Letitia James seen 'visibly cackling' at Trump insult from witness stand

[Tom of Temecula]

New York Attorney General Letitia James burst into laughter at one of Donald Trump's insults during his testimony in a $250 million fraud lawsuit.

The former president was asked about the value of his heavily mortgaged Trump Building at 40 Wall Street, and he told prosecutor Kevin Wallace that he had invested heavily in the 72-story skyscraper before taking a swipe at the attorney general. "I spent a lot of money on fixing the building up," Trump testified. "She doesn't even know what 40 Wall Street is."

James was "visibly cackling" after Trump's remark, according to reporters in the courtroom, and she briefly put her head down to compose herself. The attorney general's office is next door to the Trump Building, and James pointed that out in a post on her X account.

"Don’t tell, I can see it from my office window," she posted.

https://www.rawstory.com/letitia-james-donald-trump-2666165112/

[niyad]

1. "cackling"??? interesting sublim there, rawstory.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Thought The Same

One person is leveling an objectively stupid insult, and the target gets the negative descriptor?
Poor form for the author.

[niyad]

3. Or deliberate?

[PatSeg]

5. Really a poor choice of words

I think it might have been intentional to get people to click on the story. Meanwhile, I can't imagine using such a word to describe a man's laughter.

[Stardust Mirror]

6. who cackles?

witches!

Who calls women witches? Misogynists!

[Sky Jewels]

30. So true. Men are almost never described as "cackling."

This pisses me off.

I might have to use my Female Witchy Powers to cast some spells and turn these people into newts and frogs.

[Stardust Mirror]

32. Poof!

You're a Fairy!

[niyad]

43. But there are kharmic penalties for advancing life forms.

[jaxexpat]

12. No need to get your feathers ruffled just because the author laid an egg.

Pu-quawk sake, guys.

[jaxexpat]

13. No need for ruffled feathers just because the author laid an egg.

Pu-quawk sake, guys.

[niyad]

56. Really?? The person made an intentionally sexist, offensive

comment, and we are supposed to ignore it??

[jaxexpat]

62. Only if you can endure the offensive weight of it.

Have you invented an offense? Do you have the power of divination or the righteousness to condemn without evidence? Perhaps my hide is toughened but I found no offensiveness. I thought the term in question playful and unserious. Just the sort of term one might use to dismiss officiousness or critique a performer whose skills, however evident, lack humor. I don't buy this occasion to be too problematic and won't succumb to groupthink or be bullied into obeisance to pretend it is. Not sure which "we" you refer, though. I take it as good advise to confirm one's ranks are as closed as they might be at the warden's whistle and certainly prior to charging into some bloody no man's land.

[EllieBC]

18. I use cackle a lot. Usually when I'm saying

I was laughing at something someone said ir did that was stupid.

“I cackled at the idiot shipper who asked that question at the fancon this weekend.”

“We were cackling over Ivanka pretending she actually parents her kids and can’t testify during the week because she has to take them school.”

[Caliman73]

19. Difference is you use it to describe yourself...

When I make a mistake I say, "I'm an idiot". When someone else makes a mistake I say, "You know what, people make mistakes..."

Cackling has specific negative connotations. Villains cackle, witches cackle. James could have been "laughing" or even "cracking up".

It was a very poor choice of words and if deliberate, extremely inappropriate.

[EllieBC]

21. Good point.

I think the only person I’ve applied to to was a friend and again it was when they were laughing at something someone else did that was stupid.

[SharonAnn]

24. "visibly chuckling" would be neutral. "Cackling" is rather pejorative.

[Sugarcoated]

33. Was just going to say that

Chuckling is the word that'd be more accurate, I say it a lot on social media and in real life

[SoFlaBro]

25. Cackling like a chicken or a witch. It is meant to be a pejorative and a nasty fucking swipe at an officer of the court.

[flashman13]

31. It means she was being polite in that she didn't fall out of her seat in hysterics.

[Celerity]

38. it was from another site's reporter

[xmas74]

40. It does give a negative connotation

But if I had been in the courtroom and she actually cackled? I'd join in.
I'm proud to be a cackler when I laugh, no matter how much others put it down.

[relayerbob]

41. Exactly my reaction

Completely inappropriate choice of words.

[redqueen]

49. Yep

Glad to see it getting called out in the first post

[MineralMan]

4. Cackling? WTF?

That is why I don't ever visit Raw Story.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Same here.

[Windicator]

10. Yes, obviously demeaning

even if the RAW writer is a MAGAt with a cursor as seems to be the case,
a decent editor would have screamed at this intentional slur and cut it out.

[OMGWTF]

23. I'm convinced that there are no more editors in the world.

[Celerity]

39. it is a quote from another site's reporter

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218431438#post38

[MineralMan]

46. So what?

Raw Story doesn't actually report the news based on its own reporting. I just parrots other people's reporting. And it does that with no discrimination at all. That's why I don't ever use Raw Story as a source for anything.

[Celerity]

48. because some seem to think the wording was made up by Raw Story

Raw Story doesn't actually report the news based on its own reporting.

Whilst it does aggregate other sites a lot, it also has its own reporters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_Story#Awards_and_recognition

snip

In 2021, a Raw Story report by Daniel Newhauser broke the story on South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem's use of the state airplane for non-official purposes, which resulted in criminal investigations. The investigative reporting was a finalist for a 2022 Society of Professional Journalists award which "honors a journalist or news organization for outstanding use of public records in reporting or advocacy of rights such as press freedom and public access."

In 2022, Raw Story won the first place EPPY Award in the category "Best news/political blog (1 million or more unique visitors)" for its opinion piece by Dakota Adams, son of Oath Keepers' founder Stewart Rhodes, titled "How I left the far right". The article described how Adams became disillusioned with the anti-government militia group in the later days of the Trump administration.

In 2023, Raw Story investigative reporter Jordan Green won the Fair Media Council's Folio award for his coverage of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot.

Reception

Major media outlets have called Raw Story an investigative news site, progressive, left-leaning, independent, and an alternative news site. Raw Story has performed exclusive interviews, investigative reporting, and has broken many stories. Raw Story articles have been recognized by Columbia Journalism Review and the Associated Press, and been mentioned by other news agencies such as Reuters. Raw Story primarily aggregates stories from around the web.

snip

[MineralMan]

50. So, you're a fan of Raw Story.

I am not. I don't like the site.

[Celerity]

52. I would not say 'fan'. They are just a left-leaning site that sometimes I find to be of worth, sometimes not.

[niyad]

54. We all understood that. That rawstory let it stand is what

pissed people off, certainly me.

I agree that they do have good moments, sometimes breaking important news. Their aggregations can be good starting points.

[Celerity]

57. I believe that some here think it was an editorial turn of phrase made up by Raw Story.

That's why I posted my original reply.

[niyad]

58. Ahhh, understood.

[brush]

7. "Raw Story" is what it is, best taken with grains of salt. Meanwhile Tish James...

and Fani Willis are making national names for themselves as potential candidates for higher office because of their strong performances on their respective cases.

[Hekate]

11. Note to Raw Story: get a damn Roget's Thesaurus. Then the women you write about...

Note to Raw Story: get a damn Roget’s Thesaurus. Then the women you write about…

…can chuckle, chortle, giggle, grin, snort with laughter, snicker, crow, guffaw, or even roflmao.

[lastlib]

15. ("Thesaurus"?!? Ain't they 'xtinct??!?)

Is there another word for "thesaurus"?
(oh, yeah...."google".......)

[Hekate]

16. The last copy editor was stabbed to death with a blue pencil by an AI-instructed bot. Sad.

[lastlib]

17. Indeed.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

27. And to think that I nearly drowned

In a sea of Sheaffer's Red when my American Literature teacher in secondary school marked up my papers.

And I was one of her favorite students that year. Some of my classmates might as well have written their assignments on red paper.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

61. I have a thesaurus

A big honking one and sometimes I read it for fun.pick a word at random and see how many ways to say it.

There is a thesaurus for the erudite just might buy it for giggles n shits.

[lastlib]

63. Actually, I still have mine from college, so it's over 40 years old!

I doubt I've used it 5 times since college--I have a good enough vocabulary that I can usually find the right word that I need without it. And I write and speak a lot.

[maxsolomon]

26. I was going to suggest Chortle.

Cackles are loud. I doubt she was loud.

[IronLionZion]

14. Many of us laugh at Trump's idiotic insults

"Cackling" evokes images of a witch or something negative.

[orangecrush]

20. Actually I like the witchy vibe

Witches are a symbol of dark feminine power.

And it is poetic justice that a woman is bringing down this misogynistic narcissist.

[ariadne0614]

35. It's tempting to agree with this perspective.

Alas, it is one that the intended audience isn’t likely to grok.

[RobinA]

53. Me Too, Always Did

The witches in fairy tales were always my favorite because they had the power, which I had recognized without knowing what I was seeing since I was a fairly young kid. I always wanted to be the one with the flying monkeys at my disposal, not the little girl from Kansas.

[orangecrush]

59. Understand completely

[Deuxcents]

22. This "cackling" remark is meant to invoke disrespect

Farm yard hens “cackle “..witches and diabolical creatures in the movies “cackle “. Someone needs a new editor who demands responsible “journalism “

[MorbidButterflyTat]

28. Actually,

this article is quoting unnamed "reporters in the courtroom."

This whole circus is so sickening.

The mini-Melanoma-wanna-be with her overly Botoxed face that looks like a ventriloquist dummy crying and insulting the judge outside the courtroom; the other giant foreheaded jerkoff telling the judge he controls his courtroom after the judge asked him to control Slobby; and of course the elderly spoiled brat who has respect for nothing and knows nothing.

And I don't believe for a nano second that it's some strategic maneuver to act like a rabid baby to make the judge explode in anger, which I suppose would accomplish....what, exactly? It's just that scummy criminal filth doing what he always does, no "strategy."

"Cackling," sure. It wasn't even funny.

[sl8]

44. They give a tweet by Adam Klasfeld as their source.

Still, it was Raw Story's choice to use it in their article and in their headline.

Link to tweet

[Blue Owl]

29. Let's face it -- tRump is a cartoonish 76-year-old toddler who EVERYONE should be pointing & laughing at

NOBODY should be taking this idiotic buffoon seriously....

[AverageOldGuy]

34. Some random thoughts on Trump

How about we stop saying the he is being treated differently because of who he is? In fact, he is who he is BECAUSE HE HAS BEEN TREATED DIFFERENTLY ALL HIS USELESS LIFE. Trump is a shitstain on society. He has contributed nothing of value to anyone but himself and that value is vastly overstated.

Stop it with "the poor, poor Trump children." For God's sake, they are 40-year-old adults with families and with millions upon millions in the bank -- much of which they will lose when the NY trial ends. As Hyman Roth said in Godfather II: "This is the life we have chosen."

Hang in there everyone until Nov 6, 2024, the day after the election. He will lose, there will b e a brief flurry of talking heads analyzing why he lost, then everyone will move on WITHOUT TRUMP.

All of this, of course, presupposes he will not died or be incapacitated by a stroke or heart attack, or, will not go to jail.

[mkassowitz]

36. Tasty

I wonder if Donnie is ever going to forget what his feet taste like—they spend so much time in his mouth.

[mercuryblues]

37. trump cares so little about his property

that he doesn't even know who his neighbors are.

I fixed the headline for them.

[Rocknation]

42. If Trump can squawk, James can cackle

And if her office is next door to the building is question, James earned it.


Rocknation

[SpankMe]

45. I bet she just smiled and shook her head and maybe rolled her eyes a bit

But, that's not the way Reuters reported it. It had to be a cackle. It just had to be.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

47. Got as far as describing her as 'cackling'. There is NO positive connotation to

...that word. NONE!!

[GreenWave]

51. So our group is supposed to be perfect for every second while

Mr. Shithead is allowed to be an asshole.

[niyad]

55. I seriously doubt that AG James behaved in such an

unprofessional manner. I would love to see that video.

[ecstatic]

60. Agree with others about the "cackling" BS

AG James is an American hero. Instead of policing James' laugh, maybe focus on the chickenshit male AGs who let trump get away with multiple crimes in their respective states.