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but we can never stop trying, no matter how tough our politics gets, we need to see each other not as adversaries, but as federal americans. that signings actually, eminent in the meantime, a new wrinkle in the doj investigation of donald trump s handling of classified documents, one former trump lawyer, who was involved in the documents investigation, raising the prospect that trump may have been bluffing when he was caught on audio claiming to have a classified iran document. was that really a bluff? was that a real document? we would need to take a look at this hole tape in context, and talk to the witnesses, find out what was going on in the room, find out what he was even talking about. the summer campaign season is kicking off, with republican candidates converging on iowa for today s roasted ride, the annual event hosted by gop senator joni ernst, we re going to have a live report from des moines for you, in just a few minutes. but first, we have two reports on the preside
mark all lead them on attorney. we ve got mike pence right here. over to the right, you ve got ron desantis. tim scott was somewhere around here. essentially, alex, this is the first kickoff of the summer of campaigning for this republican field here. an opportunity to talk to thousands of ayo winds and begin to make the case. i want to let you hear we ve, got a little back and forth with two of the candidates so far. take a listen. what do you say that donald trump is not here? i m just happy to be here. i love the people. here i think this is a great defense and you know, there is a lot of friends who ve developed. will make a lot more friends. oh, i will do what we need to do to get on the debate and i don t like loyalty pledges. i don t think candidates ought to be on the debate say and rana s third party candidate,
leading with about 53% support. closest behind him, ron desantis, with about 22 points. if trump were to win the nomination, can he realistically be elected, given his mountain of legal troubles? it s a great question, alex. i mean, i thought a lot about this, and i think about it probably every single day. i think there is a clear national ceiling that donald trump has. i think if you think about the 2020 election, all this transpired since then is likely made it even more difficult for him to be elected president of the united states. that s having been said, if you look back at the 2020 election, a swing of just probably 45,000 or so votes in three states, and the outcome of that is different. so, i think the likelihood that you can say that is unlikely or that he will never be elected again, it s a risky that. i will say this, too. i love national polling averages. what you are watching in iowa is going to have an
the attorney general. so if a guy has got to be in court one day if you are running against the former president. you really have a pretty strong stump speech. steve: is he facing significant legal peril. and people will have to decide, you know, if he is convicted, if he is in the process, is that the guy you want as president? brian, to your point about whether or not ron desantis would just dance around donald trump, it s going to take him head on. and, in fact, yesterday, he was talking a little bit about unlike donald trump i would be able to serve eight years because, remember, donald trump has already been elected once. if he gets reelected. he can only serve one term four years. he is immediately a lame duck. and that s one of the things that big donors, the donor class is concerned about. brian: steve, isn t that that civil. that s okay. those are the things that s a fact. but i think ron desantis, he inherited a great florida. it wasn t that great on the