And good morning to you. It is Sunday, December 3rd. I'm Ali Valshi. We begin this morning

with a collision course that could determine not only the outcome of the next presidential

election, but the future of American democracy. It's happening bit by bit every day,

so it's easy to overlook, but Donald Trump is trying

to run out the clock.

The slow walk, the many cases against him, long enough to win the Republican primary before

he can be convicted or maybe even tried of a crime.

And given a recent spate of legal losses for the twice-impeached ex-president, we're

now entering a crucial

time in this high-stakes test of wills. Last week, an appeals court reinstated the gag order

against him in New York. Judges in D.C. also rejected his broad claims of presidential immunity,

which prompted Tanya Chutkin, the judge in Jack Smith's federal election interference

case, to write, quote, defendants' four-year service as commander-in-chief did not bestow on him

the divine right of kings to evade criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens, end quote.

But those legal losses haven't curbed his legal teams' efforts to escape or at least postpone

his prosecutions.

At a hearing on Friday, his lawyers went as far as to argue that a trial in the Fulton County

Georgia case this year would constitute election interference.

Can you imagine the notion of the Republican nominee for president,

not being able to campaign for the presidency because he is, in some form or fashion,

in a courtroom defending you know,

that would be the most effective election interference

...