d.c. for the first time since losing the election and leaving town in disgrace, following the capitol riot. he is about to give a key note speech to a conservative group focused on, of all things, law and order. this morning, former vice president pence gave a speech urging conservatives to focus on the future and avoid looking back. let s begin with the doj investigation. our senior cnn analyst and former u.s. attorney for the district of new york. why is mark short so important to the doj? this is a big deal because for the first time we know the justice department has gotten inside the white house. mark short is the highest ranking person who we know have of who has been subpoenaed to the grand jury. short was the chief of staff to mike pence. we don t know what he said in the grand jury. he won t talk about it. but we do know he talked to the january 6th committee and he had this crucial meeting in the white house in the oval office where donald trump and this lawyer, j
biggest heist in american history. so that i think is what we can expect. and listen, it has worked so far for him, right? he is by far the most popular figure in the republican party. he is the front runner for the nomination. he s all but declared he s going to run. it is just a matter of when he will decide to announce that he will run. so this idea that he even should come in and talk about law and order, that he should come in and talk about policy in a way that a traditional politician would do that, in a way that pence did as well. that is something that donald trump has cast aside. he is not the run-of-the-mill politician. and it has worked for him so far. the vast majority of the republican party is with him. sure, there has been some diminishment around the edges in terms of his support and maybe somebody like ron desantis is eating into some of his support. by and large, the republican party is with him lock step.
for example, do they want to attack the credibility of these victims who were very young at the time epstein and maxwell were alleged to have committed the crimes against them? once you start attacking victims, you run the risk of alienating the jurors against the defense team and by extension, the defendant. you know, the other thing is how much do they want to demonize jeffrey epstein during the kourgs of the trial? that could break one of two ways. if they can paint him as the monster he apparently was, well, then the jury might say yeah, but maxwell was right there with him lock step, helping him develop these victims and enabling his crimes against these young girls. but the other way glenn, can i jump in on that? that s the good point. is there a risk for the prosecutors in they try to make this a trial of jeffrey epstein? i mean, to link the two of them together and say every bad thing he did, she does also? there s not only a risk, i
i continually said i woulden let the senate become a theater for show boats and messages stunting from either side. i was glad to see the president s announcement that he and his democratic colleagues have reached an agreement that will immediately reopen the government. once again, just to remind people what happened 35 days ago the senate passed a bill and for the whole year. for the whole year. senate republicans had the rug pulled out from under them. the white house deciding they weren t going to sign it. as bill points out republicans were with him lock step. was that a mistake? it was. i think what we don t see is what s happening behind closed
these guys are a between a rock and a hard place. we have a long way to go. guy we michael, actually if he does stay on this sort of better, less moody, inconsistent way that he s he went on last night, things will get better. look, he s done this before. there was a he was doing we. fir six days he stays on the teleprompter and did better. and mething fell apart, i think it was when the tape about grabbing the women came out. so we ll see. this is a guy who can t stand not to be in combat. and i think probably something starting tomorrow or the next day, something will happen and off to the races again. and michael steele, what about the other end? what about republicans party that has long before, at least before donald trump the free trade party. republican party on a lot of issues that medicare, social security as i say, donald trump is offering a break from the past, will they go along with him lock step or fight him? i think howard s got his