Like Craig, I too have already voted. And I've even been notified by the Maryland Board of Elections that my vote has already been counted.
I also voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.
I assume that for most regular viewers of From and Fuller, it comes as no surprise that we both voted for Vice President Harris.
In his excellent video, Craig, who served eight years in top positions in the White House, explains the qualities that a president needs to build an administration that is capable of dealing with the country's most urgent problems.
I want to talk briefly about something else, about two threshold qualities, being a law-abiding citizen and believing in democracy, that I believe a candidate must exhibit before he or she is even considered for the presidency of the United States.
Donald Trump embodies neither.
For that reason alone, I believe he should be disqualified from ever serving in the Oval Office again. And I also believe for that reason that the 2024 election is the most important election of my lifetime.
I was absolutely stunned to learn and outraged to learn this afternoon that the Washington Post will not endorse a presidential candidate this year for the first time in 36 years.
What?
According to CNN, the Post editorial staff had prepared an endorsement of Vice President Harris only to have it quashed by Post owner Jeff Bezos.
Katherine Graham, the longtime publisher of the Post, must be spinning like a top in a grave.
The post motto is “democracy dies in darkness.” I guess under Bezos, the post has chosen darkness over democracy.
But I digress. Back to why President Trump should never be President of the United States again.
First, he's a convicted criminal awaiting sentencing on 34 felony counts on which he was convicted by a jury of his peers. But for Trump, 34 felony convictions is just the tip of the iceberg.
He's been found liable for sexual assault. The judge called it rape.
Had judgments of fraud against both his companies and his phony foundation.
He's been indicted in his awaiting trial for inciting an insurrection against the United States of America.
And he's been indicted for stealing classified documents.
Trump recently posed for a photo op for his campaign of him working at McDonald's. The truth is that with a criminal record like Trump's, he could never get a job at McDonald's or probably anywhere else for that matter.
The presidency should be more than a get out of jail free card.
But if he's elected, that's exactly what it's going to be for Trump.
He told us yesterday that he would fire, within two minutes of assuming office, that he would fire the special prosecutor in the January 6th insurrection case.
Second, the foundation of our democracy for 250 years has been the peaceful transfer of power from one president to his successor.
That is, of course, until Trump was voted out of office.
We know Trump doesn't believe in a peaceful transition of power because on January 6th, 2021, he incited a riot to block that peaceful transition of power.
He's told us that he'd terminate the Constitution to stay in power, that the keystone of his next administration would be retribution, that he considers his political adversaries enemies within, and that he would use the National Guard and the military if necessary to put them down.
Trump's admiration for autocrats and dictators like Vladimir Putin, is well known.
Now comes the revelation from his former chief of staff, General Kelly, that Trump admired Hitler and that he wished for generals like Hitler's who would follow any order that he gave, whether it was legal or not.
That's just beyond the pale.
Having led one insurrection against democracy, is there any reason to doubt that Trump would do it again?
Republican leaders, even after watching Trump make those statements on videotape, try to deny them.or rationalize them away, citing policy differences with Vice President Harris as reasons to support Trump, even though he would undermine democracy.
That's just nonsense.
Policy issues can be debated and compromised, and no president ever gets everything he or she wants. But there are higher thresholds at stake in this election. And electing a president who is a law-abiding citizen and who believes in democracy should be the highest.
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