The Possibility of a Criminal Occupying the Presidency Foreseen Almost 250 Years Ago

Patrick Henry foresaw what we are experiencing with Trump. At the Virginia Ratifying Convention in 1788, he argued that the vast powers granted to the President rendered the nation vulnerable to a criminal occupying America’s highest office. Such a president, Henry predicted, would realize that his powers could be deployed to aid and abet his criminal ambitions. Henry took care to note that such a president could, in theory, be checked by a criminal investigation, but facing the prospect of criminal charges, the president would simply rely on his constitutionally granted powers to thwart the prosecutors and if the prosecutors did not back down, the president could simply collapse the system, demanding the full powers of a “monarch.” “If the president be guilty,” Henry told the Convention, then his criminal proclivities meant that he wouldn’t hesitate “to make one bold push for the American throne.” I’m afraid we’re seeing that in a real time today with Trump.