Trump not lying; hCAN do whatever he wants

President Donald Trump was incorrect last week when he said he can do whatever he wants as president, but he was not lying.

The legal experts and constitutional scholars and critics filled social media and the TV networks after Trump told a room filled with teenagers and young adults at the Turning Point USA Teen Student Action Summit in Washington, D.C., that the Constitution gives him “the right to do whatever I want as president.”

Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, said Trump’s comment would have earned him “an absolute F” in her constitutional law class.

And she’d be correct.

But this ain’t college. It’s the real world.

On paper, and according to the Constitution, Trump is dead wrong. Article II of the Constitution grants the president “executive powers,” but it also describes the authority of Congress to remove the president from office “via impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

So, from a strictly legal, constitutional point of view, Trump was shamefully inaccurate when he told the young people, “Then, I have an Article II, where I have to the right to do whatever I want as president.”

But he was not lying. Congress may have the power to remove the president but Trump knows that no matter what he does, this particular Congress — the Senate, anyway — will not hold him to account. No matter what.

During the testimony of special counsel Robert Mueller, Rep. Jerrold Nadler asked, “And what about total exoneration? Did you actually totally exonerate the president?”

“No,” Mueller replied.

In fact, those who have studied the Mueller report point to at least 10 instances that could be considered obstruction of justice, any one of which could result in impeachment and removal.

But only if members of Congress honor their oaths to uphold the Constitution.

In other words … hahahahahahaha. Republicans in Congress, including all of those from Arizona, seem to believe they swore an oath to Trump, not the Constitution.

I’d guess it’s either out of loyalty,

... Trump knows that no matter what he does, this particular Congress ... will not hold him to account.

fear, ignorance or some combination of all three.

When the president was a private citizen he was caught on tape bragging about what a “famous” person like him could get away with when it came to molesting women.

Or, as he put it on the infamous Access Hollywood tape, “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything …”

Apparently, that same rule applies now that Trump is president, only more so.

Nearly 11,000 provable lies have been told by Trump since being elected, documented by the Washington

Post and others. They have resulted in zero consequences.

Muller said that Trump aides told dozens of lies during interviews with his team and impeded his investigation, and that has led to zero consequences.

Legally issued subpoenas from Congress have been ignored by the Trump administration with, you guessed it, zero consequences.

And Trump’s racist comments about ethnic minorities? About four congresswomen of color? And most recently about Rep. Elijah Cummings, an African American?

On Sunday, when Fox News anchor Chris Wallace confronted acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney about the president’s pattern of racist remarks, Mulvaney said Wallace was “spending too much time reading between the lines.”

Wallace answered, “I’m not reading between the lines, I’m reading the lines.”

And he’s right.

But again, zero consequences. It goes on.

So while the constitutional process to hold the president to account is in place, the people with the responsibility to do so … won’t. They’re clearly afraid of angering Trump, who loves it when they cower. In essence, the men and women we elected, and who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, have rendered the Constitution moot.

Until that changes, when Trump says, “I have the right to do whatever I want,” he’s not lying.