During the 2023 CPAC event, former President Donald Trump delivered a speech that many critics have called "vengeful" and a "bad Batman" speech. Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes, however, thinks that the address was an attempt to intimidate prosecutors that are wiping their feet on the welcome mat of an indictment.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Monday, legal analyst Harry Litman listed off the Fulton County case, the federal grand jury over the classified documents scandal, the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, the Manhattan DA case about the hush-money payments, New York Attorney General Letitia James' case, as well as a personal civil suit from E. Jean Carroll for defamation.
This is the reason Sykes believes that Trump's speech was so angry and fierce.
"I want to go back to Peter's [Strzok] point, how his use of the word 'retribution' is intended in real time to threaten and intimidate prosecutors and opponents," said Sykes. "This, I think, is a case that needs to be made here, that he is intending to use his candidacy as a cudgel to obstruct justice and to cow his opponents. And I think that needs to be underlined, that there were so many things in that speech that, I think, get lost because we've gotten tired, maybe normalize him. I think you need to highlight not only what he is saying in these speeches very clearly but what he — what the meaning is. What signals he is sending. What his motivations are."
Sykes said that he doesn't write the headlines, but his suggestion is to highlight that Trump was attempting to intimidate the law as it comes for him.
"You know, lay it out what he is doing, how he is using the language of mob bosses, but then again — and not in a back room at a pool hall," Sykes said, making the image of a mob boss. "He's using the language, you know, on a big stage right in front of the cameras under the lights, where by the way, the orange makeup seems to be melting. but he's making no secret of it whatsoever. and if he's willing to say it, I think we need to call him out. I think there's a certain amount of exhaustion and normalization in the coverage because, I mean, in that speech, he's praising Vladimir Putin, basically promising to end the war. I mean, there was one thing after another. And it is this firehose of falsehood and misinformation that makes it so difficult for us to catch up. And I think that, maybe, we need to slow down and report and call it out and say what it means the way Peter just did a few minutes ago."
See the full discussion in the video below or at the link here:
Trump was trying to intimidate prosecutors with his vengeful CPAC speech: conservative youtu.be
