The investigations into Trump are piling up. Now, the House Judiciary Committee is going to look into Trump's ceaseless attacks on the courts, the press, and more.
Thanks to the Republicans controlling both the House and Senate for the last two years, Trump's threatening, bullying behavior has gone largely unchecked.
But now that the Democrats run the House, the investigations are coming fast and furious. Trump isn't going to like this latest one: a wide-ranging look at his attacks on the DOJ, FBI, the courts, and the media. Though it hasn't been officially announced, it looks like the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), will be helming the investigation.
An unnamed official spoke to Bloomberg and said that the committee is concerned with whether Trump's continued attacks undermine the rule of law. The rule of law is, essentially, a principle that everyone — including the President — is required to follow the law and that laws must be applied in a neutral and fair fashion.
In some ways, this doesn't seem like a particularly difficult investigation. Trump attacks all of those institutions regularly and very publicly. He routinely tweets that the FBI is corrupt, accuses them of colluding with the Democrats, and approvingly quotes people that think the FBI tried to steer the election to Hillary Clinton.
Of course, his attacks on the courts pre-dated his election. While running for office, he attacked U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel from California. He asserted that Curiel wouldn't be fair in ruling on the class action lawsuit against Trump's scammy "University" because Curiel is Mexican. Setting aside the breathtaking racism in that statement, his claim ignores the fact that Curiel is actually from Indiana.
Since being elected, Trump has continued berating the courts whenever they issue a decision he doesn't like.
Trump's viciousness toward the press knows no bounds. He regularly tweets about "fake news" and calls the press the enemy of the people. He saves his real bile, though, for his rallies. In June 2018, four reporters and a sales assistant for a paper in Maryland were gunned down, but Trump didn't even make it 24 hours before advertising a rally as a chance to connect with Trump without "the filter of the fake news media."
In October 2018, after CNN was targeted by attempted bombings, Trump went in front of a Wisconsin audience and slammed the media for the tone of their stories.
Trump said nothing when one of his supporters physically assaulted a BBC cameraman nor when rally attendees scream at CNN's Jim Acosta.
There's no set witness list yet for the House Judiciary investigation, but no matter what, this isn't going to be a comfortable process for Trump.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
