over and over again regardless of the merits. i think you re exactly right alicia. we re all aware that trump is trying to do this thus the political system, but that doesn t hold any weight in the criminal system. he can convince as many republicans as he cares to that he has a free speech defense, but as we were hearing, it doesn t hold weight in the court. the other is this was a well coordinated effort on behalf of donald trump and republicans to get this message out there immediately. they have their talking point ready, it s been amplified by republicans on the hill, even at the highest levels of republican leadership. i think it indicates a second thing, which is donald trump and republicans are several steps behind jack smith and several steps behind where the nation nose this is good. if this is the best argument they have, it s so easy to
republican opponents, other than maybe chris christie and one other. so i think that this is what is most disturbing to me. those of us in new york, alicia, that know donald trump are not surprised with his narcissism and chicanery, but the silence of the republican party and the silence of his opponents when a man for the first time in american history is trying to undermine an american democratic process and is charged with that, that shows me that we re in a danger zone in terms of american politics. charlie, i want to bring your attention to this online poll conducted by abc news and ipsos after the jack smith indictment was announced. it shows when asked if trump should be charged with a crime in connection to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election 52% said he should be charged, 32% said he should not. when you look at those numbers, right, what s then the strategy if there is a strategy from trump s team if the majority of
jack smith, trump s lawyers are not exactly disagreeing here, katie. they re actually not in disagreement but most importantly john lauro was going on tv and asserting a law that doesn t exist. i mean, he s saying that there was the opportunity for mike pence to delay the count, and that s not possible under existing federal law or the law that was in existence back then. i think what you re seeing is a new criminal defense lawyer for trump world trying to float a test balloon of a theory so that he can taint the jury pool. donald trump knows that there is no sympathetic jury pool for him in d.c. so he s hoping that if he puts these random theories out for consumption that perhaps this will take hold on maybe one, because as we all know it only takes one holdout in order to get a hung jury for a criminal case. i think what s problematic, though, is if you really look at this indictment, jack smith made
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cases. and, you know, the concern on the other side, i think the best argument is, well, if you look at, for example, the o.j. simpson trial, there was a lot of a lack of decorum around the courtroom proceedings, the television televising those proceedings may have contributed to that. there are two fundamental differences. one s again, this is not, you know, some athlete charged with, you know, a crime of violence. this is the president of the united states as the president of the united states being charged for his behavior while president, being charged with basically trying to launch a coup to keep himself in power. it goes to the essence of what our democracy s the second is don t underestimate donald trump s ability to try to, you know, say stuff outside of court and to, you know his party and his lawyers and so many others, all of which can undermine the decorum anyway.