Don’t nominate a criminal
Here is where that framing has inevitably led. From Jonathan Chait:
John Yoo, the former Bush administration lawyer (who himself escaped prosecution for his role in constructing legal justifications to torture detainees, many of whom turned out to be held wrongfully in the first place), has an essay in National Review arguing for revenge prosecutions. The imprimatur of Yoo, a Berkeley law professor and fellow at two of the conservative movement’s least-insane think tanks (the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution), underscores the progression of “lock her up” from wild seriously-not-literally Trump-campaign demagoguery in 2016 to party doctrine in 2024.
“Repairing this breach of constitutional norms will require Republicans to follow the age-old maxim: Do unto others as they have done unto you,” urges Yoo. “In order to prevent the case against Trump from assuming a permanent place in the American political system, Republicans will have to bring charges against Democratic officers, even presidents.”
[…]
There are several problems with Yoo’s argument, beginning with the “age-old maxim” he cites. The saying, derived from the Bible, is “Do unto others as you would have done to you,” not “Do unto others as they have done unto you.” I am not a biblical scholar, but the basic thrust of the teachings the line summarizes is to treat people the way you would wish to be treated, rather than instructing people to take revenge for slights.
Second, Yoo attributes Trump’s prosecutions to “the Democrats”:
Make no mistake, Democrats have crossed a constitutional Rubicon. For the first time in American history, they have brought criminal charges against a former president. For the first time in American history, they have brought criminal charges against the major (and leading) opposition candidate for president during the campaign …
Republicans keep asserting that the Democratic Party, or Joe Biden, collectively decided to throw the book at Donald Trump, but there is literally zero evidence for this. Biden has avoided interfering with decisions by the Justice Department, and the two biggest cases against Trump were brought by Jack Smith, who is a nonpartisan figure respected by both parties.
Third, Yoo’s examples of revenge prosecutions underscore his deep confusion about how the Justice Department has been operating. Here are some things he wants investigated: A Republican DA will have to charge Hunter Biden for fraud or corruption for taking money from foreign governments. Another Republican DA will have to investigate Joe Biden for influence-peddling at the behest of a son who received payoffs from abroad.
In fact, Donald Trump went to great lengths to do this very thing. William Barr, a Republican, did investigate allegations of foreign payoffs by Joe Biden. He never brought charges because he was unable to find any legitimate evidence whatsoever to support the claim.
Biden’s only living son is on trial right now and may very well go to jail long before Trump ever does. And, as Chait notes:
Note that these are the kinds of criminal charges a regular person would almost certainly never face. Hunter Biden is being charged because he is the president’s son, and has engaged in sleazy-but-legal dealings that made him a prosecutorial target.
As Chait argues, the biggest conceptual flaw in his argument is that Trump is an innocent victim. In rality, he is a life long criminal conman who inherited vast sums of money and has treated the rule of law like toilet paper and gotten away with it because he had money and operated in a nether world of mobsters and grifters. He is anything but innocent.
Yoo argues that what broke the system was the decisions to charge Trump with crimes, and what can repair it will be charging Democrats. I would suggest the solution instead would be for Republicans to nominate as their next presidential candidate an experienced, vetted politician rather than a professional swindler.
That should be easy peasy. Surely they can find some Republicans who aren’t crooks to run for president.