Even after the federal indictment against Donald Trump was unsealed on Friday, some of his reflexive partisan allies struck to strange talking points. Republican Sen. Mike Lee, for example, issued a written statement that read in part, “The Biden administration’s actions can only be compared to the type of oppressive tactics routinely seen in nations such as Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, which are absolutely alien and unacceptable in America.”
The far-right Utahan had plenty of GOP company. Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, wrote around the same time, “President Trump has been indicted. We live in a Banana Republic.” (I’m going to assume he didn’t mean to capitalize those last two words, which left the impression that Americans now live in a clothing retailer.)
A day earlier, Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming insisted, “The criminal prosecution of political adversaries is something that Third World countries do.”
If rhetoric like this sounds at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. A few months ago, as the former president was indicted the first time, plenty of Republicans pushed similar rhetoric. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, for example, told NBC News, “You know, the countries that indict former presidents that we see around the world, we usually don’t have a great deal of respect for them.” Around the same time, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona tweeted, in reference to charging a former president, “This type of stuff only occurs in third world authoritarian nations.”
It’s important to understand the degree to which Republicans have gotten this backward.
Stable democracies that take the rule of law seriously hold criminal suspects accountable — even if the defendants are wealthy, even if they’re politically powerful, even if they served in government at the highest levels. In fact, on the international stage, this has happened in recent years with some regularity.
Italy prosecuted a former prime minister.
France prosecuted a former president and a former prime minister.
South Africa prosecuted a former president.
South Korea prosecuted a former president.
Brazil has prosecuted more than one former president.
Israel has prosecuted more than one former prime minister.
Germany prosecuted a former president.
Portugal prosecuted a former prime minister.
Croatia prosecuted a former prime minister.
Argentina prosecuted a former president.
In fact, on Sunday, Nicola Sturgeon, the former head of the Scottish government, was arrested on allegations of financial misconduct.
As far as Republicans are concerned, were prosecutors in each of these countries engaged in “oppressive tactics”? Are they banana republics? Should we see them as engaging in law enforcement tactics on par with what “third world countries do”?
Well, no, that’s ridiculous. The idea that these countries somehow lost international respect or credibility because former leaders faced criminal charges is completely at odds with what actually happened in reality.
As a recent Washington Post analysis concluded, “[T]here is plenty of precedent for mature democracies to hold elected leaders to account; in fact, it would seem to be an important element of them.”
Or as my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown put it in March, Trump’s indictment “is an example of the system working,” not evidence to the contrary.
This post revises our related earlier coverage.
