It Doesn't Pay To Be A MAGA Traitor

The conviction of former county clerk Tina Peters & the 165 page motion filed by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith gives the majority hope that at least some MAGA traitors will face accountability.

“Look at us. Look at what they make you give.”

I always think of this line from Bourne Identity whenever I see yet another willing or gullible MAGA cult member take the fall for Donald Trump’s audacious criminality, recklessness, greed and stupidity.

For those who haven’t seen the movie, Matt Damon, a formerly brainwashed assassin, shoots Clive Owens, another brainwashed assassin, during the climax of the movie. As he lays dying, Owens’ character looks at his wound and has a moment of tragic epiphany: “Look at what they make you give.”

Well, Tina Peters f’d around and is about to find out. The former clerk of Mesa County, Colorado was a willing accomplice to Trump’s failed plot to overturn the 2020 election results. She was sentenced to nine years in prison for her ideological zealotry and devotion to right-wing authoritarianism. During her sentencing, Judge Barrett had no time for Peters’ bullshit and unleashed a lacerating sermon of fury and righteous rage at her deliberate misconduct and corruption. “But you are no hero, you abused your position and you are a charlatan,” he said. “You cannot help but lie as easy as you breathe.”

(Then-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters at her primary election watch party at the Wide Open Saloon in Sedalia on June 28, 2022. Carl Payne for Colorado Newsline)

He might as well have been talking to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith announced that he’s back with a 165-page motion unsealed by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that provided new evidence on how Donald Trump acted in his private capacity to incite a violent insurrection and subvert our election. However, as Tina Peters’ conviction reveals, it wasn’t just Trump. It’s the near entirety of the modern GOP aided by a corrupt Supreme Court conservative majority that recently gifted Trump a perverse form of “absolute immunity” to escape his numerous crimes during his Presidency.

The grift and the coup continue in 2024. Just look at Tuesday’s VP debate where eyeliner enthusiast J.D. Vance gave a “damning non-answer” when asked directly by Tim Walz if Trump lost the 2024 election. It’s not just him but the majority of Republican voters who falsely believe Trump won in 2020 and who trust a serial liar, convicted criminal, rapist, and fraudster more than their family, friends, pastors and right-wing media.

(Tim Walz was all of us listening to Vance’s “damning non-answer” during the VP debate)

Thankfully, we still have some civil servants, law enforcement officials, and judges who believe that nobody, not even Donald Trump, is above the law. We also have an election in one month where one of the candidates, Kamala Harris, understands that this country was never meant to be ruled by Kings, Queens, and Emperors, and is willing to at least concede if she loses in November. Meanwhile, Donald Trump yet again this week refused to accept the election results if he loses.

In this week’s episode of Mary Trump’s Nerd Avengers, I stepped in to co-host as “Brown Mary Trump” and broke down all of this news with White House cub reporter Brian Karem and The Seneca Project co-founder and political commentator Tara Setmayer. Watch the YouTube show if you want a deeper dive.