A prosecutor is not the U.S. House or Senate, though. It is not the role of the law-enforcement system to try to belatedly dole out punishment for constitutional enormities or presidential dereliction of duty. One side using prosecutions as a tool of political accountability or vengeance (depending on your point of view) only invites retaliation by the other side and an escalatory spiral that wouldn’t be good for our politics or the law.
Trump’s ultimate jury is those Republican voters who aren’t the hard-core Trump base, but aren’t Never Trumpers, either. The people who have to be convinced that it is time for him to go voted for him twice, like him, disdain his enemies, distrust the mainstream media, and feel deep gratitude that he dispensed with Hillary Clinton and nominated three conservative Supreme Court justices. Anything that pushes them toward Trump serves his purposes, and anything that detaches them from him diminishes his power.
I thought the January 6 committee wouldn’t have any chance of reaching this cohort. Instead, by revisiting the insanity of the post-election period and sucking Trump into responding, the committee has seemingly enhanced the sense of Trump fatigue among these voters, at least at the margins. Perhaps an indictment of Trump would have the same effect, but it’s more likely that it would push fence-sitting Republicans toward him in reaction to a prosecution they’d perceive as unfair and abusive.
The January 6 committee’s audience of one should hold his fire.
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