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CNN This Morning

House Democrats Call for Trump Trial to be Televised; Trump Pleads Not Guilty in Election Interference Case; Appeals Court Reinstates Biden Asylum Policy for Now. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 04, 2023 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Just going to state a fact here. Diana Taurasi, one of the best basketball players on the planet.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: True.

MATTINGLY: 41 years old in her 19th season still -- dominating. And now she's done with no other WNBA player has ever done before. With that three-pointer and that notable swagger, as always Taurasi became the first WNBA player to score 10,000 points in their career.

No other WNBA player even has 7,500 points. Taurasi finished dropping 42 last night. Her first -- since 2010 the Mercury beat the dream easily, 91-71.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANA TAURASI, WNBA ALL-TIME LEADING SCORER: When you do something you love and you obsess with it, you just always want to push the limits. Sometimes pushing the limits have gotten me in trouble, but I just put everything into it. -- our fans, people that i have known for a long time that have helped me get here, it couldn't have been any better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: No, there's that. She's great at 41. A lot of great things happen when you're 41. I can tell you.

MATTINGLY: I have no doubt.

HARLOW: You don't know yet. Taylor Swift has a big decision to make, is she going to cancel the rest of her sold out concerts in Los Angeles since the part of labor strike or -- she keep her regions of fans happy? More than four dozen politicians sent this open letter to Swift asking her to stand with hotel workers and postpone her tour dates.

California's Lieutenant Governor also signed the letter and is accusing her, Swift hypocrisy in the -- magazine after -- . Meantime, Hollywood studios have asked the Writers Guild representing 11,000 writers back to the negotiating table. See where that goes. No taco set with SAG-AFTRA representing about 160,000 actors they went on strike of course in July. CNN "This Morning" continues right now. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the third time this year the 45th President of United States has been arraigned on felony charges this time for alleged crimes against democracy itself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After pleading not guilty. I'm told that he was in a sour and dejected mood.

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This is a very sad day for America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the Biden political law fair.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is election interference at its finest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels like a great indication of the rule of law in American democracy. Justice turn slowly, but they turned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is very concerned about these charges. And privately he's been really frustrated what it means for his legacy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be a grave threat to public trust in the justice system going forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no question that Donald Trump summon them off Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely laughable. Watch the fraud. Tell me what the fraud is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are entitled to raise a question. That's the uniqueness of the First Amendment. That's the uniqueness of America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels like we're going to have to lose another sight to figure out that we got to pick somebody other than Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This could be an inflection point. America returning to greater standing was in the world demonstrating our commitment to the rule of law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a huge case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are now on the other side of United States versus.

HARLOW: All right, quite a day quite a week. It has been it is Friday time to digest all of this. Good morning, everyone. We're glad you're with us.

MATTINGLY: Well, "This Morning", we have new reporting on Trump's state of mind and his political positioning after he pleaded not guilty two words for history for the third time in a courtroom just four months. Now, this time based on his efforts to claim the power after his 2020 election loss and the calendar here is, key.

The next hearing is just a few weeks from now, that's when a trial date could be set. Trump's lawyers indicate they're going to attempt to delay the trial setting the stage for a very chaotic campaign season disrupted by court dates. Trump's lawyer foreshadowing that they are preparing to use the chargers to revisit his 2020 election fun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN LAURO, TRUMP ATTORNEY: We will re litigate every single issue in the 2020 election in the context of this litigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also coming out with a new defense of Trump falsely equating his actions with those valve gore and Hillary Clinton after their election losses. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): You are entitled to raise a question. You're entitled to question whether it was honest or not. That's the uniqueness of the First Amendment. That's the uniqueness of America, which you know what you shouldn't be prosecuted for your thoughts.

And the difference here is when Hillary Clinton said it, nothing happened to her. When they said it in Georgia's election, nothing happened to them either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Also overnight 38 Democratic lawmakers are appealing to the federal judge who's going to oversee this case, asking the trial to be televised despite rules prohibiting that but judges can make decisions on this. This is what the letter reads in part, "Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it's hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings."

Our CNN team was in the courtroom yesterday. Evan Perez joins us now having a morning. The next hearing is soon, August 28. And that is when the judge is going to receive the whole trial is going to set a trial date, right?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Poppy, the judge Tanya Chutkan is going to have already signaled that come August 28th, she wants to set a hearing she's given the Trump team and the prosecution seven days each for them to brief and provide information for their preferences.

And then she will set a date and that is really fast. You know, for instance, in Miami where the Former President is also facing charges related to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents. You know, we spent a month just waiting for Walt Nauta, his co-defendant to be arraigned.

And so you can see that this is a court that we've seen this repeatedly in the January 6 cases. We've seen these judges set quick trial dates they want to try to adjudicate these cases. And they say one reason for that is because they believe that these people should face justice to everybody involved in January 6 should face justice before the next election and try to prevent that from happening again in the next one.

And so what we anticipate is, as you heard there from John Laura, the Former President's attorney, we expect that he is going to raise a lot of issues. He already raised them in court yesterday. He said this is a very complicated case. He believes that we have a lot of issues that have to be litigated.

He also pointed out that the Special Counsels had 2.5 years to investigate this matter, and that they're going to have to have a lot of discovery to go through before they can even get ready to trial.

[07:05:00]

He's raised the possibility that this could be a 9 to 12 month trial. Of course the judge will make the final decision with the understanding of course that they want to make sure that Former President has a fair trial yesterday in court. I'll tell you briefly, you know, he sat there, he seemed not very, very pleased about something that was given to him some of the paperwork that was given to him.

He and Jack Smith had clear sights on each other several times they looked at each other, which are very different from the previous proceeding in Miami where they could not really have straight sight lines at each other, Poppy.

HARLOW: That's really interesting so few people get to be in the courtroom. And you were there you got to see all of that. Also in Georgia, we could see a fourth indictment the grand jury is expected to meet there today. Anything that's been happening this week there that indicates to you that decision on indictment might come sooner than later.

PEREZ: What we've seen, you know, our reporting from Sara Murray and our team is that the District Attorney there has already issued subpoenas to potential witnesses. They will be given about 48 hours before they get told when to show up. And that what that indicates is that she really does mean to bring charges.

You don't subpoena people for new testimony to the grand jury, that's going to make the decision if you're not planning to bring charges. So the timeline now appears to be sometime later this month. It could happen at any time. We know that the grand jury expires later this month.

So we anticipate that it will come probably later in the month simply because I think for the security of the grand jurors and the court. They want to make sure that everything is done. So they can get out of the courthouse before they hand up there -- .

HARLOW: Yes, that's really interesting development from sales reporting. Evan Perez, stay with us.

MATTINGLY: And joining us now with Evan, CNN Political Director David Chalian, Washington Post National Correspondent Philip Bump and CNN Senior Legal Analyst and Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig.

David, I'm going to start with you, because we saw how speaker Kevin McCarthy come out yesterday really makes first public comments, they're on recess. So that's not a rarity, wasn't dodging and tries and makes the comparison to straw man. We'll just go ahead and leave it at that.

But what is most interesting to me is what's in the indictment itself as it relates to Kevin McCarthy. There's actually a passage in there and I want to read some of it for you pull it up and show people it says at 3 pm, the defendant had a phone call with the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives.

That's McCarthy, the defendant told the minority leader that the crowded the capital was more upset about the election than the minority leader was. It is one of the very few instances, this passage itself where there's no sourcing or details for the call. I reported on this call. We had some of this. What do you make of that?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I mean we had quite a lot of it. And remember there were other members of Congress telling what they secondhand understood and overheard McCarthy describing about the call at the time. So there's a lot of information that's been out there.

MATTINGLY: --

CHALIAN: Yes, Jamie Butler, what the context feel of that moment in that being in the indictment is, so interesting to me as it comes to the continuity of McCarthy on the Trump sort of spectrum, right? Because that is the moment where the split began for like a week, or whatever it was.

You know, a few days where like, you could start seeing a rift and in that phone call you can hear the way that we have learned about it that McCarthy and Trump are just simply not in the same place that went on for a few days.

MATTINGLY: In the House floor speech --

CHALIAN: In the House floor speech, exactly. And then of course, he went down on bended knee to Mar-a-Lago and turns it around and realize for his political viability and for the ability to become speaker and stay in his position in the party. Trump was going to have to be part of that.

And so he completely went back to the point now that he, you know, makes comments like he made yesterday you said a straw man comments that are just, I mean, they're so you know, Kevin McCarthy, well felt like that. Kevin McCarthy does not believe what he's saying in those comments.

Like he just doesn't and he's searching for some argument to make to stay loyal and steadfast to Trump. HARLOW: Philip Bump reporting on this is I love the first line. Donald Trump's primary occupation these days is eliminating manufacturing industry.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

PHILIP BUMP, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes. I should just leave it there. We'll make it.

HARLOW: Yes.

BUMP: Yes, he has all this bad news that he's trying to deal with. And so the way that he's dealing with it is, he and his allies are trying to come up with rationales that they can give to people. I think it's really important when we talk about his attorney, John Laura.

I mean, when you look at his interview with Kaitlan Collins two days ago, his first words out of his mouth, were to compare it to the January 6 committee, you do that because you're making a political argument. When Laura and the rest of the Trump attorneys are thinking about this case, what they're thinking about is getting it past November 2024.

It's very explicit, right? And now there's reporting I believe Maggie Haberman from The Times reporting from inside Trump world where they're saying, Yes, we want to kick this out until after election. Donald Trump's strategy has been basically from the beginning the political strategy.

[07:10:00]

I can get elected President this all goes away right? And quite frankly when he speaks to legal experts that are probably his best bet, you right? It's so what he's doing now is he and his allies are doing whatever they can to come up with some excuse, not because they're going to convince the judge not because they're convinced jury.

But they're going to convince his base that all this is unfounded that he is under attack that what the Biden's are doing is worse. And so that's why we hear these arguments. And that's why we hear Kevin McCarthy saying things like.

MATTINGLY: Evan, what are the things that I've been, to some degree fixated on is the speed with which the Special Counsel Jack Smith has been able to bring both Mar-a-Lago case and this case, a lot of Democrats were frustrated with the Attorney General?

Smith gets appointed seems to be moving very quickly to Phil's point, is the election part of that? Is that why they have moved so fast? Or is this just ripe and ready at this moment?

PEREZ: Absolutely. They they have been paying attention to the political calendar, they had to. One of the things that the Justice Department does, you know, Phil, if you know this from covering, you know, they have rules of how to adjudicate or how to bring cases and get out of the way of the political calendar or get out of the way of the election.

Of course, we've never had a President in this position, or an ex- President, Former President in this position before. And so they, they having to sort of adjust the rules to fit this set of facts right, this script. And so they are very fully aware of the fact that they want to try to at least make sure they bring the charges.

And then put it in the hands of judges to see whether they can bring the cases before the voters make their decision. Of course, they are already. You know, I think David Chalian and I have been talking about this a lot. It's kind of a little bit too late, right? They are already crashed into the political calendar.

And so the criticism is going to come I will say, one thing, I think is that I think it's we're going to hear a lot more in the coming months, is that, you know, I think these cases were, you know, everybody at the Justice Department knew the political atmosphere around these cases.

And Jack Smith appointment, I think really turbocharged this and made them come a lot faster. Perhaps it might have been some of the political leaders of the Justice Department that might have been a little more hesitant about this, because of the very criticism they're getting right now, Jack Smith, is not that right?

He came in from outside he is appointed specifically to try to remove the politics from this. And so it really turbocharged the two cases to come more quickly.

HARLOW: Elie, I'm so interested in what you think is going to happen in Georgia because of that specific reporting that Evan just gave us and you've got witness subpoenas already out there, it looks like from that. That would point to an indictment. But what's so interesting yesterday went back and read that great long profile of Fani Willis in the New York Times.

It was Mark Benelli in February, where he digs into who she is what has made her the prosecutor that she is how she's gone after everyone from teachers to gangs in Atlanta with Rico. And it talks about how complex the charges are that she has brought in that way.

What does that tell us about what she may be bringing here against Trump because it has taken a very long time?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It could hardly be clear, Poppy. That Fani Willis has every intention of indicting Donald Trump and doing it soon. She has been forecasting this hyping this up for years, by the way, also contributing to the timing problem that Evan identified.

Fani Willis has a really impressive and distinguished history as a prosecutor, she has prosecuted all sorts of cases she has done by and large, a very good job, but I have to point out she has intermixed her own political fortunes with this case in a way that I think is going to backfire significantly against her.

HARLOW: Because that's what she said because of her past statements.

HONIG: A couple of things. First of all, she's already been thrown off a piece of this case, because she's subpoenaed a Republican candidate for office and then hosted a fundraiser for his Democratic opponent.

The judge threw her off that part of the case and said, "What were you thinking?" Second of all, she's used her own subpoenas in this case, she subpoenaed Lindsey Graham. Then she re-circulated a cartoon, a political cartoon, making fun of Lindsey Graham as part of a political fundraising effort.

She's also made inappropriate public statements giving her opinion that this is a criminal case when the grand jury has not voted on that yet. She gave her opinion about Donald Trump's criminal state of mind all of this is bad form by a prosecutor she absolutely does no better and it's going to be a problem for her when this comes to --

HARLOW: Elie, before you go because my favorite line of this piece is she said I'm probably not a very good politician but I'm a very good prosecutor. My question to you would any of that mean legally a problem for her if she brings this forward? Or does it just optics?

HONIG: I actually disagree with her I think she's a better prosecutor than politician. I mean, the quite the opposite -- .

HARLOW: That's what she said I'm not very good prosecutor.

[07:15:00]

HONIG: No, she said, the problem is she has interest mix politics she should know better as a prosecutor legally here's what happens. She's already been removed from a piece of the case because of a political conflict of interest that she created. And when this goes into the courts come on Donald Trump arguing that she has improperly mixed her own politics in there and needs to be removed from the case.

I know that's been rejected, but that's only because it was prematurely made. Once the case is brought, they will argue that she has a conflict of interest. And they'll argue for prosecutorial misconduct and selective prosecution. I don't know if those arguments will succeed, but she's created these problems for herself.

CHALIAN: That is a good line from a politician by the way.

MATTINGLY: Just it's a good line. It's a good line. All right, Evan, Elie, David, Philip thanks, guys appreciate it.

HARLOW: "This Morning", a win for the Biden Administration and a federal appeals court. They've allowed that controversial asylum policy at the southern border that was rejected by a lower court. Now to temporarily stay in place and policy restricts migrants who pass through another country like Mexico from seeking asylum in the United States unless they sought it there.

It would have ended on Monday after that ruling from a district court judge this new ruling from the appeals court allows time for the ninth circuit to consider all of it.

MATTINGLY: And happening overnight, two members of the Tennessee Three have officially won the re-election. Tennessee State House Democrats Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson interrupted house proceedings for gun control protests back in April.

Republicans voted to expel Jones and Pearson were both black but not Johnson, who was white sparking nationwide controversy. Jones and Pearson were both quickly reappointed to their seats, and now they've won Thursday's special elections they will retain their seats for the remainder of their two year terms.

Also "This Morning" news CNN reporting reveals just how Vladimir Putin is factoring the 2024 U.S. Presidential election into his war in Ukraine.

HARLOW: And the verdict is in this is not human in a bear costume.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: This is why he texted me about free air "This Morning".

MATTINGLY: Yes.

HARLOW: At three in the morning ahead now it's a viral video out of China that is drawing attention to the endangered fun bear species.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back, top U.S. and European officials are concerned that Vladimir Putin is factoring in what happens in our 2024 election to how he proceeds in this war on Ukraine. A source familiar with the matter says "Putin knows Trump will help him. And so do the Ukrainians and our European partners."

Also, we have this polling, it's shocking. It shows that only 45 percent of those surveyed say Congress should authorize more funding to support Ukraine's fight in Russia more than 50 percent say they should not. Our Kylie Atwood joins us from the State Department, Kylie, good morning to you. Talk to us more about all of that.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, I think that there are legitimate questions as to if President Putin will even be able to sustain this war for another 15 months militarily, you know, into November of 2024. But the concern among U.S. officials is that he's certainly going to try because he's eyeing that election.

He's factoring it into his approach to the Ukraine war, with the bet that if President Biden were to lose and a Republican, were to get into office into the Oval Office, particularly President Trump, that would drive down U.S. support for Ukraine, which would benefit him.

We should note that Former President Trump has not clearly stated that he would support Ukraine. And so that is a key factor that U.S. officials believe that President Putin is looking at closely. Now, this is not an intelligence assessment of where President Putin is in his thinking of all this.

This is just what U.S. officials and European officials are talking about right now. And as you said earlier, you know, there's a CNN poll out "This Morning" showing that the majority of Americans are opposed to additional funding for the war in Ukraine.

So that's going to make this an even more contentious issue in Washington, which will benefit President Putin, U.S. officials believe.

MATTINGLY: Kylie, you know, especially coming out of the NATO summit in Vilnius where the U.S. officials were very pleased with how that ended, where that the outcomes were from that. How does this not factor in to planning for President Biden and his team?

When they look forward not just to the intelligence assessment, but also where the American people are on furthering aid?

ATWOOD: I think it certainly does factor into their planning, Phil, because when you talk to U.S. officials about this, you know, they're not talking about it publicly that they're concerned that Putin is looking at the 2024 elections, they are talking about it privately.

And they're saying that what this means is that the U.S. needs to continue providing support to Ukraine now, and the long term support that we have heard U.S. officials really press on the need for over the course of the next year or five years, you know, whatever it may be so that Ukraine has what it needs to continue fighting Russia.

HARLOW: Kiley at the State Department appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Joining us now Adam Kinzinger, CNN Senior Political Commentator, Former member, the House Committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection, but also a key voice to the Republican Party on foreign policy for a number of years.

Still, to some degree, I'm not casting you aside, because -- what's your reaction to this reporting? Because I feel like when you talk to administration officials behind the scenes, they acknowledged they feel like they're on a clock a little bit.

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, and it's their fault. I mean, let's so it's a scary poll. First off, because what we're doing is actually funding Ukraine so that American troops don't have to go fight that's usually been, what Americans are most concerned about is less about, you know, aid to foreign countries.

And more about how do we prevent our boys from going overseas? Well, that's how we're doing it right now. The problem is not really in Donald Trump, although he bears some blame because he is influencing the Republican viewpoint on this. It's in the administration. The administration is not selling this to the American people. Now, first off, for our allies overseas and for Vladimir Putin. I don't think he can last through the next Presidential election. So I'm not too worried that like Donald Trump is going to come in and like in the war in the middle of it, but this administration has got to be selling this to American people.

[07:25:00]

Two things, first off, if you ask the average American, you know, have you ever heard the administration talk about what we're doing to make sure that the aid we're giving to Ukraine is actually spent appropriately. Nobody's heard it because I've never heard the administration show it.

We have a very robust and intense program in Ukraine to make sure every bit of aid we give to Ukraine is used how it should be and not corrupted. Second, have they explained how this aid comes a significant amount of this aid is old stocks of U.S. weapons that we're going to replace anyway.

We send that drawdown equipment over to Ukraine we put a value on it. So that's considered part of, you know, that value of what we send, but we're going to replace that stuff anyway. For instance, a lot of this HIMARS ammunition is old and going to be replaced.

That needs to be communicated to the American people right now. They just think we're writing a check and handed over to be spent however they want.

HARLOW: Not long ago, before Phil wrote you off that you were in Congress and a Republican. Is this Congress going to authorize more funding?

KINZINGER: I think so.

HARLOW: --

KINZINGER: I mean I have to say it is, and the reason I hedged is because I don't know how this Congress is actually going to get through the spending bills, you know, they barely got through the debt limit. I'm glad they did. But now they have to appropriate and there's a massive disagreement on the bottom line of defense spending.

For instance, any cutting defense, and even any leveling of defense spending is a cut because we all want soldier pay to go up right every year. So that cuts into what we can spend on future warfare and current warfare, and of course, inflation and everything else, and we have to invest in new things.

So I don't know how Congress gets through this moment. I do think they probably have maybe one more significant aid package in there for Ukraine. So I think they should do this --

MATTINGLY: Should I pull back on that, though, because as much as I live in the 302 B discussion, as much as --

HARLOW: Oh, my God.

MATTINGLY: This is important, I think to note, because there's a timeline here, right? The end of the fiscal year is September 31. Lawmakers have 12 spending bills that they're supposed to pass and reconcile before then they very rarely, if ever do it in the last 40 years, certainly are on a pathway to do that now.

But you make a key point with the Ukraine aid. And what's been happening is the Ukrainian has gone separately through like supplemental emergency spending packages, what's the pathway for that? I mean, want to tack this on to something else and hope it rides and nobody sees it.

KINZINGER: Yes, exactly.

MATTINGLY: To some degree, given the opposition. But this would have to be standalone or tied to something else. Tell people how tens of billions of dollars could get through a Republican House?

KINZINGER: Yes, I mean, so it definitely won't come through standalone, because I don't think you're going to get that passed. You may but you know, then you got to go through the Senate and have its possible. It's particularly if there's a big emergency that happens in Ukraine.

Probably more than likely this goes through a continuing resolution and what's going to happen, and this is the concern.

MATTINGLY: -- kicked off set, if we keep talking.

KINZINGER: I know, but we get to September 3.

HARLOW: --

KINZINGER: There's a good chance of a government shutdown again, and there are some people cheering for it in the GOP and they only have like a five vote majority.

HARLOW: We'd be remiss not to end by talking to you about the indictment right now, and so much of this work. Second warning from our colleagues on the show earlier this week is really you guys pushed it forward with how hard you pushed, how hard you push the law, how hard you push for documents at the house, January 6 committee?

We learned some new things in the indictment that we didn't learn through the committee. What strikes you and where do you think this goes from here? Excited for Trump's response?

KINZINGER: Yes, I mean, look, there's two things that strike me in this, number one is the acceptance of violence that you read about some people saw that there could be riots in the streets, but you know, the tree of --

HARLOW: -- Eastman quotes.

KINZINGER: Yes, and that was a little surprising to be so open. I had predicted violence before the sixth, I thought I was like the only one other people had, obviously. And the other thing was the extent to which even during the violence on January 6, they were still trying to lobby the Senate in the house.

HARLOW: Into the evening with phone calls to Senator.

KINZINGER: Yes, and what I hope people take from this too, is it's something that struck me in the committee, January 6 was a symptom, that violence that day, that was a symptom. The problem was the rot that led up to it. That's what this indictment is focused on the President's actions prior to this day, that is the real rot in our democracy.

We can sustain -- just terrible is it is a day of violence, what we can't sustain a systemic corruption in the system. And I hope that's what people take away from this.

MATTINGLY: Do you think people will take that away?

KINZINGER: I think eventually, I think right now --

MATTINGLY: What's going to happen eventually?

KINZINGER: I think probably whenever this trial happens people are going to learn a lot more. And I think that's going to continue to change.

HARLOW: You tweeted, you were interested in this new polling that shows how Republicans feel if he gets convicted.

KINZINGER: Yes, if the President, if the Former President gets convicted, I think it's like 50 percent of Republicans say they would vote for him again. This is to any Senator that did not vote to remove Trump. You know, we voted to impeach him and went to the Senate.

McConnell stands up and says basically, there's a criminal system for this, but he's out of office. You know, let's give him a gold watch and let him go home. And that's what all these Senators are saying, oh, he's done. Let's let him go home.