Trump’s Impeachment Defense Team Shows Madonna Clip In Free Speech Argument
Strange things are happening during Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Earlier this week, during her remarks during the trial, Rep. Stacey Plaskett quoted both El-P and the GZA. And now Trump’s own lawyers are using Madonna as an example for why it was OK that Trump incited a crowd to storm the Capitol.
The Washington Post reports that Trump’s attorneys showed clips of both Madonna and Johnny Depp making what could be considered inflammatory remarks. The Madonna clip came from the Women’s March in 2017. During her speech there, Madonna said, “Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” That same year, at a festival in Scotland, Depp asked a rhetorical question: “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”
After playing those clips, Trump’s lawyer Michael Van der Veen said, “I did not show you their robust speech to excuse or balance out the speech of my client, for I need not. I showed you the video because in this political forum, all robust speech should be protected and it should be protected evenly.”
The Post notes that there were some key differences between what Madonna and Depp said and what Trump said. For one thing, Madonna and Depp were never elected officials. The Post also notes that certain prominent Republicans argued for legal action against Madonna at the time. For instance, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker Of The House, told Fox & Friends that he thought Madonna “ought to get arrested.” Madonna later wrote an Instagram post saying that she’d been speaking “in metaphor.”
The Post didn’t mention another big difference between those Madonna and Trump statements: After Madonna spoke at the Women’s March, nobody attempted to storm the White House.