i did everything right and they indicted me. and what it means to set and then immediately break the record for hottest day ever recorded on planet earth. when all in starts, right now. good evening from new york. i m chris hayes. hope you had a good july 4th weekend. we are rapidly approaching the real actual serious for now start of the 24 republican primary. the first rnc debate is next month in milwaukee where the republicans will also hold their 2024 convention. while it s still too early for any real predictions about who voters will choose or how this will play out, right now, speaking as of today, it does look like donald trump is way ahead of everyone else. and that is in large part because florida governor ron desantis, who was initially hyped up is the candidate who could take on trump, has seen his poll numbers tank. just look at the polling averages since the start of this calendar year. desantis line should commit with its own slide whistle. he s almost 30 p
july champion of the world, joey chestnut! how is that for an introduction of the all-time greatest joey jaws chestnut getting it done again on coney island winning the nathan s hot dog eating contest by putting down, ready for this, 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes. he s gross and he s a champion, jonathan lemire. john, there was a rain delay yesterday. you always wonder how s the rain delay going to affect the pitcher. yep. how does the rain delay affect a team? boy, he seemed to ride it out. keep that game face on and just again achieve disgusting, disgusting heights again yesterday with 62 hot dogs in ten minutes. his 16th nathan s hot dog eating contest. he s the greatest. he s the goat. i refuse to watch the footage of joey chestnut eating these hot dog. my eyes are closed. that right there, that introduction, that joey chestnut just received, he would like the same introduction. that s mike barnicle. congrats to joey chestnut. my god, let s stop watching this now.
and that s in large part because ron desantis, who was initially hyped up as the candidate has seen his poll numbers tank. just look at the polling averages since the start of this calendar year. desantis should come with its own slide whistle. he s almost 30 points behind trump and the average of the national poll. even a top official at a pro-desantis superpact recently conceded his campaign has been a bust so far. right now in national polling we are way behind. to be blunt and honest, it s an uphill battle. i don t think it s a winnable battle but clearly donald trump is the runaway front-runner in the first four states which matter tremendously. polls are tighter. we re clearly still down. we have work to do and wood to chop. it does seem like a bad sign when one of your top surrogates has to admit that but it s true at least and a lot of reasons the desantis campaign is doing so poorly. one reason is what some are calling a lack of charisma which seems to be alienat
want polls to telegraph what they ll do. more often than no, some of those polls don t remotely turn out to match the actual vote. so when we have had a chance to go out and talk to people here, they say the same thing. don t tell me how i m going to vote. they look at trends and events that can change often hour by hour let alone day by day. in this state, where it s all on the line, they greatly take pride in knowing that they are the first primary state in the nation. they plan to take full advantage of that and keep the rest of us guessing. yeah, i support trump. i m an accountant. nikki says she wants an accountant in the white house. it s a good idea. not her. right now we have the highest level of enthusiasm that anybody has seen ever. more people need to vote. neil: do you have a candidate yourself? do i? yes. for now. i m supporting nikki haley. get out tomorrow, take five friends with you. if you do that, chris said he s bringing good weather. we ll have
telling you that. that s why they re sending all these democrats into run and it s crazy. it s not personal for me. i had no people want me to hate trump or love trump. that s not what it is. i just tell it on policy. i m not going to talk about him personally. i think politics is too personal and i think that s why people are so frustrated right now. donald trump and nikki haley with very different approaches to talking about the other. both are making their pitch to voters in new hampshire while ron desantis, meanwhile, has his sights scarily set on haley s home state. we ll have much more from the campaign trail straight ahead. plus, the latest from capitol hill on two major items, the spending bill to avoid a government shutdown, and the foreign aid package that republicans have tied to border security. and also ahead we ll bring you the new developments breaking out of the middle east. the u.s. is hitting more houthi targets as tensions are now rising between pak