Less than an hour after a jury convicted Donald Trump of 34 crimes, Senator Tim Scott released a one-minute video condemning the outcome. That wouldn’t be particularly remarkable — the South Carolina Republican clearly wants to be his party’s vice presidential candidate, making such antics inevitable — except that the senator was blaming the president. Joe Biden for the prosecution.
“Joe Biden’s injustice,” Scott claimed. “Joe Biden’s system of injustice has two layers. Arming the legal system of the United States of America against a political opponent? Un-American.”
The rhetoric was downright nonsensical, even by 2024 standards. There is literally no evidence that the White House is involved, just as there is literally no evidence that the White House is weaponizing the justice system. Scott is certainly not the only Republican spewing this ridiculous and borderline dangerous rhetoric, but the repetition only makes it worse.
As HuffPost noted this weekend, even one of Trump’s former lawyers marveled at the madness.
Asked to respond to Scott’s absurd claims, Tacopina specifically said during an appearance on MSNBC, “I kind of lost a lot of respect from what I just heard because he sounded so uneducated and unintelligent and made no sense at all.”
Trump’s former lawyer went on to say, “So to say that Joe Biden filed this case is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard. We know this is not the case, and even Trump’s lawyers know this is not the case.”
Tacopina added that Biden and Justice Department officials have “absolutely nothing to do with the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”
Tacopina: Tim Scott is someone I used to respect, but I’ve lost a lot of respect because of what I just heard… Saying that Biden brought this case is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard. We know this isn’t the case, and even Trump’s lawyers know this isn’t the case. pic.twitter.com/eyu7KrXaqV
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 1, 2024
Complicating matters for Republicans is that this isn’t the first time a former Trump lawyer has said the opposite of what the party wanted to hear. For example, Ty Cobb has spoken out in ways the former president did not like; Timothy Parlatore has publicly strayed from the GOP script; and former Attorney General Bill Barr, has been a thorn in Trump’s side as his legal crises have piled up.
In other words, Tacopina has a lot of company.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
