Republicans are counting on people not to read the Trump indictment [View all]
Donald Trump’s critics want people to read the special counsel’s indictment. Trump’s supporters do not. This is part of a striking larger pattern.
June 12, 2023, 1:19 PM EDT
By Steve Benen
Scrutinizing the Republicans who scrambled to defend Donald Trump in wake of his latest indictment, a New York Times analysis noted, “Few if any of them bothered to wait to read the indictment.”
This is demonstrably true. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy slammed the indictment as a “grave injustice” nearly a full day before the California Republican had any idea what it said. Similarly, Sen. Ted Cruz told his podcast listeners, “This indictment is garbage,” long before it was unsealed. The Texan — a Harvard Law school graduate and a former state solicitor general — was condemning a legal document he had not read and knew effectively nothing about.
There were, however, other conservatives who preferred a more literate approach. John Bolton, who served as Trump’s White House national security advisor, wrote on Twitter, “All American voters should read the full text of the Trump indictment, and then consult their own consciences.”
The editorial board of National Review, which I nearly always disagree with, added on Saturday:
It is impossible to read the indictment against Trump in the Mar-a-Lago documents case and not be appalled at the way he handled classified documents as an ex-president, and responded to the attempt by federal authorities to reclaim them.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republicans-are-counting-people-not-read-trump-indictment-rcna88881
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