One of the most difficult things to watch in this young presidential campaign is the tired tactic of accusing an opponent of one’s own sins, known variously as “deflection” or “projection.” We have to hope voters see through it.
When a presidential candidate breaks the law but says it’s law enforcement’s fault for catching him, that’s deflection. When a presidential candidate flagrantly violates the Constitution but says his opponent is an enemy of democracy, that’s projection.
We see both ruses in play in Donald Trump’s campaign and among the Republicans in Congress who are violating their ethics code by helping him.
Take Trump’s talk about democracy, for example. The former president led a thoroughly documented insurrection three years ago to overturn Joe Biden’s lawful election. But speaking in Iowa earlier this month, he called President Biden “the destroyer of democracy.” That’s projection.
When the Colorado Supreme Court ruled this week that the Constitution prohibits Trump from holding public office because he violated his oath to support it, the GOP frontrunner’s campaign said the ruling “attacks the very heart of this nation’s democracy” and “the very fabric of America.” That’s deflection.
He talks candidly about the autocracy he would establish if he were to win the presidency again. What he describes is the furthest thing from democracy.
The Constitution is the heart of our democracy and fabric of governance in the United States. It’s Trump, not the Colorado Supreme Court, who attacked the Constitution by staging an insurrection to overturn a lawful election. The Colorado Court simply confirmed the clause Congress put in the Constitution 155 years ago to protect itself and democracy against rebellion.
Another common theme among Republicans is that Trump is the victim of a government the Biden administration has “weaponized” against him. During his Iowa remarks, for example, Trump accused Biden of “weaponizing government against his political opponents like a Third World political tyrant.” That’s projection. Trump is the one who candidly describes how he’d weaponize the Justice Department, the FBI and even the military to punish his critics and suppress dissent.
It was grand juries composed of citizens, not President Biden or the attorney general, that ruled Trump should be indicted for multiple felonies. Law enforcement agencies are supposed to weaponize against lawbreakers. That’s their job. Trump is the victim of his own excesses. Blaming law enforcement for his crimes is like blaming the Bible for his sins.
Republicans in Congress are helping Trump deflect and project. Trump claims the Justice Department is engaged in a “witch hunt” against him. But that aptly describes the investigation of Biden’s family by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, chaired by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky. In months of hearings and new releases, Comer has issued countless allegations despite no evidence of wrongdoing. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Governmentis helping Trump advance the idea that his indictments are the government’s fault.
Trump bullies House Republicans who are reluctant to go along. He warned in July, “Any Republican that doesn’t act on Democratic fraud should be immediately primaried and get out. We got a lot of good, tough Republicans around. People are going to run against them, and people are going to win.”
“They impeach me, they indict me,” he complained. “And the Republicans just don’t fight the way … they’re supposed to fight.”
After Trump tweeted a threat — “IMPEACH THE BUM or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US” — all 221 Republicans voted to start an impeachment inquiry of President Biden Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, acknowledged that he voted for the inquiry to give Trump “a little bit of ammo to fire back” when Democrats point out that Trump is the first impeached ex-president.
Trump and his allies in Congress have turned the House into a subsidiary of his presidential campaign. But a House ethics rule prohibits members from “using official resources for camping or political purposes.” Members and their staff cannot use public resources to campaign for reelection or to assist any campaign or political undertaking, including the campaigns of presidential candidates.
“The misuse of the funds and other resources that the House of Representatives entrusts to Members for officials House business is a grave matter,” the rule says. “Depending on the circumstances, such conduct may result in not only disciplinary action by the House, but also criminal prosecution.”
It gets worse. Of the 147 Republicans who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, against certifying Biden’s election in 2020, 126 are still there. They aided Trump’s effort to overturn the election by trying to delay certification while his team rounded up fake electors. As a result, they may be subject to the same constitutional clause the Colorado Supreme Court says disqualifies Trump from holding any position in government.
So, by succumbing to Trump’s threats to take their jobs away in the next election, they may have sacrificed their careers in government. Although Section 3 of the 14th Amendment doesn’t mention presidents, it applies specifically to Congress members.
All this has added more layers of uncertainty on top of an election year filled with them. Will Trump be convicted of felonies before the election? If so, and if he wins, could he serve? Should he? Or should Trump do the honorable thing and hold off his candidacy until 2028 after he resolves his 91 felony counts?
The early 19th-century Scottish author Sir Walter Scott wrote, “Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive.” Trump has woven the web. Voters have a big job ahead to sort it all out.
William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to “Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” and contributor to Democracy in a Hotter Time, named by the journal Nature as one of 2023’s five best science books. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan climate policy think tank unaffiliated with the White House.