It’s election season, and Trump hit the campaign trail last week, with a rally in Pennsylvania (where his candidates for governor and U.S. Senate are getting their butts kicked in the latest polls).
Cynthia Hughes, a featured speaker at the rally, made an impassioned plea on behalf of her nephew, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a Capitol rioter who remains in jail pending sentencing because a Trump-appointed federal judge thinks he’s dangerous. (See story here and watch video below.) He was convicted of 5 felonies and faces up to 20 years.
Her speech dovetailed with Trump’s recent blustering that Capitol rioters are being unjustly persecuted, and his new promises to pardon them all if he’s elected president again. Various commentators are suggesting he could’ve picked a better speaker and Capitol riot poster boy.
Hale-Cusanelli is a Nazi sympathizer who tries to look the part by sporting a Hitler mustache, haircut, and scowl (see photo).
Update (9/22/22): The judge sentenced Hale-Cusanelli to 4 years in prison (see story here).