good evening. i m mehdi hasan. picture the scene. a cult leader gathers hi followers in waco, texas, as law enforcement closes in. described as a pathologica liar and comment, the cold later rails against th government, rages against th godless left, and depict himself as the chosen one. his disciples eat it up. they worship him they even vowed to give thei lives for him. now, am i describing david - the infamous leader who wa killed along with 75 of hi cold members in the fbi sieg of his waco compound in 1993 or, i might describing forme president donald trump because trump we ll be hosting his first mccartney of 2023 in waco, next weekend, on the 30t anniversary of the waco siege. and, while of course, trump is not accused of the kind of her horrific crimes and delusion that correct was, he is him choosing waco to host maga rally right now is just a little too on the nose for me. but, will he even be there i waco next saturday he doesn t seem to think so. the former pre
on this show but i have to ask tonight, how would an indictment effect i the 2024 race? trump is not just a former president, he is the front runner that raise. who better to ask than a lon time observer of presidents an chief white house corresponden from the new york times pete baker thanks for coming back o the show, peter. politically, do you buy th argument from some of hi supporters as well as people like elon musk that an indictment would help trump in electoral terms, in terms of garnering sympathy from the go base that has slowly, ever s slowly been moving away from trump? i think you are exactly right to point out that we don t know we have never seen anythin like this before, right? there is no history to base ou judgment on. we ought to be careful about making predictions in, as yo put, it uncharted territory. we do not know they are very confident, obviously, that this will help them you want to be confident you ve got to be careful o politics about things you ar confide