For a man facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars, former President Donald J. Trump didn’t appear to be worried. In fact, he seemed to be in a downright festive mood when he made an unexpected post-court visit to a famous Little Havana restaurant where he was serenaded with “Happy Birthday” by the adoring crowd, a scene that gave CNN anchor Jake Tapper a bad case of heartburn.
The 2024 GOP frontrunner was arraigned in a federal courtroom in Miami on Tuesday afternoon, a moment that leftists have spent years waiting for and CNN’s somber coverage of the historic moment was suddenly disrupted when Trump dropped by the iconic Cuban eatery Versailles for a bite to eat, offering to buy food for customers and reveling in the atmosphere as they sang for him on the day before his 77th birthday.
(Video: CNN)
CNN was broadcasting Trump’s journey from the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse where he was fingerprinted, arrested, and pleaded not guilty to the 37 charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith with grave seriousness when the motorcade pulled off into the parking lot of Versailles.
Needless to say, the reaction from the talking heads in the studio was absolutely priceless as Tapper had to interrupt the narrative to explain to CNN’s viewers what they were watching.
“I am at Versailles Cuban restaurant in Little Havana. And there is such a crowd here, the motorcade has just arrived from federal court in Miami and this was an unannounced visit,” said CNN’s Randi Kaye who was on the scene and relayed what she was witnessing back to the visibly perturbed Tapper.
“That is the crowd cheering,” she said as chants of “USA! USA! USA!” could be heard in the background.
“If you could hear me over them. There are just dozens of people here all with their phones all waiting for a glimpse of the former president,” Kaye said. “This is a very, very popular community restaurant in the Cuban community. It has been here since 1971. This is a place where almost every presidential candidate comes for the last few decades to reap the Cuban vote.”
“These people are very excited. We’re talking to some of them off camera that he may be making a stop here today, and they are in full support of him. They don’t buy the indictment,” she said. “They don’t believe it, and they just think he’s a great businessman and a strong man and that is why they are supporting him…”
Turning to anchor John King, Tapper huffed, “One of the things obviously that Donald Trump and his supporters are trying to do here and it’s obviously preposterous, is compare himself and the fact that he is being — that has been arrested and indicted now in two different locales and in other places trying to compare himself to the political persecution faced by…Cubans, by the communist government of Cuba, it is absolutely a preposterous suggestion and comparison, but they are attempting to make it…”
The flustered Tapper later snapped at “the folks in the control room” whom he told, “I don’t need to see any more of that.”
“He’s trying to turn it into a spectacle and into a campaign ad. That is enough of that. We’ve seen it already,” Tapper groused, clearly upset that Trump had rained on CNN’s parade.
“Thank you Miami. Such a warm welcome on such a SAD DAY for our Country!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, also jabbing Tapper over the left-wing propagandist’s sour reaction.
“Fake Tapper just demanded that his broadcast be closed down from Miami because there was far too much enthusiasm on the streets for ‘Trump.’ The good news is, he was the only one to do so, perhaps a good explanation as to why CNN’s ratings are so low!” Trump wrote.
(Image: Screengrab/Truth Social)
A better perspective on Trump’s visit to Little Havana could be seen on CNN’s competitor where unbiased coverage showed the former president praying with religious leaders and posing for a picture with mixed martial arts fighter Jorge Masvida, as well as mingling with the crowd who would later wish him a happy birthday.
(Video: Fox News)
Trump, who was accompanied by aide and co-defendant Walt Nauta also blasted the Biden regime’s abuse of power.
“We have a rigged country. We have a country that’s corrupt,” Trump said. “We have a county that’s got no borders. We have a country that’s got nothing but problems. We’re a nation in decline and then they do this stuff — and you see where the people are.”
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