Apparently finally convinced that President Donald Trump isn’t going to a keel over from a massive heart attack, or suffering from a degenerative mental illness, Newsweek Magazine announced Thursday morning that there may still be hope, at least, that Hillary Clinton could become president if Trump is magically indicted in Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russia probe.
Hillary Clinton could still become president if Russia probe finds conspiracy evidence https://t.co/7fH8dnVS0m pic.twitter.com/F3Wqea3bYC
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) January 18, 2018
Lest you think this is merely Newsweek’s own fever dream, the “news” magazine relies on an essay authored by law professor and dedicated progressive, Larry Lessig, who, in a tortured interpretation of the United States Constitution, suggests that any Republican who might take over in the line of succession would be remiss if he did not cede the Oval Office to the woman Trump defeated.
As there is “no mechanism in American law for a new election,” nor “a mechanism for correcting the criminal results of the previous election,” Ryan ought to nominate “the person defeated by the treason of his own party, and then step aside, and let her become President,” Lessig wrote.
Newsweek assured itself that the scenario was “still a possibility” by phoning Lessig on Wednesday to check. Because, apparently, inquiring minds desperate for some ongoing — if bizarre — assurance that Hillary Clinton could still become president wanted to know.
Sadly, for Newsweek, this scenario is about as likely as the one MSNBC commentator Sally Kohn posited so many months ago, claiming that the path to a Clinton presidency was “straightfoward from here.”
Straightforward from here:
1. Impeach Trump & Pence
2. Constitutional crisis
3. Call special election
4. Ryan v Clinton
5. President Clinton— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) February 15, 2017
Fortunately for Americans, the Constitution provides a clear line of succession for incidents of presidential death, impeachment, or resignation. The document is rather “straightforward from here,” just not in the way most leftists might hope.
Not that Trump is yet in any danger of being impeached or forced to resign. Mueller’s probe has found little evidence of any true collaboration between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government to throw the presidential election.