Fox guest says that Trump “resonates and identifies with ... what Blagojevich got in trouble for”

James Hohmann: “After living through the Mueller prove and impeachment, [Trump] does sort of feel like the criminal justice system is unfair to people like this”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the February 19, 2020, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

ED HENRY (CO-ANCHOR): We've heard the criticism from Bernie Sanders and others saying the president is helping his cronies, that this is why they think the criminal justice system is fouled up. But I noted that Blagojevich himself, in his comments, said that he believes that this is a broken criminal justice system where people are railroaded with no accountability. And, I have to say that is something the president himself seems to believe. He thinks that his associates have been targeted, have been railroaded, if you will, and maybe that he sees some justice here in Blagojevich, and Bernie Kerik and Michael Milken and others finally being freed. Your thoughts?

JAMES HOHMANN (WASHINGTON POST POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT): Yeah, absolutely Ed, 100%. Yesterday, as the president made this announcement, what he said was this was -- that it was Jim Comey's best friend, the U.S. attorney in Chicago who prosecuted Blagojevich. That it was the same kind of people, the same FBI system. I do think that the president, after living through the Mueller probe and impeachment does sort of feel like the criminal justice system is unfair to people like this, and Blagojevich, you know, is a Democrat. He was a contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice briefly. But I do think that the president sort of resonates and identifies with kind of what Blagojevich got in trouble for. That phone call that we just heard a clip of, the president has said that's what politicians do. They have phone calls like that. They kibitz with their friends and talk about the options that they have. He says a lot of politicians in both parties make calls like that. Why should you go to prison for 14 years for that kind of a phone call?