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Comment by jdminhbg | Hacker News Reader

> the once independent Attorney General

This has never been the case; JFK appointed his little brother AG. The problem is that the Congress should be investigating and prosecuting the president but will not.

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> This has never been the case;

Independence of the Justice Department has been the norm since and because of Watergate.

It's been a nice kind of fig leaf, but constitutionally the president is the AG's boss, so it doesn't make any sense for the AG to investigate the president. There's an entire branch of government given this power in the Constitution, they've just decided they don't want it.

Exactly. Congress doesn’t want any of their duties. War declaration? Nah, let the President do it and call it “not a war.” Budget? Well, technically we’ll appropriate funds, but we’ll only do a big CR once in a while. Tariff policy? Nah, let the President do it all with the “national security” loophole, no matter how absurd. Impeachment and removal? Well, not when it’s your party’s guy.

For all the hate Trump gets, it’s Congress who’s created and who props up this monarchy.

Except that this Congress was hand-picked by him, since he purged anyone who would push back.

Could you point to say 3 concrete examples where he purged a legislative candidate or removed an elected legislator?

I believe "purged" here means primaried or threatened to primary. I'm sure you know of certain famous examples. Here are some recent headlines:

https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/president-trumps-first-...

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/06/politics/cornyn-texas-senate-...

This list will contain more examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republicans_who_oppose...

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