Ugly start to ’24: Two presidential frontrunners, two special counsels

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Ben Kamisar, Bridget Bowman and Alexandra Marquez Friday, January 13, 2023 FIRST READ Dual investigations into Trump, Biden signal ugly start to 2024 campaign Win McNamee; Brandon Bell / Getty Images If it's FRIDAY… Attorney General Merrick Garland appoints special counsel to review classified material discovered at President Biden's home and former office… NBC's Carol Lee and Courtney Kube report that one of the classified documents found at Biden's old office was marked with the highest classification status, "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information" or "TS/SCI"… New Nebraska governor names predecessor, former GOP Gov. Pete Ricketts, to fill vacant Senate seat… Democrat Brandon Presley announces bid for MS-GOV… And quick note: We'll be off on Monday for MLK Day.   But FIRST… We're less than a month into the new year and the 2024 cycle, and the two presidential frontrunners – current President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump – are now both under investigation by a special counsel.   Talk about a rough beginning to the 2023-2024 campaign.   The twin special-counsel investigations also remind us how intertwined Biden and Trump are.   Biden wouldn't be president today without Trump's 2016 victory.   Biden's political flaws (his age, his verbal gaffes, the complaints he's received from women) got minimized in 2020 due to Trump's own flaws. Now BOTH men have special counsels looking into them as we enter the 2024 cycle.   And if Trump somehow escapes criminal charges over the classified documents he kept at his Mar-a-Lago residence, it won't be hard to connect that decision to Biden's own classified-document mess.   Make no mistake: What Trump is accused of in the Mar-a-Lago case – not to mention the separate investigations into Jan. 6 or Georgia's 2020 election – is far worse than Biden's situation.   But it's not a stretch to see how Biden's case – at least politically – makes it a whole lot harder to bring charges against Trump. Headline of the Day Data Download: The number of the day is ... $901 That's how much money special counsel Robert Hur donated to Republican candidates in recent election cycles. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday named Hur, who is registered to vote in Maryland as a Republican, as the special counsel investigating Biden's handling of classified documents.  Campaign finance records and OpenSecrets' donor database show that Hur has made three donations in recent years. He contributed $500 to former U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan, a Republican, in Jan. 2022, when Nolan was in the GOP Senate primary in Vermont, which she went on to lose. According to OpenSecrets, Hur also donated $200 to Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan in 2017 and $201 to GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona during his presidential campaign in 2008. Other numbers you need to know today $1.4 trillion The value of the U.S. deficit, down from $2.6 trillion one year ago, per the New York Times. 6.5% The rate of inflation compared to 12 months ago, a decrease from November.  2 The number of New York City hospitals where nurses returned to work on Thursday, after unions and the hospitals reached a deal following three days of strikes.  142,000 The number of people New York GOP Rep. George Santos said would have to call for him to resign before he actually would, a reference to the number of voters who backed him in November. Santos has faced growing calls to step down from fellow New York Republicans. Less than 10 How many people showed up to an anti-government protest in Brazil after social media posters promoted a "mega-protest." 2017 The year former President Donald Trump discussed using a nuclear weapon on North Korea, according to a new book by New York Times Washington Correspondent Michael Schmidt. 58.55 degrees Fahrenheit The average temperature in the world in 2022, which was one of the warmest years on records, according to calculations from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 366 The number of reports of unidentified flying objects in the U.S. since March of 2021, according to a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Blog / Meet The Press  Trump to host initial campaign event in South Carolina Biden beats Trump, marginally trails DeSantis in new GOP poll Poll: Here's a look at how much the GOP has changed in 10 years Eyes on 2024: Jim Justice weighs WV-SEN run Chris Jackson / AP West Virginia GOP Gov. Jim Justice confirmed Thursday that he is "seriously considering running for Senate," adding some intrigue to one of the top Senate races of the 2024 election cycle.   "I want continued goodness for our state. I'll try to help in any way, whether it be the Senate or the House or the next governor to be, whatever it may be," Justice said in a video he shared on Twitter. "And I may very well be doing it from home. And I may very well be doing it from Washington."   Sen. Joe Manchin is a top GOP target as one of three Democrats up for re-election in states that Trump won in 2020 – and Trump won West Virginia by a whopping 39 points. Manchin has not yet said if he's running for re-election, recently telling Politico, "I haven't decided, I swear to God."    Justice cannot run for another term as governor thanks to the state's term limits, but he wouldn't be alone in the GOP primary. Rep. Alex Mooney launched a Senate run back in November..    In other campaign news…   Ro Khanna's next move: Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., says he's considering running for Senate, but Politico reports that his allies also believe he could run for president, including in 2024 Biden does not run for a second term. Khanna, though, ruled out a White House run.   Is Arizona next? NBC News' Natasha Korecki reports on a new bipartisan coalition in Arizona aiming to get a measure on the ballot to change the state's primary system from a partisan primary to an open primary, potentially with a ranked-choice voting process. The effort aims to stymie extremist candidates and allow independent voters to participate in the nominating process.    Not in the Club: The Club for Growth is launching a TV ad in Indiana aimed at discouraging former GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels from entering the open Senate race, per WISHTV Indianapolis.    Chicago shakeup: The Chicago Public Schools inspector general is investigating whether Mayor Lori Lightfoot's campaign asked public school teachers to recruit students to volunteer for her campaign for school credit, NBC News' Natasha Korecki reports. The investigation is shaking up an already competitive mayoral race, which is set for Feb. 28. The best of Meet the Press NOW Youngkin insists he's focused on Virginia amid 2024 speculation ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world? Russia says it captured a mining town in eastern Ukraine, the country's first victory in the war in months. A bill introduced in the Virginia legislature would allow pregnant women to use the HOV lane, counting a fetus as a passenger. A trial began Thursday over whether members of the Proud Boys were engaged in seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Thanks for reading. 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