vladimir putin. tonight, five months into putin's invasion of ukraine, the biden administration is finally sanctioning putin's rumored girlfriend kabaeva. putin never confirmed having a romantic relationship with her or that the two have children. thanks so much for joining us. "ac 360" starts now. good evening, primary elections night in five state. h missouri, michigan, kansas, arizona and washington. polls are closing just now in all or parts of three of them. abortion is on the ballot in kansas and supporters of the former president's election lie are running in arizona and elsewhere. three republicans who voted to impeach the former president are all facing tough primary challenges from candidates that he's supporting. in arizona, state house speaker rusty bowers, the conservative state house speaker who refused

to help overturn the election and testified before the house select committee is also facing opposition backed by the former president in his state senate race. some of the very same candidates are also being supported controversially by democrats hoping to run against more extreme opponents in the fall. all of this with inflation and fears of recession as the backdrop, president biden''s foreign policy decision on the table in midterm elections now 98 days away. john king is tracking the important races and trends at the wall. john, missouri polls are just closing, as you know the former president caused a lot of confusion in his senate endorsement of two people named eric, both running for the same office. how is that race shaping up? >> yeah, anderson, the fact that we're talking about missouri is actually the story in the sense that this is a retiring republican incumbent roy blount the wind at the republican's back. this should be a safe seat. the former president decided at the last minute to get involved. what did he mean eric greitens

the disgraced former governor who had to resign because of allegations of misconduct, now wants to be in the senate. did he mean state attorney general eric schmitt. donald trump trying to be cute in a very important race. both eric's backed to varying degrees trump's big lie. the democrats believe in greitens win the nomination, they might pick up this seat. think of the gift that would be. republicans have a chance to take control. the senate is the most competitive battleground, governor's races, house races, et cetera. the democrats are in play in missouri after tonight that is a gift for the democratic party plain and simple. >> michigan obviously another important state for midterms in the next presidential cycle. what are some of the key races there? >> and so obviously you have a gubernatorial primary there. governor gretchen whitmer is up. let me get to that and bring this up here. again, trump came in late in the governor's primary here endorsing tudor nixon, again, ryan kelly another republican candidate was here at january

6th at the united states capitol. tudor dixon backs the big lie. michigan a battleground state, governor's races even more important that the supreme court kicked the abortion issue back to the states. will the cancer of the big lie continue to spread among major republican candidates for office. will republican voters after the january 6th hearings, as we get closer to the midterm elections, will there be a snap back? michigan will be one of the places we learn that. >> arizona, a lot going on in arizona. the governor's race underscored the trump versus pence proxy battle among gop voters. what are you looking there tonight for? >> so again if you bring up the two candidates. kari lake has channelled the big lake. channelling trump literally, saying if she doesn't win this primary tonight because there's cheating. if she wins, apparently anderson, there's no cheating. if she loses, there's cheating. this is trump versus pence. karrin taylor robson is endorsed

by pence. so you have the trump establishment, but arizona could, by the end of the night, nominate a full slate of statewide candidates who backed the big lie. again, we need competitive political parties in this country. this is not an anti-republican statement, but the cancer of the big lie in the republican party is on the ballot tonight. will the republican party finally say enough? or will it in a critical battleground state this year for senate and governor obviously in the next presidential election and every presidential the next four or five arizona will be key battleground state. do republicans say enough or do they say the big lie, deniers? we will nominate them. >> a lot to watch for. we'll come back to you shortly, john. i want to drill down on arizona. do you have a sense of how much of an impact the former president's influence is expected to be in arizona tonight, particularly in the primaries for governor and secretary of state? >> reporter: absolutely. certainly it's no secret that trump is endorsing here. they know exactly who he is endorsing. a lot of the voters we have spoken to certainly know that

kari lake, is as john just described trump personified. that's no secret. how it will play out with voters if there is enough of that trump base remaining here in arizona, is going to be the question. that is the question that should be answered by the end of this evening. remember, 2020 never really ended here in arizona. this is the place where there was the partisan-led review, that bizarre world of ballot counting on the stadium floor where trump forces shortly after the election put pressure on local officials. so there is a true battle here, a war between the election liars and people who believe in democracy. the people going to the polls here in many places anderson right behind me are certainly understanding that trump has endorsed some say it played a part. a lot of people are saying not as much. so, that's a question that we need to wait to be answered. >> i assume some of the people saying not as much are the non-trumped endorsed campaigns?

>> reporter: absolutely. and actually when i've been talking to a number of sources, i was just telling you about the amount of pressure that was put on local officials, i have spoken to a number of those local officials. and they say really by the end of tonight they will find out if the party in arizona, if the republican party in arizona, is lost or not. that's what they feel is going to be happening tonight. so there's very little daylight between candidates like karrin taylor robson and kari lake when you look at immigration and the economy. there is almost no difference. the big difference is how far they're willing to go with dangerous rhetoric and embracing something that is not true. and then something else i want to mention, anderson, secretary of state, here is somebody who wants to oversee elections. he went to qanon conventions and wants to completely change the election system to something that's nonsensical and simply wouldn't work if you talk to federal election officials. so that's what's going to be happening. is this going to go by way of

bizarre-o world or will the republican party pull back and go back to republican values, according to the many people i have spoken to today about what is at stake here. >> appreciate it. john king mentioned a moment ago, missouri is home to the two erics, both of who got the former president's endorsement last night in the republican u.s. senate race or neither of whom depending on how you look at it. cnn's jeff zeleny now with the latest there. what are you hearing from campaigns about how this last-minute endorsement of the two erics will influence anything or not? >> reporter: anderson, there's no doubt that eric greitens is trying to stage an epic comeback four years after resigning from governor. that's the question that missouri voters are going to answer today. are they still concerned about those allegations he admitted some of them having the affair with his hairdresser. he denied strenuously allegations of abuse of his ex-wife and his child. but this is what has hung over the race for the last several weeks here. fellow republicans, his fellow

republicans, have tried to stop his candidacy through millions of dollars in television ads reminding missouri voters about all of those details. eric scmitt the missouri attorney general has risen in the last several weeks, taking advantage of some questions about the greitens' candidacy. vicki has been in congress the last 12 years. she told me yesterday that she would not vote for eric greitens if he becomes the republican senate nominee. that worries republicans in washington considerably because this of course should be a safe republican seat. 50/50 senate, every seat matters. that concerns republicans if eric greitens wins tonight, is he going to be a credible general election candidate? we should also note, though, there are 21 republican candidates on the ballot entirely. so the vote will be split up. mark mccloskey you may remember from st. louis, he and his wife stopped protesters at their home two summers ago, holding a gun. he is also running for senate.

and his yard signs are all over the state here, john. so, this does appear to be a three-way contest, at least as republicans are going to the polls. but the big question, will eric greitens stage a comeback or not? >> yeah. that's definitely something to watch for. appreciate it, jeff zeleny. john king is back and mark preston and david chalian and abby phillip. abby, let's start with arizona, the election deniers. >> there's so much going on here, as kyang pointed out. this is a state where arizona politically right at this moment is probably as far to the right as one could be in terms of this election denying phenomenon. these are republican voters who go crazy over sharpies, who did their sort of election audit with kind of -- as people have

described it, almost like a fake firm running this audit and finding nothing at the end of the day. >> cyber ninjas. >> the cyber ninjas. they protested outside of ballot counting offices that week of election day back in 2020. they are all in on the big lie. and it shows based on who they are choosing between from top to bottom on this ballot. so this is a place where that state, the republican party, is going all the way to the right. but the state is a purple state. remember, joe biden won arizona and he won it bolstered by a growing population of young latino voters who are trending more democratic in arizona, maybe not elsewhere, but in arizona. and so this state politically is splitting apart and republicans are moving away. >> when you think rusty bowers, a conservative republican who has been speaker of the state

house, he's now persona nongrat ta among a lot of republicans in arizona. >> it's not just the commitment to the big lie that donald trump tells about the 2020 election. what i think is so important about tonight in arizona and in michigan, two critical battleground states, two states that will help determine who the next president is, you have these election deniers seeking positions of oversight of elections. so everything we look at with the january 6th committee, right, you mentioned rusty bowers, there were people who stood up and said, no. right? it's going to be country over party for me. that happened in enough places with enough republican officials to turn donald trump's efforts away. now you have these people who are committed to not just expressing his lies and repeating them but actually potentially committed to overturning elections that they would then have oversight over if they didn't like the results. that's what i think the biggest danger is in the way in which

these republican primaries play out tonight. >> you also have this sort of trump/pence proxy war. i don't know how significant that really is? >> i think it's more a trump proxy war against the establishment of the republican party and we use mike pence or doug ducey as the person on the other side. you know what's interesting, too, is we're going to these primaries that are being held in the middle of august right now, the dog days of august. we're going to see -- we're not going to see record turnout. we're going to see turnout by those most motivated who are going to be very likely to be election deniers. they're more motivated to go out, to try to take back and win that seat than it is for these more centrist republicans to try to defend it and hold back. so when i do think when we look at the results at the end of this week, because we won't get results until the end of this week, i think we have to look at the republican party, has it been taken over by activist willing to push the big lie and also willing to be involved.

>> john, in michigan there's the key primary challenge for the gop congressman peter meyer, oneover ten house republicans who voted to impeach the former president after the attack on capitol. what are you watching for in that race? >> well, you're watching to see if the january 6th hearing, if all this attention on donald trump's misconduct, abuse of power, dereliction of duty around that election, does that impact republican voters? do they finally decide enough. we're not going to carry out donald trump's grievances anymore. ten republicans voted to impeach him. there are three contests tonight. peter meyer in michigan then two out in washington state. i think it is a key question. are republican voters willing to support their republicans who are incumbents or carry out donald trump's grievances? do the january 6th hearings, donald trump's reemergence have any impact. what's common about all three of these districts and come back to the other map to connect to the points we're discussing with my colleagues, is the suburbs. those are suburban republican districts. the suburbs will decide who wins in arizona. the suburbs will decide who wins statewide in michigan. the suburbs decide all the close elections in american history.

suburbs made george h. bush and george w.h. bush. suburban america is going to decide what happens in november and have a big voice tonight. suburban republicans tonight in arizona, in michigan, in washington state and in kansas on the abortion question tonight. suburban america will speak and the democrats will watch kansas probably more than any state to see what is the message. >> what about -- in kansas abortion really is on the ballot for the first time since the roe v. wade decision was overturned. >> yeah. this is clearly a first test to watch. it is a bit of a hot house of a situation where everybody's attention is on it. and the results have been in terms of turnout that there's a lot of interest in this referendum, but there's also a lot of confusion about this ballot initiative. referendums are often confusing for voters. and so, the people who are going

to the ballot here are going to have to pay very close attention to what they are voting on because, yes, means basically no to abortion in the state. that is going to be very confusing to people. but millions and millions of dollars pouring in on both sides of this issue. and i think it will show us a little bit whether or not either side of this can gain the upper hand. and i think also what i'm looking at tonight in kansas is there are a lot of women who, you know, that you might ask them, they might personally say, hey, i don't support abortion but they are not comfortable with the state putting in place complete abortion bans. and i think that is going to be something that we learn a little bit more about after the results of this referendum in kansas. >> you also have in washington state and john referenced this, republican candidates who are facing primary challenges because they voted in the second impeachment against the president. i mean, does that still have power to bring people out to the polls?

>> it certainly does. i think if you look at two numbers, three tonight. you have peter meyer in michigan and two republicans in washington state right now who all voted to impeach donald trump. then you look at the number ten. those were the total number of republicans who had voted. where are they now? four are retiring. one has already lost a primary. one won a primary. three could lose a primary tonight. and liz cheney at the end of august, you know, is heading on the way of losing a primary even though she stood up for the country above party. so, look, donald trump may not still -- may not be the leader of the party in 2024, but donald trump's ideals will certainly drive the party. >> david chalian, abby phillip, john king, appreciate it so much. next, the debate over nancy pelosi's visit to taiwan and the fallout from it. tom freedman joins us for that. later, first on cnn, more missing january 6th text messages from the former administration. this time it's not the secret service, it's the pentagon. more on that ahead.

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the visit is big but the potential repercussions are bigger. house speaker pelosi arriving in taipei. china responded by announcing live fire military exercises and waters surrounding the water. biden administration did want the speaker to visit taiwan but the president stopped short of directly telling her not to. lawmakers are split and so are many experts. new york times foreign affairs editor tom freedman opposing it. he called the visit utterly reckless, nothing good will come of it. tom freedman is author of countless best sellers. so, tom, why was this the wrong thing to do?

>> let me make clear, anderson, i like nancy pelosi. we wouldn't have had the affordable care act without her and been a great legislature. this has the feel of a swan song, someone who feels her speakership is ending felt strongly about human rights in china and wanted to make this trip now. i get it for nancy pelosi. i don't get it for america. she had a right to do this, but didn't mean it was right to do at this time. what do i feel about it? we have one overriding foreign policy goal to ensure that vladimir putin's army in ukraine is at least stalled and ideally evicted from ukraine. that is the number one foreign policy issue of the united states. the biden administration through some very tough talks with china's leader got china to agree not to send arms to putin. that was very important at the beginning of the war. it's even more important now in month five when putin's army is really running low on certain

munitions. doing anything right now that would interrupt that chinese decision or deflect our attention or put us into a two-front confrontation with the two world's two biggest superpowers beside us at the same time seems to be terrible decision making. >> i want to point out what speaker pelosi said in the washington post about why she was going. she said by traveling to taiwan, we honor our commitment to democracy, reaffirming the freedoms of taiwan and all democracies must be respected. i'm sure if she heard you she would point out that she went to kyiv to see and meet with the zelenskyy to emphasize the importance of the war in ukraine. >> god bless her for doing that. by the way, she's absolutely right in principle. we should be doing that. i'm a big believer in we should defend taiwan's democracy. i think it's very important. i actually agree with the president on that. it's just whether it's the smart thing to do right now. whether you want to put it in

the situation where we're juggling two superpower confrontations at the same time. i hope the chinese will do a sound and light show and be done with it. but they may not, anderson. and people seem to forget that china's army is very, very large and very sophisticated. and our goal for taiwan as someone like myself who believes in the freedom and democracy of taiwan and that it should be perpetuated, to me the right way to do that is by just keeping taiwan out of the news. quietly arm them. turn them into a porcupine that china would say every morning, you know what, not today. don't want to put my hand on that. and quietly keep it that way. because who knows over time china may change the situation, the situation may change, everyday that taiwan's democracy stands is a good day. grand standing around that is not a good day. >> there's no daylight between the intent of the speaker's trip to reaffirm american support of a democratic taiwan and the white house's backing of the one

china policy. substantively, does the trip really change anything? i mean, other than ratcheting up the tension? >> right. i think that's all it really does. believe me, i hope it dies down. she'll have made her point. but if it doesn't, if it contributes to another thing we have to be concerned about, which is one reason vladimir putin probably invaded ukraine, invaded ukraine, was probably because he felt the window of opportunity was closing. that ukraine was getting strong, too integrated into the european union. i think we have to be concerned that what we are telling xi right now the chance of any peaceful unification of china and taiwan is over. i don't want xi to conclude, you know what, my window of opportunity for seizing taiwan may be over. so i think we have to think about all these different dimensions to the story. >> do you think -- i mean, if this ends without any major escalation with china, do you think it just fades away? do you think it hangs over

u.s./china relations for some time? >> it will leave a bad taste but we have many things we need to do with each other right now, the u.s. and china. we have a broad agenda from trade obviously to geopolitics. i hope it dies down. i hope that china, again, sets off a few flares, whatever it does, and by a week or two weeks from now it's all over. but you have to ask nancy pelosi, if you're going to do this, what is the strategic context in which you're doing this? what is the strategy? is it just to make a point? or is it to make a point now in this context because i think this relationship between us and taiwan and the friction it could cause with china is more important than anything going on with russia? just to say we have a right to do that. yes, we have a right to do that. that doesn't mean it was right to do right now. that's my only argument. >> tom freedman, i appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, more missing texts related to the investigation surrounding the january 6th attack. this is incredible. this time involving some former

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tonight we're learning about yet another agency with deleted text messmessages. this new revelation involving the pentagon. in court filings a watchdog group american oversight said it had tried to get the records of

officials including former acting secretary of defense kris miller, former chief of staff kash pa tell and ryan mccarthy. there's no suggestion the officials themselves erased the records. d.o.d. and army conveyed to plaintiff that when an employee separates from d.o.d. or army, he or she turns in the gove government-issued phone and the phone is wiped. the text messages were not preserved those not with the agency still and cannot be searched. it's possible particular text messages could have been saved into other record systems such as email. a short time ago january 6th committee member zoe lofgren called it concerning. joined by andrew mccabe, former deputy director of the fbi. i'm wondering what your reaction is to this news, especially coming on the heels of similar revelations about the secret service and the department of homeland security. >> so anderson, you know, we are

now looking at essentially the same coincidence at the department of secret service at the department of homeland security and now at the defense department. it's starting to look less and less like a coincidence. there is a -- in the absolute least case, there's a complete and total failure to abide by and live up to the responsibilities under the federal records act. so, yeah, this is becoming more confounding the further we look. >> zoe lofgren on the january 6th committee told us that to her nknowledge the committee wasn't aware of erased text messages. pentagon officials say they only found out today -- or they only found out today after cnn reported it. what does it say to you about the level of transparency that the committee is actually getting from relevant federal officials? >> well, it's sorely lacking.

and that could be the committee's responsibility. maybe they haven't done a good job in organizing their requests and monitoring those requests that they have outstanding to all the different agencies and the different players that are involved in this massive investigation. but on the other hand, it might be on the agency's side for failing to respond, for obfuscating, for not responding in a fully forthcoming way. but you know, this is the sort of thing, anderson, that could be very simply investigated by a competent investigative entity. this is -- you know, it's almost unbelievable to think that the department of defense doesn't have a system in place to make sure that those people who serve at a high enough level, that their communications, their personal notes, their briefing materials, all that stuff, comes under the federal records preservation requirements. it's impossible for me to believe that they don't have a

process and an entire staff that's responsible for collecting that material and sending it to the national archives. >> yeah. >> so did that happen? if not why? >> i should say, i misspoke actually when i was asking you a question. zoe lofgren said that the select committee told cnn that to her knowledge the committee wasn't aware of these erased messages from pentagon officials, not pentagon officials weren't aware. but you know, to their -- to the argument that, well, look, this is just part of the process. you hand in your phone when you leave government. it gets wiped. nothing to see here. you're saying for officials at a certain level, the records keeping act should kick in. >> of course. when i started working at a high enough level in the fbi, certainly as an executive assistant director or as deputy director of the fbi, one of the first things that happened when i took that job is i received a security briefing in which our lawyers explained to me that essentially everything i read, everything i touched, everything

i wrote had to be captured and preserved and that the staff would do that and all those records were collected in one place and ultimately be sent to the national archives. that, of course, includes all your emails and your text messages. the fbi has a system in place that text messages are actually collected from every fbi phone while the phones are being used. i guess some agencies don't go that far, but it's not that hard to make sure that the secretary of defense on leaving the organization, his phone should get at least mirrored and preserved for all kinds of litigation reasons, for discovery reasons and, of course, federal records act. >> is it possible to recover deleted text messages? i mean, one hears about deleted text messages being recovered all of the time in court cases or in lawsuits, but are officials that were cited in this lawsuit, including former acting secretary of defense chris miller, former chief of staff, former secretary of the army, i mean, they're viewed as

crucial witnesses to understanding the government's response on that day. >> so the effort to recover those messages is certainly worth undertaking. whether or not you could do it successfully really depends on the technology involved. you would have to recover those phones and then you would have to subject those phones to a pretty detailed forensic analysis. if they were simply deleted, you could probably recover them. if the phones were wiped and the memory was reconfigured in those phones in the process, you might never get them back. so it really depends what kind of action was taken on those devices. >> appreciate it as always, thank you. nine and a half years of hell how a sandy hook parent describes the pain he endured because of conspiracy spreader and liar alex jones. the father says that jones tarnished the honor and legacy of his murdered son. more on his courtroom testimony today next. was so bad i would be in a lot of pain. i was unable to eat. it was very hard. kimberly came to clearchoice withth a bunch of missing teet,

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go to the out of state corporations. a tiny share goes to the homeless, and even less to tribes. and a big loophole says, costs to promote betting reduce money for the tribes, so they get less. hidden agendas. fine print. loopholes. prop 27. they didn't write it for the tribes or the homeless. they wrote it for themselves. devastating testimony from two sandy hook parents today in an austin, texas, courtroom in one of several defamation cases against conspiracy spreader alex jones. here is the first of three to determine monetary damages for falsely portraying the massacre as a hoax. two in texas, one in connecticut where 20 first graders and six adults were murdered nearly ten years ago. testifying in texas today the participants of 6-year-old

jessie lewis. jones took the stand late today and got admonished by the judge. he'll continue tomorrow. first the parent's message from the court from cnn's miguel marquez. >> my son existed. >> reporter: my son existed, says scarlett lewis, the mother of 6-year-old jessie lewis, speaking directly to conspiracy theorist alex jones in an austin, texas, courtroom. >> jessie was real. i am a real mom. >> reporter: in an utterly unthinkable sign of our times scarlett lewis makes the case that she and her dead child are real. directly to jones. >> it doesn't exist that i'm deep state. it's just not true. i know you know that. that's the problem. i know you know that. and you keep saying it. you keep saying it. why? why? for money? because you made a lot of money

while you've said it. i know -- i mean, i know you believe me. and yet you're going to get -- you're going to leave this courthouse and you're going to say it again on your show. you're saying no. you just did it. >> reporter: on his show today, today, he raised questions about both scarlett lewis and the boy's father, who were seeking up to $150 million in damages. >> he is manipulated by some very bad people. he's slow. okay. and his ex-wife is not. >> reporter: the man jones is calling slow and manipulated jesse lewis's father, neil

heslan. i cherish those days. those years. with jesse. >> reporter: in all, families of seven victims and one fbi agent have successfully sued alex jones for defamation in three different trials, taking place in both texas and connecticut. jones testified he was simply trying to get answers to questions that others were asking. >> i never intentionally tried to hurt you. i never even said your name until this case came to court. i didn't even know who you were until a couple years ago when all this started up. the internet had a lot of questions. i had questions. >> reporter: based on a separate legal filing, families of sandy hook victims alleged jones is using bankruptcy laws to shield

tens of millions of dollars from any possible liability. miguel marquez, cnn, new york. >> a lot to discuss, joining me is elizwet williamson of the new york times who was in the austin courtroom today. author of extraordinary book "sandy hook:an american tragedy and the battle for truth." elizabeth, what happened in the courtroom today after the judge left the room? >> it was an emotional day to say the least, anderson. at the end of that day, after the judge went back to her chambers, alex jones approached scarlett lewis and neil heslan, jesse lewis' parents. shook their hands. i think scarlett offered him a bottle of water because he had been coughing throughout his testimony. and he was telling them that he was sorry. the lawyers kind of got into the middle of this because they see this as a kind of gambit because

jones has repeatedly said that he's apologized to the parents, but this is always been a backhanded apology, bookended by another charge against them for being actors or what have you. >> i mean, the fact that they have to be in the same room with this person and touch his hand, you know, the fact they're willing to touch his hand to shake it when he reaches out to them says a lot about them, but it says really nothing about -- alex jones has said all there is to say about him. he has shown himself to be who he is. in testimony, cold you just talk about what neil heslan, jesse's father says about the violent threats that he has faced? >> yeah. so, neil has said that people have confronted him on the street. he's gotten anonymous phone calls but most alarming in his testimony today was the fact that, and i have this in my book as well, that someone fired a gun into his house. today he further testified that

this spring someone drove by the house in a car, yelled alex jones and he could hear the sound of gunfire. so, for him, this is far beyond some kind of online harassment. it's a very real threat. and scarlett spoke to the fear that sort of stalks them ever since the shooting. >> but the fact that any grieving parent who has lost a little child has to have a second of their life thinking about this sick crap that this person spreads, it's just -- it breaks my heart that a grieving parent has to go through this. i mean, no part of their mind should ever be occupied with the existence of this person. jones took the stand today. i know the topic of his company filing for bankruptcy came up. has he -- does he just shield -- how does he shield his money or

does he? >> he has a web of llcs in which he has, you know, got a sort of shell game, it appears to be going. >> llcs are limited liability corporations. >> correct, yes. and lawyers for the family say that he's been shifting money around. they think that the bankruptcy filing is a peer gambit. he tried to say before the jurors, in fact he did say he is bankrupt. that is false. he has filed for bankruptcy, and that is still being adjudicated. he has also tried to submit that he tried to apologize or that he was fully compliant in the run-up to these trials. in fact, the reason he's on trial for damages is because he had such utter disregard for the judicial system that he was defaulted in all of these cases. he lost the defamation cases because he refused -- he refused to comply. but he keeps attempting to

relitigate these cases when, in fact, he's been found liable and these trials are just for how much he must pay these families. >> it's fascinating to see him in court with all the bluster and bravado he has on his internet show to see him, you know, trying to apologize such as it is to these parents in order to just kind of, you know, lessen the verdict. what's expected to happen tomorrow? >> so tomorrow he will continue to testify, but i have to say and i really want to make sure that people understand this, this was a singularly powerful moment for scarlett lewis in particular. i mean, he was squirming in his chair. and she would not let him look down or fidget. she was addressing him directly. one of the things she said was, alex, i want you to hear this. she wasn't angry. she actually was compassionate and that was even more powerful. i mean, the room was really

riveted. and he was extremely uncomfortable. it was an accident of scheduling that he was even there while she was still testifying. and it was quite a moment. >> it's extraordinary the grace and strength that she has to be able to -- as we see right now, just talk directly to this person who has spread unbelievable things. elizabeth williamson, appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you, anderson. coming up, we'll check back in with john king, magic wall, more proi mare results coming in and more can'ted at the top of the hour when some arizona polls close. the latest next. unless you happen to be a dog. if maga republicans get their way, abortion will be banned nationwide, with no exceptions. medicare andocial security will end in five years,

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polls are beginning to close in arizona in a few minutes and more results are coming in from kansas, missouri, and michigan. i want to check in with john king at the magic wall. what message could the gubernatorial primary send to the rest of the republican party? >> the question is how deep is this cancer of supporting the big lie, saying elections are rigged in the republican

bloodstream? kari lake has said if she loses this primary tonight, it's because there's cheating. who does that sound like? this is trump versus mike pence, trump versus the republican establishment. will the republican party say enough and move on? >> it's incredible she says there's cheating if she loses. if she wins, no cheating. >> funny how that works. >> what new information about results in missouri and michigan yet? >> michigan first, tudor dixon who donald trump endorsed at the last minute, she previously had the endorsement of a prominent republican, betsy devos. she's leading early on, 11% of the vote counted. every county that has reported votes so far, dixon is leading. she would face the democratic

incumbent gretchen whitmer if she is the nominee. the senate race in missouri, purple on the map right now, that's the attorney general eric schmitt who is leading with 40% of the vote. eric greitens running a distant third, the former governor. vicky hartzler, republican congresswoman, you see her support in the west central part of the state, that's her current congressional district, not all of these counties. these outside her district, but these counties right here are hartzler's congressional district, not a surprise she's running strong there. >> john, do you know every county in every state? >> not every one, but 3,000 plus, it's a lot to study, america is a great place. >> the fact that you remember all this is incredible to me. kansas voters are weighing in on

a constitutional ban on abortion. any sense of that? >> democrats have a theory that because of the supreme court decision, suburban republicans will come home to democrats this year. is that the case? will the democrats come out of the woodwork to vote? no. if you want to change the kansas constitution, and allow the legislature to ban abortion, then you're voting yes. if you want to keep kansas' constitution in place which guarantees at least a basic right to an abortion, you vote no. no is leading at the moment. again, only 8% of the vote in but that's a pretty big lead. suburbs, manhattan, topeka, kansas, this is the suburban parts of the state at the moment. those who support abortion rights are leading. >> john king, appreciate it, thanks. we'll be right back.

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heyyy! (steins breaking) your cousin. ♪ from boston. ♪ it means, “ok-to-beer-fest”. another sam octoberfest? nein. make it ten! i like this guy. (cheers) the news continues. let's hand it over to laura coates on "cnn tonight." >> anderson, thank you so much. i'm laura coates and this is "cnn tonight. as they say, 98 days to go before elections, it's election night in america once again. the polls are now closed in michigan and kansas and parts of arizona. five states had primaries today including key battlegrounds that could shape the race for which party will be the majority. democrats once again? or republicans yet again? no, donald trump i