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****
It’s Sunday, so, yes, you are going to get a sermon.
What’s about to happen is as insane as the fact that I am likely the only person in the country with any platform whatsoever who will make the following points, points which I think are both obvious and vital.
Saturday was a preview of what the world will be like until and after the expected indictment is brought against Donald Trump. Most everyone played their preferred roles yesterday, including those who believe Mr. Trump is the worst thing that has ever happened to both the United States and to them personally.
I say to that group, again and loudly: You are about to increase the odds that Donald Trump will win another four years in the White House. You could in fact be increasing his chances of winning dramatically, maybe even decisively.
This group is composed of the three legs of the Iron Triangle that enabled Trump’s rise in 2015, powered his victory in 2016, and nearly gave him a second consecutive term in 2020.
Democratic political figures, the Dominant Media, and the Blue power structure (Big Tech, Big Labor, Big Academia, Big Hollywood, Big Blue Everything) are about to behave in a manner that is derivative of Trump Derangement Syndrome; is an abrogation of professional responsibility; and is, again, almost certainly going to help Trump win the Republican nomination and maybe the Oval Office.
There are so many problematic aspects of the pending behavior of the Iron Triangle that I can’t cover them all. Let me focus on three inter-related ones here.
1. No matter what you think of Donald Trump as a person, as a political force, or as someone who has done what he’s done, you should take no glee in, nor understate the significance of, the leading presidential candidate of one party (and a former elected president) being indicted by a prosecutor of the other party. The symbolism and precedent are horrible. If you want to publicly champion this indictment, do it with a tone of reverence, regret, and an appreciation for how Trump supporters and other worried Americans feel about it.
2. Unless DA Bragg has some new evidence or legal theory up his sleeve different from all indications, this case is in the view of many legal experts and smart citizens not the one you would want to have be the first criminal indictment brought against a former president. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post and Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal both agree on that point, which tells you what you need to know. Like (1) above, this is another strong reason for the Iron Triangle to not act all excited about any indictment.
3. The usual outrageous double standard the Dominant Media applies to Republicans and Democrats is on vivid display right now because of the Hunter/James Biden story. I now believe this episode will go down in history as one of the worst performances of the Dominant Media in the last fifty years, and that will be true even if Hunter is not guilty of anything at all – and even if the House Republicans badly overreach. The lack of curiosity on the part of the press here is chilling – and stands in stark contrast to their delighted interest in all things Stormy Daniels and their pro forma conviction of Donald Trump.
I watched a CNN segment the other day in which a panel of reporters expressed passing interest in the Hunter/James story but they spent a lot of the time criticizing House Republicans for dropping the Pelosi-led House’s probes of Donald Trump and his family; suggesting Republicans were making a moral and political mistake by focusing on investigations and not the “real” issues voters care more about; and suggesting Republicans were making an additional political error by going against the public’s clear fatigue with “tit for tat” political warfare. Also, they seemed to set the bar for the House investigation at proving criminality on the part of Joe Biden – or, they suggested, the whole thing was a waste of time. And they chided Chairman Comer for making allegations and hinting darkly at possible wrongdoing not supported by the current facts.
Do I need to even type these words? Adam Schiff & Co. were never for one second held to those standards by the Dominant Media on any of those points as they investigated a Republican president.
Why do I raise this in the context of what is happening with Donald Trump?
About half the country thinks (1), (2), and (3) are not only true but are consistent with a pattern that has gone on for decades and created a deeply unlevel playing field in our politics.
I know one newsletter is not going to change the behavior of scores of actors – and the entrenched patterns of half a century.
But I have to try.
Because if the Iron Triangle reacts to what everyone thinks Bragg is going to do the way they are surely about to act, it doesn’t take a genius to know how politically beneficial the coming days will be for Trump – and how alienated, understandably and vividly, so many of our fellow citizens will be.
Don’t be gleeful, don’t pretend Bragg has a strong case, and investigate the heck out of that Chinese money.
It’s all the right thing to do, in every sense of the word.
****
ESSENTIAL READING
* Politico:
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg offered a private retort to Donald Trump’s message Saturday urging supporters to protest his expected indictment, telling office employees in an email that “we do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York,” according to a copy obtained by POLITICO.
“Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office will be fully investigated and that the proper safeguards are in place so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment,” Bragg wrote, adding that the office has been coordinating with the New York Police Department and Office of Court Administration, the administrative arm of the court system in New York.
*
*
* The New York Times looks at the vital Biden-McCarthy relationship, concluding with this:
Several current and former White House officials also say that Mr. Biden has reached out to Mr. McCarthy more frequently than is publicly known. According to one internal tally, the president has invited Mr. McCarthy to the White House 20 times since becoming president; Mr. McCarthy has accepted eight of the invitations.
In an interview, Mr. [Newt] Gingrich proudly noted that Mr. McCarthy is likely to be a challenge for Mr. Biden.
“He wants to find a way to get a victory,” Mr. Gingrich said of Mr. McCarthy, “but victory is not selling out.”