A federal grand jury has indicted Donald Trump, accusing him of conspiring to invalidate the 2020 election, stopping Congress from certifying the vote, and undermining the right to vote. These are serious charges. None of this looks good for the former president.
First, I will grant what appears to be a corrupt, two-tiered federal justice system, given the prior lenient treatment afforded to Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden. Two wrongs, however, don’t make a right. And if Trump and his supporters claim it is unfair for Clinton and Biden to escape prosecution and not him, aren’t they tacitly admitting that he deserves to be prosecuted?
Second, Trump’s best defense may be that he actually believed his own absurd claims of a stolen election and therefore could not be guilty of fraud. As George Costanza said, “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”
But if he really did believe it, then he is stupid or crazy, and therefore unfit to be president. His team litigated these meritless issues dozens of times in the weeks prior to January 6 and lost every time.
If Trump supporters finally concede that he was lying but that political lying is not a crime, they may or may not be right. I’ll wait for the trial. But they need to realize that Trump was lying not just to the American people and other politicians … but to them. If he knew his oft-repeated claims were false, then he willingly made fools of them to serve his own interests. If his die-hard supporters finally realize this, then maybe the spell will be broken. Is it worth defending such a man so ardently, especially if it means losing the White House once again?
One final thought: Truth is always a defense in fraud cases. If Trump persists in saying the election was stolen, let him prove it, and these charges will disappear. He should welcome the trial, because it will give him the world’s biggest stage to prove the assertion at the heart of this case–that the election was stolen.
I won’t be holding my breath.
