Donald Trump will be booked on Tuesday, then arraigned on charges under the Espionage Act. And how do his sycophantic supporters react?
Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House: “Today is indeed a dark day.”
Jim Jordan, the chair of the Judiciary Committee: “It’s a sad day for America.”
Sean Hannity, the reigning host on Fox: “It is a dark day in America.”
Interesting, isn’t it?! These guys were not so quick to condemn the traitors who tried to overturn the 2020 election on January 6th of ’21— some of their ilk have even praised them as “political prisoners.” And they were not so quick to hold Donald Trump accountable for one of the darkest days for American democracy. But they’re sure quick to jump on the bandwagon today.
Aside from a brief moment after the insurrection when McCarthy condemned Trump for his part in it before taking it all back, the right-wing of today’s GOP— which is most of today’s GOP— treated Trump’s attempts to actually overturn a free election as forgivable, even forgettable behavior, and now they want to treat the weighty federal charges against him the same way.
How soon they forget.
When Hillary Clinton was accused of hiding sensitive emails on her own private server, weren’t they part of the clique that shouted “Lock her up?” And wasn’t Donald Trump the one who led the chant? Wasn’t it Donald Trump who forcefully assured us as he ran against her, “No one will be above the law?” Her conduct, he declared, “disqualifies her from the presidency.”
Now the shoe’s on the other foot.
So they resort to prevarication and retaliation. "I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice,” McCarthy tweeted last night. “House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.” Their idea of protecting the country from criminal conspiracies is to go after Hunter Biden.
If anyone still had even a shred of confidence before now that the right-wing hadn’t sold its soul, it is gone.
There is just one principle at stake here and it takes the form of a question: What kind of country would this be if a jury of American citizens sees reason to bring criminal charges against a fellow citizen but, because he is a former president and a candidate for president again, he gets a pass?
Donald Trump will get his day in court. But he won’t get a pass.
Judiciary chair Jordan said last night after Trump’s indictment was announced, “God bless President Trump.” If there is a god, I don’t think he works that way.
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.
Thanks Greg. I wrote a companion piece today. But our outrage at their hypocrisy is lost on those toadys.
Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler had and have their supporters who would not falter in their allegiance, even after seeing the results of that affection. Some refuse to see the light. We hope that those who do stay in the majority.