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Donald Trump — the first former U.S. president to be criminally indicted — has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts connected to falsifying business records with the “intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof.” Prosecutors allege Trump made false and illegal accounting entries to hide the fact he paid off porn star Stormy Daniels in order to keep her quiet ahead of the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she had with Trump.
Even if Trump is found guilty, he’ll still be able to run for president. Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence argues it’s time we had some laws in place that restrict convicted criminals from becoming president.
Nothing in the Constitution or any statute or other legal precedent stops Trump’s 2024 train. We need rules in place that don’t put our nation in a position where a convicted criminal is also commander in chief. Now that’s not to throw any shade on any leader who’s done time, or was a political prisoner. Because that’s not the situation here. Donald Trump is a twice-impeached former president who is facing charges in New York for cooking the books so he could conceal an affair with a porn star. And he’ll likely be facing charges in Georgia for trying to influence the last presidential election. This man ain’t Nelson Mandela.
Should Trump be incarcerated, it’ll be because he is a dead ass anti-democratic criminal. There should be something expressly barring him, or anyone else currently imprisoned, on a duly sustained conviction from being in office. But we don’t have those rules because much of our country was basically founded upon a glorified version of a gentleman’s agreement — from the thought that a president won’t appoint a Supreme Court justice at the end of his term to the notion that any candidate facing indictment would withdraw.
We need to stop acting as though decorum dictates behavior today. This isn’t 1906. The former first lady was doing softcore porn. Blowies have been gifted in the West Wing. “Ladies and gentlemen” have been swapped out for more gender-inclusive language. This ain’t Woodrow Wilson’s America. When will our legislature act accordingly?
