Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastEarlier this month, a lawyer for the busted Capitol rioter Anthony Antonio offered a remarkable defense for his client: It was Fox News’ fault. After losing his job during the pandemic, his lawyer argued, Antonio spent the next six months watching Fox News “constantly.” In doing so, he developed "Foxitus,” which caused him to believe Trump's “stop the steal” lies and then storm the Capitol. While this defense has garnered loads of media attention for its novelty, a much more cynical courtroom defense involving Fox News and right-wing punditry has been largely overlooked.That defense, dubbed the “No Reasonable Person” defense, has been made by a string of prominent conservatives, including Sidney Powell, Alex Jones, and Tucker Carlson. It argues that “no reasonable person” would believe the statements they make, which ostensibly gives them the right to say wh
The Atlantic
February 9, 2021
AP / Bloomberg / Getty / The Atlantic
One casualty of a moment in American life when politics seems to pervade everything is an inability by many prominent people to tease apart what is and is not a matter of politics.
The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, which gets under way today, offers several prime examples. As the refrain went during Trump’s first impeachment, in 2019 and early 2020, the impeachment process is political and not legal, even though it resembles a criminal trial. Yet in both the Democratic House managers’ case for prosecution and (more seriously) the defense brief from Trump’s attorneys, there is a confusion between matters that are appropriately legal or factual, and those that are political.