No modern presidency has been as consequential for the anti abortion movement as Donald Trump’s. And perhaps no present-day politician appears as uncertain about what to do about the issue now as Donald Trump.
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Confirmation that voters in Trump’s home state of Florida will soon vote on whether to enshrine abortion rights into law — and whether to effectively veto Gov. Ron DeSantis’s and the state GOP’s six-week abortion ban — arrived this week. Similar questions could be on the ballot in many other states as Trump seeks a second stint in the White House.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has responded to this development with all the political certainty of a college freshman running for class president. And his hemming and hawing — even after effectively locking up the Republican nomination — speaks volumes about how much this sudden liability of an issue looms over the GOP’s 2024 hopes.
What We Learned : Day 2 of Trump New York hush money trial
What we covered here today
- Seven jurors selected: The second day of Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial concluded Tuesday with the selection of seven jurors. Here’s what we know about them. A panel of 12 New Yorkers and likely six alternates will ultimately be chosen. The trial will resume on Thursday.
- Judge reprimands Trump: Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday gave the former president a stern warning for visibly and audibly reacting to one of the potential jurors. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in the courtroom,” he said.
- About the case: Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for his alleged role in a hush money scheme before the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty. Get up to speed on the case here.
- What’s at stake: Trump is the first former president in US history to go to criminal trial. His legal challenges come as he juggles the campaign and courtroom as the 2024 presumptive GOP nominee.
Our live coverage has concluded. Please scroll through the posts below to learn about the second day of Trump’s trial in New York.
If you’re just catching up, here are the takeaways from day 2 of the Trump hush money trial:
We have (more than half) a jury: So far four men and three women have been selected to serve on the jury. A man originally from Ireland who works in sales in New York City was appointed as the jury foreperson, who essentially serves as the panel spokesperson. Five of the seven have a college degree or higher education. Two men on the panel are lawyers. All but one juror empaneled Tuesday indicated that they’re aware Trump is facing charges in other criminal cases. The woman was the only one of the 18 jurors questioned who said she wasn’t aware of the other charges. None of them shared particularly strong views about Trump or politics.
Trump’s lawyers scrutinize jurors’ social media: Trump’s side asked the judge to remove five jurors for cause, pointing to alleged anti-Trump social media posts and trying to argue that the jurors were unfairly biased against the former president. When the former president’s attorney Todd Blanche was questioning the jurors, he asked them one by one what they thought of Trump, outside of the case. He then tried to argue before the judge that many of the jurors’ answers that they didn’t have an opinion of Trump did not align with their social media. Judge Juan Merchan was generally skeptical but he did agree on two counts that the jurors should be struck. As for the three jurors Merchan did not strike: Trump’s side used its preemptory challenges to remove all of them anyway. After Tuesday, both Trump’s team and the district attorney’s office have four peremptory challenges left.
Trump gets admonished (again): Trump was admonished for his conduct when Merchan brought in one of the jurors individually to discuss her social media posts raised by Trump’s team. After the juror left the courtroom, Merchan raised his voice and admonished Trump, saying he was audibly speaking and gesturing in the direction of the juror. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in the courtroom,” Merchan told Blanche, raising his voice.
Jury selection could end – maybe – by the end of the week: One of the things Merchan has emphasized this week is that the court schedule is fluid. But the judge is hoping to wrap up jury selection this week. After swearing in the seven jurors Tuesday, Merchan told them he hopes they could return next Monday for opening statements – but he emphasized that the schedule could always change and the court would be in touch.
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump returns to the nation’s capitol on Thursday, but under much different circumstances than the former president would like as he faces federal allegations that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump, now facing a third court case during the 2024 presidential campaign, is expected to appear in person for his arraignment in federal court. He has denied wrongdoing and cast the indictment as an attempt to thwart his attempt to retake the White House.
“Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago?” Trump posted on his Truth Social account. “Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial misconduct!”
But Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith laid out a stark argument on Tuesday when the charges were unsealed. He said Trump and six co-conspirators targeted a “bedrock function” of U.S. democracy when the former president tried to block the, “nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
Donald Trump issued one of his periodic official statements, expressing his regret about the course of Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine. He did not use the name Putin.
Nor, for that matter, did he use the word attack. Instead, Trump framed the invasion as a problem the two countries have tragically failed to work out together.
This remarkable construction deserves closer analysis, but first it’s worth understanding the context. Trump infamously described Putin as a “genius” for massing troops on Ukraine’s border. He has repeatedly declined efforts by allies such as Sean Hannity to coax him into condemning the invasion.
His official statements have followed a handful of familiar themes. Russia’s invasion is Joe Biden’s fault (“Putin is playing Biden like a drum!”). Trump strengthened NATO (“I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars”).
But the most peculiar aspect is Trump’s habit of using the passive voice. That is not a construction he employs frequently, but in this case, it serves his purpose of presenting Russia’s invasion as if it were a natural disaster — a tragedy that occurred naturally with no author or source of blame. He has used this device repeatedly.
February 22: “If properly handled, there was absolutely no reason that the situation currently happening in Ukraine should have happened at all.”
February 24: “If I were in Office, this deadly Ukraine situation would never have happened!”
March 1: “The RINOs, Warmongers, and Fake News continue to blatantly lie and misrepresent my remarks on Putin because they know this terrible war being waged against Ukraine would have never happened under my watch … There should be no war waging now in Ukraine, and it is terrible for humanity that Biden, NATO, and the West have failed so terribly in allowing it to start.”
Now, as I’m sure you’ve heard, Trump is itching to get everybody back to normal. Why? Because he wants the economy and confidence to bounce back. Will it work? Not a chance.
The simple fact is that if Trump dismisses quarantine orders and tells people to return to normal, or even something less than normal but still less stringent than quarantine, we will no longer flatten the curve. COVID is still spreading — it’s just that with quarantine measures in place, it’s not spreading as quickly. That’s what flattening the curve means. Trump has taken a dangerously and aggressively science-illiterate stance here: he’s declared victory over the virus, he’s caving to political pressures from Republicans instead of listening to experts, and he’s cut funding to the World Health Organization at a time when it needs funding very urgently.
Oh yeah, and that funding cut is probably illegal because he made the decision without Congressional approval (https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/neal-katyal-trump-cutting-who-funding-shows-blatant-illegality-82104901648).
Just one week ago, WHO warned that the virus could have a resurgence if quarantine orders are prematurely lifted. Just a few days ago is when Trump decided to cut funding to WHO. This to me echoes his responses to the states — give funding to those who ingratiate him, ignore those that don’t. His vindictive nature reflects his fragile ego, and it’s clearer now more than ever that, to him, everything he sees, touches, and hears needs to be praiseful to him in some way. This dangerous selfishness is leading us down a very risky path during the pandemic.
And of course, the Trump base is making a field day out of this. After a mass shooting, you always hear Republicans say something along the lines of “We can’t politicize tragedy,” and now we’re hearing them say “Politicize this tragedy.”
Around the country, Trump supporters are defying quarantine orders to make bizarre and misunderstood overtures to fundamental constitutional rights. Conservative pundits have a new rallying cry: “Death before depression”. These sentiments will keep eating away at the polity and more people will feel compelled to defy quarantine, thus ensuring a greater pandemic impact in the US.
And of course, amid all this, Trump also decided to let the states decide when to reopen. Taking a backseat leadership style is a lot easier than actually leading, right? If there’s an appreciable lack of coordination or continuity among the states as to how they plan reopening, then a second wave seems virtually guaranteed. Take this to the ballot box in November.
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