My heart just sank with dread. What if he who shall not be shamed, runs for a third time even if he loses a second?!?!! Argghhh!
My heart just sank with dread. What if he who shall not be shamed, runs for a third time even if he loses a second?!?!! Argghhh!
If Trump loses in this year, he's done. What's best is that if he loses, there's a very good chance that he destroys the GOP's chances in 2028. Could you imagine him trying to outdebate Gavin Newsome?
Trump would be a coked up, drooling zombie whose brain fires its two remaining brain cells every time someone says "cocaine", 'Joe Biden" and "Ivanka" in the debate. Then he would ramble like a rabid dog while his blood red eyes turn white
Considering Trump's ego, and "stolen election!" rhetoric, I absolutely can't believe he would sit out a run for 2028. If he's still alive, he'll try.
Only the best! people have never seen anyone paint a better vivid picture than me! Believe me!
He would announce he's running immediately after losing 2024 so that he can claim all the remaining cases are, once again, "election interference."
lol, now imagine him running in 28' (82 y/o), 32' (86 y/o), 36' (90 y/o), 40' (94), 44' (98), and just for shits and giggles, 48' (102)….
o_O
If he loses, I doubt he runs again. His brain will be far too impaired. He's barely able to say much now other than the same phrases over and over again. I do think he's going to stick around and try to be the GOP king maker. Asking everyone that runs to kiss the ring and he'll send his voters to them..
Trump has been trying to delay his days in court on the predication of making it all go away like Creaser if gets back into power. There probably isn't enough gum for 4 years should he fail.
I know it's a reply to an older post of yours, but I was thinking about this again earlier as I saw the clown in the news at some rally going on about "no crime".
So if Trump had spent spent his own money to pay off Pecker, no crime? Why didn't he do that then, since it would have been cheaper overall? He thought avoiding a direct paper trail was preferable to committing a federal crime?
Also, was the payoff to Karen the exact same thing as this? And if so, why is all the focus on the Stormy one only?
It strikes me as ironic that he has spent his whole life doing shady stuff insulated by intermediaries and shell companies etc., to avoid repercussions reaching him, but in this case had he acted directly instead, there would have been no crime.
I think it honestly never occurred to him to do it any differently than he'd always done it. I doubt he's ever really handled his own money in his whole life. Like everything else, all he knows how to do is tell other people what to do and they go and do it. He never thinks to ask how it's being done, because he just doesn't care.
Trump's 'multi-tasking' defense is falling apart in court
Trump's 'multi-tasking' defense is falling apart in court
Donald Trump's lawyers say he didn't pay attention to his checks reimbursing Michael Cohen for hush money because he was too busy running the country.
www.businessinsider.com
The payoff to Karen was done by David Pecker with the expectation Trump would pay it back. Also $30k to the doorman with a story about Trump's love child that was false. But Trump didn't pay it back so Pecker didn't want to put out any more money he wouldn't get back. He also had legal advice that getting paid back could be a criminal act so he didn't collect.
That's why Trump used Cohen since the inquirer wouldn't do it anymore. The millionth time Trump has hurt himself by cheapness and stubbornness.
OP
OP
"if Trump had spent spent his own money to pay off Pecker, no crime?"
Nope. If Trump had used his own money to pay off McDougal there would have been no crime. That's because a candidate can spend unlimited amounts of their own money on their campaign.
Pecker paying McDougal was an illegal campaign contribution at the time it happened. If Trump had then paid Pecker and covered it up in the accounts we'd have the exact same scenario as for Stormy. But he didn't pay, so it isn't. Of course it is still a crime for the Trump campaign to accept that contribution, but the DA can't charge it directly because (a) it is federal, not state and (b) statute of limitations lapsed. (all this IIRC)
So that's why all the focus is on Stormy - that's the one that we have business records for.
Honestly, this stuff is so hard to get right that my biggest worry about the case is that the defense can just blow some smoke about there being "no campaign funds involved" to completely confuse the jury.
Would trump paying himself makes it legal, or he would have to pay it himself and disclose it in some campaign disclosure form? Making the paiement kind of useless.
There may have been ways for Trump to pay off these people and legally obsfuscate those payments to help keep things hidden but he was more concerned about paying them off and hiding it than he was doing so legally. That's my read on it.
This is what all of the paper trail evidence is for, to show where the money went and how it got there.
Yup. Apparently JD Vance and Tommy Tuberville have both joined Trump in court today per CNN, which is leading to speculation that one of those two is going to be his VP pick as well.
Tuberville would be a hilarious choice, please pick that guy
Whichever one stands up in court and yells Objection! gets the spot
"Sir, we were allowing the defense to add evidenc---"
"OBJECTION!"
OP
OP
Wouldn't it also open up his senate spot? Or was he already up this year?
The greatest and most American thing ever would be for Trump to pick Tuberville and watch all the Alabama fans not vote for him because he dared to pick a former Auburn coach.
"This just in, CNN can now call that in a historic upset, the state of Alabama has been won by Joe Biden."
View: https://x.com/AWeissmann_/status/1790020223766077726
Sounds like the way a criminal thinks to me.
Has someone who used to live in Alabama. That's not as unlikely as I would think. I've literally seen fist fights start over Bama versus Auburn fans, Not any sort of argument just because one was a fan of the other team.
As someone also from Alabama, the Auburn/Alabama effect won't happen unless Saban or some former Alabama player ran against Tuberville. He won the senate seat and doesn't technically live here.
I wonder if Ohio residents who voted for Vance feel proud he has done nothing for them but joined Trumps Kiss My Ass club.
Also an Alabama native, and yeah. Saban is the only "democrat" who would have a shot at winning a seat here. Alabama fans voted for Tuberville because "at least he wasn't a liberal".
I think the large portion of Ohioans who were willing to vote for Vance, a huckster and gross fraud, are more than fine with kissing the ass of Trump, a huckster and gross fraud.
MSNBC had been hyping up Cohen's testimony like he was a superstar artist about to drop a new album. Now that he's testifying a bunch of these guys they have on covering the trial are talking about him like he's going to self immolate on the stand and that he's going to get killed on cross examination. Basically, making him sound like a terrible witness.
Man, I hate not being able to SEE this stuff rather than getting a play by play from people reading a transcript.
Man, I hate not being able to SEE this stuff rather than getting a play by play from people reading a transcript.
View: https://x.com/AWeissmann_/status/1790032078538494276
I assume not a lot of crazy or out of the ordinary or unexpected is happening with this testimony as the thread seems cooled off a little at the moment, but it sounds like it's all going well for the prosecution so far.
Odd, I'm following this on Weissmann's twitter and he had this to say about 20 minutes ago:
View: https://x.com/AWeissmann_/status/1790031382007193847
He testified before Congress before, I'm sure he'll do fine over the course of the trial.
I hope the courtroom sketch artist makes Cohen look really attractive, alert and muscular just to fuck with Trump.
As I recall, Cohen has come apart in cross before. That's where they're going to hammer him for lying, etc.
Yeah. That's where the real problems are going to arise. But at the same time, Trump's legal team is pretty much borderline incompetent, so who knows.
Yeah, Andrew isn't currently on the air. There's a bunch of lawyers on that I'm not familiar with.
Cohen has NOTHING to hide.
Yes, he has an axe to grind over the guy who got him sent to prison.. TWICE..
But, he's also not going to fuck it up by being a cartoon character on the stand.
These are questions he has already answered in front of committees. Cohen's job is to tie the threads together and hand them right to Trump.
At the end of the day, this is a documents trial... and those documents all point to Trump being guilty as shit.
Also...
If someone avoids certain modes of communication because they believe it can "bring them down," doesn't that prove their awareness that they are committing crimes?
Yes, he has an axe to grind over the guy who got him sent to prison.. TWICE..
But, he's also not going to fuck it up by being a cartoon character on the stand.
These are questions he has already answered in front of committees. Cohen's job is to tie the threads together and hand them right to Trump.
At the end of the day, this is a documents trial... and those documents all point to Trump being guilty as shit.
Also...
If someone avoids certain modes of communication because they believe it can "bring them down," doesn't that prove their awareness that they are committing crimes?