(Dobbs) Even Being Charged As A Felon Doesn't Change Trump
He has the same trite and tired defenses.
There are no surprises from Donald Trump. Not about his dishonesty, not about his indecency, not about his disdain for democracy. And last night, not about his defense.
After being arrested and booked at Miami’s federal courthouse, then delivering a plea to the charges against him in a federal courtroom— not just about keeping top-secret government documents that he wasn’t entitled to keep, but grave counts of espionage and obstruction— the ex-president stopped minutes later at a Cuban-American restaurant to bask in the adulation of his believers, as if he hadn’t just been taken into custody for compromising our national security.
Then he flew home to his New Jersey golf club to go on television and rattle off his litany of grievances and denials. He pleaded in court, “Not guilty.” He pleaded at the Cuban stop, "I think it's a rigged deal.” Then he pleaded on TV, “Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of the country.”
We’ve heard it all before. It’s a “hoax.” It’s a “witch hunt.” The charges are “fake and fabricated.” The prosecutor is a “deranged lunatic,” a “raging and uncontrolled Trump hater,” a “thug.” The indictment is “another attempt to rig and steal another presidential election.” It’s “thugs and misfits and Marxists trying to destroy American democracy.” And of course, consistent with all the “perfect” calls he has made, which have led to both his impeachment and a potential indictment for trying to steal the election in Georgia, “I did everything right and they indicted me.”
When the trial gets underway, we’ll see the evidence and might find out.
Trump and his apologists would have you believe the indictment came straight from the desk of Joe Biden but the fact is, it came from the unanimous vote of a grand jury of ordinary citizens in Florida. If the charges didn’t have enough merit to convince those jurors, the former president never would have been hauled into court.
The same will be true at the trial. It won’t be Joe Biden who seals Trump’s fate, it won’t be special counsel Jack Smith, who came to the job after prosecuting war crimes at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, it won’t even be the Trump-appointed judge who drew the assignment and probably will preside at the trial. If Trump is convicted or Trump is acquitted, it will be another jury of ordinary citizens that decides. If the evidence against him is not convincing, the former president will be free.
But whether the man is guilty or innocent, lots of Americans are fed up with almost ceaseless coverage of Trump. I get that. But this is a big deal. Headlines like this have never been seen before.
Although the coverage can have consequences that bring even more chaos to this divided nation, the story cannot and should not be ignored. First, because he is a former president of the United States, and the first and only president ever to be formally charged as a criminal by the government he once led. Second, because he is a candidate for the White House again and the outcome of this trial inevitably will affect the outcome of the presidential election in 2024. Third, because he has a huge legion of fervent followers who hang on his every word and act on his every command— we saw what that led to on January 6th. And fourth, because if history is any guide, Donald Trump will assault everyone and everything that threatens him and so, along with him, democracy and justice also are on trial.
What complicates it is, leaders who should know better, leaders who once revered the rule of law, are actively undermining it. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a rare outspoken rebel in the GOP, said tonight that Republicans who are justifying Trump’s behavior are “scraping the bottom of the barrel.” Like Florida’s Marco Rubio, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who spoke on CBS about “the harm that this indictment does to the country.” What he failed to note was the harm it would do if Trump had not been indicted, the harm it would do if one man, thanks to his popularity and his position, were to be put above the law. That is why prosecutors had no choice but to charge him. And, given the stakes, why we have no choice but to pay attention.
If we don’t, Trump, propelled by the passionate support of his base, will command the content of the news. They will perpetuate his lies and sabotage our democracy. Alternative facts will dominate the conversation.
Not long after Trump left the courtroom, I tuned into Fox News to see what they were saying about what had just happened. But guess what they were talking about: Hunter Biden. To them, although they’ve still only presented conjecture about whatever he has done, he is the threat to national security. Trump is a scapegoat.
That’s Trump’s rallying cry. He has been picked out, and picked on. He is, he insists, being treated differently. Well, he was released without bond, his travel not restricted, his passport not confiscated. So yes, I guess if you’re charged with espionage yet not hit with those sanctions, you are being treated differently.
Of course he’s also talking about Joe Biden’s boxes and Hillary Clinton’s emails. Whether you’re a Trump critic or a Trump fan, read about both. There are no indisputable indications of espionage or obstruction. Simply put, there is no comparison.
What’s alarming, and the reason why we must pay attention, is that a former President of the United States has been put under arrest as an alleged criminal.
What’s alarming is that millions of Americans, like the ones who showed up to applaud Trump outside the courthouse in Miami, are ignoring what appears to be obvious evidence of his crimes and cheering him on.
What’s also alarming is that the whole story isn’t going away soon. Legal challenges by the Trump team in federal court are likely to consume months if not longer before the trial gets underway. And two other indictments, one for election tampering in Georgia and another for the outcome of January 6th in Washington, are likely to come.
There are no surprises about Donald Trump. The only surprise would be if even his acolytes stop believing him.
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, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other 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, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 37-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.
These sage words should create shivers on the skin of every American and yet there is a frightening number of Americans who refuse to see the forest for the trees. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck etc., etc. So many are too delighted in their blindness to even want to see the light.
I sincerely doubt that the legion of trump supporters even know the content and seriousness of the indictment. But as long as they only hear his lies and believe them, he’ll continue to bilk them of millions!