welcome to in inside politics. i m john king in washington. releasing right now, a brand new snapshot of the republican presidential race. our new poll finds donald trump up big, but it s an important but. voters say they are open to supp supporting ron desantis, who presses the start button on his campaign tonight. the former lawyers want an audience with the attorney general to complain about the special counsel and his investigation. and just moments ago, the house speaker saud he s sending negotiators to the white house. he insists he s conceded a lot. this happening as they pull back the curtain on how the former chief of staff is steering hard right conservatives in this fight over whether they pay their bills. we begin with a big day in the republican 2024 nomination chase. the florida governor ron desantis officially enters the fray tonight. anunsing his run in a conversation with the elon musk. it s a big play on the social media platform critical to donald trump
Breaking right now. A new cnn snapshot of the president ial contest. We have important insights on the Hardening Support for the front runner, the indictments and the giant gap between how they helped trump now or might hurt him in november of 2024. Plus no stroke, no Seizure Disorder, no parkinsons. Senator Mitch Mcconnell gives more detail explaining what did not happen when he froze on camera, but it is unclear if this new information will quiet questions about how long he should stay in his job. And new reporting on the Special Counsel. Sources tell cnn that jack smith is still asking questions about a trump lawyer. Could we see another indictment . Im dana bash. Lets go behind the headlines and inside politics. Up first, a brand new read of what americans are thinking at this early point in the president ial race. New cnn poll numbers are out right now. Lets get started with david chalian, what are we seeing . Were seeing what is basically a oneman race for the republican presiden
So hes been representing the louisiana Congressional District now since 2016. Hes in the leadership, but hes not too high in the leadership. So hes the vice chair of the House Republican conference. Heres the other big thing. He served on trumps first Senate Impeachment trial defense team. Hes a defender of donald trump, and we can see that in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, so what we see is that johnson, in fact, had drafted the house gop legal brief supporting the texas suit. And he objected to Certifying The 2020 Election Results. Now perhaps theres some interesting sort of back and forth. Perhaps some republicans want to forget about it. Lets look back and compare it to now. We have a solemn responsibility today, we must vote to sustain objections to states of electors smutted by states that we genuinely believe clearly violated the constitution and the president ial election of 2020. This is the threshold before us, and its an issue before us for the state of arizona.
the nation s capitol on high alert as tens of thousands rally against anti-semitism in washington, d.c. is and as attacks on jews and tensions over the israel-hamas war soar. plus desperation in gaza as hospitals go without life-saving supplies. doctors frantically move ing newborn babies out of the nicu in gaza s largest hospital as oxygen runs out. what israel says it has offered to help. and a clean shot to the kidneys, republican congressman tim burchett accusing recently deposed kevin mccarthy of elbowing him in the back. kevin mccarthy denying it. what is undenial, we re three days away from a potential government shutdown. we re following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central. the push to free hostages held by hamas is picking up today. just a short time ago, president biden said he believes a deal would free hostages in gaza is going to happen. a senior u.s. official tells cnn that israel and hamas are inch
teeth a ya mitchell join us. is the glass half full or half empty in the sense that he s by far the leading alternative to trump? he s just not where he was at the begin ning of the year wher he was just after the election. people were blaming trump in the rear view mirror, he had not been indicted in new york. on launch day, where are we? glass is half full and half empty. if possible. ron desantis has been absolutely pounded, as david just mentioned, by the former president. the money that he s spent in ads, the way that he has attacked ron desantis on social media and in other opportunities that he s had even on the stump, that s been largely met with crickets from ron desantis. first of all, because he wasn t