What a week. And there’s plenty more to come.
According to The Washington Post, former President Donald Trump is expected to appear in federal court in Washington today for his arraignment on charges that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and that his actions played a key his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
So what has been the reaction since Tuesday evening when this latest indictment came down?
Well, let’s start with former vice president and current Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence. He appeared on Fox News and told host Martha MacCallum, in no uncertain terms, what happened on Jan. 6.
Pence said, “Let’s be clear on this point. It wasn’t that they asked for a pause. The president specifically asked me and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives and, literally, chaos would have ensued.”
Pence continued, “People can read the indictment. And, frankly, I’ve said before, I had hoped that it had not come to this point. I don’t know if the government can meet the standard, the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt for criminal charges. But the American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn’t just ask me to pause. They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election. And to keep faith with the oath that I made to the American people and the almighty God, I rejected that out of hand, and I did my duty that day.”
By the way, Jen Psaki, the MSNBC host and former White House press secretary for Joe Biden, retweeted the Pence clip and wrote, “‘Gaggle of crack pot lawyers’…yep…fact check true”
As The Washington Post’s Marianne LeVine points out, Pence and/or the office of the vice president is mentioned more than 100 times in the 45-page indictment.
LeVine’s piece is just one of the many outstanding pieces of insight into this historic indictment. I thought I would take the top of today’s newsletter to point out some of the outstanding journalism turned in over the past two days regarding the Trump indictment — including explainers, analyses, commentaries and perspectives. Here are some of the examples:
- Speaking of Pence, The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Astor and Luke Broadwater with “From Right-Hand Man to Critical Witness: Pence at Heart of Trump Prosecution.”
- Analysis from The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake: “4 things that stand out from the Trump Jan. 6 indictment.” Blake writes, “It’s a question that has long stalked Trump: whether he knew that the false things he said were false. It’s also a threshold question when it comes to the case ahead, given that Trump’s defense will apparently rely on the idea that he somehow believed his claims about a stolen election and thus didn’t act corruptly. (Special counsel Jack) Smith is unambiguous: Trump knew better.”
- And here’s The New York Times’ Jonathan Swan with his four takeaways.
- The Washington Post’s Kevin Sullivan with “Trump has been indicted before. Historians say this time is different.”
- The New York Times’ editorial board with “A President Accused of Betraying His Country.” The board writes, “The criminal justice system of the United States had never seen an indictment of this magnitude. It’s the first time that a former president has been explicitly accused by the federal government of defrauding the country. It’s the first time a former president has been accused of obstructing an official proceeding, the congressional count of the electoral votes. Mr. Trump also stands accused of engaging in a conspiracy to deprive millions of citizens of the right to have their votes counted. This fraud, the indictment said, led directly to a deadly attack by Mr. Trump’s supporters on the seat of American government.”
- Amber Phillips “Five Minute Fix” newsletter for The Washington Post goes over many key questions, such as could Trump go to jail and what if the trial is delayed and what the timeline looks like.
- Just a note: You see I’ve linked to posts from The New York Times and Washington Post, and I could’ve linked to a dozen more. In moments like these — huge breaking news stories out of Washington — the Times and Post not only unleash an overwhelming quantity of coverage, but quality stories, as well. Their resources are vast, arguably more than any other outlet, and they use those resources to their utmost potential. The coverage of this story in the Times and Post has been beyond impressive. If you have subscriptions to those papers, read their work. It’s all-encompassing, smart and penetrating.
You knew MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow would have something to say about the latest Trump indictment news.
In a special appearance Tuesday night on MSNBC, Maddow said, “If the allegations made by the Justice Department in this indictment are proven, if the former president did what he is accused of, history is going to ask a different question of this time than what we might have otherwise been expecting. If the allegations in this indictment are proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and a jury convicts him of these crimes, history is not going to ask, ‘How did America get to the point where they indicted a former president?’ History instead is going to ask, ‘How did America get to the point where such a person could be elected to the presidency of the United States, where actions such as these could be carried out from the Oval Office, directed by a person who was elected president by the American people along with his advisors?’”
She continued by saying, “This is a grave day and a serious one for our country … a black-letter, bold-faced date. August 1, 2023, is the date on which a former president and the leading presidential candidate of the Republican Party was indicted in federal court, accused of leading multiple criminal conspiracies to try to hold power by force after he was voted out of office by the people.”
What did Trump do after he learned he was being indicted for the third time? He had dinner with some bigwigs at Fox News.
The New York Times’ Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman reported that Trump had dinner with Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace in a private dining room at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. It’s believed the executives were trying to convince Trump to participate in the first Republican presidential debate later this month on Fox News. So far, Trump has been noncommittal about attending and has been quoted as saying that he has such a big lead in the polls that it makes no sense for him to be in the debate.
Swan and Haberman wrote, “The Fox executives made a soft appeal for Mr. Trump to attend the debate, two of the people familiar with the dinner said, telling the former president that he excels on the center stage and that it presents an opportunity for him to show off his debate skills. Several people who have tried pushing Mr. Trump to debate in recent weeks have argued that if he does not show up, he could be giving an opening to other candidates to perform well.”
The Times reporters went on to write that Trump told the Fox News officials that hasn’t made a final decision and will keep an open mind.
Jeffrey Goldberg on the set of “Washington Week.” (Photo: Mike Morgan)
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, has been named the new moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week.” And with a new moderator comes a new name. It will now be called “Washington Week with The Atlantic.”
The public affairs show, which airs Friday nights on most PBS stations, has been on the air since 1967. Its most notable host was Gwen Ifill, who moderated the show from 1999 until her death in 2016.
Robert Costa moderated from 2017 to 2019 and then Yamiche Alcindor hosted from 2019 until February of this year. Guest hosts have been filling in since then. Goldberg will take over on Aug. 11.
Goldberg has been the editor in chief of The Atlantic since 2016.
A lot of things are on hold because of the Writers Guild of America strike, but that hasn’t stopped Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” from searching for a new host. The show is looking to replace Trevor Noah, who stepped down unexpectedly last September after seven years.
Variety’s Brian Steinberg reports comedian Hasan Minhaj has emerged as a leading candidate for the job. Minhaj worked on “The Daily Show” as a correspondent between 2014 and 2018, and hosted a weekly program on Netflix called “Patriot Act.” He has been quoted in the past as saying he would be open to hosting “The Daily Show.”
Before the writers’ strike, the show had various guest hosts, including Minhaj, Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jones and Al Franken.
Earlier this week, I wrote about Don Geronimo, the Washington, D.C., sports-talk radio host who was fired after comments directed at a television reporter. While doing his WBIG-FM show from the Washington Commanders NFL training camp, Geronimo saw WUSA reporter Sharla McBride. He said on the air, “Hey look, Barbie’s here. Hi, Barbie girl. I’m guessing she’s a cheerleader.”
Later, while talking to his producer and on-air sidekick, Geronimo said, “Oh hey. There’s that chick that you thought … said tight.”
The producer, Crash Young said, “Yeah. I screamed tight when she was …”
Geronimo then said McBride was a sportscaster for one of the local TV stations, adding, “I thought she was a cheerleader.”
Geronimo was at first suspended and his show was barred from training camp. But a day later, iHeart, which owns the station, announced Geronimo had been fired.
On Wednesday, Geronimo released a statement, saying, “Last week, during my live radio show from the Commanders training camp, I used inappropriate words in a way that hurt someone. I deeply and sincerely apologize for the pain I caused WUSA sports reporter Sharla McBride. As has been reported, I insensitively used the terms ‘Barbie,’ ‘Barbie girl,’ and ‘chick’ when talking about Ms. McBride, a fellow broadcaster who I did not know or recognize, when she walked by our broadcast position. My attempts to be humorous and topical backfired, and I needlessly deprecated a professional colleague.”
Geronimo then tried to explain that the word “tight” was in reference to how smoothly the show was being produced that day — his way of saying the show was running seamlessly. But, that really didn’t line up with how it sounded live. (This news story from WUSA has the audio.)
Geronimo went on to say, “I have reached out to Ms. McBride to apologize. When she feels ready, I hope that we can have a conversation and that I will have the opportunity to reiterate my apology to her in person. I hope that Ms. McBride and the listeners who heard me will forgive me. I am better than this, and I promise to demonstrate that going forward.”
Monday night on CNN, former ESPN (and now CNN) anchor Rachel Nichols talked on air about Geronimo’s comments, saying, “Aren’t we past this? Aren’t we done with this? Of course, we’re not. And that is always so disappointing. And you heard the way he talked about her, right? This wasn’t just some offhand comment. This was very extensively demeaning her, talking about how she looked, that she’s tight, that she’s a chick, I thought she was a cheerleader. This is a working journalist. This is a person who came to work that day. And this is what happened to her. And it’s just so frustrating when you hear this kind of stuff because we ask women in TV, all of us, and specifically in sports TV, (to) look attractive, right? You tell people, you want to be TV-ready, you want to be presentable, and then you criticize her for looking attractive. That is a tough position to put a woman in.”
Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher has the clip of Nichols and more of her comments.
For The New York Times, Delger Erdenesanaa and Leanne Abraham with “A Look at How Much Less Antarctic Sea Ice There Is This Year.”
Washington Post columnist Kevin B. Blackistone with “Northwestern’s scandal makes it clear: College athletes need a union.”
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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