No one knows what the future holds for Donald Trump and this indictment, but The Bulwark’s Amanda Carpenter has a few ideas and came on the latest episode of The New Abnormal politics podcast—along with MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner—to share them. And there’s good and bad news.
According to Carpenter, author of the essay “Why Trump’s Hush Money Matters” and the book Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies To Us, told TNA co-host Andy Levy that this indictment won’t be the first (“There’s going to be probably a season of indictments. So just strap in everybody, get ready for a long summer of election criminality,” she tells Andy). And she doesn’t think this one is going to help Trump’s 2024 candidacy. But! There’s a but.
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Things could get really bad if he’s somehow able to beat these charges. She runs Andy through a few “worst” possible outcomes if this is the case, including a set-up involving Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
“The sort of scary yet power move is for Ron DeSantis to say, ‘Make me the Republican nominee, elect me president and I’ll pardon Trump.’ It works on a few levels,” she says.
Kirschner also takes a go at breaking down the Trump situation and he goes after the Department of Justice, hard.
“Bravo to Alvin Bragg for doing it. Bravo for [Fulton County] District Attorney Fani Willis down in Georgia being on the cusp of an indictment. Bravo for [New York Attorney General] Tish James bringing this massive civil fraud suit against Trump and his spawn,” he says. “But you know what]? Donald Trump is a federal problem and he should have been indicted federally long ago.”
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.