Jake Tapper shocked his CNN panel as he admitted that President Trump’s condemnation of the justice system is built around ‘legitimate grievances.’
The CNN host responded to a speech made by Trump at the Department of Justice on Friday. During the speech, Trump criticized the ‘weaponized’ criminal cases that were brought against him recently.
Trump specifically talked about what he referred to as ‘lies and abuses’ that led to charges against him for federal crimes. These charges included allegations of storing classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago and attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
‘(The DOJ) weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try to thwart the will of the American people,’ he said.
Following the airing of the clip, Tapper, the CNN host, supported Trump’s comments by acknowledging that the cases, which also involved Trump’s conviction on charges of falsifying business records in New York, stemmed from ‘legitimate grievances.’
‘You don’t have to be a member of MAGA to say, ‘You know what those Peter Strzok-Lisa Page texts were awful,’ Tapper said.
‘There was a FISA abuse. There was that weird thing with Carter Page… I don’t know about that Alvin Bragg case where he, like, basically invented a felony.
‘You don’t have to be a member of MAGA to look and say, ‘You know what? He does have some legitimate grievances.’
After Tapper justified Trump’s remarks at the DOJ, CNN political commentator Xochitl Hinojosa disagreed as she defended former Attorney General under President Biden, Merrick Garland.
‘Merrick Garland was a judge, he was a long career prosecutor,’ she said.
‘He did everything to follow the facts and the law and allow that to happen. And it was a special counsel matter where Merrick Garland wasn’t making the decisions.
‘What I’ll say even further, there is a (grand) jury in both Florida and D.C. that believed that there is enough evidence for Donald Trump to be indicted… on 44 counts.
‘And this isn’t just some conspiracy theory. There was no weaponization. The federal government believes that Donald Trump committed crimes.’
Tapper responded to clarify that he was referring to Trump’s conviction in New York and allegations that he colluded with Russia during his first term, and not the cases that Xochitl mentioned.
‘I should note I was talking about the Russiagate investigation and the Alvin Bragg case, and you deftly switched it to the Jack Smith investigation,’ he said.
Trump’s speech on Friday at the DOJ came on the same day that he made a landmark move to impose travel bans on 43 nations around the world – including ‘sharply restricting’ visas from Russia.
Revealing the move in a dramatic memo on Friday, Trump’s order also sees key allies of Moscow placed under heavy sanctions as Belarusian travelers could see their dreams of traveling Stateside slashed, the New York Times reports.
The explosive immigration proposals come as the US president is wrestling with Putin and Zelensky over a ceasefire in Ukraine – warning last night that World War III could ‘very easily’ erupt if peace talks failed.
Alongside the warring state a vast swathe of nations from across the globe have been told their governments have 60 days to address deficiencies or they will remain on the list.
A memo shows countries divided into three separate groups – including full visa suspensions and partial suspensions.
Many are from the Middle East and Africa, with Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran and North Korea among the 11 who face the most drastic measures.
In the second group, 10 countries would face partial suspensions that would impact tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas, with some exceptions.
And in a third group, a total of 22 countries would be considered for a partial suspension of US visa issuance if their governments ‘do not make efforts to address deficiencies within 60 days’, the memo said.
A US official cautioned there could be changes on the list and that it was yet to be approved by the administration, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after it was reported on by the New York Times.
For many in America, the policy will hark back to Trump’s explosive ‘Muslim ban’ during his first term in office. Some of the countries in the new proposal were also on the 2017 list, but many more are new.
