victim of political persecution. this is an attack on the fabric of our system. his opponents say no one is above the law. this is about accountability. how strong is the case against him? there really is a question about whether this is a valid prosecution. should he be invoking his right to remain silent and in the race for president, his would be 2024 rivals are forced to defend the man they want to defeat. the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the united states is an outrage. welcome to inside politics sunday. i m abby . phillip. thank you for joining us real estate tycoon television star president of the united states, and this week, donald j . trump will add a new title criminal defendant. trump will fly to new york on on monday and will be arraigned in lower manhattan on tuesday, and sources tell cnn that the indictment includes more than 30 counts related to business fraud , though the specifics remain under seal. we ll see what evidence there is when
serious investigations. you might say one of them doesn t showcase anything, but when you look at all three of them combined, it should give americans pause. laura we were just discussing that very argument. just write that the coming potential indictments, you know, i mean, hutchinson is one of the ones that appears to have gone the furthest out of the people that are potentially considering or running against the former president. you know, one thing also about his initial statement was that he said that it s up to voters to decide whether or not trump will be the nominee. he said both things i mean, he said trump should drop out, but also but it s the voters should decide when i talk to republicans. strategist in swing states. they say that the only way you re going to take down trump and this is slightly to sarah s point is if you are being affective and loud about distancing yourself from him and really go for the jugular there, and hutchinson is as you said, testing it not fully
so interesting to hear you say that since the election, the groups have been ready to move on and to ron desantis ron desantis obviously thought he saw an opening here a couple of weeks ago when donald trump first floated the idea that he was going to be arrested on a tuesday that he ended up not being arrested on desantis certainly followed the script and went after alvin bragg but also raise the tawdry details of the stormy daniels affair that is gone because i think ron desantis is also aware of what you just learned in your groups and what we saw how everyone reacted on capitol hill . so he quadrupled down on going after alvin bragg and gone from ron desantis. his talking points is the underlying tawdry details of this case. here s the thing and i think this is what you re getting at here, sarah. the short term of this is the republican primary in which maybe trump might consolidate his voters. but in the long term , look at this abc news ipsos poll that was just out this morning a
opponents, right. but generally speaking, that s a bad thing, but to be indicted, demonstrate his grip on the party and how you just heard from voters on this. these opponents of his understand that and they are in such a bind because they are so careful not to want to offend that vociferous support that swath of the party that is so strongly for him in hopes of one day, according them that they re not taking advantage of what is a clear in a pre trump world, a clear opening line of attack, but can they really, i mean, you talked to so many trump voters, sarah um, is there really any room to attack trump directly right now? in the republican party? i mean, there is if they were good enough, like if ron desantis were was politically good enough to have come out and sort of shown himself to be the alpha and saying, you know, i m going to protect trump. you know, trump is kind of old and he s got all these legal problems and i m i m
you just conducted a focus group of two time trump voters. this is a group that i ll let you describe it in a minute. but this is a group that that you ve said has had some inkling to move away from trump to some extent, but listen to how they reacted to the news of his indictment. as soon as i heard the news. i felt like i m supporting him even more never donated to a, um, a party but i feel like i might do it to him, which he has the power of the money and he can defend himself. what would happen to us in jail somewhere? he s definitely a target, and it s just it s ridiculous. shame that this is what one of our two great parties is resorting to. it s just a smear campaign that then you know, it s like they re out to get him and we all consistent through it. so did this surprise you, sarah. so here s what surprised me. it doesn t