Sources tell CBS News disgraced former President Trump is considering waiving his right to appear in person at his arraignment on 13 felony counts from his post-2020 election coup attempt in Fulton County, Georgia on September 6th. There’s no requirement that the fat bastard or any of his co-conspirators show up to enter a plea since he’s already been booked separately on the charges. Co-defendant Ray Smith did so on Tuesday, filing his waiver and pleading not guilty.
What CBS’s sources do not address is why. As in why the fat asshole wouldn’t show up in court again to reap another day of wall-to-wall news coverage and the adulation of his cult gathered outside the building. Trump’s minions are usually eager to explain their “strategy” for handling this or that shitshow but this article doesn’t even have them on background, let alone anonymous quotes.
That Donald’s reportedly “considering” it now would seem to indicate that there’s no real scheduling conflict and he would go if he wanted to. So it’s not hard to guess why he’s wary: Cameras.
Trump doesn’t want to be seen in front of a judge on camera. The mugshot was unavoidable and he had to make the best of it by getting it done and spinning it as a huge win. A single still image he definitely prepped for is one thing, 20-30 minutes of live video is another entirely. If he has the option to deprive the media of indelible footage of him standing in court, entering a plea, while being called “Mr Trump” by the judge then he’s probably going to take it. There’s simply too much risk involved with being on camera in a situation he can’t control. Even a piece of shit huckster like Trump understands that “All publicity is good publicity” isn’t immutable and there are limits.
Better for him to be called a chickenshit coward by sites like ours than to give us the diminution live and in high-definition. It’s the same reason he opposed cameras in the courtroom in New York City, the same reason he wants the Georgia trial removed to federal court: Live video of him as defendant makes shit more real than just sketches and tweets from the press gallery and damages him politically, making it harder to win the 2024 election and thus avoid dying in prison.
We’d love to be wrong. Maybe we will be. The calculus could change and maybe the Orange Defendant wants to show up and own the “rigged” Fulton County judicial system. The “WATCH LIVE” article will be utterly spectacular if Donald gives in to his worst impulses for old times’ sake.