Martha is next with the story. Martha nice bag pipes there. Thanks very much. Good afternoon. Im martha maccallum. This is the story. Were waiting response this hour from d. A. Fani willis. We could hear from here any moment after judge mcafee left it up to her if she wants to continue with the trump Election Interference case. He says she will have to do it without her former boyfriend and colleague, nathan wade, who you see to the right of her in that picture. The judge said although she showed a tremendous lapse in judgment in hiring wade, he could not conclude that that had had a Material Conflict in the trump case. In the decision, he did go after her for her unprofessional manner when she stormed in to the atlanta courtroom in february after wade testified. This combative testimony. Watch. As you know, mr. Wade is a southern gentleman. Me not so much. Your honor no, no, no. This is the truth. I object to you getting records. Youve been intrusive in to peoples personal lives. You think im on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election. Im not on trial no matter how hard you put me on trial. Martha we may get another moment like that any minute when she responds. Who knows what her action is. Well find out when shes ready to share that with the country. So republican Georgia State senate joins me now. Hes leading a special Georgia Senate committee that is probing d. A. Willis. Thanks for being here. First of all, your reaction to what judge mcafee decided this morning and released in this document . Well, were not surprised at all. I actually expected he might have removed from the case. Its an extreme sort of action to totally dismiss the criminal prosecution. I didnt anticipate that. But he did give her the choice. He said you need to remove yourself and the entire das office from further prosecution or at the least remove mr. Wade from any further involvement due to this appearance of impropriety. He laid it out good there in his order, ill have to say. Martha i want to play this from Andrew Weissman responding to this news earlier today. He was part of the trump investigation back during the administration. Watch this. The key here is how to go forward because clearly wade is off. I think that this is such a huge body blow, almost a fatal blow to fani willis. I think the way forward, she has to voluntarily recuse herself. I dont know that she has it in her, but she has to say im going to appoint a Chief Assistant that will oversee this case. She clearly has no credibility with this judge. Martha what do you think about that . Do you agree . Id agree totally. When you hear commentators from the left that agree that theres no other responsible choice for her to make, i feel confident thats what shell do. Theres just no way a jury will give any credibility to her further involvement. It will undermine her own mission of prosecuting these individuals if she stays personally involved. Its been a series of really poor choices. Martha so what can you do with this Subpoena Effort . What are you guys looking for in the state senate in georgia from this action . We had heard all of these sort of unbelievable accusations. Very disturbing allegations about her conduct. Not only the relationship that she had, but other financial improprieties. She didnt disclose these gifts as required by Fulton County law. She didnt get approval of hiring this attorney as she was required to do. She personally gets to review his bills and approve those bills with no other intervention. Were concerned about the misspending of taxpayer money. Thats what were going to look into. Martha before i let you go, senator cowsert, is there a hunch or feeling around the state house in georgia about what shes going to do and when were going to hear from her . You cant tell with her. Shes been so defiant throughout this process. One of the things that the judge basically said is that she had made inappropriate comments both in a church she gave quotes and Background Information to a book that was being published during the course of this prosecution. Allowed her staff to do that. You tonight generally see prosecutors speaking publicly about cases. The judge expressed great concern about that. So i think that its the right choice for her to make. Hes giving her an out. Whether she will take it or not, who knows. She seems to love the spot light and she is defiant in any attempts to control her in any way. Martha we will wait along with you all, im sure, to hear what she decides to do obviously the trump team watching this closely as well. Thanks very much, senator cowsert. Thanks for being here today. Thank you. Martha lets bring in Matt Whitaker and doug collins, former republican congressman from georgia and host of the doug collins podcast. Great to have you with us today. I spoke with you earlier, doug, about this and got your initial reaction to this decision. We havent heard from Matt Whitaker yet. What do you think about this judges decision . Obviously the result is not what some people hoped for but this opinion is blistering. It said she was unprofessional and lacked judgment. The like that struck me that he said an odor of mendacity remains. That says your office and you as a da have no credibility with me as a judge. I think that is essentially says that were lying, we know youre lying and we dont anything you say. Thats a beg deal. Martha so why didnt he remove her from the case given that strong language, matt . Again, the bar is very, very high to remove not only a da but the office as a whole. You need to show an actual conflict. He just didnt think the evidence was there. Obviously it was hard for the defendants to create that evidence since she controlled all the documents, all the information, lied about it. He didnt feel he could get to that result. He cut the legs out of so much of the office and continuing this prosecution will be hard for her to remain no matter what. Martha doug collins, looking at this in The Big Picture and seeing peoples responses to this morning. It strikes me that americans are perhaps sadly getting used to hearing this kind of report. Where a public official gets basically criticized in the deepest possible way that any civilian would never survive. They would lose their job, they would be put in jail, depending on the different circumstances, of course. I would just put up these images. The former fbi director comey, former special counsel, Robert Mueller, robert hur who we heard from and now scott mcafee. All of whom have laid out the very troublesome behavior of different individuals across the board, and then at the end of these big proclamations, the American People are told we really couldnt do anything. What do you say about that . Yeah, i think this is its what has fed this discontent across the country. As an attorney here in georgia, its interesting to hear what this judge said. We also have to remind you, this is the second time that this da has been held basically by a judge in Fulton County to have done something improper, not binding before the courts, something that would have her in trouble in this case. If you remember, she was by a judge, the Lieutenant Governor, she could not prosecute or go after the Lieutenant Governor because she participated in a political event against his opponent. Bernie scorched here in a opinion about that. Didnt do anything. Now another judge doing the same thing, Going Forward here. This is what feeds the american doubt about the cases against donald trump. I think thats why you see donald trump going up in the polls and winning because people see this and they dont like it. This is really where people are drawing the line saying were not going to go for something that is going after one person when youre not Holding Accountable those going after them. Martha yeah, just these lists and documents full of egregious behavior. The conclusion at the end of it is yeah, but we cant really do anything. As Matt Whitaker says, the bar would be too high. As a georgian and being a senator, what is she going to do . Shes defiant. Its hard for me to agree with someone on msnbc but she doesnt have a good place to go here. Matt and the judge said, youre laying and your office is compromised. She doesnt have a good place to go here. Shes trying to find anyway she can spin this and be a victim in this case, which is just not going to be true. Shes struggling to find a way out. We may hear from her today but may be later this weekend and youll hear it from a victim standpoint. Martha very interesting. The judge is up for election in may. He has someone running against him. Thats a late entry to that race. The d. A. Is also up for reelection in may. Thanks, gentlemen. Matt whitaker, good to have you with us. Doug collins, thanks very much. Our breaking News Coverage this afternoon continues with Ari Fleischer and Leslie Marshall as we await the response from georgia d. A. Fani willis next. Choose advil liquigels for faster, stronger and longerlasting relief than tylenol rapid release gels because advil targets pain at the source of inflammation. So for faster pain relief, advil the pain away. I brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. Ugh. Here, ill take that. Woo hoo ensure max protein, 30 grams protein, 1 gram sugar, 25 vitamins and minerals. And a new fiber blend with a prebiotic. 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Were continuing to work with our iraqi partners about how to do that. Right now theyre dependent for a lot of energy from iran. So we dont want to penalize the iraqi people for efforts that theyre still trying to get to wean off of that. I would remind everybody and we talked about this before, i think, three months ago we talked about this, none of this money goes to the mullahs, none of this money goes in to tehran. The sanctions relief provided goes to vendors that provide humanitarian assistance to the iranian people. Not only do the iraqi people not suffer because of this, the iranian people wont suffer because of this. Wouldnt it be the iranian people that would suffer as a result of the teeth in the warning . Youre saying you would suspend flights in iran air to europe if iran supplies Ballistic Missiles to russia. I didnt say that. The Press Reports said that. Its not like the ayatollah flies commercial. The iranian people would be if ones that would be harmed by that if that comes to pass. Its also not like the regime and the irgc are thinking this is some sort of wind fall. Like this is going to make a big difference in their support for terrorist networks. They continue to support hezbollah and the houthis that has not changed since 2018 when these waivers were passed by this administration and the previous one. Hold on. Youre talking about one of the most hely sanctioned countries on the planet. Were still going to look at additional options if we need to. We have been nothing but clear and direct and the forceful in pushing back on iran. Martha the last three months, three american soldiers were killed in jordan. The Houthis FiringBallistic Missiles, drones and commercial vessels and naviships. Three atomic bombs that could be built in iran with uranium has been enriched to that extent. Blinken said theres an issue of the iaea inspectors. What have that done to justify a renewal of this waiver . Its a renewal that we go through every quarter. Its not about penalizing the iraqi people and the fact that theyre dependent on iranian energy. Look what else weve done. Weve got a coalition of ships In The Red Sea protecting against houthi attacks on shipping there. We have struck back and forcefully against these groups in iraq and syria. We continue to have sanctions in place, significant sanctions on Iranian Regime for multiple reasons. Going after protesters from terrorist networks. The nuclear program. A lot of sanctions in place. By the way, were still conducting operations at sea to try to prevent their shipment of material and arms to some of these groups. The idea that were laying back and not doing anything on iran doesnt fly in the face of the facts. Thanks. You said the u. S. Has not seen a plan to protect civilians in rafah martha Jackie Heinrichs questions about this issue of 10 billion in sanctions relief for iraq, which allows them to buy energy from iran and a lot of people criticizing that move as another outcome that puts more money in the pockets of the mullahs that have really stepped up their weaponry. They have Ballistic Missile operations that sun like anything that they have had before and all of their attacks that weve seen through other patriots, the houthis and hamas and hezbollah over the last several months. Thats what that exchanged was focused on between Jacqui Heinrich and john kirby at the white house. Well go back if theres anything that we want to dip in to at the white house this afternoon. Were also getting reaction again to this news around the trump situation and the Georgia Election interference case and fani willis as we hate to hear from her on this friday afternoon. Lets bring in Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for george w. Bush and Leslie Marshall, democratic strategist. Welcome to both of you. Great to have you here this afternoon. Leslie, lets start with you. Its interesting. Were hearing from people who are sort of typically more conservative and typically more liberal that they want to see Fani Willis Step aside from this case. Andrew weissmann spoke out about that as well. Hes no friend to the former president. What do you think . Well, i dont know that i want to see her step aside. Look, this is an area where ari and i may agree because were seeing people on the left and right agree. Theres optics going into this. If youre trying to prosecute, one could argue one of the biggest names, former president , you know people will find every single thing out. What did you eat four years ago on a tuesday for lunch. So you are going to have your ducks in a row and make sure that nothing smells, this relationship smelled. You hear the harsh rebuke from the judge. People say this is a partial win for the former president. Okay, she can proceed. A partial win for her. Make no mistake, this case is damaged to a degree not only with delays, not only with embarrassment but optics. Optics which the jurors see and on a larger level what the voters see. One of them has to go im not sure that i would necessarily push for her. Some people are saying wade, some people are saying willis. Either way, its damaging. I dont see her stepping down. I see her more sending wade packing with his bags. Martha okay. Were following this closely. There may be some developments coming momentarily. Ari, your thoughts on the optics as leslie points them out. Obviously the trump team would like to see this case and pretty much all the others fall apart. Fani willis will never step down. This is here her lifes work. Her claim to fame to pick up on the judges ruling, shes the odorus tip of the democratic spear trying to attack donald trump, which is why she will never step down. She sees her role as being the Georgia Savior that will stop donald trump from getting reelected, which is why she brought an unlikely, Wieldy Rico Case against donald trump, which never should have been brought in the first place. Having brought it, she will never back away from it. The real fear here to donald trump is she will actually find a prosecutor, if nathan wade does step down, who is better than him. She appointed her lover. She didnt appoint the best prosecutor. Now unless she has another lover to appoint, shes going to find a tough experienced prosecutor. I think the timetable is all messed up if they want to get trump before the election, but this is her chance to reset, recharge and go right back after donald trump. Martha leslie, what about the politics of this as we look at the 2024 election . It seems that all of these different prosecutors for their own reasons and one common reason to go after the former president , donald trump, rightly or wrongly depending how they see these situations legally has backfired spectacularly in terms of what its done to his popularity. Because of the abundance of charges and the lack of coordination on all of these fronts, its seen Something Like delay after delay and more and more support for the former president. Well, first off, one can argue that it isnt politically motivated. Its helping not hurting him. A lot of people knew i dont have ten degrees from mit and i knew it would help him. Thats how his base goes. Thats what he does. Hes a master at taking a situation and making himself the victim and theyre coming after me first. Second, you have to have your stuff together with a case. You cant be concerned about a timeline because that benefits in this case the former president because thats exactly what youre giving, is what his attorneys have been constantly asking for, which is delay, delay and delay. And we have for months. Not just that but the embarrassment that it brings out in this case. Then what are you doing . Making the person saying look what theyre doing to me appear to be accurate and you make it look political even if it wasnt politically motivated. Martha it wasnt a mistake, leslie. Or was it a mistake for these largely politically elected officials and these places we know here in new york, Letitia James ran on im going to get donald trump. So as a democrat, looking at this election, you know, my question to you is was it an overkill mistake . I wouldnt say it was overkill or mistake. I would agree with ari that rico isnt The Way To Go when youre a District Attorney, youre elected. Certainly youre going to be either a democrat or republican as far as, you know, personal and as far as whether youre appointed or elected, what that composite was, what the demographic was. If we go down that road, martha, were saying that a democratic d. A. Can never indict or somebody that has been in office, a former Vice President. We shouldnt have that. The job of the District Attorney is to carry out an uphold the law. Theres some concerns whether it comes to Election Interference and the list goes on and on. Certainly that are perceived by many as political attacks and perceived by other as following the law and doing their job. Martha all right. We can now confirm that nathan wade has stepped aside. He has withdrawn from this case that is going after Election Interference in georgia. Jonathan serrie is reporting live from atlanta on this part of this story and also what well hear next from fani willis, the d. A. In atlanta. Yeah, this decision is not surprising. The judge gave fani willis probably an unpleasant decision but an easy decision. If nathan wade were to stayed on this case as special prosecutor, then the d. A. , fani willis, would have been forced to resign from the case along with her entire staff. They would have had to stand on the sidelines. So in order for this case to best move forward, clearly the d. A. s office made the calculation that losing this one special prosecutor, nathan wade, would be less damaging than disqualifying the entire office and then having the prosecuting attorneys counsel appoint a totally new slate of prosecutors to come in from outside and handle this case. So not a surprising development, but a dramatic development. Nathan wade turning in his resignation from the case and the das office accepting that resignation. Im just looking, jonathan. Stand by at the letter. He writes to d. A. Willis, the furtherance of the rule of law and democrat sick is and always has been the north star of our efforts and those that have attempted to overthrow the results of the 2020 president ial election. Our team is dedicated to ensuring that a Fulton County jury in a Fulton County courtroom renders a true and just verdict. He said according to the judges decision, will resign immediately. I offer my resignation effectively as quickly as possible. Im proud of the work that our team has accomplished in investigating, indicting and litigating this case and being part of the effort to ensure the rule of law. He goes on to say that hes sure the team will be successful. Ari, your reaction to this news. Martha, it sickens me to hear him say, this as a furtherance of democracy. If this was about democracy, the democrats wouldnt use the courts to indict donald trump. They go to november and let the American People decide. Thats what a democracy would do. In americas Bluest Counties, Fulton County, georgia, new york county, manhattan and new york city, The Bluest OfBluest Counties where The Bluest OfBluest Prosecutors that will never lose a reelection indict donald trump. Youll never see these things brought in a purple county, never in a red county. Its not because they have an adherence to democracy. In the case of georgia now, with nathan wade, its because the judge ordered him to break up with his girlfriend. The judge ordered his girlfriend to break up with him from a legal point of view. Thats why hes stepping down, not in furtherance of democracy. What he did was unsavory. What the d. A. Did was unsavory and on a fundamental level, bringing charges against a political opponent is more unsavory than the unsavory behavior that they engaged in. He wrote that and it rubs me the wrong way. Its not about democracy. Martha leslie, there was an event that fani willis attended at the white house. She said shes had no interaction with the Vice President who was speaking at that event at the white house. Obviously theres a lot of discussion from republican quarters about the coordination that has potentially happened in this concerted effort to go after former President Trump. We havent heard from fani willis. We have only heard from nathan wade at this point. I want to replay the Andrew Wisemann part of the Russia Investigation Team going after former President Trump. He wants fani willis to be gone. He wants to go the whole way and clean the decks of this team. He thinks that would be the best thing for the prosecution. Lets watch this again from Andrew Weissmann earlier today. The key is how to go forward. Clearly wade is off. This is such a huge body blow, almost a fatal blow to fani willis. The way forward, she has to voluntarily recuse herself. I dont know that she has it in her. She has to say im going to appoint a Chief Assistant who will oversee this case. She clearly has no credibility with this judge. Martha that could still happen, leslie. Nobody of whom ive asked this question thinks that anything in her Character Points in that direction. You never know. I would feel everybody would say a day late and a dollar short if that were to happen. If she were to do that, she should have done this prior because of the embarrassment alone. Not just the delays and a whole new team that has to be caught up to speed. I do agree with ari there. She should have just appointed i would have appointed the toughest person you could find and the toughest person great to this and more apt to win. One area that i disagree with ari on. Ari said it should be left up to the voters in november. It will be left up to the voters in november whether donald trump will become president again or not. But it should never be left up to the voters to decide whether somebody is guilty or not guilty in a criminal court of law. That has to be done in the court system, in our legal system. That has to be decided by a jury. But going back, i dont think she would do that. I would agree with andrew there where, you know, if your case is dirty, if you will, by you and anything that you have done or youve said, you know, better in the interests of democracy, if you will, for you to put the best team in place to win. If that means you stepping aside, thats what you do. Martha one more question. So the new york case, the Hush Money Case, thats delayed 30 days because the Department Of Justice withheld information that they didnt bring out in discovery. You have a problem there. You have the question of immunity on the January 6th Case and the documents cases. So those are also running in to issues and waiting for the supreme court. You have this georgia case. Are you concerned that these efforts, which have be so fullsome might be coming apart . No. Let me tell you why. You guys know im just honest. Everybody thinks oh, leslie, get on twitter. She has the democratic talking points. This is what i have. I have truth, this is my truth. I dont think enif hes found guilty of all of these hes going to spend one second in jail. If the goal is, you know its not going keep him off of the ballot. Its not going to keep people from voting for him. Its done the opposite. Predicted that and he could be president. What are you doing this for . Has to do with politics what are you doing this for . If youre doing it for legal reasons, its like impeachment. Drives me crazy. If youre not going to remove him from us a, democrat or republican, maybe its a waste of taxpayer time and money. So with this, you know, you have to follow it through. I have never been a huge cheerleader of these because my question is a, what is your goal and b, are you going to reach it. If the goal is to have donald trump be wearing an orange jump suit, they wont reach that goal in my humble opinion. Martha Matt Whitaker is with us as well. Matt, what do you say to that that . Martha, obviously this tells me one simple fact. Thats that fani willis believes that only she can drive this case to conclusion. She thinks that without her, she cant take she can take nathan wade off of this case. Without her, shes going to drive it through. Again, these issues were talking about are now defenses. Defense arguments. Whether its the speech at the church, whether its this relationship and the money to mr. Wade, whether its her lack of candor with the court. Thats all issues in the case. I think its its getting weaker. Lets just say that. Im not sure that she will be able to get this case to the finish line ultimately. Martha great point, ari. I want your thoughts on that. Now her behavior becomes part of the defense. Theyre going to poke at her credibility all throughout this case. In terms of her motivations for bringing it and her own handling of the case, Ari Fleischer. How does that go . Well, first, i want to go back to one thing leslie said. She said you should never let the American People decide about a law case. You should let the jury to do that. The slight of hand there is these jury pools are overwhelmingly democratic counties. Theres not going to be republicans in those jury boxes. Its overwhelmingly people that support democrats or judges that dont get reelected unless they do things the democrats like. Thats why we have elections. These things should have never been brought judicially in those blue districts. As for her behavior, of course, this is handing Donald Trumps team and all the other defendants in georgia a great opening to go after the root cause of why theyre being politically targeted. The fact that the prosecutor now has been found to have the odor of mendacity as the judge put it here. This will nag at the prosecution throughout this case. If you want a clean case and put somebody away, you dont have a prosecutor that is anything but clean. Thats going to be fani willis problem and some of the defense can certainly exploit and everything legally coming up. Martha theres a lot coming up, matt. When you look at these cases, i went through the delays, some of the procedural issues going on. We all thought the First Court Case with a jury started happening march 25 in new york with the Hush Money Case and whether or not checks that were written prior to the 2016 election but the trump team were funneled as legal expenses. That was supposed to be the first case. Now they came out yesterday and said, well, the doj had a lot of documents that they never turned over. Now you have another 30day delay. Where do you see that case going, matt . Exactly. Not only a 30day delay but also 90,000 pages, which the District Attorney has to sort through those. Remember, Southern District of northern declined to prosecute this case. There could be legal memos in there suggesting that their legal theory and why they enhanced it to a felony instead of a misdemeanor is baseless under federal law. That could undermine their case and give, again a great defense in that case to President Trump. Martha matt, as you rightly point out and remind people about that and were talking about the very first case that is expected to go to trial, which is new york, which is people remember as the Stormy Daniels situation. They did a carve out. They found a way to turn that in to a felony. It carries a one to fouryear jail time if hes convicted. In new york, the only trial hes had so far was a judgeonly trial. How serious is that situation and where do you expect that case to go, matt . Yeah, on the level of seriousness, thats at the bottom of these criminal cases. Again, any judge is going to know these are just misdemeanors. The falsification of business records. The only victim is donald trump who is the owner of the companies that he falsified the records to. So ultimately its the way they enhanced those to felonies saying you committed a state Campaign Finance violation. Cant be a state. Ate federal election. Were talking about a federal election violation. Both the fec and the Southern District of new york said its a mixed purpose expense and can be categorized as personal expenses. Quite frankly, he would be in more trouble if he paid for these out of his campaign funds. Its a damned if you do and damned if you dont in this situation. This case is very weak and not the most consequential. Martha just to catch people up, nathan wade has resigned from the Georgia Election interference case. You can see him on the righthand side of the screen in the in that hearing, which was in front of judge mcafee that gave himself two weeks to make a decision. The two weeks ended today. He came out with that decision earlier today. Everyone, if youd stay with us. Im going to bring in jonathan turley, constitutional attorney, g. W. University law professor and a fox news contributor. Weve got part of the story here, jonathan. Were still waiting to hear from fani willis, the d. A. Directly. We know that nathan wade, not a huge surprise has selfered himself from this case. Now were waiting to hear from her. Wade didnt have any option. The judge said he could choose to resign. There was not much else he could do. If he didnt, the whole case would be taken out of the office. The only alternative was to go on an appeal that would delay the case further. The big question as you know is what will willis do . She has now had multiple opportunities to do the right thing, which recuse herself. Every time that moment has come, she has declined to do so. Shes put her personal interests ahead of the interests of her office and the people of Fulton County. I cant imagine how even willis could go forward after this order and these damning findings from this judge. I mean, he goes in great detail about how she made unprofessional decisions in a litany of errors in her public statements, how she dealt with these allegations. Shes damaged goods. Thats not going to be to the advantage of the people of Fulton County. Martha i wonder. You know, how much do you think that the people in Fulton County are going to be looking at the details of this decision from this judge and she has been very forceful doing her own p. R. On all of this. She could easily come forward and say, you know, how unfair this attack was on her. We saw her do it already in the church where she said it was all racebased in terms of coming after her. We could easily hear that from her again, although in this decision as you well know, the judge tried to sort of slap that back and tried to admonish her from doing that. But i dont know. What do you think, jonathan . This judge gave her a great opportunity to do the right thing. He laid out two options. Clearly talk about a third option. You can keep wade and ill transfer this to a different jurisdiction. Or you can take this up on appeal and then also theres the option, i should say, the two options was to keep wade or get rid of wade. She could have gone on appeal. The real option that i think the judge was referencing here is you can always do the ethical thing. You can always do the professional option. You can say, i dont have a positive role left to play in this case. I blew it. The thing that is troubling for most of us is that the Court Details the evidence about the relationship before wade was hired. Its really willis conduct after this allegation arose that was the most troubling. Many of us believe that neither she for wade were honest on the stand. Many people have suggested that there might have been false statements given on the stand. Theres certainly evidence. Just that wade may have given false statements to a prior court in the divorce proceedings. All of that is a damning record that i think makes it practically impossible to go forward. She would have to continue to prosecute people accused of the same conduct that shes currently being accused of. Keep in mind, wade is not out of, this hes been accused of false statements. One of those allegations is very compelling. He could be facing proceedings on the state level or the bar level. She will be a witness as those things unfold. So is she going to do that, keep that front going while shes trying to prosecute the biggest case in her offices history . Martha you know what . Precisely that thought process, jonathan, may be why we havent heard directly from her yet. Maybe she will be thinking this over for a few more hours or even a few more days. She does want to keep on a timeline with this case. So she has a motivation to want to get right back to work and potentially try to right her own reputation in that process. It seems just knowing what weve seen so far for character, that that might be the likely route for her despite your very evenhanded assessment of what the right thing to do would be here. Im not sure if thats what were going to see. In terms of The Big Picture and we talked about this before and i was thinking about robert hur and you gave him strong points for much of his presentation, or you think back to james comey or Robert Mueller where all of these people laid out very bad behavior on the part of a lot of people, from Hillary Clinton to in this case fani willis. At the end, the cota is always that we really cant prosecute or take her off the case. Isnt this one of the reasons that we see this disintegration of faith in the system in this country . I think there is a crisis of faith. s always been someone that has stood up for the u. S. Legal system. I still am. Theres a reason for that that crisis of faith. Another case. The rollins case involving the former u. S. Attorney in massachusetts. She was found to have lied to federal investigators. The Department Of Justice just shrugged and said they wouldnt prosecute one of their own. The American People lock at this and say wow, there is a two track system of justice in this country. These people are destroying the system of justice that defines us. Theyre sawing at the branch on which they all sit. By making these highly conflicted decisions. I think youre absolutely right. We have to deal with that crisis of faith but we have to do it by being more faithful to the rule of law. Martha i think people across the country look at these situations and say, where is the accountability and who is getting me off when i do something wrong or break the law . They feel like theres just a set of rules that a play to these positions in high places that dont apply to average folks. Thats a real problem. A crisis of confidence in the system. Very, very destruckive and dangerous. Jonathan, thank you. Great to have you with us. Jonathan turley from gwu School Of Law and an avid contributor here. My thanks to all of our guests that joined us on this story. Ari fleischer and Leslie Marshall and Matt Whitaker. Thanks to all of you. President Biden On Capitol Hill today for a st. Patricks day event, which is coming up this weekend. Senate Majority LeaderChuck Schumer faces huge backlash over his comments on Benjamin Netanyahu suggesting that the country needs to change its leadership. Saying hes a major obstacle to peace and saying that israel should hold new elections after the threat of hamas is radically reduced. Heres the reaction today. Very interesting reaction from President Biden. Watch. Senator schumer contacted my staff, my senior staff. Hes going to make that speech. Im not going to elaborate on his speech. He made a good speech. I think he expressed a searious concern. Shared by not only him by many americans. Martha lets break that down. Who better to do this with than mike pence, former Vice President , founder of advancing American Freedom that just visited israel a couple months ago. Hes been there many times and spoken to the Prime Minister and leadership there many times as well. Mr. Vice president , good to have you with us. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me on. Martha youve seen this back and forth, right . Senator schumer suggested that it was time for there to mr. New leadership in israel. Hes stepped that back a little bit after that fiery floor speech. Heres what he said today or yesterday on this. The u. S. Cannot dictate the outcome of an election. Thats for the israeli public to decide. For democracy, israel has his right to choose their own leaders and he goes on. President biden said it was a good speech. March that i started the year visiting a kibbutz in southern israel that was struck on october 7 by hamas. The worst attack on the jewish people since the holocaust. There should be one message coming from the United States of america today. That is america stands with israel. Israel is in a fight for its very survival. The island that the democrat Majority Leader of the United States senate would take to the floor of that storied chamber and start to dictate what the leadership of our most cherished ally should do is a disgrace. Im almost as offended by the fact that President Biden called it a good speech. Theres this whole doctrine that america should speak with one voice. That of course is the voice of the president of the United States. For President Biden, not to to pull back on what Chuck Schumer said is astonishing. Its an example ironically of a democratic leader in america trying to engage in Election Interference in israel. The people of israel, i can tell you, having been there, martha, are completely united behind the goal and the objective of Destroying Hamas and the United States of america should send no other message than we are with you all the way until hamas is destroyed once and for all. Its interesting that you look at some of the polls and the impact and what weve seen on social media. Weve seen in some of the primary elections, in michigan in particular, which has a large arab population. No doubt these polls are not lost on President Biden. Among 18 to 34yearolds in michigan, hes 11 points lower than former President Trump. 25 points lower than governor whitmire, who is popular in michigan. Do you think that Election Politics are bending bidens will on this . Its hard to imagine any other motivation here than some concern about the elections and their own coalition in the democratic party. This is war, martha. Literally i walked through houses that were the walls were riddled with bull len holes. Blood stained furniture. I heard stories of the most horrific torture and massacre of men, women and children. What israel is doing today, we should support. Imagine if some western nation, several months after 911 had called for a change of leadership at the white house here in our country . Number 1, we wouldnt have listened to them. Number 2, we would have been deeply offended by it. Look, im glad to hear Senator Schumer has walked back his statement a bit. I want to see President Biden walk it back as well. Make it clear that if the world knows nothing else, the world should know this. America stands with israel. Martha let me ask you this. We have not spoken since former President Trump sewed up the nomination which he did earlier this week. He has received endorsements from some of the people running against him. We have not heard from you. Will you be endorsing your former president , you were on the ticket with him last time around. Well, martha, i appreciate the question. It should come as no surprise that i will not be endorsing donald trump this year. Look, im incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made america more prosperous, more secure and saw conservatives appointed to our courts in a more peaceful world. That being said, during my president ial campaign, i made it clear there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues. Not just our difference on my constitutional duties that i exercised january 6th. As i have watched his candidacy unfold, ive seen him walking away from our commitment to confronting the national debt, ive seen him starting to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life. This last week his reversal on getting tough on Ch China And N Support A Sale of tik tok martha why did think he did that . I cant speculate on it. What i can tell you is that in each of these cases, donald trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. Thats why i cannot in good conscious endorse donald trump in this campaign. Let me say one last thing. That being said, republican primary voters have made it clear, martha, who theyre for in this election. What im going to spend the rest of the year is talking about what we should be for. The Broad Mainstream Conservative Agenda that has defined our party and always made america strong and prosperous and free. Martha understood. Sandra two seconds. Who you going to vote for in november . Well, like most americans, im going to keep my vote to myself. Martha would you vote for President Biden . I would never vote for joe biden. How i vote when that curtain closes, that will be for me. Martha are you looking for a thirdparty candidate . What i can tell you is that where im going to spend any energies is on making sure that my fellow republicans, independents and Many Democrats around the country know that it is a commitment to a limited government in the constitution, a commitment to a Strong Defense and American Leadership in the world, a commitment to traditional values. Thats always made this country prosperous and free and im going to advocate that . Martha youre not going to run as a candidate of any kind, are you . Im a republican, imagine that. Martha a quick break and well be right back. Ards lately . Get ready for a shock. The rate on credit cards is now over 22 . If you want to save hundreds of dollars every month, pay off the balances on your high rate cards with a lower rate va home loan from newday usa. And get the financial Peace Of Mind every veteran deserves. No one takes care of veterans like newday usa. [street noise] [car door shuts] [paparazzi taking pictures] introducing, neds plaque psoriasis. 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Martha a stunning discussion that we had with mike pence that served side by side with President Trump and had a lot of differences with him. Ended up running against him. Announced here today on the story that he will not support the former president in the 2024 election. He said he would not vote for him. He said he would not vote for joe biden but did not disclose who he would vote for. I asked if he would run for a thirdparty candidate and he said im a republican. Very interesting to see how all of that has developed over the years. So that is the story for today. Friday. Happy friday, everybody. Have a good st. Patricks day. The story goes on. Check out The Untold Story podcast from mitch albom just rescued from haiti. See you monday. Neil thanks. Stunning breakin