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Socialist New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman lost in a Democratic primary in New York’s 16th Congressional District on Tuesday to county executive George Latimer.
Decision Desk HQ projects George Latimer wins the Democratic primary for US House in New York's 16th Congressional District.#DecisionMade: 9:21pm ET
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) June 26, 2024
Follow live results here: https://t.co/friJx43L44 pic.twitter.com/XH8m3sfRY0
Bowman is a member of “the Squad,” an informal group of far-Left Democrat House members. He was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Fellow Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appeared at a rally with him in New York on Saturday.
#NYC Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez AOC and Rep Bowman DANCE AND RAP on stage during their Bronx rally today at St Mary's Park. pic.twitter.com/ri3sVkiqcV
— Oliya Scootercaster ? (@ScooterCasterNY) June 22, 2024
Bowman’s challenger entered the primary in part due to Bowman’s opposition to Israel and controversial statements he’s made about Israel’s war in Gaza.
The New York congressman has been critical of Israel, even after the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7. He has accused Israel of committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
At a political rally last November, Bowman questioned whether Hamas terrorists actually raped women or killed babies.
“There was propaganda used in the beginning of the siege,” Bowman said Nov. 17 at a pro-Palestinian rally, according to a TikTok video reported on by Politico. “There’s still no evidence of beheaded babies or raped women. But they still keep using that lie [for] propaganda.”
After initially refusing to address those comments, Bowman reversed himself and condemned the rapes committed by Hamas.
In the weeks and days just before the primary vote, Bowman began to change his stance on the Israel-Palestine issue and apologized for the remarks he made about Hamas not committing rape.
“Immediately, when the U.N. provided additional evidence, I voted to condemn the sexual violence,” Bowman said a week before the election, according to the Hill. “I apologize for my comments, and now, we’re continuing to do the work to fight sexual violence and domestic violence in all its forms.”
Bowman has had other contentious moments and scandals during his time in office.
He was censured by Congress following an incident in which he pulled a fire alarm in a congressional office building just before a House vote in late September. The fire alarm nearly delayed a vote on a continuing resolution that, if not passed, would have shut down part of the government.
Bowman said he pulled the alarm by mistake and that he thought the lever was a method to open the door and exit the building.
Statement from Congressman Jamaal Bowman. pic.twitter.com/v6qjdHNI7T
— Congressman Jamaal Bowman (@RepBowman) October 1, 2023
Bowman pleaded guilty to pulling the fire alarm in a District of Columbia court. According to district law, pulling a fire alarm falsely and intentionally is punishable by a fine or up to six months in jail. He was told to pay a $1,000 fine and apologize to the Capitol Police.
In January, the Daily Beast unearthed blog posts from when Bowman was a New York high school principal who promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories.
The blog posts prompted J Street, a left-wing Jewish advocacy organization, to pull its support.
“When the rhetoric, the framing, and the approach go too far, that’s where we are going to hold our line,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in an interview with the Forward. “And that’s when we felt that Bowman crossed the line here.”
Bowman said he regretted writing the posts.
The post New York Voters Pull the Lever to Oust ‘Squad’ Member Jamaal Bowman appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Former President Donald Trump delivered a “focused” pitch to America’s top CEOs and received a loud ovation at the conclusion of his Business Roundtable remarks Thursday, an attendee at the meeting told The Daily Signal.
That’s a stark contrast to reporting from New York Times columnist and CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, who told “Squawk Box” viewers Friday that Trump was “meandering, could not keep a straight thought, was all over the map.” Sorkin was not present at the Business Roundtable meeting.
Hours later, White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates amplified Sorkin’s spin on X. CNBC and other liberal media outlets ran with the story, and an MSNBC blogger suggested Trump’s appearance raised “concerns about his cognitive state.”
But is any of it true?
“It’s a clear bunch of BS,” according to the attendee. “This is a farce all the way around.”
News outlets mostly stuck to the substance of Trump’s remarks in their initial coverage Thursday: He spoke about cutting corporate taxes from 21% to 20%, after reducing the rate from 35% during his presidency.
The media narrative began to change Friday, starting with Sorkin’s CNBC commentary.
I will say I was surprised. I spoke to a number of CEOs who I would say walked into the meeting being Trump supporter-ish, or thinking that they might be leaning that direction, who said that he was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought, was all over the map, and that they – which, maybe not surprising – but was interesting to me because these were people who, I think, might have been actually predisposed to him and actually walked out of the room less predisposed to him, actually predisposed to thinking ‘This is not necessarily,’ as one person said, ‘this may not be any different or better than a Biden thought, if you’re thinking that way.’
By Friday night, the Biden campaign’s official X account was promoting the Sorkin clip.
Reporter: I just spoke to a number of CEOs who met with Donald Trump. They thought they may support him at first, but they walked out of the meeting saying he was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought, and was all over the map pic.twitter.com/M6rx7i4zX0
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) June 15, 2024
But the attendee who spoke with The Daily Signal said Sorkin’s interpretation is wrong. (The Daily Signal granted the attendee anonymity to speak candidly about the private meeting.)
“There was never a moment of meandering,” the attendee said. “He was focused. In fact, he received a loud ovation at the end.”
The attendee added: “There was not one CEO who wasn’t impressed with what they heard from Trump. Everybody was clapping.”
Sorkin did not immediately reply to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
The post ‘Bunch of BS’: Attendee at Trump’s CEO Meeting Refutes Media Reports appeared first on The Daily Signal.
The Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted former President Donald Trump ran a politically motivated investigation while allowing common criminals off the hook.
That was one of the conclusions of Republican lawmakers and witnesses at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Trump.
Bragg has agreed to appear before the committee in July.
In his opening statement, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the committee’s chairman, said that Bragg ran for district attorney while “bragging” about suing Trump and vowing to prosecute the former president.
When Bragg took office in 2022, the first thing he did, Jordan said, was release a “Day One memo,” committing to “progressive, soft on crime, anti-victim policies.” That included reducing some violent crimes, such as armed robbery, to misdemeanors.
Despite his commitment to prosecuting Trump, Bragg told one of his prosecutors that the case was too weak, in large part because the lead witness, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, couldn’t be trusted, Jordan said.
Cohen had pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and was disbarred.
Jordan said that Bragg received pressure from the Left to prosecute Trump, especially after the former president announced he would be running for president again in 2024.
Shortly after the Trump presidential announcement, Bragg hired Matthew Colangelo, a senior official in President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice.
The Ohio congressman said that the pattern of Bragg’s actions demonstrates that the judicial system has been contorted to go after Trump.
“Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of President Trump was personal, was based on politics, and was wrong,” Jordan said.
One of the witnesses at the hearing, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, also said that the prosecution was “politically motivated” and “replete with legal error.”
Alvin Bragg's prosecution of President Trump was politically motivated and replete with legal error.
— House Judiciary GOP ?????? (@JudiciaryGOP) June 13, 2024
1. Prosecutors are explicitly forbidden from waging politically motivated prosecutions.
2. The charges’ reference to an unspecified and unidentifiable other crime constitutes a… pic.twitter.com/M24bJcJxzA
Bailey, a Republican, said that in the Trump case, the prosecutor “perverted the law to meet the facts, rather than objectively apply the facts to the law.”
He noted that the prosecution failed to correct the court’s instructions to jurors in the case.
“The prosecutor failed to correct the court’s error in instructing the jury that unanimity was not required as to the predicate offense that forms the basis for the fallacious charges,” Bailey said.
The Missouri attorney general said that trial by jury requires a unanimous decision of guilt for every offense, but the court didn’t instruct jurors to act in this way, which is why Trump was found guilty on all 34 charges.
Federal Election Commission member James E. “Trey” Trainor III, who was appointed by Trump, said that the legal theory the New York court convicted Trump on was absurd.
Trump was convicted of violations of campaign-finance law.
WATCH: FEC Commissioner Trey Trainor testifies about the absurd legal theory Alvin Bragg used to prosecute President Trump pic.twitter.com/jya5rdlJ1B
— House Judiciary GOP ?????? (@JudiciaryGOP) June 13, 2024
“District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to pursue charges against former President Trump for alleged violations of campaign-finance laws marks a significant deviation from this established legal framework,” Trainor said. “Doing so, Bragg has effectively usurped the jurisdiction that this Congress has explicitly reserved for federal authorities.”
Trainor said that the Trump case “sets a disturbing precedent for the politicization of legal proceedings at the state level.”
He said that the case opens a can of worms, wherein states can now use creative interpretations of campaign-finance laws against former presidents, presidential candidates, and other people running for federal office.
Trainor also condemned the Department of Justice for not intervening in this case, despite it being under federal jurisdiction. He said the campaign-finance laws are designed to allow the DOJ to ensure that the laws are not used to manipulate the political process, especially in an election year.
Democrats at the hearing supported the Bragg decision and said that Republicans were undermining the courts by questioning the Trump verdict.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., focused on Trump being a “convicted felon” in his remarks during the hearing.
“Just a show of hands for anyone in the room who hung out with a felon today?” Swalwell asked, rhetorically. “Hey, guys, you might want to get your hands up. You were hanging out with convicted felon Donald Trump. I don’t think anyone on our side did. That’s why we’re here.”
Swalwell said that Trump’s legal team had the chance to help choose the jury in New York. The California congressman also asserted that Fox News celebrated the recent conviction in the case of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, on charges related to the illegal purchase of a firearm.
Swalwell also questioned Republican support for the Supreme Court, which might ultimately decide the Trump cases.
“One judge is flying an insurrection flag in solidarity with the insurrection on Jan. 6, [2021] that tried to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election,” the California Democrat said, referring to the story about how an “Appeal to Heaven” flag—originally created by an aide to George Washington in the American Revolution—was seen flying at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home in 2021.
Swalwell said that Republicans on the committee chose to help a felon over families by focusing on the Trump trial.
The post At Judiciary Committee Hearing on Trump’s NYC Trial, House Republicans Decry Politicized Indictment appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Last week, a New York City jury, prompted by the legal coordination between Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan—both partisan actors—convicted Donald Trump on 34 felony counts having to do with falsification of business records. Or election fraud. Or more tax issues. Or … something. Nobody really knows, and apparently it was unnecessary for the jury to agree on the crime in order to find Trump guilty of one.
No matter.
Trump was convicted and may now face jail time. We’ll find out on July 11—just a few days before the Republican National Convention. Obviously, this represents opportune timing for the Biden campaign. And yet Trump remains firmly knotted with President Joe Biden in the race for the White House. There have been four polls taken since Trump’s conviction. In all of them, Biden and Trump are either tied or within two points either way.
But how? The question echoes throughout the media: How can a convicted felon be running even with the incumbent president? The answer is twofold: First, Biden is a truly awful president; second, Biden has no ground to stand on in labeling Trump a threat to law and order.
First, Biden’s terrible record. Americans have been slammed by inflation for three years. Our social fabric has continued to decay as Biden openly seeks “equity”—meaning discriminatory legal regimens designed at rectifying group disparities—in every area of the federal government. On the foreign front, Biden has hamstrung Ukraine in its defense against Russia, and openly manipulated on behalf of Iran and Hamas in Israel’s war against the terror group that performed Oct. 7. It is difficult to see an area of the world that is markedly better off since Biden took the White House.
Second, Biden’s hypocrisy. In the aftermath of the Trump conviction, Trump naturally condemned the justice system that targeted him. Biden then responded by doubling down on his narrative that Trump’s pushback represents a threat to our democracy and our institutions: Last week, Biden staggered out to the podium to claim that “the American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed.” He added that it was “dangerous” and “irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”
The problem is this: Biden as defender of our democracy and our institutions just doesn’t play. This is the same president who tried to use his Occupational Safety and Health Administration to illegally cram down vaccines on 80 million Americans; who attempted, in defiance of law, to relieve student loan debt—and then bragged about defying the Supreme Court; whose Justice Department even let him off the hook for mishandling of classified material by calling him a dotard. Biden’s party has spent years tut-tutting massive riots, appeasing pro-terrorist student trespassers, and calling for an end to parental autonomy. There isn’t an institution in the country Biden hasn’t weakened.
To hear Biden rail against Trump for undermining institutions, then, simply won’t play. But Biden doesn’t have much left in the playbook.
All of which means that Trump still—still—has the upper hand. Ironically, Trump being sent to jail might actually help him, given that most Americans will correctly see the jailing of Biden’s chief political opponent as an act of vicious partisanship unworthy of the most powerful republic in world history.
In 2020, Biden ran on the platform of stability and normalcy; he has exploded both. All he’s left with is slogans about Orange Hitler. And that’s unlikely to be enough come November if gas prices are high, groceries cost too much, and the world remains aflame.
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The post Of ‘Convicted Felons’ and Lying Frauds appeared first on The Daily Signal.
In our modern political dumpster fire, there has never been an art so refined and illustrious as pointless pearl-clutching.
In this, the ninth year of 2016, most everyone is fairly desensitized to the political drama emanating from the Left’s ardent claims that any conservative policy or protest is an appeal to fascism as their own organizations and protesters set fire to cities (and sometimes themselves).
Republicans pass a bill banning sexually explicit content in public schools from kindergarten to third grade? Florida Democrats and media labeled it fascism.
A U.S. Supreme Court justice’s wife flies a Revolutionary War flag commissioned by George Washington? Salon’s senior writer described Justice Samuel Alito and his wife as “extremely invested in the semiotics of American fascism.”
The New Republic, The Guardian, taxpayer-funded PBS—any time a Republican so much as upholds parliamentary procedure, defends former President Donald Trump, or questions the surge of gang and cartel members amid waves of illegal immigrants—these outlets are ready in the wings to call any to the right of Chairman Mao a fascist.
The latest banner of fascism to be shouted down in a “Two Minutes Hate” session out of George Orwell’s “1984”: flying the flag of the United States upside down. The horror!
As ridiculous as it might sound—the group that has spent the past eight years defending those who burn, shred, and desecrate the U.S. flag is suddenly outraged over many in the nation who have flown the U.S. flag upside down in a symbol of distress over Trump’s political prosecution and conviction.
Many on the Left and precious few on the Right have taken to social media to lambast those who would fly the U.S. flag upside down as “disrespectful,” “treasonous,” and “idol-worshipers.”
Is this the case? Are those who reacted to Trump’s felony convictions in New York City simply bowing at his feet in a brutal backstabbing of the United States? Is this heinous, unspeakable act the very hallmark of fascism and the alleged “cult of personality” that the Left has predicted for almost a century?
Of course not, and you know that.
We needn’t walk down the halls of easily accessible history to discern how this wrist-shattering pearl clutch is both hypocritical and ignorant. But we’ll do so, not out of necessity but because heaping good data en masse against poorly constructed arguments is entertaining.
First and foremost: Flying the flag of the United States upside down is not disrespectful, illegal, treasonous, or even unprecedented.
Although 4 U.S. Code § 8, commonly referred to as the “Flag Code,” isn’t legally enforceable (because U.S. citizens retain First Amendment rights to do with their own flags whatever they wish), flying the flag upside down under appropriate circumstances wouldn’t violate the law.
The law clearly states: “The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” (The “union” refers to the patch of blue with 50 stars.)
Thousands in the U.S. have flown our flag upside down to express their “dire distress” in such instances over the past century.
Leftists consistently flew the U.S. flag upside down throughout Trump’s presidency to signal their deep disquiet and fear, from Washington state to Louisiana. Democrats in New Jersey resolutely flew the flag upside down in protest of Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. Some Republicans flew their flags upside down when Barack Obama was reelected in 2012.
The American flag has been flown upside down as “a tribute to veterans’ sacrifice,” and was one of the many symbols of protest against the Vietnam War used by leftist demonstrators in the 1960s.
The Flag Code doesn’t specify what “extreme danger to life or property” entails, nor does it restrict such interpretation to a physical danger or a political one. Might there be a situation today in which many Americans feel in deep distress over a perceived danger to the life and property of their republic?
Never before in American history has a former president, much less one running for office again, been charged and convicted in such a kangaroo-court fashion that even his political adversaries note the insanity of the circumstances.
In an extremely heated presidential election campaign, indicting one of the two frontrunners would be considered enough of an anathema—but the case of New York v. Trump was more than precarious, it was a circus.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, ran on the promise of doing anything he could to find something to indict Trump with. Outside his jurisdiction, Bragg used a federal election statute—which the Federal Election Commission already had stated Trump didn’t violate—as a convoluted lever to turn 34 counts of “falsifying business records,” misdemeanors that by this point were outside New York’s statute of limitations, into felonies.
As if that weren’t enough, Judge Juan Merchan refused to allow a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission to testify, refused to allow the defense to speak to the jury before deliberation, and informed jurors that to convict they didn’t have to reach a unanimous decision on what crime was committed.
Such actions by Merchan set a nation on fire even as trust in institutions already was wavering.
Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, wrote for New York magazine, an extremely liberal publication: “Prosecutors got Trump—but they contorted the law.” Honig pointed out that never before in U.S. history has there been a state prosecution using federal election law.
You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned Trump’s sex life, his character, or his business decisions—in fact, many of those expressing extreme distress at this forded Rubicon aren’t being protective of Trump like he was some kind of nonsensical religious idol.
Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who have spent the past few years as Trump’s chief opposition within the GOP, both called this case and conviction despicable.
When a reporter asks President Joe Biden whether he used this case to politically persecute Trump and he casts a wicked grin in her direction, how is the nation supposed to respond?
Reporter: "President Trump refers to himself as a political prisoner and blames you directly. What's your response to that, sir?"
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) May 31, 2024
Biden: *smiles*pic.twitter.com/CZY8JUMvKO
Why is the left side of the aisle afforded the right to ride through towns and cities shouting about the impending doom of the republic like some bastardized caricature of Paul Revere, and the right side isn’t allowed to call out the very sham John Adams unpopularly fought in court to prevent?
Spare me your clutched pearls, neoconservatives. Your faux dignity and condescension at the concerns of Americans whose carcass of a justice system is paraded openly don’t move me.
I don’t have to defend Trump’s personal life and sign onto a “cult of personality” to recognize that each of us has a right to be free from political persecution and election interference.
Commentator Alyssa Farah’s silly claims that flying the flag upside down signals “selling out” are as pathetic and hypocritical as the rest of the cast of “The View” with whom she clucks and quacks about abortion rights, gun confiscation, and anti-Catholicism.
Whistling past the graveyard and sending a “strongly worded letter” have only mired us further in the muck of Third World antics.
I reserve the right to fly my flag upside down to signal my extreme distress at this danger to the life and property of the republic I love, and I’ll do so whenever I find it appropriate.
The post To the Condescending Cranks Faking Outrage Over Upside-Down Flags appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Democrats might control the Senate, but they’ll have a hard time getting things done if 10 of their Republican counterparts have anything to say about it.
Following a New York jury’s guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump—and President Joe Biden’s subsequent cheerleading of the decision—10 Republican senators vowed to oppose Democrats’ legislative priorities and nominations.
“The White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways. As a Senate Republican conference, we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart,” the Republican senators said in a statement released Friday.
It currently has 10 signatories:
Notably missing from the list is Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose milquetoast response Thursday—about four hours after the jury’s decision—drew scorn from conservatives.
These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) May 31, 2024
The statement signed by the 10 Republicans outlines three areas where they plan to stymie Democrats:
Democrats currently control 48 seats with three independent senators who caucus with them. Their narrow majority gives Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., little room to navigate, particularly on matters requiring a 60-vote threshold.
Now, with 10 Republican senators promising to make things even more difficult for Schumer, Democrats face the prospect of a Senate stuck in a stalemate.
Lee spearheaded the effort and wants to recruit more senators to the cause.
I hope to have every Republican senator sign this.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 31, 2024
This is a call for Senate Republican Conference unity.
Now is a time for choosing.
Will we let the Republic fall or are we going to do something about it? https://t.co/QcYQwsYv4E
“We are no longer cooperating with any Democrat legislative priorities or nominations, and we invite all concerned Senators to join our stand,” Lee wrote on X.
Scott, who is running to for GOP leader in the next Congress, endorsed the effort Friday.
“Our country is in real trouble,” Scott said. “Republicans must stand together and end this madness.”
PRIMETIME EXCLUSIVE: @SenRickScott is vowing legislative retaliation against the Democrats who supported Trump’s prosecution. pic.twitter.com/s95CJXmE8u
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) June 1, 2024
Marshall put the blame on Biden’s “partisan hack judges,” accusing them of weaponizing the judicial system against the president’s political opponent.
The jury found Trump guilty Thursday on all 34 charges of falsifying business records to hide “hush money” payments in 2016 to former pornographic movie actress Stormy Daniels.
Upon leaving the courthouse, Trump called the trial a disgrace and said, “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt.” He continued: “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people.”
His sentencing hearing will take place July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention convenes in Milwaukee.
Business as usual is no longer an option—Biden and his leftist regime have, by their actions, decreed it’s no longer “politics as usual.”
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) May 31, 2024
They’re trying to steal the election—which is why they are already weaponizing the full power of the federal government against President… https://t.co/9Vi62Esreg
“The White House’s weaponization of our government to target President Trump for political gain represents the pinnacle of two tiers of justice,” Blackburn wrote on X. “We cannot allow this grave injustice to prevail in the United States of America.
Tuberville, who last year delayed the promotions of military officers over a dispute with the Biden administration, signaled he was once again willing to engage in a similar tactic.
Just one of those military officers remains in limbo today: Air Force Col. Ben Jonsson, whose controversial statements endorsing critical race theory in 2020 prompted an outcry. Schmitt is blocking his promotion to brigadier general.
“Democrats have destroyed the integrity of our justice system, and made a mockery of the Constitution—all in the name of maintaining political power,” Schmitt wrote on X. “My colleagues and I aren’t going to go along with the status quo. Enough is enough.”
The post How Republicans Plan to Stymie Democrats After Controversial Trump Verdict appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday, a New York jury brought the country to an unprecedented brink by finding Donald Trump guilty of financial fraud, making the former president a convicted felon for now (unless or until the conviction is overturned on appeal) and making the upcoming election a referendum, he now hopes, not just on his record against Joe Biden’s but the entire political system.
Republicans call it a miscarriage of justice; for Democrats, it’s proof that no one is above the law.
History will remember it as a new chapter: Donald J. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
“We didn’t do anything wrong. I am a very innocent man,” Trump told reporters after the verdict, dressed in his trademark blue suit and too-long tie at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York.
Then a familiar script as the former president embraced martyrdom, arguing that his conviction was part of a larger war for the soul of a nation.
“I’m fighting for our country. I’m fighting for our Constitution,” he said. “Our whole country is being rigged right now.”
Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a case stemming from “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Each count carries a maximum prison term of four years.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 11, just four days before Trump is slated to accept the Republican presidential nomination for a third consecutive time.
Although questions abound about the fate of the former president and the nation, there is little to no chance Trump will end up behind bars before the end of the year. He is expected to remain free on bail pending appeal, a process that is not likely to be exhausted until well after Election Day.
The case now shifts to the appellate courts—as well as the proverbial court of public opinion.
Democrats have been desperate to cast the election as a rematch of Biden v. Trump with an emphasis on character, not a judgment on President Joe Biden’s first term in office. They may have gotten what they wanted.
“Donald Trump is a racist, a homophobe, a grifter, and a threat to this country,” said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. “He can now add one more title to his list—a felon.”
Sources close to the former president prefer a different description.
A senior Trump campaign official predicted weeks before the decision that a conviction would “make him the Nelson Mandela of America,” comparing Biden to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his imprisonment of political rival and late dissident Alexei Navalny.
The framework suits Trump, who blasted out an email fundraiser shortly after his conviction calling himself “a political prisoner,” arguing both that “justice is dead in America” and “our country has fallen.”
This kind of rhetoric, complete with comparisons of the U.S. to the Third World, is likely to accelerate in the weeks and months ahead. Both major presidential campaigns now argue that the other could end democracy.
“These people would do anything and everything to hold onto political power. They don’t care if they destroy our country in the process,” said the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
Martyrdom has been a central theme of Trump’s return to politics. After his indictment in New York last year, the GOP nomination was practically a fait accompli and his campaign nearly told RealClearPolitics as much at the time. It is unclear whether that phenomenon will translate to a general election.
Court has not crippled Trump so far, however, and Biden has not surpassed his rival a single time this year in the RealClearPolitics Average of polls. Well aware of those numbers, the Biden campaign attempted to tamp down jubilation on the left over the bad legal news consuming the right. They warned that Trump still could win.
“There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,” said Biden-Harris communications director Michael Tyler.
Ian Sams, spokesman for the White House counsel’s office reacted to the news by saying only, “We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment.” By remaining silent, however, he ceded the spotlight to Trump, allowing his rival to shape the first 24 hours of the narrative.
[Biden didn’t comment until early Friday afternoon, when he noted before turning to the Israel-Hamas war that, “just like everyone else,” Trump will have an opportunity to appeal the verdict. The president added: “That’s how the American system of justice works. And it’s reckless, it’s dangerous, and it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”]
Nothing bars Trump from running for president as a felon. It is unclear, however, if he will be able to cast a vote for himself while his case goes through the appeal process.
A more immediate consequence of the trial ending: Trump’s schedule just opened up, and Trump can return to the campaign trail in earnest.
Sources in regular contact with the former president report that the prospect of prison has not cast a shadow over Trump personally. One told RealClearPolitics that Trump “sincerely believes” that divine providence now guides his steps and “that he has been chosen for a time such as this.”
Trump has six months to convince the country to return him to the White House, and in the most extreme circumstance, to preserve his freedom. Republicans were as bullish over those odds as they were angry.
“Today’s verdict from this partisan, corrupt, and rigged trial just guaranteed Trump’s landslide victory on Nov. 5, 2024,” Mike Davis, founder and president of the pro-Trump Article III Project, told RealClearPolitics.
Former Rep. Peter Meijer, a Michigan Republican who voted to impeach Trump, echoed that sentiment, warning that a conviction would backfire on Democrats. “The chain reaction will cause infinitely more damage than whatever they think they are preventing,” he told RCP.
The conviction created a tidal wave of donations as Trump began fundraising almost immediately after leaving court. The Trump campaign buckled briefly at the surge. The fundraising website, WinRed, temporarily crashed under the strain of heavy traffic.
“I’ll lose friends for this,” wrote Shaun Maguire in a lengthy post on X announcing his $300,000 donation to Trump. A partner at Sequoia Capital and a former Democratic donor, Maguire said that “lawfare” in part inspired his donation:
“Fairness is one of my guiding principles in life,” he said, “and simply, these cases haven’t been fair for Trump.”
Following the conviction, there was a discernable shift on the right among conservatives who normally argue that the judicial system ought to remain apolitical. Some Trump allies described the guilty verdict as “the Rubicon.”
Asked about the new Republican appetite to use the courts to go after political opponents, Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller told RCP that “the good guys must be as tough as the villains or freedom is doomed.”
The field of potential vice presidential candidates snapped to attention in their immediate condemnation of the conviction.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the verdict was “a complete travesty that makes a mockery of our system of justice.” Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, called it “election interference.” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said it was an “absolute injustice” that “erodes our justice system.”
“From the start, the weaponized scales of justice were stacked against President Trump. Joe Biden, far left Democrats, and their stenographers in the mainstream media have made it clear they will stop at nothing to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., in a lengthy statement to reporters.
“This lawfare should scare every American,” said a more succinct North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican. “The American people will have their say in November.”
The safest thing for any Republican elected official anywhere Thursday night was to attack the judicial system. Defending that institution, meanwhile, was verboten.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a frequent Trump critic now running for Senate, appeared to miss the memo when he shared a statement calling for GOP leaders to “reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
Replied Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump adviser dispatched to oversee the Republican National Conventio: “You just ended your campaign.”
The most common sentiment among Trump’s close circle of advisers and friends was that something had changed permanently, not in the former president personally but in the country.
“Today marks a turning point,” said Brooke Rollins, who led Trump’s Domestic Policy Council before launching the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank often described as a Trump White House in waiting. “I see it as a fire that has been lit. I see the sleeping giant of the American people awakened.”
On the second day of jury deliberations, Trump had kept up appearances with a smile. A verdict was not expected Thursday, and by the afternoon, Judge Juan Merchan was preparing to dismiss the jury for the day.
The foreman replied instead that the jury had reached a verdict. He read each of the 34 charges and followed by a one-word pronouncement: “guilty.”
A smile turned to a grimace, and Trump, surrounded by his defense team, stared forward stone-faced as he listened to the verdict and American history. He vowed in brief remarks to reporters afterward that he would “fight till the end and we’ll win because our country’s gone to hell.”
It was like so many of the pronouncements he has made after so many of the other controversies that have defined his political life. It was also different. A loss, if the conviction stands, could mean prison.
Rollins predicted that Trump would persevere, as he has before.
“From my perspective,” she said, “it is almost biblical to see this sort of courage and leadership and unwillingness to back down even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”
The post Trump Vows to Fight On Despite Conviction appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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