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No other president in history has been indicted, but fortunately Republicans who have run for president again have been indicted four times.
Donald Trump has taken it a step further and has managed to do so in various states, with 91 felonies filed against him. Mr. Trump faces his first trial Monday in one of those cases, the now-infamous hush-money scandal.
This is not the most compelling of the four cases, and in fact, none of them are likely to result in significant drama, but it is probably the only one to occur before the election.
As this progresses, the question arises from Republicans shouldn’t wonder, “Is this all there is?”question for We should ask, “What will it take to convince conservatives that Trump is unfit to be president?”
Trump’s Stormy Daniels trial should make conservatives change their minds about our candidates
As it stands, Trump is accused of falsifying business records regarding compensation to Stormy Daniels. Daniels is a former porn star and claims the two had a sexual relationship. Prosecutors claim President Trump bought Daniels’ silence to avoid scandal during the 2016 campaign.
Prosecutors say Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 and that Trump repaid him over time in installments that he described as corporate legal fees.
In New York, falsifying business records is only a misdemeanor, but it appears it can be a felony if the records are falsified to cover up another potential crime.
On the other hand, Mr. Cohen has betrayed Mr. Trump and will undoubtedly testify against him. Prosecutors are also likely to try to show a pattern of hush-money payments, which would be unpalatable to President Trump.
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On the other hand, linking falsification of business records to another crime and making it a felony is a difficult legal maneuver. If convicted, Trump could theoretically be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, but it is unlikely that Trump will serve any prison time.
As a former Trump fan turned former Trump fan, I’ll admit that it’s tempting to think that this case isn’t germane, or that it doesn’t seem that big of a deal given the scale of the crime. Giving hush money to porn stars? Tampering with rewards? I spent 10 years in the Washington, DC area and there’s a lot worse going on.
Some conservatives are starting to think this way about Trump. That has to change.
Why are Republicans lowering their moral standards in the White House?
In fact, many may argue that, like the 91 felonies, this trial and the other three criminal cases against Trump are all fraudulent. All of this is part of a national conspiracy theory among judges to keep Trump from looking tough as he runs for president. (This theory is not plausible. How can all the judges be involved in this theory? And what is its purpose?)
That’s how bad things have gotten within the Republican Party. We’ve negotiated so hard and lowered our standards so much that accusations of hush money and falsifying compensation to porn stars will seem tame by comparison – what exactly? Tax fraud? State and federal election interference? Did they steal confidential documents and show them to people without such authorization?
This raises two important questions that Republicans must answer. Where on earth is the bar? What exactly convinces us that he is unfit to represent us and unfit for public office?
Let’s take a look back at who Trump is. Is this what we want from our party?
Forgive me for being blunt, but this is my reward. Trump is a narcissistic whining, arrogant but thin-skinned old clown who has fooled over 70 million Americans into thinking he is a better alternative to the Democratic Party. He is undoubtedly a major feat of political charisma and Republican strategy.
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He’s a fraud, but he’s not a psychopath. He is accused of committing the kinds of crimes you would expect from a high-level manipulative fraudster. These are crimes that such men commit because they have no respect for authority, the law, and women. These aren’t the worst acts someone could commit, but it’s not great for a Republican president to be legally censured. And this is just the beginning.
This is why people look at Mr. Trump’s hush money trial and say, “What?” That’s wrong to say. There shall be no trials, no criminal proceedings, no indictments. Jeez. In fact, that doesn’t seem like much to ask. The real truth is that none of these are worthy candidates and do not represent conservatives.
Conservatives, you could have done better.
Republicans spent years searching for a better man or woman to represent them. They came up with some ideas and they weren’t bad, apart from entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
They could have brought Ron DeSantis into the picture. Then we’ll just be talking about the Governor’s goofy shoes and how he’s awkward and makes people feel a little weird. On the other hand, Florida’s education is great, the economy is strong, and he deals with disasters and Disney the same way conservatives do. But we can’t do that now because so many people called for Trump and his 91 felonies.
Nikki Haley might have been there. And yes, we talk about why she’s called Nikki and not Nimrata, or how annoying it is that she’s a Boeing executive. On the other hand, she has experience as a conservative governor and the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, and is calm, sharp, and committed to conservative principles. Additionally, she would defeat President Joe Biden in a debate, and she would defeat President Trump as well.
But no, the Republicans can’t have it now – they can’t do any good – because they wanted Trump, even if he filed four criminal cases. They wanted to debate whether hush money and bogus business payments to porn stars were a hill of death, but they never stopped to ask themselves why they lowered their standards that much in the first place.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four children.
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