at the time and they didn't move on with it. but there's still this hunter biden criminal probe and there could be slices of this that could be part of that investigation where we don't know if anyone will be charged. finally tonight, robert hanson, one of the most notorious spies in u.s. history, has died in federal prison at the age of 79. hanson received $1.4 million in cash and diamonds for turning over highly classified information to the then soviet union and to russia using his position as an fbi agent to compromise the identities of dozens of u.s. human sources in moscow, some of whom were executed. he was caught in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to avoid the death sentence. and to our viewers, thanks 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, ukraine's offensive. a widespread operation underway right now across eastern ukraine. forces on the ground claiming to be seizing territory from russia as a disturbing video tonight emerges of the russian private army holding a russian commander prisoner. plus, tonight, a cnn exclusive. a mar-a-lago employee drained the resort's swimming pool. it's flooded a room where surveillance video logs were kept of the rooms where the documents were. is an indictment imminent? a former member of trump's legal team is "outfront." a war of words after another dangerous encounter between american and chinese warships. it's not just the chinese government that's angry with the united states. tonight you'll hear some of the hate, the anger coming from chinese citizens. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, show of force. ukraine's deputy defense minister telling cnn an offensive is now taking place in multiple locations across eastern ukraine. and it's not just in back mute where the majority of the

fighting has of course taken place. these are the locations we're going to show you here where ukraine says operations are underway to push operations back. the current assault tonight, and i quote him, today our third separate assault brigade has resumed its advance near bakhmut. the russians are nervous. he says the russians are nervous. and according to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley, they have a reason to be right now. here milley is an exclusive interview today with cnn. >> i think the ukrainians are very well prepared. the united states and other allied countries in europe and really around the world have provided training and ammunition and advice, intelligence, et cetera, to the ukrainians for supporting them. >> that support is ongoing. and as i talk about what's going on in bakhmut, this offensive is now underway, there is growing confusion about what is taking place in the donbas in donetsk.

new video showing plumes of smoke rising over the region. russia claims it stopped an offensive in the region. so there is right now as this offensive appears to be underway, a true fog of war. but there are some things we do know. and one of them is that russians are actually still killing russians. in a video posted to the russian private -- by the russian private army telegram channel for the wagner group, this man who is believed to be a russian brigade commander. so you're seeing him there on your screen. he claims he fired at a, quote, vehicle belonging to pmc wagner while under the influence of alcohol. some sort of a confession. so then when he has pressed on why he opened fire on other russians, he responds, personal animosity. now, we can't verify when this is claimed. the fact that the russian private army claims to be holding other russian commander who they say shot at them, it's a significant development. in a moment i'm going to speak

to an investigative journalist, who is a wanted man in russia, his reporting team has been able to identify this russian commander. he's going to share some information with you about that. but first i want to go to kyiv where fred pleitgen is tonight. as we understand this offensive may indeed and in meaningful ways be underway, what is the latest there? >> reporter: there certainly is a lot going on in the vast battlefields here in ukraine. but the bottom line of things really is that the russians don't seem to be gaining any ground anywhere while the initiative certainly seems to be with the ukrainians. we have that situation in belgorod where the russians still have a lot of problems coming to terms with things there. also in bakhmut, the ukrainians really think that they're making gains there. the russians are saying that they're also under pressure from the ukrainians in the south of the country. russian military drone video allegedly showing a massive ukrainian attack in the south of the country. some vehicles appear to be hitting mines or being the

target of indirect fire. the russians claiming they're able to hold the line. the enemy launched an unsuccessful attempt at a large-scale offensive in the south donetsk access, the spokesman for russian defense ministry said. is this already ukraine's much-anticipated large-scale counteroffensive? the ukrainians claim they have no info. their message, plans love silent. but anti-putin russian fighters are loudly making their presence felt across the border in russia's belgorod region. the local governor saying hundreds of munitions have been fired at towns there just in the past day. it's a far cry from when we were in this area in february of last year when russia invaded ukraine. belgorod was one of the main staging areas for the attack on

ukraine's northeast, teaming with tanks and armor vehicles, this military hub seemed invincible. the streaks you're seeing in the sky, you can see more artillery rockets apparently be firing from russian territory towards the territory i would say around kharkiv. i don't know if you can hear this right now -- today russia's army appears bizarrely absent. this russian military blogger ducking for cover in the belgorod region. we are lying in shebekino on the ground under ukrainian grab missiles, he says, strikes are coming one after another. the local governor says the shelling from the ukrainian side has been relentless with several killed and wounded and thousands evacuated. the leader of the wagner private military company ripping into the defense ministry.

we surrender our historical lands, he says. today children are getting killed, civilians are getting killed in belgorod, and the ministry of defense is not in a state to do anything at all as a de facto doesn't exist. it is chaos. >> reporter: and the russians are also on the back foot in the area prigozhin's mercenaries just left, bakhmut i moscow's forces struggling to fend off a strong ukrainian military both in the occupied territories and inside russia. bakhmut is a really interesting place because the ukrainians seem to have all but lost that place. and now they say that things are going really well for them. they also say, quite frankly, they believe while the russians want to talk so much about the alleged advances that the ukrainians are trying to make there is to divert attention from the fact that the russians are losing ground in bakhmut. there was a spokesperson who

said today was a very good day for the ukrainian army. >> thank you very much fred in kyiv. i want to go now to general mark hertling, the former commanding general for europe and the 7th army. the offensive is taking place in several directions. it's multiple locations. what are you seeing? >> erin, i got to start off by first complimenting you on using the clause, the internal fog of war. when we're talking today, we've been talking bakhmut for the last several months. now we're going to include voladar, belgorod, smolensk and about a hundred other places. we're talking about an offensive that won't be a massive beach landing like we've seen in the movie "saving private ryan" where tens of thousands of forces are coming together all at once. it will likely be multiple

operations at different locations with ukrainian probing confirming or denying russian weaknesses, looking for holes of russian forces that are shifting around, taking advantage of russian confusion like you just saw on the face of that young soldier in shebekino. it's all going to take place in the time and place of ukrainians' decision. we're talking about a very different type of offensive and we're seeing a building momentum toward it. >> reporter: so if you were the commanding general for ukraine, what would you want to see ukraine do next? you talk about this building momentum and not a normandy-like event. but what would you say should happen now? >> it first would be an honor to be the ukrainian general of the command forces because they are doing so well. secondly, what i would like to see is the continued small probing actions with reconnaissance in force, taking advantage of what ukrainian forces find on the front lines.

it's not only going to be an issue of what conventional forces do, erin. it's going to be a coordination between those recon forces, the operational conventional forces, the territorials, the so-called national guard, the resistance forces, and even the russian volunteer corps that are in different oblasts. the commander is coordinating all of those things to cause the greatest amount of confusion. i think right now we're seeing indicators of that because you don't know what's going on, i don't know what's going on, and neither do the russians. but i bet you the general knows exactly what's going on and he's doing a very good job. >> thank you very much, general. i appreciate your time. i want to bring in the lead russian investigator for belinkat. i mentioned earlier, russia is

claiming ukraine is failing in its offensive, and specifically they're talking about in donetsk. they haven't shown any proof, but i know you have been speaking to some wagner fighters. what are they telling you? >> first, i want to say that whenever there's fog of war, we don't know whether russia is actually winning or losing. it pays to look at what they're stating. and the more outrageous and easily debunkable their claims about success, quote, unquote, of the day, the more likely it is that they are not winning, they are failing. today we had a great example of that because the spokesperson for the ministry of defense of russia claimed in the donetsk area, they had killed 1,500 ukrainian soldiers. that's what he said. >> they said they killed 1,500 ukrainian soldiers today? >> today. promptly prigozhin, the head of the private army, comes up with a statement which he published about five minutes before we went on air, saying in order for us to have killed 1,500 ukrainian soldiers today, this would have meant that we would have taken about 150 kilometers

of new territory. if you put together all of the claimed casualties on the ukrainian side that we have claimed, these are his words, by now we would have decimated the population of the earth, and maybe we should go after aliens because there are not enough people. wagner is making fun of the ministry of defense about the claims that the ministry of the defense has made progress. >> that is absolutely incredible. the fact that they claimed they killed 1,500 in one day, that's an absurd number. but you mention prigozhin being the one to take that down. obviously this feud has been going on for months, and it still sort of defies any sort of understandable logic and reason. the video put out apparently showing an interrogation of a russian brigade commander. he ostensibly admits to shooting at another fighter. you have found out a lot about

this. what is the story here? >> the story checks out. when i saw this video published by prigozhin yesterday, less than 12 hours ago, i thought this must be some sort of a staging. it can't be that russian forces granted a proxy army has taken a prisoner of war from the russian forces. i have never seen this in history, and i thought this can not happen. even for the absurdity of this war is too much. but then we did research, and we found out that the person in the video is indeed a high-ranking brigade commander. he's a lieutenant colonel, which is a very high-ranking person, somebody who graduated from one of the elite russian military academies, somebody who has a lot of friends in high places, somebody who has a lot of loyal friends who are now extremely angry at wagner for actually taking their buddy, their colleague hostage. >> to even consider it and what the implications of this are, it just feels like at some point this is going to boil over.

i don't know in what way. but we've talked about this crackdown that putin has been engaged in inside and outside of russia and anyone who opposes the war, including these drones or pro-ukrainian russian separatists, a lot of poisonings. what do you know about all that? >> we do know that there is a special group of killers who are after russian journalists because at this point we've talked before, the kremlin has lost any reputation, and they have no limits as to how far they will go to sort of play whack-a-mole, try to stop the flow of information, stop the influencers that are still influencing their relatives in russia. and a lot of these are russian journalists or other journalist who's focus on russia. and they're trying to stop these voices from speaking and spreading the truth. they can't do this with prigozhin because he has his own private army protecting him. but there is no private army protecting hundreds of russian journalists living abroad. and we've seen in the last six

months at least four attempts of poisoning russian journalists, all of them women, which carries also an additional terror factor because, obviously, if you go after women, that means you have no boundaries. so, i think that's part of the messaging that there are no boundaries, and the west should fear russia more. >> wow, unbelievable. thank you very much, as always, for sharing all of this. and, next, a cnn exclusive. we are now learning about a flood in the server room at mar-a-lago, the server like the computer server, the same room where security surveillance logs are kept. and a former member of trump's legal team who testified before the grand jury investigating trump's handling of the classified documents will be my guest next. plus, the republican governor who is not afraid to take on trump with a message tonight for his own party. >> if republicans nominate him, then we're saying a vote for him in the primary is effectively a vote for joe biden. exclusive new images tonight of a prime suspect in the

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incident and the timing very suspicious as they explore an obstruction case. this news emerging on the same day that trump's legal team met with special counsel jack smith at the justice department. we understand that that meeting was about 90 minutes in length. katelyn polantz is "outfront." what else do you know -- let's just start with this pool incident, a flooding of the room where the servers with the video logs that would have had video of anything happening in those storage rooms, it gets flooded and destroyed. how could this affect the classified documents probe? >> at the very least we know it's something the prosecutors are asking about as they look into this possibility that there could have been attempts to obstruct the investigation. so, one of the people, a maintenance worker who was the person that drained the pool that caused the flooding of the room where the i.t. equipment was kept, where the surveillance footage was kept, that maintenance worker and another man who is a body man to trump and helps him and travels with

him, those two people were captured on surveillance tape moving boxes at one point in time. and then there is this incident in october where the pool is drained and the room where the server equipment is being kept is flooded for some reason. we don't know the answer to that yet. we don't know if prosecutors know the answer to that, but they're asking about it. and the reason it's coming together in this obstruction investigation is because of the timing. there was a long period of time where the justice department, the special counsel's office, sought for surveillance footage from mar-a-lago not just before the fbi went in to search the property in august, but they asked for surveillance footage again after that. and they also indicated to the trump organization they wanted them to preserve their surveillance footage at the end of october, the same month that this flood happened. and, so, we really don't know where this has led prosecutors to at this point in time. we just know it's something that has come up in witness testimony that they've been asking

questions. and we also don't know if it's intentionally something that had happened or if it can expect donald trump himself. >> right. and these are obviously crucial questions, huge legal implications, as you imply. so trump's lawyers were demanding a meeting with merrick garland. today they had that meeting with the special counsel jack smith himself. what do you understand about what happened there and the significance of it? >> reporter: usually you don't get a meeting like this with a main justice unless you believe there is an end of the investigation coming or the justice department wants to be willing to talk with you. now, this was a meeting that was requested by the defense team. it wasn't something where the prosecutors had informed them of some sort of decision that they're coming on. but it does appear to be a fairly significant meeting coming at what seems to be in a lot of indications the end of an

investigation, and a very busy investigation. we do know a top career official met with the attorneys as well as jack smith himself, the special counsel. but it's quite possible there are some more things that have to happen in this investigation. we do know that a grand jury is going to be hearing from a witness in south florida in this documents probe this week. >> knowing there's at least one more witness. thank you very much. i want to go now to tim parlatore. i really appreciate your time tonight. let me just start with the new reporting here. a mar-a-lago employee draining a swimming pool at the resort that leads to the room that has computer servers with the surveillance video logs being flooded. are you able to definitively -- can you help us understand what happened here? can you definitively say that there was nothing nefarious in this event? >> well, i will say from october until my very recent departure

from the theme, this is the first time i've ever heard anything about any pool being drained. the timing of it -- i heard the discussion of it a moment ago, but the reality is that all of the surveillance video that would have been relevant to the special counsel's investigation is the video that happened before the raid on mar-a-lago, all that was turned over to the doj before they got the search warrant. and for there to be any possible and obstructive intent in october to destroy video, it kind of strains credulity to me because it had already been given over. >> at the end of october they had requested to have everything and that this flood happened in october. again, correlation does not mean causality, but -- >> we had done the searches that

i had directed thereafter. and they had requested and received the video surveillance of the searches that my team conducted. and that was all after october. so, i think that that may be just a misunderstanding of the time line because i don't really see where this october demand would fit into anything. >> all right. in addition to this, obviously, and we know they're looking into it, we don't know the significance or whether the implication it was nefarious or not. but "the washington post" is reporting two mar-a-lago employees moved boxes of documents obviously a day before the justice department came to mar-a-lago to retrieve classified documents after the subpoena. sources told cnn that the investigators have asked trump employees about possible gaps in surveillance footage, whether it could've been tampered with. those have been questions. and, yet, in all of this, from what you understand, there is no possible pattern of obstruction? >> they have the full

videotapes. there's no missing footage. and while i appreciate that they're going through and trying to -- >> so you're saying they see possible gaps, and you're saying there are no gaps? >> they haven't discussed any gaps with us, at least not when i was there. the video was complete. there's not any gaps to be had, as far as i'm aware. so, i know that they're trying to dot all the is here. but they have the actual video. i don't know what they're looking for there. as to the boxes moving the day before, they were moving boxes while evan was conducting the search as part of helping him to conduct the search, as i understand it. a lot of these, you know, rumors and leaks and innuendos regarding obstruction don't really fit into the actual time line. >> let me ask you about what happened today. we understand a 90-minute meeting that happened with the special counsel jack smith at

the behest of the lawyers still working with trump, they wanted to have this meeting. we do understand the grand jury has at least one more witness, tim, from south florida. we all understand that this investigation is wrapping up. >> yeah. >> you don't think an indictment is merited. i want to stick to this question very specifically. do you think an indictment, if they're going to go there for donald trump, is going to come this week? >> i wouldn't think so, just because of the logistics of it, if they're opening a new grand jury down in south florida and going that direction, i think for it to be this week would be rather quick. plus, they had a meeting this morning where i'm sure that my former colleagues presented them with a lot of important information that they would have to follow up on. so, to actually bring it this week i think would be a little bit hasty. >> so you don't think it's coming that imminently. and you don't believe that trump

is going to be indicted, at least -- or are you saying you don't believe he should be? >> based on the facts in the law, i don't think he should be indicted. that being said, i've made a career of representing people who probably shouldn't have been indicted and ultimately had to go to trial to be acquitted. should and will are definitely not necessarily related concepts. >> trump's former white house lawyer ty cobb -- i obviously speak to him frequently, and he believes the obstruction case against trump is essentially open and shut. he's certainly not alone in that belief. there are many who share that. but he's been very explicit and specific about it. and here's some of what he's told me. >> there have been false statement after false statement. there has been failures to cooperate. there has been an attempt to

have employees lie to people. so the evidence is building brick by brick. there isn't a good brick in there for the former president. i think this obstruction case is a tight case. i'd be telling trump that he's dead. >> he's not mincing words. and, as i said, certainly he knows trump, he knows the situation, but he's certainly not alone in that sentiment. >> and apparently he knows more about the facts than any of the attorneys handling the case. >> well, attorneys defending trump, who have a point of view. >> when he's talking there about the false statements and all those things, a lot of what he's laying out is the building blocks of an obstruction case is not anything that i saw. and, so, to build an obstruction case, you have to have actual evidence, not leaks and innuendos. and the reality is that everything i have seen in this case, there are things that you could try to interpret that way. but i have never seen any solid

evidence of obstruction. >> so, what would you advise trump do, tim, as a lawyer, if he's indicted? if he is indicted, what should he do? >> look, any time you have a federal indictment, that is a very serious threat. and whether you are guilty or innocent -- and in fact, in a lot of ways even more importantly if you're innocent, that has to be the main and primary focus of everything. because dealing with the federal criminal system really is something that can be life-altering. and so you have to set everything else aside, and really focus on that and make sure that your lawyers are empowered to do everything they can to make sure that they defend you. >> and, of course, obviously with this former president and what he's doing now running for president, fair to say there are questions about when any of that would happy>> right. and i'm not commenting on the

campaign or anything like that because obviously you want your client to continue to live their life and work their job and everything else. but, at the same time, the indictment in the federal criminal case really has to be the primary focus. >> all right. well, tim, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. , and next, a story that you'll see first here. the u.s. now enemy number one in chinese state media. and unfortunately right now, it seems clear that the chinese public agrees. plus, new hampshire republican government chris sununu not holding back on trump's efforts to be re-elected. >> he won't even win georgia. if you're a republican that can't win georgia of 2021, you have no shot, and he's proven that.

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tonight, the white house warning china against, quote, growing aggressiveness by its military after this, you're looking here on your screen, this is a near-collision between an american and a chinese warship. this occurred in the chinese strait. look at how close this is to the taiwan strait. >> it won't be long before somebody gets hurt. that's the concern with these unsafe and unprofessional intercepts. they can lead to misunderstandings. they can lead to miscalculations. >> this comes as top officials from the u.s. state department and the nsc are in beijing where they had a, quote, candid and direct discussion with their chinese counterparts amid these increasing tensions. will ripley is "outfront." >> reporter: on the streets, in the skies, and on the sea, rising rhetoric, and the u.s. warns real danger of military

confrontation. a growing list of u.s./china flare-ups, fueling fears, anti-american sentiment among the chinese public. chinese media blasting the air waves with outrage. a recent chinese poll reveals more than half of those surveyed have a very unfavorable or somewhat unfavorable impression of the u.s. the u.s. keeps picking on china, says this man in beijing. it feels like the u.s. is bullying china. another making his views clear, i don't like the u.s., all bad things in the world are caused by the u.s. u.s. polls show many americans have similar views about china, even in polarized washington, countering beijing has rare bipartisan support. from the taiwan strait to the south china sea to singapore, the u.s. and china seem to be spiraling closer to conflict. on saturday, a near-collision on the taiwan strait, the u.s. accused a chinese warship of

cutting on of a u.s. navy destroyer. the u.s. says both ships came within 150 yards, less than 500 fifteenth, of each other. the u.s. deployer took emergency measures to avoid a collision, a close encounter u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin called extremely dangerous. >> i'm concerned about at some point having an incident that could very, very quickly spiral out of control. >> reporter: the pentagon says china rejected a proposed meeting with its defense minister, their only interaction, this brief handshake. the u.s. says they did not have a substantive exchange. general lee had plenty to say after the near-collision, blasting u.s. claims of a peaceful passage through the taiwan strait with the canadian warship. they are not here for peaceful passage, he says, they are here for provocation. tensions already high, getting even higher. just days earlier over the south china sea, a mid-air incident caught on camera.

a chinese jet dangerously close to a u.s. reconnaissance plane. the u.s. calls this an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver. china says it was just safeguarding its sovereignty, accusing the u.s. military plane of deliberately intruding into china's training area. a government spokesperson saying the u.s. should immediately stop such dangerous and provocative actions. washington rejects beijing's territorial claims over nearly all the south china sea, saying 9 united states will continue to fly, sail, and operate safely and responsibly wherever international law allows. tensions rising ever since a controversial taiwan trip by former u.s. house speaker nancy pelosi last year, and this year's meeting in california between house speaker kevin mccarthy and tsai ing-wen, president of taiwan. china also claimed sovereignty over the self-governing democracy, its communist rulers have never controlled. launching two rounds of massive military drills near taiwan. only adding to u.s. concerns of

a potential military miscalculation with massive consequences. >> i mean, will, it's amazing to see that. just to think about 450 feet apart and the feet with that wake that those ships were moving, you just think about what could have happened. the white house, i know, says top u.s. officials brought up this near-collision during their meeting in beijing today. what are the chinese officials saying about it? >> reporter: publicly not much other than calling on the united states to stop what they call provocative behavior, erin. just the fact that there are talks happening in beijing is an encouraging sign because for months the u.s. has been trying to rekindle high-level diplomacy. the suspected chinese spy balloon on the eve of what was supposed to be a very important diplomatic visit by the secretary of state to beijing, that derailed the whole thing, and basically both sides haven't been able to communicate at a

high level ever since. so if indeed now there are these lower-level discussions, perhaps that could lead to higher-level meetings which could try to potentially put some sort of a pause in this escalating tension that really has been going, whether it's taiwan, the south china sea, china's deepening partnership with russia. >> will, thank you very much from taipei tonight. next, a republican governor, one of trump's toughest critics, tells our dana bash, that a vote for trump in the primaries is a vote for biden in the general. dana bash is next with her exclusive. plus, exclusive new images of the prime suspect in the disappearance of natalee holloway. joran van der sloot, just as he's about to be extradited to the united states. uck young man. realtor.com to each their home.

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tonight, one of donald trump's biggest critics says he won't run against him. new hampshire's republican governor chris sununu exclusively telling cnn's dana bash that he will not run for president in 2024. but sununu also warning his party that if you vote for trump that it means certain defeat for republicans. here he is. >> the math has shown donald trump has no chance of winning in november of '24. he won't even win georgia. if you're a republican that can't win georgia of november '24, you have no shot and he's proven that. if republicans nominate him, then we're saying a vote for him

is effectively a vote for joe biden. >> our chief political correspondent and co-anchor of state of the union and starting next week the anchor of "inside politics," dana bash is here. how much of an influence does sununu intend to have in the republican primary? >> well, his argument, erin, is that he can have more of an influence not being a candidate because, as a candidate, you have to be more on message, and you have to be more strategic in order to further your own candidacy. he argues that, as somebody with a national profile and as the governor of the first in the nation primary state, he can really push levers more from the outside than the inside. and what's his top goal as you just heard there? to try to stop donald trump. take a listen. >> former president trump and his message, his style, his brand, have cost us dearly, and he doesn't represent the republican party. he doesn't represent that

limited government, local control, individual liberty stuff. he's about himself. >> one could argue that you're the one out of step with the republican party, not the candidates running. >> oh, no. >> the current republican party. >> well, maybe the base. >> they're the ones who elect the nominee. >> that's right. and that's the frustration. so i want to make the base bigger. i want to get more independence into the base. i want more young people that used to be part of the base, but we want to get them back in. >> and, erin, in the short term, another reason why governor sununu says he's not running is because the more crowded the field, the less likely it is that one of the 11 candidates right now would be 12 if he ran, other than donald trump, would be able to topple him, just like we saw in 2016. it's simple math. they split the vote and he gets more than everybody else. he was also pretty harsh when it comes to the candidates who are running and maybe won't get over 1 or 2%.

he said you got to look in the mirror and you got to get out of the race, and you can't run for vice president. he said that they should make that decision in november or december of this year. >> 1%, 2%, 3%, 6%, it does all add up. meantime, you have this odd world where americans in general aren't really thrilled with their choices. robert f. kennedy jr. right now, most recent poll, says 20% of democrats who say they want him to be their nominee. today he took part in a twitter-hosted conversation with elon musk. he continued his ongoing criticism of vaccines. and then he also talked about democrats. here's part of that. >> if you ask about vaccines, you are a trump republican. and if you had just a religious belief, you were a democrat. and so i watched all that play

out and watched the democrats slowly become these pro-corporate, pro-war, pro-censorship, you know, what had once been republicans. >> and, you know, the progressive scholar, bernie sanders supporter, said he's going to mount a third-party run for president against biden. a few percentage points here and there in the way this country's split, that could really sb disrupt. how big of a worry is this for biden? >> right now they're monitoring it, and particularly in the short term for the democratic primary, robert f. kennedy, they are trying to make sure that the 20% doesn't grow. but they just don't know. they feel publicly pretty confident, frankly, privately pretty confident that he's not going to get to the point where there's going to be a real threat to joe biden in the primary. but the cornell west development today is different because he

says he is, be as you mentioned, going to mount a third-party run. what that means is that in a general election, he could siphon off democratic votes from president biden. and if you see the last two elections, a thousand votes here, a thousand votes there, that is determinative of who's in the white house. >> all right, dana, thank you very much. and on wednesday, dana is going to be moderating the republican presidential town hall with mike pence. that is at 9:00 eastern. and dana will be live from iowa with that. meantime next here for the first time in years, we are getting an exclusive glimpse of the key suspect in the natalee holloway disappearance as he's about to be extradited to the united states. one of america's most notorious spies and cost the united states hundreds of millions of dollars, tonight has died. ♪ ♪

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and better movement... and that means everything. ♪nothing is everything♪ now's the time to ask your doctor about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. tonight, exclusive new images of the prime suspect in the disappearance of natalie holloway. van der sloot is currently serving a 28 year prison sentence for a murder of a student in peru. he was seen with holloway just before a class trip to aruba in

2005. ryan young has our coverage "out front" tonight. >> reporter: joran vandersloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of alabama teenager, natalee holloway, seen for years. unshaven, dishevelled, and much older looking. vandersloot appears to cooperate, while getting his blood pressure taken. van der sloot was then put back in handcuffs before being driven some 20 hours to another facility outside lima, where peruvian officials are preparing to send him to the united states on thursday. [ speaking non-english ] >> translator: it has already been agreed that the u.s. authority will come to take him. >> reporter: van der sloot is serving a sentence in peru for the murder of stephanie florez ramirez. he's being transferred to alabama temporarily, extort holloway's family after a

disappearance while on a 2005 graduation trip in aruba. 18-year-old natalie holloway was last seen driving in a car with a group of young men, including van der sloot, then just 17 years old. >> i think we have just hung on to this possibility since july 4th. i have not given up hope that the men would be rearrested. >> reporter: an alabama federal grand jury indicted the dutch national in 2010 for allegedly attempting to extort a quarter million dollars from the holloway family. declared legally dead by an alabama judge in 2012, natalee holloway's body has never been found, and van der sloot has maintained his innocence. and no one has ever been charged in her death. van der sloot did not fight his transfer, according to his attorney, who received a letter from his client last week, where he wrote, i want to go to the u.s. advantage

his lawyers says he suffered a cut to his fingers and some bruising before being placed in the prison's medical section. >> translator: everything is ready for him to be handed over. we have him safe, which is what the u.s. authority requested, that he would be in good health. that is how we will keep him until the 8th. we guarantee that. >> as we reported in the piece, we expect van der sloot here in the u.s. by the end of the week. but keep in mind, these charges which are at this time the only charges coming from the department of justice are only related to extortion and wire fraud. none of them have to do with what may have physically happened to natalee holloway. so, no matter the outcome in alabama, van der sloot will return to peru to serve out the remainder of his murder sentence there. >> incredible to have him coming to the united states this week, as you report. all right. thank you. coming up on "ac 360" next hour, what happened to that plane that flew into restricted

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xfinity rewards creates experiences big and small, and once-in-a-lifetime. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com one of the most notorious spies in american history has died. fbi agent turned traitor robert hanssen was found unresponsive in his cell today. he was serving a life sentence for providing moscow with highly classified information, 1.4 until dollar and diamonds as well. four spies died because of that. he was arrested in 2001, caught after dropping off classified material at a virginia park. he said he did it for the money. he was 79. and we don't know the cause of death. thanks for joining us. anderson starts now.