and we saw some of that laid out in this indictment. today and now in this campaign, he is under enormous pressure. he s decided that he is going to navigate it by persuading americans that the system of justice in our country is corrupt, the prosecutors are corrupt, and that the fbi is corrupt. and this is really a moment of peril for our country because he is very good at this. yes. as i mentioned to you earlier, 70% of republicans still believe that the election was stolen because he s told them that. and now, many believe on that side that the system is indeed corrupt. you hear a lot of republican politicians echoing his mean. i m curious what you think from your role, obviously having been in the white house and worked with the former president, obama, as well as biden himself, about mike pence s role in all of this.
republicans will say, yes, i am with them. laura, that is true, i travel the country all the time, many republicans view themselves as a pawn in an overall political game. it s not just democrats they dislike and distrust. it s the republican establishment that they dislike and distrust. to that very salient point, donald trump, for them, is their final arbiter against this entire political mechanism that is against them, these elites, these highly educated individuals telling them how they should live their lives, telling them what is best for them. or what is true or not. or what s true or what s not. they believe those things as being fundamentally offensive to them. in many ways, a violation of their very freedoms. donald trump in a very unique, interesting way has presented himself as the only individual who is standing up for them, whether that may be true or not. there s a reason why 65% of americans believe the country is headed in the wrong
they also say he was a conspiracy to obstruct and impede the january 6th official proceeding. a ceremonial proceeding. and then a conspiracy against the right to vote, denying the right of americans to have their vote counted, laura. i mean, evan, it is striking to think about that. in that one paragraph you were referencing, the idea of you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. evan perez, thank you so much. erin? all right, laura, let s go to christian holmes. she is in new jersey just a few moments away from donald trump s golf club, which is where he is right now. kristen, i know he s been you ve been reporting various phone conversations, including one with at least a five talking about gop response. he s been busy tonight. what has the reaction been as you ve been hearing it from people around him, as this new indictment, the news of it, the details of it are sinking in? it s exactly what you would expect. and they are painting this as political, somet
it he didn t bother to read it. he said, while i have seen the reports, i ve not read the indictment. i do believe we need to enact reform so americans have the right to remove cases from washington, d. c., their home districts. washington, d. c., as a swamp. he says no more excuses, i will end the he is saying it is actually not worth reading. look, i get why ron desantis is scared of donald trump. ron desantis wouldn t be governor of florida if it wasn t for donald trump. rhonda scent is it is also someone who thinks there is an upside to slavery. this is not the guy who is going to be the savior of the gop. anybody running in this race who is afraid to criticize donald trump is not prepared to be president of the united states. and this is part of the problem of, you know, everyone is
well, they are difficult cases to make. it s a high bar, and they were successful in it, and i think it really reflects the seriousness of the offense of january 6th, and undermining our democracy and how seriously the jury considers this that found them guilty of that. whenever you look at the impact on the future, donald trump has a moral responsibility for what happened on january 6th. the question is whether there is a criminal responsibility, and that s a judgement that the department of justice is going to have to make. i believe that we will have an america to go in a different direction, but it s going to be through the ballot box and not what happens in the courtroom, and so that s what i want to focus on is persuading americans that we need to go in a different direction. are you committing to support the republican nominee even if it is donald trump? i expect to be on the debate stage. we are still looking at what is required for that in terms of the pledge, but yes, i