Reporter at Arraignment Says Trump Was ‘Visibly Shaken’ and ‘The Most Gaunt That I’ve Seen Him’
A Guardian reporter painted quite the picture of former President Donald Trump at his arraignment on Tuesday.
Appearing on MSNBC’s The ReidOut hours after attending the first arraignment of a U.S. president in history, Hugo Lowell said Trump appeared “visibly shaken.”
“Please talk about the atmosphere in the court today, what you saw, and specifically, what you observed about Donald Trump,” Joy Reid told Lowell.
He responded:
It was extremely tense. When we got to the courtroom, there were probably about 20 court security officers, probably around five to 10 Secret Service officers. And we were waiting for a while. And first, the prosecution team walked in, and then Trump’s defense counsel walked in. And then Trump walked in.
And when Trump came into the courtroom, he looked particularly angry, visibly shaken, and the most gaunt that I’ve seen him. And it was really striking. I’ve never seen him look so, I guess, afraid. And I’ve never seen him look so serious as he did today, and it was striking how all of this was on his face even as he showed no discernible emotion throughout proceedings.
Lowell said he suspected Trump’s demeanor was the result of the charges “actually hitting him.”
“You have covered Donald Trump,” Reid noted. “You’ve covered him at Trump Tower, you’ve covered him at Mar-a-Lago. What you’re describing is a very different Donald Trump than the one that, you know, people who watched The Apprentice or watched him as president experienced.”
Lowell replied that Trump is “excellent at being performative.”
“He was talking about how he wanted to be handcuffed and all this bravado about how he wanted his hands specifically behind his back and, ‘Should I smile for the camera? I want to be a martyr.’
“But when it actually came to the moment, he was really drawn, he was really gaunt. And there was none of the performative stuff that you saw kind of in the lead-up to this arraignment.”
Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records on Tuesday. He pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Watch above via MSNBC.
