A federal judge took a jab at former President Donald Trump on Monday for continuing to spout falsehoods about his 2020 election loss, saying former Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore took his 2000 election loss like “a man.”
“Al Gore had a better case to argue than Mr. Trump, but he was a man about what happened to him. He accepted it and walked away,” said Judge Reggie Walton in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, according to a CNN report.
Walton was referring to Gore’s decision to concede the 2000 race against Republican George W. Bush after weeks of legal battles centered on an extremely tight race in Florida and a U.S. Supreme Court decision that halted a full recount there. Gore had won the popular vote in the nation (as did Hillary Clinton in 2016), but he challenged the Electoral College vote based on the Florida recount.
Walton made the dig at Trump during a plea hearing in a U.S. Capitol riot case against Adam Johnson, 36. The Florida resident was seen happily hauling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s swiped lectern around the Capitol on Jan. 6 in a photo widely distributed by the media.
The judge told Johnson: “What concerns me, sir, is that you were gullible enough to come to Washington, D.C., from Florida based on a lie — and the person who inspired you to do what you do is still making those statements. My concern is that you are gullible enough to do it again.”
Johnson said he took responsibility for his what he did in the Capitol, adding that he had a “hard couple of years” and got “caught up in the moment,” the Sarasota Herald Tribune reported.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and he could get up to six months in prison at sentencing.
Two other charges against Johnson were dropped as part of his guilty plea.
