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| CBS NEWS |
Former President Donald Trump met with bodega workers in Manhattan after his second day in court Tuesday.
The former president was invited by the Bodega Association to discuss crime that they say is putting bodega and deli workers in danger. Trump told them he wants law and order, when he came there straight from the courthouse as a defendant in his own criminal trial.
Dozens of people lined the streets of Upper Manhattan on Tuesday as Trump waved his way into a bodega on West 139th Street, where inside he met with its owner and several other local bodega workers.
"We need more public safety and I really support that, anyone who comes to support the public safety, we really appreciate," Bodega Association President Francisco Marte said.
Trump made the trip uptown from the criminal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, where on Tuesday, the judge swore in the first seven jurors in the case -- four men and three women with jobs ranging from corporate attorney to teacher to software engineer.
They were selected after several others were dismissed, including Kara McGee.
"Honestly, after seeing the other jurors read the questionnaire ... I actually do believe that he can get an impartial jury in Manhattan," she said.
After eight hours in court and about five minutes in the bodega, Trump maintained his innocence.
"There's no crime. You know where the crime is, in the bodegas where they come and rob them every week," he said. --->READ MORE HERE
Former President Donald Trump made a post-court visit Tuesday to the Manhattan bodega where clerk Jose Alba infamously stabbed an ex-con to death in self-defense two years ago — a case that drew widespread outrage after he was initially charged with murder — with the city native vowing to “straighten New York out.”
The Republican presidential contender stopped by the Sanaa Convenient Store, formerly known as the Blue Moon Convenient Store, in Harlem to meet with the store’s co-owner Maad Ahmed and small business advocate Francisco Marte.
“You should be allowed to have a gun. If you had a gun, you’d never get robbed, you’d never get robbed, that would be the end of it,” Trump told the bodega workers.
Ahmed told the former president that the store is still grappling with rampant crime — which appeared to shock the law-and-order politician.
“What do you do? Isn’t it crazy? Is it almost a way of doing business, you getting robbed?” Trump asked.
Ahmed agreed that criminals “would respect the store” if he kept a firearm on hand, and indicated that he would apply for one at Trump’s suggestion.
Alba’s attorney, Rich Cardinale, warned Trump, however, that using the weapon could land the workers in the same situation that his client faced in the 2022 incident: “If you use a gun and you’re defending yourself lawfully, you will go to jail.”
While the murder charges against Alba were later dropped — following growing pressure from the public — the worker was so traumatized that he went back to the Dominican Republic, where he remained on Tuesday, sources said.
“I have never voted, because I’ve been working, but this time I will. We need Donald Trump back in the White House because he’s a strong guy,” Ahmed, an immigrant from Yemen and a US citizen, told The Post ahead of Trump’s arrival.
“What happened to Jose was very hard for me. Jose was defending himself from the guy who came behind the counter. All for $1 worth of chips,” said Ahmed, 36.
When asked by The Post how he would make bodegas safer, Trump said it would boil down to allowing the NYPD to “do their jobs.”
“Every week they’re being robbed two or three times, it’s crazy. You know what? The police can stop it but they have to be allowed to do their job,” the ex-president said. --->READ MORE HERE
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