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The Restatement of the Obvious
Apr. 25th, 2024 09:25 amComes news today that Arizona has indicted 18 people for fraudulently attempting to install Donald Trump as President in 2020. Many of the Usual Suspects are saying "free speech" and "what about this election?" As George Orwell said, "“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men."
First, nobody is being indicted for speech alone. They are being indicted for actions. One can claim your neighbor stole something from you all day and that's not a crime. But if you break into their house to retrieve your stuff, even if they in fact took your stuff, you have committed a crime. When all court cases are done, the election is over, period. Trump's attempt to dispute the election became illegal when he started enlisting "alternate" electors and these "alternate" electors cast ballots.
But what about Hawaii in 1960, you may ask? The answer is simple - there was a court and state-sanctioned recount going on when the electors had to vote. There were no court or state-sanctioned recounts going on when any of Trump's electors voted.
Lastly, regarding Trump's theory that Vice President Pence had the authority to toss out ballots. By that theory, Al Gore (sitting Vice President in 2000) had the authority to toss out Florida and Joe Biden (VP in 2016) would have had the authority to toss out ballots. This obviously did not happen so any argument that the Democrats didn't accept an election is a lie.
The only legitimate argument, which will be decided in court, is Trump's personal level of involvement in all of this. I will point out that many a crook is sitting in prison because they asked an underling to "take care of" something. Trump sought out the lawyers involved in his election fraud because he was looking for people who would tell him what he wanted to hear.
Having restated the obvious, I will now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.
First, nobody is being indicted for speech alone. They are being indicted for actions. One can claim your neighbor stole something from you all day and that's not a crime. But if you break into their house to retrieve your stuff, even if they in fact took your stuff, you have committed a crime. When all court cases are done, the election is over, period. Trump's attempt to dispute the election became illegal when he started enlisting "alternate" electors and these "alternate" electors cast ballots.
But what about Hawaii in 1960, you may ask? The answer is simple - there was a court and state-sanctioned recount going on when the electors had to vote. There were no court or state-sanctioned recounts going on when any of Trump's electors voted.
Lastly, regarding Trump's theory that Vice President Pence had the authority to toss out ballots. By that theory, Al Gore (sitting Vice President in 2000) had the authority to toss out Florida and Joe Biden (VP in 2016) would have had the authority to toss out ballots. This obviously did not happen so any argument that the Democrats didn't accept an election is a lie.
The only legitimate argument, which will be decided in court, is Trump's personal level of involvement in all of this. I will point out that many a crook is sitting in prison because they asked an underling to "take care of" something. Trump sought out the lawyers involved in his election fraud because he was looking for people who would tell him what he wanted to hear.
Having restated the obvious, I will now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.
