In a radio interview
on November 2, Trump said “the saddest thing is, because I am the President of
the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice
Department. I’m not supposed to be involved with the FBI. I’m not supposed to
be doing the kind of things I would love to be doing.”
Trump then asked,
referring to the Department and the FBI, “why aren’t they going after Hillary
Clinton with her emails and with her dossier?”
In a series of tweets
Friday morning, Trump directly called on the Justice Department and the FBI to
“do what is right and proper” by launching criminal probes of Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s obvious aim
was to deflect attention from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of his
campaign, and of the indictments issued against his campaign aides.
But by calling on the
Justice Department to investigate Hillary Clinton, and lamenting he cannot do
“the kind of things I would love to be doing,” Trump crossed a particularly
dangerous line.
In a democracy bound
by the rule of law, presidents do not prosecute their political opponents. Nor,
until now, have they tried to stir up public anger toward their former
opponents.
Our democratic system
of government depends on presidents putting that system above their own
partisan aims.
As Harvard political scientist Archon Fung has noted, once an election is over, candidates’ graciousness to one another is an important demonstration of their commitment to the democratic system over the specific outcomes they fought to achieve.
This helps reestablish
civility and social cohesion. It reminds the public that our allegiance is not
toward a particular person or party but to our system of government.
Think of Al Gore’s
concession speech to George W. Bush in 2000, after five weeks of a bitterly
contested election and just one day after the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor
of Bush. “I say to President-elect Bush that what remains of partisan rancor
must now be put aside, and may God bless his stewardship of this country.”
Gore publicly bowed to
the institutions of our democracy. “Now the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let
there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, I
accept it … And tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength
of our democracy, I offer my concession.”
Bush’s response to
Gore was no less gracious: “Vice president Gore and I put our hearts and hopes
into our campaigns; we both gave it our all. We shared similar emotions. I
understand how difficult this moment must be for vice president Gore and his
family. He has a distinguished record of service to our country as a
congressman, a senator and as vice president.”
Many voters continued
to doubt the legitimacy of Bush’s victory, but there was no social unrest, no
civil war. Americans didn’t retreat into warring tribes.
Think of what might
have occurred if Gore had bitterly accused Bush of winning fraudulently, and
blamed the five Republican appointees on the Supreme Court for siding with Bush
for partisan reasons.
Think of what might
have happened if, during his campaign, Bush had promised to put Gore in jail
for various improprieties, and then, after he won, called on the Justice
Department and the FBI to launch a criminal investigation of Gore.
These statements –
close to ones that Donald Trump has actually made – might have imperiled the
political stability of the nation.
Instead, Gore and Bush
made the same moral choice their predecessors made at the end of every previous
American presidential election, and for the same reason.
They understood that
the demonstrations of respect for each other and for the Constitution confirmed
the nation’s commitment to our system of government. This was far more important
than their own losses or wins.
Donald Trump has no
such concern.
This is the essence of
Trump’s failure as president – not that he has chosen one set of policies over
another, or has lied repeatedly and chronically, or even that he has behaved in
childish and vindictive ways unbecoming a president.
It is that he has
sacrificed the processes and institutions of American democracy to achieve his
own selfish ends.
By saying and doing
whatever he believes it takes for him to come out on top, Donald Trump has
abused the trust we place in a president to preserve and protect the nation’s
capacity for self-government.
This will be his most
damaging and most damning legacy.
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center
for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton
administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective
cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books,
including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of
Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
INEQUALITY FOR ALL.