Right now. Outfront next, donald trump says hes accept the role of house speaker, quote, for the party and for a short period if necessary. It comes as hes placing himself in the capitol hill chaos. And abc news reporting that donald trump discussed Sensitive Information about submarines with a Maralago Club member. How does this fit into jack smiths case . And russia launching one of the deadliest strikes on ukraine yet. Putin claims he didnt start the war. Hes just trying to end it. Lets go outfront. Good evening. Im erin burnett. Tonight, donald trump for speaker . Trump saying tonight he will take the job, telling fox news digital today, i quote, they have asked me if i would take it for a short period of time for the party until they come to a conclusion. Im not doing it because i want to. I will do it if necessary. Also telling fox hell visit the capitol on tuesday. The vote is expected to be wednesday and this will be trumps first visit to the capitol since the insurrection on january 6th. Nearly three years ago. Make no mistake. There are plenty of republicans who dont want trump getting involved. You do not want trump to come . No, i think the discussion should be focused on the people that are in the conference. But the reality of course is that it is a deeply divides, chaotic party, and some of the republicans who Support Trump as speaker are speaking out just as l loudly. Its done. I am nominating donald j. Trump for speaker of the house. I think President Trump is the right guy for the job. I certainly would love to see him be speaker of the house. Of course, it does bear reminding that they are saying this about a person who is facing 91 felony charges. A person who abc is reporting tonight allegedly discussed potentially Sensitive Information about u. S. Nuclear submarines with a billionaire who then shared that information with more than 45 other people. Including more than a dozen fortune officials. Abc reporting that an australian who runs pride industries, has been interviewed by both the fbi and prosecutors at least twice this year and he told them that at maralago in spring of 2021, he brought up the american submarine fleet, which he discussed with trump before. Pratt says hes told trump, australia should buy u. S. Submarines and he quote leaned into pratt and told him two things about american submarines. Supposedly the exact number of nuclear y carry and exactly how close they can get supposedly to a Russian Submarine without being detected. Pretty incredible things to share to a person in a club. Of course, trump is already charged with 40 counts. Melanie is outfront on capitol hill and you know in the context here, melanie, trump now saying hes willing to not just run for president , but potentially be Speak Speaker for a period of time. You have been talking to a lot of republicans there today. What are they telling you about trump getting involved here in the speaker . Well, it is not being warmly received. This is just what one republican told me. They said the solution to chaos isnt to bring in a chaos agent. So, yes. Theres some hard core supporters like Marjorie Taylor greene who are egging on this. But the reality is the conference, trump is a polarizing figure. Bringing them in would do nothing. The idea of him being speaker, there are 18 republicans invited in Tw Republicans in the conference who voted to impeach trump. Theyre not going to make him speaker. They would have to elect him to do that but there is a question of whether he gets off the sidelines and endorses a speaker for candidate. He was really on the sidelines during the fight earlier this week. He had pitched mccarthy for speaker this year but really didnt do anything to come to his rescue and now were being told that jim jordan, one of the candidates for speaker, has talked to trump about his speakers bid. So everyone is waiting to see whether he gets involved in this race or not. Just The Big Picture here, erin. The fact that even trumps name is being thrown around by people like Marjorie Taylor greene and other hard core Trump Supporters shows theres so much uncertainty about who their next speaker is going to be. Steve kai scalise is running, j jordan. All right, melanie. Amazing, right . Didnt seem to have a plan at all. We have members on both sides of the aisle with us tonight as this chaos continues. I want to start with congressman molinaro. Sir, i know you voted against the effort to oust Speaker Mccarthy so you wanted him to remain as speaker. So you just heard congressman nells, i nominate donald trump for speaker. President trumps the right guy for the job. Id love to see him be speaker of the house. Do you think former President Trump should be speaker on a shortterm basis . The way you framed it is a great way of answering it. Z we have a shortterm speaker and im kcommitted to finding someone within the house. Weve got to be focused on governing again and i think what happened two days ago was a mistake. I think its an embarrassment and frankly, we need as a conference, republican majority, to come together behind a candidate who serves in the house and is committed to governing. We have a divided country and a bipartisan government and we have to function within that reality. So President Trump in this context is coming to capitol hill next week ahead of what might be the first of many rounds of votes for speaker, right . Depending on what happens in your party. The day before. He hasnt been on capitol hill since the insurrection when he was obviously nearby. So do you think thats a good idea he come to the hill . Is it helpful in any way . I think that the conference has a lot to get through these next few days and quite frankly, the amount of discussion weve been having as members is complicated enough. I will say out loud that ive been engaged in these conversations. I think people from different backgrounds, this is a serious moment. The speaker of the house has responsibility. Second in line to be president of the United States. This is not a moment where we need any distraction or any, any undermining of a very serious effort to find the individual who best, who will best enable us to govern the American People. They want us fighting inflation. They want us delivering to the most vulnerable in our society and they need us to be serious about that. Thats my attention to focus. Congressman, when i ask you about who the speaker may be but first i want to ask you about the reporting that abc news is reporting that President Trump allegedly discussed this information about nuclear subs with a billionaire who then shared it with then 45 people. Whats your reaction to that and do you think trump given what you know from that and obviously whats going on in the maralago case, should he have any future access to Sensitive Information . This is the first honestly ive been hearing of the reporting and i dont know the accuracy of really the truth telling or honesty of the individual. I think without question, obviously this information that ought not be shared with anyone and there needs to be respect of confidential information. I said this consistently. No one, president s or members of congress should be out running their mouths on things of that nature. The speakers race itself. I want to ask you because you said you were in meetings. I know one of them i believe was with the congressman, jim jordan. Obviously, he wants the speakership. Hes been speaking to the former president. Did he win your vote . Ive made this very clear. Ive spoken to jim jordan and Steve Scalise and i will tell you it took three, put it this way. No one worked harder to earn my support nor the majority of the house than Kevin Mccarthy. It took him three or four years to earn that support. I represent Upstate New York and americans who want solutions. Im not committing to any candidate. Im listening, asking tough questions and im speaking on behalf of members like myself who want someone whos going to be committed to governing. If any of these men or women, if any other names come forward, i represent the best interest of the people who want solutions. Item going to continue to hold firm in that and these member haves a week. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Be well. Thank you. You, too. Im joib ned by seth molten of massachusetts. Congressman, if democrats had helped mccarthy retain his speakership, you may not be looking at a jim jordan possibility. Wouldnt be hearing about a possible speaker trump and trump coming to capitol hill for the First Time Since january 6th as he is apparently going to do next week. Do you have any regrets . Absolutely not. What we want is a speaker whos willing to work across the aisle to get things done for the American People. Sounds like thats what mark wants as well. Sadly, we never got that from Kevin Mccarthy. This is a man who governed to his base from the very day he was elected speaker. Required democrats to bail him out including averting a Government Shutdown when 90 of his own members, his own republican colleagues in the house voted to shut the government down and then what does he do . Goes on tv the next day and starts bashing and blaming democrats. He could have done the most modest outreach to a few members f o you are caucus and said i want to Work Together to include you in the government process. The same way the vast majority of the American People want. Would a speaker jordan be better though . We dont know. If you look at speaker jordan, or representative jordans behavior so far, it makes you think that a speaker jordan would be even worse than mccarthy, but one would hope that the next speaker would recognize that mccarthys strategy of playing to the base, of being really subservient to the extremists in this caucus didnt work. He didnt get anything done. In the same period of time under nancy pelosi, we passed three times as many bills out of the house that Kevin Mccarthy passed in his speakership. So it didnt work for legislating. For the American People and it ultimately cost him his job to just listen to people like matt gaetz. So we hope whoever the next speaker is, speaker scalise, jordan, they wont do that. Theyll be willing to work across the aisle to govern for the American People. And that would be a shift for some of those individuals. It would be a real transformational shift. I want to ask you about how you got here. I know youre well aware that your colleague, dan goldman, said that liz cheney reached out to him about Speaker Mccarthy. To say that, to remind him that mccarthy obviously had in her view, had such a horrible response to january 6th. And the view she had that he poses a danger to democracy because of how he behaved on january 6th and his current support for donald trump. Then he said he went and conveyed that to the entire democratic conference right before the vote and it was framed that that was crucial. That liz cheney was crucial to the decision of the Democratic Caucus to not back and bailout Speaker Mccarthy. How big of an impact did she have . A lot of democrats have respect for her in standing up to trump and the insurrectionists and the people in her party who are the election deniers. We understand that about liz cheney. That doesnt mean we always follow her advice. All right. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, a Major Development on the legal front. Trump trying to get the dojs January 6th Case dismissed. He says he has immunity because he was president and was acquitted by the senate after his impeachment. And russia tonight launching a brutal strike on ukraine. More than 50 People Killed and putin tonight rewriting history, trying to say he didnt start the war. And commander biden out of the white house but as our tom foreman will report tonight, commander is far from the only president ial pet to end up in the dog house. Abc first reporting that trump shared Sensitive Information about submarines with a Maralago Club member. The New York Times is reporting that jack smith may be calling the club member, anthony pratt, an australian billionaire who runs a u. S. Major company, to testify in the classified documents case. This m cos as team trump is now looking to get jack smiths over case thrown out, claiming trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election were protected because of president ial immunity and they point out that trump was acquitted by the senate after his impeachment, which is a political process. It is the argument they are making as to why he shouldnt be facing charges in a court. Evan perez is outfront. So, evan, let me just ask you about that specific thing. Treeing to get this thrown out on immunity. Is this a hail mary or is this actually Something Real . It is a hail mary but it is probably their best chance. It is probably their best defense and its one theyve been certainly testing out in various ways, erin. The former president knows the fact he was president does come with a lot of benefits. One of them was the fact that under article two, he has to execute the laws of the country. So what theyre saying in this court filing is that you know, because there are laws against vote fraud that the former president had every right to ask the Justice Department to communicate with State Officials to ask them to look into those fraud claims. Now, of course, theres a lot of reason for the Justice Department to have done those investigations and come back and said that it was nothing to support that. Ill read you just a part of what the filing says though because they go beyond just what the former president s president ial duties were. This goes into the impeachment trial. They say President Trump was acquitted of these charges after the senate and he thus remains immune from prosecution. The Special Counsel Cannot Second guess the judgment of the dually elected United States senate. If you remember, a part of what the senate was looking at was whether the former president inspired and really brought on the insurrection on january 6th and thats not what jack smith and the special counsel are prosecuting the former president for. Thank you very much. And ryan goodman is with me and katie, former federal prosecutor. So thanks to both. Weve talked about the fact that impeachment is a political process. And court of law is a Legal Process. Mitch mcconnells whole point. Lets courts decide it. Acquitted by the senate so throw it out. Is there any case here to do that or for president ial immunity . For that argument, no. Its almost ludicrous. In the sense that he almost is saying you require a senate in order to be able to then prosecute a president but that wouldnt make any sense because evidence could come to light later. As evan says, there was a particular specific charge in the impeachment, which was the incitement. Other charges, jack smith didnt charge him with incitement. He has a separate argument, which is the Supreme Court has found president s are immune from civil suits. Thats a good argument. Hes now saying that should extend to civil suits. I think its still a loser but very proper for his lawyers to raise that. It would be a mistake not to try. I know katie, you think you could get to the Supreme Court on that. If that happens, how long does it take before we get an answer . Theoretically, the trial judge could grant and dismiss the case on that ground. Theres the issue of First Impression the Supreme Court has never definitively decided what is outside of the outer perimeter of the president s duties which has what the Supreme Court has said in civil cases. The president is immune from civil liability and Legal Process but in a criminal context, thats never been adjudicated. There are certain things we could say for sure. Things like Domestic Violence or sexual assault. The conduct and the excuse of the laws and things of that sort. I think its a very valid argument and whether it gets overturned at the trial level, tas doubtful, but scotus will have to weigh in on this. The trial would have to end, go through the other Appellate Courts most likely unless the Supreme Court takes it out of turn, which i guess is possible. So this could delay. Absolutely. Because the Supreme Court could just sit on it. It could eventually find in favor of the prosecution but could sit on it for months on end. Right, which is what the former president wants. All these cases. Its interesting when you look at these. E even if thats all they get. I want to ask you about this abc news reporting about trump sharing this potentially