>> earlier this afternoon donald trump was arraigned, returned by manhattan grand jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying

business records in the first degree. >> the only crime i have committed is to defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it. ♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, april 5, 2023. yesterday, donald trump appeared in a manhattan court and plead not guilty to 34 felony charges in a hush money case. the former president is back in his florida home today. we are taking your thoughts and reactions to the charges and arraignment. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send a text at (202) 748-8003. social media, facebook.com/

c-span, and twitter. i want to show you the front pages of the major -- the national newspapers.the story is on the front page of usa today. this is the washington times. this is the washington post. the new york times and the wall street journal. we will start with this one. former president intents to be a key issue. the case against donald trump unsealed on tuesday could unhinge questions of criminal intent and untested interpretation of the law according to specialists. manhattan d.a. alvin bragg alleges mr. trump violated new york's business records laws and attempting to cover up a payment made to porn star stormy daniels to buy her silence before the

2016 presidential election. the violations are typically misdemeanors in the york. mr. bragg alleges this was made to cover up the commission of a crime. specifically violations of campaign finance laws and possibly a tax offense. such a move elevates misdemeanor violations to the level of felonies. let's look at what the da said yesterday about that in a press conference. [video] >> when donald trump was arraigned on an indictment, returned by manhattan grand jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. under new york state law is a felony to falsify business records with intent to defraud and conceal another crime. that is exactly what this case is about.

34 false statements made to cover up other crimes. these are felony crimes in new york state, no matter who you are. we cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct. the defendant repeatedly made false statements on new york business records. he also caused others to make false statements. the defendant claims he was paying uncle cohen -- michael cohen for legal services performed. this simply was not true. it was a false statement the defendant made months after month and 2017. april, may, june and so on through the rest of the year. for nine straight months the

defendant held documents in his hands containing this key lie that he was paying michael co hen for legal services performed in 2017. he personally signed checks for each of these nine months. in total, the grand jury found there were 34 documents with this critical false statement. why did donald trump repeatedly make these false statements? the evidence will show he did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election. host: we are taking your calls this morning on your reaction to the arraignment that happened yesterday. that was the da. now here from former president trump, remarks he made at mar-a-lago. [video] >> i never thought anything like this could happen in america. never thought it could happen.

the only crime i have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it. [cheers] from the beginning the democrats spied on my campaign. remember that? they attacked me with an onslaught of fraudulent investigations. russia, russia, russia. ukraine, ukraine, ukraine. impeachment hoax number one. impeachment hoax number two. the illegal and unconstitutional raid on mar-a-lago, right here. the lying to the pfizer courts. the fbi and doj pursuing republicans. the unconstitutional changes to election laws by not getting approvals from state legislatures. the millions of votes illegally

stuffed in the ballot boxes and all caught on government cameras. just recently the fbi and doj in collusion with twitter and facebook in order not to say anything bad about the hunter biden laptop from hell, which exposes the biden family as criminals which, according to the pollsters would have made a 17 point difference in the election results. we needed a lot less than that. 16.9. it would have been in our favor. not my favorite. our favor, because our country is going to hell. host: that was the former president yesterday at mar-a-lago responding to the arraignment in new york city yesterday. we are taking your calls. jp on the line for democrats from fort worth, texas. caller: how are you doing? hey, trump is a criminal.

he wants to be a gangster. this man needs to be imprisoned. he's just a sad fellow, man. that is my comment. host: donna from butler, missouri, republican. caller: yes. i was just wanting to make a comment and a suggestion. my comment is, president trump has done nothing wrong. my question is, if president trump had done such bad things -- i see all the good stuff he's done for our country. he loves our country. if trump is so bad, why haven't you guys investigated joe biden and his dealings and the laptop

from hell with hunter biden and the money they have gotten from over in china and stuff and letting the balloon go past -- over our country and different states, and waiting a week before he shot them down? i would like to know why they are not investigating biden. why don't they kick biden out of the white house? get him out. host: dwight from fairfield, california. independent. caller: it is good to see you on a weekday. i'm used to seeing you on saturday morning. it's a pleasure to see you hosting. concerning former president trump, but we have to do is let this thing play out. let it play out through the court systems before we come up with any opinions on what is going on. the fact of the matter is president trump, in my opinion,

being independent, he did a lot of good for this country. his delivery was not politically correct as we would have liked it to be. there is stuff they are doing to president trump now -- his followers, they are bonding tighter and tighter because what they are doing is not fair. let this play out in the court systems. if everyone listening to the song they play when he got through speaking last night, it was an old tune saying hold on, i'm coming. they are opening the door for him and thank you for taking my call. host: michael free democrats from syracuse, new york. caller: good morning. are you there? host: i am. caller: one think i had to say

is blabbering bill barr told cy vance the standdown in his investigation of donald trump and the hush-money payments. who is talking about that? bill barr is the biggest fool that happened to the united states, along with donald trump. that is all i have to say. look into it, people. host: alan on the republican line from washington. caller: one think he should have said, i plead not guilty and i went a speedy trial. none of this waiting three or four months. 60 days, like they are supposed to. old -- the da -- host: alvin bragg. caller: he has to get a speedy trial. host: why would that be

beneficial to do a trial quickly? caller: well, that makes these guys get up there and prove their stuff instead of hanging around for half a year or a year and getting into the election time. host: let's go to paris, ohio. edward, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. host: go ahead, edward. what do you think? caller: i want to make a comment about fox news. tucker carlsen last night did everything he could to support donald trump. he was not giving fair and balanced news. they claim george soros -- the democrats are wrong. i don't understand why judge jeanine, tucker carlsen, sean hannity cannot report the news for the news. host: what fox news will tell

you is those are editorial shows, opinions. i don't consider them part of their news, i guess. what you think of that? caller: too many people view them as a source for accurate news. they are not accurate news. a lot of people use them because they go towards donald trump. they cannot see who he really is. if you take a look at his career, take a look at him as a person, he's always been corrupt. he's always been for himself. they say he has done so much for this country. he did an awful lot for the ultrarich and the corporations. they have used the cash break. if you look at good tax measures , when they hired the new irs people to investigate the tax fraud going on in this country.

the middle is carrying the weight of everything. i don't see where people making over $1 million a year should get away without paying any taxes. the middle class, i've said it before, firemen and schoolteachers pay more taxes than somebody making $1 million a year. hopefully someday we will get some type of tax structure that represents fair taxation. host: let's take a look at the actual indictment. if you would like to see that, it is here. it says the grand jury of the county of new york by this indictment accuses the defendant of the crime of falsifying business records in the first degree. the defendant and the county of new york and elsewhere on or about february 14, 2017, within

tentative fraud and intent to commit another crime and aiding conceal the commission thereof made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, an invoice from michael cohen dated 2017 marked as a record of the donald trump revocable trust and kept and maintained by the trump organization. i will not read the whole thing. it is 16 pages long. you can take a look at it at manhattanda.com. maryellen is next from dewitt, virginia on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i wanted -- my sense is it is political because trump made a political when he paid off not just one woman, actually paid off two women to be quiet so he could have an edge in winning the presidency. i think trump is a criminal

defendant. it's about time he started having to face the music. i think anyone who is not guilty would not attack the judge, the prosecutor, for the judge's daughter. he would be more interested in proving his innocence. in that speech he made afterwards i never heard trump say he was innocent. i heard him rehash the past election he cannot seem to get over. i heard him tell the same lies over and over. he is just a sad, pathetic representation for the republican party and why these people continue to send the money to support him, that's a reflection of our sick society. thank you. host: regarding fundraising, here is the new york post.

the article says trump bags backers for money after raving -- raising $8 million since the indictment. he says he blasted out a fundraising appeal to his supporters ahead of his arraignment on tuesday, having already raised more than $8 million since his indictment on business fraud charges by manhattan d.a. alvin bragg last week. addressing the emails, the trump said we mourn the loss of justice in america. he said today is the day a ruling party arrests's leading opponent for having committed no crimes. the email from the campaign claims, "as i will be out of commission for the next three hours, i want to take a moment to thank you for all your support." he says he's been blown away by the money come support and prayers since the grand jury returned the indictment on the 30th. $4 million came in during the first 24 hours after charges

were filed. let's go to deborah from west virginia, republican. caller: good morning. host: governor ed, deborah. caller: i wanted to say i feel that trump has done nothing wrong. they are trying to take away a great man from us. he stands up for the united states of america. he's a wonderful person and they are trying to keep him from running for president again. we have watched the democrats try to tear down this great country and the people in it. it is continuing on. there has got to be something to stop them. as far as them saying trump was attacking with words the prosecutor, what person wouldn't have a right to defend himself or herself? i feel it is wrong in this country. i live in this country. i love america.

but i have never seen anything that is taking place in america today. if we don't stand united, we will be divided and we are being divided right now. i know a creator that brought us on this earth and there is going to be a day that this is all going to be over. i don't know what it is. i don't know when it is but i know that god is over the government shoulder. the bible speaks about that. it is in the bible. read it. host: george from winchester, virginia, independent. caller: i am calling. everybody seems to be -- politicians have taken a lesson from machiavellian.

-- machiavelli. anyway, this is getting ridiculous. i have been in the service. i worked for the government. i worked as an independent cpa. this is ludicrous. it reminds me of 9033 -- 1933 germany. everybody is a crybaby. have a nice day. host: marcus from maryland, democrat. good morning. caller: hello. is it possible to indict someone while they are on trial for something else? host: i'm not an attorney but we will have an attorney joining us at 8:00 a.m. stay tuned for that. we will ask that question. did you have anything else to

add? caller: for instance, the documents at mar-a-lago, can he be indicted for that while this is going on? host: i'm under the impression he can be indicted while this is going on. we will be sure to ask that question on how those cases interact with each other. caller: thank you. host: scott from vermont, republican. caller: good morning. my opinion is i think trump is a good man. i have been around him in new york city. i feel that he would be a very good president. i would rather have a president with a backbone, even with his faults. i would rather have a president with a backbone then a president that is a puppet for big industry. i feel trump is that man

and he would do america great justice to have a man with a backbone and does not listen or pay attention to big industries. or, being a puppet. whatever he has done, i think it's a travesty the government is spending so much money bringing this man to trial when there are 70 other problems in this country -- so many other problems in this country as far as the drugs and the criminals. i don't know. that is all i have to say. host: let's take a look at some of the texts from james in michigan. pretty much guaranteed his presidency. making him a victim is the wrong strategy. stephen maryland. for those who say trump was guilty for paying hush money, do they also feel the fbi and biden were guilty for depressing --

suppressing the laptop story? sonja says, karma. albert says i think he is a massive criminal and c-span should stop giving him free airtime. let's go next to the line for independents. flushing, new york. tavela. caller: look, donald trump is in new york. what kind of person he is? donald trump is a man who can do anything he wants. that is his character. for me, indicting the former president for hush money at this moment is political. 2016, all these stories comes out. the public knows. trump has done that but the

question is the public has already answered. if ec would have been in new york yesterday, it was a normal day. the media was doubling the crowd around him. they know it was a circus. the public spoke by ignoring the whole scenario. the fact of the matter is, this man can run for president again. then, by the same token, joe biden will again campaign for america. yesterday i saw international news. finland joining nato. the ukraine crisis. the world is full of crises. you could not find that in the united states.

we are going downward. the world does not care no more about the united states. the united states lost its leadership by its own fighting. if we have to move forward, i beg joe biden and president trump, let new people come to the table. especially a woman, an american woman and let's find a new leader so we can go forward in the future. if joe biden will run and trump will run, it will be 2020 again. i believe in accountability. there should be charges -- we lost trillions of dollars. who do we -- iraq has wmd's

every went to war and we lost -- she was accountable for that? -- who is accountable for that? nobody. he will drive our country into crisis. host: got it. justin on the line for democrats from amarillo, texas. caller: how are you? host: i'm doing ok. caller: i wanted to say i -- donald trump, man. [indiscernible] he has to be held accountable for his actions. if he finally is held accountable. host: john from the republican

line, san diego, california. caller: good morning. i used to be a democrat. i moved past that nonsense. this prosecutor is the bluest prosecutor from the bluest precinct of the bluest state. this is ground zero of the face of our nation and the political division in this country. what has been happening now against trump is nothing more than political action. these are the same folks that never accepted his initial election. they have gone after him time and time again and it's all based on politics. i think it is a real tragedy. it is so third world. reading the indictment on trump, it's almost laughable.

. unfortunately it is not . host: there are other first world countries that do indict politicians for crimes, for corruption, like israel and south korea and others. what do you think of that? caller: i'm not quite sure those are all first world countries either. no. in this case here, this has been -- these are the same folks that never accepted trump posey election -- trump's election. they have tried to overturn it since it happened. it is not trying to say just because some other country has done something against some of their former leaders. this is such -- this is so far-fetched. it is not like he committed some heinous crime where people have died and money has flowed into

him and his people's pockets. that is not what is happening at all. this is some bogus charges to make him look bad and he is a top guy going for this presidency and 2024. -- in 2020 for. -- in 2024.here is more from the conference host: yesterday. [video] >> less than two weeks for the presidential election, michael cohen wired $130,000 to stormy daniels's lawyer. that was damaging information from the voting public. the participant scheme was illegal. the scheme violated newark election law -- new york election law, which makes it illegal to conspire to promote a candidate by. unlawful means it exceeded the federal campaign

contribution cap. the false statements violated new york law. that is why mr. trump made false statements about his payments to mr. cohen. he could not simply say the payments were a reimbursement for his payments to stormy daniels. to do so, to make a true statement would have been to admit a crime. instead, mr. trump said he was paying mr. cohen for fictitious legal services in 2017 to cover up actual crimes committed the prior year. in order to get michael cohen his money back they planned one more full statement. they plant to mischaracterize the payments as income to the new york state tax authorities.

the conduct i just described and that which was charged by the grand jury is felony criminal conduct in new york state. host: that was the matin d.a. we are taking your calls and your reactions, comments and thoughts about former president trump being charged with 34 felony counts, being arraigned yesterday in manhattan. look at a few tweets by members of congress. republican representative lisa stefanik says trump has been facing logical persecution since 2016. alvin bragg must answer under oath the illegal weaponization of his office. she says another dark day in our nations history. the far left. but nothing to punish joe biden's number one political opponent, donald trump. this is representative nadler of new york. read my statement on former president trump's indictment.

a little too small for me to read. here is adam schiff who says, "a somber moment in the life of our country when it's necessary to arena former president on criminal charges. as the case falls to the d.a. to prove, we must recognize what is important. even the most powerful are held to account and nobody is above the law." this is senator chuck schumer. "i believe donald trump will have a fair trial. that follows the facts and the law. there's no place in the justice system for any outside influence or intimidation in the legal process. as the trial proceeds protests are an american right but it must be peaceful. chris on the line for independents from philadelphia, pennsylvania. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: go right ahead. caller: i would like to say to all these people, i hear them

calling up saying how these are bogus charges and he did not do anything wrong, he's our savior. i would like to remind people he cheated on his wife. if you're not going to see what he is politically, at least look at what he is morally. where is milania at this point? she's not even by his side. the fact that the january 6 committee has not put a gag on his mouth to stop speaking about how the elections were fraud and how this -- they put bogus ballots into thousands of fake ballots. that needs to stop. nobody wants to hear that anymore. it's ridiculous you can be causing all that ruckus in new york city to the people that are working there and then get on an

airplane echo although down to florida -- and then go all the way to florida for your pep rally and speak negatively. i don't understand it. the average joe, even on a work point, there's a level of ethics. if you are under scrutiny for something you don't make a public display. he needs to be gagged as far as there should be no more talk about how the elections are rigged. it is literally starting it all back up again. i'm tired of hearing about it. i work for the government. it's ridiculous to be involved. he's a celebrity. that is what he is. he is notorious for that. i would just like to remind people that if you do not agree with the democrats as far as what he's doing politically --

he took away all the regulations. i would like to remind people regulations and rules were in place that the obamas developed for covid, for the train derailment, for chemicals in the water, for all kinds of things. it is ridiculous he's able to just, you know, because all this ruckus, be silent as a mouse in new york within ryle everyone up in florida. host: you mentioned some of the other issues like january 6. here's an article from axios. the trump woes surrounding trump and his manhattan indictment. here's a couple of the other known criminal investigations of trump. the purple being federal. the orange being state. special counsel jack smith on the effort to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power on and leading up to january 6.

also the special counsel is looking into trump's handling of classified documents and potential obstruction of justice. in new york, the manhattan d.a. alvin bragg, the 2016 payment to conceal alleged affair with stormy daniels. the fulton county d.a. manny willis's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in georgia. let's go to the lighter democrats. cleveland, ohio. lori. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm so disgusted with donald trump. he's nothing but a con artist and a grifter and a liar. i don't know how we got the craziest person in the world to be president. all this money he's raising and bragging about should go for either all the security, every single political person has to have in this country and

taxpayers are paying for that. nobody ever brings that up. or, donated to tornado victims -- donate it to tornado victims. he brags about how rich he is. you have lindsey graham begging for money. people sending him money make me sick. i would not send him a red cent. i think the security, the policeman that have to be taken away from their jobs, security officers, did make me crazy. that's all i have to say. host: john from arlington, virginia, republican. caller: hi. you don't have to be a fan of donald trump to understand the charges really have a big flaw. the district attorney was afraid to put in the charges what crime trump was supposedly trying to

influence. that's the reason they raised that to a felony, was because the misdemeanor signing of those checks had to be evidence of another crime. in this case the reason they did not mention the crime was because it was a federal issue and the feds have not chosen to take any action against trump. this is what a lot of people who are not fans of trump -- i'm not a fan of trump right now. you so the business last night where he went into the election business again. it is just bad stuff. there are more serious things coming down the pipe that would be a better fit for discussion in terms of possible criminal

action. this is not one of them. unfortunately it does no good for trying to get a just final conclusion on this whole situation. host: let's take a look at more comments from former president trump yesterday at mar-a-lago. this is where he calls the manhattan d.a. a criminal. he alleges he leaked information from the grand jury. [video] >> here we are now. it's where we were today, in a city that was so great just four or five years ago. now we are there. i spent time there today as you possibly read with a failed district attorney charging a former president of the united states for the first time in history on a basis that every

single pundit and legal analyst said there is no case. they kept saying there is no case. [applause] [applause] virtually everyone. but it is far worse than that because he knew there was no case. that is why last week he delayed for a month, then immediately took that back and through this ridiculous indictment together. it came out today. everybody said this is not really an indictment. there is nothing here. lawyers came to me and said there is nothing here. they are not even saying what you did. the criminal is the district attorney, because he illegally leaked massive amount of grand jury -- [cheers] for which he should be prosecuted or at a minimum should resign. host: that was former president trump and mar-a-lago speaking to his supporters after he was

arraigned in new york city yesterday. we are taking your calls and comments. the numbers are on your screen. let's look at what mike santos from facebook. "chill out. let the courts do their thing. trump could have asked for a speedy trial but he didn't." darrell from columbus, georgia. democrat. caller: how are you? host: i'm ok. caller: you talk about a stolen election. the 2016 election was stolen. this guy is amazing. i'll tell you what. host: why do you say 26 and -- 2016 was stolen? caller: all the things he had to get covered up for him to be elected. stormy daniels, karen mcdougal, the doorman. everything had to be covered up so it would not get out and he would lose those votes. he's always talking about the election was stolen.

he's the one that stole it. he's always the one doing stuff. when you accuse somebody of something, it's always him. when he gets the rikers he will look good in the orange jumpsuit without orange hair. when he gets down to georgia with us, our jumpsuits down here are blue. he will look in the blue as well. alvin bragg should be our attorney general. alvin bragg has got the gumption to do what needs to be done. we are proud of him. we will protect him like we are protecting georgia. another thing i want to get off my chest. marjorie taylor greene. she's from georgia. when you come to georgia, she represents dalton, calhoun and rome. these are the people to put her in office. don't spend your money in these

places. they supported her. she's the reason a lot of the stuff is going on as well. it amazes me today. we are going to bring it to him down in georgia. he ain't seen nothing yet. ain't no gourmet hamburgers and chocolate cake done here in the jail down here. host: fletcher is next from germanton, north carolina. republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am not going to jump on here and argue a bunch of politics. all the ex-presidents have their own protection. secret service, so to speak. people are saying that trump is trying to make this political.

i, on a personal opinion, i think the democrats have chosen the biden administration has chosen to make this a political display to smear donald trump for any hopes of running again and 202 -- in 2024. host: do you think it is working? caller: i think they will be diehard trump people. they will be diehard democrat people. host: what about the people in the middle, the swing voters? what impact will this have on them? caller: well, the swing voters ought to be seeing what's going on and how this current administration is trying to

destroy him and his family. people talk about his family leaving. any time person runs for the office, the presidency of the united states of america, one of the most prestigious jobs out there, a hard job, the family is under so much scrutiny. everyone is beaten down on his family. what do they want them to do? sit around and mope and cry and listen to all these people beat down on him and his family? i don't understand that. america is in a tough spot right now. i think they ought to just look at things past and present and current and try to make decisions on that. the country is in a mess right now. host: let's take a look at

district attorney alvin bragg from his press conference yesterday. he said former president trump committed bread-and-butter weick white-collar crimes. [video] >> true and accurate business records are important everywhere. they are all the more important, and hatton, the financial center -- in manhattan, the financial center the world. we have a history of enforcing white-collar crime. my office, including the talented prosecutors you saw in the arraignment earlier today has charged hundreds of felony business records -- felonies for falsifying business records. this is the bread-and-butter of white-collar work. fraud presents itself in all different forms. we have charged falsify business records for those who violated federal bank secrecy laws. we have charged falsifying records for those seeking to cover up sex crimes. we have brought this charge to

those who committed tax violations. at its core this case today is one with allegations like so many of white-collar cases. allegations someone lied and again to protect their interests and invade the laws to which we are all held accountable. as the office has done time and time again, we today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure everyone stands equal before the law. no amount of money, no amount of power changes that enduring american principal. host: that was the manhattan d.a. we are asking for your reaction to president trump's arraignment yesterday in new york. we will take your calls for another 10 minutes. we will also have time later in the program for your calls and

reactions. james is next from new jersey on the independent line. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i already know what's going to happen. i have been following politics since way back. trump will win. trump is trump. trump is trump. heads up -- has not changed. host: jonathan from dallas, texas. the line for democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. a quick comment. it's always been amazing to me. i'm from texas and most of my friends are republicans. i have sympathy for some of their viewpoints as well.

for me it's not only about the politics, per se. it's more about the candidate as a person. the man who is in office. i think donald trump has been absolutely horrific for this country in a myriad of ways. the folks that are supposedly moral and christians, take some of the things out of the bible. thou shall not steal. when you inflate your wealth to pay less taxes, devalue your property so you don't pay taxes. thou shalt not kill. he lied about a covid pandemic that killed tens of thousands of people. a lot of people believe that nonsense and lost their minds over it. bear false witness. he lied about the election being stolen, about covid. adultery is another one. mcdougall, stormy daniels and others. the list goes on and on. for me, it's more along the lines of morality.

donald trump is not the problem. the problem is american morality. we keep electing people on both sides of the aisle. people who have no values, no morals and are not really in it for the american people. we are the problem. we send these people to office, to senate, to congress to represent constituents. we have to have a moral fabric. when we have a breakdown in the moral fabric, gun violence is an issue, racism is an issue, crime is an issue. those of the things holding us back. that is my comment. i think there are bigger issues than just stormy daniels when you look at georgia, trying to change the outcome of the election. putting pressure on them. the mar-a-lago issue. we can never go back and have 70 like that representing the united states. democrat, republican, or independent. host: this is susan and georgia

on the republican line. caller: good morning and thank you for having me on here. i want to say i am a republican. i have been a democrat. i voted for trump. i love his policies. i love his policies. i think he needs to just watch what he says. watch what he says and watch what he does. there are people like me. i'm a retired white woman who is having a really hard time. i am getting no help from joe biden. he's never ever said the word the poor whites. he's never said that. i see him on tv and i listen to him and he seems to be for the upper class. we need help. trump was a help to us.

i was doing very well during trump's reign. host: how did you react to the news of his arraignment and the felony counts? caller: i was very sad. i don't think the felony count is as bad -- i don't like the fact he cheated on his wife. if he did, i don't know. i really don't know what to believe there, because biden being so poorly -- his presidency is so poor. he is such a weak president. it's very, very scary. letting the chinese balloon get all the information. he does not move. he did not move in afghanistan. he is not qualified to be president. i had my doctor tell me he thought joe biden had dementia.

it is sad. trump, he's got his problems too . i always loved trump but at this point maybe he needs to just retire and let somebody else take over. host: connie in california, independent. caller: i want to ask a question first and then i will step aside. i guess one of your callers, tia matthews, i have seen her on cnn and msnbc as one of the commentators or talking on the stations. to me they are very against trump. always talking about him against him. ok. then she comes on c-span.

is that ok? she should not be on c-span if she's on one of those other stations. what you think? host: what do you think about president trump being arraigned yesterday? what was your reaction to that? caller: i think it is so one-sided. they say he initiated the thing on the capitol. what about the states that were divided and people were being killed and things are being destroyed? nobody talks about that. another thing. edward kennedy. when that girl drowned, was her family paid by someone or anything came out of that? no. all the people arrested, the writers that were arrested in

the democrats paid them to get out of jail. also, maxine waters. she would go out and tell the people to -- if you see a republican, hid them in the face -- hit them in the face. has anybody done anything about that? i am sad about the capitol being attacked, but all those people, schumer and others did not tell those people that were rioting and destroy the other states, i did not see him go out and say you should not do that. let's calm down and just be calm about this and see what we can do. host: tina in winston-salem, north carolina. democrat. caller: good morning. i am so glad he was indicted.

i am so glad. thank you, jesus. host: why? caller: he has done so much wrong. he wants to keep black people from voting. he has not done anything right. nothing. host: what do you think of these particular felony counts? the crimes he is charged with here? caller: everything he is charged with he has done it. he is trying to brainwash the republican people into thinking that she's always saying witch this and witch that. that's the brainwashing and they are going along with it. they know that man has done wrong. he has not done anything right. when he says make the world great again, that means take us back into slavery. he is trying to take the voting from us.

they took the women's rights. i love president biden. lord jesus, thank you for him. i love him. without him i don't know what we would have done. a lot of people died from the covid. trump said it was a virus and take clorox. he's bipolar. he's not right. host: let's get anthony in green town, pennsylvania, republican line. caller: good morning, mimi. good morning, c-span. i'm disappointed in the systemic trump derangement syndrome going on here on c-span with all the democratic callers having such vitriol hatred for a man who they consistently complain he's a criminal but there are no crimes to be found. the vitriol and hatred is

amazing. i listen every day. host: since you listen every day, we hear vitriol on both sides. what you think? caller: there's a hatred towards one man, ok. that man is donald trump. when he was president it was some of the best policies the country has ever seen. joe biden is in the white house now destroying our country. he really is. that's a fact. we have russia and china not going to the yuan and they will try to supplant the dollar. when that happens our country is doomed. joe biden is sitting back and letting it happen. he gets paid by the chinese. i think we will find out soon. hunter biden is selling paintings to anonymous people in the city yesterday. where is that money coming from and where is that money going?

it's a ridiculous double standard in the legal system here. it makes me sad because i love this country. i can't believe i'm wasting my phone call calling about this. this is ridiculous. i commented before on the comments section. i him sims looks like a banquet compared to what we saw yesterday. ridiculous. host: take a look here. this is from the hill. the headline is the appeals court upholds order for january 6 testimony from meadows and other trump officials. the d.c. circuit court of appeals sided with the department of justice in ordering testimony from former chief of staff mark meadows and other trump white house staffers on the doj's january 6 investigation. the order denied an emergency motion from former president trump's team after a flurry of late-night activity in the case.

ted in hawaii on the line for democrats. hello, hawaii. caller: good morning. nice to talk to you again. we have this wonderful system here. i think a lot of people forget. as was said, there is vitriol on both sides. the wonderful system we have is vote. a lot of people think it is going -- if you vote, that is the last word. i think our voting system is better than some think it is. if everybody votes, it will come out in the end correct. i do believe that. correctly. i heard a guy a couple of minutes ago talk about that if what is what was going on now was brought up in 2016 had not

happened, we might have had a different president until 2020. vote. people need to remember that you complain, but if you vote, our system will work. i am a retired farmer in hawaii. it has been as i had hoped went -- when i returned. i was on a high income worker. i was a farmer. vote, everybody. host: ted will be the last call for this segment. we will have time later at 9:00 a.m. eastern, i will take your calls again on the same subject. but next, we learn more about the charges against former president trump from renato mariotti. we will be right back. ♪

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time at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. i am joined by renato mariotti. he is a former assistant u.s. attorney from the northern district of illinois. the former president was charged with 34th felony counts of falsification of business records. what does that actually mean? guest: great question. in new york, unlike other jurisdictions, it is a prime to have false statements in your books and records. the theory is that regulators, for example, and others in the state of new york are going to

potentially look at those records and rely on that, rely on the accuracy. that is a misdemeanor under new york law. it becomes a felony under new york law if the false statement in the business records are done in furtherance of another crime. in the indictment that came out yesterday, there are at least two, potentially three, other crimes referenced. both federal elections -- federal and state election crimes appeared to be included. also, there is references to tax crimes. the allegations are essentially that in the course of making payments to stormy daniels and others, another woman, karen

mcdougal, let the former president caused false statements to be made in the books and records of the trump organization and did so in furtherance of these other crimes. host: how strong of a case is it? how easy or hard will it be to prove those charges? guest: not an easy question to answer. we do not have all the evidence yet. we have an indictment, which is an accusation regarding particular crimes. we do not have all the discovery from the prosecution. we do not know what all their cards are. but i should say that i would suspect that the district attorney's office would not -- they did relays something called a state does release something called a statement of fact in conjunction with the indictment.

secondly, the indictment and statement of facts from the district attorney's office are not entirely clear regarding the legal theories and the other statutes they rely on, which is unfortunate. they do not have to necessarily at this stage, although i think the former president's team will force them to reveal that information by moving for a bill of particulars to get more specificity. we do not know 100% exactly what the d.a.'s evidence is or what their legal theories are, but so far, i think dda has a solid case, but there are issues with it. generally, from my conversations with former manhattan assistant district attorneys, this particular charge, toss vacation

of business records, -- falsification of business records, is a fairly straightforward charge to prove. however, that said, there are some unusual things about this case. the campaign-finance piece is one. it is either going to be a case where the da is focusing on state election law, which potentially, there is an argument that it is superseded by federal law. former president trump was running for federal office. regarding the potential that he was doing this with the intent to commit a federal election offense, there is no question of whether or not the statute in new york can be referencing or done with the intent to commit a

federal offense. the da believes it can. the das office in other cases has taken that position, but it has never been tested in order -- in court. the strongest theory here is a tax theory, because they have some wording in the indictment that this is done in furtherance of tax crimes. what i mean technically is with the intent to commit tax crimes. that is stronger because jurors are going to believe a person will want to pay less taxes. that is more intuitive to a jury. the campaign-finance side is a bit clunky, because i do not think most jurors are going to

think of payments to a paramore as a campaign expense. whereas reporting these payments to the paramour as payments for legal services which may be the intent to get more favorable tax treatment is something more jurors can get behind. host: i will remind our viewers that they can start coming in if they have a question or comment. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also reach us on social media. what is the typical timeline for a case like this? guest: one thing i will say is there is a typical timeline and then the timeline for this case. the typical timeline in manhattan railway color case is -- 480 white collar case is

still going to take years to get to trial. and there is a backlog of cases right now. this case appears to be on a slower track. there is not a court appearance until december of this year. it is interesting and important to note that under our constitution and the laws of the state of new york, the defendant is entitled to a speedy trial. he can try to push for a faster trial. it is worth noting that one politician in the past famously did that and secured a victory against the justice department. that was 700 and statement -- senator ted seaman. under the specifics of new york, it would be difficult to get a

trial before the federal election because the speedy trial act in new york is within six months. however, all the time spent making motions and with the judge considering motions is excluded from that time. i would expect the former president would potentially make motions to reargue motions when new facts develop. we talk about various issues with his case. i do not think he would want to push those issues aside in order to get a faster trial. host: you wrote an opinion in politico about the other cases that are pending against the former president. your headline was the painful lesson donald trump could learn from r. kelly and mike levin already. what is that lesson? guest: it is very difficult to handle criminal cases, multiple,

cases. i was a federal prosecutor for over nine years and have also been a defense lawyer. i represent clients across the country. one of the most challenging things i have done is represent client who have criminal cases in multiple jurisdictions at the same time. the reason it is so hard is because prosecutors in any particular case, let's say this case alvin bragg and his team, they can focus like a laser on proving their case in that particular criminal indictment. for example, alvin bragg's focus is entirely on proving the charges we just talked about. but former president trump and his team cannot just be concerned about that one case. they cannot just be considered

about how their words and actions impact that case. they have to be concerned about other investigations that could result in indictment. we know that in fulton county, georgia, there is a criminal investigation of the president. the grand jury foreperson did not exactly have a poker-faced when she was discussing the recommendation. she will likely recommend an indictment. a special capsule has been appointed with two separate criminal investigation. anyone on trump's legal team, when they are making decisions about motions, evidence, witnesses, positions to take, they need to consider not just how those actions play out in

that case, but the other cases as well. you are going to see very soon in the upcoming months a war on multiple fronts for the trump team, which is a real problem for them. realistically, if this case takes a long time to come to fruition, and the other cases also do, you could have a situation where the former president does not win the 2024 election and will be facing multiple trials. is this all with r. kelly and harvey weinstein, you can mean many in this position, it is a challenging situation. host: you mentioned the 2024 election. what if he does win and he has still got indictments and trials pending? guest: that would pose questions

that are so unprecedented that it is hard for me to imagine how we could resolve the inmate the time we have on this program. -- in does resolve them in the time you have on this program. you have a state government trying to punish the executive officer, the president of the united states. the federalism concerns are there. in a federal case, federal cases are the most problematic for a former president, you would still have a situation where the judiciary is trying to punish the executive. i do not pretend to know exactly how that would play out, but it would be an unprecedented, constitutional crisis. that word gets strung around often. it would be uniquely appropriate

in this situation. host: a wrench of people want to talk to you, but i want to ask about michael cohen. and the pluses and minuses of the prosecution resting so much of theiras on michael cohen's testimony. guest: there is mostly minuses. if i were a prosecutor, i would try to [indiscernible] people who are convicted felons, particularly convicted for crimes involving dishonesty, are always challenging witnesses. to be clear, i often put those witnesses on the stand, because defendants in this criminal cases often are inning involved with working alongside people who are committing crimes, but that is always a challenge. for mr. cohen in particular it

is a challenge because not only has he been convicted of lying to congress and committing fraud, both involving dishonesty, but he has his own podcast in which he is critical of her president trump -- former president trump. he has gained notoriety for that. it would not be hard for mr. trump to try and portray him as someone who has attacked him. host: larry, granbury, texas, independent. caller: i intend to figure out -- i keep hearing stuff on tv about trump and have the money, where it is going and stuff like that. with so much going on in the country right now, why isn't anybody talking about that?

all the money that is going out, millions and millions of dollars. the government is taking away from seniors, taking away from people. host: you are talking about money spent by the government for this case? caller: yes. the money they have made, bragg and all of them, going after trump. what about other people out there? guest: it is always fair to question whether a particular prosecution should have been brought. this is a local governmental body, not the federal government. that there are all sorts of resources that can be deployed by a prosecutor. and there is not a lack in this country. one consideration prosecutors always have his whether this case is worth prosecutorial

resources. here, there is sufficient activity to warrant an investigation. there is an open question regarding whether or not this prosecution should have been brought, but the cost and scope are fairly minor in terms of the overall budget. even the manhattan d.a.'s budget. it is a significant case pulling resources that could have been used on other things. host: hector, san diego, line for democrats. caller: nobody is doing nothing to him, trump. nobody is stopping him. he is breaking the law and nobody is above the law. nobody is doing anything. he has done a lot of damage to the people.

-- is in charge, the congress. i do not know. you have to stop this guy who is running again for president. he is not giving nothing to the people. it is a shame this case running for president again. the people, i this guy is bad. host: any comments? guest: i should think that hector is raising an important point. the former president has done a lot that is controversial, some of that outrageous, some

unprecedented. for example, the actions of january 6 were unprecedented. we have never had a mob descend upon the capitol and we have never had a president try to overturn an election result or stand in the way of the peaceful transfer of power. there are certainly some serious actions that the former president is taking. one thing i have heard in question i have received many times over the past several years is why is trump not being held accountable? why are there no cases against him? now we have the first criminal case. one point and will make and the reason i think it is important is that we are looking at trump 's activities and i do not know of making payments in this fashion is necessarily the most

serious thing he has done, but it goes to show how controversial these cases can be. there are more on the horizon. host: what are typical sentences in cases like this? guest: typically, a defendant would not receive prison time in new york for this sentence. that is something i have spent a lot of time talking to folks about, some my friends and colleagues who handle cases of this type in manhattan. they typically do not get prison time. that is consistent with white-collar cases across the country. i represent white-collar defendants in federal and state was across the country, california, illinois, so on. it is often the case that even for a large fraud case, the defendant will get months, maybe a year or two in prison, but in

manhattan, for this type of felony, which is a ghost level in the near system, -- lowest level in the new york system, that is usually no prison time. host: mary lou says new york has strict financial loss. they have to back. new york city is the financial center of the world. any gangsters have been in prison for financial crimes trump is no better than a mob boss. he, kentucky, republican. -- keith caller: trump's attorney, what are his beliefs for stating about the motion? of the 34 charges -- caller: --guest: i am speaking

when i talk about motions, i am speaking in part based on my own experience and judgment as somebody who defends kamil cases. the first motion would be for a bill of particulars, which would be to give more specificity regarding the legal theories and charged. defendants have a right to know the charges against them. there is a fair argument that the indictment is not specific enough. but trump's legal team themselves has talked about filing motions. mr. tacopina and others. they are planning to file motions to dismiss others. that would not be surprising. that is the sort of thing you would do in any white-collar criminal case. i suspect that. regarding the strength of the evidence, there are arguments and questions that can be drawn

about this, but there is certainly a significant amount of evidence such that -- not legal team, i would have some concern about the case. host: sheila, youngstown, ohio, democrat. caller: if trump did nothing wrong in this case and it is so minor, my did his own prosecutors convict cohen for the same crime, a felony and send him to jail for three years. they give me weekend to decide. they would not even let him see his tax records. they said decide right now. we are going to indict your wife, too. trump was president when that happened and his own prosecutors -- michael cohen to commit this crime.

donald trump was the beneficiary, not cohen. the reason cen invicted felon is because the light for prompt. 50 -- gh for trump. trump was a sitting president in the oval office when he wrote the reimbursement checks to cohen. geoffrey berman, former new york u.s. attorney wrote a book saying that bill barr asked him to reverse cohen's guilty plea after cohen had already served prison time. it sure looks like obstruction and tampering by bill barr. i wish the inspector general would look into this. they should target in on cohen and left him to -- trump does this to everybody. people who are thinking they are

supporting trump, he will not stand by you. guest: a very interesting point. let me start by saying i agree that michael cohen went to prison in part because he was convicted of a federal election prime similar to the crimes charged here. here, the crime is falsify business records under new york law, but i think the caller is correct that there are underlying similarities. cohen was charged and convicted and had guilty to elections crimes related to these payments to stormy daniels. note that those were not the only crimes cohen was convicted of. he had his own pre-existing fraud case. he pleaded guilty.

i do not know if he would have if the only crime was that campaign and inscribed. there were some issues there as well. there are some legal questions about that cut michael cohen understandably pleaded guilty because he already had the lying to congress. i think the caller is correct to know that was in trump's benefit. one thing the caller mentioned was federal prosecutors during trump's administrator. that is true but trump did not have control over federal prosecutors in the southern district of the york. i agree that there is evidence, including the testimony of mr. berman, who was acquitted by trump to be attorney in the

southern district of new york than there were attempts to interfere with the administration of justice by the southern district of new york. it is remarkable that the u.s. attorney accredited by mr. trump has written a book stating that there was enough to interfere with prosecutions in his office. i would not necessarily characterize those as obstruction of justice. there are challenging legal issues given that trump was president at the time, but it is true that there are certainly abuses of power and an ongoing investigation of that. more broadly, while i agree that the financial crimes at issue are blocking tackle manhattan prosecutors and manhattan does have laws related to financial crimes, it is fair to raise questions and ask about the

first ever indictment of a former, particularly given that this happened some time ago and is not atypical case. it is fair to have questions, but some of the criticism is often political in nature rather than really looking at attentional legal issues. host: karen, alabama, republican. caller: from the last couple of callers talking about michael cohen, michael cohen did plead guilty. number two, cohen's own lawyer called bragg and said i want to testify. he is a liar. so medical cohen is a lion. as part -- a liar. as far as an indictment is

concerned, bragg was asked this, he has got 34 pounds of falsifying business records in the first degree. it accuses the defendant of the crime of falsifying records in an attempt to commit another crime. he not tell anybody what that other kind is. it does not say election fraud or hiding in a fair from people. it's not saving that in the indictment. -- it does not say that in the indictment. when they hit the laptop and people said, that is just brushing disinformation, right before the election, don't you consider that election interference? and where is the indictment for hillary clinton for paying for a dossier to tell everybody that her political opponent was a russian spy?

she destroyed evidence that the fbi said not to destroy. before you say, the fbi did not do anything, they are colluding. this is another witchhunt against trump. they are trying to stop him from being elected again. 100 million people in the agree support him. are you going to stop everybody? guest: let me start with the first point that the caller made. there are some things i agree with in the first point. cohen is a conflicted liar -- convicte. there is no question that cohen had demonstrated that he is very -- has very negative negative feelings by donald trump. he has a podcast. he has a podcast attacking donald trump and has gained

notoriety by that. he has a bias against trump and potentially next to grind -- an ax to grind. there will be a lot of jurors who will take that with a grain of salt. secondly, i also agree that is not clear from the indictment with the other crimes are that are being used to bump up the misdemeanors to felonies. is why i think trump's cohen -- trump's team will need to make a motion for those. i am critical of the d.a. for not being more specific. i do not think that a press conference is an appropriate way to put the defendant on notice. in regards to the other points,

the lot of the later point that were being made by the caller are talking point i have heard. they have been bandied about. there is a lot of mischaracterization that i would argue are there. it is fair to say that i i think it is fair to question why trump is being charged, but i do not think that the other points was making are completely accurate. there are also serious questions about whether or not any of those other things are chargeable. host: we had a question from a caller earlier.

he asked if somebody could be indicted for a crime while under trial for something else, specifically the mar-a-lago issue of the classified document. guest: absolutely. we mentioned earlier r. kelly, michael avenatti. i could imagine harvey weinstein. there are many people who have faced criminal charges from multiple jurisdictions. the r. kelly one is a good example. he was charged in new york federal court, then in chicago report, then in chicago state court, then charged in the state court. every class in the country, where it seemed like he was getting in line to charge mr. r. kelly. he went to trial in new york knowing she had more files.to go

-- had more trials to go. we had to testify annoying if he did that would be used against him in subsequent cases. in chicago, one codefendant beat the charges on the stand, but r. kelly cannot do that, because the jury would find out that he had prior convictions in new york for summer crimes. -- similar crimes. it is challenging for the former president because he is facing so many charges. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. a few questions -- first, the 34 counts that they charged mr. trump with, how do you come up

to 34? do they stem from maybe one charge and then other things and you go on and on? i want to know is that true? then, on the other hand, what is the penalty for each count? you say felonies, but is it a full year max? five year max on each count? plus, do you really think it is a slamdunk case? do you also think is some of us if some of it really is political? host: let's get some answers.

first, 34 counts. guest: great, sappy questions and some important points. the number of counts, it is a lot. partly that is due to some specifics in new york law. in new york, if a count of or a particular chart contains more than one crime, the remedy under new york law would be dismissal of that count. some prosecutors in new york are careful to separate out any potential crime and put it in a separate camp to ensure that that does not happen. each of these counts is a separate false statement in a business record, essentially a separate document with different

false statements. federal court, you might see all these charges in just a cue counts, but the way it was done separately is due to that lot regarding duplicity in new york. regarding maxim penalties, that is four years per cam. 34 times 4 is an astronomical potential sentence. is that potentially the case? sure. i am sure you have heard these astronomical sums, such as the former president is facing 100 and something years in prison. but the reality is nothing close to that, because judges do not sentence defendants to that. visit the conversations i have had with lawyers in the manhattan courthouse, i feel

confident in saying he likely would not receive a prison sentence or a minor prison sentence even if convicted of all these crimes spread to the last question, no, i do not think these charges are a slamdunk. part of the question here is do we hold presidents to a higher or lower bar? do you want criminal charges only in certain cases? or do one president held to higher standards? i did not have answers but i think this indictment raises those questions. host: tom, independent line, michigan. caller: hello. i have got a couple of comments and two questions. first, i do not use the c-span

now because it drains the battery on my phone too rapidly. it would be nice if they could fix that good but back to trump, his life cut up with him -- caught up with him. we should just let the legal system works. biden does this, but trump for some reason does not. i think michael cohen does not have any reason not to tell the truth. i think the biden record case is a lot different, but maybe your commentator and comment on that. why isn't the judge admonishing trump for attacking his wife and daughter and making these false

statements? that was just a few hours after he told him not to. i do not understand that. i think the judge should go after him. host: we will get a response for you. guest: regarding michael cohen, i do not think he has direct financial incentive to lie, but he has made a bit of a second career for himself by being critical of the former president. i think any defense attorney would spend time prosecuting michael cohen, his truthfulness or lack thereof. regarding the point about comments that trump has made, i am critical of his comments attacking a federal judge, a state judge here, a local judge

there in a new york supreme court justice. and attacking and posting a photo of the judge's adult daughter. as a lawyer, i think respect for judges and the rule of law is important. i also think it is fair to say that trump has made statements about the prosecutors that are questionable and ill-advised. putting a photo of himself with a baseball bat next to a photo of the prosecutor is problematic. the judge did address this in court and instructed trump not to make statements that are inflammatory or trying to incite any violence or attack the process. trump is not following that, but it is a complicated situation because defendants have first

amendment rights. fourth, -- courts, while they can impose the restrictions, there is some latitude for defendants to be critical. and trump is a former president. this is a controversial moment in american history. he has some latitude. i do not think the judge will want to put himself in a position where he is issuing an order silencing donald trump. host: tony, florida, republican. caller: i have a question. the charges that are being levied against trump, are they going to be following on an

order probably coming in prior, which would be kept away from the public and no charges came up against a lot of things that they hide evidence on, like biden and questionable things they were doing. coming after trump, it seems like they have been trying to suppress him because they have no control over what he is doing. does trump have any leverage to go up -- any levy to go after people charging him? the other side of the party is instigating all of this. guest: a few separate questions. i suspect these are all the charges the manhattan d.a. has against trump. i do not think he has any secret charges of his sleep. i would not be surprised if

others bring charges, because there are prosecutors elsewhere in the country working on this. technical, -- second of all, trump -- if trump ultimately beats the charges, it is unlikely he would succeed in a motion or other lawsuit in response to malicious prosecution. something unfavorable to people bringing those lawsuits. that is unjust him. it is anybody. anybody in the system i have represented, someone was acquitted. i did not bring a lawsuit on his behalf because i thought it was a waste of time and money. regarding the laptop, if what you are referring to his alleged crimes of the president's next president biden's son, there is an ongoing investigation and

that will proceed on its own course, just like these other investigations of donald trump. i did nothing anything that happens in manhattan will have any relation to that. host: iowa, elliott, langford democrats. -- line for democrats. caller: we are dealing with a hegalian dialectic reaction solution. the legal system is completely corrupted from the top down. even look at anthony weiner and his laptop, ghislaine maxwell getting sweetheart deals, jeffrey epstein and his plane that people like bill gates and bill clinton flew on. that just falls under the rug. that is all i wanted to say. guest: i do not deal with that

broad of a brush. politicians each stand on their own weight. there are corruptible in politics. i was a prosecutor in chicago, have lived on chicago. i am familiar with corrupt politicians. we have a significant corruption trial ongoing in chicago right now. it is -- not all politicians are corrupt. but that is part of the reason why we need to have important conversations about prosecutions and politicians. if we do not have any prosecutions of politicians, we will have corruption. host: news from politico with the headline trump taps white

collar attorney to helm white-collar defense. blanche resigns from new york law firm to join the defense team. what do you make of that? guest: mr. blanche is very qualified. he is a cut above the other attorneys trump has had. i have at times been critical of trump's legal team. many on that team are poor lawyers who would never be had by anyone who had the means to hire a better lawyer in a case like this. where's mr. blanche is absolutely qualified to handle this case and has the experience to do so. he is a savvy hire, more than capable of handling this case and vigorously defending the former president. host: june, wyoming, republican. caller: running.

-- good morning. i am dismayed. these bigger is not on there -- the speaker is not on their for the money. he is on there for the glory. these people coming online commit news media, they are all after money. here is a thought for the united states of america. listen carefully. when trump is completely cleared, guess what? he will be the cleanest person to run from government in the history of the state -- history of the united states. thank you very much. host: a lot of people are saying all politicians do this.

all politicians he what is the big deal -- all politicians cheat. what is the big deal? guest: that is not accurate. what is important is the evidence. the caller has strong feelings about donald trump. but all of us should be more critical one way or the other about politicians and look at the evidence. i say that to people on both sides of the aisle. i do not think we should put politicians on a pedestal. we need to examine critically what they have and have not done. also, the caller is turtle myself under this program. i make a lot of money as a lawyer. but i am not billing anything for this program. i think c-span is a public service. we need more in-depth conversations that focus on the facts and try in a neutral way

to bring those facts to light so people can make visions for themselves. i would encourage everyone watching to do your best to understand what is happening and make decisions for yourself. it is your duty as a citizen. i regard what is happening here as an important part of our public conversation. host: anthony, troy, new york, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question is simple. being a retired business owner, the fact that my accountant it always say say you should not appear a corporate veil. so the question -- similar question. is that what this is with donald trump, the fact that he has

passed money to the preparation as opposed to to him to make a payment for something and trying to disguise it within that corporation so that there would be a degree of focus is to what was going on and possibly awaiting taxes -- possibly avoiding taxes that he would've paid himself to make these payments to ms. daniels? if so, if this was what it is, what i am asking about piercing the corporate veil, how severe could it be against mr. trump as to if he is found guilty of this particular crime? guest: that is a savvy question. piercing the corporate veil is

different under the law, but you are right that part of the crime here or a significant piece of it is that trump was using money to pay an expense that dda is claiming was election related. if you did that, that would actually violate campaign contribution limits and disguise the payment and they get harder for people to see, which could have a benefit for him. straightforward of all the allegations would be if the tax theory -- and i do not think prosecutors laid out clearly --, but if that tax there is that by listing and is payment for legal services, if trump was trying to get a deduction is a business expense, that is something we could all get our hands wrapped.

-- heads around. is not really a payment for legal services. but separate from that are these campaign finance issues which are brought appear as well, which is essentially was he getting an extra-large contribution from this corporation that was not reported? from there, was this really campaign related? one piece of evidence is that trump allegedly tried to get cohen to the payment to stormy daniels as long as possible because he said that basically they would not pay was over and he won, it would not matter. host: sharon, democrat, oregon. caller: i want some

clarification. it seems like the biggest thing with the cfo was like doing double books. you have a public one and a private for tax, loans, whatever. it seems like this stormy daniels thing is double booked. there is what he said it was and what it really is, which most of us know we cannot keep two different books with the tax people. the second thing is they keep talking about cohen being a bad witness. who was the main witness against john dottie, another famous new yorker? they really booker, i -- sammy the bunker, i do not necessarily think he was a standup citizen. people were happy when john gotti was put in prison. these are things that -- the

third thing is that -- i forgot. host: we will take the desk out. guest: it is fair to say there was in other criminal cases were noting. there was another case. the trump organization has a criminal conviction. there is a question of why the charges against trump were brought regarding this matter rather than the other, but in both cases, there is a disguising of actual corporate activity. there is that commonality. it is also fair to say that prosecutors often rely on the word of criminals to build cases. i did the same thing for many years when i was a federal prosecutor. that is because people who commit crimes tended to do so

with other criminals. there is a fair point, but it is also fair to be skeptical. i am trying to present both sides of that coin. host: call from north carolina, republican. caller: type watch your show often. my first time to call. a couple of opinions. one thing is we need to pull together as a nation. we are not way that's not black, not way. we are americans. everybody should know that they are trying to fight everything they can on president trump. everything they could find to run him down, because when he gets in the white house again,

we know he will clean that white house. the white house is probably the most corrupt place in the united states. i have got 11 things i can say, but i will put it to a minimum. host: last comment from you. guest: i would urge anyone -- this is been a helpful discussion -- is look critically at not only the charges in this case, but the underlying those, and if and when there are other criminal charges, what is underlying those indictments. ultimately what matters is exactly what happens. well we all have strong opinions for and against politicians, it is important to evaluate cases like this based on their merit or lack thereof. host: renato mariotti, attorney and former assistant u.s. attorney in illinois.

thanks for joining us. coming up washington journal, we take more of yr calls on those 34 felony charges against former president trump. you can start calling in now. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv saturdays on c-span2, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 4 p.m. eastern, the 2022 international conference on world war ii hosted by the national world war ii museum in new orleans concluding a conversation with a 100-year-old veteran who recalls his time as a bomber pilot in the eighth air force when he flew 25 combat missions over france and germany. at 8 p.m. eastern in lectures in

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we will take your calls until the end of the hour, until the end of the show at 10:00 a.m. eastern. a couple of programming notes to be aware of -- like today at 10:30 a.m., admiral christopher grady is the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and he will talk about cap security challenges facing the country and the world. he and other leaders will discuss the evolving threat landscape given russia's war in ukraine, challenges european defense and opportunities for transatlantic cooperation. its hosted by the center for strategic and international studies. that's live at 10:30 a.m. eastern right here on c-span. you can watch and are free mobile video app, c-span now or online at c-span.org. also today at 420 eastern time, vice president kamala harris will share details about her recent trip to africa where she

spent a week visiting three countries. you can watch that live today at 4:20 p.m. on c-span and on our c-span now app or c-span.org. we will start taking your calls now. charlotte is first in alabama, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. good morning, c-span, can you hear me? host: yes, we can. caller: first of all, i have a point to make. looking at yesterday's indictment and the charges brought against our former president trump. i would hope the people can hear this. the damage is not done when another one lies to you but the damage is done when you light to yourself. a light needs help to sustain but the truth stands alone. how long are we going to uphold

this man that has corrupted our nation, divided our nation and caused so much division with hatred, through lies and deceit? john 10:10 says we need to stop this beast trying to get into the white house. thank you. host: tom is in texas, republican. caller: yes, ma'am, thanks for taking my call. i want to say your previous guest, he is a leftist conspiracy theorist. he spent four years pimping the obviously fake idiotic evidence that was thoroughly debunked and crept -- an uncredited conspiracy theory.

he is as incompetent as alvin bragg is. host: all right. rachel is in texas, independent. caller: good morning. we are still looking at rate charges against trump coming up this month -- rate - rape charges against trump. he refused to give his dna. the court ruled, the judge ruled the access hollywood tape would be ruled as evidence where he is talking about grabbing her, forcing himself on her and grabbing her. i think that might be used in this coming trial in december that trump is a sexual predator. he does need to be in office. host: let's take a look at president trump's lawyers who

spoke after his arraignment yesterday in new york. [video clip] >> i'm going to go home and have some food. >> [indiscernible] when do you start filing motions? >> the judge set a motion schedule that requires motion files in four months. that's when we will be filing motions. >> is this a notion -- >> its not a notion. the district attorney, this office has existed for decades and decades. you will never see a charge like this ever. >> its a simple as this, state prosecutor is prosecuting a federal election law violation. its as simple as that. >> will there be anything else in your motion? >> we have an,"'s to starting.

host: that was former president trump's lawyers speaking yesterday after his indictment -- his arraignment in new york. we are taking your calls, comments and impressions of that until the end of the program. claudia is in tallahassee, florida, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. trump's relationship in new york city and the legal system works against him. he has long been viewed as a legal pariah in the city by the government and the people. bringing this new york case first is not a good look for trump because of his reputation

as a criminal in business there. trump is a pariah and it is so good, so pleasing that the place where he began his criminal behavior is the place where he gets his comeuppance, so to speak. thank you. host: michael is next in myrtle beach, south carolina, republican. caller: i get to follow her, that's perfect. i would like to remind what's left, the largest hate group, the largest criminal organization to ever walk the planet is a hate group called the democratic party. 85% of democrats at least black democrats will be imprisoned. i would've thought you people would've love this. before you hang up on me,

democrat, i dove even know where to go with this. donald trump should not even go back to new york city. you it its -- host: let's take a look at the manhattan da alvin bragg who is speaking yesterday after the arraignment and talking about those charges, the 34 felony counts. [video clip] >> donald trump was arraigned on a new york supreme court indictment, returned by a manhattan grand jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. under new york state law, it is a felony to falsify business records within tent to defraud and conceal another crime. that is exactly what this case is about. 34 false statements made to cover up other crimes. these are felony crimes in new york state no matter who you

are. we cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct. the defendant repeatedly made false statements on new york business records. he also caused others to make full statements. the defendant claimed he was paying michael cohen for legal services performed in 2017. this simply was not true. it was a false statement the defendant made months after month in 2017. april, may, june and so on to the rest of the year. for nine straight months, the defendant held documents in his hand containing this key lot that he was paying michael cohen for legal services performed in 2017.

and he personally signed checks for payments to michael cohen for each of these nine months. in total, the grand jury found there were 34 documents with this critical false statement. why did donald trump repeatedly make these false statements? the evidence will show that he did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election. host: that was the manhattan d.a. alvin bragg talking about the 34 felony counts and we are taking your calls. a couple of other items in the news to note -- the runoff election for mayor in chicago has been announced brandon johnson is elected mayor of chicago. he is a teachers union organizer and is a more conservative democrat who called for a crackdown on crime. also, another election, the

liberal candidate wins in the wisconsin supreme court case. she is a milwaukee county circuit court judge and is projected to win the vacant seat on the wisconsin supreme court, making the first time in 15 years the court will have a liberal majority according to the ap. this is ahead of those cases regarding abortion. john is next in minnesota, independent. caller: thank you. thanks for having this person on. at least he tried to explain their point. as an independent, its embarrassing the lack of integrity and just the corruption in our government. the case is ridiculous. the guy is a manhattan d.a. and handles murders and people who beat up people in the subway.

as an independent -- host: why do you say lets everybody go? is he not prosecuting any crimes? caller: he lowers the count on most of the crimes if he does prosecute them. and people have been shot and beaten in new york and they are let out on no bill. -- on note bail. then you go after some trumped up election, misdemeanor. as an independent, it stinks. it is just disgusting. item care whether they are republican or democrat, if you are corrupt, go to jail. he's got plenty of targets. that is a weak case. there is a lot of easier targets. host: tim is in tucson, arizona, democrat, good morning. caller: hello, i'm trying to put this legal puzzle together.

i guess my question is kind of dry. maybe the viewers are ready for a drive legal question. a wish your other guest was still on. i understand its a misdemeanor to falsify business records. in pursuance of another crime. does that other crime that is to cover up or pursue have to be a felony or can it also be a misdemeanor? also, which of the list of other crimes that the falsifying was done for, which of them are felonies and which are misdemeanors? like the election fraud, the tax stuff. like i say, kind of a dry question but that's my question, thanks. host: let's talk to david next who is in florida, republican,

good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking michael. -- taking my call. host: go right ahead. caller: i have not seen anybody talk about -- stormy daniels, the lawyer she had is in prison today. that stems from some of the stuff when she lost her case against donald trump and had to pay his attorney fees. if i'm wrong, please correct me. when you look at this thing with stormy daniels, he wasn't accused of raping anybody, he was accused of having a re-fair -- an affair. it looks to me like stormy daniels set him up and extorted him. i think in this full thing, this is extortion to say the least.

and as far as this alvin bragg trying to prosecute him, if this thing proves to be a frivolous bunch of nonsense, i think this man should lose his law license. that's all i have to say. but i am a trump supporter what i'm not crazy. i look at what the man did when he was in office. you cannot show me any policy he implemented that was bad for the country. but you can certainly see a bunch of garbage now. thanks a lot. host: tom in florida, independent, hello. caller: hello? good morning. i would like to say that many years trump was in the limelight and never was said about him or how betty was. -- or how bad he was. when he became president, every thing changed. i do look at his private life, that's not what concerns me.

i think of how the country was when he was president, it was better off and everything was better and i what happened? he's been under constant scrutiny in the media and late-night talk shows and he's never been given a chance and everybody is supposed to hate trump because its trump. democrats are in lockstep. no matter what you say or do, they will follow along and they are sheep. the democrats are the worst thing that's happened to this country. host: larry in north carolina, democrat. caller: mi on? host: yes you are. caller: donald trump's main problem with stormy daniels is his little head has more brain cells than his big head does. host: richard in louisville, kentucky, republican. caller: everybody keeps talking about the charges that alvin bragg concocted. you had federal prosecutors that did want anything to do with it so they threw it out.

then you had a couple of state people there in new york b beforeragg got there and said there is nothing here. they needed all democrats needed was to get donald trump in that room yesterday. now, bragg said i will do that and he did. now, before anything else can be done, you've got to wait until august. this is only april. and then the defense team can ask for it to be kicked out and you have to wait another six weeks. now all of a sudden, you are in october. host: you said august? caller: that's when the defense team can ask that this be thrown out. the judge is that i will give you four months to come up with your best arguments and come

back to me that. -- come back to me then. that's neither here nor there. why i called you is because i been listening to the conservative, republican people on air, on radio this morning and last night. they are losing their minds. he cannot do this, he cant just make up anything he wants. they are losing their minds because they know they are next. these people were anti-trump, big anti-trump like mitch mcconnell who has taken millions of dollars from china. george bush and his family have taken millions of dollars in dealings, now all of a sudden, if you hiccup, you can have a prosecutor that confers something together and come after you and they know what to do. thank you. host: ken in norwood,

massachusetts, independent. caller: thanks for taking my call. i been listening to all your callers. its almost amazing to me that i can tell which stations they watch. cnn, and msnbc, all the stations are owned by democrats and pay for -- and paid for by whoever dictates their story. there is actually no facts. when you watch newsmax or fox, you watch american news, you get the real people involved with the cases and you get real facts. host: give me an example of something you think was not a

factor or something you got is a fact. --as a fact. caller: most of the stuff going on with trump. the case that's being brought, bragg is a d.a. he's been there for 10 years and i know why they let him do what he's doing. he is trying to bring federal charges on a state misdemeanor charge which everybody knows is crazy. its embarrassing and the guy has to be paid a lot of money to do it to embarrass himself. host: i want to show you from the washington post fact checker. the headline is the incendiary claim that george soros funded alvin bragg. the article says soros has been

a bogeyman for conservatives since he spent 27 million to oppose the george bush reelection in 2004.

host: jackie is calling us next in stratford, connecticut, democrat, good morning. caller: i am a democrat and i am for law and order and equality. trump has been involved in over 4300 lawsuits, trying to rip people off. trump said in his own words, republican voters are stupid. please, republicans, stop supporting this brooke. you sound silly. thank you.

host: cheryl is next in riverside, california, republican. caller: i am a republican but i was a democrat for 40 years and i vote both ways. i'd been listening to a lot of what's been going on with trump. i personally was not going to vote for trump this next election because i'd own feel he has the ability to filter himself very well. i cannot go through another four years with all the criticism that he had for the four years he was in. even though i feel he did a good job with policy. i just something personally he should be president again especially when you look at his age and his mannerisms.

i done think the country can handle that division. host: is there a republican candidate you like right now checker caller: i do like desantis. but i am holding off because i am supportive of ukraine and ident know exactly how supportive he has given his statement and he walked it back about ukraine. we need to handle things in our country but i also down feel the genocide that's happening in ukraine can be tolerated by decent people, especially in our country that it stands as the pillar of what should be. the southern border, things like

that, i am about an hour and a half from the border and we get a lot of migrants in our area. we have a lot of crime in the area. i am fortunate to not live in the area that has that. i'm kinda protected from that. host: let's talk to john, massachusetts, independent line. caller: good morning. i like your style. i watched c-span for a lot of years i like the way you handle the calls with respect. i'm not going to get into this court case but what i want to make people aware of if i could in a kind way, is that how far have we come?

in 1969, i was just a young man and we sent astronauts to the moon and got them back safely. the country was in awe. it took hours and hours of broadcasting and it was just a wonderful time. dear we are spending -- here we are spending hours and hours on the subject which is fine, that's the way things go, but i'm wondering if anyone can call in and tell me the name of the astronauts come i believe it was for, that will be going to the moon soon. men and women. so we've come far that way but it just dozen seem to be on the schedule. maybe c-span could put a few hours into it to make people aware of where we are and where

we are going. maybe focus on more parts of the things. i have my own views as far as the presidency. i am looking for someone that maybe is a constitutionalist, an expert in the constitution and someone that could be firm but fair in how they handle the presidency. i want us to get back to read -- being really proud of our country and the people that run it. i really do feel that way right now. i was a registered democrat since i was a teenager and i changed my affiliation back when we had the supreme court nomination with cavanaugh.

this woman that's in the vice presidency now was so embarrassing then. host: you mentioned the four astronauts in her producer just sent me this article from npr announcing that. these are the four restaurants that will take a trip around the moon yet year. nasa and the canadian space agency have announced the names of the four astronauts will travel on a spaceflight around the moon next year. they will fly aboard nasa's orion spacecraft is part of the artemis program. jim is calling us from hendersonville, north carolina, democrat. what do you think of the 34 felony counts checker caller: i think they are all pretty much legitimate. the question i had is simile people have such a short memory. my question would be, how many

appointees that trump had in his initial term were either fired or resigned over suspicion of fraud or malfeasance of office? i remember so many years ago that there were dozens of his appointees. you talk about training the swamp. -- draining the swamp. its like trump had a swamp of his own. i'm just glad to see that the biggest gator in the pond may be accountable for his terrible way he has undermined the sanctity of the presidency. host: all right, rick is a

republican in sanford, florida, good morning area are you there checker caller: yeah, sorry, i'm in our new city, florida but you are close enough. host: all right. caller: i wanted to comment a little bit and give people something to think about. i do watch c-span and jaime fox news watcher. i kind of go back and forth. with the trump thing, i just have something for people to think about. his name, it could be anybody's name, if you rent for four years. -- he ran for four years any rent on what he said he would do and he did it. i've a question for people. are you better today than you were when he ran for four years? i want an honest answer for that. the other thing is this

administration, people need to think about just what happened. this administration that's in office now is hell-bent on putting america in a communist country. host: how so checkup caller: old on for a second. they know that the only one that can stop them is trump. he is the only one that will stand up to it. this man does not have to do what he's doing. he did and have to do it when he ran and got elected and he did have to do it when he ran again. we all know what happened, most of us know what happened to that election. host: i'm curious about you saying that the current administration wants to make america into a communist country. caller: we had this

administration that is weak in the knees. they are not standing up for america, america first. you can see how everything is draining. you can see the direction we are headed. you don'ts see anybody from america or americans running to the border to get out of america. you see them coming into america. now that is changing. people are saying is changing. i see it changing. with this pandora box that just opened, just like one other gentleman said, you have set it up to where anybody can go after anybody and it dozen have to have a crime with it. its whether you are in their box were not. host:host: -- or not. jason in alabama, independent. caller: good morning.

when you are talking about michael cohen earlier, he mentioned corroboration. michael cohen has baggage but trump has baggage. not to mention, alvin bragg do not bring the churches on a whim on a tuesday. he went before a grand jury and the grand jury heard evidence for and against the situation. they decided that what was presented in general was appropriate to bring charges. to pretend like none of this matters and to have the people call in and disregard that fact is crazy to me, not to mention your previous caller. he is a fox viewer and claims to value truth. fox is literally in the middle of a defamation case where they've been exposed as being absolute liars. for anybody to call in and claim truth and be a fox viewer, they

are telling on themselves, they are showing nato know what truth is. -- they do know what truth is. host: let's look at marjorie taylor greene who was in new york yesterday. she spoke to trump reporters that had gathered outside the manhattan courthouse. [video clip] >> its against the persecution of an innocent man, not just any man, the former president of the united states of america. the government has been weaponizing. i am here to protest and use my voice and take a stand. every american should take a stand. this is what happens in communist countries, not the united states of america. we have to take a stand against the corruption and the communist

democrats who were twisting our legal system and perverting it to something it was never meant to be. donald j. trump is innocent. this is a license to interfere. alvin bragg is nothing but a george soros funded democrat who tried to hide that in the presidential election. this is a primacy and i'm here as a representative and member of congress to take a stand. i'm using my first amendment rights to speak out. this should never happen in america ever. every single american should be concerned. they will come after you tomorrow. host: we are taking your calls for the next 20 minutes on your reaction and thoughts to the

trump arraignment that happened yesterday in new york. he was charged with 34 felony counts. steve is next in oak ridge, tennessee, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, i'm not calling as a democrat this morning, i'm calling as an american. i studied science michael life and i'm 74 years old and i want to talk about evidence for just a second. in science, we collect evidence, all evidence. and we evidence to come to a conclusion, all evidence. what i see happening here in its on both sides, people are picking the evidence and throwing out evidence they dove like and let's not the way things work. evidently, there was evidence there for this man b,ragg i think his name is to seek an

indictment which he got. is that political? absolutely it looks political. you got to look at all the evidence. another issue i have is denial. it goes back to people will deny anything that does not suit their perspective. the first lesson i taught was on perspective and evidence. i have a picture that you turned one way and it looks like a pretty young lady and if you turn it 90 degrees, it looked like an old woman. it was the same picture. your perspective determines what the picture is. you cannot do that if you are going to use science. you have to look at everything. to wrap up real quick, i sat

down with a couple and started talking to them and we had a great conversation about air children and grandchildren. at some point, trump was brought up and this couple still lives in denial that trump won the election even though there is lots of proof that he didn't it. then they changed completely. their body language changed, their whole demeanor changed when they found out that i was a democrat. prior to that, i was an ordinary person and that goes back to what i'm saying. its your perspective. it has a lot to do with the way you see things but your perspective may not be right. appreciate all the time, thanks. host: mary, lakeland, florida, republican, go ahead. caller: i am originally from new jersey and i am a republican all

my life. i came to florida because so many things are changing in new york and new jersey and other states. i voted for donald trump twice and i will vote for him again. he is not a politician. politicians are very bad and they are liars. that's obvious. donald trump did everything he said he was going to do. look at the state of our country today. we are obviously heading toward war. host: how did you react to the churches, the felony counts against donald trump? caller: it was terrible, but was terrible. this man in new york, alvin bragg, obviously, its a fiction.

he wants to brag in its it terrible situation. i will vote for donald trump again. our current president is not one time gone to the southern border. his homeland security advisor is nothing but a liar who keeps saying its secure. we have a chinese balloon going across our country, taking the data from all of these military bases. i'm a military mom. i cannot stand that this man we call president now, i do like the fact that he is always making the sign of the cross. he receives ashes on ash wednesday and go to church. host: you go it that he's catholic check of caller: i am

catholic, that's the point i'm trying to make. the is doing all these things, trying to show what a good, respect for men is while he is taking money from communists. host: got it, let's go to alice next, independent in pennsylvania. caller: hello check of hello? america, wake up. trump is the worst president we ever had. he's like a hitler's. what president goes on a platform and says kill? trump is a danger to this country. if you want to put trump in, put putin in there. biden is a good president. trump but a bible upside down in front of a church. he is dangerous, corrupt and

should have been put in jail a long time ago. i pray one nation under god and people wake up, those people who want him in there again, he's destroying this country. host: terry is from atlanta, georgia, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you doing? host: i am ok. caller: its been a whirlwind couple of days and leading up to this, i have a couple of things i want to say. i'm a democrat but i'm not a person who is adverse to looking at the other side or listening to the other side. i had a couple -- i heard a couple of good comments this morning in the first guy was from pennsylvania and he said people are saying trump did not do anything, he cheated on his wife. all the people that say they are

christians and he's a good person and people who hate biden , one of the things you all never do is when somebody says i love president biden, he's the best president, ask them what. or someone says i love president trump, ask them why. it boils down to almost a personality contest between the two. i like him but i do like him. the other guy that calls in talking about science and facts, it to look at the facts. donald trump does have a character and has flaws. he is unfiltered. he has done things that are questionable. he said he would show his texas if he was elected any never did. he said he would show his

college grades, he never did. for people who say he's done everything he said he would do, challenge them on that. ask what he has done that he said he would do. is the same thing with biden, let's be fair. i do know what any of your hosts are and that's not relevant but i want to say that challenge these people when they call and make these terrible statements about either side. ask them for some facts. you can tell who listens to what sent -- what station simply by their remarks. have a good day. host: take a look at this, an article in the new york times. the headline is private or political? charges on hush money hinge on purpose.

let's talk to bill in montana, republican. caller: hi, a while ago, we had a republican caller and he stated that bragg donated a million dollars. he brought up an article stating that he was donating to a left-wing organization. technically, he may be half wrong or have right. the next caller was a democrat who stated that back in 2015, trump stated that he never ran for office and he said republicans were stupid. i googled it.

its false. he never said that. have one of those articles next time. i read a reuters article and maybe have that article next time. i would appreciate that. host: ok, scott is in los angeles, independent. caller: hello there to you and i hope everybody is having a beautiful day out there. as you can see, i am an independent. a lot of us independents are reaching a point where we are kind of entertained by what's going on right now. both parties are sympathetic. -- are sympathetic and the other idea that you can never see the other person's viewpoint out of 100 topics, you got to go along with all 100 that everybody

believes in. this is getting completely out of hand on both sides. we believe in fairness. fairness should trump everything. this particular case, when you have a man who going through these type of gyrations to create these charges, obviously, its only natural that a lot of us who have independent thinking , we think for ourselves, we look at this and say its extremely unfair. if you would be kind enough real quickly on a few things i see on the show -- when the people call in with their hitler's comparisons with donald trump, you have a tremendous dunk shot. i do enjoy your dunk shot. i think you use it a little more when people make their hitler's comparisons to trump. we could think of 6 million reasons why that would be a tremendously fair comparison.

the very last thing and i love you guys and i love c-span. i was watching the show saturday morning and i love your dunk shot. i love when you dunk on people. one men made a comment that donald trump should be lined up against the wall and shot and i was startled that you let him keep talking. host: i did cut him off after that. to be fair, go back on c-span .org and watch that part. as soon as he said that, i hung up on him. caller: ok, if i'm wrong, i respect that. you've been tremendous to hear me out and i am very grateful. host: carol in connecticut, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. you are trying to have a conversation about people's reactions to the situation with charging trump.

its clear that its really a conversation about what media you consume. the fox viewers, the right wing radio listeners have one view and other people have the other view. someone said the fox viewers are telling on themselves. i think that's correct. again, referencing the litigation the foxes going through where its been demonstrated, its been clearly demonstrated that fox is an enterprise in creating a right wing fiction and its just stuck now because its a fiction they do it like anymore, that the fox organization dozen like anymore. they have an ardent fan base that will not tolerate anything else.

the science caller who said we should look at evidence is absolute right. unfortunately, fox viewers think they are getting evidence from their viewing. people do not perhaps understand the difference between the mainstream media that fox likes to vilify and donald trump likes to vilify. the washington post, the new york times, the mainstream outlets, these people have journalistic standards. they are in a search for truth but that dozen mean they always find it when they are wrong they admit it. and they require reputable sources, multiple reputable sources in order to do their reporting. its clear that fox news does none of that. rush limbaugh never did any of that. host: you mentioned what news

you consume. where do you typically on a daily basis get your news? caller: i am msnbc, cnn, pbs viewer. i listen to the new york public radio station. time magazine, atlantic magazine , that pretty much covers it. there are facts and not facts and our problem in having a conversation is that we cannot deal with real facts. we have to deal with a right-wing presentation of suppose it facts -- supposed facts. one last thing, i will encourage people since we are having trouble finding any agreement in our common moment, let's take a look at the past. i know you're right wing viewers

will have connections but rachel maddow has an eight part podcast called ultra that looks at part of our american past that i knew nothing about. its historical. host: republican caller is next in southport, connecticut, good morning. are you there checkup -- are you there? arlene is in new orleans, independent line. caller:caller: good morning. top of the morning to you all. my blood pressure is up because i'm so upset with the republicans. when the democrat do something wrong, its bad, bad, bad. but when the republicans do something wrong, they want to push it aside. they have selective amnesia. host: about what?

caller: like trump is wrong. he broke the law. its plain and simple. the writing is on the wall. in neon lights. if you care read, go on learn how to read. if you down have the commonsense lord gave us, you are as crooked as he is. if you feel he did not do nothing wrong. we are supposed to put people up that are supposed to pricked us -- protect us and our country and trump is not the kind of person that worries about our country and the people. the only thing he worries about his lining his pockets for him and his family. anybody that wants to take on trump, you are no better than him. show me your company and i will tell you who you are. host: republican line, ohio, good morning. caller: good morning morning,

how are you? host: i am ok. caller: i just want to say that we had a lot of presidents over the years. i will say trump was the best one that we've had that actually listened to the american people and did what he said he would do. no, he is not a polished politician who lies to people. he opened his mouth and said what he thought. i feel what they've done to him, they have done this to him ever since he started going into when he won the first election. the crowds have hammered him and put them down and in everything they could to get him out of office. they tried to impeach him and every time. and wasting the taxpayers money when we could have used it for better things. as far as the new president in

now, he has not done anything. the american people and dozen care about the american people nor does he care about the people coming into our country. host: let me get one more call in from colleen in florida, new york, democrat, good morning. caller: i have a few comments to make. host: the brief, we are almost out of time. caller: donald trump is a human being just like everybody else in this country who makes mistakes. he is unconventional but yet he got the job done. what has biden done for us? he went into office just to undo every good thing donald trump has done. i'm a military mom. i am a military mom. i have three boys in the air force. now i have to worry about world war iii. donald trump is the only one. he had a relationship with putin. he had a relationship with china.

he had everything under