Doris Kearns Goodwin on Oath Keepers Founder Sentence: The Accountability of Law Is Holding Up

EXCERPT:

KEARNS GOODWIN: "Well, I think the most important thing you’re seeing is that the accountability of law is holding up. We may have felt for a period of time that the Justice Department was moving too slowly, where are they? But they’re winning case after case. Big sentences are going down. The real battle that’s going on right here is the battle for public sentiment. The country has to come to the understanding of what you just said. That what happened on January 6th was one of the greatest violations in the history of our country. A peaceful transition of power was trying to be upset by these people. And if the country more and more understands that — we had a competing narrative from Trump and from his allies that, 'No, it was just a bunch of tourists, they weren't doing anything wrong, they're heroes,' that narrative is not going to stand, in my judgment. As more and more of these accountabilities take place, as the law makes its way here — Lincoln said, 'As long as you have public sentiment, you have everything. Without it, you have nothing.' That's what democracy is about. And my optimism about this is, each one of these cases comes down -- every single one of these cases, whether it is E. Jean Carroll, whether it's Dominion lawsuit, now other ones are coming down, the country is a rational country. They’re going to see that something is very wrong with these things happening, and that counternarrative that Trump and now DeSantis are trying to hold, it’s not going to break through. The suburbs are not going to accept that. So I think we have to say that Lincoln is right. With public sentiment, anything is possible. Without it, nothing is. I think we’re on the way."