For Donald Trump, it’s now a transition to prison
Now that the doomsday fantasies about Donald Trump somehow magically overturning the election have finally been put to rest, let’s turn our attention to the real narratives at hand. And no, none of them center around Trump somehow magically running for president in 2024, by which time he’ll obviously be behind bars.
First, Donald Trump’s future now consists entirely of criminal charges, civil litigation, and financial crisis. In other words, prison and bankruptcy. Now that he’s sorta kinda conceded, he’ll use the rest of his time in office to try to give himself a softer landing when it comes to prison and bankruptcy.
That leads us to the next thing on the table. Trump will likely try to pardon himself, his family, and his underlings on his way out the door. Keep in mind that pardons are not magic wands. Some of them will likely be thrown out in court, on the basis that he can’t pardon his own co-conspirators. And in any case, Trump can’t even try to pardon himself or anyone else on state charges.
Then there’s the fact that Trump desperately needs money. He’ll likely try to pilfer cash on his way out the door, cut corrupt deals in exchange for future kickbacks, perhaps even start selling off pardons to wealthy criminals. This is the stuff we should have been watching closely for all along, not signs that Trump might magically overturn the election results.
Finally, there’s the reality that everything about the next four years will be largely defined by whether we win the Georgia Senate runoff races and take control of the Senate. Without it, President-elect Joe Biden will have an uphill fight in everything he tries to do. It’s time to put everything we have behind Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock.
