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When Donald Trump was in office, the Republican had an annoying habit of calling for the criminal prosecution of his perceived political foes. It happened so frequently that it stopped generating headlines, but it was a staple of the former president’s term.
Over the course of four years, Trump voiced support, for example, for prosecuting Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. He also called for criminal investigations into former Secretary of State John Kerry, Rep. Adam Schiff, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Sen. Chris Murphy, and former FBI Director James Comey, among many others.
It’s one thing for presidents to criticize their opponents; it’s something else for presidents to routinely and falsely accuse their opponents of felonies.
Trump, of course, is no longer in the White House, but as he hopes to return to power, he’s sticking to the habits that bring him comfort. USA Today reported:
Trump, who has called for prosecuting a number of political opponents should he return to the White House, targeted [former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney] over dubious claims that the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot sat on evidence related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. “She should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!” Trump said Sunday in a Truth Social post.
Hours after publishing the missive to his social media platform, Trump targeted the former House GOP leader again, adding, in reference to Cheney, “SHE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY! SHE ILLEGALLY DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE. UNREAL!!!”
Given the larger context, “unreal” was an interesting choice of words.
This morning, the former president kept the offensive going, suggesting Cheney and her colleagues on the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee were responsible for “serious crimes.”
To be sure, this isn’t altogether new. Last summer, Trump whined incessantly about the congressional investigation — he apparently thought discrediting the committee would help with his criminal defense in the federal election case — accusing members of the bipartisan panel of being “criminals” who engaged in “highly illegal” misconduct. He kept the offensive going for months.
To date, neither the former president nor his allies have presented any evidence whatsoever of the committee engaging in any wrongdoing, and a closer look at Trump’s allegations suggest they’re complete nonsense.
But if the claims are absurd, and the presumptive GOP nominee has been at this for a while, what makes Trump’s latest rhetoric notable? For one thing, the hypocrisy is increasingly jarring: While falsely accusing the Biden administration of politicizing and weaponizing federal law enforcement, Trump routinely calls for the politicization and weaponization of federal law enforcement. The Republican Party addresses this obvious conflict by choosing to ignore it.
For another, the former president has become increasingly explicit about his intentions to retaliate against his perceived foes with politically motivated criminal cases. Indeed, let’s not forget that it wasn’t long ago when Trump said he’d have “no choice“ but to prosecute his political opponents in a possible second term.
He added soon after that when prosecutors took steps to hold him accountable for his alleged crimes, “what they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box.” (I assume he meant “bottle.”)
The question isn’t whether Cheney and her Jan. 6 committee colleagues did anything wrong — we already know that they didn’t — but rather whether Trump will try to prosecute them anyway.