All posts tagged "david urban"

'You know better!' CNN's Anderson Cooper scolds Trump associate on Mar-a-Lago raid claim

CNN's Anderson Cooper clashed with David Urban, a former strategist to former President Donald Trump, over the erstwhile president's ongoing and escalating attacks against federal law enforcement as he continues to be the focus of multiple criminal cases.

In particular, the debate got fierce during the discussion of how Trump has pushed a conspiracy theory that FBI agents were prepared to assassinate him during their search of Mar-a-Lago for missing highly classified national defense documents — even though in fact the language in question detailing the FBI's policy on deadly force is a standard protocol that is part of any search they conduct against anyone.

"He's called the Department of Justice and the FBI gestapo," said Cooper. "I mean, it's not as if there's not a long track record of him going after this."

ALSO READ: ‘That's the Kool-Aid’: Republicans triple down on Trump the morning after guilty verdict

"Anderson, I think that again, if the FBI showed up in raid jackets at your house, armed like they did at Mar-a-Lago to come after some documents and paper boxes," said Urban. "I mean, he's not—"

"I actually wouldn't have a problem with that," Cooper cut in as Urban tried to continue speaking. "If the FBI showed in my house, I would let them in. And by the way, if they're armed, they're supposed to be armed."

"Anderson, you saw the video," protested Urban. "Come on, America saw that, they know it was ridiculous. It's ridiculous the way they showed up."

Cooper stood firm and offered a blunt fact-check of Urban's characterization of the FBI search. "What did they gave is he gave they gave them advanced warning," he said. "They — I mean, this was not a raid. I mean, come on, David, you know better than that."

Watch the video below or click here.

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'Beating himself': Former Trump campaign adviser says ex-president is tanking his chances

Trump's mouth is purportedly opening him up to weakness on the campaign stump.

Former President Donald Trump's former aide David Urban, appearing on CNN's "The Lead," talked about his boss falling on his face in recent off-teleprompter comments.

"The only one that beat Donald Trump in the election is Donald Trump — and he's doing a pretty good job right there," said Urban.

ALSO READ: How Donald Trump is spreading a dangerous mental illness to his supporters

The 45th president appearing at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, on Saturday bragged about dressing down an anonymous NATO leader for asking him if they would be protected from Russian aggression if they were behind with remitting their requisite 2% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) share as agreed upon in 2014.

Trump claimed: “One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’"

“I said, ‘You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent?’ "'No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.'"

The quotes have been roundly dismissed as reckless.

President Joe Biden, who is seeking a second White House term, criticized Trump for falling on his face with such statements.

"For God's sake, it's dumb," Biden said. "It's shameful, it's dangerous."

But Urban believes the narrator in Trump may have slipped on his own banana in this case.

"He was recounting a story by the way, that happened when he was president saying that if a NATO allies don't pay up, they're not really a part of NATO, right," he said.

He praised Trump for compelling more countries to pay their share for American military support and believes he was doing it again in this case.

For Urban, Trump was putting on "the squeeze again" and "negotiating from a position of toughness."

He also made clear it's time for the financial load to be shared.

"Americans realized that the reasons that the Germans and the French have eight-week vacations in the summer and they've got great health care and universal education for everybody is because we, the United States taxpayers have been shouldering the burden of defending the European continent for 50 years. So they should pay up."

"Putin invade whatever country you want. I think it is a little bit over the line."

Watch below or click here.

'That's actually not the case': Ex-Trump campaign adviser shut down by Anderson Cooper

Appeal or no appeal, Trump lost and is going to have to pay something after Friday's loss in court.

But ex-aide to the former president David Urban appeared to stand corrected by CNN's Anderson Cooper when he implied there was a chance to reverse the verdict.

The $83.3 million defamation sum awarded to sexual assault accuser E. Jean Carroll after a jury found she suffered a public shellacking after coming forward to recount how Trump sexually accosted her back in 1996 inside of a dressing room in Bergdorf Goodman.

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Since 2019, Trump repeatedly called Carroll a "whack job" and "liar."

Even so, the sticker shock in damages for Urban defies logic.

"I think even those in the courtroom when they heard that number gasped how outrageous it was, right," he said during an appearance on the cable network. "The punitive damages are so high that it's guaranteed it'll be reversed on appeal."

Cooper then interjected, telling Urban, "Actually all lawyers say that's actually not the case, that based on like a -- I mean a number of lawyers say that's not the case."

Urban responded: "You'll have me back on, you can prove me wrong."

The 45th president vowed to appeal.

But he'll have to ante up some funds while that contesting of the verdict.

According to The New York Times, one option is he can pay a cool $83.3 million to the court and they would hold it until a final resolution on the matter is determined.

He did this last summer when a jury awarded Carroll $5 million after a separate jury found Trump defamed her. (He's appealing that decision also.)

Another way would be to secure a bond and pay a fraction of the total and also leverage some of his non-liquid assets as collateral.

This may have Trump seeking a lender to square away some of the monies while he battles for a better fate.

Urban suspects Trump was never going to prevail in New York, even though he's a native New Yorker.

"I think here's the narrative, right," he said. "This is in New York City, it's a New York verdict, it's a New York jury."

Watch below or click the link.

Trump's argument that presidents are untouchable took a 'whacky' turn: ex-aide

Trump has reportedly strayed from any winnable (or even plausible) argument to find himself stuck in a strange place of his own doing.

Former President Donald Trump's former aide David Urban appearing on CNN took inventory of the odd tactic that the legal team, lead by Dean John Sauer, took to bring home their contention that POTUS possesses absolute immunity.

In a federal court in D.C., Sauer attempted to push this to avert an onslaught of legal cases charging Trump for conspiring to flip the 2020 presidential election in his favor and riling up his supporters to engage in a riot at the Capitol Building back on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump remains the frontrunner in his bid to become the 2024 GOP presidential nominee and has denied any wrongdoing.

Sauer tried to explain that the president could do anything from off his political rivals to sell pardons to people and be scot-free unless Congress decided to impeach and convict him first.

ALSO READ: Donald Trump’s un-American ploy for criminal immunity

Urban was lost in the day's strategy.

He said, "I'm not a prosecutor, but as a recovering lawyer, I was thinking to myself, 'Stick to the official acts argument.'"

The argument that Trump on that deadly day in January was acting in his position to seek out a fraud-free election result, makes much more sense, he said.

Urban called it a "much tighter argument" and said it would have been far more effective.

"You have much more to argue there saying, 'Listen, he was investigating this election because it was part of his official duties as president to make sure there is (sic) free and fair elections and it is all part of this giant scope, as opposed to coming up with this construct which is clearly just whacky."'

Watch below or click the link here.

'That's a political argument': CNN host shuts down ex-Trump adviser on ballot questions

Blame James Madison.

President Donald Trump's former aide David Urban and deputy assistant attorney general Elliott Williams clashed on CNN over the basis as to why states have disqualified Trump and stricken his name from the ballot.

Urban hasn't seen anything proving Trump's guilty of insurrection.

"I hear lots of feelings, right, lots of people's feelings," he said. "'We feel that Trump is this,' or 'We feel that Trump is that,' — we're short on facts... Lots of prosecutors have looked at this and guess what they haven't done? They haven't charged Donald Trump with insurrection."

He believes the lack of facts forced Jack Smith from charging the president with insurrection.

"So, if somebody has a case to make against Donald Trump for insurrection — bring it," he said.

Urban then railed against "some of these states" committing "the most undemocratic thing you can do in this country."

ALSO READ: Trump visit to South Dakota puts Gov. Kristi Noem in a tax jam

"So, for somebody to really be throwing these stones at Donald Trump saying 'he's this demagogue', 'he's a dictator,' and secretaries of states to be doing this — toss him off the ballot on their own volition is just abhorrent."

Williams schooled Urban on the fact that these states are simply fulfilling their Constitutional roles.

"To be clear, though, blame James Madison for this," he said directly to Urban. "Blame George Washington for this for writing the Constitution in a manner that gave the states the power to decide who could be on and who could be off the ballot."

He emphasized that there's no way to know if someone has to be "convicted of insurrection to be found an insurrectionist per the rules of the 14th Amendment to keep you off the ballot... this 'is he charged with a crime or is he not charged with a crime' is not the end of the question with respect to whether someone should or should not be on the ballot."

Urban thundered back: "It's bad for democracy unless it's clear cut here that Donald Trump should not be on the ballot."

That's when John German drove home Williams' constitutional reasoning, saying, "I understand the argument you're making but that's a political argument," the host filling in for Anderson Cooper said. "And I'm not saying a political argument is a bad argument, I'm just saying it is a political argument."

Watch the video below or click the link here.