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() — Donald Trump is igniting his run for the White House at a time of unprecedented danger in the criminal investigations against him, a confluence that could send the United States into a new political and legal collision.
Trump’s savage rhetoric at his first official 2024 campaign rally on Saturday previewed the divisive national moment to come should he be charged in any of multiple criminal investigations. As he whipped up a demagogic fervor in Waco, Texas, to try to secure a new presidency dedicated to “retribution,” Trump’s extremism — mixed with suggestions of violence — left no doubt that he would be willing to take the country to a place dark to save himself.
Yet Trump’s chilling warnings that the Biden administration’s “thugs and criminals” have created a “Stalinist Russia horror show” by “weaponizing” justice against him also posed electoral danger to a wounded GOP. for his authoritarianism in the recent elections. An extraordinary and prolonged character attack on Ron DeSantis, in which Trump represented his biggest potential rival of 2024 by tearfully pleading for his endorsement in 2018, demonstrated the political storm the Florida governor will have to deal with if he jumps on the campaign trail. for the White House.
Even with the former president’s reputation for hyperbole and inflammatory rhetoric, never before has such demagogy been heard at the first official rally of any modern American election campaign.
Meanwhile, House committee chairs, eager to appeal to Trump’s base, are increasing their efforts to use the power of their Republican majority to thwart Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into Trump, even before he releases any possible accusations or evidence.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer said on ‘s “State of the Union” Sunday that the GOP’s moves were justified because of the investigation into Trump’s alleged role in a secret money scheme. to pay an adult film actress was based purely on politics.
“This is the, for better or worse, leading contender for the Republican nomination in next year’s presidential election, as well as a former president of the United States,” the Kentucky Republican told Jake Tapper.
Many legal experts questioned whether Bragg’s possible investigation will produce the strongest case against Trump, who also faces several other investigations into his actions surrounding the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents. (Trump, who maintains that he has done nothing wrong, has thus far not been charged in any of the criminal investigations against him.)
And given the greater national impact of those other investigations, a possible attempt to use a business accounting violation in this year-old hush money case to suggest a possible violation of campaign finance law could be especially controversial.
However, Comer’s comments also suggested that a former president or White House candidate might be protected from investigation even if they had committed a criminal offense. This gets to the heart of the possible cases against Trump: Would not investigating and charging him, if the evidence warrants it, mean that a former president is above the law? Or would some attempts to hold you to account risk subjecting you to a level of scrutiny that other citizens might not face?
Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who were among three committee chairs who wrote to Bragg this weekend demanding his testimony, received a warm greeting from Trump at his rally in Texas. , reflecting the way the new House Republican Party is acting as a political tool for the former president and his radical campaign. Bragg responded to the presidents in a statement saying it was inappropriate for Congress to interfere in local investigations and vowed to abide by the rule of law. This weekend he was endorsed by nearly 200 former federal prosecutors who wrote a letter denouncing efforts to intimidate him.
The grand jury in the Trump case is expected to reconvene Monday, after a week of rampant public speculation over whether Bragg would call more witnesses and whether the case was serious enough to warrant the possible first-ever indictment of a former president. . Trump falsely predicted earlier this month that he would be arrested last Tuesday, a move that fueled an effort by his allies to intimidate Bragg. But the week came and went without any news of an indictment.
reported last week that the district attorney’s office was trying to determine whether to call back former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to rebut testimony provided by attorney Robert Costello, who appeared at the request of Trump’s attorneys. Trump, or call an additional witness to bolster their case before jurors consider a vote on whether to indict the former president.
The worsening of Trump’s legal problems
The escalation of the standoff over the Bragg investigation came as other investigations into Trump appeared to be coming close to their own conclusions.
In an entirely separate case, Trump’s top defense attorney Evan Corcoran appeared before a jury in Washington on Friday, hearing evidence about the former president’s handling of classified documents at his Florida home, including possible obstruction of justice when the government tried to recover those documents. Prosecutors made it clear in court proceedings still under seal that they believe Trump tried to use Corcoran to further a crime.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told ‘s Erin Burnett on Friday that Corcoran’s appearance represented a serious event for Trump. “It’s unprecedented what we’re seeing, and Evan Corcoran is in a position to provide incredibly damaging testimony against him,” she said.
In addition to investigating the matter of the documents, special counsel Jack Smith is investigating Trump’s conduct around the 2020 election — which even this weekend the former president once again falsely claimed he had won — and in the run-up to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In another inquiry related to the 2020 election, a Georgia district attorney said in late January that decisions were “imminent” in the probe into Trump’s attempts to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the swing state. reported last week that prosecutors are considering filing racketeering and conspiracy charges.
The charges, in any of these investigations, would test the strength of the country’s political and judicial institutions, given that a former president and current presidential candidate is implicated. And the fact that Trump is so willing to inflame the politics of the country in his own defense makes this a deeply grave moment for the nation.
Trump takes his extremist rhetoric to a new level
Trump’s fiery rally in Waco pulsed falsehoods about the 2020 election and his one-term presidency and misrepresented the legal cases against him. A day after warning in a social media post about “death and destruction” if he is charged, his speech boiled over with conspiracy theories and personal hard feelings, especially dangerous rhetoric in the aftermath of Jan. 6. It was not lost on observers that his act coincided with the 30th anniversary of a law enforcement raid on a cult compound in Waco that is seen by the far right as a symbol of government overreach, though the campaign maintained that the place had been chosen for convenience.
The former president has often used extremist speeches to try to get more time in the limelight or more attention, either from adoring viewers or outraged critics. It’s too soon to judge how well his tactic is working in the 2024 campaign as his legal situation appears to be getting worse. To date, there have been no large protests of the kind that Trump has repeatedly called for. The price his supporters could pay for turning violent was also demonstrated by the hundreds of convictions of those who stormed the Capitol more than two years ago after his big rally in Washington. So there’s at least the chance that while Trump remains wildly popular with his Republican base, his angry rhetoric lacks the punch he once had.
But it is also clear from this first campaign rally that Trump, who continues to lead the Republican pack by 2024, crossed a new political line. He is painting a picture of a decrepit and powerless nation — plagued by corruption, rigged elections and criminal rigging of the law against his supporters — that is far more extreme than the “American carnage” he invoked in his inaugural speech. of him in 2017.
“The abuses of power that are with us today at every level of government will go down in history as one of the most shameful, corrupt and depraved chapters in all of American history,” Trump said, castigating the US as a “banana republic.” From the third world.”
“Either the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State,” he said at one point.
And while Trump’s intent is to shock, history suggests power-seeking authoritarians are following exactly the same playbook of populist nationalism – discrediting free elections, demonizing the legal system and targeting the vulnerable sections of society – as Trump is leading in his new campaign.
His rally was also notable for the fact that it was almost entirely dominated by his complaints and claims, which may well hint at a sense of foreboding about his legal position. “Every part of my personal, financial, business and public life has been turned upside down and dissected like no one in the history of our country,” Trump said.
This raises the question of whether he is offering a message, rooted in his obsessions, that a majority of Republican voters would actually want to subscribe to, even those who considered his presidency a success. In 2016, Trump emerged as an unlikely but highly skilled vehicle for conservative bases, much of whom felt patronized by politicians and left behind in a wave of globalization that sent millions of blue-collar jobs overseas.
DeSantis could try something similar in 2024. In early campaign moves yet to be declared, the Florida governor has positioned himself as the champion of conservative voters who believe their way of life is under attack by liberals and multiculturalists pushing for a “woke” ideology. One of the key questions of the GOP primary campaign will be whether this approach can attract more Republican voters than Trump’s relentless attempts to present the investigations into him as a symptom of a broader attack by a corrupt government against his followers.
But ahead of another potentially crucial week, Trump is showing that he will not back away from the tactic that defines his political career: putting the country’s institutions through unprecedented and more intense stress tests.
