Martel's Take on Iran's Take on the 'Legal Reckoning'

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Breipart News International editor Francis Martell.Let's get into some of the stories sent
over here Iran, the other countryprosecuting Donald Trump, reacting to the stunning
legal reckoning before we even get intoIran and that whole thing. What was
your reaction to the reckoning in NYClate last week? You know, I

(00:22):
think it's a little bit of ascary moment, and and my my initial
gut reaction as someone who's been internationaleditor, who was just dismay at how
everyone is going to compare this incorrectlyto every other international situation. For example,
in Brazil, they have a convictedfella in President Lula de Silva.
He is a convicted felon because he'scorrupt and he deserves to go to prison,

(00:44):
and the Supreme Court essentially built himout, and there people are going
to incorrectly compare that to what's goingon with Trump, which I think is
very clearly a political persecution here.Trump did not take a cent out of
government coffers legally. You know,Lula built a beach house with public funds.
So these are two very different cases. But I thought of Lula immediately

(01:08):
because he did do that. Hewas convicted of taking public money and buying
a beach house, and he's thepresident. He won, so you know
this, the idea that a felland president is unprecedented is not true.
But not even just that he convictedfell in presidents who actually did bad things
and were convicted for doing bad thingswhile being president, not some side issue

(01:32):
like like in it mast. Anddo you think he'll do jail? Do
you think he'll actually wind up doingjail time? You know, everyone keeps
asking me this, and I feelso hesitant to predict anything because so uncharted
waters I you know, if Ihad to gun to my head, I
would say, I don't think he'sgoing to prison yet, you know,

(01:55):
I don't. I don't think that. I don't think that would end well.
And I think the left kind ofunderstands that the next level, like,
as long as they can use thisto win the election, I don't
think they need him behind bars.But I don't know, you know,
I don't know if there's enough ofa drive to see him in prison,
and I don't know if they werethey're willing to discount the risk that the

(02:15):
right is going to play this gamealso, and then suddenly you're going to
have. You know, Hunter Biden'son trial. Joe Biden has done also
of shady business dealings. So youknow, I don't know how willing they
are to protect their own people byby going so off on Trump. Yeah,
there was one moment last week wehave, you know, the little

(02:36):
news inserts that play throughout the show, Fox News inserts and what have you,
and a gentleman said, uh,it's even but he could be sworn
in. He could be jailed.That does not prevent they were just kind
of given the facts, does notprevent him from continuing his campaign from running.
He could even be sworn in whilebehind bars. And when yeah,

(02:58):
you know, and when I heardthat, you know, maybe because I'm
very open about all of the asyou can tell from this conversation, the
sort of I don't get this andI don't get that sort of thing.
I thought, imagine that moment inAmerican history sworn in from behind bars,
and if anyone would be or couldbe, it is Trump. So when

(03:19):
you say I don't see it happening, I don't either. But considering the
fact that it's Trump, I'm goingto leave a little room for it being
possible, exactly, And I think, you know, I think back to
twenty sixteen where people were champing lockher up, and there was all this
momentum to do something about the youknow, the Clinton family crime, and

(03:40):
Trump didn't do anything precisely because hedidn't want this to happen. He did
not move to prosecute the Clintons becauseI'm sure he thought, if I do
that, I'm going to jail.And guess what, it didn't matter that
he didn't do that. They don'tcare who the less, doesn't care they're
going after him. So I'm verycurious to see what happens at the end

(04:00):
of the line, if you know, Trump looks back on those decisions to
kind of go easy on the Democrats, and if he reconsiders those and the
other thing I want to mention inresponse to what you were saying, is
it's so funny reading international newspapers wherethey try to explain the US Constitution,
because there are plenty of other placeswhere if you're in jail, you can't

(04:20):
be the president. So they haveto put these disclaimers that they you know,
the US Constitution doesn't actually say thatyou can't be president and it's a
criminal and it's you know, ourfounding fathers had such low respect for the
justice system, but they thought itwas going to be corrupted immediately. And

(04:42):
you're seeing all these little details andabsences, just how little they respected their
own justice. The same guy whohad said he could be sworn in in
jail, well he was doing itmore straight than that. He goes,
the only parameters are you have tobe you know whatever? The is it?
Thirty four? Is that the ageguys thirty five and have lived in
the United States for fourteen years.And I'm thinking, Wow, our founding

(05:04):
fathers, they really you know,they really raised that bar. These are
the two things that have to bein place. So I actually had the
exact same moment as you. FrancisMartel, Thanks so much.