John Krull
Something about Donald Trump warps perceptions.
His perverse gift is that he always is able to make everything about him.
Not about the country.
Not about the law.
And not about what’s right.
This power of his to distort affects both those who love him and those who despise him. In their haste to display either their ardor for or their anger toward the man, they often forget or forsake principles they claim to hold sacred.
Consider the former president’s supporters who are outraged that he has been charged with 91 criminal offenses and has been subject to two hefty judgments in civil suits.
They argue that Trump did nothing wrong — that the former president’s legal troubles amount to nothing more than political persecution and “election interference.”
Really?
So, that means that if someone else — say, Joe Biden — did what Donald Trump has been accused of doing, they wouldn’t be concerned?
Then, should Trump win the fall balloting, they would be OK with Biden summoning a mob of supporters to Washington, D.C., to storm the Capitol and prevent certification of the election results?
They would think, if Biden called elected officials in battleground states and asked them to “find” thousands of votes for him, that is perfectly acceptable?
And again, if Biden doesn’t win in November, Trump’s defenders would be fine with having Vice President Kamala Harris unilaterally decide to reject the election results, elevating her judgment and her interests above those of the voters?
Similarly, if Joe Biden left the White House with classified national security documents, refused to return them when he wasn’t lying about having them and compromised the safety of armed forces personnel in the process, they would say that’s just hunky-dory?
Or, if credible evidence became known that Biden had paid for someone to stay silent about one of his transgressions—or one of Hunter Biden’s transgressions — they would be willing to look the other way?
In the civil cases, they would think it was all right if they were denied a loan to finance a home purchase, send a child to school or launch a business because the banks opted to direct the money instead to a guy who lied about both his assets and his debt load?
Are they OK with lying about money?
Or are they OK with lying in general?
But it isn’t just Trump supporters who find their belief structures disintegrating when it comes to the former president’s legal battles.
I’ve lost track of the number of otherwise balanced acquaintances who lose all sense of equilibrium when they start talking about the procedural maneuverings, arguments and tactics Trump has used to delay his days of reckoning in court.
They just can’t wait to see the hammer fall on him.
That’s part of the problem.
They start with a presupposition that the former president is guilty or liable and can’t understand why their assumptions aren’t being validated.
But that’s not the way our system works.
We presume innocence — and we always place the burden of proof on the state or the plaintiff. From there, we do our best not to rush to judgment.
Our system operates this way because we understand that the power of government is immense, so we want to give those facing that power every opportunity to defend themselves. We always have valued protecting the rights of the wrongly accused so highly that we have been willing to see some guilty people escape accountability so that fewer innocent people will be unjustly punished.
That is why we have so many opportunities for appeal.
So many chances to avoid making tragic mistakes.
Yes, I know it is maddening to see a man take refuge behind the very bastions of law and liberty he so often has mocked and attacked.
But those bastions don’t exist just to protect the virtuous — or, more accurately, those we like or with whom we agree.
No, they exist to defend everyone.
Even hypocrites such as Donald Trump who would deny to others the legal protections upon which he now relies so heavily.
That’s why it’s a mistake to make this all about him.
Yes, he does represent a genuine threat to our norms and institutions of self-government, such as the rule of law.
But those norms and institutions are much, much more important than he is.
Upholding them is where our focus should be.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students, where this commentary originally appeared. The opinions expressed by the author do not reflect the views of Franklin College. Send comments to [email protected].
