we will have had those four early contests in iowa, new hampshire, nevada, and south carolina, that dictate so much about momentum and sort of the status of the race in terms of viability and donors. but actually mean very little in terms of the battle for delegates, which is how you win the nomination. it s not that big of a delegate prices prize the first contests combined. when you re talking about 15 states this is where the real battle for delegates and the nomination begins, and it is till when the rnc demands that delegates be awarded proportionally in some way, statewide or by congressional district. it s not a winner take all. where you get a plurality of the votes you get the delegates of the states. that doesn t begin until march 15th. we re going to be in a period where donald trump could be, despite his lead in the polls n a delegate dog fight and yet he s going to have to show up for trial. we ll drill down more on the calendar and show our viewers in
trial of the other defendants. why is that important? that would allow him and the case, the prosecutors have to just focus on him specifically and the counts against him. it doesn t have the appearance and sort of the practical impact of sitting at trial with a whole bunch of other defendants who have been charged with a wide range of crimes, so his attorneys have, obviously, assessed that it s in his interest to be in federal court because they potentially think that federal defenses that he might have would be better considered there, but also, i think because he would be on his own. and jay tom, you sort of alluded about the fact that anything could happen when you have a client on the stand. one of the things he is being asked about, according to our reporters in the courtroom right now, is about trump interests in election fraud after the 2020 election, and he described being flooded with outreach about potential fraud in 2020, sometimes he said he had to keep
different and perhaps she was focusing on the public interest just want to read, shan, a couple more quotes from what the judge said during this hearing. she said, referring to the argument that donald trump s attorneys were making about how this conflicts with his presidential campaign, she said, setting a trial date does not depend and should not depend on the defendant s personal or professional obligation, but she said that she would consider the trial schedules for trump s three other criminal indictments. yeah. she s making an important point for history as well, saying that when you have a court date, when you re in the justice system, that takes precedence over other things. your dry cleaning pick-up that day, your professional networking commitments, your job. the court dratsz what counts. that s why she s coordinating with the other judge. that undercuts a little bit of argument by the defense lawyers saying we can t be here today
the public, the public, had an interest in a prompt resolution of this case. she said, by the way, dana, that she had actually talked to a judge in new york, the judge about to hear the criminal case in new york dealing with hush money payments, a criminal trial, one of four that former president is facing, because she knew it overlapped with his plans for his trial, but in the end, she chose march 4th as the date for this trial to get started here in washington. dana? so interesting. evan, thank you so much for that reporting. let us know if you hear anything else coming out of the building behind you. here with me to share their reporting and insight, carrie cordero, shan wu and political director david chalian. where do we start? i guess the first question i have, shan, is how set in stone is this? i think it s pretty set in
response from john lauro, the lawyer for the former president. they said this was an absurd and ridiculous plan by the prosecution and says this is a request for a show trial, not a speedy trial. that s where judge tanya chutkan finally had a little bit of enough of what he was doing there and she said let s take the temperature down. she said i understand m lauro, but you are not getting two more years. in the end, as you pointed out, she decided on march 4th, 2024, which is one day before super tuesday. what this really means is that, you know, the four or five weeks that the prosecution says it s going to take for this to go to trial, at least from the prosecution side, during those weekdays, the former president is going to be in this courthouse, not necessarily on the campaign trail. that s a big issue for him as part of his run for office. the judge, however, said it that