario he described.
"The remedy that I…outline[d] only makes sense if you believe the election was stolen," he said. "If you don't believe the election was stolen, there might have been a hundred other things [Trump] did that would lead you to believe he ought to be removed, but none of those justify the remedy I described."
Kind of interesting that the article quotes Lessig extensively, but the headline, by the "Newsweek Staff" says "Hillary Clinton Could Still Become President" rather than, "This guy says 'Clinton could still become president."
I wonder why that is.
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Headline writers always lean toward the sensational, especially in failing publications.
To Lessig’s point, anyone (35+, Citizen) could “still become President”. Just get Harris to resign, Joe to appoint you, Congress to approve you, and Joe to resign. Done.
When you shake someone's deep sense of self-worth, leaving a scar in their ego, they will persistently try to diminish you through petty arguments & obsessive captious criticism of your actions, just to soothe the wound.
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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@jon-nyc said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
To Lessig’s point, anyone (35+, Citizen) could “still become President”. Just get Harris to resign, Joe to appoint you, Congress to approve you, and Joe to resign. Done.
Wasn't this the "strategy" to get Pelosi to become POTUS in 2017? Invoke the 25th, and then, for some reason Pence steps aside, leaving the door open for the Speaker.
Funny, though, that in 2018, when Newsweek published Lessig's comments, it didn't call it a 'crackpot' theory.
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@jolly said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
It's going to be interesting in 20 years, as the people who depend upon the MSM for news die out and the younger generations who know better, become the controlling electorate.
Without subscribers or ad money, MSM will just be more obviously what it is: thirst trap or cat accounts whose niche happens to be current events.
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I think until January 6 we thought all this nonsense could be safely ignored. I suspect it’s still true but we were all wrong about the potential for Jan 6 so now we have to take the abuse seriously as this stuff appears to get enough believers that feel like with just a little elbow grease…
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@loki said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
I think until January 6 we thought all this nonsense could be safely ignored. I suspect it’s still true but we were all wrong about the potential for Jan 6 so now we have to take the abuse seriously as this stuff appears to get enough believers that feel like with just a little elbow grease…
But I don’t take Jan 6 seriously. I know a rioter was killed and I know a cop died a day later, but as some sort of coup or insurrection I do not take it seriously. The doors were unlocked and mostly unguarded. Except that one…
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@horace
I think whether you side with Loki or Horace in terms of how seriously to take Jan 6 cannot be more than a matter of one's own opinion. The thing was at once so goofily disordered and at the same time ominous in an undefinable way (made worse by MSM) that it's hard to portend anything from it. -
@horace said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
@loki said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
I think until January 6 we thought all this nonsense could be safely ignored. I suspect it’s still true but we were all wrong about the potential for Jan 6 so now we have to take the abuse seriously as this stuff appears to get enough believers that feel like with just a little elbow grease…
But I don’t take Jan 6 seriously. I know a rioter was killed and I know a cop died a day later, but as some sort of coup or insurrection I do not take it seriously. The doors were unlocked and mostly unguarded. Except that one…
I take any form of anarchy quite seriously but when I see the “law and order” crowd attack the most important symbol of our democracy I see us at defcon 1. If you don’t take Jan 6 seriously I’m not sure how you take anything seriously.
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@catseye3 said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
@horace
I think whether you side with Loki or Horace in terms of how seriously to take Jan 6 cannot be more than a matter of one's own opinion. The thing was at once so goofily disordered and at the same time ominous in an undefinable way (made worse by MSM) that it's hard to portend anything from it.The choice is in whether to deploy rhetoric to put fear or shame into people to keep them from thinking or saying certain things. Loki finds value in convincing people that insurrections are bad and don’t get anywhere near that slippery slope. I find that rhetoric of no value beyond the value of saying the law breaking idiots need to be punished (according to the law).
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@horace said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
@catseye3 said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
@horace
I think whether you side with Loki or Horace in terms of how seriously to take Jan 6 cannot be more than a matter of one's own opinion. The thing was at once so goofily disordered and at the same time ominous in an undefinable way (made worse by MSM) that it's hard to portend anything from it.The choice is in whether to deploy rhetoric to put fear or shame into people to keep them from thinking or saying certain things. Loki finds value in convincing people that insurrections are bad and don’t get anywhere near that slippery slope. I find that rhetoric of no value beyond the value of saying the law breaking idiots need to be punished (according to the law).
Of course it was goofy. It was colossally stupid too and guess what you have to own the punishment for your stupidity. I object most to the lack of accountability for the wrong and the gift giving to the other side. Own it and move on.
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@catseye3 said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
@loki said in Newsweek: Still a chance to overturn the election:
the gift giving to the other side.
Sorry? Maybe I'm denser than usual this morning, but I don't understand what you mean here.
Sorry. We had four years of TDS and on Jan 6 the insurrectionists gave a degree of credence to their mantra.
