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> House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to members on Friday that she's spoken to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley about preventing Presiden
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
> House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to members on Friday that she's spoken to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley about preventing President Trump from accessing the nuclear codes.
If Miley does it, wouldn’t it be a military coup, and isn’t Nancy Pelosi encouraging it? All the existing US law both statute and Constitutional is that the president is Commander in Chief of the US military and has sole authority to launch nukes.
Congress can impeach, but I am not sure I am happy with a precedent of political leaders going to the military and telling them to abrogate the constitutional authority that their political opponent has.
There are already other Constituional remedies such as impeachment or the 25th Amendment to deal with a rogue President. Telling the military to unilaterally assume authority in a matter is not one of them.
The military should Never be brought into any political dispute. That path only escalates and leads to ruin.
- jaycroft 6y agoWhere, in the constitution, is the President authorized to wage war without the consent of Congress?
- gwright 6y agoTo my mind, this effort by Pelosi (if true) is more dangerous than anything Trump said this week.
- charonn0 6y agoReally? Advocating the violent overthrow of Congress and the rule of law by a sitting president is less worrisome than trying to prevent that same sitting president from murdering tens of millions of innocent people in your name?
- gwright 6y agoGive me the quote that justifies your statement that Trump was "Advocating the violent overthrow of Congress and the rule of law"
- charonn0 6y agoFor example: > We will never give up; we will never concede. We will stop the steal. We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol…We’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones…the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.
- gwright 6y agoSo advocating for Senators and representatives to vote in a particular way is a problem?
- maxerickson 6y agoThe sitting president advocating that Congress ignore the law is problematic, yes. The certification by Congress is ceremonial, it's a counting of the results provided by the states, not an evaluation of those results.
- gwright 6y agoI don't believe that is correct. Congress has the power to reject electors and has done so on several occasions. There are established procedures for this process: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/explaining-how-congress-settles-electoral-college-disputes https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/explaining-how-congress-...
- maxerickson 6y agoOkay fine, but guess what a Democratic house is going to do with objections when there aren't wild irregularities, they are going to reject the objections. If the chambers are split, it becomes ceremonial. You'd almost think the law they wrote was intended to make it ceremonial, while reserving the capability to do something in the face of a real problem.
- charonn0 6y ago
- gwright 6y ago> trying to prevent that same sitting president from murdering tens of millions of innocent people in your Any evidence at all that this was a thing?
- charonn0 6y agoThat is a reference to a nuclear first strike.
- LaMarseillaise 6y agoSo you would rather gamble human civilization on the chance that it might not be true, with a psychopath that has shown he is willing to do anything to stay in office?
- gwright 6y ago> willing to do anything to stay in office So far he has tweeted, initiated legal actions and abided by the rulings. Where is your evidence that he will "do anything to stay in office"?
- howmayiannoyyou 6y agoOdd. I watched Trump's speech and I watched and heard him tell protestors to literally go home and not engage in violence, and then it was reported Trump activated the DC national guard to defend the capital. We must live in different universes.
- charonn0 6y agoYes. I live in the universe where it was actually Pence who approve sending in the Guard. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/national-guard-capitol-army.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/national-guar...
- maxerickson 6y agohttps://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/pelosi-letter-on-nuclear-codes/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/pelosi-letter-on-nuc... All it says in the letter is that she discussed the process with someone at the Pentagon.
- charonn0 6y agoIt would not be a coup because it doesn't aim to oust the president. At worst the generals in question would be guilty of disobeying orders, and that's assuming the order was legal in the first place.
- TT3351 6y agoUsurping one of the three co-equal branches of government would qualify as a coup, we are not a kingdom or monarchy beholden to the executive.
- charonn0 6y agoYou're right about that, but this isn't an example of usurpation since no one would be asserting the power to launch nuclear weapons. The attempt by the President's supporters to overthrow Congress is a far better example.