6 reactions to the Trump Jan. 6 indictment: 'Political persecution' or 'important reminder'?

These may be the most serious charges yet, as many are saying… I don’t know. But they’re harder to prove, so probably the least likely to get a conviction.

I don’t want to say the legal action is a distraction. Law matters. A lot. And, no, inconsistency doesn’t make law worthless. Just imperfect.

But law is usually downstream of morality/ethics. So, maybe Trump is guilty of violating these laws. Maybe he isn’t. What’s obvious is the ethical violations. We have no court of law for those. Only the ballot box. It’ll have to do.

Edit to add: Al Mohler’s take

The Dispatch has an interesting analysis

Even if convicted, Trump's supporters would still vote for him. I don't understand why rational republicans (are there any left?) choose to stick with the guy. There are a lot of good republican candidates from which to choose.

This indictment claims that Trump was lying about the election.

It’s tough to be impartial about the 2020 election.

Most republicans believe that election was not a fair election. Most democrats believe it was fair.

(Back in 2016 there were shifts in confidence pre- and post- election. After Trump won, Democrats became much less likely to express confidence in the election, while Republicans became much more likely to express confidence in a fair election.)

People simply aren't impartial.

A lot of you are so content with our elections. I'm not an election denier - but I'm an election doubter. I'm not alone. This summer only 22% of Republicans had "a great deal/quite a bit" of confidence that the upcoming election will be fair.

And I think it's telling that there is zero interest on the liberal side to do anything to secure our elections.

Trying to lay aside whether you want Trump to be president or not:

Does ANYONE honestly think Trump did not believe the election was stolen? He being tried for "lying."

---> 78% of one party believes there's a good chance the next election will not be fair. How should our government respond to that?

1. Put measures in place to make the system more observed and accountable.

2. Tell anyone who says elections are rigged that THEY MUST SHUT UP!

I'm not crazy about Trump. I won't vote for him "no matter what."

But when the liberal "justice system" wants to try him for speaking what he believes because they don't agree with it, it adds to whatever appeal Trump has, IMO.

Thank you Dan. I find it interesting that Trump is being accused of being unethical for "lying" that the election was stolen from him. There is no way to prove that Trump knew the election was not stolen from him. It is unethical to suggest otherwise. I too too am not a Trump fan, but we were told within 48 hours of the 2020 election that the FBI had looked into it and there was no election fraud. How could have they looked into all of this within 48 hours and been so dogmatic about it when there was so much evidence? I agree that some of the accusations sounded kooky and likely were, but there were others that warranted further investigation. It is suspicious that we were not allowed to question anything at all or we would be called names.

This goes contrary to the right of redress of grievances and freedom of speech.

Then we must remember that the FBI also hid the Hunter Biden story, went after pro-life protesters, and parents who exercised their free speech at school board meetings. Yet we are supposed to always trust the FBI- so Trump and others are supposed to just believe whatever the FBI tells them? Add to that the justice department recently tried to make a deal with Hunter Biden's lawyers to allow him to plead to some minor charges in exchange for giving him immunity for ALL past crimes he had ever committed. Thankfully the judge knew that was not right and stopped the deal. When our "justice" department is doing such injustice, we have to be suspicious. You do not have to be a conspiracy theorist to be skeptical.

Sadly it has become fashionable amongst some on SI to throw out the accusation of "conspiracy theory." Often that accusation is simply thrown out when facts are presented that are inconvenient to their preconceived opinion. That too is unethical.

There is no way to prove that Trump knew the election was not stolen from him. It is unethical to suggest otherwise.

I don't think that proving something like this is impossible. Suppose Trump had written some notes on a document which said, "Biden just won the election, but I refuse to accept that. If I can just convince people the election was stolen, then I can stay in office." I'm not saying such a note exists, but if it did, that would constitute proof, wouldn't it? Without such a specific note, one would then have to look at the conversations that Trump had with the people around him. If he had expressed the exact same sentiment in a conversation, wouldn't that constitute proof? People's perception of any such conversation, if it existed, could then be challenged, but if enough people were to have witnessed this mindset, then it wouldn't be unethical to suggest that Trump actually knew but just didn't want to accept it.

How could have they looked into all of this within 48 hours and been so dogmatic about it when there was so much evidence?

What evidence? Trump's team had plenty of time after that 48 hours to find evidence and bring it to court, but I don't recall any such evidence being found.

Thank you Dan. I find it interesting that Trump is being accused of being unethical for "lying" that the election was stolen from him.

Have you read the indictments against Trump?

Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

That's more than just "being unethical for 'lying.'"

The fact that people think this situation is just about lying or that his 37-count indictment regarding classified documents is just about lying is telling.

What all these indictments (and more to come!) tell me about Trump is that he should be nowhere near the oval office. Yet, republicans (and Christians!) continue to support him.

In the words of the famous Sicilian, "Inconceivable!"