“True — and Terrifying”: Columnist Agrees with J.D. Vance on Attorney General’s Role in a Trump Administration
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
In a surprising turn of events, Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus found herself in agreement with something Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) said during a recent interview. Marcus described Vance’s statement as “true — and terrifying,” reflecting on the significant role of the attorney general in a potential Trump-Vance administration.
On Monday, Marcus admitted that she was taken aback by her rare agreement with Vance, who is former President Donald Trump’s running mate. The issue at hand? The importance of selecting the right attorney general if Trump returns to the White House.
During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Vance was asked about the role of the attorney general in a possible second Trump administration. His response, Marcus noted, was a combination of “Trumpian gaslighting with a coating of Yale Law School sophistry.”
Vance remarked, “We really want the American people to believe that we have a fair and equitable administration of justice. If not, the entire sort of system falls apart. You need people to believe that if the attorney general prosecutes somebody, it’s motivated by justice and law, and not by politics.”
While Marcus acknowledged that Vance’s statement was factually correct, she argued that the irony lies in who was making the claim. In her view, no one has done more to erode public confidence in the rule of law than Trump himself.
“Trump did his best to politicize the Justice Department in his first term; he has vowed to more than double down if he wins a second,” Marcus wrote. “But that hasn’t stopped him — dutifully amplified by Vance — from accusing the Biden administration of ‘weaponizing’ the criminal justice system against its opponents.”
Marcus pointed out that this accusation is particularly misleading, given that Attorney General Merrick Garland has prosecuted members of Trump’s own party as well as Democrats. She highlighted Garland’s role in prosecuting Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and indicting Democratic politicians like Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
According to Marcus, Trump’s inability to “lock up” his political enemies during his first term wasn’t due to a lack of effort. She reminded readers that Trump has publicly vowed to target his rivals, including the “Biden crime family” and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who he once said “frankly should have been put in jail.” Vance, in response to these accusations, offered what Marcus described as “legalistic sentence-parsing and brazen assertions” regarding Trump’s supposed commitment to free speech.
In her closing remarks, Marcus emphasized the gravity of selecting the next attorney general. “In another Trump administration, if it comes to that, the attorney general will wield enormous power. If you believe that official will be chosen to do anything other than follow Trump’s bidding, you haven’t been paying attention for the past nine years,” she concluded.
