George. You write
here.
The New York Trump
case is kind of perfect.
Now, you wrote this
before this verdict dropped.
You said his other criminal cases
involve lies
about the 2016 election,
about the military secrets he stole.
But the alleged lies in the people v
Trump strike
at the core of his moral presence.
And Trump knows it.
what do you make of the verdict
that we saw here today?
and also David Fromm's comments,
considering the way
this sits in our nation's consciousness
and the way it stacks up
against some of the other things
that Donald Trump is accused of doing.
Yeah. Well, I actually agreed
with everything that David said.
And in terms of this verdict,
the only thing that really
I wasn't
I was surprised by the fact
that so many people were surprised
I was in that courtroom.
for a number of the days
I read the transcript,
I followed along very closely in
this case was never, ever close.
It was it there was really no defense.
The only defense was that Michael Cohen
lied on some other occasions.
But on the things that he testified
to about Donald Trump and Stormy
Daniels and Karen McDougal
and the catch and kill scheme
with with the,
with the
with the with the National Enquirer,
all that was corroborated
many, many times over by documents.
So I'm just surprised at
how many people were kind of unwilling
to accept this case.
that that said, I do
you know, I think that it is
this case really does
capture Donald Trump in a way.
It it's where he started.
He's been a criminal
his entire life,
and he cannot help himself.
I mean, he if you,
you go out there and you
see his son and him
all claiming that the victims of them
some mastermind scheme
by by President Biden.
I mean, it's just it's
just silly and ridiculous.
And Marco Rubio should be ashamed.
I mean,
if you don't want to be found guilty
of falsifying business records,
and as a felony,
you know, don't sleep with the porn star.
Don't lie about it.
Don't pay her off.
Don't cover up the payoff.
Don't cover off the pay off
in the middle of a presidential campaign.
And, where you're making a contribution.
And don't don't gross
the guy up for taxes who used as a
as the front man if you don't want.
If you don't want to be held liable
for rape
like Donald Trump has,
don't grab the woman's genitalia
if you don't want to be held liable
from defaming the woman that you raped.
Don't keep lying about what you did
and calling her a nutjob.
If you don't want to be indicted
for overthrowing the Constitution,
don't start a self kook.
If you don't want to be indicted
for classified stealing classified
documents and obstructing justice,
don't take the classified documents.
When the government asked for it back,
give them back.
If if you
if the FBI serves you
with a search warrant,
don't hide the documents
and and don't lie about it
and don't have your lawyers
lie about this.
Isn't that hard?
Donald Trump is not the victim here.
Donald Trump is
is does all of these things to himself.
And I agree with David.
I mean, once upon a time,
the Republican Party was the party,
not just an anti hippies,
but a personal responsibility
and of, of law and order.
What party?
Where is that
party here
that no one's willing to hold in?
The Republican Party
is willing to hold Donald Trump
to account for his crimes, crimes
that aren't really even in dispute.
And no one,
no one is willing to call him up and said
he's he's going to get the nomination.
That's just insane.
And it just shows
the degree of moral rot
we have
on the conservative side
of politics today.
Scott Jennings, I think this is for you.
Where is that party?
Well, I
disagree with a
number of things, George said. Of course.
I mean, he's talking about these crimes
that were committed that,
that, that, that I mean, he's
talking about the obvious crimes
that were supposedly committed.
But that's the core of what
a lot of decidedly non MAGA
Republicans are mad about
is that there is no underlying crime.
I looked at the statement
from Maine Senator
Susan Collins,
who I think encapsulated it perfectly.
She said this was a Partizan prosecutor
who promised to get Trump,
and that's what he did
not promise to go after the law,
but he promised pathetic
promise to go after Donald Trump.
And so the issue is here.
What is the crime?
He's never been indicted for
or convicted of the campaign
finance theory at the core of this case.
And so Republicans were wondering today,
you know,
what what what do you have to do
to to build a defense against something
you've never been convicted of
in the first place?
I'll tell you the mood in the party.
If you're looking for a generalized
attitude, is reminds me
a little bit about the Kavanaugh period.
You go back to the Brett
Kavanaugh hearings, 2018.
I remember that period being the MAGA
people were mad.
The non MAGA, the anti-Trump, the right.
Every wing of the party was vibrating,
angry about what
was being done to Kavanaugh.
I feel and sense
that the same thing is happening today,
which is why
I think you're probably going
to see this backfire
politically on the Democrats,
and they're going to regret it.
I mean, George, I will say,
I have heard
from some people
who really don't want to see Trump
get elected
in the Republican Party,
who are concerned that this is just
this particular case
is just going to drive,
additional enthusiasm
for the former president.
I'd be interested to respond to that.
And you got your face in your hands.
Well, you got to say this.
I have to say, I mean, look,
I mean, you know, Scott's lying.
And that's the problem
with the Republican Party.
It is continually addicted to love that.
Wait a minute.
What am I what am I what what am I lying?
You're lying. You're lying, Scott.
You're lying about the law.
You're lying about what
the jury was charged to find.
They don't have to find
an underlying crime.
They had to find the intent to cover up
an underlying crime.
And the underlying crime
was pretty obvious. What was the crime?
You ran for public office, Scott.
You. You ran for public office. Scott.
You know you can't take money
from somebody
and reimburse them to for as a
you know,
if it's a campaign,
never run that damn well and you're okay.
Fine. Well, you you're close enough.
You're involved in politics to know that.
Okay.
So that's the problem
with the Republican Party
is that they are suffused with lies.
I don't know why this network
is paying Scott to say this lies.
Whoa, whoa. Okay.
Let's talk. Please.
Let's not go there. No.
We should be proud of Scott
as our colleague.
And we're going to treat him
respectfully as such. Continue.
Well, you should hear here's my question.
If if it if it is
if it is an obvious crime,
why did the Department of Justice
and the Federal Election Commission
take a pass on it?
Well, the Federal Police
should have been prosecuted.
It should have been prosecuted.
On January 21st January 21st, 2021.
Let's look. That's what we all know.
This is the thing about Tommy Trump.
He's never Donald Trump,
never been Donald Trump has been let off.
He should have been indicted for it.
And the fact of the matter is, Donald,
he wasn't sure what he was.
Hold on. Please, David.
The Federal Election
Commission is a broken
and paralyzed institution.
it requires it requires a majority.
It's got equal numbers
of Republicans and Democrats.
It requires a majority to act.
And it's not acted on
anything for a decade because it has been
it is broken.
And one of the reasons
that things are ending up
in the criminal justice system
is because the internal political system
has been sabotaged by the people
that complain
that the criminal justice system is
the wrong, is the wrong remedy.
You know,
I want to pick up something
else, Scott said.
This is a
become an important Republican
talking point that Alvin Bragg vowed to,
punish Donald Trump.
That doesn't seem to be true.
People are looking to the record to say,
where is this?
Where is this
promise that you're talking about?
And I wonder, it's
maybe they've mistaken
Alvin Bright
for Letitia James,
the New York state
attorney general,
who did make that promise.
but Bragg actually
was the person
who declined
to bring a criminal action
based on the Civil frauds
that then won,
verdicts of a half $1 billion.
But he's been actually quite a cautious,
not as conscious
as Mayor and Merrick Garland,
but still quite cautious.
He was not
someone who was chomping at the bit
to get this president.
Scott.
I disagree,
I think it's obvious
that he wanted to get the president,
and I think it's obvious that he
he did it.
I mean, I,
I mean, he
he these Democrats in New York,
I mean, if you ask
the average Republican
have been desperate
to get Trump from the beginning,
and they finally did it.
And I you know, the I'm not a lawyer,
but the political impact of this
I am an expert on
and I'm telling you right now,
this has done more to unify
the Republican Party behind Trump
than anything else
you could have possibly done.
I've heard people on TV last night say,
now they got to throw him in jail.
We gotta throw him in jail.
My advice would be, go right ahead.
Ask for the maximum jail time.
Go, go right. Go right ahead.
Because I would love to see you.
If being a can deal
with the consequences of that Republican
being a convicted
felon, we're good for you.
Politically,
we would not have had to wait
for 230 years
of the life of this republic
for people to run for office
as convicted felons.
historically, everyone has agreed
that it's a bad thing to be a political.
He didn't sell it.
He didn't run for office
as a convicted felon.
He was convicted after he started running
and he was running for office.
He is now today, it's not too late
for the Republican convention
to swap him out
and find someone
who's not a convicted felon.
You know, it's
technically it is before the convention.
After the convention, we might
actually see something