Opinion | Donald Trump should be in prison

“You’re too honest.” 

Those are the words the former president of the United States – and the current Republican nominee – said to his then-vice president, Mike Pence, who had steadfastly and consistently refused to go along with a plan to overturn an American presidential election. 

“Hundreds of thousands of people are going to hate your guts,” Donald Trump told Pence, according to under-oath testimony provided by Pence and other Trump associates in the ongoing federal probe into Trump’s attempts to lead a coup against the country. 

Much of the evidence gathered by special counsel Jack Smith over the course of his months-long investigation was laid out this week in detail in a court filing. It was not speculation. It was not a political hit job. It was not opinion presented as fact. 

Instead, it was a collection of solid evidence gathered by Smith and his team through documents, cell phone records, computer files, court records and sworn testimony. And all of that testimony came from Trump associates – former staffers, friends and confidants – with none of it coming from political or business foes of the former president. 

Together, it painted the clearest picture yet of the multi-layered scheme that Donald Trump led in an effort to subvert a fair and valid election, disregard the will of the American voters, and remain in power. 

That evidence shows that Trump never had any intention of accepting a loss. It shows that he knew full well that he did, in fact, lose. It shows that he knew every step of the way that what he was doing was illegal, unconstitutional and un-American – because his colleagues, advisors, friends and family told him so – and still he pushed forward. 

At the center of his coup scheme was this crazy idea – cooked up by a screwball attorney – to recruit “fake electors” from a handful of states. 

State electors are responsible for casting each state’s designated number of electoral college votes. Those electors meet in their respective state capitals a few weeks after an election, cast their votes and then send them to Congress, where they are counted the first week in January. Ordinarily, this is not a complicated or closely monitored process, since the electors are typically just forwarding votes based upon the collective wishes of the voters of that state. 

But the Trump scheme, which he personally pushed and tried to pressure Pence to participate in, saw elected Republican officials in several key states recruit “fake electors” – and just to demonstrate how shady this plan was, the Trump team actually referred to them as “fake electors” – who would send their own set of votes for Trump to Congress. Then, the plan would shift to January, when Pence would refuse to certify the real electors’ votes, opening the door for the “fake electors’” votes to be counted instead. 

We also know from previous evidence presented in the cast that Trump planned to use the military to squash any resistance or protests that might arise once the fake votes were counted and he declared himself the winner of the election. 

In other words, this was a COUP. 

A coup so big and bold and insane that a third-world general in a Schwarzenegger movie would be proud. 

And the only thing that saved us was Mike Pence’s conscience. 

Despite Trump’s repeated threats and repeated pressure, Pence continuously refused to go along with this destruction of democracy. On Jan. 5, the day before the vote count, when Pence again refused to go along with the plan and patiently explained to Trump that he simply did not possess the power to refuse to certify the electoral college votes, Trump hit him with this: “I’m going to have to tell people that you did a great disservice.” 

Translated: I’m going to send my wacko cult members after you. 

Make no mistake about two things here: 1. Pence was right that he didn’t possess such powers, but that was a distinction that didn’t matter. All Trump cared about, as he said repeatedly, was creating a narrative, even if it was based on a lie, that people could latch onto and use an excuse to act to keep him in power. And 2. Pence was the only piece of this puzzle that didn’t fall into place. 

Other traitors to the country, such as Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, had no such qualms about undermining the constitution and the very country he has sworn an oath to protect and defend. 

Because another key component of this “fake elector” plan was members of Congress refusing to certify the electoral votes, and calling instead to accept the votes from the fake electors. Apparently, several members agreed to participate in the scheme and some, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, appears to have actually attempted to help recruit fake electors. 

Dozens of the fake electors from seven states have now been indicted and/or been convicted for their actions in the scheme. Others have entered immunity deals. The remainder were found to have been duped into participating in the scheme. 

But Trump didn’t stop at just that scheme. 

When it was apparent that the “fake elector” plan was crumbling, Trump switched to his only remaining option: the mob. 

Despite being told repeatedly that there was no evidence of massive fraud or voting machine tampering or stolen ballots, Trump told a crowd of supporters at his rally on Jan. 6 that the election was stolen. That there was new evidence. That states never meant to certify their election results and were now trying to get their certifications back. He told them to march to the Capitol to stop the vote counting. 

Later that night, when it became obvious that even the insurrection didn’t stop the certification of votes, Trump directed a staffer to make calls to Republican senators to try to stop the process. Smith states in his filing that he has voicemail messages from those calls. 

When he was later told that the mob he unleashed wanted to kill Pence and that the Vice President was in serious danger, Trump responded simply: “So what?”

Because that’s who Donald Trump is – a narcissistic con man who has never, for a single second, given a damn about anything or anyone other than himself. He has proven this time and again to anyone who has bothered to pay attention. 

We should all be thanking God every day that we narrowly avoided the end of democracy as we know it in this country. We should have used the entire ordeal to re-evaluate a few things and make some serious changes. We should have recommitted to honoring truth. 

And Donald Trump should be in prison.