Gay conservative and Fox News contributor Guy Benson has said he will vote for anti-LGBTQ+ former President Donald Trump, despite claiming he voted against Trump twice in the past, because Benson believes that Trump’s recent conviction for 34 felon criminal charges was based on a “rigged” and “political” trial that was “a major abuse of the criminal system.”
“I have found Donald Trump to be a volatile, capricious, myopic, petty man for as long as I’ve been aware of his existence,” Benson wrote on the right-wing site Townhall. “After the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, for which I hold Trump principally responsible, I called his conduct impeachable and wrote that the GOP would be ‘demented’ to nominate Trump again…. But for the first time, I am seriously reconsidering my planned choice.”
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“What I’m grappling with now is whether the appalling lawfare so brazenly employed against Trump in this case is more dangerous than anything Trump, and his worst excesses, represent,” Benson continued. “The goal [of the trial] here, as I see it, has been to emblazon ‘convicted felon’ across Donald Trump’s forehead prior to the election, then repeat those two words endlessly until November…. The charges were political, the trial was political, and the result was orchestrated to achieve a political result. This is undeniable, in my view, and is therefore deeply disturbing. This is a major abuse of the criminal justice system.”
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Benson’s assessment of the trial echoes numerous talking points repeated by Trump and elected Republican officials: that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan are both anti-Trump, that Trump’s attempts to cover up hush money payments to hide his extramarital affair were mere “bookkeeping mis-categorizations,” and that Trump’s legal team wasn’t given the opportunity to defend him against the charges against him.
Benson argues, correctly, that falsifying business records is typically a misdemeanor offense in New York state law.
However, Bragg argued that Trump did so to cover up campaign finance violations, making the offenses federal crimes, which upgraded the state charges from misdemeanors to felonies. In reality, Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, established a shell company — Resolution Consultants, LLC — to make the hush money payments seem unconnected to Trump, and the jury heard evidence that showed Trump’s willingness to fraudulently sign the checks as part of a “retainer agreement” and for “legal services rendered.”
However, for Benson, the only way to express dissatisfaction with the “rigged” trial is to put Trump back in the White House.
“This is as dirty as dirty politics get, even if the target is an unsympathetic figure to so many,” Benson added. “It cannot be rewarded. It must be punished, in fact. And perhaps the only real, painful way to punish it is to elect Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States.”
“I do fear some of what a second Trump term might look like, particularly under these circumstances. Furthermore, this horrible situation does not ‘undo’ or ‘cancel out’ the national disgrace of January 6th,” Benson wrote. “And Trump is still, in my mind, fundamentally unfit. But, again, for the first time, I am truly considering voting for him anyway, something I never thought I’d really contemplate.”
In the past, Benson has spread disinformation accusing the very queer U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) of protesting the national anthem by “turning their backs” on the U.S. flag. The USWNT said the fake story was based on a misinterpreted photograph.
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