Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov...
by bagels on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @07:04PM
(#42941246)
"Nothing Biden or Democrats could do about this"
I think with some amount of imagination, they could have done something about it.
Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov...
by ModernMech on Wednesday February 05, 2025 @08:12PM
(#42957720)
"imagination" here is an euphemism for lawlessness. Democrats believe in democracy. This whole plan requires Trump exerting full control over the DOJ and FBI rather than what is typically done which is allow them to act independently.
For Congress' part, they did pass laws that make a lot of what Trump is doing now with impoundment of congressional funds, and firing inspectors general explicitly illegal. He's doing it anyway.
But the reason Trump is able to do what he's doing now comes down to the structure of the DOJ being an executive branch he controls. Combined with his immunity from SCOTUS. This means he can argue anything he does isn't a crime, no one will investigate or prosecute him, and he can pardon anyone acting in his direction / direct his DOJ to not prosecute them.
Nothing Biden or Democrats could do about this, because at the end of the day, Republicans decided they deserve this power, and they grabbed it for themselves. It was always there for the taking, they just needed to convince themselves with words and court decisions and speeches that they had the right.