AMAC Exclusive – By B.C. Brutus
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s transparently partisan persecution of former President Donald Trump has further crystalized how extreme the Democrat Party has become and may prove a serious liability to red-state Senate Democrats even before their 2024 re-election campaigns get underway, most notably Jon Tester of Montana, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. So too while Bragg may force those incumbents to face embarrassing questions about Democrat attempts to use the legal process against political opposition and dissenters, the phony case against Trump might also supercharge House Republicans’ investigation into the weaponization of the government and put pressure on Democrats to answer questions raised by, of all people, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo about potential coordination between the many ongoing attempts to take down Trump.
In Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia – which Trump carried by healthy margins in 2016 and 2020 – the sight of the 45th president and leading contender for the Republican nomination in 2024 being perp-walked in front of news cameras would likely prove devastating for Democrat senators who have relied on a reputation of moderation to get elected.
While an arrest of Trump would enrage Republicans, it would also alienate many Independent and moderate Democrat voters, who likewise recognize the dire implications when the party in power starts arresting its political opponents. The image would flip the left’s narrative that Republicans are a “threat to democracy” on its head and add credibility to the charge that Democrats are the real hazard to “democratic norms.”
Law professor Jonathan Turley has also warned about another danger, namely that “This could trigger a type of tit-for-tat response where Republican prosecutors seek to weaponize criminal charges against Democrats… We cannot afford a race to the bottom in political prosecutions.”
From a political perspective, Bragg has also put Democrats in a precarious position. As the party continues to struggle to shake its association with far-left radicalism, Bragg – a George Soros-funded prosecutor who has been called out by the widows of slain cops for his soft-on-crime policies – is suddenly the face of the Democrat Party. While Bragg has become a hero to the far left, he has become a symbol of everything wrong with the Democrat Party for the rest of the country.
Likely for this reason, leading Democrats have been noticeably reluctant to embrace Bragg’s investigation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – a fellow New York Democrat – has refused to say if he has confidence in Bragg, undoubtedly recognizing the peril that Bragg’s probe places his most vulnerable members in.
Even former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, another strident Trump critic, has sounded off in opposition to the probe. “You have a cynical public, they don’t believe anyone and when you start to see these prosecutors bring political cases, it just affirms everybody’s cynicism,” Cuomo said on Saturday.
Cuomo further raised the question about whether the various prosecutions of Trump actually show collusion on the part of the Democrat operatives behind them, scoffing at the idea that “It’s a coincidence that Bragg goes after Trump and Tish James goes after Trump and Georgia goes after Trump.”
Bragg’s weaponization of the justice system against Trump also further exposes the “rule or ruin” mentality evinced by Tester, Brown, and Manchin that may leave them on the outs with voters.
Though these Democrats have sold themselves as moderates, they have in fact voted along with far-left interests on a whole slate of policies that threaten to undermine fundamental American institutions. Last year, the three aligned with Schumer to attempt to ram through a number of radical changes to the U.S. election system, including federalizing elections, eliminating Voter ID, legalizing ballot harvesting, and even destroying the sacredness of the secret ballot. They also voted the party line on efforts to abolish the filibuster, pack the Supreme Court, and pack the Senate by adding new Democrat states.
With each of these votes, Brown, Tester, and Manchin undermined their credibility as moderates and made clear that they are determined to either “rule” American democracy or “ruin” it. Now, their failure to denounce Bragg’s investigation could help all of these narratives break through to the broader public and expose their complete capitulation to far-left radicalism.
One conservative PAC showcased how effective this line of attack could be last year in a series of campaign ads – including against blue-state Democrats like Schumer and Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal – that the Citizen Free Press hailed as “the greatest of all time.” Democrats like Tester, Brown, and Manchin are no doubt already being kept awake at night by the thought of similar ads over the next 18 months that highlight their complicity in the blatant politicization of the justice system.
Bragg’s targeting of Trump also threatens to backfire in a massive way by blowing the top off a massive collusion scandal. Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik has already called for Bragg to testify before Congress under oath, and Rep. Jim Jordan – the Chair of the newly formed House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government – has asserted that Bragg’s motivations for seeking an indictment of Trump are purely political in nature.
If Bragg and other Democrat lawyers involved in the Trump probe are subpoenaed and forced to testify, it could raise a whole host of uncomfortable questions that Republicans were clearly hinting they want to ask about the involvement of individuals from both the Democratic establishment and even the Biden Department of Justice in an effort to manufacture an arrest of Trump to remove him as a political threat.
Reports are already surfacing that there is major dissention within Bragg’s office over the Trump probe – another sign that people close to the investigation are concerned about any inquiries into it. Aside from just the appearance that Democrats are trying to crush dissent and opposition through pseudo-legal means, ethics investigations could soon follow for Bragg and his compatriots.
Even if Bragg and his potential co-conspirators can survive scrutiny, they may well have torpedoed a handful of critical Democrat campaigns before they even start and leave Chuck Schumer in the minority once again. Moreover, Democratic candidates everywhere may have to face questions that they are trying to crush political dissenters and opponents in view of their party’s escalating attacks on not just Trump, but also Elon Musk, Fox News, and even ordinary American citizens who dare to speak out at school board meetings.
B.C. Brutus is the pen name of a writer with experience in the executive and legislative branches of government.
