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statutes trump may have violated. donald trump is lashing out calling the prosecutors evil and going after the entire justice department. and trying to raise money off it within hours of revealing he received the letter. and could we learn today the trial date for the mar-a-lago documents case? a judge says december is too soon probably. so when? i'm john berman with sara sidner and kate bolduan. this is "cnn news central." ♪ we're learning new details about that target letter donald trump and his attorneys have in their possession right now. this in regards to special counsel jack smith's 2020 election probe. multiple news outlets including the "wall street journal" are reporting the letter smith sent to trump and his lawyers mentions these three federal statutes that you see there

behind me. conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the united states, deprivation of rights and tampering with witnesses. the major question now is a third indictment coming? and will donald trump, who predicted his arrest would come, have to soon give up more time on the campaign trail to go to court? all of this as the judge presiding over trump's other special counsel case the classified documents investigation signaled she will likely be pushing back the start of that trial. cnn's katelyn polantz is leading off our coverage this morning. can you tell us what we've learned in this probe about the 2020 election and interference in that election, and what is going to come next? >> sara, what is going to come next is the huge question that we're going to be waiting on every day now until it reveals itself. trump says that he expects to be arrested and indicted in this

january 6th federal criminal investigation and it certainly looks like that is in the cards given that the justice department took that step of sending him the target letter and indicating which charges they are looking at, but, sara, when you step back and look at this investigation, there is a huge question now of exactly what the justice department is going to put into an indictment if it is approved by the grand jury against donald trump because they have talked to so many witnesses, more than i can count in, you know, a couple seconds, but it is so many people not just across the country, but people who were in washington with donald trump after the election and then the whole way up to january 6. so just to highlight a few of them, the justice department has talked to and gotten grand jury testimony from people like vice president mike pence, someone that was having direct conversations with trump, someone who was a victim on january 6th, targeted by those rioters. there were people from the special counsel's office -- i'm sorry, the white house counsel's

office who were witness to what trump was doing who have spoken to investigators, testified to the grand jury. there are top advisers in the west wing, chief of staff mark meadows, donald trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, steven miller who worked on that speech on the ellipse that trump gave, had conversations with him about mentioning pence to the crowd that was assembled there as they were getting riled up before they marched to the capitol. and then there are others. rudy giuliani who was working with trump after the election as an attorney and was carrying forward this idea of election fraud that was totally false, including in court and also was in touch with people throughout the country, officials trying to carry forward this idea that trump still could be president even though he lost the popular vote. so it is so many people. that is not even the full list that you see there. all of those faces, those are people that were interviewed or had gone to the grand jury, but there is likely many, many more and we even know that a few

additional people are still set to talk to the special counsel's office. after the presidency he has a date with the grand jury, we believe this week, and then bernie kerik who was assisting rudy giuliani in a lot of this, he, too, has been in touch with the special counsel's office and is trying to get something scheduled. there's still pieces of this investigation moving forward, but the amount of work that the special counsel's office has done, so much of it has focused on donald trump himself, what he was saying, what he was doing, what he was thinking and exactly what happened in the west wing after he lost the 2020 election, was being told he lost the 2020 election and still was telling his supporters that they could fight and that they could overturn the result. sara? >> that is still happening while this investigation is clearly continuing forward. katelyn polantz, thank you so much for your reporting on all of this. kate, i think there is nothing more to say about how

deeply this special prosecutor has gone to try to get every single detail that he possibly can, but what an extraordinary time we are living n we have never seen this happen in our history before with a former president. >> and that graphic that we had on the wall just showing the number of people that we know have gone to speak to the special counsel. it's like a strange political form of guess who the game because you see those -- and that's not even the extent of everyone that they have spoken to. staying true to form donald trump did not shy away from talking about the latest serious legal trouble that he may be facing, openly discussing the target letter and his potential third indictment while campaigning in iowa yesterday. his campaign started trying to raise money off the news hours after trump first went public with it. cnn's alaina treene has more on what's going on with this and what's going on also behind the scenes with the trump team. what more is trump saying? we know that he spoke with fox news last night and also what more are you hearing is going on behind the scenes?

>> reporter: right. well, good morning, kate. donald trump was clearly defiant in iowa last night and he was putting on that public face that we've seen him use when he was indicted the last two times earlier this year. he railed against this investigation as amounting to election interference, he criticized special counsel jack smith and also labeled that target letter that he received on sunday as a disgrace. let's listen to what his message to voters was in cedar rapids, iowa. >> i didn't know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries and all of this, now i'm like becoming an expert, i have no choice, because we have to -- it's a disgrace. if you say something about an election they want to put you in jail for the rest of your life. it's a dis grace. so they can cheat on an election but if somebody wants to question the cheating they want to call you a conspiracy theorist and all these other things. these people are sick.

>> reporter: now, kate, donald trump's team also recognizes the political boost that he often enjoys around news of these investigations and they sent out a fundraising email late last night raising money off of that target letter. in that letter donald trump said that he did nothing wrong. he said, quote, i did nothing wrong, i am completely innocent. he wrote that in all caps. but we also know, kate, and i know from speaking with donald trump's advisers over the past 24 hours or so that this is clearly weighing on him. he recognizes the seriousness of these charges and he admitted as much in his interview with sean hannity last night. he said that it, quote, it bothers me. he also, i will say, has kept this unusually quiet. after he received that letter on sunday night he did not share it widely with members of his inner circle, but he did ultimately end up putting it out on truth social and on social media yesterday in order to get ahead of t he wanted to control the narrative and it's the same

playbook that we've seen him use around the past two times that he has either received a target letter or was indicted. he has tried to come out ahead of these charges. i think as we look forward to the next few days we know that donald trump is reaching out to allies on capitol hill trying to strategize a defense messaging for him and i think we will continue to see this defiant face of his, kate. >> alaina treene, thank you so much. so the most important new development overnight might be reporting on what statutes the federal government says that donald trump may have violated. there is new reporting about what was in the target letter. joining us for that jessica roth and elie honig. thank you both, counselors, for being here. again, the reporting is the target letter listed three broad statutes that may have been violated. number one, conspiracy to defraud the united states. so what does that mean and what

activities might fall under that umbrella? >> so the conspiracy statute more people to commit either an offense, a crime against the ited states or defraud the united states under government function, for example, a presidential eleio that could be written in a way that is broad and encompasses everhi from the scheme to create false slates of electors in the battleground states to the effort to pressure vice president pence to certify the false electors, to even potentially inciting the riot at the capitol on january 6th. >> all of that could fall under that statute. >> yes. >> all right. elie, the second one reportedly listed in the target letter, deprivation of rights, what does that mean? >> this one is interesting and i think a bit of a surprise if it makes its way into the indictment. the allegation that somebody under color of official right meaning using at least the cover of their authority in this case as the president deprived somebody of their civil right. what civil right are we talking

about? i think the most logical is the right we have to cast our votes and have those votes counted. we see this used in police brutality cases where a police officer is using his official power to deprive somebody who has perhaps been a vic testify of excessive force of their constitutional rights. this is an unusual application but could fit with the facts. >> to deprive someone from the right of having their vote counted in a reasonable and responsible way basically? >> i think that's exactly right. the people who had their votes counted falsely >> i think that. the people who had their votes counted falsely or people -- excuse me. people who did vote having false votes counted that would negate your vote or the opposite of that. >> go find me 11,000 votes in u justice. there are a number of statutes that address obstruction of justice in a variety of contexts. here i would be interested to see if there was a particular statutory provision and subdivision cited in the target

letter because there is a broad statute that covers obstruction of official proceedings that's been used to prosecute a number of insurrectionists from january 6th with respect to the certification of electoral votes in congress. if this is charged like those cases that would be obstruction of that official proceeding in congress. there's a different subparagraph of that statute that is tampering with witnesses. that would suggest an effort to interfere with the testimony or production of evidence by a witness, for example, an official in one of the battleground states and what they would say or the evidence they would submit to congress. here the particular subdivision matters. >> elie, step back and look at these three statutes. what does this tell us about what the special counsel is or maybe is not investigating or charging. >> right. i think it's important to note what's not listed, reportedly, in these target letters. no reported charges of

insurrection, of inciting a riot, of seditious conspiracy, those were some of the more dramatic charges that had been out there for consideration. i think that's consistent with the way jack smith has handled this case, the other thing this tells me big picture is that most of the focus in this charge and perhaps eventual trial will be on the days and weeks leading up to the actual january 6 capitol riot. the conspiracy, the schemes that jessica just laid out, that all happened in november, december and january 2020 into 2021 and i think the actual storming of the capitol will certainly be part of the trial, but it may well be sort of just the final chapter. >> and the word conspiracy, jessica, to the non-legal mind, i'm like that's got to involve someone else, does that mean someone else will be charged here? >> no, nobody else has to be charged in the indictment. the special counsel could bring the indictment against donald

trump alone. so long as he can prove up that donald trump agreed with at least some other person to commit any offense against the united states, any other crime or to defraud the united states of the lawful administration of its functions. so those individuals could be identified as co-conspirator one, two, three, et cetera, in the indictment. they don't even have to be identified and certainly don't have to be charged. >> it is wednesday morning, 9:13 a.m. we know a little bit more if this reporting is accurate about the direction that jack smith s but we still need to learn a lot more about the specifics here. it could come in an indictment which could come in a few days. elie honig, jessica roth, thank you both very much. sara. >> great conversation, john. coming up, they were targeted by former president donald trump and his allies after the 2020 election, now federal prosecutors have interviewed officials have all seven battleground states he lost. and trump's biggest rival in the gop primary, ron desantis, sharpens his attacks against the former president.

we will tell you what he told our jake tapper about his chances of beating donald trump and his response to news that trump is now a target of the january 6 investigation. plus, new details on the whereabouts of wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin. where is he? uk intelligence now says putin was forced to cut a deal to end that short-lived rebellion. those details ahead. that's what you get from the morgan stanley client e experience. you get listening more than tatalking, and a personalized plan built on insights and d innovative technology. you get grit, vision, and the creativity to guide you through a changing world. ♪ hi, i'm jill and i've lost 56 pounds on golo. hi, i'm barry and i've lost 42 pounds. jill and i are a team. if she tells me to do something,

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subway's now slicing their meats fresh. that's why subway's proffered by this champ. and this future champ. and if we proffer it, we know you'll proffer it too. he's cocky for a nineteen year old. prosecutors working for special counsel jack smith have interviewed election officials from all seven states targeted by former president trump and his allies in their efforts to help overturn the results of the 2020 election that he lost. michigan, georgia, arizona, pennsylvania, wisconsin, nevada and new mexico were all at the center of the bid to upend biden's legitimate victory. this is all just a day after

michigan's attorney general charged 16 people accused of serving as fake electors in the scheme. cnn national security reporter zachary cohen is joining us now. what can you tell us, zachary, about what we know about these -- about these interviews that happened from the prosecutors? >> reporter: sara, so much of what we know about jack smith's strength was about peering inside the trump white house on and in the time leading up to january 6 but what these interviews show is his focus on what was happening across the country during this same time period, especially in the months after the 2020 election. look, these people -- these interviews took place with officials that really fit into two broad categories, you had people like secretary of state from georgia brad raffensperger and arizona secretary of state -- sorry, arizona governor doug ducey who got direct pressure from trump and his allies to overturn election results in those states. governor ducey has heard from prosecutors as kaitlan collins

reported yesterday and secretary of state raffensperger sat down with prosecutors in georgia in recent months as well. second bucket of officials are these election workers who can provide prosecutors with inside into the impact of misinformation and what that did to election workers in terms of both threats they received after the 2020 election as trump and his allies were spreading baseless claims about election fraud but also how it impacted their ability to conduct the vote count in those states. so really speaks to the sprawling nature of this investigation at a time when we know donald trump has received notice that he is a target. >> all right. and we do know that in michigan they've already gone forward with the case. people waiting to see if there will be a federal verse of the case. zachary, thank you. appreciate it. as we learn more about the special counsel's focus on those seven battleground states, trump is facing a potential third federal indictment for his efforts to stay in power after the 2020 election. according to the "wall street journal" the target letter we

have been discussing from the special counsel that trump revealed yesterday cites three different statutes that they are now focused on, deprivation of rights, conspiracy to defraud the united states and tampering with a witness. trump's response included trying almost immediately to fund raise off this news. the fundraising email that the campaign sent out to supporters said in part, i did nothing wrong, i am completely innocent, as you can see in all caps. joining me now for reaction to this the former deputy press secretary at the white house under president donald trump, sarah matthews. it's good to see you again, sarah. you were there in the white house on january 6th, you resigned over what you saw that day over trump's refusal to condemn the violence. you called his actions indefensible, just to remind all of our viewers. what's your reaction to hearing that trump received this letter and could be facing charges over january 6th? >> i definitely would like to see some accountability for what

took place. obviously his election lies resulted in the riot that we saw at the capitol. those people would not be there unless they thought that they had a reason to save their country, and they were told that mike pence had the authority to overturn the election when he, in fact, did not. and trump was repeatedly told that mike pence did not have that authority. he was repeatedly told that there was no substantial evidence of fraud, yet he continues to this day to push his election lies. so i'm hopeful that a potential indictment we will see some accountability finally. >> you would like to see him face charges for what you saw that day? >> yes, i would. i will leave that -- what the charges specifically should be to, you know, the legal experts, but i do think that what we saw at least from the january 6th congressional committee was that this was a scheme to overturn the election. they were planning for months and ever since he lost on election night and trying to overturn the results.

so i do think that there should need to be some accountability because no one is above the law. i know some of the folks in my own party are saying that this is a two-tiered system of justice and i think that's fine to say when you look at things like the alvin bragg case where it does feel slightly political, but in this case in particular we are talking about the president of the united states trying to overturn a free and fair election and defying his oath of office. to me that is unacceptable. >> that's interesting the distinction that you make. i want to ask you about that in a second but you mentioned the january 6th congressional committee, their investigation. you testified as we all remember, you testified before the january 6th congressional committee and we are learning more and more about the various and wide-ranging amount of witnesses that the special counsel has spoken to and reached out to in regard to the special counsel's investigation into january 6. have you been in contact with the special counsel? >> i have been in contact with the special counsel. >> did you sit for an interview?

can you tell me more about their line of interest in your conversations with them? >> i don't want to go into too much detail about my own personal legal involvement, but they obviously knew that i was in the west wing on january 6th and in the white house leading up to that day. >> that's really interesting, i mean, we had -- we've heard of so many people and, i mean, this is the first time i'm hearing that you have spoken to the special counsel. in terms of the line of questioning we had heard that many people were asked -- there was an interest in asking about the president acknowledging that he had lost the election or what -- and how he spoke about that. was that the line -- was that part of the questioning when you spoke to the special counsel's office? >> i don't want to get too much into the specifics of what the line of questioning was, but that definitely seems to be what the reporting shows of what their focus was when they were

questioning other individuals as well. >> that's not out of line with what -- you wouldn't dispute that, that wouldn't be out of line with the kind of thing that you could have been speaking to them about? >> i think that that is the central part of their investigation because they want to know what the president's mindset was and as i mentioned earlier, he was told repeatedly by staff that there was no substantial evidence of fraud, that, you know, he had lost the 2020 election to joe biden, and that was a fact that he could not accept and that was when he started tuning out the advisers that were telling him the truth and started listening to folks like rudy giuliani and sidney powell because they were telling him what he wanted to hear. >> this is really interesting. you have spoken with the special counsel, you now tell me. what do you then say to donald trump calling jack smith -- i think he called him evil and called her deranged and depraved and we heard kevin mccarthy and i will quote kevin mccarthy what he said yesterday, president trump went up in the polls and was surpassing president biden

for reelection. so what do they do now? weaponize government. that's how kevin mccarthy is talking about it. you have now spoken to the special counsel in this very investigation. what do you -- what do you say to those folks and what do you say about those descriptions of the special counsel and its motivations? >> you know, i still remember when folks like kevin mccarthy and nikki haley and lindsey graham in the wake of january 6th were critical of donald trump and condemned his actions and were saying things like, we needed to move on. so now, you know, they've since changed their tune and it's really interesting to me to see them do that in favor of political expediency. my question to them is do you think it's okay for donald trump to violate his oath of office to try to overturn the election results? if a democrat like obama, perhaps, or joe biden in the next election tried to do that and said that, you know, vice president harris had the authority to overturn the

results, republicans would be outraged. so i wish that they would hold donald trump to that same standard. >> sarah, thank you for coming in. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> thank you. john, now we're hearing of one more person who has spoken to the special counsel in this investigation, sarah matthews, the former deputy press secretary to donald trump. >> a very busy group of prosecutors. terrific interview. so new information about the american in north korean custody. why he might have stepped over the border. and nearly 30 years after his death there is movement in the tupac shakur murder investigation. here in 5, we ready? - there's uh... - oh. left. left. i don't have it. i don't have it. - keep going. - we should've used behr. yeah. today let's paint. right now,w, get america's most trusted paint brand at a new low price starting at $28.98. behrhr. only at the home depot.

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all right. just in a few moments ago, new video which appears to show yevgeny prigozhin, that is the man who led the revolt in russia, we have not seen prigozhin at all since he sent his militia troops towards moscow several weeks ago. the video appears to show prigozhin greeting fighters in belarus, the video was posted on a pro-wagner telegram channel, that's the militia group that prigozhin led. it was then shared by prigozhin's account, whether, he is the one who sent it from the account is unknown and it's unclear if the exact date of the video has been verified. it comes as britain's intelligence chief told cnn that he believes prigozhin is likely floating about alive and at liberty and that president putin had to cut a humiliating deal to save putin's skin. nick paton walsh joins us with

the latest. let's start with that video because if real would be the first time we've seen prigozhin in some time. >> reporter: yeah, it would be, and i should stress we haven't been able to assess whether or not that genuinely is prigozhin recently and whether he is, indeed, in belarus, but if that were the case would be sticking with the terms fair to say of the deal that the president of belarus lukashenko brokered to get his column of tanks to attorney around toward moscow on the weekend of that failed arms rebellion. the emergence of this video, the first time we have seen a more palpable sighting of prigozhin since that failed rebellion a matter of hours after here in prague we heard the first comments from western intelligence on the record about that failed rebellion. the head of mi 6 richard moore saying that he believed prigozhin was still floating about and also referring to how vladimir putin that weekend had

to cut a deal to save his own skin. during this respite we heard a sense that even the loftier parts of western intelligence that the information at their disposal they were still baffled, bemused by the flip-flopping of loyalties and public displays we saw in the kremlin and those around it during that weekend. here is one of the more interesting quotes we heard today. >> if you look at putin's behaviors on that day, prigozhin started off, i think, as a traitor at breakfast, he had been pardoned by supper and then a few days later he was for tea. there are some things even the chief of mi 6 finds it a little difficult to try to interpret in terms of who is in and who is out. >> reporter: so the thing you can take away from that is interestingly often what occurs inside the kremlin is private, unknowable, the assessment by british intelligence, i'm sure that's something shared with

their american counterparts is what we saw in public was likely what was happening behind closed doors as well and that remarkable weekend was a staggering sign of putin's weakness and one that richard moore used in prague to say to disaffected russians if you want to help end this war in ukraine, come and spy for the united kingdom and we will try to do that together. so remarkable insight we heard today. john? >> definitely it would be new video and new comments about prigozhin's whereabouts, first time we have heard anything even speculative in the last few weeks. nick paton walsh, thank you very much. sara? >> it is extraordinary, john, and nick's reporting there. all right. the pentagon is working to secure the return of u.s. army private travis king after u.s. defense secretary said that the u.s. soldier willfully crossed into north korea during a private tour of the dmz on tuesday. this morning we're learning more about assault charges that the private faced in south korea. according to court documents u.s. army private king assaulted someone at a club in seoul in

october. u.s. officials say he spent about 50 days in a south korean detention facility and was sentenced to pay a fine. at some point after his release private king was sent to be flown back to the united states and separated from the army. he went to the airport but he never got on the flight and went on that tour instead. his reason for crossing at this hour is unknown, but a u.s. official says there is no indication he was trying to defect. we're joined by former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. and former new mexico governor bill richardson. thank you so much for being here. you, bill, have consistently negotiated the release of international hostages, including negotiations with north korea where you successfully brought an american out. can you give us some sense of how this actually works, how these negotiations happen? >> well, what's happening now

makes good sense, i think u.s. policy is correct, try to fix this problem military to military in the demilitarized zone, get the u.n. members involved. try to find a way to bring travis back. yes, he's trouble. yes, he must face disciplinary action, but he is an american. he is a service member. the good news so far in my contacts with the north koreans in the past is the north koreans have said nothing publicly yet. that's good. because it means they're probably interrogating, they're probably deciding what kind of response there's going to be. hopefully they will see that he is a troubled young man that ran across the border and they can deport him and send him back. that would be the best response. now, other good news is in the last six years the north koreans have not detained any americans.

they did with otto warmbier who i was involved and my team mickey bergman in bringing him back, unfortunately perished. so you've got to deal with the north koreans very carefully. no bombast and so far we have done that. military to military right now is the best contact. get the facts. get the north koreans not provoked. there is enormous tension in the peninsula right now so hopefully the fact that they haven't said anything publicly, charged him with anything, is good news. >> that is really interesting to hear, the fact that from your experience not hearing anything from them is actually a good thing. i do want to ask you about what we're hearing from the pentagon that they, of course, are trying to secure the release of that army private. have you been contacted to try to help in the negotiations at this point? >> no. no. and i think what's best right

now is military to military. they have the facts, they talked to the north koreans, our military very scantly, but that's the best way. we have contacted -- my operation which deals with hostages, the north korean mission in new york, that is the u.n. contact that we have, expressing concern, but i think it's best right now that these technical military discussions take place and try to bring him back without any fanfare, without any bombast. so at this stage we are not involved. now, at a later stage possibly, but i think the pentagon is handling this correctly, quietly, try to find a way that he is returned and then -- because he is an american. we have to bring him back. he's obviously troubled, got in trouble in south korea, but this

is a situation with the north koreans, they're very sensitive. they're very, very conscious of not losing face and they want to find ways to deal with this. hopefully they won't react negatively and, you know, they're very bombastic, but so far they haven't, so i'm encouraged. >> all right. i do want to ask you i remember when you helped laura ling come out of north korea but her story is very different. this is someone who the pentagon itself is saying did this on purpose, this was no accident, and he has this history also in south korea of criminal activity, alleged in court documents. so let me ask you how much more difficult is it going to be for someone who the u.s. is saying did this on wpurpose? >> well, it's not going to be easy because as you said with laura ling and others that i was involved with the north koreans apprehended them when they were in north korea.

in this case in an unauthorized way travis king went into north korea. so he's the one that made the mistake, not the north koreans. so the positive side is with the north koreans, unlike the russians, the russians most all the time want a prisoner exchange, okay, we will give you your attorney, brittaney griner for someone that we want like viktor bout. in this case there is no potential trade like that because we have a travel ban, the united states -- president trump put a travel ban of humanitarian aid and american citizens traveling to north korea. so it's different in that sense, but what worries me, though, is that there's enormous tension in the peninsula with south korea and japan and, you know, we have our military doing joint exercises, the north koreans have been -- their rhetoric has

been pretty strong against us, against the whole region. so hopefully this is treated as a humanitarian issue and not a geopolitical issue. >> bill richardson, i cannot help but ask you this, if you can tell us, what's your first phone call, just the first person you call if you are negotiating with north korea? >> well, it would be ambassador pock in new york, he is the ambassador ranked u.n. representative. that would be my first call. we have contacted him but he's waiting for guidance from his government. but i think right now i stay out, let our military in seoul, the u.s. forces in korea with help from the south koreans right there at the border, see if they can fix this and get travis king back. >> all right. bill richardson, always a pleasure to talk to you. very interesting conversation. i appreciate it.

kate? coming up, he is a distant second in the polls right now, but he is still the biggest threat to donald trump in the republican primary so far. what ron desantis says about trump's new legal troubles and what it means for his own campaign which seems to be struggling at the moment. he sat down with cnn's jake tapper. that's coming up. tourist taking photos that are analyzed d by ai. so r researchers can help life underwater flourish. ♪ ♪ jitterbug! ♪ [ giggles loudly ] ♪ jitterbug! ♪ [ giggles loudly ] ♪ jitterbug! ♪ [ giggles loudly ] [ tapping ] ♪ you put the boom-boom in♪ intuitive sit-to-start in thell-electric id.4. it's the little things. from prom dresses

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quite a moment for florida governor ron desantis with donors starting to get nervous about the relatively static nature of his campaign. he finally agreed to his first mainstream interview a cnn exclusive with our jake tapper, but the very day he does it donald trump who was leading in every poll drops the news about the special counsel's target letter.

this is part of jake's discussion with governor desantis about the state of his campaign. >> this issue gets into the state of the race because some of your supporters are disappointed that your campaign has yet to catch fire the way they would want in terms of polling. one republican pollster, one who is sympathetic to you, he was asking her about your campaign and she said she thought the issue was you bumped up at the beginning because voters, republican voters saw you as a more electable conservative, like trump without the baggage, but then they say as you go further and further to the right on some of these divisive social issues it could alienate moderates, suburban moms, et cetera, republican voters see you as less less electable. >> i don't think that's true. the proof is in the pudding, i had taken a 1 point stage and we won it by 20 percentage points, our bread and butter were people like suburban moms.

we have leading a big movement for parents rights, school choice, of course, there's bread and butter issues that matter, too, inflation, more economic opportunity, florida's economy is ranged number one of all 50 states. we have worked hard to make that happen. you see crime in all these different communities that is now even going into suburbs and some areas. i think that there is a lot of things. i don't think that's the reason. i think the reason is i was getting a lot of media attention at the time coming off the victory, i had to do my job as governor with my legislative session and we had a great legislative session, with he did a lot of great things, actually, things that appeal to huge majorities of the population. so i think that that analysis is wrong. but i had to do that. so i was basically taking fire really nonstop since then because a lot of people view me as a threat, i think the left views me as a threat because they think i will beat biden and deliver on all of this stuff. people who have their allegiances on the

the reality is this is a state by state-process and i'm not rub running a campaign to juice the national polls and whatever we did on cnn, whatever, it's fine. i'm definitely doing better than everybody else. >> it's state by state. >> he is trailing in the state by state polls as well. very interesting to hear him in a lengthy discussion with jake, the first time, as i said, we've heard him in any forum like that. kate? >> jake will join us later in the show to talk about just that. also this ahead for us, the israeli president and the american congress. isaac herzog about to address a joint meeting of congress and why some democrats are refusing to attend. we'll be right back. ♪ partnering to unlock new ideas, to create new legacies, to transform a company, industry, economy, generation. because grit and vision working in lockstep

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mccarthy and the israeli president isaac herzog are meeting this hour. that's ahead of herzog's address to congress which is happening this morning. despite longstanding, strong, bipartisan ties between american lawmakers and israel, this visit and this address by the israeli president to a joint meeting of

congress is exposing some tensions within the democratic party, at least, around that support. cnn's lauren fox is on the hill where all of this is happening today. lauren, this speech significant important. he met with president biden yesterday, but it does not come without controversy. what are you hearing there? >> well, that's exactly right. there are a number of progressives who have said that they are not going to attend this speech today, just a handful of them, but still making that statement that they are concerned about israel's treatment and record on human rights. now this also comes as democrats struggled over the last several days to be united as a party on this issue. you saw over the weekend the leader of the progressive group in the house pramila jayapal that israel was a racist state. she then walked those comments back, but there was a vote last night on the house floor, republicans trying to reveal

those tensions between democrats by pushing forward with the resolution vote just re-stating the support of israel. we should note that jayapal voted for that resolution and all, but nine democrats voted for it. so their efforts to try to divide the democratic party on the issue didn't really work, but it just showsio you that herzog's speech today is not happening in a vacuum. kate? >>. >> that's exactly right. lauren fox, good to see you. we will be bringing you those remark from the israeli president live when they happen later in the show. sara? >> this morning we are learning new details about the target letter donald trump was sent and his attorneys. could he be indicted for a third time? that coming up.

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