Trump: "I Don't Leave"

Asked during a press conference yesterday what his thoughts are about possibly being impeached, Donald Trump said that, unlike Nixon, the threat of impeachment won't force him out of office: "I don't leave."

Donald Trump, whose actions during the Russia probe have prompted comparisons to the Watergate scandal, drew a distinction between himself and Richard Nixon: “He left. I don’t leave. A big difference”https://t.co/xSRHObJ8J2 pic.twitter.com/X5JhZ8fxCM

— POLITICO (@politico) June 10, 2019

You can't impeach somebody when there's never been anything done wrong. We have no collusion; we have no anything. There's no obstruction; there's no collusion; there's no anything.

When you look at past impeachments, whether it was President Clinton or, I guess President Nixon never got there — he left. I don't leave. There's a big difference. I don't leave.

We did nothing wrong except create the greatest economy in the history of our country; we did nothing wrong except rebuild our military like nobody's ever seen before. We're doing a great job; our country's never been stronger.

This entire clip is pure authoritarian propaganda, from his assertion that he has done nothing wrong and there's no evidence that he has (which is false), to his wild claims about having the greatest economy and military in the nation's history (also false).

And, of course, there's the sickening centerpiece — his twice-intoned insistence: "I don't leave."

Which, if it were simply just drawing a distinction between himself and disgraced President Richard Nixon, would be bad enough, since at least the scoundrel Nixon had the minimal decency to slink away when his criminality had been exposed.

But Trump saying he doesn't leave sits within the context of his many "jokes" and straightforward statements about how he might serve more than two terms, and against the backdrop of foreign and domestic election interference designed explicitly to help him get elected.

This is another issue for which I hope anyone who hopes to be the Democratic nominee is prepared: Donald Trump continues to signal that he will not respect the outcome of the 2020 election if he is not the winner.

Yet another reason to impeach him now.