On Lawfare, Ashley Deeks and Michael A. Livermore try to use the contretemps of Trump to push for better vetting of Presidential candidates in the future:
Recent disclosures about Donald Trump’s remarks to Billy Bush have raised speculation that unaired footage from The Apprentice might contain similarly troubling content, which would cause obvious problems for Trump’s campaign if it were released. But the real threat would arise if embarrassing content remains concealed for now, but is used after a Trump victory to manipulate the future president. This risk highlights that it is time to rethink how we vet presidential candidates.
When someone is nominated for a political or judicial appointment, that person faces a stringent vetting process that probes for past political, personal, or financial improprieties. Among other goals, vetting helps avoid the risk of scandal during the Senate confirmation process or once in office. Those who seek employment in jobs that implicate U.S. national security are also formally vetted, and they must answer specific questions on security clearance forms concerning past embarrassing or criminal behaviors. We ask these questions to avoid hiring those whose past conduct might make them an appealing target for foreign states or non-state actors who wish to use those behaviors against them. In essence, the clearance process tries to guard against giving foreign states targets to blackmail.
Yet our candidates for the highest office face neither of these processes.
And yet, I don’t actually see Trump being moved by such a lever. He seems incapable of embarrassment, and when pushed he simply denies everything, even in the face of the undeniable, and moves on to the next hand grenade topic. The fundamental lack of decency in this guy – which we see in some politicians, but rarely to this depth – makes me wonder just how one would go about blackmailing him. Take his bank account hostage? Ah, destroy his sexual libido and then claim to have a cure.
But all that evades the point that Ashley and Michael are making – and it’s legitimate. Although this vetting would differ from a normal national security vetting in that all that information would have to be made public. To do otherwise would be to invite blackmail by the vetters themselves. So if you have Presidential ambitions – don’t do anything that the average Joe would find embarrassing when you plan to run.
And have fun predicting what that might be in, say, twenty years.
