Merrick Garland is a failure, at least in the eyes of The Nation’s Elie Mystal and The New Abnormal politics podcast co-host Danielle Moodie, who dedicate this episode to talking through all the ways Garland has majorly screwed up.
Garland is the one responsible for bringing charges against former President Donald Trump for wrongdoing related to Jan. 6 and the 2020 election, yet, Trump has still not been charged. Mystal, who is also the author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, cites this as one of the reasons he thinks Garland has failed.
“Even in this world where people think that he’s playing 4D chess and that everything is going to work out fine in the end, I just wanna get people to understand the timeline of this thing…,” explains Mystal.
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“Let’s assume in the best case, rosy scenario, that Merrick Garland does charge these people, let’s say by March, right? March or April, let’s say the actual charges show up for something, for obstruction or whatever. How long do you people think it takes to go from a charge, an indictment, to an actual trial?” poses Mystal.
“At warp speed, we’re talking eight months. At regular speed, we’re talking a year or more. So now let’s say he’s going at warp speed. We’re gonna have a trial after Thanksgiving, you know, sometime December 2023. This is accepting of the fact that Donald Trump will appeal every single motion, every single shred of evidence, all of those appeals will have to go all the way up to the Supreme Court… Folks, the New Hampshire primary is February 2024.”
Mystal shares another reason why he has little faith in Garland prosecuting Trump, or any attorney general being able to do something actually good for that matter, and why the Democratic party “is always losing or almost losing.”
Plus! Can you imagine a Vice President Marjorie Taylor Greene?
New Abnormal hosts Danielle and Andy Levy don’t want to, but they give it a shot during this episode as well, addressing the news that the Republican may be vying for the position on a Trump ticket.
“I literally would need another passport to get the fuck out of here,” says Danielle. “We would never return from that cuckoo train, like ever, as a nation.”
Andy agrees.
“I guess the plus side is you put her in an office that historically is pretty worthless. And so she can go rant all she wants. But unfortunately, it’s historically pretty worthless until something maybe happens to the president. We cannot have her obviously a literal heartbeat away from the presidency. Also, if I were Trump, I would not trust her in that position,” he says.
The two also react to a clip of MTG calling for President Biden’s impeachment over the mishandling of classified documents—“She raises the possibility this is a setup, which is a little weird considering that it’s the Biden folks who found the documents and then immediately turned them over”—as well as a clip of Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer and Fox News’ Sean Hannity totally re-writing the history of Trump’s quid pro quo with Ukraine.
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
