and the secret service denies reports of tension over this, but it's not if first time a biden dog has caused problems. the family's elder dog, major, injured a secret service agent and was sent away which one source says caused a breach of trust, but major and commander have company in white house history. teddy roosevelt's dog once ripped the pants off a government official. >> barney had a real reputation for being difficult. a real jerk. >> white house officials had previously said commander would be receiving remedial training but could not answer whether that training had taken place in the aftermath of the recent biting incidents. >> thank you very much. and to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts

right now. "outfront" next, donald trump says he's accept the role of house speaker, quote, for the party and for a short period if necessary. it comes as he's placing himself in the capitol hill chaos. and abc news reporting that donald trump discussed sensitive information about submarines with a mar-a-lago club member. how does this fit into jack smith's case? and russia launching one of the deadliest strikes on ukraine yet. putin claims he didn't start the war. he's just trying to end it. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. tonight, donald trump for speaker? trump saying tonight he will take the job, telling fox news digital today, i quote, they have asked me if i would take it for a short period of time for the party until they come to a

conclusion. i'm not doing it because i want to. i will do it if necessary. also telling fox he'll visit the capitol on tuesday. the vote is expected to be wednesday and this will be trump's first visit to the capitol since the insurrection on january 6th. nearly three years ago. make no mistake. there are plenty of republicans who don't want trump getting involved. >> you do not want trump to come? >> no, i think the discussion should be focused on the people that are in the conference. >> but the reality of course is that it is a deeply divides, chaotic party, and some of the republicans who support trump as speaker are speaking out just as l loudly. >> it's done. i am nominating donald j. trump for speaker of the house. >> i think president trump is the right guy for the job. i certainly would love to see him be speaker of the house. >> of course, it does bear reminding that they are saying

this about a person who is facing 91 felony charges. a person who abc is reporting tonight allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about u.s. nuclear submarines with a billionaire who then shared that information with more than 45 other people. including more than a dozen fortune officials. abc reporting that an australian who runs pride industries, has been interviewed by both the fbi and prosecutors at least twice this year and he told them that at mar-a-lago in spring of 2021, he brought up the american submarine fleet, which he discussed with trump before. pratt says he's told trump, australia should buy u.s. submarines and he quote leaned into pratt and told him two things about american submarines. supposedly the exact number of nuclear y carry and exactly how close they can get supposedly to a russian submarine without being

detected. pretty incredible things to share to a person in a club. of course, trump is already charged with 40 counts. melanie is "outfront" on capitol hill and you know in the context here, melanie, trump now saying he's willing to not just run for president, but potentially be speak speaker for a period of time. you have been talking to a lot of republicans there today. what are they telling you about trump getting involved here in the speaker? >> well, it is not being warmly received. this is just what one republican told me. they said the solution to chaos isn't to bring in a chaos agent. so, yes. there's some hard core supporters like marjorie taylor greene who are egging on this. but the reality is the conference, trump is a polarizing figure. bringing them in would do nothing. the idea of him being speaker,

there are 18 republicans invited in tw republicans in the conference who voted to impeach trump. they're not going to make him speaker. they would have to elect him to do that but there is a question of whether he gets off the sidelines and endorses a speaker for candidate. he was really on the sidelines during the fight earlier this week. he had pitched mccarthy for speaker this year but really didn't do anything to come to his rescue and now we're being told that jim jordan, one of the candidates for speaker, has talked to trump about his speaker's bid. so everyone is waiting to see whether he gets involved in this race or not. just the big picture here, erin. the fact that even trump's name is being thrown around by people like marjorie taylor greene and other hard core trump supporters shows there's so much uncertainty about who their next speaker is going to be. steve kai scalise is running, j

jordan. >> all right, melanie. amazing, right? didn't seem to have a plan at all. we have members on both sides of the aisle with us tonight as this chaos continues. i want to start with congressman molinaro. sir, i know you voted against the effort to oust speaker mccarthy so you wanted him to remain as speaker. so you just heard congressman nells, i nominate donald trump for speaker. president trump's the right guy for the job. i'd love to see him be speaker of the house. do you think former president trump should be speaker on a short-term basis? >> the way you framed it is a great way of answering it. z >> we have a short-term speaker and i'm kcommitted to finding someone within the house. we've got to be focused on

governing again and i think what happened two days ago was a mistake. i think it's an embarrassment and frankly, we need as a conference, republican majority, to come together behind a candidate who serves in the house and is committed to governing. we have a divided country and a bipartisan government and we have to function within that reality. >> so president trump in this context is coming to capitol hill next week ahead of what might be the first of many rounds of votes for speaker, right? depending on what happens in your party. the day before. he hasn't been on capitol hill since the insurrection when he was obviously nearby. so do you think that's a good idea he come to the hill? is it helpful in any way? >> i think that the conference has a lot to get through these next few days and quite frankly, the amount of discussion we've been having as members is complicated enough. i will say out loud that i've been engaged in these

conversations. i think people from different backgrounds, this is a serious moment. the speaker of the house has responsibility. second in line to be president of the united states. this is not a moment where we need any distraction or any, any undermining of a very serious effort to find the individual who best, who will best enable us to govern the american people. they want us fighting inflation. they want us delivering to the most vulnerable in our society and they need us to be serious about that. that's my attention to focus. >> congressman, when i ask you about who the speaker may be but first i want to ask you about the reporting that abc news is reporting that president trump allegedly discussed this information about nuclear subs with a billionaire who then shared it with then 45 people.

what's your reaction to that and do you think trump given what you know from that and obviously what's going on in the mar-a-lago case, should he have any future access to sensitive information? >> this is the first honestly i've been hearing of the reporting and i don't know the accuracy of really the truth telling or honesty of the individual. i think without question, obviously this information that ought not be shared with anyone and there needs to be respect of confidential information. i said this consistently. no one, presidents or members of congress should be out running their mouths on things of that nature. >> the speaker's race itself. i want to ask you because you said you were in meetings. i know one of them i believe was with the congressman, jim jordan. obviously, he wants the speakership. he's been speaking to the former president. did he win your vote? >> i've made this very clear. i've spoken to jim jordan and steve scalise and i will tell

you it took three, put it this way. no one worked harder to earn my support nor the majority of the house than kevin mccarthy. it took him three or four years to earn that support. i represent upstate new york and americans who want solutions. i'm not committing to any candidate. i'm listening, asking tough questions and i'm speaking on behalf of members like myself who want someone who's going to be committed to governing. if any of these men or women, if any other names come forward, i represent the best interest of the people who want solutions. item going to continue to hold firm in that and these member haves a week. >> thank you very much. appreciate your time. >> be well. thank you. >> you, too. i'm joib ned by seth molten of massachusetts. congressman, if democrats had helped mccarthy retain his

speakership, you may not be looking at a jim jordan possibility. wouldn't be hearing about a possible speaker trump and trump coming to capitol hill for the first time since january 6th as he is apparently going to do next week. do you have any regrets? >> absolutely not. what we want is a speaker who's willing to work across the aisle to get things done for the american people. sounds like that's what mark wants as well. sadly, we never got that from kevin mccarthy. this is a man who governed to his base from the very day he was elected speaker. required democrats to bail him out including averting a government shutdown when 90 of his own members, his own republican colleagues in the house voted to shut the government down and then what does he do? goes on tv the next day and starts bashing and blaming democrats. he could have done the most modest outreach to a few members

f o you are caucus and said i want to work together to include you in the government process. the same way the vast majority of the american people want. >> would a speaker jordan be better though? >> we don't know. if you look at speaker jordan, or representative jordan's behavior so far, it makes you think that a speaker jordan would be even worse than mccarthy, but one would hope that the next speaker would recognize that mccarthy's strategy of playing to the base, of being really subservient to the extremists in this caucus didn't work. he didn't get anything done. in the same period of time under nancy pelosi, we passed three times as many bills out of the house that kevin mccarthy passed in his speakership. so it didn't work for legislating. for the american people and it ultimately cost him his job to just listen to people like matt gaetz. so we hope whoever the next speaker is, speaker scalise,

jordan, they won't do that. they'll be willing to work across the aisle to govern for the american people. >> and that would be a shift for some of those individuals. it would be a real transformational shift. i want to ask you about how you got here. i know you're well aware that your colleague, dan goldman, said that liz cheney reached out to him about speaker mccarthy. to say that, to remind him that mccarthy obviously had in her view, had such a horrible response to january 6th. and the view she had that he poses a danger to democracy because of how he behaved on january 6th and his current support for donald trump. then he said he went and conveyed that to the entire democratic conference right before the vote and it was framed that that was crucial. that liz cheney was crucial to the decision of the democratic caucus to not back and bailout speaker mccarthy.

how big of an impact did she have? >> a lot of democrats have respect for her in standing up to trump and the insurrectionists and the people in her party who are the election deniers. we understand that about liz cheney. that doesn't mean we always follow her advice. >> all right. i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. next, a major development on the legal front. trump trying to get the doj's january 6th case dismissed. he says he has immunity because he was president and was acquitted by the senate after his impeachment. and russia tonight launching a brutal strike on ukraine. more than 50 people killed and putin tonight rewriting history, trying to say he didn't start the war. and commander biden out of the white house but as our tom foreman will report tonight, commander is far from the only presidential pet to end up in the dog house.

abc first reporting that trump shared sensitive information about submarines with a mar-a-lago club member. "the new york times" is reporting that jack smith may be calling the club member, anthony pratt, an australian billionaire who runs a u.s. major company, to testify in the classified documents case. this m cos as team trump is now looking to get jack smith's over case thrown out, claiming trump's efforts to overturn the

2020 election were protected because of presidential immunity and they point out that trump was acquitted by the senate after his impeachment, which is a political process. it is the argument they are making as to why he shouldn't be facing charges in a court. evan perez is "outfront." so, evan, let me just ask you about that specific thing. treeing to get this thrown out on immunity. is this a hail mary or is this actually something real? >> it is a hail mary but it is probably their best chance. it is probably their best defense and it's one they've been certainly testing out in various ways, erin. the former president knows the fact he was president does come with a lot of benefits. one of them was the fact that under article two, he has to execute the laws of the country. so what they're saying in this court filing is that you know, because there are laws against vote fraud that the former president had every right to ask the justice department to communicate with state officials to ask them to look into those

fraud claims. now, of course, there's a lot of reason for the justice department to have done those investigations and come back and said that it was nothing to support that. i'll read you just a part of what the filing says though because they go beyond just what the former president's presidential duties were. this goes into the impeachment trial. they say president trump was acquitted of these charges after the senate and he thus remains immune from prosecution. the special counsel cannot second guess the judgment of the dually elected united states senate. if you remember, a part of what the senate was looking at was whether the former president inspired and really brought on the insurrection on january 6th and that's not what jack smith and the special counsel are prosecuting the former president for. >> thank you very much. and ryan goodman is with me and katie, former federal prosecutor. so thanks to both.

we've talked about the fact that impeachment is a political process. and court of law is a legal process. mitch mcconnell's whole point. let's courts decide it. acquitted by the senate so throw it out. is there any case here to do that or for presidential immunity? >> for that argument, no. it's almost ludicrous. in the sense that he almost is saying you require a senate in order to be able to then prosecute a president but that wouldn't make any sense because evidence could come to light later. as evan says, there was a particular specific charge in the impeachment, which was the incitement. other charges, jack smith didn't charge him with incitement. he has a separate argument, which is the supreme court has found presidents are immune from civil suits. that's a good argument. he's now saying that should extend to civil suits.

i think it's still a loser but very proper for his lawyers to raise that. it would be a mistake not to try. >> i know katie, you think you could get to the supreme court on that. if that happens, how long does it take before we get an answer? >> theoretically, the trial judge could grant and dismiss the case on that ground. there's the issue of first impression the supreme court has never definitively decided what is outside of the outer perimeter of the president's duties which has what the supreme court has said in civil cases. the president is immune from civil liability and legal process but in a criminal context, that's never been adjudicated. there are certain things we could say for sure. things like domestic violence or sexual assault. the conduct and the excuse of

the laws and things of that sort. i think it's a very valid argument and whether it gets overturned at the trial level, tas doubtful, but scotus will have to weigh in on this. the trial would have to end, go through the other appellate courts most likely unless the supreme court takes it out of turn, which i guess is possible. >> so this could delay. >> absolutely. because the supreme court could just sit on it. it could eventually find in favor of the prosecution but could sit on it for months on end. >> right, which is what the former president wants. all these cases. it's interesting when you look at these. e even if that's all they get. i want to ask you about this abc news reporting about trump sharing this potentially sensitive information about subs with a billionaire who shares it with more than 45 people. details about how many nuclear warheads, how they go

undetected. this is what's alleged and "the new york times" is reporting tonight now after that abc reporting came out that jack smith wants to speak to anthony pratt. this billionaire. what do you make of it? >> so, it is an extraordinary set of facts because right now, president trump is only being charged were retention of national defense information, classified information. he is not being charged with dissim nating it to others. this is desisseminating it to a foreign national. it's just extraordinary. you would think he would be charged for it. but he hasn't been and i think maybe that could be because the intelligence community would be very reluctant to have this information come into a public trial and expose something about u.s. nuclear submarines. that said, because of the reporting, it creates this puzzle. if indeed pratt is on the witness list -- >> to testify. they have to be clear the doj has interviewed him twice but this puts him on a witness list.

>> right. so that is bringing the information into the public trial. so what is it? it might just be they don't want to bring it in as a charge because you have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt and maybe get into the specifics of what exactly did the president, he wasn't president at the time, what did trump say to mr. pratt and get into the specifics of the submarine. >> put him in that square. katie, one thing on the trump case. this back and forth between the attorney general and trump and all the name calling that he has thrown at her, calling her racist and other things. called her a political animal yesterday. today, brought by the racist and incompetent peek a boo james. this is what he posts about her today. he has been given an order not to talk about any officers of court. a gag order. can stuff like this be allowed

to continue without any c consequence? >> now that the judge has issued the order, certainly the interpretation of a violation would have to be something the judge has to decide. if it happens within the court's view, it doesn't have to be a hearing but if it's alleged, he would have a chance to defend against that. there are con consequences that could be imposed. >> meaning jail, but monetary. something's got to happen. something has to happen, which would be a big moment. thank you both very much. i appreciate it. and next, striking images of children in russia putting on f gas masks. it comes as russia launches a horrible strike in ukraine. more than 50 people killed in this strike and president biden says border walls don't work. he was totally against the wall. so why is his administration now building more?

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tonight, reduced to rubble. a brutal russian missile strike killed 51 people in a cafe near kharkiv including an 8-year-old boy. it's one of the deadliest attacks since the russians invaded and yet putin said this today. >> the ever growing military and political tension should be addressed. we didn't start the so-called war in ukraine. on the contrary, we try to finish it. >> didn't start the war in ukraine. just an incredible thing to say.

well, today, putin also bragging that russia successfully test launched a nuclear powered cruise missile. and it came as sirens blared across the country today as russia carried out nuclear drills. images of children putting on gas masks circulated on social media. fred is in ukraine where the horrific missile strike took place. i'll warn you some of the images in his reporting are disturbing. >> utter destruction and chaos after the massive explosion. as night fell, bodies strewn across the area as search and rescue crews scoured for debris. this man weeping in front of a body bag, too shaken to talk to us. we learned his name is sergei and the deceased was his wife. as you can see, the building was annihilated when it was hit by the missile. this was a missile launched by

the russias. as you can see, it completely devastated this buildsing. the ukrainians say more than 50 people were killed. it's difficult for them to identify some of the dbodies. they also say what was going on here was an event around a funeral. and they say that the people who were attending that event were all local. obviously it's still, the first responders are busy doing the forensics on the scene and still putting bodies into body bags. there's a lot of them laying around here and being taken away by the crews here. one of the things we can see over there is that this was some

sort of recreational area. there seems to be a playground that was heavily damaged when the missile hit. ukraine's president pitting the blame on russia. tragically because of the inhuman terrorist attack, 50 civilians were killed during a funeral. russia does this every day in the kharkiv region and only air defense can help. but that would be too late for sergei's wife and the others killed. the only thing he can do for her now is help the crews lift her body to be taken away. >> fred, it's got to be so hard to be there. such loss of life. you did arrive shortly after this happened. and we can see the destruction behind you. what was that like? >> still very fresh when we got here. you're right. the destruction here is complete. it's total. you can see the rubble on the ground looks almost like some sort of massive earthquake

struck here. that's what this missile did to the building. that's what we found when we got here, there were still a lot of bodies strewn around the debris here but also in front of the building as well. it seems as though the folks who survived, the first responders, dragged some of the bodies out and there were people sort of tending to them but it was clear little that paramedics could do. there was a lot of carnage here. the authorities did what they could but you can also see now that they pretty much have given up any sort of hope that anybody could be found alive. in fact, a recovery operation has stopped as we are in the middle of the night. you can see this place has been completely destroyed. erin? >> fred, thank you very much. next, president biden now building a border wall which is something of course, the wall

and biden, said it was against everything he stood for. so what's changed? just days before rfk jr. is expected to announce he's running as an independent, cornell west is beating hill to the punch. the numbers are important because this could do something to a trump biden race.

zbl tonight, the biden administration is building a border wall with money that was approved during the trump administration and doesn't think it will work but is powerless to stop it. >> border wall money was proep rated for the border wall. i tried to get them to redirect that money. they didn't. they wouldn't. they have to use the money for what it was prappropriated for. >> do you believe the border wall works? >> no. >> and when pressed on it later, his own press secretary couldn't say what law was forcing biden's hand to build the border wall. >> i'm not going to speak to, i would have to refer you to the department of justice. i'm not a lawyer, but what i can tell you is that this is a law we are complying with. >> all right, just to cut through the confusion, congress did authorize money in 2019 to build quote border barriers. what biden faced was a deadline

either spend the money or to lose it. the government to lose it. right? so biden has chosen instead to spend it. it comes as the migrant surge hits levels far beyond the southern border. whitney wild is "outfront" tonight from chicago where this issue is now pitting democrats against the white house. >> this is the end of a six week long journey from venezuela for carla garcia and her 5-year-old niece. >> translator: so tired. we don't have a decent place to sleep. >> they sleep in a corner of a south side police station. migrants live at city police stations and airports. >> over the course since i've been in office, we have been flooded with buses, individuals who are in very desperate circumstances. >> mayor johnson expects the number of migrants who have

descended on chicago to reach 20,000 in coming days. migrants started arriving in august of 2022 when the governor added chicago to a list of city where is he plans to send buses. saying relief is needed for overcrowded southern border towns. >> this is very much tied to the politics of the republican party that has made it very clear they want to destabilize cities like chicago. >> tension is flaring between illinois leaders and the white house for more help. the pressure to man aage this crisis will only grow. next summer, the democratic national convention comes to town. officials believe that will prompt even more buses. >> there are other things the federal government can do other than sending us money and i do believe and i have spoken with the white house since even over the weekend and the letter to make sure that they heard us. >> johnson's administration is working rapidly to house migrants, opening one shelter per week.

but closing some public facilities to make room for migrant housing has angered some residents. >> our rights are being infringed upon. >> the city has inked a deal for military grade tents. a temporary solution while the city races to move migrants off the street before chicago's brutal winter sets in. >> i'm very much committed to making sure we get people off the floors of police districts and stations and out of our airports because it is not humane. these are awful conditions. >> back at the police station, carla isn't sure leaving venezuela is worth the sacrifice. >> translator: we don't know yet. because we're here, all this uncertainty and just sleeping here. if you're thinking about coming here, think twice. because this is very hard. >> erin, mayor johnson says he

understands what southern states are going through and he's actually going to go to the border himself to assess the situation. meanwhile, the department of homeland security has sent people here to chicago this week to assess the situation and erin, time is really the major hurdle here because it's going to drop into the low 40s overnight very soon. back to you. >> thank you very much. from chicago tonight. and "outfront" now, the host of npr's morning edition. familiar to all of our viewers i'm sure. also author of differ we must, how lincoln succeeded in a divided america. so steve, many listening to you every day know this is an issue you have reported on extensively for years. in fact, you have driven the entire length of the southern border. you are in situation tonight. the crisis has been pitting the democratic mayor and governor of illinois against president biden. how big of a problem is this right now for biden?

it's remarkable when i'm following news coverage here in chicago and you have chicago alderman saying the government is absent. you think classic neighborhood, maybe a little corruption and instead this an issue in people's communities. i was reading a statement by the homeland security secretary and didn't say we're going to expand the wall. he said, plural, we're going to expand or add barriers. having driven the border, i think i understand what's going on here. the government has always used some bits of wall in different places to secure the border with other tools like patrols and surveillance technology and the difficult landscape in some areas. that's always been a tool and they want to make some more use of this tool but it has become

instead a huge political symbol. it was for trump. it therefore became a symbol for biden and now you have the practical need to expand the wall a little bit and it becomes a political statement. >> so i want to look at some numbers here because as you point out, when you talk about an alderman weighing in on this, this has become at the core of politics in a way that it never has been before. and that is because it has moved into big northern liberal cities. right? it is now in people's communities. 60% of democrats now steve say they support increasing efforts to stop illegal immigration. that's the recent marquette university poll. that's a stunning number because that's democrats. right? and i know you talk about border walls, wall versus barriers. biden has said he's clear a wall for example won't work. but the reality is whatever the word you use and as you point out, maybe it is not just a matter of semantics. but nonetheless, to, from a political point of view, it seems to fly in the face of some

of his core campaign promises like these. >> this is a reality. we don't need a wall. >> there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration. >> so, steve, how does he deal with that? that's of course what he said during the campaign. >> well, this is a reality that american politicians have always placed. there's always been fear and anxiety about immigrants and immigration. lincoln had to deal with this. a nativist movement and he had to figure out how to appeal to nativist voters politically even though he disagreed with them on the issue. every generation of american politicians since has faced the same challenge and that is definitely true of democrats who have a big part of their coalition who are immigrants and proimmigrant but have other parts of their coalition who have certain doubts or don't want problems in their cities. problems in their backyards. even if they favor it in general.

>> so in your new book, you talk about in lincoln, you focus on his interactions with 16 people. 16 people with what he did not agree. and you focus in on those interactions and what he learned as a result of that. is there any possibility of that happening in the environment we live in now? people who just are opposed to each other find some sort of common ground. >> i don't think that you can agree with everybody in this divided society. in fact, it would be weird if we could agree with everyone in a democracy, but you can try to build coalitions with people you have some limited agreement that are enough to make a majority. and if you're concerned about the future of the country, if you're concerned about democracy, continuing this republic, then that calls for some compromises with people to build that majority. we're looking at a political situation right now where look at the house of representatives. neither side has quite got their coalition in order to feel comfortable about the next election and that's something

that lincoln was good at. >> all right. steve, thank you very much. talk about coalitions not being together, what about cornell west? he's officially running as an independent candidate for president much to the chagrin of the democrats. rfk jr. is also expected to ditch the democratic party and do the same. it could really shake up this race where every single vote will count. then commander biden, not the first presidential pet with a biting problem. tom will report tonight.

tonight, spoiler, progressive activist cornel west says he is officially running for president as an independent. he is dropping his green party

bid. >> we need you to be part and parcel of wrestling with this corporate duopoly, this two-person system that impede. >> and the announcement comes days before rfk jr. announced he is dropping his primary challenge, but not the challenge, because he says he is also probably we expect going to run as an independent. all of it happening, in what is so far a very tight race. frankly, every vote is going to matter. harry, let's talk about cornel west, which by the way, when you talk to him about democratic insiders, they're very worried. robert f. kennedy, they're very worried too. they like to say they're very worried. maybe that's a bit of a fig leaf where. do they poll? >> these are two very different cats in terms of where they're polling. rfk jr. is polling in the mid teens. he is polling in the mid teens. you compare that with cornel west who is only polling at 2%.

the fact is robert f. kennedy jr., in my particular mind seems he could be a much bigger player in the 2024 campaign than cornel west is, but then 2% ain't nothing either. >> no, it isn't. if you look at what that could mean in certain states and races, that could be a whole state, if you're looking at a state deeply divided. a few states matter more than anything in the electoral race. when you say the race is close, at this point, it's like a balance sheet. we're talking really close. >> we can talk nationally, where we have a margin of error. trump slightly ahead. we can talk in aggregate of the swing states. but the fact is at this point we're looking at a very tight race. and that 2% we spoke about cornel west, that may not seem like a lo, but when you a one point-race either way, that 2% could make all the difference in

the world. rfk in the mid teens could make a tremendous difference. >> think about jill stein. >> ralph nader. >> can make a huge difference. the reality is when you talk to people, it does seem the democrats are a lot more worried about the prospect of a third party candidate than republicans. why is that? are they right? >> the reason that they're worried about it is because republicans are a lot more enthusiastic about donald trump than democrats are for joe biden. so essentially, if you ask them, are you enthusiastic if this person is your party's nominee, we see 78% of republicans are enthusiastic for trump. just 68% of democrats are enthusiastic for joe biden. now we'll see how that all translates in 2024. but the fact is that's the reason why democrats are worried at this point. >> all right. harry, thank you very much. >> thank you. and next, commander biden is not the only presidential pet to make dubious headlines. tom foreman has more on the raccoons, bears, possums, pet possums. i had one once.

even a hippo that have been presidential pets.

tonight, the white house says commander has moved out. this as cnn learns the 2-year-old german shepherd has been involved in more biting incidents than the 11 publicly reported. >> were you ever wary of being around him because of the biting incidents that you had heard about? >> absolutely not. i've seen commander many times. i was never worried and i've never been bit by commander. >> okay. commander is far from the first presidential pet to make headlines. tom foreman is "outfront." >> reporter: almost a dozen secret service personnel and plenty of staffers. sources tell cnn the presidential dog commander has bitten more people than previously known. then after this latest snap, he has been relieved of command. >> commander is not presently at the white house. >> reporter: presidents have had pets from the nation's beginning. bear, birds, tigers, possums, horses, alligator, raccoons, teddy roosevelt had the most. woodrow wilson had sheep to trim

the grass. calvin coolidge had a hippo. in the 1930s, franklin roosevelt had a big dog named major that bit a british prime minister. during world war ii, political foes falsely said he sent a navy destroyer to fetch his little dog named fala after it was left behind on a presidential junket. >> i don't remember that, and my family don't resent that, but fala does resent that. >> reporter: in the '50s opponents accused richard nixon of misusing campaign donations. among the gifts was a cocker spaniel puppy his daughter named checkers. >> i just want to say this right now. regardless of what they say about it, we're going keep him. >> reporter: in the '60s, lyndon johnson outraged some dog lovers by lifting his beagles by the

ears. and of course a previous biden family dog was also banished for biting. and ironically, just like fdr's snappy german shepherd, his name was major. still, comedy writer jill twist who wrote a book about him notes at least this is a different kind of political scandal. >> yeah, i feel bad for the dog that is what dogs do when they get freaked out. i feel bad for the family, because families love their dogs. i obviously feel terrible for people getting bit, because getting bit is terrible. but i'm not mad at anybody. and that's just really a good feeling. >> reporter: at best, white house dogs can be happy, and they can really humanize a president, making the most powerful person in the world seem like a lot of us just hanging out with our best friends. but at worse, well, sometimes for the dog and the humans, it just bites. erin? >> for the hippo. and hippos are not pleasantly dispositioned. let's just put it that way. >> i can't bel y