Former president tells Glenn Beck he would have ‘no choice’ but to lock up opponents ‘because they’re doing it to us’

  • Hyggyldy@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I was wondering if the actual quote was something more weaselly than that but nope.

    Beck: “If you become president will you lock people up?”

    Trump: “The answer is you have no choice, because they’re doing it to us.”

  • Rusticus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well he campaigned on “lock her up” and despite nearly a dozen investigations and her testifying in front of Congress for 10 hours, guess what happened? Zippity doo daa

        • kescusay@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I guarantee the person you’re responding wants nothing less than to become educated on this topic.

      • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You’re thinking of Reagan testifying before Congress about Iran Contra.

        It worked for Karl Rove and Dick Cheney when they talked about vote manipulation in 2004.

        It was also the only way Spiro Agnew got through his corruption hearing in front of Congress while Nixon tried to do the same for Watergate until the taped conversations were released.

        It’s a time tested conservative play when confronted by a request to tell the truth: don’t lie but deny the allegations. Weirdly, I can’t find any time a democrat, Hilary or otherwise, repeated “I don’t recall” for their entire testimony. It just seems to be a conservative play.

  • KaiReeve@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    His entire campaign in 2016 was ‘locking up’ Hillary. If he wasn’t able to accomplish that in 4 years, what makes him think he can follow through with this promise now that he has numerous enemies on both sides of the aisle?

    Nothing short of a full-blown Shutzstaffel will fulfill even a fraction of his current campaign promises.

    • MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Playing devil’s advocate, the Trump team didn’t expect to win and quite frankly had no clue how to pull the levers of power for a large portion of his presidency. If, God forbid, he is reelected that will not be the case. They will know how to play the system much more effectively than they did last time.

      • atticus88th@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If that happens then my grandchildren will be living in nearly the identical series events my grandmother escaped from.

        We have learned nothing from our past mistakes.

      • Djinger@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Furthermore, they’ve been bleating about the left doing exactly what he’s saying despite it not being the case, so his followers and acolyte will 100% back him when he does it for real. Another Big Lie

      • n0m4n@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They learned some of what didn’t work. That does not translate to being able to any better ability to lead a nation. Authoritarians always fail on the fatal flaw of believing their own BS, and sycophants reaffirming that delusion. Kings, Popes, Hitler, Putin, Dear Leader, and now Xi all were inflicted with that delusion.

      • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        Haven’t most abandoned him and bad mouthed him. It will be new incompetents and deplorables. Some will be the same, but they are the background people.

        I wonder if seeing the problems some allies now have seeking alternative employment or opportunities will give them pause. Then I remember they are not great critical thinkers.

        The more moderate Republicans stayed away and rightly so. I don’t think they will be tempted to rejoin. Luckily, he’s got much less chance. His base is shrinking, albeit at a much slower rate than it should. People are more aware of what a terrible person and president he will be. Those paying attentiyalready knew.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      He’s never believed that he’d be able to lock up anyone other than PoC and migrants. His base bought into it. I don’t thing this promise is going to hold nearly the same support as last time. Sure, they’ll still love him to death and try to elect him but I don’t expect that they’ll be so sure that he’ll make this happen. But it’s a re-run and americans are famous for watching garbage television, so who knows.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What else would this douchebag do, really? He had 4 years and the only thing he “accomplished” was tax breaks for the elite.

    Of course this tiny petty man will use the power of the office to exact revenge. He’s not going to do anything for Americans.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      He had 4 years and the only thing he “accomplished” was tax breaks for the elite

      He also “accomplished” making intentional allies a lot less willing to trust the US.

        • Intralexical@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Honestly, I’m glad to see the EU and its constituent countries realize it needs to be able to assert itself without counting fully on the US.

          Granted, I don’t have to live in the US myself, so… Sorry about that.

      • Clown_Tempura@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        To be fair, a lot of those deaths were inevitable. Trump did not create the anti-vax movement. He just taught it to torture itself with horse dewormer to own the libs.

        • ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world
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          To be fair and accurate, he lied to the country about the seriousness of the outbreak. He’s on recording in Feb 2020 flat-out telling Bob Woodward it’s going to be bad, it’s much more deadly than the flu. At the same time he’s publicly calling it a hoax, that its going to go away, like a miracle.

          The people that trusted him didn’t take it serious because he told them not to, and then accused everyone taking it serious to be fools or intentionally trying to create a panic and steal their liberties. Had he simply allowed the scientists and the CDC to speak candidly and deferred to them, thousands upon thousands of lives would have been saved.

          • Clown_Tempura@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Oh I don’t mean to imply he is not responsible or try to make light of his disastrous incompetence, the absolute shithead definitely got many people killed by insisting the biggest public health crisis in recent memory was no big deal. A solid quarter of the US population to this day still hangs on his every word. I’m just saying that with or without him, a good chunk of people were going to refuse to get vaccinated or practice social distancing no matter what. This undercurrent of contrarian mental illness in America is not new.

            • Wilibus@lemmy.world
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              And deliberately normalizing that behavior is the issue. Same thing with racism, Trump doesn’t create or promote racism, he just normalizes the racist behavior.

              • Clown_Tempura@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Well that goes without saying. These people were always like this, but social norms forced them to be more quiet about it. Career conman and karma Houdini Trump comes along and shows his people that not only can they be be open and proud of their worst qualities, they can get away with their behavior in nearly all cases.

            • orclev@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              This undercurrent of contrarian mental illness in America is not new.

              Sadly, you’re correct, this is very much not new. That’s a political flier from 1955 put out during the height of the red scare and McCarthyism. I’d say conservatives need new material, but it’s very clear that the old material is working just as well today as it was 70 years ago.

    • Greenbubbleb0y@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I was looking into this. Obama added roughly 8 trillion dollars to the national debt. Trump added the same amount in half as much time.

      • No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        While both of these statements are true, Obama did it to get the US out of the recession hole where the previous 8 years of unsecured mortgages and crazy walls street bets from investment banks created endemic risk and failure propagation.
        Very different outcomes of the same moneys, specially considering we even turn some profit on sellin the bailed out car companies and once they paid some of these loans.

      • vivadanang@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        it’s important to understand each of their reasoning:

        Obama added to the national debt in order to jumpstart a stalled economy that was deep, DEEEEEEP in the shitter after Bush just noped’out after letting the housing market explode and adding two wars to the bill. Paying all that shit off, PLUS, what was planned to be damned-near-universal-healthcare but became JUST a huge expansion to most people’s health benefits (the ACA).

        Those are things Obama’s admin paid for and we saw actual, tangible returns on. The economy roared back to life. Medical costs and insurance costs went down.

        What benefits did we see from Trump’s deficit ballooning tax cuts? hmm lemme look here… ah, the report says JACK SHIT.

        Unless you’re a billionaire.

        So yeah, they both added to the national debt but at least most americans received a functioning economy and a chance for healthcare from Obama. Genuinely, Thanks Obama!

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They aren’t even hiding that they are wanna-be dictators anymore.
    And “freedom” loving conservatives just cheer this on.
    They “love” America so much, they want to destroy our democracy. The level of hypocrisy amongst the Right is astonishing.

    • Hazor@lemmy.world
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      Most of the followers can’t see past “we’re going to save America from the evil Democrats”. It’s not as if Fox News or OAN put the fascist behaviors on display. They genuinely believe Trump when he says the Democrats are persecuting him, rather than that the justice system is prosecuting him for crimes - his only “crime” was trying to save America from those evil commie Democrats, after all. They take all the BS at face value because … tribalism and fear or something?

      The only people in the Republican party who actually understand what’s happening are the rich and the powerful. Everyone else, the voters especially, are just useful idiots.

    • zer0nix@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      They want freedom from accountability, like King Leopold’s congo free state.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      If you’re expecting someone to actually enforce consequences on him for this you haven’t been paying attention.

        • Wilibus@lemmy.world
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          I’m kind of worried about that being the case. Not American though, you should probably be more worried if you actually live there.

            • Wilibus@lemmy.world
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              Being an outside observer I am kind of excited for him to flee the country and attempt to run for president of the United States from somewhere like Russia or North Korea.

              Best. Timeline. Ever.

                • Wilibus@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Which part exactly? Him being found guilty, him trying to flee the country, or him continuing to claim victory after fleeing the country?

                  This timeline is eerily close to a conceivable reality.

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
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    So they screech about the justice system being weaponized because they’re being tried and prosecuted for their crimes, and then turn around and in the same breath just flat out say they’ll weaponize the justice system. Classic case of saying the quiet part out loud.

    • escapesamsara@discuss.online
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      1 year ago

      Most conservatives, as in all of those not in charge, have issues with empathy; specifically imagining the inner world of any other human being. That’s not to say that cannot do this very simple human activity, rather they specifically cannot imagine any other human on the planet thinks any differently or has any other motivations than them. Therefore if they would do something in a situation, then everyone in that situation must be trying to do the thing that they would do.

      They believe democrats are weaponizing the justice system, because it’s what they would do, and thus they assume anyone that failed to do that before now was simply prevented from doing so – now that they see ‘weaponized’ justice happening, they think it’s fair game for their guys to do it.

    • krakenx@lemmy.world
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      If you (in the general sense) don’t believe that Trump and his cronies committed crimes, then you would likely believe that the justice system is being used to attack him. If it’s being used to attack him, then him doing the same to his opponents is equivalent and fair.

      Whether or not you believe he committed crimes is dependent on your news sources, ability to fact check and think critically, and your trust in the justice system.

      A very significant portion of the population doesn’t believe he committed crimes.

  • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    They need to ask ab9ut this during these republican debate/PR events. Do you support tump’s call tto arrest his political opponents?" Yes or no,

    • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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      Ummm, that’s not the question you’re hoping it is.

      They chanted “lock her up!” at rallies.

      The people who still support this man (and it’s a lot of people) would turn against anyone who answered with a no.

        • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          The people being asked the question will not answer in good faith. They are blood thirsty, they are angry, and they want a scapegoat, not a civics lesson.

          • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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            If those peo0le who are running for president are blood thirsty, we should probably know about it before voting starts.

            • escapesamsara@discuss.online
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              DeSantis was a lawyer for Gitmo; Trump wanted to execute five innocent black men before he had any political ambitions; Vivek fully embraces the caste system that benefited his family in the past, and has pretty openly suggested he wants to use violence to implement it here. We know the people who are running for president are blood thirsty, they don’t hide that in any way. They chose to run on a conservative platform, violence is inherent to the ideology, and on top of that frequently advertise how well they would play the role of violence if elected.

              • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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                Those 5 black men he wanted executed were between 14 and 16 years old.

                He wanted to execute five black and Hispanic children. That’s what he wanted to do. Paid from his own pocket to advertise it too.

                I’m not correcting you because I disagree, I just wanted to drive that point home.

                Your comment is 100% on point aside from that little error.

              • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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                I agree with all of this, but unfortunately none of it is framed this way in the media.

                The mass media kinda has a “Jews for Hitler” vibe going about it right now, because a lot of Trump’s “political enemies” are journalists. They should stop pussyfooting around that fact and stop covering this as a horse race because if he wins he’s gonna run his horse right over them first with the rest of us not too far behind.

            • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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              You can listen to to to them talk at any recorded rally they have. There are interviews with these people. Websites. PACs. Years of history. Television debates are not the only way to know thier thoughts. None of these people appeared out of thin air.

    • icdmize@lemmy.world
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      Trump doesn’t do debates anymore. He doesn’t have to. I think he has saturated his market.

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
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      They already asked them if they would support Trump as nominee ( their political rival ) if he was arrested and imprisoned. I think 6 of 8 said “yes”.

      • Wilibus@lemmy.world
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        Technically 5 of 8 said yes, DeSantis waited to see what everyone else did and then raised his hand as well.

          • Wilibus@lemmy.world
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            Hesitating isn’t the same as waiting to make sure you’re on the same team as the popular kids.

            If anything hesitating puts him marginally above these other bootlicking fascists.

    • randon31415@lemmy.world
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      Didn’t Ramaswamy basically say he would rule through executive order and ignore the courts and congress?

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    Once again the Right is accusing the Left of things the Right wants to do.

    Pretty sneaky trick really.

    Say your enemy is going to do something

    Do it

    Get told “Hey you’re doing X”

    Tell them “Projecting much? Everyone knows you’re the one who’s doing X, I even said so before you accused me of anything!”

  • JdW@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Apart from the whole dictator thing, they had the presedential power for 4 years and managed to lock up exactly nobody… Not saying they’re not dangerous but why would their base believe them this time, action should really speak louder than words with those simpletons and Trump has been all words.