Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) spoke during an interview on MSNBC ahead of Trump’s possible arrest or criminal charges about the ignorance underlying the bulk of Republican complaints, including from the ex-president himself, about the situation.
Predictably, prominent Republicans from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) are already running with assertions of political motivation underlying the unfolding action against Trump, which Crow noted was just ridiculous. He outlined to host Alex Witt how it’s not even the individual prosecutor, who in this case is Alvin Bragg, who gets to make the final decision about issuing an indictment against the ex-president. That responsibility falls to the grand jury that’s been hearing evidence, including from Michael Cohen, Kellyanne Conway, and others. More generally, it’s just not the American way, as much as such a thing could be said, for political figures to enjoy blanket immunity from the possibility of serious consequences for their possibly criminal actions, Speech and Debate Clause notwithstanding.
“We don’t have kings and queens or royalty in America,” Crow observed. “We just have Americans. And every American, regardless of position or title, is subject to the law and accountable to the law. But every American also has equal protection and due process too, including former President Trump. So he has to be treated equally and have that due process, and we’ll see what happens… Politicians don’t indict people. That’s not how our system works. What happens is grand juries indict people, and a grand jury is just like any other jury, actually.”
Wouldn’t it be more concerning for the stability of democracy if a candidate for federal office could just… avoid even the possibility of charges, even if they committed a provable crime? Crime is crime. You can’t just question the relevance or importance of bringing a charge as though there’s some secret clause of the Constitution that lets you pick what portions you like.
Describing later in the interview what conservative leaders could be saying as Trump’s indictment possibly approaches, Crow added on the program: “‘Enough is enough. Nobody has seen this indictment. Nobody knows whether there’s going to be an indictment, and if there is, what’s even in it. So any allegations of politics here are premature and are political in and of themselves.'” And yet, that’s not what McCarthy and the rest are saying. Kevin instead already spoke of having House Republicans investigate the role of any federal funds in circumstances of the case against Trump, as though the mere fact of basic coordination between agencies means there was some kind of conspiracy.
Check out Crow’s interview below:
