Donald Trump faces revised US indictment in 2020 election subversion case
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00:00For some more analysis on these latest developments, France 24 international affairs editor Ketavan Gordjastani joins me here in the studio, Ketavan
00:07Let's talk about these updated charges for this alleged election interference. How does that work?
00:11Well, basically what Jack Smith the special prosecutor did was take into account as you said that ruling by the Supreme Court that gave
00:20broad immunity to a former president from permanent prosecution for
00:26Official acts his acts as a president. So this a new or revised indictment is 36 pages long
00:33that's nine shorter than the original one same for charges including for example, the
00:41conspiracy to obstruct a
00:43official proceeding which is the certification of the election on January is 6 and the focus is
00:51on Donald Trump's role and actions as a
00:55political candidate rather than as a sitting a president at the time and there's a line in that a new
01:03Indictment the defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceedings
01:08but he did have a personal interest as a
01:12Candidate in being named the winner of the election. So what does that mean a really?
01:17How did they remove nine pages in that indictment?
01:21There are no longer any references to Trump's attempts or alleged attempts to pressure the Department of Justice to do his bidding in
01:29overturning that
01:31Election results. They're focusing on key testimony from witnesses
01:36outside the federal government basically no ties to the White House or
01:40To the federal government, for example, Rudy Giuliani. He was the personal attorney. So he is still a fair game
01:48There's one big question now
01:50It's Mike Pence the vice president because of course some of their relationship is official between president and vice president
01:57But when he was certifying the results of the election
02:00He was certifying it as the president of the Senate presiding over the Senate
02:05Which is one of the roles of the vice president and so Jack Smith is arguing that in that case
02:10He was not acting as vice president. He was acting as the head of the Senate
02:15So maybe that will fall under it
02:18The thing is highly unlikely that this will go to trial before
02:22November 5th and it's very hard to tell whether this is going to have any impact on the election on the one hand
02:29Donald Trump has already
02:31Tweeted and posted about it fund raised about it calling it again a witch hunt and motivating his base at the same time
02:38It's also bringing back January 6th into the spotlight and reminding some people who might be on the fence
02:44About what exactly Donald Trump was doing on a January 6 and so that could sway
02:50Potentially of voters away from Donald Trump
02:52But it's very hard to tell which way that will go a few angles on the legal and of the media angle there
02:57Well, meanwhile speaking of media Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the Democratic ticket now
03:01They seem to have stolen a good bit of Trump's thunder in recent weeks
03:05They're set to give their first joint interview with CNN tomorrow. Why is it such a big deal? What are they hoping to accomplish?
03:11Well, it's a big deal because basically a Kamala Harris hasn't given a press conference or sat down for a real
03:19Interview since Joe Biden's disastrous debate a performance
03:24So that goes back to at the end of June and that interview was basically her defending Joe Biden not really talking about
03:31What would happen next which is the fact that Joe Biden has dropped out of the race and she is now at the nominee for
03:38Democratic Party and what initially was a really focused of as a
03:43Republican attack against Kamala Harris saying she's incompetent. That's why she's not sitting down for interviews
03:49She's not taking the hard questions has gradually over time
03:53Become criticism even within Democratic ranks with a Democrat saying she needs to get out there. She needs to respond to
04:02Reporters because it's been more than a month since she's been the nominee and so
04:08The idea is yes at some point. There was a political calculus risk reward
04:14They felt that they were riding a wave of momentum of enthusiasm. They didn't want to break that wave
04:19That's totally politically sound but they might have waited a little bit too long to get her on that interview because now
04:27Everybody is going to be watching that interview as much for what she says about her policies
04:34There are questions about things that she said when she was running for a president four years ago versus what she's doing now
04:41Whether she's going to continue the economic policies of Joe Biden all these things
04:46but it's also going to be important to see how she says those things because
04:51The idea and what the Republicans have pounced on is that she's not really great in
04:56Unscripted
04:57Situations and of course now videos are coming back up of her pretty disastrous interview back in
05:052021 about the border situation why she wasn't going to the border where she was very defensive very aggressive
05:11Responding that she hadn't even gone to Europe either and so she didn't understand the the questioning
05:16So she is going to have to prove that she is competent that she can do an interview
05:21The question is will that be enough because they're already questioned about a why is she not doing it by herself?
05:27And why does she need her a vice presidential candidate partner Tim Walz with her?
05:34Why is she doing it just before Labor Day weekend, which is a holiday weekend for?
05:40Americans and of course that will be a Republican attack
05:44Which is she's doing it with CNN and they say that CNN is too friendly
05:48And so she's not really taking the tough question. All right. Well, we will see how she performs as well as
05:56VP candidate Tim Walz during that interview for 24 International Affairs editor Kevin gorgeous tiny. Thanks so much for that analysis