And what you make of
how Republicans on Capitol Hill
today were responding to that 70 minutes
last night.
I'm actually impressed that they
that a number of them
responded the way they did.
I mean, first off,
I thought you did a great job.
I mean, I think you did
the best
job anybody could expect out of anybody
going up against Donald Trump.
I mean, it was to your point last door,
I guess, by the way,
he said that behind your back
was over there.
But to your point
last night that you made it was a rerun.
I mean, this was Trump
being Trump, as he's always been.
And I'm disappointed that we didn't see
something new, like just put everything
that happened on 20, 20 the trial.
There's ways to deflect that
and put it in the rearview mirror.
But tell us what we're going to do next.
So I'm actually very impressed
that we had Republicans on the Hill
that were willing to at least address
the issue.
Now, there were some
that just don't want to even get involved
in the noise, like Lisa Murkowski,
who's from my home state.
I commend her for that.
I mean, at least
let the noise die down and then come out
and make a statement later
when she has to them.
Ben, what do you think?
Well,
first of all,
I just appreciated you
being the matador against the bull
Anybody who's got a conversation
with Donald Trump knows
it is a very hard thing to do, just even,
you know, in normal life,
let alone in front of millions of people.
And I also thought it was a rerun.
It was a repeat.
But I think you also
put him in a position
where he revealed some things
that people who don't watch him
all the time were not aware of.
For instance,
he's updated
his sort of weaponizing, of nostalgia
before it was Make America
Great Again from the fifties.
And that's very appealing
to people who feel that
today is a rough period.
He's now moved it up.
No, Make America Great Again.
Just two years ago.
Just two years ago. It was great.
It was perfect. Everything was wonderful.
And if he stays there,
where he's praising his own past
and point to the future
and sticks Biden with the president,
that's dangerous.
And so I think now Democrats
now have a chance to look at it.
We can start getting ready.
We can see a little bit
of how he's going to move.
And I think a lot of Democrats
had not watched him for three years.
Shocking how how terrible he still is.
But also,
you see that the virus is mutating
and we've got to be ready for him.
What did you think?
Especially given obviously
one of his arguments
he's been making lately
is that maybe he won't participate
in the Republican primary debates
because he is so far ahead
currently in the polls.
But he didn't spend a lot of time
last night
talking about Biden or his record.
Now, I was very struck by that.
And I just want to echo everyone else.
He tried repeatedly
to get under your skin.
You never let him.
And it was a real reminder
of the briefing room
version of you that we saw
over many years.
I think that he was lucky.
He went in there and I had been hearing
and my colleagues have been hearing,
you know, there's going to start
being a sort of a pivot more toward Biden
that that's
where the energy is going to be.
You know, he's essentially running
as a as an incumbent, Donald Trump.
And so, you know,
he there isn't really a Republican field.
He doesn't want to give
those challengers.
He he can't stop defending himself
or talking about himself.
And so, consequently,
he's spent almost no time
talking about Biden.
It was very little.
You know, that will be a problem for him.
And that is his problem,
you know, for years
is that he wants to talk about himself
and the past Van's point.
You know,
I think that his folks
still feel good about the contrast
that he can show
or they think he can show with Biden
in terms of doing a format like that.
I think they still think
that he is going to be able
to try to appear
dominant or strong
and he's going to try
to draw a weakness contrast with Biden.
You know, again,
this primary is not over.
We should not
suggest that he's a nominee.
But I think that's where they're going
to be looking.
What I also was struck by,
he cannot help himself on
wanting to mix it up
and wanting to be on stage.
And so yes,
I understand that he's been doing
a lot of I'm not going to debate.
I do think there's a real chance he skips
at least one and maybe two.
Very hard for me
to imagine him
seeing a bunch of Republicans on stage
talking about him and him,
you know, saying, yeah,
you know what, I'm going to I'm
going to sit this one out.
Yeah.
David,
what's your sense of how Republicans
are responding to what you saw today?
And also,
you know,
the fact that the White House,
you know,
immediately was like,
you want four more years of this,
they're fundraising off of it.
Well, look, to to Van's
point on your last point,
you know,
a lot of Americans
don't share
this halcyon view
of what those years were like.
Those years were chaotic.
They were exhausting.
And, you know, the more you see of Trump,
as we saw him last night,
the more it brings that back.
So I think that strategically was smart
of them to do it.
In terms
of how the Republicans reacted
I do think just as a reality check,
they reacted the way they did
because as they have been for years,
they're fearful of Trump's base,
which is the dominant force
in Republican politics today.
And he is, in fact, a
I think, a fairly substantial frontrunner
in this race.
There are a lot of
Republicans who share other views
who wish that weren't so.
But you heard it in that room.
You know, people say, well,
it sounds like a Trump rally
sound like a Trump rally
because you at CNN assembled
a representative group of Republicans
in New Hampshire.
He's at 50% in the polls
in New Hampshire.
The governor of the state has had 11
In those same polls,
he is in a dominant position.
So that what you saw were
a lot of politicians
who just didn't want to deal with it
and didn't want to comment on it.
Some of them who ducked into hallways.
And I hate to be a man who
raised eyebrows you who must feel like,
you know,
like he's
carrying the plague or something
because every time he
I think we'll see him
with a microphone
that go into a door
and slam the door shut.
But they don't want to talk about it
because they don't want to offend
his base.
And one of the things
his opponents are going to have to decide
is, I mean,
are they going to continue
to play that game?
I saw Tim Scott running
into one of those doors
are you going to continue to let him,
you know,
behave outrageously
and have nothing to say about it?
Is that really a winning formula?
If you're running for president?
I would actually just
I don't
I think there is some element
of what you're saying there.
But I recall back in 20, 15,
the same thing was going on.
He said they went out with Dr.
Carson's campaign
and everybody wanted to talk about
what Trump was doing.
And they would ask
every single one of the eight of us
that were on the ballot at the time
and they would ask people on the Hill,
What do you think about Trump now
at the time?
The stock answer was,
There is no way
this guy is going to win the primary.
Right.
That we cannot put up with this
let's talk about serious issues.
So I think to some extent, some of these
members now,
you know, you showed
a sample clipping
of some of the members they talked to.
I don't know how many overall mean
he talked to overall,
but I think there is some element of,
look, we've got serious business
that we have to deal with right now.
That's the last thing
that I want to be talking about.
But the problem is, is it's
the last thing
that they want to be talking about,
I think in large measure,
because there's nothing great to say.
And what I was very struck by today,
two things.
The volume of headlines
that you just showed
it just speaks
to how much
news came out of this town hall.
And I think it was important
for people to hear
where he is on positions
as opposed to just
the small groups of reporters
who are on the plane with him.
Or, you know,
the occasional Newsmax interview
that he does or what have you.
So, number one, that was important.
Number two,
I was really struck
by the number of people
who didn't want to say anything,
who have been more vocal
in recent months,
who had been speaking out about Trump,
but didn't today and didn't last night,
because I do think that's
a mark of his strength in this primary.
They see him as heading
in a certain direction.
I think it's a wake up call.
People have been very critical of CNN.
How can you platform this?
How can you do this?
This thing is happening.
Donald Trump is back and he is real.
Now, the fact that the mainstream media
has not paid attention
or has been trying to ignore
it doesn't mean it's not true.
I think now people are aware
that this is this thing is back.
It's real.
And we people got to be very smart
that we're going to deal with it.
Well,
let me to this point that in 2015, 20,
16 people didn't respond.
They didn't think it was serious
and so on.
The guy became president
of the United States.
So I think what we saw last night was the
some of the, you know, look
I'm not endorsing his behavior
and certainly I'm not endorsing his,
you know, the lying
and all of that stuff.
But just clinically speaking
his performance
skills are pretty substantial.
And he knows his base
and he knows how to
tickle the funny bone of his base.
And he's made himself
a martyr incredibly.
You know,
now I'm beginning to think that,
you know,
rather
than bricks on a load
that will slow his wagon, down,
these indictments are going to serve
as kind of proof that he is somehow
being victimized
by the deep state
who are trying to stop him
from winning in on that front.
One thing to note is
we had
seen some of these audience members,
crowd members.
These were either people
who are Republicans
or they're they're
independents are voting
in the New Hampshire Republican primary.
That's what
they're called undeclared voters.
They're these people.
We're all going in a MAGA
hat or t shirts.
I've been to a million
Trump rallies covering them.
There wasn't that kind of crowd
when you speak
to which are those Republicans
who were laughing
when he was making fun of Eugene Carol.
It certainly wasn't the whole room.
There were certainly some people
who felt uncomfortable with that.
But Maggie, on the front of what
he said
about Eugene, Carol and her attorneys now
saying maybe we'll sue him again
for defamation
after he was just ordered
to pay $5 million.
Also, what he said about the documents
seeming knowingly.
Do you think he opened himself up
to more legal exposure?
So, I mean, I will tell you
that I did a double take in the newsroom
when you asked him that question
and he answered the way he did.
And that was a very specific moment of
of the town hall.
The second half, you were both standing.
His entire body language changed.
It's not a topic he likes talking about.
As you know, it is a topic
he is very worried about.
As you know,
and he he walked himself into trouble.
You know, he said, you know, I took them.
I'm allowed to.
Now, he's he's done
slight variations of that before,
but not like that.
And most noticeably,
he would not rule out definitively
that he did not show
people classified material.
And his position really, really
is not known then? Not that I can recall.
I mean, it was a very legal answer.