Is a Trump Indictment a 2024 Gamble for Democrats?

     Believe it or not, the 2024 presidential election cycle is already in full swing. And when you think about it, for political geeks, these early days of the cycle are really the most fascinating. We have heard all the possible names, and within the next year is when we expect lots of announcements, surprises, and unpredictable events. Former President Donald Trump was the very first to throw his hat in the ring for 2024, and it is assumed that President Joe Biden will run for reelection as well. Democrats and the left have tried to criminalize (at times literally) any questioning of the results of the 2020 election, perhaps because of the knowledge that a lot of things will be different in 2024. One big factor they relied upon, COVID, which gave way to increased early and mail in voting, is no longer a factor. Add to that, the fact that many states have changed election laws and rules, including the outlawing of ballot drop boxes, and you have a Democrat party who must figure out a valid excuse to keep Joe Biden campaigning from his basement again.

     Joseph Stalin’s longest serving chief of the secret police famously said, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.” Democrats have spent roughly eight years taking that sentiment to heart investigating Donald Trump, his businesses, his campaigns, his family, and his associations. They clamored for his tax returns for the entirety of his presidency. They landed in the hands of Democrats with a giant thud. They spent years pushing the notion that Donald Trump was a Russian asset, and that they had helped him win the presidency in 2016. It has all been proven to be a giant hoax perpetuated by many people. Rush Limbaugh once noted that everything Democrats would have used to take out the average Republican rolled off Donald Trump like water. And while one might argue that in 2020, through a combination of forces that just happened to create the perfect storm and oust him from office, at least for right now in 2024, he’s back. What to do?

     Enter Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. By all accounts one of a handful of big city district attorneys helped into office by George Soros millions. Bragg has plenty of big city crime to prosecute. But he has chosen to spend his time and taxpayer dollars on what is seen by most legal talking heads, even liberal ones, on a low-level beef, falsifying business records in relation to a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had an affair with Trump and threatened to go public with the information. Trump has consistently denied any such affair, and in 2018, Daniels herself said it never happened. It is disputed, in fact, that a crime was even committed. If payment, not paid with campaign funds, was made to Daniels, it essentially amounts to a non-disclosure agreement, and becomes a case that even liberals say is weak at best. But think like an ambitious D.A. in a place like New York for a minute. Should Bragg indict Trump, he would be the first prosecutor to indict a former President. And in an uber liberal place like New York, that could be one big feather in the cap of a guy who decides to run for Congress, the Senate, or Governor.  

     But while Alvin Bragg might fantasize about measuring the drapes in the New York Governor’s mansion, what does an indictment do for Donald Trump and his 2024 presidential campaign? If it is any indication, Fox News reported on Tuesday that Trump supporters began showing up outside of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to show they were behind him. Even with a possible looming indictment, Trumps poll numbers remain consistent. A Real Clear politics average puts him on top with Trump at 44% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 36%.  DeSantis initially stated an intention to steer clear of the whole thing that he described as a “manufactured circus,” and that Bragg was attempting, “a political spectacle.” However, both have resumed taking shots at each other. But whether they love or hate Donald Trump, Americans do have a sense of fairness, and have had a front row seat to what can only be described as a two-tiered justice system when it comes to justice for Democrats, what masquerades as justice for Republicans, and that oh so special category reserved for people named Trump. If enough people, especially independent voters, see Donald Trump as some sort of underdog because of a bogus charge that would go nowhere if his name were John Smith.  It could be a whole new strain of ugly for Democrats.

     We can talk about potentially ambitious district attorneys and presidential polls forever, but ultimately, an indictment of Donald Trump is much bigger than Trump himself. Should an indictment come down, it is one political party attempting to take out the primary political rival of the opposition party. That is dangerous, and it also means that Alvin Bragg is engaging in election interference. What Bragg and a Grand Jury may succeed in doing is forever changing the nature of American elections far more than COVID ever could. The left, who often fail to realize that their opponents sometimes win elections and can turn the tables on them, could very well engage a future Democrat, leading the field in a presidential race, in the same sort of legal gotcha game. When that happens, Americans are no longer able to elect the candidates of their choice.

      Here is what the Democrats know; they know that many of their main tools from 2020 are no longer there. They know that Joe Biden now has an abysmal record, one that knocks Jimmy Carter out of the worst president ever slot. They also know, some of them firsthand, that Joe Biden is at least in the early stages of dementia. They know how thin their bench is and that they are stuck with Biden because Vice President Kamala Harris is equally unqualified, but they can’t bump her off the ticket and risk alienating minority voters, especially black women. Have they concluded that this route to taking out Trump is their best bet? Does Donald Trump see what Democrats, so blinded by Trump Derangement Syndrome are failing to see, that his being perp walked in front of cameras may actually help him?

     As of this writing, Fox News is reporting that the grand jury will not hear anything pertaining to the Trump case this week, and it is rumored that Alvin Bragg’s office is “in chaos” over this case.  Might cooler heads and common sense make an appearance here? Stay tuned.