'I am still going to vote for him': Many area voters call Trump verdict a lie

ASHLAND Area voters are reacting to the first president in American history to be convicted of a felony.

Former President Donald J. Trump and frontrunner on the Republican ticket was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to a hush money scandal involving porn actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Linda Harman of Boyd County believes the case brought against Trump in a New York courthouse was a attempted sabotage to hand over the election to Democrat frontrunner Joe Biden.

“Why didn’t they bring it up in his first term?” she asked. “They have taken everything from him, I mean money, money, money – he gave it and they still (convicted) him, it’s not right.”

The conviction will not change how Harman is planning to vote.

“I am still going to vote for him. I will either support Trump or I won’t vote, but I do support him. … I’d like to wring Stormy Daniels’ neck. She’s lying,” Harman said.

“I just feel numb because there is nothing we are going to be able to do about it,” she added.

Harman said Trump was a man of his word when he served his first term.

“Trump kept his word,” Harman said. “If he said something was going to get done, it got done. He wasn’t in there to start war like what’s going on now.”

Christopher Prater of Boyd County said the results of Thursday’s verdict is not going to change how he intends to vote in the fall, considering he was already planning to “vote against him.”

“It just confirms what I already thought about him,” he said.

Connie Cutright was upset with the verdict and didn’t believe a word of it.

“Look what they have done to his kids, his wife – everybody has to go through what they done to him. He’s always fought for us. It’s not right what they are doing to him. He’s the best president we have had,” she said.

“She’s a nasty (expletive),” Cutright said, describing Stormy Daniels. “I can’t stand her.”

Christian Messer was in Ashland from out of town visiting his folks in the area. He believes Trump will return to the White House in 2025 and said the verdict was a sham.

“It’s not going to change my vote. I am still going to vote for him as long as he is on the ballot,” he said.

The reason being: “Lesser of two evils,” Messer said.

Messer is hoping for a Trump victory in November to get “inflation under control, interest rates back down, affordable food and homes,” he said.

“He was a good leader, he was concerned about Americans and cared about the priority of our country,” Messer said. “Under Biden the priority is everyone else and not us. We need a president that is America first.”

Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, said anything that is “appealable is not final.”

“As to whether or not he will continue to be a felon, that still remains to be seen. I have trust in the public to make decisions based on the facts,” she said.

“Our legal system is not perfect, but it’s the best in the world; our political process is not perfect but it’s the best in the world,” said Webb, an attorney.

Jamie Fuller of Boyd County said the former president has been “falsely accused of everything.”

“There has been so much corruption going on that they (Democrats) are afraid of losing because they are afraid of Trump.

“He will come into Congress and expose their corruption,” he added, explaining why people may be afraid of Trump.

Fuller expressed frustration with the current administration and said the Biden family needs to be looked into for various criminal acts.

“Biden has taken documents and taking them to the university – he’s allowing other countries to come in and look at these documents in top secret files and they are giving him money to do so,” he said.

“I am voting Republican and will be voting for Trump 100%,” Fuller added.

Rep. Scott Sharp, R-Ashland, said he is waiting to see what the court will say when Trump files to appeal the charges.

“I want to wait to see what the appellate courts come up with and as it goes up and see what they review,” Sharp said. “You hear reports of unusual things in a trial so I don’t really have a stance on it until I see the appellate courts review it.”