Republican candidate Donald Trump's threat to put his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton "in jail" may have done more harm than good for his campaign.
"If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your [missing email] situation," Trump said at the second presidential debate, according to CNN, "because there has never been so many lies, so much deception."
Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway later walked back the comment.
"That was a quip," Conway said. "He had already finished his statement. She said something [like], that's why you'll never be president. He said, 'you would be in jail.' And so that was his answer. As for the special prosecutor, I think that's Donald Trump channeling the frustration he hears from thousands of voters on the stump every day"
Despite the threat, the president does not have the power to appoint a special prosecutor, only Congress and attorney generals can order independent counsel to investigate current public officials, the Washington Examiner reports, and former public officials are rarely subject to taxpayer-funded investigations.
Although, as president, Trump would nominate his attorney general, but once appointed they are an independent office that's outside the White House's influence.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted a historical rebuttal on these lines to Trump's suggestion:
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons hammered Trump for his comment, calling it "unbelievable."
"That's unbelievable," Coons said on CNN's "New Day," The Hill reports. As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Coons has seen countries where threatening political opponents with jail is "common practice."
"That's what dictators do. That's not what candidates for the presidency in a democracy do," Coons continued. "And I think this was, in some ways, his most irresponsible moment of the night as he continues to undermine respect for the rule of law."
Coons cited FBI director James Comey's decision not to pursue criminal charges against Clinton as reason to put the issue to bed.
"For him to continue to suggest that somehow this email matter needs to be re-referred to a new special prosecutor and that she should be jailed, as he has repeatedly urged in his rallies, I think undermines respect for the rule of law," Coons said.
"And is the sort of thing we see in the developing world, not here in the United States."
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