Stop the Presses

Two days ago, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) sent a “demand” letter to the Department of Justice that they open an investigation of Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan, because Kagan had just written an op-ed warning of the possibility of a Trump dictatorship.

Making this even more bizarre, if his demand wasn’t enough already, is that Vance’s attempt at reasoning was to suggest to the DOJ that Kagan’s opinion piece was a dangerous “call to arms," in essence an attempt to incite an insurrection.  (And no, for those uncertain, Mr. Vance is totally unbothered by the actual, armed Insurrection on January 6 to overthrow the government.)

The added irony of this was that Vance's faux-concern for an article warning about Trump's growing danger came the very day after Trump himself had said on Fox television that he would be a dictator if re-elected -- though only, apparently, on just Day One.  For all the other days he would probably only be a despotic tyrant.

I noted on social media that if anyone had any doubt that the fascist GOP under Trump would go after the First Amendment, they only had to look at Kash Patel who, if Trump is re-elected, is for some reason, rumored to be his next director of the CIA, and said on Steve Bannon’s podcast --

“We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media.” Adding -- "Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections — we’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out."

So, yes, they’re very clear about it.  And what with the GOP banning school books and banning the teaching of Black history, it’s a natural fit.

In Trump World, the standard operating procedure when you say something reprehensible.  So, you know how unacceptable Kash Patel's words were when, yesterday, some people on the Trump team actually noticed that what Patel said might not be the best campaign issue for the American public and tried to do some damage control.

For instance, one Trump adviser told a reporter, “Idiotic comments like this have nothing to do with our campaign.”

Of course, that should properly read, “unnamed Trump adviser,” which is not the most substantive denial when you refuse to go on the record to refute your fascist policies. Further "have nothing to do with our campaign" isn't even a denial -- it's just saying that it was idiotic for Patel to talk about it out loud because we don't want to make it a public issue. More to the point, the only denial that matters in the slightest in this case is Trump’s -- and not only is his track record on denials incredibly bad, but his denial on what Patel said has been non-existent. 

(Also worth noting is that it took Republicans two days before denying something so utterly reprehensible and against the foundations of American freedom.)

But arguably almost an even weaker defense of Trump -- yes, weaker even than an anonymous denial, which is saying a lot -- came from Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who has his own sketchy past, saying, “Donald Trump was president. Did he jail his opposition? No. Did he lock Hillary up? No.”

Well...he actually sort of at least tried.  As Reuters reported at the time, “U.S. President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen was ordered released from prison and will go into home confinement on Friday after a federal judge found he was subjected to retaliation for planning to publish a book about the president ahead of November's election.”

But that aside, what a weird way to defend someone.  For starters, "attempted murder" is just as much a felony as murder, you don't have to have hit your victim in the head with a crowbar when you swung it.  Or as the expression goes, intent follows the bullet.  Trump shouted so relentlessly he wanted to put Hilary Clinton in prison that he made "Lock Her Up" a core part of his campaign to build support among the chanting GOP base overcome the fascist concept.  And if he didn't actually get around to jailing Hilary Clinton, it was not only because she didn’t do anything illegal, but also Trump had some semi-responsible attorneys and advisers during his first time in office, who served as a barrier against Trump’s worst instincts.  They won’t be around to restrain him if there’s a second term. 

Besides, “Hey, at least he didn’t beat his wife” is not only not a great defense of anyone (especially when they've been found liable for the equivalence of rape) -- and an even worse defense of them for what they’ll do in the future, but it's a horrible defense for what someone will do in the future when that person has said that, if re-elected, “I will be your retribution” and “I will be a dictator, but just on Day One” and that he will work to get around the Constitution and has plans for building internment camps and deporting immigrants, and had his prospective CIA Director say, “We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media…Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out." 

​And has repeatedly called the press "the enemy of the people."

This isn’t a hard one to figure out.  Trump and his allies are not only telling you -- they are connecting the dots.