As I write this MSNBC is showing images but not broadcastng the sound of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaking outside the courthouse.
The article includes Liz Cheney’s post and also says:
“I am a Bible-believing Christian,” he said last year. “Someone asked me today in the media, they said, ‘It’s curious. People are curious. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview. That’s what I believe.’”
Johnson has even addressed his disdain for porn — and proudly talked about how he and his son monitor each other’s porn intake.
Here’s a summary of what he said:
Mike Johnson offered a strident defense of Donald Trump in an appearance outside the New York courthouse where the former president is being tried on charges related to falsifying business documents to conceal hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election.
“President Trump is innocent of these charges,” the Republican House speaker said. He went on to condemn both the case against Trump in New York, and the indictments brought against him elsewhere for allegedly hiding classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
“It’s impossible for anybody to deny, that looks at this objectively, that the judicial system in our country has been weaponized against president Trump. The system is using all the tools at its disposal right now to punish one president to provide cover for another,” said Johnson.
“These are politically motivated trials and they are a disgrace. It is election interference, and they show how desperate, the opposition that President Trump has, how desperate they truly are.”
The speaker said he was making the appearance “on my own, to support President Trump, because I am one of hundreds of millions of people and one citizen who is deeply concerned about this”. From The Guardian.
Anticipating this yesterday, Liz Cheney had this excellent observation:
Above:
Have to admit I’m surprised that @SpeakerJohnson wants to be in the “I cheated on my wife with a porn star” club. I guess he’s not that concerned with teaching morality to our young people after all.
She says a great deal with her choices of words, especially saying there’s an “I cheated on my wife club” and saying he must want to be a member.
Although he’s not a household name among those following politics, Scott Shapiro (profile), a professor a law and philosophy at Yale Law School had a good tweet along the same lines:
I prayed and the Lord said to me: “Modern-day Moses, go forth and support the man who paid the porn star not to reveal his adultery and then lied to the Government so as to pay less tax.”
Here’s one from the frequently shared X poster Acyn who is sneior digital editor of Midias Touch:
“When he became Speaker.. he said… go read the bible, that’s what I stand for. Today he’s at the courthouse defending the guy who’s on trial for allegedly paying off a porn star for the alleged affair he had while his wife was home with his infant son”
This is what Mark Jacob, former editor of the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times, wrote:
MAGA Mike Johnson is showing up at the Trump trial today to show his support for cheating on your wife with a porn star, paying her hush money, and then falsifying business records so the voting public doesn’t find out the truth.
From The LIncoln Project:
So good of pious Mike Johnson to show support for cheating on your wife with a porn star, paying her hush money to cover it up, and falsifying business records so America doesn’t find out about it before an election.
Perhaos Johnson can come to the trial next time wearing a Melania wig and and kill two birds with one stone:
And then there’s this which has nothing to do with Johnson’s Christian hypocrisy, posted by Molly Jong-Fast.:
Those defending Trump are assiduously avoiding the fact that while the actual charges against Trump involve falsifying business records they were done to cover up an act of adultry. To make matters more tawdry this happened when he’d been married to Melania for about a year. His youngest son, Barron, had been born several months before.
The Trump defenders are playing an unabashed game of let’s pretend Stormy Daniels never happened.
As many others have observed, there is great signficance in the fact that so far Melania hasn’t attended the trial to show how she stands by her man. Click below to hear Tammy Wynette.
It is typical for wives of men unjustly accused of crimes to attend their trials. Even those who are guilty have their wives attend. They give emotional support to their husbands. Of course Trump being Trump doesn’t want to convey the impression he needs emotional support. They try to let the jury know by their pressence that the accused is a good family man.
So far the only family members to attend the trial are Eric and Lara Trump. Lara Trump is co-chair of the Republican National Committee. I can’t imagine this will have much if any impact on the jury in Trump’s favor. Some of them may not even recognize them…
… or some may recognize Eric from some of the photos of him killing and posing proudly with wild animals like this:
Below: In a discussion about Melania not being at the trial attorney and law professor Maya Wiley on MSNBC just said “if you’re a defense attorney you would want to see the wife there loving up on her husband.” She talked about the need to humanize the defendant.
We don’t know if Trump has asked Melania to attend. He may want her playing the loving wife to be by his side when he appears in front of the cameras going and coming, and to sit inside where the jury can see her, but the “reward” for her being there may be a renegotiation of the pre-nuptial agreement which I assume they signed.
I can think of what she’d insist on being in the new agreement to assure a cushy landing (perhaps in the 737 she then would own) if and when she divorces him.
There has been reporting about Melania’s absence on the campaign trail as well as her not attendng the trial leading to her being the main character in a version of the Where’s Waldo book series. This is from NY Magazine: “Not at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Victory Party. Throughout 2023, MelaniaTrump was engaged in a real-life version of Where’s Waldo? While she popped up at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral and a National …”
Where’s Melania below? Scroll down for answer.
Related:
Melania Trump won’t go to husband’s trial – but she’ll never leave him: ex-aide.
Here’s Melania talking, and laughing, about having two boys at home, her young son and her husband, and likening the Access Hollywood tape to locker room talk. The video also has commentators discussing Melania not being at the trial.
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