but even former ambassador haley on the debate stage last week she told voters, listen, he is the most unpopular politician in the country right now and we can t win a general election if he is the nominee. so some of them are sort of finding some spine on this issue. but i think that because of the pushback that they are receiving from what we have seen is a really intense base of the party, there seems to be little appetite for that. can t win if he is the nominee, but maybe can t win if you criticize him, these things both can be true which is so tricky for this field. to point out that this date before super tuesday was put in place today, we also just have to mention that there were developments in two cases. you have that one that is a trial date for a federal case, and then today you had mark meadows testifying for hours trying to get the georgia election interference case at least his moved to federal court. so it is this sort of confluence
chief of staff takes the stand in hopes of moving his trial to federal government. we ll tell you what mark meadows said in court and why he wants the case moved out of the state s jurisdiction. and we are tracking tropical storm idalia, it is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane targeting the florida coast this week. we re following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news central . a trial date is set. today a federal judge chose march 4, 2024 as start date for the special counsel s election interference trial of donald trump. that the day right before super tuesday. of course pivotal day when voters in several states will have the chance to pull the lever possibly for trump or others in the republican primary and much sooner than the april 2026 date that trump s defense
current case in fulton county where trump is not popular to say the least. case in point, former president trump earned 26% of the vote there, just 26% of the vote back in 2020. and there is as well another benefit for trump. and that is judges. he has appointed four of the 15 judges on the northern district of georgia district court bench that would give him a decent chance of getting one of his own picks for the trial. we should note that trump drew one his own you additional appointees in the classified documents case, that of course being judge canon ejudge aileen. and if it moves to federal court, there is a chance that he could pardon himself if elected president again. key have th he would have that authority. and let s break it down with andrew mccabe and ben ginsberg.
criminal cases the former president is now involved in happens before election day november 2024? are you confident that one or more of them does happen? i think the likelihood got better today with the recent scheduling order in the january 6 case here in d.c. i think that there is a real chance now that that case could go to trial and come to conclusion before the election. however, even that trial date as motions come up and things are won and lost and appealed and delayed, that date could slip but we have a fair amount of time to get it in. understood. andrew, ben, thank you both. state of emergency has been declared in florida ahead of idalia s expected landfall as a major hurricane. we ll have the looitatest on th storm. and also in jacksonville, the sheriff says he believes the gunman accused of killing several people at a dollar general store hated anyone who wasn t white. we re live on the scene. and then later, nascar
six months away, i will not be able take provide effective counsel to the president. he said that it will deny president trump the opportunity to have effective assistance of counsel. and so they are already laying the ground work that this is not enough time here. the judge basically said i m not taking anything else into consideration here. the quote was she is setting a trial date, it does not depend and should not depend on the defendant s personal or professional obligations. so she set that march 4 trial date without any real considerations on what else is going on for the former president. they can appeal where and how quickly that happened. down the road. they are basically saying this time line does not give us the proper ability to adequately prepare for this trial and adequately represent trump. so that is just setting the stage for far in the future. and their record even on appeal has not been great in a lot of these cases going back to the attempt to overturn the el