Mar. 20, 2023: Scoop: House GOP targets Manhattan DA

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

Daily News, Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 614 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Good morning from Orlando, where House Republicans are gathered at a luxury resort not far from Disney World for their annual three-day retreat — and where, we’ve learned, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and senior GOP leaders are preparing demand to testimony from members of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office amid reports of an imminent Trump indictment. This morning, we can report two things: In the short term, Republicans are discussing firing off letters summoning employees of the Manhattan DA’s office for sworn testimony, according to a GOP official familiar with the plans. The potential request comes amid speculation about why the hush-money case was suddenly resurrected after being back-burnered by both state and federal prosecutors. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are not final, noted that McCarthy, a longtime Trump ally and close friend, is “fully supportive and pushing folks to be aggressive here.” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg himself is in the GOP’s crosshairs, though it’s not clear if he’ll be immediately summoned. “He should come testify before Congress,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told us and other reporters, launching into a lengthy tirade about “fake charges” meant to be “used in Democrat ads” against Trump. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletter Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What's up Playbookers? I'm Rogumonovalin. An eminent Trump indictment, plus why Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Brad is about to be in the GOP's crossairs. Here are the big things we're watching on Monday, March 20th.
0:18.0	A quick headline, House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLoro is warning that a
0:23.8	GOP proposal to rollback agency spending back to fiscal 2022 levels would cause irreparable damage
0:31.2	to our communities by gutting the programs every single American relies on. Deloro, back in January, sent agencies a letter asking for officials to detail what those cuts would look like.
0:44.3	And this morning, Deloro is releasing the responses.
0:52.3	House Republicans are gathered at a luxury resort not far from Disney World for their annual three-day retreat.
1:00.0	And where we've learned, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan and senior GOP leaders are preparing to demand testimony from members of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office amid reports
1:12.5	of an imminent Trump indictment. Playbook co-author Rachel Bade and editor Mike DeBonez are here
1:18.6	to break it all down. All right, Rachel, this was supposed to be a chance for House Republicans
1:23.1	to get together, take stock of their new majority, and steal themselves for the battles ahead.
1:28.4	They have planned with President Biden and Senate Democrats.
1:31.2	But that's not exactly what's happening now, is it?
1:33.9	Well, Mike, it's happening to an extent.
1:36.4	Republican leadership, starting with Kevin McCarthy himself, did this 20-minute press conference
1:42.5	where they sort of laid out all their legislative achievements,
1:45.7	things they've done in the past few months since he became speaker.
1:48.6	But the problem is that everyone here is focusing on something else, and that is what's about
1:54.3	to happen to Donald Trump. Obviously, there's news that he could be arrested as soon as Tuesday,
2:01.3	tomorrow.
2:07.8	And if that happens, Republicans want to have a response ready to go.
2:13.2	They say they're going to investigate the Manhattan district attorney who brought these,
2:15.7	would be bringing these charges against Donald Trump. And right now, that is really sort of distracting
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from POLITICO, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of POLITICO and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.