Former president Donald Trump’s public and private statements and actions constitute enough evidence to send him to jail. Several attorneys are investigating him for trying to overturn the results of the free and fair 2020 presidential election. There is more than just his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection and the recorded one hour phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021 to find votes.
Add to this several other investigations regarding his handling of classified documents, false statements, hush money, lying to lenders and insurers, etc. The justice system is slowly doing its work. In January 2023, the Trump Organization has been convicted of tax fraud and other crimes, although for “only” $1.6 million.
Back to politics. Already before the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump tried to incite or strenghten protests and insurrections. In April and May 2020, he encouraged “re-open” protests in states led by Democrats. He called for protesters to “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia from coronavirus measures. Hundreds of protesters, some armed, managed to enter the Michigan State Capitol building. Many chanted slogans against the Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was also targeted by a far-right militia kidnapping plot. Gretchen Whitmer had imposed some of the toughest covid-rules (e.g. stay-at-home orders) in the United States and, therefore, had been the victim of numerous attacks. Nevertheless, Gretchen Whitmer could count on the support of a majorty of Michiganders.
In April 2020, Donald Trump had specifically targeted Gretchen Whitmer, calling her “that woman from Michigan” and, on April 17, he tweeted: “LIBERATE MICHIGAN”. It looks like a rehearsal for the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
On September 6, 2022 the Frontline documentary Lies, Politics and Democracy aired on PBS and exposed how Donald Trump lied repeatedly and tried to overturn the result of a free and fair election.
Among several other Trump claims of “stolen elections”, the PBS documentary shows that, in 2012, when Mitt Romney, whom he had endorsed, lost to Barack Obama, Trump tweeted: “This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy. More reports of voting machines switching Romney votes to Obama. Let’s fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington.”
On November 4, 2020 Donald Trump prematurely and falsely claimed that he had won the 2020 presidential election. He said: “Frankly, we did win this election.” The big lie was born.
In reality, Trump got fired by the American people — the full results were not known back then, but the verdict was already clear. In the end, voter turnout was 66.6%, an increase of 6.5% in comparison with the past presidential election. After all votes were counted, Joe Biden ended up with 81.28 million votes in comparison with Donald Trump’s 74.24 million votes — a record for a Republican candidate, but still over 8 million votes behind Biden. However, what counts are only the electoral college votes — the winner takes it all in a state won even by a tiny margin. Joe Biden ended up with 306 electoral votes in comparison with only 232 electoral college votes for Trump. The verdict was brutal, but well deserved for 4 years of incompetence, lies and chaos.
The GOP Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, instead of acknowledging Joe Biden’s clear victory, chose to remain silent because he did not want to anger Donald Trump.
Already on August 20, 2020 President Donald Trump told Sean Hannity on Fox News: “This is going to be the most fraudulent election in history.” The narrative in case of a defeat was out. And indeed, on November 16, 2020 without presenting any evidence — because there was and is none —, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter: “Most fraudulent election in history!”
On Fox News, a Trump cheerleader such as Sean Hannity made baseless claim such as that it will never be possible to find out who won the election. Republican senators such as Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham said on TV that Trump should not concede. On November 13, 2020 the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — a lawyer! — made a phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Graham tried Graham tried to influence the Georgia election result (Reuters).
On December 15, 2020 after each state had verified the presidential election results, the GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell finally acknowledged that Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election. When Liz Cheney said that Biden had unquestionably won, a certain Kevin McCarthy said that Liz Cheney only speaks for herself, not the Republican party.
Donald Trump had of course not given up the idea to stay in the White House. In a speech broadcast live from Georgia as well as on other occasions in public and private, he said that Vice President Mike Pence, who would preside over the January 6, 2021 Congressional Joint Session to validate the electoral college vote, Pence should declare him the winner. However, Mike Pence decided to respect the Constitution of the United States. Pence told Trump that he can’t do it. Trump replied that he does not want to be his friend anymore.
On January 6, 2021 Donald Trump repeated the big lie: “This election was stolen from you, from me, from the country. You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.” Trump also said: “I will be with you” and “We will walk down to the Capitol.” The ousted president een said: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
When the mob he had publicly pushed to take over the Capitol actually did what he had proposed and stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 Donald Trump remained silent, sided with the insurrectional mob. Even a sleazy, opportunistic guy with no backbone such as Kevin McCarthy urged Donald Trump: “You have to speak out.” Later, Kevin McCarthy tried to cuddle up to Trump again and, after some difficulties, finished as the current Speaker of the House of Representatives.
According to Jonathan Karl, based on several sources, Donald Trump told RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel on his last flight on Air Force One: “You’ve failed to fight for me. Republicans abandoned me. The election was stolen. You did nothing about it. I’m leaving. I’m done. I’m leaving the Republican Party. I’m creating my own party.” As we know today, it remained just a threat and, today, Donald Trump is leading the polls to become the next Republican candidate to run for the White House in 2024.
The bipartisan January 6 Committee with the GOP members Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger made already a great effort in exposing Donald Trump’s lies and illegal actions to overturn the result of the free and fair 2020 presidential election. They interviewed over 1000 people, published an 845-page report and, on December 19, 2022 unanimously decided to refer Trump and his former attorney John Eastman to the U.S. Department of Justice for prosecution. The accusations regarding the former president included obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, attempts to “incite”, “assist”, “aid or comfort” an insurrection.
The Washington Post recently reported Donald Trump called the then-Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, a fellow Republican, to pressure him to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in that state. Trump lost Arizona by less than 10,000 votes in 2020 (0.3% of the vote).
The reported Arizona phone calls resemble the taped one-hour call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021. You can listen to the call and/or read the transcript of it on PBS, CNN, etc. The recorded call shows that Trump wanted Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes, that is one vote more than the margin of defeat by which he had lost the state of Georgia to Joe Biden. Former president Trump is currently being investigated by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr for the call and other attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
This is just a fraction of the private and public statements and actions by the former president. There is enough evidence to send Donald Trump to jail for trying to overturn the result of a free and fair election.
The case against Donald Trump was strong before his 2016 election. Initially, partly thanks to the support of Mike Pence, the majority of evangelical Christians voted for and still support him, despite hush money for a porn star and also otherwise a very “unholy” lifestyle. In addition, the former president was and is cuddling up to white supremacists, himself making sometimes thinly veiled racist remarks, insulting minorities of all sorts. Thanks to Mafia-like methods, he managed to turn the GOP into a freak show. But he is not just un-Republican, he is un-American. Donald Trump is a danger for the American democracy, a man with authoritarian tendencies.
Michael Kirk: Lies, Politics and Democracy. PBS documentary, September 2022. 1h53 minutes. From Amazon.com.
Mark Leibovich: Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission. Penguin Press, 2022, 352 pages. Audiobook, Kindle eBook, hardcover from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk.
Robert Draper: Weapons of Mass Delusion. Penguin Press, October 2022, 400 pages. Order the hardcover or download the eBook or audiobook from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk.
Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt: Howe Democracies Die. Crown, 2019, 320 pages. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de.
Peter Baker, Susan Glasser: The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, Doubleday, September 2022, 752 pages, Order the hardcover or download the Kindle ebook, audiobook from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de.
Jonathan Karl: Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show. Dutton, November 2021, 384 pages. Order the hardcover or dowload the Kindle ebook or audiobook from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk.
Jonathan Martin, Alexander Burns: This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future. Simon & Schuster, May 2022, 480 pages. Order the hardcover or download the Kindle eBook or audiobook from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de.
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Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, October 6, 2017. Official White House photograph by Shealah Craighead.
Article added on July 7, 2023 at 14:34 Swiss time.
