$4,000, he says, plus possible tips but anchor points out after this rescue, gelje should do just fine financially because he will be in high demand. >> brian todd, thank you very much. be sure to stay with cnn for more on this amazing story, tonight on "anderson cooper 360" with the sherpa who carried out the daring rescue. finally, we want to congratulate wolf blitzer who received the prestigious grand prize award frohonored for his documentary that includes his own reflections on his family and four grandparents killed in the holocaust. congratulations, wolf. our heartfelt congratulations on that well-deserved reward. i'm alex marquardt in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts right now.

"outfront" next, the war coming to russia. putin and his forces on defense as the kremlin vows to exterminate ukraine. plus, republican kari lake still obviously won't accept she lost the race for arizona governor, giving a keynote speaking slot at the upcoming georgia republican convention. why? well, a top georgia election official who publicly rejected trump's claims of election fraud and bravely so is "outfront" and china's brutal campaign against its own people now at a boiling point as chinese officials take on mosques around the country. let's go "outfront." good evening, i'm erin burnett. "outfront," the war inside russia. there's a bold, new front in the war and it is on putin's territory. a russian official just this hour announcing that russia's air defense system shot down several ukrainian drones over western russia. that's just this hour. right? earlier today smoke rises over

belgorod. new video in from there. you can see on your screen, belgorod is the russian city that russia used to stage its original invasion on ukraine now under attack. listen to this russian reporter on the ground describing the scene in belgorod. >> translator: we are now spooked even by cars passing by because the town is under constant shelling. one shell after another as well as mortar, cannon artillery. >> think about this. russian territory, nothing was happening there. it was completely sacred. now constant attacks there. the defense ministry for putin claiming to have taken out several dozen of the fighters who attacked belgorod but i want to be clear that there's no evidence of that. what is clear is that russia is on the defense in its own country and the head of russia's private army seen meeting with his fighters withdrawing from bakhmut says he may be using his

men to protect actual russian territory. that's what prigozhin said. inside the kremlin, new words, the word exterminating and talked about exterminating ukraine today. [ speaking non-english ] >> translator: it's clear what response is needed. they need to be annihilated. not just in a personal capacity, but we have to destroy them in the hornet's nest itself. the regime that has developed in ukraine should be exterminated. it must be destroyed. otherwise, we will face continuous threats from it. >> those threats extending to state tv tonight where tonight one of putin's top propagandists lashed out at the united states and its allies, as well. >> translator: just look at how you are shelling using your weapons with your blessing and

with that we're going to pound you at factories supplying weapons to ukraine. >> i mean, those are bald, bold, and big new threats. sam kiley outfront live in kharkiv. what is the latest on the ground there tonight? >> reporter: people, i think, are being struck by the increasing desperate nature of the sort of smorgasbord of threats being made by the russians against everybody who's ever supplied a weapon to ukraine. you've got prigozhin, the mercenary leader saying he wants to come and start fighting or protecting russian territory, remember, he's been pulling out of bakhmut at the moment being replaced by russian force, but all of this is against a backdrop of a continuing campaign by russia against ukraine civilians. >> grief has struck again in kyiv. overwhelming grief when a loved

one is taken. three people killed here in russia's latest attack on ukraine's capital. at 3:00 a.m. civilians ran for cover, the bunker was inexplicably locked. debris killed two women and a child from a missile. a fatal accident in an all too deliberate attack. such events are driving support for ukraine from nato, europe and beyond. >> that is why every european country that borders russia and that does not want russia to tear apart should be a full member of the eu and nato and there are only two alternatives to this, either an open war or creeping russian occupation. >> reporter: nato's weapons already in use in ukraine's east. and now ukraine has launched a campaign inside russian

territory, at least eight people have been injured and hundreds evacuated from what are now front line villages in russia. the original sin of russia's invasion of ukraine compounded as it is by their continued targeting of civilians, the absolute brutality of their occupation has ceded ukraine a unavailable position on the moral high ground. they have to hold on to that even as they prosecute their own campaigns inside russian territory. a massive attack is ongoing. the lives of local people primarily in nearby villages are in danger. anti-putin russians and ukraine forces claim to have raided his province a second time and broadcast these warnings. >> translator: stay in your homes. don't worry. soldiers of the russian volunteer corps are not at war with civilians. >> reporter: they claim to have hit russian ammunition dumps and

other military targets but russia says the raiders were driven out with heavy casualties, still, ukraine now holds the initiative on this. this man lost his wife and 9-year-old daughter in this raid on kyiv. "nothing matters anymore," he says. "there are no more people left." now, on the scale of the hysteria inside russia has really demonstrated how effective this relatively limited campaign from the ukrainians and their -- the russians that they support that are dissident russians who have been crossing the borders there, but it is just about 25-minute drive from where i am standing. we are within missile range and there is an anticipation that the russians may try to strike back, frankly, and try to drive the ukrainians back away from

the border, which has been their campaign now for more than a year. >> sam, thank you very much. as you said, about 25 miles away from the border in kharkiv. "outfront" now, former cia and nsa senior intelligence analyst, also the author of "red london." also with me cedric leighton. colonel layton, let me start with you, you heard what sam is reporting. this hysteria inside russia because of this new front in the war. a front that is inside russia. i mean, this is something that should be emphasized. even a few months ago it would have been unthinkable, would have been considered an absolute red line and we just had air raid sirens in kursk and obviously the smoke in belgorod and drone attack in moscow. this is constant. what are the implications? >> well, implications are actually huge. one of the key things here is that these are limited attacks and it would be very interesting

to see the russian reaction if the ukrainians mounted even put further attacks against the russians and against towns. in essence what they have been doing is giving russian the a taste of their own medicine and don't like it very much and that's going to be i think a major factor in the russian response, which could get pretty nasty, unfortunately. >> right, right, the real question is, you know, how much more can they scale up? alma, we heard the russian reporter expressing fear, we're scared of a car driving by. go to ukraine. but there he is in russia feeling this way. let me play a little more about what that russian reporter said. >> translator: this is a front line town turning into a front line. people are leaving as ukrainian artillery caused a real terror here. these dark plumes of smoke are everywhere. >> reporter: so, ail pa, he's talking about the impact on the psyche in the towns.

what does this do to putin? >> well, it's probably very unnerving for him. you got to understand that he's used to being in absolute control, being seen as being in absolute control. he's kept the russian people in a propaganda bubble and so these types of attacks sort of undermine his narrative. these are mostly russian nationals carrying out these attacks with guidance from either ukrainian special forces in the military or perhaps intelligence but russian nationals, so in a very public way they're pushing back and he's not used to that. >> yeah, this is going to be the real question of how he responds. colonel leighton, our understanding is these are russian nationals but the russians say these ukrainian fighters, 50 out of 70 of them who attacked belgorod were killed. it's obviously impossible to foe

if any of these numbers have veracity to them. they have never had honesty about their numbers. we don't though whether there were 70 of them, who they were, how many were killed but what do you make of this claim in and of itself? >> well, i think there's a lot of bravado attached to the claim and one of the key things is, you know, as i will ma correctly pointed out he's put them in a bubble and the bubble is being pierced and the fact that this is being pierced is a big shock to them and so they're going to come out with these kinds of news report, if you will, news bulletins from their side that, you know, indicate that their forces are doing something against these ukrainian fighters but the key element here is that i think first of all i think those report, you have to take them with a large grain of salt and, secondly, it really speaks more to the tear that the rugs have that the ukrainians might actually be on to something and

might be actually exposing the weakness of the russian state at this point. >> right, and certainly, alma, we saw that in provincetown. prigozhin calling it out that the drones came and air defenses didn't stop most of it, right? so but if these attacks tinge as there's no reason to think they won't, there was one in the past hour that we understand about in kursk near the border, what does putin do? as i said a few months ago this was unthinkable. this would have been a red line. is there such a thing at this point? >> that's the million dollar question, i think. i mean, i know a lot of us would like to see him back down or, you know, have some sort of situation where he does that, but i don't think we'd see him do that, per se. we have to remember that the russian character is very macho, he can never appear to be weak. and so, you know, he said that he's committed to playing the long game now. and that would actually work in our favor. it might lead to a situation where we could find some kind of compromise, a compromise that he'd accept because it would

help him save face. but, you know, he's indicated that he won't change from the strategy but the thing that would force him off is if there was an attack that caused major damage, something that he could not ignore because then if he did, he would seem weak and he would just, you know, open the door to his political rivals. >> and, couple, as a quick follow to that you think the ukrainians are still pushing for what everybody at this point is saying is a red line although many say go ahead and cross it anyway and that would be crimea itself. >> yeah, i think that's what the ukrainians are going to do. i think these are probably in the direction of russia right now, but, you know, anything is possible but i think ukraine is going to make crimea its big target. >> all right, and that really will be a true test of where all of this stands. thank you both so very much. trump pressed by cnn about our exclusive reporting that the special counsel has the former president on tape admitting that

he kept classified material after leaving the white house and he knew that he couldn't declassify it. what was his response? plus, ron desantis has been relentless in slamming dr. fauci, relentless. it is a key part of his stump speech but our kfile uncovered something, desantis used to be a fauci fan and we have the tapes. president biden trips and falls on stage. the white house says he's fine tonight. biden moments ago talked to reporters about it and we'll show you that. when you have chronic kidney disease. there are places you'd like to be. like here. and here. and here. not so much here. if you've been dgnosed with chronic kidney disease farxiga reduces the risk of kidney failure which can lead to dialysis. farxiga can cause serious side effects including dehydration,

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plus, free home delivery when you add an adjustable base. only at sleep number. tonight, former president trump ignoring multiple questions from our jeff zeleny about cnn's reporting that the special counsel has trump on tape saying he held on to a classified document after he left the white house and knew that he couldn't declassify it. document was a pentagon plan for a potential strike on iran. . >> mr. president, why did you take classified documents concerning general milli? why did you take classified document concerning general milli? can you talk about that please. mr. president, how did those get to bedminster, sir? mr. president, will you talk to us about the classified documents? how did those documents get to bedminster, sir? >> no answer, well, the tape,

trump on tape talking about this is from 2021. it includes trump admitting there are limits to his ability to declassify material and that is as i indicated very crucial that undercuts his main defense is that at one point he said if i just think about it, they are declassified. kaitlin kai kaitlin polantz, what are you learning? >> reporter: this was a day of reaction. a day where there was a reaction from two of donald trump's attorneys, one jim trusty last night on cnn and another former attorney who was involved in the defense of this case, a man named tim parlatore. he just spoke to jake tapper. president trump was engaging at all with reporters, tim had quite a bit to say about his role. he also tried to downplay this idea of whether or not this document was classified,

declassified and reframe this as a question of maybe this wasn't serious national defense information. that's what the law applies to here, whether seriously sensitive documents that would be national defense information, whether they're classified or not, that doesn't matter, but if they are out of the hands of the federal government, that is what a case could be charged around, what a jury could be looking at, and so tim did talk about that. the other thing that he talked about, erin, he talked about his searches, the role that he played. he had hired two people to do searches a full year and a half later and they did search multiple properties, he spoke to a grand jury about what they found in those searches, and he did reiterate they didn't find anything at bedminster at that time when the justice department was pressing donald trump and his lawyers to go back, continue looking and see what you can find if there are any documents anywhere else. at that point in time they did find more in a storage unit in florida and obviously well after this 2021 meeting in bedminster.

the mar-a-lago is where all of the documents ended up that the justice department had recovered after that meeting, so, erin, still a lot of questions about this document that trump is apparently referring to quite clearly on audio recording where it went and where it is now. >> all right, katelyn, thank you very much. there were boxes and boxes of this stuffer, storage rooms of this stuffer. some of it obviously highly classified. we're talking about one document here so legal analyst ryan goodman joins me and this is significant because we have trump on tape talking about it. its existence and his inability to declassify it which goes against his court event. you heard jeff ask him repeatedly, why were the documents at bedminster. you heard him do so. what is the best possible explanation for trump's motivation in keeping the documents? >> so the cnn reporting is in

some sense a breakthrough on this particular question, the one that is hanging around that hasn't been answered. what is his motive? and here we have him, it seems like, in this situation using them for the motive of his public image. he's trying to control the narrative. there's been a report out that milley stopped him from potentially attacking iran in his final days. he says, no, i have the document that counteracts this and milley had a plan. that's him trying to control the narrative and his image and that would be a reason to hold on to the documents because he could use them. >> to use it in that way and i should to belabor the obvious, the u.s. would have those sorts of plans that they don't intend on attacking. the existence of one doesn't mean -- just want to make sure. the other point that katelyn, different levels of

classification but also of what is seriously sensitive and not. does -- do these sorts of levels matter here when we're talking about charges beyond possibly obstruction? >> so it doesn't matter at one level at all. for the espionage act it's national defense information that has to be closely held. trump in that conversation is also saying, i can't share this with you. he knows it's closely held so it satisfies those elms. what if it is super highly classified, it could impede the prosecutors because the u.s. intelligence community does not like to share that information or even provide it for prosecutors at a trial. so if it's a little -- if it's below that level and just secret, secret means the unauthorized disclosure to be reasonably expected to cause damage to u.s. national security. attack plans for any contingency is the goldilocks standard because the intelligence community would be more likely -- >> a jury could see it as opposed to where it's just trust us, we don't want to talk about

it. one of his lawyers, jim trusty talked about it and said they're still trying to arrange a meeting. team trump with the attorney general, merrick garland after sending a letter demanding one and still haven't had one. here is some of what he said. >> prosecutorial misconduct has infected this case and we need to get it to the attorney general directly. before he makes any important decisions, he needs to recognize just how far -- how far afield this case has gotten. >> what do you make of what he's saying and their demand to meet with garland himself and garland at least as far as we know to this point complete lack of response on this. what does this translate into? >> i think that they think there's an indictment coming down soonish and that this is their opportunity to make that last-minute meeting with the justice department which is not super unusual to get an opportunity to say, here's why you should not indict my client. but the idea that they would go to garland now is somewhat

bizarre, if we do find there is a report of that meeting then i do think we're within a 24, 48-hour period of watching to see if an indictment drops because they might give them that gratuitous opportunity to present their side of the story before making that final call. >> well, interesting you say if that happens, you think it is literally 24 to 48 hours away from the decision. thank you very much, ryan. next ron desantis has vilified dr. fauci, of course, again and again but desantis once sang a different tune. the kfile has those tapes. election denier kari lake still refuses to concede. she doesn't accept she lost the race for governor of arizona and just got a keynote speaking spot at the georgia convention which is crucial for a lot of reasons, one is that georgia took on the election lie, election official and republican gabe sterling took on those election lies day after day and he responds next.

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so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities™. president biden making light of his fall during the graduation ceremony at the air force academy this afternoon. he just spoke. here he is. >> i got sandbacked. >> all right, obviously making a joke about it because it was a sandbag. he tripped over the sandal bag that we will show you in the corner of the screen. there's the sandbag so he's walking and trips over it as he's going back to his seat after his commencement address. the 80-year-old was seen boarding air force one, unassisted and smiling as well. jonathan reiner who advised the

team under george w. bush, i appreciate your time. okay, so let me just play again the video of the president when this happened. obviously you see him now making light of it doing a little hop. he seems fine. he does seem to struggle to get up when it first happens. then appears to recover. you do see there is a sandbag right there in his path. that's pretty obvious. what is your reaction when you see the whole video? >> well, falls are really common and they're especially common in the elderly. one out of every four people over the age of 65 will fall this year. so it's super common. this is about the third time we've seen the president fall. he fell twice going up the steps of air force one once in 2021 and once earlier this year, and he has a stiff gait and the stiff gait which is felt to be secondary to, i think, some arthritis in his back, you know, contributes to him walking with

this kind of shuffling gait. if you hit a sandbag there's thought a lot of flexibility and you go down. you know, he's fine. the optics are bad but he got lucky and just tripped on the sandbag. >> we know from his physical he is on blood thinners to treat afib which is fairly common but does that specific diagnosis raise any additional concerns? >> well, when you fall and you're taking a blood thinner it increases the risk of bleeding and the president takes a drug called eliquis to prevent clots from forming in his heart in the setting of afib and you want to keep people like that from falling. i talk to people every week. the president's age, about safety about putting grab bars in their bathrooms and making sure area rugs are secure because falls can really create major health injuries for a person the president's age particularly if he would break his hip.

>> president biden wasn't the only one talking about this. president trump heard about it and, of course, commented on it. he had some incidents himself which he referenced. here he is. >> he is at the air force academy. he actually fell down? well, i hope he wasn't hurt. i hope he wasn't hurt. but the whole thing is, look, the whole thing is crazy. you got to be careful about that. you got to be careful about that because you don't want that. even if you have to tiptoe down a ramp. >> when he's references that he's referencing himself, he had to walk down a ramp at west point. it was slippery. he had his own incidents, interesting the way he responded was a bit unusual for him. perhaps to your point, one in four people fall. we're watching him here. he knows what this is like. >> yeah. president trump was very self-conscious about that incident and he was quite

concerned about falling, look, i would suggest to the president that he needs to be careful and on unsteady ground it wouldn't be the worst thing to use a cane of the i know he may not like the optics but falling appears much worse. >> one quick final question to you on that point, does anything about this warrant the questions that, of course, we're seeing predictably in some quarters about his fitness for office. >> no, not at all. look, people have sort of this mistaken opinion that the president is like an astronaut and spinning them around in centrifuges to prove their fitness, but what we really ask for is mental sharpness and the ability to carry out the duties of his office and i think the president has shown that. but the president is 80, and 80-year-old people fall and i think the goal going forward is prevent the president from getting hurt and his staff should, you know, make sure there aren't obstacles like sandbags in his way. >> absolutely, and you look in the past, people like fdr, physical ailments during presidency, jfk, right, are not

unusual. thank you. >> my pleasure. also tonight republican kari lake who still hasn't accepted she lost the 2022 arizona governor's race will be a keynote speaker at georgia's upcoming convention. lake joining former president trump as the latest election denier to accept a prominent speaking event. lake is fighting the election results from her race and hasn't conceded vowing to appeal after a judge denied her latest and continues to constantly sow doubts about the election process. >> we're the laughingstock of elections in arizona. the system is corrupt from top to bottom. we've been playing checkers. they've been playing chess. and we're going to start -- we're going to show up to a knife fight with a gun, not a knife, okay. >> gabe sterling, the chief operating officer and chief financial officer at the georgia secretary of state office. all right, gabe, i'm glad to talk to you again. you know, a certain part of me

is like, gosh, it's groundhog's day but here we are, you're a republican. you spent months fighting back against election lies in your state. you did audit after audit after audit. you went through every single allegation. you didn't find the fraud. so, what did you think when you heard kari lake was going to be and she is now sort of the face of election denialism out there, she is now a keynote speaker at the georgia republican convention. >> we went having vice president pence coming to president trump announcing he was coming to vice president pence saying, i'm going to do something else and now kari lake gets to come so full cavalcade. we have to keep a few things in mind. the only reason kari lake won the nomination for governor in arizona was the millions and millions of dollars that democrats who said these election deniers are dangerous put behind her because they thought she would be the weakest candidate and they were right. in maricopa county the entire thing is run by republicans.

>> yep. >> i know she doesn't like to hear that and she says they're rinos. they're not. bill gates does a good job. they're serious about this. so here's the thing, you're coming to georgia. i don't need a poll to tell me that election denialism does not work with the independent or swing voters or even a big chunk of the republican voters in my state because i have real-life examples of where it hasn't, brian kemp, brad raffensperger, chris carr got re-elected with big majorities. secretary raffensperger, the biggest victory, based on the fact that georgians rejected denialism and these trump endorsement. >> they absolutely did, yet, you know, that's what i'm trying to understand what's happening. in addition to lake and trump as you point out, they're headliners at this, pence decided he was going to go announce his campaign. there are other republicans scheduled to speak at this

convention, right, georgia is a crucial state now. you have the presidential candidate asa hutchinson. he is clear the election wasn't stolen and members of congress showing up. marjorie taylor greene, barry lo loudermilk, andrew clyde. gabe, here's the thing you're sitting there in the state of georgia in this moment, can people who have such very opposite views on something that at this point has become not just a matter of fact and fiction, right, one side is right and one side is wrong, one side is lying, this is not something where you can entertain two ideas at the same time. can your party continue to be the same political party when these people are all in it? >> every party has their disparate elements that make it difficult sometimes, and you have those difficult kind of conversations but i know what happened in georgia is a lot of those same people who might have complained gave brian kemp a

gigantic victory versus what he got in 2018 that gave brad raffensperger a gigantic victory and i view most voters as rational actors. one of the most interesting things is in marjorie taylor greene's district she won that with 68% of the vote and brian kemp won it with i think 80% of the vote or 78% and brad raffensperger won it with about 59% of the vote so those who voted for kemp, raffensperger and greene for disparate reasons. the thing i'm concerned about, it is 2023. it's been years now, let's be fair, so -- >> yes. >> the fact that this is still something people think they can build an election on, we've proven over and over again, trump told us we'd be tired of winning, in 2018 we lost. in 2020, we lost. there are basically we've lost senate elections in georgia three times based on this election denial as a touchstone. we've got to get past it and in

the past normally rational political players move on. president trump has every right to run. he needs to stop talking about this election thing and start talking about the issues because the reality is we have two -- we have biden and trump who are right now the front-runners. i think biden will obvious get it. the two great parties nominating the only two who could possibly lose to each other. there's something wrong with our system if that's where we're at. >> all right, gabe, thank you. i appreciate it. >> thank you, have a great night. >> you too. next, ron desantis never misses a chance to take on dr. fauci, right? it's a core part of his stump but our kfile went through and looked at the tapes and listened to the tapes and guess what, desantis and touch was not always a thorn in desantis' side. wait till you hear it. mosques now being dismantled across china leading to rare clashes between the faithful and police. a special report from "outfront." uh...

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fauciism and the state of florida is better off as a result of doing that. >> i was the leader in fighting back against fauci. >> you do not empower somebody like fauci. you bring him into the office and tell him to pack his bags. you are fired. >> okay, right, you're saying that's right. that's right. that's what we hear him say but then there was this. andrew kosinski found him saying different things about fauci. here's desantis in march of 2020. >> i mean you have a lot of people there who are working very, very hard and they're not getting a lot of sleep and they really are focusing on a big country that we have and from dr. burks to dr. fauci to the vice president who has worked very hard, the surgeon general, they are really doing a good job. >> all right, so k ffile's andr

kos kosinski. you found that is far from the only time that desantis praised the man that he now bashes regularly. >> yeah, that's right. it's more than one example. it's ten examples at least that we found in which he either cited or praised dr. fauci and what's interesting about this is he's citing him to put in place those policies early in the pandemic in florida that he now criticizes as lockdowns. his campaign, erin, they've been criticizing trump and saying trump supports lockdowns because he add secreted those exact same policies at the same time as desantis and this isn't some kfile hit in which, you know, the team is pulling something from 30 years ago. this was three years ago. we all remember donald trump very early on was calling in april and may to end the lockdowns. >> easter, i remember the churches were going to be open by easter. >> exactly. he criticized fauci earlier than desantis did too. he was retweeting calls to fire fauci in april.

he had some of his staff over the summer had some very direct hits on fauci. he criticized fauci about opening schools. take a listen to these comments from desantis at some of those early florida press briefings. >> the president's task force has been great. you call, we've talked to dr. fauci a number of times. talked to the u.s. surgeon general a number of time, vp. they've been good and helpful. >> i would defibrillator to people like dr. fauci. i think dr. fauci has said nationwide you're looking at six to eight weeks of where we're really going to be having to dig in here. >> you say there were at least ten of those and that he continued to do that even as trump had turned on fauci so trump turned first. >> yeah, trump turns on fauci pretty -- i mean, it was honestly we all remember because we were there. it was the height of the pandemic especially here in new york city and trump is criticizing fauci early spring

and may, right around that time. >> desantis continues, now, desantis earlier this week did say he has got -- he had some regrets about how he handled the pandemic. maybe this is part of it. here's what he said about how he handled the beginning of the pandemic. >> it was a difficult situation. we didn't know a lot, and so i think people could do things that they regret, i mean, i've said there are things we did in the first few weeks that i pivoted from. >> what is the desantis saying to you about your reporting? >> we did reach out to them and they gave us a statement and their statement was very much along the same lines of what he said. he said like most americans the governor initially assumed medical officials were going to serve the interests of the people and keep politics out of decisions. when it became clear it wasn't the case the governor charted his own path and never looked back. >> and they say governor desantis would have fired fauci. >> yes, they did say. >> they did say that, but, of course, he also said what he said. thank you very much. andrew, kfile. next, frustrations in china boiling over as china intensifies its crackdown on its

own people. now targeting mosques across the country. you'll see this first "outfront." trump taking on what has become a popular rallying cry on the right. >> i don't like the term woke because i hear woke, woke, woke. ♪ [typing] ♪ you were made to act spontaneously. we were made to help plan accordingly. ♪ you know, these kids grow so fast, cherish every little moment you get with them. tyler, hs 10, and little dayrl, he's 12. being a single dad, it is ha, really hard. i've been there since day one. i know how it is, you know, not to have nothing.

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tonight, the defense secretary warning relations with china could, quote, quickly spiral out of control. tensions between the two countries are at their highest in decades. china even refusing to meet with u.s. officials at a defense summit this week. secretary austin's warning coming as china's crackdown on its own people is rising to a frightening new level. and ivan watson is "outfront" with this story you'll see first here about the chinese government. they don't want their own people to see this. here it is for you. >> reporter: a rare confrontation between law enforcement and the faithful. chinese muslims clash with

police outside a mosque in southwestern china. for two days last weekend, residents of the village of najain tried to protect their mosque from a chinese government reconstruction plan. >> translator: they want to demolish the roof of our mosque, a local protester tells cnn, speaking on condition of anonymity. "this is our last bit of dignity," the protester says. "it's like someone going to your house and demolishing it." cnn reached out to authorities for comment, but the only official acknowledgment of the incident comes from this local government statement, urging protesters to turn themselves in after disrupting social order and causing severe adverse impact. is it safe to be a muslim in china today? maju is an imam and ethnic minority from the wei minority. living in the u.s.

>> translator: no muslim is safe in china. my people, the wei people, everyone is living and trembling in fear. >> reporter: he claims the government has argued the hundreds of wei mosques across the country, demolishing their arabic inspired domes and minnaarettes and replacing them with chinese architecture. cnn has documented several of these case. part of chinese leader xi jinping of instructing religions to basically look more chinese. >> the logic of what china is trying to do is about social re-engineering. it's about remolding people. >> reporter: academics and activists say since xi came to power, there have been crackdowns on expressions of religious, ethnic, and linguistic identity. >> reporter: xi jinping's policies are aimed at all socially organized groups

including christians, buddhists and even some organizations involving lgbtq. >> reporter: cnn extensively reported on the tension of more than a million ethnic uighurs and other minorities in china's shandong reach and reported on clashes in eastern china. those scenes in 2015 remarkably similar to the images of protesters trying to protect their mosque today in najain. "today they'll change our mosque." tomorrow they'll ban us from going to mosques," the local protester tells cnn. a last-ditch effort to protect deeply personal concepts of faith and identity from being defined by the chinese state. ivan watson, cnn, hong kong. >> thanks to ivan. and coming up on "ac 360," an incredible rescue on mount everest. a sherpa carrying a man on his back skipping the final climb to

the summit to save the man's life. and he will tell anderson the story that is is coming up at 8:00. meantime, next trump says he is not a fan of the term "woke." okay. but here's the question we have. how do most americans actually view that word and what it actually means? we're going to go beyond the numbers, next. uh... here i'll take that. -everyone: woo hoo! ensure max protein with 30 grams of proteinin, one gram of sugar. enter the nourishing moments giveaway for a chance to win $10,000. welcome to the next level. this is the lexus nx with intuitive tech safety radar detector: watch fotraffic. and our st advanced safety system ever. ♪

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tonight, donald trump taking on the term "woke" in a campaign stop in iowa today. >> and i don't like the term "woke", because i hear woke, woke, woke. it's a term half the people can't even define it. they don't know what it it is. >> well, you know what? he's got a point there. people have no idea, people have a concept. it is a popular rallying cry on the right. just this week there were calls to boycott chick-fil-a after, quote, going woke. whose job was to foster understanding and belonging, christian values. harry enten is "outfront" now. so harry, let's start with the term woke. we hear it thrown around a lot. as i said, the former president has a point.

it doesn't really mean anything. it's really emotional to people. >> it is emotional to people. when people are essentially asked if someone called you woke, how would you think of what they were calling you, we basically see a split country. we see 40% say they consider it insulting. 32% say they consider it praise. but look at that, 26% don't know the meaning. and so i think when the former president is saying that, he is part of that 26% who really are going what the heck are you really talking about here, right? >> right. is it a compliment or an insult? >> i would presume that's very much a political -- would go with political affiliation. >> yes. >> now dei, back to this point, back to the chick-fil-a. that's diversity, equity and inclusion. some people obviously associate that as the ultimate corporate woke-ism, and there were calls to boycott chick-fil-a because they actually had somebody who was a dei officer. so how do people view dei, and how does it break down by party?

>> most american workers actually think dei is a good thing. what we see is the majority say it's a good thing. 56% overall who think diversity training programs are a good thing. among republicans it's just 30%. that's why you're seeing all these republicans coming out against dei. >> quit final point, bud light, boycott over trans in an ad. sales drop 30% for them. what's opinion after that? >> do you believe american society is too accepting of transgendered people, look at this, back in june of 2020, just 15%. it's up po 4 % now. i believe a lot is drawn by the attacks on transgendered people on the right side of the aisle. >> that's amazing. thank you very much for sharing that. that is sobering. thank you to all of you wore watching. it's time for "ac 360" with anderson. good evening tonight on "360."