we re seeing with donald trump. an equal matter, they want you to believe, to this. yesterday in washington, donald trump was arraigned for the third time in four months, this time for his alleged efforts to subvert american democracy. he pleaded not guilty to four felony charges stemming from his actions after the election. the charges were conspiracy to defraud the united states, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. no cameras were allowed in the courtroom yesterday, where only about 100 people were present. the former president himself spoke only a few times, mostly to acknowledge he was aware hoff of his rights. the arraignment was typical. before trump agreed to the release, the judge gave him an unusual warning. she reminded trump it is a crime to try to influence a juror, to threaten or bribe a witness, or
matter. archer lawyer says, actually, it has nothing to do with it. this has nothing to do with the testimony whatsoever. it s a firehose of falsehoods, as we say a lot. it is a smoke machine and an effort to distract. it is trying to bring biden down to the level trump is. hey, everyone is corrupt, therefore, it doesn t matter. you can cast your ballot for our guy. look, this hasn t it s not simply true. it s simply not. look, hunter biden s plea deal collapsed. the judge raised some concerns. legal experts said, hey, maybe legitimate concerns about the breadth of the hunter plea deal. we ll follow that in the weeks ahead and see if there are any other legal matters that hunter biden has to contend with. right now, this is all about politics for the republican party. let s be honest, it s been propped up by the conservative media, one cable network, in particular, who is treating it as an equal matter as to what
conversation would be to start by saying, of course, there is a definite scenario in which we would be talking about hunter. there is inappropriate behavior, to say the least, going on there. but to cover it full throatedly yesterday, which i saw happening, when a former president is indicted for the third time, this time for overthrowing an election, is just dishonest. it is simply dishonest. it is packaged as what aboutism. it s ridiculous. they re distracting from the truth, which is their only game. it s their only game. distract from the truth, the ugliness of trumpism, that it s led to a man stealing nuclear secrets, stealing military war plans and stealing so many things.
right. that s in the first couple paragraphs. they start by talking about the first amendment. it doesn t hold water, and it s such a stupid argument if you actually read this indictment, which a lot of people in fox news don t. they doodle on it. you know why? they don t want to read it. the editorial page of the washington post goes full, and they went full trump today. never go full trump. you never go full trump. they blame it on the democrats. willie, you re not going to believe this. they say joe biden is old. hmm. so you have all of this going on, and then you have lindsey graham who is a lawyer saying, i don t trust juries now. huh. here, you have people who said, we don t trust american democracy after donald trump loses, and now fox, some of the
out-organized and defeated at the ballot box. if our energy goes into passively watching for cases to advance, cases that will be postpone and had postponed, as katie was saying, i think we re missing something. i have this terrific interview with ruth ben-ghiat this morning, an incredible scholar of authoritarianism. that is our focus in covering 2024, through the lens of authoritarianism, and also this lens of, what can you do? waiting for prosecutors and waiting for trial dates is not something actually you can do. but out-organizing this movement, running for a local board, running for these local education boards, the way folks on the far right are doing is something you can do. i think it s going to be really, really important to remain focused on out-organizing donald trump s incredibly organized, loyal and energetic movement. a movement now of deception and