I have ZERO patience for Garland apologists. If you want to defend Garland please feel free to write your own article doing that but please don't waste our time here doing that. Thanks!
Our institutions are like a Nuclear Power Plant with multiple safety systems if others fail. The Senate failed to convict trump and the Republican leaders including Mconnell and Thune said trump will face our justice system. Merrick Garland as Attorney General was that next institutional safety valve for our democracy and took the same oath I did an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Merrick Garland knew that Robert Mueller’s investigation guided the DOJ to go forward once Trump was out of office and he could have reopened it just like Comey reopened the Clinton email investigation. Garland, like all of us witnessed the attack on the Capitol and the 2nd impeachment and knew of the Republican Senators own words identifying trump as legally, morally and ethically responsible for trying to overthrow our government on 1/6/21. So from day 1 Merrick Garland was given the green light to go ahead and investigate trump’s role in the insurrection by the Republicans in the Senate and the clear expectation by Senators Mitch McConnell and Senator Thune in their own words on the record that the Justice system would address Trump. There is no “blame” game here. This was a blatant failure to do the job Garland swore to the American people that he would do. The big question for me is why did Garland cower? His obvious anxiety every time I saw him speak and his timidity lead me to wonder what do they have on Garland? In sum, this is not just a “blame” game so stop using the word “hate” in this case. Merrick Garland failed America.
That's right, Garland is a weak AG. I'm going to have to agree with others that the real problem goes straight into the White House and right to president Biden. He should never have selected such a timid man for the job. He should have known that about Garland, and selected someone who wouldn't be afraid to do the job of the Attorney General, regardless of the consequences. Trump might find himself sitting in a prison cell by now where he really belongs.
Dean, I agree that Merrick Garland's delay in prosecuting Trump now means that Trump will never pay for his crimes. Garland should have acted swiftly and hired a special prosecutor a day after he was confirmed as AG. Now we are stuck with Trump for president and our Great American Experiment is on life support. And Trump hasn't been inaugurated yet. I listened to your show on Tuesday. I also agree that Biden should not have invited Trump to lunch. There can be a peaceful transfer of power without rolling out the red carpet for Trump and giving him a photo op. Those of us who voted to preserve democracy are still hurting, angry and grieving. It was like being stabbed in the back looking at pictures of Biden and Trump smiling for the cameras.
Except I still feel McConnell is owed a special place in hell for not impeaching Trump for any of his offenses. Clearly that process is not delivering justice for voters either.
Garland may be President Paul vin Hindenburg who failed to stop Hitler from acquiring power, but Gaetz will be Heinrich Himmler, unleashing Trump’s Gestapo on the Enemies List. If Gaetz becomes AG he will have his own place in hell.
I am so disgusted with Merrick Garland who is a coward and feel terrible for Jack Smith who is an American hero as well as all those who testified about Trump. These American heroes were counting on Garland’s DOJ to prevail with justice and all they are going to get now is retribution. This will go down as the biggest flop and disgrace of justice of our times courtesy of Merrick Garland. I only wish Joe Biden would have been more forceful in his choice of DOJ. We have to be more intentional as a party. We leave too many doors open and windows unlocked.
At the very least Biden should have replaced Garland after a short period of inaction. What more evidence did he need beyond the videos that showed everything he needed to know?
Yes. Why he didn’t do that, and let time continue to pass, only he knows. But the result is that we may/will lose our democracy. This whole farce has revealed itself like a Keystone Cops movie.
NOT going to praise Merrick Garland but Bill Barr is a liar and a criminal and Gaetz will be even worse. Don’t believe that Merrick is worse (not that he is good) as either of the other 2. If we go back in history there are more terrible humans that sat in the position of Attorney General. Nothing good is going to come of the incoming criminal administration or the repub lead house and senate. May the good survive it. Those that brought this to our country I wish all the KARMA they deserve including the media that lied and mislead the people.
Garland is worse, in that he pretended to be righteous. He was intent on keeping Trump from facing accountability from Day One. Biden failed by allowing Garland to drag his feet for so long, and for continuing to play traditional politics with Trump yesterday. Trump is the same threat to U.S. Democracy that he was when Biden stayed that a few weeks ago, yet now, as leader of the Democratic Party, Biden honors Trump. It's a sad & disgusting legacy.
Biden needs just as much censure for not firing Garland, preferring always to be Mr. Nice Guy, even yesterday when the Orange Menace visited the White House. Trump, of course, stuck his fingers into Biden's eyeballs by naming Gaetz soon after he left the White House meeting.
Yes, Garland didn’t want to appear partisan or for that matter to make waves that would get the gun crazy MAGA into the streets and the press attention away from the early Biden administration. Spot on that Garland’s inaction helped normalize Trump. Ah, hindsight!!
Hindsight? Many of us in real time were asking where Garland was in the prosecution of Trump for his obvious lead role in attempting to overturn the election results & incite an insurrection, & were being assured that Garland was working behind the scenes on bringing Trump, who by the way was constitutionally ineligible to run for office, & his accomplices to justice. Then we finally find out 1 1/2 years after the Insurrection that, as Dean said, the DOJ hadn't done a thing on the Trump (+GOP government accomplices) front. Now none of the traitors will be held accountable & most likely those that were doing their duty will probably suffer some sort of persecution, which will cause (has already caused) enormous irreversible harm to our republic.
It is hindsight that Garland should have been doing all you said and holding Trump accountable. Now we are suffering the consequences of his timidity and in preventing early disruptions, Garland’s inaction has led to the creation of something likely far worse. In hindsight he likely is seeing this but I am NOT letting him off the hook.
I have to say that after all this time I feel like this all feels preordained. Like the past 4 years were a filler while Trump and his team of crazies built up Project 2025 and their defensive. Biden barely ever acknowledged the insurrection and never did anything about Garland and now he’s rolling over like a baked potato to let Trump take power and not using his own immunity in any way. I feel so disgusted and terrified and perplexed by the lack of action from this entire administration.
Exactly. The whole administration was so busy being inoffensive, hand-wringing, institutionalists, that we are now exactly where they were setting us up to be. I've been seething about Garland for years. This is on him.
A fatal failure of this administration that will put an otherwise mostly exemplary administration in the history books in a similar role as James Buchanan, often cited as the worst President in US history (before Trump came along) for essentially setting up the Civil War. Except the era of terror we're about to enter appears to be unwinnable, at least in the short run, with the lack of leadership at the reins of power of the Democratic Party.
Biden (along with the DNC) is also responsible for failing to bow out soon enough to hold a real, open primary, where numerous qualified candidates could battle it out for the nomination, thus making the eventual chosen nominee appear illegitimate in the eyes of many. We had a strong field, with fine people like Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Jamie Raskin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker, Jay Inslee, Pete Buttigieg, Ted Lieu & Ro Khanna potentially running, who are now unlikely to ever have a chance to run in a free & fair election.
Hi, Jaime! I just want to add something that's a little to the side. About the Democratic Party, the local leadership is also abdicating its responsibility by not running candidates against Republicans who are unopposed. A friend of mine who lives in Pennsylvania approached the local Dems about running for office and they ignored him. This is unconscionable and ripples upward. I have been a Democrat for more than fifty years and they've always done this kind of thing as far as I can tell. What is wrong with them? I'm too old to run for office myself now but the way I feel, if I were younger I would. Someone needs to straighten these people out.
I agree with you about all the good candidates, but IMO Kamala Harris brought a lot of excitement to her campaign as well as good ideas for policy. I personally am a great fan of Cory Booker, but I don't know that he could get enthusiasm going the way Harris did. I do not understand what made Harris appear illegitimate, given that she is Biden's VP.
I don't think she was, but a lot of people, including some who comment here, think that she appeared illegitimate because we didn't have a democratic party primary. I do not know why others think/thought that.
Ah, I see. Hm. I don't agree with that but I understand why they're saying it. Obviously it would have been better if Biden had stuck to his statement that he wouldn't run but considering how things unfolded, Harris was the only logical choice. Otherwise we would have lost even more votes.
I think the US does actually have a majority of intelligent population, but too many did not vote, very likely because of all the voter disenfranchisement.
Don't pin our national disaster on Merrick Garland, the blame belongs solely to Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans, who committed an act of treason when they conspired to corrupt justice and not impeach Donald Trump when the evidence against him was overwhelming.
I agree that Republicans in the Senate failed us. They had 2 opportunities to rid us of Trump and decided to put party over country. Garland doesn't have that excuse. As the AG he had a duty to prosecute all those responsible for a coup against the US on J6 and that included Trump. He failed us too.
Not to mention stacking SCOTUS against us as a country. It can only go one way. Trump has them all in his pocket. McConnell and those around him. I wish Karma to be swift.
Have faith we only need a half dozen Republicans to either switch parties or caucus with the Democrats and we can stop this criminal administration. It has happened in the past and it will happen again but not until things go totally sideways.
I’m not saying he is good. I’m just saying it never should have come to this, the prosecution of a president in the justice system, when it belongs in the Senate. The Republicans are to blame. Period. This is how responsibility works. You don’t get to blame other people, like Garland, for not stopping the treasonous republicans. That is not his job, or the the job of the DOJ. It is the Senate’s responsibility. Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate is to blame for our entire national disaster.
There are many along the line who could've held Trump accountable who shirked thir responsibility, from Barr, FBI & DOJ to McConnell, Senate Republicans & John Roberts in the impeachment process to Biden, Garland, Wray, DOJ & FBI to Trump sycophant Aileen Cannon & the corrupt Republican Supreme Court to anyone now in power who isn't calling for a thorough investigation of the suspicious 2024 election results where interference & suppression by Putin, Musk, other billionaire & Republican operatives are already known to have occurred.
Uhm, the job of the DoJ is to protect us from traitors, criminals, and the like, it is LITERALLY their job. Just because the traitors are rethugs don't mean a damned thing. Are rethug in Congress responsible for giving trump a pass during his two impeachments? Absolutely, but we can go back decades of Congress failing to stop X from happening (Pelosi's impeachment is off the table statement should be carved on her tombstone).
There are many to blame, including the Supreme Court justices & Trump pick & partisan judge Aileen Cannon, who all thwarted justice for Trump by delaying the trials. I still suspect Musk, Putin & various other billionaires & Republicans for conspiring to rig the election in Trump's favor.
I think Garland did a terrible job as AG and should have been removed. His prioritizing the DOJ over the country as a whole is unforgivable.He let the WORST president in American history and the WORST TRAITOR in American history off the hook, scot free. By wanting to appear nonpartisan, he for all practical purposes, gave advantage to Trump.
I had not considered Garland’s tenure as AG in light of Matt Gaetz as AG. Gaetz is an unserious person and likely sex offender; OMG what an idiot choice for AG. I completely agree Merrick Garland is the worst AG ever, even given that John Mitchell went to prison for his actions during Watergate. Notice the pattern of corruption and criminality of people with R affiliation after their names? They have NEVER been the law and order group.
Wiill someone please explain to me why a DOJ memo prevents charging what is clearly a criminal president and allow that president to commit more crimes to dismantle our democracy? Is this insanity or what?
I have ZERO patience for Garland apologists. If you want to defend Garland please feel free to write your own article doing that but please don't waste our time here doing that. Thanks!
Absolutely agree....but Dean, don't we have to give Biden the blame then too for putting Garland in that position?
Biden is to blame for not getting rid of garland after he saw how much garland was literally ignoring trump's crimes.
That's easy. Garland is indefensible.
I don't hate much, but I do hate blamers.
Our institutions are like a Nuclear Power Plant with multiple safety systems if others fail. The Senate failed to convict trump and the Republican leaders including Mconnell and Thune said trump will face our justice system. Merrick Garland as Attorney General was that next institutional safety valve for our democracy and took the same oath I did an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Merrick Garland knew that Robert Mueller’s investigation guided the DOJ to go forward once Trump was out of office and he could have reopened it just like Comey reopened the Clinton email investigation. Garland, like all of us witnessed the attack on the Capitol and the 2nd impeachment and knew of the Republican Senators own words identifying trump as legally, morally and ethically responsible for trying to overthrow our government on 1/6/21. So from day 1 Merrick Garland was given the green light to go ahead and investigate trump’s role in the insurrection by the Republicans in the Senate and the clear expectation by Senators Mitch McConnell and Senator Thune in their own words on the record that the Justice system would address Trump. There is no “blame” game here. This was a blatant failure to do the job Garland swore to the American people that he would do. The big question for me is why did Garland cower? His obvious anxiety every time I saw him speak and his timidity lead me to wonder what do they have on Garland? In sum, this is not just a “blame” game so stop using the word “hate” in this case. Merrick Garland failed America.
Thank you for this correction. Whatever the cause for his refusal to fulfill his responsibilities and oath of office, the result is a disaster.
That's right, Garland is a weak AG. I'm going to have to agree with others that the real problem goes straight into the White House and right to president Biden. He should never have selected such a timid man for the job. He should have known that about Garland, and selected someone who wouldn't be afraid to do the job of the Attorney General, regardless of the consequences. Trump might find himself sitting in a prison cell by now where he really belongs.
to blame: assign responsibility for a fault or wrong.
Garland is responsible for a fault and a wrong. The result is going to be a horror.
Even when they deserve the blame?
To be clear Matt Gaetz is 100% awful. My point is if Garland had swiftly prosecuted Trump we would not be discussing the potential of Gaetz as AG!
Amen!
Dean, I agree that Merrick Garland's delay in prosecuting Trump now means that Trump will never pay for his crimes. Garland should have acted swiftly and hired a special prosecutor a day after he was confirmed as AG. Now we are stuck with Trump for president and our Great American Experiment is on life support. And Trump hasn't been inaugurated yet. I listened to your show on Tuesday. I also agree that Biden should not have invited Trump to lunch. There can be a peaceful transfer of power without rolling out the red carpet for Trump and giving him a photo op. Those of us who voted to preserve democracy are still hurting, angry and grieving. It was like being stabbed in the back looking at pictures of Biden and Trump smiling for the cameras.
Thanks!!
Yes, this.
Except I still feel McConnell is owed a special place in hell for not impeaching Trump for any of his offenses. Clearly that process is not delivering justice for voters either.
McConnell had two chances to do the right thing.
jellyfish, he was.
Garland may be President Paul vin Hindenburg who failed to stop Hitler from acquiring power, but Gaetz will be Heinrich Himmler, unleashing Trump’s Gestapo on the Enemies List. If Gaetz becomes AG he will have his own place in hell.
I asked my husband if Garland was working for Putin. His answer was I don’t know but he is certainly a Russian asset.
I am so disgusted with Merrick Garland who is a coward and feel terrible for Jack Smith who is an American hero as well as all those who testified about Trump. These American heroes were counting on Garland’s DOJ to prevail with justice and all they are going to get now is retribution. This will go down as the biggest flop and disgrace of justice of our times courtesy of Merrick Garland. I only wish Joe Biden would have been more forceful in his choice of DOJ. We have to be more intentional as a party. We leave too many doors open and windows unlocked.
It was Biden's greatest calling, to bring justice to the outlaw Trumpublican Party, & he utterly failed.
At the very least Biden should have replaced Garland after a short period of inaction. What more evidence did he need beyond the videos that showed everything he needed to know?
Yes. Why he didn’t do that, and let time continue to pass, only he knows. But the result is that we may/will lose our democracy. This whole farce has revealed itself like a Keystone Cops movie.
NOT going to praise Merrick Garland but Bill Barr is a liar and a criminal and Gaetz will be even worse. Don’t believe that Merrick is worse (not that he is good) as either of the other 2. If we go back in history there are more terrible humans that sat in the position of Attorney General. Nothing good is going to come of the incoming criminal administration or the repub lead house and senate. May the good survive it. Those that brought this to our country I wish all the KARMA they deserve including the media that lied and mislead the people.
Garland is worse, in that he pretended to be righteous. He was intent on keeping Trump from facing accountability from Day One. Biden failed by allowing Garland to drag his feet for so long, and for continuing to play traditional politics with Trump yesterday. Trump is the same threat to U.S. Democracy that he was when Biden stayed that a few weeks ago, yet now, as leader of the Democratic Party, Biden honors Trump. It's a sad & disgusting legacy.
Biden needs just as much censure for not firing Garland, preferring always to be Mr. Nice Guy, even yesterday when the Orange Menace visited the White House. Trump, of course, stuck his fingers into Biden's eyeballs by naming Gaetz soon after he left the White House meeting.
Biden foolishly thought that if he ignored tRump, he would go away. We all know that as long as the conducted felon is alive, he will never go away.😢
Oops- convicted felon
Yes, Garland didn’t want to appear partisan or for that matter to make waves that would get the gun crazy MAGA into the streets and the press attention away from the early Biden administration. Spot on that Garland’s inaction helped normalize Trump. Ah, hindsight!!
Hindsight? Many of us in real time were asking where Garland was in the prosecution of Trump for his obvious lead role in attempting to overturn the election results & incite an insurrection, & were being assured that Garland was working behind the scenes on bringing Trump, who by the way was constitutionally ineligible to run for office, & his accomplices to justice. Then we finally find out 1 1/2 years after the Insurrection that, as Dean said, the DOJ hadn't done a thing on the Trump (+GOP government accomplices) front. Now none of the traitors will be held accountable & most likely those that were doing their duty will probably suffer some sort of persecution, which will cause (has already caused) enormous irreversible harm to our republic.
It is hindsight that Garland should have been doing all you said and holding Trump accountable. Now we are suffering the consequences of his timidity and in preventing early disruptions, Garland’s inaction has led to the creation of something likely far worse. In hindsight he likely is seeing this but I am NOT letting him off the hook.
I don't know how many times I heard ad nauseam that "garland's got this"
Oh yeah the dotting I’s and crossing T’s. 🫠
Excellent obeservation
I have to say that after all this time I feel like this all feels preordained. Like the past 4 years were a filler while Trump and his team of crazies built up Project 2025 and their defensive. Biden barely ever acknowledged the insurrection and never did anything about Garland and now he’s rolling over like a baked potato to let Trump take power and not using his own immunity in any way. I feel so disgusted and terrified and perplexed by the lack of action from this entire administration.
Exactly. The whole administration was so busy being inoffensive, hand-wringing, institutionalists, that we are now exactly where they were setting us up to be. I've been seething about Garland for years. This is on him.
A fatal failure of this administration that will put an otherwise mostly exemplary administration in the history books in a similar role as James Buchanan, often cited as the worst President in US history (before Trump came along) for essentially setting up the Civil War. Except the era of terror we're about to enter appears to be unwinnable, at least in the short run, with the lack of leadership at the reins of power of the Democratic Party.
Biden (along with the DNC) is also responsible for failing to bow out soon enough to hold a real, open primary, where numerous qualified candidates could battle it out for the nomination, thus making the eventual chosen nominee appear illegitimate in the eyes of many. We had a strong field, with fine people like Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Jamie Raskin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker, Jay Inslee, Pete Buttigieg, Ted Lieu & Ro Khanna potentially running, who are now unlikely to ever have a chance to run in a free & fair election.
Hi, Jaime! I just want to add something that's a little to the side. About the Democratic Party, the local leadership is also abdicating its responsibility by not running candidates against Republicans who are unopposed. A friend of mine who lives in Pennsylvania approached the local Dems about running for office and they ignored him. This is unconscionable and ripples upward. I have been a Democrat for more than fifty years and they've always done this kind of thing as far as I can tell. What is wrong with them? I'm too old to run for office myself now but the way I feel, if I were younger I would. Someone needs to straighten these people out.
100%
I agree with you about all the good candidates, but IMO Kamala Harris brought a lot of excitement to her campaign as well as good ideas for policy. I personally am a great fan of Cory Booker, but I don't know that he could get enthusiasm going the way Harris did. I do not understand what made Harris appear illegitimate, given that she is Biden's VP.
Why do you say she appeared illegitimate?
I don't think she was, but a lot of people, including some who comment here, think that she appeared illegitimate because we didn't have a democratic party primary. I do not know why others think/thought that.
Ah, I see. Hm. I don't agree with that but I understand why they're saying it. Obviously it would have been better if Biden had stuck to his statement that he wouldn't run but considering how things unfolded, Harris was the only logical choice. Otherwise we would have lost even more votes.
Sorry. Stupid phone. I meant to say, otherwise we would have lost even more votes.
We need to throw Trump, Gaetz, and all MAGAts in prison to save our sacred Democracy!
If only the US had a majority of intelligent population and fewer bigots maybe we could achieve that.
I think the US does actually have a majority of intelligent population, but too many did not vote, very likely because of all the voter disenfranchisement.
How do you propose to do that? Our time has passed.
Don't pin our national disaster on Merrick Garland, the blame belongs solely to Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans, who committed an act of treason when they conspired to corrupt justice and not impeach Donald Trump when the evidence against him was overwhelming.
I agree that Republicans in the Senate failed us. They had 2 opportunities to rid us of Trump and decided to put party over country. Garland doesn't have that excuse. As the AG he had a duty to prosecute all those responsible for a coup against the US on J6 and that included Trump. He failed us too.
Not to mention stacking SCOTUS against us as a country. It can only go one way. Trump has them all in his pocket. McConnell and those around him. I wish Karma to be swift.
Have faith we only need a half dozen Republicans to either switch parties or caucus with the Democrats and we can stop this criminal administration. It has happened in the past and it will happen again but not until things go totally sideways.
No. garland is to blame for refusing to hold trump accountable for almost two damned years.
I’m not saying he is good. I’m just saying it never should have come to this, the prosecution of a president in the justice system, when it belongs in the Senate. The Republicans are to blame. Period. This is how responsibility works. You don’t get to blame other people, like Garland, for not stopping the treasonous republicans. That is not his job, or the the job of the DOJ. It is the Senate’s responsibility. Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate is to blame for our entire national disaster.
There are many along the line who could've held Trump accountable who shirked thir responsibility, from Barr, FBI & DOJ to McConnell, Senate Republicans & John Roberts in the impeachment process to Biden, Garland, Wray, DOJ & FBI to Trump sycophant Aileen Cannon & the corrupt Republican Supreme Court to anyone now in power who isn't calling for a thorough investigation of the suspicious 2024 election results where interference & suppression by Putin, Musk, other billionaire & Republican operatives are already known to have occurred.
Uhm, the job of the DoJ is to protect us from traitors, criminals, and the like, it is LITERALLY their job. Just because the traitors are rethugs don't mean a damned thing. Are rethug in Congress responsible for giving trump a pass during his two impeachments? Absolutely, but we can go back decades of Congress failing to stop X from happening (Pelosi's impeachment is off the table statement should be carved on her tombstone).
There are many to blame, including the Supreme Court justices & Trump pick & partisan judge Aileen Cannon, who all thwarted justice for Trump by delaying the trials. I still suspect Musk, Putin & various other billionaires & Republicans for conspiring to rig the election in Trump's favor.
Don't forget the media, from Fox to the NYT. Disgusting.
I think Garland did a terrible job as AG and should have been removed. His prioritizing the DOJ over the country as a whole is unforgivable.He let the WORST president in American history and the WORST TRAITOR in American history off the hook, scot free. By wanting to appear nonpartisan, he for all practical purposes, gave advantage to Trump.
I had not considered Garland’s tenure as AG in light of Matt Gaetz as AG. Gaetz is an unserious person and likely sex offender; OMG what an idiot choice for AG. I completely agree Merrick Garland is the worst AG ever, even given that John Mitchell went to prison for his actions during Watergate. Notice the pattern of corruption and criminality of people with R affiliation after their names? They have NEVER been the law and order group.
And Trump loves them because he's just as corrupt as they are.
Wiill someone please explain to me why a DOJ memo prevents charging what is clearly a criminal president and allow that president to commit more crimes to dismantle our democracy? Is this insanity or what?
Can't explain it because it *is* insanity.