Donald Trump’s first statement since being convicted on 34 felony charges came, quite naturally, in the form of a fundraising email. “I am a political prisoner!” The former president declared, although he has not yet been sentenced and has not spent a single day in prison.
Trump isn’t the only Republican to lie about the ruling. Minutes after it was published, House Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Trump’s conviction on a Democratic conspiracy.
“Democrats cheered as leader of opposing party found guilty on ludicrous charges,” she said. “The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden administration, and today’s decision is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents.”
But Democrats didn’t find Trump guilty; A jury of 12 ordinary Americans did. The Biden administration played no role in the prosecution; Defendant and was issued by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after Federal prosecutors denied Go after Trump on similar charges.
Johnson knows all, but it doesn’t matter. His goal is to support Trump’s narrative that the entire American political and legal system is controlled by Biden and the Democrats: a A banana republic, not a democracy worthy of its name. A range of leading Republicans — from House Majority Steve Scalise per Texas Governor Greg Abbott to rising Senate stars Josh Hawley And JD Vance – Everyone basically said the same thing.
At this point, you might be wondering: Is any of this surprising? Trump always Claims he is the victim of a conspiracy and the Republicans always Trump supports whatever he says.
But that is precisely the problem. The current Republican Party is as hostile to the foundations of the American political system as they can be Start counting To attack Trump’s chances of a fair trial. Either Trump should be able to do whatever he wants with no accountability, or this is proof that the entire edifice of American law and politics is rotten.
The ideal of rebellion
There are perfectly legitimate ways to raise questions about Trump’s convictions and the fairness of the American legal system more broadly.
“Never Trump,” conservative David French, for example, wrote recently A New York Times column Questioning Bragg’s case. Many legal commentators on both the right and the left have expressed similar concerns since the indictment last year, arguing that the prosecution relied on a novel legal theory liable to be rejected by higher courts. It’s hardly unreasonable to be concerned about bringing such a case against a former president, especially since the alleged crimes involving the 2016 election pale in comparison to what he’s accused of doing in 2020.
What Trump and other elected Republicans are doing is distinctly different. They are not simply claiming that the jury was wrong, or that the prosecution’s arguments were bad. Their argument was that the conviction was overturned illegal: The result of a plot by the Biden administration to imprison his political opponents, similar to the Soviet show trials.
In his statement, Vance clarified that this amounts to a conspiracy theory: “The Dems invented a crime to ‘get Trump’ with the help of a Soros-funded prosecutor and a Biden donor judge, who rigged the entire case to get this result.” The judge “rigged” the case. There is no such evidence and Vance provides none.
But the proof is not the point. The conspiratorial impulse is to make sure, however possible, that Republican voters get the message that anything bad that happens to Donald Trump is the fault of the Democrat-controlled system.
It’s a level of paranoia that would make Richard Nixon look grounded, yet there’s every reason to believe it’s widely shared in the GOP base. An NPR poll released this morning, asking Americans whether Trump’s trial would affect their vote, found that 90 percent are Republican will either be unaffected or Chances are high To vote for Trump after the guilty verdict.
Again, none of this is surprising: The exact same thing happened when Trump was first impeached a year ago. But this just shows how dangerous this mindset is. Republicans really, truly, deeply believe that the American government is out to get them and their standard bearers. In a changing country, ideologically and demographically, Trump is their rock; An attack on him is an attack not only on all Republicans, but on their understanding of America.
This is the logic that led the denial of the 2020 election to take firm root in the GOP soil, culminating in the horrific events of January 6th. These incidents are a warning of how dangerous it can be to attack the system.
Republicans may choose not to pursue this path. Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland currently running for Senate, issued a statement urging Republicans to Respect the rule of law. so So did Asa HutchinsonFormer Governor of Arkansas.
But the vast majority of the party chose Throw in a lot of them with Trump and his conspiratorial politics. Hope the result of this election will be different than last election.
