For about 24 hours after the verdict in Donald Trump’s criminal trial came down late Thursday afternoon, it appeared that an achingly familiar pattern was taking hold in the aftermath of an event with which no one in politics today (or ever) had even the faintest familiarity. Within minutes, Trump was in front of the TV cameras at the courthouse, trashing the trial as “rigged” and “disgraceful,” Judge Juan Merchan as “conflicted” and “corrupt,” and Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg as “Soros-backed,” blaming the Biden administration for the whole shebang, and saying of himself, à la Billy Joel, “I’m a very innocent man.” As if on cue, Republican elected officials at every level and of every stripe, along with the MAGA media elite, shifted immediately into hyperdrive, echoing Trump’s talking points in prepared statements and on right-wing cable news. Most of what they said was false, much was inflammatory, and some of it was downright dangerous. But the Republican message was strikingly uniform and the party clearly unified.