'You're lying': George Conway clashes with Republican commentator over Trump guilty verdict

George. You write

here.

The New York Trump

case is kind of perfect.

Now, you wrote this

before this verdict dropped.

You said his other criminal cases

involve lies

about the 2016 election,

about the military secrets he stole.

But the alleged lies in the people v

Trump strike

at the core of his moral presence.

And Trump knows it.

what do you make of the verdict

that we saw here today?

and also David Fromm's comments,

considering the way

this sits in our nation's consciousness

and the way it stacks up

against some of the other things

that Donald Trump is accused of doing.

Yeah. Well, I actually agreed

with everything that David said.

And in terms of this verdict,

the only thing that really

I wasn't

I was surprised by the fact

that so many people were surprised

I was in that courtroom.

for a number of the days

I read the transcript,

I followed along very closely in

this case was never, ever close.

It was it there was really no defense.

The only defense was that Michael Cohen

lied on some other occasions.

But on the things that he testified

to about Donald Trump and Stormy

Daniels and Karen McDougal

and the catch and kill scheme

with with the,

with the

with the with the National Enquirer,

all that was corroborated

many, many times over by documents.

So I'm just surprised at

how many people were kind of unwilling

to accept this case.

that that said, I do

you know, I think that it is

this case really does

capture Donald Trump in a way.

It it's where he started.

He's been a criminal

his entire life,

and he cannot help himself.

I mean, he if you,

you go out there and you

see his son and him

all claiming that the victims of them

some mastermind scheme

by by President Biden.

I mean, it's just it's

just silly and ridiculous.

And Marco Rubio should be ashamed.

I mean,

if you don't want to be found guilty

of falsifying business records,

and as a felony,

you know, don't sleep with the porn star.

Don't lie about it.

Don't pay her off.

Don't cover up the payoff.

Don't cover off the pay off

in the middle of a presidential campaign.

And, where you're making a contribution.

And don't don't gross

the guy up for taxes who used as a

as the front man if you don't want.

If you don't want to be held liable

for rape

like Donald Trump has,

don't grab the woman's genitalia

if you don't want to be held liable

from defaming the woman that you raped.

Don't keep lying about what you did

and calling her a nutjob.

If you don't want to be indicted

for overthrowing the Constitution,

don't start a self kook.

If you don't want to be indicted

for classified stealing classified

documents and obstructing justice,

don't take the classified documents.

When the government asked for it back,

give them back.

If if you

if the FBI serves you

with a search warrant,

don't hide the documents

and and don't lie about it

and don't have your lawyers

lie about this.

Isn't that hard?

Donald Trump is not the victim here.

Donald Trump is

is does all of these things to himself.

And I agree with David.

I mean, once upon a time,

the Republican Party was the party,

not just an anti hippies,

but a personal responsibility

and of, of law and order.

What party?

Where is that

party here

that no one's willing to hold in?

The Republican Party

is willing to hold Donald Trump

to account for his crimes, crimes

that aren't really even in dispute.

And no one,

no one is willing to call him up and said

he's he's going to get the nomination.

That's just insane.

And it just shows

the degree of moral rot

we have

on the conservative side

of politics today.

Scott Jennings, I think this is for you.

Where is that party?

Well, I

disagree with a

number of things, George said. Of course.

I mean, he's talking about these crimes

that were committed that,

that, that, that I mean, he's

talking about the obvious crimes

that were supposedly committed.

But that's the core of what

a lot of decidedly non MAGA

Republicans are mad about

is that there is no underlying crime.

I looked at the statement

from Maine Senator

Susan Collins,

who I think encapsulated it perfectly.

She said this was a Partizan prosecutor

who promised to get Trump,

and that's what he did

not promise to go after the law,

but he promised pathetic

promise to go after Donald Trump.

And so the issue is here.

What is the crime?

He's never been indicted for

or convicted of the campaign

finance theory at the core of this case.

And so Republicans were wondering today,

you know,

what what what do you have to do

to to build a defense against something

you've never been convicted of

in the first place?

I'll tell you the mood in the party.

If you're looking for a generalized

attitude, is reminds me

a little bit about the Kavanaugh period.

You go back to the Brett

Kavanaugh hearings, 2018.

I remember that period being the MAGA

people were mad.

The non MAGA, the anti-Trump, the right.

Every wing of the party was vibrating,

angry about what

was being done to Kavanaugh.

I feel and sense

that the same thing is happening today,

which is why

I think you're probably going

to see this backfire

politically on the Democrats,

and they're going to regret it.

I mean, George, I will say,

I have heard

from some people

who really don't want to see Trump

get elected

in the Republican Party,

who are concerned that this is just

this particular case

is just going to drive,

additional enthusiasm

for the former president.

I'd be interested to respond to that.

And you got your face in your hands.

Well, you got to say this.

I have to say, I mean, look,

I mean, you know, Scott's lying.

And that's the problem

with the Republican Party.

It is continually addicted to love that.

Wait a minute.

What am I what am I what what am I lying?

You're lying. You're lying, Scott.

You're lying about the law.

You're lying about what

the jury was charged to find.

They don't have to find

an underlying crime.

They had to find the intent to cover up

an underlying crime.

And the underlying crime

was pretty obvious. What was the crime?

You ran for public office, Scott.

You. You ran for public office. Scott.

You know you can't take money

from somebody

and reimburse them to for as a

you know,

if it's a campaign,

never run that damn well and you're okay.

Fine. Well, you you're close enough.

You're involved in politics to know that.

Okay.

So that's the problem

with the Republican Party

is that they are suffused with lies.

I don't know why this network

is paying Scott to say this lies.

Whoa, whoa. Okay.

Let's talk. Please.

Let's not go there. No.

We should be proud of Scott

as our colleague.

And we're going to treat him

respectfully as such. Continue.

Well, you should hear here's my question.

If if it if it is

if it is an obvious crime,

why did the Department of Justice

and the Federal Election Commission

take a pass on it?

Well, the Federal Police

should have been prosecuted.

It should have been prosecuted.

On January 21st January 21st, 2021.

Let's look. That's what we all know.

This is the thing about Tommy Trump.

He's never Donald Trump,

never been Donald Trump has been let off.

He should have been indicted for it.

And the fact of the matter is, Donald,

he wasn't sure what he was.

Hold on. Please, David.

The Federal Election

Commission is a broken

and paralyzed institution.

it requires it requires a majority.

It's got equal numbers

of Republicans and Democrats.

It requires a majority to act.

And it's not acted on

anything for a decade because it has been

it is broken.

And one of the reasons

that things are ending up

in the criminal justice system

is because the internal political system

has been sabotaged by the people

that complain

that the criminal justice system is

the wrong, is the wrong remedy.

You know,

I want to pick up something

else, Scott said.

This is a

become an important Republican

talking point that Alvin Bragg vowed to,

punish Donald Trump.

That doesn't seem to be true.

People are looking to the record to say,

where is this?

Where is this

promise that you're talking about?

And I wonder, it's

maybe they've mistaken

Alvin Bright

for Letitia James,

the New York state

attorney general,

who did make that promise.

but Bragg actually

was the person

who declined

to bring a criminal action

based on the Civil frauds

that then won,

verdicts of a half $1 billion.

But he's been actually quite a cautious,

not as conscious

as Mayor and Merrick Garland,

but still quite cautious.

He was not

someone who was chomping at the bit

to get this president.

Scott.

I disagree,

I think it's obvious

that he wanted to get the president,

and I think it's obvious that he

he did it.

I mean, I,

I mean, he

he these Democrats in New York,

I mean, if you ask

the average Republican

have been desperate

to get Trump from the beginning,

and they finally did it.

And I you know, the I'm not a lawyer,

but the political impact of this

I am an expert on

and I'm telling you right now,

this has done more to unify

the Republican Party behind Trump

than anything else

you could have possibly done.

I've heard people on TV last night say,

now they got to throw him in jail.

We gotta throw him in jail.

My advice would be, go right ahead.

Ask for the maximum jail time.

Go, go right. Go right ahead.

Because I would love to see you.

If being a can deal

with the consequences of that Republican

being a convicted

felon, we're good for you.

Politically,

we would not have had to wait

for 230 years

of the life of this republic

for people to run for office

as convicted felons.

historically, everyone has agreed

that it's a bad thing to be a political.

He didn't sell it.

He didn't run for office

as a convicted felon.

He was convicted after he started running

and he was running for office.

He is now today, it's not too late

for the Republican convention

to swap him out

and find someone

who's not a convicted felon.

You know, it's

technically it is before the convention.

After the convention, we might

actually see something