A “monstrosity,” the Supreme Court ruling. That’s how Eric Holder, Attorney General in the Obama administration, called it, a voice in the chorus of indignation that arose after the long-awaited pronouncement on the darkest page in recent US history.
The assault on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. An attempted subversion directed by outgoing President Donald Trump, protagonist of an incendiary rally not far from the parliament.
Six of the nine justices ruled that – as Chief Justice Roberts stated – “most of a president’s public communications likely fall comfortably within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities” although it will be necessary to further investigate whether those incriminating words were said in his “capacity as a candidate”.
So Trump cannot be impeached for a public speech unless it is proven that he spoke as a candidate and not as a sitting president. How long will it take to resolve this grotesque dilemma? What complicated path, through several courts, will the Supreme Court’s decision have to follow for Trump and the justices to reach a final verdict? It will surely take enough time to ensure that he is safe from the prosecutors at least until November 5, when, once elected, he will again have the shield of immunity.
“Out of fear for our democracy, I dissent,” said Justice Sonia Sotomajor, who co-authored a dissenting opinion with colleagues Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, calling the ruling an expansion of the president’s powers that makes him “a king above the law.”
A monstrous sentence because, in fact, it trivializes the devastating impact, for the democratic system itself, of an operation with clear contours of a coup attempt and now adds further disturbing elements of concern about its legal and political consequences, also in view of Trump’s return to the White House. “They have given Donald Trump the keys to the dictatorship,” said Quentin Fulks, number two of Joe Biden’s campaign.
And what if he is not elected on November 5, with the consequence that the outcome of the next election could also be contested by Trump, with the support of his followers? The former president, in the televised debate in Atlanta, ducked the twice-repeated question of moderator Dana Bash, whether he will accept the electoral verdict. “Only if it is a fair, legal and good election,” he replied, and everyone understood that the January 6 film could be repeated identically in the event of a defeat. This time with the preventive cover of the Supreme Court, with a ruling that Trump in fact welcomes as a “great victory for our constitution and democracy”, “proud to be an American!”.
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Supreme Court, green light for the January 6, 2021 coup plotters
Benefiting from the self-inflicted knockout of his opponent last Thursday in Atlanta, Trump can conduct the final stretch of his presidential campaign in a psychologically advantageous position, taking away from the Democrats the weapon that was considered the most lethal to strike the Republican candidate.
Trump also has an advantage in the search for funding, after the Supreme Court ruling, having already caught up with Joe Biden, who until last April was leading in fundraising.
After the unfortunate duel, the incumbent president sees important donors moving away from his campaign, while the tycoon, with the support of his friends in the judiciary, gathers new support. And consolidates his leadership in the Republican Party. If there was any need, the Supreme Court ruling aligns all the top exponents of the Grand Old Party behind what many, until not so long ago, would have gladly wanted to see fall disastrously. Today Trump is the absolute master of the GOP, a political force totally subjected to him and the fanatics of his movement, the MAGA.
It is the cohesion of those who see their leader regaining power – which has also been greatly strengthened by yesterday’s ruling – and which contrasts with the fragmentation that is re-emerging in the Democratic house, where the consequences of Biden’s disastrous performance are being felt, even if discussions and conflicts are still kept confidential.
A series of polls is expected to be “colder” than those conducted immediately after the debate. In fact, no significant swings have been noted so far, with Trump leading in the overall vote, albeit by a few points. We will have to see if the picture changes to the point of requiring a serious rethinking of Joe Biden’s chances of making it through the final stretch of the race without new sensational setbacks, in the presence of an even more meticulous and obsessive observation of his every move, even the slightest. The picture is problematic in any case, and the image of a struggling candidate inevitably reverberates on his condition as president in office. The White House does not only have the domestic front to “cover” but also the international one, where Biden is now considered a lame duck.
