Another first. Never before in American history have we seen criminal charges filed against a presidential candidate or a vice presidential candidate, but now, like that old Certs commercial, we have two crooks in one. The Haitian Bridge Alliance in Springfield, Ohio filed criminal charges against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and their arrest could be imminent. That adds yet another first, never before has a first-term United States senator been the target of a criminal complaint by his constituents. This is getting off the charts, folks. If this was an earthquake, the needle would be in the other room by now.
“The criminal charges stem from the devastating harm of Trump’s and Vance’s baseless fearmongering that legal Haitian immigrants to the Ohio town are eating their neighbor’s pets,” Chandra Law Firm said.
Alliance’s cofounder Guerline Jozef sought the “immediate arrest” of Trump and Vance for disrupting public service, making false alarms, committing telecommunications harassment, committing aggravated menacing, committing aggravated menacing, and violating the prohibition against complicity.
“The Haitian community is suffering in fear because of Trump and Vance’s relentless, irresponsible, false alarms, and public services have been disrupted,” lead counsel Subodh Chandra said in a statement. “Trump and Vance must be held accountable to the rule of law. Anyone else who wreaked havoc the way they did would have been arrested by now.”
“There’s nothing special about Trump and Vance that entitles them to get away with what they’ve done and are doing,” the attorney added. “They think they’re above the law. They’re not.”
They think they’re above the law. And they think that politics is a reality TV show and as a TV show, it’s all for amusement’s sake and there are no consequences. That’s Trump’s problem in a nutshell. He grew up watching TV where he saw actors get killed on screen and then the next week the same actor is in another show hale and hearty. Trump thinks that’s how life is. He actually is that stupid.
It will be interesting to see the fall out from this. Great ad fodder, especially 41 days out from a general election. And the Haitian Bridge Alliance is not the only party in Ohio that is fed up with this. The Dayton Daily News ran an editorial a few days ago where they said that Vance’s behavior is unbecoming to his office, which is an understatement.
History, of course, offers no shortage of atrocities committed when the truth is viewed as an inconvenient obstacle in your way.
Indeed, the approach is antithetical to everything we value as journalists.
“Seek truth and report it” is the first principle of the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics.
While JD Vance is not a journalist, he is a U.S. Senator and vice presidential candidate with a powerful platform that reaches millions of Americans.
In his interview, Senator Vance repeatedly said he was responding to “first-hand accounts” from constituents who made various claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield.
When asked if he would provide names of those constituents to verify the claims, he demurred.
Worse, he has also doubled-down on the falsehood by spreading more sensational claims about immigrants in Dayton. Both Dayton Police and Dayton’s mayor adamantly denied the allegations in statements Saturday. […]
This desperate grasping at straws from Sen. Vance has become an embarrassment not only to himself, but to Ohio.
When journalists encounter extraordinary claims, we do our due diligence to find extraordinary evidence to substantiate them prior to publishing that information. If a mistake was made, particularly on a sensitive subject that might affect public safety, it is incumbent upon us to immediately publish a correction. It would be reckless – and dangerous – to do otherwise.
The people of Ohio are not happy with this. The article goes on to point out that “this deliberate spread of misinformation will require resources — taxpayer funds that are desperately needed elsewhere — to address the fallout. The Ohio State Highway Patrol has sent 36 members of its field force to sweep Springfield City Schools each morning before classes and to stay around during school. The Ohio Department of Public Safety has provided the use of its bomb detection dogs and several 30-foot high patrol towers equipped with cameras.” This is sheer madness, to have to burn through money like this, so that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump can have a social media meme to entertain MAGA with.
And of course the GOP is fine with it. L’etat, c’est moi. Trump is the GOP. Just one more reason on a pile of reasons why we need to vote every Republican into oblivion. Power is their one interest, no matter how they get it. As a matter of fact, this editorial started out with a quote by Machiavelli.
“If a leader does what it takes to win power and keep it, his methods will always be reckoned honourable and widely praised. The crowd is won over by appearances and final results.” – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
This is what Trump/Vance stands for: appearances. That’s all they’ve got, there is no substance.
I don’t think Ohio laws allows recall. JD Vance needs to be recalled as a liar and incompetent Senator.
Ohio law DOES allow for recalls. Unfortunately, members of the US House and Senate are not subject to recall–even if the state law said they could be recalled, the US Constitution takes precedence and there’s no Constitutional option to recall elected officials. (Various states have tried to impose term limits on their US Representatives and Senators as provided for by their state laws, only to be struck down by the courts which have consistently ruled that such limits can only be made if addressed by an amendment..)
Well, good! Just what the orange incubus and his sidekick couch mite deserve. God knows they need another court battle. Will they put Alina on this one, or will it be Aileen? They’ll both be looking for work soon.
They will not be arrested. But I hope that charges are brought and they go to court and have to pay damages to the Haitians, the town, the townspeople, etc. they need to learn! This should be a VP Harris political ad that is played over and over. Bp Harris should do ads sand so should her running mate. They are both excellent at ads!
the comparison to the absolutists of the Old regime right before the the French Revolution seems disconcertingly apt.