U.S. Election explanation

[Rodney Mills]

James, I don't think I quite answered your question, So. The only thing the President is answerable to is the Constitution of the United States, and any polices he advances are weighed against the Constitution by the Supreme Court Justices, and the voters of the USA.

Nobody can order him not to run, He has advisors on all subjects, specialists on foreign affairs and domestic issues but they are only advisors. And he is well aware of the political poles and the impact a decision will cost him in an election. My guess and it's only a guess, is if the poles of Domestic and independent voters start to desert him in large numbers and his defeat becomes inevitable, he will bow out. It being better to be a successful one term president rather than a defeated second term wannabe.

Cheers, Rodney

[James Curry]

Rodney , can you explain how and why a President can issue a pardon for someone say like his former national security advisor.
I am thinking about Michael Flynn who was proven to have lied to the FBI.

Another odd one to me is how the President can nominate a judge to the Supreme court. Trump stacked the Supreme Court with judges so the court would more than likely have bias towards the the sitting President. I think that move may have back fired on Trump as he is getting a hard time from the courts at the moment.

To be honest I do not fully understand how that works in the USA, assume it is written into the constitution.

The UK have this daft system that an out going PM can nominate his mates to the house of lords, a house that is full of non elected members.

[j.sabourn]

Rodney thanks for your clear and precise explanation of American politics I like many others will probably be much wiser now. I would never presume and argue with another resident of an alien country about his head of the country, the same as i would not have an alien decry our Monarchy. Thanks anyway. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Rod.
I agree with John S; I know little about the US elections other than by TV. But last night there was an American on TV that said a President can be elected, {with enough votes of course} even if he is in jail, I can't list the reasons he would have been in jail but there were many. True or false?
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Rodders, a couple of pints.
Our Donald is said to have had top secret documents in his private house after leaving office, how can that be??

Then from my understanding listening to a political correspondent in Washinton.
If convicted and possibly jailed he can still run for office.
If he wins he can then as president give himself a pardon!!!!

What sort of mad logic is that??

[Rodney Mills]

James, Des, and Johnno

Question 1

Re Presidential Pardoning. The president's power of pardon is in the Constitution, Article 11, Section 2.

President Ford pardoned Pres. Nixon, Pres. Carter pardoned the Vietnam draft dodgers, Pres, George H. Bush pardoned Casper Wienburgher. Donald Trump Pardoned Joseph Alpio.

Trump pardoned 85 people. It was calculated that 73 of them had connections in some way to him, or he was doing a favor to someone connected to Trump.


Question 2.

How can someone in Federal prison vote? Because it's NOT in the constitution under the list of exemptions.

Crimes committed under States laws. There are 19 states that ban prisoners to vote period, The rest restore the right to the vote after completion of sentence. there are two states that allow prisoners to vote in prison. The federal law cannot supersede state law or visa versa. A quick example: Man kills a woman in Oklahoma, he is arrested by state police, accused, tried and convicted and serves time or execution in a state prison... A postman is killed by a man or woman in Oklahoma. The man is caught by the FBI or handed over to the FBI, tried under the federal court system and punished in The federal prison system. Why? because the postman was a federal government employee.

Question 3. Can a President pardon himself.

No, as he has the power in the Constitution to pardon OTHERS, and himself is not part of others, therefore he is excluded. Nixon toyed with the idea of pardoning himself while he was in office, however he dropped the idea on advice of his legal experts.

Question 4. Can the Pres be elected while in Jail? There are no legal obstacles to stop a convicted person from being elected while in jail so the answer is yes.

In 1920, Eugene Debs leader of the Socialist Party of America (Comunist) received almost a million votes while in prison urging people to avoid the draft.

Question 5 re. the President nominating supreme court justices.

The president nominates someone to the supreme court. The Key word is NOMINATE, he chooses someone, that person goes before a panel in both houses of congress and answers their questions, if satisfied he then goes before the whole membership of both houses for a vote of yea or nay, if yes, he is then sworn in, if no, the president will nominate another. With Trump he had a majority in both houses, so his selections were a given.

The president does not have absolute power. None of the Trump proposals would have been selected by congress if the republicans did not have a majority, One thing I might add. There are 100 senators in the senate if they should be tied 50-50, the vice president has a tie breaker vote so it would have been 51 for the democrats and 50 for the republicans. as it was it was a larger republican party majority. In the congress the republicans had a majority as well.

The president PROPESES (nominates) and the congress DISPOSES (Confirms or rejects). And the supreme court is the final arbiters of the laws to their conformity to the Constitution.

If something is in doubt, at the local level then the opposing party (or individual) can appeal to a higher court as to it, or it shouldn't be passed it goes through the whole system of law up to the supreme court, they select which case is (my word) "worthy" of their judgement and is voted on and their decision is final, the rest are kicked back to the next lower court who's decision stands.

Question 6. . Presidential pardoning power.

Pardon or clemency is in the Constitution Article 11, Section 2, Clause 1.

This is my opinion as to why clemency was included in the constitution. The laws of England were a large basis, along with Greek and Roman law of the constitution, and I would expect it was based on the royal clemency privilege of England.

I think I got everyone's questions. if not give me a reminder.

Cheers, Rodney (Rodders)

[Rodney Mills]

OOps, saw one I missed.

Johnno, It is against the law for the President to remove any document other the very personal papers, i.e, a note from his wife. Trump had more than 11,000. over 300 designated top secret. Photos in the report show them scattered around his home and even stacked in a toilet.

35 then an additional 12 were found at Bidens home an a garage. 10 were discovered by Bidens attorney who notified the FBI who conducted a search of Bidens home. Half of them were from when Biden was a senator. This is still against the law. Mike Pense, vice president also found 6 documents and notified the FBI.

These may sound like minor infractions to y'all, but some of the documents of Trump were marked To Secret and so marked, pertaining to Ukraine, China and Saudia Arabia. And Chump, I mean Trump, is documented showing people them in his house. Removal of top secret documents from an official office is charged as part of the espionage act, as in spying, this is in no minor event.

Chump has 37 charges against him, 7 of them are espionage charges that carry penalties of 5 to 20 years in jail. This is the second indictment against him in a month. The other is to do with his paying hush money to a girl friend to not tell about their sex affair just before the election, he paid her $135,000. for a one night stand.

Cheers, Rodney

[James Curry]

Probably paid her not to say the Viagra had not kicked in What has happened to the wife she never seems to be around these days?

[Rodney Mills]

Apologize about typos, but I was pooped after I put that lot together and became tired, careless and sloppy, but
I'm sure you can make out how I should have typed it. Cheers, Rodney

[Rodney Mills]

James, you got me about the wife. I was wrong, I figured she would dump him after the election. According to the occasional news blurb, she and the son live separate lives from him. But no official word about her and the son, or a peep out of any of the other kids. The daughter and her husband were thick with him, but for the past couple of years they have disappeared.

Cheers, Rodney