We are of course watching this historic verdict against the backdrop of the current

presidential election.

Joining us now are our politics team.

That's Lisa Desjardan who covers the Trump campaign and Laura Barone Lopez who covers the White House and the

Biden campaign. Great to see you both. Thank you for being here. Lisa kick us

off here. We heard President Trump's immediate reaction earlier in the show. You've

been talking to your Republican sources. What are you hearing?

Well the Trump campaign and Republicans are using a single word over and over again

right now they're saying shameful. I'm going to point to the statement by

House Speaker Mike Johnson who is the top elected Republican in

United States right now. He wrote, today is a shameful day in American history.

This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one. The weaponization, as he

calls it, of our justice system has been a

hallmark of the Biden administration. So obviously they have the first

president ever convicted of felonies, they're going to say this was wrong and

they're trying to put the blame back on the

Biden administration. But when you go a little deeper and talk to other

Republicans, some who opposed former President Trump like Asa Hutchinson, the

former governor of Arkansas, I spoke to him a short time a while ago.

And he said, no, this speaks to confidence

in the justice system.

He told me that this is a very serious moment,

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