Hi there, everyone. Happy Friday. It is 4 o'clock in the east, taking shape this afternoon.

What will surely be one of the most active, perhaps most dire inflection points in modern

American political history, a months-long collision of generational events, all necessitating

decisions in court and at the ballot box that will shape the future of our country's democracy.

And as we said, today provides crucial new clarity on how exactly it will all go down

and what. This morning, we learned Judge Aileen Kennan, the federal judge overseeing the

case, having to do with classified documents improperly retained and stored at Mar-Lago,

chose the date to start that trial. That is May 20, 2024. Now, given the upcoming political

calendar, the Justice Department wanted and sought an earlier date, they wanted to start

in December, but Judge Kennan rejected a request from Donald Trump's legal team as well,

one that would have had the trial commence after the 2024 election. Our friend and colleague

Andrew Weissman calls that a big win for Special Counsel Jack Smith. We consider for a moment

that broader picture we mentioned. May 20, 2024. By then, a bulk of Republican primaries

will be over with the obvious caveat that anything in politics can change at any time,

much less a year away. Recent history does suggest it's very likely, quite possible,

that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president by then. On top of all

of Trump's other court dates across a number of different cases, there's also a chance

that procedural developments could make this May 20th date slide, into getting it closer

to the November election. So let's sketch our breath now what we still can, because we

are on the doorstep of a once in a lifetime moment in our politics, a potentially dangerous

one. And that is where we start today with former US Attorney General Eric Holder. He serves

as the chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. Mr. Attorney General,

...