Norah O’Donnell thought she had the gotcha. In a tense 60 Minutes exchange, she pressed President Trump on whether the recent indictments of James Comey, John Bolton, and Letitia James amount to political retribution. The question was framed exactly how legacy media likes it, Republicans go after Democrats or their allies and it is vengeance, Democrats go after President Trump and it is the solemn majesty of the rule of law. President Trump did not nibble at the bait. He flipped the entire frame in one sentence. “You know who got indicted? The man you are looking at. I got indicted, and I was innocent. And here I am because I was able to beat all the nonsense that was thrown at me.”
That is the point the press refuses to grapple with. For years, the same media outlets that now clutch pearls about retribution cheered on every legal missile launched at President Trump. The Mar a Lago raid, complete with FBI agents rummaging through the First Lady’s closet, was treated like prime time entertainment. Jack Smith’s creative charging sprees were celebrated. Manhattan’s 34 count Frankenstein case was hailed as the beginning of the end. Every time, the talking heads chanted that no one is above the law while pretending weaponized lawfare is justice by another name.
Suddenly, when accountability swings the other direction, the narrative becomes dangerous. Cue the hand wringing about norms and banana republics. Spare us. If Norah O’Donnell wants to discuss motives, she should start by asking why the political and legal class believed it could run a multi-year campaign to criminalize the leading opponent of the regime and never face scrutiny itself. The double standard is not subtle. Investigations against President Trump are framed as necessary, even noble. Investigations into those who pushed hoaxes, bent rules, or abused office become retribution the minute a subpoena lands.
President Trump’s answer worked because it cut to the truth. He has lived under the most relentless prosecutorial barrage in modern American politics, a pile on encouraged and amplified by the very people now warning about cycles of revenge. He did not ask for a pass. He reminded everyone that he took the hits and kept fighting, and that crying foul only when your side loses the shield is not principle, it is privilege.
Norah tried to make the story about motivations. President Trump made it about equal standards. If the media wants to rehabilitate public trust, it can start by applying the same curiosity to the conduct of the powerful on the left that it applies to every sneeze inside Trump World. Until then, spare us the lectures. When the institutions act like political actors, they get treated like political actors. That is not retribution. That is accountability.
And yes, it was a mic drop. You could almost hear the control room scrambling for the next angle. The audience does not need another sermon from the Acela corridor. They need the truth put plainly. President Trump delivered it.
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