back with me now, molly ball and ron brownstein.the testimony in the impeachment committee. some of these allegations go back to 2014 and 2015. there's been a state pench, clof smoke around ken paxton for a long time. why now? >> well, he essentially asked the legislature to participate in a cover up. as ed was saying, there's a request for a fine levied against him, more than $3 million to settle the claims of whistleblowers, republican staffers who worked in his office. he asked the legislature to pay that money for him, so they started investigating him on that basis. as you mentioned, this is someone who's been under indictment for nearly eight years. where is the judicial system? where is the fbi? is it any wonder that people have qualms about the rule of law in this country? here's someone who basically, you know, epitomizes trump's attitude that if you make the law, you know, they can't touch you and you get to make the rules. but there is a higher authority than the attorney general of texas, and it looks like it may finally

. >> joining me now to talk more about this is cnn political analyst ron brownstein. he is also a senior editor at the "atlantic." always a pleasure to have you with us. >> hi, rosemary. >> so ron, it is the first time a former u.s. president and current presidential candidate has been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil trial. so that makes this significant for just that alone, of course. but what are the likely political consequences of this legal outcome, do you think? >> you know, when the manhattan d.a. indicted trump on the hush money charge, we talked about the cumulative weight of all the legal judgments that he was potentially facing as he went through this process. you had this civil case. you have additional criminal investigations of fulton county, georgia, two separate criminal investigations by a federal special prosecutor, other cases involving new york, and so far he has been immune. republican voters have had a circle the wagons kind of effect where they have essentially bought his argument that is the deep state going after me beca

. >> i'd like to bring in cnn's senior political analyst and senior editor at the "atlantic" ron brownstein. he joins me now from los angeles. i appreciate you being with us. >> hi, rosemary. >> so the u.s. state of north carolina's general assembly has just banned abortions after 12 weeks, overriding the governor's veto. what do you expect the fallout of this will likely be? >> well, first, it's just an extraordinary story where a democrat, a woman who was elected as a democrat, staunchly supportive of abortion rights, quit the party, joined the republican party, allegedly because she felt slighted over how democrats are dealing with her on other issues, and voted to both ban abortion and to oveo override the governor's veto. north carolina one of only four states trump won where there is now a democratic government. now because of her switch there is a super majority in the legislature. north carolina falling into line underscores the extent to which a curtain is falling across the red states. as i've written, the red states are building a nation within a nation that is operating very dis

ron brownstein, always a pleasure to chat with, you thank you so much. >> air raid sirens sounded for another night across several regions and in kyiv. just one night after the ukrainian capital was targeted by a barrage of russian missiles. ukraine says that all 18 russian missiles launched at the country early tuesday were intercepted. including six hypersonic missiles. and that is a claim that the russian defense minister is denying. and russia is claiming to have destroyed a u.s. made patriot air defense system. in a missile strike in kyiv. the ukrainian military has declined to comment but u.s. official tells cnn that the patriots system was likely damaged and not destroyed. the u.s. is still assessing the potential damage. cnn's clare sebastian is following developments for us, she's joining us live from london. it is always a challenge of course to get the facts during the fog of war, but what more are you learning about whether russia damaged this patriot battery, and also russia was flat denial that ukraine shot down six missiles? >> yeah rosemary, i think this really is this

. >>> ron brownstein is a senior political analyst and senior editor with "the atlantic."e joins me now. always good to see you. the reporting is that joe biden is weighing social program concessions, which actually aren't substantial in big budget terms. very significant for those who will be impacted. if the deal goes the way it's shaping up, would republicans have won this political battle? which i know you see as part of a bigger republican war. >> yeah, look -- good to be with you, first of all. i think all in all, biden would feel that he came out of this fine. i mean, the strange thing about this episode of the debt ceiling standoff is it really just seemed to validate the adage that history repeats itself the first time as tragedy, the second time as faurls. it is always somewhat irrational and insane to risk a domestic and global financial catastrophe by using the debt ceiling to try to leverage policy gains. but at least the last time this happened, in 2011, they were, in fact, gambling for big stakes. a so-called grand bargain that included taxes, changes in ent

laura: joining me to discuss this and more, ron brownstein, and here in the studio, dan balz .an kanno-youngs, and ali vitali. thank you all. the second meeting that was originally set for today between president biden and congressional leaders was delayed to next week. what are you hearing from the white house about why it was delaye zolan: i think it would be normal if everyone got that news and thought are we ready for even more delays in this negotiation, is this going anywhere? when you talk to white house officials, they are framing this as a positive development. for as much as we want to take that with a grain of salt. they did paint a scenario of if they both came out, kevin mccarthy and biden, after a meeting and pretty much had nothing to say or show in terms of progress or meeting a consensus, how would that shape public perception about whether or not they will make a deal? just because they are not meeting doesn't mean the white house is not talking to congressional staffers, which is where a lot of these details are going to get figured out. whether that be reach

. >> ron brownstein, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >>> turkey's hot contested presidentialion is likely running to a runoff. there are preliminary results showing erdogan leading this weekend. opposition candidate has 45%, nearly all returns have been counted while results are not official, neither candidates seems to have reached the 50% threshold required to win the presidency outright, but both addressed their supporters on monday. >> if our nation decides on a runoff, with our pleasure, we will definitely win this election in the second round. everybody will see it. >> the turkey bureau chief joins us live now. welcome and appreciate you being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> preliminary results suggest this presidential race is headed for a runoff. do you expect erdogan to cling on to power or could we see an end to his two decades in power, do you think? >> i mean, you know, if you look at the turk candidate, the nationalist, we got 5% of the vote and it's likely the candidate in the second run will win easily, and he basically sold votes from erdogan. that's t

. >>> ron brownstein, a senior editor with "the atlantic."at to have you with us. >> hi, rosemary. >> the most promising issue for this country right now is the looming debt ceiling crisis. how likely is it do you think republicans and democrats could find a compromised solution to the problem before june 1st when the u.s. could default on its debt and plunge the world into economic chaos? >> this has historically been one of the issues where predictions work backwards, where people assume default is so catastrophic that it became unthinkable, and the question was not whether but how. in 2011, the last time we have had a confrontation of this magnitude, there was a wide-spread assumption in the political system that somehow, some way, barack obama, mitch mcconnell and john boehner would find a way to get it done. the markets, i think, still believe that in the end political leadership on both sides of the aisle will not drive the u.s. and potentially the global economy off a cliff in a self-forced error, but in 2011 the republican caucus in t

. >> cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein joins us now. thanks for joining us. >> great to be here in person. >> great to see you alive and in person. is the mouse house going to hurt desantis' chances or does it not matter at all? >> i think it does matter. you go back to november. the morning after the election. desantis had a lot of altitude. he had won in a land slide. and all of trump's hand-picked endorsed candidates had lost in the five states. flipped from trump and decided again in 2024. desantis has lost a lot of altitude since then and i think one of the reasons is there are more republicans, strategists and donors both, questioning his judgment. he's choosing to try to squeeze to the right of trump which threatens his biggest asset, which is the belief in the party that he is more electable in a general election than trump. so yeah, fighting with disney may not be a big cost at a republican primary. if you're a big republican donor who is beginning to wonder whether desantis has the gyro scope to win back the suburbs of milwauk

about all of this growing crisis, katherine rampel, a columnist for "the washington post" and ron brownstein is the cnn political analyst and editor for "the atlantic." what bills is yellen talking about and how will americans feel a u.s. default if we get there? >> what she's referring to is the collective obligations of the u.s. government. so that means everything from paying off our bond holders to sending out social security checks, paying military salaries, you know, paying off government contractors, food stamps, everything obligation that the united states government has and that to be clear congress has already authorized. now, the question is if we don't have enough cash to cover all of those bills, what happens? does the government, for example, have the ability to prioritize, okay, maybe we'll pay social security recipients but we won't pay the military, for example. or most likely there's a thing they would prioritize would be payments to bond holders because that would -- defaulting on our payments to bond holders, people who own treasuries, people we owe money to, that would b

ron brownstein, looking at the debt crisis, the border crisis, the political challenges that are outthe biggest possible threat to president biden. >> i think the biggest threat is a recession in the fall of 2024. that is when voters tend to lock in their impressions of how the economy is doing. in quarter three of the third year presidency and the first quarter of the fourth year. that's a real threat out there. all of these numbers we are looking at are flashing red lights on the dashboard for an incoming president. they are all signs of weakness for an incumbent. approval rating down 41%. none of them are great. significant majority saying they're unhappy with the economy. the only reason democrats are not freaking out more about these numbers is because all were largely present as well. and democrats did unexpectedly well in that election. especially in the five states that are likely to decide the presidency in 2024. michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. in an unusual -- who said they were said dissatisfied. voted for democrats because they view the republican as unacceptable. t

ron brownstein, many thanks. >> thank you. >> we are learning more about the man accused of crashingrity barriers near the white house on monday. 19 year old cy cumbola was arrested and charged in federal court with deprivation of property of excess of $1,000. cordach immense revealed that he threatened to quote kill the presidents while appraising at off hitler after's arrest. the suspect told police he had been planning the attack for six months. he's being held without bail and has not entered a plea yet, is set to appear in court in the coming hours. it has been one year since the mass shooting at an elementary school in uvalde texas where a gunman killed and 19 children and two teachers. u.s. president joe biden will mark the somber day in the coming hours with remarks from the white house. he will remember the victims and reiterate his call for republican lawmakers to take action to stop gun violence. meanwhile, texas will hold a moment of silence and lower state flag to half staff in honor of the victims. a facials in russia's border region of belgorod say a counterterrorism o

and ron brownstein, i'll start with you.vily into a slew of rather hot button cultural issues in the last few months, in addition to his ongoing fight with disney, for example, he signed a six-week abortion ban. he signed a law allowing conceal carry of firearms without a permit. he's implements new restrictions on access to transgender restrictions, and he's cracking down on undocumented immigrants. do you see this as a winning strategy in a republican primary, let alone a general election? >> yeah, you know, wolf, the fundamental question, i think, for the desantis campaign is whether they think he has a better chance of convincing republican voters that donald trump is insufficiently conservative or insufficiently electable. those two goals are in conflict. as you know, desantis has compiled an extremely conservative record on a whole range of cultural hot button issues as governor. as a candidate, he has signalled when he is differentiating himself from trump, it is mostly going to be from his right, making cases on covi

ron brownstein, desantis was asked if iowa was significant.january 6th rioters and possibly trump. listen to his response. listen to on day one, i'll have folks that will get together and look at all these cases who people are victims of weaponization or political targeting. and we will be aggressive in issuing pardons. >> he also said, ron, he would fire the fbi director christopher ray on day one. what can the picture is emerging about what a desantis presidency might look like? >> as alice noted, his strongest argument is the idea that donald trump can't deliver the policies that he advocated. he's not going to win again. there is a culture of losing. if i'm more electable. he is mostly tied himself to trump on issues. he moves on abortion and other questions. and signalling again that, you know, he used the january 6 investigation as an overreaction. the problem with that strategy, either trump moving to the right is that he can undermine the ability to be more effective in the general election which is in the end the strongest argument ag

joining us now national political correspondent for "time" magazine and ron brownstein cnn's senior political. thanks for being here. up until his official announcement desantis sometimes implied criticism of trump but very gentle and nuanced. in the past 48 hours listen here. wow. >> i think he did great for three years but when he turned the country over to fauci in march of 2020 that destroyed millions of people's lives. when people look back, you know, that 2020 year was in the a good year for the country as a whole. >> he said he was going to eliminate the national debt when he ran in 2016. he ended up adding almost $8 trillion to the debt in four years. he is going left on a lot of the fiscal, going left on culture. he's even sided with disney against me. this is a different guy than 2015-2016. he attacked me for opposing an amnesty bill in the congress. he did support this amnesty, too. 2 million illegal aliens he wanted to amnesty. i opposed it because that is what america first principles dictate that you are opposed to amnesty. >> you listen to that and see a politician clearly on p