'Just not true': Reporter delivers rapid-fire fact-check of GOP Trump defenders

03 June 2024

After a Manhattan jury convicted Donald Trump on 34 criminal counts in District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records case, countless Republicans rushed to the former president's defense — even some GOP members of Congress who have been quite critical of him at times, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

On Monday, June 3, CNN's Daniel Dale offered a vigorous fact-check of the pro-Trump GOP talking points that have followed the verdict.

Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump claimed that Justice Juan Merchan "donated to the Biden campaign" and told jurors they "did not have to be unanimous in their decision."

But Dale told his colleague Dana Bash, "There's a mix of true and false there. So, it is true: the judge donated to President Biden's campaign, although it's important to note, it was a $15 donation. It is true the judge has a daughter who was a Democratic political consultant."

The CNN fact-checker went on to stress that Lara Trump's claim that Merchan told jurors that unanimity wasn't needed to convict Trump "is just not true."

The "guilty" verdict was unanimous, and Merchan confirmed, one by one, that all of the jurors voted to convict Trump. Anything less than unanimity would have been a hung jury — not a conviction.

"There was a non-unanimous component," Dale noted, "but the key parts of that verdict had to be unanimous."

Bash also asked Dale to address House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) statement that the U.S. Supreme Court needs to intervene in the conviction.

Dale told Bash, "It would be wildly unprecedented because this is a state issue. I'm loath to offer a definitive fact-check on what the Supreme Court may do. It's the Supreme Court — they make their own decisions. But the Supreme Court simply does not intervene in state criminal sentencing matters. It just does not happen."

Bash also brought up the GOP talking point that Merchan shouldn't have scheduled sentencing for July 11, which is only four days before the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee.

Dale explained, "Trump's lawyers asked for a sentencing hearing in mid- to late July; that is right when the Republican Convention is. They said: Oh, we have some commitments in June. So, they said: We have obligations in June because we have this other Trump criminal case in Florida, the documents case. So, could you please schedule it mid- to late July? They said nothing about that convention when they made that request to the judge."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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