hello and welcome to inside politics. i am john king. i am your retribution. donald trump s saying why democrats need to give him another chance. a busy 2024 includes a big speech by trump s biggest early rival and a decision by a prominent trump critic to bow out of running. plus, russia on the verge of the first battle field victory in months. ukrainians squeezed in the battle of bakhmut. pete buttigieg admits to cnn he got it wrong on the ohio train derailment. his response in a cnn exclusive interview. we begin with important and interesting maneuvering in the 2024 republican race. the weekend speeches in very different settings crystallize the competition at the top of the gshlop field. donald trump spoke for nearly two hours at cpac telling lies and deseesantis says republican need a doer, not a liar. they need to wrack upstate legislative wins as a launch pad. trump and desantis own the top tier in early 2024 polling with a half dozen ovr so other prospects a f
jonathan at mar-a-largo. jonathan, how are things looking there? yeah, hi there, neil. joe tacopina, one of the lawyers representing president trump says he plans to file several motions to dismiss on this case on multiple grounds. one being selective prosecution. in his speech last night at mar-a-largo, mr. trump had harsh words for alvin bragg. take a listen. the criminal is the district attorney because he illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information. for which he should be prosecuted or at a minimum he should resign. yesterday mr. trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records including transactions associated with alleged hush money payments to adult film actress stormy daniels. a federal appeals court in california has ruled that daniels must pay more than $120,000 in legal fees that mr. trump accumulated defending himself against her defamation lawsuit against him that ended up being dismissed in 2018. neil, in his mar-a
crime? according to three cnn sources t former aide to then white house chief of staff mark meadows told the panel she was contacted by someone in the trump camp attempting to influence her testimony. remember those messages vice chair liz cheney read aloud at tuesday s hearing alluding to possible witness intimidation. the gop congresswoman didn t name names but she relayed accounts of two unidentified witnesses who said they were pressured by people close to the ex-president to, quote, do the right thing, be loyal to donald trump, reminding them trump would be paying close to attention to their words. the committee suggests it has many other examples of witness tampering, which is of course a very serious crime. is that what is happening here? and will the doj be looking into this? they believe they could affect testimony of witnesses before the committee. oits a very serious issue, and i imagine the department of justice would be very interested in and take that seriousl
this is something out of a gangster movie. the star witness in a dramatic trial who has damning information about the boss, contacted by someone who may be trying to intimidate them, to keep them telling what they know. sources are telling us that is exactly what happened to cassidy hutchinson. three sources telling cnn that hutchinson was one of the witnesses trump world tried to influence, which tells you a whole lot about what they thought about her testimony. right? the committee so concerned about her security that they kept her identity a secret leading up to the hearing. in the wake of her block buster testimony, we may be about to learn a whole lot more with the subpoena for pat cipollone who knows what was going on behind those closed doors at the white house before, during and after the january 6. we are also learning more about the lengths trump world may be willing to go to. liz cheney saying two unnamed witnesses told the committee they heard from people in the f
John im john roberts. The story with martha starts rights now. Martha that will be on our minds for a while. Good afternoon, everybody. Im martha maccallum. New things happening in several big stories as we get started here at 3 00 eastern. Senator bob menendez in court with his wife, nadine. If convicted on the counts that they face, the couple could face 45 years in prison. Many of his fellow democrats say he needs to go now. They dont want to wait for a trial. Hes not budging for now at this point. And then theres this story. Watch what happened last night in philadelphia. Martha how is this the scene in Downtown Philadelphia . I dont know why that woman was cackling and laughing while she was videotaping that. Only she knows. The answer to that, its complete chaos in Downtown Philadelphia. Police say that these flash mobs have been in a Caravan Riding around the city and ransacking stores. Were going to talk about that today. Its not just in philadelphia. It has happened all across