If the election becomes a referendum on what document was left by the toilet at maralago, we are not going to win. Jonathan the hunter biden plea deal unravels. This deal stunk from day one. This is a prosecution being done in a fair way. Jonathan and the speaker of the house floats impeachment for President Biden. We will follow this all the way to the end, and this is going to rise to an impeachment inquiry. This is just a complete distraction. Jonathan this morning, all the legal and political impact with republican governor chris sununu, democratic congressman dan goldman and analysis from our powerhouse round table. Plus these two extremes have the microphone. We are much less divided than were being told we are. Jonathan just a year after the massacre in uvalde, a conversation with Matthew Mcconaughey and a mission to make americas schools safer. Jonathan good morning this welcome this week. We come on the air after a week of stunning legal developments that are bound to have an impact on the 2024 president ial election. Although just how they will impact the race is unclear. We expected donald trump would be indicted last week on charges related to special counsel jack smiths january 6th investigation. We expected a federal judge in delaware would affirm the plea agreement hunter biden worked out with federal prosecutors effectively ending the legal drama, if not the Political Drama surrounding the president s son. Instead, jack smith dropped entirely new indictments in the classified documents case, alleging a coverup spearheaded by former President Trump. Alleged actions that were both brazen and comically inept, and the federal judge in delaware refused to accept the hunter biden plea deal, giving republicans even more ammunition to make allegations against President Bidens family central to the 2024 campaign. Meanwhile, this week, speaker of the house Kevin Mccarthy had nothing to say about the new coverup allegations against trump, but he did talk about possibility of moving forward with an impeachment inquiry against President Trump. The trump superpac spent nearly 40 million in legal fees related to the many investigations he now faces. Well explore all of it this morning. Chief Justice Department correspondent Pierre Thomas leads us off. And were going to make America Great again. Reporter an epic battle intensifying this week between the Justice Department and former president donald trump. Trump and his legal team had been bracing for a new indictment from counsel jack smith regarding trumps role on january 6th. Even holding a lastminute meeting as trump tried to convince the special counsel not to indict, and then dramatically, that same day only hours later, smith announces new charges against trump, placing the former president at the center of an attempted coverup relating to these classified documents trump had taken from the white house. Smith adding to the 37 counts regarding the alleged mishandling of classified information and obstruction levied against trump just last month. Now in a superseding indictment, trump charged with another count of illegally obtaining a top secret government. The charge is about trump was allegedly waving around at potential attack against iran. This is secret information. Look at this. This was done by the military given to me. Reporter and in an explosive new allegation, smiths charging his aide and property manager were also involved in obstruction. They attempted to destroy Surveillance Footage that may show the removing of documents. President trump who says hes being harassed by smith claims hes unfazed. If going forward, right . You get these indictments, you get convicted and sentenced, does that stop your campaign for president . Not at all. Theres nothing in the constitution to say that it could. Reporter trumps new charges parking lot of a week full of legal twists intersecting with the 2024 campaign. Hunter bidens anticipated plea deal with the Justice Department collapsing after a judge raises questions. The deal negotiated for months by Hunter Bidens attorneys in a trumpappointed lead prosecutor had biden set to plead guilty with tax evasion. With prosecutors charge him for any of his financial affiliations. Now that deal in limbo presented to a judge. Washington sees the new parlor game as to how much legal woes is done to trump politically. Jonathan thanks to pierre for that report. Donald trump was on the campaign trail last night in erie, pennsylvania where he sounded off on the latest charges from special counsel jack smith. These are ridiculous indictments. They want to damage the leading candidate. By the way, leading by far i have to say. Jonathan our rachel scott was there good morning, rachel. Reporter jon, good morning to you. Trumps Legal Defense is now the cornerstone of his campaign. He uses it as a rallying cry calling the indictments a badge of honor. Hes insisting if they do not pursue investigations into President Biden and his family, then they should be fired. Hes also lashing out at this republican field saying his rivals including ron desantis are wasting millions of dollars he says should be going to help republicans win in the general election, but hes spending more money on legal fees than just about anything else. Sources tell abc news the superpac supporting the former president has spent 40 million on legal fees in just a matter of months and all of this comes as investigations into trump only intensify. Hes now faced with this unprecedented challenge of having to Balance Campaign events with Court Hearings and hes making it clear he still is in this race and hes the frontrunner, but for the most part, his rivals are hesitant to go after him, clearly worried about going after the voters to win the republican nomination. Jonathan joining us is chris sununu. Governor sununu, weve seen these late es charges from jack smith. The allegations here are pretty brazen in terms of allegedly destroying evidence. How is it that so few republicans are expressing concerns about this . Well, its kind of the boy who cried wolf, right . Weve seen the indictments. The campaign considers them all to be politically driven. Theyre allowing donald trump to play this victim card very, very well, but ultimately it doesnt it doesnt pan out. Six months from now its going to be a very different story. I think the reality is that donald trump cannot win the vote in november of 2024. He can get the nomination, but if you are going to support trump, youve got to hand it to the administration, and thats not a good thing, and i think thats why theyll have another Good Opportunity to surge. Then definitely by super tuesday, i think its a oneonone race and the former president loses. Thats just how the math is ultimately going to play out because the majority of republicans dont want donald trump. If you look at the polls, hes under 40 in New Hampshire. Hes at about 42 , 41 . Here in iowa, which im visiting. Im the governor of New Hampshire, not iowa, but when you look at, its not what he has. Its what he doesnt have, right . Again, in the next six months its only going to get worse. Jonathan you decided not to run for president , but you are dedicating yourself to ensuring that the republicans nominate somebody else, somebody not named trump. What are you hearing in iowa . You were there at the lincoln day dinner with all the candidates out there. Trump seemed to get a warm reception at least from what we saw. What are you hearing from republicans . Trump got a warm reception, but without a doubt, and i think anybody in that room would tell you, it was the worst speech. He read from a binder and didnt look up and didnt smile and it was an absolutely dead speech. This is not the donald trump of 2016. Dont fool yourself. As more and more folks realize that, he doesnt have the energy. He doesnt have the fastball. Hes droning on for 90 minutes on his long form speeches about his legal battles as opposed to talking about the future of this country,solving the problems of this country which is what all these other candidates are doing. So at some point, look. Ever see a soap opera . They get kind of boring and the only thing worse is the rerun. Thats what hes bringing is a lot of drama to the table. I think tim scott that small town feel, and he connected with a lot of folks. A lot of the candidates are showing something. Desantis, i give him a lot of credit. I think he came out early. He took his ten minutes and didnt drone on, but really got the crowd fired up. Some of these candidates are coming with it to be sure. Jonathan as you know, the polls consistently have trump with that huge lead. One of the latest Monmouth University not only have trump at the top with nearly a 30point lead, but also the ndidates that are actually taking him on directly taking him on are at the bottom. What is it go take whats it going to take to change that dynamic . So a couple of things. He is an incumbent president. Anybody who thinks he wouldnt be at the top, of course, hes going to be. These name i. D. , the recognition and all that. The republicans clearly dont want him, and thats an opportunity. We have to find out who is the best of the others, but they all quality candidates. They all bring something a little different to the table. I think youll see three or four of the 12 or 13 that dont even make the first debate, maybe five. Youll see three or four stuck in low Single Digits in late october and november and there will be a lot of pressure for them to drop. I think youll see four, five, maybe six coming into iowa. Three, four, five maybe coming to New Hampshire and everything falls from there, and youre down to a one to one race. This is where the conversations are happening and the voters are getting a lot of oneonone contact and thats the opportunity for the republican party. The trump ends up winning the nomination, will you support this no labels effort to have a Third Party Candidate . No. Im going to make sure trump isnt the candidate. I know no labels is doing their thing. Its an interesting opportunity given 70 of america not just republicans, but america doesnt want trump or biden. They dont want either of them on the ballot. Call them politically homeless, right . They dont have anyone to go to, and thats a void this no labels thing would be trying to fill. Jonathan you dont see yourself supporting that effort even if trumps the nominee . The republican nominee is not going to be donald trump and ill be supporting them. Jonathan i have to ask you. Kevin mccarthy is raising the possibility of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. What do you think . Is that what republicans in congress should be dedicating their efforts to in congress . Trying to impeach biden . No. No. I think the accusations against biden, hunter and President Biden are very real. They have to play out in court and we have to no what all the evidence is. Nobody even knows that. If they are found guilty of something, that opens up a whole different story because were talking potential bribery. Thats an incredibly serious accusation, and so therefore if found guilty, yeah. I think congress should take something up, but i think theyre really, really far from really figuring out what the realities there are, but those are accusations. Americas got amazing problems around Mental Health, around the opioid crisis, fighting for the border, having somebody in washington, d. C. Have some fiscal sanity. Really things that impact everyday lives of americans and i would rather have them focus on those issues and if the guilty verdict comes to bear, they can take it up at that time. Jonathan right now a lot of allegations and very few proven allegations. Thank you for joining us. You bet. Jonathan were joined now by democratic congressman dan goldman of new york, a former federal prosecutor who also served as the lead counsel in Donald Trumps first impeachment. Congressman goldman, thank you for joining us. Taking a look at these new charges, these new superseding indictment from jack smith, how serious are they . Well, its very serious. Less because of the Additional Defendant i think, but more because it demonstrates Donald Trumps knowledge of what his conduct was and how wrong it was, and that he was trying to obstruct the investigation that he knew was ongoing. That is quintessential consciousness of guilt which shows that he knew what he was doing was wrong, and so we already know we had a very detailed, devastating indictment, and now we layer on the knowledge that trump shows about the illegality of his conduct and it just gets worse for him. Jonathan there are all these sprawling cases. You have the new York District attorney case. You have potentially new cases coming out of fulton county, georgia, and the documents case, and whatever is coming from jack smith. Cutting through all of it, what is the most important for people to be watching . What is the most dire threat to trump of all of this stuff . Well, i think the most important thing to take away is that donald trump does not believe that the law applies to him. He simply believes hes above the law and he can do whatever he wants. We saw that in the first impeachment when he abused the power of the presidency in order to extort a foreign government, a democracy into helping him with his campaign, and it has continued on in full force because no one has yet held him accountable. The republicans in congress refused to hold him accountable and he feels like he is completely invincible, but takeaway from all four cases, from the civil cases is donald trump simply thinks hes above the law. Jonathan i want to turn to the other development this week involving hunter biden. Were you surprised to see the judge in delaware reject the plea deal . Not reject it, but not accept it. Well, right. I think theres been a lot of hey made of this, but this is a fairly typical process. This was an unusual agreement, in part, because its a 24month agreement, and theres the possibility that donald trump will be president , and we know from his presidency how much he weaponized the department of justice to go after his enemies and favor his associates. If donald trump were to get the presidency, he would weaponize the department of justice, and so there is an added calculation to this, but the fact of the matter is that this is a trumpappointed u. S. Attorney, a trumpappointed judge. This is a very independent and thorough investigation, and i think that whatever happens in the hunter biden case, we can rest assured that it was done based solely on the facts and the evidence, and that there was nothing else to it. Jonathan youve kind of touched on why this was in there, but the most important and controversial is this one. It says the United States agrees not to criminally prosecute Biden Hunter Biden for this. The attached statement of facts is his entire income that republicans have been talking about from russia, from china, from romania. Was that too broad to have basically a blanket immunity from anything related to all of that income . No because thats what they have been investigating for five years, and they ultimately determined they could not charge him and for whatever reason, we dont know. The House Republicans have no idea what the actual evidence is that david weiss has, and this was an exhaustive fiveyear investigation, and so what Hunter Bidens lawyer wanted was some confirmation that they will not charge him for any crimes related to the investigation that they underwent. Thats fairly typical, and oftentimes prosecutors and defense lawyers go back and forth about what degree of immunity a defendant will get, but lets remember. This is not as if its a new investigation. This is five years, and he had testimony of foreign bank accounts, Domestic Bank accounts, search warrants. Hundreds of thousands of document that is they pored over, and then they ultimately decided they could not charge hunter biden with it and thats how the process should work. Jonathan in light of that, the White House Press secretary this week said that a pardon for hunter biden is off the table, but we havent heard President Biden himself rule it out. Do you think a pardon for his son would be a mistake . Yes. And i dont think theres any chance that President Biden is going to do that unlike his predecessor who pardoned all his friends and anyone who had any access to him. He has restored the department of justice, and i think you see that in this case where he kept on he kept on a trumpappointed u. S. Attorney to investigate the president s son. If there is not an indication of the independence of the department of justice beyond that, i dont know what we can look for. Jonathan thank you very much for joining us. The round table is next, and coming up, my exclusive conversation with Matthew Mcconaughey. Well be right back. Tion with m mcconaughey. Well be right back. whats up, steph . Hey, check this out. You can prequalify with carmax, fast and easy. phone clattering did you just block me . I was protecting your credit score. Prequalifying with carmax has no impact to your credit score. Sorry. Force of habit. Anyway, then folks can shop by personalized results to see how each car fits their budget. phone clattering it feels really good. laugh you just blocked me again. Come on. Get prequalified with no impact to your credit score. Carmax. Have fun, sis cant stop adding stuff to your cart . Get the bank of america customized cash rewards card, choose the