Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) hold a press briefing outside former President Trump's NYC hush money trial.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Okay, let me make just a few observations here, and then I'll kick it over to Senator Tuberville, and we can go down the line here.
00:07But number one, I'm here for the simple reason to show support for a friend.
00:11I think this trial is absolutely ridiculous. I think it's a sham prosecution.
00:16And I think that luckily the president's supporters should know that he's actually in great spirits despite the circumstances of this.
00:22He should be out on the campaign trail, but of course he's here with this trial.
00:26Let me say something about what I've witnessed so far in my couple hours in there.
00:31First of all, Michael Cohen is the prosecution's star witness.
00:35This guy is a convicted felon who admitted in his testimony that he secretly recorded his former employer,
00:42that he only did it once, allegedly, and that this was supposed to help Donald Trump.
00:46Does any reasonable, sensible person believe anything that Michael Cohen says?
00:52I don't think that they should, and I actually think that his testimony is going to hurt with any reasonable juror,
00:57and hopefully we have a few of those.
00:59I want to say two other things here very quickly.
01:02Number one, the thing that the president is prevented from saying, which is a disgrace,
01:07is that every single person involved in this prosecution is practically a Democratic political operative.
01:14The judge inside, his daughter, is making millions of dollars running against Donald Trump,
01:20raising money for Donald Trump's political opponents.
01:23The number three person to the Department of Justice, Biden's Department of Justice,
01:27left to become a local prosecutor to go after Donald Trump, and of course there's Alvin Bragg,
01:32a Soros-funded prosecutor who promised to go after Donald Trump and now is doing exactly that.
01:38Now look, whether you love Donald Trump, whether you like Donald Trump, or whether you're a Democrat
01:43or don't care about politics, what's going on inside that courtroom is a threat to American democracy, ladies and gentlemen.
01:50We cannot have a country where you get to prosecute your political opponents instead of persuading voters.
01:57Joe Biden's entire strategy is to try to distract from inflation at home and war overseas with this sham trial.
02:05I just want to live in a reasonable country where we try to persuade voters in our politics.
02:10We don't try to throw our political opponents in jail.
02:12So this is a disgrace, and I wanted to be here to show some support for my friend.
02:16And speaking of my friend, here's Senator Tuberville.
02:19Thank you.
02:20Thank you, Senator Vance.
02:23Auburn fan here.
02:27I want to reiterate the same thing.
02:30First of all, I'm disappointed in the courtroom.
02:33I'm hearing Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump.
02:36He is former President Trump.
02:39Give him some respect.
02:41I mean, that's what that place is in there.
02:43It's no respect.
02:45Here's what I'm seeing, too.
02:46It is depressing.
02:47That courtroom is depressing.
02:49This is New York City, the icon of our country, and we got a courtroom that's the most depressing thing I've ever been in.
02:58Mental anguish is trying to be pushed on the Republican candidate for the president of the United States this year.
03:05That's all this is.
03:06He's been here a month.
03:07He's been here a month.
03:08I am disappointed in looking at the supposedly American citizens in that courtroom that the DA comes in and he acts like it is his Super Bowl.
03:19And I guess it is, to be noticed.
03:22But that's what's happening in this country.
03:24The Republican candidate for president of the United States is going through mental anguish in a courtroom that's very depressing, very depressing.
03:34I'm glad to stand by President Trump.
03:37I'm a friend of his.
03:38I'm here more as a friend than backing him as candidate, as president.
03:44I'm sitting there listening to a guy on the stand that they had to get out of house arrest because he lied in another court to testify in this court.
03:55He's a convicted felon.
03:58I mean, this guy, he's up there giving an acting scene, and all of a sudden he comes out and says, oh, I have recorded President Trump on my telephone.
04:08This guy worked for President Trump.
04:11I mean, how can you be convinced by somebody that is a serial liar?
04:18I mean, there should be no reason that anybody should listen to this guy.
04:22But at the end of the day, the Democrats are trying to beat President Trump in the jury box because they can't beat him at the ballot box.
04:34That's the end of the story.
04:36So I'm from the South.
04:38I'm here today to represent and to pay my respects to what President Trump is going through.
04:44It's a tough time for him.
04:46But you saw what happened this weekend.
04:49He's got more support than ever because what they're putting him through in that class, in that courtroom.
04:53Thank you.
04:54Why do you think it's appropriate to talk about the judge's daughter when the judge is there?
04:57Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, I represent Staten Island and Brooklyn here in New York City.
05:04I'm also here to support President Trump.
05:08The case is called the people of the state of New York versus Donald J. Trump.
05:13The people of the state of New York know that this is a sham trial.
05:18The people of America know that it is a sham trial.
05:20It is based on a star witness that is a convicted, disbarred perjurer who lied to Congress multiple times, has admitted to lying before Congress, and has been convicted of lying.
05:33What I'll say is the people of the state of New York would wish that Alvin Bragg, the district attorney who brought this case, would focus on the actual crime that is taking place and plaguing our city.
05:47We have drug smugglers that are poisoning our children.
05:51We have illegal immigrant gang members wreaking havoc in our city.
05:55We see career criminals being released over and over again.
05:59And we see a district attorney that reduces or drops charges against the criminals who are plaguing New York.
06:06And yet here you have a made-up charge for something that's not even within his jurisdiction, that the FEC has said that there is no crime, that the DOJ has said there is no crime.
06:20And so it's truly outrageous that this is how district attorney Alvin Bragg is choosing to use New Yorkers' tax dollars, wasting precious courtroom time on this sham trial.
06:38I'm Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, and I came all the way from Iowa to show our strong support that we have for President Trump.
06:45He won our caucuses, the first-in-the-nation caucuses, by more than any other candidate ever has.
06:52And he will do a great job.
06:54We need him back as our president leading our country again.
06:57My background is as a prosecutor, and what I saw in that courtroom today is a travesty.
07:03Politics has no place in a court of law.
07:06Politics should be out on the campaign trail.
07:09But instead, because of these charges that are a scam and a sham, he, our President Trump, is tied up in court when he should be out on the campaign trail.
07:18And I worry for the future of our country if this is the direction that campaigns are going to take, when Biden knows that he cannot defeat President Trump.
07:26So instead, they try to charge him with all of these ridiculous things that include a star witness who's a perjurer, disbarred, convicted of lying.
07:37It tells us the state we are in this country right now when that's what's happening.
07:42What we need to do is get politics out of the courtroom and let President Trump get back on the campaign trail.
07:48Let the American people decide who the next leader of the free world will be.
07:53And politics has absolutely no place in this courtroom or any other.
07:59Thank you.
08:01I'm Steve Marshall, the Attorney General for Alabama.
08:04Thirty years I have been a prosecutor and cared desperately about what goes on in our criminal justice system.
08:10And I have never seen in my career a greater perversion of the criminal justice system than I witnessed this morning.
08:17We had more questions about Michael Cohen's feelings than we did connecting him to any criminal offense.
08:25When I was a district attorney, I had the privilege of being able to work with Cy Vance.
08:29I know that his team reviewed these facts and rejected any effort to use the resources of this city to pursue a sham prosecution.
08:38We've seen federal authorities who are directed to investigate matters relating to our elections that have chosen not to pursue criminal charges relating to these same facts.
08:49A Department of Justice who has been weaponized by this administration who also have refused to pursue charges.
08:56But yet we want a perjurer to get on that stand today to try to somehow convince that jury that Donald Trump has committed a criminal offense.
09:06There is no basis for this crime.
09:09This is simply an effort to keep Donald Trump in New York City so he can't go out and speak to the people of this country about why he should be reelected as president.
09:19I've seen nothing here that has demonstrated what I didn't know when I walked in.
09:23And that is this is not an effective use of the resources of this city.
09:28I sat in that courtroom wondering what victims are waiting to be able to get justice for their families.
09:34To take violent offenders off these streets.
09:37They can't do it because the resources are being spent on something that's not worthwhile.
09:42We're privileged to be here.
09:44Grateful to be here with my senior senator to show support for a man that needs to be back on the campaign trail speaking to the people of this country.
09:52So just one final thought, ladies and gentlemen, to all the American voters and American people who are watching this.
09:58The one opportunity you get to speak up against this sham prosecution and to say the American people elect their president, not corrupt DNC prosecutors, is to vote for Donald Trump in November.
10:10Thank you all. God bless you.