wisconsin because those states are so still important. and democrats do control those states. so that s why these charges have political aspects to them as well. they also have teeth because we are more than 400-plus days away from another election where there could be this prospect happening again. remember the investigation of january 6th was about a real ongoing threat. one of the goals of prosecution is not only to punish behavior but deter future conduct that could be criminal as well. it s clear should anyone have the notion that even three years after the fact you can simply try to undermine the way in which we have our elections, it gives fair notice to people about this very notion. again, this has been three years in the making to your point of when it was referred and beyond. but other states look at a blueprint and say were there other jurisdictions that had a similar code of couldn t dubt
i don t think it serves us good to have a presidential election focused on what happened four years ago in january. and so i want to focus on looking forward. i don t want to look back. i do not want to see him. i hope he doesn t get charged. i don t think it will be good for the country but at the same time i ve got to focus on looking forward and that s what we re going to do. governor ron desantis speaking exclusively with cnn. let s get more reaction right now, republican reaction. joining us here in the situation room, the former chief of staff to vice president mike pence mark short who testified before the federal grand jury investigating 2020 election interference. mark, thanks very much for joining us. your former boss, then vice president pence, has said, and i m quoting, history will hold donald trump accountable for january 6th. would an indictment be a step toward holding trump legally accountable? well, wolf, i think there s a lot in that question, whether or not ther
election. and we have to look at what this means big picture. the fact that special counsel jack smith made trump a target and i think it s fair to say likely an indictment is going to come means that he thinks he has a very strong case. it also means that the attorney general, merrick garland, who has been briefed all along the way also thinks that they have a very strong case. it s said that prosecutors can indict a ham sandwich is the expression, but a conviction is much harder. they would not be moving toward indictment if they didn t think they could get a conviction. that s really important. elliott, prosecutors have heard from several key trump allies and state officials targeted by trump. what could they charge trump with right now? all this flows around the january 6th efforts to upend the 2020 election, leading and end
time, at a time when donald trump was pressuring him to overturn the vote. pence refused to do so. pence has spoken about those conversations publicly. he s written about them in his look. he s talk about them regularly. but never before has an investigation, has a grand jury, and prosecutors gotten pence under oath to reveal what he thought, what he felt and what was said between him and donald trump on the crucial days. this is a significant moment in the january 6th criminal investigation being led by special counsel joack smith. there has never before been a vice president called to testify under subpoena about the president they served alongside. that didn t happen in watergate or whitewater.
testified before a federal grand jury for more than five hours. that testimony would have been about what happened after the trump the president at the time, at a time when donald trump was pressuring him to overturn the vote. hints pence refused to do so. pence has also spoke about this conversation publicly. he s right about them in his book. the on a tour of really regularly. whenever before as an investigation, as a grand jury and have prosecutors gotten pence under oath to reveal exactly what he thought, what he, felt and what was said between him and donald trump on those crucial day as part of this investigation. so this is a really significant moment in the january 6th criminal investigation being led by special counsel jack smith at the justice department. it is also quite a momentous