Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor: Republicans, how many more authoritarian rants from Trump will you tolerate?
February 1, 2022
To the editor: Former President Trump told supporters at a rally on Jan. 29 that if he runs for and wins the presidency in 2024, he will consider pardoning those arrested and charged with crimes associated with the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Does he mean the more than 700 rioters who injured nearly 140 police officers that fateful day, or just Trump insiders like Stephen K. Bannon, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mark Meadows?
Pardon me for asking, but what happened to the rule of law? Wake up, Republicans. How much longer are you going to turn a blind eye to the former president’s every whim? It’s time that GOP electeds and the rank and file take a stand.
Simply put, are you for the country or for Trump? Because the future of our fragile democracy depends on you making the right decision now — and it really shouldn’t be a hard choice to make.
Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach
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To the editor: Trump recently referred to himself as the “45th and the 47th” president of the United States. Is this a Freudian slip concession that even he doesn’t believe that he won in 2020?
Marshall Barth, Encino
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To the editor: Columnist Harry Litman considers whether Trump can evade legal culpability by being so sociopathic that he truly thinks he won in 2020.
Someone may truly believe that Jews are out take over the world, but we don’t allow that to be used as an excuse for killing people at a synagogue. The person may be sent to a mental hospital rather than prison, but we don’t let them walk free.
As for Litman’s analysis of whether his acts make him culpable regardless of his state of mind, with the current Supreme Court’s decisions making it clear it has become as polarized as society in general, I’m reminded of Humpty Dumpty’s comment in “Through the Looking Glass”: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
John Snyder, Newbury Park
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To the editor: I have serious doubts about whether Trump will ever be convicted in a criminal court. Legal niceties aside, where might prosecutors find a dozen truly unbiased jurors to determine guilt?
Sure, the court might hear most prospective jurors avow their lack of political affiliation. But who would be surprised by a fan of the most mendacious president ever opting to conceal his political leanings for a chance to help Trump evade conviction?
Still, I’m confident that Trump ultimately will be convicted — by most if not all historians. But that assumes our democracy somehow survives the devastation he wreaked.
P. Jane Weil, Sacramento