while those have only made things worse. joining us now is one of the writers of that washington post scoop as well as several others since the start of this investigation, carol leonnig is the pulitzer prize-winning national investigative reporter for the washington post and coauthor of i alone can fix it doll j trump s catastrophic final year. carol the, catastrophe continues well into the post presidency is ems. let s just first start i mean, that piece that you wrote what is so presages this moment. i just want to get your moment which is seems to me more like a political document then a legal document, right? it s full of buzzwords that i m sure trump s allies will use, the word witch hunt isn t in there, but it basically suggest this is all part of a political ploy on the part of the deep state. how did you read it? a very similarly. and i m really glad you noticed the political rhetoric and the optics of this filing which, as you know to yourself, is part of a pattern of
an hour ago which seems to be more like a political document than a legal document, it is full of buzz words that i m sure trump s allies will use, the word witch hunt isn t in there but it basically suggests this is all part of a political ploy on the part of the deep state. how did you read it? very similarly. and i m really glad you note the political rhetoric and the optics of this filing, which as you note yourself, it was part of a pattern of how donald trump deals with federal and other courts. you know, his idea is let me communicate the way i want to communicate to my base, he still thinks of himself as the president, and these filings end up being his way of saying i m a victim, you re next, and i don t have to deal with all of this legal mumbo jumbo, and i don t have to make a coherent legal finding or claim before the court, all i have to do is convince the people i care about, that this is wrong, and that it s politicized and it s
a political document then a legal document, right? it s full of buzzwords that i m sure trump s allies will use, the word witch hunt isn t in there, but it basically suggest this is all part of a political ploy on the part of the deep state. how did you read it? a very similarly. and i m really glad you noticed the political rhetoric and the optics of this filing which, as you know to yourself, is part of a pattern of how donald trump deals with federal and other courts. his idea is, let me communicate the way i want to communicate to my base. he still thinks of himself as the president. and these filings end up being his way of saying, i am a victim. you are next. and i don t have to deal with all the legal mumbo jumbo. and i don t have to make a coherent legal finding or claim before the court. all i have to do is convince the people i care about that
election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. he is a coward, a real man wouldn t lie to his supporters. he lost his election, and he lost big. now, anti trump republicans made some powerful arguments about the importance of democracy and truthfulness. but how can they stay relevant if they can t stay in office, carlos? well, rev, i think that s a great point. but this primary season, i think we have seen a mixed bag of results in georgia the republicans who rejected donald trump s ally did very well. we saw in washington state, dan newhouse one of the republicans who voted for impeachment survived his primary. another, when david validating california did as well. of course there are others like peter mayer, who did lose. but, you are seeing that in all of these races. if you look at donald trump and mike pence with a squared off in arizona, sure trump won. but his candidate, lake, one
just this week the district attorney in atlanta asked for a special grand jury to help investigate president trump s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in georgia. including his call to the secretary of state brad raffensperger asking him find 11,780 votes. which fortunately he refused to do. but here s the thing. even as criminal probes are getting under way, republicans are fighting to make sure trump s next perfect phone call gets a friendlier reception all over the country. the gop is moving aggressively to get right-wing partisans elected as secretaries of state. according to the hill, the republican state leadership committee which handles secretary of state races, raised a total of $33 million in 2021.