Please Don't Throw Me Over There In The Briar Patch, Brer Fox!
The New York political establishment is belatedly waking up to what it's done.
Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan rejected pleas for extended coverage by multiple media outlets — including the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post — ahead of Trump’s first court appearance after they declared “this indictment involves a matter of monumental significance.”
. . . Merchan said while the media’s request was understandable, the news organizations’ interests in providing the broadest possible access to the proceedings must be weighed against “competing interests.”
His ruling came after Trump’s legal team argued against having cameras in the court room, saying a “circus-like” atmosphere would result, as Breitbart News reported.
I think the intent from Trump's team is not so much to avoid a "circus-like" atmosphere entirely, rather that it be Trump's circus-like atmosphere. Rolling Stone reports,A law enforcement official tells Rolling Stone that the former president was offered a chance to surrender quietly and be arraigned over Zoom. Instead, Trump opted for a midday, high-profile booking at the Manhattan courthouse, the official says.
“He wanted a perp walk; he wanted daylight hours,” says the law enforcement official, who’s involved in aspects of the security planning. “He wants to get out of the vehicle and walk up the stairs. This is a nightmare for Secret Service, but they can only strongly suggest — not order — that Trump enter through the secure tunnels. Trump wants to greet the crowd. This should be a surprise to no one — especially not his detail.”
Secret Service had argued in favor of holding the proceedings outside of court business hours, at night with minimal cameras and less risk. But Trump, a source close to his legal team says, wants to create the type of scene that he believes will galvanize his supporters.
“It’s kind of a Jesus Christ thing. He is saying, ‘I’m absorbing all this pain from all around from everywhere so you don’t have to,’ ” says the source. Describing the message Trump hopes to send his supporters, the source says: “ ‘If they can do this to me they can do this to you,’ and that’s a powerful message.”
If the "law enforcement source" is with NYPD, there's a good chance he's Catholic, and when he calls it "a Jesus Christ thing", he's referring to Holy Week. Somehow somebody in Bragg's office thought it would be a good idea to get him in soonest, like Tuesday, and seems not to have noticed it's Tuesday of Holy Week. This is just one of the problems Bragg's people have brought on themselves.Trump's progress to his arraignment from Mar-a-Lago was national news with live coverage of his quasi-presidential motorcades.
The route to the airport was lined with supporters holding pro-Trump flags and cheering for the president. Trump entered the airport with an 11 car motorcade.
Most networks carried the historic departure. Trump is the first president in history to be indicted.
Trump sells papers. Trump brings viewers. People click on Trump. No matter how they hate him, the media can't resist Trump. And now he's historic news. Pace William Barr, there's been no eminence grise to warn the Democrats of what they've created.Consider: even if Judge Merchan imposes a gag order on Trump, he'll just go to ralles and say, "You know? There's ONE THING I can't talk about! And you all know what that is!"
The crowd will go wild.
Nobody thought this through. The Trump indictment looks to have unified the Republicans behind Trump a year ahead of the primaries -- while Biden may postpone his own decision to run until fall.
