With the latest installment of criminal indictments against former president and future defendant Donald J. Trump, we’ve got the latest round of hand-waving and excuse-making from his most loyal lickspittles.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — the loyal little Chester to Trump’s Spike — raced to run interference.
The refrain of his complaint is bizarre, since the indictment specifically charges Trump with trying to weaponize the Department of Justice for his own personal (and illegal) political schemes.
But the middle part, the whining about how unfair it is to try this case in Washington DC, is even weirder.
The crimes Trump’s charged with in the latest indictment center on the congressional certification of the 2020 election — which took place in Washington DC. And the indictment makes clear that those conspiracies led to the violent mob on January 6th, 2021 — which took place in Washington DC. And furthermore, at the time of these events, Trump’s residence was in the White House — which is in Washington DC.
I’m no fancy lawyer, but as others have noted, the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is pretty clear on this question: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.”
So the complaint that crimes that took place in Washington DC at the urging of a defendant who then lived in Washington DC with ramifications in Washington DC shouldn’t be tried in Washington DC is legal nonsense.
But there’s a political logic to it, of course.
Conservatives have long insisted that our nation’s capital doesn’t count — that the District of Columbia should be politically separate from the rest of the states and it’s people should be happy with unequal rights and representation in the nation’s affairs.
DeSantis’s tweet implies that there’s a difference between “Americans” and “Washington, DC” when — sit down for this, it’s a shocker — the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who reside Washington DC are actually Americans too.
Honest!
I was born in a DC suburb, lived in DC, went to school through the 7th grade in DC. My mom was an employee of the US Department of Agriculture. Even when we moved to the MD suburbs, life centered around the city. As a child I never understood why DC residents were disenfranchised, although I should have realized that the city was, at that time, controlled by the Southern Democrats who were usually the center of Federal power; that should have been the tip-off.
As a student of, and, for many years, a teacher of US history, I understood why but grew more and more incensed that the city residents, surrounded by the history of the nation and living amidst the many symbols of the idea of "all ... are created equal" were never granted the franchise, the political voice in their own destiny. DeSantis' view is the vocalization of that situation, a clear statement of what many across the US believe--DC residents are either "too close" to power or "too Black" to be trusted with the ballot.
In his elite education, DeSantis never caught the meaning of "with liberty and justice for all." I don't for a minute blame his teachers and professors. DeSantis is a political black hole--light undoubtedly once entered but it has never shown outward again.
It's also really pathetic to see a man who claims he's running for President defend a former President from charges that he tried to overturn an election. I mean, what's the point of running if you're going to validate everything that the guy you're running against says?