Jury selection began Monday for President Trump's criminal trial for allegedly using $130,000 campaign dollars in 2016 to pay off an adult movie star who said she had an affair in 2006 with the then-New York City tycoon.
Jason Pierce, former mayor of Eagle, Idaho, says the double standard is absurd.
"It's so ridiculous to see what they're accusing him of, and, of course, then being able to see what is going on around you with other elected officials on the liberal side," he comments. "They will literally tell you something is bad while they're doing it right in front of you, or they'll tell you something's bad, and then they turn around and go do it later."
Without those double standards, he says Democrats would have no standards at all.
But Pierce believes the American people see it. In a recent AP/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, only one in three Americans said they think the former president broke the law in this case, and less than half think he did something illegal in the other three criminal cases pending against him.
They are also skeptical that Trump is getting a fair shake from the prosecutors in the case — or that the judge and jurors can be impartial in cases involving him.
In addition to four criminal indictments, Donald Trump is also fighting a civil lawsuit. But even though most of the nation thinks all the cases against him are politically motivated, Pierce recognizes that the cases could still have a negative impact on Trump's effort to return to the White House.
"I think it's gonna eventually hurt him," he predicts. "It's just in the news all the time, and it's dragging him through the mud. Here's the thing: the American public, even as a conservative, even if it's being done wrong, they don't like this kind of stuff."
He does not think the same can be said about the other political party.
While the particular issue of extramarital affairs plagues both political parties, a 2016 study revealed that except for Republicans who attend church "never or seldom," Democrats were more likely to be guilty of sexual misconduct.
Even so, Pierce observes that "when they send out the bat signal that that's the candidate you need to vote for, you're gonna darn well show up and do it. It doesn't matter what they've done or what they haven't done."
This is lawfare
Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families (CWF), says the American people need to understand that Joe Biden is behind this effort to keep Donald Trump stuck in a courtroom and away from voters.
The president was free to campaign alone in Pennsylvania yesterday, thanks to Judge Juan Merchan, who ordered that Donald Trump must appear in a New York City courtroom every day for the next six weeks – even if it means missing his son's high school graduation and a Supreme Court hearing on his immunity case.
Bauer says Judge Merchan and District Attorney Alvin Bragg are helping Biden keep Trump off the campaign trail.
"There's only one thing, really, that an American needs to understand: all of these trials are what we are calling lawfare, a play on the word warfare," the conservative tells AFN. "They're an attempt by Joe Biden and his political allies to imprison his major political opponent."
Bauer believes this is a time when America should be coming together.
"In the face of the growing dangers we face around the world, President Biden and his political allies are continuing this persecution and prosecution of Donald Trump – and, by extension, the half of America that stands with Donald Trump – by promoting division and anger," the CWF chairman submits. "They're doing that at a time when we're facing multiple enemies around the world. This is a disaster in the making. "
The former president and his family have blasted Judge Merchan for not approving Trump's request to attend Barron's graduation ceremony on May 17, but Forbes reports that the judge could still allow it. If Trump misses any of the trial without permission, he could face an arrest warrant.
