2024 Elections

On Monday morning, the panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" was alternately stunned and amused by Donald Trump's speech on Friday where he seemed to give evidence he believes he's running against former President Barack Obama and then warned about the risk of World War II.

After running a clip from Trump's speech given at the Pray, Vote, Stand summit, where he complained that President Joe Biden is "cognitively impaired" and then suggested he was leading Obama in the polls for the 2024 election, co-host Joe Scarborough burst out laughing.

Focusing on the former president's assertion, which was given while dramatic music played in the background, that Biden could plunge the U.S. into World War II, the MSNBC host shredded Trump's cognitive capabilities.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

A new CBS News poll is another to contribute to the narrative that there is something wrong with President Joe Biden's age while Donald Trump's age and mental fitness are going unquestioned.

But as a young voter and host of "iGen Politics," Victor Shi observed, the same poll shows a record 65 percent support for Biden among voters under 30. For voters between 30 and 44, Biden enjoys 56 percent support. The lowest amount of support for Biden comes from those over 65.

President Joe Biden responded to an impeachment inquiry with a sarcastic quip for House Republicans.

Upon returning to the White House on Sunday, the president was asked about the recently-launched impeachment inquiry.

Fox News host Eric Shawn challenged Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NY) after he backed an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and his family.

While speaking to Shawn on Sunday, Van Drew asserted the impeachment inquiry was warranted because Biden family members had allegedly received money from foreign entities.

ABC News host Jonathan Karl repeatedly corrected Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) as she claimed there was evidence that President Joe Biden was guilty of receiving bribes.

"Was this premature, going all the way with an impeachment inquiry?" Karl asked Mace during a Sunday interview on This Week.

Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Democratic candidates want an abortion policy that will "kill the baby after birth."

During her first interview as host of Meet the Press, Kristen Welker asked Trump if he took responsibility for women who could no longer get abortions after he installed Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Sunday attempted to explain why people find him "annoying."

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream confronted the candidate about his poor performance in the polls.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show," former GOP campaign consultant Rick Wilson poured cold water all over former vice president Mike Pence's moribund bid to be the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee in absolutely brutal terms.

Pointing out that the ex-veep has gone nowhere in the polls, Wilson said he wasn't surprised and labeled the Indiana Republican a lifelong second-tier politician.

After stating Pence is "not in touch with American society in any way," he continued, "Look, Mike Pence was always a failure. The guy failed up over and over again. He was a terrible congressman. His first campaign, he got caught paying his own mortgage out of his campaign funds. He became a failed radio talk show host."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

"I mean, Mike Pence is one knock short of stoning gays in his position in social conservative matters," he added. "I worry that anybody gives the guy the time of day but the polling has shown us where he's at. It's in the basement, digging lower. Mike Pence isn't even getting the mini-bump everyone else has been getting in this campaign where the non-Trump Republicans look at somebody for five minutes. Even [Vivek] Ramaswamy had two minutes of glory. Mike Pence has none."

"He's a dead brand, a spent force, and a guy who's gonna come in fifth or sixth in Iowa and that will be that, the end of the ballgame," he predicted.

You can watch below or at the link.

Based upon recent speeches made by the leading contenders for the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination, there appears to be a growing rift between what evangelicals want as the top priority of the next GOP administration and what the potential nominees are offering.

According to a report from the Guardian's David Smith, the surge of conservative voters Donald Trump has brought into the party who are not affiliated with churches has watered down the need to keep evangelicals happy and that showed in the speeches delivered at the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand Summit on Friday.

As the report notes, the elephant in the room is the question of banning abortions as a key plank for the GOP ticket which evangelicals see as a priority and contenders for the nomination are treading carefully based on recent election results.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

Case in point, Smith notes, was Trump's comments on Friday where he seemed to be hedging on making abortion a centerpiece of his campaign.

Writing, "... even as the former president basked in the religious right’s moment of triumph, he went on to deliver a warning," Smith reports Trump told the crowd, "I will say politically, it’s a very tough, it’s a very tough decision for some people, but very, very hard on elections. Very, very hard ... We had midterms and this was an issue, you know.”

The former president was not the only one dancing around the issue.

According to former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, Donald Trump could be on the hook for "serious" financial sanctions levied by United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Tanya Chutkan if he continues to ignore her admonitions about what he can say about his ongoing trial.

Reacting to a report that special counsel Jack Smith is asking for a gag order to keep the former president from harassing witnesses and investigators, Lam suggested that, even if a limited gag order is put in place, that won't necessarily stop the former president from spouting off.

As she told MSNBC host Ali Velshi, Chutkan might be able to get Trump's attention by hitting him in the wallet.

"This is a power struggle between Judge Chutkan and Donald Trump and Judge Chutkan is going to win this battle," she stated. "This is why she will do it in a measured way and [special counsel] Jack Smith is proceeding in a measured way, and they're saying, 'Here is the evidence of what he's done in the past and there is a concern about what he's going to do in the future.' and, Judge Chutkan, what are the tools she has in the toolbox."

"She does not want to arrest him and put him in custody until the election or until the trial -- that's going to be problematic," she continued. "But she can impose pretty considerable financial fines. She can say, 'Your first financial fine, your first transgression is going to be X amount of dollars. The next time you're doing it it's going to be twice that amount' and she can keep going up."

"So once she imposes an order and once he violates that order now we are not really talking about First Amendment so much anymore, we are talking about the court's orders," she elaborated. "With respect to the line where the First Amendment is drawn, it's always a tricky line."

"Remember who Judge Chutkan's ultimate audience is: it's the Court of Appeals and perhaps the Supreme Court," she explained. "Who are they? They are judges. They understand the importance of keeping control over a trial and the judicial system and I think ultimately they're going to play this correctly and it's not going to go well for Donald Trump."

Watch below or at the link.

In interviews with CNN, supporters of Donald Trump — who is facing criminal trials in Florida; Washington, D.C.; Manhattan and Georgia — blew off concerns he could be a convicted felon by the time the 2024 presidential election rolls around.

The report, from CNN's Kate Sullivan, notes that so-called "MAGA voters" questioned in the key states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota and Texas expressed no loss of support for their man, with many feeling he is the victim of his oft-proclaimed "witch hunt."