Hawley Reacts To Trump Conviction: It's The Biden Campaign's Attempt To Hijack Our Election System

Republicans finding common ground in blasting former President Trump's convictions, conviction on falsifying business records, the GOP questioning the legitimacy of the trial and how it was conducted. Joining us now, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, good morning, thanks for being here. Your thoughts about, you know, where this goes, next steps, and the fallout from it? Well, I would just say, Brad, that listen, I mean, congratulations to the liberals in New York and D.C. and L.A. You got your New York Times headline that you've wanted for years, Trump guilty, but you also probably just elected him, re-elected him to be the next president of the United States. Listen, this is a total travesty. I mean, we should not mince any words here. This is an extremely dangerous day for our country, Brad, and here's why. Our election process is supposed to end in an election, not in a trial, not in one of the political candidates being thrown in jail. And what you see here is a breach of American norms in our legal system we've never seen before, the election process hijacked by a trial, by a conviction that is 100% political. Brad, this is extremely dangerous for our country, and I think voters are going to have something to say about it in November. You know, there's a lot of unity, it seems, on the Republican side expressing what you just did, a lot of lawmakers coming out. But you had Larry Hogan, former governor of Maryland, now running for U.S. Senate, put out a statement, regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders, regardless of party, must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great, the rule of law. Trump campaign senior advisor Chris LaCivita came out and said, you just ended your campaign on X about Larry Hogan. You're trying to get the Senate and majority in the Senate. That's a prospect in Larry Hogan in Maryland. What do you think about that? Well, listen, I won't give advice to other people in terms of how they run their campaigns, but I think it's important we tell the truth, Brad. And the truth is that this trial is a total sham. And everybody who has seen it, any legal observers who've looked at it have known from the beginning. And listen, let's just start at the very beginning. These are charges that have never been brought before by anybody else in American history. They're charges that have absolutely no basis in the law. Forget even getting to the facts in the law. I mean, what Bragg tried to do here, bootstrapping some state court requirements, state law requirements, and then linking them to federal campaign election donation requirements and reporting requirements is absurd. It's totally absurd. And the proof of that is nobody's ever been charged with this before. Then you had the star witness for the prosecution who is a convicted perjurer and who lied again on the stand and admitted that he did. Oh, yeah, that wasn't what I said earlier in my testimony. Brett, we need to be clear about this. You look at Biden's campaign. They are out there celebrating this. They did campaign events at the trial. This is an attempt to use our legal system to hijack our election system. That's like what a third world country does. It's never happened before in this country. We need to be honest about that and say that this is a dangerous moment for America. I want to ask you one more question. It's about another topic. And this is the whole effort to try to get Justice Alito to recuse himself based on the flag flap that has been covered. Now there was an effort to get the chief justice, John Roberts, to come up to Capitol Hill to talk about all of this. And here's a letter he sent to Senate Democrats. Only on rare occasions in our nation's history has a sitting chief justice met with legislators, even in a public setting such as a committee hearing with members of both major political parties present. Is this the right answer? And obviously, Alito has said he's not recusing himself. Oh, it's totally the right answer. I mean, listen, it's absurd to have the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and other top Democrats threatening. And that's what they're doing, Brett. They are threatening the Supreme Court. They are trying to undermine its independence, not just undermine it. They're trying to end its independence. Let's not forget. Chuck Schumer, the Democrat leader, stood on the steps of the Supreme Court and named justices and said, you're not going to know what has hit you, Alito and Gorsuch, if you keep ruling this way. That's the Democrat Party today, right there. They want to pack the court. They want to threaten the court. They want to try and create fake controversies. I don't care what flags Justice Alito was flying for heaven's sake. I mean, this is absurd, but it is an attempt to destroy the independence of the court. And listen, once again, Republicans have got to tell the truth here and stand tall for the rule of law. If you don't like the court, you don't like their rulings, fine. You criticize them all you want. But to try to destroy the independence of the court, threaten them politically and otherwise, boy, that is wrong. Senator Josh Hawley, we appreciate your time. Thank you.