Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna called out the party’s cases against former President Donald Trump as a “distraction” Monday on NewsNation, stating the focus should be on “core issues.”
Khanna appeared on “Cuomo” to discuss the legal cases the Democrat Party built against Trump, as the trial began in Manhattan for his hush money case Monday. Led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the former president is being accused of allegedly falsifying business records to pay porn star Stormy Daniels in hush money.
While many have called out the case due to Bragg upping the charges to felony counts, the district attorney claims Trump allegedly used the payments to Daniels to hide another crime related to election interference. The NewsNation host asked Khanna about the optics of the Democrats going after Trump in this way. (RELATED: Trump’s Hush Money Trial Has Officially Begun. Here’s What’s At Stake)
“Here is the criticism. This is a bad look for the Democrats,” Cuomo said. “Bragg counts as a Democrat, James counted as a Democrat – in the other case, but that one’s done [and] now we’re dealing with Bragg’s case. It looks like this is a stretch at best to go after a guy that you guys are afraid you can’t beat at the polls. How do you see it?”
“I think we’ve got to make the case at the polls,” Khanna said. “I mean I don’t think we should be making the case legally, and I agree with you Chris that this is probably the weakest of the other cases. But people care about the cost of food, they care about the cost of rent, they care about the cost of gas, they care about the fact that this country offshored manufacturing for decades and hollowed out rural and factory towns – what are we doing on that?”
“I think we can beat Donald Trump saying we’re going to do better on the economy, on bringing manufacturing back, on helping working-class families. This is a total distraction to the core issues we need to focus on.”
Following Trump’s first day of trial, the former president was reportedly denied by presiding Judge Juan Merchan to be allowed to miss a day of the trial to attend his son’s high school graduation. Trump slammed the decision outside of the courthouse Monday as he called the trial a “scam.”