Count Freedy among them. And he was so angry about the verdict that he tried to make a contribution to Trump over the phone Thursday night, for $500, much more than the $100 he had made in the past. But Freedy said he couldn’t communicate. Trump’s campaign said Friday that it raised $52.8 million in the 24 hours after the conviction was announced.
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“I mean, we have a prostitute and a fucking liar who we’re taking at his word over a former president,” Freedy said of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who figured prominently in the Trial. for secret money in New York.
“The only reason (Trump) is there is so they can sit back and call him a criminal,” Freedy said of Democrats. “He is the only person the Republicans have who is a challenge to them and he is the person who can make the country right. He is a target, plain and simple.”
But at the next table, Anita Rohrssen, 76, said she believes Trump was guilty of the charges and does not believe the case was politically motivated. She endorses Biden, as she did in 2020, and said, “I fear for our democracy” if Trump is president again.
Despite the conviction, he worries it is still a real possibility.
“I don’t think it hurt at all, I’m sorry to say,” Rohrssen commented as he dug out two eggs, all too easily.
Sitting with her, Frank Wardean, 60, said he remains undecided. He voted for Trump in 2020. Although Wardean believes the trial was politically motivated, that is not enough for him to return to Trump. But he doesn’t like Biden either.
“As far as I’m concerned, we have two bad options,” said Wardean, who is self-employed. “It’s just a travesty that we’re at the same point we were in 2020.”
Northwestern Wisconsin is largely rural and primarily Republican. Trump won Chippewa County by more than 20 percentage points four years ago. Chippewa Falls, a city of about 14,000 people that is home to Leinenkugel’s brewery, leans more Democratic and Biden won narrowly in 2020.
Overall in the state, Biden won by 20,682 votes, edging out Wisconsin after Trump’s equally narrow victory in 2016. Recent polls in the state show the situation is once again extremely close.
Russell Champion, 86, and his wife, Annette, 88, said they followed the trial closely on KeynoteUSA and KeynoteUSA. Both voted for Trump in 2020 and said the conviction in what they called a politically motivated case will not deter them from doing so again in November.
“But it makes us angry in a lot of ways,” Annette Champion said as they walked to her car outside the Chippewa Falls YMCA.
“It will be appealed, and if it ever goes to the Supreme Court (I hope it does) it could be thrown out,” Russell Champion said.
Back at the restaurant, John Back, 85, said he was glad Trump was found guilty, although he doesn’t think he should be jailed.
“He has to get what he deserves here. . . . Nobody stands up to him,” said Back, who voted for Trump in 2020.
But the conviction hasn’t brought Back any closer to making a decision about who to vote for.
“I have a hard time with Biden, so if Trump kept his mouth shut, I would vote for him without a problem because he does good things. But he just can’t,” Back said over a cup of coffee with his friend, Hank Boese, 60, from nearby Eau Claire.
“I’m not a big Trump fan, but there’s no way I’m voting for Biden. It’s a disaster,” said Boese, who works in information technology and voted for Trump in 2020. “I would rather vote for someone else. But I’m going to vote against Biden. . . . You know, at some point in my life I would like to vote for someone.”
Unlike Back, Boese believes the New York case was politically motivated.
“I’m trying to see the elements of the crime and I just don’t see them,” he said.
The complexity of the trial helped mute any potential impact on his vote, said Ronald T. Buntz, 87, a retired farmer.
“I still don’t understand what the case is about,” he said.
After voting for Biden in 2020, Buntz is undecided this time around after voting for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the state’s primary. Biden, he said, is “just over the hill.” Buntz has voted for Democrats and Republicans for president in the past. But this year’s race has him baffled.
“I don’t want either one,” Buntz said. “I’ve been thinking I might vote for Mickey Mouse.”
You can contact Jim Puzzanghera at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. FOLLOW IT @JimPuzzanghera.
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