“When Trump’s attacked, the country is attacked,” the Fox News host said in a segment, which was shared online by Media Matters for America.
Right-wing backlash against the latest and most serious indictment facing the former president has helped fuel conservative media’s outrage ― and its spin. As Trump railed against charges alleging that he knowingly lied about fraud in the 2020 election and conspired to overturn the results in a buildup to a coup attempt by his followers, Watters praised Trump as “a billionaire who listened to the forgotten man.”
“Basically, Trump’s popular because he actually cares,” Watters said. “He cares about the whole country, not just the professional class that used to run it, or run it into the ground. This is why Trump’s such a threat. He threatens not just their power; he threatens to invalidate their status and exalted role in America. Now, sometimes this clash of classes is ugly. We get it. But it’s necessary for the United States to move forward together in the 21st century. So when Trump’s attacked, the country is attacked.”
Noting previously that Trump’s polling numbers rose after earlier indictments, Watters concluded: “That’s why these indictments don’t have the punishing effect on the Republican Party, which has now become the party of populism, that the professional class had expected.”
Or Trump could be a habitual lawbreaker who’s getting what he deserves.
In the three cases against him involving a hush money payoff to a porn star, the willful mishandling of classified documents and the conspiracy counts related to the 2020 election and the 2021 Capitol riot, he faces 78 felony charges.
On Friday, Trump appeared to threaten revenge on anyone who goes after him. That prompted the Justice Department to seek a protective order from the judge overseeing the election case.