Yahoo Finance’s Kevin Cirilli joins the Live show to discuss the latest surrounding Donald Trump’s arraignment and poll findings that indicate the former president is in the lead against potential Republican challengers in the 2024 campaign.

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: And Donald Trump's arraignment on criminal charges loom as the former President still looked towards the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Where does Trump stand as the race for presidential candidacy takes shape? Here with the details, we've got Yahoo Finance's contributor Kevin Cirilli.

Kevin, all right, where does he stand?

KEVIN CIRILLI: Leading the pack. There's actually a "Yahoo News YouGov" poll that just came out since the indictment charges were announced or made public that there's going to be an indictment rather, in the last couple of days. And it has Trump leading at 52%. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 31%. So double-digit lead for Trump. All of the other candidates are in single digits. And 11% are undecided.

Look, I spoke with multiple sources connected to the Trump 2024 presidential campaign over the last few days. They told me Trump's in good spirits, that he fully intends to fight this. That this has been a re-energizing effort for his 2024 campaign. He's been working the phones, talking to members of Congress where I am this morning, and the Republican Party. And they fully intend to utilize the Judiciary Committee chaired by Freedom Caucus member, Jim Jordan, of Ohio to put Manhattan District attorney Alvin Bragg in their political crosshairs.

When you look historically at how Trump has fared any time he's been up against impeachments, January 6, and whatnot, they've always seemed to fundraise, fundraise, fundraise off of whatever scandal is thrown his way. Case in point, over the weekend, the Trump campaign putting out a press release saying that they were able to fundraise $4 million. 25% of that money that's coming from first-time donors of an average size of $34 a pop.

So I think the Trump campaign feels that not only has this been energizing for them, but that it also has been a way for them to define their political opponents. You know, nickname Florida Governor DeSantis, for example. And every other Republican challenger is reacting to Trump. So they feel that they're setting the narrative.

In contrast to that, I will tell you this, as I reported last week, I spoke to Corey Lewandowski last week. He, of course, was Trump's 2016 campaign manager and a top advisor in the Trump administration. And he told me that, yes, while Trump feels good about his positioning in the primary field, it's the case here in Washington, not the case down in Georgia, not the Stormy Daniels case up in New York, the case here in Washington pertaining to January 6. That's where, perhaps, there's a bit of more uneasiness as it relates to January 6 from Trump's allies as they look to the political future.

BRAD SMITH: So Kevin, perhaps spitball with us just for a little bit here.

KEVIN CIRILLI: Yeah.

BRAD SMITH: What does this mean in terms of the current elected officials that are in Congress, that if they see polls like this, might change their own stance, they're voting, what their tenor is especially to their own constituents, and how that can also impact some of the very economic policies that are set to be voted for. Oh, yeah, let's not forget everything surrounding debt and the debt ceiling in this country too.

KEVIN CIRILLI: Well, look, Congressman Jim Banks, a conservative from Indiana, went on local Indiana radio on Friday and came out to support Trump. So conservatives are using this in many ways to fundraise for their own to tout their own Conservative bona fides. And so I think that, look, it's a primary season. So Nikki Haley, DeSantis, Pompeo-- they're all having to jockey for conservative dollars, donors, and support.

So I think that that's going to continue to heat up. But if there's anything that the last few days prove, it's that Trump is still the early front runner for this race. As it relates to policy, I'm not sure that the indictment charges or the potential future indictments are going to impact debt ceiling negotiations or other policies. In fact, I would go so far to say that based upon my reporting, they won't because Congress has typically been able to separate many of those important policy areas.

As it relates to the debt ceiling separately from the Trump 2024 campaign effort, there hasn't been much talk. But last week in an op ed, centrist Democrat Senator Joe Manchin and "The Wall Street Journal" criticizing President Biden. Criticizing Biden for what he says is not being able to negotiate or implement the Inflation Reduction Act, particularly as it relates to fossil fuels. There's this interesting centrist conversation happening with presidential politics for centrists about where do they go.

Because if it's Trump, they're not going to back Trump. But will they back President Biden in a reelection effort should he announce? And I think that that's brewing. That conversation, I would argue, would have more of an impact on the policy discussions whether or not there's a centrist candidate, a unity ticket, for example. That would have more of an impact on policy than, I think, the Trump indictments.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, it sounds quite insulating from Manchin considering that he has been one of the hardest to negotiate with the Biden administration. Yahoo Finance contributor, Kevin Cirilli, thanks so much for breaking that all down here for us today. Appreciate it.

KEVIN CIRILLI: Thank you.