The drama surrounding former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York took another interesting twist over the weekend after CNN host Fareed Zakaria made an astonishing claim about the case.
Cohen the 🐀 was never credible pic.twitter.com/QFA47297zv
— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) May 13, 2024
Trump’s ongoing trial is expected to resume on Monday with his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, set to take the witness stand that same day. Many experts have insisted that Cohen’s testimony could make or mar the case for the prosecution.
Judge Merchan REFUSED to put a gag order on crazy Cohen!! This case is getting more ridiculous by the day – IF you can even believe that’s possible!!!! pic.twitter.com/Id3JMgMJeA
— Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) May 11, 2024
In a remarkable twist, Zakaria suggested on Sunday that the case was political before insisting that an indictment would not have been brought against the former president if his name had not been “Fonald Trump.”
“And the trials against him keep him in the spotlight, infuriate his base who sees him as a martyr, and even may serve to make him the object of some sympathy among people in general who believe that his prosecutors are politically motivated,” Zakaria said on “GPS,” his Sunday morning show that airs on CNN. “This happens to be true in my opinion. I doubt the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump. A majority of Americans are skeptical that Trump will be able to get a fair trial, according to a CNN poll.”
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria says he doubts the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump
• Recent CNN poll found 56 percent of Americans are skeptical that Trump can receive a fair trial
"The trials against [Trump] keep him in the… pic.twitter.com/JUCxCm0apF
— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) May 12, 2024
Zakaria’s statements came barely two days after he insisted that the country would have been better off if President Joe Biden had reinstated some of Trump’s strict immigration laws.
“People are coming in, aided by cartels to whom they pay huge amounts of money, and they’re not running away from law enforcement. They’re running towards law enforcement because they have figured out that all they have to do is say the magic words, ‘I have a credible fear of persecution,’ and bingo, you’re in the country legally. You get two court hearings. They could take seven years. Meanwhile, you slip into the shadows of the economy. So the whole system is broken. Biden needs to confront that and say, you know, ‘We are going to have to reform the whole system. I would wish he’d do something much more extreme, like, say the old asylum system is dead. No one is coming in through that process. You have to apply from your home country.”
When asked if he was talking about the Trump-era immigration laws, Zakaria said yes.
CNN's Fareed Zakaria says that President Joe Biden needs to implement former President Donald Trump's asylum policies to deal with the illegal immigration crisis.
He says that Trump's policies are "correct" and "the right policy because the old asylum system is being gamed by… pic.twitter.com/b8VsPqf8T5
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 10, 2024
“Yeah,” Zakaria responded. “And by the way, it’s the right policy because the old asylum system is being gamed by millions of people.”