(May 30) Former President Donald Trump should withdraw from the presidential race.
There is no other honorable option.
This is simple: A unanimous jury has found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts. Our system of laws requires that we respect unanimous juries. The president is the chief executive of the laws of the United States. For the sake of honoring our laws and Constitution, nobody should run for the office of president while convicted of felonies by unanimous juries of citizen peers.
Period. End of story.
It matters not that Trump has the right to appeal. It matters not that he might win on appeal. What matters is what is good for the country. It is not good for the country, indeed for the free world, to have its fate rest on the ins and outs of complicated appeals. It is not good for the country to have as one of its only two main choices for president someone who literally may be behind bars while in office.
Remember that these are state crimes, not federal ones, for which Trump is convicted. Even if one believes the dubious proposition that a president has the power under federal law to pardon himself for federal crimes, it is undeniable that the presidential pardon power does not extend to state crimes. If Trump does not win his appeal, and if the judge applies the sentence for a 34-count conviction that would apply to ordinary people, then Trump will be behind bars. One cannot bring leaders of Congress for important meetings all the way from Capitol Hill to a New York prison. And one cannot be in the Situation Room for a crisis while behind bars.
Repeat: This is not about Trump. It is about the nation he asks to lead.
It is not fair to U.S. citizens to present them with this awful Hobson’s choice. Trump must withdraw.
ORIGINAL: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/3023313/trumps-continued-candidacy-would-insult-country/
