In the run-up to the 2020 election, I wrote that during the news, amid all the hysteria, all the crazy, a sense of calm came over me.
Sure, no one can truly predict a presidential election. But remember, I said,
Trump lies about everything. Not just some things. Everything. So we have to get good an pawing through the junk (think: garage sale) to see what's there. Remember that what Trump says is not a fait accompli. He creates verbal chaos to distract us from facts. He is not well-liked except by a minority. He can't persuade the rest of us. … Those of you who know me know I am a natural optimist so you might have expected this from me. But I am also the pissed off old lady in Lowe's and I'm not afraid of the folks in the MAGA hats.
So I was calm. And on the night we watched until we were comfortable, and a few days later we knew Biden had won, without doubt.
I was also at peace with how the press and the legal establishment was chipping away at Trump. Things continued to be revealed. We knew elections had been interfered with. It's astonishing the amount of information that has come out; the country's gotten a good look at what New Yorkers have known all along—that Trump's nothing but a mob boss. A criminal. A cheater, a liar.
Now it's three years later and I am no longer calm. Trump is running for president again. After all that has been revealed, he is still beloved by MAGAs, and that keeps a lot of Republican members of Congress "in his camp," even if they don't approve of him. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports:
Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.
In private, Trump has told advisers and friends in recent months that he wants the Justice Department to investigate onetime officials and allies who have become critical of his time in office, including his former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and former attorney general William P. Barr, as well as his ex-attorney Ty Cobb and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, according to people who have talked to him, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Trump has also talked of prosecuting officials at the FBI and Justice Department, a person familiar with the matter said.
In public, Trump has vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to "go after" President Biden and his family. The former president has frequently made corruption accusations against them that are not supported by available evidence.
So, no, I'm not calm. This is not the country I grew up in. Nor is it the country I want my son and his wife and their daughter to live in. It is not the country I want any of you to have to live in.
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