During her remarks at the Republican National Convention, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird delivered an odd boast about her party’s approach to law enforcement. “We put criminals where they belong: in jail,” Bird said to applause. “That’s why we need to elect President Donald J. Trump.”
If the Iowa Republican was aware of the contradiction, she didn’t show it. After all, a jury recently found the former president guilty of 34 felonies, which came on the heels of a different jury holding Trump liable for sexual assault. By Bird’s reasoning, she and her party should be eager to put Trump behind bars, not in the White House.
The state attorney general, however, was hardly alone. Vivek Ramaswamy, ignoring the former president’s crimes, insisted on the convention stage that Trump would “restore law and order in this country.” House Speaker Mike Johnson similarly declared, “We in the Republican Party are the law-and-order team. We always have been, and we always will be, the advocates for the rule of law.”
My personal favorite was the speech from House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who practically shouted this incredible message: “Donald Trump stands with the people and the police — our men and women in blue — not with the criminals and rioters.”
Emmer: Donald Trump stands with the people and the police, our men and women in blue, not with the criminals and rioters. pic.twitter.com/WnHrKWI1Qf
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 17, 2024
So, a few things.
First, it was kind of amusing to hear the Minnesota congressman say Trump doesn’t stand with “rioters” when much of the former president’s candidacy is rooted in his support for rioters.
Second, the idea that the former president stands with “the police” isn’t quite that simple. In reality, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at those he’s described as “dirty cops,” as part of a larger offensive against law enforcement. He’s also condemned law enforcement officials as “fascists” and expressed support for prosecuting members of the Capitol police.
So much for “back the blue.”
Third, the House speaker’s claim that the Republican Party honors “the rule of law” is belied by overwhelming evidence. Revisiting our recent coverage, it remains true that a party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t nominate a person convicted of felonies for the nation’s highest office. A party that cares about the rule of law also wouldn’t try to undermine public confidence in the judicial system without cause.
A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t try to defund law enforcement agencies based on nonsensical conspiracy theories. A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t endorse retaliatory, politically motivated prosecutions against innocent people. A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t reward accused criminals, elevating them to positions in which they could help steer the party’s future.
A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t have a suspected criminal, indicted on election-related charges, oversee the party’s election-year legal efforts. A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t rally behind a presidential nominee who’s running on a platform of pardoning violent criminals and putting them back onto the streets. A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t nominate for president a criminal who’s surrounded himself with other convicted criminals. A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t scramble to condemn one of its own after he encouraged voters to respect the legal process. A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t boo police officers for telling them inconvenient truths. A party that cares about the rule of law wouldn’t invite a convicted criminal to speak at their national convention within hours of his release from prison. The contemporary Republican Party, however, has done all of this and more — recently. It’s the same Republican Party that was indifferent toward Trump-era White House corruption, saw some of its members sentenced to prison, expressed indifference when their party’s then-president tried to weaponize federal law enforcement, and participated in a radical, dangerous, and unprecedented plot to overturn the results of a free and fair American presidential election. Partisans such as House Speaker Mike Johnson are welcome to claim that the Republican Party is “the law-and-order team,” but that won’t make it true. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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