RPCV Peter Navarro the MAGA Martyr Who Went to Prison for You (Thailand)
Thank you for the request to explain. I will do my best. This is, of course, just my opinion. First,…
Credit…Damon Winter/The New York Times
Peter Navarro (Thailand 1965-68) walked out of federal prison Wednesday morning and walked into the Republican convention Wednesday evening to deliver a law-defying, teeth-baring, knife-wielding speech that was one of the more bizarre convention moments I’ve ever seen.
Navarro, who was the trade representative in the Trump administration, spent the last four months in the Federal Correction Institute in Miami, having been convicted by a Washington jury in September of contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.
To the audience here in Milwaukee, there is no badge of honor more awesome than a conviction for the sacred MAGA cause, and a prison term elevates that conviction to martyrdom, which is why the party instantly capitalized on his timely release. To the cheering crowd, Navarro milked every moment of suffering in the low-security tropical prison (where you can buy butter-pecan ice cream, cocoa butter lotion and an MP3 player in the commissary).
“They convicted me,” he said. “They jailed me. Guess what? They did not break me. And they will never break Donald Trump. They will never break Donald Trump. Here is the most important thing I’m going to tell you. You may be thinking this couldn’t happen to you. Make no mistake, they are already coming for you. Joe and Kamala.”
In his telling, he stood before his party as a battered political prisoner, sent to a remote gulag for his beliefs by the vitriolic rage of the Biden administration and its “lawfare jackals” in the Justice Department.
“In Trump’s America you didn’t have to worry about being locked up for disagreeing with the government,” he said. “I went to prison so you won’t have to. I am your wake-up call.”
The G.O.P. used to be a law-and-order party, but now it celebrates convicts. (Unless they are the immigrant “murderers and rapists” that Navarro said President Biden had brought to America’s doorstep.) Contempt of Congress isn’t really a crime, in the party’s new legal handbook, and judges, prosecutors and juries who do Biden’s bidding aren’t legitimate legal officers.
“Just as Democrat Judge Juan Merchan did to Donald John Trump in his Manhattan kangaroo court,” Navarro said, “another Democrat judge, a guy named Amit Mehta — keep your eye on this guy, an Obama appointee — they stripped me of every possible defense. And then what? Just like in Manhattan with Donald Trump, they threw me to the wolves of an anti-Trump jury, and where? The D.C. swamp.”
And with that he brought his fiancée, Bonnie, to the podium and kissed her on camera — “This is my beautiful girl, she did the time with me” — and as the crowd became ecstatic, this adult delinquent ascended into the Republican pantheon.
So much for ‘rehabilitation’. Al Capone couldn’t have said it better.
We were watching Ali Melner show on MSNBC in December of 2020. Navarro was guest and he started talking about the “Green Bay” plan. (I think I got the name right)
He detailed how the Trump administration would change the outcome of the 2020 election. He was so proud of himself. I was stunned. If nothing else why would he go public with such a plan? Navarro went to prison because he refused to honor a Congressional subpoena which asked for his notes, which probably would have detailed the plan he announced on TV/
Right now, I guess, lying for the “cause” is a badge of honor.
I am concerned that Peace Corps might be left to the “tender mercies” of an administration for which RPCV Navarro is considered a hero/ A suspended Peace Corps might be the best thing.
Ms. Roll’s comments about Peter Navarro were interesting, until the end reference about a ” suspended Peace Corps might be the best thing.” What does that mean? Please explain.
Thank you,
Thank you for the request to explain. I will do my best. This is, of course, just my opinion. First, the Peace Corps is a federal agency. It’s Director is appointed directly by the President and then confirmed by the Senate. This allows the political party who won the election to influence
directly the Peace Corps.
Peace Corps Vounteers are unique within the federal system, in that they are the equivalent of “employees at wiill”. They do not have the same protections as federal employees do. I don’t know how their assignment might be changed or what they might be mandated to do.. There is much which is not known about how a new Trump administration would operate. For that reason alone, I
would rather see the Peace Corps “suspended”.