What a sweet headline! Trump now faces four charges of trying to overthrow the election, making a grand total of 79 charges against him. Will it hurt him? Naah, but it doesn’t make him look good to rational people, either.
This is his second federal indictment, the other being the Mar-a-Lago documents case, and there’s another state indictment in NY about the hush money to Stormy Daniels. And. . . one more liable to be handed down as well: a state indictment in Georgia for interfering in the election. The DA there said she was “ready to go”.
Click to read from the NYT:
An excerpt:
Former President Donald J. Trump was indicted on Tuesday in connection with his widespread efforts to overturn the 2020 election following a sprawling federal investigation into his attempts to cling to power after losing the presidency to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The indictment was filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Federal District Court in Washington.
It accuses Mr. Trump of three conspiracies: one to defraud the United States, a second to obstruct an official government proceeding and a third to deprive people of civil rights provided by federal law or the Constitution.
“Each of these conspiracies — which built on the widespread mistrust the defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud — targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” the indictment said.
The indictment said Mr. Trump had six co-conspirators, but it did not name them.
The charges signify an extraordinary moment in United States history: a former president, in the midst of a campaign to return to the White House, being charged over attempts to use the levers of government power to subvert democracy and remain in office against the will of voters.
You can read the indictment here.
This is an extraordinary moment in American political history. The only thing I can compare it to during my lifetime is the run-up to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the Presidency.
It’ll be interesting to learn who the co-conspirators are and whether they will be charged: Rudolph Giuliani, Sidney Powell? This will be all over the news tonight, the perfect accompaniment to a nice glass of wine.
I’m pretty sure none of these others wears Teflon. Might see some prison time.
Enjoying a nice glass of wine …
Good idea! But it will be a tall cold glass of beer for me. 🍺
The Washington Post will tell you the names of the first five here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/01/doj-trump-indictment-trump-coconspirators/?itid=lk_inline_manual_29
So, what can stop him from running for President now? A trial? More Indictments?
And then there is this:
“As dire as Trump’s legal situation may be, the political panic on the blue side is as striking. CNN’s numbers guru Harry Enten woke up Democrats yesterday with a piece explaining that Trump “is in a better position to win the general election than at any point during the 2020 cycle and almost at any point during the 2016 cycle.” Enten cited a “number of surveys showing Trump either tied or ahead of Biden,” a situation he called “arguably… more amazing.”
https://www.racket.news/p/campaign-2024-officially-chaos
Thoughts?
I doubt anything short of him developing a debilitating medical condition (which I don’t expect) will stop him from running. I just hope enough of the electorate understand how bad it would be to support someone who attempted to stay in office after legitimately losing the election. I don’t want to see him get another chance to end the US as we know it.
I used to follow and respect Taibbi. I can’t figure out what happened to him. He thinks Biden is as corrupt as Trump. His readers think all of these indictments are the corrupt elites going after poor trump because his anti-establishment cred is so strong. It turned my stomach to look through some of the comments on your linked article. At least it gave me insight on the type of people who are going to vote for trump. More like paranoia than white-supremacy.
Taibbi wrote some good stuff about the financial crisis, but he was never worthy of respect and he has found his spiritual home. https://chicagoreader.com/blogs/twenty-years-ago-in-moscow-matt-taibbi-was-a-misogynist-asshole-and-possibly-worse/
Yes I’ve read about his reprehensible behavior as a young man. I thought his reporting on the economy during the Great Recession was very well done. Not so much since then.
Once. Twice. Three times indicted.
I am singing along with you.
Nothing that would, upon conviction, trigger the 14th Amendment I gather.
And the Orange Cheato continues to perform the same acts as stated in the new indictment. This should be a cause to arrest him and keep him incarcerated to stop these acts.
The best (?) part is that he’ll definitely try witness intimidation and jury tampering at some point. Maybe we will see him behind bars.
I’ll go with Andy Borowitz, who asks, “Why can’t the GOP find another criminal to run in their primary election besides Trump?
I spent the last hour or more watching 7 or 8 lawyers going over the indictment in a quick way. No way they have had time to read everything yet. Some of those other unnamed individuals are. No 1. is Rudy. also named is the female ? Eastman is in there. None of these unnamed will be indicted yet. Smith wants to do Trump first and have fewer delays. The other will come later. They call this a speaking indictment because it is detailed and longer. It will be very good if people take the time to read it and they will better understand what this is all about. Pence, by the way, really testified and told them a lot. So did others. It just looks like they have this guy coming and going. Of course, Trump is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. I would not want to be one of his lawyers trying to defend this stuff. The fake electors is a big part of this deal. Trump even continued to attempt to overturn after the mob went home on Jan. 6. He contacted or tried to contact a couple of Senators still trying to stop the election. It was nuts. The main thing all of this does is to show us all that justice, slow as it is, can still be done in this country. The last indictment is something about how this guy tried to stop your vote from being counted and somehow retain power. So why the hell would people still want him in office….in any elected office
“So why the hell would people still want him in office….in any elected office”
GOP politicians: because his cult following is still enthralled, so they can’t/won’t budge. They put party over country.
His supporters: it’s a cult caught in a nationalist grievance spiral (as pointed out many times), pining for a future where America is dominated by white Christian men, just like the “good ol’ days,” and he’s their cult leader, ’nuff said.
I know all that Mark but the key is in numbers. How many are the cult? How many are not. The difference is getting bigger every day. Election is what – 16 months away. Erosion is a slow process and more people reach voting age everyday. When trump last won 2016 he lost the popular vote, women could still get abortions and lets just say, a lot has changed. America is not dominated by white Christian men even if all of them were trump cult and they are not. Last i checked half the population were female.
I know you know, just preachin’ to the choir. But yeah, it’s really about the 18-29 y.o. range that will decide the next election, no matter who is running. Past indications predict if Trump runs, he brings out the younger voters. Trump’s cult is very large, but not large enough to win the electoral college. His base grows stronger with each indictment, yet they can only vote once. A stronger base doesn’t mean anything for Trump, since he can’t widen his base (well, it does mean that Trump gets to grift more money from his unfortunate marks). And yes, the abortion issue looms large. Dems need to keep hammering the point that Trump caused Roe v. Wade to die. In theory, it should be easy.
One commentator (CNN) put it nicely, that it will drive Trump nuts that his best defense will be that he was too ignorant (read:stupid) to understand he actually lost the election.
If I’m not mistaken the NY Times showed that Trump and Biden both have 43% of vote intentions. How can people still support Trump after all he’s done?
This is the big one; full stop. Mar-A-Lago is bad, and the evidence is strong, but it is, I think secondary. And by comparison to these two, Manhattan is relatively inconsequential. We still have to see where Georgia fits in. But think about it – has any other former president been indicted once, let alone four times? Echoing earlier comments, I find it inconceivable that so many people are still willing to support him.
They consider each indictment additional proof of the Democrat conspiracy against him. Therefore, the indictments solidify his base, although they probably don’t widen it.
I just heard Mike Pence made a no-nonsense, strong statement against Trump:
“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States.” See:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/01/pence-reacts-trump-indictment-00109312
Pretty obvious, but Pence practically bent over backwards to support Trump. Now he’s been slowly growing a backbone. I’d never vote for Mr. Religion but I’d trust him a lot more than Trump. He has given testimony to the grand jury and it’s suspected that he’s cooperating with the prosecutor. Also, Trump’s own words are apparently a big part of the evidence against him, Hopefully Trump will finally pay for the things he spews.
Yes, Trump is his own worst enemy. He thinks he’s above the law, always has, so that’s why he acts and speaks so recklessly; I guess we can blame his dad’s upbringing and physics. Becoming POTUS was not a good idea for a sociopath like him. He is being crushed by the U.S. judicial system, and more power to the institution.
Trump will manage to stall and delay and will continue to fundraise millions of dollars off the indictments. I doubt he will ever serve time behind bars. Maybe the best we can hope for is some sort of plea deal where he will never run for office.
Music to my ears too.
The evidence against Trump is as overwhelming as it is irrelevant to any member of the Trump cult. Get one of them on the jury, and unanimity is likely impossible.
I like Matt Taibbi’s take on this:
Taibbi’s an idiot.