Before the news of Trump’s indictment, Dana Bash asked newly-minted 2024 GOP candidate Mike Pence his thoughts on Trump being held to account for his actions. Wonder Bread answered,
"This kind of action by the Department of Justice, I think, would only fuel further division in the country. And let me also say, I think it would also send a terrible message to the wider world."
It is an exercise in reflexive toadying, partisanship, and ignorance that (to put it in Trumpian terms) the likes of which the world has never seen. A fundamental American legal principle is that no one is above the law. To Pence, it is a principle that should be eviscerated if trying a man for his crimes upsets some people.
Pence is not done.
“We're the emblem of democracy. We're the symbol of justice in the world. And the serious matter, which has already happened once in New York, of indicting a former President of the United States sends a terrible message to the world. I hope the DOJ thinks better of it and resolves these issues without an indictment."
Pence is both living the myth and deep in denial. The US has long lost its global status as an emblem of democracy and a symbol of justice. To reclaim them, America must show the world that even ex-Presidents cannot run roughshod over the law.
If the US wanted to send a terrible message to the world, it would let Trump slide for his crimes. It would announce that a man who conspired to overturn an election, instigated a riot to hold on to power illegally, and treated national secrets as his personal, possibly profitable property is immune from criminal consequences because of a job he once had.
Pence is not alone. The MAGA Congress and its media shills are piling on with a flood of nonsense about Trump’s legal odyssey. But claims that the justice system is railroading Trump are gainsaid by evidence and the rigor of the process.
The federal justice system’s selection mechanism has chosen Judge Aileen Cannon to hear the documents case in Florida. So defendant Trump will have the home-field advantage and will have picked the referee. Hardly the Democratic fix conservatives claim.
Americans who believe no man is above the law have celebrated Trump's indictment by Independent Counsel Jack Smith as proof America has not yet succumbed to tyranny. The ex-reality show host must now answer charges that he stole classified government documents, obstructed justice, and conspired with others to cover up his criminality. And that is just one case.
While the MAGAs in Congress twice shielded the 2020 loser in his impeachments, America’s non-partisan justice system has found him civilly responsible in NY for sexual assault on, and defamation, of E. Jean Carroll.
He must also answer NY criminal charges, filed by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Jr., that he falsified business records, with campaign finance repercussions, to cover up a tawdry five-minute adultery with porn actress Stormy Daniels. He also faces likely indictment by Fulton County, GA, DA, Fani Willis, for attempted RICO-level, criminal election fixing. And he is the defendant, along with his three eldest children, in a $250 million civil suit filed by NY AG Letitia James, alleging business fraud.
Waiting in the wings is a possible indictment for crimes stemming from his insurrection instigation on Jan 6, 2021. And God only knows what else.
Predictably, many Congressional Republicans are saying Trump is the victim of a partisan witch hunt instigated by Democrats to prevent him from being reelected President. If this conspiracy existed, it would show a level of organization quite spectacular in its clandestine ingenuity — and thus beyond human engineering.
If these people were acting in cahoots to bring down the Republican godhead, somebody would have leaked a document showing these disparate entities coordinated their efforts. There is none. Not a whisper from anyone connected to the process. And at this point, there have to be hundreds, maybe thousands of people involved.
Pence does not care. He has sunk so deep into the cult that he can no longer see the truth. Instead, he walks lockstep with the ‘Trump is a martyr’ crowd. Mike runs interference for a man who once encouraged a mob to lynch him. But even that personal jeopardy could not knock commonsense into Mike's closed mind.
Pence calls himself a man of faith. We have to wonder who his God is.