by
Chip
Somodevilla/Getty
Images)
Set
your
mind
back
to
2011.
Things
are
not
going
well
in
Iraq. A
bunch
of
Republican
members
of
Congress
post
a
video
reciting
the
law:
Members
of
the
military
should
not
obey
illegal
orders.
President
Barack
Obama
takes
to
Twitter
to say
this about the
members
of
Congress:
It’s
called
SEDITIOUS
BEHAVIOR
AT
THE
HIGHEST
LEVEL.
Each
one
of
these
traitors
to
our
Country
should
be
ARRESTED
AND
PUT
ON
TRIAL.
Their
words
cannot
be
allowed
to
stand
—
We
won’t
have
a
Country
anymore!!!
An
example
MUST
BE
SET.
An
hour
later,
Obama
emphasized
his
point:
SEDITIOUS
BEHAVIOR,
punishable
by
DEATH!
What
would
happen
next?
There
would
of
course
be
a
Republican
uproar
in
Congress. The
uproar
would
be
justified. A
bunch
of
Democrats
would
probably
join
the
chorus.
The
main
issue
would
be
the
appropriate
remedy
for
the
president
acting
this
way: Congressional
censure? Surely. Impeachment? Maybe.
Is
falsely
accusing
members
of
Congress
of
sedition,
punishable
by
death,
a
high
crime
or
misdemeanor? Is
the
accusation
an
implicit
threat,
inciting
the
presidents’
supporters
to
commit
violence? Or
maybe
the
Cabinet
should
invoke
the
25th
Amendment
because
the
president’s
sanity,
or
at
least
capacity,
is
in
question? Again,
maybe.
In
any
event,
Obama’s
statement
would
ignite
a
firestorm. The
presidency
would
be
at
risk.
Suppose
in
2022
Joe
Biden
had
been
caught
on
camera
saying
to
a
female
reporter
who
asked
him
a
hard
question:
“Quiet! Quiet,
piggy.”
Would
Republican
operatives
have
said
that
Biden
was
being
“frank
and
honest”
and
this
was
one
of
the
many
reasons
people
had
elected
Biden? Or
would
Republicans
have
been
up
in
arms? “If
the
chief
executive
officer
of
any
public
company
had
been
caught
on
tape
doing
this,
he’d
be
fired
before
the
end
of
the
day!”
I
can
hear
the
Republicans
now: “The
old
coot
is
senile!
He’s
lost
his
sense
of
propriety! An
autopen
must
be
signing
legislation!”
I’m
not
sure
Republicans
would
have
tried
to
impeach
Biden
over
this,
but
it
would
have
been
quite
a
scandal.
These
two
events
—
presidential
allegations
of
sedition
and
the
admonition
“quiet,
piggy”
—
of
course
occurred
last
week
in
Donald
Trump’s
administration. There
was
no
public
outcry.
Indeed,
what’s
remarkable
is
that
those
two
events
were
probably
not
the
most
shocking
things
that
Trump
said
or
did
last
week.
Trump praised the
human
rights
record
of
Mohammed
bin
Salman
—
the
man
who
the
CIA
concluded
with
high
confidence
had
ordered
the
assassination
of
Jamil
Khashoggi. Trump
threatened
war
with
Venezuela. Trump
deployed
the
National
Guard
to
yet
another
American
city.
I
often
think
that
pundits
turn
up
the
volume
too
high,
becoming
hysterical
about
every
one
of
Trump’s
slight
missteps. But
then
I
think
that,
in
normal
times,
people
would
have
gone
nuts
over
behavior
as
erratic
as
Trump’s
was
last
week.
These,
of
course,
are
not
normal
times.
In
the
age
of
Trump,
none
of
Trump’s
comments
or
deeds
is
a
big
deal. It’s
just
Trump
being
Trump.
But
until
something,
or
someone,
restrains
Trump,
this
will
get
worse
before
the
term
is
out.
Mark Herrmann spent
17
years
as
a
partner
at
a
leading
international
law
firm
and
later
oversaw
litigation,
compliance
and
employment
matters
at
a
large
international
company.
He
is
the
author
of The
Curmudgeon’s
Guide
to
Practicing
Law and Drug
and
Device
Product
Liability
Litigation
Strategy (affiliate
links).
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected].