Day 1,105: Trump’s legal team argues that Trump can have dictatorial power. Republicans ready to tacitly sign off.

There’s no way to look at the way Republicans are handling the impeachment trial of Donald Trump and think they have any interest in acting as a natural check-and-balance of his powers.

They’re looking for a dictator, as long as it keeps them employed.

They’re afraid to say one cross word about Trump’s horrific actions that attempted to undercut an election and the very heart of American democracy. They’re fearful of his tweets. Fearful of showing even an ounce of backbone. Fearful having to work a job in the real world.

Trump’s legal team is all too happy to play their part. On Wednesday, Alan Dershowitz, one of Trump’s lawyers made the extraordinary claim that Trump can do whatever he wants, as long as he merely believes it is to try and win an election.

“And if a president did something that he believes will help him get elected — in the public interest — that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

Republicans believe Trump is immune from criminal prosecution while in office, as they frequently said during the Robert Mueller probe. That, coupled with Dershowitz’s argument, means Trump could do literally anything he wanted and no one could do anything about it as long as “he believe [it] will help him get elected.”

Taken to the ridiculous, Trump could kill a potential political foe — perhaps in the middle of Fifth Avenue — and it’s not an impeachable action, according to Dershowitz, because it would help him get elected.

Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Kim would all be thrilled by Dershowitz’s argument that consolidates dictatorial powers to what is supposed to be a co-equal branch of government. All the while, Republicans set in the chamber like toddlers with bibs, ready to swallow whatever Trump and his team spoon-feed them as they prepare to acquit Trump as soon as this week.

1,105 days in, 357 to go

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