Corporate media’s salivating over former President Donald Trump’s mugshot was briefly interrupted for a consideration of the arrestee’s experience at the “shockingly awful” facility.
(Video: CNN)
Marathon coverage on CNN Thursday when Trump surrendered to the Fulton County Jail in Georgia included the booking photo perpetually filling a portion of the screen. At one point, anchor Jake Tapper brought in analyst, New York Times contributor and Trump-obsessive Maggie Haberman to consider more than an alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
After speaking about the efforts to relocate the trial from the state to a federal venue, Tapper turned to the conditions of the facility in which the former president was booked.
“The jail, Fulton County Jail that Donald Trump was processed at today, we’ve been noting that it’s notorious for its harsh conditions. The Justice Department is investigating it. Prisoners, more regularly than they should, die while in custody,” he said.
“And it’s shockingly awful,” he went on, speaking to images that he had seen of the inside. “What do you imagine that experience was like for Donald Trump who I think has probably never been inside a building like that before?”
“I don’t think he has,” replied Haberman. “No, Jake, I can’t imagine any circumstance in his life that we’re unaware of where he would have been. I think it was jarring.”
“This is an experience that I think brings home the stark reality of what this is, which is a criminal case,” she later went on to add.
As previously reported, spotlights like one conducted by Fox 5 Atlanta had shown the conditions from within the jail on Rice Street where doors hung off hinges, overcrowded inmates slept on “doggy-style plastic trays,” and 15 inmates had died in 2022 including LaShawn Thompson in September who was said to have been found “covered in insects and filth.”
The conditions were enough to trigger an investigation from the Justice Department that left U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan of the Northern District of Georgia opining, “The recent allegations of filthy housing teeming with insects, rampant violence resulting in death and injuries, and officers using excessive force are cause for grave concerns and warrant a thorough investigation. This investigation is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that citizens are safe, and their constitutional rights protected, even while they are in custody.”
Fulton County jail, where Trump is supposed to surrender, is under DOJ investigationhttps://t.co/Uw7L45ToJd
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) August 16, 2023
Haberman went on to contend that Trump would have been struck by the reality of the situation despite the limited time he was actually within the confines of the facility. “I think we should note that he was there pretty briefly. His aides filled out the paperwork about his vitals — his weight, his height, and so forth, his eye color, all the things that are there — ahead of time and it expedited the process. But I think even briefly, it’s a very jarring experience.”
She further argued that the numerous cases brought against the president have had diminishing returns as far as an opportunity to fundraise, despite the increase in the severity of the allegations made against him. “And, to your point about where he was headed today and how grim the circumstances are, and how grim the location was: they’ve done very little.”
The analyst later went on to quote Trump from a Fox News interview for a New York Times piece where he had expressed, “It is not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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