NBC host Chuck Todd warned Republican voters on Sunday they should closely monitor former President Donald Trump's 2024 calendar as it is filling up with various court dates ahead of next year's presidential election.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday said that the former president will be facing additional federal charges in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 charges, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, in June after federal prosecutors indicted him for allegedly illegally removing classified documents, at least one of which dealt with U.S. military plans, when vacating the White House in January 2021 and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.
While speaking with NBC host Willie Geist on Sunday Today with Willie Geist, Todd was asked if anything could change Trump's double-digit lead in the Republican primaries.
"Not right now...one of the things we're trying to focus people's attention to is what this calendar is starting to look like in the first six months of 2024," Todd said. "In fact, the day of the Iowa caucuses, a civil trial involving Donald Trump begins."
He added: "I think that all of a sudden Republicans are going to ask themselves what are we doing? But I don't think it's going to happen before it starts to play itself out. I think that when it becomes clear that that the public's uncomfortable with this, it may be too late and he may already have the nomination."
On the state-level, Trump was also indicted in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation into an alleged hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign earlier this year.
In addition, speculation has grown that he could also face an indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, in District Attorney Fani Willis' case into a January 2021 phone call he had with Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, in which the former president asked him to "find" the 11,870 votes needed to beat Joe Biden in 2020. The investigation later expanded to probe allegations of "a multi-state, coordinated plan" between Trump and his allies to influence the results of 2020 election across the country. Trump has maintained his innocence in Willis' probe.
As Trump's legal troubles continue to mount, his luck in the polls does not falter. A YouGov/The Economist poll conducted among 1,500 adults from July 22 to 25 found that 55 percent of respondents planned to vote for Trump in the 2024 primary.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, long viewed as the candidate with the greatest chance of beating him, only received support from 18 percent of voters, while other candidates polled in the single digits. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
Political analyst and Dillard University professor Robert Collins told Newsweek on Sunday that the former president "does not see it as a disservice to voters to continue running while under indictment because he sees the indictments as a way to make himself a martyr in the eyes of the voters."
Collins added: "He is using them to his advantage. Furthermore, Trump sees continuing to run for office as his best legal strategy. He will attempt to use the election as an excuse to ask the courts to delay the trials until after Election Day."
Trump took to Truth Social, his social media platform, on Saturday to address the new charges by the DOJ and wrote, "Why did the Radical Left Democrat Prosecutors wait so long to bring these ridiculous cases against me. They could have been brought years ago but no, they waited to bring them in the middle of my campaign for President because that way they could Interfere and disturb my run for the White House. Two more coming, I guess? What they didn't count on is the fact that the people of America understand these thugs and lowlifes, and my poll numbers have only gone up!"
Update 7/30/23, 12:13 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
