Blog

While many Republican lawmakers were quick to jump to the defense of former President Donald Trump this week following his fourth indictment in a matter of months, Democrats in Washington largely did not take a victory lap but rather offered a sober assessment of the unprecedented moment facing the nation.

“If we don’t follow through, then our democracy is in a more precarious situation. It shows that we’re not a country of laws or a country of the Constitution; we’re a country of a person and a personality,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif. of the potential legal ramification Trump is facing. “Our country, it will be in a tough spot. But we need to make sure that cooler heads prevail, no matter what the verdict is, and the fact that the rule of law is held up first and foremost.”

“We’re entering into uncharted territory,” he added. “We’re entering into a situation that everybody should be concerned with. But that’s not the prosecutor’s fault. That’s the fault of Donald J. Trump, who tried to incite the mob with lies about an election that was stolen, that he knew was not stolen, and that these cases will prove in the end.”

Trump and 18 allies were indicted on Monday with felonies for participating in a “criminal enterprise” to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. They’re being prosecuted, in part, under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which was designed to help dismantle organized crime.

Gomez, who represents parts of Los Angeles, was in the gallery of the House chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, when protesters stormed the Capitol to interrupt the certification of the 2020 election that President Joe Biden won, but that Trump repeatedly claimed was stolen. 

While he believes the consequences for U.S. democracy would be too high to not prosecute Trump for his role in the election plots and the attack on the Capitol, Gomez is still concerned a guilty verdict in any case could lead to a violent response from Trump supporters.

“I was one of the last people to be evacuated out of the house chambers with the mob and insurrectionists pounding on the third floor doors, and people were calling their loved ones,” Gomez said.  “So there is a potential of real violence.”

I spoke with @RepJimmyGomez today about the latest indictment against former president Donald Trump. While many Republicans are calling this a political scheme, Gomez says it’s about “holding somebody accountable for breaking the law.” More coming up tonight on @SpecNews1SoCal. pic.twitter.com/t0EsZt1hJP

— Cassie Semyon (@casssemyon) August 15, 2023

The highest ranking Democratic lawmakers in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, were similarly reserved in their response to the Georgia indictment. They emphasized their view that Trump broke the law, but also pleaded for a legal process that could play out unimpeded in a tumultuous political environment.

“The fourth indictment of Donald Trump, just like the three which came before it, portrays a repeated pattern of criminal activity by the former president. This latest indictment details how Mr. Trump led a months-long plot pushing the Big Lie to steal an election, undermine our democracy, and overturn the will of the people of Georgia,” the two New Yorkers said in a joint statement late Monday night. 

The indictments, they said, “reaffirm the shared belief that in America no one, not even the president, is above the law.”

“We urge Mr. Trump, his supporters and his critics to allow the legal process to proceed without outside interference,” Schumer and Jeffries added.

The highest ranking Democrat in the nation, President Joe Biden, has yet to address any indictment of the Republican he is most likely to face as he makes his bid for a second term. The White House has repeatedly declined to comment on the criminal cases as they try to avoid any appearance of meddling in the Department of Justice or coordinating with local prosecutors, both accusations Republicans have made without any evidence.

“With respect to ongoing criminal cases, that’s certainly why we’ve continued to observe the independence of the DOJ, to respect that and make sure that we don’t weigh in and overstep here,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton said on Tuesday.

Despite many of them experiencing the same violence Gomez, Schumer and Jeffries were exposed to during the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, Republicans continue to flock to Trump, saying the four indictments across three states and Washington, D.C., are politically motivated.

Even the candidates vying to beat Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary have been reticent to criticize the race’s frontrunner on the matter of his criminal indictments, instead pledging to punish the prosecutors or overhaul the Department of Justice if elected president.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that Biden “has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election.” 

Gomez called the Republican defense of the former president “shameful.”

“Yes, he will have his day in court. Yes, everybody’s innocent until proven guilty. But this is not about politics. This is about our Constitution,” Gomez said. “I want to see my Republican colleagues not just come out and defend him blindly, but to basically say, ‘you know what? We got to let the justice system play out, because in the end, no matter what the verdict is, people are going to have to accept it.’”

“So I’m disappointed but I’m not surprised with my Republican colleagues in Congress,” Gomez added.

If Republicans in Washington cannot be appealed to, Gomez hopes to take the argument to the American people, regardless of their politics.

“This is not about politics. This is not about one person. It’s about the rule of law,” he said. “Are we a country governed by a Constitution and a set of laws that stem from that Constitution? Are we going to hold everybody accountable to the same standards? Because if we don’t, then we will lose the country that we all hold dear.”