dig.ni.fy Summer 2024 | Page 88

Weigh pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.

Might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense.

Would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.5

Harris can speak with authority over the damage such actions would do to our society and the rule of law. She could speak with authority to the danger of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that granted immunity to presidents when acting in an official capacity. With the constraint on the rule of law removed, Harris could speak with authority to the fact the Court effectively granted Trump the right to extend his narcissistic fantasies into actual acts of revenge against political opponents and hatred against minorities – if he were to only claim all were taken while conducting official duties.

Most importantly, Harris can prosecute the case against Trump by speaking both as a woman and as an attorney, against Trump and the Republican Party, and against the members of the U.S. Supreme Court who Trump appointed for overturning the principle of stare decisis which allowed them to inject personal beliefs and ideological allegiance into rulings such as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (which overturned Roe) and Loper Bright v Raimondo (which denied the right of government agencies to be flexible in addressing emerging issues and new science such as climate change). In doing so, she would personalize the matter and reveal Trump to be both ignorant on details surrounding the issues and inhumane in the positions he takes.

Moreover, having served as Biden’s vice president, Harris can energetically speak to

false claims about the Biden Administration – which is why Trump will most likely back out of the debate or make such demands that a legitimate debate wouldn't even be possible. Harris can speak as did Biden to the dangers Trump’s buddies Putin and Kim Jong Un pose and to how NATO continues to be an importance actor on the world stage after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both matters Trump denies. As president of the U.S. Senate, Harris can speak energetically and authoritatively about the danger posed to colleagues by the January 6th insurrectionists; and as an attorney and former prosecutor she can speak to why Trump should be held accountable and why those individuals should not be pardoned.

Harris could also prosecute Trump over the false claims he has made about the economy, how robust and healthy it was under his presidency. Again, she needs to lay out the facts in detail.

For example, Trump claims the economy was so much better under his presidency than under Biden’s. None of this is true. Recent numbers suggest that from “growth and jobs to investment and business creation, the economy has performed substantially better under Biden than it did under Trump.” Official data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) are clear: after inflation, GDP has grown at a 3.4 percent average annual rate since Biden became president, while Trump trails badly at an average 1.8 percent growth rate. From 2017 to 2019, the economy grew and average of 2.8 percent per year, a rate still 18 percent lower than under Biden.

Biden’s stronger growth wasn’t by happenstance: he and congressional Democrats actively promoted it with the American Rescue Plan, the March 2021 stimulus enacted over united Republican opposition and the November 2021 infrastructure act that Trump talked about but never delivered. Walking through the numbers, Biden again trumps Trump:

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