all around us who want to tell you, pick me because i'm kind of like what you picked before, but not quite as crazy, but i don't want to say his name because, for these other pretenders, he is for those of you who read the "harry potter" books, like voldemort. he is he who shall not be named. >> all right. we're going to continue to monitor chris christie about to make his announcement that he's formally running for the republican presidential nomination. so far he mentioned trump once by name saying trump made us smaller, his words. we're going to continue our special coverage. 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, as we await

chris christie's formal announcement that he's running for president, which we'll be bringing to you, we have breaking news right now in the trump investigation. mark meadows is testifying, trump's former chief of staff has now testified, we before a federal grand jury investigating trump. we are learning the special counsel is now using a grand jury in florida as well. we've got a lot of details for you tonight breaking. and disaster in ukraine now a dangerous blame game of who is behind the destruction of a crucial dam. the breach unleashing deadly floodwaters, and now threatening the largest nuclear power plant in europe. plus, the pga tour sells out to the saudis. is professional soccer about to be next? good evening, i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the breaking news. trump's former chief of staff testifying. cnn confirming that mark meadows has testified before a federal grand jury investigating trump. meadows is a key figure in the two investigations related to the former president. the probe into trump's efforts to cling to power and overturn

the 2020 election results, and the investigation into trump's handling of classified documents. you may remember, according to the january 6th committee, meadows was helping to lay the groundwork for trump's big lie. he received this text message from a lawmaker on november 4th, a day after the election, saying, here's an aggressive strategy. why can't other r-controlled state houses declare this as b.s.? then the explanation where conflicts and election not called that night. and just sent their own electors to vote and have it go to the scotus supreme court. so much of that plan actually did go into motion. and meadows was there with trump through all of this. he knows so much when it comes to materials seized at mar-a-lago. he was with trump in the final days of his presidency. he was also formally appointed by trump to oversee presidential records. so, on every front, from january 6th to the efforts to overturn the election to the classified documents, he is front and

center. and this major development comes as we are learning the special counsel is now using another grand jury based in florida as part of its investigation into trump's handling of classified documents. the florida grand jury has heard testimony from multiple witnesses, and the grand jury in georgia appears to have stopped hearing testimony. what does it mean? we understand that testimony, according to the "new york times," includes 20 members of trump's secret service security detail in that florida grand jury testifying, 20. 20 people, we didn't know about any of them yesterday. so much to get to tonight. el we have new reporting here. kristin, i want to start with you. you obviously have the significant breaking news on mark meadows. what do you understand happened, and what did mark meadows do as he testified before the federal grand jury?

>> reporter: this has been a big question mark for months. he was ordered to testify after a judge threw out trump's, saying that there was executive privilege. but how and when he was going to do it all remain shrouded in mystery. he is a critical witness here due to the uniqueness of his position. he was trump's chief of staffing, meaning he had proximity to trump and access to high-level conversations, as well as a unique knowledge of his well-being, his mental state, his actions, both on january 6th leading up to january 6th, as well as when he left office in january of 2021. this is a position that everyone wanted to know what he was going to say and when it was that he was going to testify. there has been very little insight. i talked to a number of lawyers close to trump's legal team who said they had no idea what mark meadows' level of cooperation was in this investigation, in these investigations. because, as we said, we do not know which grand jury or if it was both he testified in front

of. but we know that he would be considered a critical witness to both of them. so, it is very interesting position that we find ourself in. i cannot tell you, we did a long deep dive into mark meadows just two weeks ago about what he he been doing, and the trump team was largely unaware, and that led to a lot of speculation about cooperation, a lot of questions about what his testimony might actually look like. and he himself is not in touch with the former president. so these are all things to take into consideration when you realize just how important his testimony is, and the fact that he's already appeared before that grand jury. >> kristin, thank you very much breaking the significant details. let's go to our senior justice correspondent evan perez. so, evan, kristin's talking about mark meadows testifying. what are you learning -- these are major developments that you're learning about in the grand jury in florida. a grand jury that, frankly, until recently, no one even knew was there. now you're talking about possibly 20 secret service agents, maybe more. what does all of this mean and

what do you know? >> tors in this investigation had gone to a court in florida was to approve the search warrant at mar-a-lago. and, so, the fact that they've gone back there and they've gone back there recently for a number of witnesses. sources are telling kaitlan collins that there's a witness, we know of a witness that's going in as soon as tomorrow in miami, that's the southern district of florida, and that there's another witness, at least, who is also scheduled to come in after that person. so, it's not clear exactly why the prosecutors have chosen to start using this grand jury after spending months using the grand juries here in washington. we know that they have had a grand jury that has been hearing testimony on the mar-a-lago documents. that grand jury here in washington hasn't met since about this time last month. and, so, it's certainly a very

dramatic turn of events for them to be bringing witnesses to provide testimony before a grand jury down in miami. now, a couple reasons could occur to us for why this could be. and one of them could be that, simply, they have perhaps someone who they want to charge who is accused or they believe committed a crime in that jurisdiction and they can't bring it here in washington. so that might be one reason, perhaps somebody below the level of donald trump who may have, they believe, committed a crime down there. and so that's the reason why they want to bring those witnesses in that jurisdiction. all of the questions that we have that we hope that jack smith is going to be able to provide some answers to in the coming days and weeks. >> thank you. jack smith the special counsel. let's go now to the former trump white house lawyer ty cobb. ty, you have been saying for a long time in all the conversations we've had that you believe that meadows is

cooperating. now we know he's appeared before the grand jury. what do you say tonight? >> so, i believe that he testified shortly after the judge issued the order in march rejecting trump's claims of executive privilege. but i also believe that it's possible he's testified more than once given the vast knowledge that he has, as you highlighted, in your introduction. the process throughout has been one where either there was a lot of news early on about meadows, his cooperation with january 6th, the contempt referral. when justice abandoned the contempt referral, that was an indication that there was a possibility that meadows had initiated cooperation, and certainly the information that you have today, again, suggests that he's cooperating.

it is conceivable that he's being forced to testify and only given qualified immunity. i doubt that's the case. i believe that meadows has been given full immunity and has to deal with the justice department. and that will be very helpful in terms of debunking many of the changing stories that we've heard out of the white house about what happened in those important hours as people tried to prevent democracy from proceeding as it is supposed to. >> when you talk about full immunity, that's obviously hugely significant. and if he's given that, it would seem that it would make sense that he would have answered questions in both, obviously classified documents as i said he was in charge of that so that makes sense. but in terms of january 6th and what those charges actually will be, he's absolutely central to that. >> that's absolutely true. and there are several options still available to jack smith.

i think the most compelling option is to indict the obstruction case and use the evidence with regard to the possession of the documents as motive, evidence so you don't have the burden of charging that. and there's also the possibility of charging the january 6th case or using meadows' testimony to flush out a report on that. >> all right, ty, thank you very much. i appreciate your perspective on those breaking developments tonight. let's go now to ryan goodman, former special counsel at the defense department. along with the former chief assistant district attorney of the mad.a.'s office. thanks to both. ryan, okay, we obviously don't know exactly what he said. you heard ty believe that he would have been given full immunity and therefore would've chosen to answer questions. how significant do you think this development is?

>> i think it's hugely significant. we can just recall that there was one of the staffers to the january 6th committee on cnn who said that meadows was the mvp because he provided them the playbook for the efforts to overturn the january 6th -- the efforts of january 6th to overturn the 2020 election. that's just meadows' text. then he stopped cooperating. now if he's providing testimony and cooperating, he has a wealth of information, i'd say the keys to the kingdom. he was key with the false slate of electors. he, according to cassidy hutchinson's testimony, he accumulated charts of all of the electors. he had multiple, dozens of meetings and phone calls about it. so he's running point for president trump in that instance. and then he's also central to the efforts to use the justice department to try to overturn the election in georgia and elsewhere. >> now, karen, do you think that -- and, again, we're going under certain assumptions of things we don't yet know, if he

had full immunity and he really did answer the question, which we don't yet know the answer to -- do you think this is news to trump tonight? >> i think so. as we all know, grand jury proceedings are secret by its very nature. so we are doing the best we can by reading the tea leaves to try to figure it out. but it's been very clear that trump did not know what was happening, that he's gone very quiet to the trump team. and, so, i think this really shows that he has testified -- i would go a little bit further than even what ryan is saying. his lawyer made a statement today about meadows' testimony that, without commenting on whether or not he testified, he's maintained, kmoted to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation. to me that suggests that he testified rather than invoking the fifth. so if he's in there giving testimony telling the truth where he has a legal obligation, as ryan says, he has the keys to the kingdom, i think there's no

doubt that there will be charges forthcoming in the january 6th case in particular because that is where meadows, i think, is key. >> right. i think a lot of the discussion that it may be hard to get to those charges without him. but if you had him and he really did give you those keys to the kingdom, we don't fully know that yet. but if so, how much -- how does that change your view on the potential slate of charges related to january 6th? >> i think it really rachets up the likelihood that there will be charges against donald trump for january 6th. and especially the false slate of electors, which we know is one of the most robust parts of the investigation and there would have to have been court approval of the justice department's criminal theory of the case because they have approved search warrants in that case. and why would they give meadows immunity? they would give him immunity because he could go -- he could give them access to the star suspect.

that's the reason that you would give somebody immunity who otherwise has a lot of criminal jeopardy on his own. that's the deal. and so that's why it's enormously significant if he's cooperating. >> so, karen, other things that we're finding out here, evan's reporting. we know that the d.c. grand jury hasn't really seen activity in a month. but now we're finding out a whole lot more about the second grand jury in miami, that they've heard from multiple witnesses expected to hear from at least two more. but we don't fully even know. so what do you think this means? >> so, if you recall, there are different venues where the mar-a-lago documents case could be brought, the documents were taken from washington, d.c., but they were possessed and held in florida, and any obstruction or the charges that would come from him holding onto the documents and moving the documents before the search and moving them back after the search, all of that happened in florida. so this could be as big as the fact that jack smith may have

decided that florida is the proper venue for all of it. it could mean something as small as there is a witness that maybe testified and lied to the fbi and they're going to charge him with lying, and that's just one small bit flare. and it could be something in between. and it could be certain people are charged in one location, other charges in the other. it's unclear. but also don't forget in the federal grand juries, you can -- they can put hearsay in to the grand jury. so it could also be for convenience's sake they're letting all the florida people testify in florida and then an fbi brings it to the grand jury in washington. we don't know yet, but there are a lot of options there. >> this is probably something many people probably didn't realize until you laid out that

possibility. they testified before the d.c.-based grand jury. i misspoke earlier. but that grand jury has no known activity in about a month. what does all that say? >> it strongly suggests that that part of the case is closed and they're finished, and that the next step would be, in all likelihood, based on the evidence that we have to read the tea leaves, that jack smith would go to attorney general garland, recommend an indictment so that he would then return to the grand jury to propose an indictment, and what would be the final step before that, meaning allowing a meeting to take place with trump's attorneys to give them that final opportunity to try to say why they should not indict their client. we have the evidence from trump himself on truth social strongly indicating that he sees an indictment coming after the meeting. >> karen, one other crucial thing happened here. a person who knows a lot about this. trump's own hand-picked former

attorney general, bill barr spoke out today. earlier today, he didn't just say an indictment was imminent, he also came out and defended the doj against what obviously we have all heard has been an onslaught of attacks from trump's entire team. here's bill barr. >> i suspect it's there. i've said for a while that i think this is the most dangerous legal risk facing the former president. and if i had to bet, i would bet that it's near. i think, based on the facts, as the facts come out, i think over time people will see that this is not a case of the department of justice conducting a witch hunt. >> it's important to hear him say that, karen. why do you think he is saying that publicly right now? do you think he has some insight into an indictment? >> he may have some insight. i think smith and his team are really keeping things close to the vest. it could also just be he was the leader -- he's leader of the justice department, he knows

what these things mean and the cadence of things. and, as ryan was saying, this looks like it's nearing the end. he knows all of that. and, so, it's very easy for someone who is an insider, who recently ran that agency to be able to give pretty good information. so i think it might be a combination of both. >> all right. well, thank you both very much. i appreciate it. , and next, our breaking news continues this hour. former republican governor chris christie announcing he is running for president, speaking right now to voters in new hampshire. and the former prosecutor has a lot to say about trump's legal problems. plus, a major dam in ukraine destroyed. and now what we've seen happen, billions of gallons of water, an entire region of ukraine now suddenly underwater. the president's adviser telling "outfront" why he believes the russians are to blame. we'll go to ukraine for that. and the pga tour selling out to saudi arabia. but they're far from the only professional sport that the saudis have their sights on.

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breaking news. the former new jersey governor speaking now to voters in new hampshire after announcing just moments ago that he is running for president again. >> and that's why i came back to new hampshire to tell all of you that i intend to seek the republican nomination for president of the united states in 2024. and i want your support. [ applause ]

>> christie is a former federal prosecutor, and he is building a political case against former president trump, whose legal problems, of course, are mounting tonight. and christie has also made a legal case as well. he's a former prosecutor. as we told you at the top of the show, trump's former chief of staff mark meadows testified. and that's also a major development tonight. so in his first campaign event as a presidential candidate, chris christie is wasting absolutely no time doing, frankly, what the other people running on the presidential side in the republican side have been loathe to do. he was quick to go directly after trump. >> beware of the leader in this country who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong, who, when something goes wrong, it's always someone else's fault, and who has never lost. the person i am talking about who is obsessed with the mirror,

who never admits a mistake, who never admits a fault, and who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right, is donald trump. >> omar jimenez is "outfront." he is at christie's rally in manchester, new hampshire. how much has christie focused on trump tonight? >> that's right, erin. and i will say i'm talking softly because he's right behind me as he continues this. but he admitted all of the news around trump world. christie talked about there being leaders right now who try to tell you that character doesn't matter. and he, of course, was not shy in mentioning donald trump's name over the course of this. he even went so far as to say for harry potter fans that donald trump has been treated like voldemort over the course of this campaign season, someone

who must not be named and that he is not going to play those games. he also focused on one key metaphor, saying that we have a choice as a country, to be big or be small, to get bigger or get smaller. he went through time after time in history going back to the revolutionary war about moments in time where he felt the country had chose not to be small. he feels we're at a similar moment right now. take a listen to some more of what christie said about donald trump, who's seen as the frontrunner even at these early stages, and it shows how not shy christie has been in going after the former president. >> donald trump made us smaller by dividing us even further, and pitting one group against another, different groups pitted against different groups every day. >> and, obviously, he has his work cut out for him.

he has not been at the top of recent polls as the crowded gop field has grown. but the energy in the room tonight is i think the energy he wants to channel into a campaign where he, of course, intends to take on the former president head october>> omar, thank you very much live in man chaster. i want to go to a top conservative evangelical and influential voice in iowa politics. bob, i want to talk to you about, obviously, these crucial issues with trump and these legal issues that are mounting tonight. but chris christie taking him on directly, whereas others in the field have chosen not to do so. what do you think of that? is that the right way to go with republican-based voters? >> well, when i listened to governor christie announce his campaign for president, i thought some people are called to run for president and they're running for president. i think governor christie, he feels called to stop donald trump. and his whole message was on how do you stop donald trump? and he's just going to build a

case, as you mentioned earlier, he's a former prosecutor, against donald trump. so if you're ron desantis or mike pence or nikki haley or tim scott in the race, you're probably thinking i'm kind of glad chris christie's going in there because i want to be the alternative to trump. but i don't believe for a second christie is running for president to be president. i think he's running for president to stop donald trump. >> that's interesting that you think that. so, do you -- >> he has no support. you see the polls. he's not here in iowa. he announces in new hampshire. and new hampshire's where he took down marco rubio. but, he's doing one thing. that is i'm going to go after the former president. if that's what he feels called to do, let him go. >> well, let me just talk to you about this, because i know you have voiced your own concerns about the trump situation, and he's got now even more legal issues. none of which thus far have done absolutely anything to dent his leadership. in fact, they have only increased his lead over his

closest rival ron desantis in early polling. that's what's happened. now, you're going to get a bunch of indictments possibly from the doj, maybe that'll change. do you think it changes? is this ever going to be a problem for trump? >> well, first of all, i don't trust the early polling at all. and you and i have been around this long enough to understand in 2008 if the polling was right you'd have giuliani. in 2012 you would have had rick perry. 2016 would've been scott walker or maybe jeb bush. i'm not so concerned about the early polling. what we are seeing in iowa, though, is he cancels a rally that was going to be a large rally. he's now holding events when he does come to iowa in very small venues. i believe there's an appetite for somebody that's an alternative to trump. i think a lot of people are very thankful for what the former president did in his administration. burt now they believe it's time to turn the page so they can win in 2024. >> you talk about how

evangelical voters are so crucial in the recent base. 59% of white evangelicals, bob, want trump to be the republican nominee. no one else even comes close. i know you don't trust early pollings. but this is a group you know a lot about. so, what do you say to that? what accounts for that consistent support? >> well, i believe that poll is probably indicative of what the trump administration did. we know the former president's a transactional leader, you do right by me, i do right by you. evangelicals helped him get into the presidency so he moves the embassy to jerusalem and appoints three supreme court justices, he defends religious liberty, he stands up for the sanctity of human life. there's a lot of things that he did that people are going to applaud him for. and i think that poll's indicative of that. but the campaign's going to be different. and trump's biggest hurdle is can he win in 2024, because evangelicals are very wise, they

know '24's not '2016. maybe too much of their country has made up their mind on the former president. that's what he's got to sell evangelicals on to close the sell. >> thank you very much, bob. i appreciate your time, as always. and you heard chris christie obviously just announcing tonight. tomorrow on cnn don't miss a town hall with mike pence. dana bash will be moderating that. "outfront" next, new video of a building being swept away after a crucial dam in ukraine is destroyed. and now the largest nuclear power plant in europe tonight is in danger. so who was behind this breach? we're live in ukraine. plus, these are live pictures of new york, not mars, and smoke from the wildfires in canada are now completely blanketing new york city. air quality reaching hazardous levels. neutrogena ultra sheer. a lightweight blend thatat protects 6 layers deep with a smooth dry-touch finish. this round is on me. neutrorogena ultra sheer. how to grow delicious herbs: step one: use miracle-gro potting mix.

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tonight, growing questions about the destruction of a critical dam along the front lines in ukraine. we've got new video into "outfront." this is a building being swept away as the floodwaters just completely race across the terrain. ukraine had warned that if the dam ever was compromised, nearly 5 billion gallons of water would flood southern ukraine. that's equivalent to the great salt lake in utah. and one ukrainian officer tells cnn that his men watched russian soldiers actually being swept away. let me show you where this dam is. you're along the crucial dnieper river. russia has been in control of one side, ukraine on the other. nearby, of course, is europe's largest nuclear power plant in zaporizhzhia which relies on the water in this reservoir to cool

its reactors. and ukraine is blaming russia tonight. >> translator: this deliberate destruction of the dam and other hpp facilities by the russian occupiers is an environmental bomb of mass destruction. for the sake of their own security, the world should now show that russia will not get away with such terror. >> russia denies it, blaming ukraine. the united states is still investigating, it says, according to intelligence. earlier, zelenskyy's senior adviser spoke to "outfront." he said the attack was to stop ukraine's highly anticipated counteroffensive, which the goal goal was to cross the dnieper river. here's zelenskyy's adviser. >> translator: in blowing up the kakhovka hydropower plant, russia is trying to suspend our counteroffensive. in this case, in the southern direction. >> fred pleitgen is "outfront"

to begin our coverage in the flooded region. >> reporter: masses of water gushing from the gaping hole in the destroyed nova kakhovka dam in russian controlled territory here in south ukraine. massive flooding quickly inundating both shores of the mighty dnieper river impacting areas controlled by ups and. about the russians. as you can see, there's a massive rescue effort going on here. local authorities are using heavy trucks and boats to get as many people out of the zone as they can. this 65-year-old was stranded in her home with her cat for hours, fearing for her life. now, i'm not scared, she says, but there it was scary. why, i ask. because of the water, the water came, and you don't know from where it comes and where it will go. the authorities here say they've evacuated hundreds of people

throughout the day, at times, under russian fire, the head of kherson's military administration tells me. we have the water, he says, mines, mines are floating to here, and this district is constantly being shelled. two policemen were injured while evacuating people. kyiv blames moscow for allegedly blowing up the dam, an angry ukrainian president saying the russians are trying to derail ukraine's current battlefield gains. it was mined by the russian occupiers, he says, and they blew it up. this, once again, demonstrates the cynicism with which russia treats the people whose land it has captured. the destruction of the dam comes as ukrainian forces have been making gains on the battlefield. what some believe may be the early stages of kyiv's long-awaited counteroffensive, even though the ukrainians haven't confirmed that. russia's army denies blowing up the dam, instead, blaming the

ukrainians. aiming to prevent the offensive operations by the russian army on the section of the front line, the kyiv regime committed an act of sabotage or, rather, a terrorist act, the defense minister said. while the floodwaters are affecting evermore areas around kherson, up stream the levels are critically low around the zaporizhzhia power plant, the biggest in all of europe, which relies on a pond connected to the river for cooling. the international atomic energy agency says so far there's no danger, but that could change. >> it is therefore vital that this cooling pond remains intact. nothing must be done to potentially undermine its integrity. >> reporter: so there you can see, erin, the extremely difficult and dangerous situation down here in the south of ukraine with that massive river just continuously flooding. i think there are two things

that our viewers need to be aware of. on the other hand, those floodwaters are rising extremely quickly. just in the short period of time today, that water went up considerably. and the other thing is the russian army is very close to this place. there is constant shelling going on here. in fact, be as i'm speaking to you right now, i'm hearing those thuds in the distance. this comes as ukrainian officials are saying they believe that more than a thousand houses are underwater just in the ukrainian territories of the flood zone. >> fred, thank you very much, live in kherson in the midst of that flooding, and you could hear him saying you hear the thuds of shelling in the distance. a member of ukraine's parliament joins me now. i appreciate your time. i know it is very early in the morning where you are. does ukraine have proof that russia is responsible for the dam explosion and break? >> well, we cannot provide very specific proof because the dam has been under russian control for months now. i think that is the single proof that we can provide is that the dam is under russian control,

the explosion came from within, so it had to be done by someone who had control over the territory. and those are the russians who had the control over the territory. they were the only ones who could actually have done this. so this is as much evidence that we can provide given that we do not have access to this territory now and we didn't have access to this territory yesterday to set up such an explosion. >> all right. well, it's crucial that everyone understand that. these are important facts. a senior nato official said today that u.s. and western officials do see signs that the long-awaited counteroffensive against russia is beginning. obviously, when you're talking about 5 billion gallons of water now flooding a region, does the dam break, do you think, have any impact on the counteroffensive plans? >> well, it is definitely distracting our military, at least, people who could have been engaged in the counteroffensive efforts are now helping with the people, with

the humanitarian aid and so on and so forth. now, as you know very well as of right now that the detailed plan of the counteroffensive is unclear. so we cannot confirm or deny that they could have been the direction of the counteroffensive. but the fact that it definitely diverts efforts from the military side to the humanitarian aid, which is also being provided by the military personnel on the south right now, that is definitely can be confirmed. so, yes, i can say that it is part of the plan to suspend the counteroffensive. whether it will be successful or not, i think the coming days will show. >> all right. and, of course, the world is watching. thank you so very much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. and, next, the pga tour selling out to saudi arabia after a year of boldly and defiantly refusing to join forces, saying it would be taking saudi blood money.

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offered stars like phil mickelson multi, multimillion dollar deals to join. tiger woods said no way. the commissioner of the pga tour a year ago said this. >> i think you'd have to be living under a rock to not know that there are significant implications. and, as it relates to the families of 9/11, i have two families that are close to me that lost loved ones. and, so, my heart goes out to them. and i would ask any player that has left or any player that would ever consider leaving, have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the pga tour? >> all right. and then there was, of course, the bonesaw incident. i mean, look, it was really different today what, we heard from him today was, well, extremely different about teaming up with the saudis.

>> what we're talking about today is coming together to unify the game of golf. the game of golf is better for what we've done here today. >> okay. so, sure. but i just want to be clear that he is not alone in changing his tune on the saudis. actually just one of many. it goes way beyond the sports world. then-candidate joe biden, the bonesaw incident. a murder that u.s. intelligence concluded that the crown prince of saudi arabia mohammad bin salman approved. joe biden met with mbs in an attempt to get the saudis to boost oil production. and the saudis said sorry. "outfront" now, harry enten, our numbers whiz. harry, this is just a situation here where money talks. money talks, and morality can get in the way of it, and for many, money ends up winning. you find out how americans view

them. it is an incredibly rare issue where we have bipartisan agreement. >> the percentage of americans who have an unfavorable view of saudi arabia well into the '60s. and more than that what you see is democrats, 73% have an unfavorable view of saudi arabia. republicans, 67%. and i will note on the time trend, views on saudi arabia have become more negative and negative and negative. >> which is amazing because you're saying over the past year when you had, from political and business circles, negative views, they're changing their tune. but the public isn't. >> correct. >> which is fascinating. so how do americans see saudi? >> so i think one of the key things to point out, if you look at how americans view the relationship between the usa and saudi arabia, very few see this as an ally-on-ally relationship. just 3% say we're an ally with them. 40% say we're a necessary partner. so i think this sort of gets at what's going on. >> certainly with joe biden it does. >> exactly right. we don't necessarily like saudi

arabia, but we understand that there needs to be a relationship with them. and that is, i think, what you saw with joe biden. and i think that's also what you're seeing with the pga tour saying, actually we're going to team up with the folks over in saudi arabia. >> and, to be clear, because obviously they are front and center today, and it's a big flip-flop. but they're not the only sport doing this. >> they are not the only sport doing it. >> i think this is all a play by saudi arabia to try and sort of ingratiate themselves in the sports world. so they did it obviously with golf. but they're also doing it with soccer. there are a number of big soccer stars who are going over to saudi arabia. ronaldo is one of them. you see another one on there. >> he has an apartment over there. >> look at the amount of money that saudi arabia has given to these folks. 100 million plus per year estimated. 200 million plus per year estimated. this is per year to get these folks to play. so saudi arabia believes money talks. and, apparently, money does talk. >> it may, it's interesting. i was just over in the region,

and ronaldo's all over all the tabloids. i asked myself, i wonder how long he'll actually live there. but that's the thing. and that's the big question for saudi arabia. thanks, harry. "outfront" next, prince harry taking the stand in an historic case. and he took on the british tabloids who he accuses of hacking his phone. plus, these live pictures out of new york outerworldly and deeply disturbing. it is not fog. it is a haze, a smoke, and we'll tell you why. when migraine strikes, you're faced with a choice. ride it out with the tradeoffs of treating? or push through the pain and symptoms? one dose works fast to eminate migraine pain. treat it anytime, anywhere without worrying where you are or if it's too late.

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real milk. real delicious. and don't forget to try some delicious, creamy lactaid ice cream. what's that mabel? (mooo) wow, smart cow! tense testimony from prince harry. his battle with the british press coming to a head in a courtroom. suing a british tabloid accusing them of hacking his phones to get private information they later printed. british journalism has hit rock bottom, harry said. we have "outfront." >> reporter: a highly anticipated moment in a carefully watched legal battle. prince harry becoming the first senior british royal to testify in court in over a century. the duke of sussex is among dozens of claimants suing british tabloid publisher mirror

group newspapers over allegations their journalists used unlawful means including phone hacking to obtain private information between 1991 and 2011. prince harry's witness statement goes into extraordinary detail about how the intrusive tactics intruded his personal life saying how much more blood will stain the typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness? meanwhile the duke's lawyer says newspaper articles like these show telltale signs of a legal information gathering. from the intimate details of private conversations shared with his brother william, the prince of wales, harry telling him that it planted seeds of distrust between the ups and downs with his relationship with former long-term girlfriend chelsy davy. intrusion he said led to huge amounts of paranoia and bouts of depression.

with mgn labeling him the playboy prince, dropout in his youth. prince harry's testimony also details alleged evidence of payments made to private investigators tasked with gleaning personal information about is had mother, the late princess diana. a recent revelation which he said made him feel physically sick. mgn has contested most of the allegations put forward in the duke of sussex's claim, arguing that there is simply not enough evidence to prove that his phone was hacked. the trial comes on the heels of an incident last month where prince harry and his wife meghn were pursued for two hours after an event in new york. the couple describing the chase as near catastrophic, though the severity of the incident has since been called into question. despite a fierce round of questions today in court, prince

harry is not backing down. >> it's pretty clear how personal it is for him. he blames the tabloid media in the uk for the death of his mother, for the destruction of his relationships and for his poor mental health. he says his family is forced to flee the uk because of it. >> reporter: cnn, london. >> coming up on "ac 360" the man who took it down, robert hanson, you'll hear that story at 8:00 and live pictures of new york suffering under a blanket of dangerous smoke from thousands of miles away. offs urging people to stay inside. or more. that's why farmers new car replacement pays toto replace it with a new one of t the same make and model. get a whole lot of s something with farmers policy perks. ♪ farmers mnemonic ♪

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finally, this is what is it looks like in new york city, orange, hazard, smoky cloudy scending upon the city so bad new york temporarily topped the list of having the world's worst air 34r50ugs. the world's worst. it's all because of more than 150 wildfires that are actually burning across quebec, canada. officials today warning the dangerous conditions can result in shortness of breath, heart disease and it's not just a affecting new york. more than 40 million across the northeast and mid-atlantic are under air quality alerts. thanks so much for joining us. it's time for "ac360" with anderson cooper. good evening. tonight on "360th not just washington but miami. a second grand jury in the mar-a-lago documents probe. what it says about the investigation and perhaps any trials to come. also new word mark meadows, the white house chief of staff for th