Stone Debacle

Conservatives Are Taking Trump’s Side in the Roger Stone Debacle

KEVIN DRUM

Are there any conservatives who are objecting to Trump’s interference with the Department of Justice? Over at The Corner, there’s not a single post about it. On National Review’s home page, there’s exactly one piece—but it takes Trump’s side. The Wall Street Journal has nothing. Townhall has one piece, but once again it takes Trump’s side. Breitbart is also taking Trump’s side. Both the Federalist and the American Thinker take Trump’s side. The Daily Caller has nothing. Etc.

I might have missed something in my brief search. But over on the right, the unanimous opinion seems to be that the prosecutors on the Stone case were a bunch of vindictive zealots upset about the failure of the Mueller investigation and determined to take it out on poor Roger Stone. Maybe Trump was a little over the top in his criticism, but waddayagonnado? That’s Trump. And he was totally justified in being angry.

Quite the different worldview, isn’t it? On the right, they believe that liberals have conducted a brutal three-year war against Trump and that Trump is fully justified in hitting back hard. The Stone case is merely the latest skirmish in that war.