Donald Trump arrested: Supporters hopeful venue will mean ‘fair’ trial
Naomi Lim
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MIAMI — Some former President Donald Trump supporters who showed up outside Miami‘s federal court for his arrest and arraignment have an open mind about the allegations he took classified documents and conspired against the government to keep them.
But those people were outnumbered by supporters who criticized Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith‘s investigation and indictment as being politically motivated while Trump cements his position as President Joe Biden‘s most likely opponent in next year’s general election.
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Leah Wiley, 56, an East Texas teacher who traveled with daughter Lindsey, 26, also a teacher, described being “skeptical” of Smith and a Miami grand jury’s indictment, particularly amid the DOJ‘s Hunter Biden investigation.
“I don’t really believe in that yet,” the 2016 and 2022 Trump voter told the Washington Examiner. “I’ll keep an open mind.”
“Now, if it was up there in D.C., I would not at all,” she said. “But here, I’m still open because I feel like it would be more fair, so then you would get more facts and it wouldn’t be just one-sided. It would be more biased up there.”
Marcus Flanagan, 52, wearing a “Blacks for Trump” T-shirt, agreed a Florida-based trial presided over by Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon promises to be “a little bit” fairer. But Flanagan, a Nashville, Tennessee, veteran who was a Democrat until 2014 before he voted for Trump, contended the former president is already “probably the most investigated politician in the history of the United States.”
“If he’s anyone who’s actually guilty of a crime, then I don’t support for that confession, but I don’t believe that he’s guilty,” he said.
Flanagan, too, defended Trump speaking about his legal problems on the campaign trail, despite a CBS poll this week finding three-fifths of respondents would prefer not to relitigate them.
“If Trump doesn’t put his own message out, most of the media won’t cover it,” he said. “If I were Trump, I’d do the same thing.”
But for every Wiley and Flanagan, there were more supporters similar to Taylor Foland, 26, Kathy K., 55, and Jose Gonzales, 67.
Foland, a New Smyrna Beach political activist, dismissed the government’s case, adamant Trump will overcome his two indictments as he did his two impeachments. Not only a Trump voter but a Trump campaign volunteer, Foland underscored the former president’s businessman-outsider appeal and penchant “for telling the truth.”
“It’s political prosecution,” he said, citing the Presidential Records Act and comparing Trump’s actions to those of former President Bill Clinton.
Kathy K., who declined to provide her complete name, admitted she did not like Trump in NBC’s The Apprentice but voted for him because he “wasn’t a politician.” The Central Florida nurse, 54, downplayed complaints about his temperament, saying “men in power” tend to behave poorly.
“It’s a witch hunt. It’s a double standard,” she said, referring to Biden’s own classified documents investigation. “They don’t have a leg to stand on. They really don’t. It’s going to get thrown out just like Russia-gate and all that crap that went on in 2016. I think it’s a big nothing-burger.”
Gonzales, a Cuban immigrant who drove from Key Largo, drew parallels between Trump’s treatment and that of political dissidents in Cuba. The retiree voted in his first primary election in 2016 because the former president, again, was not a politician and “opened” his eyes “to the reality.”
“He really stirred up the hornet’s nest in Washington and proved to me how bad it was,” he said. “From the first moment Trump took office, they had him in a chokehold.”
There was a carnivallike atmosphere outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami on Tuesday as hundreds of supporters and protesters, in addition to even more reporters, assembled in the precinct before Trump’s arrival. Journalists and members of the public earlier cued alongside TaskRabbit taskers, a couple overnight, for a seat in the courtroom on the 13th floor, contributing to a circus more so than in New York last spring.
Although scores reveled in repeating “We love Trump,” brandishing signs that read “Keep America Trump,” disrupting TV crews, and even singing the former president “Happy Birthday,” the heat was too much for others, with at least one being sick. While there were security concerns, onlookers were only asked to move once so law enforcement could inspect a television marked with an anti-news outlet phrase. Miami retiree Domenic Santana, 61, a Trump demonstrator in a striped prison jumpsuit who stepped in front of the former president’s motorcade twice, was detained by police.
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Despite appearing deferential in court and avoiding Smith, who continues to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Trump seemed to return to his defiant self as he departed, displaying a thumbs-up en route to Versailles, an iconic Cuban restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana district, which has become a must-stop political destination for campaigning Republicans. He then addressed supporters at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey, afterward attending what was expected to be a $2 million fundraiser at the property.
“Joe Biden will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps, even more importantly, the president who, together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists, tried to destroy American democracy,” he told the crowd.