Fresh off his criminal conviction, former President Donald Trump held a news conference Friday morning in which he reiterated his complaints about the “unfair” trial and “tyrant” Judge Juan Merchan, while repeating the same old racist rants against migrants entering the country.
Trump said before reporters and an audience of supporters at Trump Tower that the witnesses called by his defense team had been “literally crucified” by Merchan, whom he described as a “devil.” And Trump again insisted he wanted to testify.
“The theory is that you’ll never testify because once you testify, no one — if it was George Washington — won’t testify because they’ll catch you in something you said a little bit wrong and then charge you with perjury,” he said. “I would have liked to testify.”
Trump opened his remarks with a tirade against migrants, a topic he returned to repeatedly. He baselessly claimed that “millions” of people entered the United States from non-white countries and that they were criminals and had mental health problems.
He also insulted President Joe Biden, calling him the “most incompetent president we’ve ever had,” and falsely claimed his hush money lawsuit was a plot orchestrated by his political enemies.
In other words, it was the same old talking points.
Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime, and he faces prison time as he vie for a second term in the White House. Between campaign events, a debate against Biden and the Republican National Convention, Trump is scheduled to appear in court on July 11 for his sentencing hearing. Nothing in his lengthy speech on Friday reflected the gravity of the situation he finds himself in. If anyone hoped that being convicted by a jury of his peers would spark the slightest bit of self-reflection in Trump, his speech in the wake of his conviction proved them wrong.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
