Any more electionselections. Voters are not just choosing between the candidates but making critical decisions about the basic fundamentals of the democracy. Polling in the last knew 2024 primaries show us everything show us that donald trump will defeat nikki haley by significant margins. And Super Tuesday will perhaps mark this days away from Trump Clinching the republican nomination officially. That means today will, if nothing else, crystallize the choices that americans face in november. This between two president s, one current, one former. One president who has an agenda that commands broad public support. His commitment to our democracy and our institutions has never been in doubt. But hes dogged by some lackluster polling that doesnt match up with support for his policies. And the other, well, you know the other. Four times indicted, twice impeached expresident who currently faces 91 Felony Counts in four jurisdictions. Hes been found liable for sexual abuse. Set to pay hundre
good morning. i m victor blackwell. this is first of all and today we re starting in the middle east. iran is condemning airstrikes by the usa military in syria and iraq. the strikes are in retaliation for the deaths of three american soldiers killed in a drone attack in jordan almost a week ago. president biden says this is only the start. cnn s katie bolillis is in washington. let s start with you and tell us about the targets. reporter: the u.s. military striking 85 targets associated with both iranian-backed militia as well as also used by iran s own forces. these targets included everything from intelligence centers to rockets and missiles and other munitions facilities, to command and control hubs to logistics facilities. now, at this point in the coming hours and days the u.s. military will be doing what is known as a battle damage assessment, to lean on u.s. intelligence to try to independently verify the toll these strikes took, both the damage that they caused t
derail the special counsel probe of donald trump. president biden tells the dnc and his campaign team to stay quiet about trump s indictment inside his 2024 strategy. plus, fierce fighting in ukraine as vladimir putin tries to claim kyiv s counter offensive is failing. we re live with an update on what s happening on the front lines. and breaking right now, what investors have been waiting for, a key decision from the federal reserve on interest rates. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments and we do begin this hour with that breaking news from the fed. cnbc s morgan brennan is here for cnbc on msnbc. i think, morgan, we re on a ten-meeting streak by the fed of raising interest rates. what just happened? hold, that is what just happened. so we had ten raises, and now we hold. the federal reserve hitting the pause button on its campaign of interest rate hikes, as i say these words, keeping the federal funds rate unchanged at 5 to 5 1/4%. this a
welcome to our viewer in the united states and around the world. i m christine romans. and we begin with donald trump s arrest and arraignment in the classified documents case. the washington post reports that trump rejected efforts by one of his lawyers to cut a deal with the justice department to return the documents and avoid indictment. post says chris kise wanted to negotiate with the doj back in the fall after the fbi found more than 100 class filed documents at mar-a-lago. but cnn spoke to sources close to trump s legal team and they cast doubt on whether that was a real opportunity to settle. and merrick garland is depending the special counsel behind the trump indictment, jack smith. paula reid has more. reporter: speaking for the first time since former president trump was indicted mr. smith is a veteran career prosecutor. reporter: attorney general merrick garland standing by special counsel jack smith who was prosecuting former president trump and ad
obstruction, conspiracy, lying and espionage. what happens now? when it comes to republicans in congress, this time it is not so certain. a lot of them are split. some are willing to stick by donald trump, like senator eric schmidt of missouri who said that the charges are, quote, unequal application of the law. nor senator john barrasso of wyoming who said, quote, it feels political, it s rotten. others are being a little more cautious. after all, these are espionage charges. there s, quote, no way to defend the allegations said rep don bacon of nebraska. i would not feel comfortable with a convicted felon in the white house, said a rep from colorado. there isn t a clear ideological common denominator within this split. we re going to explore why that is. what is clear, and maybe this is part of the reasoning for some is that this indictment might not be the only criminal trouble that former president trump could be in. there are two more investigations related to overturnin