Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart did a touchdown dance of sorts on Friday’s PBS News Hour as he celebrated Donald Trump’s “great punishment” of being formally sentenced to unconditional discharge that history “will have to” mention.
Host Geoff Bennett wondered if the fact that Trump avoided fines and jail time means he is the beneficiary of a double standard, “Donald Trump is vowing to appeal this conviction. We will see what comes of that. But after, you know, being convicted of 34 felonies, there are people who look at this case, and they say that Donald Trump walks away with a punishment that is less than what one would receive for a speeding ticket.”
Capehart was too excited to be concerned with that; he got his conviction, and that is all he cared about:
Look, this case, this hush money case, was the case that everybody said was the crappy case of the four. Remember, Donald Trump was indicted four times, and this one was the least important, the shakiest. And yet it's the one case where Donald Trump was held accountable, the one case where he was brought to trial before a jury of his peers in his hometown of New York City and was found guilty 34 times. I think that is great punishment.
It still is the weakest. The jury was not tasked with answering any of the several legal issues that Alvin Bragg’s legal theories raised that will be litigated on appeal. As it was, Capehart continued to celebrate Trump being formally declared a felon:
What's also great punishment is the sentencing today, where the judge said, you're going to be president, you're not going to go to jail, but you're a convicted felon. And so for the rest of his life, any story written about him will have to mention the fact that he's a convicted felon, if not on the first reference, definitely by the second reference. And that is fitting, that is right, that is just. Do I wish the other three cases had gone to trial and that he had faced accountability on those? Yes, but this will do.
Will it have to mention that? Does “any story written about” Bill Clinton reference the fact that he was impeached for perjury and disbarred? Nothing about Friday’s proceedings will change any minds about Trump, but Capehart got the footnote he wanted.
Here is a transcript for the January 10 show:
PBS News Hour
1/10/2025
7:45 PM ET
GEOFF BENNETT: Donald Trump is vowing to appeal this conviction. We will see what comes of that. But after, you know, being convicted of 34 felonies, there are people who look at this case, and they say that Donald Trump walks away with a punishment that is less than what one would receive for a speeding ticket.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Look, this case, this hush money case, was the case that everybody said was the crappy case of the four. Remember, Donald Trump was indicted four times, and this one was the least important, the shakiest.
And yet it's the one case where Donald Trump was held accountable, the one case where he was brought to trial before a jury of his peers in his hometown of New York City and was found guilty 34 times. I think that is great punishment.
What's also great punishment is the sentencing today, where the judge said, you're going to be president, you're not going to go to jail, but you're a convicted felon. And so for the rest of his life, any story written about him will have to mention the fact that he's a convicted felon, if not on the first reference, definitely by the second reference.
And that is fitting, that is right, that is just. Do I wish the other three cases had gone to trial and that he had faced accountability on those? Yes, but this will do.
