Republicans reaction to indictment shows Trump was right about them all along | Opinion

The most offensive thing a politician has ever said about his supporters remains the most accurate statement ever uttered by Donald Trump: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”

It means Trump believes the people who support him are unethical in the extreme.

It means Trump believes most Republicans are immoral or amoral at best, people who only care about the power they can attain or retain.

There’s just no getting around that conclusion. Every time he gets indicted, it becomes truer. And he’s only two indictments in, with more indictments for other alleged crimes, such as interfering in the 2020 election in Georgia, likely to come.

His supporters prove him correct every time he might be held accountable for a lifetime of lies and rules, norms and alleged law breaking. It’s happened again, this time after Trump was recently indicted for his handling of classified documents when he left the White House.

Nancy Mace, who represents South Carolina’s First Congressional District, declared the most recent indictment “disgusting” and a supposed attempt by the Biden administration “to take out their number one political opponent in 2024.”

“I think it’s a sad day for the country,” Russell Fry of South Carolina’s Seventh Congressional District said. “I think it’s a sad day for the rule of law.”

Biden has “weaponized” the federal government and “brought yet another dark day in our country,” he tweeted.

When Trump was indicted for a scheme to hide a secret payment to a porn star, Fry said it was “egregious” and that the Manhattan district attorney was “in over his skis.”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, often touted as the conscience of the Republican Party, said the Trump indictment proved we have a “justice system where the scales are weighted.”

He called Trump’s indictment in the porn star case a “travesty,” which former South Carolina governor and 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley called “a political prosecution” that’s “more about revenge than justice.”

I’d quote South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham essentially saying the same thing, but Graham long ago proved himself void of principles, so that would be a waste of space.

The man Republicans might turn to if Trump’s legal troubles derail his attempt to secure his third consecutive Republican nomination for president, Ron DeSantis of Florida, claims “we have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.”

This is the self-declared “law and order” mainstream media-anointed “family values” party.

This is the party during the 2022 midterm election cycle which said crime fighting was a priority, that criminals must be dealt with harshly for the public to maintain trust in this great nation of ours.

This is the party that says it’s important to honor God and elevate positive role models, the party which is busy passing laws to “protect” our children from the presence of trans gender people in public and gay people in the books they read.

This is the party who has twice nominated a philandering-serial liar who cheated on his pregnant wife; bragged about his penchant for sexually assaulting women because he’s rich, including being held civilly liable for having done so; tried to bribe the president of another country with hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to kneecap a political opponent; and sought the help of a foreign adversary during the 2016 presidential election cycle.

And he topped it all off by inspiring a violent insurrection attempt in the heart of our democracy.

As of now, it’s better than even money the “law and order” “family values” “we love Jesus more than anyone else” Republican Party is likely to make him its standard bearer for a third consecutive time.

Republicans cried foul when Hillary Clinton in 2016 spoke of a basket of deplorables. They were offended someone would think so little of and label them in such an ugly way. They took it as a slur.

But what Trump said about them was worse – especially because they keep proving him correct.