The Chris Cuomo Project - How A Mugshot Can Divide America

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

Chris Cuomo analyzes the meanings behind Trump's mugshot and how both sides are misrepresenting its impact. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fox guy waters saying that the mugshot of Trump makes him more approachable and appealing. Yup. The mugshot is what's going to get Trump re-elected. Wrong. Both takes are out of place and I can tell you why. Hey, I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to this special of the Chris Cuomo Project. Thank you for subscribing and following. I've been watching the game, covering the game,

learning about the game of politics and deception and media my whole life, okay? And I can tell you what is not being said, and that is exactly what's going on with the Trump mugshot. Now, mugshot as metaphor, okay? Because the mugshot in and of itself is meaningless. We have never had dot, dot, dot, okay? That keeps happening with Trump. Why? Trump is not a politician.

Trump is a proxy, all right, just to keep it in the alliterative zone, P for P. Not a politician, not about policy formation, not about getting things done, not about figuring out how to use power. None of that is in his skill set. Never has been, never will be. Doesn't have to. Why? Because. You can say it's an accident, but it really isn't. It's a coincidence. The state of desperation in a significant part of this country, a feeling that we're on the wrong track culturally and culture has been fed to people instead of real policy and real situations. Why? Easier. Easier to get you thinking about life or not life, to kill or not to kill, death penalty or not, immigrants are bad or good, scary or not, what is gender, what is sex. All of these questions, metaphysical questions, philosophical questions, scientific questions, are all a distraction from what am I doing for the economy for you? Making education more affordable, creating a basis where there's jobs

and opportunities for training, for advancement, so that you can live the dreams of your own and your family. That's hard. That's hard. What are we supposed to do about China? Other than scaring you about it and saying the other guys suck? Nothing.

But if I can get you thinking about culture and who's your enemy and who's scary and what about that person and brown and white and this creed or that, they just cycle through them and that's what's happening right now. Of course, we've never seen a guy running for president with a mugshot. Okay? Why? Because those people are usually the best of us or perceived as such with manicured whole presentations. Trump is a proxy for grievance. He is a guy from the outside, which is his key characteristic, okay? Vivek Ramaswamy, outside, key characteristic. It's just hard to sell. Chris Christie is saying all the right things for that party. Nikki Haley, all the right things for that party. DeSantis on paper,

perfect for that party. But why aren't they catching fire? Because outsider matters, because the people that they're looking for don't trust the system. They're clearly part of it. So the mugshot is a metaphor, but both sides are misplaying it to deceive you. Here's how. The idea that Trump is being persecuted, not prosecuted, that's the Fox play, right? They're falling out of love with DeSantis. They were trading out Trump for DeSantis. It's not working for him. We'll see what happens. Long way to go.

But that is the point of what Jesse Waters was rumbling, stumbling, and fumbling through, right? Which just makes even broader basis of appeal for the former president. No, it doesn't. It makes people hold their nose more to vote for him. former president. No, it doesn't. It makes people hold their nose more to vote for him. Anybody who is open-minded knows he is not being persecuted. He asked for this with his actions and his inactions, okay? Now, there's more to the analysis than that because the other side, taking all this pleasure in the fact or whatever, a sense of satisfaction, a sense of righteous

indignation, a sense of affirmation, a sense of proof of concept, a sense of satisfaction, a sense of righteous indignation, a sense of affirmation, a sense of proof of concept, a sense of advantage. Not necessarily. Here's why. I believe Trump did what he's being accused of doing in almost all of these different instances. How do I know? Well, we know enough to know that it's more likely than not. But that's just an opinion. It's not a prosecution. Did he commit crimes? Maybe. Are those crimes of a level and a value to warrant this kind of stress on the system at this time? Hard to say yes. Now, you will, if you're on the left, by saying, well, no one's above the law. If you have a case, you got to make it. One, not true. Prosecutorial discretion. Those men and women decide which cases to make and not make, and not just on the basis of evidence. All right?

You've got what's in the public interest. It's written into the law. It's written into our jurisprudence. It's not that simple. That if you, well, but they do it with all these other guys. Why wouldn't they do it with him? Okay. Fair criticism of injustice in our system. I give it to you. I give it to you. The irony that now the political right wants to talk about a two-tier justice system, but only in relation to Donald Trump, the irony is not lost on me. Okay? There is a two-tier justice system, but not for Donald Trump. lost on me, okay? There is a two-tiered justice system, but not for Donald Trump. However, however, does it warrant the stress? You can't say that's not a consideration. It is. You're prosecuting a former president who is also the likely nominee in this election. That matters. There's a reason that the Democrats didn't really bark too much back in the early 70s or 70 itself when Nixon wound up being pardoned by Ford. Why? Because it'd been enough strain on the system.

And this is not a statement that, well, now no politician will ever try this again. We are not looking for a public policy of how to keep presidents from doing bad things, okay? Fear of prosecution doesn't work with murder, let alone with corruption and abuse of power, okay? How do we know this? Look, we know it a lot of different ways, but the ones that matter and are most germane for this analysis is that these are uncommon crimes that he's being prosecuted for in most of the cases. There's so many counts.

There are over 90 counts that he's been between state and federal. So there's a lot here. But it matters that you're going after somebody who means so much to so many for things that don't blow you away in their severity. Well, you don't know everything yet. It doesn't matter what you're going to find out. They're not going to blow you away in their severity. Well, you don't know everything yet. It doesn't matter what you're going to find out. They're not going to blow you away in their severity. He didn't sell classified information to China, okay?

There's a reason the founding fathers picked high crimes and misdemeanors as this kind of nebulous bar for impeachment. They didn't want to see what they saw in the motherland of the united kingdom of prosecuting your political opponents and i believe we're going down that road it doesn't mean that trump didn't do it doesn't mean that what he did isn't wrong doesn't even mean that it may be criminal in certain instances we'll have to see more on that is it worth it is a legitimate question the mugshot is a metaphor and here's what I think many are missing in the analysis. How can these people still vote for him when he's been indicted a

gazillion times and he's never had a good defense and his guys are dirty and Rudy's dirty and they're all lying about what it was? Here's why. Waters is now and and Fox is now, and the right is now, by fanning this mugshot, ruining the idea of justice. No, it's the wrong analysis. They are not making a mockery of justice. They're saying you're making a mockery of justice. They're opponents that law and order matters, that justice matters, but that these cases are proof that it can be perverted for advantage. This is not what it is being made to be, which is them waving that mugshot around is some kind of celebration of perfidy, celebration of bad behavior, of criminality.

It's not the pitch and it's not how it's resonating with people. Now, the next point is, but let me take a pause and give some love to the people who are allowing me to deliver you this content, our sponsors. We don't fake the funk here. And here's the real talk. Over 40 years of age,

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You're going to need a subscription. It's required. Plus, price is going to vary based on product and subscription plan. being sleep deprived. Okay, well, what is it? Well, it stresses all kinds of things, but the wrong sheets can make you hot, can make you cold. I'm telling you, I don't even believe it either, but Cozy Earth sheets breathe, and here's what I love about them. Cozy Earth's best-selling sheet is a bamboo set, okay? Temperature regulating. Gets softer with every wash. I'm not kidding you. All right. Now, so if you go to CozyEarth.com and you enter the code, enter the code Chris, and you can get up to 35% off your first order. CozyEarth.com and the code is Chris. here's the good news if you're someone who doesn't want to see former president trump become president again he does not have the basis of support that he did have it is going to be hard for him to get non-rabid partisans who are independent but open to voting for a republican

to want to choose him, that gets to be a more dicey proposition when you put him against Biden. If Biden does not show that he has the metal to be the man for the next term, and we have to see who he picks as a VP, if it's still Kamala Harris, he may have real problems because of that. And I don't mean to disparage the vice president, but I'm saying optically and in terms of what we see in the data. However, Trump is not in good shape. This is not helping him, but it is doing something that you have to think about. That's why I say mugshot is metaphor.

It is hardening the resolve of people who believe that the system is out to get them and works to its preferred advantages. And they see it in the fact that even if Trump did all these things, Biden did a lot of stuff too. And the same people who are trying to kill Trump don't give a shit about what Biden did. I got to tell you something. You can say false equivalency. It is case to case in terms of the allegations as

they are currently known, but it is not in terms of a real feel in politics. The Democrats, of course, don't go after their own the way they go after Trump. Now, fair point, and I know that I'm right about this. The Democrats certainly go after their own politically more than the right does, right? My family bears the scars of that, whether you believe it was righteous or unrighteous, whatever. It's in the past, but the pain is in the present. And the Democrats go after their own in a way I don't think the Republicans would have. The point is, you send a message when you have real questions about Hunter Biden, not

his addiction. Of course, it's disgusting that they keep waiving the fact that the man struggles with mental health and addiction to mean that he's guilty of any kind of bad thing you want to accuse him of because, look, he's got a crack pipe in his mouth. And it's such dated thinking. So many of us, someone we love or someone very close there to struggles. And we know it now. So stop using that as some kind of scarlet letter.

If that's true about you, that you have a mental illness or you're an addict, that means that anything bad that's ascribed to you is probably true. That's bullshit. And it's bullshit to use that picture of him all the time. However, it is hard for you to get on a high horse and say that there's an ethical and moral argument against Donald Trump

and his behavior when you don't enforce the standard on your own side. And Biden has questions and he's got problems, okay? His son, maybe more than just his son, were making money in a way that reeks of privilege. And I don't mean privilege in the PC way. I'm saying advantage of proximity to power. Okay. Biden didn't take these questions on other. My kid did nothing wrong. It's not good enough. And it's not likely the full truth. Okay. The Democrats being quiet on it. Well, we haven't seen any real proof. Yeah. You're not looking for it the way you did with Trump either though. Well, but we're not in power, but that's not really what it is. And that's what pisses people off. Okay. Ramaswamy was wrong to liken a black member of Congress to a member of the KKK.

Okay. Saying we don't want just black faces who don't want to be black voices or whatever the language was. It was obviously an empowerment principle, not defining what makes you black or white. And even if it were, you don't equate a black person with the KKK. The KKK burns and murders and hangs and does all the horrible things. You don't do that. You don't play with that. And Ramaswamy knows it. He's doing it anyway because he knows of the favor of division. And he also knows you knows it. He's doing it anyway because he knows of the favor of division. And he also knows he can get away with it, ironically, because he's brown. So at the same time, he's depicting falsely this analogy between the KKK and a person

of color. He's allowed to get away with it because he's a person of color. Anyway, the point is, why aren't people more angry at him on the right? Because they're saying, well, who is the media to come at him for likening someone to the KKK when they did it with Trump all the time? You see, you've got to practice what you preach. You've got to own your own standard. Now you can say, oh, look at Johnny come lately here.

Mr. Mainstream media, Cuomo used to do the same thing. Never. I have always called out the former president on his obnoxious and ugly statements that are often demonstrably false. Okay? Never likened them to Hitler. Never to Nazis.

I make this case all the time. I'm guilty of many things that can have you criticize me. This is not one of them. And we keep seeing it happen again and again and again. And that's the mugshot metaphor. You don't get to prosecute Trump when you are not clean, when you are playing politics, when you are ignoring Biden. I see no proof that Biden conditioned money or help to Ukraine on helping his son. I've seen no proof of that. I do not know that Rudy Giuliani was right about anything. And I can show you that Rudy Giuliani is not right about things that matter.

Literally tapes and other evidence and reckonings that prove that he is not being truthful. And he is certainly not accurate, but he's also not really that relevant. Okay. This is about Trump at the end of the day. You don't take the allegations seriously on your side. And it is obvious to people with what's happening to Trump. Biden has way bigger issues that should be looked at and he should be forced to speak to. These emails that came out, I don't think the 5,000 number is even close to accurate,

but even if there's five or three, those kinds of communications, who set them up? Why? What did they mean? What did they lead to? I don't think it's a rabbit hole. I think we have to be in the business of forcing better into the system. It's very hard in this two-party system. It's toxic. It's a poison battle to the bottom of which side is worse. We don't fake the funk here. And here's the real talk.

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The people who support Trump, it's not because Trump is good. It's because they believe that people who are not good are getting advantage over him unfairly. By holding him to a standard that they don't hold themselves or those that they like. And that becomes a metaphor for how they see themselves versus the system, deep state, the elites, the insiders, whatever word you want to put on it. The idea is the same, that you're for you, not for me. And this guy is completely flawed. I wouldn't want him as my brother-in-law. I'd never go into business with him, but he gets that you're against me and he knows how to play your game. And up until now,

you couldn't get at him the same way you can get at the rest of us because he has the money and doesn't need you the same way. So even though he's lacking, I see all of you as lacking. Maybe he's more so, maybe not, but it doesn't matter. He's my guy. So in this bar fight, at least this thug is on my side. That's as simple as that. Now you may say, oh, but that's so sad and it's insufficient and it's intellectually dishonest. Yeah, okay. And you're backing Biden as the alternative, who is a flawed candidate, who has real questions, especially in light of what we just saw once again with Senator McConnell, wishing him well, but clearly dealing with real health issues, right?

Which if it were your family or my family, you got to believe they're having a conversation about whether or not they're taking time off his life with putting him under this stress. So you've got similar questions, not as extreme, but they do shine a light on Biden's age and stage. And that's the best guy you can come up with on your side. You're not even having a primary, which is not unusual, but it's still worthy of note.

And he's got real problems of ethics that he is not answering, that he is not driving an understanding of. And at the same time, you're standing on a high horse of law and order and you're shouting down anybody who says what I'm saying right now. Basically getting to the point almost of censoring the opinion of anybody who says anything you don't like instead of beating the other side with better ideas. Your guy is worse is not a great argument to build a bigger base in America. And if you really have even a question as to why are the elections getting so close, especially when the Democrats have such a big

registration advantage and a population advantage, why are you in a dead heat with representatives that represent a third of the country? Now, there's a good reason and there's a bad reason. The good reason is because of the way of our representative democracy and the electoral college is that a minority of the country, some of whom hold some extreme ideas, are able to get representatives to battle a much bigger slice of the country. Now, I say that's the good reason because it's systemic and it's not your fault if you're on the left. The bad reason is because you're not offering better. You're offering they are worse. Trump is worse. That's why you want to run against Trump. That's why you put money into primaries for more Trumpy candidates because you want everything as Trumpy as possible because you think you can beat him. Now, your problem is that instead of just looking

like you're beating him because he's worse, it looks like you're handicapping him as much as you can so that you can beat him, which makes it seem like maybe he isn't worse. Maybe the people out to get him are. And you say, what are you talking about? Look at all the allegations. Look at all the facts. Hey, we're talking politics here. It's about perception. It's about stereotypes. It's about filtering. All of these things work on the left and on the right. They're all operative dynamics. And it's all going on right now. This mugshot is not the best thing that's ever happened to Trump.

It hurts him. But the idea that it's a home run for the left, the idea that it broadens his appeal on the right are both bullshit. Okay? What it does is increase the intensity of the crucible that we're in, the hotbox, the fires of fringe thinking, of confrontation, and of a battle to the bottom. This is a war of attrition, and that is the worst kind of battle to be in politically, especially if what you want is better and progress.

This is not a battle of the better ideas. It's a battle of what is worse. And that mugshot is a metaphor. That's my take. What do you think? Let's get after it. Thank you for subscribing, following. I'll see you News Nation, 8 and 11 p.m. Eastern, five nights a week. I'll see you there. Don't forget

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