so, that is three hours of debate prep there, bakari sellers. thoughts? >> yeah. yeah.re is nothing about that excites me. i think that he is actually one of the candidates that is kind of the biggest clown in the circus. the reason being is that he really does not have any political depth. he hangs on to the republican trophes and language of donald trump. he should be spending time with kevin today preparing for the debate, because he really does not have any policy depth, and the fact that he is out there hitting a tennis ball is showing you that he is not going to be take it seriously tomorrow night, and we will see the lack of depth shown through. he is going to be the one who is actually the bottom falls out, because right now in polls, he is running third and i don't know how or why and i don't know who a ramaswamy voter is, but tomorrow, the bottom is going to be falling out due to the lack of depth. and who plays tennis with their shirt off? who plays tennis with their shirt off? >> well, clearly, you and i have not played together, because i have all sorts of

but bakari you were nodding when he was talking the courtroom but also the debate stage.ain that. >> i just had the thought in my head of mike pence being on the stand and the prosecutor asking him to point out the person he was referring to and him having this moment and this moment of pure drama in the courtroom where he's pointing at donald trump having the vice president of the united states testify against the president of the united states is something this country has never seen before. i don't know who mike pence was yesterday but if this is a new mike pence, someone that he's forced to pick a side now. he can no longer fence sit and try to play where the wind pushes him. he's on a side. he's a star witness against donald trump. so we'll see what happens. i don't think he's going to debate well but i think this gives the best debater on that stage, chris christie some good fodder. i didn't think the debate was going to matter because i don't think donald trump is going to show up. but with chris christie and mike pence it could interesting. >>> we know fox news ha

bakari, earlier this afternoon president biden commented on trump's latest arrest.sten to what he said. listen to this. >> have you seen donald trump's mug shot yet? >> mr. president, are you -- >> i did see it on television. >> what did you think? >> handsome guy. >> so bakari, what do you think of how president biden has handled trump's legal troubles so far. does this create an opening for the biden campaign? >> i don't think so. i think that they're going to allow the trump legal troubles to consume the trump campaign. they're going to run their own campaign. but not only that, you have to remember that save for new york or georgia, the federal justice is prosecuting the former president of the united states and their run on the economy and bidenomics on what most peep usually run for president of the united states on which is a vision for the future. whornt you agree or not, that is your choice. donald trump is doing something different. he's running a campaign of grievance. and saying that he is has been persecuted and prosecuted unfairly. and so you'll have t

>> i think it's a really good point, bakari.t in jest, but it's so true. >> if i were sitting here and i was advising nikki haley or tim scott or modicum of talent, i believe they have talent. today is make or break time. sink or swim. stand for something, show we're courageous or not. you're not going to win this nomination without doing something different. being trump-like, that's not working. >> that's a good point. what you're currently doing isn't working. you could try something else. i am dubious it would work. most of the people you just mentioned, spinning their wheels. >> you've been at 4% since january. >> did you rip your ear out because you were tired of them yelling at you. >>> we'll have you guys back. we'll get to this in a moment. we want to keep our focus and the spotlight on the devastation in hawaii. we now know this morning there are 99 deaths so far from this wild fire. officials there warn the number could double in the next few days. we have a report from lahaina on how they're just coping with this disa

jo scott jennings and bakari sellers are joining us.have made staff changes during the summer. they went on to win the nomination. this is historic. but given how far behind desantis is in this race right now -- i'll put up on the screen, you can see a recent "new york times"/cnn poll -- trump at 54% to desantis '17%. and this is among republican or likely republican voters. how do you assess the state of the desantis campaign right now? >> i think they're in a little bit better shape in the individual states, for instance, in iowa, than they are in the national polls. that's number one. and i think the problem they've had from the beginning is that for the roughly half of the republican party that wants to do something other than trump, the fragmentation is not going away. what desantis has not been able to do is scare or convince anyone else to get out of this race and allow any kind of consolidation. at the same time, trump has had some rallying from republicans who think he's under unfair legal attacks from the biden administration

joining us now is senior political analyst john avlon, bakari sellers and margoest pea.litics, you look at the range will hurd has made clear from the start that trump's behavior was going to be a central issue for him. other candidates higher up in the polls, still about 30 points down, have had a different posture. the different posture that befuddles people, they are clearly seeing something that says don't go down that path. >> the campaigns have done their research and for whatever reason they choose to not say the truth and to not call it out for what it is. this is not normal. the man has been indicted four times. and he's about to release his report on monday further proving that he won the election. it really does call into question his sense of judgment, his character is on display here as far as being indicted four times. i was disappointed by tim scott's reaction. it's not surprising that the campaigns are looking for people to target their weaponization because they are going to point out things like stacey abrams not conceding and the fani willis, her not b

what do you think of that strategy, bakari?ctually think that chris christie and asa hutchinson probably have the ability to perform the best at this debate. they come in with this prosecutorial experience. both of them have led states. both of them have won elections multiple times over. so, i do believe that legal background is going to bode them well at this debate. we all know that the individual who has kind of the most to gain and the most to lose in this outside of donald trump's just looming presence is ron desantis. and i think ron desantis trying to go up against either one of those two, asa hutchinson or chris christie, is not going to go over well in this debate. so, i think that strategy, if you can thread that needle and talk about your conservative values or your conservative bona fides and also kind of skewer donald trump while he's not there and he's live tweeting or live truth socialing -- i don't know how you actually make that a verb. but while he's doing whatever he's doing, i think actually can go a long w

adam kinzinger, bakari sellers, thank you very much.ed a stand in for trump back in 2016. i will ask them, who stands to win on wednesday night and who stands to lose without the real donald trump on that stage. my cpa told me i wouldn't qualify for the erc tax refund, so i called innovation refunds. their team of independent tax attorneys will work with your cpa to determine if hip sound] take the first step to see if your small business qualies. every day, more dog people, and more vets are deciding it's time for a fresh approach to pet food. they're quitting the kibble. and kicking the cans. and feeding their dogs dog food that's actually well, food. developed with vets. made from real meat and veggies. portioned for your dog. and delivered right to your door. it's smarter, healthier pet food. get 50% off your first box at thefarmersdog.com/realfood do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervive nerve relief from the world's number one nerve care company. nervive contains ala to relieve nerve aches, an

adam kinzinger, bakari sellers, thank you very much.g up next, one even played a stand in for trump back in 2016. i will ask them, who stands to win on wednesday night and who stands to lose without the real donald trump on that stage. when you find your reason to go on, let it pull you past the doubt. past the pain, and past your limits. no matter what, we go on. biofreeze ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ wherever you go. wherever you stay. all you need is one key. earn and use rewards across expedia, hotels.com, and vrbo. carvana has hundreds of thousands of five star reviews and counting. the whole process was really simple and easy, and this is my third time selling to carvana. you just enter your license plate or your vin, answer a few questions. boom, you get a real offer. sell your car to carvana today. or now two days away from the first 2024 presidential deba, the latest cnn poll shows former president donald trump holding the top spot yet again with 57% of the potential gop primary electorate, making him the first choice for the nominee. and, over the

joining us are political commentators bakari sellers and alice stewart.ealing is it that trump is back on the campaign trail an joying the limelight right now out there in alabama just a day after he was arraigned on charges of trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election? >> wolf, it is critical that he get out there and meet with voters face-to-face and engage in retail politics, because as we all know, his courtroom calendar is getting ready to get more filled up and he won't have as much time for his campaign calendar. and, look, alabama is a perfect place for him in terms of connecting with his hard core supporters. but what i'm hearing and seeing, there is polls out there, recent poll that we've had out today, shows that 47% of people in iowa are still supporting donald trump, and 20% supporting ron desantis. but when i talk with key gop officials in the state of iowa, they say that does not match up with what they're seeing on the ground. they say the numbers with trump ahead is it is very early and he has tremendous name i.d. and great sympath

frankly, we did with this election. >> bakari?so, i don't like playing devils advocate, they don't think the devil needs an advocate. however, i will simply state that many times when we look at criminal acts, we look at the words of individuals like donald trump said on this date, i don't think that is enough to get anyone a guilty verdict in anything. >> of course. >> because there are a lot of individual to come out and say i should've won this race, i lost this race, i lost this won this race, but this happened, it rained, it's storms, pulled close when they should've closed, they opened when they should've opened, people voted when they shouldn't have been voting, blasÉ, was a. the difference is and why this predicate act and one of the reasons this rico is so robust and just such an amazing legal tool that fani willis is using, is because it's not just this predicate act. there are a number of predicate acts, and all she has to do is prove to. but you have real life humans who were affected by the actions of donald trump. yo

. >> bakari sellers is a former congressman from south carolina.e was talking about the comparison between what is being alleged against the biden family and donald trump. and all the indictments coming forward. check this out. there is a whole lot of what aboutism when it comes to hunter biden. there is a great deal of difference between the multiple felony accounts the president of the united states is looking at versus some activities or actions by this president's son. >> laura: yeah. trying to say well, these rumblings about biden's son and meanwhile we have indictments piling up against trump, that actually allege credible wrongdoing. so, neither -- i mean, the other one suspect here and the other one is down there. >> well, the question is why isn't there an indictment against hunter biden? the reason there isn't is because of this political interference. and i have never been impressed by what about -- to me, he is engaging in what aboutism. every case should be judged on its own merits. and let me just tell you, the hunter biden investigat

i agree with brother bakari in that he's somewhat palatable.at someone who does not believe in racism needs to s&p a specialist. >> terms of donald trump participating in the debate, why? what political value is there if you're beating everybody by 40 points, to sit up there and get bludgeoned by chris christie and everybody else? we've seen ron desantis debate twice. >> when he ran for governor. >> he debated andrew gillam and got destroyed. >> i was the moderator. i don't know that he got destroyed, but anyway, keep going. >> he got so destroyed that he won the race and so destroyed that he won by 20 points for re-election. >> first of all, we both could have beat charlie crist. but he didn't perform in that debate well either. ron desantis is not going to be a good debater. when he's on that debate stage with others, even if will hurd makes the debate stage, he's a brilliant man, if he makes the debate stage, it will be very difficult for someone like ron desantis or donald trump. >> i worked with will hurd. i've seen him in hearings. he is

let me bring in my guests, doug high and commentator and former democratic state representative bakaripective on this not only as a lawyer, but as i would say a recovering politician. do you see in the georgia indictment, do you see it as more danger for donald trump legally, either or neither. >> i think it's more dangerous for donald trump. i think you see the behavior, the overt acts that laid out the number of people, even those unindicted, ands this is truly a granular complaint they spent months putting together. you can see the effort and time they used in putting this together. also it's a jury pool he's not going to be very fond of. i don't think he's going to have any issues of fairness shs but he's going to have to deal with a jury pool of his peers in georgia and he does not want to be in atlanta. also on the back end, there's no mechanism where brian kemp can pardon him. he doesn't have the ability to pardon himself. so i just feel like this is going to be a very uncomfortable situation. and donald trump doesn't deal with black women very well pit mentioned that a few time

had he just down that he would be up ten points right now and bakari would be the head of the site selectionmittee for joe biden's nursing home. the democrats of the nfl down right now and instead, we have five indictments and all of these jurisdictions -- >> and i'm in charge of making sure that he moves to a second term. >> you go back in time and you see how different this could've played out for donald trump, but instead they went down this crazy road with these crazy people. >> trump himself even called sydney powell crazy. >> instead of maybe coasting back in on a very weak incumbent, he is now facing jail time and a whole bunch of different places. crazy. >> look, just to put a fine point on everything is got just so amazingly articulated here, there is not a republican in america who can beat donald trump of the republican nomination, which tells you how, in disarray the republicans are. i do want to talk about just some magnificent figures in this indictment, i just think back to 2001, when rudy giuliani was america's mayor and there are people who worked with rudy giuliani, john av

joining us now john avlon, cnn legal analyst jennifer rogers, political commentators scott jennings, bakari. thank you for being here. jennifer, to you. i am very interested in mark meadows and his move, first move to get this in federal court before trump. independent of trump. the fact that he might prevail. >> yeah, it's really interesting that he moved so quickly and did it without trump. i mean, you know, you only have 30 days. you have to move quickly. trump hasn't moved yet. to me the separation shows they are not on the same page. you know, listen, this has been assigned to dawoods judge. the judge will have to decide whether to remand back to the state court if there are no grounds or hold a hearing and proceed in federal -- >> there are grounds, aren't there? >> the statute says if you are a federal officer and that the conduct that you are accused of doing is related to your federal duties, that it can be removed to federal court. so the argument for meadows is, i was chief of staff. i was doing things that are chief of staff-like, arranging meetings and doing what the president

joining me here tonight at the table is cnn political commentator bakari sellers, our cnn political commentator scott jennings, legal analyst jennifer rodgers, and federal prosecutor -- williams, a senior investigative counsel for the january six committee. let me start with you, just reading through this indictment but seeing what the district attorney had to say there, it doesn't surprise me that she said that she wants to try all 19 of these codefendants together? >> i think it is quite surprising. in the private media as the federal prosecutor and the logistics of that trial would be daunting, so i do think she may want to do that, but i think practically that may be some issues with that going forward. >> jennifer rodgers, what do you make not just of that, but saying that she has until august 25th at noon to come and surrender themselves two days after the primary debate? >> these are not career criminals, they're not folks that you think are gonna flee the country so there's not much concern about letting them come in their their own that's why they were public -- and not arrested throug