It’s been in the headlines for weeks. The Manhattan District Attorney has charged former President Donald Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records involving hush money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. The anticipation of this indictment has been killing Democrats. But, like the two impeachment scandals, many Democrats are failing to grasp the full effects of the upcoming trial.
According to The Washington Post, if convicted of the felony, Trump faces up to four years in prison for each count, but there is no mandatory prison sentence. Many Democrats concur that the best possible outcome would be prison time. But similar to the impeachment trial in December 2019, Democrats eagerness to dethrone Trump unintentionally advances his rhetoric.
With the 2024 election closing in, the Department of Justice is keen on uncovering Trump’s lies, just as we saw in 2020. But to what extent? If Trump were to face jail time—unlikely given he is a first-time, nonviolent offender—it would not prevent him from running again in 2024. Unprecedented? Yes. But so are two impeachment trials in a one-term presidency.
FiveThirtyEight surveys that Biden’s approval rating is just barely reaching 42 percent, and his disapproval rating is 53 percent. Democrats must start to think about a 2024 candidate capable of disarming the mob that Trump is forming. His post on Truth Social (his new makeshift social media platform), read: “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” According to The New York Times, the post drew 400,000 views that day. The indictment wouldn’t come for more than a week, but experts couldn’t help but relate the horrors of his language to those on Twitter during the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
After Trump famously appeared in court on April 4, 2023, and the leaked photo of him at the defense table infamously spread the web, there is no telling what further violence is to come from this trial. Trump, as we know, has the capabilities to incite mobs against the very foundation of our country. During his speech after his court arraignment, Trump appeared at a press conference in which he spewed his same election and witch hunt lies, broadcasted live on CNN and Fox News. But Rachel Maddow of MSNBC chose differently. According to MSNBC, she said, “We don’t consider that necessarily newsworthy, and there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things.”
She is right. We shouldn’t be giving Trump the spotlight that we are. It’s hard given this thrillingly unprecedented nature, but we are feeding into the exact fuel that is feeding his campaign. I’m not arguing that Trump is above the law—quite the opposite. Rather, I’m arguing that the more Democrats push for Trump to be held accountable for his actions, and the more we broadcast his never-ending election lies, the more his platform will grow.
A columnist at USA Today has an alternative solution for Democrats: Like Nixon, a pardon is right for Trump. Not only because if he were found guilty, there would be an endless cycle of appeals—and it doesn’t matter what outcome is reached. USA Today Columnist EJ Montini correctly writes, “Should any of the cases against Trump proceed to trial, where a verdict is reached, not a single person’s opinion about this will change.” Trump is only benefitting from the spotlight, no matter the results.