in the event of conviction. so, you know, she will very much set the tone and the course for this trial. ryan, if you and republican senators have spoken about the indictment, but not all of them, not some of the most important ones. mitch mcconnell, senate minority leader, how is that acceptable that a person with his role in governing, and specifically within the republican party, feels no need to make a comment about the current republican front runner, former republican president getting charged with 37 charges? stephanie, i don t think mitch mcconnell is gonna be able to go much longer without weighing in on this in some form or fashion because reporters like me and others on capitol hill are gonna continue to pressure him by tomorrow. it s that usually scheduled senate leader leadership conference, and it takes place just outside the chamber usually on tuesday s, and you can bet he s gonna be asked a question about that. there is a political expediency here to mitch mcconnell
the attorney client privilege has been breached? that s a real risk in this case, it pretty good approach for good lawyers, actually. but these are the two arguments going on right now between whoever represents donald trump, he has to choose one that their client likes, and it s going to be hard. sarah, when something, somebody is in this kind of legal trouble, one would think this is where they are putting their hands in the air, and the lawyers are in charge. who do you think is in charge of trump world right now? i think that trump is in charge of trump world, as evidenced by, you know, his lawyers leaving his legal team that were working on this case. i think that he is deciding what the narrative is here, which is that he s gonna play the victim card that he was absolved from any wrongdoing. and then, is gonna try to distract and put the blame on others. and that s what i worry about, with the other person who is being charged, his valet, because the thing is that with trump,
stephanie. and those might be arguments that you can throw into the court of public opinion, they are inadmissible in a court of law. so, it s a great question. what does donald trump s defense look like? well, first of all, not even donald trump knows at this point because two of his lawyers who had been on vacation in the long term just quit. he s got a new lead counsel. and and they are gonna be starting from square one, trying to formulate a defense. i suspect what the defense would look like, steph, is basically what we call it reasonable doubt defense. you know, if you have an alibi defense, right? in a more typical violent crime case, you present an alibi defense. you try to prove to the jury that you were nowhere near the crime scene. if you have a misidentification defense, you present it. if you have self-defense, you present it. if you really don t have any viable defense based on the available facts, you present a
that you want, that you need, whether it s around build back better, whether it s around inflation improving, or the infrastructure, getting sent around this country? i don t really think that president biden needs to worry about getting people s attention in a kind of a day-to-day media arms race, you know? he s already probably one of the most famous people in the world. he s got the highest number of votes in american history in 2020. he s had a number of important legislative successes. he s doing well in ukraine. so, i think when we actually get to election season, which is still very far off, believe it or not, people are gonna tune in and know all that they need to know about joe biden.
from the right that he s a threat to national defense. you can go down the long list of things that you just want to nail him on. and frankly, the base is saying, he s just too great a risk. i don t know why they won t say this. i think somehow, they re afraid they re going to alienate trump voters by criticizing donald trump. i think they have to take on a much more frontally and directly lane as chris christie has, and i think even nikki haley took a bit of a poke at the bear today, too, so some of them are speaking up a bit, but i think it s a political malpractice not to condemn trump. some of them also defended alvin bragg issue over the hush money payment to stormy daniels. again, it makes no sense politically, as far as i m concerned. draw the sharp contrast. you re not gonna beat him by tacitly defending him. here s that bear poke, let s watch that, nikki haley.