Primary. Im Michael Smerconish in philadelphia. Voting is underway now in South Carolina unless all the polls are wrong, donald trump will score a big victory over nikki haley and move one step closer to securing the gop nomination. This despite facing four criminal indictments and personal financial peril on friday in new york state, judge finalized a 355 million judgment against trump and triggered a countdown for when trump must put up cash or post bond to cover that amount. Plus the roughly 100 million in interest that he was ordered to pay. Thats a huge sum No Matter What trumps net worth might be. And it doesnt include the combined the 88 million that he owes e. Jean carroll after twice losing civil trials to her. You would think the combination of potential jail and financial collapse for the republican candidate would build confidence among his democratic detractors. And independent never trumpers and instead the opposite is true the political question on the minds of many is a
Primary. Im Michael Smerconish in philadelphia. Voting is underway now in South Carolina unless all the polls are wrong, donald trump will score a big victory over nikki haley and move one step closer to securing the gop nomination. This despite facing four criminal indictments and personal financial peril on friday in new york state, judge finalized a 355 million judgment against trump and triggered a countdown for when trump must put up cash or post bond to cover that amount. Plus the roughly 100 million in interest that he was ordered to pay. Thats a huge sum No Matter What trumps net worth might be. And it doesnt include the combined the 88 million that he owes e. Jean carroll after twice losing civil trials to her. You would think the combination of potential jail and financial collapse for the republican candidate would build confidence among his democratic detractors. And independent never trumpers and instead the opposite is true the political question on the minds of many is a
for the first time a former president faces indictment, two of them, actually, with the real possibility of more on the horizon. but the presidential campaign is now well under way with the first debate occurring 38 days from now. and from that moment, until election day, november 5, 2024, the calendar is littered with campaign milestones, debates, caucuses, primaries, conventions, raising unique questions as to whether donald trump can be tried without conflicting with the election schedule. and the answer is no. trial in the state case brought by manhattan d.a. alvin bragg has been set, march 25, 2024 in manhattan. trial bought by special counsel jack smith was originally scheduled for next month but is yet to be determined. smith suggested december 11, b lawyers for trumked for postponement until all substantive motions have been presented. they said the court presides over a prosecution by a sitting president, against a rival, therefe a measured consideration and timeline
welcome to the republican rorschach primary. i m michael smerconish in philadelphia. people are reading into the results so far whatever they re wishing for. first there are the never tr trumpers. they say he is essentially running as an incumbent, and still 49% of the voters in iowa, they didn t want him. speaking of iowa, the turnout was abysmal. a little over 110,000 participated, accounting for just under 15% of the state s 752,000 registered republicans. do you know that trump only received a little over 56,000 votes? iowa, iowa is lily white. it is unrepresentative of the country at large. we are a diverse nation of over 335 million, a small number of iowa voters should not determine our destiny. besides, the iowa field, it was still too crowded. when nikki haley finally got him one-on-one in new hampshire she was able to keep it close and received about 43% of the vote. worse for trump, the independents in new hampshire supported haley in huge numbers, showing that tru
are the people most opposed to donald trump actually aiding his election? i m michael smerconish in philadelphia. tuesday is the new hampshire primary. the gop race in the sggranite state thought to be a two person affair. if trump b the first nonincumbent republican to win both iowa and new hampshire, he will be the de facto nominee of his party, but new hampshire could prove more hospitable for haley. high school home to more libertarians and independents. so haley is all in. and so too are many institutional forces which see time running out to stop trump. but are some of those efforts backfiring? mark halperin in his newsletter regularly chronicles this phenomenon which he calls the sad irony of those members of the media and the democratic party who most worry about a trump second term acting in ways that actually make it more likely he will win. here is an example. monday msnbc had the kind of all night extensive coverage of the iowa caucus that we ve come to expect of