(Dobbs) A Promising Day for America, a Perilous Day for America
Justice is imperative, but it can come with costs.
It’s a promising day for the nation. It’s a perilous day for the nation. It’s both.
The promising part is, it looks like justice is closing in on Donald Trump.
But I’m not naive. It’s not the first time he looked like he would be held accountable for defying rules of decency and rules of law, but managed to crawl out from under the condemnations. We thought “Grab ‘em by the pussy” would take him down as a candidate. And if not that, then his blatantly racist rhetoric, or his degenerate mockery of a disabled reporter. We thought once in the White House, his overt embrace of “alternative facts” would doom his presidency and if not that, his open admiration of White nationalists, his disparaging disdain for American alliances, or his cozy bromance with Vladimir Putin.
This time though, for those of us who believe that Trump should face consequences, there’s something about having your home searched for potential violations of the Espionage Act that sounds promising. Other weights also bear down on him: the investigation in New York into allegedly corrupt business practices where this week he pleaded the Fifth, the grand jury convened to examine his alleged attempt to influence Georgia’s 2020 election outcome, and the allegations that he incited the mob of insurrectionists on January 6th, then violated his oath of office by negligently declining to disperse them. Each of those could nail Trump too. But this one— the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago, the seizure of what are reported to be top secret documents that could compromise our national security and which, under the Presidential Records Act, he had no business keeping— might be the smoking gun. Legally, if not in the eyes of his “base.”
But that’s the perilous part. If we have learned anything by now, it is that tens of millions of Americans, egged on by elected officials driven by raw ambition to stay in Trump’s good graces, will have his back no matter what the evidence shows. Like he said during his first campaign, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" That turned out to be truer than we thought. The tone was set at the White House itself, when former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo asked Trump’s press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, “Do you believe this president has ever lied to the American people?” and her brazen reply was “No, I don’t think the president has lied.” As recently as this week, a Trump fan at a rally told a television reporter the same thing: “Trump never lies.” If at this point people still believe that, there’s no hope. And if polls are credible, Trump can still claim the support of the majority of Republicans in this country. To the Washington Post’s carefully collected catalogue of Trump’s dishonesty through the four years of his presidency— more than 30,000 “false or misleading” statements by their count— they would only say, “Fake News.”
Even more perilous, in the chilling spirit of the January 6th insurrection itself, internet threats by those who incorrigibly back Trump have gone from menacing to violent, some openly calling for armed warfare and civil war. I cited some of them the other day when news of the search warrant broke: “Lock and load,” “Buy ammo,” “Kill all feds,” with some calling for the assassination of the Attorney General who approved the warrant and the judge who signed it. On one site, the judge’s home address was posted with this message: “Let's find out if he has children... where they go to school, where they live... EVERYTHING.”
These people are feeding on two things: the unconscionable utterances of politicians who, since the search was executed in Florida, have compared the federal government and its leading law enforcement agency to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, and, the fear-mongering words of right-wing media. One Fox News host said the day after the Florida search, "I feel violated. The whole country feels violated. This is disgusting. They've declared war on us, and now it's game on.”
What’s perilous is, this is where Donald Trump has taken this nation. This is a former president of the United States fanning the flames, writing this about the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search on his social media website: “Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, 'planting.' Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?”
The answer is, that’s how search warrants are executed. The answer is, Trump’s lawyer on the premises signed papers acknowledging the items seized. The answer is, the whole thing could have been avoided if Donald Trump had complied with a subpoena for these materials last Spring. But he didn’t.
From where I sit, there is no choice but to prosecute Donald Trump for any crimes he might have committed. Not to would debase the definition of justice. But if violence-prone Americans think Trump has been “set up,” that the FBI “planted” the documents it seized, that the Biden administration has “declared war” on them, then justice will have consequences beyond the ones that seem promising. That’s the perilous part.
Over almost five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He has covered presidencies and politics at home and international crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Thanks Greg, excellent analysis of our situation. Hopefully, there is a God that prefers right over wrong that will prevail. Worst case scenario will be civil war, which I believe is conceivable, but not likely. There is and will be saber rattling, but maybe if trump (I never capitalize his name) is held accountable and sent to prison for his many dirty deeds, there may be some who will see the ignorance of their ways and come to their senses, or maybe not, only time will tell. I don't even want to consider the consequences if he walks. Dave Dillingham
Well states Greg, of course. The US must prosecute this violatiom or just void all such laws as no one will follow these in the future.
I too believe there are more than a few well-armed zealots who’ll kill and be killed to show their love of this naked emperor… millions more will more likely withdraw and brood.