today on "inside politics," a baseless political stunt. that's how president biden is describing house republicans' impeachment inquiry. republicans say they are just following the evidence, though so far, they haven't produced it. donald trump is celebrating after a judge hit pause on the election subversion case against him while appeals play out. it means his scheduled march trial could be delayed potentially for months. and more signs of an economy that's actually in pretty good shape. stocks are at record highs. inflation is down. economists think the worst might be behind us. the big question is how voters see it. i'm dana bash. let's go behind the headlines and "inside politics." we start today with the biden impeachment fugt. we have not yet seen evidence of wrong doing by president biden, but yesterday the gop-led house voted to officially begin an impeachment investigation into matters related to his son hunter biden's business dealings. it means the early months of 2024 could be dominated by impeachment hearings and potentially a trial in the senate. democrats say it is a political stunt. one they hope will backfire politically on republicans in an election year. i want to start with arlette saenz at the white house. what are you hearing from sources inside the white house and the biden reelection campaign? >> reporter: the biden campaign is trying to use this opportunity turning it into a political advantage for them. i'm told they started fundraising off of this impeachment inquiry vote last night. already that e-mail that was sent in vice president kamala harris' name is the best performing e-mail just this month. the vice president wrote in that e-mail, house republicans just launched a ridiculous impeachment inquiry into president biden that lacks real evidence and that they themselves admit is all about politics. this is just one of the examples of how the campaign is trying to use this to their plolitical advantage. believing ultimately that republicans push to launch this impeachment inquiry will backfire on them. we have heard messaging from the campaign that this is an attempt to prop up former president trump's reelection campaign. that's message ing that i'm tol the biden campaign will continue to stress in the coming weeks and months as this impeachment inquiry is playing out. here at the white house, they have repeated their refrains that they view this as a political stunt. you also had a very rare statement from president biden just yesterday when he tried to put this into stark contrast saying that while he is focused on working for the american people, house republicans are focused on what he called a baseless political stunt. what this impeachment inquiry vote does is it formalizes the process that house republicans have been engaging in for nearly a year. so far, the investigations into president biden have turned up no evidence of wrong doing on the part of president biden, but what the house republicans are hoping for is that this impeachment inquiry will now give them the tools to try to seek out more information. but there's still a big question of whether this will actually lead to a forthe mall impeachment of president biden down the road. but it's very clear that this could become a key issue heading into the 2k0 24 campaign as republicans play to continue these investigations into biden while biden and his campaign are trying to stress that they are simply doing the bidding of former president trump. >> it's so interesting that reporting that the fundraising effort off impeachment has done the best so far of any of their fundraising appeals. thank you for that. let's talk more about this with the panel here. jeff zeleny, amy walter, and bloomberg's sala mason. i want to start picking up where arlette left off which is on the reaction from the white house. i want you to listen to a spokesperson for the white house council's office said on cnn this morning. >> we have offered over and over and over again throughout this congress to meet with them, to hear about legitimate informational needs they may have. time and time again, they have ghosted us. there's a reason why. the reason why is this is a p preordained outcome. they decided the moment he took office they were going to impeach him. this is a natural continuation of that process. >> you spend your days walking the halls of congress. are you hearing anything from let's just start with the evidence. are you hearing anything from the republicans who are spear heading this that they actually are going to be able to produce some evidence that backs up these claims? >> i think so far, i don't think beyond anything they have shown us, which wasn't particularly convincing. i do think this wasn't that hard of vote for house republicans. they were voting to do what they were doing and can explain, what's wrong with an investigation. they dragged this investigation out and as kevin mccarthy said, it worked because we drove down hillary's poll numbers. maybe we would censure biden because it wouldn't go to the senate. it's the election year. and this investigation will proceed. >> you say it's about benghazi. what we were looking at was the last time or the first time in the trump administration there was an impeachment investigation, an impeachment vote. his numbers politically went up. >> that's what democrats and the biden white house, that's what they are banking on. >> you look at biden's numbers over the last months or few weeks, he's really been losing support and losing steam with his bis. that's really driven by what's happening in israel and hamas. these are younger voter who is are disappointed in the administration's stance there. i don't know if impeachment is the thing that brings them hope versus the engagement process. you already see the biden campaign leaning into this idea that we have to make this a choice. we have to make it very clear to our voters that what the stakes are in this election, so every week they are rolling out here are the terrible things that trump would do as president. here are the terrible things that trump has said. we need to rally around biden. eeb if you're not excited about him, even if you think there should be somebody else as the nominee, even if you don't like what's happening in israel, he is the only person to defeat the bigger existential threat. this makes it pretty obvious. for voters though, who aren't democrats, i think they see this and they think it's business in washington now. we do impeachments. >> we actually have some information or a clip from a focus group of voters who went for trump in 2016, biden in 2020, asking about this very issue about impeachment. let's watch. >> do you support an impeachment inquiry among the bidens? >> none of you. >> where are the facts and the evidence? i largely think that a lot of of the talk about impeachment inquiries and corruptness of the bidens is political posturing. it's noise. >> you're on the campaign trail a lot. you got back this morning from new hampshire. does that comport with what you hear on the trail particularly from voter who is are not sure how to go? >> it does. one more example of why people don't like washington. in the short-term, it maybe beneficial for the biden campaign. i'm struck by something arklett said. it's good news and abomination of desolation news this fundraising appeal was the best of the month, because that shows one other thing. they have struggled a little bit to sort of rally democrats for reasons that amy was saying. you also sort of bigger picture, is every president now who we cover going to be impeached? that seems to be where this country is move ing. that's what frustrates voters they think politicians are in it for themselves. so as a matter of american history, as a matter of why normal people don't like washington, i think this is the reason. front and center is more immediately than that, the plate is pretty the wfull for 2024. there's going to be criminal trials for donald trump. now this impeachment. i'm not sure we know how the politics of this play. democrats believe it's good for them. i don't know. it exposes quite a bit of hunter biden and other things that turns people off. >> so that's on the presidential level. one of the questions is how this is going to affect the house and whether or not republicans can keep the house. listen to what mike lawler, a republican from a very vulnerable district, said. >> today's vote was for an investigation or an impeachment? it was for an investigation. so that is where we are. >> it's not really an impeachment. we just want to get information. is that going to fly in a sweng district like his? >> what we're seeing now in the american electorate is everyone is split on not just the obvious things, but also on what to do with the impeachment inquiry. bloomberg news put out a poll today that shows that 45% of americans polled support an inquiry. 42% are opposed. that's what we're going to see in the races. the house gop's ability to hold on to their votes on the house side. they are having to thread the needle to find a way to message it so that it's not an outright impeachment kwir ri, but we're not wearing out our voters. >> we have to take a quick break. but i can't have karl here and not say this. we have covered the hill for a long time. you are still there. it used to be the notion of impeachment, now it's like jeff said. >> we had one in 200 years. now we are on clinton, two trumps and a biden. i think jeff nailed it. if the president is one party and the house is the other party, it's going to be impeachment. it's censure. all these things have been ramped up. we talk about weaponization. >> we don't have time for this, but you have to come back because i want to talk about how redistricting affects impeachment. >> that really gets you excited. >> in new york it does. donald trump starts to lay out his closing arguments in iowa. >> we will drive out the globalists. we will cast out the communists. we will will throw off the sick political class. we will route the fake news media. we will drain the watch and is liberate our country from these tyrants and villains once and for all. federal judge hit the brakes on donald trump's 2020 election subversion case. the judge says this case is now on hold while trump appeals a ruling on whether he's um mun from prosecution. this means the march 2024 start, which is in the middle of the presidential primary season is, could be pushed back. evan perez is here with us. can you explain the process and the calendar that is so impactful of not just whether or not he will be convict ed, but whether or not if he is the nominee how voters will see him? >> this complicates the calendar, which was already a tight calendar for the courts and the justice department and for donald trump. what this means is that the march 4th trial date, which the judge has been desperately trying to hold on to is absolutely in danger. this is what the judge finally acknowledged in a filing yesterday. we have all been behind the scenes and been doubtful that march 4th was going to be able to be the date. the court would be able to stick to that because of the appeals process that we knew was going to happen. we knew donald trump was going to go to the supreme court and that he is playing a delay game. so even with the most generous and the tightest of deadlines by the supreme court and court of appeals, we're looking at probably a decision from the supreme court justices maybe in february. that is really, really close to a march 4th trial date to start. so what the judge did yesterday is simply acknowledge the reality, which is even if the appeals court said that they are going to expedite their appeal from donald trump, the supreme court has seen a flurry of rulings saying werth going to expedite this pos. because it moves so slowly, by comparison, it means that president trump, the former president is going to et get his delay, at least a little bit of his delay. we don't know how much, but it means that this push it is back further into perhaps closer to when the nominations are. and that makes things a lot more complicated for the justice department. >> it is interesting it was the special counsel that started the ball rolling on what ended up being the delay. he is playing the long game to figure out whether or not the former president will be immune. >> the former president is making the claim that this is election interference. if you get to next summer, that argument starts holding a lot more water. >> no question. thank you so much. our panel is back with us. i want to start with putting a little more of the political context around this. not that we have to reach far to do that, because there's so much politics involved. this is a poll about whether or not voters would vote for donald trump if he were convicted. and the answer is, yes, 25, no, 59. so these kinds of questions if this trial date and others are delayed, will be moved. >> so far, it looks like this kind of polling doesn't affect how trump voters think and how the trump campaign thinks. anything that's happening is happening next year. the deeper we get into 2024, the more it looks like election interference. let me tell you a nugget. trump is trying to turn iowa into trump central. they are fan ning the state to start 2024 and the whole primary season at at the top of the game so they have knocked everyone else out of the park. at this point point, no one is thinking about what the investigations mean for the campaign anymore. >> except the general election they will be if he's the nominee. >> then you have election interference. or voters say ing i don't want this guy to be the president. that's why we have elections. before we get to that point, there is very much a republican race going on. jeff zeleny, you just got back from new hampshire. you were there for a couple days. one of the things that happened was that the sitting governor endorsed nikki haley. that happened a couple nights ago. and chris christie, who is close to governor sununu and playing for broke in new hampshire, was not that thrilled about governor sununu's decision. here's what chris christie said on the campaign trail. >> it meant one vote. it would have been nice to hang around with him and done a buddy show like he and nikki haley are doing, but in the end, the voters are not going to be told by anybody who to vote for. what am i going to say? congratulations on a bad choice? >> his line is, what did it get hnikki haley? one vote. what which is saying he doesn't bring a lot to the table. >> there are more than one sununu up there. a former governor, but any way. it is a big question what endorsements mean. we're going to get a good sense of that. some fresh evidence that endorsements, you'd rather have them than not, but ron desantis has the endorsement of kim ray noldss. nikki haley has chris sununu. he's not popular among the base. he's not popular among trump voter who is are going to remain trump voters. where he is popular is, as he told you in the interview, as among independents and moderates. he brings an organization with him. that's what the campaign is hoping for. and chris christie will admit, he's saud it to all of us, he would have loved the endorsement. >> this is about who is going to be the trump alternative coming out of new hampshire. and one of the issues that is out there and that chris christie is really pounding nikki haley on and did so yesterdayed in new hampshire is the issue of abortion. chris christie thinks that nikki haley doesn't give specific enough answers really on anything he says, but specifically, abortion. let's listen to some of that. >> my heart absolutely breaks for her. when i say we need to have compassion, this is exactly what i'm talking about. when you look at someone's experience, we should never want to see someone with a rare condition who has to deliver a baby. >> she said we should deal with this with compassion. and my heart goes out to the mother. this is a continued pattern on her part. if the question is hard, she want wants to make everybody happy. >> this matters for the kind of voter that each of them is appealing to in new hampshire. >> this is the challenge for haley and has been for christie all along. which is there simply isn't a big enough pool, even in new hampshire, of moderate, independents who both dislike donald trump who would like to see more abortion access to be as what maybe what chris christie is looking at, more liberalized abortion access, who will show up and vote. in other words, sununu, instead of helping her break the ceiling that she has right now in terms of the kinds of people she's appealing to, he's only highlighting that ceiling, which is the kinds of voter who is already decided they want to move donald trump. she's their choice. for those who like donald trump, think he can win, and the cnn poll in new hampshire, 57% of republicans in new hampshire think donald trump can win in november, how is sununu's endorsement going to tell voters in new hampshire and other states that she is the better candidate for those people who still thinks he can win. >> they are trying to get the big mo. let's see if it happens. everybody, standby. up next, joe biden's border find. president has a chance to make a big deal with republicans on the issue of immigration. the question being asked at the white house right now is what will progressives do. welcome back. president biden skbh and republicans are inching closer to a deal on immigration policy changes. to do that in order to get aid for ukraine and israel, but the president does face an uphill bat toll get his own party on board. as do republican leaders getting their right flank on board. priscilla alvarez joins me now. what are you hearing about negotiations right now? >> all indications right now is that there has been some progress, but exactly what that is still unclear. what has been clear is that the president has said repeatedly that he's open to compromise, but that means compromising on one of the most delicate political issues for this white house. which is the handling of the u.s./mexico border. the growing urgency is by this white house to get money to ukraine and israel is putting democrats in a very difficult position. one that it's putting them in a box. they are having to embrace and support some of these concessions that are very similar to the trump administration and ones that not long ago democrats were criticizing. now sources tell me that some of these concessions include expelling migrants without the chance to seek asylum. that's from the covid era restriction. as well as raising the credible fear standard for asylum seekers, more deportations and expanding detention. these are all difficult pills to the swallow for progressives, who for years have slammed the trump administration for taking a similar path when it came to the border and now it's the white house who seems to be open to all of these to get that aid to the finish line. >> so interesting. thank you so much for that reporting. our panel is back here. how many offices have we stood outside for almost two decades as they negotiate some grand bargain on immigration and these issues are so tricky, so complicated, so political that it falls through. i talked to somebody involved in these talks this morning who said, they are actually making real progress. i know you have been doing reporting on this. >> i was in the capitol this morning. chuck schumer was over in mitch mcconnell's office. they seemed to be trying to get a deal. both senator mcconnell and chuck schumer for once. the same thing. they want it very badly. they need to be seen to be w working on this. so if they don't get a deal, at least they will have tried hard when they leave