This is a historic day.

For the first time in our nation’s history, a criminal trial against a former president is underway.

I’ve just finished speaking to the media outside the New York City courthouse where Donald Trump’s election interference case began this morning.

I reminded the media of some basic facts:

• When the Access Hollywood tape (“grab ’em by the p***y”) was revealed on October 7, 2016, many people thought it would be the end of Trump’s campaign and career.

• Many Republicans debated whether they should ask Trump to drop out.

• At that moment, the prospect of another scandal emerging would likely have been the final nail in Candidate Trump’s coffin.

• When Trump learned that an adult film actress with whom he allegedly had an affair was prepared to make the story public, he directed that she be paid to keep the story under wraps.

• Then Trump allegedly cooked his books, illegally, to cover up the payments.

The context here is everything.

Trump wasn’t doing this because he was embarrassed about the affair and wanted to keep it from his family.

He was doing this to interfere with the election.

We know this, because Trump allegedly said that he hoped to delay payment until after the election, when it wouldn’t matter if the story came out.

So we need to understand this case for what it is really about.

But the media isn’t doing that.

Because phrases like “extramarital affair” and “sex with a porn star” are too salacious to resist, the mainstream media has, even if inadvertently, downplayed the real impact of what Trump did.

The crimes alleged in this case may well have been the difference in Donald Trump ultimately becoming president.

Public Citizen is calling on leading print and television news outlets to stop using phrases like “hush money case” that diminish or obscure the true severity of Trump’s election interference.

To ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post:

The Manhattan District Attorney’s case against Donald Trump is about election interference — and you should call it that. Donald Trump is on trial for allegedly falsifying official business records in what turned out to be a successful effort to improperly interfere with the 2016 presidential election. Please stop using the misleading and trivializing shorthand “hush money case” in your coverage and instead call it the election interference case that it is.

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Thanks for taking action.

For justice and democracy,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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