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In a recent interview, likely Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden stated that he wouldn’t stop prosecutors from targeting Donald Trump after he leaves office. Speaking on the scenario, Joe Biden stated that prosecuting a former president is a “very unusual thing and probably not very … good for democracy.”
However, Biden confirmed that he would not actively stand in the way of such an effort. “Look, the Justice Department is not the president’s private law firm. The attorney general is not the president’s private lawyer. I will not interfere with the Justice Department’s judgment of whether or not they think they should pursue the prosecution of anyone that they think has violated the law,” Biden told reporters.
November is still months away, and a lot could happen between now and then. Biden’s campaign has been careful to not take the election for granted. Until they tally the votes, anything can happen. And, this being 2020, anything can happen even after the votes are tallied. Some have even raised the specter of a nightmare scenario where the election is very close, and Trump chooses to discard the results and claim voter fraud was responsible.
In such a scenario, the country would plunge directly into a constitutional crisis. A sitting president has never openly defied the votes of the Electoral College before. It would bring the country into uncharted territory. However, no matter what happens in November, Donald Trump’s current term will be up on January 20. Should the vote still be contested by then, some have suggested that the Speaker of the House would likely then become the president.
That all being said, national polling suggests that Biden is in a strong position going into the election. People are largely tiring of Trump’s brand of combative politics. The mile-a-minute whirlwind of living in Trump’s American may be wearing on even some of the president’s own supporters. His early disregard for the severity of the coronavirus pandemic may have also dented his reelection chances.
While older Americans are normally searching terms like “arthritis in my hip” and “Enbrel side effects,” they’re now contending with a deadly respiratory illness. The president’s early insistence on downplaying that illness may have won him no friends among his older supporters. When November comes, the incumbent may have a hard time staying in office—and out of court.
