-Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty
to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
-Will you come to speak to us, President Trump?
-Marking a historic moment in American politics.
No ex-president has ever been charged of a crime.
-Anyone who cares about the health of American democracy
and Americans' faith in our institutions
and our legal system has to look at this moment with trepidation.
-This indictment stems from hush money payments
to porn star Stormy Daniels back in 2016.
The district attorney, Alvin Bragg,
called it a catch and kill scheme.
-The participant's scheme was illegal.
The scheme violated New York election law,
which makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy
by unlawful means.
-Hours after his New York court appearance,
Trump stoked his base during a speech at Mar-a-Lago.
-The criminal is the district attorney
because he illegally leaked massive amounts
of grand jury information.
[applause]
For which he should be prosecuted,
or at a minimum, he should resign.
-What he's really doing is appealing to a sense
among a lot of these voters,
you know, whether or not that sense is well deserved,
of resentment, of victimhood, of grievance.
-Even if Trump were to be convicted,
it wouldn't bar him from running for president.
So how has this indictment started to shape
the presidential race and further test democracy?
-I think this whole process is destabilizing to democracy.
What I don't want to do is put the finger on where it starts.
Right? So we could say,
is the indictment destabilizing?
Well, is what brought the indictment destabilizing, right?
-Since the moment he incorrectly predicted
the timing of his arrest,
Trump has been in the eye of the media storm.
-It puts him in the limelight once again.
He gets all kind of free press and free publicity
and helps him stay ahead of all of his competitors,
at least in public visibility.
-His allies have already used the political momentum
to raise millions in fundraising efforts.
-Please help President Trump. If you can afford 5 or 10 bucks.
-But the messaging isn't so simple
for Trump's GOP competitors
eyeing the Republican nomination for 2024.
-I think the country would be better off talking about things
that the American public cares about than to sit there
and have to deal with some revenge
by some political people in New York.
-I don't know what goes into
paying hush money to a porn star.
I have no interest in getting involved
in some type of manufactured circus.
-And I think that will be the pivot
that all of his opponents
will try to do with Republican voters,
is to say, "Yeah, it may be
that you disagree with the prosecution,
with this indictment,
but do you really want the mantle bearer of our party
to have this along with all these other legal problems
on his shoulders?"
-If they want to have any chance in the campaign,
in the primary, they should be getting out ahead on this
and begin criticizing Trump
and trying to gain support outside of Trump's base
to put them in a good position to win the Republican primary.
None of them is doing this.
They all seem to be at the mercy of Trump's base
and basically, you know, are scared of offending them.
-And come the general election,
political scientists weigh how Trump's legal baggage
will play with a critical portion
of the electorate -- the independent voter.
-It's hard to imagine that this indictment ends up
winning the hearts of a lot of independent voters
who will be key in November of 2024.
-These charges come as three
other investigations into Trump are pending.
A Georgia grand jury is weighing Trump's efforts
to overturn results in the 2020 election.
And the Department of Justice has two investigations,
one into Trump's potential mishandling
of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago
and the other examining Trump's role
in the January 6th insurrection.
-We know, from studying public opinion,
is that the general public
is not going to pay too much attention to the details,
particularly as all of these cases kind of pile up.
What people are going to pay more attention to
are the personalities.
And to the extent that these cases become
part of a broader narrative
that Trump just has too much baggage,
that could be a problem for him
in trying to clinch the Republican nomination.