Donald Trump is spending hours each day in a New York courtroom in his criminal hush money trial. But on the campaign trail, a brand new CNN poll out this morning shows Trump sustaining his lead over President Biden among registered voters. 49 to 43%, with more saying they considered Trump's presidency a success. Then Biden's last night, Biden sought to capitalize on his opponent's legal woes at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Is is the only thing we have in common My vice president actually endorses me. Here with me now is Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee and a supporter of Donald Trump. We have a lot of developments to talk about in the Middle East, Senator. But I do want to start on the unprecedented week for the former president. The fate of Donald Trump's claim of absolute immunity is now in the hands of the Supreme Court. And during oral arguments on Thursday, Trump's lawyer suggested that any former president should not be charged for ordering the military to stage a coup unless he was impeached and convicted first. Do you agree with that? Well, I think the court's going to find that presidential immunity exists for President Trump like every other president. But you got to be within the scope of being president. I think they'll send it back to the lower courts to find out exactly what actions fall within presidential immunity and what are considered personal. I think that's the way this will end. It will be some immunity for some of the actions. So it sounds to me like you're saying that that scenario does not justify immunity, that kind of scenario, an attempted coup, and that there should be some there's no absolute. Yeah, there's well, there will be immunity. There's no absolute immunity in the constitution. It will be a legal analysis you know, the president needs to be protected. You know, we don't become a banana republic here. We prosecute, you know, our political opponents, which is going on really in many jurisdiction but I think the immunity question will be decided partially for Trump and some legal or as some factual analysis as to when and where it applies. You said that it's likely to go back to a lower court, which seems to certainly be what they were thinking, watching and listening to what the justices were saying. That certainly means it's more likely that the American people won't know how this is going to sort of end before they go to the polls. Does that worry you? They know. They know. Yeah. No, not at all. No. You know what you asked me would any. If he's convicted in any of these trials, would it change my view? No. I think all these trials are political. I think it's selective prosecution. I think what's going on in New York is an outrage. The the the cases eight years ago, they created crime just for Trump, I think is selective prosecution for political purposes. I think the Jack Smith trial is selective prosecution. They didn't go after Clinton. They didn't go after by doing classified information breaches. So I think most Americans are not going to decide how to vote based on Trump's legal troubles. But their troubles, they face inflation, crime, a broken border. Your poll tells me everything I need to know about these legal problems are Trump. People are looking at their problems, not Trump's legal problems. You mentioned the the case in New York. Of course, that is something that is that is ongoing. And I just do want to ask you one specific question about what we heard this past week, and that is David Pecker, who ran the National Enquirer's parent company, testified that he paid to catch and kill stories about Trump, specifically to help his presidential campaign. You don't have any concerns about that. You know, apparently a lot of people do this. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods. No, I think the whole thing is a crock The statute of limitations has long shut out the misdemeanor cases. So this liberal prosecutor, Manhattan, came up with a federal campaign violation that the state of New York, the Southern District of New York looked at. The Federal Election Commission looked at Jack Smith, looked at and decided not to prosecute. Alvin Bragg took a case that was rejected by the federal government to resurrect these misdemeanors. I think as a political hit job on Trump. Six months before the election. That's what I think. All right. Obviously, Tiger Woods it Tiger Woods is not running for president. And the allegation is about at least not yet. No, I got it. I think the whole thing's B.S.. Yeah, I think it's all B.S. political bias and just. Sorry. Go ahead. I don't know. It just and just to underscore something you said earlier, if he is convicted, you will still support him and vote for him. Absolutely. I think what's going on with Donald Trump is weaponization of the law. He's being prosecuted in a Manhattan, one of the deepest blue state cities in the country, Georgia in Fulton County. Jack Smith is going after Trump but Clinton and you know, Biden anyway. I think most people have written this off. They're going to focus on their problems, not a bunch of cases. Brought by liberals against Trump. Senator, I want to talk to you about the Middle East because Secretary of State Blinken is on his way to Saudi Arabia after he said on Friday that he thinks it is possible to strike a deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel even without a cease fire in Gaza. You were in Saudi Arabia very recently last month, and you were pushing for this normalization deal. Is there a deal at hand, a deal that Prime Minister Netanyahu should accept I hope so. So I've been working with Tony and Jake, and I've talked to President Biden twice. I want to help them normalize Saudi Arabia and Israel Saudi Arabia wants a mutual defense agreement. The United States we've been working on this for weeks to Tony and Jake get on with closing the deal on the treaty. Without the treaty and and not recognize Israel. And part of the deal will be coming up with a solution to the Palestinian problem. You know, Saudi Arabia wants a defense agreement with the United States. In order to enrich the 7% of the world's uranium they have, but will control enrichment and they'll recognize Israel. But we've got to deal with the Palestinian problem. We're running out of time. This would be an historic agreement building on the Abraham Accords. And I'd like to see it happen. I'd like to help President Biden get this done without this deal. There is no solution to the Palestinian problem without this deal. Everything gets worse. So let's get the deal done. We're running out of time. My colleagues here at CNN have some reporting that you and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had a short conversation with Donald Trump while you were in Saudi Arabia. Yeah. What does Donald Trump think about this? You said building on the Abraham Accords, he hasn't necessarily been keen on President Biden getting things done and getting credit for that. Are you worried he'll kill it or try to kill it? Well, you know, I've talked to President Trump not very long ago. He wants the killing to end. He would like to see peace reign. You know, we're going to have an election here in November, but can we save some lives before November? I'm confident that the Abraham Accords put in place the possibility this deal, if we can get a deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, it ends the Arab-Israeli conflict. It isolates the Iranians, it creates some hope for the Palestinians. It provides security in a real way to Israel. Yeah. I don't think anybody on the Republican side is going to undercut the deal. I'm here on national television telling the Biden administration, if you can land this deal, I think you'll have a lot of Republican support in the United States Senate for a treaty between Saudi Arabia and the United States, because it'd be good for Israel, it'd be good for the world. And I think President Trump will get his fair share credit by having the Abraham Accords as the foundation of this So I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about getting the deal done before the clock runs out. Senator, thank you so much for joining me. I hope you come back because I do want to talk more about whether or not you think the Israeli prime minister will sign on to that, but I guess that's putting the cart before the proverbial horse. Thanks again for coming on. Yeah, I'm hopeful people in Israel can get there and we'll get there. I think they want to thank you. Okay. Thank you.
