I watched Todd Blanche give an interview where he - carefully and well-worded - threw Trump under the bus for his failed defense. He framed it as Trump being in control, “very smart” and 100% involved in every decision.
aka “we would have had a better defense but I had to take my orders from-for-brains.”
I have almost no doubt his defense starting opening arguments by denying Trump slept with Daniels was Trump’s decision. The affair itself was irrelevant, and denying it was a joke. From all reports, Blanche is a serious and professional attorney. There’s no way opening that unnecessary can of worms was his idea. Defense lawyer Joe Tacopina had a similar situation in another case where he pretty much had to say to the judge “look, you see who I’m working with here, right?”
Also, word is Fox won’t go live with Trump anymore because he’s a liability, so they tape everything involving him now. Does he do call-ins anymore?
From what I read there were some reportedly highly reputable lawyers who talked about representing Trump but bailed due to “strategic differences” aka denying the affair as the starting point of the defense. Blanche apparently doesn’t have much experience with this sort of case and there’s some strong opinions about how he should have done things differently- particularly in failing to make objections to decisions by the court preventing said issues from being justification for appeal.
Trump certainly has a lot of difficulty getting the caliber of lawyers you’d expect for a POTUS these days. I’m sure his failure to pay has a bit to do with it- but I think the real issue is while normally being associated with a President is a career enhancer- associating with Trump guarantees social rejection, likely harm to one’s professional career, and the risk of getting sucked into Trump’s endless scandals (and/or being put under a microscope to reveal skeletons) that have resulted in seemingly countless numbers of his associated landing in court at a minimum, jail at the worst. He’s clearly the worst type of client a lawyer could imagine. It’s not so crazy to assume a Trump case was almost surely going to be lost in NYC regardless of any merit. Even if a lawyer is a Trump fanatic, I can’t fathom why they’d ever want to get involved.
For a guy who is quite adept at entertaining crowds- performing you might say, he is incredibly inarticulate when it comes to speaking. Elon Musk (one of the worst speakers ever, esp for someone in the public eye) is practically Obama-level in comparison to Trump. If Trump can’t keep keep his mouth shut, he’s often speaks so imprecisely and as if people understand what he’s thinking, that it also gets him in trouble. He seems to have a remarkably very small vocabulary too.
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I’m deeply concerned about how NYC handled this case. As someone not on team Trump or Biden, it’s very hard for me to say this was a fair trial. The fact the judge donated (against ethics protocol) to “Stop Republicans” in 2020 is problematic- even if it was a mere $10 it’s the sentiment that’s problematic. I won’t get into the controversial legal theory and procedural decisions by the court, that’s all discussed elsewhere. Unfortunately all the signs suggest a desire to hamstring Trump-financially and with his ability to campaign. Why else wait 7-8 years to prosecute this case after the alleged crime.
Don’t get me wrong, this case yet again revealed the type of person Trump is and the type of people he surrounds himself with- Him, Cohen, Daniels, Pecker- what a cast of degenerates. I do not understand how people look up to him. It’s sad this was our President and may be again- the best we can offer as a country.
But it’s also sad to see a court act with such little integrity and for the sake of politics. It’s this type of behavior that exacerbates mistrust in our institutions and delegitimizes the serious cases Trump needs to be held accountable for- Jan 6th, election fraud. Unfortunately, the GA court squandered any chance of the election fraud case being sorted by Election. Willis’ ethics are disgraceful and should be humiliated that Trump’s GA lawyers don’t even seem the most competent. I would also say the Doc case may have started as something not worth prosecuting (due to how common this seems to be), maybe Trump had some sort of argument around privilege early on, but has since clearly participated in indefensible obstruction… putting him in a similar boat as HRC IMO- both should be prosecuted. And we have yet to know if Trump had nefarious intent with these Docs. Knowing Trump, it’s not a stretch.
What’s also concerning is how republicans might seek retribution- with or without Trump being re-elected. The only hope I have is Trump didn’t really go after rivals after 2016– arguable exception Hunter Biden- more specifically the effort to tie Joe in despite the lack of evidence (after scouring every inch of the world). Before legal politics seemed more about defending political allies, the prospect of unfairly prosecuting political rivals is terrifying.
I’m not putting much faith into the alleged polls that 10% of Trump voters might change their mind as a result of Trump’s conviction. I think it’s been baked into the cake all along. Trump voters are either sycophants or are well aware Trump is shyster and unfaithful to his (trophy) wife. Maybe there’s some that will change their mind, but there’s probably also some who will be inspired to vote for him. Whatever dip in the polls Trump may have suffered will probably rebound all things being equal between now and election. Much can happen though.
It’s a sad state of affairs when the only options people are willing to vote for are:
A) A pathologically narcissistic slimy washed up real estate developer/ “celebrity” geriatric playboy who surrounds himself closely with repulsive human beings imaginable. He’s the poor adolescent boy’s conception of what a rich man is.
B) An octogenarian who sadly appears to be perpetually lost in space, time, and his own words. I firmly believe you cannot usually judge a President’s legacy in their time, but his trajectory is not looking good. As unpopular as Trump was, how is Biden’s avg term approval on par with him… (meanwhile an apparent act of God has Kamala’s approval surpassing Biden, somehow).
Oh- the apparent 3rd party- RFK, who is only here because of his family name. Perhaps the most prolific conspiracy theorist in polite society. However bad Trump is with conspiracies, RFK is in another universe of delusion. Autism caused by vaccines, Big Pharma is intentionally poisoning you, natural products > pharmaceuticals, psych drugs create school shooters, atrazine (herbicide) causes autism. His claims around worms “eating a portion” of his brain seem pretty questionable at best. He never found a chemical he didn’t think was worth litigating as a toxin. His worldview is based on pseudoscience and seems to have a fundamental inability to weigh scientific credibility. I can only imagine out country run by a paranoid hypochondriac. Odd VP pick too.
Biden despite loosing his mind is/was actually the most “normal” seeming politicians in DC, especially for a career politician. But everyone know’s his light is fading. Maybe it would be one thing to have an absent POTUS if the administration upheld public confidence- but that’s clearly not the case. It’s like he’s surrounded by incompetence. From his press office to the military brass to some of cabinet appointees- there’s a lot of people and actions that don’t inspire much confidence. It’s not everyone but there are too many and it’s too apparent and it reflects in the polls. It doesn’t help accountability is a rare commodity in DC.
Seriously. There are HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of eligible Americans who could be president. What are we doing here?
Maybe we need to open up elections to to non-citizens and foreigners.
