Local residents are still processing the guilty verdict in former U.S. President Donald Trump’s New York trial.
Even in the heavily conservative Effingham County, the local reaction to the news that Trump had been found guilty Thursday on all 34 counts related to interference with the 2016 election has been quite mixed.
Outspoken Trump supporter Marilyn Wirth of Effingham followed the trial closely. She said Friday that while she’s unhappy with the verdict, she doesn’t blame the jury. Instead, she argues that the jury was “duped.”
“It’s just unfathomable what’s happening,” Wirth said. “It’s a sad historical precedent for our country. It’s just unbelievable what this man has been put through, and I do believe he truly loves this country.”
Wirth also argued that Judge Juan Merchan should have recused himself because he made a financial contribution to a Democratic group and U.S. President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in the past.
“Many lawyers said the case should have never been brought, and part of the fault of the judge was that he did not allow the defense to bring in election experts,” she said. “It’s just a sham.”
Trump has also claimed that Merchan barred his defense from calling a campaign finance expert, Bradley Smith, to testify. Trump’s defense team chose to not have this witness testify following a ruling by Merchan that limited the scope of what Smith could discuss.
Wirth also echoed a claim made by Trump and his allies that the case was heavily influenced by external forces, primarily the Biden administration, which she accused of deploying “soviet style” tactics against the former president. Neither Trump nor his allies have offered evidence that Biden’s administration used any influence over the trial in a New York state court.
“All they wanted is to be able to call him a convicted felon because they don’t have any other good stuff to run on,” Wirth said. “I just think that the progressive left and all the deep state actors have all got Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
While she doesn’t agree with the guilty verdict, Wirth believes that the jury’s decision will actually strengthen support for Trump in the upcoming presidential election. She believe that this sudden increased support for Trump could be seen Thursday, when Trump’s website crashed temporarily after supporters began making donations to his campaign at a higher rate than usual.
“I think the Democrats just shot themselves in the foot, and it’s going to backfire,” she said. “They just pissed off half of the country, if not more, with this. I think it will fire up his base even more because they’re fed up. I think people are at the breaking point now.”
Some, though, thought the trial was fair.
Kalli Harden, 19, a Democrat, said justice has been served. Harden reacted to the verdict while eating lunch with her mother at Joe Sippers Cafe in Effingham Friday.
“You have to own up to what you get caught for, and you’re not above the law,” Harden said.
Harden, who graduated from Effingham High School, is a student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She said most of the news about the trial she’s heard has either come from posts on Tick Tock or conversations with her mother, who is also a Democrat and gets most of her news from foreign media outlets in an attempt to avoid biased reporting.
“Since I’m busy with a lot of college stuff, I don’t get as informed, and it’s harder to watch the news,” Harden said.
Although she hasn’t been tracking every aspect of the case, Harden said she isn’t surprised that Trump was found guilty. She criticized those who are denying the legitimacy of the trial and the guilty verdict.
“He just goes back on his promises, so why should we not be surprised that he was hiding things?” she said of Trump. “He did something wrong. Make like a bridge, and get over it. You messed up, and there’s not much you can do about it.”
For Harden, it was the jury selection process in particular that convinced her that the trial was fair. She thinks Merchan and the attorneys in the case were effective in rooting out potentially biased jurors.
“I remember watching multiple Tick Tocks of them having to remove jurors because they had ideas about the case,” she said. “That’s completely fair.”
Harden hopes that the verdict and the information revealed about Trump’s extramarital affair will impact the outcome of the presidential election. However, she thinks it’s unlikely that this will do much to change the minds of Trump’s fervent supporters.
“I think it will bring more attention,” Harden said. “Why would you want someone that openly lied to people and also cheated on multiple wives? Why would you want someone like that in office?
“He can commit murder, and people would still want him as president because he has such a cult following. Because people truly believe that he can do no wrong.”