From WNYC Studios, I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Monday, April 3rd.

The indictment of Donald Trump is big, big, big in the media, but I feel like it's landing as a much littler thing,

and even with a kind of emptiness of meaning with some thoughtful people I know,

because even a conviction of Trump in New York wouldn't solve anything about democracy

versus authoritarianism, which is the real Donald Trump threat, not falsifying

business records.

Here, a similar kind of candidate could still be elected president next year and keep

cultivating a strong man kind of rule that runs on white, heterosist, gender, male supremacy,

even if Donald Trump is convicted in Manhattan

criminal court.

According to reporting I've seen in several news outlets, DA Alvin Bragg wanted Trump to come for

an arraignment Friday, right after the existence of an indictment was revealed on Thursday

evening.

Apparently Trump refused or negotiated and bought

himself this four-day gap, presumably so he and his allies from Ron DeSantis to Marjorie Taylor

Green could gin up a protest crowd for when Trump appears. Taylor Green says she'll be there at the

courthouse in person. Tomorrow, DeSantis, as some of you've heard,

appeared on Long Island over the weekend, ostensibly to promote his new book and to campaign

for president against Trump, but nevertheless, he stoked Trump's claim that the indictment

is a political witch hunt. DeSantis called it, quote, not the rule of law, unquote, on Long Island, even though that's

exactly what an indictment by a grand jury of 23 randomly selected citizens who heard many

witnesses is, the rule of law. Subtext from DeSantis, you commute into the city for work or the theater. Why not for the protest, too?

...