Donald Trump has been in a New York court today to defend himself against charges of longtime financial fraud, but during a recess in the proceedings, he targeted the judge hearing his case with a livid, deluded eight-minute rant.
… He ruled we lost a big part of the case because he's a Democrat club politician. He's a Democrat operative. And he's a disgrace to people that call themself judges. And I hope my lawyers go in, and I hope they fight him very hard. ‘Cause this guy's getting away with murder. And his clerk should not be allowed to be in his ear on every single question. You take a look at what's happening with her. She hates Trump more than he does. […]
This is a judge that should be disbarred. This is a judge that should be out of office. This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he's doing. He’s interfering with an election, and it's a disgrace.
Referring to Judge Arthur Engoron, who will decide the financial penalties that Trump might owe, Trump repeatedly referred to him as a "rogue judge," an "operative," and a "disgrace."
At other points in the rant, he snarled that the attorney general overseeing the case, New York’s Letitia James, is "a corrupt person, a terrible person driving people out of New York," and said that "people" saw this "egregious trial, this horrible, horrible trial going off, while at the same time people are being murdered outside on the streets and nothing happens to those people that do the murdering."
As usual, Trump's speech was laced with apparent threats aimed at his judge.
And somebody has to fight because if you don't fight, our country is just gonna go down the tubes. This is election interference. This guy's a highly partisan person, and we can't let this stuff happen.
Members of Trump's base have regularly taken this "fight" language as permission to mount harassment campaigns and death threats against Trump's enemies of the moment, whether they be public figures or private citizens.
"I've been going through a witch hunt for years, so this is really now getting dirty between Jack Smith and between all of these DOJ people helping them along. This is a pure witch hunt for purposes of interfering with the elections of the United States of America," Trump falsely claimed before storming off. "It's totally illegal. This judge should be disbarred. He shouldn't be allowed to be a judge.”
Bad strategy. Even if he got off with a $2 fine, he’d call it an “injustice”. He’s gonna go off the rails no matter what, so might as well nail him to the wall.
This statement is so dementedly ironic that I think it may have damaged the time-space continuum.
Why do people continue to be surprised or appalled at whatever Trump has to say? We already know his game. Tomorrow he'll say that Biden personally slapped him at the oval office while declaring that he got away with stealing the election. He of course slapped him back. It was the best slap.
You may as well sit down and listen to the rants of the neighborhood crazy homeless person in the 7-eleven corner.
Good question.
By the time I get to the end of an article about him, nothing he says or does surprises me. Then I’m sick of hearing about him for a while, and avoid stories about him. In the meantime, I get used to normal people again and partially “reset”. Then I’ll come across another article that’s really more of the same, but it seems a bit different. Wash, rinse, repeat.
It’s unsatisfying and irrational, but it’s also the best explanation I have.
As soon as I see "Donald Trump said…" somewhere, or if I hear his voice in the news, I mentally check out and replace my capacity to process language with sounds of a tuba playing the Macarena.
The one good thing about this trial is that America is realizing how chronically inadequate its laws are for expecting people in political office (or campaigning for) to behave within the law. Everyone is human and bound to abuse and the law should set clear boundaries to prevent that abuse.
The laws aren't really inadequate, it's the will to enforce them. On anyone but poor minorities anyway…
Just end the sentance with poor. It doesn't matter if you are white, if you end up in the system and have no money you will be fucked.
It's part of the reason republican voters are such morons, they think the system will just hurt the "right people", when in actuality it fucks every non rich person.
From healthcare to education to prison, you will be fucked if you are poor.
Except you are far more likely to end up on the court system to begin with if you aren't white. It's statistics.
Dividing the working class against each other like that isn't productive. We are all getting fucked one way or another by the 1%
Your right we should just ignore racism, it's not real. My eyes have been opened.