It wasn’t just Donald Trump who was indicted yesterday, it was the whole Republican Party.
The 37 charges against Trump, including 31 alleged violations of the Espionage Act, tell us nothing new about this guy. He’s corrupt. He’s a bully. He’s an egomaniac. He’s so sleazy as to give sleazy a bad name. He’s an idiot and a fool. And soon enough we’ll find out if he’s a criminal in the strict legal sense. Sure looks like he is.
Anyway, none of this comes as a surprise. I’ve always believed that every human being has some redeeming quality about them. Trump challenges that belief.
What’s really telling about all this is the Republicans’ reaction to it. With rare exceptions — Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson — Trump’s opponents for his party’s nomination rallied to his side. Among them was one I had some hope for. Sen. Tim Scott echoed Gov. Ron DeSantis when he said that the charges represented the “weaponization” of the criminal justice system.
Of course, that’s just so much garbage. The indictment is detailed, specific and damning. What it says is that our system works and that no one is above the law.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy was, as if it were possible, even worse in his comments. “It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him,” McCarthy said, in a tweet before the indictment was unsealed. Biden had nothing to do with it and McCarthy knows that full well. His comment was beyond irresponsible. Whatever credit I was willing to give him for coming to a debt deal with Biden was wiped out by that bit of inanity.
McCarthy and his pals are undermining our entire criminal justice system. They seek to turn our country into some two-bit banana republic in which the courts are used to punish opponents and let your friends go free. When it’s your guy who has broken the law, blame the prosecutors.
Trump has never been fit for public office and now McCarthy, DeSantis, Scott and the whole bunch of spineless Trump sycophants have demonstrated that they are little better. Aside from a relative handful of principled Never Trumpers (they make up only 10% of Republicans) the entire Republican Party, as we once knew it is just gone.
If they take back the White House and both houses of Congress, goodbye America.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
Well said ! (I truly fear for our democracy)
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As I usually find, I agree with almost everything you post. Based on what I’ve read about the indictment and Trump’s actions suggest an easy conviction. I’m less certain about jail time because of what I fear would the resulting effect on an already polarized country, even if Trump didn’t incite his most ardent supporters to rally/riot/revolt. But I personally wouldn’t care if he did time.
And while I don’t think this is an example of weaponizing the DOJ, I’m not sure that such weaponizing hasn’t occurred in other situations, such as investigating parents challenging school boards around decisions relating to gender identity and COVID-19 protocols.
Bur where we might part ways is the perception that there is a two-tiered system of justice in play. If the DOJ had pursued Hillary Clinton’s- yes, I’m going there – deletion of emails and destruction of cellphones, or investigating the charges of bribery and corruption against the Biden family with same passion, vigor, and speed, for just two examples, then the perception of a two-tiered system would be without merit. But because they didn’t or haven’t, it’s hard to believe otherwise.
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Since nobody else stepped up to correct you:
Clinton was thoroughly investigated. Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo and Bill Barr all had opportunities and motive to bring charges against Clinton but didn’t.
Don’t let Ron Johnson’s lie get into your head – it wasn’t because they just decided it would be better for the country if they didn’t prosecute.
It was because they knew that the case would not had a chance of succeeding in a court that requires facts and evidence. I wish they would have charged her because getting laughed out of court would have put an end to this stupid game of “but her emails”, but now it will live forever!
And because Trump’s cronies set up the unfortunate rule that sitting presidents can’t be indicted, any Biden indictment will have to wait until he’s out of office.
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Rollie, Thanks for the comment, but just a reminder. We only post commentators who use their full names. We’re liberals here, so we fudge on the rules now and then, but… Dave
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I didn’t see it, but apparently New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (who ISN’T running for president), was on CNN last night and everyone there (as well as my wife who did see it) was shocked by the phony vitriol from one of the so-called “sane” Repubs.
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Sununu has been teasing a presidential run for years and may still run although Chris Christie is also in the narrow sane ex-northeastern governor lane.
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This all happened a looooooooooooong time ago. The turning point for the GOP was Nixon’s southern strategy and the absorption of the Wallace/Thurmond block. Anyway, its nice to see middle-of-the-roaders waking up to the road collapse now that its in your face. The Republican Party is the party of Richard Nixon, Roy Cohn, Pat Buchanan and Trump.
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You could even trace this back to the Barry Goldwater-led takeover of the party in 1964 and then, you’re right, through Nixon and then Reagan. Funny thing is that all three of those guys would be moderates in today’s party. Goldwater turned out to be a rather consistent libertarian, Nixon was an internationalist and Reagan would be a liberal on immigration today.
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