hello, and welcome to inside politics. i m john king in washington. thank you for sharing a very, very busy news day with u. not your average balloon. u.s. officials sharing new information and they say, yes, china was spying. its balloon part of a surveillance op and scooping up communications snooping on locations in the united states, plus, the president s dual purpose road show. watch me, joe biden says, when asked if he s too old for a second term and today in florida, a state donald trump won twice, the president will warn seniors republicans want to gut social security and medicare. republicans say that s a lie and duct tape and bailing wire. congress gets new behind-the-scenes evidence of how southwest sputtered stranding thousands over christmas direct from its pilots union. up first, though for us a big new download of information on the chinese balloon. that courtesy of classified congressional briefings. american defense officials and the fbi. briefers telling l
Special edition of news night. Im Maddie Philip in new york alongside Kaitlan Collins tonight re spect and the cost of compliance with the court. The judge has issued a if he does and if he doesnt threat to former President Trump over his repeats he did breaking of a gag order and the paper trail takes a star turn no headline Witnesses Today in court. But instead, the jury got a crash course in the nittygritty details of the Trump Organization. It was a De Of Show And Tell that included multiple checks and Financial Disclosures bearing the signature of donald j. Trump. That is a critical piece of evidence that the prosecutors need to show that their case doesnt just rest on the word of pr jurors like Michael Cohen, theres also that question of a direct attack on the rule of law. The words of judge juan merchan, starting today addressing violation number ten they gag order that limits what the defendant here i can say. The judge seems poised to move past the fines, lamenting that those
the white house and proposals put forward by republicans thus far. that these trips, it s halfway that but also highlighting the implementation of stuff he already passed thus far. it is a political messaging tactic. it seems like a massive unforced error on the part of republicans. they just have given biden this enormous opening. mitch mcconnell agrees right. swings that bat and hits it right through there. i actually, you know, i mean, this is one of the more when i talk to republican sources this feud between scott and mcconnell has been one of the more emotional ones and people are upset about it but this is why. this is going to lose me seats. what are you doing. p.s., it could have. there are other reasons as well, this is not a new tactic. the democrats and the president, he wasn t out on the campaign trail all that much before this past midterm election, but when he was, he even from the
people to surface. so that s going to become a matter of concern for people. his habit has been to decide these things late. i don t think he has the luxury to do that at least if he s thinking about the party and the country he needs to do it by the first quarter of next year. you think if he gets it next week biden feels compelled to get it quicker? not if you guys rip trump apart we would never do that. i ll tell you what i think it changed. i always said, oh, if trump gets in he s going to want to run against him and beat him. now even if trump gets in next week who knows who the nominee is going to be because trump has been wounded after this election. so running against a rick desantis is very different from running against a donald trump. and don t forget during the last campaign to david s age issue, he campaigned during covid. he wasn t out on the campaign trail constantly, which you have