CNN —
Four years ago, Donald Trump’s attempt to dismantle American democracy to stay in power suddenly finds itself back at the epicenter of the upcoming election — as the former president makes a spectacular comeback to the White House. A few weeks before I completed it.
Special Counsel Jack Smith and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney bring the Republican candidate’s 2020 fraud allegations into the final stretch of the close race between President Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, while desecrating American history. It brings back memories of that day. .
Cheney, who appeared in Wisconsin with Harris on Thursday, identified herself as part of a bipartisan movement to keep President Trump from the White House. But four years later, with the mob storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, the former president’s attempts to destroy free and fair voting, and his efforts to tear apart faith in America’s democratic institutions, Constant efforts may not prevent him from returning to power.
This is a reality that reflects both the country’s divided state and the Republican Party’s preference for power. But most of all, it’s a testament to the often malevolent magnetism that made Trump such a historic and enduring politician.
Cheney, a hardline conservative, appeared with the vice president in key battleground states, urging independents and Republicans wary of Trump to vote for Democrats despite clear policy differences.
“The most conservative of conservative values is fidelity to the Constitution,” Cheney said in Ripon, Wisconsin. “As we gather here today, our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before.” He added, “In this election, it is not a desire to put patriotism above partisanship. , it is our duty,” he added.
“What January 6th shows us is that Donald Trump doesn’t have the slightest bit of compassion. He’s narrow-minded, vindictive, cruel, and Donald Trump is a man of this good and great He is not fit to lead a country.”
It was a remarkable scene made possible only by the political earthquake caused by President Trump’s actions four years ago. It’s a sign of how much the landscape of American politics has changed. Ms. Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been criticized by Democrats, particularly over the Iraq War, also supported Ms. Harris. His daughter declared, “I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I will proudly vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
The former Wyoming congressman lost his House Republican leadership position after resisting President Trump’s attempts to defy the will of voters in 2020, ultimately falling to his primary challenger in a landslide. He lost his seat. And supported her while she was still in the House of Commons. He led a bipartisan task force that recommended criminal charges against the twice-impeached former president over the January 6, 2021, riot. In Wisconsin, where the election could be decided as close as next month, if Ms. Cheney can sway even a few hundred votes, she could have a big impact.
CNN exclusively reports that Cheney and former Trump aides Alyssa Farrar Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews are scheduled to deliver a rebuttal to Trump next week at a fireplace in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. I found out about it.
Why this former Trump aide supports Harris
Harris praised Cheney’s courage Thursday and vowed: “Those who have called for the abrogation of the United States Constitution, like Donald Trump, must never again stand up or stand behind the presidential seal,” he vowed. US. ”
The former president responded to Cheney’s appearance with a post on his Truth social network filled with personal insults. But Trump’s comments also underscore the populist tone he brought to the Republican Party after more than a decade of attrition in overseas wars that placed heavy burdens on military personnel in many heartland states, where he has the strongest support. It also emphasized change. The Republican candidate accused Cheney of being a hawk, calling his father “the leader of a ridiculous trip to the Middle East, where trillions of dollars were spent, millions of people were killed, and for what?” ?” he accused. there is nothing! ”
How voters in a relatively small number of battleground states will process the issues behind Cheney and Trump’s comments and weigh them against their other biggest concerns, such as the economy and rising food prices, will be a question. , could factor into the broader question of who wins. election.
Mr. Cheney’s appearance comes after Mr. Smith returned to the spotlight on Wednesday. The court filings released provide the most detailed look yet at the federal election interference case against Trump, which has blocked efforts to take him to court before the election.
The special counsel claimed that Trump told his family, “It doesn’t matter whether you won or lost the election. It doesn’t matter whether you won or lost the election.” You still have to fight hard. ” The motion represents Mr. Smith’s attempt to salvage a case that has been severely damaged by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, which has granted Mr. Trump and other former presidents broad immunity for their actions while in office. are.
Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the last election and the renewed focus on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol may seem like a political disaster for the former president. But the fact that this is not necessarily the deciding issue of the election is a testament to Mr. Trump’s success in rewriting history.
Trump could return to power for a non-consecutive second term in January 2021 when he did not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration and left Washington with the city divided by a steel security fence. It would have been foolish to think that it was sexual.
His outlook for next month is that while he terrorizes many Americans, his actions after the last election are not considered disqualifying for millions of others. It shows. President Trump refutes opponents’ claims that Biden and Harris pose a grave danger to the Constitution, saying they are the real threat and that their rhetoric is responsible for two assassination attempts on Biden. did. “Maybe I got shot in the head because of what they said about me,” Trump said during a debate with Harris last month. “They talk about democracy. I’m a threat to democracy. They’re a threat to democracy.”
Hear Trump’s reaction after calling Harris a threat to democracy
Mr. Trump’s control over the Republican base also enabled him to intimidate most party leaders into supporting him and joining his efforts to cover up his actions after the last election. He is also once again raising questions about the integrity of the electoral system as early voting begins this year to avoid the possibility of another defeat.
Trump was able to survive the Republican primary by successfully convincing Republicans that he was a victim of political persecution. And the prospect of a new Democratic president is obscuring even the deepest Republican scars from 2020. On Friday, for example, the former president is scheduled to appear with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a battleground state, for a news conference about the hurricanes. Helen. Mr. Trump has spent years smearing Mr. Kemp for not participating in Mr. Kemp’s efforts to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory.
The possibility of Mr. Trump returning to power is particularly ominous for many Americans. That’s because Trump has vowed to “pay back” for a second term and has threatened to jail his political opponents.
But Trump’s strongman instincts are what make him attractive to many Republican voters who are convinced the Biden administration is weaponizing justice against them. There is no evidence to support Trump’s claims, even though some of the prosecutors in some of his criminal and civil cases, including in Georgia and New York, are politicians who have previously criticized the former president. . Still, all of Mr. Trump’s criminal charges have come out of grand juries or full-scale legal proceedings. And when he was convicted in a Manhattan trial stemming from hush-money payments to an adult film actress, he was tried by a jury of his peers like any other citizen.
As well as the federal election lawsuit, the former president faces a similar lawsuit in Georgia under racketeering laws. A Trump-appointed judge has dismissed a separate indictment against Smith over Trump’s handling of classified documents at a Florida club, but the special counsel is appealing her decision. .
In a recent filing in Washington District Court, Smith accused him of trying to overturn legitimate election results in seven states he lost. The former president has maintained his innocence in this and all criminal charges against him and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Legal experts say Jack Smith’s one line in filing sums up case against Trump
In such a toxic political environment, the special counsel, despite being nominally independent, operates under the auspices of the Biden administration’s Attorney General Merrick Garland and is therefore motivated by partisanship. It was inevitable that I would come across claims that it had become . But if Republican senators fail to prosecute the former president, who avoided political responsibility when he refused to convict in his second impeachment trial, they could persuade future presidents to try to ignore the election loss. It would have set a strong precedent.
Mr. Smith will have to convince the jury that Mr. Trump broke the law, but the historical facts are indisputable.
The former president refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, which he lost. His lawsuits alleging fraud, often lacking evidence, have been dismissed by multiple judges and even by the Supreme Court. He drew a crowd to Washington and incited his supporters, who stormed the Capitol and beat up police officers. The former president hailed those who tried to block the certification of electors as heroes and promised to pardon them if he returned to office. His actions not only represented a threat to America’s sacred principle of peaceful transfer of power between presidents. They shattered the confidence of millions of Americans in our legal and electoral systems.
Mr. Biden has made Mr. Trump’s threat to democracy the centerpiece of his now-shelf presidential bid, warning that his predecessor represents an unprecedented threat to the soul of America. But while Ms. Harris warned of the dangers of Mr. Trump, she primarily sought to focus on her proposal for generational change.
Her tactic is a subtle warning that our democracy is at risk, with soaring food prices, housing costs, child care costs and so many other issues occupying voters’ minds. I am aware of this.
In a CNN/SSRS poll conducted in September, about four in 10 potential voters said the economy was the most important issue when choosing a candidate. This was followed by protecting democracy at 21%, immigration at 12% and abortion at 11%. Harris voters were more likely than other voters to choose protecting democracy (37%) as most important than the economy (21%).
So, while the scenes on January 6, 2021 were horrifying, four years later, they are not the main issue.
But if Trump wins, future historians may wonder why a former president who tried to destroy democracy to stay in power was able to use the same system to regain the White House. I don’t know.
New evidence regarding Trump’s alleged reaction to learning of Pence’s danger on January 6th
