Republicans rally around Trump after target letter in Jan
Republicans rally around Trump after target letter in Jan
Transcript
00:00 Former President Trump is staying defiant, of course, after receiving a target letter
00:04 in the January 6th investigation.
00:07 Trump hit the campaign trail in Iowa just hours after posting that revelation about
00:12 the target letter on social media.
00:14 While speaking to voters in the Hawkeye State, the former president criticized investigators.
00:18 CBS News has also learned more about the potential charges the former president could face.
00:24 They include conspiracy to commit an offense or to defraud the U.S.
00:29 For more on all this, Finn Gomez and Scott McFarlane join me now.
00:33 Finn is CBS News' political director.
00:35 Scott is CBS News' congressional correspondent.
00:37 Scott, I want to start with you on Capitol Hill, where you often are the person best
00:42 able to take the temperature of revelations, either on the Hill or that interpose themselves
00:48 on Capitol Hill.
00:50 The target letter is one of those things interposing itself on the day-to-day business of Capitol
00:54 Hill.
00:55 What's the reaction so far, especially among Republicans?
00:56 Well, if you walked around here with a microphone and a camera all day, you'd be asking a lot
01:02 of questions about Donald Trump.
01:03 And if you gave truth serum to everybody you were speaking with, they would say, can we
01:06 talk about something else for a change?
01:10 Republicans have not shifted their political support for Donald Trump, not one bit, after
01:14 this news about the target letter.
01:16 Ultimately, they're reinforcing the argument that they believe this is a weaponization
01:20 of the government and the Justice Department by the Biden administration, hoping to take
01:25 out their likely 2024 rival.
01:27 Never mind the fact this is an independent special counsel who sent the target letter.
01:32 Some of the language in the target letter really is resonating here among the president's
01:35 critics.
01:36 There is a sense in the language in the target letter that it's possible a charge of obstruction
01:41 of an official proceeding could be one of the charges levied against Donald Trump.
01:46 That is a charge the Department of Justice has brought 310 times by our CBS News count
01:52 against January 6th defendants.
01:54 There's quite a foundation for bringing that type of charge in this type of January 6th
01:59 connected case.
02:00 What's more, it's already gone through the appellate courts and been upheld.
02:03 Feels like it's a strong foundation.
02:04 And the president's critics say they expect an indictment.
02:08 They expect it in short order.
02:10 And they expect this case could have a size and scope that transcends the already quite
02:15 large case filed in Miami.
02:17 Finn, I want to talk to you about this phenomenon around the indictments and the rallying around
02:23 the former president.
02:24 There is a conversation that sometimes happens in dietary circles about a sugar high.
02:29 Is there an indictment high that the former president's campaign is enjoying, meaning
02:33 it's here and visible but may not last?
02:36 I don't know.
02:37 What do you hear?
02:38 What I'm hearing is that, yes, they believe that this indictment high, if you will, will
02:43 last, that they will build politically off of this.
02:46 They already have.
02:47 You see the point.
02:48 That it's durable.
02:49 That it's durable, that it can be sustained.
02:50 You're also seeing, as you saw in the open, that his rivals even remain somewhat tepid
02:56 in their criticism, though it's sharpened a little bit.
02:59 We saw you saw DeSantis in South Carolina saying that, you know, he that Trump should
03:04 have acted more forcefully on January 6th, January 6th.
03:08 Correct.
03:09 Vivek Ramaswamy said he would make different judgments.
03:11 President Trump and Nikki Haley said that this is dread.
03:14 This legal drama is drowning out, like, essentially the rest of the field.
03:17 So you are seeing an uptick of that.
03:20 However, you know, if you're talking to the talking to base voters, seeing the poll numbers,
03:26 Trump's trajectory continues to go high in spite of this.
03:31 And Scott, you talked to some Republicans, Lindsey Graham and J.D. Vance, both in the
03:34 Senate about this.
03:35 What did they have to say?
03:37 Among the most fervent and loyal Trump supporters in the U.S. Senate are just those two.
03:41 J.D. Vance, freshman senator from Ohio.
03:43 Lindsey Graham, senior senator from South Carolina.
03:46 They had a variety of defenses for Donald Trump and a variety of criticisms for this
03:51 prosecution.
03:52 Take a listen.
03:53 I think Donald Trump can't get a fair trial in the District of Columbia.
03:57 Why is that?
03:58 Well, he got 5 percent of the vote.
04:00 You can indict a Republican for almost anything and get convicted in this city.
04:04 You know, there's places that Biden couldn't get a fair trial.
04:08 So yeah, I believe that.
04:09 I don't think a jury can put the politics aside and hear the facts.
04:13 No.
04:14 I think that a special special prosecutor is going to indict the former president and
04:17 a likely leader of the opposition going into this presidential campaign.
04:21 I think it suggests the Department of Justice has been completely politicized.
04:26 We're also getting a reaction from members of that House select January 6th committee
04:30 major.
04:31 Jamie Raskin says that this target letter is further indication that nobody has laid
04:36 a glove on the findings of that select committee and that it has been unimpeachable and untouchable,
04:41 a work product that was produced by the committee and potentially used by the investigators
04:46 at the special counsel's office.
04:47 And I want to ask you about this thing that is being presented to the American public
04:51 and particularly Republican primary and caucus voters.
04:55 January 6th was we saw it on live television, the interference of an official congressional
05:01 proceeding.
05:02 Right.
05:03 Fact.
05:04 And you can't dispute that a congressional proceeding was delayed.
05:09 Therefore it was interfered with.
05:11 There is now an effort by the special counsel possibly to hold the former president criminally
05:15 accountable for that.
05:17 He calls that election interference.
05:19 Well, the delayed proceeding was about certifying an election.
05:23 So if you're delaying a certifying election procedure, you're interfering with an election
05:27 result.
05:28 And yet this is being presented and all polling indicates Republican primary and caucus voters
05:34 believe it and embrace that, that that dichotomy, that upside down logic.
05:38 And, you know, I think famously you remember Kellyanne Conway talking about alternate facts.
05:43 I think, you know, there's like an alternate timeline, alternate dimension perspective
05:50 here from, from the MAGA base, from what we're hearing, the talking points we're hearing
05:55 from the former president to Capitol Hill, to the campaign trail that are, it sounds
05:59 like an echo chamber, right?
06:01 Major sounds the same.
06:02 And you're seeing it's, there is that dichotomy you speak of.
06:07 And it's, it's this, this, this alternate universe of facts, frankly.
06:10 And I, you know, and it's permeating throughout the political landscape.
06:14 And Scott, to your point a moment ago about truth serum, trust me, every Capitol Hill
06:18 reporter wishes they had vial upon vial of truth serum, but none, none exists.
06:24 Do you consider based on your actions with these Republicans, this to be a genuine and
06:29 to use Finn's word, durable alliance with the former president or temporary and conditions
06:35 based particularly legal conditions based as this plays out.
06:40 Been asking those questions to Republicans ever since January 6th, 2021 more than 30
06:45 months, haven't noticed shifts, deviations, or any permeability to Republican support
06:50 for Donald Trump in the bulk of those 30 months.
06:53 It really does have staying power.
06:55 And to your prior point, major, not only was the official proceeding clearly obstructed
07:01 January 6th, but this has all been litigated hundreds of times.
07:04 Every single DC federal judge hearing a case is agreed, acknowledged.
07:08 There was proof beyond a reasonable doubt that there was an obstruction of an official
07:13 proceeding that day.
07:14 There's no wiggle room on that issue in this courthouse where presumably this case would
07:18 go.
07:20 And Finn very quickly, do you anticipate that the former president will participate in the
07:24 first Republican presidential debate next month?
07:28 I would not be surprised at all if he is not there.
07:31 If he's not there.
07:32 If he is not there, I would not be surprised.
07:34 And that's the sort of sounding you get from the Trump inner circle.
07:37 Right.
07:38 He's up 30 points in most national polls.
07:40 He's up high in the early state polling.
07:44 You know, why?
07:46 Why make himself a target?
07:48 Why make himself a target?
07:49 He doesn't have to.
07:51 He's running basically as an incumbent right now, essentially within the Republican primary.
07:56 And what about the ego dimension?
07:57 There are all the other Republicans that have this ego won't allow him not to be there.
08:01 Yeah, but at least comparable, if you compare this time around to previous cycles, there's
08:07 a little more discipline, I feel, from his team, including like he has, you know, Chris
08:12 LaCivita, Susie Wiles, some strong folks there.
08:15 I do not, I do not, I do not expect him to be there.
08:18 Finn Gomez, Scott McFarland, we thank you.