Jay Weber Show transcript 6-3-24
photo credit: Getty Images
I have a different segment about how -most democrat strategists-are insisting that joe Biden needs to use his bully pulpit and ‘go hard’ at Donald trump over this bogus criminal conviction.
I think that’s a huge mistake, given how obviously rigged and fraudulent the case and the conviction are. This is the same scummy party that orchestrated two- two- illegitimate impeachments against Donald trump that they couldn’t get to ‘stick’...because most voters saw right thru them-
Most voters already see right thru this bogus criminal conviction, as simply the next ‘extreme step’ by the dems to try to stop Donald Trump and the GOP. If it becomes the focus of the democrat campaigns between now and November, then it really will backfire on them.
But ‘how to play this, politically’ isn’t the only tough decision that needs to be made, here.
Judge Juan Merchan and Alvin Bragg in the Manhattan DAs office also need to decide how they want to ‘play’ the sentencing.
First-any sentencing recommendation by Bragg is going to face blowback: he’s going to recommend a punishment that ‘isn’t harsh enough’ for trump haters.... or ‘too harsh’ ...to be reasonable to most people.
As one defense attorney put it- Trump-hating New Yorkers quote...very much expect a blood sacrifice and are dying to see nothing less than him go to prison.
But-if Bragg does ‘go for blood’ then he proves this was all political and that he, himself, is a scummy actor who refuses to prosecute most of New York’s crime and continually pushes for soft sentences on everyone else-only to hammer on trump...
And then there’s the sentence that Judge Merchan will actually impose he’s got the same dilemma-
He followed the desires of most of his fellow liberals by railroading Trump into a conviction: does he follow them again and sentence Donald Trump to-actual? - prison time? Because that’s a move that most legal analysts say isn’t warranted here- and that most political analysts say would only backfire, bigly, on the campaign trail.
Is the judge either dumb enough or extreme enough to send trump to prison? Or for even a year of jail? Just to keep him off the campaign trail?
Maybe-but it seems unlikely.
The point is: the way forward here-for Bragg and Merchan-is a political mine field.
So now let me suggest would be politically genius. Just genius.
The best way forward for democrats both politically and legally- is actually to have New York governor Kathy Hoe-cull- pardon- Donald trump-
And-
And-to make it known before judge Merchan imposes his sentence.
You may have seen that Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips floated the idea of a Hoe-cull pardon this weekend. He’s the guy who was running in the primary against Biden.
I love the idea-in terms of political strategy: it gets democrats out of several jams, here-and makes them look reasonable, once again-
And I’ll take the idea further than Phillips has and lay out the move for ‘maximum’ political effect.
But first- Dean Phillips tweeted on Friday:
(read)
I agree. But here’s how Hoe-cull and the dems could play it for maximum effect: if hoe-cull made it clear early-before sentencing-that she intends to pardon Donald trump, then Bragg and Merchan could be as ‘tough’ as they wanted to be on their decision-making.
Correct?
Know what i mean?
They could talk a big game-knowing- none of it would really stick. It would be the sort of political theatre that democrats love tough talk, with no actual consequences.
Bragg could call for four years in prison. Merchan could sentence Trump to it. Then
Hoe-cull comes behind and pardons trump a day or two later.
Hoe-cull could pre-emptively pardon him now if she wanted to. At least I believe she could. Maybe New York has a rule that says a sentence must be imposed before it’s pardoned-
But pre-emptive pardons are legal, normally. So, she could do it before July eleventh, and Merchan’s sentencing- if this really seems like it’s backfiring on the dems-
But she could also wait for all the false political drama to play out-with brag’s sentencing request and Merchan’s actual sentence-and then pardon him a few days later-
And imagine how much this ‘act of kindness’ would catch Trump and the GOP off-guard: imagine if Trump is sentenced to prison on July 11th, and is gearing up to flame and slam the outrageous injustice days later-as he accepts the gop nomination here- just to be pardoned by
Hoe-cull as the convention gets underway.
I tell yah-it’d be politically genius on the democrat’s part- which is why they won’t do it-
But it would be deflating for Trump and the country. It would take a lot of the ‘sting’ and ‘vinegar’ out of a Trump base that was just gearing up for a major political fight in fall. It would let Biden off the hook for the outrageous lawfare that he and his DNC have cooked up over the last two years-only to have it backfire on them.
It would be ‘next level’ strategy, folks. Totally unsettling, in all sorts of ways.
In fact, it would practically do a ‘reset’ on the entire campaign- and only in eight weeks before early voting started.
And that might be why the dems would never do it: because the last thing Biden and the dems want to be running on is- the issues.
If trump is pardoned and the lawfare goes away as an issue between now and November- my god- Biden and Baldwin and every other democrat up for re-election would have to focus on-the issues. And boy, have they bleeped them up.
Right?
A Hoe-cull pardon would be politically ingenious, especially if it becomes clear their ugly, rigged conviction is backfiring on them.
That’s not clear yet, but the anecdotal evidence is starting to pile up.
My god-the trump campaign took in 53-million dollars in small-donor donations in just 24-hours following this verdict.
That doesn’t count the donations put into envelopes and snail mail. Nor does it count the millions of dollars from major donors who have now been inspired to give-in big chunks-to the trump and GOP superPACs-
Those donations were also being pledged, on Saturday.
Meanwhile- the earliest ‘snap polls’ taken after the actual court verdict show that most voters aren’t being moved by this-even if about half of independent voters say Trump should drop out of the race over this.
He won’t. Their choice will still be ‘Trump or Biden’ in November- and so- how will they vote?
I don’t see them changing the man who they were intending to vote for- if they aren’t given a different choice-
And so, in the polls, this will probably be a ‘political wash’.
I’d predict a slight dip in trump’s numbers and polls this week that show Biden now up by a point or three...
But then, those numbers probably bounce right back where they were- within another week or two.
Or- worse for Biden-
Folks-
The worst possible outcome for Biden is that trump is convicted of something and-even during the shock and turmoil- Biden’s numbers still don’t improve-
Or he loses ground.
If I’m on Biden’s team and this conviction-doesn’t? -lead to at least a slight bump? – then I’m terrified over the fall result.
Then Biden and the dems are screwed.
Because then Trump can simply add this to the basic argument he’s been making for some time now: Biden is destroying this country-and destroying democracy
Inflation, the cost of living, high crime, and Biden’s open border.
Those are-still-the issues that voters care about the most, and they are the issues that Trump and the GOP need to focus on the most between now and November-
But it won’t hurt to also hammer on the relentless effort to destroy Donald Trump that the left has engaged in. You know trump will obsess over it and continually hammer on it.
I just hope he won’t forget to tie it to the larger ways in which Biden is destroying the country and he-Trump- will reverse and preserve it.
And so far, -
So far this election cycle, Donald Trump has been very good at doing that. I hope that he keeps up that ‘balance’, instead of letting his anger over this conviction consume his thoughts and attention.
He will also have other surrogates making this case for him- and in some instances-doing a better job of it.
Listen to Florida congressman Byron Donalds- who is a very impressive young house member. African American. He’s been mentioned as a possible trump running mate. I love this guy, because he’s so good, rhetorically:
Donaldson will be out there. Rubio will be out there. Every elected republican and Newby GOP candidate will be out there- reminding voters about the democrat’s attempt to take permanent control of this country with ‘third world’ stunts like the one we have seen the Biden regime and the dem party engage in for nearly 8 years now.
It needs to stop, and the republicans and conservatives need to make this a major theme of the 2024 effort, in addition to the inflation, crime, and border.
audio version of segment here> Trump's bogus conviction is backfiring on the Democrats