While answering questions from senators in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz argued that presidents could not be impeached for having a mixed-motive.
“Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest,” Dershowitz said. “And mostly you’re right. Your election is in the public interest.”
They characterized my argument as if I had said that if a president believes that his re-election was in the national interest, he can do anything. I said nothing like that, as anyone who actually heard what I said can attest.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 30, 2020
I said that the 3rd was often the reality of politics and that helping one’s own re-election efforts cannot — by itself— necessarily be deemed corrupt.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) January 30, 2020
“And if a president did something that he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,” he added.
That answer did not sit well with politicians and pundits who argued Dershowitz’s view would “unleash a monarch.” –READ MORE