I think this is a hindsight is 20/20 issue. In 2021, we really should've prosecuted Trump and sent him to prison. We wouldn't be dealing with the incredible litany of crimes and economic damage we deal with now if we had.
But in 2021, I don't think anyone seriously imagined Trump would actually be President again, and if you don't think he'll actually have any power, yeah, in 2021 it probably looked like a bad optics thing that probably wouldn't make any positive impact to do. And not for nothing, we were also still very much in the middle of COVID-19 as an active crisis.
I'd make the case that even if you thought he wasn't going to run again / would lose, it would be a bad idea to send him to prison on a less than black and white charge.
The clearest Constitutional line would have been impeachment, but the current Republican party cult nixed that one.
At some point, preserving widespread support (including Trump supporters) of elections and the judiciary is more important than not having a dumbass in office for 4 years.
To say nothing of the worst outcome if he had been sent to prison and won an election.
I mean, we had a lot of very black and white charges as of 2021 already. (We have many more now.)
But I would say that if your goal is preserving widespread support of elections and the judiciary from Trump supporters, that is a battle long since lost. Trump and his lackeys already believe any election that isn't a landslide for them was fraud, and has been actively attacking any judge who doesn't go along with his actions.
If we can't preserve widespread support for elections and the judiciary, we might as well put him in prison.
> But in 2021, I don't think anyone seriously imagined Trump would actually be President again
I don't think anyone who spends any significant time around the Trump cult would say this. These people are absolutely devoted to and worship him. When he lost in 2020, my first thought is, he's going to run again in 2024 and every election thereafter until he's dead, and he'll get tens of millions of votes each time.
But in 2021, I don't think anyone seriously imagined Trump would actually be President again, and if you don't think he'll actually have any power, yeah, in 2021 it probably looked like a bad optics thing that probably wouldn't make any positive impact to do. And not for nothing, we were also still very much in the middle of COVID-19 as an active crisis.