NC Republicans had a lot to say about Trump verdict — and most of it was dangerous | Opinion

A jury unanimously found Donald Trump guilty in his New York hush money trial Thursday — making him the first president in U.S. history to be criminally convicted, let alone convicted of a felony.

And North Carolina Republicans had a lot to say about it.

In the wake of the verdict, they took to social media to defend their party’s leader and presumptive presidential nominee, calling the trial a “sham” and insinuating the whole thing was a political orchestrated by Joe Biden and his Democratic allies.

U.S. Sen. Ted Budd called it a “rigged charade” and encouraged his followers to donate to Trump’s campaign to join him in “fighting back.” U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx called it a “political witch hunt.” Said Rep. Greg Murphy: “We are officially now a banana republic.”

Others more brazenly chose to lay false blame directly at the feet of Democrats.

“The American people know that this verdict is election interference and the Biden admin is behind all of it,” Rep. Richard Hudson said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

(Of course, the Biden administration had nothing to do with this case, as it was brought by the Manhattan district attorney and the conviction was unanimously agreed upon by a jury of 12 New Yorkers.)

North Carolina Lt. Gov. and GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson said, “The Democrats know they can’t beat President Trump at the polls so they weaponize our government against him.”

Those half-truths and lies are dangerous enough. But some Republicans, like Rep. Dan Bishop, opted for even more sinister rhetoric.

“Lawfare has reached its Waterloo,” Bishop said in an X post. “A reckoning is coming for gangster government.”

Waterloo, of course, was a bloody battle that marked the final defeat of Napoleon. Nearly 50,000 lives were lost. Is that the kind of “reckoning” Bishop wants to see?

How interesting — and revealing — to see the crowd that constantly cries about “law and order” turn on that very principle when their ally is the one being brought to justice. It’s particularly rich coming from Bishop, who is running to be the state’s chief law enforcement officer yet seems to be directing strangely ominous threats toward the government itself.

No one should be above the rule of law, not even an American president. “Law and order” means that everyone must be held to the same standard. Yet Republicans continue to undermine the public’s faith in our justice system, egged on by Trump himself, who insists he is a “political prisoner” and has repeatedly likened himself to Mother Teresa. The lies, the false accusations, the hints of violence — those words carry especially dangerous weight when spoken by those with power and a platform.

But we shouldn’t be surprised. Nothing, so far, has been enough to cause most Republicans to stray from the man who demands their absolute fealty, despite the severity of his crimes and moral transgressions. They stood by him through an insurrection, the mishandling of classified documents, through credible sexual assault accusations for which he now owes more than $80 million. They’ve bent over backwards and forwards to justify why they still support him, no matter what the truth says. A felony conviction was never going to change that.