this sunday, crime and punishment. president biden backs down from fighting a republican effort to block dc s more lenient approach to crime. we will make chicago the safest city in america. just after the perception of rising crime took down chicago s mayor. we fought the right fights. can biden s moves help democrats from being seen as soft on crime going into 2024? plus, divide and conquer. florida governor ron desantis isn t officially in the race yet, but he s eagerly courting trump s base. i think there is a strong anti-woke majority across the country. the primary fight is kicked into high gear as more candidates consider challenging trump. for those who have been wronged and betrayed, i am your retribution. i will talk to chris sununu who is considering his own white house run. and confronting china. a bipartisan push to face the growing threats from beijing. this is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.
nation once again. we re not a free nation right now. we don t have free press. we don t have free anything. just a small sample of donald trump s dark speech at cpac. we ll have more of the former president s maga messaging in just a moment. meanwhile it sure sounds like his former secretary of state is also running for president. mike pompeo is making the rounds, criticizing trump s fiscal record while in the white house. and also ahead, we ll have a look at president joe biden s visit to selma, alabama, to mark the anniversary of bloody sunday. good morning and welcome to way too early on this monday, march 6th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. we ll begin this week just outside washington, dc, where former president donald trump returned to the stage at cpac over the weekend. for nearly two hours saturday evening trump addressed a smaller than usual crowd at the conservative conference in national harbor, maryland. there the 2024 pre
And the entire republican party and hopefully they saw we didn t win the races we should have won and understand the messaging of getting out there early and not letting democrats define you early. not just about money. it s about having that collective message that has to go forward about being more optimistic, about being something that folks want to join, not just with their dollars but with their vote hopefully in november and, like i said, not let those democrats apply. it s a fundamental chance in approach that the entire republican party is very open to and looking forward to as we hit the november election. i understand what you re trying to do and at the same time you heard the former president at cpac and he has a stranglehold on 35% of the party and we can have a debate about the specific number and you know what those folks want. they want to make liberals cry. right? that s the message they want. they want that more than they want a big tent. how do you appeal to shows v
Is on this, and this is a different lane than what we re used to. of course, i feel for the people of ukraine. i would like them to beat the russians, but we have so many problems here and there are open borders that the money have to be going to. think we need to focus on the people here first rather than other countries. don t take my taxpayer money and send it over to ukraine. enough with this, you know? enough with this war. susan, i think what s remarkable here is donald trump s carving up the outsider lane. this is not the mainstream republican position of ukraine, but it s trump s. it is, and it is not the mainstream republican position and not mitch mcconnell, for instance, but there is growing public concern and not just among trump voters about the extent and the length and the cost of the u.s. commitment to ukraine, and still there s majority support for continuing the effort, but it s really pressuring the administration to come up with how this war can end in a s
So it will be interesting. there is a significant fraction of republican voters who will stick with trump no matter what. oh, i know that. if he s in jail, they will stick with trump and that s a diamond-hard support. no other candidate in america would have. for growth, it s money talking and it s big super pac money. speaking of that, i have to stop the talking because i ve got to end the show. that s all we have for today. thanks for watching. we ll be back next week because if it s sunday, even selection sunday, it s meet the press. if you put me back in the white house, their reign is over. their reign will be over, and they know it. and america will be a free