This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, June 11, 2024
I have been avoiding writing this article for a few weeks now, but I can no longer avoid this controversy. I am going to have to comment on the prosecution of Donald Trump now that he has been found guilty. It is a sad day for our country because we have a president who has been convicted in a court of law. No one can disagree that this is a terrible thing. If you think Trump has broken the law, that should be upsetting to you. If you have some doubt about how this guilty verdict was reached, this should still be upsetting to you. There is no upside no matter what side of this issue you are on.
Donald Trump was found guilty of a violation of federal campaign finance laws. The particular violation he was found guilty of was for filing incorrect documentation of a payment made to a porn star. He had his fixer make the payment and Trump reimbursed him the money. Trump filed the reimbursement as legal expense rather than filing it under the proper designation. I am not sure if that means that politicians pay off porn stars so often that there is a legal category for that, but whatever it was, this hush money was not filed properly.
The payment was made in 2017 and to misfile something like this is a federal misdemeanor which has a 2-year statute of limitation. That means that the window of opportunity to file charges in this case ran out in 2019. If you are doing the math, that is 5 years ago. State courts do not have jurisdiction over a Federal case like this yet Donald Trump was found guilty of a felony for what happened here. Let me say it again, Trump was found guilty of a felony in a state court for a federal misdemeanor for which the statute of limitations ran out 5 years ago.
Before you send me messages questioning my morality because you can’t believe that a pastor is defending someone who cheated on his wife and paid off a porn star to keep quiet about it, hear me out. First, I am not taking anyone’s side, I am just reporting what happened. 5 years after the statute of limitations ran out, Trump was convicted of a state felony because of a federal misdemeanor. Second, if you are celebrating pride month, endorsing men in women’s locker rooms, or are ok with sexual agendas being pandered to children, don’t waste your breath lecturing me on morality.
To be honest, I think Joe Biden missed an incredible opportunity here. Given the very shaky legal ground this case rests upon, Biden should have pardoned Trump. That’s what I would have done. Biden would have then been able to face Trump on the issues rather than handing Trump this golden goose. People who hate Trump think he is guilty, people who support Trump are going to vote for him even if he is in prison. The smart move here would have been to sway the small percentage of Americans who are in the middle. Biden could have come out of this looking like the bigger person and challenged Trump on the issues. They have scheduled debates and since Biden believes his record on abortion, the handling of foreign affairs, and the economy are strong, he could have made Trump look much worse on these issues by showing himself to be the bigger man. Biden brags all the time about how much better things are now then we were under Trump and if he feels that way, then make the case. What this looks like now is a plan to incapacitate his political rival and a large number of American people agree that is what it looks like.
If you care what I think, I think that both Trump and Biden are garbage people, absolute bottom feeders. I do not believe I could be friends with either of them, we share no interests, and I would hold neither of them up to be an example to anyone about anything. Just like I have said for every election since my first presidential election in 1996: of all the people in the country, how is it possible that these are the best 2 we could find? As much as I stood behind that statement in 1996, I stand behind it even more today.
When I cast my ballot this November, I am going in with one question and one question only: which one of these two candidates improved the quality of life for our country? That is the only metric we have to evaluate a president. Not only the stance on abortion, which most directly affects the quality of life, but the economy, military conflicts, and upholding some kind of standards and values for communities across this great nation. If you are willing to be honest, you are going to cast your vote with the exact same criteria. And even if we end up disagreeing about which candidate that is, I embrace you as my fellow American where we used to be able to disagree without having to go scorched earth in response.
Whatever your political leanings, please pray for our country. We are a mess right now and we have been for many years. The world deserves better from us and so does the future.