Opinion | In calling out Trump, Harris finds her mission – The Washington Post

Just a couple of weeks ago, Democrats were wringing their hands, worried that the Biden-Harris campaign would not do enough to highlight former president Donald Trumps conviction on 34 felony counts. They need not have worried. Nearly every day, the campaign sends out a flurry of statements, ads and social media postings repeating the catchy phrase convicted felon. President Biden, on the day after Trumps conviction, deplored MAGA attacks on the courts. But the most pointed, and arguably effective, denunciations have come from Vice President Harris.

Perhaps we should have anticipated that the former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general (who took delight in grilling Trumps Supreme Court nominees from her perch on the Senate Judiciary Committee) would lead the onslaught. But the ease with which she twists the knife is still eye-opening.

Harris has been making her case in a variety of settings. A jury of 12 people, peers, over the course of six weeks, deliberated on the evidence and facts and unanimously determined guilt on 34 felony counts, she told Jimmy Kimmel last Tuesday. There was a defense attorney who actively participated in selecting that jury, who actively made decisions about witnesses to call, witnesses to cross-examine. And the jury made their decision and you know, I think that the reality is, cheaters dont like getting caught and being held accountable. Her delivery was brisk, businesslike and brutally candid.

She did not stop there. On Saturday, she told donors at a fundraiser in Detroit, Donald Trump openly tried to overturn the last election, and now he openly attacks the foundations of our justice system. Following his conviction in New York last month, Trump has been claiming the whole trial was rigged. False. After reiterating her cheaters dont like getting caught riff, she continued, Since the verdict, he attacks the judge and the witnesses. He suggests the case could be a, quote, breaking point for his supporters, hinting at violence. ... And he says that he will use a second term for revenge. Then she added a twist: Donald Trump really thinks hes above the law. He really does. And this should be disqualifying for anyone who wants to be president of the United States.

The Supreme Court declined to apply the letter of the law to disqualify Trump under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. But Harris is making the persuasive case that voters should not consider him to be a legitimate candidate. How can a convict who tries to tear down the legal system assume the presidency, which requires an oath to enforce the laws? It boggles the mind.

The Biden-Harris campaign seems to have figured it out: Someone with contempt for the legal system, a mission to tear it down and to employ it without any legal basis against his enemies threatens the core of American democracy. And if there were any doubt about Trumps nefarious schemes, he now routinely threatens to prosecute his opponents. Former Trump attorney Ty Cobb and a fleet of legal scholars and former prosecutors have warned that his rhetoric erodes support for the legal system and risks inciting violence.

And after weeks of Trumps threats and smears, all amplified by MAGA sycophants, even taciturn Attorney General Merrick Garland deplored the escalation of attacks in an op-ed for The Post. They come in the form of conspiracy theories crafted and spread for the purpose of undermining public trust in the judicial process itself. Those include false claims that a case brought by a local district attorney and resolved by a jury verdict in a state trial was somehow controlled by the Justice Department, he said, in obvious reference to Trump and his followers.

Given the ongoing, albeit stalled, federal prosecutions against Trump, Garland was in no position to call out Trump by name or to directly suggest someone threatening and maligning law enforcement has no business in the White House. Thats where Harris comes in.

Biden spent five days in France commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day. In Normandy, he hammered home the need to defend democracy in our lifetime. Its no mystery who is threatening our democracy. Biden extols the virtues of democracy, freedom, the rule of law and decency with the obvious implication that Trump has none of these. But the campaign needs Harris to challenge Trump and MAGA followers attacks on the rule of law and make the case that these attacks in and of themselves should be disqualifying. So far, she is delivering.

Harris in the weeks and months ahead will have plenty of material as Trump threatens vengeance. She cannot be explicit enough: This is what dictators do. If you dont follow Dear Leader, you, too, will feel his wrath. That message might even be potent enough to force the media to contextualize Trump in the long line of authoritarians who twist the justice system for political ends.

And if she is really effective, she might just rouse the I dont like his Gaza policy set threatening to stay home after all, the latter are just the sort of people Trump would persecute. In fact, he has already promised to deport them. It might be worth their while to vote for the only candidate who can stop him.

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Opinion | In calling out Trump, Harris finds her mission - The Washington Post