Trump lashes out at ‘crooked’ judge, trial after historic conviction
Donald Trump sought to move past his historic criminal conviction on Friday and build momentum for his bid to return to the White House with fierce attacks on the judge who oversaw the case, the prosecution’s star witness and the criminal justice system as a whole.
Speaking from his namesake tower in Manhattan in a symbolic return to the campaign trail, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee delivered a message aimed squarely at his most loyal supporters. Defiant as ever, he insisted without evidence that the verdict was “rigged” and driven by politics.
“We’re going to fight,” Trump said from the atrium of Trump Tower, where he had descended his golden escalator to announce his 2016 campaign nine years ago next month. It was that campaign that led to the charges that made Trump the first former president and presumptive major party nominee in the nation’s history to be convicted of a crime.
A Manhattan jury on Thursday found Trump guilty of 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush-money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
While the guilty verdict has energized Trump’s base, fuelling millions of dollars in new campaign contributions, it’s unclear how the conviction and his rambling response will resonate with the kinds of voters who are likely to decide what is expected to be an extremely close November election. They include suburban women, independents and voters turned off by both candidates who remain on the fence.
CBC chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault talks to David Frum about why he thinks Donald Trump’s conviction should have been linked to his role in the Capitol riots instead of hush-money and what it means for democracy in the U.S.
Trump cast himself as a martyr, suggesting that if this could happen to him, “They can do this to anyone.”
“I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to save our country and save our Constitution. I don’t mind,” he said, as he traded the aging lower Manhattan courthouse where he had spent much of the last two months for a backdrop of American flags, rose marble and brass.
“It’s a very unpleasant thing, to be honest,” he said. “But it’s a great, great honor.”
President Joe Biden, responding to the verdict at the White House, said the former president “was given every opportunity to defend himself” and blasted his rhetoric.
“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this is rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said.
Payment to porn star was ‘totally legal,’ Trump says
No former president or presumptive party nominee has ever faced a felony conviction or the prospect of prison time. But Trump has made his legal woes the centrepiece of his campaign message as he has argued without evidence that the four indictments against him were orchestrated by Biden to hobble his campaign.
The hush-money case was filed by local prosecutors in Manhattan who don’t work for the Justice Department or any White House office.
Despite the historic ruling, a convicted Trump sounded much the same as a pre-convicted Trump, as he delivered what amounted to a truncated version of his usual rally speech.
The Republican ex-president, as defiant as ever, argued the verdict was illegitimate and driven by politics and sought to downplay the facts underlying the case.
“It’s not hush money. It’s a nondisclosure agreement. Totally legal, totally common,” he said.
Alex Panetta, a Washington correspondent for CBC News, was in the New York courtroom on Thursday when the jury read out the verdict convicting former U.S. president Donald Trump of 34 charges. Here’s what he saw.
When Trump emerged from the courtroom immediately after the verdict Thursday, he had appeared tense and deeply angry, his words pointed and clipped. But by Friday, he seemed more relaxed — if a little congested — especially as his remarks evolved into a version of his usual rally speeches, complete with acted-out stories and exaggerated hand gestures.
He did not take questions from reporters, marching off as supporters who’d assembled in the lobby cheered.
Trump, who has painted himself as pro-law enforcement and even talked of how officers might handle suspects roughly, has spent the last two years attacking parts of the criminal justice system as it applies to him and raising questions about the honesty and motives of agents and prosecutors.
In his disjointed remarks, Trump attacked Biden on immigration and tax policies before pivoting to his case, growling that he was threatened with jail time if he violated a gag order. He cast intricate parts of the case and trial proceedings as unfair, making false statements and misrepresentations as he went.
Trump blasted witness, judge
Trump said he had wanted to testify in his trial, a right that he opted not to exercise. Doing so would have allowed prosecutors to cross-examine him.
The former president on Friday raised the spectre of being charged with perjury for a verbal misstep, saying, “The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify — anybody, if it were George Washington — don’t testify because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong.”
Testing the limits of the gag order that continues to prohibit him from publicly critiquing witnesses including Michael Cohen, Trump called his former fixer, the star prosecution witness in the case, “a sleazebag,” without referencing him by name.
He also blasted the judge in the case, saying his side’s chief witness had been “literally crucified by this man who looks like an angel, but he’s really a devil.”
He also circled back to some of the same authoritarian themes he has repeatedly focused on in speeches and rallies, painting the U.S. under Biden as a “corrupt” and “fascist” nation.
His son Eric Trump and daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, joined him, but his wife, Melania Trump, who has been publicly silent since the verdict, was not seen.
Outside, on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, supporters gathered across the street flew a giant red “TRUMP OR DEATH” sign that flapped in front of a high-end boutique. A small group of protesters held up signs that said “Guilty” and “Justice matters.”
Jeffrey Swartz, a former Florida state judge, says it’s unwise of former U.S. president Donald Trump to attack the judge handling his New York criminal case. ‘It’s just not going to work for Donald Trump and it doesn’t work for anybody else.’
On Friday morning, Trump’s campaign announced it had raised $34.8 million from the time the verdict was announced through midnight. That’s more than $1 million for each felony charge and more than his political operation raised in January and February combined.
Just under 30 per cent of that money came from donors who had not previously given to the campaign through the online platform, they said.
Trump and his campaign had been preparing for a guilty verdict for days, even as they held out hope for a hung jury. On Tuesday, Trump railed that not even Mother Teresa, the nun and saint, could beat the charges, which he repeatedly labelled as “rigged.”
His top aides on Wednesday released a memo in which they insisted a verdict would have no impact on the election, whether Trump was convicted or acquitted.
The news nonetheless landed with a jolt. Trump listened, sitting stone-faced as the jury delivered a guilty verdict on every count.
Campaign reports rush of contributions
His campaign fired off a flurry of fundraising appeals, and GOP allies rallied to his side.
One text message called him a “political prisoner,” even though he hasn’t yet found out if he will be sentenced to prison. The campaign also began selling black “Make America Great Again” caps, instead of the usual red, to reflect a “dark day in history.”
Aides reported an immediate rush of contributions so intense that WinRed, the platform the campaign uses for fundraising, crashed. The $34.8 million raised Thursday did not include what Trump collected at his in-person fundraiser or any donations that continued to come in online Friday.
Trump is set in the upcoming two months to have his first debate with Biden, announce a running mate and formally accept his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. But before he does, Trump will have to return to court on July 11 for sentencing. He could face penalties ranging from a fine or probation, or up to four years in prison.
Published at Mon, 15 Apr 2024 09:35:06 +0000
Israel offers Hamas ceasefire proposal that could end war in Gaza, Biden says
Israel has confirmed it presented Hamas with a truce proposal that could immediately lead to a six-week ceasefire in Gaza, after the United States said the deal could pave the way to ending the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday he had authorized his negotiators to offer the deal to Hamas.
“The Israeli government is united in the desire to return our hostages as soon as possible and is working to achieve this goal,” the statement said.
“Therefore, the prime minister has authorized the negotiating team to present an outline for achieving this goal, while insisting that the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved, including the return of all our hostages and the destruction of Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities.”
Earlier Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden laid out details of an agreement he described as “a roadmap to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages.” The deal would be implemented in three phases, the first of which would bring the ceasefire.
“That offer is now on the table,” Biden said during a White House briefing.
The proposal comes as Israel grows increasingly isolated from some of its strongest allies and the wider international community over its ongoing attacks on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, which have killed civilians and continued in spite of an order from the United Nations’ top court to stand down.
Biden said he recognizes there are some in Israel who want to see the war continue “indefinitely,” but said Hamas is no longer capable of leading another attack like the surprise assault on Oct. 7 after nearly eight months of war. Further conflict, he said, will drain Israel’s economy and harm its international standing.
“I’ve urged leadership in Israel to stand behind this deal, despite whatever pressure comes,” Biden said.
“It is time for this war to end,.”
The international community is growing more critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza after accusations of genocide, talk of arrest warrants and airstrikes that killed civilians in Rafah. Andrew Chang breaks down the global shift in stance, and how Israel is responding to the pressure.
3-phase proposal
Biden said the proposed deal, if Hamas accepts it, would play out in three stages.
Phase 1 would immediately bring a “complete ceasefire” in the war, with Israeli forces withdrawing fully from Gaza. A number of hostages, including women, children, the elderly and the wounded, would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Aid deliveries to the devastated enclave would “surge” to 600 trucks per day, Biden said.
During the second phase, Hamas and Israel would negotiate terms of a permanent end to hostilities. All remaining hostages, including men and soldiers, would also be released.
“The ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue,” Biden said.
During Phase 3, reconstruction plans would begin in Gaza and the remains of any hostages who were killed would be returned to their families.
Biden said Qatar had relayed the proposal to Hamas.
- Just Asking wants to know: What questions do you have about the possibility of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas at this point in the war? What would you like to know about the role of the international community in peace negotiations? Fill out the details on this form and send us your questions ahead of our show on June 1.
A hostage proposal put forward earlier this year called for the release of sick, elderly and wounded hostages in Gaza in exchange for a six-week ceasefire that could be extended to allow for more humanitarian aid to be delivered into the enclave.
The proposed deal fell apart earlier this month after Israel refused to agree to a permanent end to the war as part of the negotiations and ramped up an assault on Rafah.
Hamas said on Thursday it had told mediators it would not take part in more negotiations during ongoing aggression, but was ready for a “complete agreement,” including an exchange of hostages and prisoners if Israel stopped the war.
Israel presses forward in Gaza
On the ground in Gaza, Israeli forces said they had ended combat operations in the Jabalia area of north Gaza on Friday after destroying more than 10 kilometres of tunnels during days of intense fighting that included over 200 airstrikes.
During the operation, troops recovered the bodies of seven of the hostages, the military said, without elaborating on their identities.
Hamas-led militants abducted some 250 people when they stormed over the border into Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli government tallies. About 120 people remain unaccounted for.
Over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and land war since then in Gaza, according to health officials there, and much of the densely populated enclave lies in ruins.
Front Burner26:49When Israel investigates itself, what happens?
Rafah, the only major city in Gaza yet to have been taken by Israeli forces, had been a refuge for more than one million Palestinians driven from their homes by fighting in other areas of the small coastal enclave, but most have now left after being told to evacuate ahead of the Israeli operation.
Hundreds of thousands are now living in tents and other temporary shelters in a special evacuation zone in nearby Al-Mawasi, a sandy, palm tree-dotted district on the coast, as well as areas in central Gaza.
Israel has signalled for weeks that it intended to mount an assault on the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah, drawing international condemnation and warnings even from allies like the United States not to attack the city while it remained full of displaced people.
The risks were underlined on Sunday when an Israeli airstrike targeting two Hamas commanders outside the city set off a blaze that killed at least 45 people sheltering in tents next to the compound hit by the jets.
As the war has dragged on and Gaza’s infrastructure has been widely demolished, malnutrition has spread among the 2.3 million population as aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle, and the United Nations has warned of incipient famine.
Published at Fri, 31 May 2024 13:23:06 +0000