What? Donald Trump trying to “defraud the United States”? (Canned laughter, please).
Yes, but of course. This malignant narcissist, unsurprisingly a compulsive liar, scamming cheater, and conman supreme, clearly did his best to steal the Presidential election of 2020. The evidence has been laid out by none other than the US Congress. There is no longer any doubt in the matter. Donald J. Trump, the one-man crime syndicate and twice-impeached president, called, directed and defended the January 6th insurrection against the US government and the American people who voted in their majority to oust him.
Only one question remains now: Will he be prosecuted? I believe, with many others, that the consequences of not prosecuting are far graver than those of prosecuting him because if the Department of Justice deems one person to be “above the law,” it, and our entire legal system, will lose its authority. Everyone but the “Banana Republicans” recognize this to be true, even if many resist for fear of the consequences of trying an ex-President of the United States.
But then again, everything about Donald J. Trump was unprecedented and unpresidential. From the moment he took office, he acted as an autocrat, not a president. His entire life was that the scofflaw writ large, of a fraudster. And no fraud was too small for him to engage in. He ripped off his immigrant workers and small-time investors with as little compunction as he showed when he directed his people to attack the capitol of our nation on January 6th. Read, as I did, David Cay Johnston’s books, especially The Making of Donald Trump. I listened to that book on a trans-Atlantic flight and found it so shocking that I didn’t sleep a wink on the way to Milan.
And so this criminal has brought us to this crisis as I knew he would. As the jet hit the tarmac in Italy that evening and I finished listening to the book as I passed through the airport, I knew it would come to this one day. I’d been optimistic, however. I didn’t believe at the time that so many in the Republican party would fall all over themselves to defend their mob boss occupying the White House. Over the following years I’d watch, along with the rest of the country, all but two of the Republicans with some shred of integrity “retire” or decide not to run again rather than challenge the Don.
I’m grateful that two Republicans stayed on to join with Democrats to uncover the plot to destroy our democracy that 45 was engaged in. It seems appropriate to thank them now. Thank you, Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. You both can wear your censuring from the Republican Party as badges of honor. And may the Republican Party’s acts be recorded in history as among the greatest, most dishonorable and shameful crimes of our early century.