America's Talking - Trump Blasts Prosecutor, President Biden After His Arraignment

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

President Donald Trump called the charges against him unprecedented election interference in a speech Tuesday night from his Mar-a-Lago home, just hours after pleading not guilty to nearly three dozen felony charges during his arraignment in New York City. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to American Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square News Wire Service. Joining me again today is Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Big news this week, Casey, with former President Donald Trump being arraigned on charges he paid off porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election and then allegedly covered it up. You covered the story to give us the details. Yeah, of course, this is the story of the week. Probably a few of our listeners haven't. haven't heard at least something about this, but I think we can, you know, add some context and look ahead to what this is really going to mean. But Trump, you know, turned himself in this week. You know, he kind of famously predicted his own arrest a few weeks ago, but he was a little

preemptive in that. But he ultimately, you know, was proven right that he would be taken in. He was in custody in Manhattan, really shut down the city, just a full army of police officers. You know, I think there was some fear that there would be a protest or something or a riot, but I didn't see, you know, there was some, a little bit of protesting, but nothing. that really seemed to warrant the huge police response and preparation. But Trump was brought in. You sat in court. They did allow some photography, but in general, the judge is not in favor of live streams that

some high-profile court cases have been unmarked by over the last, you know, a couple decades. So I don't think we can anticipate that. But, you know, what really comes down to is Trump has 34 charges related to the, you know, hush money payments that you, you know, discussed or you referenced. It's really kind of a falsifying business records charge. you know, critics would say this is kind of a technicality. You know, like, is this the best you can get him on is maybe a record-keeping issue that's a little flimsy? But at the same time, you know, I think people supporting this would say, well, there's a lot more actually there that meets the surface below

the surface. And this is just the thing that they could pin him down on. And Alvin Bragg, the district attorney, has alluded to that. He says that there's some larger crime that Trump was actually trying to cover up, though he hasn't laid out what that larger crime is. And so a lot of his case kind of rests on this unspoken larger crime, which I guess we'll maybe hear more about as this case continues to unfold. We can get into the political implications to the end, but we've all heard the chorus of people saying, of course, this is unprecedented. We've never had a current or former president arrested like this. You know, Trump has really blasted it, called it politically motivated, gone after the prosecutor who does have some kind of questionable political connections himself. But do you think this

helps Trump or hurts him? You mean going forward for the 2024 election because Trump, of course, as announced is running for president again in 2024. I think it's too early to say, Casey, you know, you've got, I don't know what the percentages are, but you've got a significant portion of the Republican base who are diehard Trump fans who, it doesn't matter one way or another. Trump could be accused, who knows what, and they'd still be a diehard supporter. So it's that- Didn't Trump famously say he could shoot someone in Manhattan in the street and still his numbers wouldn't go down and now here he is in Manhattan being arraigned? Yeah, right, right. I don't know the answer to that question.

now, his poll numbers have gone up since he was indicted last week. Of course, he was arraigned and pleaded not guilty this week. What is it going to mean in 2024? I don't really know at this point. It's an interesting question. Certainly media pundits will be debating that probably for the next year and a half. Trump gave a speech after he flew into Manhattan, turned himself in, did not have his mugshot taken, I think, as maybe many of his critics wanted to see, was not handcuffed, again, as many of his critics wanted to see. So none of that happened. But then he flew back to Florida and gave a speech from his Mar-a-Lago home that was really political. Heavily criticized the prosecutor in this case. Went after President Joe Biden. Tell us a little bit of speech. Yeah, you're right. And just to reference

the poll numbers quickly, the most obvious one is he's well-surpassed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who's seen by most as his biggest, you know, opponent in the Republican primary. But you're right, in full-on politics mode, presidential campaigning mode, what was really interesting about his speech, which I covered the center square.com was, I think we got a window into how he's going to message on this investigation for the months going forward in this, you know, campaign as it goes closer and closer to election day. And the basic thesis of Trump's argument is, hey, doesn't this feel familiar? Remember when there was Russian collusion, you know, that they told you about and that was all a hoax? Remember when there was some dossier? This is just another one of these fake Democrat investigations.

That's kind of like how I would sum up his basic message of the speech pointing to a couple of, you know, When Democrats were so alarmed by Trump, they threw everything but the kitchen sink at him when it came to impeachments and investigations. And now he's using the weakest of those attempts to prove that this, or as evidence that this case is really weak. Now, it does interestingly, I think, play into Trump's core message even before this happened, which is something like the entire system is rigged and corrupt. And I'm the only thing standing between this corruption and the American people, right? and they're only coming after me because they want to come after you. So whenever they come after him, it kind of just reinforces his message. And you can kind of see that in his speech, too, that he's basically saying, I'm the one who loves America here.

He says, the only crime I committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it. That's what he said, to start off his speech. So, you know, it fits into his core themes an interesting way. But, you know, now that's going to matter if he actually does get convicted. And of course, we don't know if that's going to happen or not. Right. In this criminal case against the former president, I mean, it could drag out for more than months, maybe even years. We'll have to see the timeline on that.

President Trump, in his speech, did reference the two times he was impeached by the U.S. House during his presidency. Of course, he was acquitted by the Senate. He also referenced those past investigations that turned out to be pretty much nothing. I don't know. We'll see what happens next case. Of course, you will continue to cover this story at the center square.com. It's going on, as we've said, as the 2024 presidential campaign really starts to heat up. Ron DeSantis, who you mentioned, has not officially announced he's running, but everyone I think expects him to.

We should know more by this summer, at least or by this fall. It's sort of an interesting dynamic with the two things happening at once. I don't know. What's your take? Yeah, I mean, I think this is another Trump election. You know, the hallmark of Trump politics or American politics in the Trump era is constant chaos all the time. We haven't really had a boring news cycle, I think, since Trump announced his 2016 presidential bid, and I think that's what's in store for us now. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com.

For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McAulip. Please subscribe, and thanks for listening.