Some Establishment Media Personalities Gush over Trump Indictment: ‘It Is Strong’  

Supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump wave signs and flags as they wait for the
Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Wendell Husebø

Some members in the establishment media could not stop gushing over the historic indictment of former President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Without much emphasis on the legal merits of the charges against Trump, some left-wing media personalities were quick to point to the color of the man who brought the charges against Trump and how the indictment will allegedly ruin Trump’s 2024 chances due to the mighty powerfully strong case. Others also poured out their thoughts about the dangers of the media’s wall-to-wall coverage of Trump, fearing he is drowning out President Joe Biden, Trump’s likely 2024 opponent.

Former Manhattan chief assistant DA Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Brookings fellow Norman Eisen gave the most surprising take by arguing in a New York Times op-ed that the charges against Trump are “strong.”

“[T]here’s nothing novel or weak about this case,” they said. “New York prosecutors regularly charge felony violations of the books and records statute — and win convictions — when the crimes covered up were campaign finance violations, resulting in false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity.”

“Mr. Trump cannot persuasively argue he is being singled out for some unprecedented theory of prosecution. He is being treated as any other New Yorker would be with similar evidence against him,” they claimed.

MSNBC’s Joe Reid had a different take. Speaking about the indictment, she focused on the color of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s skin.

“The comic irony that it is a black DA that Donald Trump has to face,” she said. “And he is being afforded all the protections of the law is something”:

The Independent’s Richard Hall suggested the indictment, which many argue is politically motivated and without legal merit, will hurt Trump’s chances in 2024 by making the Republican Party weaker. “What doesn’t kill Trump will make him stronger, but in the long run, it may make his party weaker,” he wrote.

Retweeting MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes, Hall also claimed the circus around Trump in New York City on Tuesday hid the “dire predicament” for the GOP. Hall did not back up his claims by citing any polling data that has recently shown the indictment to be a uniting force behind Trump.

“The circus around Trump’s arraignment conceals a dire predicament for the Republican Party,” he said:

The New York Times’ Peter Baker and Michael Shear wrote about the indictment in a 1512-word news story. They warned about the dangers of the media’s wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s indictment and how the “wild gyrations” have drowned out Biden’s voice.

“No commander in chief in more than a century has been eclipsed in the public eye by the leader he succeeded the way Mr. Biden has at times,” they wrote. “Now with the first criminal prosecution of a former president in American history, it will be that much harder to command the national conversation.”

“Yet it is a contrast that Mr. Biden’s team hopes will eventually benefit him,” they wrote. “The wild gyrations of the Trump show, in this view, only reinforce the reasons voters turned to Mr. Biden in the first place — the appeal of a steady hand against the storm.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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