{"id":1052,"date":"2024-01-10T10:58:41","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T10:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/10\/trump-goes-to-federal-immunity-hearing-skipping-iowa-seizes-media-spotlight\/"},"modified":"2024-01-10T10:58:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T10:58:41","slug":"trump-goes-to-federal-immunity-hearing-skipping-iowa-seizes-media-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/10\/trump-goes-to-federal-immunity-hearing-skipping-iowa-seizes-media-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump goes to federal immunity hearing, skipping Iowa, seizes media spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump dominated the news<\/a> again yesterday \u2013 we\u2019re talking wall-to-wall all morning \u2013 simply by showing up for court.<\/p>\n

In fact, with less than a week till the Iowa caucuses, he\u2019ll spend two days in court \u2013 yesterday\u2019s D.C. appearance and Thursday\u2019s closing arguments in the civil fraud trial in New York \u2013 although in both cases he doesn\u2019t need to show up. (In between he\u2019ll do that Iowa town hall on Fox.)<\/p>\n

The three-judge federal appeals panel that heard Trump\u2019s claim of presidential immunity \u2013 two Biden appointees and one by George H.W. Bush \u2013 were openly skeptical of the arguments offered by the former president\u2019s lawyer.<\/p>\n

Ironically, this comes as Joe Biden\u2019s campaign<\/a> officials are complaining to journalists brought to the Wilmington headquarters that Trump should be covered more as a candidate and less as a defendant.<\/p>\n

BIDEN TEAM COMPLAINS ABOUT TRUMP COVERAGE; THE \u2018FULL HITLER\u2019 CONFRONTATION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

And yet there\u2019s no question that the immunity hearing is crucial. If the appellate panel upholds Trump\u2019s claim that he\u2019s immune from prosecution for anything that can be construed as an official act, Jack Smith\u2019s Jan. 6 case will be dead in the water. If the panel rules against Trump, the prosecution goes forward before the election. Of course, like Trump\u2019s appeal of the Maine and Colorado ballot bans, it will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

But by his sheer presence in the downtown criminal courthouse \u2013 and speaking to reporters afterward \u2013 Trump boosted the visibility of the hearing. Just by sitting in the same courtroom as Smith, he made it part of his campaign.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s been the play all along.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each of the four indictments has boosted Trump politically, pushing his poll numbers up and denying his GOP rivals of much-needed oxygen, as Ron DeSantis has said. Trump\u2019s loyal MAGA followers see these charges as a Democratic plot to keep him out of the White House.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

HOW HARVARD\u2019S PRESIDENT HUNG ON SO LONG, DESPITE BECOMING AN UTTER EMBARRASSMENT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The more the media spotlight follows the ex-president to the courthouses, the more he can use them as a campaign vehicle.<\/p>\n

Fueling the drama: another swatting incident, this one at Jack Smith\u2019s home. Law enforcement officials showed up on Christmas after being falsely told that the prosecutor had shot his wife. The judge in the case, Tanya Chutkan, was also swatted.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attorney made the strange argument that no president can be prosecuted without first being impeached and convicted. The judges weren\u2019t buying that, saying a hypothetical president could use the military to murder his political opponents and resign before impeachment. I\u2019d add that he could avoid an impeachment conviction if his party controlled the Senate.<\/p>\n

Judge Karen Henderson, the Bush appointee, said: “I think it\u2019s paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to \u2018take care that the laws be faithfully executed\u2019 allows him to violate criminal law.” Audio from the hearing was made available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Biden tried to change the trajectory of his campaign with his speeches near Valley Forge and in Charleston, making harsh personal attacks on his predecessor as a liar who fomented an insurrection and is a champion of White supremacy.<\/p>\n

But on most days, Biden is a low-key presence, taking only two quick questions from reporters with terse answers, doing fewer interviews, and news conferences are as rare as a fly-by of Jupiter\u2019s moons. Trump, by contrast, is constantly making news. I never thought I\u2019d see a time when a former president overshadowed an incumbent president, but here we are.<\/p>\n

On the video channel of pillow guy Mike Lindell, Trump said: “And when there\u2019s a crash, I hope it\u2019s going to be during this next 12 months, because I don\u2019t want to be Herbert Hoover.” This drew media denunciations that he was rooting for a crash \u2013 especially since the stock market just hit new highs.<\/p>\n

Trump made a video \u2013 a virtual requirement for TV \u2013 saying that what was happening to him “only happens in third world countries or banana republics. They\u2019re using their Department of Injustice to go after his political [opponent] and this is all him,” meaning Biden, “a hundred percent him. He\u2019s the one that told them to do it and they obey his orders. It\u2019s a shame.”<\/p>\n

He added that “Joe” has to “be very careful\u2026 You don\u2019t indict your political opponent because he opposes the corrupt election, which you know was corrupt.”<\/p>\n

When Trump spoke for 10 minutes outside the Washington courthouse yesterday, he said they\u2019d had “a very good day.” But he added that if he loses the appeal, “It will be bedlam in the country.”<\/p>\n

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Both\u00a0CNN and MSNBC soon broke away. CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins offered an instant fact check, saying there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in 2020, and that Biden is not prosecuting Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even after a contentious Pentagon news<\/a> conference revealing that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has prostate cancer and that his refusal to disclose that serious illness is under investigation, the networks quickly went back to the Trump court hearing.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Another day, another news cycle, dominated by Donald Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump dominated the news again yesterday \u2013 we\u2019re talking wall-to-wall all morning \u2013 simply by showing up for court. In fact, with less than a week till the Iowa caucuses, he\u2019ll spend two days in court \u2013 yesterday\u2019s D.C. appearance and Thursday\u2019s closing arguments in the civil fraud trial in New York \u2013 although … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}