So the supreme court already ruled the president cannot be held accountable for anyone they kill.

The vice president becomes the president instantly if the president dies.

What is preventing any vice president from waiting until day 1 of their parties presidency, and then murdering the president? And then instantly pardoning themself?

  • solrize@lemmy.world
    14·
    20 days ago

    I’m sure analogous situations have come up many times in history, such as in the Roman empire. The Borgia clan in the Italian Renaissance got a possibly unjust reputation for stuff like that. Machiavelli’s “The Prince” was supposedly inspired by Cesare Borgia.

    Part of the answer has been to be careful who you pick as VP. Trump picked Pence partly because Pence (at the time) seemed to have no presidential ambitions. It worked reasonably well, since Pence could have (politically) put the shiv into Trump during either of Trump’s two impeachments. If Trump becomes president again, he’ll likely get impeached at least a couple more times, so we’ll see if Vance is similarly loyal.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
      12·
      20 days ago

      so we’ll see if Vance is similarly loyal.

      Yeah. Considering how Trump may have actually intended to have Pence killed during the January 6 insurrection, my money is on “not particularly loyal”.

      I like to think there’s still hope that people around Trump and Putin will recognize the clear signs of dementia and not drag the world to war, this time.