After a Manhattan jury convicted former President Donald Trump on 34 criminal counts in his hush money/falsified business records trial, countless pro-Trump Republicans — from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) — angrily railed against the verdict. Rubio compared the verdict to the court system in Communist Cuba. MSNBC host and Never Trump conservative Joe Scarborough attacked that as ludicrous.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who is reportedly on Trump's short list of running mates, has been attacking the verdict as well. And CNN's Wolf Blitzer pushed back against some of Vance's talking points during an interview early Friday afternoon, May 31.
Vance claimed, "The only thing Donald Trump is guilty of is being in the courtroom of a political sham trial." But Blitzer reminded the Ohio senator and "Hillbilly Elegy" author that the jury "was approved by the Trump lawyers."
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Vance told Blitzer that Justice Juan Merchan "had donated to the Biden campaign," saying he should have "recused" himself from the case — to which Blitzer responded, "He donated 15 dollars in 2020 to the campaign."
The senator — a former Trump critic turned Trump loyalist — attacked the verdict as "politics masquerading as justice." But when Vance implied that President Joe Biden was responsible for the trial, Blitzer responded, "This wasn't a trial organized by Biden. This was a trial organized by New York City, the district attorney in Manhattan."
Blitzer noted Trump's "obnoxious" claim that "we're living in a fascist state," asking Vance if he was "OK with" Trump saying that. And the senator didn't answer his question directly, instead saying, "I think this legal proceeding is disgraceful."
Eventually, after some more arguing, Vance told the CNN host, "I think what happened in New York, if you apply (it) across all 50 states, would be the definition of fascism…. Throwing your political opponents in jail? Thank God it only happened in New York and not the rest of the country."
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Blitzer pushed back against Vance's claim that the charges in Bragg's prosecution were frivolous, telling the senator, "With all due respect, we're talking about this because this is the first president or former president in American history to be convicted of felonies."
READ MORE:'The law finally caught up to him': Experts react to Trump being convicted of 34 felonies
Watch the full video below or at this link.
Blitzer vs Vance www.youtube.com
