Who does Trump’s indictment really help? – By Harold Maass (The Week) / Aug 3, 2023
Will the latest indictment energize Trump’s campaign or derail it?
Special counsel Jack Smith this week charged former President Donald Trump with alleged crimes connected to his attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. Smith accused Trump of fueling the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by radicalizing a mob of his supporters with “lies” about election fraud “targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
This is the third criminal case against Trump, who, despite mounting legal troubles, is the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination to challenge President Biden in 2024. As it did after his earlier indictments, Trump’s side immediately responded to the charges by launching an appeal for donations. The Trump Save America Joint Action Committee offered “I Stand with Trump” tee-shirts for every $47 dollar contribution. His campaign said the case was like a state attack on enemies in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Trump said he did nothing wrong, warning: “If they’re allowed to set fire to the law, then it will not stop with me.”
The latest charges prompted many Republicans, including some rivals in the GOP primaries, to rally behind Trump, accusing the Biden administration’s Justice Department of conspiring to eliminate his strongest rival. Others said the case could be a tipping point that will drive fence-sitters fed up with Trump’s election lies into Biden’s camp. “At a certain point, are you really going to hitch your whole party to a guy who is just trying to stay out of jail?” asked former Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Virginia Republican who lost her seat in 2018 as suburban voters turned against Trump, according to The New York Times. Will the latest indictment energize Trump’s campaign or derail it?
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