Trump speaks out for first time since revealing he's a target in the special counsel's probe

 

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.