Source: The Nation
by Chris Lehmann
“Amid the steady torrent of MAGA-branded falsehoods and cynical spin jobs streaming through this election season, one whopper has stood out: the notion that Donald Trump’s criminal conviction in New York would prove an asset to his reelection campaign. Duly parroted among the Beltway press and right-wing pundits, this claim distilled a long series of GOP talking points on the reckless and tyrannical conduct of Democratic ‘lawfare’ targeting the former president. As righteous Americans saw the fallout from this campaign, they’d rise up in outrage on Trump’s behalf — or so went the standard MAGA refrain. But now that the verdict has sunk in — and Biden strategists have awakened to the advantages of pitching an aggressive message around Trump’s rampant criminality — voters are looking unlikely to join the retinue of MAGA leaders in storming the Bastille.” (06/18/24)