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Times of Wayne County
P.O. Box 608 • Macedon, NY 14502
Phone: (315) 986-4300
Columns

Trump’s tirades and lies are about making headlines

October 28, 2024
/ by Ron Holdraker

Are they good or bad for his overall image?

If the election was down to who garnered the most money donations, Harris has lapped Trump in fundraising after pulling in a record $1.6 billion across various campaign committees , compared to $700 million for the former president. But spending does not guarantee a winner.

If the election was decided by the overall vote, Trump would already be packing his bags for prison.

Meanwhile Trump’s fabrications are making headlines, and perhaps that is just what he and his cult followers wants.

The men, formerly known as the Central Park Five, before they were exonerated on Monday, filed a defamation lawsuit against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

With election day two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is asking for a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.

Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were teenagers when they were accused of the 1989 rape and beating of a white woman jogger in New York City’s Central Park. The five, who are Black and Latino, said they confessed to the crimes under duress. They later recanted, pleading not guilty in court and were later convicted after jury trials. 

Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.

Regardless of the truth, in the September 10 debate, Trump misstated key facts of the case when Harris brought up the matter.

“They admitted, they said they pled guilty and I said, ’well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately ... And they pled guilty, then they pled not guilty,” Trump said.

He appeared to be confusing guilty pleas with confessions. Also, no victim died.

The men are upset because Trump essentially “defamed them in front of 67 million people, which has caused them to seek to clear their names all over again,” co-lead counsel Shanin Specter told The Associated Press in an email.

“Defendant Trump falsely stated that plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” the group wrote in federal complaint.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung decried the suit as “just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists, in an attempt to distract the American people from Kamala Harris’s dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign.”

Trump has mixed extremist rhetoric about migrants with promises to persecute political enemies and use the US military against what he considers far left American citizens should he regain power.

Would the military obey an order from Trump to go after the citizens considered enemies? Wouldn’t that be illegal?  Why, yes it would be, but Trump  has shown time and again that he can break laws to his will.

Then there was the Arnold Palmer affair.

Donald Trump’s closing pitch to voters at a Pennsylvania rally last weekend started with a rant about the late golf legend Arnold Palmer’s penis size.  It shocked the press and audience, but it was just another sidetrack to Trump’s headline grabbing technique.

“Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women, I love women. … This man was strong and tough, and I refused to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros they came out of there, they said ‘Oh, my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said.

 Phony claims and videos are flying about degrading both Harris and vice-president Tim Walz, not surprisingly going unchecked on Elon Musk’s  X social media.

Both Trump and running mate JD Vance are once again swirling the false cries of a 2020 election steal, something even Republican courts and Party leaders agree is pure nonsense.

Numerous politicians from both sides, including a vast number of former Trump cabinet and staffers agree...  Trump is a lying, confused and hate-filled candidate motivated not by ideas,  but by impulses.

He announced he would seek out revenge against political foes and push draconian laws and hopefully change the U.S. Constitution to achieve his wild goals.

One thing American voters should  realize is that unchecked power destroys all, but the blind Trump followers only repeat the 1930’s beer hall tactics of a defeated Nazi. It was a time , and it is again,when logic and true humanity take a back seat. Yes, according to several staffers, Trump praised Hitler and several other past and present dictators.

If Trump should win, this editor will watch his every move to destruction. I firmly believe the First Amendment, freedom of speech, along with other freedoms will take a hit.

Likewise, if Harris wins, I will watch her like a hawk. That is what the media is for... at least for now.

****

Moving on...

For decades Wife Patti and myself took yearly trips to New York City and Broadway plays. On our usual three day excursions we would jam in three to four plays and musicals.

 After recently buying the entire season of the Rochester Broadway Theater League, we attended the much touted musical Les Misérables. We had seen it decades ago, but this performance more than startled me. It was MORE more than equal to the actual Broadway performances - in singing, acting and overall production value.

Next up in the season venue is Mamma Mia!, followed by a number of other top Broadway hits.

I was soooo impressed by the production value at the West Herr Auditorium Theatre that I encourage readers to look into this amazing Rochester venue.

Please get out and VOTE!

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Times of Wayne County

Phone: (315) 986-4300 • Fax: (315) 986-7271
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