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Emil Bove Will Always Be a Trump Rallygoer First - Jay Willis @ Balls and Strikes
Balls and StrikesOn Tuesday, President Donald Trump held one of his trademark rallies at a casino resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. As is usually the case when Trump has a microphone and a captive audience, he spent most of the night delivering a campaign-style stump speech peppered with references to everything he hates: President Joe Biden (“a sleepy son-of-a-bitch who destroyed our country”), Representative Ilhan Omar (“whatever the hell her name is, with her little turban”), Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (“one of the dumbest governors ever in our history”), and Haiti, Somalia, and other countries where people are not white (“shithole countries…filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime”).
At one point, Trump jokingly acknowledged that he’d wandered a good distance from the topic he’d planned to address, which was “how he plans to continue to bring down prices,” according to the Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s announcement. “I haven’t read practically anything off this stupid teleprompter,” Trump told the crowd, reassuring his concerned supporters that he had no trouble remembering how to do off-the-cuff racism in public.
Trump’s rally, in other words, was not the sort of thing that a typical federal judge would choose to attend. But Emil Bove, Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer and Department of Justice fixer whom Trump promoted to the Third Circuit earlier this year, is not a typical federal judge. And when MS NOW spotted Bove in the audience on Tuesday and asked what he was doing there, Bove responded, “Just here as a citizen, coming to watch the president speak.”
The code of conduct for federal judges prohibits them from engaging in “political activity,” which includes “attend[ing]” an “event sponsored by a political organization or candidate.” The code also generally requires judges to “act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.” But you do not have to be familiar with the intricacies of ethics canons to understand how ludicrous it is for a federal judge to fanboy out at a reactionary hoedown emceed by the president who appointed him.
At one point, Trump jokingly acknowledged that he’d wandered a good distance from the topic he’d planned to address, which was “how he plans to continue to bring down prices,” according to the Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s announcement. “I haven’t read practically anything off this stupid teleprompter,” Trump told the crowd, reassuring his concerned supporters that he had no trouble remembering how to do off-the-cuff racism in public.
Trump’s rally, in other words, was not the sort of thing that a typical federal judge would choose to attend. But Emil Bove, Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer and Department of Justice fixer whom Trump promoted to the Third Circuit earlier this year, is not a typical federal judge. And when MS NOW spotted Bove in the audience on Tuesday and asked what he was doing there, Bove responded, “Just here as a citizen, coming to watch the president speak.”
Link to tweet
The code of conduct for federal judges prohibits them from engaging in “political activity,” which includes “attend[ing]” an “event sponsored by a political organization or candidate.” The code also generally requires judges to “act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.” But you do not have to be familiar with the intricacies of ethics canons to understand how ludicrous it is for a federal judge to fanboy out at a reactionary hoedown emceed by the president who appointed him.
Emil Bove went to a Trump rally on Tuesday because he loves Donald Trump and couldn't wait to see the show in person
— Jay Willis (@jaywillis.net) 2025-12-11T01:24:37.379Z