If presidential immunity is absolute..
If presidential immunity is absolute..
Could Biden order Trump's execution and win the next election?
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- Trump's lawyers would argue that Biden can order Trump's execution without any punishment, but that it would not cause him to win the next election because the military and other federal officials are not immune and are "obligated" not to follow illegal orders. So basically the argument is that illegal orders are unlikely to be followed.
- Problem with this argument is that the president has the pardon power, which means he could promise to pardon people for following his illegal orders.
- But the problem with that argument is that some believe the president could pardon himself, so maybe that situation is already a reality even if the president is not immune
- What would actually happen? It seems like in both Watergate and Jan 6, some people did refuse to follow corrupt orders. But in the case of Watergate where there was more time and a more intelligent corrupt president, that wasn't itself a major problem. In Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre, he forced his AGs to resign until he landed on future Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, who carried out Nixon's illegal order to fire a special prosecutor. The bad news for Nixon is that the move was so unpopular it eventually led to his resignation as he probably would've been impeached otherwise.
Well,what if Biden shoots Trump during a debate? If he would be immune he cannot be put to trial for it.
Trump's lawyers would argue that Biden can order Trump's execution without any punishment, but that it would not cause him to win the next election because the military and other federal officials are not immune and are "obligated" not to follow illegal orders. So basically the argument is that illegal orders are unlikely to be followed.
As Biden, I'm not going to risk publicly having Trump killed. I'm getting a hitman
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