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Opinion: Trump's 'lawfare' attack on the courts could backfire on the Constitution
MSNBC ^ | February 14, 2025 | By Symone D. Sanders-Townsend

Posted on 02/14/2025 7:31:54 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

President Donald Trump loves to take a phrase and drain it of all meaning. In his first term, he transformed the term "fake news" from describing a specific problem with a type of misinformation into an attack on any journalist he didn't like or a piece of journalism that made him look bad.

Now he's doing the same to the word "lawfare," and the stakes are even higher — including, potentially, the guardrails of our democracy.

Coined in 2001, "lawfare" refers to the use of courts and other legal systems to damage or delegitimize a political opponent. After Trump left office four years ago, he began using lawfare incorrectly to describe the various criminal cases he was embroiled in due to paying hush money, allegedly trying to overturn an election and allegedly mishandling classified documents.

Let’s be clear: courts can only consider the cases brought before them. Democratic attorneys general and nonprofits are not filing these lawsuits to hurt Trump. Judges (including Republican appointees) are not ruling against Trump out of personal animus, but because they want to slow things down. It’s not lawfare, as Trump would have you believe. It’s the law, applied fairly.

But what happens if Trump's supporters believe his claims? After all, we watched with our own eyes as he convinced millions of our fellow Americans that the 2020 election was rigged without a shred of good evidence. If he can undermine the legitimacy of our elections, who's to say that he can't do the same with our courts?

And therein lies the crisis we'll soon be facing. The most powerful man in the world is attacking the system of laws he's sworn to uphold. The real lawfare right now is one that Trump is waging against the courts, and that should concern all of us.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Humor; TV/Movies; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: article2; democratnarrative; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; fakenews; insurrectionist; interference; journalism; judicialactivism; judicialcoup; judicialmisconduct; lawfare; marxism; media; mediawingofthednc; msdnc; mslsd; msnbc; msnbcsedition; nbcfakenews; noauthority; nobrainscollectively; nojurisdiction; ourdemocracy; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; pmsnbc; press; presstitutes; pulltheirfcclicense; pureprojection; sanderstownsend; seditionist; smearmachine; tds; trump; whatanuglyho
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1 posted on 02/14/2025 7:31:54 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“President Donald Trump loves to take a phrase and drain it of all meaning.”

Yeah... that’s really bad ‘cuz the Left never does that kind of thing.


2 posted on 02/14/2025 7:34:39 AM PST by BuchananBrigadeTrumpFan (If in doubt, it's probably sarcasm)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

This is parody, right??


3 posted on 02/14/2025 7:35:52 AM PST by mn-bush-man
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Practically everything we see in politics today is a reaction to things that have been done by the Democrats. You have to react or whatever they did stands.


4 posted on 02/14/2025 7:36:21 AM PST by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud? )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Wow, it’s early in the morning here on the West Coast and already I’ve read the “Steaming Pantload of the Day” award-winning article.


5 posted on 02/14/2025 7:37:03 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (They were the FA-est of times, they were the FO-est of times.)
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To: mn-bush-man

SNL Anniversary skit


6 posted on 02/14/2025 7:37:18 AM PST by TornadoAlley3 ( I'm Proud To Be An Okie From Muskogee)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
It was the American socialists and globalists who, "Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?"...

Someone forgot to listen to Thomas More's advice...

A Man for All Seasons

7 posted on 02/14/2025 7:37:20 AM PST by Frank Drebin (And don't ever let me catch you guys in America!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

More traitorous propaganda from the democrat media.


8 posted on 02/14/2025 7:37:24 AM PST by Skwor
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It’s MSNBC. Treat their stuff like used toilet paper.


9 posted on 02/14/2025 7:37:35 AM PST by Carl Vehse (Make Austin Texas Again!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So Trump’s not abusing the constitution properly.
They should know, they are experts at it.


10 posted on 02/14/2025 7:38:56 AM PST by READINABLUESTATE (‘Never trust a man whose uncle was eaten by cannibals’)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“good evidence”

LOL, what happened to just, evidence? Couldn’t pull off that lie any more?


11 posted on 02/14/2025 7:39:00 AM PST by Yogafist
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To: mn-bush-man

Thought I was reading The Bee!


12 posted on 02/14/2025 7:40:57 AM PST by 6ppc (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act -George Orwell)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Suddenly MSNBC is in love with the US Constitution. I thought it was an obsolete document authored by dead white male slaveholders.


13 posted on 02/14/2025 7:42:41 AM PST by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Had to check it out. Sanders-Townsend is another Pressley skinhead with a small brain and a big mouth. Works for PMSNBC.


14 posted on 02/14/2025 7:42:58 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (The trouble with illegal aliens is that their own crappy countries don't even want them there.)
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To: Skwor

Which is normal for the left.


15 posted on 02/14/2025 7:43:34 AM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Courts are supposed to be temperate, where people compare the moment to long-held statute and precedent.

We are descending into intemperance, where scripture forecasts that the final bad guy will be called the man of lawlessness.


16 posted on 02/14/2025 7:43:51 AM PST by lurk (u)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“including, potentially, the guardrails of >>our democracy<<.” [my edit]

The Legacy Media, benefactors of a Capitalist market in a Constitutional republic established by the “rule of law” once again...
...attempts to defend THEIR democracy.

Throughout history, Democracy has failed every time it was tried.
#TyrannyOfTheWolf


17 posted on 02/14/2025 7:44:02 AM PST by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alteration; The acronym defines the science.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I read these daily media hit pieces on Trump happily knowing he has the entire American left scared out of their minds.


18 posted on 02/14/2025 7:44:14 AM PST by dowcaet
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The sooner MSNBC and CNN cease to exist, the better.


19 posted on 02/14/2025 7:44:19 AM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Who isn’t mad when they realize they’ve been outsmarted?


20 posted on 02/14/2025 7:47:48 AM PST by bigbob (Yes. We ARE going back!)
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