PUTNEY — If Joe Biden is elected president and able to take office - something that is not assured with the armed far right in this country - it is essential that we, the people push him to enforce the law. At least dozens of Trump administration officials have blatantly broken many laws, including some sections of the Constitution.
We are witnessing right now the unlawful direction of the huge bundles of cash from the stimulus program to Trump's cronies, many of whom do not meet any of the criteria for these funds. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has advised states to use funds for elite private schools and religious schools - funds that the House passed and directed to go to low-income students and the schools they attend.
Donald Trump has made a fortune from foreign governments that curry favor by their spending at his pretentious, gold-plated properties around the world. Some of these properties would otherwise not be solvent. This a direct violation of the emoluments prohibition in the Constitution.
Different officials have “directed”prepaid protective equipment from blue states to red state institutions. Really, they have stolen them.
And the graft. Someone will have to count the silver at the White House and count the gold in Fort Knox when this crowd leaves office.
This is not even including the massive human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of immigrants. When people who care understand the magnitude of the concentration camps at the southern border and of the criminal companies that refuse the most basic sanitary conditions and human rights for these people, who have committed no crime, hopefully there will be some accountability.
We have become accustomed to the daily illegal firings of staff at all levels who are not pure Trump loyalists, including firing anyone who has a position to oversee the Trump administration's spending and policies. These personnel violations need to be reviewed.
I could go on.
I worry that should Biden take office, he will feel the need to be a “unifier” and “move ahead,” creating an environment where criminal behavior at the highest level will forever be considered acceptable in the future.
Trump may, or may not be, the cruelest and most amoral chief executive whom we will face, but maybe not. The criminal justice system is based on prosecuting and jailing people for crimes they have already committed:We do not jail folks for future crimes.
These people need to be held accountable. We must make it crystal clear that a president can never use the U.S. government as a personal piggy bank again.
Should this be the final outcome of the Trump presidency, what other grifters will run for this office? It is not so difficult to imagine an almost-trillionaire with no heart like Jeff Bezos deciding that the presidency is the ultimate toy he can purchase.