visit to the caribbean when they were dogged by questions about the monarchy's colonial past, this royal tour has again felt the effects of history. alex, this would have been a huge frustration to the prince and princess of wales who are here in boston for one reason, which is to promote solutions to the climate crisis, culminating in the earthshot prize, which is being held here on friday night. it's something that prince william in particular has been working towards for months, if not years. alex? >> our thanks to cnn's max foster in boston. i'm alex marquardt here in "the situation room." thank you so much for watching. "erin burnett out front" start next. "outfront" next, breaking news. two major legal blows for trump tonight, one in the mar-a-lago case, and the second in another

federal criminal investigation. plus, a cnn exclusive tonight. a chinese protester in beijing speaks out. hear why this protester says this is just the beginning of an uprising in china. and president obama live in georgia this hour. democrats feeling momentum five days until the runoff. we're going take you there. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the breaking news. trump suffering two major legal blows. the first, goodbye special master. a federal appeals court stopping the special master's review of sensitive documents seized at trump's home, mar-a-lago. of course you'll remember, it was a few months ago in september when judge aileen cannon, who see her on your screen now, who was appointed by trump sided with the former president and appointed a special master, which of course added time. everything had to be reviewed, stretching this whole process out. the doj appealed saying that that review and all this time would cause irreparable harm to their investigation. and the 11th circuit court

tonight agreeing, slamming cannon's decision. let me just read a part of this here in the ruling. they say "the law is clear. we cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant, nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so." now i just want to be clear here going through this that the judges who wrote this ruling is made up of judges nominated by the former presidents george w. bush and donald trump. so that's the first blow, right, related to mar-a-lago. it is significant. the other, though, matters a lot tonight too. it is regarding another federal criminal investigation, this one into trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. tonight a federal judge ordering two attorneys to testify, pat cipollone, trump's former white house council, and his deputy patrick philbin to come before the grand jury. rejects claimses of executive and attorney-client privilege. that was rejected.

now both lawyers are crucial in the january 6th criminal investigation. there is a lot to get to tonight. i want to begin with evan perez in washington. so evan, let's talk about this mar-a-lago ruling, the special master that was so crucial to all of this in september, and now a stunning ruling, right, significant ruling about the special master. what does it mean? >> well, it means that the justice department, erin, that the justice department investigation can continue unfettered, because this -- the earlier ruling from the lower court judge aileen cannon, that had essentially acted to impede what the justice department was trying to do, which was review these documents, pursue this criminal investigation into the alleged mishandling of classified information. and what the former president was asking was special treatment. that's plain and simple what he was asking for. and the 11th circuit, two judges who were appointed by the former president, and a third one, another republican appointee, i'll read you another part of the ruling.

it says the restraint guards against needless judicial intrusion into the course of criminal investigations, this fear of power committed to the executive branch. and that's one of the things that these judges were particularly focused on during the oral arguments just a few days ago. they were particularly concerned about the idea that, you know, what the former president was asking for was essentially something that anyone then could ask for, which is to -- for judges to intervene in an ongoing criminal investigation and to try to stop what the justice department was doing. and that's exactly also what the judge here in washington did and the other investigation. she basically has said the former president can't claim executive privilege and attorney-client privilege over some of these discussions that had to do with this criminal investigation of what happened on january 6th. now in both cases, erin, we expect that the former president, he has the option to appeal in the 11th circuit.

he can probably go to the supreme court. we'll see whether he does that in the case of the ruling against him in his -- the former lawyers of the white house. he can also appeal to the appeals court here in washington. but he has been losing and losing big in all of these cases. >> all right. well, evan, thank you very much. so let's go to ryan goodman, just security co-editor in chief. and john dean, former nixon white house counsel. you've read through the 21 pages here. what is your reaction to the ruling about the special master first? >> it is a stunning rebuke of the judge cannon opinions, and it's a stunning rebuke of trump's legal teams arguments on which he based those opinions. it's very difficult to think of examples like this in a professional career of any district court judge to be so strongly repudiated by the court of appeals. and they've done it in such a solid manner terms of saying

that none of the factors that trump needed to meet was he able to meet, that i think it's very, very, very unlikely that the supreme court will do anything but just let this opinion stand. and we should also remember that one of the judges in this opinion is the chief judge of the 11th circuit. so it's really a remarkable opinion, and it does stand for the rule of law because they just did a very meticulous job applying the law to the facts. >> meticulous and firm there was no mincing of words, right? it was very clear that they found this absurd, john. let me read again some of the ruling that i shared at the top of the show. "we cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant, nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so." using the word "rebuke," right, as ryan did, it seems to be completely accurate.

how big a blow is this to trump, john? >> well, it's a direct blow. as evan said earlier, this was an effort by trump to reach out and get some special treatment. these are judges he appointed. he's got a supreme court that he has appointed three members of. and he wants special treatment, and he is not getting it. he is being treated like every other citizen before the court, and the court made it very clear that's what they were doing is treating him like everybody else. and not going to change the process just for him. >> and ryan, your sources telling trump's legal team hasn't decided to appeal this. you made it clear that couldn't impact it at all. it could drag it out more. but just to be clear, right, the special counsel now oversees both of the investigations we're talking about here, the mar-a-lago where we just got a ruling obviously as well as the department of justice january 6th investigation. so when it comes to the mar-a-lago investigation, if the special counsel indeed is gone, what does this do to the timeline here of a decision on

an indictment or anything else from the special counsel, ryan? >> so i think that it does mean that the special counsel will be able to more quickly reach the decision as to whether or not to indict donald trump. he now knows that he has all of the material from the fbi search that he can now bring to a trial and bring to a jury. that was always a big question that was overhanging him. you never knew what might happen with those documents. and now that's firmly in his possession, and he knows that he can present it as evidence. that's huge. and all arrows are pointing towards this being a case that could be prosecuted. and then the other part is just now that they have these materials and they can use them, if there are any other remaining questions with witnesses, they are able to ask the witnesses about these specific documents. they weren't able to do that because of the district court judge's kind of radical injunction in the past. i think it really puts them on a strong footing, puts things

moving rapidly ahead at a good clip. >> the word rapidly ahead is an important one. we're talking about mar-a-lago, obviously the special counsel has a decision to good ahead, rapidly make a decision on indicting there, or whether to wait until the january 6th department of justice investigation is also wrapped up and somehow put them together. so john, at that point, the other blow to trump that i mentioned, right, the federal judge ordering pat cipollone, the trump white house council and his deputy patrick philbin to provide additional grand jury in that criminal investigation, privilege, executive privilege was obviously rejected. what does this tell you? >> well, trump has been up and down this road before. he's tried to have his lawyers invoke executive privilege. he's pressed them to do. so they're not really required to do so. but they did so out of honoring their client's commitment. but it didn't work now. and that's what happened as the grand jury appealed their refusal. they're now going to have to

open up and tell everything they know. trump has no executive privilege. if he tries to appeal this, it's not going to go anywhere. he has already done this several times in d.c. and those courts are exhausted with his efforts to block testimony. to be clear, these two attorneys have already testified. so what does it say to you that they're being called back? >> i do think it means that the special counsel is putting together kind of final pieces. these are key witnesses that can tell the special counsel and the grand jury of direct communications with trump. and we know that they have said that various parts of trump's plan to overturn the january 6th election were illegal, the false slate of electors was illegal. trying to get pence to not certify was illegal. but we haven't heard them say what they told president trump at the time and what trump's reaction was. that's going to be very valuable to the special counsel in putting together the final pieces of the case.

>> absolutely. all right. thank you both very much for those significant developments on the trump legal front tonight. next, president obama, these are live pictures. he is on the back of the campaign trail tonight. you see that warnock sign? that's because he is in georgia, rallying support for the democratic senator who is locked in a tight race against herschel walker. we're going to take you there next. plus, a cnn exclusive this hour. a protester inside china risking everything, risking life to speak out against the chinese government. we're live in beijing. and putin's brutal army admitting it recruited an african prisoner to fight in ukraine. is it a sign of his growing desperation? we're live in moscscow. rfum s. the towel washed with downy is softer, and gentleler on your ski . try downy free & gentltl . ♪ it's a lovely day today ♪ ♪ so whatever you've got to do ♪ ♪ you've got a lovely day to do it in, that's true ♪

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all right. live pictures out of atlanta. former president obama is on stage campaigning for the senate candidate raphael warnock. it's part of a major push by democrats to boost turnout with just one day left of early person voting. let's listen in for a moment. >> so georgia, look. i'm not telling you something you don't know. you deserve a senator you can be proud of. somebody who will talk straight to you, somebody who will fight for you. somebody who will garner respect in washington, somebody like reverend warnock, who has been doing it responsibly and conscientiously and effectively,

not just in the senate, not just in the last few years, but his entire adult life. so that's why you need to get out and vote. that's why you can't let up. because change doesn't happen in one election. it doesn't even happen in two elections. it doesn't even happen in five elections. change only happens if you keep organizing, keep voting, keep mobilizing, keep educating, keep speaking up, keep working, hard to make change happen. imagine looking back in history, right after the emancipation proclamation. imagine if all the abolitionists in the civil rights act had said

oh, everything is going to be okay now. let's go home. imagine if after some women -- not all women, but some women -- got the right to vote, organizers said oh, all right, i got mine. we're all equal now. our work is done here. imagine where we would be. if we want real progress, if we want lasting progress, we can't be satisfied with one victory because victories are always incomplete. history doesn't just move in a straight line. it moves sideways. sometimes it moves backwards. when we're not vigilant, when we're not working. so we can't allow ourselves to get tired. we need sustained effort. and by the way, not just on election day, but every day in between.

and when i think about that vigilance, when i think about that stick to itness, when i think about finishing the job, there are a couple of people that come to mind. the first is georgia's own, my friend john lewis. [ cheering ] so -- so he -- he and other snic workers were my inspiration for going into public service. >> you're listening to the former president barack obama speaking at a raphael warnock event in georgia. there is just one day left of early voting and then election day. "outfront" now jeff duncan, the republican lieutenant governor of georgia along with bakari sellers, state lawmaker joined me. you hear president obama right

here speaking about the inspiration for joining politics coming from john lewis and the state of georgia as he speaks out for raphael warnock. democrats are feeling very bullish there. is that -- do they really feel like they've got the money? >> i mean, i'm not sure just the momentum, erin. but what i can tell you the message tonight and one of the reasons i'm so happy to be on your show tonight while barack obama is speaking is because there are many democrats across the country, particularly black democrats who you're going to see them turn out and vote in savannah, in columbus, in make con, in atlanta, of course. and augusta. but there are people who really just think about john lewis. they think about julian bond. they think about all these heroes and heroines. they think about snci and the legacy that georgia and they look at herschel walker. and i agree with many republicans that there are maybe some black people who would have given herschel walker an

opportunity. in fact, they probably did give him a chance, but he squandered that opportunity. the embarrassment, the anti-intellectualism, that is what -- and the simple fact is this. 23 you put a split screen up with a speech from herschel walker and a speech from barack obama, and/or raphael warnock, then this election should not be close. >> lieutenant governor, we're going see how close it is. i mean, the early turnout numbers are incredible. more than a million people have already voted. you waited in line for an hour yesterday. we were telling john berman about this last night. and you got there after waiting an hour, which is its own set of issues. and then you walked out without voting. you submitted a blank ballot. so how did you come to the decision as a republican lieutenant governor of georgia to not vote for herschel walker? >> so it would be a better hollywood story if i said i was biting my nails all the way to the machine trying to figure out who i was going to vote for, but

i knew what i was going to do. there is a lot of sacrifice to give us the right to vote. so i waited in line and voted. i was disappointed with the two picks. i knew what i was going do. i didn't select anybody. i printed the paperwork and put it through machine and moved on. it's that simple. i'm sure there are other folks out there. the story is jeff duncan didn't vote for herschel walker. the story is how did we get here, and what are we going learn from this lesson? are we going to continue to play the game and be team players. >> how did you get herschel walker on that ballot to begin with? >> because we're told to be team players as republicans. support donald trump, support the election is rigged stuff, support herschel walker. you know what? we don't need team players right now. we need team leaders as republicans. that's what we need if we're going to move this party forward. >> bakari, let me play a little more of what the former president said tonight. he is referencing this is the second time in the state in a matter of weeks. by the way, trump hasn't gone doing this telerally. this is the second time for

obama in a couple of weeks. here is what he said. >> you get a buy one get one free deal. on elections this year. but i'm here today for the same reason that i was here the last time. to ask you to vote one more time for my friend and your outstanding senator raphael warnock. >> bakari, where do you see this right now with more than a million people who have already voted and lines like the one that the lieutenant governor stood in for an hour, people waiting? >> i mean, when i run for office, if i run for office ever denby actually saying i like jeff duncan. so that may not actually get me votes, and i'm not sure if

that's what folks are hearing on cable tv, but i do like jeff duncan. he is pretty honest and straight forward. but listen to the call and response. when you go to a black church in the south, particularly in georgia, imagine yourself in albany, and jeff can probably understand this when you're in a black church and you hear that call and response, when you hear people and you hear the person who is from the pulpit or who is leading that oratory, and then you have the audience chant back "amen" or "i'm with you" or "i hear you" or "i see you," you know they are engaged in the words that come out of your mouth that is what we saw from barack obama." i truly believe raphael warnock is going to win this race. but the reason that raphael warnock is going to win this race, and the reason that i talked about that call and response is because it reminds you of king's "i have a dream" speech. not the rhythmic cadence that i

have a dream that one day we shall, but talking about the fierce urgency of now. that is the same thing that the 44th president of the united states is echoing, that there is this fierce urgency of. now. >> so lieutenant governor, what do you think ultimately is it for herschel walker? is it all the allegations? and there is another one now from an ex-girlfriend in the final days from the daily beast about assault. is it all these allegations? is it just the way he presents himself? is it the anti-intellectualism that bakari mentioned? what do you think it is? >> yes. i'll pick d. it's all the buena vista. and that's really the problem we've got, right? the process was broken to get here. a year ago it made sense to have somebody with a 110% name id, best friends with trump donald trump, or cleese close enough to go vacation with him. a year later, our problems are that big in this country that no longer it makes sense to have that as a winning recipe. herschel walker is going to go

down as probably the worse republican candidate in the history of politics. no way to run away from that. and i think the energy level behind his support, the best case being made right now is well, he is going to be a republican vote for us. certainly that means a lot to me. i care about republicanism. i care about conservatism. i'm passionate about it. but i also think we're able to have conversations and be able to mold and mend our legislative priorities as we move forward. but, look, this has been -- we're either going to learn from this or we're not. i think there is a chance we can't. >> thank you both very much. i appreciate it. . >> thank you. >> thank you. next a cnn exclusive, we hear from a protester inside china who is protesting his country's strict covid lockdowns. you see that blur. wait until you see this interview next. plus, president biden about to hold his first state dinner with french president emmanuel macron. we're going take you to the white house this hour. but seriously we need a reliablele way to help kekeep everyone connected from wherever we go. well at at&t we'll help you find

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well, we fell in love through gaming. but now the internet lags and it throws the whole thing off. when did you first discover this lag? i signed us up for t-mobile home internet. ugh! but, we found other interests. i guess we have. [both] finch! let's go! oh yeah! it's not the same. what could you do to solve the problem? we could get xfinity? that's actually super adult of you to suggest. i can't wait to squad up. i love it when you talk nerdy to me. guy, guys, guys, we're still in session. and i don't know what the heck you're talking about. tonight, a protester inside china speaking exclusively to cnn. this protester is one of thousands across china who has taken part this the widespread demonstrations against strict zero covid policies like the one

on your screen which is in shanghai, where protesters clashed with police in white hazmat suits. now this protester spoke to our selena wang, would only speak to her in a car while disguised. >> the protests that happened wasn't just random, because there was this social anger that was accumulating in everyone, especially the middle class. so i think the purpose of this policy has shifted. it shifted from actually protecting people's lives to a political campaign they never told us about the data, the exact data. how many people died of the covid and how many people died as of collateral damage as of zero covid policy. >> all right. you're going see much more from this incredible interview that

selen selena conducted. shake xi shaking hands with the president of the european council. the government claims it will relax some covid restrictions ever so slightly, like letting people with covid quarantine in their own homes instead of the mass facilities that you've seen the horrible images of, some of the horrible conditions like a public bathroom where some were forced to quarantine sleeping on a floor, or where hundreds if not thousands have been packed into these vast quarantine centers. selina wang is "outfront" in beijing. this interview you did with the protester is very significant. what more can you tell us? >> yeah, erin, i mean, it is so hard to get any person in china to speak on camera to media, let alone on such a sensitive topic. but this person felt passionate that sharing with the world, while the protesters make up a tiny portion of china's

population, they really see themselves as speaking for the masses, because zero covid has been a unifying source of anger for people, young, old, rich or poor. and this person described being a part of the demonstration in beijing as both scary but also empowering. >> will not protect you. >> this person one of thousands of across china willing to put their lives on the line to speak out. years of pent-up anger over china's draconian covid lockdowns boiling over into protests. >> i felt like i lost control of my life because of this covid policy. nobody is telling you when this is going to end. we are limited physically, and now we're limited mentally. we are forbidden to express our ideas. >> reporter: for some, that cathartic emotional release spilled into calls for political changes. some even chanted for xi jinping to step down. >> he is the one who is

responsible for this whole policy thing. but for me, first thing first, i want a zero covid policy gone. and if we have more freedom speech and freedom of press, of course that would be great. >> what do you think you guys achieved by participating in that protest? >> if you don't demonstrate, if you don't show them your choice, your id, they will never know. >> reporter: and this is what happened next. china's security apparatus swiftly smothered the protests. cnn is shielding the protester's identity because of fears of retribution. even conducting the interview in a car to avoid tracking from authorities. police are calling and visiting the homes of some protesters. and in shanghai, randomly stopping people to check their phones on streets and what appears to be in subways. protesters say they're looking for vpns needed to use band apps like twitter or telegram, which some protesters use to communicate. another protester told cnn "i'm

afraid we cannot hold protests like this again in the future. there are always undercover agents in our telegram group. every few meters on the street there are police and police dogs. the whole atmosphere is chilling. i'm in the center of a protest in beijing right now. they're chanting that they don't want covid tests. they want freedom. less than 24 hours after this, we drove back to that spot. police cars as far as the eye could see. then a few days later -- it's pretty much back to normal, like nothing ever happened. and that is precisely the goal of the communist party. cnn has verified protests erupted in at least 17 chinese cities, but every single one has been stamped out. in guangzhou, residents destroyed covid testing booths. police in riot gear immediately swarm in. they march through a market shouting at people to leave, firing tear gas to disperse protesters, pushing through with cheelds and making arrests.

authorities have gone into overdrive to sensor all evidence of unrest online. >> the white sheet of paper represents the censorship and cannot arrest us for just holding a white paper. i still have that white paper i protested. i put it in my diary as a souvenir to show my future generations that you should always fight for your rights, and never let your voice be silenced. >> reporter: how does it make you feel, though, that the government evens censored pictures. >> by doing this they're going to make the crowd angrier. instead of trying to silence us, they should really focus and try to think why this happened. >> reporter: authorities are silencing them, but it seems they are listening. right after the riots in guangzhou, the city started lifting some lockdowns, removing covid roadblocks. >> unsealed, we are unsealed!

a man screams with excite as he bikes through streets opened up. but so many others are still counting down their days in quarantine in lockdown, wondering when zero covid will really end. a lot of the protesters like the person i interviewed, they are young, in their 20s and 30s, but they were stillborn before facebook, google and youtube were banned in china. so the person made the point to me that despite the patriotic education they've been getting fed in school, they still remember what a more open china looked like. now most realize it is too dangerous and unrealistic to call for xi jinping to step down, but at the very least, they just want their old live back when their lives weren't controlled by lockdowns, testing and live quarantines. >> thank you very much with that incredible, courageous reporting that you continue to do and that interview from beijing. i want to go now to desmond schumm, a powerful chinese businessman whose ex-wife went missing in china in 2017. he is also the author of "red

roulette: a story of wealth, power and vengeance in today's china." i hope you will read it. i found it incredibly powerful. desmond, you just saw selina, she shielded the identity of the protester she spoke with. but chinese officials are using a lot of methods to find these protesters to track them down. how concerned would you be if you were a protester? >> i think the risk is tremendous. i mean, there are reports that chinese has done this facial recognition even with your mask on. so i think the government is -- the crackdown is already happening. and i think given the record for the past decade, xi jinping's crackdown will be severe and brutal. >> and let me ask you about that. when you say "severe and brutal," what do you think xi will do to the protesters? >> their standard mode of

operation like what happened to my ex-wife is disappear. by the gentleman who had the banner on a beijing bridge a month ago, he has disappeared and hasn't been heard in the last months. so i think the leaders of the protest movement could possibly face death and are very likely to face death. >> to face death. >> no, face hearings. and what they want to do is basically, i think the government is at this moment basically will disappear the person, hold them in captivity, and then they will base on political decision decide what to do with them. >> so do you think anything changes here? does this remain just something about zero covid, or does it become something bigger as of course the protester selina spoke to wants it to be, or we spoke to one from london whose family is in eastern china wants

it to be? >> i think this is the match that lights the first fire. i think this one -- personally, i don't think this will morph into much. the crackdown is coming fast and swift. i think the question is with this enlightening to the young generation, what would happen next down the road? will the next issue come up will we see the similar type of protest? will this light, this enlightenment bring them to see a deeper issue instead of just the crackdown, become a single issue movement. >> you know, you talk about people disappearing. and your ex-wife, right, disappeared. a number of people have disappeared in china in recent years. there was the bizarre and mysterious episode where the former president hu jintao recently was removed from the party congress and hasn't been seen since. >> yeah. >> china says he is just ill, but he hasn't been seen since.

we've talked a lot on the show about the tennis star peng shuai who disappeared after accusing a communist party leader of sexual assault. she was shown briefly at a couple of global events when that became a story, but she hasn't been seen since. others include jack ma, founder of the world's biggest commerce company. he was missing for a long time. and the richest wife in china disappeared in 2017. is he going to continue to do this, president xi, with impunity? people just disappear? >> this is their mode of operation. in the past, it's just not widely reported. and usually what they disappear are communist party officials. now it has been in the last few years obviously spreading more to the wider community, including the business community and including a lot of high profile business person. that's why it's been more widely reported and picked up by the

international media. but that is the mode of operation. they have been doing it for decades. >> desmond, thank you very much. i appreciate your perspective and taking the time to be with us tonight. >> thank you. next, an "outfront" investigation. putin's private army now relying on prisoners, some from africa. going down and getting people from africa to fight some of the toughest battles in ukraine. plus, florida governor ron desantis taking a subtle jab at trump and the gop's performance in the midterms. >> we assumed we were going end up with 245 house members. we're at 222 it looks like, which is a huge underperformance.

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tonight an "outfront" investigation. cnn is learning the notoriously brutal wagner group fighting in ukraine has recruited at least one african inmate from russian prison to join russian forces in ukraine. fred pleitgen is "outfront" tonight with this investigation in moscow. >> reporter: mercenaries for russia's wagner private military company is fighting on some of the toughest battlefields in ukraine. a social media channel affiliated with the group recently posted this video allegedly showing a severely wounded wagner fighter trying to shoot himself rather than fall

into ukrainian hands. now the group has acknowledged a man from the southern african nation of zambia has been killed fighting on the front lines in ukraine. this is 23-year-old nathan miranda. wagner's founder says he was rae cruited from a russian jail and is a hero. why do you need this war? after all, the chance of dieing is quite high. and he answered what i expected. you russians helped us africans gain independence for many years. the wagner group saves thousands of africans. and if i go to war with you, this is probably a very small way in which i can pay our debts. zambian authorities say niranda was studying nuclear engineering in russia but was thrown in jail for more than nine years for what his father says was a drug offense.

despite what is said about his alleged gratitude, the zambian government is demanding answers. >> when zambia series a country, what is happening in that war. >> reporter: wagner admits it is recruiting fighters from russian jails, and even confirmed to cnn they're sending inmates with hiv, tuberculosis and hepatitis to the front line. as russia struggles with manpower issues, videos and inmate testimony show prigozhin offering contracts and freedom for the front line. >> if you choose to go with us, nobody will go back to prison. >> reporter: but africa has been the major theater for wagner for years. cnn has tracked the unit across the continent. including in the central african republic where wagner mercenaries officially train the central african army, but have

also allegedly committed horrendous human rights abuses. wagner recently published a propaganda video glorifying its military training in the central african public where the group's operatives show recruits how to kill effectively. yevgeniy prigozhin says nathan nirenda was so grateful to wagner he was grateful to die, claims zambia's government clearly isn't buying. and erin, yevgeniy prigozhin, that oligarch unapologetic about all of this. attrition rate among the people wagner is put ogg tonight front line, especially the people who were prisoners before are apparently extremely high. one of the tactics that they're using, this is something the ukrainians say, they're trying to send waves of people at ukrainian position, especially in that town where fighting is going on. apparently they made some headway, but their losses are

immense, erin. >> thank you very much, fred. it's just amazing, right? they're willing to put these guys out as cannon fodder. thank you very much. fred pleitgen with that important reporting from moscow tonight. and next, the florida governor ron desantis weighing in on the republican party's disappointing performance during the midterms, pointing the finger at trump. plus, president biden's first state dinner, and it is for france's first couple, now under way. the details of the a-list extravagant event, coming up. my name is wendy, i'm 51 years old, and i'm a hospital administrator. when i talk to patients you can just see from here up

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answer a few questions and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds we'll come to you pay you on the spot then pick up your car that's it at carvana tonight ron desantis refusing to take the bait when it comes to directly calling out donald trump. desantis so far refrained from directly blaming trump for the republicans' failure to pull off a red wave in the midterms. but he has made his point of view clear. and this subtle jab came out today when he was asked about trump and the divisions in the gop. >> we assumed we were going to end up with 245 house members. we're at 222 it looks like, which is a huge underperformance. and so the question is, why did that happen? >> why did that happen? just asking. this is as the party is gearing

up for a potential trump-desantis showdown. "outfront" harry enten, our senior data reporter. harry, i'm just asking. why? all right. so you've brought some new polling for us to talk about tonight to give a picture how desantis entering into the 2024 race which is now occupied by trump would look. what do i don't see? >> it is on, erin. i know ron desantis hasn't officially declared, but it is on. if you look among republican voters, this to me, we've had two polls over the last few weeks. quinnipiac had desantis up by two points when republicans were asked to choose between desantis and trump. but market university law school came out today. look at that margin. among republicans, desantis is preferred 60% to 40%. this race, i think a lot of people thought trump would run away with it. but in fact desantis, if anything seems to be on trump's heels, if not ahead of him at this point.

>> that's pretty stunning. as you know, donald trump loves to look at polls. so that obviously has -- he's got to be looking at that. so now take it a step further, harry. what about if you look at a general election against president biden, who said he intends to run, and certainly has some wind in his sails right now. >> look, ron desantis wants to make the electability argument. based on the poll that just came out, look here, what do we see? we see that biden and desantis are tied. tied when you patch biden versus trump, biden is up 10 points. right now the argument that desantis wants to make that he is more electable, the polling backs that up. >> he has done the one thing that seems to indicate for sure he is rung. he is getting ready to release an autobiography. okay. put that in historical context. when you put out an autobiography, what does it usually mean? >> it means that you're running for president. if you look at the elected presidents over the last 50 years, which wrote books before

running? pretty much all of them. only bill clinton is the one who didn't. but jimmy carter, ronald reagan, george h.w. bush, george bush, barack obama, donald trump, i think he is running. >> i love that. by the way, bill clinton made up for it on page count. all right. thanks very much, harry. >> bye. >> and next, president biden hosting an elaborate state dinner for the french president emmanuel macron and his wife. it is the first white house state dinner since covid. we'll take you live. america's most affordable ev. evs for everyone, everywhere. chevrolet. it's nice to unwind after a long week of telling people how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need! (limu sqwks) he's a natural. on pay for what you need. ♪berty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪

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president biden right now sitting down at his first state dinner as president. the president and first lady welcoming the french president emmanuel macron and his wife bridget, two couples greeting each other warmly, and both committing their commitment to peace and ending russia's war on ukraine. also agreeing to coordinate their response to china, and calling for stability on the taiwan strait jointly. the dinner itself, this is the first dinner because of covid. it's being held in a candle lit pavilion on the south lawn of the white house. more than 400 guests are expected to attend. among them julie louis-dreyfus, john legend, chrissy teigen, stephen colbert and anna wintour. thank you so much for joining. don't forget you can watch "outfront" any time on cnn go. "ac 360" begins right now. good evening. tonight two big legal setbacks for the former president. a federal judge ordering his former white house counsel pat cipollon