so this is the textbook case of the republican trump trap, where a candidate like ron desantis performs for a republican primary audience, but then, puts himself at risk. let s say he makes it through, let s say donald trump goes to jail, and ron desantis becomes a republican nominee. then he has to face general election voters, and explain why he thought it was okay with donald trump did, and that it s the justice department, and law enforcement that is actually wrong here. that is what happened to candidates in the midterm elections in 2022. that is why they lost. because they were to align to donald trump. they were perceived as being too radical. so desantis is trying to signal to trump, i m okay, i m one of you. but that can end up costing him if he actually makes it. and to carlos s point, is there really a risk of true manga dying hearts actually saying, no, this is not a politicization of an administrative arm like the doj?
and before his arraignment here in miami on tuesday. he will be on the campaign trail today in north carolina in georgia. former vice president mike pence will also be on the road in north carolina. florida governor ron desantis again, not in florida, will be in oklahoma. pence has tried to walk a fine line, criticizing the doj while declaring at the same time that no one is above the law. but ron desantis has leaned into defending trump. tweeting quote, the weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. joining me now for our saturday power political panel, msnbc political analyst carlos and . gentlemen, we now have a federal indictment. carlos, i ve to start with you. desantis saying this is a mortal threat, i mean, it s a party of law in order last i checked. we talked a denver riggleman just last segment. what the heck is going on? it is a doj, a grand jury. there is a process here.
going to be a big factor. i mean, i think he s kind of waiting for trump and desantis kind of pummel each other, and maybe he emerges as kind of the same alternative. but that is hard to see right now. but obviously a long campaign to that point, trump just announced that he s going to iowa later this month to speak to a christian conservative, big christian conservative organization there, but clearly you see other people are getting active. if there s a potential opening, and you re donald trump, you want to block them. others want to find the opening, so the republicans announced today confirmed today their first debate will be in august. we knew we d be in august. they haven t given the date, but i m told will be the third week of august on fox news. so here s who is announced. this is the announced field. donald trump. nikki haley, former arkansas governor asa hutchinson, the entrepreneur vivek ramaswamy and tim scott is now exploring will consider that an announcement even though
but nothing was enough for them. that s how it s working in the state of florida this was never about public safety this was always about publicity, always a political stunt, it was always intended just to fire up their base and now that the facts have come out, now that a court of law has said that the suspension was illegal, it s a totally different ball game. because now it s a question, the governor stood up in the clip you showed and said mr. warren needs to follow the law. now the governor desantis has been the one to be found in violation of both federal and state law. but yet he s refusing to do anything about it. and the judge in the case was pretty scathing in saying just what you just said, this was clearly a political firing the new york times reports that they didn t even call
influence. we know there was a guy named jesse bentant, he got 18 months in prison for funneling russian money into republican campaigns. russians were all involved with the nra. it looks like ron desantis has decided to join their club your thoughts. you re exactly right. it s not long ago republicans celebrated ronald reagan standing up to the soviet union, and they constantly claimed by him being hard on the soviet union, allowed or forced the soviet union to collapse that they have gone off the deep end, i was thinking about your introduction about pi day and the reason this day was chosen, 3.44, but it s also einstein s birthday as i watch desantis and other republicans who want to replace donald trump and get past donald trump, i ll paraphrase einstein. einstein would have said, you can t solve the problem of donald trump by using the same thinking that created donald trump. right? and what they re doing is they