Protect country before party
Donald Trump boasts an army of official lawyers and a larger army of unofficial lawyers, the latter consisting of politicians who work tirelessly to defend the former president.
Whether official or unofficial, the defenders have a formidable challenge. Trump faces 91 criminal charges in four separate state and federal cases. Some of the trials may collide against the primaries in his bid to regain the presidency he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Despite allegations that include attempts to disenfranchise voters and defraud the United States, Trump maintains a viselike grip on the GOP nomination. The race for the nod is more lovefest than slugfest.
One of his opponents, the biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, has gone so far as to challenge his rivals to pardon the former president if they reach the White House.
“Let’s just speak the truth, OK?” Ramaswamy said during the first Republican debate in August. “President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century.”
There are no vaccinations against political corruption, and Democrats are facing their own scandal. But there is a stark difference in the responses between the two parties.
Democrats, reacting with candor and integrity, are refusing to defend the indefensible.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., has been charged with accepting $550,000 in bribes, including two bars of gold bullion — the second time in a decade he has faced such allegations. He accepted the money, according to the indictment, in exchange for wielding his influence to benefit Egyptian government officials and New Jersey business associates. The charges depict a vast criminal network headed by the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez.
Menendez said the prosecutors framed the charges “to be as salacious as possible.”
Whatever the motivation, the allegations are shockingly lurid. The senator is accused of keeping the cash at home, much of it stuffed into clothing, envelopes and closets, as if they were everyday items to be retrieved at his leisure.
“Remember, prosecutors get it wrong sometimes,” he said, referring to a similar case in 2017, when charges were dropped after a jury was unable to reach a verdict. “Sadly, I know that.”
Menendez stepped down as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, but it was not a gracious or courageous move, fueled by a desire to do the right thing. The move was required by rules Senate Democrats adopted to govern themselves.
Menendez said he will not resign from the Senate, a statement that has rankled most of his colleagues. They want him gone. The charges are too serious, the stakes too high, to let the scandal taint — and, worse, impede — the valuable work Democrats should be undertaking. “The details of the allegations against Senator Menendez are of such a nature that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans, as well as those he must work with in order to be effective, have been shaken to the core,” said Cory Booker, the junior senator from New Jersey. “I believe stepping down is best for those Senator Menendez has spent his life serving.”
Booker is part of a growing chorus, each new voice demanding what should be obvious — the resignation of a man whose continued service is untenable. Democrats understand one of the first tenets of politics. The tentacles of corruption are far-reaching, grabbing those who remain passive in their midst.
The distinction between the two parties is jarring and instructive, for the Republicans are teaching Americans a harsh lesson. Trump is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but the mountain of evidence against him is disturbing. To condone corruption, as many Republicans are doing, is to serve as co-conspirators in its execution.
The Republicans are doing that and more. They are not only condoning ethically questionable behavior, they are also defending it with full-throated enthusiasm, thus putting party above country.
“The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society,” Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, said.
The real threat are those elected officials whose attitudes and actions lay the groundwork for future misbehavior.
Dems want Menendez out; Republicans want Trump back