Just imagine this scenario:
A President breaks the law. To make it worse, it's a black officer that informs him he has broken the law. The President promises not to break the law again.
Next day he does it again. The same black officer arrests the President. Takes him to a police station. Officials there are unsure whether to formally charge the President, OR..................... wait for him to be impeached first.
This must be an analogy, or a what if story, speculative at best, right?
Guess again:
151 years before Trump was indicted, Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for speeding on a horse-drawn carriage
In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for speeding on his horse-drawn carriage in Washington, DC, which was highlighted by the Washington Post back in 2018 as Trump's legal woes were growing. This was not an impeachable offense, but Grant still faced consequences.
The police officer who arrested him was a black man who fought in the Civil War named William H. West.
On the first occasion, the president was somewhat sassy with the officer as he stopped his carriage. The city was having problems with speeding at the time, and a mother and child had recently been injured as a result.
Grant apologized and told the officer it would not happen again.
But on the very next day Grant was speeding so fast through Georgetown in an area West was patrolling it took the officer an entire block to slow the president down.
The president and other speeders were taken to the local police station. Officers at the station were reportedly unsure if they could charge a sitting president if he'd not been impeached.
In the end, Grant paid a $20 bond but didn't show up to court.
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