Republican leaders line up to defend the indefensible

HALIFAX—When things have gone to hell in Newfoundland, there is a saying that expresses it quite well—“the arse is out of ’er.” Given recent legal events in the United States, the situation is not merely unprecedented, not just inexplicable, and way more than dangerous. Bottom line? The arse is out of the Republic. Exhibit A: during the first primary debate amongst GOP presidential hopefuls, the hosts at Fox News asked a direct and simple question of the eight people on stage. If former U.S. president Donald Trump is criminally convicted, and wins the GOP nomination, would you vote for him in the 2024 presidential election? Two things to remember: the twice-impeached Trump was not on stage for the debate, having boycotted the event, and he is currently facing 91 criminal charges. Some are about as serious as charges can get: the attempt to defraud the United States, that is, steal a federal election; illegally retaining highly classified documents, some of them touching on nuclear secrets and U.S. invasion plans for Iran; and obstructing justice. Six of the eight presidential candidates raised their hands to indicate that even if the former president were to be convicted on any of the charges, they would vote for him in 2024. A couple of them went on to say they would pardon Trump if they became president. Reality check? They were a pack of zombies following the leader over a cliff. Think about the enormity of what every one of the GOP presidential candidates, with the exception of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, had done. The so-called party of law and order was declaring to millions of people watching the debate on television that even if Trump were to be found guilty of one or several felony offences, and of breaching his oath of office to uphold the constitution, they would put him back in the White House. They were signalling to the debate’s audience that it was okay to put a felon in the White House. It is beyond absurd. How could anyone vote for the Republicans as lawmakers, when the leadership of the party had just confirmed that it was okay to put a convicted criminal in charge of the whole show? How must women feel watching this travesty, with Trump’s sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll already on the record in civil court? This is the party that criminalizes abortion, but whitewashes Trump’s behaviour. For one of the zombie-candidates who raised his hand to endorse Trump last week, the humiliation was total. If anyone should know just how low Trump can go, it is former U.S. vice-president Mike Pence. Remember those “Hang Pence” signs brandished by the pro-Trump mob during the Capitol insurrection? According to congressional testimony, Trump told his staff that maybe Pence “deserves” it. He certainly did nothing to quell the riot he had inspired, which placed a lot of other lives at risk besides that of Pence and his family. Just days before the first GOP debate, Pence told CNN in a direct reference to Trump that anyone who put themselves above the constitution should never be president. Yet a few days later, Pence affirmed that he would in fact vote for Trump. That flip-flop would break the back of a grizzly bear. Exhibit B: no U.S. president, sitting or former, has ever been arrested. Trump has been indicted four times to date, but last week in Georgia at the seedy Rice Jail in Fulton County, he made another record entry in the "Guinness Book of Stinkers." Authorities snapped a mugshot of the former president, assigned him an inmate number, and took his fingerprints. It is what would normally have been an end-of-career-moment, but not in the Upside-Down States of America. The former president’s mugshot, in which he scowls like a vengeful mafia don, is now just another item of Trump’s political merchandising machine. Yes, you, too, can own a T-shirt bearing Trump’s mugshot. He is already raising money from the circus surrounding his fourth indictment. Whoever thought criminal charges could drive fundraising in politics? How crazy has it become? The embarrassingly sycophantic U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has put out her own photoshopped mugshot as a “MAGAshot." It comes complete with the reference to Fulton County. Other MAGA supporters are doing the same thing. Mugshots, it seems, are now a badge of honour in Trump World. Exhibit C: how can all this possibly be happening? Well, Trump is getting by with a little help from his friends. Instead of wondering if they have a political Al Capone on their hands, and doing something about it, Republicans in Congress are rallying to Trump’s support. The oleaginous Jim Jordan, the Trumpian bootlicker who currently chairs the U.S. House judiciary committee, has launched an investigation into Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. It is transparent political payback for building a wide-ranging case against Trump and company that led to the former president’s booking last week. Just as Trump smeared Willis, falsely alluding to her sex life with a gang leader, Jordan wants to find out if she co-ordinated with special counsel Jack Smith in her investigation and handling of the Trump case. The GOP is flogging the dead horse of their false theory that it is the justice system, not Trump, that is corrupt. It is all just U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the DOJ weaponizing the justice system on behalf of the Biden crime family. As everyone knows, right? As of now, here is what the U.S. political landscape looks like. The current president, Joe Biden, is under investigation by a special counsel for his handling of classified documents kept in his possession. His son, Hunter Biden, is under investigation by a Special Counsel for a variety of alleged crimes, including tax fraud, influence peddling, and a felony gun charge. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is threatening an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Greene has already filed articles of impeachment against Biden for endangering the security of the United States with his allegedly lax border policy. After extensive investigations in four different jurisdictions, Donald Trump has been charged with 91 criminal offences, and faces the possibility of life in prison. Meanwhile he is so far ahead of his rivals for the GOP presidential nomination that all they can see is his vapour trail. As for the public, every new twist and turn in the Trump melodrama, linked to the GOP’s continuing defence of the indefensible, gives them another reason to lose trust in their institutions. That includes the current president, the attorney general, judges and federal prosecutors, the intelligence community, and, of course, the media. When the answer to all that loss of faith is a guy who needs to become president to keep out of jail, no wonder the arse is out of ’er in America. Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hill Times