Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio clashed with CNN host Wolf Blitzer on Friday over whether former President Trump was fairly convicted in his New York hush money trial.
Vance, who was on Trump’s shortlist of potential vice presidential candidates, defended the former president, saying a conviction was an unfair political verdict designed to boost Biden’s reelection chances and damage Trump’s campaign.
“This trial has been nothing more than politics masquerading as justice,” Vance told Blitzer during a CNN Special Report.
President Trump was convicted on Thursday of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, after his aides and some liberal media critics argued the law was manipulated to beef up his sentence.
Trump found guilty on all charges in New York criminal trial
Republican Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio went head-to-head with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer over whether the conviction of former President Trump was fair. (Screenshot/CNN)
“Would you be interested in being the vice presidential candidate of a convicted felon?” Blitzer asked Vance at the start of the interview.
Vance rejected that premise.
“Well, Mr. Wolf, the purpose of this trial was to ensure that the media and Democrats would say exactly that,” the senator said. “This was never about justice, it was about putting the words ‘convicted felon’ across the radio airwaves. Donald Trump is guilty only of being in a courtroom in a political sham trial.”
Blitzer said the jurors were approved by Trump’s own legal team, a charge Vance fired back, saying others in the trial had politicized it.
“Mr. Wolf, my complaints are not with the jury but with the judge – that the jury instructions were clearly reversible, that the judge has donated to the Biden campaign and that New York state rules should force him to recuse himself,” Vance said.
Blitzer argued that the judge only contributed a negligible $15 to the Biden campaign.
Vance asked the moderator to let the answers flow and continued the discussion.
“This judge made multiple, reversible errors, and on top of that, his daughter made billions of dollars off Democratic candidates and he donated to the Biden campaign,” the senator said. “Allowing a standard that allows us to send our political opponents to prison for outperforming us in elections would be the end of our country as we know it.”
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The former president arrived at Trump Tower on Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being convicted of 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records. (Felipe Ramares for Fox News Digital)
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Blitzer denied that Biden pushed the issue.
“This is not a trial hosted by Mr. Biden, this is a trial hosted by the district attorney of New York City, Manhattan,” he said.
“That didn’t happen until the No. 3 person in Biden’s Justice Department joined the prosecutor’s office and started going after Biden’s political opponents,” Vance said.
“This is definitely something to do with Joe Biden, Wolf,” he continued. “Not only that, but on the day of jury instructions, Robert De Niro showed up to a Biden rally. This is totally political.”
Blitzer brought up President Trump’s Friday press conference and his claim that a guilty verdict means America is a fascist state.
“Were you outraged when Trump said that?” the moderator asked. Vance responded, “Wolf, I’m outraged by this whole thing.”
Blitzer interrupted, asking, “Trump is calling the United States of America, the greatest country in the world, a fascist state. Is that okay with you?”
Both men raised their voices to drown out the other. “Is that OK?” Blitzer repeated. Vance replied, “After the President of the United States has used the power of the courts and the power of his presidency to send opponents to prison, this is disgraceful! Wolf, I don’t care what you call him.”
Former President Donald Trump attended the first day of his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 15. Judge Juan Marchan posed for a photo in his courtroom in New York on March 14. (Angela Weiss/AFP, via Associated Press, POOL/AP)
“Is Trump a disgrace?” Blitzer asked. “I find this process, this legal process, a disgrace,” the senator declared.
“But what about Trump calling our country a fascist state?” Blitzer asked.
Vance responded, “They’re trying to put him in jail for a paperwork violation, Wolf!”
“I don’t care what you call it, but this is not the America I know and love,” he said elsewhere.
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