winds. we already have 20,000 people without power across texas. you blow that into a big city like that, and you could obviously put down many more powerlines and a lot more people without power. tomorrow this all gets into florida with some heavy rainfall possible. we'll watch that as tomorrow comes, but tonight one thing at a time, we're still watching texas. >> we certainly are. chad, thank you very much. an important note to our viewers. it's one of the biggest nights here in the nation's capitol. president biden and host roy wood jr. headline the white house correspondence association dinner. join cnn's john berman and jessica dean live from the red carpet tomorrow night beginning 8:00 p.m. eastern. to our viewers thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com "outfront" next, the head of the russian private military group wagner claiming his forces are teetering on extinction.

is it true or just a trap for the ukrainians? it comes as ukraine is reeling from the deadliest missile strike in months tonight. plus, the head of a software company hired by trump to investigate voter fraud tells me he found nothing. now the doj is talking to him. and robert f. kennedy jr., whose own family members won't vote for him as president because of his antivaccine views, is polling at nearly 20%. what's behind that surge? let's go "outfront." good evening, i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, they're gone. those are the words of one man who just barely survived the deadliest strike in ukraine in months. at least 23 people were killed. these are the newest pictures we have where russian rocket slammed into an apartment building. >> translator: those were our neighbors. there is no way they survived. a grandmother, daughter and two

grandkids live on the ninth floor. they're gone. a mother and daughter lived on the seventh floor. they are gone. >> those innocent families went to bed. they're hundreds of mile as way from the front lines. in that case imagining the horror they could face if they woke up. as we speak, crews are still carefully combing the wreckage looking for missing children. they were targeting places where ukrainian reserviced had gathered. but it is clear this was a strike on civilians. >> translator: i never thought this would happen. a rocket hit our building. we're all covered in blood. i don't know, our windows were blown out. this is the room where children were sleeping. it's good we're all alive. we're just all covered in blood. god, we don't have windows, nothing, i was so afraid. >> this is the reality for ukrainians tonight. meanwhile, hundreds of miles away from that horror on the front lines, new video into

"outfront" of an elderly couple trying to make their way out of hard-hit bakhmut. you can see them walking through muddy fields. they were picked up and brought to safety. they were forced to make that dangerous trek because, well, let me just show you what the roads out of bakhmut look like right now. there is no such thing. there is no pavement. cars and tanks that have been blown up litter the highways. it's literally a hellscape. ahead of the wagner group, which at one point had as many as 40,000 troops fighting for the russian cause around bakhmut, is also now sounding the alarm about his private military. he is actually warning that his fighters are on the cusp of defeat. here's why. >> translator: now, with regard to the general need for shells across the front lines and what we want here, today it's coming to the point that wagner pmc will be finished. wagner pmc will cease to exist

in a short time. >> is prigozhin crying wolf trying to get his men more ammunition? it's unclear. but this does speak to what we have been sharing with you from russian forces now for quite some time, which is that they simply do not have weapons and ammunition. it comes as ukraine says the planning for its much anticipated counteroffensive is coming to an end. the defense minister saying today as soon as it's god's will, we will do it. nic robertson is "outfront" in ukraine at the site of the deadly apartment building in uman. nic, what more are you learning and seeing on the ground tonight where those families, of course, suffered such horror? >> reporter: the firefighters have been working here for over 20 hours today. we've been watching them bring out bodies throughout the day. they're up there now. they believe there are bodies up there. this has just been going on all day. residents asleep as a russian

missile ripped through their apartments. rescuers in this small central ukrainian city uman on the scene fast. sergei was one of the first. >> translator: there were terrible screams of children. the explosion was very powerful. the houses started to shake in the nearby areas. the first one we pulled out was a living woman who was put in the ambulance, but she died in hospital. >> reporter: the death toll climbing through the day. this lady telling us she heard the missile, put her kids in the bathtub, and pillows over their heads and hoped they'd live. fighting back tears, she said, so many children live here. a fgaping concrete and rubble wound where those innocent lives shattered. the first missile strike in uman since march last year.

families and friends desperately awaiting news of loved ones. this lady telling us her friend on the eighth floor survived, but the friend's two daughters, one 13 years old and the other just 7, are still missing. a firefighter takes us up to see those top floors. onto the roof, nine floors above, the recovery teams. you can see how the building has literally collapsed down here. there should be a building right out here. and the floors pancaked down wards, and the roof tipping over down there. from here, the damage even more devastating than below. more than half the building's 46 apartments destroyed. so the firefighters will come up here as they've been doing all day on this dangerous mission,

literally putting themselves in danger to try to recover, to clear out the site. ukrainian officials believe all this devastation caused by a single russian kh-101 stealth cruise missile. it is the single deadliest strike on civilians since january. 109 people registered living here. as night fell, many of them still unaccounted for. and this effort here to find the last of the missing is massive. the police, the firefighters say they're going to work through the night. they're not going to give up. we're seeing police here doing dna testing for families, police, psychologists, grieving family members here. it is a massive outpouring of support. it's a message for the ukrainians to themselves, it's a message to president putin from the ukrainians, no amount of shelling is going to make them give up.

erin? >> nic, thank you very much. and i want to go on the back of nic's reporting to democratic congressman and iraq war veteran seth moulton. he also serves on the house armed services committee. and he joins me along with retired army major general james "spider" marks. very much appreciate both of you. congressman, obviously we saw this major attack in ukraine, missile attack, have not seen something like that in months. you've got the defense minister in ukraine in response saying, god along, they're ready to go on a counteroffensive. is it your understanding that this is imminent, that the counteroffensive is truly going to happen in a significant way? >> oh, it's going to be significant. and the ukrainians have made that clear. and the european commanders reported to us that we've given them 98% of what they need for this counteroffensive. so we've been working very hard to get them ready. ammunition, training, weapons systems. 98% delivered.

so they're ready to go. when exactly it will start of course is secret. but i'm looking forward to what i think the ukrainians are looking forward to it too. >> just a quick follow-up, you say 98% of what they wanted is delivered. i know there are things they want, f-16s and all which are separate. are you saying that everything that they were supposed to get they've gotten? because there are some reports out there, and i'm trying to understand if there's any truth to them, that things have been promised and not delivered and they don't really have a full sort of arsenal. what's the truth? >> look, the truth is that on the ground commanders always want more. and the u.s. is doing careful calculations of exactly what they need. the european commanders specifically general has told us specifically on the armed services committee that 98% of what america believes they need has been delivered. of course those needs could change over time, and we're continuing weapons deliveries as we speak. >> general marks, how difficult, what are the stakes for a

counteroffensive? because obviously it's been months here that we've been talking about this. and during that time there were times we've shown from above the video of giant trenches the russians are building, the mines they've put in, everything they've done to make this difficult. how hard is it going to be for ukraine to mount a significant and successful counteroffensive, which they need to do? >> well, the fight will be very, very difficult, obviously. what we will not see is the ukrainians launching themselves out of a box from a dead start. what they will no doubt do is they have to be able to strip away the enemy's ability to see them. so that's reconnaissance and counterreconnaissance. that will be very deliberate. it will be in very specific areas. and what the ukrainians are going to try to do is create a salient, an opening where they can apply force, and then they can penetrate and then start doing some operational maneuver against the russians. they can't afford as a result of

building up time as the congressman indicated, preparing for the fight and then launch without really having an opportunity to feel their way into the fight, and then to exploit where they can achieve success. a very deliberate move. >> so, congressman, the ukrainian president zelenskyy said today that ukraine managed to shoot down 21 of those 23 missiles russia fired. and that's obviously very significant. but he is pounding the table, use this as an opportunity to say ukraine needs, quote, modern aircraft. many times he's talked about f-16s. do you think it's time for the u.s. government to give them those? >> i don't think it's time because it's not what they primarily need for this counteroffensive to be successful. i mean, look, f-16s are extraordinary weapons. they're very powerful. you can understand why zelenskyy would want them. t f-16s don't take territory. they don't take territory back from the russians. and that's why they need

ammunition. that's why they need artillery and the training of our forces so that they can do the kinds of things that spider was just describing. not the human wave attacks, the world war i-style warfare that russia has been practicing, but the smart warfare that u.s. forces have been training the ukrainians to do. if we were to deliver them f-16s today, they wouldn't have the training for months to put them into use so they wouldn't be useful for this counteroffensive at all. >> so, general marks, i know you think they should have those. why do you think it's worth doing, given that it would take time for them to be able to use them. and the counteroffensive would come before that. the time line that the congressman lays out is fair. >> absolutely true. my point is the f-16s should've been delivered earlier on. the training should've taken place. congressman's absolutely spot on. it will not make a difference now. they wouldn't be entered into the fight any time soon.

there is a tail to get them prepared. the f-16s provide a three-dimensional fight that allows you to provide maneuver on the ground to strike deep. and that's what the ukrainians need going forward. they can get beyond this, they can achieve some tactical success, maybe some operational success as well, put the russians on their back heels, then give them a capability to sustain this fight going forward. >> i want to ask you about something else i mentioned at the top of the program. and that was yevgeny prigozhin, the chief of the wagner group saying they're threatened with extinction and they're going to go away because they just don't have the ammunition, they don't have the weapons. i just want to ask you whether you think this is true. what you're hearing about their role in the battlefield, and the context i want to add to is a ukrainian soldier i spoke to earlier week. he had originally talked to me about how these wagner forces would literally do those rushes in waves, you'd kill the first and the second wave. they did that because if they turned around and went back, they'd be killed. but he says they're seeing a lot more russian soldiers on the

battlefield and not wagner group. are you understanding that there's been a shift on the ground? >> well, i think it's definitely true that these human wave attacks haven't worked, and it's taken months for the russians to realize this. but maybe that's hit home and so they're changing their tactics. the russians have also been working on training all these new recruits that they're literally pulling off the streets of moscow and st. petersburg and sending to the front. so there may be a shift over time. but the important point here is that the russians have lost thousands and thousands of young men, thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition that they've expended uselessly because their offensive has been so ineffective. we're sitting here tonight, our hearts wrenched by the scenes from uman and other cities that were hit by these cruise missiles. we're worried whether ukrainians have enough for their counteroffensive because we're so invested in seeing them succeed. but let's not lose sight of how much russia is losing in this war. ukraine is winning. this is a tough fight, and it's not a foregone conclusion that

ukraine will win in the end. but right now ukraine is winning, and that's an important message for the world to see. >> final word to you, general marks. >> what we're seeing right now is an absolute essential step on the part of ukrainians in order to regain the momentum. as a congressman indicated, this is a really tactical fight that the russians enter into and they lose every time they engage with this amazingly creative force. what the ukrainians must do is be able to achieve this success and really push and connect these tactical victories together. that puts military terms, that puts the russian forces at risk, and they have to make a decision whether they're going to fight or they're going to have to retreat backwards. and if that takes place, then the ukrainians can then isolate various pockets on the battlefield and reduce those very deliberately. >> thank you both very much. i appreciate your time tonight. next, the head of a software company hired by trump's team to

investigate voter fraud claims tells me he found no substantive fraud of any kind. he's telling that to the doj. plus, rfk jr. polling at nearly 20% against an incumbent. is it name recognition, biden fatigue, or is it something else? and a major gop donor. he's my guest tonight. why he is saying governor ron desantis is not returning his calls. insurancece, so you only pay for what you need. with the money we saved, we thought we'd try electric unicycles. whoa! careful, babe! saving was d definitely easier. hey babe, i think i got it! it's actually... whooooa! ok, show-off! help! oh! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ you got this. let's go. gobble gobble. i've seen bigger legs on a turkey! rude. who are you?

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tonight, the founder of a software company hired by the trump campaign to investigate voter fraud claims in the 2020 election is now answering questions from the justice department. ken block, the founder of simpatico software systems tells me he looked into claims of fraud and, quote, found no substantive fraud of any kind. that's a fact. block also told "the washington post" that he shared his conclusions with trump campaign officials but never with former president trump himself. "outfront" now ryan goodman, the former special counsel of the defense department. ken block going in front of the grand jury, providing documents to the grand jury, i should be clear, giving them this information of what he found. he found nothing, telling "the washington post" he shared those conclusions with trump officials but not with trump himself. so what do you think this adds up to? >> so i think that there are multiple strings to the investigation and multiple ways

to prove criminal liability. the special prosecutor, special counsel does not need to show that trump knew that he had lost the election. but if he can show it, it's a clear path. this would be evidence of that in the sense that this is a firm that is hired by the campaign to assess whether or not there was election fraud, and then they determined that there was none, it was all bogus, there were no claims. >> it's not a question, there was no ambiguity about his answer. >> that's right. and he tells the campaign over multiple reports over multiple weeks finding nothing, finding nothing, found nothing. >> so my question to you is we've talked about how -- how much would the special counsel really need to prove that trump knew it was a lie? like, does proof of that knowing matter? certainly what you're getting at here is that the knowing that there'd be no way around that. >> that's right. so if trump knew that he had actually lost the election that

the voter fraud allegations were false, then it's kind of game over in a sense because that is the allegation of corruptly interfering with the congressional proceedings and the congressional certification. it would be corrupt if he knew he lost and then he was still trying to overturn the popular vote in georgia, false slate of electors and then pressuring the congress to not certify it. he doesn't need it necessarily in terms of the special counsel. an alternative route, for example, is trump pressuring pence, even if he thought he won the election, but then pressing him not to abide by his constitutional obligations. >> if block is saying that he only shared his investigations with the people that he was working with on the trump campaign that were paying him but not with trump himself, that's what he can say individually. but then they would theoretically be able to go to those individuals. he's going to name them, and find out who spoke to trump. >> absolutely. and i think that that's the big question that the special counsel will probably be able to get to the bottom of.

was trump, nevertheless, informed of the firm's findings? and you'd have reason to think that they were, the campaign is paying them $750,000 to find the information. we know from the january 6th committee many people inside his campaign are incentivized to try to convince trump that it's over. so they would want to say to him, look, the firm that we hired found nothing. >> so does this then take us clearly in terms of where you think the special counsel's mind is beyond an obstruction of an official proceeding? that's the charge many had expected at this point, obstruction in an official proceeding. that one's fairly simple with the information theoretically to charge. this would be seem to go to something a little bit bigger. >> that's right. and based on cnn's reporting and other reporting, there seems to be another robust investigation which is mail fraud, wire fraud, basically obtaining people's money through false pretenses. defrauding donors by getting

them to contribute money to this idea that there is a stolen election if all these folks knew there was not a stolen election, you have mail fraud, wire fraud. they were using the internet to solicit those funds. there could be multiple people on the line for that. >> thank you very much, ryan goodman, as always. and also tonight, the supreme court justice samuel alito says -- this is a big development -- that he has a, quote, pretty good idea of who leaked that draft opinion of the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade. telling the "wall street journal," quote, that's infuriating to me that any of the five justices would leak that. it's quite implausible. jessica schneider is "outfront." jessica, so who is he talking about? >> it's really not clear here, erin. justice alito just isn't giving any details about exactly who he

thinks is responsible for this leak. but he is clear that he believe it's was someone who did not want roe v. wade overturned, which of course is ultimately what happened here. and like you previewed there, he's really pouring cold water on that theory that's really been floated a lot that maybe it was someone from the conservative side who leaked the draft to lock in that 5-4 vote that ultimately prevailed in the dobbs case. so he's throwing cold water on that, giving no specifics, no proof, but really sort of a chilling reveal from justice alito. and this was quite an extensive interview with the "wall street journal." he opined on the leak. he also revealed that it really created an atmosphere at the court of deep suspicion, mistrust. and he talked about the repercussions of that leak. the fact that these justices have now had to get 24/7 security. and on top of that, he lamented these recent attacks on the court's legitimacy. he told the "wall street journal" this. he said, this type of concerted attack on the court and on individual justices is new

during my lifetime. we are being hammered daily, and i think quite unfairly in a lot of instances, and nobody, practically nobody, is defending us. so, erin, this is really the first time that we've seen justice alito speak so extensively. and it's coming just as we have several weeks left with this court with major decisions that will be issued even this term on gay rights, affirmative action. so it's very notable that justice al ityo eis choosing now to speak out when this term is still in full effect. >> right. and who knows exactly what goal he has there. but ahead of all of that to make a comment about leak, obviously significant timing. thank you so much. and, next, robert f. kennedy jr. sometimes sounds a lot like, well, sometimes like tucker carlson. >> the system is rigged against him. >> on many levels the system was rigged. >> could his appeal to the right be behind his sudden surge sin the polls? and i'll talk to a major

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search. 2024 hopeful robert f. kennedy jr. telling our own michael smerconish that he will defeat president biden in the democratic primary. >> the "new york times" then reporting on your announcement said this, mr. kennedy is the latest in a history of fringe presidential aspirants from both parties who run to bring attention to a cause or to themselves. do you embrace that label, fringe? >> well, i'm not running to bring attention to a particular cause. i'm running because i believe i'm going to win. >> that interview coming as a new fox news poll shows kennedy with nearly 20% of democratic voters. why that eye-popping number? it's a huge number, and it's fast that it happened. >> i actually think i can win. >> reporter: robert f. kennedy jr. basking in some early traction in his bid for the

democratic nomination. >> i am going to take back this country with your help. >> reporter: a week after launching his long-shot presidential bid, kennedy notching 19% support in a new fox news poll that's still far behind president joe biden, who stands at 62%. >> we have a polarization in this country today that is so toxic. >> reporter: kennedy's biggest asset may be his famous last name, a fixture in american politics for more than six decades. being the son of robert f. kennedy senior and nephew of president john f. kennedy, it's a legacy he doesn't shy away from. >> we need to bring this party back, the party of rfk, and martin luther king and those values. >> reporter: kennedy's early standing potentially getting a boost from the lack of enthusiasm for biden among some democratic primary voters. >> i'm not particularly fond of how biden has handled himself or

the country. >> reporter: 51% of democrats say biden should not run for a second term. nearly half of those who oppose a biden run say his age is a major reason for that view. kennedy as invited controversy for promoting conspiracies about vaccines, drawing strong rebukes from medical experts and even some family members. >> the information that we were given was badly, badly manipulated. >> reporter: he's also questioned the u.s. involvement in ukraine. >> many of the steps that we've taken in the ukraine have seemed to indicate that our interest is in prolonging the war rather than shortening it. >> reporter: garnering him support from strange bedfellows, some of the chief provocateurs in the republican party eager to amplify him. >> i'm called anti-vaxx all the time because the pharmaceutical industry is so powerful, both with the media -- >> reporter: like tucker carlson. >> our democracy is devolving into kind of a corporate

pollutocracy. >> i'll just be honest, i agree with most of it. but even if i didn't, i would think that is a really interesting say. you have a coherent world view. >> reporter: and former trump adviser steve bannon. >> the longer he stays in this, the more his message is going to resonate. >> i was the only environmentalist who had gone fox news. some environmentalists say you shouldn't go on there, it legitimizes them. i said if we don't talk to that audience, how can we persuade them. so i will talk to anybody. >> reporter: to that point of this mutual embrace, was notable that kennedy came out and defended tucker carlson this week after he was ousted from fox news on twitter. he wrote that carlson was breathtakingly courageous. erin? >> all right, thank you very much. i want to go straight now to van jones. you know, robert f. kennedy jr. well. he wrote the forward to your first book. so you know him and you know the good, you know the bad.

19% of democrats right now are supporting him right now over president biden in that new fox news poll. and you've just got to pause and think about that. an incumbent president and the first person out of the gates gets 19%. what is behind this number? name recognition, gop crossover? and these aren't really democrats somehow, the polling's not working? people who just want to say stop with biden, anybody, or none of the above? >> well, it's probably a little bit of all of it. >> or all of the above. >> look, robert f. kennedy, that's a famous name, it's a glorious name in american life. i think people who are wanting some return to a better day might see that name and say, i like that name. i don't think this is going to last. i think that there is a protest element here, people who are concerned about biden's age. he has a certain amount of, i don't think it's going to last. you see people sometimes moments

like this somebody will rise, somebody will fall, numbers will come and go. i think that, unfortunately, i know the guy, i love the guy, i don't think that he has taken a good turn in these last several years. and i don't think he's going to get to the white house. but he can do a lot of damage along the way with this anti-vaxx stuff. >> i remember him talking about environmental things. there were things he was doing. i remember interviewing him about those. but now, as you point out, there's been a very different focus. abc actually in that clip we showed, they admitted that he pushed such false and misleading claims about vaccines that they felt compelled to actually edit them out. here's what they said. >> we should note that during our conversation kennedy made false claims about the covid-19 vaccine. data shows that the covid-19 vaccines prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease. we've used our editorial

judgment and not including that exchange in our interview. >> are you concerned that this is someone who's resonating with nearly one in five voters in your party right now because of those claims that he has repeatedly made about both of those topics? >> i bet you of the 20% of people who said that they would love to see him in the race in the white house, they probably aren't following him as closely. the more attention that he gets and the more people realize how weird his new views are and how extreme, i think those numbers start to come back down. i don't think it's the party that wants somebody, if they do have a name like kennedy, who has those kinds of views. that said, there is a wall of discontent. there is a well of frustration out there that people in both parties can draw on. and i think that the biden administration would be smart to pay attention to the fact that there's 20, 25% of voters out there looking for somebody. >> and what about on the other side? people like steve bannon are somehow thinking that this could

help them. there are a lot of examples of him sounding just like tucker carlson. here are a few. >> there are so many americans who believe that our democracy is broken, that the system is rigged against them. >> on many levels, the system was rigged against one candidate and in favor of another. >> if those are objectives to have regime change and exhaust the russians, that is completely antithetical to a humanitarian mission. >> we know now that the war in ukraine is not about helping the people in ukraine. the war in ukraine is designed to cause regime change in moscow. >> i mean, these are big topics, the echo is extremely clear. >> yeah, look. i think that there are people in both parties who have concerns about us getting over our skis with russia, with there being a nuclear war, that kind of stuff. so i don't think that anybody raising a concern or a question should be lumped in with a

tucker carlson who's clearly a putin apologist. but i think if you have the last name kennedy, you've got to be careful because they're going to listen to what you say because of that last name. and i don't think he has been prudent in his comments about ukraine, in his comments about vaccines, in his comments about a number of things. and i think that the american public and especially the democratic party, as they get to know this version of robert kennedy at this age and stage of life, i think that the crush will wear off. >> van, thank you so very much. i appreciate it. and, please be sure to catch michael smerconish's full interview with robert f. kennedy jr. you can watch it in full tomorrow morning right here at 9:00 a.m. and, next, ron desantis losing the support of another major republican donor. this one says desantis won't return his calls. plus, it's known as the twin-tailed scorpion able to fly at a high altitude for thousands of miles carrying massive weapons. and tonight china is flying it

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tonight, florida lawmakers clearing the way for ron desantis to run for president while remaining the state's governor. they had to tweak a state lan known as resign to run, which would have done exactly what it says, required desantis to give up the governorship once he was on the ballot for 2024. so that's going to be gone now. this comes as a major republican

donor is now vowing he will not support desantis for president, in part, because he doesn't return any of his phone calls. and that donor is now "outfront." he is the host of the katz roundtable and radio show and also the ceo of a supermarket chain. he gave more than $700,000 to former president trump. i will also note that you were a longtime support to bill and hillary clinton and other top democrats. so you have given to both parties over the years. but obviously you are a very significant trump donor, and now desantis isn't returning your call. can you tell me what's going on here? how many times have you called him? do you think he's intentionally not returning the calls? >> no, i have a lot of florida friends that helped him get elected. and he hasn't returned any of their calls. and it's just -- look, he is who he is, he's a good american, but his people skills are very, very

bad. and what i find out is the more that people hang out with him and the more one friend of mine said he was sitting next to him at dinner and he never said one word. so his people skills are not good. i think that's one of his major problems. >> and you're talking about -- you have the potential -- the reason i gave that $700,000 figure. you can give a lot of money. you would expect a little, just to be trfrank, a little tlc froa candidate, and he doesn't seem to care. >> i've never asked any candidate anything, so it's not about wanting anything. but you want to have access. and that's where what a lot of donors do. i gave a lot of money to donald trump because i know him for 40 years. but i gave a lot of money to bill clinton and hillary clinton because i helped run bill clinton's campaign back in the '90s. >> i did look here, and campaign

finance records, i'm sorry, show that in the run-up to the '22 election, you gave $20,000 to charlie crist, who, of course, was the democratic opponent to desantis for governor. do you think that it comes down to something like that, that he's mad that you gave to crist so he won't call you back? >> absolutely not. it was way before that point. and i know crist since he was a republican. i knew him since he was an independent. i've known him when he was a democrat. i've known him for 20 or 30 years. when you get old, you know these guys for a long time. >> so let's talk about something you said the other day. you talked to donald trump on your radio show. and then you tweeted, and this is just part of your tweet, i feel he would make an effective presidential candidate and president if elected in 2024. how do you come to that conclusion? i'm just thinking of thomas peterffy who just recently said he's not going to give to desantis either. but his reason is desantis has

gone way too far to the right. he talked about book banning and abortion. but it sounds like you're going the other direction. >> i'm the guy in the middle. i believe that too far right is not good for our country, too far left is not good for our country. >> but donald trump is? >> and i compare -- i compare the days when newt gingrich and bill clinton, they didn't like each other, but they sat around with each other and they made a deal, and they took the $5.5 trillion deficit down to 5 trillion. i think republicans and democrats should sit together and work together for what's best for our country. >> all right. one quick follow to that, though. you got a guy who said the election was fraudulent, and it wasn't. and do you really think that trump could -- you're comfortable with him as a republican nominee? >> well, let me tell you something. in four years when donald trump was president, does he have his own problem? he has a few problems.

but when he was president, we did not have one single war. the world leaders respected us. and look what's happening now. there's no respect. the world leaders are not respecting our country right now. i hope the dollar doesn't lose too much of its potency. and we're losing brazil. we lost argentina the day before. saudi arabia doesn't want to know about washington. we have a problem that we have to solve. we have to be well respected in the world again. >> all right, john, thank you so much. i appreciate your time tonight. , and next, it's one of china's most advanced drones, known as the twin tailed scorpion. it can travel more than 3,000 miles while carrying a large weapons payload. and that drone is right now circling taiwan. more on a story you'll see first, next "outfront." ! playing pickleba...!

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tonight in taipei. one of the largest drones in the chinese military wn a mission encircling taiwan. the combat drone flew around the entire island friday, a highly provocative flight path publicized for the first time by the island's defense ministry. a brazen act on the same day a u.s. p8 surveillance aircraft transited the taiwan strait. the drone flight also came as former national security advisor john bolten was in taipei voicing support for taiwan independence. we don't know if the drone flight is connect. beijing is keeping quiet. chinese state media identifies the drone as tb001 nicknamed the twin tale scorpion capable of high altitude long-range missions, traveling up to 630 kilometers, that's like flying from london to new york. >> the big advantage is they've

got a very long endurance. they can stay in the air for 35, 40 hours or even more. >> reporter: military experts tell cnn the drone can carry a large weapons payload. its primary purpose, persistent surveillance, but experts say this drone's mission was no secret. >> it's simply done for demonstration purposes to try and give the impression that taiwan is surrounded. >> reporter: china may have an edge in the air but taiwan is unveiling its own combat and surveillance drones. cnn was given rare access last month to a taiwanese weapons developer including five models revealed to the public for the first time. drone defense a top priority for taiwan's military. last year a series of unidentified civilian drones from china hovered over sensitive military sites. what did you think when you saw the video of the drones flying over? our soldiers shot down a drone over that island, a neighbor

tells me. taiwan's defense ministry tells cnn they won't be intimidated, insisting they're ready to respond to any air threat from china at any time. the question tonight how effective would that response be, erin? it is so surprise china has a massive military advantage not just in the air but naval, man power, spending power. they outspend taiwan and have just in every possible category they're bigger, of course that's not taking into account possible help from the united states. and also the lessons taiwan is learning right now from ukraine. because remember ukraine is taking advantage of this asymmetric warfare to really have not maybe an edge over russia but certainly holding their own. and taiwan looking closely at that and also hoping for help from the west if and when the time comes. >> will, thank you so much from taipei. and coming up on ac 360 legendary author judy bloom to talk about her books now being banned in her home state of

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and finally tonight some very happy news to share. we've added two new members to the "out front" family. this is samuel, eight days old now. and you see his dad there. samuel was born weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces. and his mother you saw there jamie and samuel are doing great. and that's not all. there's teddy born to