The Trump-Russia Probe Could Make Clinton President
Sure, it's been more than 340 days since Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton, but there's still one very narrow, highly unlikely and entirely unprecedented way that Clinton could become president.
And it has some Democratic die-hards dreaming again.
Harvard University professor Lawrence Lessig offered a Clinton path to the presidency on Medium, putting forward a series of "if/then" scenarios that lead to House Speaker Paul Ryan handing the White House keys to Clinton.
Related: Hillary Clinton losing to Trump was like Jesus's crucifixion
Here's how constitutional law expert Lessig lays it out:
If number 1: If Trump is definitively found to have colluded directly with Russia, he would be forced to resign or be impeached.
If number 2: If Trump is removed, Vice President Mike Pence would become president.
If number 3: If Pence becomes president, he should resign too, given that he benefited from the same help from Mother Russia.
If number 4: If Pence resigns before appointing a vice president, Ryan would become president.
If number 5: If Ryan becomes president, he should do the right thing and choose Clinton for vice president. Then he should resign.
"The answer seems unavoidable: He should nominate the person defeated by the treason of his own party, and then step aside and let her become the president," Lessig writes. "Without doubt, if Ryan did the right thing, that would be the most extraordinary event in the history of America since the Confederate Army fired on Fort Sumter. But unlike that, this event would build the union, not divide it."
Lessig, who briefly ran for the Democratic nomination in 2015, adds that Clinton would then appoint Ryan to be veep out of political goodwill. Americans can only assume that while busy being a president who can read policy documents longer than one page, she'd stop her endless press tour and figure out how to keep the nation from getting nuked.
Lessig apparently isn't the only one with Clinton on the brain. Clinton has made it clear she won't run for office again, telling CBS Sunday Morning that she's "done with being a candidate." But Trump himself tweeted about the possibility Monday.
"I was recently asked if Crooked Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020?" he wrote. "My answer was, 'I hope so!'"
Only time will tell if the Russia cloud clears up by then.
Related Articles
