Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said he finds President Donald Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort's 47-months-long sentence to be "astonishing" and it shows the disparities between white collar and street crime.
"If I was on the jury in that case, I would say 'why did they take months out of my life for this?'" Sen. King told CNN's "New Day." "He was found guilty on trial for eight felonies stretching over a number of years, he didn't cooperate, and most shockingly to me is he didn't express any remorse."
It is hard to say if Manafort is setting himself up for a potential pardon, King said, but the case does not prove there was no collusion with Russia since that was not the subject of the trial.
Meanwhile, King said he is also concerned about Trump's comments on the upcoming presidential race, after he tweeted earlier this week House Democrats have launched an investigation into him because they are "trying to win an election in 2020 that they know they cannot legitimately win."
"He said that, and he said it in the last campaign, but he said it even more explicitly that if he loses, it is rigged," King said. "I can't tell you how concerning that is . . . if only 1 percent of his base acts on it, the danger is violence.
"You have a million people who are feeling the president is telling them this isn't legitimate. You better take up arms. This is one of the most dangerous things that I think has happened in this extraordinary period."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.