Tax Day, April 15, marked Day One of Donald Trump’s first criminal trial. The timing, given his long and dubious history as a tax evader, is strangely appropriate.
Incomprehensively, the media insists on labeling this trial as the “hush money” case. It is, however, much more than merely paying off a porn star with whom Trump appears to have had a one-night stand for her silence. Trivializing this trial in this manner is a serious mistake.
What this case really is about is a conspiracy to subvert a presidential election, a frontal assault on democracy that was unprecedented, and an ominous portent of things to come should our national nightmare—a second Trump term—come to pass. In the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, and hard on the heels of the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape wherein Trump bragged about his sexual assaults, he panicked when he realized that further revelations of his squalid behavior could jeopardize his electoral chances. It was time to (1) buy Ms. Daniels/Clifford’s silence, and (2) activate his “catch-and-kill” arrangement with a scandal sheet. The result: Thanks to the distortion of the Electoral College, Trump was elected president despite falling 2.9 million votes behind his opponent.
We will never know if Trump’s dodges and deceptions were the difference in his narrow victory. James Comey, the self-aggrandizing fool of an FBI chief whose abysmal judgment severely damaged Hillary Clinton, and Vladimir Putin, whose massive election interference on Trump’s behalf boosted his candidacy, certainly contributed to his win. It is not unreasonable, however, to conclude that Trump would not have won had the information he suppressed become public.
Thus, it was the 2016 election that was stolen and America has suffered tremendously, first from Trump’s chaotic and corrupt presidency, and then from his toxic post-presidential presence and conduct ever since.
The media needs to get serious and stop belittling this trial. Call it what it is: a case about corrupting the electoral process resulting in grand theft of an election.
Dick Hermann
April 20, 2024
Incomprehensively, the media insists on labeling this trial as the “hush money” case. It is, however, much more than merely paying off a porn star with whom Trump appears to have had a one-night stand for her silence. Trivializing this trial in this manner is a serious mistake.
What this case really is about is a conspiracy to subvert a presidential election, a frontal assault on democracy that was unprecedented, and an ominous portent of things to come should our national nightmare—a second Trump term—come to pass. In the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, and hard on the heels of the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape wherein Trump bragged about his sexual assaults, he panicked when he realized that further revelations of his squalid behavior could jeopardize his electoral chances. It was time to (1) buy Ms. Daniels/Clifford’s silence, and (2) activate his “catch-and-kill” arrangement with a scandal sheet. The result: Thanks to the distortion of the Electoral College, Trump was elected president despite falling 2.9 million votes behind his opponent.
We will never know if Trump’s dodges and deceptions were the difference in his narrow victory. James Comey, the self-aggrandizing fool of an FBI chief whose abysmal judgment severely damaged Hillary Clinton, and Vladimir Putin, whose massive election interference on Trump’s behalf boosted his candidacy, certainly contributed to his win. It is not unreasonable, however, to conclude that Trump would not have won had the information he suppressed become public.
Thus, it was the 2016 election that was stolen and America has suffered tremendously, first from Trump’s chaotic and corrupt presidency, and then from his toxic post-presidential presence and conduct ever since.
The media needs to get serious and stop belittling this trial. Call it what it is: a case about corrupting the electoral process resulting in grand theft of an election.
Dick Hermann
April 20, 2024
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