The Special Counsel charges donald trump with conspireing to shatter the american experiment. The ha 45page indictment nar tat rates a plot to stay in power after losing an election. And it does so with some new evidence, including realtime notes from then Vice President mike pence. The politics, the third Trump Indictment slipped the field into familiar camps. The charges will also test joe bidens resolve to do what is sometimes unnatural. Stay quiet. The consequences, how the prosecution plays out in court may determine the future of both donald trump and american democracy. Im dana bash. Lets go behind the headlines and inside politics. Tomorrow a court date for the former president here in washington. Today the country gets a line by line look at The Plot Against America and the alleged crimes of donald trump. Central to the indictment is the Special Counsels assertion that trump knew that he lost the election and pushed lies to stay in office any way. Describe d in the indictment
president was the central figure in. you want to play some of what jack smith, the special counsel said in his statement yesterday. the attack on our capital was an unprecedented assault on the seat of american democracy. it s described in the indictment it was fuelled by lies. lies by the defendant, targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the u.s. government. so he talked about the former president s role in the attack, but doesn t charge him for inciting violence. your committee didn t seem to find evidence that donald trump intend ed for the violence to happen. we see the special counsel didn t either. what do you make of that? think the facts are very clear. from november and december, the former president tryied to stay in power.
really a case that boils down of everything the justice department had been looking into, everything that congress had been looking into with the house select committee. now putting it together for a case against donald trump, a conspiracy to defraud voters, to defraud the electoral college process to certificy the vote a the conspiracy to defraud the u.s. government itself and the transfer of power. thank you so much. i haven t even thought about that point that you made at the beginning that where you re stand ing is really almost a stones throw from the u.s. capitol. you walk out the door and turn left and you can see it. it really is a powerful thought and an. appreciate it. now a very active morninfor the former president on his social media company. the indictment is fresh fuel for his stream of consciousness rants. he calls the indictment unprecedented and a wakeup call to the world. kristen holmes joins us live
didn t make that argument. let s listen to a little bit about what he told kaitlan collins. the government has had three years to investigate this. now they want to rush this to trial in the middle of a political season. what does that tell you? our focus is on the fact this is an attack on free speech. and there s nothing that s more protected under the first amendment than political speech. so it s the timing. it s free speech, and i just before i bring you in, i m really curious to know your take on this, let s hear from one of the, what we believe to be one of the unindictmented cocon spoor torts on this same topic. that s rudy giuliani. violating the right of free speech of an american citizen, never mind whether he was president or not. it could be anybody.
for the most part, donald trump s competitors for the gop presidential nomination spobded to his third indictment in such a familiar way they were probably cut and pasted from previous statements and talking points. here s ron desantis responding for the first time on camera just moments ago. one of the reasons i m running for president is to it reconstitutional liez the federal government. the agencies that have become weaponized against political opponents. a d.c. jury would indict a ham sandwich and convict a ham sandwich if it was a republican ham sandch. tim scott rleagainst two different tracks of justice, referring to the prosecution of president biden s son and one call ed the indictment un-american and said he will pardon trumpf ected. and the few who have staked