The MRC vs. Justice: The Trump Trial Leftovers

The Media Research Center was upset that Donald Trump's New York trial was discussed on "The View" and late-night TV, that dramatic readings of trial transcripts were done, and that Robert De Niro committed the offense of having an opinion on it.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 8/16/2024

Apparently, someone allowed staunchly racist and anti-Semitic ABC co-host Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) into the hush money trial of former President Trump and she reported back during Friday’s edition of The View. She said it was “shocking” to see Trump in person for the first time because his face was “radioactive orange.” She also lied about the composition of the jury and attacked one of the witnesses as “part of the Trump cult” because she had good things to say about her former boss.

The liberal ladies of The View were so excited to “cross-examine” Hostin and get the “tea” of what she witnessed. Moderator Joy Behar’s first pressing was about Trump’s skin tone and since Hostin was an obsessed race baiter, she was more than happy to oblige:

Fondacaro huffed that Hostin messed up on how the jury is comprised, baselessly accusing her of telling a “lie”:

Lying about the composition of the jury meant none of Hostin’s claims about Trump’s behavior in the courtroom could be trusted. According to her dubious assertions, Trump was acting like a child:

He’s stretching out like this. He’s like fist-bumping with attorneys. He’s like stretching. He took a little nap. Like, most defendants do not do that. They are instructed to sit there, pay attention, look with some humility. That’s not Donald Trump.

Hostin also lashed out at Madeline Westerhout, Trump’s former executive assistant who worked in the White House. Westerhout was supposedly “part of the Trump cult” because she enjoyed working for him and said he would wave to his wife.

“She is part of the Trump cult, for sure. She described him as one of the best bosses she ever had. She described him as being very loving with Melania, that they would, like, text each other and wave to each other outside of the window. I never expected anything like that,” she scoffed.

Fondacaro lashed out against Hostin again -- libelous smear and all --on May 14:

The staunchly racist and anti-Semitic co-host of ABC’s The View, Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) was again allowed into the New York courtroom for former President Trump’s hush money trial and reported back to the Cackling Coven her shocking findings. Last week, she was startled by Trump’s “radioactive orange” face. This time, she was rocking brand new “binoculars” with which she deduced that there were too many white people in the courtroom.

According to the race-obsessed co-host, there were too many white people and her job was to “give a little color to the courtroom.” Even moderator Whoopi Goldberg wanted her to walk it back:

[...]

It’s worth noting that Hostin took a lot of pride in having been in the courtroom; but when the audience didn’t clap for her, she cued them to do so by declaring “thank you” to a silent room.

Even though every major news outlet had multiple reporters in the courtroom reporting on every twitch, gesture, and eye movement from the former President, Hostin clownishly and narcissistically claimed “no one” had reported what was physically happening in the courtroom except for her.

Fondacaro also whined that “Hostin also walked back her falsehood from last week when she erroneously suggested that there were “several” legal professionals on the jury, admitting there were only two. She didn’t correct her lie about there being more women than men.” Fondacaro offered no evidence Hostin was telling a “lie” in the accepted definition of the word.

After Trump was convicted on all 34 counts he faced, Fondacaro was due for another rage-bender, and he didn’t disappoint in a May 31 post:

Friday’s edition of ABC’s The View was exactly what one expected it to be after former President Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts. Between TMI admissions that they were “leaking” with excitement in the aisle of a store and pearl-clutching exasperations of how far America had fallen and the obligatory demands he be sent to prison, the Cackling Coven’s reactions had it all.

From the get-go, things were out of the ordinary as moderator Whoopi Goldberg was on set. “Now, do not adjust your TV set. Yes, I’m here on a Friday. Because this is a very unique moment in history. That’s why we’re all at the table,” she announced, showing off all six co-hosts.

With co-host Joy Behar telling her not to “choke” when announcing the news, Goldberg had to stifle a laugh and flubbed when she proclaimed Trump was a “confected” felon before correcting herself. She also uncharacteristically used Trump’s full name (Donald John Trump) instead of her usual “you-know-who.”

According to Behar’s own admission, news of Trump’s conviction (via her smartwatch) left her so excited that her incontinence kicked in and she wet herself in the aisle of her local Costco:

[...]

Pretend-independent Sara Haines lamented how she was going to explain all of this to her son. “Because to sit here as a parent or a teacher or an auntie or any leader in this and try to explain to your child that someone who could not vote in this country because they’re a convict could run and rule the country,” she bemoaned. “More questions are coming and I don’t know if I’m ready for them, but it’s scary.”

On the more serious end, staunchly racist and anti-Semitic co-host Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) proclaimed, “I felt like I won” and hinted that she had sources in the district attorney’s office that said they were going to try to get Trump sentenced to a year in prison.

“And that is because when you spend a year in prison in New York or under, you serve in Rikers Island,” Hostin boasted. 

Hostin’s lawyers should be happy that Fondacaro keeps spreading filthy lies about her that will bolster her eventual libel and defamation suit against him and his employer.

When the “View” hosts pointed how much of a Trump toady Marco Rubio has become, Fondacaro ranted about that too in a June 3 post:

Ana Navarro claims to still be a Republican despite actively campaigning for President Biden’s reelection effort and repeatedly defending allegedly corrupt Democrats such as New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. And on Monday’s show, in the wake of former President Trump’s felony convictions under questionable circumstances, she raged at Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio for defending Trump by comparing him to a “dog.”

In the midst of The View’s whining about Republican politicians speaking out in support of the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Navarro bloviated about how, “You know, some people have emotional support dogs. Donald Trump has emotional support senators.”

She suggested they were fighting among “themselves as to who kisses his ass more” to become his vice president. “But worse amongst them is the senator from my state of Florida, Marco Rubio,” she declared.

After playing a soundbite of Rubio comparing the Trump trial to the show trials of communist Cuba after the revolution, Navarro exploded:

[...]

Moderator Whoopi Goldberg built off of Navarro and lectured Cuban-Americans about supporting Trump; insinuating that they were either hypocrites or stupid for doing so:

Let me ask, because I don’t understand. All my life I have heard the Cuban people say, “we never want to see that. We’re going to make sure it never happens here.” How can — how can they not recognize when the man says, ‘I’m going to be this guy?’ What’s — what are we missing?

“And the reason I was so curious about Marco Rubio saying something like that is because you heard all these stories. Who do you think they were talking about? A dictatorship that ate the country. I don’t understand how you think it’s going to be different,” Goldberg bloviated.

Navarro was still fuming: “He knows better. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He just thinks that the person that says the most outrageous thing will be rewarded by being Donald Trump’s vice president.”

When Haines argued that Trump and “the people around him have to stop sowing mistrust in our systems,” Fondacaro lamely played whataboutism, huffing that “just last week alone, The View ran multiple segments where they actively tore at the fabric of American institutions by attacking the legitimacy of the court.” Fondacaro isn’t going to mention that Trump really did lose the 2020 election, the charges Trump faced in New York were real, his conviction was real, and all of the rage of Trump and his cronies (including Fondacaro’s employer) are an attempt to distract from that unpleasant (for Trump) reality. By contrast, it’s perfectly reasonable to question the legitimacy of an increasingly partisan Supreme Court whose right-wing skew Trump helped to make possible.

Late-night TV (but not Gutfeld)

The Media Research Center’s comedy cop, Alex Christy, complained that Donald Trump’s New York trial was discussed on late-night TV. He felt the need to weigh in in a May 14 post when late-night hosts talked about the trial:

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! has the week off, but that did not stop the eponymous host from traveling across the country to New York and NBC’s Monday edition of Late Night with Seth Meyers. Together, Meyers and Kimmel would fantasize about trolling Donald Trump at his trial and dream about him being convicted.

The duo was discussing their histories with Trump when Meyers observed, “You actually got mentioned in the proceedings because there was some texts and it was because you had Stormy Daniels on your show.”

While Kimmel took pride in that, he claimed it didn’t live up to Meyers’s experience, “I appreciate that. It doesn’t compare to making so much fun of him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that he actually ran for president.”

Meyers and Kimmel discussed what they would bring if the went to the courthouse for the trial, and Kimmel suggested “a whole bunch of little bottles of ketchup” since you’re not allowed to eat or drink in the courtroom and “Ketchup falls in that kind of gray area.” Christy unsurprisingly found no humor in that, as well as what came next:

He then wondered, “Have you thought about what would happen if he actually was convicted?”

Kimmel admitted that “I have thought about this. I dream about it. I really hope it happens.”

Maybe Kimmel could give the flowers he held in his lap during the interview to Alvin Bragg, that would certainly cement the late night comedian’s relationship with the Democratic Party.

Maybe Kimmel and Meyers should recruit Christy to deliver those little ketchup bottles so the guy could get closer to his idol.

After the verdict, Christy lashed out anew at those shows (though, of course, not “Gutfeld”). He groused at Kimmel in a May 31 post:

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel had the distinction of being the only late night host on the air on Thursday to react to former President Donald Trump’s New York conviction. Naturally, he and his audience were quite thrilled with Kimmel dreaming about putting the jury on the Supreme Court and being thankful that “this guy” got “some comeuppance.”

Kimmel began his show by reporting, “We have a verdict in the case of the people versus O.J., I mean, D.J. Donald John Trump is guilty of 34 felony charges! After seven long weeks, the courtroom is empty and Donald Trump’s diaper is full.”

[...]

After dreaming about Trump on the side of the road picking up ketchup packets as part of a community service sentence, Kimmel reported, “As if the day wasn’t rough enough for Trump, the only family member who was there with him when the verdict was read was Eric. No Melania. No Ivanka. Just stupid Eric. Actually, there was a sweet moment when the verdict was read. They say Eric, who was sitting behind his father, put his arm around his dad and he leaned in close and Trump whispered, ‘I wish this had happened to you.’”

Kimmel then took glee in Trump and his supporters misfortune, “Eric did his best though to give it — he wrote – ‘May 30th, 2024 might be remembered as the day Donald J. Trump won the 2024 Presidential Election.’ Or it will be remembered as the day a jury in New York spanked your dad even harder than Stormy did with that Forbes magazine. I think– I guess we’ll have to wait to find out. It was very satisfying to finally see this guy get some comeuppance. And even more satisfying to see all the bloodsucking jellyfish who feed off his essence lose their minds.”

At least Kimmel admitted that his interest in Trump’s case was not one of following the law, but of achieving a desired result against people he doesn’t like.

As if Christy and his MRC buddies’ years of attacks on Hunter Biden are all about following the law and nothing about trying to personally destroy a man for the lulz and to destroy his father in the process.

Christy raged at Kimmel again the following day:

During a rare Friday edition of his ABC show, legal non-expert Jimmy Kimmel asserted that Republicans who claim to be outraged at the conviction of former President Donald Trump are lying.

For Kimmel, Republicans are simply scared of Trump, “And then we have our leaders in the GOP who could not care less about Americans and how important it is that we have faith in our legal system. They know Trump is guilty. They don’t even like Donald Trump, but they’re so scared of him. Ted Cruz was on our show back in, I think it was, 2016. He told me, and this is a quote, he said this on television, he said, ‘If I were in my car and getting ready to reverse and saw Donald in the backup camera, I’m not confident which pedal I’d push.’”

Teeing up a montage of various Republicans denouncing the outcome, Kimmel continued, “Okay? But that primal urge to run Trump over didn’t stop Sweaty Teddy and all the other pathetic sycophants jockeying for lip space on his big, pimply ass from pretending to be outraged by this outrageous attack on their beloved Baron Von Shitzenpants.”

What does not liking Trump have to do with anything? CNN legal analyst Elie Honig is a reliable liberal who has written books on his strong dislike of Trump’s presidency. Yet, he reacted to the verdict by arguing that any liberal who doesn’t have a problem with Judge Juan Merchan being a Biden donor is a hypocrite and that there is a compelling argument to be made that Trump was denied his Sixth Amendment right to be fully informed of the charges brought against him.

Of course, Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t care about any of that because for the late night comedians, the case was simply about getting Trump and to the extent that the details of the case mattered, they only did so insofar as they could make it about sex.

Well, yes, when the criminal acts were caused by Trump paying hush money to a porn star to cover up an affair, things do tend to be about sex.

Christy lashed out at non-Kimmel hosts in a June 4 post:

Monday provided many of the late night comedians with their first opportunities to react to former President Trump being found guilty in his New York trial. They invoked everything from advent calendars holding whiskey to Blu-ray recorders to bad Hunter Biden analogies to applaud the verdict and attack Republicans for condemning it.

CBS’s Stephen Colbert kicked off The Late Show by doing his best James Brown impression, “Of course, the news being what it is, sometimes I don’t feel so great. But tonight ‘I feel good!’ Because… on Thursday evening, Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money case.”

Later, he rolled out the props, “Now, the problem is, July 11 is a whole 38 days away. That is so long! I guess I’ll just have to pass the time with my Countdown to Sentencing Advent Calendar. Here we go. Got all 38 days here. Judge Merchan, Judge Merchan like that. Okay, today is day one.”

Colbert proceeded to open the door to reveal a bottle of $400 20-year old Kentucky Bourbon whiskey and promptly poured himself a glass and had a drink.

Late Night host Seth Meyers proclaimed on NBC that he took great pleasure in watching Fox’s initial reporting on the verdict, “I’ve watched that clip so many times, I have it on Blu-ray now.”

Later in his “Closer Look” segment, Meyers didn’t see a problem with the idea that if Trump was not running for president, the case would never have been tried, “Trump’s entire life is now coming back to haunt him, and regardless of how you feel about the case, I think you have to admit it’s pretty funny. All this loud-mouthed dip[bleep] had to do was not run for president and there’s a good chance he would have gotten away with his life of criminality. Here’s a good rule of thumb: if you have a closet full of skeletons, don’t announce a campaign for the most closely scrutinized office in the entire world.”

Christy huffed that Meyers called out the “shameless hypocrisy” of Republicans’ kneejerk defense of Trump and that they “see laws not as constraints on power but as tools of power to be wielded against the powerless and for the powerful,” laughably insisting in response that “That does not disprove that there wasn’t funny business going in Trump’s specific trial.”

Trial reading hypocrisy

Jorge Bonilla whined in a May 15 post:

Generally speaking, CNN’s coverage of the so-called Trump “hush money” trial has taken such an onanistic turn that reasonable people may question whether Jeffrey Toobin is now in charge of the once-revered Cable News Network. The most ridiculous iteration of this coverage? Dramatic readings of the trial transcripts.

Watch as yet another night of dramatic readings kicks off tonight’s episode of CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip, as aired on CNN on Tuesday, May 14th, 2024:

[...]

I can’t imagine the trajectory that leads these guys to law school, build careers, serve respectively in the Obama administration and on the House January 6th Committee, only to be brought on CNN and be made to read “Dictator Douche Bag” as well as Michael Cohen’s hangdog responses, and then be berated by Laura Coates for insufficiently performing these dopey readings in a comedic Noo Yawk accent. Nor can I imagine the galaxy-brain calculations that result in performing this schtick now for a second night in a row, thinking this is good television. Or journalism.

But here we are.

Were it not for the fact that this trial is the fruit of an ongoing effort to weaponize state and federal government against the leading opposition presidential candidate, it would almost seem wholly appropriate to cover this joke of a trial and underlying charges in a comedic manner. 

There are many words that come to mind with which to describe the nonsense running on CNN air (or MSNBC’s, for that matter), but journalism is not one such word. CNN’s creepy, cheerleady coverage of this trial is the furthest thing from journalism, and embodies the worst excesses of Regime Media.

Bonilla, along with the rest of the MRC, have been completely silent about the fake Hunter trial series, so there have been no comments about its onanistic intent or how it furthers right-wing media weaponization against Hunter and his father, the president of the United States. It appears he will let the hypocrisy stand without comment.

The Robert De Niro meltdown

Earlier this year, the MRC had a meltdown over acting legend Robert De Niro having some unkind words for Donald Trump and pointing out his authoritarian tendencies, though it made no effort to rebut anything he said. When De Niro showed up outside the New York courthouse where Trump was on trial, the meltdown continued. Mary Clare Waldron whined in a May 28 post that De Niro engaged in an “unhinged doomsday monologue”:

On Tuesday morning, outside the New York City courthouse, where Trump’s trial was taking place, actor Robert De Niro spoke with the Biden Campaign regarding the defendant. De Niro recently participated in an already controversial ad for the Biden campaign (now unlisted on YouTube), pinning extreme accusations on the Republican, yet this speech truly highlighted the doomsday fear-mongering which was classic amongst Trump critics. 

Trump and several of his supporters have often spoken before and after the court sessions, allowing a lot of media coverage and now the Biden Campaign decided to take advantage of this media opportunity as well. De Niro has emerged as the typical politically charged celebrity and he, again, stuck to the doomsday theme, condemning Americans for electing Trump in 2016,

“We’d forgotten the lessons of history that showed us other clowns who weren’t taken seriously until they became vicious dictators.”

[...]

Not all were pleased with De Niro’s tactics, as spectators interjected, and car horns began to interrupt the actor until he had finished speaking.

Waldron made no attempt to rebut anything De Niro said. Sarah Butler complained about De Niro’s links to the Biden campaign in a May 29 post:

On Tuesday, CNN’s Laura Coates failed to understand how actor Robert De Niro’s appearance in New York was a political move by the left. De Niro spoke outside the courthouse as closing arguments in Donald Trump’s trial began. The day before he appeared in New York, he starred in a new Biden Campaign released a new advertisement which criticized Trump.

Coates began by playing two clips. The first was of De Niro claiming, “I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city, but the country. And eventually, he could destroy the world. That’s the tyrant he’s telling us he’ll be. And believe me, he means it.”

The second was of Donald Trump Jr., “This is a political persecution. That was evidenced today, today by the Biden campaign themselves holding a rally here. They bring in Robert De Niro.”

Despite his affiliation with the Biden Campaign, Coates did not see anything political about it, “But you also had Republicans having rallies outside the courthouse as well. And De Niro, last I checked, is actually not an elected official.”

Though this may be accurate, he did narrate a Biden campaign advertisement the day before he spoke in New York. In the ad, De Niro said “Trump wants revenge and he will stop at nothing to get it.”

This ad made De Niro’s political affiliation quite clear to anyone who saw it.

She did not elaborate on how voters are being intimidated yet continued to show support to the Biden administration for sending De Niro to speak in New York.

Butler also didn’t dispute the accuracy of anything De Niro said.

In an unrelated attack on De Niro, Christian Toto spent his June 1 column repeating an actor’s whining that a trigger warning was added to “Goodfellas,” the 1990 film that starred De Niro, for airings on the AMC channel -- even though doing so makes for a more informed movie consumer. Further, neither Toto nor the actor seem to understand that AMC is a basic cable channel and, as such, there are limits on what it can show, and the language, violence and nudity that are in “Goodfellas” are issues. Full and uncut versions of the movie are available on home video and streaming services, as has always been the case.

Toto concluded by grousing about De Niro’s appearance outside Trump's trial:

We know where the “Raging Bull” actor is these days. He’s on the streets of New York City ranting about a second Donald Trump presidency. It’s embarrassing on many levels, including why an A-list actor’s views on the presidential race warrant outsized attention.

Why won’t De Niro spare a syllable about “Goodfellas” and an artist’s right to offend? It’s not for a lack of microphones around him. 

On the other hand, Toto believes that C-list actors like Adam Carolla deserve to have their right-wing opinions given outsized attention.