Two of the most notable leftists in the country have said the “hush money” trial that ended in Donald Trump’s conviction was a major mistake that politicized the justice system and merely made Trump more popular.
Appearing on Bill Maher’s Overtime on HBO, former New York Andrew Governor Andrew Cuomo said the criminal charges never would have been filed had the defendant’s name not been Trump.
And Maher said the trial was a fundraising bonanza for Trump and that he now leads Biden because of it.
Maher’s remarks are of a piece with what he said last month in promoting his new book.
Cuomo and Maher
Maher, Cuomo, and GOP renegade Adam Kinzinger, a former congressman, all agreed that Orange Man Bad is guilty of trying to overthrow the government during the mostly peaceful protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
But in a startling admission from a hard-left Democrat, Cuomo said the “hush money” trial was and is a mistake. The former president was convicted of falsifying business records to hide payments to Stormy Daniels, blond bombshell of the blue movie trade, with whom Trump supposedly had an affair.
Law professors Jonathan Turley and Alan Dershowitz, both men of the Left, said the charges were bogus when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed them. They called the charges “political,” “legally pathetic,” and “prosecutorial abuse.”
Cuomo, apparently, agrees.
“You know what’s scary about this from my point of view, the … the two trials in New York, New Yorkers said, 66 percent said the justice system is politicized,” Cuomo said:
And there’s nobody in New York who likes Trump. And still, 66 percent said the justice system is politicized. That’s why I think he’s not paying the same price for these verdicts, because they believe it is political.
And like Dershowitz, who said the trial threatens all Americans, Cuomo believes the trial threatens our political system.
“And you want to talk about a threat to democracy,” he continued. “When you have this country believing you’re playing politics with the justice system, and you’re trying to put people in jail or convict them for political reasons, then we have a real problem.”
Then Maher explained recent political damage to Biden. He cited a newspaper story that said Biden “slightly” pulled ahead, but not in the all-important swing or battleground states.
“And then the second one was fundraising,” Maher continued:
The trial in New York, the one he got convicted for, was the greatest fundraising bonanza ever.
He was lagging behind Biden, and now he’s pulled quite a bit ahead. That trial was the greatest reason people had to send their checks for five, 10, 25, whatever dollars to Donald Trump.
Claiming that Trump is “always guilty,” Maher said the fallout from the trial “might be worse” than the crimes themselves.
“So, I was always with you on the one in New York, the hush money trial,” he told Cuomo. “I don’t think they should have brought that one. It was just always gonna look like a sex case and people were always just gonna look at it that way.”
Then Cuomo delivered the unvarnished truth about Bragg’s case. It “should have never been brought,” he said:
And if his name was not Donald Trump, and if he wasn’t running for president, I’m the former AG in New York, I’m telling you, that case would have never been brought. And that’s what is offensive to people. And it should be, because if there’s anything left, it’s belief in the justice system.
Maher: I Won’t Hate Half the Country
Appearing on Greg Gutfields’ Fox News eponymous program last month to promote What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, Maher said the country was “polarized.”
But “we can also be friends” and that Americans of differing views can agree about many things.
“I’ve said it a million times, you can hate Trump,” he continued:
You can’t hate all the people who like him. It’s half the country. I’m certainly not blind to Donald Trump’s faults … I get it, why people choose to vote for him. You know, somebody who’s conservative once said to me, what you don’t get, you liberals, don’t get about Trump, is we don’t like him either. We just see him as a bulwark against the nonsense on the left. And I understand that because there is a lot of nonsense on the left.
Maher also appeared on The View and said much the same thing.
“I would never say that we should put the swastika on the [MAGA] cap,” he said. “I think you can hate Donald Trump.”
But again, he added what many leftists don’t want to hear:
You can’t hate everybody who likes him — it’s half the country. I don’t want to live in that country. I don’t want to live in the country where I hate half the country. And I don’t hate half the country.
Discussing the conservative who said conservatives don’t like Trump either, Maher explained that the country is “binary,” that Americans have two choices for president. Trump appeals to those who fear the woke Left and “stuff is a lot closer to the home.”
“It’s like my kid is coming home from school and they’re not allowed to tell me if they’re transitioning,” he said:
The school is going to take the side of the kid over the parent … stuff like that. There is a lot of crazy stuff on the left.… Because that’s the answer to the Donald Trump situation, is what’s going to get him elected is this woke stuff that a lot of people in this country just don’t go for.
