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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAs Trump struggles, his allies point to...Al Capone?
Source: MSNBC.com
Earlier this month, Donald Trump declared via Twitter, Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and Public Enemy Number One. or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement although convicted of nothing?
It wasnt altogether clear where the president was going with the comparison, and the closer one looked at the argument, the less sense it made. Nevertheless, Trump apparently planted a Capone-related seed that continues to grow. In the hopes of defending the president, NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch has even turned the notorious gangsters name into a verb. Media Matters highlighted her latest pitch:
The moral argument over the presidents infidelities would never result in legal trouble. So they believe they have to take a lesson from the Clinton years and find a way to make it a legal problem. And thats exactly what theyre using campaign finance for, an already unconstitutional set of laws to pull it off.
Theyre trying to Al Capone the president. I mean, you remember. Capone didnt go down for murder. Elliot Ness didnt put him in for murder. He went in for tax fraud. Prosecutors didnt care how he went down as long as he went down. The same goes for Democrats. Whatever avenue is needed to bring down the president, theyll take it.
Putting aside the question of what any of this has to do with the NRAs ostensible agenda, I think I see where Loesch is going with this. Donald Trump is facing a wide variety of serious allegations, and his alleged campaign-finance-law violations seem less dramatic than some of the more alarming possibilities. Shes therefore drawing a parallel: just as Capone was busted for tax evasion instead of murder, Trump may face campaign-finance accusations instead of charges related to cooperation with the presidents Russian benefactors.
More at: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-struggles-his-allies-point-al-capone
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)With reason.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,738 posts)that because it's not as serious a crime as murder he shouldn't have been prosecuted at all? Should Trump not be accused of the lesser offense of campaign finance violations because he shouldn't also be accused of the greater crime of conspiracy with the Russians? None of this makes any sense at all.
BigmanPigman
(51,611 posts)to me since he said he would release his taxes BEFORE he was falsely elected. There was no "witch hunt" since we did not know his crimes with Russia and everything else. If he released his taxes he wouldn't have been elected most likely and all the crimes he committed since, like obstruction, would never have come under incestigation.