indictment. no one has made that allegation. at the end of the day, you have to weigh the damage of the indictment versus the damage of the allegations. it s just not even a fair way. senator marco rubio s evolution on donald trump s access to and handling of classified documents. yeah, i agree, it s not even a close call. you weigh whether you believe as the 11th circuit said that the foundational principle of this country, that no man is above the law, and you balance that against whatever marco was saying we should balance it against. and, you know, willie, i just you will notice you will notice of all of the noise out there, of all of the ground noise, nobody is saying he s innocent. nobody is saying he did not commit the crimes that will put him in jail for over a hundred years, if convicted on all things. i can t think of one person who has said this man did not do it. so what they say is what about hillary? i mean but they had a long time to do that.
make the argument, that s what gerald ford did. that s why he for the country. for me, i can deal with that. running in, you know, a republican primary, okay, say it s a crime. say you should be convicted. if you want to play to the cheap seats talking about pardon, that s at least got precedent. it s not a lie saying he s doing the same thing hillary clinton and joe biden and mike pence are doing. nikki haley said in a radio interview, after a long answer, i m inclined to pardon, but after critical of what donald trump is alleged to have done. what s happening is unfortunate. i think the justice department has handled this whole thing terribly. you can t have one standard for hillary clinton and joe biden and another standard for republicans like donald trump. we re seeing that again and seeing that again with the biden bribery recordings that have come to light. i mean, the country should never
we ve seen so many republicans outside of chris christie to take him on directly. if you take him on too hard you re risking turning off the voters. there is a sense, though the support for trump is still wide and hardest core base still with him, some of the other trump supporters for them, their support is a little softer this time around. they can be persuaded to go somewhere else. but they have such affection and loyalty to trump the person they don t want you to be too hard on him. they want, the republicans tell me, the voters want to see the competitors, treat him kindly, with respect, even as they then try to move him off the stage. maybe what we re seeing interest from haley is to win over voters open to another candidate but don t want to see donald trump trashed while that is being done. as chris christie said oh, my god. several weeks ago after the manhattan d.a. indicted indictment no indictment is
kevin mccarthy s continued whataboutism. plus, what 2024 white house hopeful nikki haley is now saying about a possible pardon for the former president. also ahead, russia increases its missile and aerial strikes as ukraine makes limited gains in an early counter offensive. we ll have the very latest on the fighting overseas. you re watching morning joe. we will be right back. s. you re watching morning joe. we will be right back.
nomination contest by a long, long way and he s built a foundation of real power in the republican base playing that song. mike pence sitting at 6% or 8% or 10% of the republican nomination polls, you make a lame, half-hearted effort to go and attach yourself while distancing yourself from trump on one hand, attached yourself to his and it doesn t work because you can t do that on the one hand and other thing and really be potent in the republican party. you see all these people recognizing that they want to have it both ways for their own politics. they also, if you re mike pence, somehow figure out how do i get into that it s like governor haley saying, what she said, the right thing to say, if you actually care about national security. then the next day, well, yes, i would pardon him. but again, with that, you can