"For anyone looking at the wreckage of America's legal and political landscape and wondering how we got here, it's tempting to daydream about all sorts of counterfactuals. What if President Joe Biden had dropped his reëlection bid sooner? What if Vice-President Kamala Harris, the eventual nominee, had distanced herself from him? What if Gaza had not divided the Democrats? Other what-ifs envision different outcomes for the many legal cases against Donald Trump-at one point, he was facing ninety-one felony charges in four jurisdictions."
"For many Democrats, it is now received wisdom that, if only Merrick Garland, Biden's Attorney General, had promptly ordered a criminal investigation of Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol-when his supporters tried to stop the tallying of the Electoral College votes-everything might have been different. Jack Smith, the special counsel on the case, wasn't appointed until November, 2022, after Trump had announced that he was running for another term."
Observers imagine counterfactuals about how U.S. legal and political crises could have been avoided by different decisions, including earlier campaign changes or different handling of Gaza. Many Democrats believe that a prompt criminal probe by Attorney General Merrick Garland into Trump's role on January 6, 2021, could have altered outcomes. Special counsel Jack Smith was not appointed until November 2022 and the January 6 indictment came in August 2023, after key pre-election timelines had passed. The delayed proceedings, the subsequent dismissal after Trump's victory, and the unheld March 4, 2024 trial date represent a significant missed opportunity.
Read at The New Yorker
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