Will Trump's Legal Issues Impact The General Election? Political Scientist Weighs In

5 months ago

Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Charles Lipson joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss former President Trump's legal problems impacting the election.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00 You know, we've seen Donald Trump in a Manhattan courtroom over the past couple of weeks for his

00:06 hush money trial. Do you think his legal challenges in general are going to impact the election?

00:11 They could, but I've got to tell you, and I'm not a, you know, a big Trump fan. I'm conservative,

00:20 but I'm not a big Trump fan. I'm not a never Trump or either. But I've got to tell you,

00:26 I think that the trial is just outrageous. This was a minor issue, normally dealt with,

00:37 whether or not it was a correct bookkeeping case or something, normally dealt with as a misdemeanor.

00:45 The statute of limitations has run out on that. The issue of whether it affected the 2016 election,

00:53 now 2016 election is a case that the federal government decided not to bring. They just

01:04 didn't think it was a case. Alvin Bragg ran, and so did Letitia James, the Attorney General of New

01:11 York, ran on the idea that they would get Trump and they would find an issue to do it, and they've

01:18 done so. And essentially, and remember, Hillary Clinton paid money for the Steele dossier. She did

01:29 it through a law firm. New York didn't prosecute that. It was well known at the time. So there's,

01:36 there are issues, I think, about what Republicans call lawfare, and I think those are completely

01:44 legitimate issues. And it's just the biggest thing on CNN and MSNBC, they couldn't be happier. The

01:53 last time they were this happy was when the Malaysian airplane disappeared. They could fill

01:58 up their airtime for two months without having to do anything. Do you think voters care in general

02:06 about his legal issues? And do you think their minds will change at all, one way or another,

02:12 if he is found guilty? Yes, I think that if he is found guilty, that could hurt him. It certainly

02:22 won't help him. I do think that what is really hurting him is that he's being kept off the

02:30 campaign trail. That's just ludicrous. There's no reason. This judge, I should say, the judge's

02:39 gag order is also incredibly broad. It seems to cover the judge's daughter. Now, I don't like the

02:46 fact that Trump attacks other people. I can see why not naming the jurors, that they should be

02:53 protected. I can see that. I don't see why in a public trial, the judge is protected from statements

03:02 outside of court. I don't see why other witnesses against Trump can say things against him. Michael

03:09 Cohen can come out and say anything he wants. But if Trump responds to Michael Cohen, that's a

03:14 violation. I don't see how that's fair. But the biggest problem is that it's election interference

03:21 to keep Trump off of the campaign trail through the entire trial. And I've got to say that Jack

03:29 Smith wants to conduct a trial in the middle of the campaign, too. The Justice Department had a rule

03:38 just a rule that you wouldn't indict people in the 60 days prior to the election. That was too

03:45 short, in my opinion. It should have been, you know, 120 days or something. But the point was

03:52 to prevent this kind of election interference. If Merrick Garland had a backbone, he would have

04:02 said to Jack Smith, you can bring this case, but you cannot bring it until mid-November after the

04:10 election. But they didn't do that. And there's just no question that Jack Smith is out to get

04:18 Trump. They didn't bring any case against Joe Biden for all of the documents that he had,

04:28 including documents that went back to his Senate days that had to have been taken out

04:33 of a secure room called the SCIF, which he had no permission to do. And he put them in his garage.

04:40 Then he talked about those with his biographer. And the biographer had access to these documents,

04:52 no indictment about that. And now there is one difference in the Trump case in Florida,

04:59 that they can claim that Trump tried to mislead them about what documents he had. That is a

05:06 difference. But I do think that the public can see that the entire government under Joe Biden

05:14 is mobilized legally against Donald Trump. I just think it's outrageous whether he wins the

05:21 contest or not. And like I said, I'm not saying this as a boy, I'm waving Trump's flag. I just

05:30 think it's fundamentally unfair. The law should be fair to everyone. And when Alvin Bragg and his

05:40 team say, oh, no one is above the law, that's right. But no one should be beneath it either.

05:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Will Trump's Legal Issues Impact The General Election? Political Scientist Weighs In

Category

Transcript

Recommended