There's a famous, old adage by Carl Sandburg --
“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.” Republican officials have begun pounding the table and yelling like hell. Not unexpectedly, those who have enabled Trump for the past six years are now beating their breasts in faux-outrage about what is expected to be a coming indictment of Trump this week by the Manhattan D.A. It starts with many such officials. among them Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) insisting that an indictment would guarantee Trump would "win even bigger" and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), waiting to see if he himself will be indicted in Georgia, saying that Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg has "done more" to get Trump elected than anyone -- assessments which, if true, you'd think would have Republicans dancing in joy over the pending indictment (and all other possible coming indictments), and even pressing for it. Now, to be clear, an indictment certainly might help Trump within the Republican Party, since it's become fascist and the majority of the GOP still believes Trump won the 2020 election against all evidence and reality, and much of the Republican base believes the dead JFK Jr. is coming back to life to run with Trump. However, even that doesn't explain why Trump then isn't begging for an indictment. In fact, the only thing that can be said with 100% certainty is that an indictment means Trump will begin grifting and raising money off it. (Republican non-official and ace prognosticator Elon Musk -- who said all indicators are that COVID deaths would be zero at the end of April, though he said this three years ago and meant April, 2020 -- goes even further than most and predicted an indictment means Trump would win a "landslide victory." Indeed, by Musk Standards, if Trump gets lucky and is also indicted in all four of the currently-active investigations of him elsewhere, that could fill the national bingo card, and we might have the first-ever unanimous presidential election result.) Then there was the halting, breathless, pseudo-dramatic statement made by Mike Pence -- hot off his statement condemning Trump for responsibility of the January 6 Insurrection -- saying, "This is not...what...Americans want...to see." An observation still unclear where he got that statistic from, since it came in the midst of many of those very same Americans organizing Indictment Parties. One of the more notable and borderline-amusing is from James Comer (R-KY) who is chair of the adorably misnamed House “Oversight” Committee. He raised the theory that an arrest of Trump Arrest is just an “effort To distract” from Hunter Biden. What’s become noticeable since being named chair of the committee is that the phrase "James Comer says..." have come to mean something disingenuous and hypocritical is about the follow. He’s been impressively consistent about this. In this specific instance, what Mr. Comer wants people to ignore is that Trump has long already been the unnamed “Individual #1” when Michael Cohen was indicted and then plead guilty 2-1/2 years ago. So, it’s not like this is anything sudden. Moreover, there is no current federal or state investigation of Hunter Biden, so there’s nothing to distract from. And it seems weird even by James Comer criteria to bring up the concept of “distracting” from bad news when it’s become clear that the historic Trump Standard Operating Procedure is to distract. That said, given that there are four other active, major investigations of Trump -- so far -- we should all be prepared to hear the words "Effort to distract" from Republicans a lot. But the most egregious mournful cry came from emasculated House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). For those unaware of McCarthy, he’s the Republican Leader who both publicly and privately (on tape) condemned Trump for causing the January 6 Insurrection – and then days later was called down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and returned with his tail noticeably dragging between his legs, and has been sucking up to Trump’s rear-end ever since. He sent out a statement – “Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump. “I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.” There’s so much to unpack here. But let’s start with the most basic. McCarthy’s statement is right out of the playbook for fascism – trying to undermine the court system and rule of law. To be clear, Michael Cohen went to prison for doing Trump's bidding on this very same crime Trump is being indicted for, paying $130,000 hush money from Trump. And make no mistake: it is a crime because, well, y’know, a guilty plea and prison time was involved. But Kevin McCarthy wants everyone to think it’s “outrageous abuse of power” for the Manhattan D.A. to pursue a crime. And it is a crime to continue pursuing, since McCarthy also leaves out the additional pesky point that when Cohen plead guilty for the crime he went to prison over, Trump himself was the unindicted co-conspirator, "Individual #1"!!! Indeed, the only reason he wasn’t indicted at the time is because he was the sitting president, and the DOJ has a policy not to indict a president when in office. Trump is no longer in office. Further, and importantly, speaking of the DOJ, also unmentioned by lapdog McCarthy is that when Michael Cohen went to prison and Trump was named the unindicted co-conspirator, "Individual #1" – it was all done under Trump’s own Justice Department. So, spare us the weeping cries of "political vengeance." To repeat: Trump was named in Michael Cohen’s indictment by the Justice Department when Trump himself was in office. If Kevin McCarthy wants to bring up "abuse of power" in the case, the only place he has to look is when the federal court overturned actual abuse of power against the DOJ when it tried to prohibit Cohen from writing a book about his experience. And we haven’t even gotten to McCarthy saying he will direct a House committee to investigate if federal funds have been used to “subvert democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.” First, reading a sentence for a Republican supposedly “outraged” about anyone trying to “subvert democracy by interfering in elections” and not be talking about the January 6 Insurrection has defined the word “projecting.” Second, as noted, the concept of “politically motivated” flew out the window long ago when Cohen and Trump were both named in the crime by Trump’s own Department of Justice. And third, the level of headline-grabbing pure posturing about “federal funds” being used is made evident that this coming indictment is from the Borough of Manhattan. Something which even Kevin McCarthy knows has absolutely nothing to do with federal funds. On the other hand, what all McCarthy’s saber-ratting is more likely to be seen as is arguably obstruction of justice and witness tampering, trying to scare off any other prosecutions and intimidate anyone who might be called to testify. (And now, the eternally "outraged" Jim Jordan [R-OH], of course, is calling for Manhattan D.A. Bragg to come before the House Judiciary Committee.) In the end, if Kevin McCarthy really wanted to respond to word of an impending indictment (which Trump himself leaked, most probably to call enough mob to riot) and do so in a way that supports democracy, what he, as an elected official and Speaker of the House, third in line of succession for the presidency, could have done under his sworn duty to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution is a) waited for an actual indictment, and then b) put out as a statement that would have been – "We are disappointed that an indictment has been made, but look forward to the judicial process taking place, because in in the United States were are a nation of laws -- and when the court system has run its course, we are fully confident that the evidence will show Donald Trump is not guilty." In fairness, the emasculated McCarthy perhaps didn’t feel comfortable saying this because he’s not fully confident Trump will be found not guilty. Though lying about what he truly believes (even when said in public and caught on tape in private) has never stopped him before. But ultimately, alas, fascism and posturing to create discord really doesn’t work in such a pro-democracy way. So, McCarthy, Comer and other Republican officials are just doing what comes naturally. There's another old quote that is a fitting way to end this. It hasn't reached "adage status" like Carl Sandburg's, but is as appropriate when it comes to having no facts or law to rely on, and only being able to pound on the table and yell like hell. When the plain-speaking Harry Truman was president, he was known as "Give 'em hell, Harry." But one day during a speech, when someone in the crowd yelled that out to him, he responded by saying -- “I don't give them hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it's hell.” That was the Republican Party in the 1940s. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Welcome to today's GOP.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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