I said here a couple days ago that the question wasn't why Trump staffers assaulted a staffer at Arlington Cemetery who got in their way. It was why the people who assaulted that staffer weren't arrested.
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
Update: The Army has issued a Sternly Worded Statement, which is what you do in Washington when you don't want to actually do anything about a problem.
US Army rebukes Trump campaign for incident at Arlington National Cemetery | CNN Politics
The US Army issued a stark rebuke of former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign over the incident on Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, saying in a statement on Thursday that participants in the ceremony “were made aware of federal laws” regarding political activity at the cemetery, and “abruptly pushed aside” an employee of the cemetery.
CNN (www.cnn.com)
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mike bayer :python_logo:replied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit seems like a Big Deal for the army to even hint that they are taking a position that's entangled in a major political race
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to mike bayer :python_logo: last edited by
@zzzeek It seems telling that they did not make that statement until the story blew up in the national press. Once that happened, they had to do SOMETHING.
A Sternly Worded Statement is the minimum that lets you say with a straight face that you did something.
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mike bayer :python_logo:replied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit ok, but "had to do SOMETHING" doesn't hold the force it used to. John Roberts had to do SOMETHING about Clarence Thomas outed as accepting tens of millions of dollars in gifts, not reporting any of it, and recusing from zero cases, but...he did nothing!
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Mastodon Migrationreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
The Trump campaign will love this. They will point to their ability to defy and bully the Army as characteristic of Trump's strength.
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to mike bayer :python_logo: last edited by
@zzzeek I'm not talking about "had to do something" in the sense of "the law says you have to do something," but in the sense of "you have to do something if you want to keep your job."
It's not in the Army's interest to have this turn into a thing that generates weeks of news stories or Congressional hearings. So when it first happened, they kept their mouth shut and hoped it would just blow over. But then the media picked up on it and it became A Thing. So the only choice was: do nothing and lose control of the story, or do SOMETHING to try and put the lid back on it.
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@jalefkowit
I thought this TPM article summed it up well. The person is afraid to testify out of fear for her safety. This is because Trump has always encouraged and relied upon intimidation and mob-like thuggery as an instrument of power.Cemetery Staffer Declines To Press Charges For Fear Of Retaliation
The fascist overtones from the Arlington National Cemetery incident are unmistakeable.
TPM – Talking Points Memo (talkingpointsmemo.com)
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@meehawl That is the exact article I linked to in my post.
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@jalefkowit I apologise for not RTFMing in my excitement!
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@meehawl No worries. It happens to all of us eventually