This week, former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan brought out over a dozen high-profile Republicans who both spoke in support of the ex-president and bashed the proceedings as illegitimate. One columnist is arguing that there's a dangerous undertone to those Republicans' posturing that should be discussed in-depth.
In a Friday article for the New Republic, staff writer Greg Sargent observed that the slew of Republican elected officials who came to New York all subtly took the disturbing position "to make it unimpeachably clear that their primary fealty is to Donald Trump over the rule of law." Sargent also took issue with media reports that described Republicans' appearance at the trial as merely a show of solidarity to the presumptive Republican nominee.
"If we are going to treat this as a story about loyalty-signaling, let’s frame the question this way: Loyalty to what, exactly? Not just loyalty to Trump," Sargent wrote. This episode—and others like it, such as the stampede of Republicans backing Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the 2024 election results—are better seen as a statement of ultimate fealty to Trump over and above our institutions, as a declaration that he is paramount, and they are thoroughly dispensable."
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As many pointed out last week, the Republicans who traveled to Manhattan — including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) — took repeated jabs at witnesses, court staff and even Judge Juan Merchan's daughter, who works for a consulting firm in which she fundraises for Democratic candidates. Trump is prohibited from personally attacking those individuals due to Merchan's gag order, but his surrogates aren't.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) even said as much when asked about his appearance outside the courthouse. During an interview with far-right network Newsmax, Tuberville said circumventing the gag order was "one of the reasons we went," which suggests that both he and potentially several others agreed to assist Trump in his efforts to end-run the gag order and flout the judicial process.
"If Republicans were merely criticizing the prosecution on the facts and the law in substantive terms, it would be one thing. But here they are attacking the judge, his family, the witnesses, and the line prosecutors as actors in a fundamentally illegitimate proceeding," Sargent pointed out. "[T]he surrogates wouldn’t be doing any of it if Trump didn’t want them to, and they are echoing Trump’s own precise language and claims.
"To grasp the real force of this, it’s worth recalling the reason we don’t want proceedings like these subjected to demonization campaigns in the first place: It threatens to sabotage public confidence in the justice system’s integrity and makes it harder for good faith actors to play their roles in it without fear or favor," he continued. "And so, the whole point of these GOP depravities is to dramatize, in the form of spectacle, that their fealty is to Trump over and above those rules and norms, the ones that make the system work at the most fundamental level."
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Trump's trial will enter its sixth week on Monday. Judge Merchan gave the former president the day off on Friday so he could attend the high school graduation of his son, Barron in Florida. However, Trump likely didn't stay at the graduation long, as he's attending a fundraising event in Minnesota on Friday night.
The trial will likely pick up with additional cross-examination of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who is Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's star witness. The prosecution plans to rest its case after Cohen leaves the stand, and it's not clear if Trump himself will take the stand in his own defense.
Click here to read Sargent's column in its entirety (subscription required).
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