Sunday, August 20, 2023

Rep Tom Emmer in the past, the very distant and nearly irrelevant past, was cited for DUI. He did the crime. He faced the consequences. Now he knows Trump did the crime, but claims obscurely that Trump is above facing consequences. It's politics, and not legitimate "weaponization" woofing to say Trump should not be prosecuted. To say, "HANDS OFF, IT'S DONALD TRUMP." It is, but so what?

Coolican at MinnReformer editorializes in tune with the Crabgrass headline: 

U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, who represents the 6th District and has risen quickly in Congress to become the Republican majority whip, is all-in with the coup plotters. 

In the hours after former President Donald Trump was again indicted — this time charged by a grand jury for conspiring to overturn the Georgia election he lost — Emmer charged:

The Democrats’ weaponization of our justice system continues — this time with a left-wing district attorney who is using the latest indictment against President Trump to boost her own political career. The American people aren’t falling for it. 

What we’re not falling for is that Emmer actually believes any of this. 

He voted to certify the election results on Jan. 6, which is an acknowledgment that President Joe Biden won the election. 

Having accepted Biden as the winner, Emmer must somehow pretend that Trump made no effort to illegally overturn the results, even though Trump has been talking about it for years. 

No doubt Emmer heard the relevant bits of the phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, in which Trump sought to “find” the votes necessary to win Georgia and made vague threats of criminal liability should Raffensperger not accede to his demands.

Coolican continues from that start, and the MinnReformer link is given at the start of this post. Readers can follow the link for the entire posting.

The essence is in the opening, as quoted, Emmer knows but is blowing smoke because Trump is the heart of the white supremacist faction of the GOP base, and Emmer wants to keep his job. To do that he needs white supremacist CD6 votes.

It is simple, but ugly politics. Trump tried to "weaponize" weak and dumb ways to avoid the fact Biden won. He did so in a criminal way. Emmer, in total good faith, should admit exactly that - the charges in each jurisdiction in which Trump is being charged are statements of elements of crimes charged, and Trump's fate will be in the hands of jurors in each such venue. But the prosecutors are not "weaponizing" anything. THEY ARE DOING THEIR JOB.

What is insane, House Republicans are bleating in chorus that a prosecutor, Weiss, did not do his job against Hunter Biden, while whining at the same time about prosecutors who are doing their job. 

Politics and logical thought often diverge.

And, yes, Weiss perhaps should have been more aggressive in vetting Hunter Biden's conduct and what to charge of it as criminal. 

That is no justification to attack those who are attempting to hold Donald John Trump liable for his crimes. Those doing the job.

Emmer knows all that. And does not mind the disconnect between what he knows and what he's said. He's been in politics, so long, that it is too long.