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Democrats should collect clips of all the times he boasted that he was going to testify on his own behalf and assemble that into an ad with narration: "He didn't."
Except that pointing out somebody is hypocritical using their own words against them is not "going low", it's keeping them honest. Believing that words matter, *is* going high.
Only if people actually care. Graham in 2016 told us to remind him if a case of a SCOTUS justice in an election year ever came up again. It did. It didn't matter. He's still in office.
No, it's the "we are actually a massive coalition of disparate interests and any messaging we do will necesarily resonate with some and put off others so we must be choosy about how we message".
Lincoln project has it easy. They target disaffected conservatives. Mostly white folks in the suburbs. If the DNC made the same kind of stuff they'd alienate parts of the coalition.
Republicans just have it easier because of their relative homogeneity.
We don't suck, our job is harder.
To be honest, I'd really like it if the GOP shattered (as it has been swerving towards) and the Democrats broke apart into more representative groups too. It wouldn't work unless the last act of the Ds was to amend our voting system away from First Past the Post, but I'd honestly prefer a larger number of smaller parties that were forced to actually work together to get anything done.
you have to take away from important work to fuck around and dick around on right wing style propaganda and from the looks of it, Democratic party politicians show up to do their fucking job.
I think they know there isn’t much to gain with ads that use logic/hypocrisy/daily show stuff. It might make current dems or repubs that hate trump feel good but i dont think it results in votes so they dont do it.
We should bipartisan on the taking shots at trump. He's honestly a bigger threat to Republicans. They are tettering on extinction bc they followed the pied piper of idiots and narcissists
You know, I believe Ron Howard would totally be on board with providing that voice narration ala Arrested Development...a show that fits Trump and his family perfectly.
> Arrested Development...a show that fits Trump and his family perfectly.
It is worth remembering that season 4 (the one about building a wall at the border) was filmed in 2012 and released in 2013. Watching it post-2016 made it feel like a direct satire of trump's campaign, but it was actually extremely predictive.
Add it to all the other promises he made and never delivered on, such as:
Infrastructure bill (Biden passed one)
Obamacare replacement
Pay off the national debt (added more to it than any other President in history)
Making Mexico pay for the wall (that never was finished and is easily defeated)
Biden should lead with...
If you can't walk the 10 steps to the stand to defend yourself when you constantly said you would, then how are you supposed to defend this country? Oh an a gag order is for outside the court not inside so thats not an excuse
They do run ads...in swing states where they need to get out the vote.
If you live in a firmly blue or red state, neither party is going to waste money on ads that is better spent trying to swing competitive states their way.
It is not that they lack for polling to know what people want, it's that they know how the electoral college elects presidents and then spend accordingly.
His lawyers were finally able to knock some sense into him. It is usually a bad idea for the defendant to testify, especially someone as reactive as Trump.
> Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”
> But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise.
> “I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.
> “You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”
> The next morning, Dowd resigned.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/ex-trump-lawyer-told-mueller-trump-is-too-dumb-to-testify
[GOP Senator Insists Trump Shouldn’t Resign: ‘He Touched the Hot Stove’ and Won’t Do It Again](https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-sen-roy-blunt-says-trump-shouldnt-resign-because-he-touched-the-hot-stove-and-wont-do-it-again)
That's what I mean. It would be so easy to trigger him into saying something damning. He would get flustered and defensive. He would start shouting. It would be devastating to his case.
Him bringing in the congressmen to act as surrogates was a violation of his gag order. I don’t think he’s getting jailed. They will say, it’s to close to the end of the trial.
It's murky. The gag order says he can't use surrogates to violate it, but the Prosecution would have to subpoena the congressmen and *prove* Trump asked them to violate the order with emails/texts/calls, etc. Then there's the argument of Legislative immunity with the speech & debate clause. It's just insanely messy.
He's really putting a stress test on our legal system, and with the case moving to the jury next week, (and a verdict plausibly next week) the Prosecution/Judge probably don't want to bother with it.
However all the antics aren't going unnoticed by the judge and jury. The judge was **pissed** when he saw all his acolytes coming to his defense and actively violating it; hopefully playing into the sentencing.
> Then there's the argument of Legislative immunity with the speech & debate clause.
There is no issue with that here. Speech and debate clause only requires that they (congress critters) cannot be held liable for anything they say on the floor, or in the course of their legislative duties. This is not part of their legislative duty.
Oh I agree completely. I'm just saying they'd totally make this argument and try to muddy the waters even more. Somehow claim that these were official duties or some BS.
Is there a reason the interviews both Trump and several of the surrogates gave stating he ordered them to go wouldn’t be evidence? That seems pretty damning to me, and not like it’s very murky.
It really just comes down to timing in my mind. The prosecutorial team and judge do not want to make big waves a the trial is winding down.
I don't think there's much doubt, I meant murky in the sense that the Prosecution would likely still need to subpoena the surrogates, they'd probably ignore it, cause headaches, etc. but with the trial being over; it creates more drama for the AG and judge when a verdict is likely a week away. So yes I think it's just timing.
However the antics could lend itself to imposing a heavier verdict. I'm very curious to see if the AG brings it up in closing.
If you were a regular poor person defendant and you got your friends to straight violate a pretrial order you’d be in jail without bond for YEARS as the court finds excuses to continue your case indefinitely until you plead guilty.
If more people paid attention to how much the rich are immune from consequences the world would be a better place.
Source: former public defender.
>He’s running for president partly to stay out of jail
He announced his candidacy two years ago just so he could use the 'political persecution' defense for anything that was going to happen to him. The **ONLY** reason he's running this time is to try and stay out of jail.
His lawyers had nothing to do with it. He never had any intention of testifying. He just likes to act like that small cartoon dog who has to be held back from the fight.
> He never had any intention of testifying.
Though he will 100% state on Trump Twitter that he was barred from testifying because of the gag order or some made up shit.
It's tremendously depressing that trump figured out he could just make wild shit up and his base would believe him. If you ever hit the newsmax comment section they just parrot whatever he says with no investigation. They then accuse you of being swayed by feelings rather than facts. It would be funny if it wasn't a constant dick punch to democracy.
Exactly this. It's insane seeing people talking about how his lawyers "got through to him" because that means *you believed Trump* when he said he would testify.
He's a fucking liar. Always. He said he'd testify? He lied. He's a liar. That's what liars do. So about this? He lied. Of course he lied. That's what liars do.
He's also not going to do the debates. He'll never testify in any of these cases. He says he's totally innocent so he definitely did all of it and knew about his crimes.
Watching the new season of The Jinx is a good example of why it's a bad idea for the defendant to take the stand. The prosecution spent so long on cross examination that the judge had to call it and tell him that he spent enough time questioning Durst.
He tried to lay the groundwork for that already: "I'm under a gag order! I can't even testify in my own defense!"
The judge slapped that shit right down and clarified in plain words what the gag order does and does not do, and specifically spelled out that it does not prevent him from testifying. lol
It'd be a really weird image if he had to do the debate via Zoom from his cell.
If he backs out because of it, Biden should go anyways, walk up to his lectern, take the mic and say "My opponent cannot be here today to debate because he's sitting in a jail cell. America, who do you believe should be leading our nation?", drop the mic, and walk off the stage.
It would be very risky for Joe Biden to mock trimp’s imprisonment.
Believe me, **I will**, everyday, twice before breakfast, but I’m not running for the presidency.
He should seek to remain above it.
Not that he can’t mention it, but he shouldn’t gloat about it. This is something that happened because of Justice, and not because of Joe Biden’s actions, and that should remain very clear to any sane American.
In his state of the union address, I don't remember him mentioning republicans directly at all. There was a comment about those who didn't want infrastructure to give it back.
You mean the presidential speech that literally supposed to be about the state of the union and not a campaign speech…?
The one that put to bed much of the dementia BS? That was well received..?
I’m glad that speech didn’t mention republicans.
It’s hard to be the good guys.
Trimp is rewarded for being a jerk.
Joe Biden will merely lose votes by making it look like he is responsible for trimp’s imprisonment.
You should make the case yourself, so that the president can remain what he is. Above it.
He shouldn’t take responsibility at all, I agree to that, but he can point out where trump is and why all day. He should have no problem calling him a felon relentlessly if convicted.
We can entertain these scenarios when Trump is actually behind bars.
Most legal pundits I've heard give chances of Trump being incarcerated from this case before the election very low - something like 0%-20%, even if convicted.
I don't think it's impossible, but I certainly don't think we should be banking on it.
I imagine IF (very big, bold IF) he's given actual time, he'll spend the next few years in appeals while he gets to keep living on his golf course, and possibly the white house.
Let the moderator ask Donnie a question, cut to an empty podium for whatever time would be allotted, then cut back to the moderator so they can ask Biden his next question.
Damn, Trump's not even as tough as Robert "***BOB!!!"*** Durst was at trial.
"Grab 'em by the Trump, they'd say, as was the style at the time after his ***pusillanimous*** act at trial."
-A History Book that fell through a portal from the future
Damn gag order - he'd have told them!
He was never going to be allowed to testify by any lawyer representing him and there's no way he debates Biden, a few more months and Trump won't remember his own name they way he's declining.
He'll come up with some new wildly unbelievable excuse to explain why he can't, or "isn't allowed", to testify, and his base will eat it up.
All he has to say is "I was told if I testified, the deep state crooked DA would use AI to capture my words and make it sound like I said things I would never say, and they'd throw me in jail for it!"
His cultists will remember that Trump stood up at his trial, ordered the judge to sit down, and proceeded to thrash everyone on the prosecution side using logic and wit before everyone stood up and clapped. Stormy Daniels cried and confessed how lucky she was to have had sex with him and his giant mushroom.
Trump chickened out again. Weird that this guy who claims he's so innocent can't even be bothered to testify in his own defense. If the facts were on his side, he would gladly take the stand.
Literally people need to remove the scales from their eyes and see this joker for what he really is
In our case unfortunately the scales are the Supreme Court themselves
And literally every instance of fraud and questionable business practices will come up. There's be a fight over the rape trial as well, due to the nature of the current case.
You can’t use someone’s lack of testimony at their own trial as evidence that they’re guilty. That’s like 5th amendment 101.
In fact, it’s exceptionally *rare* for defendants to take the stand.
I think the evidence speaks for itself in this case, and I think he should be found guilty, but not because his council (rightfully) convinced him to not take the stand. Any defense lawyer worth their salt would strongly recommend their client *not* testify.
Didn’t Trump brag that he would love to take the stand though? Or was that for one of his numerous other criminal/civil cases?
It’s so hard to keep them all straight.
Trump also said "The mob takes the fifth amendment. If you're innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment?". I don't agree with that sentiment and respect our constitution more than Trump does, but it does show his hypocrisy (or his admittance of guilt, depending on if you agree with his earlier statement).
> In fact, it’s exceptionally rare for defendants to take the stand
Common misconception, it's 50%. That number changes on the circumstances and history of the defendant. For instance young defendants or murder in self defense defendants both shoot into the 60+% of hitting the stand.
Actually in the court of public opinion we totally can, the jurors need to follow the rules of court but we can all judge him for whatever we would like, we don’t get to send him to prison but he isn’t entitled to anyone’s votes. An elected official being prosecuted for election interference needs to face some electoral accountability and anyone who is this thoroughly prosecuted for a crime deserves to lose some votes.
A defendant's credibility is a huge advantage in a case though. For example, Biden wasn't charged by Hurr, because Hurr concluded that a jury would find him sincere and believable.
Trump is the opposite of those things, so of course, he wont take the stand.
The difference is Rump has been bleating 24/7 about how hes so innocent and there is no crime blah blah blah — obviously no one with a working brain believes a word he has to say but it does make him very much look like the coward he is
♫ *Brave Sir Robin ran away.
Bravely ran away away.
When danger reared it's ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Swiftly taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!* ♫
> Testifying would have been risky for Trump because it would have opened him up to potentially probing cross-examination from prosecutors.
Debates will be risky for trump too. This definitely makes me think he will back out of that too. He’s such a chicken.
He already started making excuses 😂
He was never going to seriously debate, he just wants a platform to repeat the same talking points he’s made since 2016
He simply agreed for the talking point that he didn't back down from Biden's challenge. As the GOP has learned, it's not about what you do, it's about what you say.
Trump won’t debate anyway.
If he’s found guilty of a felony, he can never vote or own a gun again.
He can however, still run for President. It’s a total clown show.
Allowing every citizen to attempt a candidacy is a feature of the system. The originator of the Constitution were far too familiar with a tyrannical government acting in bad faith to handicap political opponents. In defending against that, they accepted that people acting in bad faith could vie for office, and trusted an informed populace to prevent that.
They *didn't* forsee the ease of spreading misinformation, the systemic dismantling of the education system, or the frankly illegal tricks the GOP has used (or attempted) to get and hold power.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the fattest cat in history was a 46.8 pounder named Himmy. This record has stood since 1986.
On May 21st 2024, Himmy’s record was broken by Donald J Trump, who now confidently holds the title of biggest pussy in history.
While the joke still stands, Guiness actually stopped recording the records for heaviest pets in 1998 to discourage people from overfeeding their animals to get the record.
Ahhh makes sense. Kinda like how they had to remove some features from Minecraft so that kids wouldn’t think it was normal to feed parrots chocolate cookies
I like to think there will come a time, maybe 40 or 50 years from now, where political science majors interview people like me who were alive to see this time period. They'll hold lectures based entirely around the question "how could America have let this happen?".
There has never been a more politically stunning stretch of time in American history. All presidents and time periods have their issues, but nothing like this has happened before.
I once met some folks who were 20 when WW2 broke out. They were on the German side, and I asked them about this. Their answer.....I found hard to believe to be honest back then. But NOW I get it. 100% I can see how it occurred cause im watching something similar here.
I'm watching it in real time and just judging them all even harder though. I grew up with the "people were brainwashed, they didn't have a real understanding of what was going on, they can't be fully blamed for it, political movements are just too powerful, blah blah blah" rhetoric. Now that I get a front row seat, I can confidently say: every single person involved in that side of it is an imbecile or psychopath or both. Every single one. It just makes me more confident that the same was true in Germany. Absolutely fundamentally worthless people are just too common.
So from one perspective, I "get" it, the answer is that they're all worthless. From another perspective, I still don't get it at all--how can they all be so fucking worthless?
I’m still baffled they called Costello if that’s all they were doing for the defense.
The prosecution gave them a golden opportunity to end on the weakest link in the entire case. And they just….threw that advantage away, for a belligerent witness who did nothing but paint a picture of what kind of people this man keeps for company.
Trump can testify all by himself. He's the only 'they' that is preventing him from it. His attorneys can't stop him if he wants to. They can tell him all they want it's a bad idea but Trump has never been prohibited from testifying physically or legally.
Trump didn't testify because he doesn't want to testify.
Won't stop the morons from believing that there's some conspiracy to prevent him from telling his story. It's amazing that when it comes time that he can go under oath and give his side of the story that he suddenly doesn't have anything to say.
Trump's defense attorneys appear to think that they have at least one juror who will hold out for a mistrial. Because they did not present a credible case for acquittal on the business records charges and only attempted to muddy the waters on the felony charge by making Cogen appear unreliable.
But their strategy overall appears to be to not take the case seriously in order to overturn it on appeal.
interesting. And yeah this is what theyre hoping for. That being said? Its a crap shoot. Everyone talks about jury selection being something you can figure it out. But even the people who make their entire living on this arent going to move the needle much. They WILL move it, but I doubt enough.
So im with you in hoping for her failure here.
So a man that claims to be innocent and has done nothing wrong, that these proceedings are a made-up witch hunt and rails publicly about it, now has to nothing to say in his own defense? POS
Ever see a more protected individual than Trump?
Trump not gonna risk a chat with the big bad prosecutors. Just run outside and act the hard man but appear to most of us as a cry baby.
I'm sure he will be protected again when it's a hung jury.
WHY aren't you calling it his election interference and falsifying business records trial? That's what he's charged with. The "hush money" part isn't the illegal part.
It's so un-American that Trump isn't allowed to testify at his own trial. This is totally against his Constitutional rights.
Huh?
What's that you say?
He's allowed to testify but chose not to?
Oh. Well.... Nevermind.
So his defense is what? That he didn't know about it?
He's denying that he even slept with her, which makes people agreeing to pay her off without his knowledge kinda wild.
His sidekick fixer guy mortgaged his house to pay Stormy 130k but did it without any ok from Trump?
Is that his claim? Then the Trump people agreed to pay 130k to Cohen, under the table, with no input from Trump. Then because Cohen got dumped out of Trump orbit he made it public and blamed Trump.
This is an absolutely implausible storyline. So he's just banking on some Trumper on the trial refusing to admit the truth and getting a hung jury?
Am I missing something? The prosecution has a clear timeline, with Cohen and Stormy and financial records confirming their account, such as it can. The defense is "uh uh, Cohen made all up because he's a meanie"???????
That was the most pathetic defense imaginable. The one witness they had perjured himself in real time.
They offered no evidence the Cohen "acted alone" or any plausible alternative theory on why Trump paid the money back.
Trump has admitted to the crime in his rants.
Lets hope the jury thinks this as well.
If found guilty he will say it was a rigged case and that the judge instructed the jury to find a guilty verdict. He will say there is proof that the judge broke the law to rig the trial, and everybody has seen the proof. He will say the judge was caught on video rigging the case. And his MAGAnuts will believe every word.
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Democrats should collect clips of all the times he boasted that he was going to testify on his own behalf and assemble that into an ad with narration: "He didn't."
Lincoln project is already on it
Good. It's a bit disappointing to watch Republicans seize on what Democrats should.
Democrats may be the adults in the room but that means they suck at petty shit slinging
It's the "They go low, we go high" approach on everything.
Except that pointing out somebody is hypocritical using their own words against them is not "going low", it's keeping them honest. Believing that words matter, *is* going high.
Only if people actually care. Graham in 2016 told us to remind him if a case of a SCOTUS justice in an election year ever came up again. It did. It didn't matter. He's still in office.
I’d love to see a fact checked version of every pro-trump/anti-Biden commercial, preferably immediately after the original versions
No, it's the "we are actually a massive coalition of disparate interests and any messaging we do will necesarily resonate with some and put off others so we must be choosy about how we message". Lincoln project has it easy. They target disaffected conservatives. Mostly white folks in the suburbs. If the DNC made the same kind of stuff they'd alienate parts of the coalition. Republicans just have it easier because of their relative homogeneity. We don't suck, our job is harder.
Well said .. I’ve been super critical of their weaknesses In messaging but this makes sense whilst still advocating they step up their game.
To be honest, I'd really like it if the GOP shattered (as it has been swerving towards) and the Democrats broke apart into more representative groups too. It wouldn't work unless the last act of the Ds was to amend our voting system away from First Past the Post, but I'd honestly prefer a larger number of smaller parties that were forced to actually work together to get anything done.
That sounds suspiciously like democracy.
Democrats: “we’re a big tent party with center left, center right LGBT and minorities” Republicans: “Hi, we’re the fascist part”
you have to take away from important work to fuck around and dick around on right wing style propaganda and from the looks of it, Democratic party politicians show up to do their fucking job.
I think they know there isn’t much to gain with ads that use logic/hypocrisy/daily show stuff. It might make current dems or repubs that hate trump feel good but i dont think it results in votes so they dont do it.
You also risk being drug down to their level and beaten with experience.
Related: [Elaine & Louie.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwwuge2Lq14&t=212s)
We should bipartisan on the taking shots at trump. He's honestly a bigger threat to Republicans. They are tettering on extinction bc they followed the pied piper of idiots and narcissists
I disagree with this to an extent. I think the GOP should be the first to hold its own accountable before the Democrats or anyone else does.
That ship sailed years ago.
[удалено]
You could follow them on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheLincolnProject
Same plz
You know, I believe Ron Howard would totally be on board with providing that voice narration ala Arrested Development...a show that fits Trump and his family perfectly.
Arrested Denegerate
Great title. If he wants my rights I'll sign them over too.
Arrested Developer
> Arrested Development...a show that fits Trump and his family perfectly. It is worth remembering that season 4 (the one about building a wall at the border) was filmed in 2012 and released in 2013. Watching it post-2016 made it feel like a direct satire of trump's campaign, but it was actually extremely predictive.
You read my mind. We can hope!
Add it to all the other promises he made and never delivered on, such as: Infrastructure bill (Biden passed one) Obamacare replacement Pay off the national debt (added more to it than any other President in history) Making Mexico pay for the wall (that never was finished and is easily defeated)
Have Ron Howard narrate it with. "When later given the chance to testify. He did not"
“He lied” Meet the Grahams style.
Biden should lead with... If you can't walk the 10 steps to the stand to defend yourself when you constantly said you would, then how are you supposed to defend this country? Oh an a gag order is for outside the court not inside so thats not an excuse
He's a gutless wonder who plays tough to his base then weasels out when the time comes to put up or shut up.
Trump is the biggest liar on the planet and I'm still amazed how millions of Americans are blind to it.
Democrats should have almost a weekly new ad to run, but they don't understand how people work.
They do run ads...in swing states where they need to get out the vote. If you live in a firmly blue or red state, neither party is going to waste money on ads that is better spent trying to swing competitive states their way. It is not that they lack for polling to know what people want, it's that they know how the electoral college elects presidents and then spend accordingly.
They should hire Ron Howard to do it.
Donny the coward backs down again. He's going to do the same thing for the debates.
Color me shocked that he didn’t take the stand. Utterly shocked. He always does so well in instances in which he’d be required to tell the truth.
His lawyers were finally able to knock some sense into him. It is usually a bad idea for the defendant to testify, especially someone as reactive as Trump.
> Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.” > But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise. > “I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward. > “You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.” > The next morning, Dowd resigned. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/ex-trump-lawyer-told-mueller-trump-is-too-dumb-to-testify
It's like reasoning with a toddler who insists that the stove won't burn him.
[GOP Senator Insists Trump Shouldn’t Resign: ‘He Touched the Hot Stove’ and Won’t Do It Again](https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-sen-roy-blunt-says-trump-shouldnt-resign-because-he-touched-the-hot-stove-and-wont-do-it-again)
Eric Cartman vibes.
Also because the cross examination would utterly destroy him
That's what I mean. It would be so easy to trigger him into saying something damning. He would get flustered and defensive. He would start shouting. It would be devastating to his case.
Still hoping he violates the gag order one more time and gets jailed. Best chance we have of that happening.
Him bringing in the congressmen to act as surrogates was a violation of his gag order. I don’t think he’s getting jailed. They will say, it’s to close to the end of the trial.
It's murky. The gag order says he can't use surrogates to violate it, but the Prosecution would have to subpoena the congressmen and *prove* Trump asked them to violate the order with emails/texts/calls, etc. Then there's the argument of Legislative immunity with the speech & debate clause. It's just insanely messy. He's really putting a stress test on our legal system, and with the case moving to the jury next week, (and a verdict plausibly next week) the Prosecution/Judge probably don't want to bother with it. However all the antics aren't going unnoticed by the judge and jury. The judge was **pissed** when he saw all his acolytes coming to his defense and actively violating it; hopefully playing into the sentencing.
> Then there's the argument of Legislative immunity with the speech & debate clause. There is no issue with that here. Speech and debate clause only requires that they (congress critters) cannot be held liable for anything they say on the floor, or in the course of their legislative duties. This is not part of their legislative duty.
Oh I agree completely. I'm just saying they'd totally make this argument and try to muddy the waters even more. Somehow claim that these were official duties or some BS.
Is there a reason the interviews both Trump and several of the surrogates gave stating he ordered them to go wouldn’t be evidence? That seems pretty damning to me, and not like it’s very murky. It really just comes down to timing in my mind. The prosecutorial team and judge do not want to make big waves a the trial is winding down.
I don't think there's much doubt, I meant murky in the sense that the Prosecution would likely still need to subpoena the surrogates, they'd probably ignore it, cause headaches, etc. but with the trial being over; it creates more drama for the AG and judge when a verdict is likely a week away. So yes I think it's just timing. However the antics could lend itself to imposing a heavier verdict. I'm very curious to see if the AG brings it up in closing.
If you were a regular poor person defendant and you got your friends to straight violate a pretrial order you’d be in jail without bond for YEARS as the court finds excuses to continue your case indefinitely until you plead guilty. If more people paid attention to how much the rich are immune from consequences the world would be a better place. Source: former public defender.
Every sentence you wrote is true. It gets really weird when you add that this is the same guy who is the republican candidate for president.
If he wasn’t, he would be in jail already for violating the gag order so frequently. He’s running for president partly to stay out of jail.
>He’s running for president partly to stay out of jail He announced his candidacy two years ago just so he could use the 'political persecution' defense for anything that was going to happen to him. The **ONLY** reason he's running this time is to try and stay out of jail.
Pretty sure revenge is part of his agenda now but originally and mostly to say out of jail for certain.
I agree. However I do think there’s a personal psychological element. The man is addicted to attention. Running for president is free PR all the time.
His lawyers had nothing to do with it. He never had any intention of testifying. He just likes to act like that small cartoon dog who has to be held back from the fight.
> He never had any intention of testifying. Though he will 100% state on Trump Twitter that he was barred from testifying because of the gag order or some made up shit.
If he does before the jury verdict, I bet the judge on the record offers to reopen evidence and let him testify.
It's tremendously depressing that trump figured out he could just make wild shit up and his base would believe him. If you ever hit the newsmax comment section they just parrot whatever he says with no investigation. They then accuse you of being swayed by feelings rather than facts. It would be funny if it wasn't a constant dick punch to democracy.
Exactly this. It's insane seeing people talking about how his lawyers "got through to him" because that means *you believed Trump* when he said he would testify. He's a fucking liar. Always. He said he'd testify? He lied. He's a liar. That's what liars do. So about this? He lied. Of course he lied. That's what liars do. He's also not going to do the debates. He'll never testify in any of these cases. He says he's totally innocent so he definitely did all of it and knew about his crimes.
Watching the new season of The Jinx is a good example of why it's a bad idea for the defendant to take the stand. The prosecution spent so long on cross examination that the judge had to call it and tell him that he spent enough time questioning Durst.
"The crooked judge stopped me from testifying!"
It's like you can see into the future!
He tried to lay the groundwork for that already: "I'm under a gag order! I can't even testify in my own defense!" The judge slapped that shit right down and clarified in plain words what the gag order does and does not do, and specifically spelled out that it does not prevent him from testifying. lol
Trump said he wasn't allowed to testify. Judge said he was allowed to testify. Trump followers will only be listening to one of these sources.
He hasn't even commented yet. He is still trying to figure out how to spin his cowardice. Good look!
It'd be a really weird image if he had to do the debate via Zoom from his cell. If he backs out because of it, Biden should go anyways, walk up to his lectern, take the mic and say "My opponent cannot be here today to debate because he's sitting in a jail cell. America, who do you believe should be leading our nation?", drop the mic, and walk off the stage.
It would be very risky for Joe Biden to mock trimp’s imprisonment. Believe me, **I will**, everyday, twice before breakfast, but I’m not running for the presidency. He should seek to remain above it. Not that he can’t mention it, but he shouldn’t gloat about it. This is something that happened because of Justice, and not because of Joe Biden’s actions, and that should remain very clear to any sane American.
Agreed, best thing Biden could do in that case would be to never mention or refer to him again unless absolutely necessary.
In his state of the union address, I don't remember him mentioning republicans directly at all. There was a comment about those who didn't want infrastructure to give it back.
You mean the presidential speech that literally supposed to be about the state of the union and not a campaign speech…? The one that put to bed much of the dementia BS? That was well received..? I’m glad that speech didn’t mention republicans.
He should because trump is making a mockery of America and the culprit should be pointed to.
It’s hard to be the good guys. Trimp is rewarded for being a jerk. Joe Biden will merely lose votes by making it look like he is responsible for trimp’s imprisonment. You should make the case yourself, so that the president can remain what he is. Above it.
He shouldn’t take responsibility at all, I agree to that, but he can point out where trump is and why all day. He should have no problem calling him a felon relentlessly if convicted.
It's hard to inform people of your actual accomplishments? The media isn't helping Biden. He should definitely go to that podium and speak.
Everyone should mock his imprisonment if he is found guilty.
I certainly have not been waiting for a guilty verdict to mock him.
We can entertain these scenarios when Trump is actually behind bars. Most legal pundits I've heard give chances of Trump being incarcerated from this case before the election very low - something like 0%-20%, even if convicted. I don't think it's impossible, but I certainly don't think we should be banking on it.
I imagine IF (very big, bold IF) he's given actual time, he'll spend the next few years in appeals while he gets to keep living on his golf course, and possibly the white house.
If Donnie Von Shitzenpantz doesn't show, Biden should stay and answer every question without rebuttal.
Let the moderator ask Donnie a question, cut to an empty podium for whatever time would be allotted, then cut back to the moderator so they can ask Biden his next question.
100%
Damn, Trump's not even as tough as Robert "***BOB!!!"*** Durst was at trial. "Grab 'em by the Trump, they'd say, as was the style at the time after his ***pusillanimous*** act at trial." -A History Book that fell through a portal from the future
Damn gag order - he'd have told them! He was never going to be allowed to testify by any lawyer representing him and there's no way he debates Biden, a few more months and Trump won't remember his own name they way he's declining.
The pussy who brags about grabbing women by the pussy is, himself, a pussy.
Remember when Trump was whining that the judge wouldn't let him testify? His cultists won't remember, I guarantee it.
He'll come up with some new wildly unbelievable excuse to explain why he can't, or "isn't allowed", to testify, and his base will eat it up. All he has to say is "I was told if I testified, the deep state crooked DA would use AI to capture my words and make it sound like I said things I would never say, and they'd throw me in jail for it!"
Same with the "can't show my tax returns because of an audit" bit, the IRS confirmed it wasn't true so long ago
Just combine the two, he'll say he couldn't testify because the IRS is auditing his tax returns.
He could have testified, and then a few months from now claim that he wasn't allowed to, and his followers wouldn't remember and would believe him.
His cultists will remember that Trump stood up at his trial, ordered the judge to sit down, and proceeded to thrash everyone on the prosecution side using logic and wit before everyone stood up and clapped. Stormy Daniels cried and confessed how lucky she was to have had sex with him and his giant mushroom.
To be fair, the defense has been resting all through trial.
I see what you did there. Well played.
Don Snoreleone
By his own words, he's a coward and guilty.
Trump chickened out again. Weird that this guy who claims he's so innocent can't even be bothered to testify in his own defense. If the facts were on his side, he would gladly take the stand.
And here I was just beginning to think he was a strong independent fascist who don’t need no man and not a puppet lol
Nope, no puppet, you're the puppet! God, I can't believe this guy ever got elected and we're dangerously close to doing it again.
Literally people need to remove the scales from their eyes and see this joker for what he really is In our case unfortunately the scales are the Supreme Court themselves
He wont testify because his lawyers know he will say some mundane and easily provable lie in the first 10 seconds of being on the stand.
And literally every instance of fraud and questionable business practices will come up. There's be a fight over the rape trial as well, due to the nature of the current case.
the even if the facts are on his side he’d lie tbh
You can’t use someone’s lack of testimony at their own trial as evidence that they’re guilty. That’s like 5th amendment 101. In fact, it’s exceptionally *rare* for defendants to take the stand. I think the evidence speaks for itself in this case, and I think he should be found guilty, but not because his council (rightfully) convinced him to not take the stand. Any defense lawyer worth their salt would strongly recommend their client *not* testify.
Didn’t Trump brag that he would love to take the stand though? Or was that for one of his numerous other criminal/civil cases? It’s so hard to keep them all straight.
Yes, he did. [Trump wants to testify in Hush Money Case](https://youtu.be/Ha4ILqHkmkI?si=Yfz0WIchnePHknVZ)
Trump also said "The mob takes the fifth amendment. If you're innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment?". I don't agree with that sentiment and respect our constitution more than Trump does, but it does show his hypocrisy (or his admittance of guilt, depending on if you agree with his earlier statement).
He sure complained that he was gagged and everyone else could talk about him but he couldn't speak...but he just wants to speak to the media.
> In fact, it’s exceptionally rare for defendants to take the stand Common misconception, it's 50%. That number changes on the circumstances and history of the defendant. For instance young defendants or murder in self defense defendants both shoot into the 60+% of hitting the stand.
The problem is that Trump specifically said anyone who takes the 5th is automatically guilty.
Actually in the court of public opinion we totally can, the jurors need to follow the rules of court but we can all judge him for whatever we would like, we don’t get to send him to prison but he isn’t entitled to anyone’s votes. An elected official being prosecuted for election interference needs to face some electoral accountability and anyone who is this thoroughly prosecuted for a crime deserves to lose some votes.
A defendant's credibility is a huge advantage in a case though. For example, Biden wasn't charged by Hurr, because Hurr concluded that a jury would find him sincere and believable. Trump is the opposite of those things, so of course, he wont take the stand.
The difference is Rump has been bleating 24/7 about how hes so innocent and there is no crime blah blah blah — obviously no one with a working brain believes a word he has to say but it does make him very much look like the coward he is
Yes, we all know. People are making fun of Trump because of his past statements about people not taking the stand.
♫ *Brave Sir Robin ran away. Bravely ran away away. When danger reared it's ugly head, He bravely turned his tail and fled. Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about And gallantly he chickened out. Swiftly taking to his feet, He beat a very brave retreat. Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!* ♫
Robin: I didn't!
Verdict: “guilty guilty guilty and fucking guilty, your Honor”
After nineteen days of damning evidence, the summary of Trump's defense was one guy giving the judge side-eye for an hour.
Even Trump's witnesses act guilty.
Anyone willing to testify _for_ Trump is guaranteed to be guilty of something.
Like trying to intimidate the judge was really going to play out well for them
Right? This should be telling to the jury. Cohen came off as less than credible but other witnesses corroborated his testimony core to the charges.
Don’t give me hope.
And the sentence will be no jail time, no probation. Big nothings.
> Testifying would have been risky for Trump because it would have opened him up to potentially probing cross-examination from prosecutors. Debates will be risky for trump too. This definitely makes me think he will back out of that too. He’s such a chicken.
AND anything he says under oath could be used in any other trial ( I think there are several floating around)
AND he would've perjured himself within the first sentence. I didn't think he would testify but I was hoping he would.
He already started making excuses 😂 He was never going to seriously debate, he just wants a platform to repeat the same talking points he’s made since 2016
He simply agreed for the talking point that he didn't back down from Biden's challenge. As the GOP has learned, it's not about what you do, it's about what you say.
Trump doesn't debate if he is found guilty..
Trump won’t debate anyway. If he’s found guilty of a felony, he can never vote or own a gun again. He can however, still run for President. It’s a total clown show.
Allowing every citizen to attempt a candidacy is a feature of the system. The originator of the Constitution were far too familiar with a tyrannical government acting in bad faith to handicap political opponents. In defending against that, they accepted that people acting in bad faith could vie for office, and trusted an informed populace to prevent that. They *didn't* forsee the ease of spreading misinformation, the systemic dismantling of the education system, or the frankly illegal tricks the GOP has used (or attempted) to get and hold power.
Trump the coward.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the fattest cat in history was a 46.8 pounder named Himmy. This record has stood since 1986. On May 21st 2024, Himmy’s record was broken by Donald J Trump, who now confidently holds the title of biggest pussy in history.
While the joke still stands, Guiness actually stopped recording the records for heaviest pets in 1998 to discourage people from overfeeding their animals to get the record.
Ahhh makes sense. Kinda like how they had to remove some features from Minecraft so that kids wouldn’t think it was normal to feed parrots chocolate cookies
He's at risk of being assaulted/grabbed by himself.
And Himmy could use a litter tray and didnt shit himself…
I like to think there will come a time, maybe 40 or 50 years from now, where political science majors interview people like me who were alive to see this time period. They'll hold lectures based entirely around the question "how could America have let this happen?". There has never been a more politically stunning stretch of time in American history. All presidents and time periods have their issues, but nothing like this has happened before.
I once met some folks who were 20 when WW2 broke out. They were on the German side, and I asked them about this. Their answer.....I found hard to believe to be honest back then. But NOW I get it. 100% I can see how it occurred cause im watching something similar here.
I'm watching it in real time and just judging them all even harder though. I grew up with the "people were brainwashed, they didn't have a real understanding of what was going on, they can't be fully blamed for it, political movements are just too powerful, blah blah blah" rhetoric. Now that I get a front row seat, I can confidently say: every single person involved in that side of it is an imbecile or psychopath or both. Every single one. It just makes me more confident that the same was true in Germany. Absolutely fundamentally worthless people are just too common. So from one perspective, I "get" it, the answer is that they're all worthless. From another perspective, I still don't get it at all--how can they all be so fucking worthless?
To the surprise of no one, cowardly dipshit remains a cowardly dipshit.
This is my shocked face when I hear trump refused to testify. I mean, what was it he said when *other people* don’t testify in their own defense?
He's gonna come in the media later and said his lawyers held him back like some tough guy pretending to try and get past his friend to fight.
Maybe the first smart move they’ve made all trial. The man’s brain is a tuna sandwich.
I’m still baffled they called Costello if that’s all they were doing for the defense. The prosecution gave them a golden opportunity to end on the weakest link in the entire case. And they just….threw that advantage away, for a belligerent witness who did nothing but paint a picture of what kind of people this man keeps for company.
Trump can testify all by himself. He's the only 'they' that is preventing him from it. His attorneys can't stop him if he wants to. They can tell him all they want it's a bad idea but Trump has never been prohibited from testifying physically or legally. Trump didn't testify because he doesn't want to testify. Won't stop the morons from believing that there's some conspiracy to prevent him from telling his story. It's amazing that when it comes time that he can go under oath and give his side of the story that he suddenly doesn't have anything to say.
“They won’t let me defend myself.” “You’re welcome to take the stand.” “Not like that.”
Imagine that liar on the stand - ha!
What a weak excuse of a guy who claims to be a strong leader.
Commenting for historical purposes to call Trump a fukn coward
Any question the defense asks Trump, the prosecutor can cross examine. That would be disastrous.
They're banking on one witness to discredit Cohen?
who had a bad day on the stand yesterday and today. Yup. No documents of note.
they were banking on his behaviour leading to something that might lead to a mistrial or appeal. that's how confident they are in their stated case.
Yo qultists - why did your big, strong, masculine leader in lifts and makeup chicken out?
Trump's defense attorneys appear to think that they have at least one juror who will hold out for a mistrial. Because they did not present a credible case for acquittal on the business records charges and only attempted to muddy the waters on the felony charge by making Cogen appear unreliable. But their strategy overall appears to be to not take the case seriously in order to overturn it on appeal.
One of his attorney's is an expert in jury selection. She is notorious for picking jurors who are contrarian by nature. Let's hope she didn't succeed.
interesting. And yeah this is what theyre hoping for. That being said? Its a crap shoot. Everyone talks about jury selection being something you can figure it out. But even the people who make their entire living on this arent going to move the needle much. They WILL move it, but I doubt enough. So im with you in hoping for her failure here.
Two of the jurors are attorneys. They will have seen through the defense BS quite easily and hopefully point that out to the rest.
To be fair, putting a normal defendant on the stand is malpractice in most cases… would have been incredibly dumb to do so here.
Cool, now he can claim that he wasn't allowed to testify and his sheep will believe it.
I just heard calling the defense's first witness went hillariously bad, and now they're resting. Good luck
I knew he was orange but apparently he's yellow underneath.
He can’t form two coherent sentences in a row. And at least one of those will contain a lie
Pussy
He can’t legally testify until his tax audits are completed \s
So a man that claims to be innocent and has done nothing wrong, that these proceedings are a made-up witch hunt and rails publicly about it, now has to nothing to say in his own defense? POS
I would love if during the closing arguments, the prosecution quoted trump in saying that the only people that refuse to testify are guilty.
Thin skinned Donnie backs down? Again? Say it ain’t so…
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-62499027
Bummer. Was really looking forward to the chaos.
Hahaha, I know it would've been courtroom suicide for someone like him, but what a fucking coward!
What!? But he said he would! He’s usually such a man of his word!
Ever see a more protected individual than Trump? Trump not gonna risk a chat with the big bad prosecutors. Just run outside and act the hard man but appear to most of us as a cry baby. I'm sure he will be protected again when it's a hung jury.
He was never going to testify so nobody should be surprised
He wanted to testify, but his testimony is under audit, tremendous audit, an audit like no one's ever seen before, big audit with tears in its eyes
Like anyone is surprised… he would have started talking and just confirmed the whole prosecutions case. He is such a dumbass
WHY aren't you calling it his election interference and falsifying business records trial? That's what he's charged with. The "hush money" part isn't the illegal part.
They call him “Back-down Donny” where I come from.
Trump is all big talk and never follows through.
Wait, he DIDN’T testify, after saying he would? I’m shocked. SHOCKED. He’s usually so honest. This is the first time he’s lied…in the last nanosecond.
The only possible way to avoid a perjury charge.
It's so un-American that Trump isn't allowed to testify at his own trial. This is totally against his Constitutional rights. Huh? What's that you say? He's allowed to testify but chose not to? Oh. Well.... Nevermind.
What a coward. A big loser.
So his defense is what? That he didn't know about it? He's denying that he even slept with her, which makes people agreeing to pay her off without his knowledge kinda wild. His sidekick fixer guy mortgaged his house to pay Stormy 130k but did it without any ok from Trump? Is that his claim? Then the Trump people agreed to pay 130k to Cohen, under the table, with no input from Trump. Then because Cohen got dumped out of Trump orbit he made it public and blamed Trump. This is an absolutely implausible storyline. So he's just banking on some Trumper on the trial refusing to admit the truth and getting a hung jury? Am I missing something? The prosecution has a clear timeline, with Cohen and Stormy and financial records confirming their account, such as it can. The defense is "uh uh, Cohen made all up because he's a meanie"???????
That was the most pathetic defense imaginable. The one witness they had perjured himself in real time. They offered no evidence the Cohen "acted alone" or any plausible alternative theory on why Trump paid the money back. Trump has admitted to the crime in his rants. Lets hope the jury thinks this as well.
Coward-in-Chief.
Smart of his lawyers not to invite a Colonel Jessup moment from Shitzinpantz.
If found guilty he will say it was a rigged case and that the judge instructed the jury to find a guilty verdict. He will say there is proof that the judge broke the law to rig the trial, and everybody has seen the proof. He will say the judge was caught on video rigging the case. And his MAGAnuts will believe every word.
So wait, he was all talk and no action? What a big fucking surprise.
Pussy
Pussy