Lester Holt, anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, spent some time reflecting on his four-decade career in an interview for Esquire’s summer 2023 edition. On the front lines of every major news story, Holt identified three forces that shaped where we are as a country. “9/11, COVID-19 and Donald Trump,” he said. “Take that any way you want.
“I struggled with how many different ways you can say ‘lie’ without saying ‘lie.’ That was an honest-to-God struggle because it’s not something I would ever feel comfortable saying about someone in a respected position.”
Trump’s lies were colorful and fantastical, until he spread The Big Lie, the mother of them all. Trump’s speech – no matter how outlandish or repulsive – is protected under the First Amendment. That’s fine. But his actions in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and subvert democracy from the highest level of U.S. government are not.
Enough of the show. It’s all very serious now, to the point that cases about classified documents, civil lawsuits and hush money are in the background. Special counsel Jack Smith is out to make stick this four-count federal indictment. It’s tight, specific and built for prosecution, juxtaposing Trump’s destabilizing behavior with America’s very foundation. Trump knowingly “targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election,” Smith said.
Creating a kind of container with these conspiracy counts, Smith can be exacting in his method. He’s not tacking on charges to incite an insurrection or sedition or anything that would move this case away from its sound center.
Our country needs this trial for the simple, fundamental reason that U.S. democracy depends on it.
We all watched the worst of live reality TV on Jan. 6, 2021. This indictment marks our moment in history, in real time, at this crossroad. It’s all very sobering. This case will set the precedent for future U.S. leaders. Unless Trump faces consequences, other commanders-in-chief could also get away with abuses of power and authoritarian whims.
Predictably, Trump reacted to the indictment with his familiar go-to deflection, calling “election interference,” just another politically motivated prosecution, as he pushed attention away from himself, toward the Biden administration Justice Department. They’re out to get you, he tells his base. All tired words.
But his efforts in ordering his legal team to act on his wishes and throw the election, and pressuring a top Georgia official to “find” votes for him will sink him. Trump’s defense is already out – he was only taking advice from his lawyer, John Eastman, former visiting conservative scholar at University of Colorado Boulder.
Curiously, his supporters seem more emboldened with news of the latest criminal allegations. Trump still leads the GOP nominations. A Siena College/New York Times poll released Tuesday shows voters are split right down the middle in a rematch with Biden, with 43% behind each candidate.
This makes for much risk with a potential Trump conviction. He could easily inflame rioters once again to attack our nation’s Capitol and do much more harm than was already done with five people dying shortly before, during or following the event.
But we have to take that risk. We have to rely on – and protect – democracy. The U.S. Justice Department is prosecuting Trump for his conduct. Not his lies. He can say whatever he wants. Tall tales don’t really matter.
