Democracy Needs Heroes

Politix

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on Rubicon, Brian Beutler looks beyond Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial to the broader question of what post-Trump accountability should look like across the federal government. He asks author, historian, and culture critic Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the common tactics modern authoritarian leaders use (and have used for the past century), how other countries have tried (and often failed) to stop them, and whether the early steps President Biden and his majorities in Congress have taken suggest they will do what needs to be done to stop resurgent authoritarianism in the U.S. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/rubicon

Transcript

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0:00.0	Presidents can't inflame insurrection in their final weeks and then walk away like
0:10.5	nothing happened.
0:11.6	A new January exception in our precious beloved Constitution that prior generations
0:17.7	have died for and fought for so the corrupt presidents have several weeks to get away
0:24.5	with whatever it is they wanted to.
0:26.6	The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump will confront senators with at least one question
0:32.0	maybe two if we're lucky.
0:35.0	The first question is President Trump guilty of inciting the insurrection at the Capitol
0:39.7	on January 6th or not?
0:43.4	The second question if and only if he's convicted should he be disqualified from holding public
0:49.6	office in the future.
0:53.1	We've been conditioned for good reason to believe that Republicans will never allow Trump
0:56.7	to face consequences for his actions when they can protect him.
1:00.9	And since they have the power to acquit him, remember conviction by the Senate requires
1:05.1	two-thirds of voting senators to agree?
1:08.0	We shouldn't hold our breath expecting them to do the right thing.
1:10.6	The votes may not be there to convict the former president and you know if you look at
1:17.1	the numbers and do the math it seems likely the president could be acquitted.
1:22.1	But what if they did?
1:24.8	Would that be the end of the story?
1:27.3	Should it be?
1:29.6	It would certainly amount to punishment for Trump pertaining to his central role in the
	...

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