Ever since the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s home, the left has been salivating at the thought of the Justice Department indicting him for some transgression, big or small. Democrats and their comrades in the activist media are fantasizing about the day they will get to see the Orange Man What Is Bad™ being led on a widely-covered perp walk and placed into a law enforcement vehicle before being carted off to prison.
But, barring an indictment or conviction, they would likely settle for enough political damage to make sure Trump never occupies the White House again. The left is clearly excited by such a proposition. But they might not be seeing the full picture at this level. Indeed, they seem to be failing to observe the potential fallout from the FBI raid. But one thing is clear: No matter how it goes, this will not end well – especially for Democrats.
Author Damon Linker penned an op-ed for the New York Times last week in which he laid out some of the potential scenarios that could play out as a result of the DOJ’s move against Trump. “There is no scenario following from the present that culminates in a happy ending for anyone, even for Democrats,” he writes.
For starters, he speculates about what could happen if the DOJ decides to prosecute Trump and notes the grave reality that “[t]his would be a Democratic administration putting the previous occupant of the White House, the ostensible head of the Republican Party and the current favorite to be the G.O.P. president nominee in 2024, on trial.”
The author acknowledges that this “would set an incredibly dangerous precedent” and surmised that it could result in this type of prosecution becoming more commonplace as the White House changes hands.
Linker then argues that if the DOJ doesn’t indict Trump, then the former president “will have learned that becoming president has effectively immunized him from prosecution” and that if he wins in 2024, he could “do whatever he wants with complete impunity.”
On the other hand, if Trump is indicted and possibly convicted, the situation still could turn into a nightmare for Democrats, according to Linker. He writes:
If the matter culminates in an indictment and trial of Mr. Trump, the Republican argument would be more of what we heard day in and day out through his administration. His defenders would claim that every person ostensibly committed to the dispassionate upholding of the rule of law is in fact motivated by rank partisanship and a drive to self-aggrandizement. This would be directed at the attorney general, the F.B.I., the Justice Department and other branches of the so-called deep state. The spectacle would be corrosive, in effect convincing most Republican voters that appeals to the rule of law are invariably a sham.
The author even goes so far as to consider what would happen if Trump announces his candidacy even while he is under indictment and asks what would happen if he “treats the trial as a circus illustrating the power of the Washington swamp and the need to put Republicans back in charge to drain it.”
There is ample reason for Democrats to be concerned about this scenario because the former president would almost definitely highlight how the Justice Department is being used for political ends. The Jan. 6 hearings are a prime example of the type of sham the anti-Trumpers are willing to put on just to get at Trump despite the fact that there is no evidence he is responsible for the riot that happened that day.
In the end, Linker suggests that not prosecuting Trump would be the better option – especially for Democrats. He asserts that if the former president becomes the nominee for 2024, “Democrats will have no choice but to defeat him yet again, hopefully by an even larger margin than they did last time.
I have a feeling Linker, and other leftists will be quite disappointed.
The author’s arguments regarding indicting Trump are quite premature given that we do not yet know if Trump actually committed any crimes worth prosecuting. If it is found that he did not commit any offense that rises above that of Hillary Clinton, it won’t be easy getting an indictment or conviction. Indeed, trying to go after Trump for a similar offense to what a Democrat committed would only further highlight the fact that the FBI has been politicized.
Furthermore, the FBI issue has the potential to benefit Trump even more, assuming they did not find anything incredibly damaging at Mar a Lago. It would become one of the foundational elements of his 2024 campaign. He would continually remind the base, and the nation, about how the left weaponized the DOJ against him to go against the will of the people. In the end, there does not seem to be much upside for the Democrats in this situation and it is probable they will suffer for it at the polls.
