Our CNN political analyst, a New York Times senior political correspondent, and of course, Trump biographer Maggie Haberman is there and she joins us now by phone. Maggie, obviously, you heard the president's speech. We did not take it here live. What did you make of what he told his supporters compared to how he was acting when he was here in Florida earlier today? It's interesting, Kaitlan, there were two things that were striking about this speech. Number one is that he's going through, at least for part of it, a pretty dry recitation of what you're going to hear from him and his team, which is his claims and a misstatement of the Presidential Records Act, that he was entitled to keep these documents that, you know, no one else has been prosecuted for doing what he did. Prosecutors obviously say that he chose things that were among the nation's most important classified material. That's one thing that was striking. But the other that was striking is his delivery. He made such a show in Miami being seen at the restaurant for which is something of a landmark in Miami. And, you know, mingling with people and talking to people, very low energy tonight, very flat delivery and spent no time hanging out with the crowd or sort of basking in their glow afterwards, turned on appeal and walked back inside the Bedminster. And so I think this is going to be reality going forward. It's going to be him defending himself and offering up this claim that he had the right to do what he did, which, again, prosecutors say is not true. But it's mixed with real anger at the situation And Maggie, what does that say to you about giving I mean, you know, Trump better than almost anyone else, as you reported on him at length, any other reporter, I should note. What does it say to you about how he's actually viewing this privately compared to that bravado and bluster we saw at the restaurant? Here in Miami? What I hear, Caitlin, is it goes it goes up and down. But there are times where he is incredibly angry. I heard that he was really mad for the 90 minutes after that. He found out roughly around 7 p.m. on Thursday night that he had been indicted. And then he, you know, got it together, went to dinner with the. I thought he was very angry the next day when he saw the indictment. He was especially rattled by the photographs that were in the dark. In the indictment, he actually referenced the photographs, some of them anyway, from the stage tonight behind the podium. But then he has moments of almost ebullience. And, you know, it's hard for people around him to tell what's genuine versus him trying to keep up, as you said, that were part of more than the bravado. It's also just the facade that everything is fine because that's so much of how he how he stacking the books Yeah. Who did you see in the in the crowd tonight in Bedminster? Did anyone stand out to you? Well, many people stood out, but mostly because it was just such an eclectic group of people, said Gorka, who worked in the Trump White House and been one of the loudest defenders sort of on the on the fringe on the right. Ed Costa, chairman of the Republican Party. Bernie Kerik, the former NYPD commissioner A number of different people. Mike Lindell, the Mypillow CEO, you know, Tommy Tuberville, the senator who is supposed to be there tonight. But for the most part, Caitlyn you know, these were the diehards. These were people who were asked by Trump's staff to be here or, you know, who loved the chance to see the former president. But there were not names of people who were in his administration or even on his past presidential campaign. So you're looking at a very, very different chief here. Yeah. And of course, it's telling who he surrounds himself with. Maggie, you say it's clear that he's determined to fight these charges, obviously in the court of public opinion. A lot of questions on what his legal strategy actually in the courthouse looks like. Does this remind you in any way of how he responded to what is obviously a very different situation but also came with a lot of fallout, which was the Access Hollywood tape that came around, of course, the last time he was running for president? Very much so. He has basically you know, a few moves, Caitlyn, that he does over and over again. And we saw it for the first time in his political life when the Access Hollywood tape came out. His impulse you know, again, was when a crowd of his supporters had a mass on Fifth Avenue in front of the Trump Tower was to go down and literally immersed himself in the crowd. I was there for it was a really striking image. And it was almost as if he was giving himself a pep talk, you know, clapping his hands together and getting himself locked up a bit of what we saw similarly in Miami today, that is the impulse is to just sort of immerse myself in the crowd. But that's not what we saw in the speech tonight. Again, this was a carefully written speech by some of his advisers because he's laying out what what resembles a legal argument, but which is really about the court of public opinion. But he was he was deflated as he was getting it or seemed deflated. But I do think, yes, this as Bill echoes his immediate reaction on all of these moments, is to surround himself with his supporters and beat them both as a bully for his emotions and also as a shield against what says another person he's surrounding himself with is his codefendant. Well, not just moments after they left the courthouse here behind me today, they were seen together at that restaurant. Obviously, the judge has said they are not supposed to discuss this case except through attorneys. Do you think that that is actually something that the president will abide by? Caitlin, I think that, you know, the former president as well as I do. And I think that, you know, that not being told not to do something as often and as it is for him to do something, especially this by a person in authority. So I think this is going to be a real challenge. You know, it is it is invariably, if they're talking I suspect, going to be worked so well now that because he is the codefendant, not a former president, and he has a very different circumstance, he also has not been arraigned because he did not have local counsel. He still has to go back to court in two weeks. But I think that, you know, not talking about the case with either Wolf now or witnesses or the government is expected to produce a list to say these are people Trump should not be talking directly to, only to a counsel related to the case. It's going to be it's going to be a Herculean task to get an option Yeah. We'll see what that looks like. Maggie Haberman from Bedminster in New Jersey at the former Presidents Club, thank you. Joining us now here in Miami, David Weinstein a former assistant U.S. attorney from the Southern District of Florida and also former chief of public integrity in the Justice Department South Florida office. One of the perfect people to talk about all of this with. We'll get back to what the former president is saying tonight in just a moment. But what you saw today happening in this courthouse behind us. Do you believe that's the way that anyone else would be treated? Do you think he was treated differently? Not for a second. He was given special treatment, the likes of which I've never seen before. Any other defendant charged with that many violations. Possessing that many top secret classified documents, then charged with obstructing justice, making false statements and having another open pending felony case would have been hard pressed for the government not to ask for detention and for that defendant to be sitting behind bars waiting to see whether or not he'd get out. This defendant was released under virtually no conditions. So you believe, even though the way the former president and his legal team framed it, which is that they're being treated unfairly by by the prosecution, by the courts here, they're actually going out of their way to accommodate him. Absolutely. Bending over backwards. The fact that he didn't get arrested Friday morning, where he was living in the dark hours and brought before a magistrate judge to make his initial appearance on a sealed indictment. That's what happens in the normal case. So when you hear what the former president was saying tonight, talking about the Espionage Act and how that is part of the charges that have been that are part of this indictment, he was had this quote that was saying that it's used for spies, for traitors. But it's obviously much more expansive than that. What he's saying about it is incorrect. Absolutely incorrect. Look, it's part of a larger act, the Espionage Act, and it covers people who had at one time access to documents because they had clearance to have those documents. And then they took those documents from a place where they should have been under secure quarters and either held them or kept them somewhere else or share them with other people. That's what it is alleged that he has done. It doesn't have to be a mail drop where spy versus spy meet each other somewhere and hand over secret documents. It's the improper use and handling of classified documents. And in this case, documents that were alleged to contain defense and military secrets of our country and that were stored in places you know, he's there at the former club or at his club tonight, where we also know he took boxes of documents up to Bedminster with him when it comes to what's next and what a trial looks like here. How fast do you think we could see a trial potentially in this case? It's not going to occur that quickly in a regular case. They move fast here in the southern district. Of Florida, trial be set in a couple of months. It'll be perhaps continued a little bit, case to be resolved in six to nine months. But here you have security clearances are needed for his counsel. You're going to have motion practice. You're going to have motions, and undoubtedly you're going to end up at the 11th Circuit and requests for continuance to try and push this matter off past the November election. So in a case that could normally be resolved by March or April. This one's going to drag out at least until the summer. Well, and of course, the question is, does it happen before the 20, 24 election? We'll wait to see David Weinstein. Of course, you are the perfect person to talk about this. You've been in that courthouse many times. Thank you for joining us today. You're welcome.
