Just a few weeks ago, Democrats were wringing their hands, worried that the Biden-Harris campaign wouldn't do enough to highlight former President Donald Trump's 34 felony convictions. But there was no need to worry. The campaign has issued a plethora of almost daily statements, ads and social media posts repeating the catchy phrase “convicted felon.” President Biden denounced the MAGA attacks on the courts the day after Trump's conviction. But the most scathing, and perhaps effective, rebuke came from Vice President Harris.
Perhaps we should have expected the former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general (who has delighted in grilling President Trump's Supreme Court nominees from his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee) to lead the onslaught, but it's still remarkable how easily she twists the knife in.
Harris has argued her case on multiple occasions. “Twelve jurors deliberated the evidence and the facts for six weeks and unanimously found me guilty of 34 felony charges,” she told Jimmy Kimmel last Tuesday. “There were attorneys who actively participated in jury selection, who actively decided which witnesses to call or cross-examine, and the jury made the decision, but, you know, I think the reality is that wrongdoers don't want to be caught and held accountable.” Her delivery was crisp, businesslike and brutally frank.
She didn't stop there. On Saturday, she told donors at a fundraiser in Detroit: “Donald Trump openly tried to overturn the last election, and now he's openly attacking the foundations of our justice system. Since his conviction in New York last month, Trump has claimed the entire trial was fraudulent. That's false.” She repeated her own statement that “fraudsters don't like to get caught,” before adding, “Since the verdict, he has attacked the judge and witnesses. He has suggested this case may be a 'breaking point' for his supporters, and has threatened violence. … And he's said he'll use his second term for revenge.” Then she added a twist: “Donald Trump really thinks he's above the law. He really does. And this should be a disqualification for anyone who wants to be president of the United States.”
Follow this authorJennifer Rubin's opinion
The Supreme Court refused to apply the letter of the law to disqualify Trump under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. But Harris makes a compelling case that voters should not consider Trump a legitimate candidate. How can a convict who seeks to subvert the legal system hold the presidency, which requires an oath to enforce the law? It just doesn't make sense.
The Biden-Harris campaign seems to have figured that out. A man who despises the legal system and has a mission to destroy it and apply it against his opponents without legal basis threatens the very core of American democracy. And if there was any doubt about Trump's evil plans, he now routinely threatens to prosecute his opponents. Trump's former lawyer, Ty Cobb, and many legal scholars and former prosecutors have warned that Trump's rhetoric could undermine support for the legal system and incite violence.
And after weeks of Trump threats and smears amplified by his MAGA followers, even the taciturn Attorney General Merrick Garland lamented the “escalating attacks” in a Washington Post op-ed: “They come in the form of conspiracy theories crafted and spread with the intent of undermining public confidence in the judicial process itself, including the false allegation that the Department of Justice somehow controlled cases brought by district attorneys and resolved by jury verdicts in state courts,” he said, an apparent reference to Trump and his allies.
Given that the federal prosecution against Trump is ongoing but stalled, Garland was in no position to call out Trump by name or directly suggest that someone who threatens and denigrates law enforcement should not be in the White House.
Biden spent five days in France commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, where he stressed the need to defend democracy in our lifetimes. It is no mystery who is threatening our democracy. Biden extolled virtues like democracy, freedom, the rule of law, and decency, clearly implying that Trump has none of these. But the campaign needs Harris to challenge Trump and his MAGA supporters' attacks on the rule of law, arguing that these should be “disqualifying” in themselves. So far, she has lived up to that expectation.
In the coming weeks and months, Harris will have ample ammunition as Trump threatens revenge. “That's what dictators do,” Harris said, and she couldn't emphasize enough. “If you don't obey your beloved leader, you will feel his wrath.” The message may even be powerful enough to encourage the media to place Trump in a long lineage of authoritarians who have twisted the justice system for political ends.
And if she's really effective, she might inspire others who don't like his Gaza policies to stay out of the country. After all, the latter are exactly the types of people Trump would persecute. In fact, he's already promised to deport them. For them, it might be worth voting for the only candidate who can stop him.
