>> u. s. women champion katie ledecky is now tied for the most individual world gold medals with none other than michael phelps. this is the moment that the 26-year-old dominates the 1500 meter freestyle at the world championships happening right now in japan. she is so fast you can see, you can't even see the other swimmers in the video as she reaches the end. ledecky finished with a final time of 15 minutes, 26. 27 seconds. she paved the second swimmer who was behind her by more than

17 seconds. >> i'm just really enjoying so many right now. especially my distance events. i've been feeling great. i feel it i'm getting better each time i swim them. that's what you love to say. you love to see improvement. that's been my biggest goal over the past couple of years. >> we love to see it as well. congrats to katie ledecky. and thank you for joining me tonight. cnn prime time talked with abby philips right now. >> she is so amazing. it's such a full circle moment to see her tying michael phelps, someone who she idolized for a long time, caitlin. thank you so much. >> a big moments. >> and good evening everyone. i'm abby philip. thank you for joining me tonight. he is a twice and page, twice and tied it, and n he's facing more charges. yet, theost republican voters now still think that donald trump is the party's best

chance to beat president biden. so here are some of the takeaways from a brand new poll from -- trump is still far ahead of his rivals, while florida governor ron desantis and the rest of the field are essentially flat. unable to great traction in this race. but here are the most interesting parts of all of these. nearly 70% of republican voters believe that trump is the strongest candidate to beat biden. nearly 70% aren't concerned at all that the criminal and documents that he faces make him a weaker candidate. so it is perhaps no surprise, since many of trump's rivals panelist furious building him up, those numbers aren't likely to change. they also aren't likely to make senator mitt romney happy. he's doubling down tonight on his calls for lower tier candidates to get out of the race. >> i think donald trump is elected to beat the republican nominee. but i'm confident he will surely be the republican nominee if he doesn't become a two person race. >> your concern is there is no alternative to trump materialize? yet >> the desantis campaign has had a hard time and is now

downsizing. i don't know that is going to catch fire. i saw tampa scott numbers are going up and chris christie is going up. there is plenty of opportunity. >> joining me now is cnn's melanie fanone and republican strategist shermichael singleton. melanie, the red lights are really blinking, it seems, for republicans. starting to get worried. trump's numbers aren't budging. and it is indictment after indictment after indictment, but voters in the republican party still think he is the strongest candidates to go up against biden. >> that's absolutely right. i think desantis's campaigns own admission, they've struggled with message. he's focused a lot on what he's done in florida. focused a lot on his spot with

disney as opposed to more national message, which could bitterest night with the base. he's also struggled with how he's going to take on trump or how strongly he's going to take on trump. that's something he is 2% with. his campaign is promising a reboot and a new campaign, not totally uncommon to see those resets in the summer around this time. but in the meantime, trump is really using these indictments to rally his base of support. it has only strengthened hispanics in the polls. that might hurt him in the general election, but at least in the primaries it seems to be helping. >> he's light off now a third of his campaign, struggling to conserve money. but also really, i think, fundamentally, struggling to capture the imagination of voters. all that other stuff is really interesting the fundamental problem that desantis doesn't seem to be grabbing people who really are looking for an alternative. >> he's not an inspiring candidate. he entered the race at the end of may. i've worked on three republican presidential campaigns. the fact that he is five effort of his staff, he's almost out of money about two months in? that really is impressive. you usually don't start to see these types of drastic changes to personnel until after the primaries distorted, in terms of votes being cast. so that is concern number one. this guy is expected to potentially become the nominee and yet he can't appoint the proper individuals to properly manage his campaign. this isn't all inspiring.

if you're a donor and to give an insignificant amount of money to the desantis campaign, you're looking for somebody else. if you're a bundling to this wealthy individuals to try to make the case for why he is the better alternative to donald trump? you're not able to make that still in points thus far. desantis has spoken to much about this and he will agenda and less about the economy, less about immigration, less about those kitchen table issues that most republicans want to hear from a republican candidates. >> melanie, you've got some interesting report tonight on what seems like a different topic but to meet the earliest. this is kevin mccarthy on capitol hill now saying he is considering opening an impeachment inquiry into president biden.

to me that sounds like republicans hitting the emergency button. as inflation goes down, the inflation rate is down, border crossings are down. they are looking to hit the gas. >> these comments were not an accident. i can tell you from our reporting that in recent weeks kevin mccarthy has been hearing from influential republicans both on and off capitol hill that he should be prioritizing a joe biden impeachment, especially over an impeachment of a cabinet member. for example, republicans have been all over the map, really, with their calls for impeachment, impeaching merrick garland to alejandro mayorkas. but there is a realization southern to sit in among republicans, they're probably only going to have time and political capital to do what impeachment. if that's the case, it might as well go after the big guy, as one republican referred to president joe biden. >> abby, i understand why they're doing this. it is in part for the republican base. they want targeting of a democrat in the way they

believe donald trump was targeted, twice. melanie and i were discussing this before we went on the show. there should be some concern about galvanizing democrats in 2024. joe biden used a bit of a boost, if you will. it would also appear to be over politicization by republicans of swing voters, and they will need them in states like ohio, pennsylvania, georgia. i think you have to be very, very careful with the calculus. it could backfire. >> all right, shermichael singleton and melanie zanona, thank you both very much. an unexpected twist tonight and the story of trevor reed. you might recall, he is the u. s. marine veteran who is at the center of a prisoner swap with russia last year. reed had spent three years wrongfully obtained by russia. we are now learning he's been injured fighting in ukraine. it's not clear how long he's been there, or where exactly he was injured. but we are being told that he's now being treated at a u. s.

military hospital in germany, and the biden administration has been quick to emphasize that reed was not acting on behalf of the u. s. government. >> since the beginning of this war, we have warned that u. s. citizens who travel to ukraine, especially with the purpose of participating in fighting their, that they face significant risks including the risk of capture or death of physical harm as well. so i want to be explicitly clear about something. mr. reed was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the u. s. government. >> joining me now is the former trump state department spokesperson, morgan ortega's. thanks for joining us. this trevor reed situation is so strange and so unusual. you have been and that position, basically. you hear the sensitivity the biden administration has to distancing itself from what happened here. why do you think that is? >> there is a few things going on behind the scenes for the spokesperson.

first of all, anytime it comes to cases of u. s. persons, the state department has to be incredibly careful with the language and what they say because they can't run a file of laws and regulations related to that person's privacy. that is often, it can be incredibly frustrating for the american people, whenever you want to hear answers to particular stories or reporters -- when they ask the spokesperson acts, there's often privacy issues. but that doesn't matter what americans are doing to get themselves into a troubling situation. we don't leave americans behind. so we always looked at cases that this department, i've served and multiple administrations, barack obama's administration, i was his treasury at a shape in saudi arabia. when you're in these embassies, when you're in the state department, it doesn't matter the administration, abby, or what the individual did. we don't leave americans behind. so i'm confident they are trying to do everything they can. if this situation, get in the care he needs, listen, he was held captive for three years. it makes sense, maybe, that he wants to fight back to the

russians after what the to him in the personnel. but the state department is always going to say, listen please look at yourself and board overseas. >> do you think it'll have and packed on some of the other americans who are still detained in russia? the state department is involved in some very sensitive negotiations around those other individuals, including the wall street journal reporter evan gershkovich. do you think this will have an impact on that? >> unfortunately what is happening with those cases, and the wall street journal case is one of the most high-profile and one of the worst right now. unfortunately, putin likes to use these americans as bargaining chips. he is going to, it wasn't a surprise to me at all he took us on -- reporter, unfortunately. he's going to use and to try to get concessions out of the biden administration.

he's a thug, he's an autocrat, that's what to do and the situations. they have no qualms about wrongfully entertaining americans, journalists, in order to use them as a partnership. this is where i think the administration can really careful. whenever -- you want to do everything you can to get americans home, especially in the journalists, but when you allow putin to get really bad guys like tough criminals out of american prisons ends to do prisoner swaps, that could infect in the long term actually endanger more americans because they incentivize that behavior. it's one of the reasons why we've never paid terrorist groups to get americans home. why people want to pay the ransom. because we don't want to incentivize its behavior of terrorist groups and we shouldn't intensifies putin to continue this behavior. >> i want to ask you about a different topic. over in china, it's been very interesting to see the russians -- sorry, the chinese foreign minister. he has been missing for about a month now.

they have scrubbed all evidence of his appearance from official documents. it's almost as if he was never there. what do you make of that? >> this hour. totally bizarre. i'm so glad you're covering the story, abby. i have been following it. many people who have worked and china have been following it. this is very interesting because we have seen the foreign minister, who is reportedly very close to shenzhen paying, he was his mentor, brought him up politically. now you see him being scrubbed, essentially, from the internet. i was watching that happen. reporters were showing that today in china. they will just try to wipe the sky off the mat like heat never existed. he was the foreign minister. so what does this show us? especially whenever you see putin and prigozhin.

when used to prigozhin in this word coup attempt or whatever ablaze. it shows that putin and xi jinping, these autocrat regimes, they appear very thuggish. very strong. very intimidating. but underneath it all, there is a deep insecurity that has to lie and these leaders to engage in this type of behavior, anti. i see a lot of insecurity in their regimes. remember, it wasn't long ago, just a couple of months ago, that putin and xi jinping stood before the world. what did xi jinping say? i'm paraphrasing. he said it was a no limits partnership between himself and putin, and he said the world is going to see a change in the world order it had not sent him 100 years. so instead of that actually happening, you see these weird attempt by prigozhin in russia. you see the foreign minister being wiped off like he never existed in china. and so, i'm not so sure that xi jinping is going to get this changing the world order he expected. certainly, we know that there are cracks in both of the regimes tonight.

>> in addition to prigozhin, as you mentioned, there are some missing generals in russia, as well. morgan ortega, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thanks, andy. >> coming up next, slavery and the holy coast now being used for political points, recently. next, a holocaust survivor which i may love to respond to a fox news host comments that the white house is called it obscene. plus, as the situation on the border gets more intense, migrants tell cnn that rocks are being thrown at them. and the biden administration's a big battle in the courts. also, bob costas joins me on lebron james suffering cardiac arrest on the courts, while elon musk tries to use this tragedy to push more conspiracies.

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some of history's most atrocious and horrific events are being used for political points in today's society. the most recent conversation was sparked by florida's new black history curriculum, that suggested, among other things, that slavery benefited the enslaved, and taught them skills. today, the white house is now condemning a fox news segment in which host said, this. >> and obviously, i'm not black, but i'm jewish. would someone say about the holocaust, for instance, that there were some benefits for, right while they were hanging out in concentration camps, you learned a strong work ethic, right, maybe you learned a new? skill >> did you ever read that -- frankel talks play out to survive in a concentration camp, by having skills. you had to be useful, utility, utility kept you alive. >> >> in a statement, the white house said, in part, quote, the fox news allowed to be said on areas today has so far failed to condemn, is an obscenity.

the auschwitz museum also condemned got filled's comments, as a quote, oversimplification of the genocide. and joining me now is holocaust survivor -- michael and his daughter, debbie ornstein -- they are officers of the book survivors -- >> michael and debbie, thank you both for joining me. michael, as a holocaust survivor, what do you think about what you just heard being said there in that clip from fox news? >> well, i'm disgusted, basically. my father was an accountant, and he had basically negotiating skill. he and my brother were gassed in auschwitz. my mother, knew how to, learned how to pack bullets that killed jewish people, there were over 6 million people killed in the

holocaust. over 1 million people, kille d in auschwitz. and, there is no silver lining to killing 6 million people, or talking about slaves and the benefits of slaves in learning what they were doing. >> and debbie, you know, what your father is talking about there is survival, not personal benefit. when you hear these things being compared, whether it's slavery or the holocaust, what goes through your mind? >> you know, the reason i dad wrote survivors club, because he did not want to initially sit down and talk about his past. he never really wanted to talk about his past, and then 70 years after his liberation, he and i were looking for that video. there is this famous video of my father, when he was liberty from auschwitz, and we knew we could google it and find it. and we were looking one day, and we clicked on a site, and

it was a link to a holocaust deniers website online. and that, it captioned, these guys captioned my video of my dad and liberation, pretty healthy children, for a quote, death camp. and wrote that, more people were writing and that, this shows lied about children being killed upon arrival at auschwitz. there's all kinds of garbage on the internet, and that's no surprise to anybody that there were conspiracy theorists, right, on the internet. and so, it fueled my dad to get out there, and start talking and writing. but it didn't shock us. what is shocking is when a guy in a blazer, who is the host at a major news network, gets on the air, and spews that same kind of garbage, that minimizes the murder of 6 million people. that is what is really shocking, and really really dangerous and upsetting. >> fox news host should apologize, fox network should apologize. there is absolutely no room for

fake news, like that. >> and false equivalence is. >> yes. >> speaking of exactly that, we are in, it seems, this big national conversation about how we talk about history. and, as survivors of the holocaust snow and their family 's, the mantra is, never forget. never forget, so that it can never happen again. as you think about, michael, how we talk about history in this country. are you, at all concerned that there is a desire to sort of paint the rosy east picture of our history, in order to make people feel more comfortable? i think >> people are looking for notoriety, they, whatever it takes to get the audience to listen to the news, whether it's fake news or whatever is necessary. and, i think it has to stop. as i said, facts, fox news should apologize.

the host should apologize, and there is no room for this fake news on television. >> what my dad set, is exactly right. i think it is about notoriety, whether it is politicians looking for notoriety in florida, or hosts on tv looking for notoriety, right, when they say outlandish things. the problem is that, just as you said, painting that rosy picture, it's incredibly dangerous. the more we water down history, the point of teaching history. history professors will tell you, the point of teaching history is so that we don't repeat it, right. if we don't learn from history, it's bound to repeat. so, if you take that away, and you water down history, what do you get? we get, we get a repeat, we get a repeat of the bigotry and hatred. and it's just, it's just really upsetting, it's really really upsetting! >> michael bernstein and debbie bernstein, thank you both very much, we are lucky to have you all preserving your story, and this history as well, thank you.

>> thank you. >> thank you for inviting us abby. >> we and, as migrants accuse the united states of throwing rocks at them, some fear a new surge, that the biden administration is now facing. and also, in the courts, losing a legal battle. plus, elon musk uses the scary collapse of lebron james's son to push anti vaccine conspiracies. bob costas joins me, ahead. he snores like an angry rhino. you've never heard an angry rhino. baby i hear one every night. every night. okay. i'll work on that. save up to $500 on the new sleep number® smart bed. plus, 60 month financing on most smart beds. shop now only at sleep number®. hi, i'm jill and i've lost 56 pounds on golo.

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the situation on the border tonight, growing more intense. a group of migrants from venezuela telling cnn that members of the texas national guard threw rocks at them, as they tried to cross the rio grande river. now, this is the latest allegation of harsh treatment at the border, as texas refuses the justice department's demand to remove the floating barrier

wall made of buoys and razor wire. and speaking of the bide n administration, a big loss for them today in court. a federal judge, blocking the presidents asylum policy. the measure was put in place with the expiration of title 42, and it considers migrants ineligible for asylum if they pass through another country, and they didn't apply online. now, the administration argues that these rules led to a 42% decrease in crossings in june, and it has vowed to fight that ruling. joining me now to discuss this

is former acting homeland security [[80910050] ] -- and -- he's also the america first institutes executive director. chad, thanks for joining us. so, the administration now is facing a legal setback, that you would be pretty familiar with, because actually this judge who struck down a very similar policy under the trump administration. it strikes me, that i'm sure you have plenty of critiques of the biden administration for whatever they are doing. but, in a system of checks and balances, they can't go beyond what the courts want them to do. so, what would you have them do, if the courts keep saying, you can't do? this >> yes, so this is an important unfortunate, as you indicated, this judge also struck down a number of trump asylum regulations as. well i think it's important to remember that, asylum is a district discretionary -- and congress gave the executive branch, in this case the biden administration, the ability to set requirements on asylum. and unfortunately, what this judge has done in the past, and continues today with this ruling, is inserting his opinion over that of congress. and in many cases, deciding, citing it sounds, like with the cartels and others, who want to see the status quo remain as is. now, the biden administration, as you indicated i have real concerns with their rule. but, they should have the ability to set the requirements of asylum. and this judge has intervened time and time again, and not allow the executive branch to do their job. so, they are going to have to appeal it, they should appeal it very strongly, and take it as high as they can. because i think the sets a very

dangerous precedent. >> at the end of the day, doesn't this suggest, strongly, that really at fault here is congress, for not making it clear what the law is, and how it should be applied at the border? >> well, congress is not going to be able to set the full range of asylum. they can give some broad outlines and strokes, which they have done, in law, in the statute. but it's always up to the executive branch, and in this case dhs, the department of justice and others, to set out a regulation on how we do that through asylum. the problem here is with the courts. the court is, again, inserting and legislating from that bench, and it really shouldn't be doing that. it shouldn't have been doing that during the trump administration, it shouldn't be

doing that here during the biden administration. >> so there is talk on capitol hill about impeaching the department of homeland security secretary, alejandro mayorkas. the administration is also saying now, that border crossings are down, and the numbers do show that they are down, about two years now since february of 2021, when the biden administration took office. they say that that's a sign that their policies are working. are they not? >> so i would disagree with. that i think that if you look at just border patrol numbers, the numbers are down. unfortunately, with the administration is doing is pushing all of these individuals to ports of entry, using parole, using the cbp one app and others. and so, while border patrol numbers are down, the numbers at ports of entry for illegal entry is up, over 1000 percent. and so, the surge is not diminishing, it's just moving to other parts of the border. >> while i do want to ask you about that, because it's a process, that they are putting in place, to know who these immigrants are, who are seeking

asylum or other forms of relief. they are asking them to go through a process, they are following a process, what's wrong with that? >> but the cbp one app doesn't even ask you any asylum questions, it just allows you to be paroled into the country, much like the 30,000 that they do on a monthly basis, from four different countries. again, in a lot of these parole systems, and policies that have been put in place, they've been struck down by the lower court. so i think that the biden administration, from a legality standpoint, and i know that's what folks on the hill are concerned about as well. i think they've got a real issue with how they are using parole, categorically, across the board. and i think that's going to come back and bite. them >> well, to your point about the asylum system. there is discretion here, why can't the biden administration use discretion, to ease the issue of border crossings between ports of entry. so that at the very least, the united states government has a sense of, who is seeking some kind of relief? why can't they do? that >> well, they've actually tried to do. this is the rule that was unfortunately struck. down >> okay, but why do you have a problem with, that is what i'm asking? >> well, i have a problem with the rule itself.

i think the rule is fundamentally flawed. too many exemptions, i don't think it's effective. but, i will argue that the biden administration should have the ability to set forth the requirements of asylum. and this judge, again as we saw during the trump administration, is inserting his own opinion of what he believes asylum should be. and therefore, taking it out of congress and under the executive branch. that should not occur. >> i want to ask you about what we were talking about at the beginning of the segment, which is what's happening in the state of texas, in particular. there is this floating barrier, and that the state has put in. it is lined with razor wire, it is floating in the rio grande, where a lot of migrants are crossing. it's causing serious injuries, in some cases people who own property in that area are complaining about it as well. do you think that governor abbott should, or has even the legal right to have that kind of barrier in those waters? >> look, i think governor abbott is having to take a number of measures. the maritime buoys is just one, because the federal government is not doing it. >> but is it legal? and you would know --

because >> yeah, i think the ability for him to take certain measures, whether it's in the desert, which is absolutely illegal. what the biden administration should do is, it should be working with the governor to try to address the current situation. the fact that they are going to court to sue the governor, right out of the shoot on this. i think it's very problematic, because of what it is saying, as we are not interested in protecting american communities. we are more concerned about aliens and illegally aliens, coming, then we are about americans in texans. that governor abbott cares about, i think that's concerning. >> well, i think there's definitely a valid concern. we talk about the fentanyl issue. there are valid concerns there. but, there are humanitarian standards, this is the united states of america. >> sure. >> and i think that there are some legitimate questions about whether those razor wire barriers are causing serious injuries. but also, those allegations

that you mentioned as well, about troopers allegedly throwing rocks at migrants. there were other reports that were made official in writing, of troopers pushing people back into the water, or not offering them water. those are real humanitarian concerns. are you concerned about those things? >> look, anything like that should be investigated, and we should look into it. we've used razor wire along the -- along the border for years. >> sure, but i think the question is, in water, where people. i think the issue, is in water, where people, including some children are crossing. that is the question. >> but again, if you go back to the biden administration, you are pushing people through ports of entry, that's where the focus should be. and, stop incentivizing folks and individuals to come across that border illegally. i think what texas is trying to do here is say, you are crossing in the rio grande, in this case, illegally. you need to stop making illegal entry into the united states. and the biden administration agrees with this, which is why they're doing a parole, which is why they're doing with the cbp one app, and everything else to try to push these individuals to ports of entry. and so, i think again the biden administration needs to work with the governor, and not sue the governor, to stop these types of behaviors. >> well one last thing before you go. former president trump recently said that if he was elected, he

would restart the zero tolerance policy, which led to a lot of family separations. you were in dhs when that policy was in place. do you think that he should do that? >> well, i'm gonna let president trump speak for himself. what i can say, is there's a number of effective measures that we put in place over those four years, and i think that if we went back to those measures. and a lot of them were in place at the end of the trump administration, you wouldn't see the historic crisis that we see today. >> but does that include zero tolerance? >> no, but i think you do need to hold people accountable. you need to hold people accountable across the board, for crossing illegally. and there's a number of different ways that we found, after that program was in place, which was back in 2018. so we put effective policies in place in 2019, in 2020, that had the lowest number of apprehensions along the border. i would go back to those policies. >> yeah, so what i heard you say is, no, he should not do that, but do other things. >> again, i'm going to let president trump speak for himself. >> all right, chad wolf, thank you very much for joining us on all of that. >> thank you. >> and coming up next for us, the latest on the lebron james, his son who just suffered cardiac arrest on the basketball court. bob costas is here to discuss all of that. plus, our harvard's legacy admissions policies a form of discrimination? laura coats is with me, ahead.

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the sports world reacting tonight to the sudden collapse of lebron james's son bronny. the star freshman, who just turned 18 years old, suffering cardiac arrest during a workout at usc. now, his family says that he is

stable tonight, and no longer in the icu. joining me now to discuss this is cnn contributor and broadcasting legend bob costas. bob, this is incredibly frightening, and also incredibly rare. what do you think this compares to, in terms of other athletes, young ones of this age, who have collapsed while at practice or in games? >> yeah, every situation is different. we think back to hank gathers, who began his collegiate career at usc, ironically. but then wound up with -- and he was destined for mba stardom. he collapsed in a game, about two months before a second collapse led to his death on the court. and you had reggie lewis of the celtics, in the midst of a fine nba career, who collapsed and died during an off-season practice. and he was only 27. hank gathers was 23. but as it turns out, both had pre-existing conditions that contributed to it. we don't know yet what the case is with bronny. and even though it's fresh on people's mind, damar hamlin's situation on the football game between the bills and the

bengals several months ago was entirely different thing. that's commotio cordis, which is caused by a collision, some kind of contact to the chest at the exact wrong millisecond. and it disrupts the hearts electrical cycles. so, these were entirely different situations. but earlier tonight, i heard dr. reiner did, and certainly his expertise exceed minds thousand times over, tell anderson cooper that it's probably not a good idea for somebody, if they have a pre-existing condition like this that would predispose them to these sorts of episodes, to play basketball at the nba level, with all of its physical demands. now, that is speculation, but it's speculation that comes from a very credible source. >> yeah, and we don't know exactly what the cause is, whether it was pre-existing or perhaps something that might have been caused by what he was doing in the practice. but to that point, there was another usc player who just last year, suffered cardiac arrest during a practice. he went on to play in the following season, 14 games. but, i wonder, when you hear lebron james say he wants to stay in the nba, to play with his son. do you think, or reasonably, that they might have to re-evaluate whether or not the professional level of basketball play is something that is in bronny future. >> well, they might. but i'm in no position to offer that advice, one way or the other, and neither is anyone else until the dust settles here, and we get a better handle on exactly what bronny circumstances are. when lebron james came out of high school, and all of college right out of the nba, he was a surefire small pusher player. bronny james a couple years, ago is not anything near that.

now, out of the top 100 college prospects, in terms of their nba prospects, he's ranked around 20th right now, prior till it happened today. so, he has a very good chance, or had a very good chance prior to this episode, we will see what happened subsequently, to play in the nba. this was his freshman year at usc. it's not uncommon for players, if they think they have nba

potential, to come out after their freshman year. lebron is in the final year of his contract with the lakers. there's an option, at his discretion, for another year with the lakers. but if you want to, if was bronny able to play. then lebron could be three to hook up with him. and we've seen in the nba, these kind of maneuvers were players kind of make their own,

it's almost like chasing upsides in the school year. so if bronny and lebron want to play together, it can probably happen somewhere, if not los angeles, somewhere else in the nba. provided bronny is able to play, and that's just guesswork right now. >> yeah, i mean it would have to happen relatively soon. look bob, i want to ask you about one other thing. just shortly after this announcement about what bronny, you are musk also weighed in on this collapse. and he was pushing some anti vaccine conspiracies. he says, we can't ascribe everything to the vaccine, but by the same token, we can't ascribe nothing. he says, myocarditis is a known side effect, the only question is whether it's rare or common. what do you make of that? >> well, again, i don't have enough expertise to say that's

flatly wrong, or that hurts something to it. however, we do know that generally speaking, there are people who are inclined toward believing that the vaccine is some sort of devils potion, and describing everybody who has a health episode, subsequent to vaccination, describing all of that two vaccines. just in the sports world, the great hank aaron died about two weeks shy of 87th birthday. and he had other medical conditions. he had been vaccinated, and i remember all of the top from certain precincts we'll, if he hadn't been vaccinated, he would still be with us. you know, we live in a world now where anything you don't want to be true, doesn't have to be true, with a mountain of evidence and a choir of angels attesting to it. and, anything you do want to be true, well, you don't need all that much evidence. or you could say, i did my own research, which often, means not always, but often means you just discounted everything that did not match what you want to believe in the first place, until you found something that supported it. and of, there it is. that's the world we live in, and that certainly has an effect on those inclined towards conspiracy theories. >> yeah, i mean the reality is, we don't know, and that it is elon musk. so, hopefully people just give the doctors a chance to figure this out, and also bronny a chance to get better soon. bob costas, thank you so much as always. >> all right, thank you abby. the children of the rich, and the powerful, and the alumni of harvard, do they really deserve advantage when they are applying to college. laura coates joins me next, on the investigation that is now underway.

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>> our legacy missions a form of discrimination? that is a question under federal investigation tonight. harvard's preferential treatment to children of the wealthy. and of donors and alumni at the center of a new civil rights lawsuit that argues that students of color are at the disadvantage. this comes just weeks after the supreme court struck down affirmative action in college admissions. i want to bring in cnn's chief legal analyst laura coats. laura, this lawsuit alleges that the students who received this kinds of preferential treatment are overwhelmingly white. make up as much as 15% of harvard's admitted students. that is almost the same percentage of african american students that harvard admits. are you surprised it has even taken this long for us to get to this point? >> i'm not. any fact legacy admissions has

been under the microscope for some time for a variety of reasons. mostly for the reasons you state. that there is a disproportionate amount of students who will benefit from legacy admissions food or not fall into the traditional racial minority groups and. so many believe this to be a kind of proxy for discrimination. there is an advantage given to those who have had parents who have attended the university or otherwise. or grandparents and beyond. and it can trace back maybe one generation to know how fraught our society has been with discrimination. so this came up of course in consideration at the latest supreme court rulings about why it was that race based or race conscious admissions were's under the gun but not legacy which had perhaps an even greater impact of what was happening in admissions. >> yeah, i mean look, i think the counter argument that some folks would make is that the courts have a different level of scrutiny that gets applied to issues of race. you could make that argument. but there was actually a study just yesterday that found that

children in the top 1%. their household income. top 1%. they are twice as likely to get into these elite schools as children. especially in the middle of the income distribution. do you think that the courts should be as sensitive to that socioeconomic issue as they have been to the idea that affirmative action in the case of some of the conservative justices needs to be rolled back? >> clearly there is a correlation in america between race and socioeconomic status. also about the admissions process and beyond. but i think to your earlier point into the latter. in the first instance, it is part of what the supreme court has looked at in terms of figuring out. these quote, backdoor way of violating suspect classifications. wing race, gender, religion and beyond. they are really about whether the court will look at a very narrow test to figure out under strict scrutiny if what you are trying to accomplish.

the governments purpose in trying to use any of these suspect classifications, is it tied to a compelling state interest. so they look at that in instances like this. but because legacy admissions really can be a corollary to conversations around race. to economic status and beyond. the court would actually be in its jurisdiction to look at these things if it relates to that. now of course, this is the next horizon as you know abby in terms of what the court will look to. the court was quite decisive this time around. but whether it is still a work in progress is anyone's guess. given the fact that race based admissions had been really the ring to actually achieve on this particular legal carousel. we are talking legacy admissions, it has been treated very differently because it does not have a direct notion of race. and perhaps more tangential. but nonetheless, they are cousins. >> and as you pointed out, it could be basically operating as a back door.

some people have said legacy admissions basically function as affirmative action for wealthy white people who are in many cases donors of the elite schools. laura coates, thank you so much as always for joining us tonight. >> nice to see. even if you are a harvard girl. >> that's true, full disclosure. >> go princeton, there you go. >> thank you laura. and just in, some drama just hours before hunter biden's plea hearing tomorrow. as a judge now accuses his lawyers of lying. we will have that next. ♪ helps you stay connected, ♪ safe ♪ and charged. ♪ the all-new chevy trax starting at $21,495. the possibilities are endless.

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and new tonight, hunter biden's legal team is denying that they lied to court officials in order to get materials from a senior republican lawmaker removed from the public docket. the lawmakers called it an unfortunate miscommunication, the lawyers i should say. their response comes in response to the district judge who threatened them with sanctions and accused one of their staff of lying to court officials and misrepresenting who she works for. this comes just hours before hunter biden is expected to appear in court and to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and a judge felony charge. thank you for joining me, sara sidner is up now. sara, how are you doing tonight? >> hey, i'm good. happy to see you. and, you know, just trying to have a good show. yours is great. >> have a great show. >> all right. good evening, everyone. i'm sara sidner. welcome to "cnn tonight.