CNN host Kasie Hunt suggested on Friday that supporters of former President Donald Trump would have defended O.J. Simpson during his infamous murder trial.
Simpson, the legendary NFL running back whose reputation was permanently shattered after he was accused of a brutal double murder, died on Wednesday following a battle with cancer, according to his family.
He was put on trial after his June 1994 arrest in connection with the brutal slayings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman. He was eventually acquitted in one of the most controversial trial verdicts in American history.
During an appearance on “CNN This Morning,” anti-Trump GOP strategist Sarah Longwell claimed there were some very “Trump” elements in the Simpson trial that resonated on a cultural level.
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CNN host Kasie Hunt drew a connection between the public personas and trials of O.J. Simpson and Donald Trump. (Jason Bean-Pool/Megan Varner/Getty Images)
“As a culture, everyone kind of knows Trump is guilty the way we all knew that O.J. was guilty, but there’s a lot of people invested in it being about something else beyond the guilt, right? Because these figures are so towering and so big that they become stand-ins, they become cultural totems as opposed to just people convicted or people being accused of crimes,” she said during the media discussion.
She added that both Trump and Simpson had or have the ability to make themselves into victims during their respective moments in the spotlight.
Hunt then held up a copy of The New York Post announcing Simpson’s death. In large white letters, the cover said, “Real Killer is Dead: Football star, actor, murderer, liar, O.J. Simpson, 76.”
“I mean, this is like a political statement, but it’s a 90s political statement,” Hunt said. “Part of me wonders if it were reversed in this day and age too. That the MAGA crew wouldn’t have been behind O.J. Simpson, I mean, maybe it’s like 17 bridges too far, I don’t know.”
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O.J. Simpson appears in District Court during his trial at the Clark County Regional Justice Center on September 26, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Steve Marcus-Pool/Getty Images)
The New York judge presiding over Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money case against Trump rejected the 2024 GOP presumptive nominee’s request to further delay the trial, announcing it will begin next month.
Bragg indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Bragg alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.