Democrats are getting cold feet as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg draws closer to a potential indictment of President Donald Trump.
After salivating for years at the prospect of seeing Trump charged or imprisoned over a litany of issues, some members of the opposing party are now openly questioning the DA’s strategy and asking if the trumped-up charges will be a net negative in the long run.
According to Axios, conversations with political insiders reveal the Democratic Party is privately torn over how to respond if and when President Trump is charged, a first in the nation’s history. Former Ohio Democratic Party chair David Pepper said Trump is guilty of “far more serious crimes” than the ones being elevated by DA Bragg.
Other Democrats, speaking anonymously, compared Trump’s potential charges on records falsification as similar to those brought against former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards in 2012. Edwards was ultimately acquitted.
Norm Eisen, attorney for the liberal-leaning Brookings institution, has called the DA’s decision to elevate Trump’s charges to a felony “more complicated” than the open-and-shut case Democrats may be hoping for.
Bragg, the Manhattan DA, has himself been elevated to the national stage in a case that’s sure to influence the 2024 presidential campaign season for many months. As Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis, and other Republicans seek to portray him as an agenda-driven, soft-on-crime prosecutor, Bragg’s defenders have been pushing back. Speaking with POLITICO, they painted the picture of a by-the-books attorney who follows the facts where they lead.
How and when Bragg decides to proceed in this case will certainly leave a lasting influence on efforts by Democrats to help President Joe Biden win a second term, or help a successor should he choose not to run. On Monday, law enforcement officials met to discuss how to proceed with any arrest of Mr. Trump. Sources told Fox News that the Secret Service recommended a virtual arraignment and blamed Braggs for putting officers’ lives in danger by leaking information about the pending arrest to the media.
