tonight doctors revealing president biden had a cancerous skin lesion removed from his chest during his annual physical two weeks ago. it tested positive for basal cell carcinoma. we asked dr. otis brauley, he tells out front most basal super cell carcinoma surgeries go well, and our experience they don't come back. no further treatment is needed. thanks so much for joining us. i'll be back at 9:00 for a special hour cnn prime time, navalny and the cost of standing up to putin, but now it's time

for "ac 360." good evening, and take a look, this is the face tonight of alex murdaugh, convicted killer, his head shaven at a south carolina prison system intake facility on his way within the next several weeks to serving two consecutive life sentences, life without parole for murdering his wife maggie and his son paul. this is the face of a man whose family name was once synonymous with the law in the county in the legal profession and criminal justice system there. at today's hearing in the courthouse where his grandfather's portrait once hung, murdaugh was sentenced. he spoke briefly, but judge clifton newman had the last word. >> i would never under any circumstances hurt my wife maggie, and i would never under any circumstances hurt my son pau-pau. >> and it might not have been you. it might have been the monster

you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opioid pills. maybe you become another person. >> well, tonight a prime time exclusive interview with creighton waters, the lead prosecutor in the case who made a claim who alex murdaugh was to him. >> no one who thought they were close to this man knew who he really was, and your honor, that's chilling. and i've looked in his eyes, and he likes to stare me down as he would walk by me during this trial, and i could see the real alex murdaugh when he looked at me. >> mr. waters, thanks for joining us. we just heard you say that you knew alex murdaugh was the killer as soon as you looked into his eyes. when you heard him today continue ing to declare his

innocence, i'm wondering what went through your mind? >> nothing more than the same. i think after he said that, i got up and said words to the effect of what more needs to be said. you know, the truth is not in this man, and i think that was a big part of what the jury saw and certainly a part of, i believe, what led them to the right verdict that they reached. >> were you surprised at all by the speed of the jury's deliberations? >> well, i've always said that, you know, trial lawyers tend to be a little superstitious and i try frankly not to think about things like that, and people come up and talk to you while you're waiting. i'll say this, though, we had put so much out there, it'd been such a huge effort by the whole team, and you saw the whole team in action. i probably was less nervous waiting for this verdict than i ever had, and not because of overconfidence, but i just felt like we had done all we could do. but yes, usually when you get a verdict within a short period of time, that's generally good for the state, but you know, you

never like to even consider that until you actually hear the word that you want to hear. >> this was obviously a very complex trial. there was a lot of moving parts to it, a lot of evidence was circumstantial. one of the state's key focuses was the time line that night, and when you got up and you went through all the things that would have had to have occurred to it have not been alex murdaugh, i thought that was extraordinary, and i just want to play that for our viewers. >> so what you're telling this jury is that it's a random vigilante that just happened to know that paul and maggie were both at moselle on june 7th, that knew that they would be at the kennels alone on june the 7th, they knew that you would not be there but only between the time of 8:49 and 9:02, that they show up without a weapon assuming that they're going to find weapons and ammunition there, that they commit this crime during that short time window, and then they travel the same exact route that you do around the same time to alameda, that's what you're trying to tell this jury? >> you got a lot of factors in

there, mr. waters , all of whic i do not agree with, but some of which i do. >> it's interesting, you know, obviously that time line was very crucial evidence, and you know, it really tells a story. you know, we have to remember this guy was a experienced lawyer doing sometimes complex accident cases. he's a part-time assistant solicitor, and there's 100 years of prosecution legacy in his family. and so as we started to look at that time line, it really appeared that this was a man who was manufacturing an alibi and that these time periods were more compressed than seems reasonable. i think it's kind of ironic that he was using his cell phone and this kind of data to construct an alibi, but in the end, that kennel video i think really caught him. but the chain of circumstances, even though the burden's on the state, the chain of circumstances that he was trying to get this jury to believe just

defied any sort of logic that this could have occurred, and i think it was compelling to the jury. >> do you have any sense of when he came up with this decision to kill his son and to kill his wife? because as you said, he was laying the groundwork for this from, you know -- i mean, earlier that day at the very least. do you have any sense of how long he had planned this? >> you know, one of the things i described of him -- and this is why i think it was important for the jury to hear this -- is the -- i think i've used roller coaster or hamster wheel that he had been on for a decade, and it's really, you know, as you look at it and look at it in its entirety, it's really exhausting. and these pressures were building. they were coming to a culmination, and he was running out of options. i think that the other thing that was very important to him was this family legacy. i think that was more important

to him than anything, asaide frm his own personal things that he would suffer if all this was exposed. when that exact moment was, i don't know, but i do know that all of these pressures, i called it a gathering storm, a perfect storm, were arriving on june 7th, and whether it was that day or whether he had been thinking about it for a while, i don't think we'll ever know. there's only one person that can answer that, but what i do know is that as that storm arrived as he was running out of options, as he was faced with nruining nt just himself, that family legacy, his son had become a liability that threatened to expose him. all those came to a head on june 7th, and that's the day they died. >> you also pointed out just sort of the impunity that he and maybe other members of his family, his kids, maybe paul, the impunity he felt he had -- i mean, his great grandfather, his k grandfather, his father had all been the prosecutors in this

area in south carolina. i mean, it seemed like he figured he can do just about any anything? >> well, absolutely, and that's what we -- you know, i never knew him. i did work with his father years ago on a case, but, you know, with alec as we study thd more and more, the white collar stuff as we investigated that months and months of investigation, we really started to get a picture of this man in talking to the people that knew him or thought they knew him. the one thing it ultimately revealed is no matter how close -- the closest people in his life had no idea who he was, which i said was chilling. so as we started to discover that, as we started to realize that, you know, that became very clear and very apparent that he had never face accountability in his life and had always been able to escape that, and that that was more important to him than anything. that's why i was always convinced that he would testify in this case. that he was assured that he

could talk his way out of it one more time, not out of all the trouble, but certainly talk his way out of this. obviously the jury saw otherwise. >> you said that even today in the court was i would never do anything to hurt maggie or paul, pau-pau he said today, which obviously he was talking about the murder, but he hurt them repeatedly for -- i mean, he was stealing money. i mean, he was ruining their lives. he was a distant father because he was a drug addict who had been lying to everybody and was stealing from all these people. the idea that he hadn't already hurt them even without killing them is another lie. >> yeah, and again, i am not a psychologist, and i'm not trying to diagnose anyone here, but you know, i think there's an element of narcissism there. i think that to some extent, you know, he almost saw this as a necessary action so that they

wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of any of this coming out. but i think he's very careful in how he says things. he's a lawyer, and his cross examination was very interesting in dealing with him. you know, one of the things i wanted to do unlike a typical cross where you really try to control the conversation is to start with a constructive cross and get him talking because i felt like, you know, he believed he could look at that jury and really convince them, but i felt if i got him talking he would eventually, you know, he would eventually lie, and they would get to see that in realtime, see that in action. but i think also they got frustrated by kind of the things you're saying. if you really listen to what he's saying, it's very careful in how he words it. you know, he says he never hurt them. at one point he said he never, quote, intentionally hurt them. a lot of times people try to, you know, live with the things they've done by, you know, qualifying it or say that wasn't the real me or things like that. he had a very well-known and

common tell, whether it was on the videos of the law enforcement interviews or even on the stand that when he said things that are a lie, he would shake his head forward like this while he's doing that. >> is that right? >> those were all things -- >> that's incredible. >> for a jury -- yeah. yeah, and so, you know, and i pointed that out to the jury, but i think the main thing was, you know, establishing with them that nobody who knew this man knew who he really was. he lieseffortlessly. he lies convincingly, and he looked in their eyes and lied to them about perhaps the most important fact of this whole case, you know, about when is the last time he saw his wife and his son alive, and only when he was backed into yet another corner did he come up with this latest version, and obviously the jury saw through that. and i think, you know, he got up there very, very confident that he was going to, you know, this is his community, and he's always been able to do this, that he was going to get them on his side. >> we're going to take a short break, we're going to have more

of my conversation with creighton waters when we come back, including his take on that exact momoment on the stand. and later, the ukrainian girl who ended up at the center of vladimir putin's propaganand rally, how she got there, and why what happened to her and thousands of other kids could be a war crime. noom has taught me hoyou think about food has such a he impact on your relationship with . (chuckle) ♪ my relationship with my credit cards wasn't good. i got into debt in college and, no matter how much i paid, it followed me everywhere. between the high interest, the fees... i felt trapped. debt, debt, debt. so i broke up with my credit card debt and consolidated it into a low-rate personal loan from sofi. i finally feel like a grown-up. break up with bad credit card debt. get a personal loan with no fees, low fixed rates, and borrow up to $100k. go to sofi.com to view your rate. sofi. get your money right. ♪

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that's where we pick things up. i want to play just some of what he said on the stand on that crucial day when he suddenly admitted that he had been lying all along. >> the second that you're confronted with facts that you can't deny, you immediately come up with a new lie. isn't that correct? >> mr. waters, we've established i have lied many times. i told a lie about being down there, and i got myself wed to that. other than lying to them about going to the kennel, i was cooperative in every aspect of this investigation. >> do you think he lied to his attorneys? at what point in the trial did he decide i got to take the stand and i got to admit? was it just because of the preponderance of evidence of all the people you brought forward

who said, yeah, that was his voi voice at the kennel that night on the tape? >> i think so. obviously i'm not privy to what he says to his attorneys and don't want to be. and i have a good working relationship with them. i pointed out that even his own lawyer, you know, as late as november of 2022, now they say whenever it was recorded, but it's being publicly repeated what had been, what he had initially claimed. if you look at the statements to law enforcement, his lawyers are signature, at least his lawyer in the june 10th one is sitting in there where he tells this lie. i point it out, and he conceded that his own brothers were hearing that for the first time on the stand. there's a reason why we continue to bring up family and friends who had other relevant evidence but have them identify that video because you know, initially in this case, you heard the testimony from one of the friends of paul that -- and you heard it also on the august

11th interview with david owen that, you know, the friend had said i thought i heard alec in the background when i was talking to paul about the dog. and you know, that was easy for alec to deny because, you know, again, witnesses you can say, well, they don't remember and they equivocate, and he was like, well, you know, he's wrong. i would be surprised if that was happening, and he wasn't -- you know, i don't think he liked that, but he wasn't as concerned, but when the kennel video came out, it became, you know, impossible. >> one of the things i thought was so effective that you pointed out was he said, okay, i lied then and it was because of paranoia because of the drugs i was taking. he had also testified on the stand he was sober for some several hundred days, and you know, rightly proud of that, and yet, as you pointed out, he continued to lie while sober all those hundreds of days. it was, yeah, which i just thought was very, very damning. the idea that this was just a

drug-fueled paranoia that he did eventually wake up from and he still continued to lie about it. >> and if you recall in his cross, again, i wanted to get him talking. i wanted to let him talk and there were pauses, and he couldn't help himself, and he kept adding new things. there were a number of things he said. i decided to lie because i was paranoid because i had a bag of pills in my pocket. he didn't even describe it as some sort of overwhelming paranoia. i think he likened to being paranoid if a police car is behind you on the road. he said he had a distrust of s.l.e.d. he said his law partners told him not to talk without an attorney. there were a number of factors he identified. one of the last questions to him in my cross examination was to play the video with daniel green and point out on the 911 call that he was lying about the time periods out of the gate, and that was long before those factors had existed. and you know, pointed out that,

you know, about the the most important part of his testimony he had just lied to that jury, and you know, i think, you know, a lot of times as a lawyer you get to look in the jurors' eyes. it's always a read, and you know, they can obviously speak for themselves if they decide to speak, but i just think that they saw him lying in action and saw how easily he could do it, and it's hard to get by the fact of lying about being at the murder scene with the victims just minutes before they died. >> yeah, i just want to quickly play that 911 call. >> i need the police and the ambulance immediately. my wife and child have been shot badly. >> are they breathing? >> no, ma'am. >> okay. and you said it's your wife and your son? >> my wife and my son. >> and what is your name? >> my name is alex murdaugh. >> you know, again to hear this

stuff now and now with the convictions and, you know, all that crying, you know, maybe he was crying because he was emotional, i don't know, but you just see it and you hear it in a different light, obviously. >> well, absolutely, and again, many people commit terrible crimes and they're very upsetting, you know, i think judge newman said that today that maggie and paul are going to be visiting you forever. we had testimony early on that, you know, he appeared to be crying but they saw no tears and, you know, i think in observing him on the stand, you saw that. but you know, as you look at what he said, as you watched his reactions there. it's always dangerous to try to gauge the accuracy of someone's reaction to a situation like that because people respond differently. but when you start to lack at it in a totality, it just -- it

didn't add up, and it didn't make sense, and there was something off about it, and that was, you know, sort of the beginning as you tell the story. but that's part of it is that he's already lying out of the gate, and he's already lying if you were to play it later in that 911 call and daniel green, he's already lying about the time period where he tried to tell that jury about factors that made him do that that hadn't even existed yet. >> just the last pizece of vide i'd like to play is just some of the attorney general when he was interviewing a crime scene expert to counter the -- what the defense's crime scene expert had said about the crime scene. i just want to play some of this. >> in the defense's theory, you tell me what to do, and you about this out, and i'm going to do what you tell me to do based on the defense's theory of the case. >> the defense agreed with the assessment that paul stood there for a moment bleeding down his injured left arm and he slowly walked toward the door.

>> okay. and what does the shooter do? >> the shooter's coming in the door, and then what does the shooter do? >> he shoots paul in the back of the head after he passes him. >> okay. and then shoots paul in the back of the head like this, and where does the blood spatter go? >> the blood spatter, the bell let defects, and one that i didn't know about that the expert collected was in the door frame at the top of the door. >> now, i understand this is a little different than the feed room door, that's the best we can do. so what did you find odd about the theories, first of all? >> i think the theory is preposterous in my opinion. >> i mean, obviously that was incredibly powerful just as somebody, you know, me watching it and i think for a lot of people. can you talk about the decision to -- did you know far in advance you were going to do a

demonstration like that, or was it because of what the defense witness had said that you immedineeded to come up with something to point out the flaws in his argument? >> well, yeah, as trials go on, you constantly adapt, and you know, in south carolina, they don't have to provide us, the defense doesn't any sort of report or anything like that as to what their experts are going to say. so you know, that's what rebuttal case is for. we have to listen to what they say, and then if we have contrary testimony presented, you know, dr. kinsey did a great job. but one of the things that i think we were able to point out with that is not only how ridiculous what they were saying was but that also they were trying to convince this jury that they could say things in absolutes that the crime scene just doesn't tell you. so aside from how ridiculous that assertion was, you know, again, they were also, you know, trying to establish definitive

height of the shooter or that there had to be two shooters based on practical things, well, it'd just be easy enough to empty out the clip in a blackout. these experts, i think, went too far and i give the jury a lot of credit, and i give the general and dr. kinsey a lot of credit, but you know, the jurors saw that for what it is. you know, jurors have a great meter for bull, and i think that they saw that from the defense experts who tried to convince them that they could say things that simply are beyond what are -- what's reasonable. >> his financial crimes or the allegations of his financial crimes are shocking. i mean, the numbers of people, the amounts of money he stole from people, even small amounts of money from people who did not have a lot of money are just horrific. how -- there were some people who had questions about how much of the financial evidence was allowed in. will that be something that they

use to try to appeal on. how concerned are you about his chances for an appeal? >> well, you know, i started my career as an appellate lawyer, and it's just part of the process. we filed a motion prior to the trial where we indicated our intent to use it and put it in great detail, and just to alert the judge and the defense that we were going to do that. there was in-camera hearings and ultimately judge newman considered that and admitted it. i think this case is unique, and you know, as i described during the trial and a little bit today, there's this unbroken chain of circumstances that are part of the factors of all the various pressures leading to that day. to answer a very important question, what about this man could lead him to do these impossible things. you know, motive is not an element, but it's almost always, you know, something a jury wants to know, and it doesn't even have to be motive. just bwhy, how could this perso do such a thing. ultimately i'm certainly not

going to speak for the state supreme court, but judge newman considered all of that and issued a very detailed and well thought out ofruling, so we're confident that will be upheld. and also we have those white collar crimes -- >>i yes, sir. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> we also have those white collar crimes remaining. and to be clear, alex is still presumed innocent of those. they were -- they came in -- or testimony and evidence about them came in in this trial because of that decision by judge newman as to their relevance, but he is entitled to a trial on those as well, and he's presumed innocent until that happens, and we plan to aggressively pursue those as well. >> creighton waters, it's really a pleasure to talk to you. i appreciate it, thank you. >> i enjoyed it, thank you. coming up, the latest on the stealing of ukrainian children by russia and an update on one teenager's story. her name is anna. she'd been living in mariupol in ukraine until she was seen at a

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kareem c the u.s. announced another major investment in ukraine's war effort, up to 4$400 million in military aid including the hinman's multiple rocket launch system. it comes the same day as president biden hosted olaf scholz at the white house.

it was a show of unity with both leaders expressing commitment to ukraine. attorney general merrick garland made an unannounced trip to ukraine. garland met with president zelenskyy and other officials on the topic of russian war crimes. we're going to have more on that in a moment with the chief prosecutor of the international court. first an update on a young girl now in russia, one of thousands of ukrainian children brought there by russian forces. we told you a bit about her earlier this week, her name is anna. she's 13 years old, and she's from mariupol. we showed you video of how she was made to read apparently scripted words of things to a russian soldier during a moscow rally celebrating russia. cnn has learned more about who she is. >> reporter: as soon as katerina saw the little girl on stage in moscow that she'd sheltered with mo ma in mariupol she knew something was wrong. >> translator: i was scared to look at it. you can't use kids like that.

>> thank you for saving me, but who is anna? cnn tracked down her family members too scared to speak on air. she is anna neumenko, a 13-year-old brought from her foster family's home to this rally celebrating the russian army. cnn has no way of knowing how willingly she went, but her social media gives an insight into her bewilderment. look at all the rows, she says. before being told where she will stand and what she will say. it was a year ago that anna's hometown of mariupol was pounded, devastating heavy artillery forcing its population underground to basements like this one. anna and her family shared this space for much of the three month long siege with katerina postovich who's now in germany. she couldn't believe her eyes

when she saw her on stage. sfw >> translator: we were like a family, we saved ourselves, saved our lives. >> reporter: but in early april, anna's mother olga left the basement and was killed by russian shelling. anna shared her grief for her mother online. i want to be with you, she writes. by the end of the siege, anna and her siblings were separated. anna sent to a foster family in mariupol. so does the international criminal court believe that anna has been a victim of a war crime by being paraded in moscow? >> regarding anna, it's very troubling, and the statute and inventory the geneva conventions make it clear regarding how children must be treated by occupying powers. the law is present. too many think it's an optional

extra. cnn has reached out to russian officials for comment on the children featured in putin's rally last week. moscow has not responded, but for all the tragedy of anna's short life so far, the propaganda event has brought her fresh troubles. violent threats under her adolescent posts from ukrainians. anna, don't be shy when we liberate mariupol again, you'll be hanging from a post downtown. just one example of the many threats that anya has received. >> translator: we need to stay human. she's a child who survived the war, famine, and lost her mother. she is small, even if she looks like an adult. she's a child. >> reporter: but children as symbols of the future play an

important part in orwellian displays of authority in moscow, like this one held in occupied mariupol last week. two visions of childhood, one carefree, the other twisted. melissa bell, cnn, kyiv. >> get some perspective from the chief prosecutor at the international criminal court, you just saw there in the report, karim khan has more than 25 years experience as international criminal law and human rights attorney. mr. khan, you are in ukraine, last time we spoke together in lviv about a year ago, can you talk about what you're doing on the ground there now, what your focus is? >> as we said when we last spoke, ukraine's a crime scene, we'd be looking at a variety of locations from the front lines of ukraine that were occupied by the russian federation to power stations that were targeted to

residential buildings that have been partly destroyed, trying to find out what took place, what crimes, if any, have been committed and who's responsible. >> we showed just some video there of you, i think you called it a care home in like an orphanage in southern ukraine near the front lines. what were you looking at there? what were you looking for? >> well, we've seen from many sources a number of allegations that children have been taken from ukraine and forcibly transferred to be deported into the russian federation, and this is one of the homes concerned. it's a pitiful sight, in fact. you see empty cots, children's shoes and clothing often donated by well wishers in cupboards and shelves. on the walls you see paintings of children that we see in our own homes, bedrooms around the

world of children proud to display their art. and photographs of christmas past sometimes, children dressed up in nativity plays, and that's in very sharp contrast, the joy, the environment to the silence of what is otherwise now an empty carcass of a building with the toys and the play things of children but no children at all because the allegation is they've been taken into russian federation away from their families and loved ones and the familiar environment that they've grown up in. >> so that's what you believe may have happened to the kids at the place you were today, that they've actually been taken into russia or somewhere. >> well, this is the allegations that we're looking into. we've had it from multiple sources that there may be a passion of conduct that children from the areas occupied by

russian federation forces, have been taken into the territory of the russian federation not given to neutral third countries. not given or sent to other parts of the ukraine or taken into the russian federation. we have been investigating this and i went to the front line yesterday, in fact, and went to one of these homes, and i wanted to see it for myself. >> you also, i understand, met with president zelenskyy, also i believe attorney general merrick garland who made a surprise trip there. can you talk at all about what that was like, what the focus of the meeting was? >> yes, well, it's now public. i'm in lviv at the moment, and president zelenskyy and the government of ukraine hosted a conference, a really historic conference, in fact, in the middle of a war called united for justice, and it was really to focus on the importance of the rule of law even as bullets are flying and bombs are landing

and wreaking tremendous havoc. and attorney general garland was -- attended as well, and the united states is supporting ukraine in terms of the rule of law, and also, i had the opportunity of meeting the attorney general for the first time and i'm looking forward to seeing whether or not we can also get some tangible assistance from the united states because since december, the laws changed that the united states can support the international criminal court in relation to the investigations we're conducting in ukraine so we can get to the truth, and i want to see whether or not that promise of assistance can be rendered tangible as soon as possible. >> you've had an extraordinary career looking at war crimes, crimes against humanity international crimes. it's very rare though, and you and i have talked about this in the past, it's very rare to have active investigations like this going on in the midst of a war. often it's years after a war has

ended, decades even. >> absolutely, and i think even today's conference was absolutely historic because we had the london agreement in august 1945 that discussed the importance of trials that would come at the end of the second world war and gave rise to nuremberg. here we are, yesterday i was on the front lines. there were drones in the sky, shells that were landing on different parts of ukraine, and i think it is to the tremendous credit of the ukrainian authorities that they are talking about the rule of law and what we need to do as the international criminal court is to make sure that our own investigations are independent, are credible, and are based upon evidence that will stand the test of time, and i think there's a lot of firsts in this conflict, anderson, for good and bad. >> karim khan, thank you so much

for being with us tonight. >> great pleasure, thank you. coming up, an update on the second day of what had once been a must visit conference for all republican presidential contenders, but that is now dominated by one name and one name only. cnn's jeff zeleny is at cpac a day ahead of the former esident's speech. he joins us next. here's how tommy lost 30 lbs on noom weight. i'm tom. noom helped him use psychology to lose weight. the mindful aspect made me feel more conscious about what i was eating and why i was eating it. it's actually working. lose weight and make it last with noom weight.

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tomorrow the former president speaks at what once had been an important stop for all potential republican presidential candidates, but this year several likely contenders are skipping the conservative political action conference, in part because it's become a major three-day rally for the maga wing of the party. jeff zeleny has more. >> reporter: it's long been a command performance for republicans harboring white house ambitions. >> it's great to be back at cpac. >> reporter: but at the annual conservative political action conference outside washington, the parade of potential presidential hopefuls is far shorter this year. former south carolina governor nikki haley -- >> if you're tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation. and if you want to win not just as a party but as a country, then stand with me. >> reporter: and former secretary of state mike pompeo, gently called for a new direction. >> we shouldn't look for large >> reporter: but the

long-running three-day gathering is now seen as the trump show. >> these are my people. this is is beautiful. >> reporter: the former president is set to appear saturday joining a sea of loyal supporters and members of his own family. >> your president, president donald trump will be here. >> reporter: who are rallying to return him to office. but other big name contenders who many republicans see as the party's future, had other plans. last year florida governor ron desantis took to the stage as a rising star. >> cpac. >> reporter: but as he inches closer to declaring a presidential bid, he attended a gathering of donors in florida hosted by club for growth, an antitax group urging the party to move on from trump, several potential rivals also skipped cpac and headed to florida, including former vice president mike pence, south carolina senator tim scott, south dakota governorings, christie gnnoem. >> reporter: took a seat at a

resolute desk against the backdrop of a faux oval office. >> trump first, and then desantis let's do that in '28. >> reporter: colleen hoffman is from jacksonville, florida, she wore a desantis hat as she sported a trump sticker. she said she's torn but believes trump is the stronger choice for 2024. >> i really love this hat because it's like let us alone, you know, i love it, but as of right now i'm going to vote for donald trump. >> reporter: at the early stage of the campaign, it's hardly a two-man contest as an ohio businessman who jumped into the race last month made clear on the cpac stage. >> when we rallied behind the cry to make america great again, we did not just hunger for a single man. we hungered for the unapologetic pursuit of excellence. that is what it means to be an american. >> reporter: yet, even as the republican field grows, the conversations at cpac and the comparisons between candidates always came back to trump. >> i think governor desantis is wonderful.

i think he's amazing. i just don't think it's his time quite yet, if he could give it four years, i think he would be a great successor to trump. >> reporter: trump's grip on the broader republican party is very much an open question. his hold on cpac and the base is unmis unmistakable, but that is the dividing line inside the republican party, those who want to see him come back to office and those who are looking for a fresh start. that is part of his burden as he comes here tomorrow to make the case for a new candidacy. i'm told by his advisers he plans to also try and begin defining florida governor ron desantis who he believes is his top rival. anderson. >> jefeff zeleny, appreciate it dayligight savings time begs next weekend, if a growing number of lawmakers have their way, this may be t the last tim wewe change our clocks. harry enten is skeptical of the whole thing and we'll explain why. he's also obsessed with daylight savings time. go to sofi.com to view your rate.

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only from xfinity. the future starts now. so next weekend for reasons i'm still not really clear of, we spring forward and move the clocks ahead for an extra hour of sunlight in the evening. this week, though, a bipartisan group of senators have announced

they've reintroduced a bill to make daylight savings time permanent. a year ago, the sunshine protection act passed the senate only to die in the house. harry enten is called mr. sunshine to his friends in weather camp joins us now. shine some light on this. why will we lose an hour of sleep next weekend? >> because we've instituted daylight saving time for now since essentially the late '60s. it's been uniform across the united states. you can opt out of that. they do that in northeast arizona. >> you can opt out of it? like individuals can or whole states? >> states. not individuals. you and i have to obey the laws of time in the state of new york. >> whatst purpose of this? >> the whole purpose of it -- here it is. they say, oh, it's for energy. we're going to save energy. it doesn't save any energy. by the way, i noticed before the break you call it daylight savings time. there's no "s." it's saving. i just want to clarify. >> okay.

>> don't worry about it. i figured we could bring it up. look, we're shifting time. we're not exactly saving an hour, right? it's just we're going to -- >> i still don't understand why we're doing this. >> because it's the way things are. that's the reason why. >> that's not an answer. >> we brought it in with the idea we're going to save energy, right? but that isn't actually true. now we're sort of in a stasis whereby you have these groups that want standard time all year round. >> has this been done before? have we gotten rid of it before? >> we have gotten rid of it before. we got rid of it during world war ii. we got rid of it in the mid-1970s. >> how did that go in. >> it went disastrously, anderson. we moved back. polls showed that people hated the idea of daylight saving time year-round. >> why? what is so bad about it? >> i'll tell you what's so bad about it. let's say you're a kid going to school in the midwest. >> wow. okay. >> let's say you're in michigan. let's say you're in grand

rapids, michigan, all right. i'm going to paint a picture for you. here's the deal. the deal is that if you go to school in kent county, michigan, you go grand rapids, you know what time you'll have to ge to school? january if you have daylight saving time all year round? you have to go to school in the dark because the sun will not rise until past 9:00 a.m. the senators who introduced this bill in florida and massachusetts, their kids would only have to go to school -- they probably wouldn't have to go to school in the dark because it would be 8:00 a.m. when the sun would rise. you have these people in florida and michigan pushing this on the rest of the country when the fact is they would be pushing people in michigan to go to school in the dark. >> harry enten, i appreciate it. thank you. quick programming note. he's very passionate. joining us tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern for a cnn town hall. this is really important, america addicted to fentanyl crisis. we're going to look at how the drug makes its way into the country, talalk to people who he been affected. it's an important conversation, tuesday night, 9:00 p.m.

eastern. cnn's prime time special, navalny: the cost of standing up to putin is next right after a short break. the united states postal service.

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