Is Trump legally qualified to be a presidential candidate?

[Robert]

First, unlike with Trump there would be no grounds

I believe there are plenty of grounds as we learn the money they accepted while he was VP. A red state could charge him. Some may.

Wrong thread. I will hold that for another place.

[Ken]

First, unlike with Trump there would be no grounds

I believe there are plenty of grounds as we learn the money they accepted while he was VP. A red state could charge him. Some may.

Wrong thread. I will hold that for another place.

"They" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Who is this "they"?

Republicans have already investigated Joe Biden three separate times and have found no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegal or unethical during his term as Vice President. So "they" obviously doesn't include Joe Biden. Are they going to disqualify Hunter Biden from the ballot? He hasn't actually done anything illegal with respect to Ukraine either. It was perfectly legal for him to take money for sitting on the board of Burisma.

In any event, under which state law in some red state would any overseas actions by a Vice President be subject to prosecution? What state charge do you imagine a red state attorney general bringing against Biden for his time as Vice President? And even assuming Biden did anything illegal, under what grounds would say Texas charge Biden for actions in Ukraine that happened when he was a resident of Delaware and Washington DC? And under what law would you imagine this would disqualify him from the ballot?

[Josh]

Ken, this is an era of “novel legal theories”; the short answer is that a state would just make stuff up (such as charging Trump with a crime for a Tweet saying “Tune into the OANN TV news show now!”)

[Robert]

First, unlike with Trump there would be no grounds

I believe there are plenty of grounds as we learn the money they accepted while he was VP. A red state could charge him. Some may.

Wrong thread. I will hold that for another place.

"They" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Who is this "they"?

Where is there a "they" in what I posted?

[Ken]

Where is there a "they" in what I posted?

You wrote:

I believe there are plenty of grounds as we learn the money they accepted while he was VP.

“They” [Hunter Biden? Devon Archer?] accepted money when Joe Biden was VP? I mean, so what? That’s not illegal. Hunter Biden has a right to earn a living, even overseas. He’s not even being charged for that. Hunter Biden is being charged for tax evasion (just like Trump) and for a sketchy weapons paperwork charge that most Republicans don’t even think is a legit regulation.

And even if it was illegal for Hunter Biden to serve on the board of Burisma and take money, that still doesn’t implicate Joe Biden in any wrong doing whatsoever.

[Grace]

“They” [Hunter Biden? Devon Archer?] accepted money when Joe Biden was VP? I mean, so what? That’s not illegal. Hunter Biden has a right to earn a living, even overseas. He’s not even being charged for that. Hunter Biden is being charged for tax evasion (just like Trump) and for a sketchy weapons paperwork charge that most Republicans don’t even think is a legit regulation.

And even if it was illegal for Hunter Biden to serve on the board of Burisma and take money, that still doesn’t implicate Joe Biden in any wrong doing whatsoever.

It isn’t Hunter Biden who is the focus, but Joe Biden. Hunter Biden was merely the bagman for Joe Biden and the rest of the Biden Family, acquiring over 50 million from foreign nationals. Our adversaries knew Hunter was the conduit to the power structure of the United States government through the VP, Joe Biden. And Joe Biden opened that door. While VP, Joe Biden used personal email addresses to conduct government business. The communications on Hunter’s laptop show the president used at least four aliases, with fake names including ‘Robert L Peters’ and ‘Robin Ware’. We know that fake shell companies were set up, to hide the millions received from foreign nationals. Why would the Vice President use aliases? Was it to cover up his corruption? We now know that Hunter Biden rode along with his VP Dad on Air Force 2, thirteen times, to conduct business. And anybody who believed Joe Biden, when he said that he never discussed his son’s business; I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Hunter Biden put his Vice President Dad, in a very questionable situation. An ethical person in power, in this country would have reprimanded that son and got out of that situation and distanced themselves. Joe Biden did not do that and therefore he's very much part of the Biden Family corruption.

[Bootstrap]

It isn’t Hunter Biden who is the focus, but Joe Biden. Hunter Biden was merely the bagman for Joe Biden and the rest of the Biden Family, acquiring over 50 million from foreign nationals.

If they can prove that, they can impeach. So far, there's been a lot of loud claims, heavily promoted by people who have a stake in the politics.

But it would still be extremely minor compared to leading an insurrection or conspiring to steal an election. And it would still be extremely minor compared to the amounts of money the Trumps acquired from foreign nationals while Trump was in office, including members of the Russian Mafia.

Still, if Biden were impeached over this and removed from office, he would not be legally qualified to be a presidential candidate. Trump was impeached twice, but not removed from office, so that doesn't count. Some people have argued that Trump is also ineligible. I think he did meet the legal definition of "insurrection", but that's unlikely to be enforced, so it's kind of irrelevant.

Would you be upset if the Republicans chose Trump as their candidate? Would you support Trump?

[Grace]

Would you be upset if the Republicans chose Trump as their candidate?

I hope they don't choose him. But I try not to get upset about any politics, as it is not in my control.

Would you support Trump?

No.

Would you be upset if Democrats choose Biden as their candidate? And would you support Biden?

[PetrChelcicky]

An interesting aside:
Ron Unz reminded us that there has already been a candidate who promoted his candidacy from prison: the Socialist Eugene Debs after WWI. Debs was at that time condemned because of "sedition" which is afaik one of the legal challenges for Trump.
As far as I know the legal profession, I have no doubts that they can re-interprete the Constitution to exclude the most successful opppositional candidate from a candidacy. On the other hand, this is somethiong we are used to see in African countries, not in a Western democracy. But "'Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures".

[Ken]

Eugene Debs might actually interest Anabaptists. The sedition that Debs was convicted of was opposition to the First World War and continued speeches to undermine the military draft and support draft resistors. He hired no lawyers for his defense and instead asked to address the court where he gave a 2 hour speech which included:

Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means...

I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul...

Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own.

When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the Southern Cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches the Southern Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of Time upon the dial of the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing – that relief and rest are close at hand.

Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.

At his sentencing hearing he said:

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Not exactly Trump-like.