white house. but they have not yet gotten the result of a fingerprint analysis or any kind of dna test. cnn previously reported that the cocaine was found in a convenor the entrance of the -- we will stay, of course, on top of that investigation. thank you so much for joining me tonight. cnn tonight with abby philip. starts right now. >> -- an update tonight on the investigation that was found at the white house -- along 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 viewed security footage and visitor logs to get into the white house, but they have not yet gotten a result of a fingerprint analysis or any kind of dna test. cnn previously reported that the cocaine was found in a cubby near the ground four entrance of the white house. we will stay, of course, on top of that investigation. thank you so much for joining me tonight. cnn tonight with abby phillip starts right now. >> hey, kaitlan collins, thank you very much.

and stand by for us -- because i want to talk about your new reporting tonight. and 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. now that meeting included rudy giuliani. so, kaitlan collins, what do we know about why special counsel jack smith is pressing on some of these witnesses about this meeting? >> yeah, this is interesting, abby, because we believe that jack smith is in the closing days of the january 6th investigation. closing period i should note, we don't know that it's actually days. but it does appear to be winding down, as they've had this flurry of activity recently. and one thing that i entertained have learned, is that as they were going through this, they have been asking questions for some time, but also recently, about that chaotic oval office meeting that happened six weeks after donald trump lost the election. i think a lot of you will remember from the january 6th 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, like signed an executive order about getting the u.s. military to seize voting machines for the seven states that he lost. they were talking about martial law, they were talking about making sidney powell a special counsel to investigate voter fraud. that was at the center of this heated meeting, where insults were hurled. a lot of shouting was happening in that meeting. and we are now told that recently,, jack smith and his team have been asking witnesses about it, whether that's with the investigators or before the grand jury. they were doing this several months ago if some witnesses, they've been doing it with more witnesses recently. one of those is rudy giuliani, who we know went before and sat down voluntarily with jack smith's team last month for two days, back to back. he was asked about a range of topics, we were told, his attorney is not commenting on this tonight. but we were told by sources that this was something that he was asked about in that meeting. so, just raising a lot of

questions of what the end result of this investigation could look like. >> and that's really what this is all about. i mean, we are now coming up on what could be the endgame here. we know the january 6th grand jury met again today. do we have a sense of what's next? >> i think a big question is, if there are charges, what they could focus on. everyone is trying to play this game, even attorneys in the former presidents orbit as well. is it going to focus on the fake electors and that scheme to have them -- the seven states he lost? will it focus more explicitly on the figures at the center of this, john eastman, sydney powell, mike flynn, patrick byrne, who is the former ceo of overstock? there is in the big questions -- indicted in that investigation or if he's an unindicted coconspirator, or if he's not mentioned at all. and i think there are just so many questions.

and it's such a bigger, broader investigation than the documents. investigation. i think that's why people are having a hard time getting what it's going to look like? >> yeah, and of course, adding to all that, you have the elements in arizona, which you have been reporting on this week as well. this is a swelling case, and we will see where it all turns out. kaitlan collins, thank you so much for staying a little bit later for us. >> of course. i think, you abby phillip. -- >> -- cannot attend a -- in missouri to honor those who stormed the capitol. kenneth thomas was convicted last month of seven crimes, including assaulting an officer. and i want to bring in now thomas's attorney, john pierce. he is the founder and chairman of the national constitutional law union. and he has represented, actually, 35 january 6th defendants, in addition to kenneth thomas. so, john, thanks for being here. first, i just want to start with this.

he is awaiting sentencing, your client here. why would a judge give him permission to attend the festival, that is essentially celebrating the thing he was convicted for? >> well, i would take issue with the idea that this is celebrating the things that he was convicted for. and i actually take some issue with the language in some of you are lead up about folks storming the capitol. january 6th was a very complex event, there were a lot of people who engaged in various kinds of conduct. mr. thomas, kenneth joseph thomas, was found not guilty of engaging in violence on the 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 under it. so, you could have a typical kind of assault that you are speaking of, or impeding or obstructing a police officer in their duties. and so, he was found not guilty of engaging in violence on the capitol grounds, that was a specific charge. and so, we believe that the

jury found that in that count, that they found him guilty, and that would have been impeding or obstructing an officer, not assault of an officer. >> look, i think the issue here, though, is january 6th. this is a festival that is about, celebrating, honoring -- whatever you want to describe it -- the event that led to you are 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 would push back on you a little bit, and then come back to your question -- >> -- answer my question? >> i will come right to it. these folks are not going to -- i believe it's in missouri -- to celebrate any kind of armed insurrection. nobody's been charged with insurrection. they are not going there to celebrate violence. these people are going there to pray. they're going there to have a sense of community. these people have been through an incredible ordeal. they are up against the most powerful forces on the planet,

with unlimited resources. they are trying to raise, money so that they can pay very limited legal fees that they're able to pay, so they have some funds for commissary in prison when they are detained. they are not going there to celebrate any kind of violence. now, we requested of judge friedrich, who i respect very very, much, and i hope and i think that she knows that -- we requested a modification of his conditions, so that 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've got to remember, these folks do not give up there first amendment rights. >> well, is your client remorseful about his actions on january 6th? >> i think that, as he said in trial, i think there are certain things that he wished had happened differently. but, the trial laid out very

clearly that he was there to have his voice be heard, he was there to protect other people, and it was very clear evidence that there was excessive force by police officers, and he was trying to assist an elderly person who was being beaten by batons when he was 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 legally stick legalistic arguments about what -- there is no question about that. there's also no question that you are client ways 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. he hasn't even been sentenced yet. i don't see the sort of legal

wisdom here of him asking to do this, when it could aggravate, potentially, how he is sentenced in this case. >> kenneth joseph thomas, like many of my defendants, like many january 6th defendants, feel very, very strongly that, to a large extent, that they went to washington d.c. that day to have their voices be heard. there was -- look, the narrative, with all due respect to your network, sometimes has been pushed, that this was just a violent event -- that there was violence on both sides. >> -- violent -- >> -- >> it was a violent event. look, it was a violent event. police officers were there. >> abby, some of the police officers were not doing their jobs. some of the police officers we're going way beyond doing there jobs, including unjustified lethal force, okay. --

>> 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 that you have 35 clients here, that you are representing in these cases. i know that 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 -- for his actions on that day. he's 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 there were a couple of people milling around, that it wasn't an -- that the objective -- >> that is an unfair way to -- the vast majority of -- >> it is --

>> you have to let me finish -- the vast majority. i know this stuff better than, with all due respect. way better. the vast majority of individuals who were on the capitol grounds, where they are, and they were peaceful. >> that does not include your client. >> we argued, at trial, that it did. and he was found -- >> -- >> he was found not guilty of violence on the capitol grounds. not guilty -- >> he was found guilty of seven of the counts. do you think it's likely he will serve prison time for those counts? >> i do think it's likely, yes. this was the best jury verdict so far of any january 6th -- >> which i think says quite a lot about the seriousness of the accusations against a lot of your clients, but john, i have to leave it there, thank you you very much. >> thank you. >> for joining us, and we have a busy show tonight. coming up next, 2024 presidential hopeful vivek ramaswamy, joins me live on the 2024 race, and several domestic and foreign policy issues. plus, the mysterious whereabouts of the revolt

leader -- in russia just got to clear. and the discovery includes gold, and also wigs. and, in the mystery of that cocaine found at the white house, a forensics expert will join me next, on how they are finding the culprit. just sold the car to carvana. what? all i had to do was answer a couple questions and got a real offer in seconds. then, they just picked up the car and paid me right on the spot. sell your car at carvana dot com today. scout is protected by simparica trio, and he's in it to win it. simparica trio is the first and only chew with triple protection. oh, fleas and ticks ♪ intestinal worms... wow heartworm disease, no problem with simarica trio. this drug class has been associated with neurologic adverse reactions including seizures. use with caution in dogs with a history of these disorders. for winning protection. go with simparica trio.

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eva's about to learn her fear of missing out leads to overeating. i totally eat stuff to not miss out. and that's just a bit of psychology eva learned from noom weight. sign up now at noom.com >> 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

in belarus. it's unclear if his wagner fighters will move to belarus, and it's throwing more confusion on that deal that supposedly ended the armed insurrection. now, 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. and it all raises questions about what moscow's plans are for prigozhin. joining me now on this, plus many, many other issues, is republican presidential candidate vivek ramaswamy. welcome sir, to the program. i do want to start there, on the war in ukraine. it is obviously taken on renewed urgency after yevgeny prigozhin's uprising, and kyiv's offensive. and you proposed, as i think many people know now, a 72-hour window -- if you are elected, for putin to agree to a --

ending, effectively, it support for ukraine. but my question to you is, why would putin stop at only parts of ukraine that they've already -- that they've already invaded? when he has hinted that 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 enjoy being president xi's little brother in that relationship. but the reason i would do that deal, is that it would still advanced american interest. 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 rushes nuclear stockpile, and it's hypersonic missile capabilities, combined with china's economy and its large land mass, and the fact that it's an adversary to the u.s., as well as its naval capacity, they out matches. so i think it is our top objective should be to pull putin out of that alliance. putin does not enjoy being the

second fiddle to xi jinping. that's why i think he will take that deal. but i do think we have to end that ukraine war, by freezing the current lines of control. >> well, look. i think the other question 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 -- actually one constraint, i'm going after taiwan. i want to tap into that constraint. right now xi jinping has confidence that vladimir putin is in his camp. and his bed is that the u.s. will not want to go after two allied nuclear superpowers at the same time. but if putin is no longer in xi jinping's camp, then xi jinping

we'll absolutely have to think twice before going after taiwan. i do think taiwan is more important for the u.s. then is ukraine, because we depend on the semiconductors that come from the island nation, that how are our modern way of life, including our cell phones, our cameras, all modern technology, our cars and so on. so that's 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 top foreign policy component -- >> one other component of this, of course, is that putin and xi jinping, have much more than just economic ties. they also are both authoritarian leaders. and they, on a sort of values proposition, have more in common with each other, don't you think? >> well, you could have said the same thing about mao is it dong mao zedong and brezhnev

back in 1972 -- today, putin is the new mao zedong. i don't trust vladimir putin on anything. but i do trust him to follow his self interest. and i think if we are willing to normalize economic relations with russia, if we are willing to freeze those current lines of control. if we're 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 interest to actually re-normalize those relations with the west, as long as he exits that military relationship with china. and i would also require that he remove nuclear weapons from kaliningrad, which borders poland, as well as to remove russian military from the western hemisphere. that's how we advanced american interest, while ending the war in ukraine. >> i want to turn out to a domestic policy issue. and this is actually something that you have not been particularly vocal about, and it's entitlements, like social security and medicare.

it's an issue that actually has become a point of contention between donald trump and ron desantis. my 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 amongst some on the republican side. i personally believe, there is a better way, a third way. focus on gdp growth itself. i'm the only candidate in either party who believes, and acts on the fact, that we can grow our way out of our problems. >> do you think we can grow our way out of social security and medicare -- i'm presenting to you what many of your republican colleagues say. they say that it's going to be insolvent. in just a couple of decades -- so, you think you can grow you are 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 20 trouble in 20 years, when we run out of money. but for most of our national history, we've grown at over 3 to 4 plus percent gdp growth. i have a clear plan of how to restore that, in relatively short order. first, is you unlock american energy. drill, for, burn coal, put people back to work. >> will you pledge, then, to not touch social security and medicare -- let's take into consideration your economic plans. but would you pledge not to touch social security, and medicare, if you were elected president? >> i do. and in fact, the irony is that when we are 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's actually when the country is at its strongest economically, when our citizens are making more money, that we can then have a rational conversation about whether we have the political consensus to draw distinctions between

people who have, say, made $10 million or more in their lifetime, versus those who have not. when it comes to social security and medicare. >> all right -- >> but right now is not that environment. americans have a shrinking economy. we should not cut entitlements. >> can i ask you about another issue? this is also something that your opponents ron desantis and donald trump have called for -- including desantis very recently, which is an end to birthright citizenship. what's your position on that, would you end birthright citizenship? >> i think for a period of time it's going to be 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 not the rule of law, that is the abandonment of the rule of law. so, if migrants are coming, illegally, intentionally, to be able to establish an illegal toehold in the united states, then i think that is something that we should not abide in this country. >> -- and you were -- we should say, also --

both of your parents are immigrants to the united states. so, you would have been a beneficiary of birthright citizenship. but you now are saying, you would ban that for people coming into the country. and 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. and people make this mistake all the time, and i think you got 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. >> that might be the case, but i'm just saying. >> there is a distinction -- or to security and -- >> what i'm saying is that birthright citizenship, as it is currently in law, does not make that distinction between whether that person was born to someone legally or not. so, you are saying that, even though birthright citizenship, for you, with something that was in play, you would take it off the table now? and my question is also, how long would that be the case? and also, how would you do it? would you go to congress, for a constitutional amendment?

>> actually, i've supported the 28th amendment to the constitution. i'll actually go one step further on this, abby. is that i don't think that somebody, just because they are born in this country, even if they are sixth generation american, should automatically enjoy all of the privileges of citizenship, until they have actually earned it. so one of the things that i've said is that every high school student who graduate 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 that 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 past that same citizenship test that immigrants have had to pass, or else have served the country. >> understood. >> so, this is a broader pro-civic vision. >> i understand that, although i think there are some questions about why younger americans would have less citizenship rights than older americans, but i do want to move on here. you've 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, -- ramaswamy is leading most of our candidates. and you know why? because he says trump is one of the greatest presidents in the history of our country. [applause] and i said, i like that guy, i like him. i said, are you sure he's running against me? that's a pretty severe statement. but he's very good. he's 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 ron desantis. >> very early in this race, anybody who is trying to draw the front runners are who the

before the first debate is missing the plot, just like they would have in choices 16. i'm running to lead this nation forward. it's true that trump and i have a couple of things in common. we're both outsiders, who have had success in business. who did not grow up in the world of politics. and i think we have a lot of common cause, both in standing for the america first agenda. but i'm in this race to take that america first agenda 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. instead that i would end affirmative action, by executive order, by rescinding the one that lyndon johnson wrote into law. that every other republican president since then could have negated. so, in many ways, i'm 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 seeing so. i'm 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 am 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 are like me, you have got two young sons at home, making the sacrifices that we are, putting over $15 million of my money into this campaign already, hard earned money, not what i inherited -- i did not inherit money. you know what, you make those sacrifices if you want to actually drive a national revival. like ronald reagan did in 1980 -- there was the reagan revolution. i say, in a good spirited way, we are looking for the ramaswamy revolution in 2024. >> so, did i hear you say -- that's what i think we are going to deliver -- >> did i hear you say you put in $50 million in their campaign so far? >> over 15 -- >> 15. 15 million. and so, how much, where will you stop self funding? >> we will stop at nothing. to be honest with you, we've gotten also over 60,000 unique

donors. haven't said that, i think, in other settings yet. we've 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'm a first-time candidate, and i've never had a political donor or donor list in my life. we've already crossed 60,000. so, this is a grassroots campaign. people are responding to the message of putting america first, but doing it based on principles and moral foundations. and i think that's going to take us, not only all the way to the white house, but to a national revival in the eight years thereafter, and that's where i'm looking to lead. >> all right, vivek ramaswamy, thank you very much for joining us on all of those issues. >> thank you, abby. >> and up next for us, the secret service is still trying to uncover who brought a small bag of cocaine into the west wing. we will hear from a forensic expert. plus, the history of drugs at the white house, is quite long actually, we will explore that in a moment.

>> 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. and a law enforcement official tells cnn that additional tests are being conducted, including dna and fingerprint analysis. so for more, i want to bring in kathy corado. she is the executive director of syracuse university's forensic and national security science institute. kathy, thanks for joining us. so, 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 only get, typically, drug evidence into a crime lab, is that they are going to first separate the drug evidence from the packaging. so, they will separate the physical solid drugs, and that will go off for drug testing, which it sounds like this already happened. and if they determine it was cocaine. and then, the packaging actually can go off, and be processed in the -- late in print section for fingerprints, or it can be go off in the process in the dna section, to generate dna profiles. or sometimes, they can do both. >> i want to show people what ze of a dime bag of cocaine would look like, basically. it's pretty small. do you think that, that has any significance for the work of the investigators, trying to collect whatever evidence they might be able to on the baggy itself? >> yeah, certainly.

i mean, anything that's this small this size is going to be hard, both to get fingerprints and for dna. in particular, for fingerprints, you know, the size of the back, there's just not a lot of surface area on there. and also, depending on how often it's been held, has been crumbled up in someone's pocket for a week? or, if it's pristine -- that could depend on -- if you'll get fingerprints. in terms of dna, also the size really makes a big difference. if it's really small, and so they'll have to swab it, and then do the dna analysis. and really, what we are talking about is touch dna. so, somebody that held this ziploc bag, and they might leave traces of their dna on, there, so there's really not a large amount of dna -- so, 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's 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, it might also carry other dna on it. so very often, on drug baggies like this, we get dna mixtures.

>> all right, kathleen corado, thank you very much. and it sounds like we will 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. and oddly enough, there is a long history of drugs at the white house, for a lot of different reasons, of course. >> there's one thing that you wrote about, a number of years ago, that happened in the 1970s. and i still can't believe it really happen, so i have to ask you. you wrote that when jimmy carter was president, you visited the white house, you snuck up onto the roof of the white house, and smoked a joint. >> light it up! >> is that something that -- >> i hope that happens. >> you hope that happened? >> i really hope i did that. >> it's worth noting that pot

is now legal here in washington d.c., except in federal properties like the white house. but in 1989, bush 41 brought a prop into the oval office during his anti drug address. >> this -- this is crack o'kane, 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's as innocent looking as candy, but it's turning our cities into battle zones. and it's murdering our children. let there be no mistake, this stuff is poison. >> and by the way, guess who gave the democratic response to bush's speech that night? >> and in line with the 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 there would be no market for them. >> and more recently, snoop

dogg made this comment. claim. >> have you ever smoked at the white house? >> in the bathroom. >> you did, in the white house? >> in the bathroom. >> wow. not in the -- but in the bathroom. and i said, now use your bathroom for a second? and they said what do you knew in their, number one, number two? i said number two. >> who said, is the first lady? >> the cia. or the fbi, the alphabet boys. so, i said look. when i do number two, i usually have a cigarette, or a light something to get the aroma right -- and they said, you know what, you can have a piece of napkin. i said, i will do that. and the napkin was this. >> this is some story. [laughter] -- >> 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 that he

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♪ ♪ new double chicken chopped salads. >> these new controversy tonight circling new york city's mayor eric adams. you may have seen or heard him reference this photo of eight fallen and nypd officer. mayor adams claims that this is his friend, and that he carries this photo with him in his wallet every day. robert venable was tragically killed in the line of duty in 1987. >> i go back to the days of thinking about -- robert venable, my close colleague, who died in the line of duty. i still think about robert venable.

i keep a picture of robert in my wallet. >> this photo appears, a little bit weathered, which would make sense if he was 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 ill coffee on it, to ge it that older look. now, the mayor's office is calling this report a false attack, saying in part, to be clear, mor adams made a photocopy of a photograph of officer venabl that was printed in an nypd transit news bulletins from november, 1987. which mayor adams still has possessions of to this day, and which the times saw. now with us now is meredith benson, she is the niece of robert venable, and she joins me now. meredith, thank you for being here. you told the new york -- 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's really 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. and that is not what my family is interested in at all. >> do you -- does it matter to you that the mayor used your uncle story to kind of show this relationship over the years? what does that mean to you, that he's been telling the 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 and gun violence in the city of new york, in the city that i love in that i 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 a 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 she was ecstatic when he became the brooklyn borough president. so, he had enough of a 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 that this

scourge that's on our community still exists. and if he thinks about my uncle every day, when he is writing or helping to write legislation, or working with the city, and he thinks about the loss and the pain that my family still has, then by all means, use the story, use the photo, and get it done. he's the mayor of the people, he's the mayor of new york city, and we expect him to do right by the city. >> all right, meredith benson, thank you very much for joining us tonight, and sharing your family's story with us. >> you are quite welcome. >> and gop presidential candidate ron desantis, doubling down now on his campaign at attacking donald trump for defending lgbtq issues. as many people condemned that ad as homophobic. coming up next, the president of the log cabin republicans weighs in on that controversy.

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>> republican presidential candidate ron desantis, doubling down on a controversial video from his campaign, slamming president trump's vow to protect lgbtq rights. and in an interview with conservative commentator tomi lahren, desantis called the video, totally fair game. >> i mean look. i think, 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 pageants. i think that's totally fair game, because he's now campaigning saying the opposite, that he doesn't think that you should have men competing in women's, things like athletics. >> and for more, i want to bring in charles -- moran, he's the president of the log cabin republicans. in the studio -- these are desantis's first comments on this video, what do

you make of his reaction? >> well, just hearing his opening words, talking about injecting gender ideology into the debate, the opening lines of that ad that his campaign repeated 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's very clear and, we have seen from across the conservative spectrum. everyone agrees that this ad was misdirected, it was mis-planned, and it was not setting the right tone. -- have moved beyond a lot of some of these divisive social issues. and there are truly threats out there, and from the extreme left, and elements of the lgbtq community trying to impose radical gender theory. but this video went in a total totally 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? >> i think that the problem is actually, that it's being lumped in as, quote, trans issues. but it's really jackal radical gender theory. what we are seeing in some of these coloring books, some of the content that's being pushed out -- water transitions and what is radical gender -- but >> as you pointed out, the video actually targets lgbtq people in general. trump is in the video, talking about lgbtq people. >> and that's the real -- -- behind this video. instead of being very precise and. president trump has actually been fairly precise in his criticism of radical gender theory. governor desantis's and -- people going after caitlyn jenner, people going after drag

queen named lady mcgraw maga -- towards what the real threat was and the response from governor desantis, it was a total sidestep. he didn't address it, he didn't even address some of the most important things that were in that video. and he missed an opportunity of something that brings all americans together, definitely conservatives, around protecting women sports, protecting women spaces, preventing permanent gender transition below the age of 18. those are things with broad general agreement. and governor desantis didn't focus on that. >> do you think that this is disqualifying for desantis? >> i think that is 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, that completely destroys that argument that he is more electable than donald trump. and it's actually been entertaining watching left wing media, sitting here and having a field day, celebrating the fact that donald trump is actually more lgbtq inclusive

than that ron desantis is, after spending so many years demonizing president trump and his record of achievement, and doing things like promoting the end of hiv in america. and calling on decriminalization of homosexuality internationally, which are things that president trump was championing. >> all right charles moran, thank you so much for joining us. i appreciate you coming in. >> thank you. >> and another classic american band is calling it quits. that story and alisyn camerota is coming up next. up to 8 weeks of relief with cytopoint. that's a lot more fun time, right max? yup. it's life-changing time. ♪ ♪ cytopoint is a long-lasting treatment for allergic dermatitis. just one injection given by your veterinarian can control allergic itch for 4-8 weeks.

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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 the only ones. other artists are singing their swan song this year including