'Sleight of hand': How one RNC speech 'laid bare' what 'law and order' means to the GOP

On Tuesday night, one Republican National Convention (RNC) speaker gave a speech about how her family was unfairly targeted by prosecutors in Georgia, as a nod to former President Donald Trump's argument that the cases against him are politically motivated. But one columnist wrote that the narrative falls apart when looking just beneath the surface.

In a Wednesday analysis for the Washington Post, columnist Philip Bump delved into a speech by Savannah Chrisley on night two of the RNC, which was themed: "Making America safe again." Chrisley's parents — made famous from the reality show "Chrisley knows best" — are currently serving federal prison sentences for conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion. From the RNC lectern, Savannah Chrisley noted that her parents were prosecuted in Fulton County, Georgia. Naming the Peach State's most populous county, where the ex-president is also being prosecuted on multiple felony charges, drew boos from the crowd.

“I know! Fulton County!” Chrisley said. “They know how to do it, don’t they?”

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Though as Bump wrote, Todd and Julie Chrisley were prosecuted by the Department of Justice, not by local prosecutors (Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was not yet in office at the time of their indictment). And the U.S. attorney who indicted the Chrisleys was appointed by Trump himself in 2017. He later resigned in January of 2021 as Trump was attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Bump observed that Savannah Chrisley's speech was necessary to provide cover for a political party that was preparing to officially nominate a 34-time convicted felon to be its standard bearer in November. He also opined that the GOP's modus operandi of undermining certain prosecutors helps it continue its claim to support law enforcement. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told the convention earlier this week that "we in the Republican Party are the law and order team,” and that Republicans "always have been and we always will be the advocates for the rule of law.”

"The entire point of dedication to the rule of law, though, is that you have respect for and confidence in the process even as you recognize that it is imperfect," Bump wrote. "The concept is predicated on the idea that the dispensation of justice is mechanical and objective. If you eagerly champion the baseless idea that the system is targeting your allies, you are not an advocate for the rule of law. You are an advocate for the selective application of power, which the rule of law is designed to counteract."

Bump went on to argue that according to Chrisley, the Republican Party's interpretation of law and order can be more simply defined as putting "legal boundaries... around people they don’t like."

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"For all of the somber invocation of the Republican Party’s loyalty to law enforcement and respect for traditional American institutions, Chrisley’s presence on the stage laid bare the self-serving nature of the GOP’s rhetoric about prosecutions," he wrote. "Republicans believe deeply in the rule of law as it applies to protesters on college campuses, Hunter Biden’s gun charges and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey). But when the criminality is for things like fraud or tax evasion or spiriting classified material off to your home, the system is rigged against conservatives. Defund the IRS! Defund the FBI!"

"Chrisley’s speech was aimed at reinforcing the idea that prosecutors were targeting the right unfairly," he added. "The sleight of hand about timing and venue was merely a mechanism for making that case."

Click here to read Bump's full column in the Washington Post (subscription required).

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