With apologists like Jesse Watters, who needs accusers?
That's a question former Republican President Donald Trump might need to ask after Watters explained Trump's criminal activity to his Fox News audience Monday night. Unfortunately, Watters failed to coordinate his commentary with Trump's legal team as he contradicted their defense.
Watters—and his chyron—said:
"This wasn't campaign business, this was personal."
You can see Watters'—Fox's Tucker Carlson clone—attempt to exonerate Trump here.
Trump's current MAGA mouthpiece added:
"Campaign finance law specifically states candidates cannot use campaign funds for an expense that would exist anyway, even if it benefits the campaign."
"His lawyer [Michael Cohen] paid Stormy [Daniels] and after the campaign was over, the money was reimbursed and booked as a legal expense."
Except this is what prosecutors say happened and what Trump’s legal team denies.
Trump is on trial in New York on 34 felony counts relating to falsified business records.
New York prosecutors maintain former Trump fixer Michael Cohen paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA)—before the 2016 election—to buy her silence about a July 2006 extramarital affair with Trump. Melania Trump was occupied with caring for their 3-month-old son at the time of the liaison.
After the election, prosecutors—and now Watters—state Trump reimbursed Cohen with a series of falsely identified payments from the Trump Organization to obscure the payoffs made to women to keep damaging information from going public before the election.
But Trump's legal team claims the payments to Cohen weren't reimbursements and were wholly unrelated to the Stormy Daniels or any other hush money payments.
People were happy to point out his error to Watters.
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Watters commentary continued with:
"You can't use campaign funds for personal matters and now you can't use personal funds for personal matters during a campaign?"
Then—unable to make any point without invoking the name of Trump's 2016 Democratic opponent—Watters claimed:
"So I guess the real crime is Trump ran for President... and beat Hillary."
Trump lost the popular vote with 62,985,106 (45.9%) to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 65,853,625 (48%) or 2,868,519 fewer votes. "You failed to get 50% of voters' support or the most votes overall" isn't quite the flex Watters thinks it is.
Trump won the presidency only through the electoral college vote in 2016—something he allegedly attempted to replicate in 2020 by assembling slates of fake electors and/or pressuring Republican state election officials to find him more votes.
Trump will face prosecution for those activities in Georgia and in federal court.
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