Sometimes You Have to Say, ‘I’m Sorry’
By Jeffrey Page
Donald Trump and his coterie believe that election is tantamount to gaining unquestioned authority in matters of insult, truth and apology.
You may believe that begging someone’s pardon after intended or unintended insult might make the world a little more civil, maybe even a little safer, but Donald Trump seems to hold no such belief.
“If I win,” he informed Hillary Clinton during the campaign, “I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your [missing email] situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception.” This as Trump’s followers gleefully roared “Lock her up! Lock her up!”
So far, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has appointed no special prosecutor, which could indicate that Clinton is not quite as wicked as Trump would have you believe.
So with no special prosecutor in sight, can Trump stand up and say “I went a little too far; I apologize?”
He cannot.
He’s apparently unaware that in America when you charge someone with a crime you’re supposed to have evidence.
Someone else operating from the Trump Handbook of Practical Politics is Jeff Sessions, who stepped into a Ringling Bros. bucket when he declared recently that the state of Hawaii is little more than a banana republic – seven insignificant islands floating out there on the briny.
Apologize? Sessions?
Reacting to an unfavorable ruling by District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu, Sessions told an interviewer: “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be his statutory and Constitutional power.” Such judicial orders are precisely what make America unique, far different from a lot of countries.
At issue before Watson was Trump’s signing an executive order barring travelers from Muslim dominant countries from entering the United States – the so-called travel ban. Watson didn’t think it passed Constitutional muster.
Sessions was “amazed?”
If so, Americans must be “amazed” to learn that their attorney general is “amazed” at what the judges of a great nation do. That is, they interpret the law.
Sessions attributed the hubbub over his island jest to Americans having a lousy sense of humor. Get it? He was just kidding around with those 1.5 million unappreciative Hawaiians, not to mention the rest of us.
Incidentally, yes Watson was appointed by President Obama.
And yes, the Senate vote to confirm him was 94-0.
And yes, one of those yea votes was cast by Jeff Sessions, a senator at the time.
Here’s a handy guide to a few older incidents that beg for apology but have received no such thing.
— “I watched in Jersey City New Jersey where thousands and thousands of people [Muslims] were cheering as that building [the World Trade Center] was coming down,” Trump said about 9/11. Apparently he was the only person to witness such cheering.
— Trump said he doubted he could get a fair trial in a case to be heard by Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel since Trump was calling for a wall to prevent Mexicans from crossing the border to reach the U.S. and Curiel had that Mexican sounding surname. Therefore, Trump’s reasoning went, he could not expect a fair shake from Curiel, except that Curiel is not Mexican but a U.S. citizen born in East Chicago, Indiana, the son of U.S. citizens.
— Trump charged outrageously that President Obama’s people tapped some of Trump’s phones during the campaign for Hillary Clinton’s benefit.
The evidence?
None.
Tags: Hawaii, Hillary, Honolulu, Jeffrey Page, Muslims, obama, president, Sessions, trump
May 6th, 2017 at 8:04 am
Your list of Trump and Trump Administration transgressions barely touches the surface. Where was the apology for the entire birther matter? What about to all those bilked by Trump University? Of course there’s all that abuse of women, and all the expresssions of hate to minorities. BTW, his refusal to accept any responsibility for any such actions preceded his election. It has nothing to do with the privilege of office. It’s who he is.
May 6th, 2017 at 5:10 pm
How can T and his cronies apologize when they believe their own lies! and hi Ken!