WASHINGTON (AP) — Embracing Donald Trump’s policies strategy of blaming the American justice system after him historic guilty verdictCongressional Republicans are fervently engaging in his campaign of political revenge and retaliation in the Republican Party’s bid to win back the White House.
Almost no Republican civil servant rose to suggest that Trump should not be the party’s presidential nominee for the November election — in fact, some have sought to fast-track his nomination. Few others have dared to defend the legitimacy of the New York state court, from what I’ve heard. the secret money affair against the former president, or even the 12 jurors who delivered their verdict unanimously.
In fact, every Republican who has expressed doubt about Trump’s innocence or political viability, including his hawkish former national security adviser John Bolton or high-ranking figures Larry Hogan, Senate candidatewere immediately intimidated by the former president’s henchmen and asked to “leave the party.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she was voting for Trump “whether he is a free man or a prisoner of the Biden regime.”
Congresswoman Firebrand also released the Upside down American flag This now symbolizes the “Stop the Steal” movement that Trump launched with his allies before the election. Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol.
The rapid, strident and growing commitment to Trump despite his felony conviction shows how Republican leaders and partners have been imbued with his baseless grievances about a “rigged” system and the dangerous conspiracies of a “militarized” government in their own attacks on the president. Joe Biden and the Democrats.
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Rather than avoiding Trump’s growing authoritarian language or ensuring they will provide checks and balances for a second Trump term, Republican senators and representatives are upending long-standing trust in American governance and preparing for the ground for what they plan to do if Trump returns to power.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Friday requested that prosecutors Alvin Bragg and Matthew Colangelo appear at a June hearing on “arming the federal government” and “unprecedented political prosecutions” against Trump — despite the fact that Biden, as president, has no authority over the New York state courts.
“What we are preparing for is that if Trump wins, he will use the state apparatus to target his political opponents,” said Jason Stanley, a Yale professor and author of “How Fascism Works.”
Stanley said history is full of examples of people who don’t believe the rhetoric of authoritarians. “Believe what they say,” he said. “He’s literally telling you he’s going to use the state apparatus to target his political opponents.”
On Friday, at his Trump Tower in New York, the former president returned to the type of attacks he repeatedly launched in his campaign speeches, describing Biden as the “corrupt” one and the United States as a “fascist” nation.
Trump called members of the bipartisan House committee that investigated the January events. 6 against the US Capitol by “thugs” and declared that Biden was a “Manchurian candidate”, a phrase inspired by the 1960s film depicting a puppet of an American political enemy.
A Trump campaign memo contained talking points for Republican proposals, suggesting they call the matter a “sham,” a “hoax,” a “witch hunt,” “election interference” and ” legal fight” designed by Biden, which he described as “twisted”.
Biden faces no such charges, and the House GOP’s efforts to impeach the president on his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, have largely stalled. Hunter Biden is must be presented in court next week on an unrelated gun charge in Wilmington, Delaware.
President Biden said Friday that “it’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible, for anyone to say it’s rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”
When asked later at the White House if this could happen to him, Biden replied: “Not at all. I did not do anything wrong. The system still works.
As for Trump’s claims that the affair is orchestrated by the Democratic president to harm him politically, Biden joked: “I didn’t know I was that powerful.” »
In the hush-hush case, Trump was found guilty of trying to influence the 2016 election by falsifying payment to a porn actor to bury his affair story. He faces three other felony indictmentsincluding the federal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But they are unlikely to be heard before the expected November election rematch against Biden.
Thursday’s verdict came after a jury in 2023 found Trump responsible for sexual abuse against opinion columnist E. Jean Carroll and a judge in a 2024 business fraud case determined that Trump lied about his wealth for years, ordering him to pay the astronomical sum of $355 million in fines.
Almost everyone, the congressional Republicans who spoke provided a unique voice for Trump.
President Mike Johnson, on “Fox & Friends,” amplified the claim, without evidence, that Democrats were trying to harm Trump. He said he thought the Supreme Court should “step in” to resolve the case.
“The judges on the court, I know many of them personally, I think they are deeply concerned about this, as are we,” the Republican spokesperson said.
Outgoing Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said he expected Trump to win the hush-hush case on appeal, but the three senators seeking to replace him as leader echoed Trump with criticism more severe with regard to the judicial system.
The senator from South Dakota. John Thune said the case was “politically motivated.” The senator from Texas. John Cornyn called the verdict a “disgrace.” Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said everyone who calls themselves party leaders “must stand up and condemn” what he called “illegal election interference.”
And the senator. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican known as a bipartisan leader, said the prosecutor “brought these charges precisely because of the identity of the defendant rather than because of any specified criminal charge.”
With sentencing in the hush money case expected in July before the Republican National Convention, Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said the Republican Party should move up the convention to expedite Trump’s nomination as the party’s presidential nominee.
Republican judicial lawyer Mike Davis, a former top Senate aide mentioned for a future position in the Trump administration, circulated a letter outlining next steps.
“Dear Republicans,” he said in a message published Friday. If their response to the guilty verdict was “we have to respect the process” or “we also have a policy of fighting back”, he suggested they do two things: one was an expletive, the other: “Leave the party “.
Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, circulated his own letter in which he suggested that it was the White House that “made a mockery” of the rule of law and changed policy in ways that ” anti-American. He and other senators threatened to block the Senate’s work until Republicans took action.
“Those who have turned our justice system into a political cudgel must be held accountable,” Lee said.
__ Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Ali Swenson and Chris Megerian contributed to this story.