I can’t watch all the blow by blow of that stupid Trump trial. I just skim the summaries at the end of the day. So far my main takeaways are all comedy— Trump on tranquilizers falling asleep, Trump farting and stinking up the court, Trump complaining how cold the courtroom is and how unfair it is that he has to sit up straight all day… that kind of nonsense. “He is becoming increasingly outwardly frustrated by the situation he finds himself in— … facing weeks in a liberal city as details about his private affairs are rehashed in court — and the underwhelming displays of support from MAGA protesters on the sidelines, which he and his team have blamed on unfair security measures.” Good, I hope he blows a gasket.
The Pennsylvania primary must have been depressing for him. 16.5% of Republican voters registered a protest against him by casting their ballots for Nikki Haley. Polls have shown that most of those Haley voters will either stay home or vote for Biden in November. 920,000 people (93.1%) voted for Biden and just 786,000 (83.5%) voted for Trump.
Even though there was no ruling on Trump’s violation of the gag order, one thing I did enjoy from yesterday’s testimony was how Pecker admitted The Enquirer made up that crazy story about Ted Cruz’s father killing JFK, a story Trump used again and again to besmirch Cruz during the 2016 campaign. Completely manufactured it! At the time, Cruz said Trump was a "pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth. And in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everyone else of lying.” Very soon after, Cruz became an ardent Trump supporter.
Manhattan prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Pecker about the story's origins during the trial Tuesday in Manhattan. Pecker said that then-National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and the tabloid's research department got involved, and Pecker indicated that they faked the photo that was the foundation for the story.
“We mashed the photos and the different picture with Lee Harvey Oswald. And mashed the two together. And that’s how that story was prepared— created I would say," Pecker said on the witness stand.
Asked by Steinglass whether Cruz had gained popularity in the presidential race at the time, Pecker said, “I believe so.”
The revelation came up as the prosecution focused on negative articles that were published by the tabloid about Trump's Republican opponents at the time. Pecker explained that it was Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, who would orchestrate the planting of these stories.
Pecker said Cohen would call and say they'd like his publication to run an article on a certain candidate, adding that Cohen would then send him a piece about Cruz, for example, and the National Enquirer "would embellish it from there."
Pecker suggested that Trump was directly involved in the process, too. He said that the negative stories about Trump's opponents were published as part of an arrangement that was struck in 2015 at a Trump Tower meeting that also included a directive to write positive stories about the real estate mogul.
Then everyone went home for Passover. Pecker will be back on the stand tomorrow. Personally, I’ve been celebrating Passover by cooking matzo brei, tsimmis, kasha varnishkas with mushroom gravy and potato latkes (not all in one meal). Last night Roland and I had 5 latkes each—and we’re not even religious. He’s not even Jewish.
We'll figure out how to give away those autographed Nancy Ohanian books in a few days. So stick around.
