The 40 wildest lines from Donald Trump's post-conviction press conference
Whoa boy.
Less than 24 hours after being convicted on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Donald Trump — at Trump Tower, natch — spoke for 40+ minutes in defense of himself.
Like many of Trump’s public appearances, there were asides, exaggerations and outright lies.
I went through the transcript of his remarks — using the terrific technology being developed by the folks at the Listening Post — and pulled out the lines you need to see. They’re below.
To be clear: This is hard work. But important work. And no one — and I mean NO ONE — is going through the speeches and interviews our politicians give as closely as I am.
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To the lines!
“This is a case where, if they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone.”
Well, anyone who breaks the law. And away we go!
“And these are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people.”
Like, physically sick? Mentally sick? Both?
“They're coming in from jails and prisons, and they're coming in from mental institutions and insane asylums.”
There is ZERO evidence that people entering the country illegally are coming — in any significant numbers — from any of these places.
“And we have a President and a group of fascists that don't want to do anything about it because they could right now, today.”
So, Joe Biden is a fascist? Or is surrounded by fascists? Does Trump — and I mean this honestly — definitely know what a “fascist” is?
“Now, I'm under a gag order, which nobody's ever been under.”
There has never been a defendant under a gag order before? This seems fishy.
“I'm under a gag order, nasty gag order, where I've had to pay thousands of dollars in penalties and fines and was threatened with jail.”
Well you had to pay the fines because you repeatedly violated the gag order. So….
“I'm leading Biden by a lot, and I'm leading the Republicans to the point where that's over.”
He is not leading Biden by “a lot.” Also the Republican primary has been over for almost three months.
“So I'm the leading person for President and I'm under a gag order by a man that can't put two sentences together, given by a court.”
Trump appears to suggest here that Joe Biden is responsible for his gag order which, um, he is not.
“This is all done by Biden and his people. Maybe his people more importantly. I don't know if Biden knows too much about it, because I don't know if he knows about anything.”
Trump seems to grasp the inherent contradiction here. How can Biden be in charge of a massive judicial and legal scheme to target his political opponent while also not knowing where he is and being totally out of it?
“But he's nevertheless the president, so we have to use his name.”
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