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A Former CNN Host Had a Shocking Reaction to Trump's Classified Doc Indictment

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 12, 2023 6:30 AM

I was expecting grade-A lunacy from The View regarding their reactions to the Trump indictment over classified materials. Their broadcast last Friday was pre-taped, so they missed out, but I’m sure today will be indiscriminately insane. This show did peddle the conspiracy theory that the state secrets Joe Biden left everywhere were the work of Republican Party operatives. That’s coming later today, but one reaction from a former CNN host about the indictment was a little shocking. Chris Cuomo had former Rolling Stone reporter/editor Matt Taibbi on NewsNation to discuss the latest legal action to land at the feet of the former president. In all, Cuomo wasn’t all that impressed regarding the charges, later equating the indictment as something out of a banana republic (via NewsBusters):


Former President Trump dropped a bombshell on the race for president Thursday night, an announcement that he had been indicted for willfully holding onto classified documents. But while many of his detractors in the liberal media were doing their happy dance, Chris Cuomo was on his eponymous NewsNation show with independent journalist Matt Taibbi, where both men cast doubt on the charges and had some pretty intense criticisms, including a comparison to a third-world country. 

Towards the end of the show, which was entirely dedicated to the Trump Indictment, Cuomo introduced his guest and had some critical words for investigators. He chided that he wasn’t sure if they were “intentionally or unintentionally helping” Trump “because every time there's a swing, it seems to expose the fact they go after him with what seems to be at or below a level of anything that would be impressive to people reviewing the documents.” 

Taibbi agreed and reminded viewers that he was “not a fan” of Trump but he had a simple test that any charges directed at a person in Trump’s position needed to pass. Taibbi felt the charges against Trump failed 

[…] 

The harshest criticism came from Taibbi who suggested the actions of the Department of Justice were like something you would find overseas. “I think if you are a person who grew up in a third-world country, you would recognize this kind of thing is something that in a not-entirely-free society,” he argued. “So, that's the optics of this are terrible. There’s no way around it.” 

Trump was being charged under the Espionage Ace and Taibbi recalled how Barack Obama weaponized it when he was president. “Also, you have to consider the context. Barack Obama, who I voted for twice, set the record for the use of the Espionage Act against leakers. He used it against journalists,” he informed viewers. With that in mind, he surmised that “the average person” would view the charges as “kind of a technicality.” 

The other side of this is that, unlike the Stormy Daniels indictment, this one has a bit more meat to it, and Trump’s remarks which were caught on audio—the transcript included in the indictment—only made it easier for DOJ prosecutors to make their case. Thanks to Trump's less-than-stellar judgment, mountains of documents were stored in the bathroom, with reports of unauthorized personnel coming very close to classified maps of military operations. I was wrong: there were military and nuclear secrets, which I’ll own. And there are different reactions across conservative media. Hugh Hewitt sees nothing major, whereas National Review's Charles Cooke described the indictment as devastating. 

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos did get testy with now-former Trump attorney Jim Trusty.  

One network you know didn’t have a diverse opinion about this development was MSNBC. I mean, look at this panel: 

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MSNBC host Rachel Maddow went so far as to suggest a quid pro quo arrangement between Trump and the DOJ: drop out of the race, and we’ll nix the charges. She also unwittingly gave away the real play from the Left here. They want Trump to quit. He won't, and the Left should know better by now.