What reporter asked about Ghislaine Maxwell? (So Trump could dangle a pradon.)

[skip fox]

Was it a set-up so that Trump could "wish her well" (i.e., imply she would be pardoned).

Was it a reporter for One American Network? Or Fox?

Is that reporter complicit???

[underpants]

1. Okay skip

That’s as close as anyone is going to get to “being caught with a live chicken” as you are going to get.


No idea.
No opinion.
Whatever but you don’t get near it. My wife and I let out a collective WTF.

[skip fox]

2. Here's the exchange via Axios:

REPORTER: "Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison and a lot of people want to know if she's going to turn in powerful people. I know you've talked in the past about Prince Andrew and you've criticized Bill Clinton's behavior. I'm wondering, do you feel she's going to turn in powerful men? How do you see that working out?"

TRUMP: "I don't know, I haven't really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly. I've met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is. I don't know the situation with Prince Andrew, I just don't know. Not aware of it."

[MacKasey]

4. He knows everything

He can't claim to be Sgt Schultz, "I know nothing"

[kurtcagle]

8. He just doesn't get it

(or maybe he does).

I think Trump is beginning to realize the downsides to pardons. Pardons are intended largely to rectify gross miscarriages of justice - a given individual was framed, the charges were far in excess of the punishment, or other exemplary action of the pardonee indicates that they have more than made amends for the crime.

They can backfire when it appears that the primary beneficiary of the pardon is the pardoner. What Maxwell did was horrendous - human trafficking, drug-running, gun-running, and more. If Trump pardons her, it looks like she actually DOES have something on him. Of course, if she dies while in prison, then Epstein's death also looks far more suspicious. Maxwell knows that either way, she's going to be in prison for a long, long time, so she really has nothing to lose by being honest in court.

[Jacoby365]

3. Great question.

The reporter was Steven Nelson of the New York Post.

[skip fox]

5. What do we know of Steven Nelson?

It was the only question not on coronavirus.

I think he might have been the only reporter allowed a follow-up question.

[skip fox]

7. And Steven Nelson immediately posts this answer on Twitter (in case she's not watching?)

Link to tweet

?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[skip fox]

9. Steven Nelson, formerly of the Examiner

seems extremely Trump--friendly:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/steven-nelson

[bamagal62]

16. Ok. It all makes sense now.

[LonePirate]

6. I think the question was ridiculous but I sure hope the answer opens a rift between 45 and QAnon.

The reporter who asked it should be replaced as the question is so far down on the priority list nowadays that is practically qualifies as professional incompetence.

That being said, I hope 45 pissed off a lot of QAnon folks today because there is nothing they hate more than pedophiles. So as much as they love 45, his well wishes for someone tied to their focal point of opposition creates an interesting conundrum for those nuts.

[SoCalNative]

10. Her trial isn't scheduled to start until April 2021

He will not be able to issue any pardons

[Kingofalldems]

11. Can't he pardon her before trial?

[skip fox]

12. That would mean Trump might be telling her to hang on until his re-election!

The means that if he loses, she'll spill her guts.

But he's a day-trader, remember.

[tblue37]

13. Yes, preemptively, as Nixon was. nt

[skip fox]

14. They could have asked the OAN reporter to ask the Maxwell question but

that would have been too obvious.

They could have asked the Fox reporter to ask that question but he or she might have refused.

So . . . Steven Nelson of the New York Post got the "honor" of colluding with pedophiles.

[skip fox]

15. I sent a message about this to David Pakman.