English

Presidential rage

By Jesús Sánchez Meleán

Haga click aquí para leer la versión en español

Thanks to the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, we have learned that former President Trump allegedly smeared ketchup on one of the walls of the White House Oval Room. Trump threw what was possibly a double whopper at the wall. Hutchinson says that herself, along with others, took it upon themselves to clean up the mess caused by the unbridled anger of a president who refused to transfer power as mandated by the constitution of the country he ruled.

That presidential anger originated when he heard “live and direct” on Fox News, surely, that William Barr, US Attorney General, considered that there was no indication of fraud in the recent presidential elections. That statement by Barr was preceded by another from the top official in charge of cybersecurity for the US government. Neither of them found any detail that would compel them to report fraud. That same opinion was held by some 38 courts in 21 states. There was no case to try.

In view of the absence of evidence or elements of fraud, the process of confirmation and certification of Trump’s electoral defeat continued. But, according to testimony from the hearing of the January 6 events, the loser of that race was still pushing a plot not to hand over power. To Jeffrey Rossen, acting DOJ secretary after Barr’s resignation, Trump reportedly said, “Go out there and say there was fraud. I’ll take care of the rest along with my allies in Congress. That’s all you have to say.”

Rossen did not listen to him. Nor did this lawyer believe there was any indication of fraud. One can imagine that the former president’s anger must have increased day by day as January 6 approached and he was faced with the reality of leaving the White House. According to Hutchinson’s account, another episode of anger took place precisely on that January 6. Trump reportedly maneuvered to take the wheel of the car that was transporting him from the place from which he delivered his speech that day to a safe place in the White House. He did not succeed.

This description of Trump as an irascible man had already been made by famed political journalist Bob Woodward. Precisely, Woodward titled his second book on Trump’s presidency “Rage”. For this book, Woodward had 17 interviews with the former president himself who allowed him to see him in his intimacy. In the conclusion of the book, Woodward says that Trump’s guiding principle as a ruler was to act on “impulse”. Woodward then goes on to conclude that “Trump is the wrong man for the job (of president)”.

The same conclusion as Hutchinson and Woodward is reached by the editorial team of the conservative Washington Examiner. On June 29, they published an editorial titled “Trump has shown that he is not fit to exercise power again”. In this editorial that collects and comments on Hutchinson’s revelations, it is also said that the former president should not approach power again because he is unstable and has lost touch with reality.

The Washington Examiner editorial states that Trump “is utterly uncaring and has no commitment to the sworn duty of effectuate a peaceful transition of presidential power.” It was wonderful that Hutchinson volunteered to clean up the ravages of the previous occupant of the Oval Office. A similar role to that of this young official, it seems, was filled by several dozen honest lawyers and polling place officials across the country.

They resisted to chant a fraud that did not exist. They kept untainted a democracy that a sore loser wanted to smear with ketchup.