an update tonight on the investigation into the cocaine that was found at the white house. a law enforcement source telling cnn that the secret service is expected to finish its investigation early next week whether or not they can identify a suspect. investigators have already reviewed security footage and visitor logs to get into the white house but they have not yet gotten results of a fingerprint analysis or any kind of dna test. cnn previously reported the

cocaine was found in a cubby near the ground floor entrance of the white house. we will stay of course on top of the investigation. thank you so much for joining me tonight. "cnn tonight" starts right now. >> thank you very much. stand by for us because i want to talk about your new reporting tonight. in case everyone missed it cnn is now reporting tonight that prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the election are very interested in a chaotic white house meeting that took place in the final days of the trump administration. that meeting included rudy guiliani, so what do we know about why special counsel jack smith is pressing on some of these witnesses about this meeting? >> this is interesting, abby. we believe jack smith is in the closing days of the january 6 investigation, closing period i should note. we don't know it is actually days but it does appear to be winding down as they had this flurry of activity recently. one thing that i and our team have learned is as they were

going through this they have been asking questions for sometime but also recently about the chaotic oval office meeting that happened six weeks after donald trump lost the election. a lot of people will remember it from the january 6 hearings where attorneys in the white house were essentially pitted against these outside advisers to trump, outside advisers who wanted him to do crazy things like sign an executive order about getting the u.s. military to seize voting machines for those seven states that he lost. they were talking about martial law. they were talking about making sidney powell special counsel to investigate voter fraud. that was at the center of the heated meeting where insults were hurled. a lot of shouting was happening in that meeting. we are now told recently jack smith and his team have been asking witnesses about it whether that is the investigators or before the grand jury. they were doing this several months ago with some witnesses and more recently. one of those is rudy guiliani

who we know went before and sat down voluntarily with jack smith's team last month two days back to back and was asked about a range of topics we are told. his attorney is not commenting on this tonight but we are told by sources that was something that he was asked about in that meeting. just raising a lot of questions about what the end result of the investigation could look like. >> that is what this is all about. we are now coming upon what could be the end game here. we know the january 6th grand jury met again today. do we have a sense of what is next? >> i think a big question is what, if there are charges what they could focus on. everyone is kind of trying to play this game, even attorneys in the former president's orbit as well. is it going to focus on the fake electors and that scheme to have them, the seven states that he lost, will it focus more exclusively on the figures at the center of this, john eastman, sidney powell, mike

flynn, patrick burn the former ceo of overstock. those are the big questions and i don't think anyone has a sense. the big question is whether donald trump himself is indicted in that investigation or if he is an unindicted coconspirator or not mentioned a the all. there are so many questions. it is such a bigger, broader investigation than the documents investigation. that is why people are having a hard time kind of guessing what it is going to look like. >> of course added to all of that you have elements in arizona you've been reporting on this week as well. this is a sprawling case and we'll see where it all turns out. thank you so much for staying a little later for us. >> of course. >> speaking of january 6th a judge today ruling that a convicted rioter cannot attend the festival this weekend in missouri to honor those who stormed the capitol. kenneth thomas was convicted last month of seven crimes including assaulting an officer and i wanted to bring in now thomas's attorney john pierce, the founder and chairman of the

national constitutional law union. he is represented actually 35 january 6 defendants in addition to kenneth thomas. so, john, thanks for being here. i want to start with this. he is awaiting sentencing, your client here. why would a judge give him permission to attend a festival that is essentially celebrating the thing he was convicted for? >> i would take issue with the idea that this is a celebrating things he was convicted for. i would take some issue with the language in some of your lead up about folks storming the capitol. january 6th was a very complex event with a lot of people who engaged in various kinds of conduct. mr. joseph thomas was found not guilty of engaging in violence on capitol grounds. >> well he was found guilty of assaulting a police officer. >> so the statute that you are referring to actually contains multiple kinds of conduct that can be the basis for liability

it under so you could have the typical kind of assault you're speaking of or impeding or obstructing a police officer in their duties. so he was found not guilty of engaging in violence on the capitol grounds. that was a specific charge. and so we believe the jury found that in that count they found him guilty on that would have been impeding or obstructing an officer not assaulting an officer. >> look, i think the issue here though is january 6th. this was a festival that is about celebrating, honoring, whatever you want to describe it the event that led to your client being convicted of multiple counts and also several of your other clients. so a judge, why would any judge in their right mind allow him to do that? >> so i push back on you a little bit and then come back to your question. these folks -- >> answer my question first. >> i will come right to it. these folks are not going to, i believe it is in missouri, to celebrate any kind of armed insurrection.

nobody has been charged with insurrection. they are not going there to celebrate violence. these people are going there to pray. they are going there to have a sense of community. these people have been through an incredible ordeal up against the most powerful forces on the planet with unlimited resources. they are trying to raise money so they can pay very limited legal fees that they are able to pay so they have some funds for commissary in prison when detained. they are not going there to celebrate any kind of violence. now, we requested of the judge who i respect very, very much. i hope and i think she knows that, we requested a modification of his conditions so he could attend. he is a minister. he wanted to go there to pray and be with this community. she denied that request, which she has the power to do. we respect her decision. we are obviously disappointed in it. but, you know, you have to remember these folks do not give up their first amendment rights

in the course of this. >> is your client remorseful about his actions on january 6th? >> i think as he said at trial there are certain things that he wish had happened differently. but, you know, the trial laid out very clearly he was there to have his voice be heard. he was there to protect other people. there is very clear evidence there was excessive force by police officers and he was trying to assist an elderly person who was being beaten by batons on the ground. >> look, i have to stop you there because honestly we watched what happened on january 6th. okay? and you can make sort of legalistic arguments about what exactly your client was convicted of and what he was not. there is no question there was violence at the capitol, that officers were assaulted on that day. there is no question about that. there is also no question that your client was -- participated in pushing back against law enforcement officers who were doing their jobs which was protecting the capitol that day.

so i just, we have to put that on the table but i do want to ask you this. you are his attorney right? he hasn't even been sentenced yet. isn't -- i don't see the sort of legal wisdom here of him asking to do this when it could ag re investigate potentially how -- aggravate how he is sentenced. >> he and many feel very strongly they went to two washington, d.c. to have their voices heard. the narrative with all due respect to your network sometimes has been pushed that this was a, just a violent event that, there was violence on both sides. >> no, no. it was a violent event. look, it was a violent event. police officers were there doing their job. >> abby, some of the police

officers were not doing their jobs. some of the police officers were going way beyond doing their jobs including unjustified lethal force. okay? >> look, listen. >> january 6 is not as simple. >> john, a mob was attacking the capitol. they were trying to break into the chamber. some of them were armed. many of them assaulted police officers to the point of permanent, long-term injury. look, i know you have 35 clients here that you are representing in these cases. i know in some ways this event which is actually also a fundraising event would help pay for your legal bills. but at the end of the day, he was convicted. of his, for his actions on that day. he is probably you would agree facing jail time. so the seriousness of the crime is really not in question here. and i also don't think that it is legitimate in any way to say that just because this were a couple people milling around

that it wasn't, the object of that day -- >> that is a fundamentally, that is an unfair way to -- the vast majority of individuals -- >> it is the -- >> you have to let me finish. the vast majority -- i know this stuff better than you with all due respect. way better. the vast majority of individuals who are on the capitol grounds were there and peaceful. there were obviously -- >> that does not include your client. >> we argued at trial that it did and he was found not guilty. he was found not guilty of violence on the capitol grounds. not guilty. >> he was found guilty in seven other counts. do you think it is likely he'll serve prison time for those counts? >> i do think it is likely, yes. >> all right. >> this was the best jury verdict so far of any january 6 case. >> which i think says quite a lot about the seriousness of the accusations against a lot of your clients. i have to leave it there. thank you very much for joining

us. >> thank you. >> we have a very busy show. coming up next presidential hopeful vivek joins me live. plus the mysterious whereabouts of the revolt leader that russia just got clear and the discovery includes gold and wigs and in the mystery of the cocaine found at the white house a forensics expert will join mae next on how they are finding the culprit. by providing blankets for comfort and warmth and encouraging messages of hope to help p support nearly three hundred thousand patients facing cancer nationwide. we call it “the subaru love promise.” and we're proud to be the largest automotive donor to the leukemia and lymphoma society. subaru. more than a car company. good checkup? no, great checkup! [laughs]

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tonight is the mercenary leader who led a revolt against vladimir putin's power still alive? his whereabouts have been a mystery but today we learned that prigozhin is not actually if belarus. it is unclear if his wagner fighters will move to belarus and it is throwing more confusion on that deal that supposedly ended the armed insurrection. it comes as russian state tv is releasing new images of a raid on prigozhin's st. petersburg property, footage showing money, wigs, and gold found at the property. it all raises questions about what moscow's plans are for prigozhin. joining me now on this plus many other issues, republican candidate vivek rams saswamy.

you proposed as i think many people know now a 72-hour window as president if you were elected for putin to agree to a deal that would pull him away from beijing in exchange for the united states ending, effectively, its support for ukraine. my question to you is why would putin stop at only parts of ukraine that they've already invaded when he has hinted he has much broader ambitions for ukraine? >> so look. putin would accept a deal because it allows him to achieve something he wants. he does not being xi jinping's little brother in that relationship. the reason i would do that deal is that it would still advance american interests because the top military threat that we face is the china-russia alliance. nobody else in either political party is talking about it. but if you combine russia's nuclear stockpile and its

hypersonic missile capabilities with china's economy and large land mass and the fact it is an adversary to the u.s. as well as its naval capacity they out match us. so i think our top objective should be to pull putin out of that alliance. putin does not enjoy being second fiddle to xi jinping and that is why i think he'll take that deal. i think we have to end that ukraine war by freezing current lines of control. >> well, look. i think the other question here is if you basically give putin what they have seized by force, how would that stop china from seizing by force taiwan for example? i think the principle here many people would argue is that there is a world order in which you don't just get to seize territory by waging wars on your neighbors. >> so china is -- has one constraint after going after taiwan. i want to tap into that. xi jinping has confidence that

vladimir putin is in his camp and his bet is that the u.s. will not want to go after two allied nuclear super powers at the same time. but if putin is no longer in xi jinping's camp then xi jinping absolutely has to think twice before going after taiwan. i think taiwan is more important for the u.s. than is ukraine because we depend on the semiconductors that come from that island nation that power our modern way of life including our cell phones, cameras, all modern technology, our cars, and so on. that is why i think that taiwan and ukraine are not really the same thing. we shouldn't treat them the same, either. but it is by ending the war in ukraine and doing that deal that requires putin to exit his alliance with china that we also deter china from going after taiwan in a way that avoids war. that should be a top foreign policy objective of the next president. >> one alternative of course is that putin and xi jinping have much more than economic ties but also are both authoritarian

leaders and they, on a sort of values proposition have more in common with each other, don't you think? >> you could have said the same thing about brezhnev and mao in 1972 when nixon made the move of pulling mao from under brezhnev's hands. today putin is the new mao. i don't trust vladimir putin on anything. but i do trust him to follow his self-interest. i think if we are willing to normalize economic relations with russia, willing to freeze the current lines of control, willing to guarantee that nato will not admit ukraine as vladimir putin asked for in late 2021 before he invaded then i think it will be in putin's interests to actually renormalize those relations with the west as long as he exits the military relationship with china and i would also require that he remove nuclear weapons from len ingrad which borders poland as well as remove the russian

military from the western hemisphere. that is how we advance american interests while ending the war in ukraine >> i want to turn to a domestic policy issue, something you haven't been vocal about and it is entitlements like social security and medicare. it is an issue that has become a point of contention between donald trump and ron desantis. question to you is would you make changes to social security and medicare if you were elected? >> so the classic debate right now is between tax increases on the democrat side versus cuts to entitlements among some on the republican side. i personally believe there is a better way. a third way. focus on gdp growth itself. i am the only candidate in either party who believes and acts on the fact that we can grow our way out of our problems. it is true if you grow -- >> you think you can grow your way out of medicare and social security needing -- i am presenting to you what many of your republican colleagues say. they say it is going to be

insolvent. in just a couple decades. you think you can grow your way out of that problem without addressing the fundamentals of those programs? >> that is correct. if you continue to grow at this year's current gdp growth rate of less than 1% then absolutely we are going to be in trouble. in 20 years we run out of money. for most of our national history we have grown over 3 to 4 plus% in gdp growth. i have a clear plan how to restore that in relatively short order. first is you unlock american energy, drill frac, burn coal, put people back to work. >> will you pledge then to not touch social security and medicare, take into consideration your economic plans but would you pledge not to touch social security and medicare if you are elected president? >> i do. in fact, the irony is that when we're growing at high gdp growth rate again by the time i'm out of office in january, 2033, we

will be growing at over 4%. ironically it is when the country is at its strongest economically, when our citizens are making more money we can then have a rational conversation about whether we have the political consensus to draw distinctions between people who say made $10 million or more in their lifetime versus those who have not when it comes to social security or medicare. >> all right. >> right now it is not that environment. in a shrinking economy we should not cut entitlements. >> can i ask you about another issue something your opponents ron desantis and donald trump called for including very recently which is an end to birth right citizenship. what is your position on that? would you end birth right citizenship >> i think for a period of time it is necessary in this country because we have an influx of migrants across that southern border, 14,000 plus per day by some estimates crossing that southern border. that is the abandonment of the rule of law.

if migrants are coming illegally, intentionally to be able to establish an illegal hoe hold in the united states i think that is something we should not abide in this country. >> we should say also you were, both of your parents are immigrants to the united states so you would have been a beneficiary of birth right citizenship but now are saying you would ban that for people coming into the country. what is the period of time for which that would be the case? >> for people coming into the country illegally. that is the key distinction. people make this mistake all the time and you have to be really careful when you talk about the difference between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. one is founded on following the rule of law. the other is founded on breaking the rule of law. there is a distinction. border security and immigration are not the same issue. >> what i am saying is birth right citizenship as it is currently in law does not make that distinction between whether that person was born to someone legally or not. you are saying that even though

birth right citizenship for you was something in play you would take it off the table now and my question also is how long would that be the case? also how would you do it? would you go to congress for a constitutional amendment? >> actually i have supported the 28th amendment to the constitution. i'll actually go one step further on this, abby. i don't think someone just because they are born in this country even a sixth generation american should automatically enjoy all the privileges of citizenship until they have earned it. one of the things i've said is every high school student who graduates from high school should have to pass the same civics test that every immigrant has to pass in order to become a citizen of this country. i believe there are civic duties attached to citizenship so much so that i don't think you should automatically get your right to vote at age 18 unless you have passed that same citizenship test that immigrant had to pass or else have served the country.

part of my broader pro civic vision >> i understand that though i think there are questions about why younger americans would have less citizenship rights than older americans. i want to move on here. you have been seeing a bump in recent polling and that is probably as a result of you being in a lot of different places and campaigning and in new hampshire former president trump had some unusually warm words for you. i want you to take a listen. >> actually vivek is, well, ramaswamy is leading most of our candidates. you know why? he says trump is one of the greatest presidents in the histories of our country. i said i like that guy. i like him. i said, are you sure he's running against me? you know? that is a pretty severe statement. but he is very good. he is actually a pretty good guy. >> so what do you make of that? i should say some people have

suggested that trump is using your candidacy to undermine his biggest rival right now which is desantis. >> we are very early in this race so i think anybody trying to draw the front-runners before the first debate is missing the plot just like 2016. i am running to lead this nation forward. it is true trump and i have a couple things in common. we are both outsiders who had success in business and didn't grow up in the world of politics. i think we have a lot of common cause both in standing for america first agenda but i am in this race to take it to the next level. to actually secure the southern border by moving the military to secure that border. shutting down government agencies that should not exist. i've said i would end affirmative action by executive order by rescinding the one lyndon johnson wrote into law. that every other republican president since then could have negated. in many ways i am going further than trump but i also hope to

unite the country by doing it based on first principles and moral authority. so do i respect a lot of his accomplishments for this country? absolutely. and i've been unapologetic about saying so. i am in this race as the first millennial ever to run for this nomination to take that to the next level because i have fresh legs and i'm reaching the next generation while i do it >> i have to ask you would you be open to being trump's running mate? >> i would not. i am actually focused on winning the presidency. if you're like me, got two young sons at home making the sacrifices we are putting over $15 million of my money into this campaign already, hard earned money not what i inherited. i didn't inherit money. you know what? you make those sacrifices if you want to actually drive a national revival. like ronald reagan did it in 19 1980 revolution, in a good spirited way we're looking for the ramaswamy revolution and that is what i will deliver.

>> did i hear you say you put $50 million into your campaign? >> 15. >> $15 million. where will you stop on self-funding? >> we'll stop at nothing. to be honest with you we've gotten also over 60,000 unique donors. i haven't said that i think in other settings yet. we crossed 60,000 unique donors at the start of july. i know many other candidates are talking about 40,000 being a tough threshold for the republican debate stage. i am a first-time candidate. i've never had a donor list in my life. we already crossed 60,000. this is a grass roots campaign. people are responding to the message of putting american interests first. but doing it based on principles and moral foundations. and i think that is going to take us not only all the way to the white house but to a national revival in the eight years thereafter. that is what i'm looking to lead. >> all right. vivek ramaswamy thank you very much for joining us tonight on all of those issues. >> thank you, abby. and up next for us the secret service is still trying

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the mystery deepens. federal law enforcement is still working to figure out how a dime sized bag of cocaine made it into the white house. the substance was found earlier this week near the ground floor entrance of the west wing. a law enforcement official tells cnn adeggsal tests are being conducted including dna and fingerprint analysis. for more i want to bring in the executive director of syracuse university's forensic and national security science institute. thanks for joining us. i wonder, this dna and fingerprint analysis is being done on this baggy. what is that process like? what kinds of tools are being used and what other kinds of testing could be useful here? >> so basically what happens when we get typically drug evidence into a crime lab is

that they are going to first separate the drug evidence from the packaging. so the -- they'll separate the physical solid drugs which goes off for drug testing which sounds like this already happened and they determined it was cocaine and then the packaging actually can go off and be processed in the latent print section for fingerprints or go off and be processed in the dna section to generate dna profiles or sometimes they can do both. >> i want to show people wt the size of a dime bag of cocaine would look like basically. it is pretty small. do you think that has any significance for the work of the investigators trying to collect whatever evidence they might be able to on the baggy itself? >> yes. certainly. i mean, anything that is this small, this size is going to be hard both to get fingerprints and for dna. particularly for fingerprints, you know, the size of the bag, there is just not a lot of surface area on there. also depending how often it is

held, is it crumbled up in someone's pocket for a week or if it is pristine it could depend if you get fingerprints. in terms of dna, also the size really makes a big difference. it is really small. and so they have to swab it and then do dna analysis. really what we are talking about is touch dna. someone that held this ziploc bag and they might leave traces of dna on there so there is really not a large amount of dna. very often we don't get enough dna to get a full profile. additionally we often get mixtures of more than one person's dna. that is because the item could have been handled by multiple people or even if i were to touch something i might leave my dna on it but if i touch something prior to that i might also carry other dna on it. very often on drug baggies like this we get dna mixtures. >> all right. thank you very much. it sounds like we'll be perhaps getting some answers next week as the investigation moves into the next phase according to the

secret service. >> i hope so. >> thank you. oddly enough there is a long history of drugs at the white house for a lot of different reasons of course. >> there is one thing you wrote about a number of years ago that happened in the 1970s. i still can't believe it really happened. i have to ask you. you wrote when jimmy carter was president you visited the white house and snuck up on to the roof and smoked a joint. is that? -- is that something that -- >> i hope that happened. >> you hope that happened? >> i really hope i did that. [ laughter ] >> well, it is worth noting that pot is now legal here in washington, d.c. except on federal properties like the white house but in 1989 bush 41 brought a prop into the oval office during his antidrug address. >> this is crack cocaine, seized

a few days ago by drug enforcement agents in a park just across the street from the white house. it could easily have been heroin or pcp. it is as innocent looking as candy but it is turning our cities into battle zones and it is murdering our children. let there be no mistake. this stuff is poison. by the way, guess who gave the democratic response to bush's speech that night? >> in line with what the president is calling for, we have to hold every drug user accountable because if there were no drug users there would be no appetite for drugs and no market for them. >> more reese lint snoop dogg made this claim. >> have you ever smoked at the white house? >> in the bathroom. >> you did. >> in the white house. >> in the bathroom. >> wow. >> in the white house but in the bathroom. i said may i use the bathroom

for a second? they said what are you going to do number one or number two? >> who said this the first lady? >> no. the cia. or the fbi. the alphabet boys. i said, look. when i do the number two i usually, you know, have a cigarette or i light something to get the aroma right. they said you know what? you can light a piece of napkin. i said i'll do that and the napkin was this. >> this is some story. >> something tells me that one may not be true. snoop dogg did, though, post this video of him smoking outside of the white house. there he goes. coming up next for us the mayor of new york says he has kept a picture of a slain officer in his wallet for decades but the question now is, is that story even true? new allegations and the niece of that officer join me next live.

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there is new controversy tonight circling new york city's mayor eric adams. you may have seen or heard him reference this photo of a fallen nypd officer. mayor adams claims that this is his friend and he carries h photo with him in his wallet every day. robert venable was tragically killed in the line of duty in 1987. >> go back to the days of thinking of robert venable, my close colleague who died in the line of duty. i still think about robert. i keep a picture of robert in my wallet. >> this photo appears a little weathered which would make sen if he had been carrying it around for decades but according to the "new york times" it was actually just printed last year by city hall employees who were directed to spill coffee on to give it the older look.

the mayor's office is calling this report a false attack saying in part to be clear mayor adams made a photo copy of a photograph of officer venable that was printed in an nypd transit news bulletin from november, 1987 which mayor adams still has possession of to this day and which "the times" saw. with us now is meredith benson the niece of robert venable and she joins me now. meredith, thank you for being here. you told the "new york times" initially that you would be disappointed if that story about the photo in his wallet were true. i wonder, do you still feel that way? >> to me it is not about the photo. what i am upset about is just that the "new york times" wants to use the legacy of my uncle to discredit the mayor. that is not what my family is interested in at all.

>> does it matter to you that the mayor used your uncle's story to kind of show this relationship over the years? what does that mean to you that he has been telling this story in the first place? >> gun violence is real and gun violence is what killed my uncle. and if his story can be used to help end gun violence in the city of new york, in the city i love and was born and raised in then by all means. eric adams was someone who was definitely a friend of our family. he helped my family through a very difficult time through our trauma and my grandmother held eric in very high regard and they had a wonderful relationship and my grandmother kept up with him over the years and was very excited and happy to see him get a masters degree and grow up in the ranks of the

new york city police department and was ecstatic when he became the brooklyn bureau president. he had enough of history with my family and i think his story is genuine. >> does it matter to you if the picture was staged? >> does it matter to me if the picture was staged? personally i don't think he would do that. i don't think he had a reason to do that and i think his intention was to draw attention to gun violence and i think his intention was to use the story of a friend. someone who he had a relationship with prior to his death to highlight this scourge on our community still exists. if he thinks about my uncle every day when he is working with the city and writing legislation and thinks about the loss and pain my family still

has then by all means use the story, use the photo and get it done. he is a mayor of the people, mayor of new york city and we expect him to do right by the city. >> thank you very much for joining us tonight and sharing your family story with us. >> you are quite welcome. gop presidential candidate ron desantis doubling down on his campaign trail. coming up next the president of the log cabin republicans weighs in on the controversy.

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republican presidential candidate ron desantis doubling down on a controversial video from his campaign, slamming

president trump's vowed to protect lgbtq rights. in an interview with conservative commentator tony blair desantis called the video totally fair game. >> you know, identifying donald trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream where he was having men compete against women in his beauty kept pageants, i think it is our game. now he's campaigning saying the opposite, that is not think that you should have men competing in stuff like women's athletics. >> for more want to bring in charles moran, he is the president of log cabin republicans. these are desantis is a first comments on this video, what do you make of his reaction? >> well, just hearing is opening words talking about injecting gender ideology into the debates, the opening lines of that ad that his campaign retreated have president trump addressing the nation after the

pulse nightclub shooting. i don't know how addressing a national tragedy just miles from governor desantis's then congressional district is injecting gender ideology. look, it is clear and we are seeing it from across the conservative spectrum, this out was misdirected, it wasn't as planned, and it was not setting the right tone. the republican party and conservative movement has moved beyond a lot of these divisive social issues and there are truly threats out there from the extreme left and elements of the lgbtq immunity trying to impose radical gender theory, but this video went in a different direction. >> you say that the republican party has moved beyond that, but a lot of people, advocates, lgbtq advocates have been saying for a long time that the focus on trans issues would inevitably have a snowballing effect, escalating the rhetoric against lgbtq individuals. has this rhetoric gotten out of control? >> well, i think that the problem is actually that it is being lumped in as, quote,

trans issues. but it is really radical gender theory. what we are seeing in some coloring books, content that is being pushed out in primary education and higher education is not trends and i want to make that distinction between what our trans issues versus what are radical gender issues. >> as you pointed out, the value targets lgbtq video -- people in general. trump is talking about lgbtq people. >> that is the threat behind this video. instead of being very precise, and trump is actually been fairly precise and his criticism of radical gender very, governor desantis paints a very broad stroke. going after people like caitlin jenner, going after a drag queen named lady mulga. these are not the problem is that the conservative movement is typically focused on, this ad was so miss directed towards what the real threat is and the response from governor desantis it was a total sidestep. he did not address it, he didn't even address some of the

most important things in the video, and he missed an opportunity that brings all americans together, definitely conservatives around protecting women sports, women's faces, preventing gender transition below the age of 18. that is our things with broad general agreement, and desantis did not focus on that. >> do you think this is disqualifying for desantis? >> i think there are going to be a lot of people who look and listen to the argument that people make, which is allegedly that governor desantis is more electable than donald trump. when you see things being put out like this, from his campaign, it completely destroys that argument that he is more electable than donald trump and it actually has been entertaining watching left-wing media sitting here and having a field day, celebrating the fact that donald trump is actually lgbtq inclusive that ron desantis is, after spending so many years demonizing trump and his achievements like promoting the end of hiv in america and calling on the decriminalization of homosexuality international,

which trump championed. >> charles moran, thank you so much for joining us i appreciate you coming in. another classic american band is calling it quits. that story and alison camerota is next. - i got the cabin for three days. it's gonna be sweet! what? i'm 12 hours short. - have a fun weekend. - ♪ unnecessaryction hero! unnecessary. ♪ - was that necessary? - no. neither is a blown weekend. with paycom, employees do their own payroll so you can fix problems before they become problems. - hmm!

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it's an american classic, but the eagles today are announcing their upcoming tour will be their last and they are not thonly ones. other artists are singing their ng ts year, including aerosmith, elton john, kenny logins, gladys knight, foreigner, and kiss. that is a lot of legends all in one year. so you better go get your tickets now, thank you for joining me tonight i am abby philips. cnn tonight continues right now with my friend alison camerota. i know you'll be first in line? >> i did see the eagles about two or three years ago, they were fantastic. i highly recommend it, but i also want to say this. i also saw the rolling stones farewell tour in 1981. and so i don't necessarily believe it when a band