Trump has 'miscalculated' the impact Carroll trial will have on election: ex-GOP rep.

After Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Donald Trump lawyer Alina Habba's request to have writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against him dismissed Thursday, former U.S. Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) insisted that the MAGA hopeful "miscalculated" the potential impact the trial could have on his 2024 campaign.

During the latest episode of MSNBC's Chris Jansing Reports, Jansing emphasized the fact a jury already found that Trump sexually abused Carroll — and then defamed her by denying it.

Jolly replied, "I mean, we are talking about a former president, and someone who could return to the White House. So, as a nation, how do we distill what we are seeing on a very critical matter of sexual assault?

“I think, politically, Donald Trump has miscalculated this one. It is a very narrow impact politically, but a very important one. And it's this. The entire presidential election in November, should it be Donald Trump and Joe Biden, will be decided by about 6 to 8% of the country, and it's those 6 or 8% of the country that swayed the last election against Donald Trump — the persuadable voters — either soft Republicans, Independents, Democrats, whatever their registration. They are the ones that are persuadable."

He continued, "And something that informs which way that they move, is this phenomenon of just too much Trump, too much Trumpism, the brashness, the irreverence. And so, is it simply a matter of incivility and lack of decorum, or the misunderstanding of the gravity of a sexual assault case?

“If Donald Trump wants to do this in the Jack Smith case, sure, he might face criminal contempt in that case, again, if he were to do it, but that is one that lands differently with the persuadable voters. This is a critical matter that could actually inform voters simply because it reminds them that Donald Trump is somebody they don't actually like.

“And so I think we're seeing the pomposity, the arrogance, of someone who has been found liable of sexual assault. I think it's a miscalculation by the former president."