Political hypocrisy should come with a political price

By David W. Marshall
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

When serving as then-President Donald Trump’s attorney in 2018, Rudy Giuliani was a guest on the Sunday morning show “Meet the Press.” During the interview with host Chuck Todd, Giuliani gave what appeared to have been a contradictory and confusing comment that explains how supporters of the former president view the subject of truth. Giuliani said that “truth isn’t truth” when explaining that he would not allow special counsel Robert Mueller to rush Trump into testifying because he doesn’t want investigators to trap the president in a lie. Meaning Giuliani recognizes a Trump lie when he hears one. The same can be said about former Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Unlike lying to MAGA supporters, having Trump lie to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators carried legal consequences that the Trump team sought to avoid.

On the one hand, where Giuliani brought confusion regarding truth, former FBI Director James Comey brought clarity when he responded via Twitter: “Truth exists and truth matters. Truth has always been the touchstone of our country’s justice system and political life. People who lie are held accountable. If we are untethered to truth, our justice system cannot function and a society based on the rule of law dissolves,” Comey tweeted. Justice, as we know, must be based on the truth of what happened. The competing viewpoints illustrate how basic truth is under attack within our political and judicial systems. The one-sided culture war has distorted the truth. Elected lawmakers and appointed judges who place power, position, and prestige over the U.S. Constitution have blurred the truth.

“Truth isn’t truth” is why some believe the pandemic was a hoax. “Truth isn’t truth” is why people believe critical race theory (CRT) is taught in K-12 schools and needs to be banned. “Truth isn’t truth” is why questions of ethics and conflicts of interest over Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are characterized as a witch hunt. Republican Congressman George Santos, indicted by a federal grand jury on 13 charges ranging from wire fraud and money laundering, also played the witch hunt victim card. Distorting the truth by playing the victim allows current and future lies, misinformation, corruption, and injustice to thrive within sympathetic echo chambers. Playing the victim in Santos’ case becomes a form of manipulating and misleading others by highlighting how much you are harassed and wrongly treated.

Yet, you leave out your own corruption that led to the scrutiny in the first place. Donald Trump has become the ultimate “victim.” In Trump, we have a former president twice impeached, found liable for sexual abuse, his company found guilty of tax evasion, and now he faces a 37-count federal indictment for retention of classified documents and conspiracy with a top aide to hide them from the government and his attorneys. “The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized department of injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” said Trump in his remarks to supporters in Georgia. Ironically, the criminal charges remind us that protecting classified material was part of Trump’s political platform in his 2016 presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton. The hypocrisy is simply part of the overall corruption of a man who knows how to manipulate the emotions of his MAGA followers. Political hypocrisy should ultimately come with a political price of personal accountability. Therefore, if there is a willingness to avoid lying to a special counsel, there should be a willingness to avoid lying to the American people. Consequences should be paid in both cases. Trump has already vowed to stay in the race even if convicted. As a nation, we shouldn’t be put in that situation. Even Richard Nixon had enough decency left within himself to resign, go away, and spare the country further pain.

We don’t know how a federal indictment of a former president running for re-election will impact the upcoming presidential election. This is new territory for our nation. Despite how one political party has gone to great lengths to deliberately set the stage where confusion over the clarity of the truth is the ultimate goal, no one could have predicted a former president being this corrupt, resulting in being charged with what amounts to treason. And yes, he is innocent until proven guilty. Now it leaves us to question if Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge assigned to preside over the case, will maintain allegiance to the man who placed her on the bench or allegiance to her duties to administer blind justice. Trial judges have a tremendous amount of power. They can impact the timing of cases, rule on motions to dismiss counts and decide what evidence is admitted or excluded. Can the American people trust Cannon’s objectivity, or is she a “Truth isn’t truth” appointee? Cannon has previously made controversial rulings in Trump’s favor during the investigation into his possession of classified government documents. You must admit Mitch McConnell knew what he was doing when he made packing the courts and confirming conservative judges a primary focus.

This article originally published in the June 19, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.