Former President Trump
face the music at a campaign
rally in Iowa Friday
amid growing legal woes.
The former president took the stage
just as the walkout song
playing in the background
blared lyrics
that his opponents hope
foreshadow his legal fate.
One could end up going
to prison on
one, despite
might be physically
so you couldn't make that out.
Or if you're been living under a rock
and I'm familiar with that song.
That is Brooks and Dunn Only in America.
And they're talking about all the things
that can happen in this country.
Talking about someone
who could go to prison,
someone who could become president.
Joining us now to discuss, a former
Republican Congressman
Charlie Dent,
and CNN political commentator
and Democratic strategist, Karen Finney.
Karen, as you know, as
I know that Brooks and Dunn
song is played
at every single political rally.
Folks at both parties
use that to pump up the crowd.
And we just don't know at this point
if those lyrics were intentionally played
at that time
or if it was just a coincidence.
What do you make of that moment?
Well,
if anything, it's
certainly the person
who is in charge of production
maybe should have paid
a little closer attention to that.
That's a little bit on the nose
just given everything that's going on.
I'm just saying,
you know, they could have skipped it forward
or gone to a different part of the song.
I would imagine, though,
within the Trump campaign today,
someone is getting there had been off,
no question. It right.
Because his usual walk out song
when he has control over
the music is Lee Greenwood.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I well,
got to be careful.
All right.
This hour,
Charlie Trump
is holding a rally in your home
state of Pennsylvania.
He, of course,
lost that state in 20, 20 In your eyes,
what are his prospects there?
Well, as long as he has this
these legal storm clouds over his head,
I think he's got real problems.
Now, I get it in the primary
among the base.
This is motivating
a certain element of it.
And he's certainly doing
well in the polls.
But among the general electorate,
particularly swing state
like Pennsylvania, to be devastating.
In fact,
the fact that the Trump is in
Erie, Pennsylvania
tonight is significant
because Erie is one of two of six
who is one of two counties
in Pennsylvania.
There are 67 counties,
but Erie and Northampton counties
are the two counties
that went for Barack Obama,
Donald Trump and then Joe Biden.
These are truly swing counties.
So he's there for a reason.
But again,
Trump's legal problems
and his never ending
looking backwards
and grievance politics
about what happened.
The 2020 election
I think are not going to help
in these swing states
and marginal congressional districts.
It's a real problem for the party.
They all know it.
They want him.
They want Trump to go away.
But these leading contenders against them
are afraid to say anything to him
because they're fearful
antagonizing his base.
Other than maybe Chris
Christie will hurt that
Tim Hutchinson Blunt.
And Governor Ron DeSantis
is facing facing backlash
from some of his black
belt from black lawmakers in his party
over his support
for a new education guideline in Florida.
Specifically, this requirement
that students be taught that black people
benefitted from slavery.
What do you make of this?
You know,
it was a real misstep
on the part of Ron DeSantis to double
and triple down
and some in the Republican Party
earlier in the week, even, you know,
they were attacking Vice
President Harris,
even suggesting
that she was lying about the standards.
Well, now, as you see, I mean,
as African-Americans,
I mean, there is something
about the experience of slavery.
We don't need to rely on textbook
or expert.
We have our own stories
in our own family.
So we know about the horrors of slavery
and what the outcome was.
It does
for the Republican Party, though,
in a very complicated position,
because you now have conservative black
legislators in the crosshairs of Ron
DeSantis at a moment
when the Republican Party
has been trying
to make inroads with African-Americans.
And so how they are going to try to
have it both ways,
I think it's going to be interesting
to watch.
And I think it's another sign
that Ron DeSantis just cannot win
in a general election
with this kind of a message
And Charlie,
one of the other black
Republicans, DeSantis has attacked,
Senator Tim
Scott, appears
to be heating up in terms of the polls.
I mean, his super PAC
has brought in around $20 million.
And some states poll state polls
have him gaming on DeSantis
or even overtaking him for second place.
DeSantis was once, of course,
stopped to be the antidote to Trump.
Now it looks like it could be Scott
Well, yeah.
Well, Tim
Scott has a very aspirational,
forward looking message.
He is kind of like the anti Donald Trump
and Ron DeSantis in many ways.
And that
you know, Scott
is not talking
about grievance and victimization.
He he's talking about the future.
He's talking about what can happen.
You know, and he's got a wonderful,
optimistic message.
He's he's got a great personal story.
I think people are responding to that.
It's as simple as that.
And again,
you know, Ron DeSantis has made missteps
as Karen just said, with the,
you know, slavery
and personal benefit
and those state education guidelines.
Ridiculous.
You know, vaccines are a point.
Robert Kennedy, Jr.
As the FDA
leader of the FDA
or the Centers for Disease Control,
I mean, these are things that just crazy.
I mean, so he's
had these types of missteps
in recent days.
And I think Tim Scott is benefiting,
you know, again,
with his personal story and a
very positive message.
And Karen,
President Biden publicly acknowledged
his four year old granddaughter, Navy,
for the first time
in a statement
first reported by People magazine.
He said, quote,
Our son
Hunter and Navy's
mother London are working together
to foster
a relationship
that is in the best interests
of their daughter,
preserving her privacy
as much as possible going forward.
This is not a political issue.
It's a family matter.
If this isn't political,
why has the White House
been so reluctant to discuss this issue?
This young lady is four years old.
Well, I think they
they did make clear in this statement,
I mean, look,
a lot of us have complicated
family dynamics.
And I certainly don't know
the machinations of their family.
I was most importantly
glad to see
the president and first lady acknowledge
this child
because she should be
the most important thing in all of this.
What I hope is that going forward,
our Republican
colleagues will
refrain from using her
as a way to attack Biden.
There has to be,
even in this day and age,
when you can be happy
facing multiple indictments
and running for president
there still has to be something
that is off limits.
And I think four year old children
and children in general
must be off limits.
There are plenty of other attacks
you can levy on. President Biden.
Yeah, this is
you know that it's the child herself.
It's the four years
it took them to acknowledge her.
But Charlie, obviously the president's
son, Hunter
Biden, is going to be a prime fodder
for Republicans.
Do you think that
issue resonates with voters
actually do,
because like Hunter Biden
is he's a bit of a train wreck.
I think we have to acknowledge that.
And I'm not I'm
not going to suggest that the president
did anything criminal
But when most Americans
see that Hunter Biden,
who acknowledged that he was on drugs,
you know, gets this poor position
that pays close to $80,000 a month
for a Ukrainian gas company.
They raised their eyebrows
and they think it smells
it smells of insider trading.
It doesn't seem right.
Same with these Chinese
business dealings.
So the whole thing smells bad.
And, of course,
what happened in court in the courtroom
the other day,
where the prosecution and Hunter's
lawyers couldn't
come to an agreement on the agreements,
I think is also a problem.
You know, this is one Hunter Biden
potentially culpable for some
foreign agents
registration act violations
that he could be charged for.
I mean, so I think this story is not going away.
It is a major problem for the president.
And, you know, and again,
I think Republicans have to be careful
not to overreach
because if you look at the Biden
family's story in total,
you look at the story
and the total U.S.,
you know, he lost his wife
and daughter
in a car accident decades ago,
his son, Beau, to cancer.
And so there's a lot of tragedy.
And so I think a lot of voters
who look at the Biden family in total
and not just at Hunter's
many shortcomings.
I mean, I actually think people are looking
at Hunter and recognizing again,
no one should be above the law,
even the president's son.
And he hasn't been
I mean, he has been going
through a legal process.
There has been
four years of an investigation
which started under Trump.
They've never been able to connect this
to the president
where, you know,
he is going through the criminal process.
And the other thing I would say that
I think in this story
is so many of us know
or have relatives
who are dealing with addiction,
and there is no one
who will do more harm to that.
Person than than that individual.
And I'm not excusing any behavior
that he may have engaged in while
he was an addict,
but I think a lot of people have empathy
for the fact that,
you know, this is about a president
and as a as a man, as a father
standing by his child,
but having nothing to do with
any of his business dealings.