Why weren't these individuals like Senator Graham, like Michael Flynn, not
charged, if that was the original recommendation?
Well, the report that was unsealed today came from what's known as a special
purpose grand jury. And they did not have the power to
indict. They investigated for eight months last
year and heard from 75 witnesses, and they essentially made recommendations to
the district attorney in Fulton County, Fani Willis, and they recommended more
than three dozen people should be indicted.
In the end, Bonny Willis asked for 19 people, including Donald Trump, to be
indicted. And the report doesn't say why the half
of the people were not indicted. But we can only assume that the
prosecutors made a strategic decision to not indict half the people that were
recommended by the special purpose grand jury because they thought they couldn't
carry their burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these people were
guilty. And I would just say that beyond
Michael Flynn, they also recommended the former senators from Georgia, David
Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Of course, with Lindsey Graham, the
South Carolina Republican senator. All right.
Let's move over to New Delhi now, where President Biden met with Indian Prime
Minister Modi ahead of the G-20 summit this weekend.
They've already sat down together. Bloomberg's Dan flatly is here with us
now for more on that. Dan, this bilateral meeting happened
pretty quickly here, but it's actually the folks who are not at the G-20 who
are making some news here, the leaders of China and Russia.
What kind of opportunity might this open for Joe Biden?
Yeah, that's right, Joe. It's a it's a pretty interesting
opportunity for Biden because he's been sort of courting Modi this whole summer,
really. I mean, he invited him to Washington to
a state dinner was a big deal. And obviously, this is U.S.
trying to counter China, trying to counter Russia as it continues its
invasion of Ukraine and really trying to hold India close.
India has not really joined a lot of the measures that the US has imposed, along
with some of its European allies on Russia.
But this could be an opportunity for Biden to say to President Modi, hey, you
know, let's work a little bit closer together on these issues.
Let's think about strategic positioning in the Indo-Pacific region.
You know, it's sort of a chance to kind of get somebody that you really want to
talk to at a party when the other people aren't there, according to our
reporting. The issue that still remains up for
discussion within the communiques, they can't get Iran to sign off on the G20 in
Bali language regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which said most
countries condemn the war. Right.
That's a pretty low bar. Are they going to be able to clear it?
Yeah, I think that, you know, when you run into issues like that, it's a low
bar, but it has immense symbolism or a lot of significance beyond what was
actually on the paper. I think that perhaps in the back rooms
there's some opportunities to do some jockeying and try to
reach agreement on things. You don't necessarily have to come out
and announce right away. So you can make some moves that people
don't necessarily have to see or you don't have to trumpet or announce while
you're sort of, you know, trying to work on some more tougher diplomatic issues
that kind of are at the forefront. And of course, when you talk about
Ukraine, it's not just the language, It's are they going to be able to
continue this funding? The US has needs to convince not just
the international community like the global South, that they should be
funding and supporting Ukraine, but also congressmen and women back home.
Isn't the Ukraine funding a big part of this budget fight?
Kate, we're about to see. It is.
I mean, there are so many issues that are on the horizon now.
When the House comes back next week, we're going to see fights over Ukraine
funding. We're going to see fights over funding
the federal government. We're, you know, looking ahead at maybe
a shutdown in a couple of weeks. And so these are all these very
contentious issues where you have people in both parties, you know, just on polar
opposites. So this is going to be a really, really
contentious week ahead. It could be that some of these fault
lines and lines of division become more clear.
I spent a lot of time this week talking to lobbyists, business lobbyists, and
they are all preparing for a government shutdown.
They're preparing their clients. They're telling federal government
contractors, you know, get your bills in now, get, you know, get make sure you've
got your work orders and all of that done this month before a possible
shutdown would happen, you know, as of October 1st.
So that's you know, there's not a the people who kind of watch this process,
they're not expecting, you know, where this is just going to come together very
quickly. But, you know, we'll see what happens.
We spoke with Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis of New York yesterday
about a potential shutdown. Here's what she said.
The shutdown can be avoided. Is it probable?
I don't know. At this point, I really can't say.
I think that, unfortunately, there are some within my own party that are
digging their heels in saying they want a shutdown regardless and they'll never
be happy really with anything. They don't understand art of compromise.
And I think that's the real difference between those Republicans and some
others. They need to understand that we don't
control the government right now. The Democrats control two thirds of the
pie, reminding us yet again that this is not
just a battle between the White House and the Hill or between the House and
the Senate. But within the Republican Party, in the
House, the Democrats in the two big times the Republicans.
Yeah, that that intra party fight has a long way to go before this resolves.
Yeah. And there are a lot of outside
stakeholders that are putting pressure on members of Congress.
You've got conservative groups that are pushing the more conservative
Republicans. You know, don't take any kind of a deal,
throw, you know, throw a wrench into it as much as you can.
And then on the other side, you have liberal groups that are really leaning
on Senate Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, sending them
letters and saying, you know, don't cave, don't, don't throw in the towel.
You know, stick to the the debt ceiling deal that was brokered earlier this
year. So you just have a lot of competing
pressures both internally inside their parties and also externally.
David, just to bring you back into this conversation and get back where we
started here, we're talking about a timeline for a potential shutdown.
We're also questioning the timing of trials for Donald Trump, because it's
going to be an interesting balancing act here for everybody involved here.
Do we have a sense on a start date for the first trial for Donald Trump?
You're talking about Georgia. They've suggested as early as October,
but that's not likely to happen. Right?
The special counsel will likely get his trial rolling first.
What's your view? It does seem like the special counsel
trials will probably go first. You know,
there is a trial date of October 23rd that's been set for two of Trump's
co-defendants in Georgia, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Cheese.
And that would give a preview of the evidence against Trump and the others in
Georgia. But he's certainly going to have a very
crowded year in court while he's trying to campaign, because three of the four
trials have been set and the fourth should be set soon.
And, you know, he's going to need to be in court to defend himself.
So it's going to cause some tremendous logistical problems for him as a
candidate, assuming that those trials are not rescheduled.