Alex Brandon/AP
- Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said Trump's Truth Social posts targeting the Manhattan DA were "ill-advised."
- Trump recently posted and deleted a photo of himself holding a bat next to DA Alvin Bragg's head.
- Tacopina said Trump "quickly took down" the photo, though he did not delete other rhetoric.
One of Donald Trump's defense attorneys sparred with an NBC News anchor over the former president's incendiary comments and an allusion to violence against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, calling his social media activity "ill-advised."
"I'm not his social media consultant," Attorney Joe Tacopina told NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "I think that was an ill-advised post that one of his social media people put up, and he quickly took down when he realized the rhetoric and photo that was attached to it."
Trump threatened "potential death & destruction" on Truth Social in response to a possible indictment against him in the investigation into hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels. And in a since-deleted post, he also shared a photo of himself holding a baseball bat, ready to swing, next to DA Bragg – a move that earned him scorn from New York City tabloids.
Todd pointed out that Tacopina was "only referring to the baseball bat" as Trump's comments about "death & destruction" remained visible on his Truth Social page.
—Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 26, 2023
"I mean, here's the thing: we went through January 6th, so this is not like a possibility that Trump's rhetoric creates violence," Todd said. "It's already happened once. Are you not concerned this could happen?"
Tacopina replied: "Well, I'm not accepting that proposition, that his rhetoric created violence. I think violence was on the way that day. But I'm not here to discuss that, Chuck. I'm not going to defend or condemn anything regarding social media. That's not what I do. I'm not a Trump PR person. I'm a litigator and a lawyer."
Staff at Bragg's Manhattan office have faced growing threats during the investigation, including a package of "suspicious white powder" that was delivered with a note addressed to Bragg that read: "ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!"
Amid the investigation, Trump has called Bragg, who is Manhattan's first Black district attorney, "Racist in Reverse" while also suggesting the district attorney is taking direction from the Justice Department, President Joe Biden, and billionaire donor George Soros, according to The Associated Press.
In one Truth Social post, Trump said Bragg is "CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!"
In other posts, he compared the investigation to "THE GESTAPO," calling those involved "HUMAN SCUM."