Diatribes and distractions: Why Democrats should ignore Trump’s indictment

Ok, let’s address the elephant in the room, shall we? On April 4, Donald Trump became the first former president in American history to face criminal indictment when he pled not guilty to a 34-count indictment in a New York courthouse and, predictably, the airwaves exploded.

Now, I’d normally be thrilled to weigh in on the political sideshow. But we can’t play this game right now.

See, whether we’re talking about conflicting rulings from two federal judges putting the legality of the “abortion pill,” mifepristone, on the line, and possibly the future of the Food and Drug Administration, or the legal threats to student loan forgiveness inching toward a Supreme Court ruling, our nation is reeling as the fight between the better and lesser angels rages like never before.

We are living in difficult and dangerous times. The fight for America’s soul is happening all around us right now,  and we can’t afford to be distracted.

In Tennessee, we watched as a GOP-controlled state legislature moved to expel Democratic State Reps. Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson because they had the audacity to stand with protesters speaking out for commonsense gun reform, after a 28-year-old gunman fired 152 rounds, killing three adults and three children in Nashville.

In Florida, we watched Gov. Ron DeSantis sign a law that allows anyone to carry a concealed weapon for any reason, without training or a permit, just months after a mass shooting in Lakeland, Fla., left 11 people injured, two critically.

And we watched as North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham flipped political parties to give the GOP-controlled legislature the supermajority it needs to overturn vetoes by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

But, while Trump and the GOP leadership want us to take the bait and get caught up in the personality politics of culture wars, we’re going to stay focused on actual policy that moves the needle for America’s families.

Let’s let them scream into an empty room while we focus on the great work we’ve done and transition from legislation into education and implementation.

The fact is, supported by unflinching leadership and vision from President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, House Democrats in the 117th Congress took their jobs seriously and passed one of the most monumental legislative agendas I can remember, including:

• Securing $1.9 trillion in the American Rescue Plan to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and give direct support to America’s families;
  
• Passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which invested $1.2 trillion, including $15 billion to replace lead water lines across America;
  
• Expanding the Child Tax Credit and cutting child poverty;
  
• Establishing a student-debt forgiveness plan, which, coupled with the Biden student loan pause extensions, provided critical relief to roughly 43 million Americans;

• Securing historic investments in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and roughly $100 billion in federal contracts to small, disadvantaged and Black-owned businesses;

• Standing up to serve our nation’s veterans with the PACT Act;

• Establishing the most sweeping gun safety law in decades;
  
• Investing $52.7 billion to lower costs, create jobs and strengthen our supply chain through the CHIPS and Science Act; and

• Passing the Inflation Reduction Act that not only combated inflation, but also capped prescription drug costs and included the most significant climate change provisions in a generation.

Add that to the work Biden did through his executive powers — including banning chokeholds and “no knock” warrants, appointing a record number of Black women to the federal bench, leading the way on marijuana reform, addressing mass incarceration, among others.

Seems to me the GOP wants to distract us with feigned outrage and manufactured crises because, when it comes down to it, they don’t have a policy leg to stand on. After all, since taking the House majority, have Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his right-wing allies done anything to raise wages or fight inflation?

While American families are gunned down in Nashville and Louisville, have they passed one bill to protect people from the rising threat of gun violence?

Do they have a plan to lower the cost of health care? Have they invested in American manufacturing or infrastructure? Have they protected the sanctity of life by helping the countless expectant mothers facing rising maternal mortality without access to an affordable OB-GYN?

Of course, they haven’t. And voters are speaking. In fact, today most Americans support the Affordable Care Act, 62 percent support forgiving student debt, and a whopping 71 percent say we should pass tougher gun laws.

President Bill Clinton famously said, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what’s right in America,” and, regardless of whether you’re on the left or right of the political spectrum, I can’t imagine anyone out there would disagree. Clinton was right then, and he’s right now.

We live in unusual times, so we cannot afford to do business as usual. We can’t afford to get caught up in the political bombast and theater. We can’t afford to take the bait and wage the philosophical war — because the stakes aren’t theoretical. They’re real and they’re far too high.

This isn’t a game. It’s time to step up and to be what’s “right in America.” It’s time to lead, and we can’t lead if we don’t win.

A CNN Poll found 60 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s indictment. An ABC News poll found a majority of Americans believe he did something intentionally illegal, and nearly half said Trump should suspend his 2024 presidential campaign.

In other words, there is little, if anything, that we Democrats can add to this conversation. The system provides Trump with a chance to be judged by a jury of peers. That’s the bedrock of our American courts. The wheels of justice will turn without us. 

So let’s let it be. We have bigger fish to fry.

Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC, a CBS News political contributor, and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way. Follow him on Twitter @antjuansea.