'This Week' Transcript: Sens. Orrin Hatch and Amy Klobuchar; Eliot Spitzer

NEW YORK, July 14, 2013 — -- A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday morning, July 14, 2013 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Breaking overnight, the verdict is in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, find George Zimmerman not guilty.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Protests break out after the high stakes trial that gripped the country.

As America faces big questions now about race, justice and gun control.

Then, new low? The gridlock, the squabble.

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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) KENTUCKY: These are dark days in the history of the Senate.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Was it Washington's worst week yet? We go to the center of the fight and take you inside the closed-door meetings.

Plus, our powerhouse roundtable on Spitzer's second chance?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPITZER: I've always believed the public had forgiveness.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: And the take-no-prisoners book that has all of Washington talking. Right here this Sunday morning.

ANNOUNCER: This week with George Stephanopoulos. Reporting from ABC News headquarters, George Stephanopoulos.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And we begin with that breaking news overnight. After more than 16 hours of deliberations, a jury of six women delivered their decision: not guilty of murder, not guilty of manslaughter, George Zimmerman is a free man.

This trial has captivated and divided the nation. And there were some protests overnight, but from Washington so far a muted reaction.

And in Florida, the first words from the Martin family. Trayvon's mom tweeted that this was her darkest hour. His father said, "even though I am brokenhearted, my faith is unshattered. I will always love my baby Tray."

We have the fallout this morning from our ABC News team, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus, our powerhouse roundtable and the Martin family lawyer.

ABC's Matt Gutman, who has covered this trial all the way, starts us off from the courthouse in Sanford, Florida.

Good morning, Matt. Take us inside that courtroom last night.

GUTMAN: Good morning, George. That courtroom was intense. So many eyeballs on it. But it wasn't always this way. This wasn't always headline news. This began as a routine homicide in a small Florida town that ignited this national debate about race.

Now last night in that courtroom as those six female jurors filed, and you could see the tension on the prosecutor's face, on the defense's face, everybody looked tired.

Now, those jurors ultimately made the decision not based on race, but about the law. They decided that the state did not have enough evidence to convince them that George Zimmerman should be convicted on second-degree murder or manslaughter.

Just after that was read, you saw George Zimmerman with very muted response, and then once he started hugging his family and his attorneys, you saw him break a smile there.

Now noticeably absent from the courtroom last night, Trayvon Martin's parents, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And that the security situation in Sanford has been so tight, everyone still on high alert?

GUTMAN: Very much so, especially the family of Trayvon Martin.

Now there was a reason that they weren't in the courtroom last night. We are told from the sheriff's office here and from their attorneys that the tenor and the severity of the death threats against Trayvon Martin's family increased. And they felt that it was safer for them to keep him away from the courthouse and to bolster their security -- not just them, Zimmerman and his family also the target of death threats.