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There is also the sheer incompetence of Trump’s efforts to use selective prosecutions to punish political opponents. Trump’s effort to prosecute former FBI director James Comey has turned into an embarrassing fiasco. The Department of Justice admitted that it never presented the two-count indictment to the full grand jury.
The appalled magistrate wrote, “If this procedure did not take place, then the court is in uncharted legal territory in that the indictment returned in open court was not the same charging document presented to and deliberated upon by the grand jury.” The whole case may be thrown out.
And Trump’s crony, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who has combed mortgage records to find ways to prosecute prominent Democrats, is now on the defensive himself, as lawyers challenge his flagrant conflicts of interest. Trump’s minions even managed to bungle a slam dunk by admitting the sheer racism in the Texas redistricting plan, which was then overruled by a three-judge panel, with the most indignant comments coming from a Trump appointee.
Appellate Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote that “it’s challenging to unpack the DOJ Letter because it contains so many factual, legal, and typographical errors. Indeed, even attorneys employed by the Texas Attorney General—who professes to be a political ally of the Trump Administration—describe the DOJ Letter as ‘legally[] unsound,’ ‘baseless,’ ‘erroneous,’ ‘ham-fisted,’ and ‘a mess.’”
Meanwhile, the Republican victory in forcing Democrats to reopen the government with no concessions on health care is looking more and more like a defeat because it keeps the issue of unaffordable health insurance front and center. In the most recent polls, approval of Trump is underwater by 17 points. Even among Republicans, his approval is 68 percent, sharply down from 92 percent in March. As we head into an election year, with Democrats flipping both Houses a distinct possibility, more and more Republican legislators are looking to save their own skins—which gives them more reason to distance themselves from Trump, and the process keeps intensifying.
So are we out of the woods yet? No, we are not.
The more Trump is on the defensive, the more hysterical he becomes. The latest example is his call to execute Democrats who pointed out that the professional military has an obligation to defy illegal commands. Even the White House press office had to walk that back. But Trump is continuing to use carrots and sticks with the corporate parents of media organizations to destroy a free and critical press.
And as an increasingly desperate Trump tries to keep changing the subject and the headlines, watch out for even more reckless foreign-policy adventures.
However, something fundamental has shifted. Trump is not a dead duck yet, but he is increasingly a lame one. And the more he proves impotent to punish defiant Republicans, the more they will keep acting to distance themselves and to weaken Trump.
We may yet redeem our democracy. That seemed a long shot just a few months ago. Not a bad cause for Thanksgiving. |
