JOHN YANG: Fatal shootings rocked the nation, the former president at the center of unprecedented prosecutions, and the Senate faces questions from within its ranks after another health scare.

To analyze all of this and more, Brooks and Capehart.

That's New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post.

Gentlemen, welcome to you both.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Hi, John.

JOHN YANG: It seems like a lot of the political news or news relating to politics these days has been in courtrooms.

Today, two Proud Boys, former Proud Boys, sentenced to 18 years and 10 years in prison.

This week, a judge set Donald Trump's trial date for the -- conspiring to try to overturn the 2020 election and stay in office for the day before for the -- for Super Tuesday.

David, could the coming election be overshadowed by the last election?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, it looks that way, at least the primary season.

I have a real problem with the way they have scheduled the pre-Super Tuesday.

I understand that the people in the judicial system don't want to be political, but to be completely oblivious to politics and the effects of their actions seems to me somewhat irresponsible.

If it's really -- if it really do -- does get held that day, then Trump will be under attack from the establishment the day before Super Tuesday.

It will be impossible for any other Republican candidate to get some traction in that circumstance.

And so all these indictments have helped Trump.

And so you got to think, OK, you do the indictments.

I get it.

He deserves to be indicted.

But are you aware of what's about to happen because of those indictments?

And that's one thing.

It's even worse to do it -- scheduling.

A lot of Americans are going to say, he allegedly did these things a bunch of years ago.

They have politicized it.

And then they schedule it right at Super Tuesday?

They're trying to destroy our man.

We will rally around.

JOHN YANG: Jonathan?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I mean, so then when do you hold the trial?

A lot of times, we talk about how judges and the judiciary should keep politics out of their decisions.

And so why start now?

The former president wanted his trial to go into 2026.

And Judge Chutkan was like, no, and rightfully so.

I honestly wish that the trial could happen at some point this year, so that we, like, get it started and get it going.

But I just think it's an accident of timing.

We also have to remember that who knows what else is on Judge Chutkan's docket, the other cases that she has to work with?

So I'm not so much concerned about when these trials will happen, as much as I am excited for them to happen, because this is the one time -- well, one of four times that the former president is going to be held accountable for his actions related to the 2020 election.

JOHN YANG: There's another legal argument that's floating around.

Some conservative legal scholars are writing that the 14th Amendment, the Civil War language in the 14th Amendment should bar Donald Trump from being president again.

And it's actually being tested in court.

One of the GOP Republican candidates, longshot candidates, is filing suit to test this.

What do you -- do you think there's anything to that argument?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: From the arguments that I have read, I have got -- I have serious questions, particularly from the two conservative writers who say that there's no action of Congress that's needed, there's -- it's right there.

All you need to do is just enforce it.

And I look, I read that, and I'm looking at American politics today.

I'm looking at state legislatures and elected officials around the country who aren't nearly as honorable as the folks you would need to depend on to make their argument work.

I think the key thing is for the American people to make the decision at the ballot box.

I'm glad that the candidate in New Hampshire is bringing suit, because at least, in that way, someone's bringing the question, and we will get a legal response.

But, until then, I think it's up to the American people.

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, there's another case where we have legal scholars making a legal case, completely oblivious to the political realities.

I think, politically, their idea is just Cloud Cuckoo Land.

We have a country which people are distrustful of institutions, and, suddenly, their guy gets crossed off the ballot without a hearing, without anything, it just sort of magically disappears?

We'd get locked into all sorts of legal concerns about whether Trump really did insurrection or not.

And then, if it is -- if this standard is embraced, do we think Republicans won't want to start throwing off Democrats off the ballot?

And so this was a post-Civil War -- unique to a situation where you had former Confederate generals potentially getting active in politics.

That was a clear threat.

They wrote this thing into the Constitution to do that threat.

We're not in that circumstance.

It should not apply.

JOHN YANG: This week, we also had what's becoming, unfortunately, fairly routine.

We had two shootings, one at the University of North Carolina.

The student newspaper at UNC had their front page filled with text messages and other things, messages sent between the students.

It really showed the visceral fear that these students were feeling.

But the shooting itself barely made a blip on the radar elsewhere.

Are we just becoming too inured, sort of numb to this?

We saw that terror among the students, but are we just becoming too numb to this, David?

DAVID BROOKS: We might be coming a little numb.

I confess I was thinking about it.

Like, I think about what we could do to ward off these shootings, the gun control, the red flags.

If you see a young suicidal man reading neo-Nazi literature, that ought to be a red flag.

That -- if that's in your neighborhood, if that's in your family, you need to tell somebody about that.

And, as I was thinking about it, I was thinking, I'm going through the ritual, the routines I -- the mental routines I go through, thinking, well, we could do a little incrementally to reduce these.

But I must say, when you saw the video, which we saw on -- it still remains freshly shocking and traumatic.

But I'm glad the student paper did that to sort of remind the rest of us that this is just raw evil, and you can get inured to it.

JOHN YANG: Jonathan?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: It's way too routine.

I mean, it used to be that it was front page news, it was breaking news.

This happens so much that, sometimes, a mass shooting can be a news brief in the newspaper.

I think that The Tar Heel did -- they did a fantastic job of dramatizing to everyone, to the community just what they went through, but also to the nation, so that we don't get used to this, even though we have gotten used to it.

DAVID BROOKS: But just one quick thing.

I would like to see a study done, if you reduce the media coverage, does it reduce the copycats?

And I just don't know the answer to that.

JOHN YANG: There was also another shooting in Jacksonville over the -- over last weekend, where someone who clearly left a lot of writings about his hatred for Black Americans, for Black people killed three people.

A lot of people in Florida pointing to the lax gun laws in Florida, especially the concealed carry.

You can carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

Is that a fair connection, David?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, I do think, if you reduced -- I mean, we have hundreds of millions of guns in this country.

So I have low hopes that some gun control legislation will reduce people's ability to get guns.

But I do think that was a case where the guy had previous suicidal tendencies, was reading this crap online.

And, hopefully -- in those cases, hopefully, somebody in the family or a friend just can say to somebody, red flag here, because that kind of case, he fit every stereotype of somebody who's going to do this awful thing.

And, somehow, nobody stepped in the way.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: We can't talk about Jacksonville without talking about the political environment around Black people, and particularly around Black history, in Florida.

There is a reason Governor DeSantis was booed when he did the right thing by going to the community, but the community booed him for a reason, his so-called anti-woke legislation, what's happening with the teaching of Black history in Florida public schools.

That sends a message not only to the Black community that the governor does not think much of you or your history or your contributions to this country, but it also sends a signal to those people, deranged or not, who believe that Black people are inferior and therefore are worthy of extermination.

If the governor doesn't want to be booed, he needs to do better, not just in terms of his rhetoric, but also in terms of his legislation.

JOHN YANG: We got a minute left.

We also saw this week another scary episode.

Actually, it was very frightening to watch, Mitch McConnell just freezing in mid-sentence.

This is the second time in a matter of weeks.

Can he -- if this happens again or keeps happening, can he lead the Senate in an effective way?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I mean, if it happens again, I don't think so.

And, as I have said before, I think these situations demand that we as a nation have a conversation about what leaders of that age, what we should expect of them if they want to stay in leadership under those conditions.

JOHN YANG: I mean, we have a -- yes, the leading presidential candidates are 77 and 80.

This is the oldest Congress in a century.

DAVID BROOKS: They're just getting started.

(LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: I'm no doctor, but, as I understand it, if he is, say, having seizures, then that can be treated, and somebody who has occasional seizures can do a job, can do a serious job.

But he has to be clear with us about what's actually happening.

The statement from the doctor and the Congress was not clear at all and not trust-inducing.

JOHN YANG: David, you got the last word.

We got to leave it there.

Thank you both.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, John.

DAVID BROOKS: Thank you.