Election Deniers Are Now Trial Deniers

Trump's enablers have not just fallen in line with their leader's lies, they are expanding upon them in their thirst for power

After the guilty verdict was reached: the denialism continues. (Photo by Stephanie Keith via Getty Images)

On January 6, 2021, 147 members of Congress refused to certify the 2020 election which Joseph R. Biden won. This despite a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol earlier that day. This after two months of constant lying by Trump and his enablers that the election was stolen and he really won. That election denialism didn’t fade, neither has the desire for a coup that would subvert the will of the people and reinstall the 2020 loser in office.

Fast forward to May 30, 2024. Twelve ordinary citizens unanimously determined that Donald Trump was guilty of 34 felony charges after five grueling weeks of detailed evidence. This followed dozens of the defendant’s enablers in Congress appearing inside and outside the courthouse to insist that this trial was rigged, nothing more than a political show trial, and that their beloved leader didn’t do anything wrong or illegal. The jury’s verdict of guilt didn’t change their rejection of justice and the legitimacy of the judicial system. In fact, the trial denialism only grew louder, more insistent—and more dangerous.

We should not be surprised. The same people who rejected the factual reality of Trump’s loss in 2020 have only grown more extreme in their need to ignore the truth as their hunger for power by any means has grown stronger. Accepting that the court proceeding was legitimate and the jurors’ conclusion was fair and true would puncture the bubble of lies that have propelled Trump toward the 2024 nomination for president.

If he is guilty now, then maybe it means he really lost then. If they accept that he is genuinely a convicted felon and doesn’t belong anywhere near the White House again, they would have to doubt their decision to stick by him and his lies dating back to the 2020 election and before.

They have dug a hole so deep that, rather than climb out, they are determined to keep digging. As if this will somehow enable them to find what they are looking for. Or worse, they want to drag everyone else into the hole they’ve dug so no one can see anymore what’s up or down (and true or false).

It’s stunning to see what the desire for power can cause craven people to do.

• “This entire trial has been a sham, and it is nothing more than political persecution,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said. “The only reason they prosecuted Donald Trump is because Democrats are terrified that he will win reelection.”

• “This decision is a disgrace to the rule of law and our Constitution,” Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance posted on X. “Dems invented a felony to ‘get Trump,’ with the help of a Soros funded prosecutor and a Biden donor Judge, who rigged the entire case to get this outcome. This isn’t justice, it’s election interference.”

• “The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden Administration,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement, “and the decision today is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents.”

• “I’ll be voting for President Trump on November 5th whether he is a free man or a prisoner of the Biden regime,” posted Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Equally appalling since the court verdict, eight Senate Republicans led by Utah Sen. Mike Lee have vowed to oppose major legislation and any Biden judicial or political nominations. "We are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart," the gaslighting senators wrote. Their letter was signed by Lee, Vance, Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, Missouri’s Eric Schmitt, Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, Kansas’ Roger Marshall and both Florida senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio.

And then there’s Mike Johnson, ominously asserting that the Supreme Court should “step in” to overturn the case. As much as he and his Republican gang have sought to blame Joe Biden for manipulating the judicial process, he didn’t hesitate to insist that he has SCOTUS justices on his side. “The justices on the court, I know many of them personally, I think they’re deeply concerned about that as we are,” Johnson said on Fox & Friends.

We can count on the trial deniers to keep digging, led by the convicted felon who had already succeeded in convincing them to embrace election denialism. Their chosen leader will continue to provide them an endless stream of contempt—toward the trial, toward the judge, toward the Manhattan District Attorney, toward the court system, toward the president, toward anyone who sways from their dangerous message.

And if a Republican refuses to go along? Then they devour him. After the verdict, former Maryland Gov. and now Senate candidate Larry Hogan dared to post this rational statement: “Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders—regardless of party—must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”

In response, election-denying and trial-denying Republican National Committee chair and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump went on the attack. She said Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly anybody in America, if that’s the way you feel.” Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign advisor, was more direct in defining the consequence of Hogan’s lack of fealty. “You just ended your campaign,” he wrote in response.

The insurrection did not end on Jan. 6, 2021. Since then, the rejection of factual reality has only intensified. The coming months leading up to the election will get more vicious and vile, especially once Judge Juan Merchan sentences Trump on July 11. We won’t need to wait for a possible authoritarian takeover to know how grim and angry their promised future would be.

In 154 days, we all will decide what country we want to live in and what future we want for ourselves and our children. Each of us has the chance in this election to help ensure that we are not ruled by kowtowing cynics untethered from reality.

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