KUDLOW: A Sitting President Imprisoning His Opponent Is A Despicable Act In American History

Yesterday was a sobering day for the entire country and, of course, for President Trump. As you know, Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty to all the politicized and weaponized charges ginned up by President Biden and Attorney General Garland’s Department of Justice aimed at stopping him from becoming president again.

They know full well that if Mr. Trump were elected to a second term, he would clean out the corrupt stables in the Washington, D.C., swamp.

The real-world scenario of a sitting president attempting to throw his principal opponent into jail is surely one of the most dastardly actions ever taken in American history — it’s stuff that is typical in Third World countries or Communist nations, but never before in America.

Mr. Biden himself is facing allegations in the ever-expanding Burisma bribery scandal. This is not to speak of the fact that Mr. Biden illegally removed documents when he was a senator and vice president, and then spread them around Washington and Delaware, and who knows where else.

But Mr. Trump is a fighter. Indeed, my term “fighting-ness” has won him new plaudits and support in the face of these unprecedented justice department attacks.

Mr. Trump gave an excellent speech last night at his place at Bedminster, New Jersey, showing an even-keeled temperament and raising a number of highly substantive issues.

Here’s one of his first points: “Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s decision states under the statutory scheme established by the Presidential Records Act, the decision to segregate personal materials from the presidential records is made by the president during the president’s term and in the president’s sole discretion. The president enjoys unconstrained authority to make decisions regarding the disposal of documents.”

Then, Mr. Trump talked about the outrageous charges regarding the Espionage Act: “Threatening me with 400 years in prison for possessing presidential papers, which just about any other president has done, is one of the most outrageous and vicious legal themes ever put forward in an American court of law. The Espionage Act has been used to refer to traitors and spies. It has nothing to do with a former president legally keeping his own documents as president. This applies to this case. It’s not the Espionage Act, but very simply the Presidential Records Act, which is not even mentioned in this ridiculous 44-page indictment.”

Finally, Mr. Trump keeps his eye on the most important issue in the presidential campaign, which is the failure of Mr. Biden’s inflationary socialist economic policies.

“Our country is in very serious trouble,” he said. “When inflation is allowed to rage, when energy independence and dominance. We had independence and dominance. We were going to be soon very, very dominant. Within six months, we’re going to dominate the whole world with energy. Make a fortune. We were going to be paying debt and lowering taxes at a level that nobody’s ever seen. And they came in and they ended it. But when that’s taken away from us, when interest rates and taxes spiral upward in an uncontrolled way.”

As I said, yesterday was a sobering and sad day in American history.

A sitting president attempting to weaponize the justice system by throwing his principal opponent in jail — never before has something like this ever happened in American history. Ever. Not even in the most corrupt days of the 19th century.

Here’s the good news: With his legions of patriotic supporters, Mr. Trump will fight this corruption to the bitter end. My advice: Don’t sell him short.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.

Larry Kudlow was the Director of the National Economic Council under President Trump from 2018-2021. His Fox Business show "Kudlow" airs at 4 p.m &. and his radio show airs on 770 ABC from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.