some people taking otezla had depression, suicidal thoughts, or weight loss. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. live in the moment. ask your doctor about otezla. starting a business is never easy, but starting it eight months pregnant... that's a different story. with the chase ink card, we got up and running in no time. earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card. make more of what's yours. >> john: president biden departing capitol hill moments ago alongside the speaker of the house, mike johnson. and the t-shock of ireland. happy st. patrick's day to you. enjoy, everybody. i'm sandra smith. >> john: set your dvr.

martha is next with "the story." >> martha: nice bag pipes there. thanks very much. good afternoon. i'm martha maccallum. this is "the story." we're waiting response this hour from d.a.fani willis. we could hear from here any moment after judge mcafee left it up to her if she wants to continue with the trump election interference case. he says she will have to do it without her former boyfriend and colleague, nathan wade, who you see to the right of her in that picture. the judge said although she showed a tremendous lapse in judgment in hiring wade, he could not conclude that that had had a material conflict in the trump case. in the decision, he did go after her for her unprofessional manner when she stormed in to the atlanta courtroom in february after wade testified. this combative testimony. watch. >> as you know, mr. wade is a southern gentleman.

me not so much. >> your honor -- >> no, no, no. this is the truth. i object to you getting records. you've been intrusive in to people's personal lives. you think i'm on trial. these people are on trial for trying to steal an election. i'm not on trial no matter how hard you put me on trial. >> martha: we may get another moment like that any minute when she responds. who knows what her action is. we'll find out when she's ready to share that with the country. so republican georgia state senate joins me now. he's leading a special georgia senate committee that is probing d.a. willis. thanks for being here. first of all, your reaction to what judge mcafee decided this morning and released in this document? >> well, we're not surprised at all. i actually expected he might

have removed from the case. it's an extreme sort of action to totally dismiss the criminal prosecution. i didn't anticipate that. but he did give her the choice. he said you need to remove yourself and the entire da's office from further prosecution or at the least remove mr. wade from any further involvement due to this appearance of impropriety. he laid it out good there in his order, i'll have to say. >> martha: i want to play this from andrew weissman responding to this news earlier today. he was part of the trump investigation back during the administration. watch this. >> the key here is how to go forward because clearly wade is off. i think that this is such a huge body blow, almost a fatal blow to fani willis. i think the way forward, she has to voluntarily recuse herself. i don't know that she has it in

her, but she has to say i'm going to appoint a chief assistant that will oversee this case. she clearly has no credibility with this judge. >> martha: what do you think about that? do you agree? >> i'd agree totally. when you hear commentators from the left that agree that there's no other responsible choice for her to make, i feel confident that's what she'll do. there's just no way a jury will give any credibility to her further involvement. it will undermine her own mission of prosecuting these individuals if she stays personally involved. it's been a series of really poor choices. >> martha: so what can you do with this subpoena effort? what are you guys looking for in the state senate in georgia from this action? >> we had heard all of these sort of unbelievable accusations. very disturbing allegations about her conduct. not only the relationship that

she had, but other financial improprieties. she didn't disclose these gifts as required by fulton county law. she didn't get approval of hiring this attorney as she was required to do. she personally gets to review his bills and approve those bills with no other intervention. we're concerned about the misspending of taxpayer money. that's what we're going to look into. >> martha: before i let you go, senator cowsert, is there a hunch or feeling around the state house in georgia about what she's going to do and when we're going to hear from her? >> you can't tell with her. she's been so defiant throughout this process. one of the things that the judge basically said is that she had made inappropriate comments both in a church -- she gave quotes and background information to a book that was being published during the course of this

prosecution. allowed her staff to do that. you tonight generally see prosecutors speaking publicly about cases. the judge expressed great concern about that. so i think that it's the right choice for her to make. he's giving her an out. whether she will take it or not, who knows. she seems to love the spot light and she is defiant in any attempts to control her in any way. >> martha: we will wait along with you all, i'm sure, to hear what she decides to do obviously the trump team watching this closely as well. thanks very much, senator cowsert. thanks for being here today. >> thank you. >> martha: let's bring in matt whitaker and doug collins, former republican congressman from georgia and host of "the doug collins podcast." great to have you with us today. i spoke with you earlier, doug, about this and got your initial reaction to this decision. we haven't heard from matt whitaker yet. what do you think about this

judge's decision? >> obviously the result is not what some people hoped for but this opinion is blistering. it said she was unprofessional and lacked judgment. the like that struck me that he said an odor of mendacity remains. that says your office and you as a da have no credibility with me as a judge. i think that is -- essentially says that we're lying, we know you're lying and we don't anything you say. that's a beg deal. >> martha: so why didn't he remove her from the case given that strong language, matt? >> again, the bar is very, very high to remove not only a da but the office as a whole. you need to show an actual conflict. he just didn't think the evidence was there. obviously it was hard for the defendants to create that evidence since she controlled all the documents, all the

information, lied about it. he didn't feel he could get to that result. he cut the legs out of so much of the office and continuing this prosecution will be hard for her to remain no matter what. >> martha: doug collins, looking at this in the big picture and seeing people's responses to this morning. it strikes me that americans are perhaps sadly getting used to hearing this kind of report. where a public official gets basically criticized in the deepest possible way that any civilian would never survive. they would lose their job, they would be put in jail, depending on the different circumstances, of course. i would just put up these images. the former fbi director comey, former special counsel, robert mueller, robert hur who we heard from and now scott mcafee. all of whom have laid out the very troublesome behavior of different individuals across the board, and then at the end of

these big proclamations, the american people are told we really couldn't do anything. what do you say about that? >> yeah, i think this is -- it's what has fed this discontent across the country. as an attorney here in georgia, it's interesting to hear what this judge said. we also have to remind you, this is the second time that this da has been held basically by a judge in fulton county to have done something improper, not binding before the courts, something that would have her in trouble in this case. if you remember, she was by a judge, the lieutenant governor, she could not prosecute or go after the lieutenant governor because she participated in a political event against his opponent. bernie scorched here in a opinion about that. didn't do anything. now another judge doing the same thing, going forward here. this is what feeds the american doubt about the cases against donald trump. i think that's why you see donald trump going up in the polls and winning because people see this and they don't like it.

this is really where people are drawing the line saying we're not going to go for something that is going after one person when you're not holding accountable those going after them. >> martha: yeah, just these lists and documents full of egregious behavior. the conclusion at the end of it is yeah, but we can't really do anything. as matt whitaker says, the bar would be too high. as a georgian and being a senator, what is she going to do? >> she's defiant. it's hard for me to agree with someone on msnbc but she doesn't have a good place to go here. matt and the judge said, you're laying and your office is compromised. she doesn't have a good place to go here. she's trying to find anyway she can spin this and be a victim in this case, which is just not going to be true. she's struggling to find a way out. we may hear from her today but may be later this weekend and

you'll hear it from a victim standpoint. >> martha: very interesting. the judge is up for election in may. he has someone running against him. that's a late entry to that race. the d.a. is also up for re-election in may. thanks, gentlemen. matt whitaker, good to have you with us. doug collins, thanks very much. our breaking news coverage this afternoon continues with ari fleischer and leslie marshall as we await the response from georgia d.a.fani willis next. choose advil liqui-gels for faster, stronger and longer-lasting relief than tylenol rapid release gels because advil targets pain at the source of inflammation. so for faster pain relief, advil the pain away.

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says anything that -- let's listen to jackie heinrichs asking her question. >> it's a quarterly thing. it's a sanctions package that was put if place by the previous administration, by president trump and his team, that allows for iraq to be able to work its way off of iranian energy. so that they can keep the lights on. we're continuing to work with our iraqi partners about how to do that. right now they're dependent for a lot of energy from iran. so we don't want to penalize the iraqi people for efforts that they're still trying to get to wean off of that. i would remind everybody and we talked about this before, i think, three months ago we talked about this, none of this money goes to the mullahs, none of this money goes in to tehran. the sanctions relief provided goes to vendors that provide humanitarian assistance to the iranian people. not only do the iraqi people not suffer because of this, the iranian people won't suffer because of this. >> wouldn't it be the iranian people that would suffer as a

result of the teeth in the warning? you're saying you would suspend flights in iran air to europe if iran supplies ballistic missiles to russia. >> i didn't say that. the press reports said that. >> it's not like the ayatollah flies commercial. the iranian people would be if ones that would be harmed by that if that comes to pass. >> it's also not like the regime and the irgc are thinking this is some sort of wind fall. like this is going to make a big difference in their support for terrorist networks. they continue to support hezbollah and the houthis that has not changed since 2018 when these waivers were passed by this administration and the previous one. hold on. you're talking about one of the most hely sanctioned countries on the planet. we're still going to look at additional options if we need to. we have been nothing but clear and direct and the forceful in

pushing back on iran. >> martha: the last three months, three american soldiers were killed in jordan. the houthis firing ballistic missiles, drones and commercial vessels and naviships. three atomic bombs that could be built in iran with uranium has been enriched to that extent. blinken said there's an issue of the iaea inspectors. what have that done to justify a renewal of this waiver? >> it's a renewal that we go through every quarter. it's not about penalizing the iraqi people and the fact that they're dependent on iranian energy. look what else we've done. we've got a coalition of ships in the red sea protecting against houthi attacks on shipping there. we have struck back and forcefully against these groups in iraq and syria. we continue to have sanctions in place, significant sanctions on

iranian regime for multiple reasons. going after protesters from terrorist networks. the nuclear program. a lot of sanctions in place. by the way, we're still conducting operations at sea to try to prevent their shipment of material and arms to some of these groups. the idea that we're laying back and not doing anything on iran doesn't fly in the face of the facts. >> thanks. you said the u.s. has not seen a plan to protect civilians in rafah -- >> martha: jackie heinrichs questions about this issue of $10 billion in sanctions relief for iraq, which allows them to buy energy from iran and a lot of people criticizing that move as another outcome that puts more money in the pockets of the mullahs that have really stepped up their weaponry. they have ballistic missile operations that sun like

anything that they have had before and all of their attacks that we've seen through other patriots, the houthis and hamas and hezbollah over the last several months. that's what that exchanged was focused on between jacqui heinrich and john kirby at the white house. we'll go back if there's anything that we want to dip in to at the white house this afternoon. we're also getting reaction again to this news around the trump situation and the georgia election interference case and fani willis as we hate to hear from her on this friday afternoon. let's bring in ari fleischer, former press secretary for george w. bush and leslie marshall, democratic strategist. welcome to both of you. great to have you here this afternoon. leslie, let's start with you. it's interesting. we're hearing from people who are sort of typically more conservative and typically more liberal that they want to see fani willis step aside from this

case. andrew weissmann spoke out about that as well. he's no friend to the former president. what do you think? >> well, i don't know that i want to see her step aside. look, this is an area where ari and i may agree because we're seeing people on the left and right agree. there's optics going into this. if you're trying to prosecute, one could argue one of the biggest names, former president, you know people will find every single thing out. what did you eat four years ago on a tuesday for lunch. so you are going to have your ducks in a row and make sure that nothing smells, this relationship smelled. you hear the harsh rebuke from the judge. people say this is a partial win for the former president. okay, she can proceed. a partial win for her. make no mistake, this case is damaged to a degree not only with delays, not only with embarrassment but optics. optics which the jurors see and on a larger level what the voters see. one of them has to go i'm not

sure that i would necessarily push for her. some people are saying wade, some people are saying willis. either way, it's damaging. i don't see her stepping down. i see her more sending wade packing with his bags. >> martha: okay. we're following this closely. there may be some developments coming momentarily. ari, your thoughts on the optics as leslie points them out. obviously the trump team would like to see this case and pretty much all the others fall apart. >> fani willis will never step down. this is here her life's work. her claim to fame to pick up on the judge's ruling, she's the odorus tip of the democratic spear trying to attack donald trump, which is why she will never step down. she sees her role as being the georgia savior that will stop donald trump from getting re-elected, which is why she brought an unlikely, wieldy rico

case against donald trump, which never should have been brought in the first place. having brought it, she will never back away from it. the real fear here to donald trump is she will actually find a prosecutor, if nathan wade does step down, who is better than him. she appointed her lover. she didn't appoint the best prosecutor. now unless she has another lover to appoint, she's going to find a tough experienced prosecutor. i think the timetable is all messed up if they want to get trump before the election, but this is her chance to reset, recharge and go right back after donald trump. >> martha: leslie, what about the politics of this as we look at the 2024 election? it seems that all of these different prosecutors for their own reasons and one common reason to go after the former president, donald trump, rightly or wrongly depending how they see these situations legally has

backfired spectacularly in terms of what it's done to his popularity. because of the abundance of charges and the lack of coordination on all of these fronts, it's seen something like delay after delay and more and more support for the former president. >> well, first off, one can argue that it isn't politically motivated. it's helping not hurting him. a lot of people knew -- i don't have ten degrees from mit and i knew it would help him. that's how his base goes. that's what he does. he's a master at taking a situation and making himself the victim and they're coming after me first. second, you have to have your stuff together with a case. you can't be concerned about a timeline because that benefits in this case the former president because that's exactly what you're giving, is what his attorneys have been constantly

asking for, which is delay, delay and delay. and we have for months. not just that but the embarrassment that it brings out in this case. then what are you doing? making the person saying look what they're doing to me appear to be accurate and you make it look political even if it wasn't politically motivated. >> martha: it wasn't a mistake, leslie. or was it a mistake for these largely politically elected officials and these places -- we know here in new york, letitia james ran on i'm going to get donald trump. so as a democrat, looking at this election, you know, my question to you is was it an overkill mistake? >> i wouldn't say it was overkill or mistake. i would agree with ari that rico isn't the way to go when you're a district attorney, you're elected. certainly you're going to be either a democrat or republican as far as, you know, personal and as far as whether you're appointed or elected, what that

composite was, what the demographic was. if we go down that road, martha, we're saying that a democratic d.a. can never indict or somebody that has been in office, a former vice president. we shouldn't have that. the job of the district attorney is to carry out an uphold the law. there's some concerns whether it comes to election interference and the list goes on and on. certainly that are perceived by many as political attacks and perceived by other as following the law and doing their job. >> martha: all right. we can now confirm that nathan wade has stepped aside. he has withdrawn from this case that is going after election interference in georgia. jonathan serrie is reporting live from atlanta on this part of this story and also what we'll hear next from fani willis, the d.a. in atlanta. >> yeah, this decision is not

surprising. the judge gave fani willis probably an unpleasant decision but an easy decision. if nathan wade were to stayed on this case as special prosecutor, then the d.a., fani willis, would have been forced to resign from the case along with her entire staff. they would have had to stand on the sidelines. so in order for this case to best move forward, clearly the d.a.'s office made the calculation that losing this one special prosecutor, nathan wade, would be less damaging than disqualifying the entire office and then having the prosecuting attorney's counsel appoint a totally new slate of prosecutors to come in from outside and handle this case. so not a surprising development, but a dramatic development. nathan wade turning in his resignation from the case and the da's office accepting that

resignation. >> i'm just looking, jonathan. stand by at the letter. he writes to d.a. willis, the furtherance of the rule of law and democrat sick is and always has been the north star of our efforts and those that have attempted to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. our team is dedicated to ensuring that a fulton county jury in a fulton county courtroom renders a true and just verdict. he said according to the judge's decision, will resign immediately. i offer my resignation effectively as quickly as possible. i'm proud of the work that our team has accomplished in investigating, indicting and litigating this case and being part of the effort to ensure the rule of law. he goes on to say that he's sure the team will be successful. ari, your reaction to this news.

>> martha, it sickens me to hear him say, this as a furtherance of democracy. if this was about democracy, the democrats wouldn't use the courts to indict donald trump. they go to november and let the american people decide. that's what a democracy would do. in america's bluest counties, fulton county, georgia, new york county, manhattan and new york city, the bluest of bluest counties where the bluest of bluest prosecutors that will never lose a re-election indict donald trump. you'll never see these things brought in a purple county, never in a red county. it's not because they have an adherence to democracy. in the case of georgia now, with nathan wade, it's because the judge ordered him to break up with his girlfriend. the judge ordered his girlfriend to break up with him from a legal point of view. that's why he's stepping down, not in furtherance of democracy. what he did was unsavory. what the d.a. did was unsavory and on a fundamental level,

bringing charges against a political opponent is more unsavory than the unsavory behavior that they engaged in. he wrote that and it rubs me the wrong way. it's not about democracy. >> martha: leslie, there was an event that fani willis attended at the white house. she said she's had no interaction with the vice president who was speaking at that event at the white house. obviously there's a lot of discussion from republican quarters about the coordination that has potentially happened in this concerted effort to go after former president trump. we haven't heard from fani willis. we have only heard from nathan wade at this point. i want to replay the andrew wisemann part of the russia investigation team going after former president trump. he wants fani willis to be gone. he wants to go the whole way and clean the decks of this team. he thinks that would be the best thing for the prosecution.

let's watch this again from andrew weissmann earlier today. >> the key is how to go forward. clearly wade is off. this is such a huge body blow, almost a fatal blow to fani willis. the way forward, she has to voluntarily recuse herself. i don't know that she has it in her. she has to say i'm going to appoint a chief assistant who will oversee this case. she clearly has no credibility with this judge. >> martha: that could still happen, leslie. nobody of whom i've asked this question thinks that anything in her character points in that direction. you never know. >> i would feel everybody would say a day late and a dollar short if that were to happen. if she were to do that, she should have done this prior because of the embarrassment alone. not just the delays and a whole new team that has to be caught

up to speed. i do agree with ari there. she should have just appointed -- i would have appointed the toughest person you could find and the toughest person great to this and more apt to win. one area that i disagree with ari on. ari said it should be left up to the voters in november. it will be left up to the voters in november whether donald trump will become president again or not. but it should never be left up to the voters to decide whether somebody is guilty or not guilty in a criminal court of law. that has to be done in the court system, in our legal system. that has to be decided by a jury. but going back, i don't think she would do that. i would agree with andrew there where, you know, if your case is dirty, if you will, by you and anything that you have done or you've said, you know, better in the interests of democracy, if you will, for you to put the best team in place to win. if that means you stepping

aside, that's what you do. >> martha: one more question. so the new york case, the hush money case, that's delayed 30 days because the department of justice withheld information that they didn't bring out in discovery. you have a problem there. you have the question of immunity on the january 6th case and the documents cases. so those are also running in to issues and waiting for the supreme court. you have this georgia case. are you concerned that these efforts, which have be so fullsome might be coming apart? >> no. let me tell you why. you guys know i'm just honest. everybody thinks oh, leslie, get on twitter. she has the democratic talking points. this is what i have. i have truth, this is my truth. i don't think enif he's found guilty of all of these he's going to spend one second in jail. if the goal is, you know -- it's

not going keep him off of the ballot. it's not going to keep people from voting for him. it's done the opposite. predicted that and he could be president. what are you doing this for? has to do with politics what are you doing this for? if you're doing it for legal reasons, it's like impeachment. drives me crazy. if you're not going to remove him from us a, democrat or republican, maybe it's a waste of taxpayer time and money. so with this, you know, you have to follow it through. i have never been a huge cheerleader of these because my question is a, what is your goal and b, are you going to reach it. if the goal is to have donald trump be wearing an orange jump suit, they won't reach that goal in my humble opinion. >> martha: matt whitaker is with us as well. matt, what do you say to that that? >> martha, obviously this tells me one simple fact. that's that fani willis believes that only she can drive this

case to conclusion. she thinks that without her, she can't take -- she can take nathan wade off of this case. without her, she's going to drive it through. again, these issues we're talking about are now defenses. defense arguments. whether it's the speech at the church, whether it's this relationship and the money to mr. wade, whether it's her lack of candor with the court. that's all issues in the case. i think it's -- it's getting weaker. let's just say that. i'm not sure that she will be able to get this case to the finish line ultimately. >> martha: great point, ari. i want your thoughts on that. now her behavior becomes part of the defense. they're going to poke at her credibility all throughout this case. in terms of her motivations for bringing it and her own handling of the case, ari fleischer. how does that go? >> well, first, i want to go

back to one thing leslie said. she said you should never let the american people decide about a law case. you should let the jury to do that. the slight of hand there is these jury pools are overwhelmingly democratic counties. there's not going to be republicans in those jury boxes. it's overwhelmingly people that support democrats or judges that don't get re-elected unless they do things the democrats like. that's why we have elections. these things should have never been brought judicially in those blue districts. as for her behavior, of course, this is handing donald trump's team and all the other defendants in georgia a great opening to go after the root cause of why they're being politically targeted. the fact that the prosecutor now has been found to have the odor of mendacity as the judge put it here. this will nag at the prosecution throughout this case.

if you want a clean case and put somebody away, you don't have a prosecutor that is anything but clean. that's going to be fani willis' problem and some of the defense can certainly exploit and everything legally coming up. >> martha: there's a lot coming up, matt. when you look at these cases, i went through the delays, some of the procedural issues going on. we all thought the first court case with a jury started happening march 25 in new york with the hush money case and whether or not checks that were written prior to the 2016 election but the trump team were funneled as legal expenses. that was supposed to be the first case. now they came out yesterday and said, well, the doj had a lot of documents that they never turned over. now you have another 30-day delay. where do you see that case going, matt? >> exactly. not only a 30-day delay but also 90,000 pages, which the district attorney has to sort through those.

remember, southern district of northern declined to prosecute this case. there could be legal memos in there suggesting that their legal theory and why they enhanced it to a felony instead of a misdemeanor is baseless under federal law. that could undermine their case and give, again a great defense in that case to president trump. >> martha: matt, as you rightly point out and remind people about that and we're talking about the very first case that is expected to go to trial, which is new york, which is people remember as the stormy daniels situation. they did a carve out. they found a way to turn that in to a felony. it carries a one to four-year jail time if he's convicted. in new york, the only trial he's had so far was a judge-only trial. how serious is that situation and where do you expect that case to go, matt? >> yeah, on the level of seriousness, that's at the

bottom of these criminal cases. again, any judge is going to know these are just misdemeanors. the falsification of business records. the only victim is donald trump who is the owner of the companies that he falsified the records to. so ultimately it's -- the way they enhanced those to felonies saying you committed a state campaign finance violation. can't be a state. ate federal election. we're talking about a federal election violation. both the fec and the southern district of new york said it's a mixed purpose expense and can be categorized as personal expenses. quite frankly, he would be in more trouble if he paid for these out of his campaign funds. it's a damned if you do and damned if you don't in this situation. this case is very weak and not the most consequential. >> martha: just to catch people up, nathan wade has resigned from the georgia election interference case. you can see him on the

right-hand side of the screen in the -- in that hearing, which was in front of judge mcafee that gave himself two weeks to make a decision. the two weeks ended today. he came out with that decision earlier today. everyone, if you'd stay with us. i'm going to bring in jonathan turley, constitutional attorney, g.w. university law professor and a fox news contributor. we've got part of the story here, jonathan. we're still waiting to hear from fani willis, the d.a. directly. we know that nathan wade, not a huge surprise has selfered himself from this case. now we're waiting to hear from her. >> wade didn't have any option. the judge said he could choose to resign. there was not much else he could do. if he didn't, the whole case would be taken out of the office. the only alternative was to go on an appeal that would delay the case further. the big question as you know is

what will willis do? she has now had multiple opportunities to do the right thing, which recuse herself. every time that moment has come, she has declined to do so. she's put her personal interests ahead of the interests of her office and the people of fulton county. i can't imagine how even willis could go forward after this order and these damning findings from this judge. i mean, he goes in great detail about how she made unprofessional decisions in a litany of errors in her public statements, how she dealt with these allegations. she's damaged goods. that's not going to be to the advantage of the people of fulton county. >> martha: i wonder. you know, how much do you think that the people in fulton county are going to be looking at the details of this decision from

this judge and she has been very forceful doing her own p.r. on all of this. she could easily come forward and say, you know, how unfair this attack was on her. we saw her do it already in the church where she said it was all race-based in terms of coming after her. we could easily hear that from her again, although in this decision as you well know, the judge tried to sort of slap that back and tried to admonish her from doing that. but i don't know. what do you think, jonathan? >> this judge gave her a great opportunity to do the right thing. he laid out two options. clearly talk about a third option. you can keep wade and i'll transfer this to a different jurisdiction. or you can take this up on appeal and then also there's the

option, i should say, the two options was to keep wade or get rid of wade. she could have gone on appeal. the real option that i think the judge was referencing here is you can always do the ethical thing. you can always do the professional option. you can say, i don't have a positive role left to play in this case. i blew it. the thing that is troubling for most of us is that the court details the evidence about the relationship before wade was hired. it's really willis' conduct after this allegation arose that was the most troubling. many of us believe that neither she for wade were honest on the stand. many people have suggested that there might have been false statements given on the stand. there's certainly evidence. just that wade may have given false statements to a prior

court in the divorce proceedings. all of that is a damning record that i think makes it practically impossible to go forward. she would have to continue to prosecute people accused of the same conduct that she's currently being accused of. keep in mind, wade is not out of, this he's been accused of false statements. one of those allegations is very compelling. he could be facing proceedings on the state level or the bar level. she will be a witness as those things unfold. so is she going to do that, keep that front going while she's trying to prosecute the biggest case in her office's history? >> martha: you know what? precisely that thought process, jonathan, may be why we haven't heard directly from her yet. maybe she will be thinking this over for a few more hours or even a few more days. she does want to keep on a timeline with this case. so she has a motivation to want to get right back to work and

potentially try to right her own reputation in that process. it seems just knowing what we've seen so far for character, that that might be the likely route for her despite your very even-handed assessment of what the right thing to do would be here. i'm not sure if that's what we're going to see. in terms of the big picture and we talked about this before and i was thinking about robert hur and you gave him strong points for much of his presentation, or you think back to james comey or robert mueller where all of these people laid out very bad behavior on the part of a lot of people, from hillary clinton to in this case fani willis. at the end, the cota is always that we really can't prosecute or take her off the case. isn't this one of the reasons that we see this disintegration of faith in the system in this country? >> i think there is a crisis of

faith. 's always been someone that has stood up for the u.s. legal system. i still am. there's a reason for that that crisis of faith. another case. the rollins case involving the former u.s. attorney in massachusetts. she was found to have lied to federal investigators. the department of justice just shrugged and said they wouldn't prosecute one of their own. the american people lock at this and say wow, there is a two track system of justice in this country. these people are destroying the system of justice that defines us. they're sawing at the branch on which they all sit. by making these highly conflicted decisions. i think you're absolutely right. we have to deal with that crisis of faith but we have to do it by being more faithful to the rule of law. >> martha: i think people across the country look at these situations and say, where is the

accountability and who is getting me off when i do something wrong or break the law? they feel like there's just a set of rules that a play to these positions in high places that don't apply to average folks. that's a real problem. a crisis of confidence in the system. very, very destruckive and dangerous. jonathan, thank you. great to have you with us. jonathan turley from gwu school of law and an avid contributor here. my thanks to all of our guests that joined us on this story. ari fleischer and leslie marshall and matt whitaker. thanks to all of you. president biden on capitol hill today for a st. patrick's day event, which is coming up this weekend. senate majority leader chuck schumer faces huge backlash over his comments on benjamin netanyahu suggesting that the country needs to change its leadership. saying he's a major obstacle to peace and saying that israel should hold new elections after

the threat of hamas is radically reduced. here's the reaction today. very interesting reaction from president biden. watch. >> senator schumer contacted my staff, my senior staff. he's going to make that speech. i'm not going to elaborate on his speech. he made a good speech. i think he expressed a searious concern. shared by not only him by many americans. >> martha: let's break that down. who better to do this with than mike pence, former vice president, founder of advancing american freedom that just visited israel a couple months ago. he's been there many times and spoken to the prime minister and leadership there many times as well. mr. vice president, good to have you with us. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me on. >> martha: you've seen this back and forth, right? senator schumer suggested that it was time for there to mr. new leadership in israel. he's stepped that back a little bit after that fiery floor

speech. here's what he said today or yesterday on this. the u.s. cannot dictate the outcome of an election. that's for the israeli public to decide. for democracy, israel has his right to choose their own leaders and he goes on. president biden said it was a good speech. >> march that i started the year visiting a kibbutz in southern israel that was struck on october 7 by hamas. the worst attack on the jewish people since the holocaust. there should be one message coming from the united states of america today. that is america stands with israel. israel is in a fight for its very survival. the island that the democrat majority leader of the united states senate would take to the floor of that storied chamber and start to dictate what the leadership of our most cherished

ally should do is a disgrace. i'm almost as offended by the fact that president biden called it a good speech. there's this whole doctrine that america should speak with one voice. that of course is the voice of the president of the united states. for president biden, not to -- to pull back on what chuck schumer said is astonishing. it's an example ironically of a democratic leader in america trying to engage in election interference in israel. the people of israel, i can tell you, having been there, martha, are completely united behind the goal and the objective of destroying hamas and the united states of america should send no other message than we are with you all the way until hamas is destroyed once and for all. >> it's interesting that you look at some of the polls and the impact and what we've seen

on social media. we've seen in some of the primary elections, in michigan in particular, which has a large arab population. no doubt these polls are not lost on president biden. among 18 to 34-year-olds in michigan, he's 11 points lower than former president trump. 25 points lower than governor whitmire, who is popular in michigan. do you think that election politics are bending biden's will on this? >> it's hard to imagine any other motivation here than some concern about the elections and their own coalition in the democratic party. this is war, martha. literally -- i walked through houses that were -- the walls were riddled with bull len holes. blood stained furniture. i heard stories of the most horrific torture and massacre of

men, women and children. what israel is doing today, we should support. imagine if some western nation, several months after 9-11 had called for a change of leadership at the white house here in our country? number 1, we wouldn't have listened to them. number 2, we would have been deeply offended by it. look, i'm glad to hear senator schumer has walked back his statement a bit. i want to see president biden walk it back as well. make it clear that if the world knows nothing else, the world should know this. america stands with israel. >> martha: let me ask you this. we have not spoken since former president trump sewed up the nomination which he did earlier this week. he has received endorsements from some of the people running against him. we have not heard from you. will you be endorsing your former president, you were on the ticket with him last time around. >> well, martha, i appreciate

the question. it should come as no surprise that i will not be endorsing donald trump this year. look, i'm incredibly proud of the record of our administration. it was a conservative record that made america more prosperous, more secure and saw conservatives appointed to our courts in a more peaceful world. that being said, during my presidential campaign, i made it clear there were profound differences between me and president trump on a range of issues. not just our difference on my constitutional duties that i exercised january 6th. as i have watched his candidacy unfold, i've seen him walking away from our commitment to confronting the national debt, i've seen him starting to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life. this last week his reversal on

getting tough on ch china and n support a sale of tik tok -- >> martha: why did think he did that? >> i can't speculate on it. what i can tell you is that in each of these cases, donald trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. that's why i cannot in good conscious endorse donald trump in this campaign. let me say one last thing. that being said, republican primary voters have made it clear, martha, who they're for in this election. what i'm going to spend the rest of the year is talking about what we should be for. the broad mainstream conservative agenda that has defined our party and always made america strong and prosperous and free.

>> martha: understood. >> sandra: two seconds. who you going to vote for in november? >> well, like most americans, i'm going to keep my vote to myself. >> martha: would you vote for president biden? >> i would never vote for joe biden. how i vote when that curtain closes, that will be for me. >> martha: are you looking for a third-party candidate? >> what i can tell you is that where i'm going to spend any energies is on making sure that my fellow republicans, independents and many democrats around the country know that it is a commitment to a limited government in the constitution, a commitment to a strong defense and american leadership in the world, a commitment to traditional values. that's always made this country prosperous and free and i'm going to advocate that? >> martha: you're not going to run as a candidate of any kind, are you? >> i'm a republican, imagine

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. >> martha: a stunning discussion that we had with mike pence that served side by side with president trump and had a lot of differences with him. ended up running against him. announced here today on "the story" that he will not support the former president in the 2024 election. he said he would not vote for him. he said he would not vote for joe biden but did not disclose who he would vote for. i asked if he would run for a third-party candidate and he said i'm a republican. very interesting to see how all of that has developed over the years. so that is the story for today. friday. happy friday, everybody. have a good st. patrick's day. the story goes on. check out "the untold story" podcast from mitch albom just rescued from haiti.

see you monday. >> neil: thanks. stunning breakin