>> reporter: another example of his ability to wield power, florida lawmakers have passed a measure that allows him to run for president without resigning from being governor. desantis is expected to officially declare he's running for president in the coming weeks. wolf? thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer. you you can follow me on twitter and instagram. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. running out of cash? treasury secretary janet yellen warning washington it has just 21 days to pay america's bills.

plus, a bold attack inside russia. a freight train carrying crucial supplies blown off its tracks. americans are lonely and isolated. it is now a full-blown health crisis. that's what the surgeon general is saying as he opens up about his own struggles. "out front" out of cash? janet yellen issuing a stark warning that the united states will run out of money as early as june 1st. in a statement she writes, after reviewing recent federal tax receipts we'll be unable to satisfy all the government's obligations by early june and potentially as early as june 1st if congress does not raise the debt limit before that time. the white house and congress couldn't be further away from a deal. the white house wants to raise the debt limit with no strings

attached. republicans in the house say they'll only do it if deep spending cuts are attached. there are only eight days between what the house and senate will be in session at the same time this month. if congress doesn't act, yellen is warning an economic catastrophe. we talked about this. social security checks don't go out. veteran payments don't go out and that's just the beginning. moody warning defaulting on america's debt could kill millions of american jobs. will this force the white house and republicans to talk to each other? well, cnn is learning that biden is calling the top four congressional leaders to the white house to talk about raising the debt ceiling. that isn't happening until may 9th. we're pushing it here. kevin mccarthy isn't in washington right now. he's in israel. will they get something done before time's up? there are other things causing

pressure here. yellen's warning coming when another bank was taken over. proving the silicon valley bank situation was not alone. first republic, branches in many states including new york and california, that bank was auctioned off to jpmorgan. i want to begin with phil mattingly. phil, is the white house concerned with the deadline janet yellen is putting out? this is just weeks away. they're only in session eight days between now and the end of the month. does the white house think this could get done? >> reporter: their concern is that folks have been too s sanguine about this happening. this happens in one way, shape

or form dodging catastrophe right before the deadline. the white house is insisting they're not moving off that there be no conditions. this stare down has the potential to approach the edge or go right over it. that was the driving force, especially given the fact that janet yellen's letter went out today. this meeting proposed for may 9th with the top four leaders and the president is designed to shake-up the dynamic and start conversations to try to find some pathway out of things. interestingly, erin, white house officials made clear this is not a shift in their position. the president's position is, unlike past fights, because of those past fights, they don't want to negotiate. they don't want to add anything on to a debt ceiling increase. they want to stop that idea of hostage taking, not just for

now, but forever given the catastrophe that comes with it. in this meeting they're proposing to provide some type of better understanding of longer term fiscal negotiations, discussions related to spending talks, trying to formalize what the president has said he's open to, but republicans haven't been engaging on. with the letter and the proposal for a meeting it underscores this moment, it's time to take it seriously. this is very real and happening very soon. >> phil, thank you. i want to go to manu raju. manu coming into this announcement from yellen, you've been speaking to lawmakers. do they think this will get done? >> reporter: i spoke to senators from both party and they're painting a grim picture.

republicans are saying they won't undermine kevin mccarthy. democrats are saying they won't agree to any spending cut deal tied to raising the debt ceiling. >> they're saying they're going to default on the debt. >> can you find the middle ground? >> what's the middle ground? >> a deal with some spending cuts. >> i think it's a big mistake. >> this deal has to be between biden and mccarthy or their respective teams. there's no other way that something gets 60 votes in the senate. the pressure is mounting and it should. >> reporter: that last comment coming from the number two republican there. there was some speculation that perhaps the senate gop could try to push something through in the senate. john thune saying he's the one that counts the votes in the

senate. he said there wouldn't be 60 votes to advance any bill that doesn't have the support of kevin mccarthy and mccarthy making clear earlier today in israel, he's not going to go forward with any bill that doesn't include spending cuts. how this gets resolved is anyone's guest. there was a default diverted in 2011. unclear if it will happen now. >> the biggest risk in a dozen years for default. i want to go to john avalon and jim bianco. jim, when you hear this today, janet yellen saying that there's not tax receipts to drag this on, how significant is that? >> it's significant on two levels. the first is the tax receipts came in much weaker than expected. that's confirming the gdp report we saw last week, that the

economy is not doing great. it's not a recession, but it's heading in the wrong direction. it's not too late to turn it around. things are not going well. i will take a bit of, you know, positive news out of this. they're talking. at least we have that part going. for the last several months they weren't even doing that. there's hope on wall street here that this is the first step in a process that will lead to a resolution. >> of course wall street, john, holds out that hope. as manu said, this may be different. back in 2011, 4,288 days since the united states lost its top credit rating. >> yes. >> when you lose your credit rating, you pay more in interest. that's how that works. once we lost it, 4,288 days have gone by and we haven't done anything to get it back.

>> that's right. the tax payers are the ones who pay for this division in congress. as congress tricycles towards this debt ceiling, this is something that only happens when democrats are president. it's important to remember that republicans raised the debt ceiling three times when donald trump was president. we're the only nation in the world that does this to ourselves. it makes democracy look self-defeating in the eyes of our competitors. this is -- i think people have been way too sanguine. >> jim, you retweeted a tweet that said second highest bank failure ever. your pointing at a confluence of several things that add up to what? >> the markets are in a period

of uncertainty. i know that's an overused term. between what's happening with the banks, what's concerning about the bond market, it's not in a position of strength that you can throw on another issue and say this will be water off a duck's back. no, it won't. it could metastasize into a bigger problem. it is concerning. i know people tend to focus on the dow jones industrial average or the s&p 500 and say it's not falling so there's no real urgency. that's true, but that's only a handful of tech stocks holding that up. you look beyond that and you see problems. >> john, biden said this is why people should vote for him. he said because of situations like this, i can talk to both

sides. in 2019 did a town hall with him and he said this is why i should be president. here's what he said. >> look, one of the problems and the responsibility of a president is to be able to persuade people. we got a lot done by pure compromise. every time we got in trouble and couldn't get something passedin the house and senate, who got sent up on the hill? on new year's day we were about to go under in terms of the national debt. this is something i've done. i can do it again. >> this is a test of that promise. may 9th, it's good the congressional leaders are meeting with the president, but this is coming fast. may 9th doesn't show the urgency. a lot of folks warned this could be a problem and say democrats

in the biden administration should have got ahead of this when they had unified control. are there areas to negotiate? sure. there are areas that have broad bipartisan support. i think work fare is reasonable, streamlining regulations. a lot of stuff is totally off the table and shouldn't be attached. this is a test of joe biden being able to make a deal. >> thank you very much. thanks to you, jim, as well. that russian train blown off its tracks inside russia. the train was carrying oil and equipment. we're learning more details about that and the devastating toll putin's war is having on russian troops. a massive manhunt going on for a man after allegedly killing five people, along with a 9-year-old boy. tonight we're learning the

suspect had been deported five times. and then people talk about biden's age. >> his age does scare me. he's old. >> i speak to one professor who taught for years about age and leadership. he's notot worried about biden. i'll tell yoyou why. hey, man. you could save hundreds for safe driving with liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance. so you only pay for what you need! whoo! we gotta go again. only payor what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ avoiding triggers but can't keep migraines away? qulipta® can help prevent migraines. you can't always prevent what's going on outside... that's why qulipta® helps what's going on inside. qulipta® gets right to work. in a 3-month study, qulipta® significantly reduced monthly migraine days and the majority of people reduced them by 50 to 100%.

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inside russia with new video showing a russian freight train

burning. it derailed after an ied explosion. the train was carrying oil and construction equipment. in this video you see what's left of those train cars. so far it's not clear who was behind the attack, but recently we have seen attacks on russian ammo depots and substations. the video was a strike in a currently russian occupied part of ukraine. in a moment i'll speak to a former special ops advise, seth jones. he can tell you what he thinks these attacks show. first, it comes as the real price putin is paying for the war becoming clearer. u.s. intelligence estimating russia has lost a staggering number of men in just the past few months. >> just since december we estimate that russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action. >> so to do the math, that's

more than 700 russians killed or injured every day. nick patton walsh is in ukraine. >> reporter: it was hard to get much uglier, but each day the battle for bakhmut grinds on. ukraine monday said it pushed russian forces back who had abandoned positions. months of agonizing fighting for about a football field every day say analysts. leaving little standing and russian injured. the soldiers here abandoned. there was a guy laying there in the weeds he says, yelling, guys help me for three days. only 100 yards from the russians. also emerging on this, the road of life, the last way in and out of the city, news of the death of cooper harris andrews, age

26, a former u.s. marine and firefighter from cleveland, ohio, who felt compelled to join ukraine's fight. >> cooper wanted to correct things. we had conversations about that. i said cooper, you're just going over there to drive an ambulance. he said, no. you just don't believe in stuff. you do something about it. >> let's make a picture for history. >> reporter: there he is near the frontline in january, described as ideological to the core. his body has yet to be recovered from bakhmut as the fighting is too intense. his mother recalled the last time they spoke. >> i asked cooper, is there anything i can get to you? cooper said, yes. can you send me hot sauce and

chopsticks? so i have like a thousand chopsticks in my house. i was trying to get chopsticks for everyone. i have all these packets of hot sauce that i was going to send to cooper. >> reporter: over the past weeks, graphic battle footage has emerged showing what it's like when russians get into ukrainian trenches. a soldier races into cover. soon a shell hits. they're all miraculously okay, but the attack has started. watch and you see a russian approach and throw a grenade. he misses. they go on to shoot down russians advancing meters from

them. shells continue to land. the attack persists for over ten minutes. the brutal fight for bakhmut goes on and on. almost hard to keep track of what's happening in bakhmut. the russians saying they nearly had taken control. now suggesting russia is not giving them enough artillery shots and ukrainians claiming they're taking back some of those positions. despite the shocking loss of life that one u.s. official suggested may have been 10,000 casualties, a staggering figure, it's a side show. the main focus on the counteroffensive most likely in the south and potentially beginning to get under way. erin? >> thank you, nick. as promised, i want to go to

seth jones, the director of international security program at csis and a former adviser of american special operation forces in afghanistan. seth, that russian freight train, that was an ied attack. we've seen these attacks on russian infrastructure over the past few weeks. what do you read into that? >> well, erin, what it looks like the ukrainians are doing is targeting russian logistic hubs. this is critical in general, but also critical before a major offensive operation. you want to destroy as much of the petroleum oil, the fuel that russian forces need. you want to destroy their arms and their rail head that they use to move the material. these are signs of ukrainians getting serious. >> seth, you have been talking to sources involved in the ukrainian counteroffensive. you've been looking at new

satellite imagery. in it you've seen what the russians are doing to prepare for what they expect in this counteroffensive. what do you see there? >> erin, what this looks like is the trench networks before world war ii and then existed during world war i. we see extensive russian dragon's teeth, pyramid shaped concrete slabs used for anti-tank operations. deep trenches, berms particularly in key areas north of crimea. the largest networks and berms we've seen since world war ii in europe. these are all russian preparations to try to slow down an ukrainian advance. >> sounds like a brutal war coming. what about what nick mentioned, the biden administration's estimate? you heard john kirby say russia suffered more than 100,000

casualties since december, about 700 killed or wounded per day. that's a big day, 35% increase from what was a highest estimat number in the fall. is it real? >> our estimates are similar to that. it's important to note that the russians have lost more soldiers in ukraine, this is another example, than they lost in all wars combined since 1945. the second issue is russian offensive operations, they can't do these kinds of things effectively. we haven't seen a lot of improvement in russian ground operations. they're struggling badly. >> thank you very much, seth jones. i appreciate it. >> thank you. next, the massive manhunt for a suspected killer now expanding. agents along america's southern border told to be on alert for a man who say killed his neighbors

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manhunt for a texas man accused of killing five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy. t 200 members of law enforcement searching for francisco oropesa. we are learning the suspect was deported at least four times after entering the united states illegally. this is according to u.s.

immigration and custom enforcement. josh campbell is out front. >> he's a threat to the community. we need the community's help. >> reporter: a massive manhunt in southeast texas for a man law enforcement says gunned down five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy. now more than two days since the slayings, authorities acknowledge they have zero leads. >> we don't know where he is. we don't have any tips right now to where he may be. >> reporter: according to the sheriff, the suspect identified as 38-year-old francisco oropesa was shooting a rifle in his yard friday when neighbors asked him to stop because a baby was trying to sleep. video captured oropesa approaching the neighbor's house where he opened fire, killing the victims almost execution style. one of the survivors lost his wife and son in the horrific shooting. he says he miraculously escaped

after a woman in the house helped him jump from the window. >> translator: we lost my 9-year-old son and my wife and two people who died were protecting my daughter and son. they protected him with clothing so the murderer wouldn't kill him too. it was horrible. >> reporter: authorities tracked oropesa's cell phone, but found it abandoned. despite his unknown whereabouts we're learning more about his background. a neighbor tells cnn oropesa had an erratic history with firearms. he was deported four times between 2009 and 2016 and served jail time in 2012 for a dui conviction. an $80,000 reward is being offered for information related to oropesa's capture. >> five people died in my county.

that's where my heart is. >> reporter: garcia is staying strong for his two children as his family endures unspeakable tragedy. >> translator: my daughter who more or less understands, it's really difficult when she's asking for her mama and then for her brother. >> josh, you know, i know your sources are giving you so much of this information and telling you that right now you've got law enforcement on both sides of the u.s./mexico border on alert. what else are you learning about the situation? >> reporter: that's right, erin. as those nearly 250 law enforcement officers continue to search northeast of houston, i'm told the border is a key focal point. border patrol officers are on alert. they have the suspect's photo. we know that in the past he's crossed that border illegally at least five times. that's a concern that he could cross back into mexico.

i'm also told by a source that the u.s. government is pushing information to mexican media outlets about this $80,000 reward so people who may know the suspect, if they know his whereabouts, will pick up the phone. >> josh, thank you very much. next, president biden joking about his age -- >> you might think i don't like rupert murdoch. that's simply not true. how could i dislike a guy who makes me look like harry styles? >> all right. i'm going to talk to a yale professor who spent decades studying age and leadership. you'll hear why he thinks biden age could not hurt and maybe give him an advantage. americans are lonely and isolated. the u.s. surgeon general saying it's a health crisis, one he's personally faced. the surgeon general will be out front. think i've got it!

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tonight, president biden hosting the philippines president ferdinand marcos jr. at the white house, but not holding a jonasint press confere with him. since taking office biden has held 24 press conferences in total, which is less fewer than his last three predecessors at

this point. it comes as presidential hopeful nikki haley is connecting biden's lack of press c conferences with his age. she writes, millions of americans watch president biden and think he's experiencing significant decline. "out front" spoke to pennsylvania voters about biden's age. here's what they told us. >> his age isn't an issue for me. you just want somebody in there that's going to do what they have to do for the people. >> i would honestly prefer a younger more progressive candidate. i definitely prefer biden over tr trump. >> his age scares me. he is old. >> you think he shouldn't be running for re-election? >> no. >> jeffrey seinfeld is president of yale's chief executive leadership institute.

he's spent much of his career studying age and leadership. he published an op-ed for "time" which i read. i found it fascinating. he says age is not an issue for president biden. jeff, let me start with you're very clear you don't have concerns about president biden's age or his fitness to be president. obviously many voters do. many democrats do. tell me why you don't. >> there are all kind of isms out there. ageism, racism. there's a cynicism about ageism. there's no evidence he's slowed up. nikki haley made that comment without a single shred of evidence. do you think nikki haley could hold up in a joint session of congress for the state of the union before the whole world and joust without a script and keep up? of course not. he's a pretty hard-working guy.

it's a strong day and a strong week and a lot of travel that he does. >> some democrats don't have a problem with his age. others say they wish he was younger, but they'll vote for him. some said his age is an issue. some because they believe in a mental decline, physical decline. others for these reasons. here they are. >> i think across the board everywhere we need younger people to be in charge. >> i feel he's too old because he'll be too disconnected with the younger generation. that's a factor. >> of course that would apply to, if trump is the nominee, trump as well. what do you say to that? >> i think that's, again, nonsense and bias. benjamin franklin was 82 years old when he pulled together the great compromise.

abraham haryman was in his 90s, our best statesman had wisdom and age. those folks, who would they rather have, elizabeth holmes, the person who destroyed the theranos, the wokester jokester, george santos or lauren boebert, lindsay lohan, kanye west? these people aren't unifying better. these leaders and celebrities are more out of touch. >> some might say you're older, maybe you need more rest, maybe you take longer to make a decision. are those things negatives? >> no. some people talk about biden's schedule. it's intense enough. not everybody in my line of work is on the job much before 9:00

in the morning. donald trump, 60% of his time munching on burgers. it was four times more upstairs in the residence than he spent -- he didn't come downstairs until 11:00 ever. 307 days spent golfing. biden is working harder than that. >> thank you very much, jeff. you make the case and make the argument. read jeff's op-ed. next, it's a silent crisis in the united states. loneliness and isolation. it's something the u.s. surgeon general says he struggles with. he's here to talk about it. we'll take you to a small island part of taiwan, but only four miles away from china. it's a story you'll see first on "out front." whoo! we gotta go again. only pay for what you need.

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loneliness. he said i was disconnected from my colleagues. it might not have been so bad if i didn't make a critical mistake. i largely ignored my friendships. upfront dr. vivek murthy, the u.s. surgeon general. people hear loneliness and isolation and it connects for a lot of people to just hear it. they may say, okay, true, but it isn't a health crisis. you say it is. why? >> i thought that too. when i was in medical school, i didn't learn about loneliness and isolation. when i wbecame a doctor, i saw y patients were battling it. i looked into it and saw two critical things. one, loneliness is common. 1 in 2 adults say they experience loneliness.

>> half. >> half, the numbers are greater among kids. the other critical piece is that loneliness has profound consequences for our mental health and physical health. that is what makes it a public health issue. >> you wt to friends and found myself increasingly lonely and isolated and thought i was the only one that felt that way. at what point did you realize this was not just feelings and it was affecting physical health? >> well, it took me a while to realize i was struggling with loneliness. loneliness can look like different things. some people become withdrawn. others become irritable and angry. sometimes we need people to tell us what's happening. that person for me was my wife alice. she noticed i was spending less time reaching out to people and was retreating further and further. she said you need to build a community. we have to figure that out

together. you know, it's hard to know sometimes. i think the time to get concerned is when you start experiencing a feeling of loneliness for prolonged periods of time. if you feel lonely, call a friend and it goes away or you go see a family member, that's okay. that's loneliness acting like hunger or thirst. it's when it persists that it's har harmful. >> a lot of people talked about this during the pandemic. ko the roman empire was quoted recently and it stood out to me. he lived through a plague that decimated rome. after the plague, he wrote it was worse. the corruption of the mind is a path far worse. the ladder is a penn-- for livi creatures.

i thought i was feeling this malaise after the pandemic when i was supposed to be feeling relief. you said this was happening in rome and we can get through it too, but it's also different because of social media. >> even before the pandemic we were experiencing a growing wave of loneliness in the united states that had been building for decades. the pandemic poured fuel on the fire and separated us from one another. loneliness has become one of the invisible costs of the pandemic. i was talking to a high school student in chicago who told me he's been back in school for more than a year but he's struggling to learn how to socialize again and many of his peers feel the same. we have to recognize this as one of the costs we have to manage. unless we do that, we'll struggle for a while. >> you're saying it's the equivalent of smoking daily. this is life and death. >> this is one of the stunning

things. the impacts on our physical health are profound. heart disease, stroke, dementia. an increased risk of premature death that's on par with the risk we see with smoking daily. it's why i'll be releasing a surgeon general's advisory on loneliness. for people out there struggling, i want them to know you're not alone. >> i hope everyone will read this. while i have you, i want to ask you about something dr. fauci said recently. he did an interview with the "new york times" and said from a broad public "the new york times". but for an individual who religiously wears a mask, it does work. do you see how some find it a

significant statement. and for a while, we knew that any mask wore them. the kids had to wear masks, and none of them wore it the right way. do you that hearing that is upsetting for a lot of people? >> i can understand that the people listening closely to the messaging comes through, and guidance on what to do, and they recognize that guidance shifted and evolved over time, that is disconcerting, and sometimes it does shift over time, as you learn more, and i was a private citizen the first year of the pandemic, but i was watching closely, and we were learning about the country, in the pandemic, and guidance shifted. and the pandemic has been incredibly hard for a lot of people, especially kids and for parents. and you're a parent, i'm a parent. we lived through some of the challenges and still trying to help our kids through them. but one of the challenges our kids have endured is greater

loneliness and isolation. and i hope we can lay out a pathway, and the first frame wear to address loneliness that gives everyone, kids, parents, families, government and community organizations steps that i can take to build a more connected america. >> all right, thank you very much. i appreciate talking to you. >> good to talk to you. >> next on ac 360, the battle with ron desantis and disney escalating again. more on that at 8:00. next, we will take to you a tiny island that is part of taiwan and four miles from china. some sislanders there say they feel like sitting ducks. ! we gotta go again. only pay foror what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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tonight, exclusive new satellite images obtained by cnn show a never before seen 100 foot blimp developed by china's military. experts say it can show advancement in china's air space program. it's an island owned by taiwan, and less than four miles from china, now feeling the cross

hairs. here is more from the islands. >> reporter: as the sun sets on the taiwan straits, the neon lights. and the cnn cameras close enough to crain the glowing signs. a glimpse. i'm not standing in china. i'm here in taiwan, on a small island, sitting close to the bustling metropolis behind me. less than four miles of water is all that divides us from communist china. the flight takes about an hour. a broet can reach the mainland in minutes. islanders feel like sitting ducks at the mercy of the people's liberation army. they lunched drills at taiwan.

and the high profile meetings with two white house speakers. kevin mccarthy in california last month. we see chinese sand. china is reclaiming land to build a new airport. the mainland getting closer every day. we hope the war does not break out here. we think it's basically impossible for our military to defend kinman. but they did defend the itland. tens of thousands of troops from day want repelled the forces. china now has the world's largest navy. the islands are no longer strategically valuable and almost defenseless if the pla decides to make a move. many here calling for the

military to pull out completely. we don't want it can be a battlefield again, he says. if there are no soldiers or military insulation, we can be a de demilitarized zone. he says a handful of remaining military sites are vulnerable. he says drones hovered over the outposts. video shows startled soldiers throwing rocks. china says it shot down at least one unidentified drone. in many ways, the culture is almost the same. the politics is the big exception. many who grew up here are calling for closer ties with communist china. they lived with decades of ferocious fighting here on the front line. the battle scarred islands boer

the bunt of damage in the cross conflict. from the late 1940s through the 1970s. relentless artillery attack let mountains of metal. we worry history might repeat itself, says this man who makes knives. bullet riddled buildings, bomb shelters, beaches with spikes. rusty relics waiting for the waves of change to come crashing in. >> the big question, on a lot of people's minds, can the islands be the next crimea? the truth is, china has taken them years ago, because the number of soldiers on the islands, was 92,000, is down to 3,000. they're not doing it. and some say they believe the local support will actually help them, you know, make the