kevin mccarthy. where would the investigation have to sprawl to, to have kevin mccarthy s knowledge of trump s criminality so much so that he s talking pardons. he s already there on the pardon conversation. where would an investigation have to expand to for kevin to be of interest to them? yeah, well, first of all, nicole, it may never get there. right? i mean, it may just sort of end with the planners and the money that went to the planning and to the rally, and it may never get all the way up the chain. there s also some really interesting questions, i think, about whether or not the department of justice should charge a former president. i m not just talking about this department of justice and that former president. but whether we want to go down the path, as a nation, of justice departments looking at former presidents. there are some dangers there too as worthy of a larger and more difficult and more nuanced conversation. but if the department of justice wanted to see whether
politicians on capitol hill, especially in the house, are calling witnesses, so people close to donald trump as well as riot defendants asking them to come in, and one of the consequences for people not complying with congressional subpoenas would be being held in criminal contempt of congress. and so, this pardon conversation is something that is happening right now both about the riot defendants and people being caught on capitol hill. representative elaine lauria was on cnn yesterday and talked about the effect trump may have on some of the witnesses. here s her. someone who, you know, is sort of waiting out there, that, you know, if i m president in the future i ll pardon you, someone who could be right now thinking i need to do the right thing, i need to, you know, state the facts and the potential to plea guilty to the criminal actions that i have, if they think there s a way in the future to get off from any consequences from their actions, it could certainly color what they d
perjured himself on that one? alex, the word never is really what everybody s hanging their hat on. right. but i would point out, you know, the fact that the pardon conversation has happened mine, ashleigh s like, okay, yeah, so the timing of it, whatever, et cetera, and i agree. but you know what, why are people not asking questions of donald trump like the checks he was writing in the oval office to pay off stormy daniels to keep her mouth shut? those are the important questions that should be asked, not the timing of these pardon conversations. and ultimately, what do we know? michael cohen hasn t received a pardon. paul manafort, on the other hand, is about to be sentenced by judge amy berman jackson. he may get an additional ten years. will donald trump, you know, woe is me for paul manafort? donald trump has said he feels so badly for him. so, will paul manafort get a pardon? here s another thing to pivot to here, ashleigh starting with this. the daily beast is report
of america. i did not want to go to the white house. is there a chance? that he ll ask me to go to washington? there s absolutely a chance he s going to ask you. would you go? 100%. i look forward to seeing what your future is. hopefully it will be in washington. we go back to the question, does michael cohen have a credibility problem? should he be trusted? michael cohen has acknowledged publicly he has a credibility problem by admitting he has lied to congress. he s reporting to prison in may. whether it s the pardon conversation or conversations about possibly joining the trump white house, it often comes down to the context of those exchanges. was it part of a formal process. was it informal, what was the intent. so often investigators hear about snippets of conversation but they have to figure out through witnesses, through testimony, is was there a corrupt intent in those
would you accept a pardon? that s hypothetical. you brought up a hypothetical pardon conversation. i ll tell you what i ll do at that time. so people may draw the inference that you are right now auditions for a pardon when you end that statement saying let it be offered. you re asking me to tell you what people who are listening think. i don t know what they re asking. but you re not asking for a pardon? i m not asking for a pardon and i m not anticipating a pardon. do you understand why people don t believe you? yes, of course. i ve had this issue all my life. when i come to decisions, i don t think the way people do. it s news worthy you were a target of this probe. correct. you are also known as a leader of the birther movement, question is a total and complete lie that you believe. is there let me finish the