Given the historic indictment of Donald Trump -- he's the first former president to face criminal charges -- we are sending out a special edition of the NPR Politics newsletter. Here's what you need to know.
The Big Picture: Deflect and distract
Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images
Faced with criminal charges for the first time for any former president, Donald Trump ripped from a well-worn page in his playbook Tuesday night -- lashing out with an, at times, bigoted speech full of lies and conspiracies.
Any time Trump has had his back against the wall, he’s resorted to a familiar script:
blast opponents
build an air of victimization
try to discredit accusers, questioning their motives and drawing tenuous lines of guilt by association to create perceived conflicts of interest
be as provocative as possible to deflect and distract even if that means resorting to conspiracies or simply making things up.
It’s a version of throwing things at the wall to see if they stick. And with his base, it’s been all Velcro. But Trump needs to add voters, and all he did Tuesday night was speak to his followers -- and there are more serious probes with more serious potential consequences on the horizon.
Just getting up to speed on the news? Start here for key things to know about the case and here, for a look at how Tuesday unfolded.
The indictment: The 34-count felony indictment alleges Trump falsified business records in order hide damaging information from voters in 2016. And the case rests on the idea that Trump regularly employed what's known as a "catch and kill" scheme to bury negative information.
Trump's response: Throughout the day the former president denied any wrongdoing and blasted Bragg, arguing the district attorney has "no case" and is weaponizing his office.
Legal next steps: The next court date in the case is scheduled for Dec. 4, with a trial possible next year in the thick of 2024 presidential primaries. However, there are three other criminal investigations ongoing into Trump aside from the hush money case, and they could also bring indictments.
Podcast recap: NPR's Tamara Keith, Domenico Montanaro, Carrie Johnson and Andrea Bernstein unpack the charges, the view from the courtroom and the case's potential impact on the 2024 campaign season. Listen to the NPR Politics Podcast here.
Hush money history. The term hush money dates back centuries, and it's been applied to various scandals involving presidents for nearly as long as the U.S. has been a country.
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