to be at his civil fraud case today, so why did he show up? the lead starts right now. if the microphone was on the former president repeatedly found that claiming his civil fraud cases in the way of his 2024 campaign. plus, this jamie is here to talk about not just trump, not just kevin mccarthy, but house speaker mike johnston, and her fears for what the u.s. might look like in 2025. plus, the one thing she agrees with donald trump about. it has to do with his assessment of kevin mccarty. and that shocking new investigation. the threats to public officials, lawmakers and election workers. who is making them and why? welcome to the lead. we start this hour with former president donald trump attended his new york civil fraud trial today while his rivals are out on the campaign trail. this is just a witch-hunt. i should be in iowa and new hampshire, i shouldn t be sitting at a courthouse. i don t have to sit here. actually doesn t have to be there. for trump this is a camp
Indepth interviews with leading newsmakers, plus discussions with Americas preeminent political minds. Determine which Party Controls whether you keep your health care. Whether you get tax cuts, or just the rich and big corporations do. Whether polluters will continue to be unleashed to befoul the air and water you breathe and yes, the fate of the Mueller Probe into whether the Trump Campaign colluded with russia when they attacked our election in 2016 with a goal of electing donald trump. Press conference in which five of Donald Trumps own intelligence officials warned the American People about how dangerous the russian threat is to this country and to the upcoming elections. Laid out what the agencies are doing to stop it. And yet, at his rally in pennsylvania, their boss, donald trump, continued to deny russian interference in our elections, didnt happen at all. Calling it a hoax just hours
after his own government said the opposite. Undercutting his administration again. No signs o
advancing of that argument. i mean he calls the prosecutors, the african american prosecutors, leading cases against them racist. and he basically says that they are going after me because they really want a silence. no question that the argument has proven very powerful. and i, think the republican primary really reinforces exactly what is already an existing belief among most gop voters. in a general election, it s a whole different question i. think we saw that in the poll that over 55% of voters think he is, independent voters think she s committed a federal crime. nearly 60%, even before this indictment said that what he did after the election threat in american democracy. and we also know for multiple nor polls, four and deep that three quarters of independent say that you should not be president again if he s convicted of a crime. by the, way 60% of republicans say he should. even if he is. so, again right, now clearly strengthening the republican contacts. and what this might
here prosecutors, they want him to stay behind bars while this case plays out. but this is part of a broader trend where several mechanic and families have been attacked, harassed, threatened for the past several months, most fay lousily of course house speaker nancy pelosi s husband who was assaulted in their home by a man who said he was there looking for his wife. in this case, prosecutors pointed to the pelosi case and they said, look, in this case, voice mails have to be treated with caution because it s difficult to evaluate when an individual who s making these kind of threats will actually act on them. and of course this concern extend to other public servants, election workers, for example. the attorney general set up an election threat task force to address the rise in threats against those officials as well. they ve already brought six cases. a u.s. capitol police officer badly beaten during the capitol insurrection is handing in his badge. sergeant aquilino gonell says hi
offices. the good news is law enforcement sources are telling us they are not aware of any specific plots but say the heightened threat extends well past election day as votes are counted. we ve also heard nothing significant about another major election threat, which is foreign interference. the fbi set up an election security command post at its washington headquarters where it has a foreign influence task force. it also has separate command centers in its 56 field offices where agents are ready to respond to cyber attacks, disinformation, violence and complaints about possible voting rights violations. so a comprehensive approach, but so far, no major threats. ken dilanian, thank you for staying on top of it. appreciate it. still ahead, we re taking you live to the one district that could be the big early bellwether for tonight. plus, our teams in states all