Donald Trump had his arraignment thanks to an indictment soaked in partisanship. It's so laughably bad that the charges read like a comedy script. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg engaged in political theater, finding ways to elevate misdemeanor charges to felonies; the statute of limitations also expired. How did they get around that? They claim the clock stopped during the COVID pandemic. Of all the things the left tried to ensnare Trump in a legal pickle, they got him on the alleged hush money arrangement he had with ex-porn star Stormy Daniels, which the Manhattan DA's office said helped Trump win the 2016 election.
Still, the liberal media had their day, with some saying the quiet part out loud. Sure, crazies were near the courthouse, but the press was there in full force to capture the moment. They're the only people who think a) a serious crime occurred and b) people outside of the Acela Corridor care. Former CNN producer Steve Krakauer knows their game and captured some excellent screenshots of the headlines about Trump's arraignment. There's also a tinge of disappointment that no violence erupted over this indictment (via Fourth Estate):
"Disappointment," says Andrew McCabe on CNN regarding the indictment. "Everyone was hoping we would see more."
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) April 5, 2023
McCabe says the justification to try these misdemeanors as felonies "simply isn't there": "It's hard to imagine convincing a jury that they should get there." pic.twitter.com/PafSwiY2nZ
Fun new Acela Media standard - linking to The Daily Mail is intimidation! https://t.co/NiecDHyEdu
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) April 5, 2023
#Resistance Acela Media Trump Addicts have been anxiously awaiting this day for 7+ years.
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) April 4, 2023
Let's let them enjoy it a little... pic.twitter.com/zg4WIrpYhl
Just a perfectly executed tweet. No notes. https://t.co/GAjt2mo6tl
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) April 4, 2023
I concur. https://t.co/KgC1gvTXHA
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 4, 2023
...the good news — Trump would be indicted after all. In fact, after he turns himself in in New York City on Tuesday, he’ll fly down to Mar-a-Lago and make a speech. The giddy journalists will get their mug shot to wallpaper cable news (and the walls of their cubicles). The star is back! The addicts get their fix.
Because let’s be very honest about what’s happening here. As I told Will Cain on Fox News... the corporate media doesn’t want to see Donald Trump in jail, or dropping out of the GOP race over these charges. That means they’ll need to find a new drug to feed their addiction. DeSantis just doesn’t bring that same high (or deliver the same ratings, or page views, or subscribers). They want Trump elevated. Some would like him to be the nominee because they think he’ll be easier to beat (something Joy Behar literally said on The View last week). For others, it’s not so overt — they just want the ride to go on a little longer.
Donald Trump has been in this symbiotic relationships with the media for decades. During the 2016 campaign, I read his 1987 bestselling book “The Art of the Deal” (and wrote about my thoughts on it). It’s really worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the Trump psyche better. He’s more or less the same exact person he was then. And it’s full of quotes that provide a playbook for how he truly plays the media, to this day. “As long as they want to shoot, I’ll shovel,” he writes. And later: “Most reporters, I find, have very little interest in exploring the substance of a detailed proposal for a development. They look instead for the sensational angle.”
In another passage, he writes about the time he took a dormant construction site and made it look active in order to secure a partner for his Atlantic City casino — telling the construction equipment to move some dirt around and look busy. “What the bulldozers and dump trucks did wasn’t important, I said, so long as they did a lot of it,” he wrote. (It worked.)
He played the press in 2015 and 2016. They happily played along. They welcomed his rampage through the GOP primary. They thought he’d be easy to beat in the general election. They were wrong.
Here we go again. Tonight Jim Acosta, #Resistance hero of the Trump Era season one, was on CNN hosting a panel of fellow Trump addicts musing about all things Trump. They played the hits. Even Jeb Bush got mentioned! Love, hate. Pleasure, pain. The junkies are happily feeding their addiction, seemingly oblivious about what’s to come.
NBC News had this as their email headline: "Special Coverage: Donald Trump, criminal defendant." There is a criminal in this saga right now, the person from Bragg's office who leaked some of the details to the press, like the 34 charges brought before the former president. Trump pleaded not guilty. We won't revisit this kangaroo court until December 4, the date of the second hearing, but the left wants the headlines.
It's not about the charges being true or not, I'm sure the liberal media establishment knows these are trumped-up charges, but it's about the slow bleed. Keeping Trump tied down in legal troubles degrades him; it's a death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy. The new playbook ensures the former president is engulfed in constant scandal.
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