Last week, as much of the political world prepared for Donald Trump’s indictment, several Republicans raised a point about international affairs that they saw as persuasive.
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 are getting 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.
Israeli 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. Is Rand Paul correct that Americans don’t respect countries “that indict former presidents”? Is Biggs right that such indictments are limited to “third world authoritarian nations”? 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.” Quite right. As my MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown added last night, Trump’s indictment “is an example of the system working,” not evidence to the contrary.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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