Even Mitt Romney Condemns Trump Indictment While Mitch McConnell Is MIA

Last week, former President Donald Trump was charged with 34 felony counts for making hush-money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. After unsealing the indictment, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 136 years in total, prosecutors have revealed that they are pursuing a novel legal theory regarding alleged falsifying of business records for the purpose of influencing an election. On the day of his arraignment, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the only Republican in the Senate to back Trump’s impeachment twice, spoke out against the overreach and dangerous precedent of criminalizing political opponents. Meanwhile, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has remained silent for almost 48 hours.

Romney condemned the indictment by a Manhattan prosecutor and said that “President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office.” However, he also noted that the prosecutor had “stretched” to bring criminal charges that fit a political agenda. In contrast, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy demanded that Republican committees investigate the prosecution moments after news of an imminent arrest, while House lawmakers are now debating whether to subpoena the Manhattan D.A.’s office.

The charges against Trump represent one of the most egregious and partisan attacks on a political opponent. Even a dozen liberal law professors and Trump antagonists criticized the prosecution as a dead end, and the case is so weak that it is unlikely to succeed in court. Despite the historic transition of the United States into a banana republic, the leading Republican in the upper chamber has remained silent on the 2024 GOP presidential front-runner’s political persecution.

Last month, Fox News aired footage of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot that undermined Democrats’ manufactured narratives about the riot being a “deadly insurrection.” Mitch McConnell was absent amid the ensuing media frenzy and led a chorus of GOP conference members to condemn McCarthy and Fox News. While he survived a challenge to his perch as GOP Senate chief in November, McConnell’s mismanagement of the fall midterms sabotaged chances for a Republican majority to instead maintain a conference he could control.