Pointless to Trump up charges
SO, EVEN Donald Trump’s finest lawyers couldn’t swerve his upcoming criminal trial on charges relating to a porn star’s claims of an affair.They – or rather, he – wanted it delayed until after the US election in November. But this week a Manhattan judge said, in effect: “No way, José.April 15 it was, is, and ever shall be.” So Trump enters uncharted waters. He’ll be the first former US president to stand trial on criminal charges – in this case, alleging the old rascal orchestrated the cover-up of a simmering sex scandal surrounding his 2016 presidential campaign. (Just like Watergate, it’s never about the crime, always about the cover-up.)
Will that doom his bid to win a second term?
Will it heck. Polls show Americans will still vote for Trump in huge numbers even if he’s campaigning from inside a prison cell. I suppose it must be quite exciting living in a country where the outcome of the next general election isn’t a foregone conclusion. Like it is here, whenever Rishi Sunak calls it, or in Putin’s Russia.
At least across the pond you can have an enjoyable flutter on either Trump or Biden and be genuinely unsure whether you’ll be counting your winnings or drowning your sorrows come November 5/6.
As things stand now, that is. Because the Biden bunch need to watch it. In fact the anti-Trump media both stateside and here wants to watch it too.They’re in danger of going after their man with a bent weapon.And that will rebound on them, playing straight into Trump’s constant bluster that his opponents tell lies about him.
They do. I’m talking about coverage of Trump’s “bloodbath” speech earlier this month. It was specious.The coverage, not the speech. Because Trump’s address to a rally in Ohio was seriously misreported by TV and radio networks, online and in many
newspapers.We were told he’d warned that if he doesn’t win the coming election: “It’s going to be a bloodbath.” No mistaking that, right? After the Capitol Hill riots, Trump was unashamedly at it again, calling for armed insurrection.
“The man’s doubling down on his threats of political violence,” a Biden spokesman said.
Er... no he wasn’t.
Rewind that part of the speech, and listen to what Trump said immediately before the bloodbath “threat”. He was actually talking about the US motor industry. He promised his audience that if he wins in November, he’ll protect car manufacturers.
Then he warned that if Biden wins, the industry will be decimated by cheap Chinese competition. “It’s going to be a bloodbath,” he finished. No call to arms, then. Just a perfectly acceptable, if colourful, metaphor.
The danger here is obvious. Cry “wolf” when there’s no wolf, and no one believes you when there actually is. Trump’s a liar and a fraud and may well end up in jail.There’s simply no need to bother making stuff up about him... or sink to his level.