An interesting clip for various reasons, starting with the fact that retiring after a single term isn’t an option for POTUS anymore. It used to be. Joe Scarborough has predicted more than once that, knowing Trump as he does (or used to), he thinks the president would naturally be inclined to go out on top rather than risk ignominious defeat at the hands of Joe Biden or whomever. “I’ve achieved everything I wanted to,” he might declare. “There are no more worlds to conquer.”

But he can’t do that anymore. He needs to run again and win — and I mean “needs.”

I didn’t see this part of the segment with @ChrisCuomo, but this is something several Trump advisers believe – and they see it as part of a personal rationale for seeking a second term. https://t.co/lMVLzVIM8t

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 1, 2019

And their argument would not be that Trump has committed a crime, but that SDNY is out to find something.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 1, 2019

Given that Michael Cohen has already pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in the Stormy Daniels matter, it’s entirely possible that citizen Trump would have been indicted already for similar offenses. If what Cohen told Congress a few days ago is true, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney is also looking at Trump for other unspecified crimes, possibly related to how his inaugural committee did business. But they can’t charge him yet: The DOJ has a policy that a sitting president can’t be indicted. If the public wants to see POTUS on trial in the near term, it’s up to their representatives in Congress to impeach and remove him. Once he’s a private citizen again, the “Lock him up!” chants can begin.

Which means not only does Trump have to run again to try to preserve his freedom, at least for another four years, the issue of his personal freedom may become a campaign issue in 2020. All it would take for either Trump or the Democratic nominee (or both) to turn it into an election issue is for someone inside the DOJ to leak that, yes, the Department fully intends to indict him once he’s left office. Do Trump fans want to protect him from the new “witch hunt” in the Southern District of New York? Then they’d better turn out and vote. Do anti-Trumpers want to see him frog-marched out of Trump Tower by the FBI in 2021? Then they’d better turn out and vote. Elizabeth Warren, already desperate to gain traction with primary voters, vowed the other day that she won’t pardon Trump for crimes he might be charged with if she’s elected, a pledge other candidates will be pressured to emulate. We are actually going to have a national debate next year over whether the sitting president should be further immunized from indictment by his own Justice Department by extending his term in office by four more years.

The other thing that makes the vid interesting is how shameless a piece of propaganda it is. This is what Rolling Stone concocted to accompany their new cover feature on women shaping the future and it’s indistinguishable from a DNC promo. I shouldn’t be surprised: This is a magazine that makes no pretense of its ideological bent and that’s proved to its own great financial detriment that its devotion to pet causes exceeds its devotion to truth. But I am surprised just because even ideological publications typically don’t stoop to glamorizing political subjects as breezily as RS does here. A magazine that is, or used to be, respected for its journalism will usually restrain itself a little when covering politicians it agrees with just to signal that it casts an appropriately skeptical eye towards the cynical business of politics. Not RS. This is pure in-their-own-magnificent-words fangirlishness, even for Jew-baiter Ilhan Omar.

The Pelosi line about Trump comes at 3:00. Speaking of people who probably shouldn’t run, go peruse the lefty reaction on Twitter last night to Joe Biden daring to note in passing that Mike Pence is a “decent guy.” If Biden gets in, he’ll spend the entire campaign apologizing to the left for ideological sins, both mortal and venial. By the end of it, even if he wins, they’ll have convinced themselves that it’d be immoral to support him. He’s better off enjoying retirement.