'Very disjointed': Donald Trump rambles aimlessly in unscripted guilty verdict speech
May 31, 2024
Former President Donald Trump addressed the public in an extensive address on Friday in which he rambled aimlessly about nondisclosure agreements, his gag order, and maintained that the crimes he was convicted of never happened or weren't illegal.
He was speaking from his Fifth Avenue tower about being found guilty on all 34 counts on Thursday.
"He's railing against almost everything," CNN's Wolf Blitzer said, pointing out that Trump did not have a teleprompter. Host Erin Burnett added, "It's very disjointed."
Like his announcement of his first presidential run in 2015, Trump spoke to a crowd gathered to hear remarks after his conviction in the lobby of his building. This time, however, he did so to attack the jury, the judge, and the American judicial system.
"These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people," Trump said.
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The frazzled Trump rambled on breathlessly about several things, such as a claim that President Joe Biden didn't want to allow Americans to have cars anymore.
After spending years claiming the electoral system was "unfair" and "rigged," Trump is now saying that the judicial system as a whole is "rigged" against him personally. Among his allegations is that the jury wasn't a legitimate one because the panel was not made up of a group of his voters.
Trump went on to call the trial a "disgrace" and proclaim his "innocence," a claim he has made in all of his cases.
Trump also claimed that he did nothing wrong because all he did was pay legal fees.
He then claimed that he was being "literally crucified."
There were a number of witnesses that Trump said weren't allowed to testify — including himself, despite him making that choice. Rebellion PAC leader Brianna Wu pointed out that it shouldn't be difficult to believe that Trump would go to prison after Cohen was sent to prison for similar charges against him.
"Here’s the truth," prefaced Wu. "There are a number of ways Trump could have bought Stormy Daniel’s silence legally. They didn’t do that because Trump feels like he is above the law and has always felt that way. It’s a culture of corruption. I think the Republican claims of selective prosecution would feel more sympathetic if there weren’t a victim complex every single time you’re asked to face accountability for anything."
District Attorney Alvin Bragg told the public Thursday, "While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately at this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes to the courtroom doors: By following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor."
Judge Juan Merchan said on Thursday that Trump has until June 13 to appeal the verdict, and the sentencing will take place on July 11.
"There's never been a more conflicted judge," Trump said of Merchan, complaining about the "thousands of dollars" he was told to pay in fines for breaking his gag order. He claimed that the gag order was assigned by someone "who couldn't put two sentences together."
"He looks so nice and soft," Trump said of Merchan. "He looks like an angel, but he's actually a devil."
See the first half of Trump's press conference in the video below or at the link here.
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