determined generation of iranians, more embolden than ever. they're risking, everything, erin. rising up for freedoms and rights they have never known under this oppressive regime. >> thank you very much. thanks so much to all of you for joining us tonight. ""ac 360"" begins right now. >> even as the remains of hurricane ian are still causing havoc, even tonight with major flood ago long the virginia shore, the storms death toll is rising. mostly in florida. especially in lee county where the storm hit hardest in at least 54 people have now died. john berman here in for anderson. all hurricane ian is responsible for at least 104 deaths and just as did it today, that number is expected to rise. five days since the storm came ashore, barrier islands are

still cut off from the mainland. search and rescue operations are still under way. serious questions are being asked about whether evacuation orders came too late for some. nearly 2,000 people have been rescued so far according to the florida governor. thcht is footage from sanibel island, blue skies overhead. a neighborhood still flooded to the point that only way out is by chopper. we have two reports tonight. the first is from ft. myers beach and our randi kaye who is among the first reporters to get in and witness the enormous destruction and still on going rescue operations up close. this is what she saw. >> this is our first look from the ground at ft. myers beach, hurricane keyian's winds combined with the storm surge, chewed through homes and businesses. sparing nothing in its path. >> massive devastation. something somewhat used to my first deployment was hurricane katrina. so, you know, a lot of hurricanes over the years. this certainly is a big, big

disaster. >> reporter: jennifer brown is a canine search specialist with florida task force two. the her dogs are searching for human remains here on ft. myers beach. they worked dozens of missions since florida's task force 2 first arrived in ft. myers beach as the storm was still pounding this community. >> it was a good day. the i mean, again, it's like, you know, you don't want to leave anybody behind. that's that we're here for. and on the other hand, we didn't find anybody. that's a good thing. >> a team of 80 from this task force has been busy crisscrossing a seven mile stretch on the beach working 24/7 going house-to-house in search of survivors. >> we have a the lot of residents that are still sheltered in place and need information and need help. just getting out or just where to get water, ice, food, and just even giving that information to them is a huge help for them. >> reporter: it's no easy task given the scene here, homes

crumbled, smashed, and stacked on top of others. businesses blown to pieces. this building used to be over there as kro the street. it was moved by the sheer power of wind and water. >> we had emergencies we didn't respond to. when he two people that fwheent cardiac arrest, stopped breathing and the search and rescue personnel ended up performing cpr. able to get a pulse back and then transported to a local hospital. >> the team rescued this elderly couple who were trapped in their home. the storm had washed away the entire ground floor of their two story house. this is just one area of ft. myers beach where you can really see the destruction. nothing is where it belongs. this laundry machine came from that laundromat over there. and in this area here, these were homes. but now those homes are over

there. and just look at that level of destruction. they're up against the other homes but they are shredded, crumbled. there is nothing left of them. this woman was rescued today. she has cancer and rode out the storm so she could continue her treatments nearby. >> it was rushing. it's like 30 miles per hour. it was pulling houses, roofs apart, literally. you could see them float by. we were sitting up in my bedroom watching all this debris go by. >> reporter: there's no power or water in this area so anyone still at the beach is completely cut off from services. the search and rescue team is using high water vehicles and front loaders to navigate through the debris as they continue to search for anyone trapped in the rubble. task force 2 found human remains but did not say how many bodies they recovered. bob and rosemary are some of lucky ones. they lost everything inside their home but were rescued today. >> our best friend. we have nobody to contact.

he is 92. and he says he's not leaving the island. i hope he did. i sent the police over to his home. >> you haven't been able to reach him? >> no. >> so many people it seems still unaccounted for. leaving friends and loved ones to wonder if they made it out. >> the physical and emotional strain on the responders is so obvious. and they are still finding people today? >> they are, john. that is true lyn credible. this was this team's third pass through this area. they're working that seven mile area. and they are still finding surv survive which is excellent news. it's the first 48 hours that are so critical. and in that time period, they were able to find 150 people who had fled to higher ground in their homes, many of them in attics to escape the rising floodwaters. but now you hear the mayor here saying that they just don't know. they don't have a handle on how

many people could still be missing. of course, that is not good news for loved ones who cannot reach their family members. they don't know if they're trapped or alive or dead. so the task force and the search teams, john, will continue here 24/7 for as long as it takes, they say, until their mission is complete. john? >> work goes on. randi kaye, thank you very much for that report. more now on the broader sweep of the story in what emergency teams across the area have been finding today. carlos suarez has that. >> reporter: unrecognizable in parts, still underwater in others. hurricane ian's destruction and path so vast, search and rescue efforts continue days after the storm tore through florida. >> we can't get over the bridge. >> residents in this area hit by river flooding are stuck. air boats are now key to getting supplies in and people out. >> you see the air boats taking people into town. it's been going for a while now. >> the death toll across the

state climbing rapidly. two of the hardest hit florida counties, lee and charlotte, each adding a dod deaths today alone. >> a lot of sick people running out of medications and people running out of water. and so we can get everything up and going, we're trying to get them out. >> reporter: hundreds of sanibel island residents cut off from the mainland have been rescued so far. no timetable to rebuild, the only road to the island. >> we are encouraging everyone to get off the island. but we also need to understand that this is everyone's home and they need to get back and protect it. >> reporter: there are mounting questions in lee county over why the first mandatory evacuation orders there came just one day before land fall. county officials are there and standing by the decision making saying they based the orders on the storm's forecasted path. >> he this made the call as soon as the forecast called for them to make the call. monday afternoon we were telling people you do not want to wait for evacuation orders to leave.

you can leave now. >> but the county's own emerplan suggests evacuations should have happened earlier, specifically when there is a 10% chance of six feet storm surge. they first mentioned four to feet feet of surge for area. the first orders for lee county were not issued until tuesday morning. over 24 hours later. it turns out that the day before the town of ft. myers beach encouraged people to leave with a facebook post which made a point of noting the county's decision wouldn't come until the next day. >> i'm confident, confident in the decisions that were made and like i said yesterday, stand by them and i wouldn't change anything. >> reporter: officials here say residents didn't want to leave whether they were ordered to or not. >> they informed people and most people did not want to do it. i mean that's just the reality. >> reporter: mixed opinions from residents themselves on how the county handled the decision. >> then when the evacuation order came, 24 hours, that's not

a lot. >> we have so many retirees here and elderly that need more time to be able to get to places or people that don't have vehicles that need more assistance. >> that wouldn't determine if i go or not. it's for each individual. what's right for me doesn't mean it's right for you. >> carlos joins us now. the carlos, what is the latest from officials on this gap in the evacuation order? >> well, john, officials across lee county are defending this decision saying it was made with the best possible information they had at the time at a briefing late this monday t governor was frustrated asked about the evacuation orders. he said that lee county officials have already explained their decision. he was pressed on whether or not he was ready to order a formal review of the entire process. and the governor said he would.

john? >> carlos, thank you very much for your reporting. next, a potential big development in the mar-a-lago story. the former president asked one of his lawyers to say. something the lawyer suspected might not be true. later, my conversation with maggie about her new book on the former president. what she learned about him in the making of it and what she learned we may never truly know about the man. shhhhh! i think you're missing the plot. and i think you're missing the cash back. [ding] cha-ching. new astepro allergy. now available without a prescription. astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid free spray. while other allergy sprays take hours astepro starts working in 30 minutes. so you can... astepro and go.

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so clothes look newer, longer. feel the difference with downy. new reporting tonight in the mar-a-lago document story that does get into that area where people joke that maga substance for making attorneys get attorneys. or at least making them uneasy working for the former president. "the washington post" headline reads, trump lawyer refused trump request in february to say all documents returned after initial return of 15 boxes alex cannon thought there might be more records at mar-a-lago, people familiar with the matter

said, our sarah murray joins us with more on. this what else is in this "washington post" reporting? what does it reveal about what purportedly happened between the former president and his lawyer? >> i think what this tells you is, you know, former president going to one of the attorneys earlier in 2022 and essentially saying will you tell the archives that everything they asked for we returned it. and you see in this "washington post" report the attorney is just not comfortable making that statement. a person would later learn why. he made that statement and then came out after the subpoena after the august search that there were all the classified documents at mar-a-lago. that puts the lawyers in legal jeopardy. it's clear this attorney had enough misgivings he didn't want to make that declaration. >> they have reportings about who packed the boxes initially returned to the national archives. what do they say about that? >> that's right. these were boxes returned to the archives in january. according to the "washington post," donald trump was the one who packed up the boxes.

certainly this would be interesting if that is in fact true if the former president is handpicking the things that go in the boxes. we have to say that cnn has not confirmed this reporting that former president was the one who was actually going through it. certainly is an interesting anecdote. >> sarah murray, thank you so much. joining us for his perspective is cnn contributor and former nixon white house counsel, john dean. john, how could thim pact the justice department investigation into the former president and potentially criminal -- the criminal case against him? >> you know, i was listening to sarah as she was reporting and thinking about watergate days. and how these stories keep coming out. the key events have happened. they have put in a grand jury. the buzz and concern about his testimony or lack thereof or how the attorneys are going deal it

with has already rippled through the trump team. so it just something we and the public are learning. it looks more and more from that information that department is working on a very strong obstruction of justice case. why? >> why? because president is -- you know it was the department of justice is actually in the investigation. the president is telling someone to not honor or be truthful about what you're turning over. he dictated a statement. the lawyer is not going to put his name on it. they'll later give somebody who will do a modified version of that. but it's part of a pattern. of obstructing the investigation. >> so according to the report, again, you're referring to alex cannon here. the former president asked this attorney, alex cannon, to make the statement to the national archives about the documents. because it's an attorney here, are there ways that the justice

department can investigate it without hitting attorney-client privilege roadblocks? >> if you have an attorney unwilling to do something, while he may not have told the department of directly if so, others might have reported it for him. it doesn't sound like a privilege is raised here. he would be able to fight for that for a while, and trump. sounds like they're over that hurdle and this information is out and partst investigation. >> what will the possible criminality be in asking your attorney to give false information to a government agency? >> just that. asking your attorney to give false information.

that's obstruction of justice. and that is perjury. that is false statements. it is a nasty crime. and one that the government is very actively pursuing. >> and the fact that "the washington post" reports that trump packed the box or boxes himself, how does that impact the case? does it give him knowledge or greater knowledge of what was in the boxes snen that kind of detail. he would be involved and actually packing the boxes and deciding out of the thousands of pages of documents that are there to put in the boxes and what to keep. himself. making decisions of that might be somehow explanatory. maggie will be much more attune to this than i am.

and what we might learn from the pattern of what he did give -- what he kept. so i don't know what i would know all that because a the lot of what is classified. but the nonclassified might show a pattern of what he wanted to keep and why he wanted to keep it. >> john dean. thank you very much. and john just mentioned the name himself. next to the former president totold him about the documents didid and didn't take from theh makingng of the new book and ho that squares with the factcts a more of what she learnrned abou the former president's strange way of disposing of some white house papers. her button. sorry. marcia has sleep apnea and r struggles with cpap hame sleeping in the guest room. now she's got inspire. hame sleeping it's a sleep apnea treatment that wks inside her body with the click of a remote. no mask. no hose. just sleep. now i'm back. and we're back. ♪ ♪ inspire. sleep apnea innovation. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com

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so i want to read you a portion of a recent item former president posted on his network. it ends with she is a bad writer with very bad sources. point of fact, maggie is one of the best writers in reporters in this business. the her new book "confidence man: the making of donald trump and the breaking of america," as for sources, well, one of them is none other than the guy in the title. that's right, he sat for three interviews with her specifically for this book. maggie senior political correspondent for "the new york times," season political analyst and covered donald trump locally and nationally throughout her career. we spoke shortly before that "washington post" story on the marc

mar-a-lago documents broke. >> it's so great to have you here. the i so enjoyed reading this. and what you do here, just so people know, this is not an oh, look at the crazy things that happened when he was president. you're doing something different here which is looking back really at the beginning and drawing a through line between how we got from there to here. let me start with that big picture. what is different, or the same about, talking to donald trump from before he was president, while he was president and now after? >> that's an excellent question. thank you for having me on to talk about this book. the talking to him before he was president was him taking himself to some extent less seriously. once he became a candidate in 2016 and started seeing the crowds he got, he started taking himself more seriously. talking to him as president, he was i think essentially planning a role, you know, he described it to me in one of our interviews as before i did the presidency, and i never heard someone describe that as doing that office.

it was as if he was talking about a show, after there was a real bitterness about what he was lost. but the through line, john that, is the same is he is so driven by grievance. he has a handful of moves that he uses and changes out and figuring out which move he is using. and he is basically saying whatever he has to say to get through short increments of time. >> so my next question is at the very end of the book. and everything previous to the point i think to an extent is a buildup to this. you have an exchange. it is getting play in the press right now. he says to you, at the end of one of the interviews, i love being with her. she is like my psychiatrist. now i'm sure that means something to you personally to hear that from him. and there are a host thoughts given how much you covered him. but you also know, it is something bigger going on here. >> yeah. it actually, john, doesn't mean anything to me. i think it was a meaningless lie. it is intended to flatter. he said something similar about

the release of the twitter feed or he said similar things to other people about how, you know, engaging and contentious back and forth is. they the reality is he treats everyone like they were his psychiatrists. and he is -- it is his friends, pseudo friends, staff, white house aides, rally attendees. he is working it out in front of all of us in real time. and in the course of doing that over the last however many years, six years now, he reoriented the country around his moods and emotions in a way that i never would have imagine was possible. >> and you prove that in this book. you lay that out which issy want to ask that. that's the conclusion. i want to ask you about something that's been in the news the last few days. it's no the in the book. but it is. right? because of everything that you established. it's about his comments on mitch mcconnell and his wife which are just racist. put those into context based on what you've seen from donald trump from when he was here in new york.

>> so there say couple things about that comment. one is there is a racist comment about mitch mcconnell's wife. it is just objectively racist. donald trump has been, you know, engaging in casual racism throughout his life according to my reporting. all kinds of comments that, you know, were offensive to people who heard them. that were about black people or were about gay people or so forth and so on. and he often would claim he was being misunderstood and we've seen that with him. that allows supporters to claim something else is going on. that is non not possible with this comment. the other piece of this comment about mcconnell is it's medicine. you know, he had a line he said he has a death wish. now his allies are insisting that political deng wish, that is not what he said. after january 6th, there should nobody confusion for anyone that when donald trump says certain things his supporters hear it a certain way. and one of the through lines that i true to establish here is

how much violence sort of informed his sense of strength. and that in term informed his sense of what a strong leader was. he tends to talk about violence and in violent terms. he tends to glorify violence. all of this is something you see here throughout his life. >> just to clarify, secretary of transportation under trump, she is secretary of labor under previous administrations. she had a bunch of jobs to her credit. but this is about trump and not about elaine chao. you brought up the correspondented he had with the -- now we have audio of this conversation. so let's listen. >> did you leave the white house with anything in particular? are there any momento documents you took with you? anything of that nature? >> no. nothing of great urgency. >> okay. >> i had letters to king jong

un, letters. >> you take those with you? >> we have to look at that. but most of it was in the archives. >> okay. >> we had incredible things. there are incredible letters with other leaders. >> this was before "the washington post" reporting that he had taken the kim jong-un letters. but you can almost see the wheels turning there when he's talking to you. >> unclear what this meant in real time. i asked him about taking the momento documents. i know how proud he was of the documents he would wave around as if they were trophies. he then brings up the kim jong-un correspondence as a immediate reaction to me is to say i didn't take anything. then it's like he wants to boast that he has something. he sees my reaction and he starts backtracking. it's only clear now why that was. and this exchange is much more relevant after the august 8th fbi search of mar-a-lago.

>> so let's end on january 6th. all -- there is audio of a conversation you had with him about what he was doing that day. let's listen. >> what were you doing when -- how did you find out that there were people storming the capitol? >> i had heard that afterwards. and actually, on the late side. i was having meetings. i was also with mark meadows and others. i was not watching television. i didn't have the television on. >> you weren't? >> i didn't usually have the television on. i have it on if there is something. i then later turned it on and i saw what was happening. i also had confidence that the capitol, who didn't want these 10,000 people -- >> the capitol police. >> that they would be able to control this thing. and you don't realize that, you k know, they did lose control.

>> there's a lot in there we believe is not true based on our reporting, your reporting, everyone's reporting. >> testimony. >> he was watching tv. >> and was awarest things were bad pretty early. he is describing this as if this was a situation that who knew this was the capitol police, you know, with are in this situation. it was really clear early on the capitol police were in trouble. the mayor of washington, d.c., was trying to reach people at the white house to get the national guard ordered up to the capitol. very little according to our reporting but is fascinating to me that's where he chose to go. >> what do you want people to take from this as we head into 2024 you? said it. we talked about it. you think -- you may very well run. you're not sure when has the same type of energy he has before. but what should people take from this as they evaluate his candidacy? >> this is, i think, the most complete picture that i have been able to paint of him. i hope that people take a fuller

portrait of this person who is, you know, whatever he was in new york, he is now a person of consequence. i'm hoping they have a greater understanding of how much overreading gets done of why he's doing various things. it is often purely about getting attention and troubling. and it is very difficult to look at him through the prism of any typical politician. >> and he knows what he's doing. >> he has often more calculating than people realize. that is a big thing that i try to show here. >> maggie, the book is "confidence man." it is well worth the wait. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up, a first look inside a strategically important city in eastern ukraine that is now back in n the hands of ukrainian forces. cnn's nick peyton walsh was there shortly after ukraine gained control. days after putin claimed it and other territories as part of russia, what nick witnessed ahead. credit cards wasn't go. i got into debt in college and, no matter how much i paid, it followed me everywhere.

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california, mountains, oceans, natural wonders, diverse and creative people. but when the out-of-state corporations behind prop 27 look at california, they see nothing but suckers. they wrote prop 27 to give themselves 90% of the profits from online sports betting in california. other states get much more. why is prop 27 such a suckers deal for california?

because the corporations didn't write it for us. they wrote it for themselves. russia's attempt to redraw maps as they lose territory in ukraine continue today. the lower house and parliament ratified at tempted annexation of four territories putin announced last week. this after ukraine reportedly made further gains in the south and after the forces seized strategically crucial city. today russia removed the top military commander in that

region. and now according to sources who spoke with cnn, ukraine is trying to obtain longer range missiles in exchange for giving the u.s. veto power over targeting. cnn was there hours after ukraine gained control. our international security reporter nick peyton walsh joins us from ukraine with those details. nick, so what can you tell us about what you saw on the ground in that key city? >> a striking thing about this town is when you understand it's significant and it is basically because it's the source of railways. it is split in two by huge railway tracks which is a remarkable thing to think about how warfare is fought by russia in 2022. it was about maintaining control of trains. and the damage done to the town was extraordinary, frankly. it's been the site f fighting back and forth for a number of months, key build tings there, pretty much all of them damaged. it was ghostly.

very few ukrainian troops when we went there. some had already moved on to the next targets further east. very few localed too. many left before the ukrainian push towards that particular city. one thing, too, we did not see as much is we thought we would do which is russian prisoners of war and russian casualties. we were told they have possibly been some that were taken away earlier. but locals also said that at one point russian troops did manage to get themselves out before they were finally encircled by ukrainians. then said that some russians tried to get out and were hit as they tried to flea. so a mixed picture certainly in terms of damage done to russian forces. make no mistake this is a huge strategic defeat for moscow. they are absolutely struggling now to regroup, find defensive back from that front. most importantly, the political consequences are very extreme. open bickering in the russian elite. that is not something that putin faced athe all in his 202 2 yea.

that will have consequences in the months ahead as moscow struggles to get a grip on the campaign. >> do we know where the russian forces retreated to? >> it seems as though they moved further east. a town that is complicated to explain. but essentially shifting east towards russia's only border. and that been something we've seen slowly happening since about a month ago when the last russian route happened around the second largest city in ukraine. ukrainians we thought might regroup or pause. they kept pushing south and a bit east as well. it was the ultimate target. ukraine's been clear. if it hits the supply hubs that keep russia's army there fed and fueled, then they can see it crumble. the same thing happened with that town. that was the focus. now we're beginning to see the impact on their positions moving back towards their border. it's probably not going to be an overnight route like we saw oorn

kharkiv but causing many to wonder when the problems start for russia and they begin to regain control of the positions. we're understanding that this is the source of another major program for moscow. they're losing ground on the west side and a key river down to the black sea. very fast at this stage. unclear precisely how fast it's going to ukraine military secrecy about whether the troops are the moment. but extraordinary developments here as well. and this, frankly, just means that day by day there is less of a front line for ukraine to worry about and they can focus energy on certain parts of it. and that's yet more bad news for russia who is struggling to get to the front line. >> nick peyton walsh, thank you for your reporting. perspective from matthew chance who reported inside ukraine and moscow and cnn retired analyst wesley clark.

general clark, let me start with you, the loss of this key rail hub, how much of a setback is this for russia? >> it is a significant setback because that was the railway that connected the russians in belaruse where they could get logistics and reinforcements into the area. so it is a set back. there is no doubt about it. the big thing is that it is pushing more disorganized russian troops back on russian positions. and demoralized, disorganized mass of troops is really hard to handle. so this is a real defeat for russia. it is very heartening for ukraine. and we just have to hope that the momentum continues for ukraine. >> so matthew, what didoes this embarrassment mean for putin and how might he respond? >> it puts him in a very difficult position. particularly because he's coming under a lot of pressure

domestically. and we're seeing this sort of upsurge in an extraordinary amount of criticism which is really what you don't hear very much of in russia traditionally when it comes to putin. but it's coming from a sort of both powerful group of section of society. we're talking about people who go about military people who are very connected with his military circles. >> i think he's very close to putin who is the sort of president of the republic of chechnya. he even said, look, we should be using tactical nuclear weapons to turn the tide of the battle. inherently, that's explicitly they're criticizing battlefield

tactics. the but indirectly, that's a criticism of putin, particularly because he's the person who is believed that has been calling the shots when it comes to this military operation. so a very precarious situation for putin at home. >> matthew mentioned tactical nuclear weapons. he seems to be talking about the idea of nuclear weapons even more now. reminding the world he has them. what kind of response do you think that will be? >> i think it is something we should take very seriously. i think the likely hfd the use

has gone up. it's difficult to use these battlefield tactical nuclear weapons successfully especially against a mobile ukrainian force. we've done it in exercises. that was during the cold war. we found it takes a lot more difficult problem than it looks like on paper. the area is small and the likelihood of death is a big mess in the country. but it may not have the military significance that he thinks. hopefully we'll show signs of of that operation. not just by words but by action. we need to stage our air capabilities in romania, bulgaria, and other countries that are there. so there is no question that putin knows that we could and would respond. taking out the troops and on the

ground itself. we could take out russian maritime assets and go after logistics and control points. but it will be a big, big deal for the united states to intervene by air power. >> matthew, the effort, aapparently, to get the u.s. to provide a long range rocket system, the government is saying it would more or less grant u.s. veto power. the u.s. veto power over any strike they propose. do you see that as a workable solution, matthew, based on what you saw. >> well, it certainly were offer the united states the sort of security they're looking for. they're trying to fire into targets inside russia itself. and that's something that would

escalate. but ukrainians offer as i understand it, look, you'll essentially get veto over any targets we choose. it's not going to escalate the conflict beyond where it is now. i think what the u.s. is concerned about is being drawn into basically battlefield decision making in that way. it would be in itself crossing the red line and the united states would be actively engaged in the conflict. and so it's something they want to avoid. and so that issue of whether or not to give the ukrainians these longer range weapons system is not yet been resolved. >> matthew chance and general clark, thank you both very much. still ahead, more on the comment i discussed earlier and one so incendiary that a "walall stree journal" editorial board s sayst

is ugly by the former president's stanandards and deserved to be condemned. and ththe awful language he use about elaine chao, former w binet secretary and wife of senator mitch mcconnell. cold. specially designed for peoe with high blood pressure. be there for life's best moments. trust ricidin. ♪ does it get better than never getting lost? ♪ does it get better than not parallel parking yourself? ♪

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mostly what appears to be a racist comment from the former president over the weekend that also invoked political violence, the foremark was aimed at republican senator mitch mcconnell. at the end of it, he said he has a death wish. death wish is in all caps. it comes as congressmen in both parties are facing a surge in threats. the former president writes, mcconnell must immediately seek help from his wife, and uses a derogatory term, instead of her name, elaine chao. we pressed rick scott about these comments. >> you're a member of the senate gop leadership. are you okay with this? >> well, i can never talk about

responding to why anybody else says what they said. as you know, the president likes to give people nicknames. you can ask him how he came up with the nickname. i'm sure he has a nickname for me. >> nicknames are one thing. but this is -- this appears racist. is that okay? >> it's never, ever okay to be a racist. >> i'm joined now by cnn political correspondent dana bash, coanchor of cnn's "state of the union." what do you make of how scott responded or didn't respond or how quiet the republican party has been on this. >> extremely quiet. now it's been several days that this comment has been out there. the fact that rick scott took a lot of prodding to get him to condemn particularly the part that was clearly racist is really indicative of where this party is right now. it's not as if they're not

privately disgusted because they are. i'm sure you're talking to your sources, as am i, john. they're absolutely disgusted. but they're also looking at the calendar and noting that they're just a little more than a month away from midterm elections, particularly in the senate, where they are extremely, extremely worried that a map that should be, they think, favorable to them will not give them the majority because they don't -- mitch mcconnell has said publicly he doesn't think the candidates on his side are necessarily strong enough to do that. so, they're trying to stay focused on the issues that they think will help them. an issue that they do not think will help them is getting into a feud with donald trump, despite how absolutely outrageous and egregious and racist those comments were. >> there were the parts that were racist and there was the other part where he seems to

invoke violence. the former president says mitch mcconnell has a death wish, and political rise is on the rise in the country. don't they care about that, the republicans in country? >> yeah, and not only is it on the rise, there is very recent evidence that they -- most of them were actually a part of, physically, when rhetoric like that, invoking violence, actually results in violence. and of course i'm talking about january 6th. so, yes, they are concerned. but getting them to speak up about it, again, so close to the election, especially when you have mitch mcconnell, who was the target of donald trump's ire in this particular case, telling his conference, telling republican senators privately over and over again, don't take the bait from him. stay focused on the issues that we think matter most to voters, the economy, immigration, crime.

that is the message coming from mcconnell, so he's trying to take his own advice. it will be very interesting, john, to see what happens after election day, meaning the midterm election day, to see whether or not he changes his tune because this is a whole new level. privately, as you can imagine, i'm told that he is not happy. but he is biting his tongue publicly because he's trying to keep his eye on the prize, which is he wants to be majority leader again. >> just to reiterate, you think mcconnell is going to stay quiet on this, even on the attacks on his wife, until election day. >> i wouldn't be surprised unless he is pressed. john, you'u've covered him for long time as well. he is incredibly disciplined when he wants to be. pretty much always. >> manu raju, we're talking about you there. dana bash, thank you for your reporting. we'll be right back. >> thanks, john. and mirrors. [ding]

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the news continues. time for casey hunt and "cnn tonight." >> john, thank you so much. i am kasie hunt. it's the biggest case to attack our capitol. will the u.s. government be able to prove that the far right militia growth, the oath keepers,