Trump has a taste for blood
Every scene in “Lawrence of Arabia” is perfect, but there’s one I find especially haunting.
Peter O’toole’s Lawrence returns to Cairo after successfully leading the Arabs in battle against the Ottoman Empire and tells a military superior that he does not want to go back. Slumping in his Bedouin robes, looking pained, he recalls that he executed an Arab with his pistol.
There was something about it he didn’t like, he says.
The irritated general tries to brush it off, assuming the erudite Lawrence is upset at killing a man.
“No, something else,” Lawrence explains. “I enjoyed it.”
The first time I realized that Donald Trump took pleasure in violence was back in March 2016. I asked him about the brutish rhetoric and violence at his rallies and the way he goaded supporters to hate on journalists and rough up protesters.
I told Trump that I had not seen this side of him before and that he was going down a very dark path. With his denigrating mockery of rivals and critics, he had already taken politics to a vulgar place, and now it was getting more dangerous.
Shouldn’t parents be able to bring children to rallies without worrying about obscenities, sucker punches, brawls and bullying, I wondered?
He brushed off the questions and blithely assessed the savage mood at his rallies: “Frankly, it adds a little excitement.”
A couple of weeks later, I pressed him again on his belligerence and divisiveness, and, with utter candor, he explained why he was turning up the heat.
“I guess because of the fact that I immediately went to No. 1 and I said, why don’t I just keep the same thing going?” he said. “I’ve come this far in life. I’ve had great success. I’ve done it my way.” He added, “You know, there are a lot of people who say, ‘Don’t change.’”
Dear reader, he didn’t change.
And everything bloodcurdling that happened Jan. 6 at the Capitol flowed from his bloodthirsty behavior. He had always been cruel and selfish, blowing things up and reveling in the chaos. During his campaign he realized he had a nasty mob at his disposal. He had moved into a world that let him exercise his malice in an extraordinary way, and he loved it.
He was thrilled he could unleash his mob on the Capitol and its guardians, with rioters smearing blood and feces and yelling Trump’s words and going after his targets — Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence.
It was Manson family-chilling to watch the House impeachment managers’ video with a rioter hunting for the House speaker, calling out: “Where are you, Nancy? We’re looking for you, Na-a-ncy. Oh, Na-a-ncy.”
Others were chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” even as a gallows, complete with noose, was erected on the lawn. Pelosi and Pence could have been killed and the melee could have turned into a far worse bloodbath.
Trump’s whole defense in the impeachment trial was like a low-budget movie trailer, cornier than the new Louise Linton flick. It was just another Trump flimflam reality TV show, meant to prove how he was wronged, not how he wronged the country.
CNN reported Friday night that House Republican leader Kevin Mccarthy called Trump during the riot, telling him the mob was breaking his windows to get in. The then-president told him: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” The conversation ended in a shouting match. Yet Mccarthy still voted against impeachment.
Mitch Mcconnell and the other craven Republicans realize that they should not have played along with Trump, while he undermined the election. But they still refuse to hold him accountable.
The Democrats put on an excellent case, and they were right to impeach Trump. But if the Republicans won’t convict him, then bring on the criminal charges. Republicans say that’s how it should be done when someone is out of office, so let’s hope someone follows through on their suggestion.
A few days ago, prosecutors in Georgia opened an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the election there. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance could drag Trump into court on tax and fraud charges. Karl Racine, the attorney general for D.C., has said that Trump could be charged for his role in inciting the riot.
Maybe a man who gloated as his crowds screamed “Lock her up!” will find that jurors reach a similar conclusion about him.