Donald Trump wrapping up
a speech moments ago in Iowa.
It is the first time
he's spoken since he announced
he is a target of special counsel
Jack Smith's probe into his efforts
to overturn the 2020 election
And he said this as Trump faces
a third possible indictment
We have a man.
The only way he can get
elected is to weaponize
the Justice Department,
which he's got around doing.
I didn't know practically
what a subpoena was.
And grand juries and all of this.
Now I like becoming an expert.
I have no choice because we have to.
It's a disgrace.
If you say something about an election,
they want to put you in jail
for the rest of your life.
We have prosecutors that are evil people.
These are evil people. Deranged.
I call them deranged.
Trump's remarks
just hours after he scrambled to call top
allies on Capitol Hill,
including the House speaker
Kevin McCarthy,
and the House GOP conference chair
Elise Stefanik, to strategize.
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT.
So, Kristen, you're you know
you know what's happening here in
who Trump is talking
to, what they're saying.
What are
what are you learning about
Trump's strategy? Here?
Well, look,
there's always going to be two strategies
in theory,
the political strategy
and the legal strategy.
But as we continue down this path
with more and more of these legal issues,
more and more of these indictments,
they really start to merge together.
And that's what you just saw there
in those unannounced remarks.
You stopped by the Linn
County Republican Party.
Small group
was gathered there to cheer him on.
These are people who support him,
who knew he was coming.
And he talks about how deranged this is.
This is part of their election strategy
because they are going to continue
to paint this as a witch hunt and a hoax.
And that is
when you start to see
these two strategies merge.
We know the former
president likes to play things out
in the court
of public opinion,
and that is what he is going to continue
to do
and that is what his team is
going to continue to do.
Now, we do also know,
because we saw those FEC filings
from the campaign,
those finance reports last week,
that the strategy
of essentially fundraising
off of these indictments
is working for the former president.
The no, the numbers don't lie.
They show an enormous amount of money
in the last quarter,
more than the first quarter,
more after the indictments
and those arraignments
And that is what his team is banking on.
Again,
they also saw those poll numbers as well,
maintaining those poll numbers,
not going down.
However, I do want to note one thing.
I have talked to
several allies
who say that
while this
might give him a boost right now,
this is completely unprecedented,
as we know,
and it is unclear
what this looks like in the long run.
All right, Christine,
thank you very much.
And I want to go now
to the Republican governor
of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu.
And, Governor,
I really appreciate your time.
So here, here's where we are.
This moment and things could change a lot
over the next few days, right?
But two indictments for Trump this year.
So far, the third may be imminent.
One of his Republican rivals
for president,
Asa Hutchinson today, governor said
and I quote
the governor,
I have said
from the beginning
that Donald Trump's actions on
January six
should disqualify him
from ever being president again.
Anyone who truly loves this country
and is willing to put the country over
themselves
would suspend their campaign
for president of the United States
immediately.
Do you
agree, Governor, and is an indictment
in the January 6th probe,
as we anticipate
there may be one
in the next two days disqualifying
It should be.
But but it's just not
he's not going to get out, in fact,
as much as these indictments roll out.
It just helps him.
It's building
a lot of sympathy on his side.
His poll numbers go up.
So, you know, he looks dower
and all this kind of stuff.
He obviously doesn't have
the fastball in the energy
that he used to have.
He gets up there in his rallies
he instead of 90 minutes
of kind of getting people
excited about disrupting
and being an outsider
like he did in 2016,
he gets up and does 90 minutes of
of a droning
illegal recital of
of the indictments and the woe is me
and it builds this sympathy.
It's like,
it's like a sad Lenny Bruce,
you know,
repeating itself in 20, 23,
but it builds all this sympathy
and there are,
there is no question by the way
there's a lot of Democrats
cheering this on
because they completely
see how this will play out.
This allows him to gain sympathy
likely win the Republican nomination
and get absolutely crushed
in November of 24
because there's no independent
there's no undecided voter
who's going to see all this
and see all the drama see the
the soap opera
that is Donald Trump life and say
oh you know what I've changed my mind
I'm back to that guy now.
No, not a single one.
So it really spells a lot of trouble
for the Republican Party
if he were to stay on top.
All right.
So, look,
you've been clear
that Trump shouldn't be the GOP nominee
and you just said it there.
And, you know, when you said he
and even by the way,
I do think it's important,
Governor, you pointed something out
which I hadn't mentioned
and deserves mention
find he's in a small room in Iowa.
He's not in a big rally.
So I give that caveat.
But he does sound tired and dour
and beaten down in what he just said.
Right.
I mean, the tone,
the tone, that's what it is.
But but here's the reality.
The not the Donald Trump of 2016.
No, no.
I mean, certainly not not what we hear
they're brand new poll out of your state
shows exactly what you just said.
He's got a wide lead
and it's getting bigger.
14 percentage
point lead over Ron
DeSantis in New Hampshire right now
and DeSantis though
downplayed concerns about his campaign
tries to say everything's doing fine.
He had an exclusive interview
with Jake Tapper.
Let me play something he said, Governor
this issue gets into the state
of the race
because some of your supporters
are disappointed
that your campaign has yet
to catch fire
the way they would want in terms
of polling
one Republican pollster,
one who is sympathetic to you.
I was asking her about your campaign
and she said she thought the issue was
you bumped up at the beginning
because voters, Republican voters
saw you
as a more electable
conservative like Trump,
like Trump without the baggage.
But then they say
as you go further
and further to the right
on some of these divisive social issues,
that could alienate
moderates, suburban moms, etc.,
Republican voters
see you as less and less electable.
What do you say to that analysis?
Why do they it's true.
I mean, the proof is in the pudding.
I mean, I took a state
that had been a one point state
and we wanted by 20 percentage
points 1.5 million votes.
Our bread and butter
were people like suburban moms.
We're leading a big movement
for four parents rights to have
the parents be involved
in education, school choice,
get the indoctrination out of schools.
And of course, there's
bread and butter issues
that matter to inflation,
more economic opportunity.
Florida's economy is ranked number
one of all 50 states.
We've worked hard to make that happen.
Crime
you see crime in all these
different communities
that is now even going in the suburbs
in some areas.
So I think that there's a lot of things.
I don't think that's the reason.
I think the reason is, is
I was getting a lot of media attention
at the time coming off the victory.
I had to do my job as governor
with my legislative session,
and we had a great legislative session.
We did a lot of great things,
actually, things
that appeal
to huge majorities
of the of the population.
So I think that that analysis is wrong,
but I had to do that.
And so I was basically taking fire
really nonstop
since then
because a lot of people view
me as a threat.
I think the left views me as a threat
because they think I'll beat Biden
and actually deliver on all this stuff.
And then, of course, people
that have their allegiances
within the allegiances
in the Republican side,
you know, have gone after me.
But the reality is
this is a state by state process.
I'm not running a campaign
to try to juice,
you know, whatever
we are in the national polls.
I mean,
whatever we did in the CNN compared
whatever, it's fine.
I'm definitely doing better than ever
state by state.
Obviously, it's state by state.
All right.
Governor, I'm
curious and look, we're July 2023.
So so things can happen.
You know, you can
you can cycle back through.
So we don't know where this will end up
but where we are right now
and where we've been the past
few months is Iran to Santa.
So people thought
with some sort of a shining star
in the GOP and was going to surge didn't.
And not only didn't he it's gotten worse,
at least at this point.
What do you think it is
that's turned voters off to him
Well, remember, nobody surged.
Right.
So it's more that the Trump voters are
with all these indictments as we were
just discussing all this sympathetic.
He's garnering all the headlines
and all these candidates
are running against a former incumbent
Senate president. Right.
So just naturally, there's
if Trump wasn't
garnering these headlines,
if these indictments weren't happening,
I'd have no
I have no doubt
that Ron DeSantis or other
candidates would be surging.
There'd be a bigger story
around the other candidates.
But Trump keeps garnering the headlines
to run.
Governor DeSantis, this point,
while the governor was,
you know, having to be governor,
some of us do have 24, seven jobs still.
So there is a lot of time here left.
And I don't
I think Jake has some really great tough
head on questions.
I think the governor gave
some really clear answers in terms of
you can't say, well, he's going too far.
Right if he won Florida by 20 points.
Right.
He does have the support
of independents and
and Democrats, as do a lot of these
other potential candidates.
So I just think there's
there's a lot to play.
We haven't even seen him
on a debate stage. Right.
I keep going back to that.
We're still a month away
from the debate stage.
And that's going to be really telling
for all of them
who can take a punch,
you can give a punch, who's
going to really stand
up, who's going to push
back on the
on the former president
and show
where we're going forward as a country
and of course, we don't know
where the former president
will be on that stage or not.
I mean, obviously, could be.
It's whether he chooses to be
he's obviously made the requirements.
You said you were going to endorse
someone early
and you were going to campaign for them.
So what is that at this point?
You're going to wait till after that
debate to see or not?
No, I'll tell you, I'm
campaigning with all that
with all the candidates right
now, actually.
So they come up with
they do kind of their retail stops.
I'll go out and I'll see all of them.
I'm spending time with them.
Some of them are going doing
multiple events with me
a day, kind of seeing and
and helping them do good retail politics.
I just think, as
with all of them in the race,
if they do well here on a retail side,
that's good for New Hampshire, it's
good for the country.
It's a good first filter.
It's not about policy.
It's about looking you in the eye
and kind of buying off it on you
as a person.
And the rest of the country watches that.
So we're going to be my my dog, myself
and my whole team.
We're going to be a big part of that
all the way through this fall.
And then if there's a candidate
that's really standing out,
I got no problem standing behind him and
and in endorsing.
All right.
And, you know, but
but but obviously
all the way through this fall
until such a moment may occur.
Governor, thanks so much.
Always good to talk to you.
And after governor,
soon to just focus, go to Harry
Enten because, Harry, here's the reality.
And I know
Governor Sununu
saying, well,
nobody surged and that's true.
I will say,
if you look at state by state,
you do see that
Chris Christie certainly
in New Hampshire, right?
I mean, there are some.
There are some.
But his point does hold however,
in the case of DeSantis,
people expected a lot.
Yes.
Didn't expect anything
from those other guys. Correct. Okay.
Or from Nikki Haley.
They don't expect as much.
DeSantis people expected a lot.
He has not delivered in the polls
at this point.
What's up?
Yeah,
I think that if you look underneath
the hood,
there is a big problem
for the Florida governor.
Look at his very favorable ratings.
This historically has translated
to support at the ballot box.
And what we see us is very favorable.
Ratings among Republicans
have dropped by about 15 points
since the beginning of the year.
So, yes,
Trump might have come up in the polls
a little bit.
No one really surged to wasn't
a Donald Trump candidate.
But the fact is,
if you look underneath the hood,
I think there's
real problems for DeSantis.