To a point. In my opinion, this trial despite what dates anybodys asking for or anything else, it is not going to happen before the election. Plus, the aloha spirit on maui, Lahaina Strong Spray painted on the side of an overpass, but that phrase is being tested every single day. The Recovery Process there painfully slow. Now a key official has resigned as authorities admit theyve searched just 40 of the burn zone. Weve got the latest straight ahead. And deadlier wildfires, record breaking heat and stronger hurricanes all tied to Climate Change, a new study now finds the massive role the richest americans have when it comes to climate emissions, but they arent the ones paying the price. Ill speak with the lead author of that study. But we begin with the move that brings to mind the old adage go big or go home. Former president Donald Trumps lawyers are now officially asking for a major delay in his federal Election Interference Trial in washington, d. C. , asking the judge to push it to april of 2026. Nearly a year and a half after the 2024 race ends, and his lawyers did it with a court filing that perfectly reflects their client, both aggressive and with a bend towards the theatrical. Comparing stacks of paper, evidence, to both the statute of liberty and the national monument, so they argue they need more than two years to prepare, and they also cited conflict created by the former president s crowded legal calendar. Fani willis wants her case on march 4th, 2024. The Hush Money Case in new york is set for march 25th, 2024, and its may 20th, 2024, in the florida case for classified documents. Were now learning that calendar could get even more crowded. The Arizona Attorney general confirming her office is investigating a possible Fake Electors case. And by the way, that promised Monday Press Conference where trump claimed hed reveal irrefutable proof that exonerates him, well, that has now been canceled, but added to the schedule, an interview right up against the republican debate. Joining me now nbcs justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, former florida congressman and msnbc political analyst, david jolly, and former u. S. Attorney, University Of MichiganLaw Professor and msnbc legal analyst, Barbara Mcquade. So good to have you all there. I want to start, david, with Breaking News from the New York Times that the former president plans to upstage the first republican primary debate wednesday by doing an online interview with the former fox news host Tucker Carlson. Thats according to multiple people briefed on the matter. We have not confirmed that here at nbc, although we have reached out to his campaign. Anything about that surprise you, david . It doesnt surprise me that hes skipping, but i do think remarkably we get a little bit of insights into Donald Trumps thinking around his legal peril and the politics of the republican race for the presidency, and its this, chris. You know, there was speculation that he would kind of lean in to his jeopardy in georgia, if you will, possibly even surrender himself for arrest on the day of the debate. Theres also is this notion he would hold this Press Conference where he would be talking openly about the very things that have led to his criminal allegations. But instead you saw him back off of that, and i think thats interesting because what he chose inside is a fairly typical republican activity, which is to sit down with Tucker Carlson. Now, the intriguing thing in practice is this. Weve known donald trump wants to own the news cycle around the gop debate. He can do that by just being silent and making all the others look like little candidates compared to the former president. He could do so by a major distraction. The problem with the Tucker Carlson piece is nobody knows how to watch it. I have no idea how to watch Tucker Carlson, and fox news is currently suing tucker saying youre not allowed to be doing these news feeds. Some people will see it, but will it really own the air waves and own the news cycle sitting down with Tucker Carlson for an Online Community that very few people know how to find . Well see. Lets talk about whats going on in court because that was fascinating too. Now that both sides in the Washington Trial Have made their date proposals and their, frankly, very, very, very far apart, what happens now . Well, chris, judge Tanya Chutkan has scheduled a Status Conference and a hearing on this issue for august 28th at 10 00 a. M. Where she will hear both sides argue their briefs. As you said, they are miles apart, and when you talk to legal experts about this, what they say is both sides are being a little ridiculous in terms of what they want. Jack smith asking for a trial date in january giving only four or five months for the defense to prepare, and then of course trumps lawyers absurdly suggesting the trial should be in april 2026. Trumps lawyers do make a valid point, though, in that they are receiving 11. 5 million documents. And as you said, they tried a number of ways to illustrate that. My favorite is they would have to read War And Peace 78 times a day from now until jury selection. Thats a little bit of a misnomer. The prosecution is going to give them a road map of the important documents. They do have to do their due diligence. The judge does have to give them a chance to prepare an adequate defense. Will that take two years . Of course not. The real question is whether she thinks she can schedule a trial before the November 2024 election. And were going to find out fairly soon, chris. Strategically, do you think this is a split the difference kind of move by the defense, if they put it way out there and they know where the prosecutor is, that the judge will come in somewhere in the middle and ha buys them more time, or is that just completely unrealistic and playing to their client . I think thats the strategy. There is this theory in negotiation of level setting. The place where you start ends up being closer to where you land, and so if you start by asking for the moon, oftentimes you can then say, okay, ill be reasonable. Ill settle for half the moon, have it your way. But sometimes when you go too far and too audacious then the judge or the other side can see through it. 2026, if theyd started with something in 2025, that might have sounded a little more reasonable. Its so out there that i think they may have just blown any credibility they had in asking for an amount of time. But, but, let me argue what the New York Times states, which is true obviously, that three different prosecutors want to put trump on trial in four different cities next year all before memorial day, and in the middle of a president ial campaign, and as they put it, it will be nearly impossible to pull awful. They call it i thought this was very clever a kind of game of courthouse twister. Does any individual judge have to look at what else is happening everywhere else and what may be a growing number of cases in deciding this is the trial date . Yes, absolutely. And so i think they have to look at what else is on the calendar. For one thing, this maralago trial is set for may, and so you have to think about how long that trials going to take and giving the parties time to prepare for that. The georgia indictment, thats going to take a couple of months to try, and so to try to squeeze that in, you know, to march before this other trial in may, i just dont know that the timing is going to line up. And so i think judges must be mindful of all the other things on the calendar in court, you know, not necessarily whats happening on the political calendar. So lets talk about the politics of this, david, and im going to paraphrase our good friend Joe Scarborough from this morning, and that is that, look, if youre innocent youd want to get this out of the way before people start voting. Youd want to show them i didnt do anything wrong. There is no hesitation you should have about voting for me. Is he right . Yeah, i have a different take on this politically, and i think this filing look, there are legally prudent reasons that a court has to consider these requests, as ken and barb have suggested. I think if there is any political indication here, its this, we know that donald trump does not want any trial before the republican nomination is shored up sometime in march. And the calendar is likely on his side. He could push things likely past march, but the notion that there could be a trial next summer in one of the four matters, certainly that probability begins to increase. If youre donald trump, all of the indictments right now have you up 30 points. The idea of the trial is an uncertainty. Its a risk. And in the republican nomination race, it was clear donald trump doesnt need or want to take that risk. Hes happy to run on the indictments and stay up 30. The question is in a general election is he willing to put his freedom on the line ahead of a november general election. This suggests notwithstanding the amount of documents and the legally prudent reasons for this request, this suggests that donald trump is happy to take the indictments through next november and actually probably doesnt want a trial going into the general election. Lets also talk if we can, david, about the decision to cancel that new jersey Press Conference where he was going to exonerate himself with this,ing i dont know, these documents that were going to show he didnt do what hes accused of doing. Is he maybe finally listening to his lawyers . What do you think happened here . Look, ken and barbara cover his Legal Affairs as closely as anyone, and donald trump is never someone to listen to his lawyers, so to think that maybe this week he listened to his lawyers, who knows. I dont think thats ever the case with donald trump. I do think we see him periodically, thinks just get too hot politically. If you go back to this idea that now hes going to do a sitdown with tucker. I think donald trump said maybe leaning into the georgia indictment and leaning into the conspiracies during the debate is not actually the contrast i want. Its a little too close to the fire. I dont have to do that, and so he drew back. You see donald trump do this a lot. Its a lot of bluster, and then when the heat comes, he steps back. I think thats why he canceled. Can we talk about the other thing, little thing thats going on monday, which is in a courtroom with judge chutkan, and her warning previously about him making incendiary statements, which raises the question potentially if youre his lawyer about doing an interview with, you know, the former fox host, having said that, she warn him that if incendiary statements were made, she could actually set an earlier trial date. What will she weigh in making that decision . So shes in a really tricky spot, chris. I mean, on the one hand, some of the things he said already seem incendiary to me going after potential witnesses. Hes talked about mike pence. He talked about the former Lieutenant Governor in georgia on his truth social postings. I mean, it strikes me as east already gone incendiary, calling jack smith deranged, but i think that the judge has to be careful about the consequences of that. If she moves up the trial date as a penalty for him, i think theres an issue on appeal about whether he was given due process for adequate preparation time. So you know, it might put him on a shorter leash, but i dont know that she really has the ability to follow through on that. The other thing she can do is to jail him. That really plays into his whole victim hood for political persecution, that he would use that as further ammunition for his political success. So i think shes in a little bit of a trick box here in terms of her ability to really put teeth in this other than to say i really, really mean it. Let me ask you, finally, to go back to where we started, if i can, david, which is assuming that this happens, that the Tucker Carlson interview happens because i would say you could maybe state that donald trump could be a bit mercurial, but if it happens, how does that change the strategy for anyone else whos on that debate stage . Yeah, i think its coming into focus here. Donald trump next week has likely decided he does not want to play the role of the victim of the deep state. This weaponization thing perhaps is not the narrative he wants when everybody else is on stage. He wants to be the heavy weight former president whos above it all. I think thats what hes trying to achieve with tucker. He can be that former president above the rest of the folks on the stage. The obvious data for every candidate on the stage next week is you cannot attack donald trump. The closest i think youll see them get is he hasnt won and he cant win. There are too many distractions so look at me. We saw in Kathy Barnett in the Pennsylvania Senate race a fascinating tactic on this. Which is when she said maga doesnt belong to one person, it belongs to all of us. I love donald trump and i hope youll let me be a vessel for maga as well. Id look for variations of that theme on the stage in the gop ke bait. I used the word mercurial, we havent confirmed anything on our end responding to the New York Times reports, which is citing several different sources. So, again, we are reaching out to both the Trump Campaign as well as Tucker Carlsons team. Well keep you posted. Former congressman david jolly, thank you. Barbara mcquade youre going to stay with me. And coming up in just 60 seconds, one day after defending his decision to not sound the emergency sirens, mauis top official has resigned. How residents are responding and their message for tourists as they try to heal next. Heal next. bridget with Thyroid Eye Disease i hid from the camera. And i wanted to hide from the world. For years, i thought my t. E. D. Was beyond help. But then i asked my doctor about tepezza. vo tepezza is the only medicine that treats t. E. D. At the source not just the symptoms. In a Clinical Study more than 8 out of 10 patients taking tepezza had less eye bulging. Tepezza is an infusion. Patients taking tepezza may have infusion reactions. Tell your doctor right away if you experience high blood pressure, fast heartbeat, shortness of breath or muscle pain. Before getting tepezza, tell your doctor if you have diabetes, ibd, or are pregnant, or planning to become pregnant. Tepezza may raise blood sugar even if you dont have diabetes and may worsen ibd such as Crohns Disease or ulcerative colitis. Now, im ready to be seen again. Visit mytepezza. Com to find a ted Eye Specialist and to see bridgets before and after photos. Mauis top Emergency Official has redesigned. Herman andaya citing health concerns, as wildfires spread throughout the island killing at least 111 people. Officials estimate 1,300 are still missing with shell shocked residents listing the names of loved ones on this google spreadsheet, adding markers for people found and those still not located. They say theyre only just beginning to wrap their minds around the depth of this tragedy. A lot of us havent even had time to grieve. Were just slowly getting out of the survivor mode. As some in maui ask for Space Urging Visitors to stay away, theres also growing concern for the islands economy. 70 of every dollar is tied to tourism. Nbcs dana griffin is on the ground there. Dana, what more can you tell us about this officials resignation and the independent investigator being brought in . Reporter herman andayas resignation comes as the independent investigator will now look at the critical decisionmaking, the policies, and also actions taken the day of the fire to see if there was anything that could have been done differently. Weve heard such criticism from the people of maui as far as enough water being released to make sure that it could fight the fire, the sirens were sounded. Herman andaya says he did not sound those sirens because he thought that it could have prompted people to go toward the flames because those Tsunami Warnings are often used for people to seek higher ground, but residents argue that the sirens would have alerted their elderly relatives to at least go outside and look around that would have given them an opportunity to escape according to a lot of people. Hawaiian electric is also under scrutiny for possibly not deenergizing power lines and possibly one of its power lines causing the fire. Theres video circulating online, the company says that they are looking into the allegations, but they are not commenting on the pending litigation. Theres a lot of frustration from people here who are also looking for the missing. I would love to see government assistance, and i think that ball is very slowly starting to roll. We lose our family, friends, our houses, everything. We all you see right hear, thats the Community Coming together all the time. We just have to keep going. Reporter 111 people have been on firmed dead, up to 1,300 remain missing. Right now 58 of that decimated area has been searched. The governor hopes to reach 85 by the weekend. Back to you. Under threat of yet another wildfire, the entire capital of canadas northwes