Prosecuting Trump–More
Here’s a conversation between a Fox News devotee (who still happens to be a friend) and me:
Craig: Per our talk last night, here’s a piece on the subject (of prosecuting Trump after he leaves office that, coincidentally, I had just written a couple of hours before the call.
Friend: Somewhere you seem to have lost the concept of “innocent until proved guilty.”
Craig: No one is saying that he shouldn’t get a fair trial, and charges against him need to come down from a grand jury that is convinced there is legitimate evidence against him.
His biggest problem is that prosecutors have a dozen different alleged crimes to chose from; this could be a case not unlike Al Capone who went down on income tax evasion, simply because it was the easiest thing to prove.
As I say, I think there is very little chance that Trump will be in the U.S. on the 20th.
Friend: I think for your emotional health you would be wise to cool your vendetta against Trump. You won, he lost. I do not understand why that can’t be enough for you.
Craig: I appreciate your concern. Well, in the first place, he’s not gone yet. The U.S. is facing 17 days of behavior so erratic and so dangerous, that I honestly don’t know what to expect.
Secondly, I think every patriotic American should want to prevent a recurrence of the entire Trump phenomenon. In my mind, that means justice. And by justice, I don’t mean revenge, pain, punishment, etc. I mean showing ourselves and the rest of the world that the United States stands for fairness and rule of law, and that we’re capable of restoring this basic concept that underpins our entire democratic republic.
Friend: I am a patriotic American and I would vote for Trump again because I approve of his domestic and foreign policies. And I think that he survived four years of Democratic attacks on issues that have been proven false which no president should have to endure.
Craig: I understand that this is the Fox News spin on Trump’s presidency. The rest of the known universe believes essentially the opposite, i.e., that the so-called attack, driven largely by the media, was the result of Trump’s lies and other outrageous–often criminal–behavior. In any case, this (the presidency itself) will be over soon, and it will be interesting to see what happens next. There sure was a kerfluffle over his call to Georgia’s Secretary of State.
(more later)