Recently Donald Trump sat down with “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker for his first interview since the election. When his appointments to Cabinet positions came up, he said that he would not directly tell his top officials to seek payback from his political opponents. However, he finished his statement by referring to members of the Jan. 6 Committee saying, “Honestly, they should go to jail.”
As Trump goes about showing disdain for his Democrat rivals, he has been making public statements that indicate he wants to use the Justice Department to go after them. Much like during his campaign, he talks about retribution as a major item on his agenda.
Actually, Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election by inciting an angry mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol. They assaulted police officers, stormed the building and interrupted the official certification of the electoral votes. That is called sedition. Meanwhile, he watched the melee on TV and refused to tell them to leave for 186 minutes.
He is clearly showing his penchant for projecting his undesirable traits on those who oppose him. The committee was exercising its constitutional power of oversight of the executive branch. The investigation showed his actions to be a breach of the rule of law and an unconstitutional abuse of power.
We have three co-equal branches of government. The executive branch can’t go after the legislative branch because the president was called out on his Big Lie. The committee was doing its job and they did it well. Then there is the third branch — judicial — at the top of which is the Supreme Court, which has bestowed immunity from prosecution of POTUS for crimes he may commit while in office.
With the political polarization in the legislative branch, it will be up to the courts to maintain the rule of law. I can foresee much litigation ahead over conflicts of interest, vindictive prosecutions and abuse of power and it is SCOTUS which has the last word.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Don Hiddleson, Millcreek
