Syndicated columnist Susan Estrich: What's wrong with us that some still enable Trump?
The latest news about President Donald Trump's secret stash of documents comes from the National Archives, which reportedly recovered some 700 pages of the most secret stuff from boxes they retrieved from Mar-a-Lago last January. That's separate from what they collected in the most recent search and one of the reasons the FBI knew there were more documents.
The obvious question is why this president, unlike every other president before him, thought he had the right to take top secret documents with him to his golf club?
The answer, sadly, is equally obvious. He did it because he could, because he's Trump, because he doesn't think the rules apply to him.
The rule of law, the foundation on which our democracy is built, is premised on a simple but absolute principle that no one - especially the president - is above the law. We lived through a constitutional crisis with a president who was ready to challenge that. His name was Richard Nixon. He lost. The country won.
The thing about Donald Trump is that he hasn't lost the fight yet.
Here is a man who, based on indisputable evidence, helped organize and induce an assault on the Capitol and the democratic process. Did it spell the end of his political career? No.
Here is a man who, based on indisputable evidence, took top secret and classified materials and stored them in his home and his golf club when they belonged in the most secure government facilities.
The fact the statutory exclusion from office for those who violate the Espionage Act might not apply to the presidency, where the qualifications for office are spelled out in the Constitution, is hardly a reason to excuse its violation. But there it is. A giant so what.
Unchallenged evidence establishes the search of Mar-a-Lago was not only justified but essential to recover top-secret documents.
And what happens? Donald Trump's poll numbers go up. Threats against law enforcement are sufficiently serious that members of Congress are asking that threats be addressed.
The question at this stage is not what's wrong with Trump. Trump is being Trump, at his worst, the arrogance and the righteous indignation combined in an ugly stew of outrage at those who dare, with probable cause and the law on their side, challenge his absolute power. Which, of course, is what it means to have a democracy in which no one is above the law.
It is troubling that so many Americans are still standing up for him, ready to see him as a victim, not a perpetrator, as a leader, not a loser. What's especially troubling is they are willing to do it when it's not Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi on the attack, but the FBI finding exactly what it was looking for.
Why should doing that put FBI agents in harm's way? It's one thing to attack Democrats, quite another to take on law enforcement.
So what does it say about us that we are so divided that we - or some of us - will jump to defend the indefensible if our opponents are on the other side? What divides us seems stronger than what unites us, and that is a serious problem in our politics.
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