Donald Trump borrows a page from the Putin playbook.
GQ’s Special Correspondent, Keith Olbermann, turns his eye to the 2016 presidential election in his new series “The Closer.”
In this clip from earlier in the week, Olbermann examines Donald Trump’s plan to lock up his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, if he is elected president.
Olbermann began by briefly recounting a story regarding former world chess champion Garry Kasparov who announced on 30 September 2007 that he would run against the hand-picked successor of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. Vowing to establish a “democratic and just government,” presidential candidate Kasparov was arrested less than two months later by police loyal to Putin.
Turning to the current presidential campaign at home, Olbermann stated that:
Last night on the 9th of October 2016 in the United States of America, live on national television, Donald Trump – American presidential candidate – stared at his opponent and said, quote: “If I win, I’m going to instruct the attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation…. We’re going to get a special prosecutor and we’re going to look into it, because you know what, people have been, their lives have been destroyed for doing one fifth of what you’ve done. And it’s a disgrace and, honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.“
Secretary Clinton replied, quote: “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.“
Trump then erased any doubt about what he said or who he is, or what he has planned. He shot back, quote: “Because you’d be in jail.“
“Make no mistake what you heard between the sniffs and the snorts and the mindless wandering around the stage. Make no mistake what you heard among the swirling egotism and the cacophany of insults,” Olbermann continued. “You heard a would-be president of the United States… threaten to not merely beat his opponent, but then to put her in prison.”
Speaking directly to Trump, Olbermann adds: ” It is not the presidency you are running for, not at least the presidency as we have known it since 1789. Not at least as we have known it as a free country. The kind of presidency you want to have, Trump, already exists; it is called a Putin-style dictatorship and the kind of America you want to lead, Trump, is not the America we live in now. This other America already exists, it is called Russia.”
Olbermann concluded by telling Trump: “You killed a part of our democracy when you threatened to jail one of your political opponents…. It is dictatorship and the power you seek might still carry the title ‘President,’ but with the threat of the legal power of the United States of America being brought down on your opponents, you might as well be Chancellor Trump or Chairman Trump or Protector Trump or Generalissimo Trump or Fuehrer Trump…. Your threat last night to merge political opposition with legal prosecution has no place in a free country and you, Trump, have no place in this free country.”
You can watch it all, below.
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