By Terry Manning
Thank God for Google.
There was something out there I felt I needed to resurrect for this political moment, and the search engine helped me find it.
I typed and entered “donald trump warns hilary clinton lawsuits” (yes, I misspelled her name), and near the top of the results was my prize, a story from NBC News titled, “Trump Warned of Endless Clinton Investigations. Instead, the Focus Is on Him.”
It was promoted as a summary of the day’s biggest news — June 15, 2017, in this case — from the news team behind Meet the Press. The lead item reacted to news the Mueller Investigation was about to kick into gear. It began:
“Endless investigations. The biggest scandal since Watergate. Coverups. An inability to govern. A possible constitutional crisis. These were all arguments that Donald Trump made against Hillary Clinton in the closing days of the 2016 presidential election.”
In the days Trump made those warnings, a Clinton presidency was pretty much taken for granted, and the GOP candidate was trying to find any way possible to avoid being embarrassed by huge losses in the popular vote and electoral college. So he appealed to voter fatigue.
After two terms of President Bill Clinton and the constant turmoil conservatives stirred up during his presidency (this time was the heyday of Rush Limbaugh and saw the debut of Fox News Channel) and two terms of Barack Obama, who had the nerve to (gasp!) wear a tan suit that one time and to be a Black man all the time, Hillary Clinton was labeled as just another helping of what conservatives already felt they had been forced to choke down.
Even I, a decided non-conservative, had grown weary of the endless, baseless, and fruitless investigations into Benghazi, the IRS’ “targeting” conservative groups, and any other situation the House GOP could leverage into a congressional hearing. And they promised more if Hilary Clinton had been voted into office.
That prospect didn’t change my vote, but it combined with other factors to change enough voters’ minds that Trump prevailed. He spent the next four years rubbing liberals’ noses in it, to the delight of the people who had voted for him.
But when he ran for re-election, he lost. Decisively. Poorly. And a mountain of legal woes he had been able to keep at arm’s length while he was president came barreling down on him.
The Hill website notes Trump currently faces “a total of 91 criminal charges spread among four state and federal criminal indictments. Separately, he is also a party in more than a half-dozen civil lawsuits” adding, “His status as the GOP primary front-runner, as evidenced by an array of national polls, remains unshakeable.”
I’m not surprised a political party that openly defies most tenets upon which the country is founded would continue to stand behind Trump. But after I saw recent polling he was preferred over President Joe Biden 48 to 44 percent by voters in the so-called battleground states of the 2024 elections, I thought to myself, “You gotta be kidding me!”
There’s a sentiment among liberals that whatever Trump accuses others of doing is a confession of what he’s doing himself. The sentiment is broadened to apply to most conservatives, in fact.
You can Google for yourself whose marriages last longest, who actually is pro-life, who gives to charity, who benefits most from the public safety net, which states get the most money from the federal government, and other matters conservatives regularly think they know the truth about but don’t.
Some of this can be subject to how things are interpreted. There’s no interpretation needed here.
Trump painted a clear and likely picture of a presidency besieged by legal entanglements and then declared himself above the rule of law as long as he remained in office. And now he’s trying to get back there and to stay there.
He poses as a martyr, saying he is being targeted “for you,” meaning the people who still turn out to his ever-shrinking rallies and who still would vote for him if given the chance. His legal threats don’t endanger anyone but himself, his businesses, and the people who enable him.
As long as he remains out of office, that is.
Putting him into any position or office where he could threaten anyone else makes you an accomplice. It’s as simple as that.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached atteemanning@gmail.com.
