‘Let’s Hope It Remains Peaceful’: CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Warns Wolf Blitzer Of ‘Growing Crowd’ Outside Trump Courthouse
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said “Let’s hope it remains peaceful” when Kaitlan Collins warned him of a “growing crowd” hours before ex-President Donald Trump’s arraignment.
CNN teams have been reporting live from Florida ahead of Trump’s first appearance in court on 37 counts related to violations of the Espionage Act, which is set for Tuesday afternoon.
On Tuesday morning’s edition of CNN News Central, Blitzer anchored the network’s coverage of the unfolding media and activist circus unfolding outside the Miami courthouse where Trump is to be arraigned.
Collins told Blitzer what viewers can expect from the arrest — Trump will be fingerprinted but won’t be handcuffed — and warned the crowd of Trump supporters is “growing” — with “hours to go” before Trump’s appearance:
WOLF BLITZER: We just got new details on the booking process that’s about to take place. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins is joining us from Miami. Kaitlan?
KAITLAN COLLINS: Yeah, Wolf, it’s going to look pretty similar to what would happen if an average person was going through and facing federal charges and they showed up at a courthouse like the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Courthouse here behind me.
That is where former President Trump is going to be just in a matter of hours. We are told that he’ll come in, his booking process will look pretty much like what you would expect. He’ll be asked to fill out forms with his name, his address, his Social Security number on it, Wolf. He will be fingerprinted, not with ink, but it will be a digital fingerprinting that they do nowadays. Of course, that’s pretty in keeping with how they do in most courthouses. That will happen. He is not going to be in handcuffs, though. I think that’s important to know. We talked to a lot of the logistics with what this looked like the last time he was indicted and had that arraignment in New York. We are told he will not be restrained in any kind of way when he is in this courthouse here behind me. One question that is still up for debate, according to reporting from our colleague Hannah Rabinowitz, is whether or not that booking process is going to happen before or after he’s actually in the courtroom actually having that arraignment. And so that is the new details we are learning, Wolf, that he will be filling out paperwork. He will be fingerprinted. He will not be handcuffed when he is in that courthouse behind me.
And the other thing, of course, that we now know, Wolf, is that the attorneys who are going to be there alongside him have now formally entered their filings, that they will be the two attorneys with him today. That’s Todd Blanche and Chris Kise. Those are the two attorneys as he’s still trying to finalize his legal team.
Wolf, one thing I will note, as we’ve been outside this courthouse for several hours now, and I know you’ve been hearing from our colleagues, Shimon, is you are seeing a bit of a growing crowd of the former president’s supporters out in front of this courthouse.
It’s not clear that he’ll actually see them as he goes in, because we’re not clear that we’ll actually see Trump as he walks in. But obviously, they’re keeping an eye on what the security outside this courthouse looks like. And, of course, still several hours to go before Trump actually shows up here to this courthouse.
WOLF BLITZER: Let’s hope it remains peaceful. Kaitlan Collins in Miami for us. Thank you very much.
Watch above via CNN News Central.
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