The former president is broadcasting to the world that he intended to overthrow 2020 election results that did not suit him.
As he did ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Donald J. Trump is again calling for massive protests should prosecutors “do anything illegal,” meaning indict him. After Jan. 6, who believes more violence is not implied?
Will Bunch writes:
But two things are clear. The first is that Trump — facing probes over Jan. 6 in Georgia and possibly from the U.S. Justice Department — is committing a form of obstruction of justice in full public view, since the future possibility of a pardon offers an incentive to stay on the ex-president’s good side and not testify against him. The other is that abusing the constitutional power of a presidential pardon — intended by the framers for grace and true clemency — to clear the jails of his political allies is banana republic-type stuff, the ultimate rock bottom made inevitable when Trump was allowed to abuse his pardon powers while in office 2017-21.
It’s no coincidence that Trump mentioned by name the three cities in which he is currently under investigation. It is no coincidence that he calls out as racists the prosecutors and investigators closing in on him. He read, “These prosecutors are vicious, horrible people. They’re racists and they’re very sick—they’re mentally sick,” off the teleprompter.
Bunch again:
But let’s take a step back and drill down on arguably the most important and alarming word in Trump’s statement: “Racist.” At first blush, it seems to come out of left field, in the sense of what could be racist about looking into a white man’s role in an attempted coup or his cooked financial books? Except that it happens that three of the key prosecutors investigating Trump — the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney, Fani Willis, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, and new Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg — as well as the chair of the House committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, are all Black.
After more than a year of insisting he just wanted to address the problem of voter fraud, which he falsely claimed had stolen the election from him, Trump just came right out and said he wanted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Former U.S. attorney and legal commentator Joyce White Vance wrote: “This is what prosecutors call guilty knowledge. And also, intent.” CNN’s Jim Acosta was more succinct: he tweeted, “Coup coup for Cocoa Puffs.”
I know these investigations are taking time, but Trump is not even trying anymore to hide what he wants and what he’s already done. It’s in tweets. It’s in speeches. It’s in published statements. In Georgia, it’s on tape. The quicker Trump is off the streets the safer we’ll all be.
Meanwhile, Republicans remain silent.