So there it was. Finally.
After months of speculation, including recent weeks of near breath-holding obsession (by some, that is) over whether Donald Trump would become the first former president to be indicted, the news finally broke on Thursday that a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump for his alleged role in paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. This is merely a statement of fact; the op-ed part is about to commence.
While the indictment was filed under seal, Trump reportedly faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud in the indictment, according to sources familiar with the case.
Trump released a statement in response to the historic news, replete with his oft-repeated assertions:
This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history. From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats — the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country — have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt [sic] to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.
The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.
The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party – united and strong – will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat [President] Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Perhaps surprising to some, I’ll leave it to others to comment on Trump’s statement, but I will comment on my related observations of the various reactions to the indictment over the last 24 hours.
Let’s begin with the headline. No, Trump’s indictment did not and will not bring America “one step closer to communism,” as multitudinous hyperbolic memes splattered all over social media ominously warned. Nor is “America under distress” as a result of the indictment, regardless of how many upside-down American flags are posted on Facebook and Twitter.
Now, I’ll argue vociferously that America as we’ve known it is indeed under duress due to the plethora of attacks from the rabid left on everything from morality to Christianity to race relations to women’s sports; and the associated attack on the very definition of “woman,” but by the indictment of Trump? Please.
And the “one step closer to communism” silliness is just, yeah, silly.
Also silly has been the predictable squeeing from TDS-riddled Democrat lawmakers, with Mad Maxine Waters among my faves:
SO Trump finally got indicted! I predicted he would and I predicted that Stormy Daniels would get him! Sometimes justice works!
From the corrupt congresswoman who actually should be in prison.
SO Trump finally got indicted! I predicted he would and I predicted that Stormy Daniels would get him! Sometimes justice works! #TrumpIndictment
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) March 30, 2023
Serial liar Adam Schiff’s comments were as predictable as, um, his serial lying:
Trump’s indictment is an affirmation of the principle that no one is above the law. McCarthy’s threat to interfere with the case and DeSantis’ pledge not to extradite Trump would make him a kind of king. If we are a democracy, no one can violate the law with impunity. No one.
Uh-huh, Schiffty, except you continually lied with impunity about the 2016 Russia “collusion” hoax and proclaimed that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal had all the markings of “a Russian plot.” And when Speaker Kevin McCarthy made good on his pledge to kick your ass off the House Intel Committee, you were skewered on social media as a “lying, leaking clown.”
Trump’s indictment is an affirmation of the principle that no one is above the law.
McCarthy’s threat to interfere with the case and DeSantis’ pledge not to extradite Trump would make him a kind of king.
If we are a democracy, no one can violate the law with impunity.
No one. pic.twitter.com/dRAj3cWj6G
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 31, 2023
But the “best” response of all was not only idiotic; it was in direct contradiction to American justice — and came from none other than Stage-4 TDS-riddled Nancy Pelosi (emphasis, mine):
The Grand Jury has acted upon the facts and the law.
No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence.
Hopefully, the former President will peacefully respect the system, which grants him that right.
Um, not even close, San Fran Nan. Last time I checked, in America, the burden of proof is on the prosecution, not the defense. We are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Now sit down.
The Grand Jury has acted upon the facts and the law.
No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence.
Hopefully, the former President will peacefully respect the system, which grants him that right.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 31, 2023
To be “fair and balanced,” [ahem] as Fox News proclaims itself to be, host Jesse Watters compared Trump’s alleged hush money payment to Daniels to “paying for a haircut,” and warned that “the country’s not going to stand for it” and “people better be careful.”
Meanwhile, Sean Hannity declared that “Pandora’s box has officially been opened,” but otherwise, was surprisingly more rational in his assessment of the Trump indictment, suggesting that “no reasonable prosecutor would ever prosecute such a petty and weak case.”
So the band plays on — and will continue playing on, ad nauseam, as keyboard jockeys across the fruited plain beat every bit of this thing to smithereens — most of them from predictable angles.
The Bottom Line
Is the case against Trump valid? I don’t know. Neither do you, or anyone else reading this article or otherwise pontificating on the indictment.
Is Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a contemptuous partisan political hack whose TDS has led him way out over his skis in his indictment of Trump? I believe he is.
Is America “in distress and democracy is under attack” because of the indictment? Hardly.
And finally, America is not “one step closer to communism” because a politically predisposed left-wing district attorney and a like-minded grand jury joined forced to indict Donald J. Trump — irrespective of his guilt, innocence, or anywhere between.
Can we please knock off the hyperbolic nonsense, people? (He asked, which fell on deaf ears.)
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