joining us now is cnn national correspondent kristen holmes in south carolina and kayla tausche and jeff zeleny. kristen, first to you. we know trump's skipping a republican debate and spending his time instead in four important primary states and he doesn't think there is much competition for the gop nomination. >> well, jim, part of what we're seeing this week is early voting. the next couple of weeks, as well and these are gearing up this campaign is not just for the general election which is what we've been talk a lot about with this trip to michigan, in south carolina, iowa and new hampshire these are trips he's doing to shore up the support in the early states and there is a comfortable lead in the nationwide poll, his is very aware of the fact that when cop serve tiffs are polled even if they say that they support donald trump many of them are still interested in alternative options and they're trying to get support and trying to rally up the team here with the people. the other thing i want to point out is michigan, talking about general versus the primary and he is looking towar

arlette signs and kristen holmes is above you, and give us a sense of the message that you hear from the president and he spoij to some of the union members? >> well, sara, the president is hoping to strike a show of solidarity with the striking workers. he is the first president to walk with that were pivotal of helping him to get into the white house. we are waiting to see where he is going to be in wayne county, and we are believing it is this area. he is going to appear with the shawn fain, and the endorsement of the union is yet to come, and that is part of the president's hopes as he is seeking to rally the labor union, but there is going to to be a remarkable split screen playing out over the next 24 hours. and the white house says it is not about the former president donald trump coming here tomorrow. but the white house is eager to draw contrast with the former white house and the talks and they have been walking a fine line with these negotiations. they say theyof the negotiation and they can't get into the nitty-gritty, and while the white house says they are supporting th

. >> cnn's kristen holmes is in clinton township, michigan, a state which promises to be a battleground once again, kristen. >> that's right, john. you'd think we were already in a general election. we haven't even started our republican primaries and this is the clearest signal from trump's team that they are looking ahead to that general election. when he lands on the ground here he's not expecting as warm of a welcome from union leaders as president biden got yesterday, but he is expected to be well received here where we are in mccomb county. this is a county that went for him in 2016 and in 2020 and not by small margins. when we talk to the trump advisors we asked for the pushback from the union leaders who have gone out against former president trump saying that he is only pro-business. his administration was anti-union, anti-worker. they say that they believe that it's possible to drive a wedge between the union leaders and the rank and file and that's what we will be watching for tonight. who actually comes out here tonight. we are told that it will be union members both past an

we have kristen holmes who is in michigan ahead of trump's speech tonight. what more do we know about the campaign strategy to skip the debate for the second time? >> well, look, this is the clearest signal we have seen that the campaign is looking beyond the primaries at the general election. if this is just about the primaries, you'd likely see him in a state like iowa or south carolina or new hampshire, but he's in a battleground state. when talking about working class voters from michigan, this is the same group that helped him in 2016. also the same group of people who helped propel biden to the white house in 2020. and trump and his team are trying to get some of those voters back. it's going to be a heavier lift this time because he had an administration and union leaders have attacked his administration policies as anti labor, anti union, pro business. but trump's team seems to think they can drive a wedge in between the members. they say the support comes from the members on the ground, not the leadership. he is here tonight, speaking at a non union

kristen holmes is here now. why these messages? >> we don't know right now.essages. we're not sure how they play into the investigation. when we look at this indictment, there's no reference to these direct messages. one thing to keep in mind is what a prominent role twitter played in all this. when trump was trying to overturn the 2020 election results he did much of it on twitter, promoting these cons conspiracy theories. we're trying to figure out what's in these messages. that's where twitter was. the other thing about the unsealing of the documents, we learn how secret and the steps they took to make sure trump didn't know about this. remember, twitter wanted to tell trump these existed in case they wanted to appeal it or say there was executive privilege. they were barred from doing so. >> do we know if they were messages to or from him? >> we don't know. >> the other case the former president is facing is his alleged mishandling of classified documents. he made some public comments on that case yesterday. >> he absolutely did. he talked about wanting t

kristen holmes is live in clinton township, michigan with more. obviously, you know, republicans, the party, strategists, see something here in polling. politico had an interesting piece on it. for republicans to grab in the union vote. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. we know when donald trump arrives he is not going to have the same warm welcome from union leadership that we saw president biden have yesterday. as you mentioned, unions are typically democratic, they typically vote democratic. however they do believe that there is an ability, they think the trump campaign, to essentially drive a wedge between union leadership and the rank and file members. some of whom will be here tonight. we are expecting former an current members including members of the united auto workers as well as their families. and essentially as you mentioned, when it comes to michigan, 2016, it was working class voters and the state of michigan that helped propel trump to the white house. 2020, it was working class voters and michigan that helped propel biden to the whi

and kristen holmes is joining with us this. and a legal defense like this, it could cost them a hefty sum, and how do they par foyr it? >> and to be clear, donald trump has paid for aides and former and current in the investigation of january 6th and so much that america pac has spent more than $41 million since 2021 and that is an extraordinary fee, but obviously, when it is coming to georgia that is not the case. we are told that even with all of the grumblings of all of the defendants not having their bills paid by donald trump, no one has formally asked him either. and they have come up with creative ways, and some of the creative ways is crowd funding. that includes john eastman, an election attorney, and jeffrey clark, the doj attorney who is at the center and kathy latham who is a fake elector in georgia and another thing is that rudy giuliani and his son has helped to create a political pac, political action committee, to help pay, and donald trump is not helping to foot the bill, but he is helping with a fund-raiser wh

cnn's kristen holmes is standing by for us just ahead of the speech. balancing his campaign and his legal troubles? >> reporter: well, wolf, this is just going to get more and more difficult. we know that he is going to ramp up his actual campaigning. he's had about a two-week lull, and now it's been between different events. he's had an arraignment here or an indictment here, but, again, once we starts ramping up the campaign ehence the it will be more han more difficult, particularly as we look at this looming trial schedule and trump himself seemed to indicate he was going to make it even more complicated by saying he'll testify in one of his trials. take a listen to this. a new charge suggests you asked a staff to delete security footage camera so it wouldn't get into the hands of investigators. >> it's false. >> would you testify to that under oath? >> i'll testify to that under oath. >> it's a fake charge. we didn't delete anything. nothing was deleted. >> so that's false, the people who testified -- >> number one, the statement is false. much mor

cnn kristen holmes joins us with the details on this. what are you learning? >> that's right, john.at impeachment inquiry was announced, but before as well. representative marjorie taylor greene having dinner with trump at his bedminster resort on monday talking about whether or not there would be an impeachment inquiry and that was something he brought up and we also heard from sources that elise stefanik, the house gop chairwoman talked to trump after it was announced by mccarthy and essentially went over what the republican house strategy would be going into this impeachment inquiry. i talked to a number of trump advisers, and they do acknowledge that while trump has talked to various house members about this and it is not just stefanik and marjorie taylor green, that it is not something that he is obsessed with and hyperfocused on, but they can't push back on the sense that this is something that he has brought up, something that privately and publicly he says would like to see happen and even if he is not pushing directly, by saying something he would like to happen, he is stil

correspondent kristen holmes has more. >> reporter: good morning, amara and omar.r any of the legal fees for his co-defendants in georgia as of now. for context, the former president paid bills for advisers, both current and former employees, aides, in both the january 6th committee investigation and both of those federal investigations. but obviously that is not the case here with georgia. so it's making these co-defendants, who are now facing astronomical legal fees, have to turn to different creative measures. that includes crowd funding. we know at least four of them have started crowd funding, that includes lawyer jenna ellis, election attorney john eastman, jeffrey clark, a former doj official, and kathy latham, a fake elector in georgia. i'm told, even though there have been grumblings that they're not being helped by donald trump, that none of them have asked for help. and one official said if they want help they should apply to the legal defense fund. a reminder we talked about this legal defense fund established back in july because of these mounting lega

cnn's kristen holmes is on the trail in dubuque for us. she's in iowa with trump. ust responded to some serious pushback for his recent comments on abortion. what did he say? that's right, wolf, at least it certainly seemed as though that was what he was doing. he repeatedly took credit for overturning roe v. wade during he these remarks in dubuque, iowa. he said he did what nobody else could do. he took credit for standing by justice brett kavanaugh. he said republicans need to learn how to talk about abortion, particularly when it comes to exceptions to abortion, which he said he supports. take a listen. >> like ronald reagan before me, i believe in the three exceptions for rape, incest, and a life of the mother. i believe in that. i think it's very important. without the exceptions, it is very difficult to win elections. we would probably lose the majorities in 2024, without the exceptions, and perhaps the presidency itself. >> reporter: and, wolf, i want to note one thing, i think you could hear it in the sound bite from the former president, there were loud che

. >>> over to kristen holmes to hear from the trump camp, and certainly from the social media at some point, and what are you hearing from the contacts that you are combing through about this? >> well, that is right. with res we are still waiting for another adviser who is caught up in the investigation peter navarro who was found in contempt of congress yesterday, but as someone who covers trump day in, day out, and another person in the list of people who are not charged is how close they are to president trump, such as lindsey graham who was with him in the trump stop, and saying he is throwing the support behind him, and boris epstein is still his attorney. and now, we know that others have been spotted at mar-a-lago, and david perdue who had a meeting with david kemp to call this special session to help donald trump with the effort to overturn the 2020 election, and also, what we know is that he ran an entire failed gubernatorial campaign on those lie, and he was backed by donald trump, and the reason he ran is because he was mad that brian kemp had not overturned the campaign, a

. >> let's check in with kristen holmes. know you're working to get reaction from trump and his campaign. what are you learning? >> we've reached out but we haven't got anything specific yet. trump is in south dakota at a campaign rally later tonight. but what i'm hearing from trump advisers, sara is really spot on, that this meadows case was not meant to be a deciding factor. yes, they have signalled. they have not said definitively whether or not they're going to try to move this case to federal court. meadows was something they were watching carefully. trump's lawyers were in the courtroom that day trying to pick up what these arguments were going to be. they're waiting for this decision to see what might work for donald trump that didn't work for meadows or the judge didn't like that they might want to maneuver around. and that's really what this is about. is this going to be a slam dunk? obviously it's not. the meadows thing is a blow. if this had gone through smooth sailing, i think the trump people would feel a lot mo

cnn's kristen holmes has been following this for us.t are these co-defendants, then, doing to pay their legal bills? >> reporter: good morning, boris. before we get into what exactly they're doing i do want to give a little context which is that the former president had been footing the legal bills for his aides, advisers, former and current employees in both the january 6 committee investigation and those federal investigations. that was all coming from the save america pac who has spent more than $41 million on legal fees since 2021. extraordinary number there. when it comes to georgia clearly that is not the case. as you say, these are expected to be huge bills. in fact, one of his co-defendants, harrison floyd who runs black voices for trump actually spent a week in jail because he couldn't afford to hire an attorney. so you have some of these defendants turning to more creative means, including crowd funding. we know four of them at least have turned to crowd funding to try to get the funds to pay these legal bills, that including

joining us now is cnn national correspondent kristen holmes in south carolina and kayla tausche and jeff kristen, first to you. we know trump's skipping a republican debate and spending his time instead in four important primary states and he doesn't think there is much competition for the gop nomination. >> well, jim, part of what we're seeing this week is early voting. the next couple of weeks, as well and these are gearing up this campaign is not just for the general election which is what we've been talk a lot about with this trip to michigan, in south carolina, iowa and new hampshire these are trip's

we have cnn's vanessa er cave itch in michigan and kristen holmes is in detroit ahead of former presidentomorrow and we have cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein, senior editor at "the atlantic." tell us more about the message from the president to the uaw workers. >> brianna, this trip by president biden marked his most overts did play of support for these autoworkers as the struk against these big three auto companies continue. the president was invited here by uaw president sean fain and appeared with him as they rallied with striking workers outside of a gm facility here in wayne county. the president talked about how he believes these workers deserve significant raises and other benefits and that it is time, in his belief, that the auto companies begin to share more with these workers. take a listen. >> the fact of the matter is that you guys, uaw saved the automobile industry back in ton2008 and before. you made a lot of sacrifices and gave up a lot. the companies were in trouble and now they're doing incredibly well, and guess what? you should be doing incredibly well, too.

cnn's kristen holmes is traveling with the former president.ow is the former president dealing with this week? >> reporter: yes, is this going to be a big week for two reasons. when you talk about the gop primary, it is true, donald trump has a lead over all of the candidates, both nationally and leading states like south carolina, new hampshire and iowa. but if he wants to hold on to that lead and secure that lead, they're aware that there are conservatives that say they might support president trump, they're open to other candidates. they're hoping to ramp up his travel in early voting states to really secure down his lead. and try sand make sure that he is the candidate going forward but this is also an important week, when you look ahead and see the campaign looking ahead to the general election. and that trip to michigan. we expect him to make a pitch to these workers, it's going to be a prime time pitch, just outside of detroit talking to former and current members. that includes as i'm told by people who organized the event, members of t

cnn national correspondent kristen holmes is there ahead of the speech. and we have kyung law in simi valley, the site of the republican complicate. and we have a reporter covering the trump fraud case. what more can you tell us about this effort to court blue collar voters, even though he's going to be at a nonunion location? >> the fact that president biden was here yesterday, the fact that former president trump is here today is not a coincidence. it goes to show you how important these working class voters will be in a general election in 2024. of course, trump is not the nominee but he is the front-runner. this is the clearest look at him running for the general election. this is a nonunion shop called drake enterprises in macomb county. it is a county he won both in 2016 and in 2020. when we look at why exactly he chose to come here to this swing state to talk to working class voters, that shows what you they're trying to do, trying to pick off certain groups of voters in 2024. we know this group of voters, michigan in particular, helped carry trump

. >> kristen holmes, thank you so much for that. let's discuss this with our political experts and our analysts. da david, trump skipping the debate tonight. in our cnn poll of polls, he's dominated by more than 40 points with 58% to just 15% for his closest rival. given that, what is the significance of tonight? >> his lead increased after not showing up at the first debate. so i think from that, the trump team said maybe it's okay that we can skip out on the debates but i don't think it diminishes the significance of what can happen here, which is this battle for second place, yes, now, but the quest to consolidate support from those in the party giving consideration to candidates not named trump. i would look for two things. we've seen on the trail, these candidates have been stepping up their direct frontal attacks and contrast with the former president. but also look carefully about how they handled each other. i think it will be really curious to see does desantis perform in such a way to suggest he perceives a real threat fro

. >> bring in kristen holmes. an important reason for the speech. trump early as this week signaling he would challenge the 2024 election results if he doesn't win. he definitely describes him not winning as an indication that things are rigged or unfair. >> that's right, jake. i want to be clear here. donald trump, the things biden is saying he's done, he's saying them as well. essentially said if re-elected he wants to completely overhaul the government and upend the democratic institutions as we know them. that starts with these elections. it's not just 2020 as you mention ed fact election denial led to insurrection on capitol hill and it's also 2024 and still not said he would accept those election results in 2024. >> will you commit to accepting the results of the election regardless of the outcome? >> if i think it's an honest election, i would be honored to. they rigged the presidential election of 2020, and we're not going allow them to rig the president's election of 2024. >> we will win bigger and better than ever before. [ applause ] they

kristen holmes has further details. >> reporter: he wants to be spending time in these early voting states. we didn't see him out on the campaign trail for several weeks. they do believe that he has a comfortable lead. we've seen it in national polls. but they are also looking at some of the polling where the conservatives are saying that, yes, they support former president trump, but they are open to an alternative. so they are pounding the pavement visiting iowa and new hampshire in the next couple of weeks, south carolina on multiple occasions, really trying to shore up that support and in some ways rally the troops. the other big thing this week i want to point out is that trip to michigan. that is his team moving actually beyond this primary starting to look at that general election, trying to essentially try and grab these working class voters that they believe they can see gone off siphon off from the democratic party. they are very focused. >>> and one major event will be noticeably absent from trump's schedule and that is the second republican primary debate. >> he is the undeniab

kristen holmes, first to you. trump spent the day in south carolina.ocusing on that state? >> he wants to be spending some time in these early voting states. they believe he has a comfortable lead. we've seen that in national polls but then also looking at some of the polling, where these conservatives are saying that well, yes, they support former president trump, they are open to an all terntive. they're visiting iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, really trying to shore up that support. now the other big thing this week is that trip to michigan. that is his team moving beyond this primary starting to look at that general election, trying to essentially try and grab these working class voters they believe they can siphon off from the democratic party. in order to do that, they have to win the party. >> we're going to talk more on that michigan trip later because president biden also going there the day before. alex, trump is now ramping up his campaign stops but skipping the second presidential gop debate. the nomination is his to lose according to

. >> cnn's kristen holmes is also with us, kristen, what is donald trump saying about all of this?> shortly after this came out, this report is released he started lashing out on truth social, none of this surprising, talking about this was political, a witch hunt. i will read to you part of the post here. he wrote, the georgia grand jury report has just been released, it has zero credibility and badly paints fani willis and this political witch-hunt. they wanted to indict anyone who happened to be breathing at the time. it undermines the credibility of the findings and of course continues and ends with election interference. i will note that i talked to a number of trump advisers and they're pointing specifically to the fact that lindsey graham was on this list. for some reason and i can't quite get to the bottom of it with them, they believe that this shows that this grand jury was willing to indict anyone because he was still a sitting u.s. senator. there's something about that that they seem to think undermines the entire report. again, not clear why they believe that, but the

first, i want to digest what david showed us with jeff zeleny, kristen holmes and daniel strauss. i'm guessing, as david mentioned, and ooum sure all of you who are excellent reporters have done the same, you have been talking to people inside biden world. and even though i said there's no way to spin this, i will tell you what a source told he. they haven't started advertising in earnest or organizing or spending the must be that they have in a big way. having said that, reality check, jeff zeleny. >> that is true, but the president has the biggest mega phone of anyone. but he is out there every day. so while it's true that there's no question that some of these factors in the economic policies or programs, people don't know what is in all these big pieces of legislation. that maybe true. but the spin that it's impossible to spin is on the president himself. on his age, on what people think and see and feel when they see him. he cannot change. he's 80 years old. he walks slowly. he sometimes speaks with gaffes, as he has done for years. they put some context on it, but people loo

kristen holmes, cnn. >>> americans are safer than ever from climate disasters at least according to ron desantis. the republican presidential candidate made that claim wednesday as he unveiled his energy agenda. he called recent wildfires and hurricanes problematic but ultimately accused of federal government of overreacting. jessica dean has the details. >> today it is great to be back in west texas. >> reporter: florida governor and 2024 gop presidential today ron desantis unveiling his energy policy in the heart of oil country. >> i will restore our freedom to fuel. i will ensure that the united states of america is the dominant energy producer in the entire world. >> reporter: desantis' plan includes ramping up domestic oil and gas good explore race and production, removing the united states from the paris climate accords and other net zero commissions. allowing more poipelines. desantis also pledged to get gas prices to $2 a gallon. though presidents have limited tools at their disposal to control prices at the pump. >> i think that we can definitely get under $3 and towards $2. re

cnn national correspondent kristen holmes has more. >> good morning.t paying for any of the fees for now. as a context, the former president had paid billed for both current and former employees, aides in both the january 6th committee investigation and both of those federal investigations, but obviously that is not the case here with georgia. so it's making these codefendants who are now facing astronomical legal fees have to turn to different creative measure as and that includes crowd funding. at least four of them have started crowd funding incluesing john eastman, jeffrey chark as well as kathy latham who's a fake elector in georgia. i am told even though there have been grumblings by the codefendants that they've not been helped by donald trump, that none of them have officially asked for help. they were told if they want help, they need to apply for the legal tee fence fund. it was established back inall because of these mounting legal fees particularly for trump and his advisers. they had been paid out of the save america pac, a leadership pac.

kristen holmes is here along with david chalian. david, you just got back from california. second republican debate where donald trump was not. could this be a potential s self-fulfilling prophecy for some of these candidates if they decide not to invest in california? it is further down in the list of states that are doing primary voting. >> yeah, if you are a candidate not named donald trump, you aren't probably very focused on california just yet because the path to actually take on donald trump is going to come first in iowa and nevada, south carolina, new hampshire. but trump and his team have done something savvy here in the sense that they have showing us i think, you can tell me if you disagree, but they are a bit more of an organized operation than they were back in 2015 and 2016. and so they are playing a bit of the inside game as well. and one of the things that they have done in california is to try tole after the way delegates get allocated there so that if somebody gets more than 50% of the vote, they win all the delegates. that is a savvy move. it has caused

. >> cnn's kristen holmes is in clinton township, michigan, for more on this.t is the trump campaign plan for michigan that you're learning about and what is he going to -- what is he going to see when he gets there? >> reporter: well, kate, look, this is the clearest indication that we have had from the trump campaign that they are looking past the primaries at the general election. trump's team is not expecting him to get a warm welcome from union leaders like we saw for president biden yesterday. those union leaders have largely criticized trump and his administration saying his policies were pro business, anti-union and anti-worker, but what they do think is that they can get people here in mccomb county to receive trump and receive them well. mccomb is a county in michigan that trump won in 2016 and in 2020 and i'm told by trump officials they believe that there is a wedge between union leadership and the rank and file. that's what we are expecting to see here tonight. these previous former and current union leaders and the question is whether or not trump

. >> let's get more now from kristen holmes.onse from the former president? >> wolf, this is really interesting because he's largely avoided this question. he did also a say he was likely to not consider giving himself a pardon because he says he did nothing wrong but that information about back in 2020 is something that was reported at the time but we've never heard from donald trump. it wasn't just him. it was that him, his friends, his allies, is considering giving a pardon to himself and those around him essentially on the ground that he believed his political opponents would come after him after he left office. ultimately, he did not decide to do that. when we're talking about donald trump and pardoning, this is not something he was stingy with. he actually pardoned 74 people and commuted the sentence of roughly 70 others. that included steve bannon. he has not been shy in pardoning people close to him who were involved in various legal activities. so it's something to watch carefully. again, it's something we have asked hi

cnn's kristen holmes joins us with more on that. kristen, is there no sign that the former president is offering any financial help to his co-defendants? >> in georgia not right now. so here's what we know. we know that former trump through his save american leadership pac has taken care of the legal bills for a number of his defendants in other cases, co-defendants as well as for aides, advisers, employees, both previous and current, so much that they have spent more than $40 million since 2021 just on legal bills alone. however, when it comes to georgia, we're not seeing that which means that these other defendants, co-defendants, are having to turn to more creative ways to raise money because these are going to be extraordinary legal fees, at least that's what they believe. now we're told that there are at least four of these co-defendants that are currently doing crowdfunding. they are jenna ellis, john eastman, another lawyer, jeffrey clark who is the former doj official as well as kathy latham, one of the fake electors in georg

kristen holmes is following all of it and join us now. much would he have to get to sort of get out of this legal bill hole? >> good morning. we don't have the number exactly. one source estimated he has about $5 million in debt. we know that it's millions of dollars. and unlike these other aids, advisers, employees that trump has footed the legal bill for, the former president isn't doing the same for rudy giuliani. i talked to a number of trumped a providers who pushed back at this notion that he's not helping the former mayor and his long-time ally, pointing to these fundraisers. also pointing to the fact that at one point the save america pac that pays legal bills paid $300,000 in giuliani's debts. but as you noted, again, millions of dollars in legal debt. even if he was able to raise from this fundraiser more than a million dollars, there's a long way to go. we heard from one of giuliani's attorneys last night, who essentially said giuliani was going to need every penny he could get. >> i assume that they are trying to raise as much

kristin h kri kristen holmes is following all of this. >> a small dent.s expected to raise over $1 million. as you noted, one source estimated giuliani's debt at $5 million. remember, there are still legal cases that he needs lawyers and will have mounting fees for. as we have reported, trump paid the legal bills through his leadership pac of a number of aides, advisors and employees, and not rudy giuliani. now, when i talked to advisors he pushed back on the notion that trump isn't helping giuliani. at one point the leadership pac paid $300,000 in giuliani's debts. they also point to the fact that he is hosting trump is hosting fundraisers, going to sponsor two fundraisers for rudy giuliani. but we heard from a lawyer last night for giuliani who said the former mayor needs every penny he can get. >> i assume they are trying to raise as much as possible and i think they will need it. i don't care how much money you have. you can't out spend the state. being named in an indictment and knowing the scale, scope, length of this trial, even the preliminary mat

kristen holmes is live for us in michigan with more.his has been built up by the trump team that biden team followed up after the announcement was made. what do we expect to see today from the former president? >> reporter: i'll tell you that the trump team was not protecting as warm a welcome from union leaders as you heard from shawn fain, but they are expected to be received here in mccomb county, he won it by a significant margin both in 2016 and 2020. aen this is the first clear signal that the trump campaign is looking beyond the primary at the general election particularly looking at the state of michigan giving the primetime address in the swing state to working class voters. and i'll remind you that these are the voters, this is a state, that helped carry him to the white house in 2016. and helped carry biden to the white house in 2020. and now you are starting to see trump trying to get back some of that working class vote he had in 2016. obviously not going to be as easy this time around particular lin you have the union lead

. >> our colleague kristen holmes and i we spoke to many sources on both sides of this.e thing that everybody agrees on is that these two men enjoy a very strong relationship. they've been friends for decades. but one thing that i learned is that rudy giuliani will not directly ask trump for money. he believes it is disrespectful. that responsibility has fallen to his son, andrew giuliani who is close to trump and giuliani's former lawyer, rob costello. he went down with giuliani in the spring, we wrote about this in our story, to ask trump for money. costello did almost all of the talking. giuliani currently owes costello about $1.4 million. tonight might help a little with that. it's interesting, around the former president there's a split among his advisers. some people say, look, you don't have to help him. you can even cut him loose. others are insisting that, yes, you do need to help him. look what he's done for you. all of his work in recent years has been for you. he has lost a great deal of his reputation based on that work. one of his associates estimates he ha

we will discuss this with cnn national correspondent kristen holmes.p us understand how the co-defendants are raising money to do defend themselves. >> good morning. well, right now trump is not helping any of his co-defendants in footing these bills. in fact, they are so expensive, one of the co-defendants, harrison floyd, who has leads black voices for trump spent a week in jail because he couldn't afford to hire an attorney. because of, they are turning to many different ways to try to raise the funds they need for a legal defense, and that includes crowd funding. four of them are raising money on these crowd funding sites. je jenna ellis, an attorney for donald trump, raised $180,000. john eastman, another election lawyer for trump r raising $500,000. jeffrey clark, the former doj official, $56,000. kathy lathe up $15,000. this is a lot of money. these bills really add up. another person is rudy giuliani. his son created a pac to help pay his legal bills and trump is helping him a little bit. not financially, but hosting a fundraising for giuliani

i want to go to kristen holmes, because she has new reporting for us. i knew that you would get it in the next few minutes, and what are you hearing from trump camp? >> yes, a statement from the trump campaign spokesperson, and said that democrat partisan fani willis and the unlawfully constructed politically motivated so-called special grand jury have been exposed as operatives and tools of the radical democrats that they are and in an unbiased american act, the majority of the grand jurors voted to indict dozens of individuals including former and sitting u.s. senators for election integrity and exercising their first amendment rights under the constitution. so, again, this is really the same line that we have heard over and over again, saying that this is partisan, and saying that this is political and pointing to the fact that because there are u.s. senator, and republican u.s. senators, and that is why this is political. one thing to point out here as i spoke to a number of the trump advisers a few moments ago who noted that they believed that beca

and, look, and trump team wants to play this out as kristen holmes noted in the court of public opiniont is different than what wul is talking about, the legal barriers and what you have to rise to meet there versus all you have to do with voters is shake it up just enough that they're confused about it or they just get an kind of feeling and that is enough to sway some voters. >> most voters don't know he's been investigating for five years. they've turned over every single rock under the trump administration. most people don't know. >> you'll hear republicans say there still, though, needs to be more investigation, we do not trust the process. and so you have republicans and trump saying we are looking, we believe there is but they haven't found it yet links between hunter biden and joe biden. the thing to your point, jessica, even if they don't find that, there is utility for all of this for them as they look towards this impeachment inquiry which is now becoming entangled certainly at least politically with what we're seeing here. >> you read the statement from andy biggs, the congr