Friday Night Freakout - Fox News Meltdowns Over Trump's Legal Fiascos
A condensed overview of the primetime coverage from Friday 2/16/24 - for Paid subscribers
On Friday the news hit that Donald J. Trump might have to pay a $355 million judgment in his civil fraud trial in New York State. If he does overturn the ruling on appeal, he could also be barred from doing business in New York state for three years.
Last week Fox News had already spent an inordinate amount of time covering a hearing that involved the Fani Willis the District Attorney of Fulton County over a consensual romantic relationship she had with a member of her legal team.
The Fani Willis hearing seemed to work the Fox News host up into a frenzy when the news hit on Friday about Trump’s civil fraud trial the on-air personalities spiraled.
I complied a collection of memorable quotes about both court cases. The evening started with an extended 17-minute segment on “The Five,” about the civil fraud trial involving the Trump Organization.
The Five
Jesse Watters started off the discussion by defending Trump and his business.
“This is not the Trump organization. You say people don't want to be involved in the Trump Organization like dozens of Fortune 500 companies who are tenants in his buildings. People love working for the Trump Organization, the doormen, the guys that work in the elevator. There's no people that are complaining about getting swindled who are working for the Trump Organization,” said Watters.
He was interrupted by Jessica Tarlov.
“His name is being ripped off all of the buildings along the West Side Highway.”
Of course, Donald J. Trump has a long history of short-changing or stiffing contractors. An investigation by USA Today found hundreds of contractors from carpenters, dishwashers and painters who weren’t paid for their work on various Trump properties.
He’s even been known to not pay his attorneys.
“Jessica says we've seen all these people who were ripped off by Donald Trump, there is a right to due process. That's not due process, and I will bet my house this is reversed on appeal.” said Judge Jeanine Pirro.
Watters demonstrated that he doesn’t seem to know much about the government structure of New York State.
“Let me tell you something. This woman, Letitia, she campaigned on fighting people instead of crime. You can't go outside without worrying about getting pickpocketed. This city is a mess and she's fighting a case like this,” said Watters.
James is the attorney general for the state of New York not New York City. Traditionally the attorney general of New York State tends to prosecute state-wide crimes. Crime in Manhattan would be under the jurisdiction of the Alivn Bragg, New York County District Attorney.
New York City is broken up into boroughs so Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx have their own respective district attorneys.
New York City has some of the lowest rates of crime of any major city. Homicides and other types of crime have declined in recent months.
Watters also proved he doesn’t know much of anything about real estate transactions.
“If you want to sell your apartment or if you want to get a loan against your property, you go to the bank and say, This is what the apartment's worth. The banks, I think it's this worth. And then you guys come to an agreement and you get a loan or you sell it to somebody.”
A bank would insist on professional appraisal of a property that not only included an inspection of the property but a comparison of prices paid for similar properties in the area.
Commercial real estate is valued differently than a single family home. It’s a complicated process that I don’t have time to fully explore in this newsletter but the potential income generated by any property is a major factor banks use in determining value.
Jessica Tarlov ended the segment by pointing out that Trump’s many legal problems might hurt him in the general election.
“He does better in the primary. But if you look at and we talked about this in Iowa and New Hampshire, when you talk to voters about what's going to happen in a general election and if he is convicted of something, 32% in Iowa said they won't vote for him, over 50% of New Hampshire said they won't vote for him. People don't want to vote for a felon.”
Special Report with Bret Baier
On Friday the show was hosted by Shannon Bream, another Fox News anchor.
“Now we are awaiting remarks from former President Trump. We will monitor that. We'll bring you any breaking news when we do hear from him,” said Bream.
The program did include a live statement Trump made from Mar-a-Lago.
Most of the coverage about the case was delivered by Fox News correspondent Eric Shawn. His incredibly dry and straight forward delivery gave the whole story an unintentional comedic subtext.
“New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who you just saw. Well, she wanted a penalty of $370 million. She got nearly $364 million. And that number will go up because of interest. Judge Engoron ruled the former president and his sons engaged in a yearslong financial fraud to deceive banks and lenders. The judge said, quote, Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on the pathological. The judge also said this about the former president's testimony on the stand. Quote,
‘Overall, Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial. His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases at all, severely compromised his credibility.’
Mr. Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba , blasted the ruling as, quote, a manifest injustice, and she vows an appeal. The Trump Legacy of the art of the deal now, it seems, hangs in the balance,” said Shawn.
Later during a panel discussion about the case, Vince Coglianese, a conservative radio host framed the ruling as some sort of threat to democracy.
“Well, they're saying what I'm saying, which is that a lot of this is just the expression of snarling tyranny happening all across the country, because you have elements of the left that are controlling the levers of power inside of these criminal justice systems, who are furious at the idea that Trump could be elected based on the voter support.”
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