Inside Trump’s Hush Money Trial With The ElectionLine Podcast; JFK, RFK Jr & The State Of Mean + Fighting Iran’s Death Sentence Against Rapper Toomaj Salehi

Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson
·5 min read

Editors note: Running until the final general election results come in, the Deadline ElectionLine podcast spotlights the 2024 campaign and the blurred lines between politics and entertainment in modern America. Hosted by Deadline’s political editor Ted Johnson and executive editor Dominic Patten, the podcast features commentary and interviews with top lawmakers and entertainment figures. At the same time, you can follow all the news in the Biden & Trump rematch and more on the ElectionLine hub on Deadline.

“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” asked US Army chief counsel Joseph N Welch famously to Sen. Joe McCarthy in 1954 as anti-Communist fever continued to grip the nation. “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” the lawyer added, shaming the opportunistic politician and turning the tide on the Second Red Scare.

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In an America watching one historic norm after another collapse in Donald Trump’s ongoing hush money trial, and the greater debasing of political dialogue, Welch’s blistering words are perhaps needed more than ever – as you can hear on the Deadline ElectionLine podcast above.

“It was interesting to hear Judge Merchan say to the prosecution team ‘I understand that your client is a little difficult to control,’” says Sean Piccoli of some of the fallout from Stormy Daniels’ testimony this week at the Trump trial. “However much prep work they did up front, as you say, she’s going to play by her own rules, and her brain just seemed to be on fire when she spoke.”

With a unique perspective on one of the biggest stories around right now, Piccoli joins us on the podcast this week straight from the Manhattan criminal courts where he has been covering the former president’s trial for Deadline since its April 15 start. With not even still photographs now allowed in the court room, Piccili has an up close seat at American history in the making.

Also, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘s Nazanin Boniadi talks to us about the global fight she and other are waging against Iran’s pledge to execute rapper Toomaj Salehi and imprison other artists who have protested against the Islamic Republic’s regime.

“I think that it is incumbent among the artistic community worldwide to stand with our counterparts in Iran who are being persecuted, sentenced to death, long prison terms, lashed, flogged, beaten, tortured simply for using their artistic platform,” the long time activist and Homeland alum says.

Then there is Congressman Mike Collins.

Just hours after it was revealed this week that Robert Kennedy Jr. suffered over a decade ago from a parasite eating a portion of his brain, the Georgia Republican decided a good way to get some attention would be to not only mock the independent presidential candidate’s health issues, but also the public assassination of his uncle President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963.

Regardless of what you may think of JFK, RFK Jr, or any member of the Kennedy family, just because Collins believes in that P.T. Barnum adage that there is “no such thing as bad publicity,” doesn’t change the fact that his remarks are vile.

As anyone who has ever attended a performance of Hamilton can tell you, men and women in public life in America have literally and figuratively been taking potshots at each other even before the Declaration of Independence was written. That’s nothing new from 1776 up to the bitter divisions of the Civil War. But, without trying to project era egotism, it sure feels like from Trump to Majorie Taylor Greene to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and to Mike Collins that there is a coarsening of our culture.

Collins’ posting is a sure sign of that coarsening.

Yet, while the cruel comments spurred some outrage, by day’s end it was largely forgotten. Add to that, as we discuss on the podcast Friday, the fact that no major member of the GOP called Collins out for his rancor, and you have the sad state today of discourse in this country.

Still, with shame no longer a force in public life, Collins’ tweet is indicative of a new state of mean, where crassness is mistaken for toughness, and where any pushback is met with complaint that free speech is under attack, and the suggestion of apology is viewed as a signal of weakness. The goal is attention — the more outrage the better and no depth is too low.

Almost a generation ago, incumbent Republican senator George Allen referred to a Democratic operative in the crowd as “macaca,” a reference to his race. Allen apologized but lost his race for reelection.

Contrast that to now, such comments are all but overlooked. While not the only cause of such a debasement of the body politic, the rise of Trump has exacerbated and to a large degree, normalized the problem. For example, Trump repeatedly referred to his former transportation secretary Elaine Chow as “coco Chow.” While the comments got some pushback, it didn’t cost the once and present Republican nominee the important support of Chow’s husband, current Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell.

Collins’ attack on the Kennedys is another indication of where discourse has gone in this country — or, as Joseph N. Welch said 70 years ago: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

Stick with ElectionLine all the way to Election Day: Subscribe to the Deadline ElectionLine podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, iHeart, and all podcast platforms

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