Maansi Srivastava/Pool/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media at the end of the day during the criminal trial as jury selection continues at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 19, 2024.
CNN
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Former President Donald Trump’s rally in North Carolina, scheduled to be his first since his hush-money criminal trial began in New York, was postponed to Saturday due to concerns about inclement weather.
Trump attended the Wilmington rally from a plane and delivered his message over the rally’s loudspeaker.
“I’m shocked that something like this could happen, but we want to keep everyone safe,” Trump told supporters. “It looks like there’s thunder and lightning, and it’s a pretty big storm, so I think we’re going to have to do a rain check if we don’t mind. It’s very unfortunate.”
Despite the postponement, Trump, who has been confined to a Manhattan courtroom for much of the past week, still appears again in North Carolina, where the stakes are particularly high in the Republican presidential campaign from trial to election. appeared.
Get the latest information on President Trump’s criminal trial
He held a fundraiser in Charlotte and posted several times on Truth Social about his belief that the president should be immune from prosecution. His series of posts comes as Supreme Court arguments are scheduled for April 25 on whether Trump can claim immunity from prosecution in a federal election destruction case.
On Saturday, the first criminal trial against a former president began, capping an unprecedented week in American politics. The trial, which will determine whether President Trump illegally tried to interfere in the 2016 election through a scheme to pay off women he allegedly had extramarital affairs with, is scheduled to begin with opening statements Monday.
The challenges ahead for Trump in New York are clear. His goal is to convince a jury of seven men and five women to acquit him of the 34 charges he faces. In battleground states like North Carolina, the challenge to Mr. Trump is less straightforward, but no less difficult. Mr. Trump must convince voters in those states to ignore the details revealed in the New York case when deciding who will be the next president. It includes evidence of alleged hush money payments and testimony from former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, a former Playboy playmate and adult film star.
In an appearance in Greensboro, North Carolina, ahead of the state’s primary last month, Trump spoke at length about his legal jeopardy. He told the audience that the 91 charges he faced at the time (now reduced to 88) were “not legal.” He baselessly claimed that the New York lawsuit filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was “run by the Justice Department for election interference, a crime meant to bash political opponents.”
“The only thing they didn’t know is that the people of our country heard about this from me,” President Trump asserted at the time.
Trump then gave a convincing performance on Super Tuesday, easily winning the primary. Still, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was successful in winning support from 23% of North Carolina Republican primary voters, and many in Trump’s party are concerned about the enormous legal challenges he faces. He said that the issues cannot be overlooked. Three in 10 Republican voters say Trump would be unfit to be president if he is convicted. That’s a worrying sign for the former president in a state he won by just 1.3 percentage points to President Joe Biden four years ago.
Trump’s campaign pointed to polling numbers showing that two-thirds of Americans believe Trump has not broken any laws.
“Polling shows that the American people see through the Stalinist tactics used by Crooked Joe and his allies,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt told CNN in a statement. Told. She added, “President Trump and our team will continue to fight for the truth in the courts while working to win votes on the campaign trail.”
There were a series of surprising moments throughout the trial’s dramatic first week, including a potential juror crying under the intense pressures of the job and a man self-immolating outside the courtroom, but President Trump said the following: He has made it clear that he intends to ensure that. People keep hearing about the incident from him. In theatrical press conferences in front of courthouse cameras and aggressive posts on social media, Mr. Trump repeatedly lambasted the judge overseeing the case and urged him not to intimidate jurors or witnesses. We tested the limits of the intended gag order.
Mr. Trump also took issue with the narrative emerging from those watching the trial, in part because there were no cameras in the courtroom. Trump claimed in a fundraising message to his supporters that he stormed out of the courtroom on the first day of his trial, a statement not supported by those who witnessed him leaving. . President Trump posted on Truth Social, “I couldn’t sleep and was praying!!” Multiple news outlets reported that the former president appeared to fall asleep during the proceedings.
Judge Juan Melchán, who is overseeing the case, has asked Trump to appear during the trial, which could last several weeks. Courts are held on weekdays except Wednesdays, cutting down on President Trump’s travel time and making weekend events, like the Wilmington rally postponed to Saturday, a focus on his campaign calendar.
“I’m supposed to be in New Hampshire. I’m supposed to be in Georgia. I’m supposed to be in North Carolina, South Carolina. I’m supposed to be campaigning in different places,” Trump said in court this week. he told reporters outside. “But I came here all day for a trial that was really very unfair.”
But Trump’s statement overlooks that the former president often appeared voluntarily in civil court proceedings rather than on the campaign trail. Additionally, while the case against Trump has not yet reached this stage, Trump has maintained a significantly lighter political schedule throughout the Republican primaries.
Regardless of where Trump spends his time, his campaign insists it has a robust operation in every battleground state, including paid teams and volunteers.
“Our aggressive and experienced operations are focused on attracting votes and highlighting the contrast between Joe Biden’s weaknesses and failures and President Trump’s track record of success,” Levitt said. .
