Donald Trump's first act on becoming a convicted criminal was to launch a raging new attack on the rule of law, laying bare the gravity of the choice awaiting America's voters.
In one sense, Trump's conviction on all counts in his first criminal trial affirmed the principle on which the United States is founded — that everyone is equal and that no one, not even a billionaire and former and possibly future president, enjoys impunity.
But Trump's authoritarian outburst minutes after the guilty verdict in New York and a race by top Republicans to join his assault on the justice system, underscore how threatened those bedrock values now are.
"This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be November 5, by the people, and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here," Trump said minutes after a jury foreperson announced he was guilty on 34 felony charges of falsifying financial documents to hide a hush money payment to an adult film star. After returning to Trump Tower and greeting supporters with a clenched fist, Trump issued a written statement that made clear that he views his own fate and the nation's as indistinguishable — a familiar hallmark of a dictatorial leader. "I'm a very innocent man, and it's okay, I'm fighting for our country. I'm fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now," Trump wrote.
President Joe Biden's campaign echoed his opponent's belief that the ultimate judgment on the former president will come in the general election.
"Today's verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality," said Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler. "There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president," Tyler said. "The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater."
Trump's conviction by a unanimous New York jury was the most painful low of a tumultuous life of denying accountability, that has seen financial boom and bust, three marriages, television stardom, frequent brushes with the law, the triumph of his outsider 2016 election win, a norm-shattering presidency and the shame of his attempt to destroy democracy to stay in power after losing in 2020.
CNN Presidential historical Timothy Naftali said Thursday that Trump's call to arms for a campaign against the legal system will mean that every Republican will be forced to put it at the center of their 2024 campaigns. "That is going to create, in my view, a torrent of poison that will be likely worse than we saw in the 'Stop the Steal' campaign that preceded January 6.
"And that is going to further unsettle an already sensitive country," Naftali said. "I worry about it because the 'Stop the Steal' campaign created widespread doubt about the honesty of our electoral system and led many people to believe that fraud had been committed in 2020."
Comments
Post a Comment