• ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It blows my mind that this is how far political discourse has fallen. Fuck anyone who supports shit like this.

    • stanleytweedle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately even though most people don’t ‘support’ it- it’s a spectacle that gets headlines and clicks, and those further incentivize more spectacle. She’s not doing it for the few people that would say they support it, she’s doing it for the attention of people that don’t.

      • jeffw@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If you don’t think people support this, you haven’t been in any conservative US spaces. They love Hunter’s penis

      • jtk@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        And here we all are :/ I’ve said this everywhere I frequent, and it’s never worked, but maybe Lemmy will buy in. Lets just stop posting and upvoting obvious negative attention seeking garbage. Downvote it, harshly. Downvote the comments left on the post just for feeding the trolls, even if you agree with what the comment says. Let the names of these idiots be forgotten in these parts. We’re better.

        • dtc@lemmy.world
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          Yea, I don’t really want to forget about the regressive dipshits that get to pick what laws I have to obey.

          Call me crazy, but knowledge of their bullshit has helped me avoid their problems.

        • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I would love to just ignore these people and have them go away, but it sadly doesn’t work that way. If we ignore them, then they’ll just push the envelope more and more. Silence is taken as permission to go further with their fascist tactics.

          If we fight back enough, then perhaps the day will soon come when they are politically irrelevant and we can ignore them. Until then, we need to pay attention to what they are doing.

    • Dlg@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I thought we didn’t like sex trafficking. Sorry what’s the new narrative.

    • ██████████@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately your crippling yourself if you think you can beat them while maintaining the moral high ground. The unfortunate fact about politics since time inmemorial Is that the biggest loudest nastiest dudes always win. Democrats don’t want to win they just want to stay on their high horse (moral high ground)

      See The Murder of Ceasar for the universal example

          • OpenStars@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            As Jon Stewart said in his podcast, liberal media aims to be correct, while conservative media is effective. It’s a real thing - like when you marshal ALL your forces to stop abortion, whether you should have or not, and keep at it for a full decade, tying it to everything else like fiscal conservatism and more important NOT being liberal, it can achieve a powerful end…even if originally it was not meant to be taken entirely seriously.

            All Democrats had to do back then was have someone else run other than Hillary - ANYONE else would have done just fine. People forget, but Republicans did not “win” that election - it was Democrats that did this to us. More people voted against her than for him in the “Never Hillary” movement, including lifelong liberals even immigrants. The “email scandal” - no not the one people talked about afterwards for so long where it was her emails that were leaked (well that too I suppose), the but the earlier one with the DNC emails were leaked and showed the collusion against Bernie Sanders - did a great deal of harm. e.g. we will never know (we are literally prevented from accurate measurements) exactly how many people died excess deaths from the pandemic that could possibly have been prevented, if truth had been reported from the halls of power rather than lies.

            That is worth considering now that Kamala Harris will become our next Presidential candidate, under Biden’s name but after he dies or becomes incapacitated somewhere along the way she will take the position. That may not be a 100% certainty, but it does seem a possibility that it might happen, with a greater-than-average chance given his age. So is that just handing Republicans the House and Senate, once again? I do not know…

            I am not exempting Republicans from blame here, just saying that neither am I exempting those who claim to be the more responsible party. Like if the only thing standing between us and a horde of zombies is a locked door, then the person who swings that door open wide has some measure of responsibility, no? Even if they do none of the flesh-eating directly. And whoever handed that person the only key to the door has a level of responsibility as well, no? By this I mean our for-profit media, who all but outright lies to us, even if technically telling the truth then still spinning it wildly out of proportion, in order to clickbait. I just wish there were any options at all between shooting yourself in the head vs. a slow death by poison.

            Oh well, who wants to live forever!?! :-D

            • NABDad@lemmy.world
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              All Democrats had to do back then was have someone else run other than Hillary - ANYONE else would have done just fine.

              My father, who was openly fascist long before it was “ok” in right wing circles and thinks anyone to the left of Hitler is a Communist, said prior to the 2016 election that if it was Trump vs Bernie Sanders, he would vote for Bernie. The only person who could convince him to choke back the vomit and vote for Trump was Hillary.

              Since 2008, I had been saying that the left wing refused to understand how hated Hillary is. She should have never been within 1000 yards of the nomination. You don’t need to like what the right is saying, but we should all at least listen, if only to know what we’re up against.

              • OpenStars@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                Obama ignored the rural areas following the fiscal crisis (this is not true in actual fact, but the perception, which carries much greater weight than real facts, yes?), thus they turned to someone who they felt “listened” to them. Bernie did, and while in many ways Bernie may have been a horrible president - idealistic, not grounded in reality, unable to make compromises (as Obama said, Bernie is a “prophet in the wilderness, pointing to the way we should go, but not a king, able to make the tough choices”, paraphrased) - Hillary’s and more relevant the DNC’s treatment of him pushed many into the act of voting “for” Trump, as a protest “against” her.

                As the story goes, his wife Melania cried that night that he won, and not tears of joy. Trump himself even briefly explored turning down the offer… he never had any intention of winning, it was all a publicity stunt for his next TV show, as it always was, every time he did it. Trump - while he is a prime mover / cause all on his own - is nonetheless also a “victim” of the set of circumstances that put him into office, and may yet do so again. The media claims to have learned something from the whole event, but has it, really, when it continues to do exactly as it did before?

                Those who do not learn from their history… will be given unlimited chances to do so still yet again and again!:-P

            • MomoTimeToDie@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              As Jon Stewart said in his podcast, liberal media aims to be correct, while conservative media is effective.

              Lmao seriously?

              • OpenStars@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                I mean I went to the effort of including the link… you could click it and find out? :-P

                But yeah, conservative media says whatever it needs to in order to achieve its aim, it does not sweat the small details like accuracy or whatever, while liberal media gets bogged down in those and forgets what it was even talking about in the first place.

                • MomoTimeToDie@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  Clicked your link. Just because some jerkoff agrees with you that his side is great, it doesn’t make it anything resembling true.

          • dtc@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Im thinking you’re upset because you can’t ride on Biden Jr’s dong?

      • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        This is incredibly reductive.

        The biggest / loudest / noisiest do not always win.

        There’s more to politics than “winning”, winning is pointless if you have to trade your principles to do so.

        I don’t think conservatives would say they have up the moral high ground to win. They just interpret morality differently. That doesn’t make it ok, but it does mean that discarding “the moral highground” in order to win is an absurd proposition.

        • visak@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The Republicans’ only principle is winning power. Therefore any lie, change in position, or trick in service of that is not a sacrifice. I’m not being sarcastic. That’s really all they are now.

          • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, my reading of it is arrogance. They genuinely believe that they are the better governers because they will guide the nation on a godly path, therefore a bit of theatre (lies) in a campaign is the lesser evil.

      • pewter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The folks who murdered Caesar lost too. The people loved Caesar. Everyone involved in his death were afraid for their lives.

  • Drusas@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I will never understand how people don’t realize that Hunter Biden is irrelevant. He’s not a politician.

    • stanleytweedle@lemmy.world
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      Because his name is ‘Biden’ and a significant number of people operate at a sort of Pavlovian word-association level.

      • Raltoid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        As always when it comes to conservatives, you can trace their behaviour back to projection and how they think everyone else is just like themselves.

        They put personal faith into the person they support, and see any criticism of that person as a personal attack. And they assume everyone else does as well, so they honestly think talking negatively about Hunter Biden is a personal blow to democratic voters.

        It’s honestly delusional.

    • Underwear@lemmy.world
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      Well, Ivanka and Jared collected paychecks and used government positions to benefit themselves, so Hunter MUST be doing corrupt stuff.

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      It’s because conservatives have zero imagination. All they do is project their own crimes into their opponents assuming everyone is as evil and guilty as they are.

      “Hunter Crime Family” is laughable when we have a literal ex president crime family. Accusations Hunter took foreign bribes is pathetic when it’s almost certain the entire trump family is in Putin’s pocket.

    • keeb420@kbin.social
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      Same people who lose their mind over hunter ignore jared and Ivanka actually being hired into the white house, a crime, not filling out their sf86, a crime, and profiting off of what they knew from being in the white house.

      • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Look we don’t have all day to list off every last single crime that family has committed, in the white house alone.

        • NABDad@lemmy.world
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          Yeah, you kind of have to limit yourself to crimes committed on a particular day to keep it down to a manageable number.

    • Hegar@kbin.social
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      Most people attacking hunter know he’s irrelevant. The right loves staking an absurd position or threatening massive harm to extract concessions without giving up anything important.

      I also suspect that some of this is to poison the well so it’s harder for democrats to prosecute trumps kids for all their crimes.

  • BadaBing@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    She’s just a troll, nothing more. She contributes nothing towards policy or making life better in America. Whatever will own the libs is what she exists for. Trash.

    • RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world
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      Indeed her name is Margarine “Trailer Park” Trash Greed.

      Also, I’ve got some reading to do as not-a-lawyer, but I’m doing a big think on this and how it may/can/should apply:

      https://withoutmyconsent.org/50state/state-guides/district-of-columbia/statutory-criminal-law/#criminal-nonconsensual-pornography-dc-code-22-3051

      There’s no damn way throwing around actual nudes can apply under speech and debate.

    • ElcaineVolta@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      you’re absolutely right, and that is way more than enough for a staggering portion of the electorate.

      • Space_Jamke@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It’s been painfully obvious since 2016, but the bulk of the Republican party from the average voters up to their current orange god-king have been addicted to hate and contrarianism for a long time. Everyone other than them is an enemy they must never agree with, even if it’s for something basic like building a road or following public decency guidelines. Everyone on the planet has human wants and needs, but Republicans have been publicly calling non-Republicans as inhuman demonic monsters for a while (no hyperbole necessary, their own ugly words).

        So now we’re at the point where millions of wingnuts will sabotage anything that might conceivably help an ordinary person, set the planet on fire and kill themselves in the process, because they value hurting the enemy more than benefiting a group beyond themselves. It boggles the mind how these guys get a slap on the wrist for blowing up a power grid, taking bribes over Venmo or sharing revenge porn on live TV when ordinary sane people get thrown in solitary or a coffin for far less.

  • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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    This tells you how far our government has fallen. This is literally the definition of revenge porn, using these pictures to intimidate, humiliate, and embarrass both Hunter Biden and his father. This woman should have been immediately dragged out of the House in handcuffs and charged with too many federal and state charges for me to count.

    This isn’t a political stunt. There were multiple crimes committed here. If Hunter Biden somehow stumbled upon MTG in similarly embarrassing photos and started publishing them all over Twitter, she’d be screaming about the weaponization of government by the Biden crime family and demanding that Hunter be immediately sent to Gitmo.

    This is a new low, even for the GOP. Even for MTG. But sadly, it shouldn’t be surprising. The entire GOP is on a gleeful race to the bottom to see who can out-crazy who. MTG is a national embarrassment.

    • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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      Should have been removed years ago. What a disgrace.

      She’s yet another reason why we need regular psych evals for people in office. You should be mentally fit to hold the position.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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        Unfortunately while that sounds great in theory, practically speaking any like kind of restriction can be weaponized by bad actors to disqualify opposition. Who defines “mentally fit”?

        If explicitly standardized, who sets the standard? How does the standard get ratified? Can that standard be “gamed”?

        If deferred to some official, who appoints that official? What stops them from declaring as unfit anyone who doesn’t agree with their personal politics?

        Common sense ideas like this break down when you try to figure out how to actually implement then without causing even bigger problems. If political history has taught us anything, it is the foolishness inherent in expecting political officials to execute their duties in good faith.

        • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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          Too true, unfortunately. We’d end up with witch trials immediately, and I could see someone like MTG leading the charge!

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    Republicans are now sharing porn to minors. (She sent out the images to her followers without a restriction on the age limit that it was sent to, just a warning to the parents about explicit content). So given the number of Republicans that force their kids to participate in politics. It’s a given that she just sent porn to a massive group of republican minors. She’s not only sharing images of porn in congress, but she’s also participating in distribution of pornography to children.

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
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      Correct me if I’m wrong but releasing nudes against someone’s will especially ones that aren’t sent to you is a crime.

      Georgia 16-11-90 nonconsensual pornography.

    • psysop@lemmy.world
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      Is this actually accurate? If so, can it please gain traction and attention? We can’t allow these creeps to play games anymore. It’s time to stop letting everything slide.

  • Mammal@lemmy.world
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    Hunter is a rich, attractive, Chad with a huge shlong who spends his time doing drugs and banging women.

    Yeah … I can understand why Republicans have such a crush on him.

  • rustyfish@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Hi everyone, European here. I have a quick question: Are Georgians fucking broken or why did they vote this person into office?

    • GentlemanLoser@reddthat.com
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      She had no opponent. He dropped out because he was getting death threats.

      Also yes, white Southern conservatives are broken people who only feel better when someone else is suffering.

      My guess is the only way this is gonna change is when people like her get dragged into the street and beaten to death by a crowd

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        She had no opponent. He dropped out because he was getting death threats.

        Makes sense. The death threats don’t come as a surprise. But I am also not shocked to hear she only made it this way. What a shit person she is.

        Also yes, white Southern conservatives are broken people who only feel better when someone else is suffering.

        It is known. I hate this timeline.

    • acunasdaddy@lemmy.world
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      I’m from Georgia. But I’m from Atlanta which is a big city. Obviously she’s a nut job. She’s from a tiny tiny district that has only like 10,000 people.

      This is the result of gerrymanding such that you get heavily concentrated districts and have insane people who run unopposed.

      She does NOT represent the entire state. We voted for Biden and have two democratic senators. We are very “purple” but trending blue.

        • acunasdaddy@lemmy.world
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          The good thing is we are fighting the good fight here. It’s somewhat exciting to be part of a swing state. I’m voting in every election and trying my best to mobilize others also. I could probably do more…

    • littlecolt@lemm.ee
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      The cruelty is the point. These pathetic southern losers feel like they can’t win at much of anything in life so they want to make sure everyone else is losing, too.

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      I grew up in Georgia, not the part she represents, and while there is no shortage of batshit crazy white people in my home state her particular district is a place I will never return. It’s right on the border of Alabama and populated by people who are afraid of ‘the big city’(meaning brown people, immigrants, and lgbtq people)and moved as far as they could from Atlanta while still driving there for work

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    Filipino here, I’m curious how american politics got this, for lack of a better word, wild?

    don’t get me wrong, my country is far from better, but over here, the closest we have to MTG is probably Cynthia Villar or some other overly-vocal conservative oligarch in the senate, but they’d never pull stunts like this over here.

    • BranBucket@lemmy.world
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      Coverage of politics became commodified and sensationalized in the name of ratings and advertising dollars and coupled with intense competition for viewer attention this has led to the news becoming more of a form of entertainment than anything informative.

      At the same time, voter apathy drives politicians to search for new ways to create interest, promote themselves, and generate a following.

      This promotes more and more sensational behavior, which is further played up by the media, which raises the bar for the kind of things a representative from a flyover red state hardly anyone cares about has to do to maintain a presence on the national stage.

      Repeat that cycle a few times and now congress is looking at Hunter Biden’s nudes.

      I would suggest ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ by Neil Postman for further reading.

      • DominicO@ttrpg.network
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        that makes sense. Ever since 2016 the government here has been cracking down on both the news and the opposition so there isn’t really motivation for anyone here to pull stunts like that.

  • tswerts@lemmy.world
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    Being from Belgium, following American politics started for me together with the rise of YouTube and I could watch episodes of The Daily Show on it and where things have gone from topics like ‘Dick Cheney shot someone in the face’ to news like this. It really made me stop watching talkshows that I really enjoyed like The Daily Show, The Late Show with SC, … . It’s so much politics, every day again, on so many television shows. Is it also perceived as such in the USA itself? In Belgium, for many reasons, politics isn’t 24/7 discussed everywhere, everytime.

    • AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world
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      My guess is, the reason why politics are not an outsized portion of your life over there has something to do with your country not having an angry, empowered, and vocal minority disproportionately overrepresented in government making regressive laws to strip away human rights and sell off ever more of your life to rent seeking corporations.

      It’s everyday with these people here. If they got everything they wanted today they would come up with a new list of horrible shit to demand tomorrow. We are a police state and a third of us seem to think the boot isn’t stepping on us hard enough.

      • tswerts@lemmy.world
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        I didn’t want to go into it too much but in Belgium there isn’t a political with more than 25% representation. So each government has to be a coalition of several political parties. There isn’t a system where the winner takes it all. A voter in Belgium doesn’t identify itself with one party for life. So we often switch between political parties. Here’s no ‘us against them’ culture. And because the outrage against other political parties isn’t a thing, it also isn’t a daily thing in the media.

    • Fibby@sh.itjust.works
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      Absurd news stories get more clicks, so the news is getting more absurd. Recently, things have legitimately seemed a bit more fucked up. I think some politicians, like MTG, recognize the more outlandish they are, the more coverage they get.

      While politics is everywhere and hard to miss, I dont have many conversations in real life about it. People seem to never really talk about it directly. You’ll get side comments or people alluding to the most recent thing, but thats about it.

    • SwampYankee@mander.xyz
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      Is it also perceived as such in the USA itself?

      I’ve had to consciously change my media habits, so yes, by some of us anyway.

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    I’d be dumbfounded about how something like this could be brought in, but then I remember that in my country our previous prime minister, when he was treasurer before that, brought a lump of coal in to parliament and said “This is coal. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be scared. It won’t hurt you.” to talk down any talk of climate change and how bad coal is for the environment. Another former prime minister ate a raw onion, skin and all.

    These lifetime politicians really do live in a world of their own. They’re a bunch of grown up children with no idea how to behave.

    • autumn@reddthat.com
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      Though in all seriousness, isn’t revenge porn illegal? I hope Hunter takes her to court.

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        It varies from state to state, but in DC (which I suspect would have jurisdiction in this case), it’s classed as a felony. Whether or not she’s actually indicted is another matter, though.

        Of course, she may have civil liability as well if Biden decides to take her to civil court for harassment. Buuuut… I think that’s also unlikely. Cases like that have a way of “boosting the signal” (see Streisand Effect), and Biden senior probably doesn’t want people gossiping over his son’s dick any more than they already will be in an election year.

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          1 year ago

          Because it happened before Congress, I doubt a prosecutor would touch it. There’s specifically a lot of latitude given for purportedly acting as an elected official. It would probably take her saying, repeatedly, that she wasn’t presenting it as a congressperson but as a private citizen to overcome that hurdle.

          But I am not a lawyer, and I’ll defer to someone with better information who contradicts me.