Trump’s Threats To Imprison His Political Enemies Could Backfire
During an appearance on Meet the Press with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump claimed that some members of the House committee that investigated the January 6th attack should face prison time.
“Everybody on that committee … for what they did, yeah, honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said during the interview.
Trump’s idea to imprison his political opponents if he returns to the White House is a deeply flawed and short-sighted strategy. Such a move would be harmful not just for the nation and Congress but for Trump himself for three key reasons:
First, it would severely hinder any chance of advancing his legislative agenda. With such a narrow majority in the House, Trump would likely need Democratic support to pass key policies. He has often expressed a desire to reach an immigration deal with Democrats.
However, if he begins targeting former or sitting members of Congress with imprisonment, it’s unlikely that Democrats would want to cooperate with him on any legislative priorities.
Second, pursuing such actions would shift attention back to the January 6th attack. As time passes, public attention has moved further away from that event.
Yet, by taking aggressive steps to jail political opponents, Trump risks reigniting debate and scrutiny about the events of January 6th — and potentially fueling the very propaganda he and other Republicans pushed during their campaigns.
These moves, rather than solidifying Trump’s political position, would undermine his ability to govern and achieve his goals while sowing further division and distraction.
But we should remember, at least 20 million Americans tuned in for the Jan. 6 committee’s first prime-time hearing. People were riveted by the testimony. They were deeply concerned by what happened at the Capitol. The last thing you want to do is draw people’s attention back to that moment.
And finally, the third thing is, if you arrest people like former Rep. Liz Cheney or Rep. Bennie Thompson, you make them political heroes. One of the reasons many people believe Trump got re-elected was because he was sitting at a defendant’s table for weeks.
It made him a martyr. If he turns around and makes someone like Cheney a martyr, he only makes her stronger and more powerful.
So, how does it end for Trump if he tries to put Cheney or Thompson in jail for simply doing their job? We may soon find out.
Allison Detzel contributed.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com