There was a moment, after the 2nd impeachment vote, when I thought things might work out OK.
I was wrong.
That moment was Mitch McConnell's speech on the floor of the senate. McConnell said that Trump was wrong. That he lost the election. That he incited an insurrection. That this was shameful and inexcusable.
Then he gave false hope. He said there were other, better ways to bring Trump to justice and to heal our democracy than to impeach a man who was already out of office. McConnell said there was the law, and Trump would be investigated and judged.
Impeachment was never meant to be the final forum for American justice. Never meant to be the final forum for American justice. Impeachment conviction and removal are a specific intra-governmental safety valve. It is not the criminal justice system where individual accountability is the paramount goal. . . . President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen.
If only.
Most Republican officeholders are attempting to duck the fact a jury found Trump guilty of raping a woman and defaming her. That he took public documents, kept them, showed them off, hid them, and lied to the government about doing so. That he orchestrated a plan of alternate electors and intimidation in an attempt to overthrow the 2020 election to stay in office. The response of the GOP is almost universal. They are attacking the justice system, saying it has no right to investigate Trump. That it has no right to search his home and find exactly what the search warrant said it would find. That it has no right to indict and try him for crimes. This stance is taken by die-hard Trump loyalists -- no surprise. But it is also taken by Republicans running against Trump to become the the 2024 GOP nominee.
We have a new norm in GOP politics. Back the party, not the blue. Stand by your man, not stand by the law.
As the 2nd place candidate in polls behind Trump, Ron DeSantis would appear to be the person with the most to gain from Trump's being held to the account McConnell predicted. TV journalist Jake Tapper asked DeSantis, “If Jack Smith has evidence of criminality, should Donald Trump be held accountable?”
DeSantis response attacked the Justice Department and the investigations.
And so you have a situation where the Department of Justice, FBI had been weaponized against people they don’t like, and the number one example that happened to be against Donald Trump with the Russia collusion. That was not a legitimate investigation; that was being done to try to drive Trump out of office. And so what I’ve said, as president, my job is to restore a single standard of justice to end weaponization of these agencies. We’re going to have a new FBI director on day one; we’re going to have big changes at the Department of Justice.
House Republicans spent hours accusing the FBI of targeting conservatives. The head of the FBI is Trump's own appointment. He responded to House Republican attacks with:
The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background.
Christopher Wray is a Republican with a long history of significant political contributions to conservative Republican candidates.
McConnell is no longer saying aloud that justice must be done. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who had condemned the insurrection in its immediate aftermath, saw that Republican voters still loved Trump, so he re-pledged loyalty to him, not to a justice system that would hold Trump to account.
America will face some very controversial court decisions in the coming months. We will need a justice system with credibility. We may have demonstrations -- riots even -- outside courthouses. Trump is calling for them. We might have 11-1 holdout jurors. We might have OJ Simpson-type verdicts. Whatever the judicial outcomes, there will be unhappy people. This would have been a good time for the Supreme Court to have the highest credibility as a symbol of integrity and impartiality, but the opposite is the case. Chief Justice Roberts cannot control his members' tastes for the good life of hospitality and gifts from billionaire friends.
The one body in American political system who could re-establish respect for law, not party, in this circumstance of Trump being investigated and tried would be senior Republicans. They could urge caution, restraint, respect for the process. Fifty years ago it required Goldwater to tell Nixon he needed to leave office. Goldwater's disapproval showed this was about rules, not politics. We need multiple Goldwaters, acting as a group. We don't have them. Trump created a mass movement of public support. It will require a mass movement of public revulsion to abandon him.
America lost an opportunity in the second impeachment vote. Republicans had the chance to turn the page, but they did not.
The gop is in disarray & shame on them for supporting this liar.