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It was Trump who forced the country over this dangerous threshold. A man whose life’s creed is to never be seen as a loser refused to accept defeat in a democratic election in 2020, then set off on a disastrous course because, as Smith’s indictment put it, “he was determined to stay in power.”
“I think this is sad and, unfortunately, this is a situation that could have been avoided. Trump forced this on the Department of Justice,” said Ty Cobb, a former White House lawyer for the ex-president.
Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett, Cobb referenced Luttig’s comments, saying that “the star that America has been for the rest of the world for the past 250 years has been dimmed greatly by Trump.” But he added: “It is a little brighter tonight because we have shown that as a country we are going to stand up for the Constitution. … This could be an inflection point – I hope it is.”
CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams took a more downbeat view of the nation’s capacity to defend its democratic heritage than Cobb.
“January 6 was a sign that we do tolerate unconstitutional behavior based on the fact that number one, there are millions of Americans who believe that Donald Trump did nothing wrong, and that number two, January 6 was a tourist event and so on.”
“The rule of law and this idea that we submit to courts only works if people, starting with former presidents and their supporters, believe that we are subordinate to it in some way. And that is not a prevailing view among many, many Americans.”
A new CNN poll released Thursday showed just how questionable support for the constitutional system has become, even as it affords Trump the right to a robust defense and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in all his cases. Some 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said Biden’s win in 2020 was not legitimate, up from 63% earlier this year and last fall, even with no evidence that the election was swayed by fraud.
This finding is explained by a comment by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday, which also underscores how Trump’s influence causes a perpetual cycle of political mistrust.
The California Republican compared Trump’s behavior to the complaints by supporters of past Democratic presidential nominees Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, who complained of electoral irregularities.
“Were any of them prosecuted? Were any of them put in jail? Were any of them held with no response to be able to get out? The answer is no,” McCarthy said.
His comparison is not apt since although Gore challenged his narrow defeat through the courts, he gracefully conceded when the Supreme Court effectively handed the election to Bush. A few Democrats objected to certifying Trump’s election in Congress is 2016, but Clinton did not challenge it in the courts. And Smith’s case is centered in the fact that when all of Trump’s legitimate legal challenges to the 2020 election were thrown out, he then embarked on new and allegedly illegal efforts to stay in power anyway.
Republicans also claim that the indictments against Trump are merely an attempt to deflect from their accusations that Biden and his son Hunter illegally enriched their family through the younger Biden’s business links with China and Ukraine. Republicans have every right to investigate Biden and his family and to take action if they find corruption, although they have yet to provide any proof of wrongdoing by the president.
But their blind spot on Trump’s far worse, Constitution-threatening conduct shows just how far he has changed their party.
