rnc dropping a plan to pronounce donald trump the nominee. and also president biden s campaign reportedly closely watching the bitter feud and many even enjoying it. will it help the incumbent president come november. good morning. i m kasie hunt. it is friday, january 26. happy friday. we made it. it is 5:00 a.m. here in washington. and it is also 5:00 a.m. in new york. that is where donald trump is expected back in federal court this morning for closing a arguments in the civil defamation case brought against him by writer e. jean carroll. he closed out the trial with just three minutes of testimony thursday. he was admonished several times by the judge. his comments stricken from the record after he repeated the original defamation against carroll. trump s lawyer asked, quote, did you deny the allegation because ms. carroll made an accusation trump responded yes, she said something i considered a false accusation. totally false. that is when the judge interrupted and sai
results. but hours later, former vice president mike pence made what may be his final break with his ex-boss, rejecting trump s claim that he could have and should have overturned the election. president trump is wrong. i had no right to overturn the election. the presidency belongs to the american people and the american people alone. and frankly, there is no idea more un-american than the notion that any one person could choose the american president. but this is coming after more than a year has passed, and pence has still not said anything to dispute trump s false claims of election fraud. joining me now with their reporting and their insights, tamara keith of npr, lauren barone lopez of politico, meredith mcgraw of politico and cnn s jeremy diamond. so laura, a couple of ways that we ve seen over the last couple of days republicans describing this rnc resolution, circular firing squad, insane, and then
resolution from the rnc could be the straw that ultimately breaks trump s stranglehold on the party or are the vocal few who are willing to stand up and say we were there, this was an insurrection truly that, just a few? we just don t know how representative the rebukes from some of these elective leaders are among the voter. and of course that determines the direction of the party. remember there are all of these republican primaries that will begin taking place this spring and summer and into the fall to determine who the republican nominees will be in key senate races, gubernatorial races, house races. and i think that that will be a real test of how much of a hold trump has on this party. certainly mcconnell and other leaders in washington are very uncomfortable with this rnc resolution. but we just don t know yet how reflective that resolution is of the will of the people who
an attempted authoritarian coup. that is submitting false electors to washington, d.c. to certify donald trump and not joe biden and ultimately unleashing the violence we saw on january 6th. all of this reporting that continues to come out actually supports this was a very complex attempt at a coup that involved multiple elements and this is where not only the emphasis of the january 6 commission in congress is so important but the investigative authority of the attorney general himself i want to turn to what is happening with the republican party and this rnc resolution. the washington post reports that former president donald trump called rnc chairwoman rona mcdaniel on saturday to congratulate on the resolution. so the resolution seems to have put basically every republican in congress in a pretty uncomfortable spot. you have kevin mccarthy literally running from a reporter. i guess he decided he couldn t out run garrett haake. he is very tall. meanwhile the former president is