From mass deportations to the end of abortion as we know it, there are many, many reasons to fear a second term for Donald Trump. Another one that he helpfully reminded people of over the weekend? His plans to imprison his opponents and other perceived enemies for crimes they’ve only committed in his mind.
On Saturday, the GOP nominee for president wrote on Truth Social, “CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
Should people who break the law be held accountable? Yes. Yet the ex-president has an extremely bad track record of accusing people of committing crimes that did not actually occur. Despite regularly making claims of “rampant cheating“ during the 2020 election, there remains no evidence that such cheating took place, and numerous courts, Republican officials, and former members of his administration have said as much. Meanwhile, some of those same people have said that Trump tried his hardest to cheat his way into a second term. In fact, he’s been charged by the Justice Department with doing so, and his most recent comments on the matter were that he had “every right” to interfere in the 2020 election.
Also on Saturday, Trump claimed at a Wisconsin rally that “the Harris-Biden DOJ is trying to throw me in jail—they want me in jail—for the crime of exposing their corruption,” despite the fact that there is no evidence the president or current VP has weighed in on decisions at the DOJ. At the same rally, he pledged, as he has done in the past, to pardon individuals involved in the violent attack on the Capitol following his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. “The moment we win, we will rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner unjustly victimized by the Harris regime,” Trump said in Wisconsin. “And I will sign their pardons on day one.”
In response to Trump’s weekend comments, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign said in a statement, “If he wins this November, Donald…will use his unchecked power to prosecute his enemies and pardon insurrectionists who violently attacked our Capitol on January 6.” Which sounds like a pretty accurate summation of his plans!
Ron DeSantis is very upset that Floridians will actually get a say in their rights