“I’m tired, man.”
That’s the consensus on Boston Reddit, at least, after news broke of former President Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions Thursday evening.
GBH News talked to people in Eastern Massachusetts and took your calls on Boston Public Radio to hear how Bay Staters are reacting to the first-ever conviction of a U.S. president. What came back is a mix of satisfaction in justice delivered, disgust among the former president’s supporters in what they view as a politically motivated spectacle and a lack of faith that this will mean anything for the presidential election in November.
“I have a hard time believing it’s going to affect the election, unfortunately, but I wish it would,” said Jim Frazzini from Winthrop, interviewed on the street in Revere. “But I think he’s getting what he deserves, in a way.”
“I don’t like the guy. I don’t like what he stands for,” he added.
A Boston Public Radio caller, Joseph, referred to Trump’s comments after the trial that “the real verdict” will come in the presidential election Nov. 5. But Joseph recalled 2020, when President Joe Biden overwhelmingly won the president election.
“They decided! How are we going through this again?” Joseph said. “[Trump] shouldn’t even be on the ballot.”
Trump is now awaiting sentencing on July 11. Some Boston Public Radio callers had ideas on how the former president should pay his debt to society.
“Since Trump acted like a bratty child, he should be treated like a bratty child and should be sentenced to about 2,000 hours of community service by the end of this year,” Joe, a caller, said.
But the former president’s supporters told GBH News they were still behind him Friday morning.
“I think the trial’s a bunch of horse malarkey, OK? I think Donald Trump is the best guy we could have for a president of this country,” said Lou Poto of Revere on the street. “And I just hope that he gets through this without them hanging him for no reason at all.”
Francis Denish, from Saugus, says it was a “kangaroo court.”
Addressing the press soon after his convictions Thursday, Trump alleged — without evidence — that the prosecution was “done by the Biden administration in order to vote to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent.”
Some of his supporters agreed.
“I had to agree with what Trump said after he came out. And my feeling is Biden’s 100% behind this,” Denish said. “A lot of people don’t care about the scandal, and I think it’s just going to make Trump stronger,” he added.
