Once again, Putin fanboy Trump has made the murder of Russian pro-democracy activist Alexei Navalny at an Arctic Circle penal colony all about himself.
This evening, Laura Ingraham hosted her favorite p***y grabber in what Fox hilariously called a “town hall.” In reality, it was a re-election infomercial, in a studio packed with devoted Trumpers.
In this particular segment, Ingraham asked a decent question: how will Trump put up the $450 million New York Judge Arthur Engoron ruled he must pay as a result of fraudulent valuations of Trump properties. She noted that even if he appeals, Trump would have to put the money, essentially in escrow.
Trump, ever the whining victim, responded with a word salad: “It is a form of Navalny." We know what he meant but that is not a real sentence. Even worse, it’s not true. But it certainly underscores how Trump makes everything about himself. You may recall that the Putin-admirer who thinks he’s qualified to be America’s next leader (again), said nothing about Navalny’s murder for three days and then made it all about himself. Chances are, he got the idea from Fox & Friends.
Trump went on to tell a passel of lies and distortions that Ingraham let go unchallenged. First up, he whined that there was no jury in the New York fraud trial, suggesting that the judge had deliberately rigged the proceeding. Ingraham did not point out that his lawyers did not request a jury trial.
Next, the outright lies began “It turned out we’re totally innocent on everything,” Trump said. As CBS News explains, Engoron ruled before the trial, based on evidence in pretrial filings, that Trump and his sons had committed fraud. Engoron's lengthy ruling explains why he imposed such a huge fine, stating, at the beginning: “In order to borrow more and at lower rates, defendants submitted blatantly false financial data to the accountants, resulting in fraudulent financial statements. When confronted at trial with the statements, defendants’ fact and expert witnesses simply denied reality, and defendants failed to accept responsibility or to impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences.”
Ingraham is a lawyer but she let that lie go unremarked, too.
Then Trump announced that it was all a plot to take his money, via a White House plot. “I think he looked at my cash and he said, 'Well, we'll take all of his cash.' This is all coming out of the White House,” Trump claimed. He added that “top people from the DOJ” have been working in the district attorney’s office in New York. Nobody knows that. Everything is coming out. This is election interference.”
Trump seems to have mixed up his cases. The New York fraud case, which involves the huge fine, was brought by the state attorney general. District Attorney Alvin Bragg is in charge of the hush money criminal case.
Ingraham did not correct him. But even she sounded taken aback at Trump’s conspiracy theory. “You think Biden is coordinating this?” she asked, sounding skeptical.
But instead of challenging Trump for evidence, Ingraham changed the subject. “Do you ever just say to yourself, you know, I’m done?” She said a lot of people would have done just that and asked, “Why are you staying in this?”
“I can’t because I want to make America great again,” Trump ridiculously claimed.
The crowd cheered.