the municipal level because or otherwise in thürienge the municipal head is elected, and in saxony john haltyor from the alternative party for germany and these are democratic elections elections that we have to take the municipal parliaments. they should look for ways to jointly manage the city of the federal land or the district, and he didn’t seem to say anything seditious, but he didn’t find supporters among his colleagues, he tried to justify himself, however, after harsh criticism from fellow party members. and without that, the flickering position of the flicker finally died. in the end, i had to give up my same words. although members of the alternative. for germany , the head of the dg even wrote a letter of cooperation. that the first brick fell out of the black-and-green wall, and this wall will allegedly be destroyed throughout the country. go away the reason why mr. merz offered to cooperate with an alternative for germany is very simple our party proposes a current agenda. about christian democrats. they just repeat after us. of course , if you compare the originals, the copy o

john lauro outlined defense strategy >> mr. trump had every right to petition government and enforce his first amendment rights >> reporter: and made headlines when he described mr. trump's pressure on pence to halt the electoral count. >> a technical violation of the constitution is not a violation of criminal law. that's just plain wrong. >> reporter: the trump legal team argues a court order should focus on only the most sensitive government documents and not restrict mr. trump from talking about all of the evidence. the judge could rule at any time. lester >> kelly o'donnell, thank you. that brings us to our exclusive with mr. trump's top rival, florida governor ron desantis, who is still trying to make a dent in mr. trump's lead. during the interview dasha burns pressing desantis about his views on the 2020 election >> reporter: tonight florida governor ron desantis predicting success. despite struggling to gain traction against the republican front-runner >> trump's lead has only grown since you began campaigning in earnest. is it possible that you're potentially just out of step with what gop voters are looking for right now? >> so if i had a nickel for every naysayer i've had in my life,

john lauro was talking about, maybe take it a step further. listen. >> president trump said let's go with option d. let's halt, pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. that's constitutional law. that's not an issue of criminal activity. >> so this is john lauro, trump's attorney, constantly talking about, this is a free speech issue. not exactly. prosecutors are going to say this cross into conduct and criminal conduct at that, so we'll see what transpires in the coming weeks. the next hearing in this case, just a few weeks. >> jessica schneider, thank you so much. breanna? >>> break in the case of an unknown gilgo beach murder victim. investigators identifying this woman. >>> plus, the july jobs report came in weaker than expected. why the markets and leading economists say that's not such a bad thing. >>> and a new poll showing americans have a huge appetite for weight loss drugs, but what are the costs? we have those details and much more ahead on cnn news central. there's a simple test you can

will be looking at the exercises, and they were halted unt the trump administration and now seen as a deterrent to north korea and china. sandra. >> johning in republican wisconsin congressman mike gallagher, congressman, good to talk to you. you have written in advance of last night's debate an op-ed in the wall street journal you urged the candidates to talk about in china, it's an important issue. the wall street journal wrote this, china largely gets a pass from republican candidates. china largely got a pass in the debate that candidates mainly used the country as a way to talk about other issues, the glancing mentions seemed odd for a country that some republican members of congress identify as a threat to the united states. did you hear enough about china to your satisfaction last night? >> no, i did not. listen, it was a great debate in many ways, a lot of important issues beyond china. my view is that china is our foremost geopolitical threat. it is an existential threat, a global threat, anyone who seeks to be commander in chief needs to be pressed on china. the next commander in chief will likely be dealing with this ongoing

john. but jack smith does talk about what donald trump was doing as this was playing out in the capitol. and instead of trying to halt it, allowing it to proceed. >> if you remember when he was impeached on this, he was impeached for inciting the riot. that's not what's going on here. but jack smith makes the allegation that trump tried to exploit the riot to achieve his overall goal, which is disrupting the proceeding to certify the election. he says directly. on the evening of january 6th, the defendant and coconspirator one attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them, based on knowingly false claims of election fraud, fraud to delay the certification. and this is pretty amazing, he calls two senators directly. he coconspirator number one calls six members of congress. >> jon karl with us. we know that john santucci, our reporter who has covered trump for many years, has now talked to the former president. john, what's his reaction at this hour? >> david, i just hung up the phone with former president trump. he seemed rather relaxed . david said that he is read t

john vance was arrested he has been charged with several felonies more details are expected at a press conference later on this morning. >>> through this morning, potential progress in the writers strike that has halted much of hollywood. allianc allie studios has requested a meeting. >>> turning to the forecast now. a summer storm system is bringing powerful wind and rain to the midwest that could mean hail or flooding for millions of americans. nbc meteorologist angie lassman has her hands full with this one. good morning >> we've been talking about the heat that's going to stick around now we're adding in showers, thunderstorms and potentially severe storms striking the middle of the country. let's talk about where it's ramping up the rain in parts mov missouri, into iowa. it will be draped across parts of the upper midwest heavy rain on the table but also stronger storms that could include wind gusts and hail in missouri and stretching into illinois and kentucky. meanwhile, heavy rain is going to be one of the biggest threats we'll have to deal with, with repeated rounds of thunderstorms. st. louis already has gflood alerts of t alerts arr sioux falls, and p minneapolis will deal with showers and

john laura, what he had to say on fox on thursday. >> ultimately, what president trump said is, let's go with option d. let's just halts pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. that is constitutional law. that is not an issue of criminal activity. >> neil, was that a defense? or did he just admit that trump committed a crime? >> they admitted that it's something donald trump admitted himself earlier. so, i don't think that attorney made any particular news in that statement. basically, what they're both saying is trump exercised his first amendment rights. what jack smith has done, in this relented tight-knit on page two, is head that off right away. trump could believe whatever the heck he wants, but you can't go and be ordering people to basically have fake electors in seven states, try to disrupt the most solemn counts our nation has on january six and the like. those are crimes. this is an attempted coup. it's illegal every day of every week. >> and maya, that is what makes this admission by lauro so in

let's just halt, let's just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. >> wow. john eastman knew that it would be a crime to do that. and john eastman said in writing that it would be a crime to do that. what don trump was asking mike pence to do. and went on trump's criminal defense lawyer tonight admits on television the donald trump was asking mike pence to do. the pause the don trump's criminal defense lawyer says don trump was asking for was a crime and it was the very last crime the donald trump and his coconspirators asked vice president to commit. they asked him to commit the crime many times. but the very last time donald trump's coconspirators asked mike pence to commit that crime was not before mike pence went to the capitol on january six to preside over electoral college vote count ceremony. it was at 11:44 pm on january 6th, after the trump mob attacked the capitol, attacked police officers, said they wanted to attack mike pence, so they wanted to kill nancy pelosi. after the was capitol under attack for hours on end with trump doing nothing to stop it,

halt. let's just bought the voting around the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections or handled fairly. >> now, that appears to be john lauro offering donald trump's admission that he did do exactly what the indictment says that he did in asking for a so-called pause in the counting of the electoral votes. and congress -- donald trump actually achieve through the violent attack on the capitol, and trump going with coconspirators, desperately calling and emailing senators, including rudy giuliani, john eastman, who have at 11:44 pm on january 6th, when congress had returned to count the electoral votes, sent an email to the vice president's counsel, asking him for a pause in the process. and admitting in writing in that email that the pause would be what john eastman called in the email, a minor violation off the electoral count act. john lauro falsely claimed yesterday that donald trump asked for a pause in his speech on january 6th. that is a lie. donald trump never once used the word pause in his speech on january six, not once. here's how that new story went yesterday. >> the ultimate option that mr. trump asked fo

john lauro said on fox news last night defending what his client donald j. trump tried to do on january 6th. >> but ultimately what president trump said is let's go with option d, let's just haltt's just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to the -- as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. that's constitutional law. that's not an issue of criminal activity. >> and here is a bit of what prosecutors allege in the indictment, this is from a january 4th meeting, quote, the defendant and co-conspirator 2 then asked the vice president to either unilaterally reject the legitimate electors from the seven targeted state or send the question of which state was legitimate to the targeted state's legislatures. jack smith, trump's lawyers are not exactly disagreeing here, katie. >> they're actually not in disagreement but most importantly john lauro was going on tv and asserting a law that doesn't exist. i mean, he's saying that there was the opportunity for mike pence to delay the count, and that's not possible under existing federal law or the law that was in existence back then. i think what you're seeing is