Trump Is a Convicted Felon. But the American People Are Still the American People.

Plus: A response to Peggy Noonan's both sides.

Some very fine people gathered outside Trump Tower after the verdict was handed down. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

We did two special shows last night: George and Sarah and then a Megacast Livestream.

Also, Sarah and I taped a Secret pod this morning that will be out in a couple of hours and it is LIT.

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1. Good News / Bad News

The good news is that the rule of law can still function. I say this not because the jury reached the verdict I believe was correct, but because this trial was orderly, the state’s case was strong and built on evidence, the defense was vigorous and professional, and at the time it was seated, the jury satisfied both parties that it could be fair and impartial.

When you have all of that, you have the rule of law. Getting the “correct” verdict is just the icing on the cake.

Donald Trump will appeal this verdict, which is proper. We should hope that he gets a fair hearing on appeal. If the appellate court overturns the verdict, then so be it. That’s the rule of law, too.

And there’s more good news: Trump has spent his life dodging accountability. He has, finally, been held accountable for his actions by the criminal justice system. We should recognize this event and honor it. Because it is important.

There ends the good news. Let’s get dark.

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Last night I kept thinking about what LeBron James said after losing the NBA Finals in 2011:

Here’s the transcript, if you don’t want to watch it:

At the end of the day all the people who are rooting for me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today, they got the same personal problems they had today. . . . They gotta get back to the real world at some point.

Let me explain the parallel.

It would be nice to believe that a felony conviction will cause the scales to fall from the eyes of American voters. That over the next 20 weeks the public will realize that Donald Trump is manifestly unfit for office.

But we wake up this morning and the American people are still the same people.

• 55 percent of them think the economy is shrinking, when we’re actually the envy of the world.

• 49 percent think the stock market is down when it’s at historic highs.

• 49 percent think unemployment is at a 50-year high, when it’s at one of the lowest sustained levels, ever.

These are not the views of people who live in the real world. They are the views of a decadent people who believe that they have the luxury to play make-believe with political life.

And as encouraging as Trump’s conviction is, we’ve gotta go back to the real world in which those people are at least 45 percent of the country, and possibly more.

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If you want to believe that the felony conviction will be different, then I’d like you to explain why in the comments.

Why will this be different than insulting John McCain, or praising very fine people on both sides, or injecting yourselves with bleach, or hanging Mike Pence?

Maybe it will make a difference at the margins. Maybe Trump’s conviction moves the polls 2 points and allows Joe Biden to squeeze out a victory in the Electoral College. But do you think it could make a substantial difference? I do not.

To put it starkly: I believe that the state of the American voter is such that a felony conviction is unlikely to move the polls even by 5 percentage points.

But maybe I’m wrong. You tell me?

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One of the things anti-anti-Trump people have said is that it is “a sad day” to see a former president and current presidential candidate convicted of a felony and that it is dangerous to have a presidential candidate being pursued by the criminal justice system.

I agree, actually.

It is sad to see a former president become a convicted felon. It is a dangerous precedent that has been set. Do you know why we are in this sad and dangerous position?

Because Americans elected a criminal.

It isn’t Alvin Bragg or Joe Biden that brought us to this place. We are here because—and only because—of the actions of Donald J. Trump. And the people who are tut-tutting are basically saying that it’s the rule of law’s fault for wearing a red dress to the bar on a Saturday night.

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The only response to these bad-faith performance pieces is a single question:

Is Trump guilty?

I don’t want to hear about political motivations, or dangerous precedents, or existential sadness. Just answer the question:

Is Trump guilty?

Because we have a bunch of laws. We have a legal process to adjudicate these laws. None of the facts in this case were in serious dispute. And a jury of Trump’s peers found him guilty on 34 counts after just 11 hours of deliberation.

So when Susan Collins, or Steve Hayes, or the concern trolls tug their chins, tell them to answer the question:

Is Trump guilty?

Because if the answer is “no,” then you don’t believe in the rule of law. And if the answer is “yes,” then their bleating is just posturing and special pleading.

You know what we don’t do around here? “BOtH sIDeS.” Not ever. If you want a place where people call it like they see it, join The Bulwark. Right now. You won’t regret it.

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2. Speaking of Both Sides

They did it. Someone finally created the Platonic ideal of both sidesism. I give you Peggy Noonan:

The tragedy is that one of two old men, neither of them great, neither of them distinguished in terms of character or intellect, who are each in his way an embarrassment, and whom two-thirds of voters do not want as presidential candidates, will be chosen, in this crucial historical moment in which the stakes could not be higher, to lead the most powerful nation on earth.

I don’t have the words to describe such magnificence. They should have sent a poet.

That Noonan decided to write this passage on the day Donald Trump became a convicted felon only adds to its majesty.

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But I would quibble with other parts of Noonan’s column. For instance:

When was the last time you saw anyone try to address the other side with respect and understanding, and venture something like, “I think you’re seeing it this way, but I want to explain why I see it so differently, and that way we might both understand each other and proceed with respect.” Instead we accuse each other and put each other down and it doesn’t feel merry and high-spirited, like political business as usual, it feels cold.

Call on me, Mrs. Noonan! Call on me! I know the answer! This is the sort of thing she’s asking for, right?

In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators. The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen  in this country. . . .

This bill would save lives and bring order to the border. . . .

The Border Patrol Union endorsed the bill. The Chamber of Commerce endorsed the bill. 

I believe that given the opportunity a majority of the House and Senate would endorse it as well. 

But unfortunately, politics have derailed it so far. 

I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. 

It’s not about him or me.  

It’d be a winner for America! 

My Republican friends you owe it to the American people to get this bill done.  We need to act. 

And if my predecessor is watching instead of playing politics and pressuring members of Congress to block this bill, join me in telling Congress to pass it! 

We can do it together.

You know who said that? The sitting president of the United States and leader of the Democratic party. Isn’t that everything Noonan wants? There’s respect. There’s calm argument. There’s actual bipartisan action. There’s de-personalization of the conflict.

Now let’s check in with Joe Biden’s opposite number:

“Human scum”? Oh my stars and garters. But maybe that was a one-off . . .

Or maybe not?

It sure seems like Noonan’s entire piece is an exercise in pretending that Joe Biden does not exist and that the real Democratic party is some student radical who hates Biden’s policies and is never going to vote for him.

But she wouldn’t be that dishonest, would she?

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One more thing: Noonan says of Kamala Harris,

[Biden] will likely fail physically in coming years—he’s failing now—and be replaced by a vice president who is wholly unsuited for the presidency because she is wholly unserious, who has had four years to prove herself in a baseline way and failed to meet even the modest standards by which vice presidents are judged.

I carry no water for Kamala Harris and have no considered opinion on whether or not she’d make a good president. There are many reasonable criticisms one could make of her record in public service, especially of her time as a prosecutor.

But “wholly unsuited” and “wholly unserious”? It would be nice if Margaret could show some of her work here. Because that’s an expansive claim.

And when Noonan says that Harris has “failed to meet even the modest standards by which vice presidents are judged,” I’d like to know specifically which standards she is referring to and how, specifically, Harris failed to meet them.

One last question for Noonan: Which recent vice presidents or vice presidential nominees did meet these standards?¹ Which did not?

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Here’s how Noonan ends her piece:

Normally in a column like this you give a suggestion or two on how to turn things around. I don’t know, but I suppose it at least starts with understanding that the people we’re so harshly judging are our countrymen.

I’m in agreement with Noonan that it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together. But unlike her, I have a suggestion on how to turn things around:

People like Peggy Noonan should stop pretending that the problem is “both sides.”

Support a publication that doesn’t play make believe. Join The Bulwark.

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3. It’s Always the Ones You’d Most Expect

Without comment:

A Rhode Island man affiliated with the Nationalist Social Club-131 — a New England neo-Nazi group known for hurling accusations of pedophilia during drag queen story hours — is now facing a child pornography charge.

Stephen Farrea, 34, of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, was arrested Friday and arraigned on one count of possessing child pornography, the Portsmouth Police Department said in a press release this week. . . .

Farrea was previously arrested in 2022 after he refused to identify himself to police while hanging white nationalist recruiting flyers in East Providence. He and another man eventually pleaded no contest and were ordered to perform 20 hours of community service. 

A former Marine Corps corporal, Farrea was discharged after activists leaked his online advocacy for white supremacy in 2019, The Boston Globe previously reported. According to the Globe, Farrea said in online chats that he became interested in white nationalism after reading about an Iraq War veteran who helped plan the controversial — and deadly — 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Read the whole thing. Farrea was radicalized after the Charlottesville rally, which was made possible because the forces there believed that the election of Donald Trump meant that their cause was in ascendence.

I’m not blaming Trump for Farrea’s alleged crimes. What I’m saying is that when something cataclysmic like Trump’s election happens, it sends out ripples. One of those ripples was that white nationalists believed that they had, for the first time ever, an ally in the White House.

Elections have consequences.

1. John Edwards? Dick Cheney? Tim Kaine? Paul Ryan? Walter Mondale?

I’m happy to stipulate that George H.W. Bush was the most qualified vice presidential nominee ever. And on the list of best VP’s of the modern era, you’d have to put him right up there with Mike Pence—who did more for the country than perhaps any vice president