Ex-Trump aide says Republicans have 'made peace' with hush money case

"The View" opened Monday with footage of Donald Trump entering the New York criminal courthouse as he faces the fraud trial over the Stormy Daniels hush money scheme.

"I mean, Melania has barely been seen in the last few months," Ana Navarro said of Trump's wife.

"She's been missing," co-host Sunny Hostin agreed.

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"She's barely been campaigning and now she has to deal with the public embarrassment of perhaps Stormy Daniels taking the stage, and part of it because of his own stupidity of not admitting and stipulating to the fact that he had an affair with her," Navarro continued.

"Him denying it — it gives her a reason to get on the witness stand and testify to it. So, he is going to have, you know, political problems. He can't be out campaigning because he's got to be sitting in a court case."

But former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that this isn't the most important case, and she's bothered that Americans will be forced to vote without knowing the outcomes of other criminal prosecutions of the Republican presidential candidate.

"Listen. I think it's historic. It's unprecedented, it's shameful, and it's one of many things on a list of reasons I won't support him again," she said.

"It is, in many ways, a rock-solid case. It's campaign finance. It's felony counts of falsifying business records. There's a paper trail. I believe he will be convicted on some counts. I think there's virtually no chance — because he's a first-time offender — that he's going to see any jail time."

Hostin noted that Trump has "ticked off" Judge Juan Merchan, whom Trump has demanded recuse himself many times over his daughter's job as a political consultant with Democratic Party clients.

Griffin agreed, noting that if Trump continues to violate the gag order, it might land him in jail.

"Two things," she continued. "The reason Republicans don't see this as a significant case is they kind of made their peace with it in 2016. "They were, like, yep. We kind of think he slept with a porn star, and we think he paid her off, and we'll vote for him this time."

What could change that opinion, she said, are the federal criminal cases against him.

"I think the thing that could change public sentiment: the Jan. 6th trial is nowhere to be found," Griffin explained. "We may not have a ruling on that ahead of the election, and that's what could change the course of this election and wake people up to how dangerous it is. I think it's easy for people to dismiss this as, like, eh, it happened. Why did it take so long?"

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