Trump Republicans Won't Decide America's Fate
Yes, this was a tough week. But court delays and disinformation won't discourage voters from rejecting Trump. Quite the contrary.
This was a tough week for voters who believe we have the right to know whether the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party is guilty in three cases involving stolen classified documents, election interference in Georgia and inciting the January 6 insurrection. We have already suffered the outrage of this Supreme Court slow-walking the judicial process as it assesses the question of absolute presidential immunity, making it more unlikely that these cases would come to trial before the November vote.
Yes, it’s been particularly disheartening—while not surprising—to hear Tuesday that the complicit, Trump-committed Judge Aileen Cannon is pausing the documents case “indefinitely.” The stated reasons in her five-page order: “Finalization of a trial date at this juncture—before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and [classified evidence] issues…would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions.”
Uh-huh. As if she had nothing to do with these “myriad and interconnected” issues.
It’s impossible to imagine in a national security case this serious—when we have every reason to worry that Trump has already exploited and may still be personally benefiting from these stolen documents—that anyone other than this man would avoid accountability. As former Attorney General Eric Holder put it on what was Twitter, “Let’s just deal with a very disturbing reality here: this whole process in the documents case has simply not been on the up and up.”
Add to this the Georgia Court of Appeals agreeing Wednesday to hear oral arguments for Trump’s appeal of a ruling by Judge Scott McAfee that permits Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to stay on the election interference case. The court's decision likely ends any chance that the Georgia election interference case goes to trial this year. Likewise, Washington, D.C., District Judge Tanya Chutkan is unable to move forward in her case without a Supreme Court ruling.
Sadly, hard-charging Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution currently looks like more failed detritus along the road to justice. As we learned after the Mueller investigation, we can’t count on the justice system to save us.
Which doesn’t mean that a measured New York judge like Juan Merchan, the skilled prosecutorial team of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, brave witnesses like Stormy Daniels and a closely listening jury won’t lead to the criminal defendant finally being held accountable. And even if the case were to end up with a hung jury or Trump is acquitted, we can take solace that the wheels of justice are in motion in at least one court. That the felonious man who occupied the White House is finally facing criminal prosecution and no longer pulling off the strongman persona. That the principle that no one is above the law is not dead yet. And that even though the democratic system’s guardrails are faltering, some are still standing.
Which isn’t to say Trumpist Republicans are not trying to break our democratic project. Six months before the election, their playbook to control the outcome in November is increasingly plain. On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed a plan to stop undocumented immigrants from voting—a fallacious problem that he and Trump were touting when he visited Mar-a-Lago a month ago.
Asked how big the problem is, Johnson demonstrated that his reliance on factual reality is about as strong as that of his favorite Florida club owner. “We all know intuitively that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections, but it’s not been something that is easily provable,” Johnson said. “We don’t have that number.”
Get it? We’re supposed to rely on this speaker’s intuition? A speaker who already revealed his faulty “intuition” in 2020 when he pursued the idea of election fraud to keep Trump in power? A speaker who is all-in with a presumptive GOP nominee who lied that he lost the 2016 popular vote because of 3 million to 5 million illegal votes by undocumented immigrants?
The disinformation they’re spreading is not just about elections past, of course. They’re already laying the groundwork to deny what happens in 2024.
Interviewed this week by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Trump once again refused to say he will accept the results of the coming election. He did it with his usual gaslighting approach: “If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results,” he said. “I don’t change on that. If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”
And one by one his sad and craven vice presidential hopefuls are showcasing their willingness to reject the most basic condition of a functioning democratic system. They are proving that stunning rejection of the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 was just a trial run for an authoritarian takeover.
You’ve probably already heard about South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott repeatedly refusing to simply say that he would accept the outcome of the election whoever won. This after Meet the Press anchor Kristen Welker rightly reminded him that a “hallmark of our democracy is that both candidates agree to a peaceful transfer of power.” All that this frightened shadow of a senator could say was this: "At the end of the day, the 47th president of the United States will be President Donald Trump.”
He is not the only one of these politicians desperate to kiss the ring, even if it means thumbing their noses at democracy’s sacred and necessary tradition. Consider these responses to whether they’ll accept the results of the election:
“I’m looking forward to next January when Vice President Harris certifies the election for Donald Trump.” —North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum
“We will see if this is a legal and valid election.” —New York Rep. Elise Stefanik
“If you have state officials who are violating the election law in their states…then no, I would not.” —Florida Rep. Byron Donalds
We should not underestimate how corrosive this talk is. When these VP contenders won’t even assert their readiness to accept an election’s results, they are hastening democracy’s decline—whether or not their anti-democratic candidate wins. The damage has already been done.
But I won’t leave you there. Once again, this week in deep-red Indiana, Nikki Haley garnered 21.7 percent of the Republican primary vote with over 30 percent in Indianapolis. That represents over 128,000 Indiana voters who chose “not Trump” by choosing Haley, who exited the race two months ago. Since then, 17 percent of GOP voters in Pennsylvania and close to 20 percent in Arizona picked Haley.
So let’s not underestimate voter reluctance to pulling the lever for the malignant criminal defendant. That doesn’t mean they all will eventually pull the lever for Joe Biden, but it surely suggests a sizable percentage of Republicans will head elsewhere—that is, if they even leave their couch on election day.
If—and it remains a serious if for now—Trump is convicted in his hush money/election interference case, we can expect more Republicans and other fence-sitters to abandon him. Recall a February Reuters/Ipsos survey which found that 51 percent of Republicans claimed they would not vote for Trump if he’s a convicted felon.
That number may ultimately be overstated. But it’s a reminder that November’s outcome remains in the hands of voters, even if the courts don’t hold Trump accountable and top Republicans continue to spread disinformation and telegraph to voters their unwillingness to support our democratic project.
No matter how loudly MAGA Republicans and their nominee may cry that they’ve been cheated if and when they lose in November, we can find strength in the truth. An overwhelming defeat would make another Big Lie obvious and a necessary part of the road to repair.
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Steven, thank you for the shot of optimism. It's tough but necessary to maintain a balance of positive thinking and absolute outrage. In the right proportion, they are far more motivating than either one alone.
But I worry that (for example) a salacious courtroom drama is completely overshadowing the stakes of this moment. Trump is a symptom of a more pervasive yet less visible national malignancy, one that has completely divided us, yet still not been adequately diagnosed. Mainstream journalism is failing to accurately inform, and has instead joined the entertainment industry.
I'm at a loss as how to break us out of the echo chamber, find a vision and a language that transcends the great divide.
As always, Steven, you have laid out every jot and tittle of this situation in a way that is succinct…and your arrow hits its mark in your description of where we find ourselves at this moment. Words cannot express my horror, outrage and utter disbelief that we find ourselves in the throes of a political movement that feeds on lies and grows like the uncontrollable malignancy that it appears to be. The complete ignorance by Republicans themselves of what an authoritarian movement would mean for those who live under it is still astounding to me. My old American self will not let my current American self believe that this nightmare could become our permanent reality. Trump isn’t even President and yet I almost feel that he still is because of the influence he appears to wield. To see grown people in positions of responsibility and governance follow along obediently behind him, cleaning up his mess like zookeepers who clean up after the elephant scares the heck out of me.
This perception of his outsized influence is damaging to all of us. That’s why I so appreciate your assurance that you won’t ‘leave us there’. We all need a lifeline in steady and reasoned voices. Otherwise the Trumpist project could swallow us all up, like a huge black hole whose gravity we cannot overcome. I’m scared…good and scared. I try not to be, but I am. I try to comfort myself with the thought that maybe some of these Republicans who have pledged their loyalty publicly to Trump will actually vote for Biden in the privacy of the voting booth. “Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that I dare to dream really do come true…”.