under. according to italian officials, everyone on board was rescued thankfully, and fortunately no one was hurt. but still, quite a sight to see and quite a mess to deal with. it's still unclear what caused the yacht to sink. thank you so much for being here. i'm kate bolduan. ac 360 starts now. good evening. 31 years ago today, ukraine declared independence from the soviet union, and six months ago today, russian forces invaded. now, had their war plans succeeded, we would now be approaching the six-month anniversary of russia's takeover of ukraine. instead, for many reasons, first and foremost the remarkable bravery of the american people, ukraine is still independent and has fought russian invaders to a standstill at the cost, which is almost unimaginable or was until february 24th, six months ago. the invasion changed so much for ukraine, for europe, for superpower relations, and the nato alliance, for people living

worlds away from the fighting and the dying. vladimir putin would prefer that we pay less attention to it all tonight. instead, because of just how important it is, that is where we begin the broadcast, reminding you again, showing you again the moments of savage brutality and the moments of hope over the past six months. >> translator: we are all here. our military are here. citizens and society are here. we are all here defending our independence, our state, and it will remain so. glory to our defenders. glory to our women defenders. glory to ukraine. >> that, of course, is president volodymyr zelenskyy just hours into the invasion, not fleeing the country or evacuating to lviv or eastern poland as many expected and some had urged. standing firm as perhaps too few allies and adversaries alike expected. today the former actor and comedian spoke to the u.n. security council over the objections of the russian delegation, which tried to demand he appear in person. he began his remarks by

reporting that a russian strike on a train station in eastern ukraine had taken at least 16 civilian lives. the death toll now stands at 22. but if the last six months have shown anything, it's that targeting civilians is not merely a regrettable accident of russia's war. it appears to be central to it. the video you're about to see is from early march. it was taken during the evacuation of irpin outside kyiv. a family, a mom, her two children and a friend helping them flee killed in a mortar attack. [ speaking non-english ] >> shit!

>> stay there. >> all right. >> [ bleep ]. >> screaming for a medic. this is the aftermath. "new york times" photographer and photojournalist lindsay adario, who captured this video, told me she watched round after round of russian mortar fire come closer and closer, thinking, it's not possible because as she put it, they know there are civilians here. but it was no accident. just as the massacre in bucha also outside kyiv no accident. more than 300 civilians murdered there, many left on the streets and sidewalks, some shot with their hands behind their backs,

others killed on their bicycles, picking up food to feed their families. no accident. in the last six months, we have seen a children's theater being used as a bomb shelter targeted and destroyed. the markings on the ground outside visible even in satellite photos. "children," it reads. not far from there, russian forces leveled a maternity hospital, one of literally dozens of hospitals and medical facilitated targeted over the last six months according to the u.n. but if there has been one defining feature of russian tactics towards civilians so far, it is the destruction in residential neighborhoods, which we've seen almost since day one. take a look at a kyiv suburb in march. at least 33 people killed. the woman's voice you'll hear on the tape is screaming "kids, little kids." [ speaking non-english ]

>> since the invasion, 6.8 million ukrainians have fled to other parts of europe, and nearly 4 million have registered for some sort of temporary protection in the host countries. many, if they do return, will have no place to come home to like here in mariupol, sections of which have been all but leveled by russian artillery. it's also here at a huge steel complex in the city that the world witnessed a demonstration of ukraine's fighting tenacity,

in this case against all odds for 80 days. [ speaking non-english ] [ sound of gunfire ] >> ukrainian forces lost that siege and that city, but also have managed to drive russian forces away from kyiv and kharkiv. this video from east of kyiv showing a ukrainian fighter using an old soviet era rpg, reloading and russiahing back t

clearly exposed position to take another shot. u.s. and western arms have helped them drive the invasion in the east to a virtual stop. the u.s. as of today has sent $13.5 billion in military assistance to ukraine. other nato countries have also helped, including germany, which broke a decades old practice of not supplying arms. nato gained two members an. today, ukraine marked independence day with a displayed captured and damaged russian tanks in kyiv and mourned the loss of more civilian lives, at least 22 as we reported today. cnn's sam kiley is there for us tonight. sam. >> reporter: anderson, this is the day that marks the independence day for ukraine and also the six-month anniversary, as you pointed out there in your brilliant introduction, the six-month anniversary of the start of the war. 31 years ago, ukraine shook off

soviet domination, but they are not yet managing to shake off the russians. and at the same time, of course, the whole idea behind this invasion that nato was somehow threatening to russia has actually increased in truth because nato partners bilaterally are now doing deals, security deals and treaties and agreements with the ukrainian government just as vladimir putin feared they would. but let's take a look back at how things have unfolded over the last five months, six months. these troops you can see over here, they are russian airborne forces. >> reporter: vladimir putin was wrong to assume that russia would topple the government and capture kyiv in a matter of days. his 24th of february invasion officially to free the country from nazis and stop it joining nato met ferocious ukrainian resistance from day one.

assault convoys to the capital were stalled, then attacked. russian troops driven back from kyiv fell upon civilians in irpin and bucha. their atrocities revealed when they were forced out, leaving misery and murder in their wake. soon, russia turned its guns on civilians across the country as the kremlin's tactics went from replacing ukraine's rulers to breaking its people. railway stations, residential blocks, hospitals, even a nuclear power station were and are still being targeted. ukraine held on and fought back, driving russians from kyiv and away from kharkiv. mariupol, a russian-speaking city on the black sea coast, became a focus of putin's wrath.

its population driven from their homes. thousands of civilians were killed, and a prolonged siege ended in the surrender of hundreds of ukrainian troops. but they helped stall the russian advance west while ukraine's government desperately sought weapons to offset russia's advantage in numbers of men and machines. >> translator: we're holding on for six months. it's difficult for us, but we clenched our fists, fighting for our fate. what is the end of the war for us? we used to say peace. now we say victory. >> reporter: victory is a way off. fighting in the east has trapped civilians in what soldiers there call the meat grinder. russia has paid dearly for tiny gains. pounding towns with

russian-speaking majorities that have fled a russian blitzkrieg. millions took to the rail system and roads to escape the russian onslaught. now more than 6.8 million ukrainians are refugees outside their country. another 7 million are internally displaced. russia's been held back, not driven out. >> is it drifting into stalemate? >> the worst scenario was behind us and left behind us, and we are in a stage of destabilizing of the battlefield or battle line, and i think that we are on the verge of the new stage because we have to go forward to start our counteroffensive in different direction.

>> reporter: force may be the only way that ukraine will regain control of its borders. anything less hobbles its journey to democracy and into europe, and for putin, that might be victory enough. >> sam, i'm wondering if you could just talk a little bit about where the conflict -- what it's like now because we don't see the images, the kind we saw in the last six months when kyiv was being attacked, when bucha was finally liberated. and yet, the dying continues. some have described it as a meat grinder in the east. certainly months ago it was. what is the state of the battle now? >> reporter: anderson, i think the shift has been from the sort of infantry engaging large columns of armor to a much more conventional slugging it out

battle where the ukrainians are outnumbered in terms of guns. they say 10 or 20 to 1. they now have some better equipment. they're replacing they're soviet-era equipment with american and other nato partners who have been sending multiple launch rocket systems, new howitzers and so on. not the strategic weapons they've asked for, not the fighter jets, not the helicopter gunships, not even the killer drones that they so desperately need to turn the tide back. the danger is that this slugging match, it's very much kind of like a second world war series of frontlines with efforts to punch through. the russians frequently trying and devastating, flattening small towns just in order to take them, effectively capturing ashes in areas that they're claiming to liberate is not working for either side. the danger for the ukrainians is that this will become a stalemate, and that's why

they're talking so contactually about the counteroffensive. recent american uplift in supplies of weapons, renewed supplies of rockets and other equipment is definitely going to help ukrainians. but they do need those extra weapons. we're seeing a lot kind of more covert, behind the lines operations against the russians. we're going to see a lot more of those in the coming months, anderson. >> sam kiley, appreciate you being there on this anniversary. four days into thevation with russians targeting residential neighborhoods in and around kyiv, we first met a mother and her three children sheltering in a base. we got to know her over the last six months as she saw her husband join up to fight. here's a moment from our first interview. >> we in ukraine, we will do whatever is needed to protect our own land because it's our

responsibility, and we are ukrainians. we are being killed by russians. it's obvious. >> nearly six months later, it's a pleasure once again to speak to her. thank you for joining us. it is great to see you. how are you? >> thank you, anderson. i am fine. it's a pleasure to see you again. i'm fine. i'm alive, you see. i'm alive. my kids are alive. i'm talking to you from my home in kyiv, in the capital of ukraine. >> we're six months into this war of. it was mentioned today is ukrainian independence day. we're seeing increased russian strikes, civilian casualties. they're been a lot of concern in the run-up to independence day. there was an attack at a train sf station in eastern ukraine. how are you feeling about where

you are, where things stand in the war right now? >> well, the day was a really special day because we were really highly concerned about probable, you know, a lot of strikes from russia. i expected even more basically. but we see that russia did not cause more deaths simply because it couldn't. this means russia became weaker than in the beginning of the war. i think that the only reason why we didn't have massive shelling of kyiv, for example, is that russia just couldn't break through our air defense. >> are you optimistic? are you more confident now than you were in the past? >> well, if you remember, i was always confident when you were asking me, when the russian tanks were moving to kyiv, when they were just ten minutes away

from me, i told you that ukraine will win. the question is when and what price we're going to pay for this, and it's still the same. i'm still confident that ukraine will win. i still hope that i will see this. it would be pleasure to see it with my own eyes how ukraine wins, and it would be nice if this happens sooner because every day russia kills people. it's not only today. it's every day when civilians and military people of ukraine are killed by russia. >> i understand there were celebrations in kyiv, some included burned-out russian tanks in one of the squares. did you go to any of those? did you see those? >> i would love to, but i'm always with my children, and i think i don't want them to see this with their own eyes yet. they are already quite traumatized with all of this.

so i think it would be too much for them. >> i understand not only is today ukrainian independence day, but for your youngest, it was also kind of an independence day. >> oh, yes. she made a special present and a big surprise to us because she walked for the first time. >> wow. >> it happened, by the way, during an interview. i was giving an interview, and she started to walk. now you became independent, my little girl. >> it's amazing on independence day that she walked. i mean you couldn't write that. >> exactly. s you remember when we talked for the first time when the war sta started, she was only 4 months old. >> i know. >> she was always in my hands. now she's sleeping in her bed right now, and now she's

walking. she has eight teeth right now. she grows. life goes on. you can't now pause the life. it goes on. >> how do things compare now in your life to the way they were even two months ago? >> i do not have anymore this extra fear all the time when i'm breathing, when i'm thirsty all the time, this fear is not with me anymore, of course. but we have kind of illusion of normal life. we are back home, not in the basement anymore. everything is available for us, but we know that the war goes on of. and if the army stops fighting, if the world stops supporting us, we know russians will come back here to kyiv. and of course we all know that

the russian missiles can reach anyplace in ukraine, so it's not safe anywhere in ukraine. and this danger, it's always with us. we just know that it can happen at any moment, and you never know where exactly this russian missile can fall. >> olena, it's so good to see you. your family is just growing, and i can't believe that dorina has gained her independence on this day. i wish you best. >> thank you. thank you for not asking me am i li leaving ukraine or not. what i'm thinking, why six months after the war still ukrainians are being asked, are you afraid? are you concerned? are you leaving ukraine? why is it still not putin who is afraid? we received so many compliments today about our bravery, so

many, you know, about our courage of the people. and like the world seems to be so united against putin and what he is doing. but why the war still goes on? is he really stronger than all of us? why is this still happening every day to sus? >> o wthank you. breaking news, the uvalde text school board voting just now to fire school police chief pete arredondo for his role as incident commander in the tragedy at robb elementary school. we'll have a live report. later, new reporting on just how far back the federal government was trying to get documents back from the former president and even his former white house counsel agreed they should be returned. new information ahead.

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he faced intense criticism over his handling of the shooting at robb elementary. earlier tonight, parents expressed frustration with the closed-door meeting, calling for more transparency. >> we have just been told that mr. arredondo is not going to be here because he doesn't feel safe, and i'm going to sit here and say that nobody has threatened him. do not take this into closed sessions. we deserve to hear. our babies are dead. our teachers are dead. our parents are dead. the least y'all can do is show us the respect to do this in the public. >> joining me now in uvalde texas, cnn crime and justice correspondent shimon prokupecz. so what's the reaction of family members ain attendance now that arredondo has been fired? >> reporter: there's certainly relief for many of the family members, from many of the community members, many of the parents who are sending their kids back to school in just a few weeks here in uvalde.

so there's a sense of relief because no one really thought that this would happen. you know, there's so much frustration here. it's hard to believe, anderson, we are 90 days, three months after this happened, and we have still been talking about the same kind of information, the fact that there's no transparency, the fact that there's been no accountability, the fact that we still don't have so many details. so the fact that this happened today perhaps starts to move things in a positive direction for many of the community members and the family members, but certainly they all indicated this is nowhere near done. they're very unhappy with the school board and the school system, so they're going to go for more here, and they're going to go after other individuals here at the school and certainly the school board. >> it's still unbelievable, to your point, that we don't know exactly what occurred on that day with the police response. there's been more details given, but there's still so many questions unanswered. but before the board went into closed session to make their

decision, there was brief public comment. i want to play something someone else said, a plea from a student. >> i'm here to make a statement. if a law enforcement's job is to protect and serve, why didn't they protect and serve my friends and teachers on may 24th? [ applause ] i have messages for pete arredondo and all the law enforcement that were there that day. turn in your badge and step down. you don't deserve to wear one! >> can you describe what it was like in that auditorium? >> reporter: you know, it's still -- you attend these school board meetings. it is sad, but you're also seeing family members that are starting to fight for themselves and continuing to voice their feelings over how they've been mistreated, how they've been disrespected, and sitting there time and time again, you see that.

you know, i've been to so many of these meetings. i've been to every meeting this week. monday night there was a school board meeting. they left family members sitting there for over three hours as they went behind closed doors to discuss grievances that were filed against the superintendent. for three hours, these family members sat in the room waiting to find out what was going to happen. and then the school board members came out, spent a few minutes describing what happened, and then left, took no questions, didn't address the family members. and that's why you're continuing to see the frustration we are seeing tonight from family members. and that sort of is what went on today. they wanted the school board members to conduct all their business in open. do it in front of the public, in front of the family members. but still even today, they went behind closed doors to have this discussion. then obviously we saw the outcome that we saw, and for the family members, it was the right outcome, and it was the outcome

that they wanted, anderson. >> can you describe the 17-page letter that arredondo's lawyer sent right before the meeting started? >> reporter: it is puzzling, anderson. it is hard to understand how there is this lack of compassion towards the community members here, towards the family members, where pete arredondo does not take basically any responsibility for his actions that day. in fact, through this letter, this statement that his attorney put out, basically defends himself, entirely feels blameless and feels as though he did nothing wrong that day, saying that no matter how much we tried, we could not save them all. he talks about how the chief -- what the chief knew and did, everything he knew how to save the children and school employees on may 24th. he talks about -- at one point, there's this sort of antagonistic tone where the lawyer writes about what should have the chief done. should he have -- would the

district have preferred a gunfight with officers in the hallway to break out again? it said that arredondo did everything right, that arredondo did everything that he was supposed to do to try and save the children inside that classroom, the children inside that school. and then, anderson, he talks about how he does not feel safe, how arredondo does not feel safe to come and face the school board, to defend himself. so that is why he had to write this 17-page statement saying that he's received death threats and that he can't carry his gun, and therefore there's no way for him to feel safe, and that is why he can't come to the school board and defend himself. so this was a letter that essentially he wrote defending himself, saying that he did nothing wrong, and basically saying that he wanted his job back. >> wow. >> reporter: it sort of lacks compassion. >> the answer to that attorney's question in that document is, yeah, that's exactly what he

should have done. he should have rounded up the people he had with him and gone into that room and taken out the gunman. that is what -- that's not me saying that. that is what any reputable law enforcement person will tell you in this country, and that has been standard procedure, and i'm sure even his lousy police force was trained in those methods because that is standard procedure and has been now for more than a decade. >> reporter: right. and he tries to argue in this letter, anderson, that any reasonable officer would do exactly the same thing. and we know that's not true. >> that's not true. >> reporter: that's exactly what everyone -- everyone who has been trained to deal with this situation tells you this is not what you're supposed to do. this is not us saying this. this is not the families saying this. this is not people trying to, they say -- he writes in this letter that they want a villain. every law enforcement official who has done this training, leading experts in this field all say that what pete arredondo

did on that day was wrong. >> yeah, and -- the little he did do. shimon prokupecz, appreciate the reporting as always. next, new reporting that the national archives wanted documents returned from the former president as far back as may of last year. more ahead. of healthcare and mee and lowers our energy bills by investing in clean n energ. that's more savings for us. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis persists... put it in check with rinvoq, a onceaily pill. when uc got unpredictable,... i got rapid symptom relief with rinv. check. when uc held me back... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc got the upper hand... rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting, steroid-free remission. and a chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check. check. and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections,

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he had no prior notice of the fbi search of mar-a-lago. quoting him now, none, zero, not one single bit. however, there is new reporting tonight in "the washington post" of just how much warning the former president had long before the search that the government wanted its documents back. josh dawsey headlined archives asked for records in 2021 after trump lawyer agreed they should be returned. josh, can you just walk us through your reporting. you reviewed a may email from trump lawyers to national archives. what the takeaway? >> the takeaway, anderson, is in may 2021, the top lawyer for the national archives reached out to three different lawyers for trump, and here's what he said. he said that in the final days of a trump white house, they had identified two dozen boxes of presidential material that had been in the residence, in the white house residence, not in the oval office but in the residence, and that pat cipollone, according to the

archives lawyer, pat cipollone, the white house lawyer, wanted the material returned. they had asked repeatedly for the material to be returned and it had not been returned. and they were asking again in may 2021 to please return the material. in fact, they were almost begging. and they said besides the boxes, they had noticed several other high pro-file items that had not been termed. president trump's correspondence with kim jong-un. his correspondence with former president obama had not been returned even though that is customary for presidents to return that. and that they really needed all of these things back. what that shows is that long, long, long before the raid happened on mar-a-lago, the national archives and former president trump's lawyers were concerned that he had not given materials back he was supposed to return. >> based on your reporting, white house counsel pat cipollone and the national archives were in agreement records kept in the white house residence were supposed to be turned over but they weren't, is

that correct? >> according to the email that we reviewed, the top lawyer for the national archives said that pat cipollone had issued a determination saying that the records in the white house residence should be returned during the final days of the administration. when we reached out to cipollone, a spokeswoman for the lawyer declined to comment, so we don't know his side of the story. but we know according to that written record from the top lawyer for the national archives, pat cipollone had agreed that those boxes should be returned to the government before former president trump left for florida. >> is it clear why they weren't turned over? >> it is not. i mean that has been one of the lasting mysteries of this entire ordeal is trying to figure out why former president trump wanted to keep all these materials. he's told some confidants that the materials were his, they didn't belong to the government, and that he rightfully deserved possession of them. other folks say some of the records he wanted to show. he wanted to show to friends and

club members. we don't know precisely, but we do know among his advisers, his lawyers, there's kind of a quizzical notion even after all of these efforts to give them back, why didn't he give them back? >> what's remarkable about this story is that it's just another example and a very early example of the national archives asking for records to be turned over. clearly the former president and his representatives had multiple opportunities to cooperate with the government and head off action by the justice department and the fbi. >> anderson, what it shows is that actually before former president trump even left office, during the final days of his presidency, that is when the first requests from the archives came in to please give these boxes back. we didn't know that before, that they had gotten involved so early. and then they were repeatedly involved throughout the spring of 2021, and that former president trump's lawyers knew about these extensive efforts and were involved in these as well to get the documents back.

so what this email shows is long before this bubbled into the public realm, before the public understood what was going on, more than a year before, there was efforts to get all of these things back to the national archives. >> it also sort of paints a picture of how directly -- i mean, again, it would seem, and correct me if i'm wrong -- how directly the former president was involved in decisions about what documents to keep and where he wanted to keep them. i mean, the kim jong-un letter, you know, these things that he brought up to the residence, he was holding on to. >> right. i mean, we at "the new york times" have reported that the former president himself was involved in the packing and decides what went with him and what stayed at mar-a-lago after he agreed to give certain things back. a lot of the other advisers around him did not want to be involved in the packing because they didn't have classification authority. they didn't know exactly what he had taken. and it was a messy situation by all accounts. so what we've been able to determine is that the former

president himself took the lead on this process, on moving stuff to the residence and taking stuff to mar-a-lago, and then deciding a year later or so what he would eventually return to the national archives even though he did not return everything that they believed was theirs. >> josh dawsey from "the washington post," appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you. the democrats more optimistic about the midterms after a key win in last night's primaries. is momentum on their side or republicans'? we'll crunch the numbers next. whether it's a year old, or a few w years old we want to buy your car so go to carvana enter your license plate answer a few questions and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds when you're ready we'll come to you pay you on the spot and pick up your car that's it so ditch the old way of selling your car and say hello to the new way at carvana joe biden and democrats in congress just passed the inflation reduction act

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means more people get the assistance that they nee they get someone to partner in such a way to see transformation come to them. yes on prop 27, because there's no place like home. some democrats are now expressing the sort of cautious optimism about the midterms you certainly did hear from them early this year. whether it's the results of recent legislative victories, or resulting key races that last night culminated in a primary win that a lot of democrats view as a bellwether for the midterms. joining me to discuss, harry enten, and van jones, a former special adviser to president obama. harry, some democrats saying the political landscape for the midterms not as dire as it looked months ago, that the

overturning of roe v. wade has a lot to do with that. what does the data show? >> so you mentioned last night e special election in new york's 19th district, a district that biden won by a point and a half. you see the democrat there win there by a little more than two points. it wasn't the only special election last night. there was also an election in new york's 23rd district. yes the republican candidate won there but only won by six in a district that donald trump won by 11. if the look at the four special elections that have taken place since roe v. wade was overturned, the democrats have been outperforming biden's baseline buy an average of four points. so essentially what we're seeing is a massive divide between the pre-roe era and the post-roe being overturned era. >> van, democrat pat ryan ran with a very pro-choice message. will that translate to other races? >> i think so.

listen, we're happy. it feels good. it feels good. we've had this sort of season of shame where democrats were just so disappointed and frustrated with what was going on in d.c., dismayed by the republicans. we've gone from disappointed to determined now because biden is winning, and also you now see people feeling like, look, the republicans have been doing terrible stuff when it comes to january 6th. excusing the inexcusable, and women are standing up across the country. right now with the economy terrible, we would expecting republicans to be crushing us everywhere, and they're not. >> traditionally in polls, in exit polls, voters who even say they're concerned about abortion on one side or not of the debate, that is not the top issue that is driving them to the polls. >> i think that's because up until now, you haven't had the supreme court thrown in the garbage can. i think people are looking down the barrel of what if republicans get more power, what

are they going to do? people saying the country is going the wrong direction, that's only going to help republicans. but what's happening is people are looking at the republicans saying it's going the wrong direction because republicans are doing stuff that is scary when it comes to women's rights, when it comes to lgbtq, and when it comes to excusing the insurrection, and there's a concern about democracy. are we going to have a democracy? that all together now has democrats standing up, and you see it now. it's going to be a different fall outcome than people expect. >> harry, last night was a pretty good night for what you call establishment candidates. where do we see those more moderate candidates doing well? >> new york is a pretty good example, right? sean patrick maloney easily beating back a challenge from his more liberal challenger. dan goldman also in new york's 10th. we haven't declared a winner in that race yet, but he's clearly ahead, and my guess is that he probably will pull it out. on the republican side, look, daniel webster held on.

also in upstate new york, palladino got defeated as well in his bid to join congress or at least win the republican nomination. but the thing i'll point out here, anderson, is dan webster should not have been in trouble. palladino should not have come close to winning. so the ideas that these guys even came close to me is yes, the moderates and, yes, the establishment did pretty decently, and dan gold man is probably going to end up winning, but he's only winning with about a quarter of the vote. it was a good night for the more moderate, more establishment candidates but i wouldn't necessarily be saying it's all good for them. >> lumer came really close to actually winning. >> that's scary. >> she calls herself a proud islam phobe. the fact that she came that close, single digits, what does that say? >> it shows there's a lot of disquiet in the country and that means extreme candidates can make more headway than they

should. i'll also say for progressives at the congressional level, the moderates did very well. but even in the state of new york, you had a target on the back of a lot of progressives at the state level, local level candidates that were backed by the working families party, they won. so even the moderates in our party have been able to win at the kroll level, there's st. louis a progressive fightback at the local and state level. it's not a left wing period. it's not a right wing period. it's a turbulent and volatile period and we'll see how it goes. >> thanks very much. following the fallout from his crudité controversy, celebrity dr. mehmet oz taking heat with a very personal attack against his democratic rival and stroke survivor john fetterman. we'll have details aheadad.

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a lot of criticism tonight

directed at the campaign for celebrity doctor mehmet oz on attacking the health of his opponent, john fetterman. the new controversy comes after oz faced intense backlash after a video that went viral for the wrong reasons. it's raising serious questions about fetterman's condition. eva mcend has the story. >> reporter: from eerie to pittsburgh -- >> steelworkers. >> reporter: pennsylvania's democratic candidate for senate, john fetterman, back on the campaign trail more than three months after suffering a stroke. >> if i'm your next senator to washington, d.c., guess what? you're still going to have a senator that's going to be living across the street from your steel plant. >> reporter: fetterman was on message but often halting in his speech, and occasionally dropped words mid-sentence. >> being anti -- is

anti-american. what is wrong with demanding for -- an easy, safe kind of -- their income, a path to a safe place for them to win. excuse me, to work. >> reporter: fetterman declined to answer questions from cnn and other reporters at the event. a campaign spokesperson telling cnn fetterman is doing really well, walking five to six miles a day, and following doctor's orders. they didn't say when the public would receive a status update from his physician about his condition, instead, pointing to a june letter from his doctor that said fetterman would return in six months for a checkup and noting an interview where the 53-year-old said he had nothing to hide, while acknowledging he may struggle with hearing, miss

words. >> it is a common symptom of a stroke. the slurred speech doesn't always indicate a problem with language processing. sometimes it's simply a problem with pronunciation. >> reporter: in may, he was traced for cardiomyopathy. in that same yul interview, he said he is working with a speech therapist. since releasing this video aimed at highlighting grocery store prices -- >> $6? >> reporter: oz has come under withering criticism for being out of touch. but now he's trying to turn the tables, releasing a statement tuesday that said, if john fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have had a major stroke. fetter man responding, i know

politics could be challenging but i never -- down playing concerns over his health. >> i think he's back fairly quick from it, to be honest with you. >> i think if it was a bigger issue than what it is, he would absolutely be more open about it. >> reporter: a key question now is when are we going to see these candidates debate? oz really making this a central issue. fetterman's campaign telling me that fetterman is ready to debate oz but has not committed to a date as yet. anderson? >> appreciate it. thank you. still to come, take a listen. what is this noise? it was discovered deep in space. details next. ♪ ♪ the thing that's different about a vrbo vacation home. you always have the whole place to yourself. no stranger at the dinner table makingng things awkward. or in another room taking up space.

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which is kind of lit if we are talking... literal... ha ha. it's why we're planet earth's number one site for booking accommodation. we love booking stuff! and we're just here to help you make the best of your vacation. ow... hi... booking.com booking.yeah on monday we brought you stunk new pictures of the planet jupiter. tonight, our head is in the stars once again thanks to a new social media post by nasa. they say yes, sound can travel in space. and this is what a black hole sounds like. >> nasa says the reason you can hear anything at all is that while, yes, sound cannot travel

in a vacuum like space, the black hole basically produces ripples through the surrounding gas in this particular galaxy cluster. and those ripples can be translated into sound or a remix, as nasa has called it previously. it is remarkable. the news continues. let's hand it over to laura coates and "cnn tonight." coates and "cnn tonight." laura? -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> oddly, that's exactly how i thought a black hole would sound. i don't know why, if i had to think about it would be like that or the charlie brown parents. >> wawa wawa. >> he was onto something. thanks charles shulz. anderson, thank you so much. i'm laura coates, and this is "cnn tonight." look, something -- well, it shifted. not exactly how sure and how much that actually has been the case, but we've ridden the political roller coaster enough to know that no one knows for sure what's going to happen in the november midterms. but remember that big, red republican wave that so many