Coming up on K C C News. Close up, Trump indicted KCI political analyst as gold on how new criminal charges could influence the former president's re election bid in Des Moines gun violence. What the three candidates for mayor say they'll do to make the city safer. This is Iowa's news leader. This is K C C I eight news. Close up and Good Sunday morning to you. I'm chief investigative reporter, James Stratton and I'm KCCI, chief political reporter, Amanda Rooker. Last week, former President Donald Trump appeared in *** Miami federal courtroom facing 37 charges related to classified documents found in his Mar *** Lago resort after leaving office. Some of those counts include obstruction of justice, making false statements and scheming to conceal. So far, the indictment has had little effect on his support in the Republican party. *** Reuters, Ipsos poll shows 43% of Republicans say Donald Trump is still their preferred candidate down only slightly from their poll taken in early May, former Florida governor. You see on the right hand of your screen, Ron desantis *** distant second there but will Trump's support hold up when Republicans vote right here. In Iowa in the caucuses. Early next year, I asked KCC political analyst, Dennis Gold Ford, how this could impact GOP candidates campaigning in the Hawkeye State. Former president Donald Trump is facing 37 criminal charges. He's the first former US president to face federal charges. This of course, is his second indictment in *** matter of months. This one separately being *** federal indictment. First, Dennis, what do you make of this? How serious are these charges? And what does this mean for former president Donald Trump? Well, remember I'm not an attorney, uh uh more of *** political analyst, but as I, as I look at these, these are very serious. Um uh my understanding is it's one thing to have documents accidentally, they got stuck in *** box and you didn't notice and somebody finds them, you say, oh, here, take them back please. It's another thing as the charges allege to resist giving them back. And I think that seems to be the bigger legal problem the president or the former president is facing at the moment. Um I think one of the charges was obstruction of justice. That's always *** nasty charge to deal with. So legally for Mr Trump, this is very serious politically. We don't know yet. Of course, there are folks who think this is all *** con job, it's all political persecution and that's how Mr Trump is portraying this. It helps gin up his base, it helps with fundraising how this plays out with the rest of the country though at this point remains to be seen. And as you mentioned, there, this has been something that he's actually been fundraising on and talking about on the campaign trail. Of course, *** former president facing federal charges is already unprecedented. But we're seeing another unprecedented situation. Someone in this situation that's also running for President Donald Trump is on the campaign trail. Um as he continues to campaign here in Iowa, how do you see this impacting his campaign as these charges continue and this case continues to play out. Well, you know, both in Iowa and nationwide, I think they're four groups of Republicans. We can talk about the first group, of course, is that solid Trump core or base and they'll be with him until the end of time, no matter what's going on at this level. The second group, of course, is that much smaller group of Republicans, the so called anti Trumpers. They're Republicans, they are conservatives who think he's been *** terrible president who is engaged in conduct, they find unbecoming. So they're very much opposed to him, but they're *** very small group. The other two groups are the important groups both here in Iowa and nationwide and they're both establishment Republicans like Mitch mcconnell, but they differ from each other. The one group supported Trump didn't like him, but they supported him because he got the goodies. They wanted tax breaks. Uh federal judges, things like that. And the other group didn't really like Donald Trump, but they supported him because they were afraid not to, they were afraid to cross him and therefore cross that base. They know they cannot win an election without that Trump base. So the question is, what are these two particular establishment groups do as this process continues, we don't know how that's going to play out in Iowa or nationwide yet, as you mentioned earlier, Trump and some other top Republicans have been characterizing this as political, have been saying that the Department of Justice has, is out to get him and play Trump himself. Kind of claiming to be *** victim of what he calls *** political hit job. I'm curious when you talk about those two groups of Republicans, not the, you know, always Trump forever or the never Trumpers, but the people that are kind of open to him. Do you think that they see this as, uh, Trump being *** victim? And that actually makes Trump more popular to him or do they see this as legal drama? That, that hurts Trump? I think they want to see where the wind blows. That's the whole point again. They, they've supported him, not because they've liked him, but either because they've been afraid not to or they like the good things he's gotten for them. I think those who supported him for that second reason because he got them federal judges and taxes. They're some of the ones who might be thinking they like what he did, but he's not worth the freight. There's too much baggage at this point and they might look to *** governor desantis or somebody like that. But again, they are the, the, the, the, the shifting possibilities if you will, but that Trump hard core base, that's who Mr Trump has been appealing to during all this. Um, there was *** poster and he said it, I think because, and that's why it was *** poster that came out saying he's, he's come, they're coming at me in order to get to you. That is classic kind of populist demagoguery, right? I represent you. These evil forces are coming to get you. I can alone only I can protect you. Um That's that core base. That is his leverage. That's why he's appealing so strongly to them at this point, which means emphasizing his claim that this is political persecution and completely unfair and unjust. And as we're talking about this and speculating about this, *** lot of people are wondering and kind of to your point um where the wind will blow and how Republicans will interpret this. Iowa Republicans will be the first group of voters up for here, caucus goers to indicate whether or not this matters to them. Uh How does that change or does it change the significance of Iowa's first in the nation? Caucuses? Well, remember the caucuses never tell us who will be president, they're more likely to tell us who won't make the cuts, who won't be able to go on and be president. It's always *** matter of whether the candidates do better than expected or worse than expected. So if Iowa Republicans decide that even if they, they like Donald Trump and there are many who do that. You know, there's *** fear among some Republicans that the only Republican candidate who could not beat Joe Biden is Donald Trump. That's the fear of some Republicans in Iowa and nationwide. They may go for the Sanders or for somebody else. So if Trump wins the caucuses, that means he survived Iowa. But if somebody comes close to him or even beats him in Iowa, that throws *** wrinkle in everything. So again, Iowa has the capacity to tell us, give us *** reading of what Republican sentiment in this case is regarding Donald Trump. And then we pass the baton to New Hampshire and see what happens there. Coming up next on, close up the field of Republicans in the race. Getting more and more crowded each week. Why that might actually work in the former president's advantage and coming to Trump's defense. Why some of his competitors say the US Justice Department needs major change. Welcome back to close up, Donald Trump is now indicted, but polls show that hasn't hurt him too badly. Kcci political analyst, Dennis Gold Ford explains why *** crowded field of Republicans may also give Trump an additional boost. Iowans, Iowa Republicans are thinking about electability. Does this federal, do these federal charges play *** role potentially in their minds of how electable Donald Trump would be if he's convicted of federal criminal charges? Well, the only way to remove *** president from office recall is through impeachment and conviction in the Senate. Uh, we had somebody way back, Eugene Debs, *** socialist candidate who's actually *** socialist party candidate in the 19 teens, something like that. Um who ran for president while in prison. So that's not inconceivable. But again, for some Republicans outside of that hardcore white hot base that supports Donald Trump to the end of time, they're probably *** little concerned to say the least about the impact of all this on his possible chances if he were to be the presidential nominee. And another thing to consider here, Donald Trump is not the only one in the race for the Republican nomination that field continues to grow. Um How are, how is the GOP field of candidates responding to this? There are *** lot of people who decide they're going to run for various kinds of reasons. There are several people in the Republican running now who are billionaires or at least millionaires who have their own money to spend. You could argue for some of them. It's *** vanity project. Some people thought it was like that for Donald Trump in 2016, turned out differently, of course, but many are in there pursuing their particular agendas or in some ways, they want to say if the roof falls in, I'm the one standing off to the side who's left to carry the torch. The difficulty for the rest of them is as what happened in 2016 to begin with. Republicans don't have proportional awarding of delegates. It's winner, take all or winner, take most for the national convention delegates. So whoever wins the most, even if it's not 50% that person will win all or most of the delegates. And so the more opposing candidates on the Republican side that come in to run against Donald Trump that fragments the field further. And again, it makes it easier for him to squeak through because of that solid base that he has Republicans know they cannot win with that base only, but they absolutely cannot win without that base. And that's the base on which Donald Trump relies and he uses to great effect. Does that make it difficult for some of the other candidates, Tim Scott Mike Pence, people like that to talk about Trump potentially mishandling documents, classified documents? Oh, absolutely. You saw that in the case of Mike Pence who said two completely contradictory things right next to each other. When he first announced formally, he said no person is above the law except for or but not Donald Trump. In this case, it would be very divisive for the country. Well, the idea of one equal justice under the law that's on, I think the Supreme Court building in Washington, there's no exceptions clause that follows from that. But they're trying to figure out how to negotiate this. They, they don't dare attack Trump except for Chris Christie right now, who doesn't have any chance anyway, they don't dare attack Trump at the risk of angering and inciting that Trump base. On the other hand, they got to try to find *** way and they haven't figured it out yet to distinguish themselves and say maybe this wouldn't be the right choice for the party. The difficulty again is that I would suggest that Trump base that hard core base. They're Trumpers before they're Republicans. And so they're not thinking what, what are the best interests of the party. They're thoroughly dedicated to the person of Donald Trump. And if he were to be denied or in some way, not get the nomination, he's already made threats about running independently, which would completely wreck Republican chances in November of 2024. So with all these competing candidates for the nomination, at least at this point that works to Trump's benefit. Still to come on close up. The US justice Department comes under fire after the Trump indictment. What presidential hopeful Tim Scott says he would do as president to restore Republicans trust in the justice system and see why fellow Republican presidential candidate Larry Elder says Trump's indictment shows what he calls *** double standard when it comes to federal prosecutors. Welcome back to close up. Many of Donald Trump's Republican competitors rushed to his defense after he was indicted, but some are taking *** more, *** less direct approach like South Carolina, Senator Tim Scott, who traveled to Iowa last week and during *** campaign stop in Pella, he did not directly mention Trump or the case, but Scott argued that Americans have lost faith in the justice department. He laid out his plans to restore trust if he was elected president. What can we do with this justice department that weaponized against Americans? And I don't believe it's just Trump. I believe we're all the party not got in our country. And the socialism thing is deep in our justice department. How do I do it? Well, the first thing we do is fire Joe Biden. The second thing you do is fire Merrick Garland. The third thing you do is fire the head of the FBI Chris Wray. And you have to clean out all the political appointments in our department of Justice. The culture at the top corrodes the entire organization and makes it hard to trust. We don't survive when the majority of the Americans don't have confidence in our justice system. I said it to mark Levin before I walked in this room and I'm gonna do another interview. I leave this room and I said, he, he it the other day, Americans must have *** justice system where the Lady of Justice wears *** blindfold. We cannot target Republicans and protect Democrats. And, and finally, as President of the United States, I would restore confidence and integrity in the Department of Justice because you cannot be the city on the hill. If you cannot trust law and order in our nation. God bless you all. Thank you for coming in another Republican presidential candidate, Larry Elder, also in Des Moines last week, he said Trump's indictment is an example of the double standard, what he calls *** double standard at the federal level. An elder claimed classified documents cases involving President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton proves that double standard exists despite Trump's case being more severe than others. I believe that we have *** two tiered system of justice in this country at the federal level. And I think it's outrageous. Um you know, Trump has been indicted for uh apparently *** violation of the espionage act. I say apparently because some legal scholars don't even believe that the act applies to the President Presidential Records Act, which he also let you violated. Joe Biden has documents in four or five different places. Uh Now the defense has been, well, Biden voluntarily gave them up when it was closed, that he had them. Well, the problem is some of those documents came from when he was in the Senate. Uh and when he went to what's called *** skiff which is *** private area, secured area where you're not supposed to bring documents in or out, not supposed to take any notes. How do you remove items from the skiff inadvertently? So it seems to me what he did was very, very serious. Uh There is *** special counsel investigating it but why is it taking so long after all, he allegedly has been cooperating yet, we don't have any charges against Joe Biden. And then when it comes to the espionage act, Hillary Clinton, as you well know, had ***, *** private server in her basement on which she sent and received classified information, denied that she sent and received classified information. Oops, she did. And then she said, well, they weren't stamped, classified. Yes, they were stamped classified. Uh And uh James Comey does his big presentation at the end of the presentation. She said yes, but she lacked the intent. Well, the provision of the espionage act that she's alleged to have violated did not require intent. It as if you were *** drunk driver and you kill somebody, you can't then say I didn't intend to kill that person. When you get behind the wheel of *** car drunk. The, the the intent is assumed that's the same thing with the espionage act. And then fast forward to 2020 Hillary Clinton and the D N C paid for what became the steel dossier. She attributed the expense to legal expenses which by the way is the same thing that Donald Trump attributed to the expenses for Stormy Daniels and the F E C fined Hillary and fined the D N C. But Donald Trump is facing state criminal charges. To me, it's outrageous double standard coming up next on close up battling gun violence. Why? Three candidates for Des Moines mayor, how they want to battle gun violence in our city? Welcome back to close up last week, three Des Moines mayoral candidates laid out their plans for the city during the Iowa Unity Coalition Forum. All three were asked what they would do to curb gun violence in Des Moines. Here's what Connie Bowen Denver Foot and Josh Mandelbaum all had to say, I think that we need to get rid of any of the assault rifles. We need to make sure that people that have had domestic abuse do not have rights for guns. We need *** waiting period. We need *** lot of things that we need to have the state implement that we can do and then we need to get to the root cause of why we were having violence. We need to get with our youth and understand their needs and how we can show them *** different way and give them opportunities. We need to be as preventative as we can so we can give *** reason why you don't need to take up *** gun and I serve on the United Way group that is looking at the violence with our youth because we're seeing *** great deal of violence with our youth and we just need to provide the programs and the opportunities. So they see an alternative to taking up *** gun to solve an issue. I do believe that we need to invest in more preventative measures in the city. I believe we need to work closely with our school board to uh talk to the youth. I also believe that we need to open our public buildings to host, stop the bleed trainings, gun safety trainings. I also agree that we do not need domestic abusers to have guns in their hands. We need to work with people in our city that represents the districts house like our house candidates, house members, people in the Senate to create those connections and have those conversations of what the state of Iowa should look like. Des Moines being the capital can be *** leading example in Des Moines. I would support and sign on to *** city proclamation that we will put the safety of our citizens over the safety of guns. So we need to support assault weapons bans red flag laws. We need to make sure that someone who's been involved in domestic violence can't get their hands on *** firearm and we need to advocate for those laws. We also need to advocate to have local control returned back to local governments because the gun issues that we face in Des Moines are different than the gun issues that folks face in rural Iowa. And we need to have the full range of solutions available to us. And we need to be able to say that and we need to be forceful about it. Uh Because if the legislature is not representing us, we need to speak up, we need to advocate for the change that we need. And then we need to make the investments that go along with that. So I'll support those laws. I'll advocate for those laws and I'll implement the things that we can at the local level and noticeably not in that three group of three, there is Mayor Des Moines, mayor of Frank County unclear if he will seek re election. He has yet to announce he has held the city's top job since 2003. Thank you for joining us for K C C I Eight News. Close up. We'll see you back here next Sunday. Have *** great day.