Jason —
This was the chyron on Fox News after Donald Trump appeared in court to face 37 federal counts of mishandling confidential documents:
"Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested"
We've seen a lot of awful things from that network, but this might take the cake. In one fell swoop, Fox called President Joe Biden a "wannabe dictator" and presented Trump's charges as a partisan witch hunt.
This isn't an accident. In fact, those are Trump's talking points. He desperately needs the American people to see him as a victim, looking past the facts of the case against him. He desperately needs voters to believe the "deep state" (even President Biden himself) is constantly out to get him. He desperately needs everyone to ignore that a grand jury made up of everyday citizens voted to charge him with these crimes. (And that an entirely different grand jury voted this spring to charge him with a whole different set of campaign finance crimes.)
To sum it up, Trump is desperate. What's alarming is that the right-wing machine built to flood the airwaves to help and protect Republicans is going into overdrive to save him. Their game plan is to make this a partisan back-and-forth, just another issue for reporters to cover "both sides" of. Their goal in the months ahead is going to be to discredit the legal system and any institution that stands in their way.
We've already seen that the other side is willing to destroy our democracy to get their way. They're willing to side with dictators. They're willing to break the law to save themselves and hold on to power.
What we saw the other night is a terrifying glimpse of the year ahead: a new level of desperation, and a new low they're willing to sink to. It's only going to get worse.
The big question is whether our side has what it takes to counter effectively. Our FEC deadline at the end of this month is going to determine a lot about our strategy moving forward — how much we raise will decide how quickly we can switch our efforts into gear.
If you can, chip in today and let's fight back as soon as we can as hard as we can to save our democracy from the likes of Donald Trump.
This is a grassroots effort — our organization is only as strong as people like you choose to make it. Thank you for doing what you can. I'm as ready as I can be for the months ahead, especially knowing you're here fighting alongside me.
Amy
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