[DerpObvious]

> Maybe there arose an enormous threat and he was desperate to stop it.

Even an existential threat - an actual one like another nation-state pointing world-ending numbers of nuclear weapons at our country - is less harmful than dismantling the mechanisms of the state internally.

What could even possibly justify this kind of thing?

[dhimes]

I suspect that when you are the one in the hot seat, your thinking is something like, "Wow, if I don't stop this we can lose tens of thousands of lives. I'm not going to be the one to let that happen. We'll debate the true meaning and value of freedom later, but right now I'm listening in."