Dan Rodricks: Mosby’s Trumpian echo, Vignarajah’s self-serving flip | STAFF COMMENTARY
Baltimore's Marilyn Mosby requests a presidential pardon, Donald Trump style; Thiru Vignarajah chooses corruption in mayor's race. Two for one column day.
Two columns for the price of one today, starting with a review of Marilyn Mosby’s Trumpian performance on national television, followed by the Baltimore mayor’s campaign and Thiru Vignarajah’s self-serving role in it.
Regarding Mosby: There was a distinct echo of Donald Trump in her six minutes of whining on MSNBC Wednesday night.
With the full complicity of host Joy Reid on “The ReidOut,” the former Baltimore State’s Attorney complained about her legal problems the way Trump does every day — with declarations of complete innocence, claims of being unfairly targeted and victimized, assertions of prosecutorial misconduct and political vendetta, and without anything close to contrition.
Reid’s setup for the interview presented Mosby as a martyr — a progressive prosecutor who had the courage and audacity to charge police officers in the death of Freddie Gray only to become the victim, seven years later, of a federal prosecution over a petty crime that might not even be a crime. Mosby used her own money to buy those two properties in Florida during the pandemic! The feds want to send her to prison for 40 years for using her own funds!
“’Tis as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you now, as can be offert.”
I’m not quoting Reid there. That’s from Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” Act 4, a line by Fluellen. But it came to mind as I listened to an incredulous Reid describe what she considers a grave injustice.
We all understand that MSNBC’s role is to bash Trump and defend Democrats pretty much 24/7, and Reid obviously has particular sympathy for Mosby, a Democrat who served two terms as the city’s top prosecutor. In February 2022, after the feds charged Mosby with perjury, Mosby appeared on “The ReidOut.” The host threw nothing but softballs and let Mosby and her lawyer present a defense for 11 minutes.
But Wednesday night’s segment, while blessedly shorter, was far worse, with Reid completely falling for Mosby’s claim that she’s the victim of political persecution.
She made Mosby’s crime — lying to exploit a pandemic-related law that allowed her to withdraw $80,000 from her retirement savings account without a penalty — seem like petty nonsense.
It sounded strikingly similar to what we hear from Trump and his defenders regarding the charges in his criminal trial underway in New York: The case is nothing, just a little money-shuffling to cover up an alleged affair with a porn star, something anyone would do.
Of course, Reid never mentioned that, in order to get the money from her retirement account, Mosby needed to show financial hardship. But Mosby continued to earn her $250,000 annual salary throughout the pandemic even as state employees serving under her were furloughed.
Not much was made of Mosby’s reason for getting the money — to make down payments on two properties in Florida worth about $1 million combined.
And Reid, who ridicules right-wing conspiracy theories on her show, had no problem drawing a direct line between the 2015 Freddie Gray case against cops and the 2022 federal cases against Mosby. Reid totally accepted Mosby’s claim that her aggressive, but failed prosecution of cops prompted federal authorities to go after her and keep her from winning a third term.
Again, there was a Trump echo: His defenders claim the criminal cases against him are part of an elaborate effort to interfere with this year’s presidential election.
“If they can do this to Marilyn Mosby … they can do this to anybody,” Mosby said.
Another Trump echo: He and his defenders have said pretty much the same, arguing that any citizen could be unfairly targeted in a criminal investigation.
Of course, there’s another, very different meaning in such words: If a former president can be indicted for committing business fraud, if a former Baltimore State’s Attorney can be convicted of lying on financial forms, then people who enjoy positions of power are not above the law. No one is. And most Americans still see that as an ideal of our justice system.
As for Mosby facing 40 years in prison, that’s not going to happen, and every grownup knows it. Still, it helped Reid and Mosby stoke outrage.
And maybe it did.
Maybe, somewhere out there, some viewers bought the story and were moved to sign Mosby’s online petition for a pardon by President Biden. Yes, somewhere out there. But not here.
Regarding Vignarajah: He entered the Democratic primary offering himself as a third choice for mayor, after Brandon Scott, the incumbent seeking a second term, and Sheila Dixon, a former mayor trying another political comeback after leaving office in disgrace in 2010. Vignarajah said that, without his presence on the ballot, Baltimoreans faced a choice “between corruption and incompetence.”
Looks like he chose corruption.
Vignarajah Wednesday withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Dixon after apparently shopping around for the best return on his support. Dixon says no deal was struck, no promises made. But none but a blockhead would believe that.
Meanwhile, Scott’s staff says Vignarajah wanted to be named either police commissioner or CEO of the city schools in return for his endorsement of the mayor.
So much for Vignarajah’s pitch to voters — being more competent than Scott, having a cleaner record than Dixon’s. Just a couple of weeks ago, Vignarajah was on the phone with me, pitching a negative story about Dixon. Now he’s all-in with her. What a tower of integrity.