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today on inside politics, another day, another courtroom. donald trump and his lawyers are behind closed doors right now meeting with the judge in his classified documents case. this, as the gop front runner faces criticism on both sides of the atlantic for threatening to throw nato allies to the wolves. plus, a kennedy family feud. rfk junior is apologizing to his relatives that copies of famous 1960s campaign ad. apologizing, even though it is still pinned to the top of the social media fee. and george santos 2.0. the democrats trying to replace the former congressman that's how they are describing is opponent now.

the election is critical to the house gop's narrow majority. i spoke to both candidates on the ballot in new york's third district. those interviews are coming up. i am dana bash. let's go behind headlines and inside politics. we started in florida where donald trump is in the closed- door hearing in his classified documents case. the issue, whether trump's team can get access to highly classified evidence as the clock ticks down to a potential trial date. evan perez is there. give our viewers a sense of what the significances of this particular day in court. >> reporter: this is all about the classified documents and the classified documents that are relevant to donald trump's trial. right now that trial is set for may, but it is unclear if that date holds. right now, what the former president and his lawyers are doing is meeting with the judge

, discussing some of the documents that are at issue. in some cases the special counsel, jack smith, is arguing that they should not be allowed to see the documents themselves. they should be able to see only summaries of the documents and looking for access to some of those documents is the codefendants of the former president. this is a hearing that has been going on for about three hours. we expect that the former president will be in their for another hour or so before the special counsel government get their turn to make their arguments for continuing to restrict the access of some of these documents. we are talking about some of the most highly sensitive documents. >> while that is happening there, there is another very

important move in a critical case in washington. that is the deadline for the legal team to file an appeal in his immunity case. >> reporter: right. exactly. what the former president has to do is tell the spring court he is appealing that ruling from the federal appeals court in washington, and that will buy him additional time. what he's trying to do is to prevent this case from going back to the judge who is overseeing it. this is the january 6th case. that judge is prepared to proceed to trial right now. right now, we don't know when she will reschedule it. it was supposed to start in early march. if the former president files, as we expect he will in the next few hours, it will buy him additional time. because then the supreme court will signal that they will hear his appeal and that could then by him additional time.

>> evan, thank you so much for that reporting. appreciated. the other big trump story is blowback over comments he made over the weekend about america's nato allies. he told a story about a warning he gave to an american ally in europe about nato nation to do not spend enough on defense.>> one of the presidents of a big country stood up and said -- you did not pay, you are delinquent. he said, yes, let's say that happened. now, i would not protect you. i would encourage them to do whatever the they wanted. >> david chandley enjoins me. and jim schoebel, who is the author of the upcoming book. and the next world war. did you not sleep? >> i want to talk about the domestic politics.

let's start with the politics. i want to read something that peter baker wrote in the new york times. the scorn for nato that mr. trump expresses is based on a false premise that he has repeated for years even after being corrected. a signhe's either in capable of processing information that conflicts with an idea asked in his head or willing to distort facts to suit his -- to dispute his preferred narrative. what do you hear from sources globally about the impact of this. >> they take this very seriously. the idea that this is just the locker room talk, it's not based in reality. he has a record as president, and while he was president, he undermined nato. he nearly took the u.s. out of nato. he reduced the u.s. force present in germany as one of

its last access commander-in- chief and made other public pronouncements that undermine confidence of allies and adversaries in u.s. mutual defense agreements and not as it relates to nato but to south korea and japan and taiwan. the idea that you hear from someone like marco rubio that this is just talk belies the actual actions as president. and when you speak to his advisors about what is to come in a potential second truck term, as they believe he would take more concrete action up to and including formally withdrawing from nato. >> that is a very big statement. you mentioned marco rubio. let's listen to some of what the senator, who, we should remind our viewers, was very critical opponent of donald trump, he also ran for president in 2016, has since been on the trump bandwagon and endorsing this time around. wasn't what he told jake. >> donald trump was president

and he did not pull us out of nato. that, american troops were stationed throughout your. virtually every american president has complained about other countries in nato not doing enough. trump is the first one to express it in these terms. >> the other thing i should add to his resume for the viewers to understand is he's a senior member of the intelligence committee, not to mention a big voice on foreign policy. that is critical context for him just writing off what trump said. >> yeah, to jim's point, it makes perfect sense to me that our allies around the world would hear his retelling of the story that he told this weekend and be concerned it is a window into his thinking of what he wants to do in a second term. and yet, it can also be, perhaps a locker room talk, but it is classic donald trump. in fact, i don't know what we learned new in his comments. his threat to pull out of nato,

his constantly admonishing some of our closest allies that they are not doing enough to lift up their end of the bargain. as you noted through his presidency, this was a hallmark of his, and it is not the first time he does this on the campaign trail. i look at this and sort of say, donald trump offers a classic kind of bit of his thinking that is designed to express -- to get outrage expressed by his opponents, but people in the press, and he feeds off the outrage to court support from his base of support. >> this is the first time he's said, russia, go ahead and attack. that is different.>> i'm saying, let's be clear -- i get that there is a new word in there, but this should not surprise anyone of how donald trump receives this nato alliance. it has been clear for quite some time.>> yes, that is very true. i think this all goes under the

umbrella. kristen holmes, who covers them every day mentioned this morning that this is the classic trump straw man argument and it appeals to his base. but also the way that we need to approach them now and in the future is we can be shocked but not surprised because we have heard versions of this before, which leads to the next point that he made that caused some ripples over the weekend. he was making fun of nikki haley , who is still in the race, of the fact that her husband is not around. her husband is not around because he's deployed. he's in the horn of africa serving america. she was on fox. listen to what she said about that and the broader discussion about nato.>> you look at truck. he goes off script from a teleprompter and he criticizes the military. he mocks my husband, but he

goes and takes the side of vladimir putin and nato and said he would encourage vladimir putin to invade our allies. anybody that excuses what he continues to say against the military is hugely mistaken because this will be the president of the united states.>> the comments about he made are another in a category of shocked but not surprised. we know that when donald trump has seen members of the military , who serve our country proudly, when he sees them as a political deponent, he despairs them. i will never forget what he said about john mccain. i don't think any of us will. it is a constant picture of him that doesn't surprise us but is not any less shocking. and also her point about nato. i'm going back to our discussion with what senator rubio said. there was a time when it was always kind of small, but there

was a vocal segment of republicans who had been able to speak out forcefully against trump. but that particularly on capitol hill, particularly in elected office is diminishing, and that's one of the reasons why donald trump has been able to stay so strong ahead of the party.>> let me just switch and use that comment that you made to talk for a moment about mike gallagher. a republican congressmen in wisconsin. young and considered a bright light. very focused on china. he is the chair of a special committee on china. he said this weekend he is gone and retiring. he said electoral politics is never supposed to be a career in congress is not a place to grow old. he voted against his party this past week -- against impeaching the homeland security secretary.

it's not as if he has not been supportive of donald trump. but it is another example of somebody who used to be the future of the republican party saying, i am out of here. i do not have a place in this party.>> it is a dying breed that is willing to go out and same public and they might pay a political price for. and by the way i will speak to these republicans on capitol hill will say in private that trump is wrong but they will not say it in public. the handful that would say it in public are few and far between and becoming fewer and farther between. >> we just heard nikki haley say that no one should excuse his disparaging remarks on the military, i just want to remind folks, she has sworn to support donald trump. she will be a trump supporter when he's a nominee. she raised her hand, even if he's a convicted criminal. you can understand why it's hard for folks that are not only with her to make a

convincing case that her criticism is legitimate when they know he will be with she will be with him in november. >> one point to keep reminding our viewers. coming up next, the super pac supporting robert kennedy junior spent $7 million on a super bowl ad to look like his uncles famous >>. the kennedy clan is not happy. we will explained that next.

last night's super bowl had a little bit of something for everyone. there was, of course, the football with the kansas city chiefs winning. a nail-biter in overtime. the second straight super bowl and the third in five years. there was, of course, taylor swift, celebrating her boyfriends, travis kelce, second wind. and it was a big night for music fans. usher ahead of blockbuster performance and beyonci announcing a new album. my

great piano is here to discuss all of this, but mostly the politics of it. let's talk about the ad that i don't think any of us are coming. and advised super pac supporting rfk jr., who is an independent candidate running for president. >> do you want a man for president who is seasoned through and through? a man who is old enough to know and young enough to do? it is up to you.>> for our more mature viewers, that might look a little bit familiar. the reason is, is almost identical to the famous >> by his uncle, john f. kennedy in 1960. >> do you want a man for president who is seasoned through and through? but not so dog on seasoned that

he won't try something new? a man who is young enough to do, it's up to you. >> almost identical. many of his cousins did not like that, and after that, rfk jr. apologize. he said i'm so sorry if the super bowl advertisement caused anybody pain. fcc rules prohibit super pac from contacting me. i would say that the america's values pac is supported by a long time trump donor. i should also note that as you said this morning, he is apologizing, but if you look at the social media fee, rfk jr. has this ad pinned to the top of it.>> clearly, -- we will see. it is also amazing when you

think about the uphill climb for 3rd party candidates in this country, that there is a super pac willing to spend $7 million on a super bowl ad for kennedy's bid. that is in itself astonishing, never mind the shot for shot trying to make himself into his uncle. we should note that his cousins and many people in his family opposed this and they are post to his candidacy from the get- go. >> they are very much pro-biden and they do not like that he is running. primarily because of the fact that if you look at the polls and see how this could go down, he could take significant votes away from joe biden, which is why i wanted to mention the big donor or this super pac is pro trump. it -- i'm not saying that he's in love with rfk jr., but there may be a game of chess going on.

>> three-dimensional chest. if you are a voter just turning into the super bowl and you have not followed politics, which none of us blame you, you would fill that nostalgia of watching that campaign at and think that kennedy democrat and give rfk jr. a second look. but think of the fact that certainly that could take votes away from joe biden and should rfk make the ballot. and he's only on the ballot in you too far. it could hurt joe biden's reelection chances. and i think for former president donald trump, he has a feeling a lot of their tactic is to take away voters that would otherwise support joe biden. >> i want to turn, since we have our china expert here, to joe biden and tiktok. he joined tiktok. let's listen to and watch what

he said in his first post. >> game or halftime show?>> game. >> i would get in trouble if i told you. >> first of all, that is funny that he's leaning in to the whole conspiracy that is the deep state pushing for taylor swift's boyfriend to win the super bowl. but what about the notion of him being on tiktok, which is, of course, his government said is a national security risk because china? >> for years, folks i know in the intelligence world say do not go on tiktok. it is a massive chinese information gathering operation. and you've heard public pronouncements of the connections and how it could work. it is not insignificant that

the president is basically making a political calculation that this is a great way to get in touch with young voters. i'm sure he has all the security measures necessary so they are not stealing data from him so he doesn't have a campaign account on there. that in terms of messaging to the american people, this is a threat, you might see a few campaign ads on there. >> i'm glad you said that. this is joe biden's campaign. the federal government is not allowed to have tiktok.>> he's not posting from his -->> in terms of public messaging, let's call it cognitive dissonance. >> great discussion. coming up next, voters on long island go to the polls for the first big election of 2024. who will replace george santos? my interview with both candidates is coming up next.

the political world is in a new york state of mind. just hours from now, polls open in in york special election that could have major implications for the rest of the country. former democratic congressman, tom suozzi and mazi pilip have a very expensive race to fill george santos to see. more than $21 million spent on campaign ads alone. i went to long island to spend time with both candidates. here is my conversation with

tom suozzi, who held the seat for 2 terms, it had an unsuccessful run for new york governor. >> why do you want to go back to congress?>> i feel like i have a unique set of skills that could help during this difficult time. i think the biggest problem we are facing in the country, in addition to all the issues like immigration and state and local tax deduction is the country is so divided. i focused a lot of my career, not just in congress, but before that, working across party lines to get that done. i built a lot of relationships. >> i don't know if you have notice, but since you have left -- >> it's not my fault. >> even working across party lines -- >> it is tough. >> what happened with the immigration bill? >> to me, that is the most heartbreaking thing. in my race specifically, my opponent says she's concerned about the border.

we are all concerned about the border, but she's not solving the border problem because she won't support the bipartisan border deal. more migrants will be coming to new york. she said she's committed to israel, but she's endangering israel because she's not supporting the bipartisan funding of this year. and we are empowering vladimir putin. these are real-life issues that affect real people, life-and- death issues, and the same old extremism and partisan politics will not get us anywhere. it is not working.>> joe biden won what is now his district by eight percentage points. why is it this close? >> right now, the democrats are underwater here in this area for a long time.>> your party. >> underwater. three years we have been losing everything in long island. the president is underwater, trump is underwater. people are upset they are not seeing anything getting done with things that affect their

lives. they are concerned about affordability and immigration and they feel like washington is not really listening to them. >> how much does george santos and what happened there hangover the special election? >> i think people are that up with the whole george santos things. but my opponent has not been transparent at all. she did one debate today for the first time five days before the election. she has not taken any questions from any voters. she has not had any meetings. she has rejected four televised debates and about five community group meetings. >> are you saying she's not transparent like george santos? >> it is george santos 2.0.>> if you are following the race -- >> he has been indicted. >> we do not know anything about her. look at the daily news editorial and said that they are doing the exact same thing

they did with george santos by putting up a candidate and an idea as opposed to any specifics. she has no positions on any issues. she's not meeting with the public or taking questions from the public. it is the same thing.>> republican candidate, mazi pilip, did take some questions for me when i met up with her. i should say that the county executive rejects the notion that mazi pilip is george santos 2.0 and called tom suozzi a liar for saying that. she does break the mold for many republicans in many ways. she's originally from africa. >> you were born in ethiopia and moved to israel when you were 12 and then came here.>> yes. that is the beautiful thing about my journey. even though i was born in a small village, at age 12 i went to israel and joined the idf. right after i earned my degrees.

a degree at tel aviv university , and then, i came to this country about 17 years ago. we all work very hard. however, he gave me the chance to grow and the republican party gave me the opportunity to grow and learn about leadership. >> you are an observant jew. how does it affect your politics. >> the friday before shabbat starts, i take off and saturday i spent time with my family. but it is a day i spent time with my family and my children. we relax. >> it has been remarkable to talk to voters here.

immigration is, by far, the top issue that the talk about. what we saw in washington with the bipartisan immigration bill, why was that not the kind of solution you think would at least be a first step -- maybe not all of it -- but the first step?>> it was not answering the issue of the border crisis. and you are right, the people very much worry about migrants coming to our country. >> what is the solution, then? >> we need to come up with how we are going to bring people legally into our country. the way i came to this country and the way my husband came to this country. we came legally, and look at us. i am running for congress. this is the country that can give you the opportunity, but you have to come the right way. right now it is not the right

way.>> cnn will have live, special coverage of the new york results as they come in. i will be here with jake tapper and the rest of our amazing political reporters. coming up, president biden is poking fun at himself this morning. about his age and his memory. stay with us, and we will tell you what he said.

moments ago, president biden used an angel political weapon,

humor, about his memory after the skating special counsel report that labeled him a sympathetic elderly man with a poor memory. here is what he said to a group of local government officials, who came here from across the country.>> i've been around, i know i don't look like it, but i've been around of while. a while. i do remember that. i do remember that. >> pretty sustained applause there from the audience. this is just one of several moves that the biden campaign has been making in the last few days to be back on what is in that report. >> the president has often turned to humor as he discusses his age, which has been front and center in this campaign. his allies over the weekend spent time attacking the special counsel calling that his inclusion of questions about his age and memory

gratuitous and inappropriate. and the first lady, joe biden, was frustrated by this report. a source close to the first lady telling me she felt that the attack relating to beau was beyond the pale and the attacks were inaccurate. she wrote this response that was sent out to supporters over the weekend, where she called the special counsel's report inaccurate and impersonal political attack against joe. she went on to defend her husband's age. she said he's doing more in our than most people do in a day. he has delivered on so many of his promises as president for cicely because he learned a lot in is 81 years. i am told that this email sent to supporters was actually the second best performing email that they've sent to grassroot donors since launch of his campaign. what is especially noteworthy is that the first lady made no

explicit ask for people to donate money. there was a button at the bottom where people could turn to the website to give money. and it's how they are using this to galvanize grassroots reporters. they have along road ahead of them and they have a lot to convince voters that the president is up for 2nd term when many have expressed skepticism. >> that is really interesting. joining me now is veronica escobar of texas. and national cochair of president biden's reelection campaign. so good to see you. thank you for being here. let's pick up where arlette saenz left off. let's talk about the president age and the political effort to push back. i want you to look at a poll that came out over the weekend from abc news asking about how people feel about the age of both of these candidates and i mean joe biden and donald trump.

59% say that they are both too old. but for only joe biden, 27%. how concerning is that to you, and more importantly, as somebody who is advising his campaign, what more do you want to see from him?>> i will tell you, i love that humor. i think every time the president leans into what is a perceived vulnerability, he does so well. and that is the joe biden that people loved seeing and they enjoy the self-deprecating humor and him bringing to life what people alleged to be concerned about. when i talked to voters, they are far more concerned about a number of issues, including some of the incredibly unhinged comments by donald trump on friday. and we need to make sure that voters see this as a very stark

difference between an experienced, compassionate leader with a proven track record, who is a great president. and somebody who wants to unravel the global world order, post-world war ii, someone who wants to create encampments for immigrants, as he tries to execute mass deportations, and someone who wants to undo nato. so, you know, i think while i understand the idea is focused on this issue of age, i think american voters truly are far more concerned if you dig deeper in conversation on other major issues. >> let me just follow up on what you said about the former president trump. one question i have had is whether or not all of what you just said about him is baked in. people are not surprised by what he said about nato and what he has done at this point. they are very well aware of that.

so how do you run a campaign knowing that this is not new to any voter in america? >> i think what will be really critical is that we remind the american people, believe him when he says this. when he makes these outrageous claims that some politicians -- i was very disappointed with senator marco rubio -- that he did not push back on what donald trump was saying, but, you know, i think we have to make sure the american people now, believe him when he says it. when we talk about the consequences to what he's saying. and you are right. there are people in the base, true to donald trump's words, he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and they would still support him. is not just the base, but when you look at the exit polls during some of the primaries, there were independents and

other republicans that said they could not vote for donald trump if he's the nominee. >> you represent a border state, the state of texas. i was just in new york, which is not a border state, on long island, where the special election will be tomorrow. and i was really struck by talking to voter after voter after voter, open ended question, what matters the most? immigration and the border. how important is it for the president to continue to refrain that issue, and as a progressive, how concerned are you that it's like whack-a-mole and you alienate the progressives who might think you're going too hard? >> yeah, i think this is the most challenging domestic issue that we face as a country. we are seeing the results of a western hemisphere refugee crisis unfolding before our eyes.

it is not just impacting the united states. it is impacting countries to our south. at every turn as president biden has tried to institute any policy or a new plan, he gets criticized from all sides, and then he gets sued by states like my own as they pursue to seek the president from addressing this challenge. you look at congress, i will tell you, everything happening on the border, all roads lead to congress. to our failure to adequately fund the president's budget and his supplemental request. our inability to legislate on this issue. it is tough, and what greg abbott has done is he has made it a local issue for new york -- >> very politically -- >> for denver. he has been politically successful, but when you look at the tens of billions of dollars that texas has spent, he has proven that even he

cannot control what is happening on the border. i think the president has demonstrated he wanted congress to act, and it was the republican party that chose the issue over his solution. >> thank you so much for coming. i hope that you come back. up next, wants to be vice president? it is all playing out on capitol hill with a number of republicans competing for donald trump's favor. reporting coming up on this next.

there is a quiet contest happening on capitol hill. the question and the contest is, who can do the most to win favor of trump and perhaps win a slot on his ticket. we have new reporting about the lawmakers vying for the gop nomination. there is one congresswoman in particular who seems quite interested in the job. >> while the republican primary for president is underway some of his biggest allies on capitol hill are vying to be considered to be trump's vp. that is alisa stefanik and republican senator jd vance. what we are seeing as part of this campaign has been about trying to rewrite the narrative

and embrace some of his it biggest false claims about that day. they both have signed onto a resolution that would essentially absolve donald trump of wrongdoing on january 6 and they said that if they were vice president on that day they would not have certified the election like mike pence did. >> if i had been vice president i would've told states like pennsylvania, georgia, and so many others we needed to have multiple slates of electors a mission have fought over it from there. >> i would not have done what mike pence did. i don't think that is the right approach. we need to have a legal and fair election and we did not have that in 2020. >> reporter: at the motivations behind that are obvious. according to colleagues. one republican lawmaker that i spoke with said, "they just can't kiss his butt enough.

it's obvious." we are told that no serious conversations have started about who would be his running mate and sources say he is just throwing names out there and watching his allies on capitol hill. >> he certainly seems to be enjoying it and those soundbites are really quite telling. down crenshaw was on on friday. he said that is not in fact what the constitution says. you understand that as well and thank you for that great reporting from you melody. it is great to see you. thank you for watching inside politics. cnn central starts after the break. the police chief

says two off-duty law enforcement members got the situation under control. >> she is deceased on the scene and they want to commend the officers. she had a long gun and it could have