we leave you tonight with this startling image from the juno spacecraft above jupiter. the eerie green glowing dot you see there is lightning inside a swirling vortex near the planet's north pole. the photo was actually taken almost 2 1/2 years ago. nasa posts these images online for anyone to develop. in this case a man by the name of kevin gil took it upon himself to develop the final image you see here. nasa says that in the future juno will have more opportunities for photos of lightning, plus it will get near jupiter's rings to learn more about their origin and their composition. that's it for us. the news continues. "cnn primetime" with kaitlan collins starts now. see you tomorrow. tonight, five people are missing at sea, and that's the best case scenario.

the worst is that they're lost 13,000 feet below the ocean's surface. south of newfoundland, canada, either way assuming the submersible remains intact and assuming that they're still alive, the crew and its passengers aboard the tiny oceangate "titan" are sealed inside with a limited oxygen supply that is dwindling. about 32 hours left as of right now. and again, even assuming the very best, their trip to the wreck of the "titanic" could easily still become its own disaster. tonight cnn's jason carroll is monitoring the search effort and joins us now from boston. jason, obviously we've been tracking all of this. what is the latest that you're seeing right now? >> reporter: well, kaitlan, as i'm sure you've heard, the biggest challenge facing search and rescue at this moment and all day and in fact since this rescue operation began is timing. it's really time and time at this point just not on their side. at this point less than 35 hours

left of oxygen. and what you add to that is the time it's going to take to get so many more of these additional resources and assets to this part of the atlantic ocean, which is very remote, far from any point where they can readily access these types of assets. the coast guard announced a little earlier today, kaitlan, that what they have been able to do today is bring in one of these so-called remote operated vehicles, an r.o.v., with a camera on board that can look into certain parts below the surface. they deployed that particular vehicle in the area, in the last part of the ocean where this submersible was seen. more equipment is on its way. but again, it's going to take time to get there. and in fact, earlier today when the coast guard was holding its briefing i asked the coast guard captain, i said look, what if everything had lined up, what if you had the proper resources above the surface, you had located the submersible below

the surface, would 35 hours be enough even in those circumstances to effort a rescue operation, a successful one? and the captain said it was a difficult question and was unable to answer it, not at this time. but again, they are giving it all of their best effort. more assets coming into the area, coming from places like new york. more assets coming from canada as well. the navy also announcing -- this was interesting. they're bringing in a salvage system type of equipment which is able to work? deep waters, can lift objects as heavy as 60,000 pounds. of course the submersible weighing about 23,000 pounds. so again, the effort is under way, but it's the timing that's really working against search and rescue teams. kaitlan? >> just the number of logistical challenges here is long. but what about the people on board, jason? because obviously that's the most important here, the fact that there are five lives on the "titan." what do we know about them?

>> reporter: five lives. as you indicated. five people on board. stockton rush, the ceo of oceangate expeditions, he is the one piloting the submersible. also, you had a british pakistani businessman, shahzada dawood, and his 19-year-old son suleman on board. paul-henri nargeolet, a french national. this is someone who had plenty of experience heading down to the "titanic." he'd done it several times in the past. also on board, hamish harding, a british billionaire. he's a passenger on board. and an adventurer. he had been on the blue origin spacecraft in 2022 just before this particular expedition he had texted a friend of his and said how excited he was to go on this particular expedition, said he was very excited about it. weather permitting, his friend had said he is the type of person that could always remain

calm in a situation like this. he's going to have to rely on that now. kaitlan? >> absolutely. thinking of all of their families tonight. jason carroll, thank you. this missing vessel has had a troubled history according to reporting tonight in the "new york times." the paper obtained a 2018 letter from more than three dozen leaders in this industry sent to the oceangate ceo, stockton rush, who we should note is one of the five who is missing tonight. in it they warned that they had, quote, unanimous concern about oceangate's development of the "titan" and what that looked like. according to the "times," the group's chairman said that rush had called him after reading the letter, told him industry regulations were stifling innovation. the "times" story also says that a spokesperson for oceangate declined to comment on that letter. 2018 was also when cnn's gabe cohen, then a reporter at seattle's station komo, had a chance to tour a submersible just like the one that is missing tonight while it was out of the water and saw firsthand

what the missing five are now facing. he joins us tonight from washington. gabe, what more can you tell us about this warning to this letter? because essentially what they seem to be saying is that they had these concerns that there could be catastrophic consequences for the way that this was put together. i think the question is was something like what is happening right now something they were worried about? >> and it does seem to be the concern that they were raising. more than three dozen specialists like oceanographers, deep sea explorers, all of them signed this letter warning about what they described as potentially catastrophic problems with the "titan" and then sent it to oceangate's ceo, according to this "new york times" report. the group is part of the manned underwater vehicles committee at the marine technology society. and they expressed concern over what they referred to as the company's experimental approach to the vessel, the "titan" and its "titanic" expedition, saying it could have, quote, negative outcomes from minor to

catastrophic that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry. and the letter specifically raises concerns about oceangate's compliance or lack thereof with a maritime risk assessment certification known as dnvgl. they write, "your marketing material advertises that the titan design will meet or exceed the dnvgl safety standards and yet it does be appear that oceangate has the intention of following those class rules. your representation is at minimum misleading to the public and breaches an industrywide professional code of conduct that we all endeavor to uphold. they wanted oceangate effectively, kaitlan, to follow the same standards as other vessels, especially vessels that are carrying passengers. but of course this "new york times" report indicates that didn't happen. cnn has reached out to oceangate about this letter, but so far there's been no response. >> but there was a 2019 blog post from the company where they

seemed to be addressing why their vessel wasn't accredited with one of those organizations, seeming to explain that basically they believed the level of innovation they were using they couldn't keep up with it. was that the entire explanation? >> reporter: that's a big chunk of it, that basically in 2019 they wrote this post saying the vessel isn't classed largely because it would slow innovation. they said they have used those standards as a benchmark for at least one of their vessels in the past. but as they write, "by itself classing is not sufficient to ensure safety. in part, this is because classing does not properly assess the operational factors that are vital for ensuring a safe dive and because classing assessments are done annually at best and do not ensure that the operator follows procedures or processes that are the key to conducting safe dive operations." so clearly they didn't think

those standards were necessary in order to have a safe expedition. >> gabe cohen, thank you. joining us now is oceanographer and deep water search expert david gallo. he co-led an expedition to create the first detailed and comprehensive map of the "titanic." so thank you for joining us tonight, david. at 1:00 p.m. today we learned that the crew had about 40 hours of breathable oxygen left. that means that right now it's closer to 32 hours based on those estimates from the coast guard. obviously, the list of logistical challenges here is long. but what is the biggest obstacle in your view that they're facing? >> well, i'm going to take a step in a different direction and say in my mind the biggest obstacle's been created by attracting this armada rather than focusing on a couple of groups that have the capabilities to do what needs to be done. there are several companies, several groups that have all the capabilities that are needed to locate and recover that submarine. and i just don't know, waiting

for this armada to arrive, i've seen this with air france 447. i've seen this happen with malaysian air 370. and then also to some extent with the gulf oil spill. is that it just gets too complicated. the logistical stuff, it becomes its own little problem. so it just frustrates me because one of my very good friends is on that boat, p.h. marh. nargeo. and for the sake of the four other people and their loved ones i'd like to see this come to a conclusion pretty quickly. i'm not sure this is the best way to do it. >> i know he's your friend and i want to talk about limb in a moment because i know how closely the two of you have worked. but when you're saying you're concerned they're sending too much of an armada, is that the u.s. coast guard? who should be responsible given the dwindling time here in making sure this is a targeted and specific response? >> yeah, there has to be someone

in control. i keep thinking about if you wanted to have your front lawn mowed, grass cut, that one way to do it is do it neatly with one, maybe two people. the other way is to invite 40 people to come over because it seems like that's the thing to do, where they've got different lawnmowers and different speeds. you know, you have to have someone that really has control of that entire operation. and i don't know that anyone can do that. so i understand the coast guard, sure. someone has to be in that level. but i don't see -- there's a different way to approach it than having more -- more does not mean better in my mind in this case. time is running out. some of these assets won't even be on site by the time the time runs out. and i just get more frustrated by seeing this, again, being -- the search itself becomes its own nightmare. and in the meantime there's five lives at stake and the loved ones waiting for some answers. >> yeah, i understand that frustration, of course.

do you think that they're wasting time right now, basically? >> yeah. well, i'm sure some stuff is going on. but with air france, for instance, there was a very similar search in the beginning for air france, the first year, where every ship was thrown at it with submarines and robots and whatnot. and it became a logistical nightmare at some point. i thought that you have to do a little bit more thinking up front within the first few hours, there ought to be a protocol about what you do when a submarine is lost beneath the sea and follow that protocol. i don't think it means getting everyone that you can to the site. i just think there's other things you could be doing. i don't know. maybe they're happening and i don't know about it. i don't know. i'm living off rufrmz the same way most people are, and many of them have turned out to be incorrect, wrong rumors. >> with the timing of how much

oxygen they have, also there's a concern i believe about hypothermia and what's happening there with electronics and if they can stay warm. even if the rescuers were able to locate the titan right now, what would it take to retrieve it? would there be enough time to do so before those 32 hours or so ran out? >> yeah, you know, in my mind there have to be. you'd have to make it happen. and the first part of course is to find it. and that's number one. but assess the situation quickly and then -- and you have to hope against hope, you have to pray, and the ocean's full of surprises. some things that you think will work don't but other things that you think are impossible become possible. if p.h. nargeolet was sitting here with me like he normally would be, this is what he would say to do. let's just sit down together in a small room, figure out what needs to be done, and let's make it happen, let's do it. >> you mentioned your friend p.h. i know he's been on more than 35 dives to the "titanic" so far.

what can you say about his vast experience that he has here, taking this precise trip that he went on right now? >> yeah. he's just an amazing person. you know, i call him papa just because he's a bit older than i am. but full of wisdom. and as comfortable on board the deck of a ship in a hurricane as he is sitting in a parisian cafe. so he's just got a nature about him that's very easygoing. and like i said, wisdom. he's got experience. in terms of "titanic," no one knows the ship better than p.h. nargeolet. not just the ship but also the environment of "titanic," what the visibility might look like. where the currents might come from. if you wanted to go safely to "titanic," you would go with p.h. nargeolet. >> well, david, we are thinking of p.h. and everyone else who is on board tonight. thank you for joining us with

your expertise. >> thank you, kaitlan. up next for us here tonight, the plea agreement that hunter biden took from federal authorities today. the claims that many republican lawmakers have made about it being, quote, a sweetheart deal and what the facts of it truly are. later, new cnn polling, what it reveals about the state of the former president's support since his indictment and arraignment among republicans. are they wavering? we'll show you next. ♪ to help you see untapped possibilities and relentlessly work with youu to make them real. ♪ as someone living with type 2 diabetes, i want to keep it real and talk about some risks. with type 2 diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death.

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president biden only commenting briefly when asked about the plea agreement that his son hunter struck with federal prosecutors. guilty pleas on a pair of misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his income tax and working to avoid a felony firearm-related charge. >> i'm very proud of my son. >> shortly before that, the white house put out a statement saying, "the president and first lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. we will have no further comment." former president trump, meanwhile, reacting to the deal on his own social network saying "a sweetheart deal for hunter and joe as they continue their quest to get trump." and he's not alone in that criticism today among republicans. cnn's evan perez joins us now with more on that. evan, first let's talk about this plea deal and what you can tell us as this investigation had been going on for so many years. how did they come to this

agreement today? >> reporter: yeah, this is five years in the making, kaitlan. and the bottom line is prosecutors are expected to recommend no prison time, no prison time for hunter biden as a result of this plea deal in which he is pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts for failing to file taxes on time in 2017 and 2018. there's a separate agreement for this gun charge. this is for him purchasing a firearm during the time that he was -- that he has spoken publicly about his addiction to drugs. and so he should not have been able to buy that firearm. he lied t fedal form when he purchased it. under this deal if he completes the terms that the court will assign to him he gets it expunged. it goes away at the end of this. those are the terms of the deal. we do believe this is a deal

that certainly was weeks and months in negotiations in the making. kaitlan. >> yeah, and i imagine -- obviously we saw from republicans responding almost immediately after this was reported from these court filings from the doj, saying essentially that they believe that this was an unfair deal that was cut because he is the president's son. what else were they saying, evan? >> reporter: yeah. this is just a preview of what i think you're going to hear from republicans, who believe that there's a lot more here to investigate involving the former -- the president's son and also other members of the family. here's just a sample of what they were saying today. >> it continues to show the two-tiered system in america. if you are the president's leading political opponent, doj tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. if you are the president's son, you get a sweetheart deal. >> i wonder if people that have been investigating the bidens if they knew about the money s,

laundering, and if they knew about the money wires. i think the u.s. attorney will be invited to testify to some committee. >> the department of justice offered mr. hunter biden a really good deal. i think the american people are still curious about where the real money came from and what he did for it. >> reporter: kaitlan, look, the fbi and the irs spent years investigating many of the things you just heard some of the lawmakers mention including allegations of money laundering, allegations that a -- foreign lobbying, business dealings in ukraine and china. and this is where they ended up. >> and that was when there was a trump-appointed attorney general leading the justice department. trump was in office. we'll get to that in a moment. evan perez, thank you. joining us now, conservative lawyer and "washington post" contributing columnist george conway.

you hear what the republicans were saying immediately. do you think there's any outcome of this that would have satisfied congressional republicans? >> no. absolutely not. i mean, if they had brought a rico charge against hunter biden, they would be complaining that what took you so long. there would be -- it's purely performative and it's purely reflexive as shown by the fact that when donald trump's indiment came down they didn't bother to read it to criticize it. and here it's just, you know, there was -- they were just omitting -- ignoring the fact that this investigation was conducted by a trump appointee, a republican u.s. attorney, who was allowed to stay on until -- you need to follow up on this, you need to finish this and we're not going to interfere with you. and i can't imagine after a five-year investment from the doj, this u.s. attorney's office, which actually had to bring in people from other states to make sure that there was no home state favoritism here in delaware, the fact is

that this u.s. attorney invested five years in this and i can't imagine he wouldn't have brought a charge if there -- a bigger charge if there was one warranted. >> and you mention the attorney, david weiss. and he said in a letter to jim jordan that was sent just about two weeks ago, "i want to make clear that as the attorney general has stated i have been granted ultimate authority over this matter including responsibility for deciding where, when and whether to file charges." but republicans are downplaying that he was the one doing this investigation. >> right. they're downplaying that because they want to push this narrative of two-tiered justice system. and they really don't -- if hunter biden -- if let's say the former president's son had been charged -- the former president has been investigated for all sorts of tax issues. he has paid minimal amounts of taxes over a number of years. and these same republicans are the people who would basically say that's a witch hunt and they refuse to look at that. and they've the same people who basically -- who basically want

to cut irs funding. and at the same time the son of the former president like don jr., you know, if -- i'm not saying he has some kind of a drug problem or anything like that. but if he were to have done the same thing they would be marching in the streets complaining that their second amendment rights are violated. >> the one thing we do know is republicans still have control of the house. james comer is sill the chairman of the house oversight committee. and aitoday he was saying they' not going to rest until their investigations of the biden family are done. even though they haven't uncovered any wrongdoing from the president. but james comer did list a variety of crimes, allegations, talking about wire fraud, money laundering, racketeering. evan noted this investigation has been going on for five years. is there any way that the justice department would have found any credible evidence of that but only gone forward with what they did -- >> it's just inconceivable. i mean, it is just inconceivable. and if the justice department, if main justice had done anything to try to interfere

with this investigation in delaware i can't imagine there wouldn't have been criticism that leaked out, as we've seen in other cases. so i think it's just -- you know, it's just political opportunism. it's false eck wif lens. it's what we've seen from the republicans when it comes to doing what they can to protect donald trump. >> george conway, thank you. and coming up, did former trump, speaking of his investigations, make an on-air admission that could aid the special counsel's federal case against him? we have details ahead. visuals that inspire pride district-wide. ♪ fastsigns. make your statement. the morgan stanley client experience? listening more than talking, and a personalized plan ♪ to guide you through a changing world. ♪

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the federal indictment of former president trump now has a trial date just tentatively. august 14th. prosecutors may have some fresh evidence to present as well. fox news aired an interview on monday with the former president that was conducted after trump was arraigned in miami last week. but in this interview the former president makes some seemingly frank admissions about his long tug of war battle with the national archives and subsequently the justice department over the sensitive documents that are at the center of the special counsel's indictment. >> no. >> they said can we get the documents back. and then they said they went to doj to subpoena you to -- >> which they've never done before. >> why not just hand them over then? >> because i had boxes. i want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. i don't want to hand that over to nara yet. and i was very busy, as you've sort of seen. >> but according to the indictment you then tell this aide to move to other locations

after telling your lawyers to say you'd fully complied with the subpoena when you hadn't. >> but before i send boxes over i have to take all of my things out. these boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things. golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes. there were many things. >> iran war plans? >> i would say much more -- not that i know of. but -- not that i know of. >> after that interview aired one of the former president's challengers, former new jersey governor chris christie, also a former federal prosecutor, said he believes it was an admission. >> it appears to me last night as a former prosecutor that he admitted obstruction of justice on the air last night to bret baier. i can tell you this. his lawyers this morning are jumping out of whatever window they're near. >> i'm joined now by cnn political analyst astead herndon, a national political reporter for the "new york times." and senior legal analyst elliott williams who i should note is a former deputy assistant u.s.

attorney general. elliott, when you hear comments like that, do you agree with chris christie that trump's attorneys should be jumping out of windows because he's essentially admitting to obstructing justice? >> they really should, kaitlan. and even if he didn't admit to the offense, he's providing evidence to the prosecution. to be clear, what the former president just admitted on air was that number one, he was aware that there was an investigation into him. number two, he was aware that he was possessing documents. and number three, that he was trying to hold on to those documents as a way of getting in the way of getting in the way of the investigation. if that's not an admission of obstruction of justice i don't know what is. at a minimum it's bad for the former president. this is really why defense attorneys just don't want their clients talking on the record ever once they've been charged with crimes. >> yeah, but we know that trump is someone who has often thought that he can kind of talk himself out of anything. astead, you recently spent time

in iowa speaking to voters about this. and obviously we'll see how the legal aspect of this plays out. we don't actually know the trial will be in august. but what did voters say? what were they saying about this? >> we were specifically focused on evangelical voters, the group that's really important when we think about the io republican electorate. and what we saw was there was basically two camps. if you were someone who was open to an alternative, someone who was already thinking about looking at the trump others in the race, this only made you more willing to do that. we talked to several people who said that even though they kind of dismissed the charges as kind of federal weaponization, not really thinking about the truth or fiction of the charges, that this was another instance of drama coming from donald trump and another kind of reason to look back rather than to look forward. we heard that over and over. you also heard a kind of big contingent of people really say that this was a reason to rally around him because they feel that he is someone who is being targeted. and i think it's important to actually note that the former group who was looking at alternatives weren't ruling out donald trump. right? they were saying that this made them be curious about someone like governor desantis, be

curious about others, but they weren't saying it was a reason to punish or rule donald trump out. so i think that's an important distichx because it means that he can certainly make up ground with some of the people he's lost because when we see things like that cnn polling today that shows a kind of softening of trump's support, that doesn't mean it's fatal for him in the republican primary. >> did even one person that you spoke with seem concerned about the indictment and the arraignment and the allegations? >> no one who we talked to who was a self-identified republican was worried about donald trump, the facts of it, the national security aspect of it. this is a group that has been primed to see this as a real thing to dismiss. and more so than that a reason to really dig in to their support. and for a lot of these people it was an attack on their own political identity and they would not allow him to really -- to really see this from a fact perspective. most people dismissed this stray off. >> elliot, when you look at this, and compared to that obviously there's the potential this could be playing out as this trial is going on. we heard today that there's an initial date for this that is in mid august.

it doesn't seem likely from anyone that i've spoken to that they think that that's a real date of when this is going to happen. but i wonder if you think that there is a real possibility of how trump delays this because i heard a concern from someone today that there's a possibility trump could appeal some points of it up to the 11th circuit, which would mean that the trial would be delayed until the 11th circuit would make decisions on some of those appeals. is that something that you could see playing out here? >> well, here's the thing, kaitlan. even under the best of circumstances this would have been a trial that would have taken a while -- a case that would have taken a while to get to trial anyway. whenever you're dealing with classified documents or sensitive documents or defense information in a criminal trial, you're going to have to litigate -- spend frankly sometimes weeks or months litigating how you present that information, number one, to the defendant himself but also to a jury or putting it in a public open court. this is incredibly sensitive information. and the defendant has rights as any criminal defendant would to an open speedy and public trial.

but that also means that when there's sensitive information there you can't put it all out in the open. they'd have to litigate that. so even under the best of circumstances it was going to take a little while to get there. whether that's delay on the part of the former president or simply just the realities of complicated litigation, this could take a minute to go to trial. we know well the former president's history of delaying and stalling tactics and really it falls to the court and the prosecutors to call attention to that and anyone it in the bud if it does happen. it's more just a question of wait and see how legitimate the filings that he makes and the pleadings he makes are. >> yeah. and of course judge cannon is going to have a lot of leeway on that. we'll see what she decides. astead herndon, elliot williams, thank you both. >> thank you. >> coming up, more of what astead was referring to there that is backed up by new cnn polling. president trump in the past has proven impervious to scandals. but the question is is that the case now. we'll tell you what the new polling shows us ahead.

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month ago to 47%. that drop is just outside of the poll's margin of error, i should note. but it is the biggest swing since may of any of the major candidates, as you can see. favorability among republican and republican-leaning voters is also down for the former president, from 77% in may to 67% now. those who view him unfavorably have increased from nine points to 27%. the new cnn poll also found that among all americans, not just republicans and republican-leaning voters, 61% approve of the decision to indict the former president. i'm joined now tonight by cnn's former chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny, who's in iowa, cnn's senior political commentator scott jennings who is a former special asint to president george w. bush. and sarah matthews a former press secretary for the trump administration and 2020 spokeswoman for his campaign. sarah, i think when you look at these polls tonight the answer on whether or not this latest

indictment and arraignment hurts him is kind of a maybe. >> yeah, i think that it's more than probably just the indictment and folks being outraged about it. i do think this is a really strong case against him. obviously, others in the republican party think that it's politically motivated. but i think that this latest indictment just serves as a further reminder of how much drama and baggage comes along with a donald trump candidacy. >> yeah, the questions of course of just how many there already are against him and if there could be more indictments to come. scott, this poll, though, is also suggesting that trump lost support from republican-leaning independents and members of his own party. how much of that is a concern for him given how crucial they are for him to be successful going forward? >> well, independents in general are a huge problem for donald trump. in fact, i was talking with some people in a rival campaign earlier tonight, the desantis campaign. they're going to be touting some polling that they've taken internally showing independents souring on trump as it relates to him taking on joe biden. they're going to talk about

purple states like arizona, pennsylvania and georgia showing independents going away from trump and making it harder for him to beat joe biden. so this is a big issue. the hardest-core supporter may think it's politically motivated and it may cause them to double down, but at the end of the day what republicans have to ask themselves is can we win a national election? we haven't won the national popular vote since 2004. do we think these charges make it more or less likely that we can win a national election? the answer's pretty obvious. >> yeah, it's not just getting through the primary, of course. jeff, just 12% in the gop say that in responding to this indictment that other republican candidates should focus on publicly condemning trump's alleged actions. 42% they should do more to publicly condemn the government and how they're prosecuting trump here. you're in iowa. what are voters saying tonight? >> well, kaitlan, there's no doubt that there is an opening for another candidate. but as our poll is showing, that there's not one single candidate who is the beneficiary of this

softening support. and the softening support is very real. we've been hearing this from voters really with every passing month they've been more willing to say, you know what, i'm just not sure that i want to go down this road again. they don't know the specifics of the indictment. they're not talking about the weaponization necessarily of the justice department. but they just are tiring of some of this endless drama. here's a snapshot of what we found over the last few days here in iowa. >> is there any trump fatigue that has set in, do you think? >> yeah, i do think there's a little. i don't know that people will say that out loud a lot. but i think some people get tired of the constant stress or chaos that comes with some of the issues with the former president. so yeah. again, i think there's some fatigue there. but somebody's got to fill that void. and nobody's doing it yet. but there's a possibility that -- again, that opening is there. >> so the opening is there. but again, no one directly filling that void.

we spent some time with asa hutchinson, of course the former arkansas governor, who's really been critiquing the former president the loudest. he's been calling for him to drop out of the race. of course that's not likely to happen. but a very lonely road for him and a bit of a mixed reaction at that type of a level. but when you talk to republican officials and voters here, this is something that is going to take a while. this poll is a snapshot in time. but time is what this is likely to take. a few people say what about a second indictment or a third indictment and a fourth indictment? so this is very much a moving target here. and the caucuses aren't for six or seven months. so some people will likely wait until then to see what the health of trump exactly is. >> yeah. and polls can change. and sarah, when it comes to the criticism that jeff was just referencing there from people like asa hutchinson or chris christie, they're kind of on their own here in speaking out. and this poll found that 54% majority of republican or republican-leaning voters say his conduct doesn't matter as much to them as how effective he is in office. >> i think that that's a fair

thing because obviously you want a president who's going to be effective and trump did have a lot of accomplishments that people can be proud of. but i don't think that trump -- the campaign that he ran in 2016 is the same as the campaign that he's now running in 2024. in 2016 he was this kind of larger-than-life candidate who was running on this vision for america that was different than anything else we had heard of from any other politician because he wasn't a politician. but now looking at the race that he's running in 2024 it seems to solely focus on himself. and he's talking about his past grievances and it's going to entirely focus pretty much on his legal battles and it's going to be hard for him to articulate what his vision now is for the american people because he's so caught up in his own legal troubles. >> and scott, i think what stuck out the most of this entire poll as i was looking at it this morning when it came out, is trump dropped six points as we just noted there in the one month and this poll was entirely conducted after -- completed after the arraignment.

but desantis did not gain at all in this poll. he stayed at 26%. trump was asked about his attacks on desantis tonight. this is what he said. >> do you see him as the biggest threat? >> well, he's the number two right now. yeah. i mean, the way he's going right now he's dropping like a rock he could be number three, number four and you won't ever hear me talking about him again. i like fighting number two. >> he's not number three or number four yet. he is still right behind trump. but he didn't gain any support. what do you make of that? >> well, i still think desantis is in a different universe from the rest of the republican candidates, although i have to say -- and i'd be interested in jeff's opinion of this. i have heard people on the trail in iowa, especially that tim scott has impressed a lot of people. but if you look at desantis's numbers, he's still by far a beloved figure in the republican party. and that's why he's polling so much better than the non-trump

candidates. you know, kaitlan, the thing that jumped out at me in the poll was that both trump and biden were at roughly 30% fave and 60% unfave. our polling shows that the american people dislike the two most likely options right now a tremendous amount. the american people do not want this. and the question i think a lot of people have is are the political parties going to do anything about it? because right now they're poised to nominate two guys the american people absolutely despise, at least if you believe our polling. 30% fave, 60% unfave. >> jeff zeleny, scott jennings, sarah matthews, thank you all. up next reporting on what the justice department reported not to do in the wake of january 6th and the attack on the capitol that flies in the face of a claim made by the former president and his allies when they say the justice department is out to get him. ♪ to help you see untapped possibilities and relentlessly w work with yu to make them real. ♪

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former president trump often claims he is being targeted by the justice department, the biden justice department, when it comes to prosecution. yet, when it comes to one major case, one that he is still facing as of tonight, there's new reporting in the washington post that suggests the exact opposite. the headline, fbi resisted

opening of probe into trump's role in january 6th for more than a year. according to the post reporting, there were several factors that contributed to the slow pace of opening an investigation. including a wariness about appearing partisan. joining us now, cnn national security analyst and the former director of national intelligence, james clapper. director clapper, when you look at this, and you read this post reporting, do you believe that there was a concern that they would look like they were going after biden's former, now political, opponent when it came to opening up an investigation into him and his allies on january 6th? >> well, absolutely, kaitlan. i think one man slow walking is another man's caution. i think that the decisions made here were reasonable and deliberate. and careful. there isn't much of a rulebook that tells you what to duel when you're investigating and

perhaps prosecuting a former president for felonies. i found, when i read the article, the decisions were reasonable. and appropriate. i know a couple of the players involved here, normally, lisa monaco and matt olson. lisa, deputy attorney general, matt, head of the national security division. two key positions in the department of justice. they are professional, competent, careful people. i think that, certainly, i think the attorney general, whom i don't, know is cut from the same cloth. i think this was quite reasonable. >> what about the consequences of moving slowly? couldn't communications have been deleted, or lost, or people's memories about what led up to that day weren't as great as they would have, been had this happened sooner, basically? >> that's possible, sure. i think it's a question of the

risk of some loss versus prudence and care, given what a highly charged issue this is. so, that is clearly one thing that could happen. on the other hand, if there was a rush to judgment, you can bet there would be a similar article about that. >> well i have you here tonight, i want to ask you about what we started with early in the show, talking about hunter biden. and his plea deal that he got tonight on his tax charges. in 2020, you and 50 other former intelligence officials had signed a public letter, warning about the laptop, saying it wreaked on russian interference. you said that you had no proof it was russia. and that you are raising what you said was a yellow flag later on. do you regret signing that letter, in the wake of how things have transpired, and where things were today? how republicans in congress are using that letter?

>> well, to answer your question, no, i don't regret it. i thought, at the time, it was appropriate to sound a warning about, watch out for the dark hand of the russians. in my case, this was on the heels of what i saw the russians do in 2016 to interfere and influence the outcome of our election. so, i thought it was appropriate. i thought the letter was appropriately caveat id, by acknowledging, we didn't have any direct evidence. to this day, i still have not seen any official results of forensic analysis of that laptop, as to whether or not, in some way, the russians messed with it. >> yeah, we haven't seen anything saying it was because of them, right? >> that's right. >> doctor james clapper, your expertise on both of the subjects, thank you so much for that. we'll be right back.

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