dominate t field. in this poll he has 56% among republicans, leading ron desantis by nearly 40 points. desantis with 17%. let s discuss all of this with ashley allison, former national coalitions director for the biden/harris campaign along with scott jennings, former special assistant to president george w. bush. thanks to both being here. trump clearly remains in commanding position right now. he had previously suggested that heigthe first debate. if he continues to lead this field by margins this big, do you expect he is going to follow through with that threat? well, i wouldn t go to the debate if i were him. he doesn t have to. he doesn t have to do anything. he doesn t have to go out and do the normal, you know, hit the campaign trail kind of stuff that everybody else is scraping and clawing at. so no, i wouldn t go if i were him. he may not be able to resist a television show, but he might just be content to sit it out and let the other campaigning bang on ron desantis is obvi
who has been so aggressive and so assertive in trying to expose donald trump and highlight just how dangerous and dishonest he is. it becomes a lot less impactful, a lot less effective when he s not able to speak directly to donald trump. of course, donald trump knows that. he understands that. that s why he saying this. now, on the flip side, being on the stage and really engaging these candidates, fighting with them, it could benefit donald trump. you know, and you can see his numbers go even higher than they are right now. i don t know what he ll actually do in the time comes, if he does hold this alternative and, it won t be because he doesn t want the attention of being onstage, it will be because he doesn t want to have to confront the questions that will come from the moderators or something like chris christie. the other candidates don t scare him? you know, whether they like their, not hate to be the want to say it, you know, tim scott, nikki haley, those candidates don t scar
really do permit garland to take that course. he doesn t have to, he could ve decided to take more ownership over the prosecution. but the whole idea, under those rules, was to provide the attorney general with the flexibility to have some insulation. here, lawrence, we see and there can be any number of criticism about those rules, but here we see one really good powerful point that they underscore. if you look at donald trump s, it s not a tweet, vote every on truth social tonight, he announced the indictment by saying that the biden administration informed him he was being indicted. now, that just isn t true. the biden administration is presumably attorney general garland. but this prosecution was run by jack smith, under the special counsel regulations. jack smith is not a member of the biden administration. he s a career, federal prosecutor.
what nbc news is reporting? that merrick garland did not approve any of these charges, did not get involved in approving of the charges? yeah, the special counsel regulations, written in 1999, really do permit garland to take that course. he doesn t have to, he could ve decided to take more ownership over the prosecution. but the whole idea, under those rules, was to provide the attorney general with the flexibility to have some insulation. here, lawrence, we see and there can be any number of criticism about those rules, but here we see one really good powerful point that they underscore. if you look at donald trump s, it s not a tweet, vote every on truth social tonight, he announced the indictment by saying that the biden administration informed him he was being indicted. now, that just isn t true. the biden administration is presumably attorney general
it s a question about whether he s willing to take on that issue. i don t know, i m a little skeptical, i think it s not in his nature. to push that boundary, if he doesn t have to. but he may be, at some, point frustrated have to say, i don t have to deal with this in a second term. if i win reelection, let s think about doing it now. before we get to that point. yeah, i would just say, for the institutionalist, our president, preserving the full faith and credit of the united states is a norm worth preserving. that too is an institution. jen psaki, peter baker, thank you for joining me tonight. really appreciate your time. thank, you alex. mitch mcconnell has now weighed in on the house passage of the debt ceiling saying now it is the senate s turn to pass this agreement without delay. so, that is a good indicator of what may happen in the upper chamber. still to come tonight, the price for republicans to act responsibly on u.s. debt is going to fall on some of the shoulders of