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Comment by postcarnival | Hacker News Reader

> Trump threatened to jail his political opponent if elected.

actually he said he would appoint a special prosecutor to the case which honestly should have been done a long time ago and based on the context of it is perfectly reasonable.

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No. he actually said this:

Clinton: "it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country."

Trump: "Because you'd be in jail."

Maybe, (surprise, surprise) Trump wasn't thinking it through and just wanted to get that quip in on Clinton but the language is clear: If Trump was in charge of the law in the US, Clinton would be in jail.

Parse it all you want, but Trump has continued to say that in his stumps and is fine with selling merchandise that says Clinton should be in prison.

Or maybe he was implying that she would be in jail after a fair trial because he (and his supporters) believes that she has committed perjury and illegally destroyed government documents, among other crimes. There's really no evidence that this was meant as a threat, especially considering he said she would be _investigated_ by a special prosecutor (rather than just being sent to jail immediately). What I believe was meant here is that if he was leading the country he would not allow her to get out of having a fair trial (which it is claimed she has gotten out of by having control over the government). I mean, I could be completely wrong, but either way saying "the language in clear" greatly simplifies this situation. Not that it really matters to me given his political opinions, but I feel that accusations like this are what led to the whole us vs. them mentality on both sides of this campaign.

If you or I had destroyed evidence and lied to both Congress and the FBI repeatedly about it, I think we'd be in jail.

Clinton is becoming vaguely reminiscent of Julius Caesar, who had to repeatedly duck lawsuits by taking up governmental positions that carried freedom from prosecution.

The last time the Republicans put a special prosecutor on a Clinton that President was trying to stop Osama bin Laden from attacking the United States.

Again, there's reality and there's a belief that Hilary murdered someone.

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