There are quite a few businesses that come to mind that I would classify as "vital" to the economy of New York state, but the Trump Organization isn't one of them. Here are the hosts of Fox's Outnumbered this Wednesday reacting right after Ivanka Trump left the courtroom in New York, where she just walked past reporters without taking any questions.
CAMPAGNO: So, on this topic, I just find it striking, you know, the logistics of exiting the courtroom, where just a half second after Ivanka walks by, we have Letitia James walking by and the sort of um... I don't know what... it symbolizes a lot to me, the proximity and how really they're just thrown together, these adversarial components, one of which had dedicated frankly years to bringing down what had been and has been and has remained a really vital part of New York's state economy.
Which was followed by more lies about this supposedly being some victimless crime and that no fraud took place, which has been their talking points on Fox from day one on the charges:
FAULKNER: She's campaigned on it, that particular district attorney. And I want to double check this with you. When attorneys say no victims, and they people have been paid what they were owed, that seems to be such an important part of the story, although when I do dip in every now and then and watch the competition, they don't focus on that.
CAMPAGNO: I'm really grateful you brought that up, because I think there's been a lot of misunderstanding about the point of a victimless crime. You can argue if you are speeding down the highway, who did this hurt as you get pulled over, right? There's strict liability. So there's some laws where the government says it doesn't matter what the sort of consequence is, we're trying to deter people, because the consequence could be so bad if there was in fact a victim for that particular thing.
Here the attorneys are arguing that they didn't break laws, that's the point, that essentially that the state is coming in and arguing and creating a concept where they say nothing even happened, there was no fraud, there was no negative impact.
The government will always identify itself as the victim. Every dollar that the government doesn't see, every dollar that you have in your bank account is a dollar they see as lost income. So, there's certainly the nature of government to do that, but I'll let you speak further on the legalities if you want to weigh in on anything.
BUSH: Well, honestly I haven't been following the case really that closely, being a civil case as opposed to other election integrity cases, this one kind of stands out, because a lot of constitutional scholars ask the question, can a convicted presidential nominee serve at federal level and you can't. Some states have laws that state that as convicted felon, you can't.
But honestly, politically, all this has benefited president Trump. And so, you know, it's interesting at the beginning of all this, I said that if Democrats, not that they are taking my advice, wanted to win in 2024, they'd probably stop trying to pursue him in courts and try and pursue him in the open square. That's the way it's supposed to be done, and unfortunately it's a long and sordid issue that we get to watch.
SAPHIER: And Harris mentioned how much this is going to cost the Trump family when this is over, but how much is it costing the New York taxpayers?
FAULKNER: It's a great question.
No, a "great question" would be how much has all the fraud by the Trump Org cost the taxpayers? Once again, they're in an alternative universe over on the Fox Not-news" propaganda channel.
