Republican Will County Board Chair Steve Balich on Tuesday did his best to help me understand the legal and political dynamics swirling around the possible arrest of former President Donald Trump.
There are more layers to this situation than one finds in a meal with a lasagna main course and a parfait dessert. I do my best to understand how others feel and what they believe. I phoned Balich because we are in unchartered territory. No one knows what will happen.
“Trump indictment would be unprecedented moment in US history,” The Associated Press said in a headline about the potential first criminal case against a former American president.
Balich, who gained notoriety when the tea party rose to prominence in 2010, is always helpful by providing a local voice who expresses the sentiment of many conservative suburban residents.
“I think the Manhattan district attorney is just like Kim Foxx, bought and paid for by George Soros,” was the first thing Balich said when I asked his reaction.
I was excited because I wanted to make the point that Manhattan County District Attorney Alvin Bragg is a local elected official, just as Foxx is the elected Cook County state’s attorney. It gets confusing when you start talking about county, state and federal jurisdiction.
Soros is a billionaire who has financially supported political campaigns of Foxx and other Democrats. Soros is a favorite punching bag of conservatives who think all billionaires ought to support deregulation, tax cuts for the rich and other Republican positions.
I sought Balich’s reaction to whopping developments over the weekend. The pandemic, the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and other events have numbed sensibilities and made it more difficult to tell when things are not normal.
On Saturday, Trump announced on social media that he expected New York authorities to arrest him on Tuesday in connection with an investigation into hush money allegedly paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump, who was banned from social media for inciting followers to violently attack the Capitol, sparked fresh concerns Saturday when he called for supporters to rally.
“Protest, take our nation back!” Trump wrote.
Republicans in Congress rushed to Trump’s defense.
“We must end the weaponization of government power for politics,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted Saturday on social media.
Three chairs of House committees wrote a joint letter to the Manhattan district attorney in which they formally accused Bragg on concocting trumped-up charges against Trump for political gain.
Reps. Jim Jordan, James Comer and Bryan Steil of the Judiciary, Oversight and House Administration committees sounded like they were weaponizing the power of their government positions to condemn anyone who would weaponize the power of their government positions.
“You are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority,” they wrote. “Your pending indictment is motivated by political calculations.”
As Will County Board chair, Balich is a legislator, like the House committee chairs. I asked his reaction to the lawmakers’ letter. Weaponizing government resources for political gain is wrong, he said.
“If Republicans take the presidency back they shouldn’t be doing the same thing, they shouldn’t be taking the FBI and the courts and the rest of them and using them against people they don’t like,” Balich said. “That’s what I see this as.”
I thanked Balich for explaining the views of many conservatives. But is that really what this is? Another view, one shared by many Democrats and never-Trump Republicans such as former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, is that evidence indicates Trump may have committed crimes.
In this alternate universe, which a majority of voters seem to embrace as reality, the potential arrest and indictment of Trump has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the law.
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This worldview is rooted in the premise that prosecutors possessed enough evidence to convince a grand jury to consider charging Trump. Our justice system grants the former president and anyone else the chance to defend themselves in court. Regardless of the outcome of any potential criminal proceeding, we should all have faith that our justice system is fair and unbiased.
But many Republicans seem hasty to dismiss any possibility that Trump might have committed a crime. In normal times, the expected response from political leaders would be, “These are serious accusations, let’s wait and see the evidence.” But in these chaotic times the knee-jerk reaction is, “Witch hunt!”
“I don’t like the idea of anybody in power going after somebody because they don’t like you,” Balich said.
Some liberals have offered a theory about why Republicans say this is all just political and not an actual legal, criminal investigation. This isn’t about right and wrong, it’s about winning and losing. Some have doubled down on Trump a gazillion times over and they’re with him no matter what. No one could ever say anything that would ever change their minds.
Trump is a loser, though, and that’s why I struggle to understand why Republicans defend him.
Pundits have said an indictment will secure the Republican nomination for Trump. I get that his supporters collectively believe the charges against him are purely political. I also believe Trump has Republicans over a barrel, that if he’s not the 2024 nominee he’ll run as an independent or otherwise convince his followers to not support the Republican nominee.
Trump’s electoral track record since 2016 is dismal. In 2018 and 2020, Republicans lost the presidency and majorities in the House and Senate, thanks to Trump. They’ve lost governorships and legislative majorities in numerous swing states. The “red wave” expected in 2022 was a bust.
Trump cost Republicans the Senate majority because he convinced supporters to not vote in a Georgia runoff election. Until news of a possible arrest, the prevailing sentiment was that the Republican Party was eager to move on from the Trump era. They can’t win with him and they can’t win without him.
I’m not alone in guessing that Democrats must be downright gleeful about the prospect of Trump being the 2024 Republican nominee. Biden beat him by 7 million votes in 2020.
I’m also not alone in thinking that maybe, just maybe, the imminent prosecution of the former president has more to do with evidence of alleged crimes than a political witch hunt.
I suppose people on opposite sides of America’s political divide will just continue agreeing to disagree.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.