the trump foundation for a 15-year tax fraud. now he has this one. that is a big deal. and i think we should recognize the skill, the talent, and the drive that undergirds everything that happened here. i am, however, also looking at the way trump allies, wanna be trump allies and the republican party writ large is reacting to this. i agree with you, joy. the specter of a republican front-runner being crowned the nominee four days after the sentencing, becoming a felon, is something we never thought he would see in americans history. the reality is the trump team, the rnc. republicans across the country think this is a gift to them. eric trump saying today, may 30th, 2024, might be remembered as the day donald j. trump was re-elected. and that is not to say that s necessarily what s going to happen, but it points to this incredible schism in american culture and politics where one, i think earth one, as rachel maddow likes to call it, understands what happened here as a tes
the republican party s front-runner was convicted by a jury of his peers on 3 that is4 the reality the republican party must now grapple with, if they were into reality. so that sre an issue. what makes this all even more difficult for the gop is that trump s conviction has precisely zero to do with president biden. trump was convicted by a case brought by a new york city prosecutor whoas does not repor to president biden. facing another ten criminal charges from another local prosecutor in georgia who does not report to president biden. even the two federal cases against trump was brought by an independent special counsel who neither takes orders from nor coordinates with president f bidench so donald trump has reacted in a way he traditionally does when reality does not fit with his preferred reality. he lies about it. he claims without evidence president biden is the one really pulling the strings. he these are all biden trials. they re all biden cases. these aren t cases
he did in the state of the union. this guy, it s about strength and about the strengthen of america and about donald trump thinking that we suck. and that s what he needs to be doing. do you think that that sort of ideological or at least theoretical argument about the sanctity of democratic institutions resonates more with the ten people who are going to decides the election as opposed to do you really want a convicted felon running the country? i do think it does because i think people are tired of the cay, they re tired of the drama. i think joe biden got to be president in the first place because people wanted a nice guy who believed in america and wanted to lift us up, not grind us down. i mean donald trump wants everybody to be grievanced and mad and everything s rigged. and joe biden wants people to believe in the promise of this country. it s a pretty stark contrast, and i think he ll have more effect on those independent voters than just harping on the
that phone call didn t happen in a vacuum. this was all of a piece and here s kind of where it began. and she really spun a narrative that was compelling. the one thing i wonder, though, is what the republicans do as these hearings go on because these hearings are all going to be different. there s more things they have different textures about them. and they are hitting the same notes. and that s going to look kind of old after some time. and i want to play let me play for you the president this afternoon was asked about the witness tampering. and as he usually does, he of course grievanced away. take a listen. number two, guys. and i ll tell you about what tampering is. tampering is when a guy like shifty schiff doesn t halet us have lawyers. tampering is when schiff doesn t let us have witnesses. doesn t let us speak. so you know what? i have the right to speak. i have freedom of speech just as other people do. but they ve taken away the republicans rights and i watched tod