Geraldo says Trump is ‘guilty as charged’ of inciting insurrection, but hopes he’s not convicted – By Stephen Proctor (Yahoo!) / Feb 9 2021
On Monday, just one day before the start of former President Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial, charged with inciting the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, Fox News correspondent at-large and Trump ally Geraldo Rivera joined The Story With Martha MacCallum, where he admitted that he believes Trump is guilty. Many Trump defenders point to the speech Trump gave the morning of Jan. 6 preceding the insurrection, claiming that the speech alone did not incite violence. But Rivera said he believes Trump is guilty because of his behavior since the presidential election, constantly repeating unsubstantiated claims that the election was stolen.
“Maybe Karl (Rove) and I differ in this, but I believe that President Trump is guilty as charged of inciting that mob,” Rivera said. “Not specifically to go and ravage the Capitol, but his words and actions following his refusal to accept the election for 77 days, and the inflammatory rhetoric he used about the big steal and so forth. I think the president really deserved this admonition from Congress.”
Though a recent poll showed that most Americans (56%) believe Trump should be convicted, that remains an incredibly tall task for Democrats as they would need every Democrat and 17 Republicans to vote to convict. And despite conceding that he believes Trump is guilty, Rivera hopes Democrats fail to get a conviction.
“I hope he’s not convicted,” Rivera said. “I hope that, ya know, they hang it on the procedural that he’s out of office already so the issue is moot. But we cannot pretend that the president has clean hands in this.”
