still there six is marvelous entertainment. what point are we just routing? thanks for him. he nearly got to look cool go to work. >> you can get out as match between the philadelphia union and new york city fc last night, the crowd was very into it. >> the league has named the little guy rakhine, who and right into his record setting, john on the pitch, the philadelphia union put a lot of minds at ease with this update. the raccoon has been seafloor released. he is fine. >> of course, this is not the first time something like this at happened there was a time a turtle found its way onto the outfield very fast turtle, a minor league game, slowing the contest to a crawl, want, want very nice. then there was this

kitten kidney that caused the rally cat curse for the anaheim angels. >> i think we ran out of time, so unfortunately not able to show you all of the other times it's happened, but we promise it's a lot thanks to our panel for being here. >> thanks to you for joining us and kasie hunt. don't go anywhere stand a new central starts right now the great debate. new details about how president biden and donald trump are preparing for this historic coming showdown. the earliest general election debate in modern history. we'll be right here on cnn meanwhile, one of the most critical parts of donald trump's criminal trial defense is happening this morning. the defense expected to hammer into the jury's head one central theme, while cross-examining trump's former fixer, michael cohen, the old school yard taught liar, liar, pants on fire heart-stopping new dashcam video of a truck crashing into to the side of a

bridge the driver left dangling over the river below i'm john berman. was sarah signer kate baldwin. this is cnn news central after months of speculation, weeks of back-and-forth and a whole lot of the equivalent of like, i dare you, the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election is now set. >> donald trump literally responded to joe biden's proposal with, let's get ready to rumble, marking. this will mark the third time that these men have faced off on a debate stage, also marking the earliest general election debate in modern history. june 27, right here on cnn. this morning, there are new details on how biden and trump are already preparing and you're reporting on why the candidates agreed to face off so far. so far out from election day for biden, it's a chance to boost lagging, pull numbers for trump

is an opportunity to change the conversation from his criminal hush money trial and the others that he's about to face on top of that, the timing gives both a chance to recover if they don't perform well the debate plans seemingly came together at lightning speed and now puts the candidates and the country on a collision course with history with a very intense start to summer ahead of us cnn's priscilla priscilla alvarez is joining us now from the white house with more for so what are you learning this morning from their about how they're now preparing well, kate, there was groundwork that was being laid leading up to the announcement yesterday that these two will go head-to-head. >> of course. remember, last month, president biden told howard stern that he was quote, happy to debate trump and not really started to set things in motion in earnest in recent weeks, we've learned the biden campaign and trump campaign. we're having input formal conversations behind the scenes, largely focused on their mutual disdain for the commission on presidential debates, which wouldn't have started. it's debate schedule

until september, which both campaigns viewed as too late, but still a remarkable moment to see two campaigns two candidates agree when they usually just don't. and not only that, but also shun the commission. so yesterday in rapid succession, we saw the biden campaign pitch and altered proposed schedule for debates as well as lay out their criteria to have a one-on-one debate and coordinate directly with the broadcast networks. the president accepted an invitation by cnn and abc news just former president donald trump doing exactly the same the dates there. cnn, on june 20, and abc news on september 10. now, as far as the criteria for cnn, that's going to happen in atlanta, there will be no audience and both can as well have received 15% in four separate poles, meaning cnn standards. but of course here the white house, it now turns to preparation. and on that end, we're learning that ron plane president biden's former chief of staff, will take vacation from his job at airbnb

to come and help the president prepare for that june debate and look at the end of the day. can the biden campaign has wanted to put president biden out there on the debate stage. they think he formed well in 2020, and this will allow them to bring that stark contrast that they're eager to shine a light on between him and former president donald trump directly to american living rooms okay so thank you so much. >> and john, i also really loved the deadpan airbnb vacation reference that she just pulled off. well, yeah, he can probably find a place to stay a reasonable price if he needs to, during debate prep, that's what i was thinking right there. >> as for donald trump, he's now got to do trial prep and debate prep all at the same time. let's get right to cnn's alayna treene four, the view from trump world this morning. what are you hearing well, i think priscilla laid it out very well in luck. >> she's exactly right. there had been conversations behind the scenes. i was told between two very senior people at the trump camp the pain and also with the biden campaign kind of

laying the groundwork to make sure are we doing this? are we going to go ahead with this and they agreed on a lot, i think from the trump campaigns perspective, when they looked at the proposal that the biden team had laid out a lot of what they were asking for, where exactly the type of conditions that the trump team wanted. one is that they wanted these debates to be earlier and we're seeing it three months earlier than you would normally have any debates they wanted this to come early. they also want to have more debates. that's, that's where they do differ. donald trump's team yesterday said that they want to have four debates. of course, biden's team saying they only will agree to two and look, when i talked to donald trump's team they said that behind the scenes, they had really come to the conclusion in recent weeks that they wanted to circumvent the commission on presidential debates. and part of that is because again, they wanted these earlier and they wanted more. they also are very aware that they do not want robert f. kennedy jr. or a third party candidate to also be on the debate stage. they really we want this to be a one-on-one

match up with joe biden and part of that is because they believe that this will be a great opportunity to show that biden is much more weaker and more feeble in their words, not mine. then he was in 2020. and remember back in 2020 when we saw these two face off on the debate stage, donald trump was very aggressive. he bears early, let joe biden get a word in and we did see in the aftermath of that, donald trump's poll numbers fell. however, trump's campaign, and this is really the view of his campaign managers, susie wiles and chris lacivita. they believe that biden has declined in recent years and that having as many of these debates where they can have these two men together onstage will be the kind of contrast that they need looking ahead to november. now, i also just want to give you some sense of what happened after that chain of events yesterday, where we saw the biden campaign agree to debate. that was really frustrating for the trump team when i talked to his advisers, they said, look, you know, they felt like they were getting the back foot on this, they were the ones who

were playing catch-up. however, remember donald trump and his campaign had repeatedly called on joe biden for months to debate. and so they're trying to put that message out there that this is something that they want that they have been asking for and that they're ready to go with these series of debates. we also saw them say that they want to do a third debate in october 4 with fox news. of course, the biden campaign and not agreeing to that third debate yet, draw alayna treene forest in washington, only a great to see you this morning. thank you. >> all right. in just hours, michael cohen, the prosecution's star witness. we'll be back on the stand and donald trump's hush money trial we'll have new reporting for you on trump's lawyers plan of attack and a small bit of hope for desperate civilians in gaza. the floating pier built by the united states it does now anchored and ready to help increase sued and supplies going in to the war-torn areas. how soon the first shipments of aid could start slowing. and gold bars, all blows of cash. a mercedes and a whole lot more

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massive feral in the game the stanley cup playoff presented by geico around as the rangers with the close out the scenes in raleigh daughters are certainly eat this is gonna be funny, isn't it? >> rangers, hurricanes, boilers could noakes numbers begins tonight at 6:30 on tnt we are a sandi right now for what may be the most crucial testimony for donald trump's defense in his criminal hush money trial very soon former fixer, michael cohen's cross-examination will resume and this morning for the first time we're expecting trump's lawyers to directly challenge cohen's testimony that donald trump knowingly

falsified business records too high. >> a hush money payment to a porn star. the alleged scheme is the crux of 34 criminal charges against trump's cnn's briney gen. grass is live once again for its outside of the court. you have some new details about the defense strategy moving forward. they have already been hammering him on some of the lives he has told throughout his life yeah, that's right, sarah. so remember michael cohen was on the stand for about two hours with the cross-examination. and just like you said, it, todd blanche hammering, firing questions at him, but he was also a bit scattered in his approach, kind of jumping around to different topics that could actually, as you noted just yesterday. >> but we're hearing now that todd blanche is going to be a little bit more zeroed in on the charges that are against the former president. >> they're going to be challenging michael cohen's words, what he has said in the past, sometimes under oath, and basically trying to elicit the fact that he is a liar. that is what they are trying to show

two jurors were also understanding from sources is that they're really going to be focusing on some conversations that michael cohen said he had during, direct examination with donald trump in regards to those hush money payments. so we really do are hearing that the defense is going to really get to the heart of this case. now, we understand that he could be on the stand for the entire day today under crossing examination, and it could even go into monday. remember, there is no court tomorrow because of barren trump's graduation. trump wanted to attend that and what sources telling my colleague cara's kit now that that it takes a long time to get through all the lies. so that's what we're hearing. it may take a while to finish up with michael what cohen when it comes to these defense questions, now, our understanding is that once that happens, the prosecution will rest its case. but again, that might not happen until next sweet so you're understanding that this is the end, the last witness in the prosecution's case.

>> i'm curious where that puts us on timing now if you expect the defense to put on their own case and when will this end up in the jury's hands? >> yeah. so sarah, we're understanding that the defense actually wants and they asked for this on tuesday tips to talk to the judge about an expert witness. what would be admissible if they brought that expert? witness to the stand? and that is the only indication that we have gotten exactly of what defense they might put on. of course, the former president could take the stand, but it's very unlikely so here's the other thing that there is only today for trial this week. and then next week there's also only three days of trials, so it's possible that we might see this closing arguments at some point next week. but again, the timing is so uncertain at this point so wish i had more clear for you, sarah, but certainly we do expect the defense to put on its fence at some point next week, we can't pile that on. you. we just loved that you are giving us great accurate reporting. brendan grass, you can't predict the future. none of a gan. thank you so much.

appreciate it. >> oh, no. well, let's just pile it on a thursday. it's all on grin she doesn't bring out the crystal ball. well, you know what brand? >> we don't know what you're doing, and we love you so much. okay coming up for the united states anchor is a key humanitarian gateway to a beach in gaza. the new reporting now on what happens next. and attorneys for democratic senator bob menendez laying out his defense and core to all those gold bars. they're putting that on this one why russia is we're trying to spy on us. we were spying on saudi friday this is a war but secret war, secrets and spies, a nuclear game premier sunday, june 2, ten on cnn fashion moves fast, setting trends is our business. we need to scale with customer demand in real time so we partner with verizon, their solution for us,

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anchored to a beach in gaza sienna kylie atwood has the latest for us this morning. >> good morning. highly good morning. >> yeah. so this peer has now been anchored on the beach, as you said, john, off the coast of gaza. now that it has been anchored there can begin humanitarian aid to be flown into the strip from that location. this isn't going to happen today. but centcom says the expectation is that this is going to start happening in the coming days here. and this system has two parts. first of all, let's that floating pier and then they also have the causeway that's heading in to gaza to that location where the actual humanitarian aid will be distributed from us officials, won't be on the ground. no us military ray we'll be on the ground in gaza for this operation. of course, it's centcom that has taken the lead in setting up this complex system, but it's the united nations, it's actually going to be meeting the humanitarian aid and distributing it into the gaza strip. and we should know that this is obviously deeply needed aid. of course,

we've heard from the world folk food programme just earlier this month that northern gaza is in a full blown famine and also warning that that is spreading to the other parts of gaza. but this specific location where this humanitarian aid is coming in, us official stress that the goal isn't for it to replace the humanitarian aid coming in from the other locations. it's for it to be a supplemental to that. so the expectation is that once they get up to 150 trucks per day, which is going to be the goal. that would be in addition, of course, to the trucks that are coming in through the other humanitarian ports over excuse me, not ports overlay that have already been operating. and the one last thing i want to know is that there have been challenges in setting up this peer over the last few months, it was president biden who ordered this peer during his state of the union address in march, but we should note that it was set up pretty swiftly that happen over the course of the last two months before this who's able

to be at a place where it is today, where it is about ready to be operational. >> yet appear in engineering feat, but also something of a leap of faith when it comes to how it will be implemented and how long it will be in use. >> kylis out with great to see you this morning. thank you very much. okay. >> so they might be happily ever after personified. >> let me explain. a north dakota couple of celebrating more than seven decades of marriage, mel and vanishing events. >> this is this is them was they tied the knot in 1951? he was 21. she was after john's john come over here, are just watching she was 19 at the time. and here's what they told are affiliate about making it work for 73 years the girls are talking and they showed that somebody had such a great laugh and about that time somebody did and i saw it was now, you know, marriages up and down we've had our you have to

i'll say you gotta do 50 maybe i shouldn't 60, 40. i just really feel like i need a little bit more. >> the parent credit, their faith the glue that has held them together over the decades, including when mel was away serving in there air force john, would you like to say something standing off camera staring me, sarah, would you like to weigh in? i would like to wait. it's beautiful anchiornis going off about something else, but he'll be in trouble with his wife at the end of this segment. all right. please land. >> i was looking even if it's the cancer was really sweet yes, they work and it was a lingered on it as all i'm saying, yeah, daily serum, please take it i'm going to take this now, bright soon. drums, former fixer, michael cohen retaking the stand, expect things to get heated and cross-examination. we will discuss the new strategy going forward and could popular weight loss drugs be having an effect on alcohol consumption how those drugs could be

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the game a highly critical morning and donald trump's criminal trial about to get underway very soon, michael cohen will retake the stand for round two of cross-examination for the first time the defense expected to hammer away at cohen's credibility and challenge. >> this is the new part. what they say we're lies in testimony directly implicating

donald trump. remember, this is all about trump's alleged falsification of business records to hide a hush money payment and hide it from the voting public with me now a cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, joey jackson, also cnn political commentator and former trump white house communications director, alyssa farah griffin. thank you both for being here this morning. joey, the defenseman, a lot of its time on tuesday trying to ruin cohen's credibility talking about past lives throughout his life, even what do they have to do today to try and get the jury to have some reasonable doubt about these very charges. >> yeah. you don't sarsa they'll continue to pound away. okay. so this is going to be about the narrative of the defense, which is about him hating donald trump, him wanting to see him in that prison then uniform. and the jail bars he wore that shirt and his tiktok, et and so it'll be about the issue of revenge. want to get revenge against the former president, isn't that right? you have personal animus against him, isn't that fair

to say? this is about payback and retribution okay. >> so i think they'll go into that the other issue we'll of course be the issue of prior inconsistent statement. what does that it mean? just said one thing yesterday, you're saying another thing now. i think they'll hone in on that you saw a little bit of it as it related to molar and relating to your said you go to prague, didn't go to prague. you wait, you didn't go what is it? access hollywood. you told trump that you didn't tell him about it? so what they'll do is they'll point out instances in which he has said one thing that is mr. cohen and instances in which it doesn't match what he's saying now. and so if you can do that, they're going to raise the specter of doubt, can't believe anything. he says final thing, he goes that is cohen to the critical issue of this white house oval office this meeting that pins him in, who pencil when trump on the reimbursement on the purpose of the deal, the structure of the deal, the nature of the deal. that's the critical inquiry because at the end of the day call it about a porn star, call it about hush money. it's about the

falsification of business records. you got to hone in on that. what trump new and when he knew it, and that is the sort of if criminal part of this whole thing that the prosecutors trying to prove alyssa, i'm curious what you thought of michael cohen over his day of cross-examination. he is key can be a very volatile person. he he often responds with some bombastic language. what did you think of how he did on the stand? >> i think that michael cohen was well, properties also a seasoned attorney himself, i'm to know michael cohen is to know that he's somebody who may fly off the handle as his as donald trump's fixer, he was someone who would call people in, shout at them, whether it was a producer, whether it was somebody who was going to run a story on him that is so in his nature and i think the defense was trying to get him to go there. they wanted to see him snap and he managed it's not two. so today is going to be i think it's the most important day today of the trial. i think they're going to try to get him to show that side of himself. the reactive sayyed, his job is to not it's to stick to the facts. it's to remain calm, cool, and collected, but also just chipping away at the credibility. this is a person

who is unknown liar. this is somebody who's perjured himself before. and the more times they can repeat that, the or it can just give that bit of reasonable doubt to just one juror. so we'll see how he does today. i honestly don't know having dealt with him a little bit, he's somebody who can he get through this? yes. can he also can go very south for him? that's also an option. >> and everybody would be in court waiting to see how that plays out. i want to ask you about what we heard from defense attorneys they wanted to discuss with the judge today what would be admissible from their expert witness. so does this tell you that the defense plans to put on a case? here? >> so it tells you sad that there's a contemplation of them putting on a case, right. because you want clearance as to whether it would be worthwhile if we're calling an expert as it relates to potentially records or anything else and information, what can they say? what can they not say? what can they do? what can they not do? so the extent to which you learn what the job budge will admit or the judge will deny. you can have a sense of whether you should even go forward or not. remember the

fence having no burden, they may in fact say, hey, look, we believe we raised the specter of reasonable doubt. we're going to let it go or they can choose if they want to put on a case, it'll be up to them alyssa, i have to ask you this question because of the timing, all of this we could be witness to something that is unbelievable, unprecedented, which is a word we use too much. >> but this truly is that a scenario in which donald trump is either convicted or acquitted of criminal charges right before there is the first presidential debate what do you make this? >> how do you think trump might use this to his advantage? >> well, the timing is remarkable. i think it's actually the balls really, and joe biden's court heading into the debate, if he's convicted, he should be starting as money leinz as he can with my opponent, convicted felon, and just reminding the voters of the star contracts faster but donald trump is an expert at playing victim of saying the system has been weaponized against him and he will set spend that several week period ahead of the june 27th debate trying to convince the public if he's convicted this

decision was wrong, it wouldn't have happened if his name was not donald trump, if he wasn't the republican nominee for the president. so it comes down to which sayyed can message it better and joe biden's kind of started to lean into this. he had this line about, you know, you're busy on wednesdays, i think has got to get tougher if he's a convicted felon, he should remind people no fewer than ten times in that debate. >> lastly to you, joey jackson. >> i got to ask, we talked about this before. michael cohen appears to be the last witness that is going to be called by the prosecution. good idea. >> so listen again, everyone does things differently. i think the prosecution felt that he can be strong, but he can hold up to and withstand what's happening so this is point. if he unravels that could be a very big deal. but again, i think they'll redirect him. remember, because after cross the prosecution has an opportunity to bring it back home to hey, you might have done this, you may have podcasts, you may hate them, but you made a decision what your family to stop lying for him, is that right? and is that what you did today? hey spoke to the jury. is that what you did the other day? spoke with

the jury about truth and if they believe that the jurors then guess what? >> there's trouble for mr. trump and of course, you had all the other people who testified at all the other dots corroborate that all together. >> he would happen. so let's farah griffin. thank you so much. joey jackson, always a pleasure to have you. on. all right. >> so unless than two hours, a court will resume and the bribery trial of democratic senator bob menendez. and today marks day two of opening statements in this yesterday, attorneys for senator menendez told the jury there was no bribery scheme and also said it was his wife who owned the gold bars, seen as jason carroll is live outside the courthouse for us this morning, jason, where do things stand? and what is going to happen today well kate and we now have a very clear idea of where the prosecution is going here. >> they really laid out their case to juror's saying that what happened here? for is that senator menendez was a man who put greed first a man who quote, put power up for sale, saying that this wasn't politics as usual, that this was politics for profit, and

that he used his wife, nadine menendez as a go-between to accept bribes prosecutor laura pomerantz, summarizing summarizing it this way, to juror's saying the following. he was powerful. he was also corrupt for years. robert menendez portrayed the people he was supposed to serve by taking bribes. and what was his price? >> gold bars, cash for his wife, and a job for his wife. >> of course, talking about the gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash that was confiscated at their home in new jersey. the defense for its part, really hard to get right to it with jurors scribing what he called an addressing the green and gold elephant in the room, saying that he knows it looks fishy. this is defense attorney avi weitzman saying that he knows it looks fishy. he put up a screen showing a locked closet saying that belong to nature dean and saying that robert menendez didn't even have access to the closet and that's the closet where the gold bars were found. he also said that those gold bars

belonged to nadine menendez, his family. he also went on to say this, listen to this, katie said she wasn't going to let bob knows she had finance central problems or problems. so she tried to get cash and assets any way she could, but she kept bob sideline. nadine made sure bob was kept out of conversations involving money in this case, we need to figure out where's bob, of course, making your reference to where's waldo, which made the cte some of the court laugh at that moment. that was the only moment of levity, if you will, during that proceeding during openings, he went on to told jurors that there are no emails, no phone calls, no text messages directly linking him between these two co-defendants and any bribes. so it's very clear at this point, there are gonna be laying part of the blame. the defense is going to be laying part of the blame on nadine menendez, who as you know, is being tried separately. her trial starts in july. kate. >> now, let's see what happens.

good to see your jason. thanks for laying out for us. john. >> write this morning, scientists are exploring additional possible health benefits of drugs like ozempic has already known for helping with weight loss and diabetes, but they are studying the possible impact on liver disease cnn medical correspondent meg tirrell is with us now. meg, what's going on here well, i'm john, there's been a lot of focus on all of these potential benefits are was i'm beggin similar medicines we've heard thousands of reports of folks who report not just eating less while on these medications, which would be an expected result, but also how having less interest in things like drinking or even cigarette smoking so much so that scientists have studied this. >> one study, looked at social media reports about taking one of these medications in a class known as glp-1s and drinking alcohol, they found more than 1,500 social media posts about this topic. 71% sign of those posts talked about reducing cravings for drinking alcohol and so there's been a major call for these companies making

these medicines to potentially study these things so far, they haven't, but now novo nordisk, the maker of ozempic, has announced a new clinical trial. but as you said, is actually focused on alcohol-related liver disease. that is the main goal of the trial to see if semaglutide and other medicines, semaglutide being the drug name for ozempic and wegovy. can reduce damage to the liver. but as part of that trial, they're also going to measure whether these medicines lead folks to drink less. and that is something that researchers in this space of addiction science have really been wanting to see. will we actually to see this in the realm of a controlled clinical trial that these drugs do have this effect, guys, is there any science yet on the idea of why these drugs may want you to drink less, make you want to drink less. >> yes. >> so this steady so far are in animals, but what they have found is that these medicines work not just in the digestive system, but also in the brain. so there is a thought that they reduce the sort of effects of drinking alcohol. and that is

why people have less of a desire to drink while they're on these medicines we're going to have to actually see that in people. there are so far only academic studies going on. so it's exciting to see a big drugmaker setting this even if this isn't their primary goal with the study. >> yeah. i mean, not that they need a bigger market for these drugs, but, but drinking is that expected to be a market, a bigger market for them? >> well, unfortunately, these companies have not embraced addiction as a real big market for them, novo nordisk's ceo told me last year, don't expect us to study this in a major way. he said it's difficult to study and traditionally drugs for addiction, for alcohol and other things really haven't been big markets for drug makers eli lilly, the maker up tours, appetite, mounjaro, and similar medicines, also doesn't have any current studies, so it's not expected to be a big area, as you said, they already have so many patients trying to get these medicines, right? >> make sure all thank you so much for that report this morning, sarah. >> all right. a huge weeks for the wnba as they're too newest stars make a splash for more. lsu's star forward. angel reese made her debut with the

chicago sky last night, she needed 12 points and real and eight rebounds. and i showing even if this guy ultimately lost to the dallas wings, 87, 79, and the numbers are in the sun's home opener on may 14th, by the way? sold out for the first time since 2003. and caitlin clark's debut with the indiana fever on tuesday, drew and the largest wnba audience in two decades. about 2.1 million viewers, beating the nhl playoffs head-to-head coming up for us wild, new video showing the moments, a semi-truck careens basically off a bridge, how the driver reactant to this terrifying situation and the moment that they were saved. >> and a major flood. and there are major flood worries yet again in the south today, a rare highest risk of excessive rainfall issued for parts of texas and louisiana good stuff

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and confident protection that field, just like normal with so many styles and colors to choose from switching his easy at knicks.com how we'd really having with jesse l. martin, sunday's at nine on cnn the chancellor of the university of california, irvine says, he is broken hearted after police were called into help and eventually detained at least a dozen when pro-palestinian protesters on campus hundreds of protesters surrounded one of the schools, lecture halls, and a small group barricaded themselves inside on wednesday, the chancellor basically thing that changed everything. here's the quote. >> after weeks when ian campers a short or community that they were committed to maintaining a peaceful and non-disruptive encampment. >> it was terrible to see that they would dramatically alter the situation in a way that was a direct assault on the rights of other students and the university of michigan classes will be held remotely today. new dashcam footage shows the wild and terrifying moment as semi-truck nearly drives off for bridge in kentucky, leaving

the driver dangling over the ohio river here's what they say happen. pickup truck swerves into oncoming traffic, hits the semi, sending it careening off and nearly into the river below. and here's the moment i honestly cannot imagine the driver was eventually rescued by firefighters, sustained minor injuries. thankfully, the driver of the pickup was in court wednesday on charges related get that crash. chinese president xi jinping is rolling out the red carpet for russian president vladimir putin at the start of a too de, state visit, literally himself. he's rolling it out and the trip is men and to strengthen ties between the two countries. and it comes, of course, as russia continues its push into northeastern ukraine, and both leaders face increasing pressure understandably so from the west during one meeting, xi jinping said china is willing to always be russia's quote,

good neighbor, friend and partner of mutual trust. >> sarah. all right. >> this morning, forecasters warning of a nightmare scenario. another round of fierce storms across the gulf coast today could raise the risk of flooding to its highest levels. this parts of texas and louisiana have already been saturated over the past month and today's storms are expected to bring an extra listen to this three inches of rain per hour. meteorologist elisa rafah is tracking the latest forecast for us when are you expecting these storms that hit and three inches per hour could be dire for lunch but these places yes. >> especially since they have gotten so much rain over the last couple of weeks, the soils cannot take anymore rain. were really expecting this to ramp up through the day and into the overnight. here's that new high risk that was just issued this morning for parts of eastern texas, western louisiana, this high risk is exceptionally rare. it's only issued 4% of the time, but it's responsible for 80% of our flood damages

nationwide. and more than a third of our flood fatalities. so this again, we need to take this very seriously, even that moderate risk goes up to dallas as we go through the day today, this is the flood watch and we put the river levels on here to show you do that the situation was already really aggravated. we already have reverse that. are at that flood stage because of all the rain that we've gotten the last couple of weeks. i mean, look at this, we're looking at upwards of 20 inches of rain that has fallen in the last 30 days. they're just north of houston and that is about 600% of their normal six times the normal amount of rain that they would get. so again, the soils can not take any more rain at all. it that will cause the flooding to happen even more quickly. we do know that our rain is giving getting heavier as our atmosphere is warmer and holds more moisture and texas, you're looking at that rain being 21% heavier for since the 1950s across much of the southeast, it's almost 40% heavier. here's a look at how this is setting up. we've got the

showers and storms from oklahoma city stretching into texas as we go through the day today, you can see them really blow up. look at all the reds and the oranges, all that heavy rain, and look at the time frame as the sun is setting is when we can really see some of this vs rain flooding at night, incredibly dangerous because it is hard to see when those floodwaters rise so rapidly. we also will have that threat for additional strong storms with damaging winds and 22 so very active day ahead we're seeing all this before the big summer storms that were used to as well. lisa rafah. thank you so much for your reporting all right. >> so i show you the number 42. many of you think jackie robinson may be moldovan, but political nerds now know that 42 is 42 days until the first presidential debate. that is orally way, way early for a general election debate, earlier than ever. so cnn senior data reporter harry and is here with us when i say wicked early harry you mean

wicked? wicked? >> early. my goodness, gracious this, the earliest presidential debates between major party candidates june 27, 27. look at that in 2024, the earliest previous debate was back in 1976, which happened on september 23rd, between the major party candidates. so this is nearly what is that? that's one month that's two months that's three months. nearly before. and then the second most earliest debate was september 25th back in 1988, between bush and do caucus. so this my friend isn't just a record. it's a landslide of a record. yeah. look, i like harry that you are literally running the numbers. they're counting from one to three to show us how many months or years i didn't ever before. simple and complex. we'll look there. >> there's some logic behind this given how people vote now. yeah. so one of the things that joe biden was saying, we have early voting now, people are casting ballots before a lot of these debates are taking place. a lot of them take place in october. so take a look here.

this is americans voting before election day back in 1984 who is just 5%, you jump forward to 2004. there were some real movement towards early voting after the 2000 election. it jumped to 21% this year 57% of americans say they plan to vote early either by mail or in person before election day. so the fact is, yes, it does make some sense to have these debates early when folks are actually making up their mind and having already cast a ballot. now, president biden is the incumbent, and there are some people looking at this saying, well, president bind is asking to debate now because he needs it, at least according to the poll. yeah absolutely. and i think he wants a sort of upset the apple cart here because incumbents trailing going into the first debate, look at this jerry ford in 1976, jimmy carter and 80 george hw bush in 1992, and donald trump, of course, in 2020, what all four of these have in common besides being good looking man, they all lost reelection. so joe biden is trying to say, wait a minute, i

look at this history. i don't like this history. i want to change it up a little bit. maybe if i can get the debates going earlier, maybe if i have a good debate over son, i can change the polling because at this point, joe biden needs something to change. because if it doesn't, he's going to end up like these four men on the screen. >> he doesn't want to be like these guys, so we wants to try something different. a debate three months earlier in the general election than ever before. >> i'm so happy events. it's historic and i don't think we fully digested the impact of what it will be. no. alright. >> kate, i also don't think i fully digested the fact that impair get hairy does not have pulling on what people think of the looks of those presidents. i'm just saying i can pull my mom and she's a very good gauge of good-looking magnitude tells me i'm good looking every single time i talked to her, i'm moving on by kate. >> thank you much. >> joining us right now. democratic strategist simon rosenberg and former director of strategic communications for the trump 2020 campaign. mark ladder? no, i'm not going to ask you the same question, guys, have no fear. >> simon, let's start with this though, about the debate. >> early debate smart you dumb,

necessary, not more impactful, less impactful, which is it for joe biden? >> lots of questions there, kate, but i think that this is good for the american people. i mean, we have this unusual election this time where we essentially have two incumbents. we haven't had the normal primary debates and engagement of the american people in the primary process. and i think we have this very extended period. i mean, imagine if we waited so the end of september, early october to have this first debate, it's a long way away, and i think it's good for the american people to be engaging in this important decision. they have to make earlier. and so i think this i applaud president biden for doing this. i think it's a good thing for our democracy and a good thing for our for the american people and mark, you remind a very important aspect, all of this, which is we don't have election day anymore. >> it's election season. as you put it. >> so that means what for donald trump going into this? >> well, i think for him, he's trying to seal the deal before people start voting. when it

looked when it comes down to the issues the american people don't like what we currently have. they remember there they were better off under donald trump, the border was more secure under donald trump. so he wants to go and show that head-to-head comparison harrison between the two policies, the two results. and so in his view, this seals the deal. i think this is a hail mary for joe biden. he knows he's losing these polls have never historically over favorite donald trump. they always underestimate his support. so he needs to change the narrative and the debate is basically his hail mary shot at doing it and talk to me about your view on polling assignment. i know you've have a view on this as well. i mean, because biden talked about with erin burnett and their interview about how he thinks think he was talking about the economy, how he thinks a polling has been wrong all along on the economy. and even if you disagree with polling i'm about as it relates to biden on issues and issues and in battleground states do you think that should be impacting

the decision to debate? >> i think what's probably more impactful because i think i don't believe that joe biden's behind in the polling and i know that i'm in a minority view of this, but a majority of the polls taken in may have biden actually ahead in the national popular vote. and so i think the election has moved two to three points our direction in recent weeks and i think some at some point the media is going to catch up with that. i don't believe that joe biden's actually behind at this point, but i think it's more i think there's something more less political in what's happening here, which is let's have a debate. let's engage the american people in a discussion about their future. i think joe biden did the right thing here rather than waiting to the fall. and i think both candidates, we get to make their peace. i mean get to make their case and i think joe biden is anxious. i think this shows a degree of confidence and not desperate desperation and the way it's being cast. i think people thought he wasn't going to debate. he is. and the truth is, joe biden's anxious

to debate the guy who's not been showing up for debates as donald trump. he didn't show up for a single republican debate this year. he didn't show up for the third debate. in 2020. let's see if he shows up in june thing is even not showing up. >> mark as you well know, it worked. it's worked out very well for donald trump to this point, not showing up for debates mark, let me turn to this in a new interview. >> mitt romney, not a fan of donald trump one of you republican senators who voted to impeach donald trump over january 6, romney is now suggesting that joe biden should pardon donald trump. listen to this ahead. >> i've been president biden when the justice department brought a indictments, i would've immediately a pardoned him pardon president trump. >> why? well, because it makes me president biden, the big guy and the person i pardoned a little guide mark, would you ever think you'd hear that from mitt romney know and i see the

political calculus there that, that romney's doing that would probably when joe biden's support from the middle, but it would cost him his base his base. >> so hates donald trump they wake up every day hating donald trump and right now, joe biden is trying to placate his base. the middle is his next concern. so while that might that move would help him probably in the middle, i think it would cost him his his radical base. and so it's just not something he could do i mean, of course, dealing hypotheticals because it's not going to happen as far as we can tell on our crystal ball very near future. so it is, it is that it's great to see you guys, simon. thank you, mark. thank you very much. and you are i've seen a new central stress now former president donald trump heading back to court and just minutes, his lawyers plan to deploy a