♪ open up that golden gate, cali rnia here i come ♪ i'm major garrett in washington. this week on "face the nation" alarming information surfaces from the affidavit justifying the search of former president trump's florida home. the 38-page document was heavily redacted but it's released at this early stage of the investigation very unusual. already we're starting to see the impact of this historic fbi search on the midterm elections. one key question, how damaging was it that highly classified material, according to the government, was improperly stored at mar-a-lago? another question, is trump's legal jeopardy increasing? we'll have the ou cbs new ba but f h? revelations?

both sides are gearing up for a blistering fall campaign as can be heard on the campaign trail for florida governor. >> we will never, ever surrender to the woke agenda. florida is the state where woke goes to die. >> this governor couldn't care less about your freedom. he's abusive. he is a bully. he is a bully. and he's dangerous. >> nationally, the political landscape appears to have shifted in the last month. democrats overperformed in some races last tuesday, as midterm primaries near the end. >> republicans should be very, very, very scared this morning about their prospects. >> one factor helping democrats, abortion rights. >> maga republicans don't have a clue about the power of women. let me tell you something, they are about to find out. >> will that momentum last till november? we'll talk to the head of the

democratic party, dnc chair, jaime harrison and larry hogan. plus the threat of a disaster grows as russian and ukrainian forces trade fire near the continent's largest nuclear power plant. finally, nearly 50 years after nasa's last trip to the moon, we will preview monday's launch of america's next moon shot, the first rocket of the artemis mission. we will talk to kate reubens. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪ good morning, everyone. welcome to "face the nation." margaret is out an we hope in the final stages of recovery from covid-19. august has been, there's really no other way to say it, an extraordinary month here in washington. one of our tasks here today is to work to understand the legal and national security implications of friday's release of a redacted affidavit

outlining the justification behind the fbi's retrieval of classified documents stored at former president trump's mar-a-lago resort. to help us, cbs news chief election and campaign important, robert costa, is back from west palm beach, florida. we've also brought in michael morell, former acting director of the cia, now a cbs news national security contributor. gentlemen, good morning. bob, i want to start with you. outline for the audience what you see as the potential legal peril for the former president. >> the affidavit from the government spells it out. there have been tensions between the trump legal team and federal investigators for months about his handling of classified material. the affidavit mentions possible obstruction. it also mentions how trump had in their possession in their view documents that were highly sensitive and could even deal with information derived from human intelligence sources. this led to them to have an fbi search of the property, mar-a-lago, just weeks ago. >> and there is a political dimension to this of course. how do you assess that?

and you were down in west palm beach for the entire week. what is the atmosphere there? >> it injects uncertainty into the midterm elections. for the republicans, this is the standard bearer for their party, even though he is former president donald trump, he is eyeing a 2024 bid. so many candidates in the party are echoing his version of politics. now to have him facing legal challenges across the board, not just in florida, adds that uncertainty to the discussion. >> and one thing that happened recently, a judge reviewing a request from the former master put in a legal document that this judge is possibly inclined to do so. does that change anything from your vantage point? >> to be determined at this int. we'll watch in the coming days whether a so-called special master or neutral party is appointed by a florida federal judge to review and return the evidence. they have asked the government to provide a list of information. it could move in that direction. let's remember, the government already has a filter team in place at the justice department reviewing what they collected weeks ago.

so this is a late entry into the legal discussion. >> mike morell, evaluate the affidavit for our audience, please. >> major, i had two reactions when i read it. the first was the fact that these documents were mixed in with unclassified documents. you had classified documents in the vast majority of the boxes. that suggested to me a sloppiness in the handling of classified documents at the white house. the two white houses that i know best, the bush white house and the obama white house, there were very rigorous and strict protocols with regard to the handling of classified information, where it was records were kept, retrievals were made. that's what normally happens. that didn't happen in this case it sounds to me. the second thing that jumped out at me were the markings hcs, human control system, and si, special intelligence. human control system means information from cia spies.

and special intelligence means information from technical operations of the national security agency. this is the -- this is the most sensitive material of the united states intelligence community. >> so the next natural question seems to me is how vulnerable to compromise were the documents you were just talking about and were outlined in this affidavit? >> so i think they were vulnerable. even at the white house, since they seem to have been mishandled at the white house as well, right, we have to look at that as well as mar-a-lago. and as the damage assessment goes forward, i think they need to look at both of those places. not everyone at the white house has a top secret clearance. so you have to worry about who had access to those documents, who didn't have clearance to do so. in terms of the vulnerability from foreign intelligence services, a little context. if you look back at the history of espionage in the united states, you'll see a number of americans who were charged and convicted of espionage.

and when you look at how long they spied before they were caught and you do all of that math, what you learn is that at any given moment in time, there are on average four americans spying for foreign intelligence services without us knowing it at the time. and those are the ones we ultimately caught. so there's a lot of spying going on in washington, right? and if you're a foreign intelligence service and you want to target the united states government, what's the number one place you want to target? the white house. >> you mentioned your experience with the bush and obama white houses. there's a procedure inside the building, obviously, for classified and secure documents. is there a similar process off site, for any president? meaning at a place like mar-a-lago or for president biden right now when he goes back to delaware? >> so there are -- there are things called scifs, sensitive compartmented information locations that are actually approved for holding classified information. i had one in my attic when i was

the deputy director. and you're allowed to hold classified there. but these are places that are approved by security officers, right? >> and if they're not, then they don't follow procedures and they may not follow federal law? >> correct. and you may be at risk in those cases of mishandling classified information. >> mike, this is a question that circles around this relentlessly. is there a formalized process for a president to declassify classified information? >> unfortunately not. there are statutes that allow the president to declassify information. the supreme court has upheld those statutes a number of times. but those statutes do not outline a step-by-step process for the president to do so. so it's murky. i actually know a case from the bush white house where president bush declassified part of the 2002 iraq wmd national intelligence estimate so scooter

libby could use that information at his grand jury testimony. and president bush did that without ever telling the intelligence community. so presidents can do this, right? but there's an appropriate way to do it. the appropriate way to do it is to paper it over. to have the president sign a document that says i hereby declassify this information. >> with important reporting and context, bob costa, mike morell, thanks very much. our new cbs battleground tracker finds republicans are still leading the race for control of the u.s. house of representatives. but democrats are gaining momentum. in july, our estimate was that republicans stood to win 230 seats. 12 more than the 218 needed for a majority. a slimmer one, after d stand22, democrats narrowed tnth. we turn to cbs news elections and surveys director anthony os

thought of, of a big red wave election appear to have dimmed, is that true? >> yeah, there are some break waters in here to continue your metaphor against that wave. we learn when we talk to people across all the districts, because remember, this is a contest for 435 seats, is that they are abortion. it is a little bit of improvement in the economy in prospects, so a little improvement for joe biden. and three, the trump factor. let me take those in order and start with abortion because that really stands out. democrats now say that is very important to their vote, even more so than the economy. and then we see gains for the democrats among this key voting bloc, college educated women. they live in swing districts. democrats have rebounded with them and always counted in the last two cycles on that group, so that's important. and then related. there's this view among women, among independents that should the republicans gain congress,

that the republicans would prioritize abortion restrictions, so that's how that all ties together on the abortion front for democrats. >> one of the problems democrats have had structurally all year is president biden's low approval ratings. is there anything in this data that suggests those have begun to turn? >> some of that is among his own base so that's the story coming in. we see a little improvement for him. so his overall numbers are up. that's bolstered by a return from a lot of democrats. and that's tied to the economy. so his handling of gas prices, of inflation, a little bit better certainly from democrats saying that. and one of the things we've seen is that his numbers have been tied to those gas prices. that's often how people think about the economy, what they're paying up there right up there at the cash register or the pump. the other part of this is the democrat base shoring up with young people. maybe some of that related to support for the debt relief. but you do see a little bit of a

bounce-back among democrats and that's helping us. >> history tells us midterms almost always a referendum on the resident in the white house. but there's data that former president trump still looms large in this midterm conversation. >> this midterm is different. i will say that a lot the next few months. donald trump, former president, is still a factor voters tell us for most people in their vote choice, one way or the other, positive or negative. now, let's look right now at the effect of mar-a-lago and the search. first of all, big difference in partisan views. for riepublicans, this is a political attempt to damage the former president. for democrats, for independents, it's looking after national security. so that's number one. but then what happens politically? republicans want their leaders to defend donald trump on this and stay with him. that's 7 in 10, a big number. but for everybody else, donald

trump ends up being a net negative in that sense. for democrats, for independents in the vote. the other part of this, major, is donald trump was endorsing candidates throughout the primary process. we pick up now from voters a feeling among key groups that the republicans have nominated candidates who they feel are more extreme than the democrats have nominated in general, and that's part of that effect beyond the republican base that you see from donald trump. >> historically midterm or general election, economy front and center. there has been some, as you've outlined, encouraging signs for democrats. look, they're desperate to find encouraging signs. they haven't had any for months. yet, the economy still appears to be difficult for them. true? >> people still say it's not good, even if there's some improvement. and republicans are winning the voters for whom the economy is most important, and that is

underpinning that republican gain. however large we estimate it is at this point, right? so that's number one. number two is republicans are still seen as more likely to prioritize inflation if they gain congress, and that's a gap that the democrats still have not filled. maybe they're not going to erase that because there's a year of voter frustration behind it, behind that for the democrats, all of which is to say, major, again, what is this election about? that's often the most important question. if it's about the economy, the republicans have an advantage. if it's about all these other things we've been talking about, maybe some hope for democrats. >> very quickly, energy on both sides? >> energy, enthusiasm is up. enthusiasm is high at this point, very strong turnout is what we'd be looking at. >> anthony, thank you so much. "face the nation" will be back in one minute. please stay with us.

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democratic national committee, jaime harrison. mr. chairman, great to see you, good morning. >> thank you so much for having me. >> so you heard in our battleground tracker that there's momentum democrats have. do you believe that momentum is real, and is it so real, mr. chairman, you're prepared to predict this morning democrats will retain their slender majority in the house of representatives? >> that momentum is real, and i've been predicting since i became chairman that democrats are going to keep their majorities in the house, that they're going to grow the majorities in the united states senate and we're going to pick up some governors' mansions along the way. >> so our battleground tracker shows that 33% of the country believes democrats have a plan to battle inflation, meaning the vast majority of americans don't believe democrats have a plan to deal with inflation, the number one economic issue in the country. i know you'll probably refer to the inflation reduction act, mr. chairman, i invite you to do that. also polling tells us that after

the american rescue plan and infrastructure plan, either you didn't sell it or the american people didn't give democrats credit for it. what's going to be different? >> well, listen, at the end of the day this is about the accomplishments of this administration. and they're vast. when you take a look at a historical perspective of what joe biden has been able to do in two years, there's some presidents who served for eight years can't add up to what joe biden has been able to do. the inflation reduction act, the american rescue plan, the bipartisan infrastructure law, helping our veterans, the violence against women act reauthorization, the c.h.i.p.s. and science act. we are seeing record job growth, the lowest unemployment that we've seen. and this is the package that joe biden has done, because his focus has been on improving the standing of all of america's people. and that's what we've done. that's part of our plan.

and we're seeing gas prices right now go down. we're seeing now seniors are so excited. their prescription drugs cost are going to go down, kcapped a $2,000. for the first time ever, medicare will get an opportunity to lower prescription drugs. we would get insulin prices down for all americans but republicans voted to take it out of the legislation. so at the end of the day we're seeing the americn people are waking up to how democrats under joe biden have been delivering for the american people while the republicans definitely don't have a plan. the only plan they do have is how to gut social security and medicare. you can ask rick scott about that. but democrats are fighting for the american people each and every day. >> mr. chairman, the president took pains to highlight abortion as an issue in the midterm elections this week. when you think about the history of these midterm elections, when that history is written, will abortion or the economy be more

important? >> i think abortion is going to be extremely important. and because, you know, the reason why so many people come to america is because we are the land of freedom. it's liberty and justice for all. and abortion is about freedom. freedom of women to control their own bodies. for the first time in 50 years, these extreme maga republicans have chipped away at a freedom that we've had as american people. and women are upset about it. men are upset about it. and you're seeing it in special election after special election. you saw it in kansas, that people are rising up because they know it's a slippery slope. you take away privacy and freedom rights, you're chipping away at voting rights, you're going after people's freedom of speech. that is not who america is. but that's who the maga extremists in the republican

parties want america to be. joe biden is standing in that gap and saying you will not do this. you will not do -- president joe biden is there. you will not do this on my watch. it's about protecting freedom, and that's what the democratic party is doing each and every day. >> mr. chairman, earlier this week the president referred to the maga, make america great agenda, as almost, like, quote, semi fascism. you heard the president's inaugural address the same way i did. in that inaugural address president biden said we should not view each other as adversaries in this country but as neighbors and treat each other with dignity and respect. how does semi-fascism as a label for the republican party fit with that inaugural address? >> well, the one thing that president joe biden has been has always been consistet. he has always been somebody who does what my grandfather used to do, which is speak it plain. say it plain to the american people. what we see right now is a full

frontal attack by these extreme maga republicans in this country. >> so you -- mr. chairman, you embrace -- you embrace the rhetoric semi-fascism to describe the republican party? >> well, it's not about embracing, it's calling what it is what it is. at the end of the day, we are a country built on freedom. and when you chip away at that, when you see the bullying that takes place in a place like florida with desantis, when you see them chip away at privacy rights, when they try to demonize the other via text on transgender kids and their families, the attacks on marriage equality that we are hearing from the supreme court, this is not who america is. we are about freedom and rights for all of america's people, not just a select few. but the republicans are turning a blind eye. this extreme agenda. and this is what this election is all about. it is the great contrast between a party, the democratic party,

that is standing up for the hopes and aspirations of the american people and protecting our rights as americans and our freedoms, and a republican party that is focused on fear, that's focused on fraud, that is focused on just getting power. i mean what power do you ever -- did you ever think that the party of reagan would actually celebrate when they stalled in the united states senate? that's what we have in today's republican party. >> mr. chairman, will president biden run for re-election and should he? >> the president has consistently said that his intentions is to run for president of the united states, and i can tell you the democratic national committee will be fully behind him and kamala harris. this president has a record of achievement. and america needs president biden to continue that effort. >> can you tell us what the status of the iowa caucuses is? the democratic national committee has continued to delay a decision about that. it appears that iowa will lose

its first in the nation caucus status, true? >> no, that is not true. listen, at the end of the day the dnc is focused on these midterm elections. we're going to allow the presidential cycle schedule to be determined after we're done. at the end of the day for us at the dnc it's about money -- >> mr. chairman, thank you for that. thank you for that. i know democrats in iowa will listen to you very, very carefully. thanks so much for your time and we will be right back. t find t ”" leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire meet google pixel 6a. a smarter phone for a smarter price. powered by the google tensor chip. so your camera can see in the dark with night sight. fix your photos with magic eraser. photograph all skin tones accurately with real tone.

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president of the united states calling republicans fascists, i don't think it adds to the overall discussion. we ought to just talk about the differences we have on the issues and focus on the problems most folks in america wanting us to focus on. >> do you see any strains of authoritarianism in the republican party? >> there's no question we see some signs of that and i've been one of the ones speaking out. >> governor hogan, thanks so much. please stay with us, we will continue our conversation after a quick break. ou waiting for? it's dawn's fastest and easiest way to clean everyday dishes. on simple messes... just spray, wipe and rinse. on tough messes, its spray activated suds have five times faster grease cleaning power to break down grease without water. plus, its targeted spray cleans even hard to reach places better. so, replace your dish soap with dawn powerwash and spray your dishes clean.

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welcome back to "face the nation." i'm major garrett in for margaret. we continue our conversation with maryland governor larry hogan. governor, we started the show talking about not only the fbi search at mar-a-lago but the affidavit that was released late this week. many republicans believe this is a political effort to harm and tarnish the reputation of former president trump. do you agree with them? and do you think the government has been transparent enough in this extraordinary set of events? >> well, it is an extraordinary set of events. it's never happened before with a former president. and so the very first day, i called for more transparency. i thought it was a good idea for the attorney general to finally come out and make comments. i thought it was a good idea for them to release some of the information on the affidavit.

but we still don't know a whole lot. most of it was redacted. it didn't give us a lot of color. some republicans are saying without you showing us more to it we think it may be political. >> are you satisfied? >> i'd like to see more transparency. >> what would you like to see? >> it's hard to tell because in a federal investigation they have got to keep some things confidential. >> do you want to know more about what the documents were? >> we want to know whether or not it was justified or not. on the one hand it could be, as some republicans think, just a political witch hunt. on the other hand it could be really serious federal felonies that we don't know about yet. >> where do you come down, witch hunt or legitimate exercise of the federal government's prosecutorial interest in the handling of sensitive documents. you haven't made up your mind on that? >> i don't know that we have enough information yet. it's hard to believe that the justice department and the fbi would take steps unless they had something pretty serious they were investigating.

we don't know the facts yet. >> do you think there's any republican hypocrisy remembering the "lock her up" chants in 2016 about hillary clinton and her email server? >> i think so. but some of the argument the republicans are making is that they didn't really take these steps -- >> then and are taking them now? >> yeah. >> so you side with republicans who are deeply skeptical about it? >> i understand why it's dividing the country and why democrats and republicans view it differently. >> as i understand your travel schedule, you're heading to new hampshire again. you've been there before, you've been to iowa. when you announcing your 2024 bid? >> maybe this morning. >> go right ahead, governor. >> i'm just going to finish my term as governor. >> why are you going to iowa and new hampshire? >> i'm going to new hampshire to help the house republican caucus up there. i'm helping candidates across the country. but it's great to get out -- >> you are looking at it very seriously, true? >> i think that's probably an exaggeration. i think we'll finish the term as governor. >> lukewarm looking at it? >> lukewarm maybe, lukewarm. >> very good.

in that context when you think about what you may or may not do on the national stage, how either alarming or maybe giving you moment for pause was it to see your preferred republican gubernatorial candidate, kelly schultz, lose in a republican primary for governor in your own state of maryland? what does that tell you? >> it was really sad and it's what i've been talking about for two years. this should be a huge year for republicans just because of the failures of the democrats who are in control of everything. and biden's low approval ratings. but we could blow it by nominating unelectable people and that's exactly what's happening across the country and why the wave is going to be more of a ripple rather than a tidal wave. >> you called the winner in that republican gubernatorial primary, dan cox, a qanon whack job and a nut. i take it you're endorsing the democratic nominee, wes moore? >> no, i'm not nominating anybody in the race. what i'm doing -- >> but you're bashing on the republican nominee. >>i've just told the people. when people ask me a question, i

give a direct answer and i made it very clear this guy shouldn't be the nominee and shouldn't be governor. i'm not getting involved in endorsing in the race. not just maryland, this is happening across the country. it's why mitch mcconnell is saying we may not win the senate. it's why we were hoping to pick up seats in governors' races and now we're not. >> it's curious to me -- >> it's why the margin in the house is so much smaller. >> it's curious to me, governor. you won election and then re-election with a good number of democrats and a blue state supporting you. they look to you in this question. are you going to sit out and tell them who the governor of maryland should be? >> i think they already have their mind made up. maryland only has 23% republican and i had to win almost all the republicans and independents and 25% of the democrats to win. but this candidate is not going to do that. >> so is for you, governor hogan, for the remainder of your active political life election denialism a litmus test? >> well, it's certainly something we shouldn't be focused on. i think the voters will decide on issues like inflation --

>> would you endorse somebody who denied that joe biden won the 2020 election? >> no, i would not. >> would you campaign against that republican? >> it depends on who they're running against. i've been supporting folks running against candidates like that because i think if the republicans are to get any power back, we're going to have to start talking about the issues people care about and not relitigating what happened in 2020 or denying things that are fact. >> so i want to talk about something that's somewhat topical in pennsylvania. gop nominee doug mastriano posed for a picture in 2017 wearing a confederate uniform. this was part of a faculty photo at the army war college. he has a ph.d. in history. the district he represents in the legislature includes gettysburg. is this disqualifying in your information? >> it's the first i've heard the story and i don't know the circumstances around it but these are the problems we're having. we have a similar situation in maryland with an attorney general candidate -- >> not disqualifying but

problematic? >> very problematic and could be disqualifying. >> explain to voters, what's the big deal? >> like i said, i don't know the facts regarding that. but this is not the kind of way republicans are going to win races, that's for sure. that's my big concern and what i've been talking about for two years. >> what is your assessment as governor of maryland of the president's decision on student l loan debt reloaf? did he have the authority? >> i'm not sure if he had the authority or not but i think it was the wrong solution to what is a real problem. but the wrong solution at the wrong time. it's like throwing gasoline on a fire. inflation is out of control. it's an issue we've tried to solve by holding the line on tuition, by giving scholarships to community colleges, by removing the requirement for four-year degrees, by trying to make interest deductible on your student loans off of your taxes. but just handing out money to people and being unfair to those who worked hard to pay off their debt and pouring that into the

inflationary economy is really bad. >> if republicans underperform in these midterms, how much of that will be credibly attributed and blamed on former president trump? >> i think the focus away from the issues and onto president trump and away from the future and back to the past is going to hurt republicans. it's a matter of how bad it's going to be. >> what are your fears? >> my fear is that we don't win the senate, that we don't pick up gubernatorial seats and potentially lose them and i think we'll still take the house, but it's going to be closer than people think. >> republican governor larry hogan, pleasure, sir. >> thank you. >> thanks for being with us. and we'll be right back. [taxi driver narrating] so. it's friday night dinner. all of a sudden, boom. and you, gecko, go: [gecko impression] “bundling your home and car insurance could save you hundreds!” and then the neighbors are like, “heh?” a little girl's like...

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and we're done! cascade platinum. scrape, load, done. welcome back. we are joined again by directors of elections and surveys, anthony salvanto and robert costa. bob, i want to start with you. in your conversations with republicans quite separate from the drama at mar-a-lago, what is the republican sentiment? do they feel they are losing momentum? >> there's alarm inside of the republican party. just weeks after the vote in

kansas on abortion rights, you now see the democrats passing the climate and spending bill and starting to gain traction. they're also starting to frame the republican party in a sharper way on the issue of democracy, running hard against election deniers and even president biden taking a new step in terms of his rhetoric referring to the republican party as you said as semi fascist. >> anthony, does our data tell us anything wabout the possible strength of that rhetoric or warning signs for the president to go not that far. >> we went through the primaries in one after another. voters for the republican side were saying they wanted the party not only to support donald trump but they wanted donald trump's endorsement behind a candidate. they also wanted republican candidates to be talking about things like the 2020 election. all of that other voters tell us is out of sync with what the larger electorate wants to talk about, the economy and inflation the number one issue. so it's not just that kind of

rhetoric but it's the subject matter too. >> and you heard jaime harrison say the president has this tremendous set of applicators a accomplishments but our data show democrats aren't yet sold on that. >> no. they have a lot of ground to make up. >> they're not even sold on biden as a re-election candidate. >> yeah, that specifically. look, a president is always a factor as we've discussed. and biden is certainly a factor. the question is can they motivate democrats to actually go out and support him? and what we have seen, this is changing, but what we have seen so far is democrats a little bit more reluctant to do that than republicans who are sort of chomping at the bit to go and vote against joe biden. >> there's no one chomping at the bit based on my reporting to run against president biden in 2024 in a democratic primary. one of his rivals from 2020, senator bernie sanders, has been in lock-step politically most of the time with president biden when it comes to the big picture on policy. look at the comments just this

past week from california governor gavin newsom comparing president biden to fdr in terms of his governing accomplishments. he's widely seen as a future presidential candidate but he's not making any move to challenge biden. in fact he's praising biden. >> and looking back to dial back the sense that some democrats had a month or month and a half ago that he was trying to position himself just in case. looks like he's dialing that back a little bit. anthony, what to watch the next couple of weeks? >> start with the senate. we'll be polling in a lot of these races. the senate is different from the house in that it is going to be more candidate focused. it comes back to what i was just saying about have republicans nominated candidates that can appeal to a wider electorate? i think we'll see a test of that in pennsylvania, we'll see tests of that in georgia, we're going to watch arizona among others. these will become household state names, if you will, as we go through this campaign. >> and, bob, in that regard, nevada, colorado, arizona, pennsylvania, ohio, all test

cases for the trump effect and this extremism label. >> and there's a tension inside of the gop i'm picking up in my reporting between what i would call the mcconnell world of the gop, the long-time republican business friendly establishment in power in the senate versus senator rick scott, who runs the national republicans campaign on the nrsc. there's a strategic sense that scott is aligned with trump and trumpism inside the republican party and that he's embraced candidates who might not have the best shot to win. now you have mcconnell and his super pac are trying to do their own thing, not necessarily everything that rick scott is doing at the nrsc. >> intraparty maneuvering, it's not uncommon. bob costa, anthony salvanto, thanks so much. we'll be right back.

for decades, i've worked at the intersection of domestic violence and homelessness. so when prop 27 promised solutions to homelessness, i took a good, hard look. it's not a solution. 90% of the money

goes to the out-of-state corporations who wrote it. very little is left for the homeless. don't let corporations exploit homelessness to pad their profits. vote no on 27. we turn now to the war in ukraine where fears are growing over a potential nuclear disaster at zaporizhzhia, the largest nuclear power plant in europe. cbs news foreign correspondent debora patta has the latest. >> reporter: there are fresh warnings of the risk of radioactive leaks at the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

ukraine and russia have traded accusations of renewed shelling there this weekend, and on thursday the plant was down to a precarious last resort when it was disconnected from the grid due to fire damage. for more than 24 hours, the pla plant was operating on backup diesel generators. >> frankly that is one step before a catastrophe. >> reporter: he explained a constant electricity supply is critical for cooling down spent nuclear fuel and avoiding a disastrous meltdown. if the backup generators fail, it sets in motion a chain reaction. >> we have probably an hour and a half, two hours before the reaction started inside the unit. >> so we narrowly escaped nuclear disaster? >> we were not far, not far. >> reporter: ukrainians living in the shadow of the reactors prepare for a worst-case

scenario, and authorities are handing out iodine tablets to help protect against radiation. the minister is hopeful the united nations nuclear watchdog will inspect the site early this week. >> from our point of view, it's very important to create something like permanent mission. not just to come there to check and to leave. >> reporter: it's been just over half a year since vladimir putin did the unthinkable and invaded ukraine. in the east, war-weary residents still wake up every day to a living hell. they count the dead, clear the debris. the russians are torturing us, he says. we're exhausted by the endless shelling. but we are still alive. as the war stretches beyond the halfway mark, ukrainians are digging in their heels, prepared for the long haul. just today, a rash of explosions

in the south and the east, which ukrainian authorities claim destroyed russian military bases. >> debora patta, thank you. the other big story we're watching is the artemis mission. tomorrow nasa hopes to launch its first flight as our mark strassmann reports from the kennedy space center in florida. >> reporter: nasa is in its countdown cadence for tomorrow's launch with its mammoth sos rocket on pad 39-b. >> i think it's ready. by launch day i'll know. >> reporter: charlie black well-thompson has the idea of readiness. >> it is the next step of getting humans into deep space again. after that, it's boots on the moon. >> we can see you coming down the ladder now. >> reporter: in the apollo era, america's space dream, get boots on the moon first. >> a man on the moon, a walk on the moon, and yet to say the words and to stop just a moment to think about them still sends

a shiver up and down the old spine. >> reporter: but with apollo 17 three years later, moon fatigue closed the program. no one has moon walked since 1972. >> the technology is so different than what we use today. >> reporter: when artemis 1 list off, rick takes charge of this test flight. it's orion space capsule without a crew will go to the moon, orbit it for three weeks, and return to earth. nasa's deep space hopes will ride along. >> we've got to hav a successful flight to prove the capabilities before we put the astronauts on the next mission. otherwise you're not putting astronauts on the next mission. >> two art memis missions from w they plan on a moon landing. the crew, yet to be announced, will include an astronaut of color and a woman. with apollo, the moon was the dream. with artemis it's a way station to deeper space. >> we want to travel to mars. and so we need to learn how to put humans on another planetary

body to live there for a long duration. the perfect place to practice that is the lunar surface. >> reporter: this one round trip will turn this orion capsule into an instant million mile flyer. nasa has a lot of ground to cover in these 42 days of flight. major. >> mark strassmann, we thank you. we are joins by astronaut kate reubens, a candidate for a future crewed artemis mission. she joins us from the kennedy space center. dr. reubens, good morning. this is a test flight. what are you looking for in terms of safety as you evaluate what we're about to see in the coming days? >> good morning. it's great to be with you. as you said, this is a test flight and so one of the reasons that we're testing before we put humans on top of o envelope. so f an engineering perspective, one of our main objectives is to look at the heat shield. in order to get the heat shield at this 5,000-degree heating and

check out all of our objectives around the moon, we need to do this test launch. and so we're looking for things like the loading to go out, the launch, and then our eyes are really on re-entry for the heat shield and the capsule recovery. >> and for those who might remember as i do apollo, what is different between the heat shield then and the heat shield stresses now? >> yeah. so we've got similar profiles and similar re-entry speeds, but the materials are completely different. so, you know, we've had 50 years in the intervening time to adopt a lot of these modern advances and material science. i work in the space suits and we're actually adopting a lot of that in our new space suit design as well. >> i mentioned i remember apollo. i don't remember mercury but i remember all the excitement about the space exploration projects then. they were all almost entirely led by white men. there is a greater diversity for women and for people of color at

nasa now. talk about the component involving women such as yourself in artemis and everything else that nasa is undertaking right now. >> yeah. i think one of the great things about the astronaut corps these days is we're not looking at it in terms of categories anymore. we have such a great diverse and talented workforce. and you see this in the whole of nasa. if you look at all the centers across the u.s. so our astronaut class, we've got a diversity of backgrounds. we've got scientists, engineers, fighter pilots. we've got military and civilian. we of course have thrown open those doors for women and people of color. it's pretty cool to get to hang out with these people from a variety of backgrounds and see what they all bring to the program. >> dr. reubens for those who might say, yes, it's been 50 years since we've been to the moon. do we need to go back? is that the only thing we're trying to accomplish, and

doesn't that feel somewhat repetitive, what would you tell them? >> that is a really good question. and we do need to go back. we're going to go back in a completely different way. so the first part of this program is really to establish a sustainable lunar presence on the lunar surface and both in orbit around the moon. this is helping us get ready for mars. we really need to learn how to operate long term in deep space in order to be able to explore. and the places that we're going are incredibly different. apollo was focused on one kind of pretty easy to get to equatorial area. we are looking to go to the polar regions always in darkness. that's where we found water ice. water ice is so crucial for things like building fuel for a mars mission and a lot of the scientific discoveries. we've got volatile compounds in that water ice that could unlock a lot of things about how the earth and our solar system formed. >> for a layperson like me,

should we think of the moon as a potential launching platform for this eventual exploration of mars? >> it absolutely could be. you know, it's also a place that we're probably going to take vehicles and do some long-term deep space checkouts before we really commit ourselves to a mars voyage. it's also where we're going to be learning about how to do extensive surface operations. so we're building new planetary suits. we're learning how we can have humans live in rovers, how they can do a human/robotic partnership to uncover a lot of terrain and explore a whole lot more. and what's it like to really have that sustained presence on another planetary body. >> so you are a candidate to be one of these artemis astronats. just personally, what it's going to be like for you tomorrow, your level of personal scientific anticipation and maybe apprehension?

>> yeah, we were talking about it with the other astronauts that are here. everybody said, you know, when it's your launch, you get calmer and calmer as the launch approaches because you've trained for this, you know your procedures, you've been in the sim for thousands of hours. so, i mean, you're just absolutely calm right up until the moment of liftoff. with this, we're getting more and more nervous as we go. i think we are all so excited about this. it is a test flight, so, you know, we're tempering our expectations. we've got a lot of great florida weather and those kinds of things, but we're very excited and we can feel the excitement mounting. >> and very quickly, dr. reubens, for america do you think this is a turning point in terms of the next phase of space exploration? >> absolutely. i really see that when i go talk to kids in classrooms all across the u.s. you tell them, you know, we're going to the moon. and it's something that we haven't had for several decades in terms of something to inspire

kids and provide this kind of exploration activity that the whole world can look to. >> dr. kate reubens, we thank you so much. contribu cbs news will carry a special report tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. when the rocket is expected to launch. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ if you haven't tried dawn powerwash dish spray, what are you waiting for? ♪ ♪ it's dawn's fastest and easiest way to clean everyday dishes. on simple messes... just spray, wipe and rinse. on tough messes, its spray activated suds have

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that is it for us today. we thank you for watching. for "face the nation," i'm major g garrett in for margaret. good day.

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