Rachel Maddow delivered the line that would wound Trump the most when she said that future historians will ask how Trump ever got elected president.
Maddow said:
He is of course innocent until proven guilty and he will and should mount a robust defense against these charges, and he should be acquitted if he didn’t do what he is accused of. But if the allegations made by the Justice Department in this indictment are proven, if the former president did what he is accused of, history is going to ask a different question of this time than what we might have otherwise been expecting.
If the allegations in this indictment are proven beyond a reasonable doubt and a jury convicts some of these crimes, history will not ask, wow, how did America get to the point where they indicted a former president? History instead is going to ask, how did America get to the point where such a person could be elected to the presidency of the United States? Where actions such as these could be carried out from the oval office directed by a person who was elected president by the American people, along with his advisers. This is a grave day and a serious one for our country.
Video:
Rachel #Maddow “History instead is going to ask, how did America get to the point where such a person could be elected to the presidency of the United States?” pic.twitter.com/3NH1oTCCSg
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 2, 2023
Trump is forever worried about his legacy and his brand. Well, his brand has now been destroyed and his legacy will be one of being the first former president to be indicted for trying to overturn an election that he lost to stay in power. Trump delusionally thinks of himself as worthy of Mount Rushmore, so the idea that future generations of Americans will ask how did the country ever elect that guy has got to kill him inside.
It is over for Trump. It doesn’t matter whether or not he goes to jail, or how badly he loses the 2024 election. For the rest of time, Donald Trump will be beneath Richard Nixon and the benchmark for future presidential criminality.