Former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, appearing in the federal courthouse that sits just blocks away from where his angry supporters stormed the Capitol building in an effort to keep him in power.
Of course he did. He’ll want a trial which will both stretch out the process towards the election, and give him the chance to put on a show for his throng.
I hope he ends up in a cell to minimize any further damage.
No cameras in fed courtrooms is a blessing and a curse. He can’t treat the room like a stage, but he can say anything he wants about what happened in the courtroom because his base won’t read.
It’s not like they acknowledge video evidence either anyways
The thing is, he can say what he wants out of the courtroom, but what is said in the courtroom matters most.
So far, his lawyers seem to be putting together a TV legal defense. As in, it meant to win over TV audiences, but won’t do jack shit in a courtroom.
“And I told the judge I’m a very stable genius with very smart friends and I’m not guilty, it’s as simple as that. And the judge laughed and said they know, we should go out for a big mac after this” And cult45 cheeers
Sadly, it’s more likely that Trump will claim that the Judge is deep state and then do some stochastic terrorism.
Depending on how that goes, Trump might end up waiting in jail for the trial to commence…
I get a lot of political spam emails. You best believe that they’re full of fiery rhetoric. They’re not calling for violence, or anything but campaign donations, but they are certainly full of “deep state”, “fake news”, “election interference”, “unjust indictment”, etc.
Eh, if he goes to prison but still gets enough electoral votes he can still be president. Being a felon is not a bar to running for president, just to voting for one. So a TV defense is quite possibly all he’ll need.
Except if he goes to prison for attempting to overthrow the US government, then the 14th amendment applies, and he cannot legally hold any office, or even be listed on the ballot.
Yes, if the January 6th charges stick that applies. But just going to prison isn’t enough, and not all of the charges are directly insurrection-related. I’m hopeful it will apply, but I’m not going to count on it! I’m still voting against him, even though I live in NY so the chances he wins my state’s electoral votes are quite low.
As long as he doesn’t put on a show in his thong
Trump the candidate and Trump the defendant have different goals.
Trump the candidate will explain this is the deep state Biden admin curtailing his free speech.
Trump the defendant will have to defend himself from charges that aren’t related to free speech. So my guess is he’ll let them find him guilty (good for Trump the candidate) and hope that all the elections staff quitting means his people will get in and fix it for him.