CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: I Doubt Hush Money l Charges Would Have Been ‘Brought Against a Defendant Whose Name Was Not Donald Tr

What an idiot. And, of course, he works for CNN.

Who keeps giving this guy a career? Who is his following? I have never heard anyone say they like or enjoy him.

I hate to say it - he is right.

Same as the charges against Hunter Biden.

[quote]the Democratic party is currently fractured and the Republican party is united.

Yeah, Nikki Haley wouldn’t be getting almost 20% in the Pennsylvania primary if Republicans were united.

Hush money charges were brought because of two factors. It was done in a money laundering scheme and reported as a legal fee and written off as a business expense for legal services. That in itself is a financial crime. The second is it was done to avoid publicity that may have impacted the election. Trump would have been better off just giving her cash without any documentation. That way there would not have been a paper trail.

Zakaria is a fucking idiot.

He’s repulsive looking, and now I don’t feel bad saying it.

This guy is a total phony. Remember all the plagiarism allegations?

It's almost as if no other person running for president has ever paid a porn star to keep quiet about the fact that he raw-dogged her while his wife was home with a newborn in order to keep the facts from the American electorate and up his chances of winning.

[quote] This guy is a total phony. Remember all the plagiarism allegations?

No. Link.

[quote] This guy is a total phony. Remember all the plagiarism allegations?

Yes

R10

He’s not an idiot. What he says is completely true. That’s why the charges against Trump haven’t destroyed him as a candidate.

[quote] That’s why the charges against Trump haven’t destroyed him as a candidate.

Oh, is that why? We all kind of assumed it was because his voter base are a bunch of fucking idiots.

So many Trump supporters coming out to defend their hero.

DL is not what it used to be: a safe place for gay men and lesbians to chat. Now it's rife with homophobes and rightwing republicans.

I remember that, r8. I don't have the time to read the Politico article, but IIRC he tried to blame a research assistant. Probably how he saved his job.

The mental illness in this country is contagious. Apparently Mr. Zakaria has joined the likes of Katy Tur and Bill Maher.

Even Jon Stewart has dipped his toe into Wackadoodle country.

The trash who linked our site on Pipebomb Greene's Facebook page can take some of the credit for that, R15.

Sigh. More unhelpful rants from a blowhard boomer. Do I think they would do the same thing to Obama? Absolutely. Plus Republicans would be demanding he be lynched for treason.

Would Hunter Biden be facing any charges if his name weren't Biden?

Living in reality doesn’t make one a Trumpster or mean they support him.It’s easier to deal with a problem when you don’t live in complete denial.

Hush money paid to influence and steal election is a case that should be tried. It's a case to be won by the prosecutors for the entire nation because trump is a fraud through and through. His fat ass should have never been anywhere near the oval office. Unfit piece of shit.

[quote] It’s easier to deal with a problem when you don’t live in complete denial.

Republicans are such crybabies, remember when they dragged on the Benghazi allegations for years so that they could tarnish Hillary Clinton? Remember when they dragged her to those sham meetings?

They know Trump is a criminal a they simply don't care its a simple as that, he's on their side.

Well, you can flip that on its head as well.

In other words, there are a lot of things Trump [bold]didn't[/bold] get charged with because his name was "President" Trump.

I mean, I could make a list, ladies -- but I don't have that kind of time.

Fareed is one of those Glenn Greenwald/Edward Snowden/Elon Musk types who masquerades as liberal/progressive and then suddenly reveals themselves to be a chaos agent with overblown ego. Speaking of phony progressives - so is Chris Cuomo. His brother Andrew has been a GOP op for years, along with their other political family pals like Dan Abrams (father was Robert Abrams) and Cy Vance.

Has Fareed already forgotten that Trump beat Hillary? If she paid off Stormy Daniels and hid it before the election, the Republicans would have gone ballistic and she would have been prosecuted. It’s very discouraging that commentators are discounting the significance of this case. Cohen was sentenced to 3 years so it should be the same for Trump.

I don’t know how anyone could seriously make this statement.

Who the fuck cares? As long as they find Trump guilty. Whatever hurts Trump is just fine with me.

Trump in the headlines means viewers for CNN and all networks, frankly. Fareed wants to keep his job. The stations are Trump addicted . There is no other news anymore it seems. Just another pile of pundit Trump babble. Hope we all have the strength to make it through news viewing in the next 6 months without losing our minds. Right now it's a lot of noise on both sides.

[quote]Fareed is one of those Glenn Greenwald/Edward Snowden/Elon Musk types who masquerades as liberal/progressive and then suddenly reveals themselves to be a chaos agent with overblown ego.

Room for one more?

And if he were anybody else, he wouldn't be indicted for campaign fraud, stealing classified documents, fueling an insurrection, stealing an election, etc, etc, etc. So this fat piece of shit named Trump is not just "anybody else". Fareed is another sycophant apologist. The corruption seems to go deep. CNN has become a joke.

CNN is broadcasting Real Time with Bill Maher, like…wtf? They pay HBO for that?

Look. It does look like a pile on with all the indictments and charges. But the thing is, Trump broke the law. And he did it on at least two occasions right in plain sight. That documents case and his breach of national security is a very clear, very basic illegal act. And t hen there's the fucking insurrection. And the phone calls from him, and Rudy and Lindsay Graham begging the Secretary of State to fix/change the votes. That's fucking fraud. And lets not even consider the fake electors' plan. And the threats and the incitement to violence. None of this was hidden. It happened right before our eyes. The entire effort to over throw the results of the 2020 election including the dim little bitch who refused to cooperate with Biden's transition team, was a multi layered conspiracy culminating in the insurrection complete with the gallows and people shitting in the halls of our Capitol, called for Pence and Pelosi, threatening their lives.Serious threats. People died and dozens were injured. That fucker should have been arrested five seconds after Biden was sworn in. Fucking Merrick Garland needs to leave.

People get prosecuted for financial and white collar crimes all the time. I actually think the government and court system is being extremely deferential towards Trump.

If he wasn't prepared to do the time and pay the fines, he shouldn't have committed the crimes.

That's life, you fat orange pantshitter. Pay the fines or do the time, whichever the jury says.

It's really, really easy to get through life without doing anything illegal. Millions upon millions do it, every day. He didn't just fuck up and do one crime, either. He did a bunch and they were bigly.

He's a loser.

[quote] Who the fuck cares? As long as they find Trump guilty. Whatever hurts Trump is just fine with me.

Confirming Fareed's thesis

R38 - does the post @ R6 also confirm Fareed's thesis?

Of course they would have been brought. They just wouldn’t be in the news. A crime is a crime.

Who gives a fuck what Fareed Zacharias has to say? He has been a pussy about the Republicans and thinks he is some kind of all knowing Guru on Foreign Affairs. He is representing a Conservative "international" opinion that has shit to do with reality. He is a fucking poseur who likes to impress people as an intellectual and an authority and he is owned, baby. Owned. so Fuck him and his gradual drift towards neo fascism. if this were the 1800's he'd be supporting the British colonial government in India of where ever the fuck he's from.

Fareed thinks charges like those in NYC are bullshit because they don't fit his grand profile of what "serious crimes" are. See, I don't give a fuck what they get him on, as long as they get him.

R9 Actually I read that the Kennedy’s did that all the time to keep Jack outta trouble.

Who's defending Trump here? Y'all need to calm THE ENTIRE FUCK down.

The Supreme Court is sitting on the “serious” Jan 6 crimes and the judge in Florida is similarly procrastinating. Trump’s lawyers are delaying the Georgia case trying to get Fani Willis thrown off for having an affair. Has Fareed Zacharias complained about those?

Unfortunately this trial, isn’t badly hurting Trump. His poll numbers are improving not falling off a cliff. Not sure what happens if he’s found guilty. You know a long appeal is coming and he could still be elected President .

He's as wrong about this as he was about the Iraq war. First of all he asserts that Shitler is being targeted with an unfair prosecution, claiming that if it was "politically motivated, and he is only being prosecuted by his political enemies. That is bullshit.

If ANYTHING Dump gets special treatment, Favourable treatment via his manipulation of the appeals process and working the refs he put in their jobs ( Canon and the Surpemes)

its true that this is a novel prosecution, but only because Dump is the most flagrant criminal we've ever had in the WH, NOT because it's a false or manufactured charge.

Zakaria lacks the criticlal thinking skills to analyze anything beyond the internal CNN memo to "present both sides equally"

Zakaria is regurgitating the false narrative that Trump is being targeted rather the obvious fact than he has been getting super special privilege treatment that almost nobody in the US would get. Much of the misdeeds and illegal actions during the span of Trump's 40-plus year career he has gotten away with due to prosecutors turning a blind eye to him.

[quote] Yeah, Nikki Haley wouldn’t be getting almost 20% in the Pennsylvania primary if Republicans were united.

There's also the three confirmed primary challengers, including Trump's own vice president, who have said they will not vote for Trump. Then there's the Bushes, the Cheneys, the McCains, the Romneys & the Ryans who will also not be voting for Trump. So I don't know how Zakaria can believe Trump has a unified Republican party behind him.

It's about the money not the sex. He tried to hide it and lie. Can someone tell me, isn't this similar to what John Edwards did?

Exactly, R48. Fucker got special treatment all his life. And when he did get caught he used every delay tactic in the book to wear them down so they'd settle with him. And he stiffed everyone. That's why Cohen recorded Trump and played the recording for Pecker. Pecker wanted proof that Trump was on board, because Pecker fronted the money for catch and kill and wanted to make sure he'd get reimbursed.

THE VIEW co-hosts lamented how the constant coverage of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s trial may actually help former President Donald Trump.

The co-hosts could not seem to make sense of how President Joe Biden is falling behind in national polling against the “disgraced, twice impeached” Trump. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria cited an NBC poll from January finding 48% of surveyors believe Trump is “more competent and effective” as of January 2024, while 32% said the same of Biden.

“Well I would say when you say the Biden campaign should get more active, I actually blame the media slightly,” co-host 𝑺𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝑯𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 said. “We talked last week a lot about how I don’t think people are able to watch this Trump trial 24/7 — like all the time. Like it’s a still shot, it’s a picture of a door, all this stuff. Now, we’re talking about, we’re in a campaign — we should be hearing more. We say why aren’t we hearing from the Biden administration? I don’t leave all of that on the Biden administration’s door. The media needs to cover things. For example, abortion is a number one issue for Democrats — women’s reproductive health. Vice President Kamala Harris did an event last week. I couldn’t find any coverage on it, and that’s a Democrat’s winning stance.”

Haines criticized the media for abruptly cutting Biden’s Tuesday speech on antisemitism and Holocaust remembrance to cover the trial.

“What’s happening here is Donald Trump is Donald Trumping us,” Haines continued. “It’s deja-vu from 2016 and the coverage, the irony is the people covering that news thinks they’re getting one up on Donald Trump while they’re handing him a lot of votes because of the coverage. It’s ridiculous.”

Co-host 𝑨𝒏𝒂 𝑵𝒂𝒗𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒐 agreed the trial is “somewhat helping” Trump by ignoring the alleged “stupid stuff he says” while he is on the campaign trail.

𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝑯𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏 said while she is concerned, the trial will negatively impact Trump as a majority of voters will not vote for the former president if he is convicted. She then criticized former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for speaking “down” to Generation Z voters by saying the anti-Israel voters on college campuses are undereducated on the Middle East.

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Aren't 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 the media too ?

R52, no not really. They are entertainers. No one watching The View expects them to cover current events the same way the actual news shows cover it. At most they are media influencers. But they're right to place responsibility on news coverage of Trump. It has been the Mainstream Media that has normalized Trump. The RNC is broke. No money for campaigns. But the free coverage the Trump campaign gets and these clowns like Vance, Tuberville Vivek,and Johnson get, Noem, etc. , they don't need to pay for advertising. The Media has normalized Trump and his clown brigade, and dumbed down their coverage of issues, so much that all we're hearing from is the smaller group of very vocal pissants Here is the thing. The media has been shoving Trump down our throats since 2015.

I remain optimistic for a reason. OK it's anecdotal, but I have a friend who's a numbers cruncher. They have been doing local polling for years and they're pretty damned accurate on state issues. She said that historically, the big polling firms have ignored or underestimated women and POC. Their polling instruments are weighted towards older mostly white people. But the POC and women are still heavily Democratic and while the media is ignoring the issues, the people aren't. Women will show up, because of the issues they face, and so will POC.

As for young people, as upsetting as the Palestinians' plight is, most younger people care about the Environment. Republicans believe dividing the demographics of women, POC especially Latinos, and young voters and by using inflation, immigration, and Gaza, they can win. But it's not working. Trump is not looking good. Where I see a missed opportunity, is that the Dems should be running against the Republican Congress as a whole instead of making this about Trump. They ought to be talking issues more. But the View ladies are right. Biden and Kamala are woefully undercovered.

Fareed is a punk.

Only Trump can save CNN and The New York Times

Exactly R55, and if you think the NYT is the bible of news coverage, and you think what you get on CNN is real news, you're in trouble.