Even Donald Trump’s personal lawyer could not defend his deranged social media posts about a potential indictment, admitting on Sunday that a picture of Trump holding a baseball bat next to a photo of the Manhattan District Attorney’s head was “ill-advised.”
“I’m not his social media consultant,” lawyer Joe Tacopina told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on Sunday. “I think that was an ill-advised post that one of his social media people put up and he quickly took down when he realized the rhetoric and the photo that was attached to it.”
The Friday post stitched together two photos: One of Donald Trump holding a baseball bat and another of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head. The image, which was later deleted, led to widespread criticism from legal experts who warned the composite image could serve as obstruction of justice or a call for violence.
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Tacopina’s answer did not suffice for Todd, who noted that Trump, while taking the baseball-bat photo down, stood by his inflammatory rhetoric. “We went through January 6, so it’s not, like, a possibility that Trump’s rhetoric creates violence. It’s already happened once,” Todd said. “Are you not concerned this could happen?”
Tacopina rebuked the premise, arguing that Trump’s language has not led to violence (despite hundreds of people injured and five people dead to the contrary).
“I’m not a Trump PR person. I’m a litigator and a lawyer,” Tacopina said. And I’m talking about this case in Manhattan, which is a case that would not be brought if it were anyone other than Donald Trump. When we seek to use a prosecutor’s office to politicize and weaponize a campaign, that’s what’s troubling to me.”
