Off the post. Sweden can win on this kick. Plus, oneonone with Donald Trumps lawyer who claims trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election were aspirational, not criminal. And lost at sea for two days in a boat only 12 feet long. Well show you the incredible rescue and youre live in the cnn newsroom. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining me this sunday. Im fredricka whitfield. Former president Donald Trumps lawyer speaking out this morning doubling down on his argument that trump was within his First Amendment rights when he asked former Vice President mike pence to overturn the election results. And that it all boils down to the way he asked. And all of this played out in the open. Its all free speech. There was a Supreme Court decision, which is right on point, that says when youre exercising free speech, youre not engaging in a fraud on the government. And thats what unfortunately, most people dont understand in this context. Thats just one example of the actions. Thats just one example of the actions in this indictment. Absolutely. This is a long list compiled from the indictment. I mean, there are its more than a dozen, not speech, actions that the former president like what . I mean, where do i even start . Like what, tell me . Asking the arizona speaker to interfere with ascertaining . Asking. The Justice Department asking is speech. But any thats the point, asking is speech. Its not action. Almost all alleged Criminal Activity has to do with using words and speech. And thats listen. This is obviously the defense that youre going to use, and it will be fascinating to see how it works out in a court of law. I want to move on to another issue. And that is you make an interesting point because youre saying that asking is action. Now, asking is aspirational. Asking is not action. Its core free speech. The press should be defending free speech in this case. Okay, lets talk about free speech is the most protected speech. Attorney john lauras comments come after a federal judge denied their quest for a deadline extension on a possible protective order. And now trumps legal team says it will fight the order and the former president is also calling for the judge overseeing the case to recuse herself. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all federal charges against him. I want to unpack all of this as much as we can with harry lipman, former u. S. Attorney and former Deputy Assistant attorney general. And jennifer rogers, cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. Great to see both of you. Harry, you first. John lauro says asking is not action. What is your response to that argument . Its deeply muddled. First of all, theres quite an irony in saying he was just saying pretty please to pence. He did everything but hold a gun to his head. But really, this speech conduct distinction doesnt matter. What trump is charged with is agreeing to do something unlawful. Thats what a conspiracy is. You do it, as dana was pointing out, with words. If you or i say, lets go rob a bank, five little words there, and we take any action in support of it, we have broken the law. So its not when hes badgering pence exactly. Thats an act in furtherance of the conspiracy. The conspiracy is agreeing with the coconspirators to try to delay or impede the 1 6 certification hearing, which is plainly against the law under usc1512, et cetera. This aspiration or even speech conduct idea just is beside the point. So jennifer, john lauro should know of all that, right . Just to remind people, perhaps hes talking to the nonlegal audience out there, but just to remind people, these alleged actions, this was at a time the sitting president was asking his Vice President at the time not to certify the election. And so now, john lauro is saying, you know, that it didnt happen that way, that he was simply asking him, but we know by then the president saying to the Vice President , hes being too honest doesnt that simply underscore that trump did know the truth . And that what he was asking is not protected speech . Yeah, so john lauro certainly does know better, but he has a job to do, and the current job is to try to throw out all of these potential defenses and try to get people in the public and ultimately the jury pool to buy into some of these and think theres some legitimacy there. I me, of course, the evidence demonstrates that this was not just aspirational. This was criminal. He wasnt just asking, he was conspiring. All these things the Special Counsel set out in the indictment, very compellingly set out in the indictment. And once you get within the four walls of a courtroom, everything is different. You have a captive audience there. They will listen to all of the evidence, not just sound bites on tv. Thats when john and his colleagues are going to have a big problem. So harry, it has to be more than that from lauro and the rest of the defense team, right . It cant just be about First Amendment rights, protected speech. What do you suspect is the direction in which theyre going . Well, they have telegraphed several things. Its a little unclear. He is trying it in the press, a very unusual kind of strategy for a defense lawyer. And maybe as jen says, hes just trying to influence the public pool. But they have made it clear that theyre going to try several other things. Theyre going to argue he was acting on advice of counsel. Theyre going to ask for A Change Of Venue and to disqualify the judge. Theyre going to say he didnt have guilty intents. He really believed that the election was rigged. Those are the main arguments it looks like theyll trot out. They know many of them, maybe all of them are losers. Theyre also thinking about which ones eat up a lot of time, say as in maralago, where the classified documents litigation will at least stretch out time. I have tried to carefully look at them. Were doing a whole podcast on that for tomorrow, and theres one or two that might have some purchase, but legally, theyre all bankrupt, but hes got this strange strategy where he really wants if he can to get it into past the election, win the election, and make it all go away. Jennifer, i want to ask about the request for the skrjudge to recuse herself. Trump says his legal team has powerful grounds for this request. Is this simply because they did not get the judgment they wanted on that motion that she said no to extending the deadline and thereby now the trump team not happy with her . What would be the merit in which they claim she should recuse herself . Well, they dont have any legitimate grounds at this point. I mean, we just started. She hasnt even had an appearance yet with them in front of her. I suspect theyre trying to get rid of her, they dont think shes good for them. They might point to this motion, denying the request to delay a briefing is no basis to kick a judge off a case. They might go more for sugge suggestions shes a democrat, supported democrats in the past with donations and such, and that shows shes biased against him. It wont work, but i think theyll kind of Throw Everything at it to try to get her kicked off the case because they think that she wont be fair to the former president. Harry, trump also argued on his truth social platform that he wouldnt get a fair trial in d. C. , that hell be seeking a venue change to perhaps West Virginia. I mean, On What Grounds would that happen . And what would it take in order for a request like that change of venue to be granted . No legal grounds. Like the motion to recuse, this is a dead loser. The idea is its an area that voted largely against him. Thats not the question. That happens a lot. Can you put together 12 jurors who will swear and discharge an oath to look at the evidence objectively according to the facts and the law. Theres no kind of venue exception for they dont like me here. And i guess lauros team believing West Virginia might be a more supportive environment because after all, were talking about the d. C. Court there, just in the shadow of the alleged scenes of the crimes, jennifer. I also want to play a portion of lauros comments regarding this potential pretotective order. One thing that we are going to do is fight this very, very unusual outside of the bounds criminal prosecution of First Amendment rights vigorousry in court. My focus is on addressing the issues. One of the issues that the Biden Administration will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt is that donald trump had corrupt intent, had criminal intent when he protested the results of the 2020 election. Thats core freedom of speech. So jennifer, there is going to be a lot of supportive tape, right . Much of which the world has seen that falls right into his inquiry. How will that perhaps either the defense believe it will best serve them or prosecution hopes it will serve to support their case . Yeah, listen, both sides have their crack at this. The prosecution goes first and they will be putting on lots of witnesses, showing lots of recordings, you know, putting in all of their evidence, and the defense gets their side. And sometimes you see even the same pieces of evidence used, and you just argue them differently to the jurors. Well have to see how it all goes. I dont think the focus will be squarely on recordings of what happened on january 6th. The Special Counsel chose not to charge a Seditious Conspiracy or incitement of an insurrection, probably to avoid some of the first praemp concerns that would have cropped up with those charges. It will be more on the screaming that happened between the election and january 6th in terms of how to stop the election from being certified. So both sides will use evidence in different ways and theyre sum it up in arguments and see what the 12 people in the skraer jury decide. It sounds like a whole lot of material people are going to relive or see for the first time, tantamount to television clips, audio recordings, texts, and tweets. The whole gamut. All right, harry lipman, jennifer rogers, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. All right, coming up, a stunning and dramatic loss, marking the earliest exit ever for the u. S. Womens National Team at the world cup. What happened on the pitch . But it was good news and an Epic Comeback for simone biles in her first competition since 2021. What she is saying about her dominating return. Plus, a 25yearold found alive after he was missing for days at sea. Details about the coast guards Rescue Efforts straight ahead. 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After a dramatic Penalty Shootout against sweden, the u. S. Lost by one point with a final score of 54. Todays loss marks the earliest exit ever for the u. S. At a world cup. The womens world cup. Boston globe Sports WriterFrank Delappy with us me now. Try to put into words for us, i mean, this defeat, this disappointment for the usa womens team. Yeah, tremendous disappointment. But you know, you could see it coming. So i think not everybody is surprised. I think actually the oddsmakers had the u. S. As a favorite in the game. Not everybody else saw that. But they played well enough to win, just didnt score the goals. What do you mean, you could see it coming . What did you see along the way . Okay, just some of the numbers didnt look good. This team only scored one goal in the last 300 minutes of play. This is a team that, you know, historically averaged like i think almost three goals a game in the world cup, certainly more than two in every world cup. This time, they just struggled. The first game was pretty easy against vietnam. Call that like a glorified training session. After that, they only scored one more goal. There was something missing and it was all in the offense. The defense was great. They didnt give up any goals today. So just you have to score goals at some point. Ouch. Okay, so lets talk, zero in on Megan Rapinoe. This is where her career ends. She said heading into this that she was about to retire. At the same time, when evaluating her play, she missed what could have been a Game Changing penalty shot during the match. And there bby, this was her reaction to the heartbreaking moments. I know thats the end and thats sad, but you know, to know this is really the only time i have been in one of these this early, you know, says so much about how much success i have been able to have. And just how much i have loved playing for this team and playing for this country. And yeah, its been an honor. And were certainly not saying that missed penalty shot, you know, its all on her or anything like that. This is a team effort. But in totality, you really could see kind of what the loss was like for her, what it felt like. This is tough, but she has been at the apex for a very long time. So how do you kind of extrapolate what she was going through when she was talking . Its just too bad thats going to be the lasting memory of the last touch, the last time you saw Megan Rapinoe on the field for the u. S. , and the reality is, before that, in extra time, she had a great chance, which a younger probably Megan Rapinoe would have put away. She didnt even get the shot off. A great cross from andy sullivan. Didnt control it, didnt do anything you had to do to put the shot on goal. Then it comes down to penalties, which is another specialty of Megan Rapinoe. Set pieces, penalties, corning kicks, free kicks, and she didnt come through on that today. Too bad thats going to be her lasting memory. Look into your crystal ball if you could for us. What do you see for some of the other superstars like alex morgan, kelley ohara, julie ertz . A lot of everybody is moving on, not julie ertz, but alex will move on, Megan Rapinoe, they have to move on. Its a transition time, and this team is ready to move on. I thing the Young Players showed what they could do, but theyre not quite ready yet. You had a team in transition where Megan Rapinoe was maybe a step slower than she needed to be, alex morgan, the same. The Young Players didnt have quite the experience and the confidence to come through, so they were growing as the tournament went on. Thats how it its supposed to work, but you have to stay in contention. By the fifth, sixth game they might have been ready to go. Certainly by 2027, certainly by the next olympics theyll be ready to go. Right now, i just dont think the team was quite ready. They couldnt quite get the midfield set. A lot more questions than in the past teams where they came in ready to go. Perhaps a lot can happen in a short amount of time before the world is watching again on this kind of scale for them. Frank, thank you so much. Really enjoyed talking to you. Thanks. And simone biles, shes back. And she did not disappoint. Seventime olympic medalist, biles won her first gymnastics competition last night after stepping away from the sport two years ago. Cnns Isabel Rosales has more on the g. O. A. T. s return. Friends, she is called the g. O. A. T. , the greatest of all time, for a reason here. She showed that yesterday with an incredible return to the world event elite gymnastics. She hasnt competed in two years, yet we saw from her in this competition her taking first place all around. That is the vault, the Floor Routine, and the balance beam. Then taking third place over at the uneven bars, which is to be expected, even from the g. O. A. T. She calls that her weakest apparatus. I want you to take a look at this. This is her Floor Routine where she does a double layout with a half turn. That is named after her. This is the biles. And then, on vault, performing the most incredible double pike. This is something no female athlete has done before. This is widely considered the hardest womens vault in the world. And if she does this on an international stage, we are possibly looking at