The news that former President Donald Trump was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday drew intense media reactions from both sides of the aisle on Twitter.
The charges came after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg launched an investigation into hush money payments made prior to the 2016 presidential election to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
This announcement marks Trump as the first president, current or former, to be indicted.
Both conservative and liberal media personalities had mixed reactions to the report, with left-wing users largely praising the news while conservatives blasted the announcement.
TRUMP INDICTMENT: LIVE UPDATES
Self-described "award-winning multimedia journalist" David Leavitt similarly wrote, "Happy Trump Indictment Day for all who celebrate it."
"Merry Trumpmas," former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann celebrated.
"March 30, 2023. Mark this day in history," MSNBC contributor Eric Feigl-Ding wrote.
MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell joked, "It is a new season in NYC. The skating rink is gone and the Trump INDICTMENT is here."
"Hallelujah!" The View co-host Ana Navarro cheered.
Washington Post columnist Max Boot was more circumspect, tweeting, "I confess to being skeptical of this case. Trump should be indicted for trying to steal the election and fomenting a coup, not for paying off Stormy Daniels. There is a worrying potential for this indictment to backfire. But let's respect the process and let the case play out."
Some on the right saw the indictment as a political win for Trump.
"Democrats just fast tracked Donald Trump back to the White House," radio host Erick Erickson remarked.
The Lafayette Co. president Ellen Carmichael agreed, "Reminder: Democrats think Donald Trump is incredibly dangerous but also want to run against him in 2024."
Fox News contributor Joe Concha blasted the case writing, "In which a ham sandwich gets indicted via an inept Manhattan DA who resurrected a zombie case no one else would touch, and the ham sandwich eventually wins when the case gets laughed out of court. Our ‘legal system’ is officially a joke."
"Now that Trump's been indicted, expect complaints of ‘whataboutism’ to suddenly be in vogue again. Because whatever you think about his guilt or innocence here, doing this to Trump relative to what other pols have gotten away with is pretty shocking," RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway predicted.
National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin tweeted, "Bragg literally refuses to enforce whole areas of the law, so he's the worst possible representative for the argument that all possible crimes should always be prosecuted. (And that's aside for how the law has to be bent to make this a state-law crime.)"
"Among most disingenuous tps is ‘no one is above the law. A POTUS current or former has never been indicted in the history of the country. This radical leftist DA who doesn't prosecute ANYONE while NY returns to bad old days contrives a case even Trump-hating feds wouldn't make," The Federalist senior contributor Benjamin Weingarten tweeted.
TRUMP INDICTED AFTER MANHATTAN DA PROBE FOR HUSH MONEY PAYMENTS
The Washington Post's editorial board also quickly published a piece, titled "The Trump indictment is a poor test case for prosecuting a former president."
"Donald Trump deserves the legal scrutiny he’s getting — which has come from many corners on many counts. Yet of the long list of alleged violations, the likely charges on which a grand jury in New York state voted to indict him this week are perhaps the least compelling. There’s cause for concern, and caution, ahead," the article read.
The New York Times editorial board followed suit with a more critical piece, titled "Even Donald Trump Should Be Held Accountable."
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"The decision to prosecute a former president is a solemn task, particularly given the deep national fissures that Mr. Trump will inevitably exacerbate as the 2024 campaign grows closer. But the cost of failing to seek justice against a leader who may have committed these crimes would be higher still," the NYT editorial board wrote.
The indictment against Trump currently remains sealed, though Bragg had previously been investigating Trump for possible fraud and campaign finance violations.
