Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports” that it was un-American for Republicans to argue that former President Donald Trump’s indictment is interfering with letting the voters decide.
Alter said, “As everybody knows, this is totally unprecedented in our history, but it is not out of character for our history. I think it’s really important to understand that what’s happening today is very much in line with what the Founders envisioned. So they had provisions for impeachment, for dealing with crimes that were committed by a president in office. They very much believed that because we don’t have a king in this country that when you leave office, you are subject to the law like any other person. In the Constitution, they have these provisions for fair trials for the right against self-incrimination. So Donald Trump can exercise his Fifth Amendment privilege if he wants. But there’s nothing in there that says you are not supposed to prosecute somebody after they leave office if you have indications that crimes have been committed.”
He continued, “So for the Republicans to say that this is somehow, this crazy thing, that we are interfering in a presidential election, we should let the people decide, not have the courts decide, that’s the un-American argument.”
Alter added, “All over this country for decades, literally hundreds of years, local prosecutors have gone after politicians who are seeking re-election or even in public office for crimes they believe may have been committed. So what Alvin Bragg is doing is very, very much in the American tradition.”
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