indictment, attorney general merrick garland is voicing support for special counsel jack smith. we ll show you his new remarks. plus new polling shows that trump s support among republicans is standing strong despite his mounting legal troubles. we ll break down those new numbers. and the judge handling trump s classified documents case, aileen canon, is coming under new scrutiny for having very little trial experience. that new reporting and so much more is straight ahead. good morning and welcome to way too early on this thursday, june 15th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. for the first time since donald trump s federal indictment, we re now hearing from attorney general merrick garland. speaking to reporters yesterday, garland declined to answer questions about the case, but he defended special counsel jack smith, the man that he appointed to lead the investigation into the former president. so as you know i can t talk about particulars o
with us on this thursday morning. morning joe starts right now. as you know, i can t talk about the particulars of this or any other ongoing criminal matter. as i said when i pointed mr. smith, i did so because it underscores the justice department s commitment to both independence and accountability. mr. smith is a veteran career prosecutor. he has assembled a group of experienced and talented prosecutors and agents who share his commitment to integrity and the rule of law. any questions about this matter will have to be answered by their filings in court. attorney general merrick gar garland with brief words for the first time since donald trump s federal indictment. is it just me or, willie, are we starting to see again not a complete breaking of ice but sort of more thawing of ice, mike pence day one, this is horrible. day two, it s bad, but i m going to pardon him. day three, too early to talk about pardons. because you know, the news came out and i m sure mike p
he has signaled he is thinking about it. he has not totally ruled it out, and maybe waiting to see that desantis falls, right? and basically all of glenn youngkin s team from his gubernatorial run is now working for ron desantis in one capacity or another so i think he s counting on desantis to fall and then trump to fall and then biden to fall, and he s sitting there in virginia not far from here thinking about it. give us a quick sense what s next for you, what story lines are you exploring? that s a great question. i think right now the real question is what happens with trump and how does he try to maintain what looks like a little bit of energy in his campaign. you were talking earlier about the fund-raising, how does he keep that going, you know, while trial drags on? we have never been here before, unprecedented political questions. nbc s jonathan allen thank you as always, and thanks to all of you for getting up way too early