the woman in charge of all of that here this evening, republican national committee chair, ronna mcdaniel. ronna, thank you so much for being here. when you look at that crowd and we saw the miami mayor jump in the race yesterday, is there a point in your view, where the field gets to be too crowded? >> no, it's up to the voters to decide that. we have criteria. the candidates are going to have to be at 1% in three national polls. we'll have small dollar donations. and we don't determine the field. anybody can get in, and the voters will decide who makes it to tend. >> you talked about the debate criteria. how much harder is it going to be to get on the second debate stage? is that going to change? >> we put in the first criteria to expect some changes and incremental growth in terms of debate stage, but we haven't decided on what that's going to be yet. >> there will be some changes. what are the requirements right now to get on the first debate stage in august is to sign a loyalty pledge, vowing to support the eventual nominee. some candidates like governor asa hutchinson want that amen

rnc chair woman ronna mcdaniel is standing by. first to bryan llenas who is watching this unfold in a very big hub for these candidates. live in philadelphia. hi, bryan. >> hi, martha. you know better than anybody that the test results in this country have plummeted. 13-year-old proficiency in math scores have plummeted. today presidential candidates, ambassador nikki haley and florida governor ron desantis told moms for liberty attendees know why the test scores are low. they believe schools are concentrating on woke ideology and chris call race theory and not enough on the basic fundamental basics of learning. listen. >> when woke ideology overtakes education, our students become dumber as a result of that. >> we still have so many kids going through critical race theory, which is if a little girl goes to kindergarten, she's white, you're telling her she bad. if she's brown, you're telling her she's never going to be good enough and always a victim. >> former president trump will speak in about an hour. the moms for liberty is c

thank you very mucweh, ronna mcdaniel. >> thanks, kelly.miami mayor francis suarez,te he's thrown his hat into the gop presidential race. he joins us to make his case for your vote. that's after the break. ian he >> providing for your family is a top priority, but what happens when you need what happens when you need affordable health care christian health care ministries could save you uwith to 40% today. as a member, you can choose your provider without networ a k restrictions. sign up at your convenience with our anytime enrollment. join a christian community that supports each other's medical expenses. offering peace of mind as you prioritize what's most important. enroll now at your gym, dawg. >> amongst the kentucky wildflowers and appalachia and peaks, you make your way to a little place called campton. this is where a family owned pharmacy had a big dream to help neighbors with their everyday aches and pains. from these humble beginnings came the first premium arthritis cream to be sold nationwide and reached number one in total sal

kcolorado -- california governo gavin newsome. >> martha: now we bring in ronna mcdaniel.h. i'm curious what you think about the r.f.k. factor on the democrat's side and potentially among some republican voters. as you said last night, he said both parties have lost their way. my campaign is about bringing the two groups together, left and right, in a populous movement. some of what he said does appeal to people from your party. >> i think what it really signals is the weakness of joe biden, an uncincumbent presiden. for kennedy to poll in 20%, to have no support among the democrats and mounting this big of a challenge shows how weak joe biden really is. >> martha: chris christie was here yesterday. he said he expects that there will be a third-party candidate if president trump is the nominee. a lot of talk about this today about the no labels group, about potentially joe manchin. so how real is this situation of having a third party or a robert f. kennes pieces away from both sides? >> a robert kennedy or joe manchin takes from the democrats. they have adopted democrat p

rnc chairwoman ronna mcdaniel. how do you feel about the idea of everyone into the pool? >> it does keep growing. do either of you have an announcement to make? it does keep growing. i do think we have some very good debate criteria that you have to be at least 1% in three national polls and also have to have 40,000 small dollar donations. i do think it will be a hurdle for some challengers. >> dana: is 1% easy to do? >> i don't think it is that easy to do with some of these folks who don't have national name. d. it will be a challenge for them before august. >> dana: won't be a challenge for hemmer as he announces 11:50 today. we'll do a fox news alert on that. this is what the dnc said about francis suarez, as the field keeps growing there is not a dime worth of difference between these extreme self-serving candidates. what about the range of diversity? >> we have such a great field from mayors, to governors, to former presidents and former vpt. what are we talking about? we are talking about a nation in decline right now. we have inflation, high gas prices. i filled up

>> i am 100% running for the rnc chairman against ronna mcdaniel. 100% i'm all in, steve.ne of the things that one of the big donors said to me, he said "mike" -- he said, "everybody wants you to be head of the rnc some of them just don't know it yet. >> seth: i mean i'd say he dreamt that conversation, but that meant he fell asleep, which, one, he seems incapable of and, two, is impossible using a my pillow. [ light laughter ] the only way lindell ever got a solid eight hours is if he used a "their pillow. [ laughter ] when he says one of the "big donors," is he referring to a republican donor or an organ donor? "i got a third lung installed so i could scream even louder without taking a breath, and the big lung donor told me 'i should be in charge of the rnc' right before they put him under. i think they gave him too much morphine, though, because he never woke up. [ light laughter ] now, if he does indeed run, lindell would obviously focus on his deranged election conspiracy theories for example, he's still going around claiming the midterms were stolen from republicans

ran to become the chair of the rnc sadly lindell lost that election on friday to current chair ronna mcdaniely say and i hope i don't sound too much like mike lindell when i say this, but, "i think he only lost because china, hugo chavez, the cia and dominion teamed up to steal the election from him and also she may be ahead now but sometimes slow and steady wins the race, like in that story 'the tortuous and da hair.' [ laughter and applause i think in the end i did sound a little like him. [ light laughter ] anyway, lindell lost but he made it clear that he's still expected to be closely involved with the gop leadership after a poll of republican voters showed he was the favorite to take over the rnc. >> we need to hold the rnc accountable. she -- they said i will work with mike lindell. i can't wait to work with mike lindell and ronna said she would work, she would do a grass roots tour but she also said i'm -- i'm looking forward to working with mike lindell steve, what do you think i've been working on for two years? so this is a wakeup call to them you better wake up i better get that p

you can't get on the stage unless you -- >> ainsley: trump last time said i'm not -- >> brian: ronna mcdaniel. >> steve: that was the rule last time, too. >> brian: i don't think trump will commit to, he said, i don't know. >> ainsley: he might say i'll commit because i'm winning and will be the nominee. >> steve: regarding mike pence's strategy go ahead and talk about being vice president. marc thiessen had a great piece and talked about the spectrum of republican voters. he said, this is how it breaks down, according to him and he's very smart guy. 25% of the republicans are hard maga. they are just all in on trump. 25%. 50% are soft maga, he described them, as people who like trump's policies, but they could be persuaded and 25% are never trumpers. essentially what mike pence team is banking on and they will never get the hard maga, but appealing for the 50%. >> ainsley: curious what he says about the democratic party. you have bobby kennedy jr., who is getting a big chunk of the democrat party. he is moderate, went down to the border at 2:00, he has the border wall behind him, refreshing

kaitlan collins will interview ronna mcdaniel later tonight on cnn prime time at 9:30 eastern on cnn.om" deadly tornados tear across the south killing three in texas and leveling a small town. cnn is on the scene. we'll be r right back. it's easy to get lost in investment research. introducing j.p. morgan personal advisors. hey david. connect with an advisor to create your personalized plan. let's find the right investments for your goals okay, great. j.p. morgan wealth management. in america, we value our freedoms. and ceos, they're free to negotiate their salaries and bonuses as they see fit. president biden just wants us to have those very same freedoms. the freedom to make a good living and have a good life. that's why he's lowering insulin prices, fighting for the child care tax credit and delivering more clean, renewable, american-made energy... protecting our freedom to thrive. my name is joshua florence, and one thing i learned being a firefighter is plan ahead. you don't know what you're getting into, but at the end of the day, you know you have a team behind you that can hel

. >> we have the rnc chairwoman ronna mcdaniels joining us. us with his presence. i am sure the biden family will come up. starting a new chapter can be the most thrilling thing in the world. there's an abundance of reasons to get started. how far we take an idea is a question of willpower. because progress... is a matter of character. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ( ♪ ) with the push of a button, constant contact's ai tools help you know what to say, even when you don't. hi! constant contact. helping the small stand tall. ♪ ♪ every day, businesses everywhere are asking. is it possible? with comcast business...it is. is it possible to help keep our online platform safe from cyberthreats? so we can better protect our customer data? absolutely. can we provide health care virtually anywhere? we can help with that. is it possible to use predictive monitoring to address operations issues? we can help with that, too. with global secure networking from comcast business. it's not just possible. it's happening. when i was his age, we had to be inside to watch liv

ronna mcdaniel was on earlier. and had this to say about the growing field. >> i think we have such a great field from mayors to governors to former presidents, former vice presidents. the main thing is what are we talking about? republicans are getting on the debate stage and contrast what we put forward as our vision for america, a much brighter future for many americans than what they're seeing now. >> dana: suarez gets in today. do you think there are others? >> i think we're getting to the end. you start getting into a pretty crowded debate stage. you have to qualify for that debate based on the rnc guidelines for the august debate in milwaukee. but i think we'll get towards the end. there may be a late add. there are always rumors that glenn youngkin from virginia after he runs the senate race in the state house may decide to get in. but, you know, you look at that list and that board. that's a lot of folks. and there are more and more people who say the more people who are in and stay in longer, the better t

ahead of the 2024 election chairman ronna mcdaniel is doubling down on the need for gop candidates toge in order to qualify for the first primary debate. take a look what she had to say on the matter on fox news last night. >> this candidate pledged to enter to the debate stage you have to pledge to support the nominee. totally agree with you in principle. christie calls it a useless idea, trump, i don't think you'll ever get him to sign that pledge. do you think he'll have to do away with this pledge nod to not have one person hitting themselves? >> it's the republican party nomination and the pledge is staying. and anybody who wants to seek the nomination of our party should pledge to support the voters. if you go through this process and take time on the debate stage and you're going to be there, the number one pledge should be beat biden. that the end of the day we all have to be united in one thing. if we can't commit we're going to support who the voters choose as the nominee, then you don't deserve to be on the republican party debate stage, so the pledge is staying. >> in a re

still to come on cnn, ronna mcdaniel joins kaitlan collins. thank you so much for joining us. us. "ac 360" starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> he has the right to remain silent. he's also donald trump. tonight on "360" the former president's eruption over the documents case, and is special counsel's latest move aimed at keeping potential evidence public. >>> also tonight a live report from the texas panhandle, how people are coping in the wake of a sedevastating and deadly tornado. >>> plus to ukraine. >>> first up tonight, the trump documents case in a new sign of how serious jack smith is about keeping the defense and the defendant reined in. also a reminder today, this defendant has no desire to be reined in. >> virtually everyone is saying that the fake indictment is about election interference and should not have been brought. except bill barr, a disgruntled former employee and very weak person. he knows the indictment is total bull [ bleep ]. a very stupid person named john bolton, mick mulvaney who's got nothing going, absolutely nothing. >> so, two things

still to come on cnn, ronna mcdaniel joins

in general, he's asking everyone from the bellmen to rnc chair ronna mcdaniel. jordan. another welcome, if trump does this, does that make the rnc powerless if he's going to make up his own mind based on whoever he speaks to? >> i just checked with the republican operative who's far more well versed in the rules of the rnc, and apparently there's nothing that they can do if trump decides he doesn't want to debate. you remember back in 2016, he famously set out a debate, and decided it was to his advantage to get back in there, but it seems to be that the way the debates are set up and the rules, it's going to be a question of the lesser polling candidates getting on the stage, versus donald trump deciding he's not going to do it, and being penalized in any way. >> in terms of things we remember, one of the considerations for trump is he pledged to support the eventual 2024 republican presidential nominee, and it brought me back to this coe moment from the fox news 2015 gop primary debate. take a watch. >> is there anyone on stage, and can i see hands, who is unw

republicans are making a lot of noise in the press that they are now in favor of early voting ronna mcdanielautopsy is going to say this but if that's the case, no one's told the politicians and the lawyers for the republican party. because in courtroom after courtroom around this country republicans are defending restrictions on early voting and vote by mail in legislatures after legislatures after legislatures around this country in the last few weeks and months republicans have passed new laws to make it harder to vote early and harder to vote by mail. so it's time that there be accountability for what the republicans are saying they're doing versus what they're actually doing >> it's so interesting thank you for keeping our eyes on the prize, both of you. marc elias and errin haines, thank you so much. when we come back, two weeks into their counteroffensive and ukrainian troops are slowly making gains in territory formerly occupied by russia. we'll be back with those updates and a quick break. plus a stunning plot by russia to kill a cia informant right here ioun r country. stay with us

on friday, they'll be choosing between current chair ronna romney -- who said my name was romney -- mcdanielo maga attorney harmeet dhillon, as well as -- and this is real -- my pillow ceo mike lindell, seen here confirming yes, i did come to this event without pants. lindell announced his campaign a few months back and said he's doing this for a higher power. >> i prayed about it, this is god's will, this is what i'm doing. >> stephen: i believe this is god's will because god loves a good laugh. i mean, why else would he have made those monkeys with the bright red butts? it's hilarious. [laughter] let's give some of the monkeys bright red butts, god said. why else? it's beautiful. in order to become an official candidate, lindell had to get at least a few members of the rnc to sign off on his bid. when reporters asked him which members, he said that "i wouldn't tell you that in a million years. what, so you could go attack them? i'm not stupid. you guys must really think i'm dumb." yes, we do. we've got a great show for you tonight. my guests are brett goldstein and actress amanda warren. b