Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was apparently impressed by former President Donald Trump’s “strategic” thinking about his mugshot when he was arrested last week in Fulton County, Georgia.
The long-shot contender against incumbent Vice President Joe Biden told Fox News host Jesse Watters that Trump’s mugshot “worked very well for him.”
“Have you seen the Trump mug shot?” Watters asked Kennedy.
Kennedy responded that he had, indeed, seen the picture, and Watters then asked him what he thought of it.
“Well, it’s an interesting and probably very shrewd decision for him to put on that very defiant face,” Kennedy responded. “I think it’s very popular with his base.”
“Do you think the mugshot appeals to the Democrat base in any way?” Watters asked.
Kennedy, like a career politician, answered a completely different question from the one that had been asked.
“I had a mugshot when I was arrested in Puerto Rico in 2001 when I was doing a protest against the Navy on a lawsuit that I eventually won that got the Navy out of Vieques,” he said. “But when you’re arrested, you get the mugshot, you have a strategic decision about whether — how you want to look.
“I wondered whether he practiced it in front of a mirror or whether he was just angry at the time and that reflected what he did. But I thought from a strategic point of view it worked very well for him.”
In fact, Kennedy has had plenty of opportunities to work on such “strategic decisions,” having been arrested numerous times on drug charges and in relation to protests of various types.
You can see the exchange here:
Watters: Do you think the mugshot appeals to a Democrat base in any way?
RFK Jr: I had a mugshot when I was arrested in Puerto Rico when I was doing a protest against the Navy.. pic.twitter.com/uFbjogxfte
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 30, 2023
Regardless of what you may think of his arrest record, Kennedy was certainly right about Trump’s “shrewd” use of his mugshot.
Trump’s campaign has brought in more than $9.4 million since his mugshot was released to the public last week, which Fox News reported means that the current Republican primary front-runner will have brought in more than $20 million in the month of August alone.
All of those fund will be used for Trump’s campaign, not to cover his legal expenses, Fox said.
After Trump turned himself in last week, his campaign started selling merchandise featuring his now-famous mugshot.
A source told Fox that the sales “spiked” Trump’s fundraising.
According to a breakdown by Fox, Trump’s campaign raised $864,000 from the sale of 24,000 coffee mugs — what better medium for a mugshot, after all — and nearly $2 million on 36,000 T-shirts. Another $352,000 came in from the sale of 8,600 posters of the already iconic photograph.
The indictment by special counsel Jack Smith for election interference claims — a wholly separate investigation from the Georgia charges — also likely led to increased fundraising numbers this month.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of those charges, and is expected to enter a similar plea in the George racketeering case.
Trump told Fox after his processing in Georgia that local officials had “insisted” on his sitting for the booking photo. He also said he didn’t enjoy the experience.
It was “not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong,” he said in an exclusive interview with Fox after the booking.
Other Republican presidential hopefuls have experienced fundraising surges following last week’s first primary debate, but none could compare with Trump’s reported haul.
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