Donald Trump’s criminal trial will resume this morning in New York City, where Michael Cohen is set to return to the witness stand for more exchanges with defense counsel. There’s a fair amount of uncertainty about what, exactly, will happen after the testimony from Trump’s former fixer is complete, but it’s possible that jurors will hear closing arguments in the coming days.
But before that happens, a related question hangs overhead: Will jurors also hear from the defendant?
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has said he wants to testify, though his attorneys’ latest moves suggest he won’t actually take the stand. It was against this backdrop that The New York Times reported over the weekend:
As former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial winds down, a center-left group is trying to goad the Republican presidential candidate into testifying. … The five-figure digital ad buy is running “in all the places Trump will be,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way. He said the spot would run “in New York, especially around Trump Tower and the courthouse, Mar-a-Lago, and in Dallas” near the National Rifle Association meeting where Mr. Trump is expected to speak on Saturday.
“Take the stand, Donald, or admit you’re a coward,” the ad from Third Way declares.
Take the stand, Donald, or admit you're a coward.
— Third Way (@ThirdWayTweet) May 17, 2024
📺 Seen first in @playbookdc pic.twitter.com/F7dhWi4eLB
To be sure, there’s still some ambiguities surrounding the plan. Early last week, Judge Juan Merchan asked Todd Blanche, one of Trump’s lawyers, “Do you have any indication whether your client is going to testify?” Blanche replied, “No.”
A few days later, the defense attorney conceded that the plan was still uncertain, describing this as a question “that we need to think through.”
But the Third Way ad serves as a timely reminder that Trump’s many critics hope desperately that he does testify — because they assume it’d be a disaster for the GOP candidate.
Indeed, a Politico report noted this morning, “[A]mong legal experts and even Trump’s political allies, there’s already a unanimous verdict: He would be a fool to testify.”
There’s no great mystery as to why: Trump would share his side of the story under questioning from his own attorneys, but the moment he faced questions from prosecutors, the former president would likely lie under oath, lose his temper, and lash out wildly, all while inviting another contempt citation. Facing a series of brutal questions about his alleged sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels and his treatment of women probably wouldn’t do him any favors, either. All of which is to say, Trump has little to gain and everything to lose by testifying, which is precisely why Third Way and others hope to taunt him into making a dangerous decision. My MSNBC colleague Katie S. Phang added in a column this morning, “Trump’s prior track record when providing sworn testimony has been poor, to say the least. … Considering how badly things have turned out for him, Trump testifying is a failing proposition.” Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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