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At his rally in Waco this weekend, Donald Trump stood at attention as a choir of jailed January 6 rioters sang an anthem of sedition, and media outlets barely blinked.

First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:

Almost 30 years after a cult leader caused a disaster in Waco, Trump rallied his own political cultand the location cannot be a coincidencein that same Texas city. The Waco tent revival featured the usual Trumpian cast of grifters, carnies, and misfits, including the fan favorites Mike Lindell and Ted Nugent. Most of the former presidents speech was, of course, about himself and his many grievances, and the crowd reportedly began to thin out somewhat early.

And yet, in Wacothe first rally of Trumps 2024 campaignTrump proved he is still capable of doing shocking things that once would have been unthinkable. As the Associated Press reported:

With a hand over his heart, Trump stood at attention when his rally opened with a song called Justice for All performed by a choir of people imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Some footage from the insurrection was shown on big screens displayed at the rally site as the choir sang the national anthem and a recording played of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

In other words: A former president, a man once entrusted with the Constitutions Article II powers as our chief magistrate and the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world, an elected official who held our survival in his hands with the codes to our nuclear arsenal, considered it an honor to be serenaded by a group of violent insurrectionists who are sitting in jail for offenses against the government and people of the United States.

Trumps voice was not only featured on this song; he actually volunteered to provide a recording for it. I know that many people, after years of this mad-king routine, simply do not want to process anything with the words Donald Trump in it. I dont blame you. But lets not look away: In Waco, Trump embraced a creepy mash-up of the national anthem, USA chants, and his own voice, and then proceeded for some 90 minutes to make clear that he is now irrevocably all in with the seditionists, the conspiracy theorists, the Trump or death fanatics, the Vladimir Putin fanboysthe whole appalling lot of them.

And yet, a day later, the story of Trump standing at attention for the January 6 choir has begun to fade from coverage. How, you might wonder, is this not still on every news site, every broadcast? To be fair, the AP called it an extraordinary display. The New York Times called the playing of the song a new twist. Perhaps ironically, one of the most candid reactions came from Foxs Brian Kilmeade, who called Trumps use of January 6 footage at the rally insane. Many media outlets used a picture of Trump with his hand over his heart, as I have done here. None of that is enough.

A thought experiment might help. Imagine if, say, Barack Obama held a rally and stood at attention as a group of anti-constitutional riotersperhaps people who had called for attacking police officers and lynching top officials of the United Statesused his voice as a motif while singing from prison to honor him. You know exactly what would happen: That one moment would dominate the news cycle until the last star in the galaxy burned out. It would define Obama for the rest of his life. (If you doubt this, remember that Obama was caught on a hot mic telling thenRussian President Dmitry Medvedev that hed have more flexibility to negotiate after the 2012 electiona completely ordinary if somewhat unwise thing to sayand we had to hear about it for years.)

But we are worn out on Trump. Weve simply packed all of his behavior into a barrel, labeled it as generic toxic waste, and pushed it to the side, hoping that someone will take it away and bury it far from civilization.

Theres another reason, however, were not ringing more alarm bells. Too many people are afraid of amplifying Trump, including media members who still insist on treating a violent insurrectionist movement as if its a normal political party. I have consistently argued for amplifying every traitorous and unhinged thing Trump says, but others have their doubts: Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at NYU, cited the disinformation expert Whitney Phillips to caution me that sunlight disinfects, but it can also make things grow.

I think this was a more pressing concern in 2016, when Trump was the beneficiary of the so-called earned media that can result from outrageous statements and stunts. I still think focusing on Trump and holding him accountable for his statements was the right thing to do, but I agree that too often during the 2016 campaign, he got away with being ridiculous, because he was not taken seriously enough as a threat to democracy.

In 2023, however, Trump is no longer a novelty. The man is a former president and a top candidate for his old job. Merely fact-checking him or tut-tutting about his extraordinary behavior would, I agree, normalize him, so lets not do that. Instead, both journalists and ordinary citizens should ensure that everyone knows exactly what Trump is doing and saying, in all of its fetid and vile detail.

Moments like the Waco rally should be all over the news, for three reasons.

First, Trump fatigue is real, but the personality cult around Trump avoids it by cherry-picking what Trump says and does. Putting Trump on blast isnt going to convert new people; if anything, we learned from Trumps COVID press conferences as president that he does a lot of damage to himself by talking too much. People in his own party tried to get him to stop doing those bizarre performances, and he finally listened to them.

Second, Trump and his minions, especially elected Republicans, are experts at pretending that things didnt happen the way we saw them. Ask a GOP official about Trumps offensive statements, and youll likely get I didnt see that, I dont read his tweets, Ill have to check into that, and other squirts of verbal helium. Media and citizens alike should hold those elected representatives and other officeholders to account. Ask them point-blank if they support what Trump said and if they will support him as the nominee of their party.

Third, we need to confront the reality that Trump is now on track to win the nomination yet again. In 2016 and 2020, I thought we were facing the most important elections in modern American history, but that was before Trump incited an insurrection and invited every violent kook in the nation to ride to his defense. Fine, I stand corrected: 2024 is epochally important. Trump has left no doubt that he is a violent authoritarian who intends to reject any election that does not restore him to power, that he will pardon scores of criminals, and that he will never willingly leave office. This should be said every day, in every medium.

If we are to walk ourselves back into an authoritarian nightmare, lets at least do it without any pretenses.

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Sick All the Time

By Elizabeth Bruenig

Winter is over, and what a wretched one it was. There came a point in the season when everyone in our house was sick. I stood at the top of the stairs one cold morning, gazing down blearily at the pile of mail and magazines that had accumulated by the door, knowing there were dishes dumped in the sink to match and laundry heaped in the hampers as well. I thought of Henry Knighton, a medieval cleric who witnessed the Black Deaths scouring of Europe. I once read his firsthand account of the sheep and cattle that went wandering over fields where the harvest had rotted on the vine, crops and livestock returning to wilderness amid the great diminishing of human life. I now reigned over my own plagued realm, having lost this latest confrontation with nature.

Read the full article.

More From The Atlantic

Read. Hua Hsus memoir, Stay True.

I knew exactly what was going to happen (its written on the book jacket) and still felt totally unprepared for the emotional force of it, our senior editor Amy Weiss-Meyer says.

Watch. The Season 4 premiere of Succession.

The episode, which aired last night on HBO, offered familiar beats but also a hint of a new direction. (And keep reading this newsletter for another reason to watch!)

Play our daily crossword.

The final season of HBOs hit series Succession got underway last night. I am a fan of the show, but I am especially interested in how the saga of the Roy family ends, because Im in it.

Yes, your humble correspondent landed a (very) small part in the series, as a pundit at the Roy familys fictional ATN network. The episodes I was in had some pretty intense plot developments, but of course, I cannot share with you what happens, not least because I dont even know myself. My part is a scripted character, but as is often the case on such a show, theres a lot of security around the plot, and I dont know what happened before or after I left the set. It was all great fun, and it was an honor to be able to watch some of the main cast at work. (If you think acting is easy, just spend a few days watching professionals do it.) When the season is winding down, I will write more about this fascinating experience; in the meantime, tune in and join mewell, a character sort of like meat ATN.

Tom

Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter.

See more here:
Trump Sings a Song of Sedition - The Atlantic

Former President Donald Trump returned to Fox News on Monday night and aired a host of grievances about investigations he's facing, mail-in voting and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in his first interview with the network since legal filings showed network leaders privately condemning him.

There was no hint of the acrimony detailed in those communications, made public as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network. Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, spoke for nearly an hour with prime-time host Sean Hannity, long one of his most outspoken Fox News backers.

Trump found a welcome environment for his attempt to tie a potential indictment he faces in New York City to the 2020 election-rigging myth that led to his supporters' attack on the Capitol, defend rioters who were arrested in its aftermath and say he and DeSantis his chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination were never friends.

"It's a new way of cheating in elections," Trump said when asked about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's hush money probe. "It's called election interference."

On March 18, Trump predicted he would be arrested in three days, which turned out to be wrong. But he has shared more heated rhetoric about a potential indictment in recent days, including warning of "potential death and destruction" should he be indicted.

Trump said Monday he was not calling for violence and added that his Truth Social post of an article featuring a split photo of him holding a baseball bat opposite Bragg was done unknowingly.

"We didnt see pictures. We put up a story that was very exculpatory, very good story from the standpoint of what were talking about," he said.

He expressed relatively little emotion when he was asked about how he was handling the chance of arrest, later shifting in his answer to a riff involving the supposed emptying of South American prisons and "mental institutions."

"Well, I deal with it," he said of a possible indictment. "Were dealing with very dishonest people. Were dealing with thugs. Were dealing with people I actually believe that hate our country."

Elsewhere in the conversation, Trump promoted the "Justice for All" song, which features a choir of men incarcerated for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol singing the national anthem, interposed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Trump began his rally Saturday in Waco, Texas, by playing a video version of the recording, which also featured images of the insurrection.

"The J6 is beating Taylor Swift," Trump said, pointing to the song's success on a variety of music charts. "Its Donald Trump and the J-Sixers on iTunes and on Amazon and on Billboard, which is the big deal. No. 1, Donald Trump.

"Thats a tribute to the fact that people feel the J6 people have been very unfairly treated," he added.

Reflecting on some of his personnel decisions during his presidency, Trump said he "may have made a mistake" in choosing FBI Director Christopher Wray and added he "didn't like" Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

But Trump's saved his harshest criticism for DeSantis.

"Not friends," Trump said of their relationship before DeSantis became a presidential prospect. "I didn't know him well."

Trump described DeSantis as a "desperate" politician who, he claimed, came to him with "tears in his eyes" asking for an endorsement in a 2018 primary race for governor against Adam Putnum, then the Florida agriculture commissioner.

As Trump sees it, DeSantis owes him for his good fortune and shouldn't run against him in 2024.

"I helped a lot of people get elected," he said, adding: "But some I got in. Ron, I got in. He was losing. There was no way. It was over. He was dead. He was going to drop out. He was gone."

A DeSantis spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DeSantis' polls far and away as the second-most-favored contender in the GOP's 2024 field, but amid intense attacks by Trump, some donors and allies have questioned whether he is ready for what would be a bruising primary fight. Trump has increasingly focused on DeSantis since he wrongly predicted his arrest date.

The interview was the first Trump has conducted with a prime-time Fox News anchor since September.

After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in emails that the network wanted to make Trump a nonperson and was pivoting as fast as possible," recent legal filingsas part of Dominion's lawsuit revealed.

But Trump's team has felt Fox's coverage of him this year is an improvement over its coverage in 2016, the last time he faced a seriously contested primary.

They were openly hostile to him in 2016," an adviser said this month. "Theyre not as openly hostile" now.

Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.

More here:
Trump returns to Fox News for interview with Sean Hannity - NBC News

Donald Trump

Trump has resorted to incendiary rhetoric to deter investigations and to rile up his base, experts say, and shows no sign of letting up

Tue 28 Mar 2023 05.00 EDT

Donald Trumps demagogic attacks on prosecutors investigating criminal charges against him are aimed at riling up his base and could spark violence, but show no signs of letting up as a potential indictment in at least one case looms, say legal experts.

At campaign rallies, speeches and on social media Trump has lambasted state and federal prosecutors as thugs and claimed that two of them who are Black are racist, language designed to inflame racial tension.

He has also used antisemitic tropes by referring to a conspiracy of globalists and the influence of billionaire Jewish financier George Soros.

Trumps drive to undercut four criminal inquiries that he faces is reaching a fever pitch as a Manhattan district attorneys inquiry looks poised to bring charges against Trump over his key part in a $130,000 hush money payment in 2016 to adult film star Stormy Daniels with whom he allegedly had an affair.

In his blitz to deter and obfuscate two of the criminal investigations, Trump has resorted to verbal assaults on two Black district attorneys in Manhattan and Georgia labeling them as racist, even as he simultaneously battles to win the White House again.

In a broader attack on the four state and federal investigations at a Texas rally on Saturday Trump blasted the thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system, while on his Truth Social platform last week he warned of possible death and destruction if hes charged in the hush money inquiry.

But now Trumps incendiary attacks against the federal and state inquiries is prompting warnings that Trumps unrelenting attacks on prosecutors could fuel violence, as he did on January 6 with bogus claims that the 2020 was stolen from him and a mob of his backers attacked the Capitol leading to at least five deaths.

Trumps incendiary rhetoric, amplified through his social media postings and his high decibel fearmongering in Texas, pose clear physical dangers to prosecutors and investigators, said former acting chief of the fraud section at the justice department Paul Pelletier. With Trumps actions promoting the January 6 insurrection serving as a cautionary tale, the potential for violent reactions to any of his charges cannot be understated.

Ex-prosecutors see Trump reverting to tactics hes often deployed in legal and political battles.

Trumps invective say experts wont deter prosecutors as they separately weigh fraud, obstruction and other charges related to January 6 and other issues, but echo scare tactics hes used before as in his two impeachments, and may help Trumps chances of becoming the Republican nominee by angering the base which could influence primary outcomes.

None of these accusations about the motives of prosecutors, however, will negate the evidence of Trumps own crimes. A jury will focus on the facts and the law, and not any of this name calling. The Trump strategy may work in the court of public opinion, but not in a court of law, said Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan.

That may explain why Trump has received more political cover from three conservative House committee chairs, who joined his effort to intimidate Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, by launching investigations to obtain his records and testimony, threats that Bragg and legal experts have denounced as political stunts and improper.

The legal stakes for Trump are enormous, and unprecedented for a former president, as the criminal inquiries have been gaining momentum with more key witnesses who have past or present ties to Trump testifying before grand juries, and others getting subpoenas.

Two investigations led by special counsel Jack Smith are separately looking into possible charges against Trump for obstructing an official proceeding and defrauding the US government as he schemed with top allies to block Joe Biden from taking office, and potential obstruction and other charges tied to Trumps retention of classified documents after he left office.

Further, Fulton county Georgia district attorney, Fani Willis, has said decisions are imminent about potentially charging Trump and others who tried to overturn Joe Bidens win there in 2020 with erroneous claims of fraud.

Much of the investigations work has involved a special grand jury that reportedly has recommended several indictments, with a focus on Trumps high pressure call on 2 January 2021 to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger beseeching him to just find 11,780 votes to help block Joe Bidens win there.

Trump has denied all wrong doing and denounced the inquiries as witch hunts.

Little wonder though that Trumps squadron of lawyers has lately filed a batch of motions in Georgia and Washington DC with mixed success to slow prosecutors as they have moved forward in gathering evidence from key witnesses and mull charges against Trump.

Blustering in court or in the media about the supposed bias or racism of the Fulton county and Manhattan county prosecutors will not convince a court to remove a democratically-elected prosecutor, and certainly the Republicans in the House of Representatives have no legal authority ability to influence the course of criminal justice in New York state proceedings, said Fordham law professor and ex-prosecutor in New Yorks southern district Bruce Green.

Green stressed: None of Trumps moves, such as calling prosecutors racists, are likely to throw any of the prosecutors off their game: prosecutors tend to be focused, determined and thick-skinned.

Likewise, ex-US attorney in Georgia Michael Moore told the Guardian the Trump attacks on the two black prosecutors are completely baseless. The charges of racism against the prosecutors is more of an indication of the weakness of his claims than most anything else he has said.

Moore scoffed too at the moves by Trumps House Republican allies.

Its rich to me that the Republicans in the House claim to be the party of limited government, but as soon as they get in power and look like they might lose another election, they immediately use their big government power to meddle in a matter that purely belongs to the local jurisdiction.

NYU law professor Stephen Gillers sees similar dynamics at play in Trumps tactics.

Trump cannot stop the judicial process, although he can try to slow it. But he can undermine its credibility through his charges and by mobilizing his supporters. I see what hes doing now as aimed at them, just as he tried to discredit the election returns in their eyes and anger them with baseless charges over the steal.

The weakness of Trumps legal moves was revealed in two court rulings in DC requiring testimony before grand juries from former top aides including ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the January 6 inquiry, and one of his current lawyers Evan Corcoran in the classified documents case.

The two rulings should give a good boost to the special counsel in his separate investigations of Trumps efforts to overturn his 2020 loss on January 6 when Congress met to certify Joe Bidens win about which Meadows must now testify, and Trumps retention of classified documents at Mar a Lago after he left the White House about which Corcoran has to testify.

As the four investigations intensify, more aggressive moves by Trump and his lawyers to derail potential charges in Georgia, Manhattan and from the special counsel are expected before, as well as after, any charges may be filed.

If I were on the prosecution teams in Manhattan or Georgia, I would expect Trump to assert every defense he can think of, including accusing the prosecutors of misconduct, McQuade said.

A judge on Monday ordered Fani Willis to respond by 1 May to the Trump teams motion seeking to bar her from further investigating or charging Trump, and wants all testimony from some 75 witnesses, including Meadows and Trumps former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, before the special grand jury rejected.

The judges order was in response to a Trump legal motion that McQuade said appears to be baseless.

Former Watergate prosecutor Philip Lacovara told the Guardian that Trumps lawyers are deploying different legal tactics in the investigations.

The Georgia strategy is partly a strategy of delay, in which the Trump team is raising dozens and dozens of objections, many of which are specious, in the hope that one will be sufficient to work on appeal and to keep him out of jail, Lacovara said.

In Manhattan, he added, theyre trying to create the impression that this is a highly visible political stunt to exclude Trump from running.

That tactic could help in trying to pollute the jury pool since a hung jury would be good for Trump. All he needs is one juror who believes this is all a concocted plot.

Former DoJ officials and experts expect Trump and his lawyers will keep up a frenzied stream of hyperbolic attacks and legal actions.

This is more of what we saw during the election, said former deputy attorney general Donald Ayer who served in the George HW Bush administration. He throws up gibberish and obstruction.

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Trumps verbal assaults pose risks to prosecutors and could fuel violence - The Guardian US

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. - Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie predicts that in a 2024 Republican presidential nomination race that's shaping up to be combustible, "its not going to end nicely" for former President Donald Trump.

And Christie, a former two-term Republican governor and 2016 presidential contender whos seriously mulling another White House run, argued that hes got the debate chops to potentially take down Trump should he face off with the former president, who four months into his third White House run remains the clear front-runner in the early GOP nomination national polls.

Christie made his comments as he headlined a nearly two-hour long town hall on Monday evening in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP nominating calendar.

"You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco," Christie said during a town hall the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anslem College, which for over two decades has been a must stop for presidential hopefuls and candidates of both parties.

CHRISTIE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF THERE'S A PATHWAY TO BEATING TRUMP, DESANTIS

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate who's considering another White House run, headlines a town hall in New Hampshire at Saint Anselm College, on March 27, 2023, in Goffstown, N.H. (Fox News)

Christie was referring to his heated exchange with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at a nationally televised debate in New Hampshire days ahead of the 2016 Republican presidential primary a face-off that pundits awarded as a knockout blow to Christie.

"Because thats the only thing thats going to defeat Donald Trump. And that means you have to have the skill to do it and that means you have to be fearless, because he will come back at you and right at you," Christie then emphasized. "So you need to think about whos go the skill to do that and whod got the guts to do it. Because its not going to end nicely, no matter what. His end will not be a calm and quiet conclusion."

Christie, who is considered one of the best communicators in the GOP and was known during his tenure for the kind of in-your-face politics that Trump has also mastered, was asked by Fox News after the town hall if he thought any of the other actual or potential contenders in the emerging Republican presidential field also had the debate skills to effectively take on Trump.

FIRST ON FOX: CHRISTIE TRIP TO NEW HAMPSHIRE SPARKS MORE 2024 SPECULATION

"I dont know the answer to that question but what I would say is no one has to wonder if I do," the former governor emphasized.

Christie placed all his chips in his campaign for president seven years ago in New Hampshire. However, his campaign crashed and burned after a disappointing and distant sixth-place finish in New Hampshire, far behind Trump, who crushed the competition in the primary, boosting him towards the nomination and eventually the White House.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate who's considering another White House run, headlines a town hall in New Hampshire at Saint Anselm College, on March 27, 2023, in Goffstown, N.H. (Fox News)

Christie became the first among the other GOP 2016 contenders to endorse Trump and for years was a top outside adviser to the then-president and chaired Trumps high-profile commission on opioids. However, the two had a falling out after Trumps unsuccessful attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden. The past two years Christie has become one of the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP.

"I dont want to hear anybody in this room saying ah you know youre saying this because youre a never-Trump," Christie told the audience. "I was the first one on the bus and I worked all the way thru Election night 2020 for him."

WHO'S IN AND WHO'S ON THE SIDELINES YOUR GUIDE TO THE 2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACE

But Christie added to applause "I got off the train when he stood up in the West Wing of the White House behind the seal of the president and told us the election was stolen when he didnt have one fact to back it up. Im sorry. Thats when I get off. Because the truth matters."

Trump, at a speech to supporters early this month at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), stressed that "I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution." He repeated the line on Saturday night in Waco, Texas, as the former president held his first campaign rally of the year.

Former President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Waco, Texas, on March 25, 2023 (AP)

"Guess what everybody. No thanks," Christie said to a splattering of applause from the crowd. "The only person he cares about is him. And if we havent learned that from Election Day 2020 to today, then we are not paying attention."

Christie reiterated that "we are the party of me right now. Its about him and nothing else. You cant win as the party of meyouve got to win as the party of us."

The New Hampshire Democratic Party, taking aim at Christie after the event, said "during his New Hampshire town hall, Christie went after his friend and former boss, Donald Trump. The only problem? Christie cant undo the years he spent praising, supporting, and cosigning the extreme MAGA agenda."

Christie, in a jab at some of the other actual or potential candidates in the 2024 GOP nomination field, criticized what he called "Trump lite" candidates. "Thats going to lose as certain as he lost in 20, as we lost the House in '18, as we lost the Senate in 21, as we underperformed in 22," he argued.

Christie also jumped into the growing debate in the GOP over the war in the Ukraine. While many in the GOPs traditional hawkish wing firmly back supporting Ukraine and criticize President Bidens administration for not doing enough to assist Kyiv, they face an increasingly more vocal wing of anti-war voices from the MAGA wing of the party.

Christie spotlighted a recent comment by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that the Russian war against Ukraine was a "territorial dispute." The comment created a firestorm of pushback from many in the GOP in recent weeks, although DeSantis later emphasized that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was a "war criminal."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a campaign event Friday, March 10, 2023, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ron Johnson)

"I heard Gov. DeSantis a week or two ago call whats happening with Ukraine in Russia a territorial dispute," Christie said. "When you roll tanks and artillery into a free country in an attempt to take their land and their lives by force, thats an authoritarian aggression. That is not a territorial dispute."

DeSantis, who remains on the 2024 sidelines as of now but is widely expected to enter the race and is seen as the top rival to Trump. In an interview that ran last week on Fox Nation, the conservative governor whose seen his popularity among Republicans across the nation soar the past three years, said "stay tuned" when asked about a potential presidential run.

Christie also zeroed in on a DeSantis comment from a "Fox and Friends interview in February. The Florida governor, criticizing the Biden administrations Ukraine policy, said "they have effectively a blank check policy with no clear strategic objective identified and these things can escalate. And I dont think its in our interest to be getting into proxy war with China, getting involved over things like the borderlands or over Crimea."

The former New Jersey governor urged "someone please place a wakeup call to Tallahassee. Hasnt he seen whats going on. Fentanyl is coming over our southern border from China and killing 100,000 Americans a year. I call that a proxy war. Theyre flying intelligence-gathering balloon over our country with blatant disregard for our country. I call that a proxy war."

And Christie argued that "it is nave to say we want to avoid a proxy war with China. Were in one."

Fox News reached out to DeSantis political team for reaction but had yet to receive a comment at the time the story published.

In an interview with Fox News Digital ahead of his trip to New Hampshire, Christie reiterated that hell make his 2024 decision in the next 45 to 60 days. He explained that the three factors going into his decision will be "seeing a pathway to winning believing that you have something at that moment to offer the country that it needs to hear," and whether he would have the support of his family.

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"If I answer yes to all three of those questions, then Ill run. If I answer no to one of them, then I wont," he said.

And on Monday, he told the crowd at the town hall that when it comes to a timetable, "I think its June is probably the latest you can get in. Because the first debate is in August and if you want to be a serious candidate in this race, youve got to be on that stage in August and start making your case."

See the original post here:
Chris Christie argues its not going to end nicely' for Donald Trump in 24, as he touts his own debate chops - Fox News

Who would Democrats rather see as the GOPs 2024 presidential nominee Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis?

Yes, I know Democratic voters largely wont have a say here, nor can they make the Republican electorate vote a certain way. And its still early to speculate about who will win the Republican presidential primary, much less the general election DeSantis isnt even officially in the race! but as weve written before, early polls shouldnt necessarily get tossed aside.

Late last year, a series of polls from The Economist/YouGov asked Americans who they wanted to be the Republican nominee in 2024, and among Democrats, DeSantis had an edge over Trump particularly when respondents were given only those two candidates to choose from. When it comes to the broader electorate, an average of FiveThirtyEights polling of imperfect, hypothetical, head-to-head matchups of each man against President Biden, meanwhile, shows DeSantis with a slightly better chance than Trump.

So what gives? Do Democrats want their own party to face a tougher fight next year?

Democrats slight preference for DeSantis over Trump even if DeSantis might currently be better positioned to beat Biden could be about one simple thing: Democrats really, really dont want to deal with the former president again and might not currently be thinking in terms of whos more beatable.

I think most Democrats would be terrified of another Trump presidency, but I also think that most Democrats would not be happy about a DeSantis presidency and maybe think DeSantis is a lot like Trump but more competent or something, said Hans Noel, a professor of government at Georgetown University. I dont know if thats the right interpretation, but its definitely one that a lot of Democrats have.

Of course, we shouldnt jump to conclusions about Democrats preferred challenger based on surveys conducted months ago. And lets remember this isnt about Democrats liking DeSantis more, or even knowing much about him at all. A more recent YouGov survey, from late February, showed that Democrats had a slightly more favorable (28 percent) and unfavorable (67 percent) opinion of Trump than they did for DeSantis (25 percent favorable, 60 percent unfavorable), suggesting that many Democrats simply havent made up their minds about the Florida governor. Indeed, 15 percent of Democrats didnt have an opinion on DeSantis in the poll, while only 4 percent had no opinion of Trump. We see similar numbers in other polls as well. Its possible, then, that Democrats preferences are squishy at this point and will continue changing as they learn more about DeSantis after his expected presidential campaign officially kicks off.

But when it comes to a head-to-head matchup between the two Republicans, its not hard to see why Democrats might have a slight preference for DeSantis being the GOP nominee, particularly at this early stage in the 2024 campaign.

For one, its possible that Democrats just arent aware of his (current) formidability against Biden, and think of DeSantis as more beatable than Trump, who scarred them in 2016 by pulling out that impossible win. Plus, Noel told me that DeSantis might be seen as a somewhat welcome alternative to Trump, particularly to voters who are convinced that the former president is uniquely anti-democratic or uniquely a threat to American democracy. Unlike Trump, DeSantis doesnt have the baggage of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot or multiple investigations looming over him.

In other words, if Democrats really do prefer DeSantis at this stage, it could be more tied to their dislike for Trump rather than DeSantiss special appeal. And as DeSantis draws more of the national spotlight, and especially if he acts like Trump during the primary (as Ive predicted he will), Democrats could sour on him quickly.

DeSantis is more of a mainstream politician. So you might not expect him to undermine norms and encourage violence. But well have to see how things play out as we learn more and more about him, Noel told me. In order to win the primary, hell need to outflank Trump on some of these culture-war issues that the MAGA constituency wants. But the more that he makes appeals to those voters, the more likely it is that he alienates Democrats in the process.

The question is whether Democrats will change their minds as the primary goes on, especially if they perceive Trump as a weaker general-election candidate (although he was perceived that way in 2016, too, and we all know what happened then). Theres plenty of reason to think that might be the case: Trump-led Republicans have now endured three bad elections in rapid succession. In 2018, they lost the House. In 2020, they lost the presidency and the Senate. And in 2022, while they won the House by a slim margin, they otherwise failed to score the gains that weve come to expect of the opposition party in a midterm year.

A growing number of Republicans pointed their fingers at him for their partys disappointments in last years midterms, in which Trump-backed candidates were defeated across the country all while DeSantis sailed to reelection, flipping a historically Democratic county along the way. Indeed, theres plenty of reason now to believe that DeSantis or another Republican contender would be a harder challenge for Biden than Trump would be.

Its also possible that Democrats just dont want a redux of the 2020 election. In those three The Economist/YouGov surveys from last year, less than half of Democrats said they wanted Biden to run for president again in 2024, though more recent polling hints that they think their party has a better chance of retaining the White House if hes the nominee. This lines up with other reporting and surveys that suggest that while Democrats seem ready to move on from Biden, theres no consensus on who they want to run in his place. But that complicates the lens through which we should examine Democrats perceived early preference for DeSantis over Trump as their partys opponent. For example, Democrats who want Biden to be their partys 2024 nominee might prefer an opponent different than preferred by Democrats who want someone other than Biden to run.

And of course, the Republican primary wont just be between Trump and DeSantis. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, is already in the race. But in at least two The Economist/YouGov surveys that gave respondents more choices than just Trump and DeSantis (including Haley, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Vice President Mike Pence, among others), no Republican candidate netted more than 15 percent support among Democrats. In fact, a plurality of Democrats in both polls (38 percent) said that they were not sure.

All thats to say that public opinion on this matter is not solid. As more Republicans enter the race, Democratss opinions of their preferred opponent will no doubt develop. But right now, at least, it seems that Democrats just want to keep the former president in the rearview mirror.

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Would Democrats Rather Face Donald Trump Or Ron DeSantis in 2024? - FiveThirtyEight