Biden's Debate Edge, Trump's Fundraising Haul, Alberto Slams US
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Voters 50 and over have the power to decide elections. So candidates who want to win need to talk about the issues they care about. Learn more from our latest polling in Pennsylvania at aarp.org slash PA polling. Overnight, Duncan's pumpkin spice coffee has sent folks into a cozy craze. I'm Lauren LaTulip reporting live from home in my hand-knit turtleneck that my Nana made me. Mmm, cinnamony. The home with Duncan is where you want to be.

It's Friday, June 21st, right now on CNN This Morning. Less than a week to go before the CNN presidential debate and the one rule that Team Biden believes gives the president an edge. A huge fundraising haul for Trump in May, $50 million of it coming from one billionaire businessman. Tropical storm Alberto downgraded overnight after causing devastating flooding in Texas and Mexico.

And a first in America: New York's governor signing a new law to regulate social media algorithms that target kids. Alright, 6 a.m. here in Washington and here's a live look at the White House.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Manu Raju, in for Casey Hunt. It's great to be with you. At this time next week, we'll all be talking about who won the big CNN presidential debate. Six days and counting until President Biden and former President Trump face off at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. Next week's event will look and feel very different from the last debate between these two men. And after winning a coin flip, Team Biden chose his preferred podium position on the right.

That means Trump gets the final word at the end of the debate. Team Biden is also pleased that mics will be muted when a candidate is not supposed to be speaking. Now, the president hunkering down with close aides at Camp David, preparing by debating against a Trump stand-in. And he appears confident. Mr. President, how is debate prep going?

Now, for weeks, Trump has been ridiculing Biden, questioning his mental acuity, and even suggesting the president will be using drugs to make it through the debate. But as the big day draws near, Trump is now lowering expectations for Biden. I watched him with Paul Ryan, and he destroyed Paul Ryan. So I'm not underestimating him. I'm not underestimating him. I assume he's going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater.

All right, let's bring in Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters, sure. Michael Singleton, former deputy chief of staff at HUD in the Trump administration, and Megan Hayes, former special assistant to President Biden. Good morning to you all. Thanks for joining me this morning. So, OK, I thought this guy couldn't string two sentences together and now he's a worthy debater.

What is that? That actually should have been the position from the former president and other Republicans like weeks ago, a month ago, to say Joe Biden's going to come into this debate ready to go strong. He's had decades of experience. Right, right. So if he didn't perform well, then it's like, oh, wow, he didn't meet expectations. I'm not certain if at this point, like days before the debate, if this is really going to matter. But he should have had this tone before. Maybe we'll stick with this coming for the next debate.

What do you think? It is obviously an expectations game going into it. How does the Biden team feel about everything that Trump has been saying about, you know, that he maybe need drugs to prop himself up or that he can't string two sentences together, but now he's a worthy debater? How do they feel about this spin that's happening ahead of time? I mean, he's also a criminal mastermind controlling all the courts. So, I mean, I just, the Trump campaign is setting the expectations for Joe Biden. He doesn't have to do a lot.

to lower the expectations on our side. And I do think, you know, Trump's going to come out strong. I think they're all going to be well prepared and everyone's going to come out and strong and it's going to be a good debate, hopefully. I think it'll be interesting with the muted mics to see how when they keep going, how that plays when you can't hear them continue and how they get stumped themselves doing that. But I do think it's, you know, helpful that the Trump campaign is sort of setting the expectations so low for him. And just remind the viewers about what the 2020 debate looked like the last time.

I mean, does the Biden team think that, I mean, look, in a lot of ways,

that was a good moment for Biden because people viewed it as Trump talking over Biden and he didn't look particularly good in that moment. But now Trump can't do that. So how does that play with the Biden team? - Well, I think it changes the dynamic entirely. And it certainly means that President Biden will need to be on and he'll have to have some lines and he'll have to look sharp and do all the things that make an impression on voters that he wants to come out and vote for him.

i think as far as expectations are concerned to your guys's point earlier the state of the union address is actually kind of a good example to look at from the last several months republicans ahead of time were painting the president is somebody who couldn't get words out and couldn't speak in and was too old and honoring to be a little country and then he came out swinging and and

really got a boost from that afterwards. So the Trump team has that same risk by suggesting that President Biden is not going to be able to speak ahead of time. And you kind of see that with the backpedal. And of course, the difference between the State of the Union, as we all know, is that, you know, there's a teleprompter that he's reading from and now he's going to answer questions off the cuff. I put the question to Mitchell Landrieu yesterday. He's a top

Biden advisor about how the president will deal with some of the controversies involving Donald Trump, including the fact that he's been convicted on 34 felonies.

So the president is gonna ask Donald Trump questions. He's gonna wanna know why he appointed three justices that eviscerated Roe versus Wade. He's gonna ask Donald Trump why he threatened democracy in this country. He's gonna talk to him about why he continues to seek revenge and retribution and try to give his friends, his billionaire friends another tax break, and why he hurt the country so badly when he was president.

So how does Trump respond to that? - Look, I think refuting your opponent on every single issue is less effective in terms of a debate strategy than really highlighting your opponent's weaknesses. I debated in college as part of the debate team. You sort of learn this in the early stages of college debate. And if I were Trump, every time

president brings up one of those issues, whether it's January 6th or past election or some of the trials, I would pivot and talk about the economy. I would pivot and talk about immigration. I would pivot every single time and remind the American people, while Joe Biden is focused on me, I'm focused on you. And if he can do that effectively, then I think he'll be well received. And then Biden pivots back and says January 6th.

Well and also do you think that Donald Trump is going to be disciplined enough to be able to pivot back to issues and not pivot back to the 2020 election? I think it's very, very possible because the president, former president is preparing right now. He's acutely aware of how critically important this first debate is.

give a lot of skepticism about Donald Trump's ability to be a disciplined person. But he understands that this thing will be one on the margins. And considering everything that he's facing with these potential other trials next year, if he doesn't win, I think he's going to try to go in his best behavior. So much of the Biden campaign strategy so far has been trying to get under Donald Trump's

skin, just to kind of needle him and the like, and assuming that's probably going to be how Biden approaches next week as well. Oh, I'm sure. I mean, that usually has an effect that is advantageous to President Biden. But he also has an answer if the former president does show discipline and starts talking about the economy, that Biden...

team has a message to talk about the economy. I'm sure that you'll hear that from the president. But it hasn't resonated as much as his criticism of former President Trump. So I think that's the focus for him. All right. Well, this is going to be a very, very lively event. I'm sure you will all tune in next week. And up next for us, there's a Republican Senate candidate who got an endorsement from Donald Trump, but he wants to return it.

Plus, a $2 million smash-and-grab heist, one of the five things you have to see this morning. And Smirconish is here with his unique take on the upcoming CNN debate.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. What are some of the social service agencies that have supported you and your family growing up? That's Dr. Robert Waldinger. He's a psychiatrist, a professor, and a Zen master. What kind of relationships actually help us maintain happiness? And what should we do in those moments where we have setbacks and things that don't work out? Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

A Donald Trump endorsement can make or break most Republican candidates. But for Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan, well, that was not so welcome. It was obviously not something that we were seeking and didn't want and didn't have any interest in. And it's not something we're going to be promoting, that's for sure. In a state that Donald Trump lost by 33 points, it doesn't really carry a lot of voters over to our cause. So I don't think we're going to have any interest in accepting it.

Now, Trump's endorsement came after Hogan was chastised by the right for comments he made about the former president's hush money trial. Hogan urged Americans to, quote, respect the verdict before it was rendered. But here's what Republican National Committee co-chair Laura Trump had to say about that. Does the Republican National Committee support Larry Hogan for Senate?

Well, I'll tell you one thing. I don't support what he just said there. I think it's ridiculous. He doesn't deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point. And quite frankly, anybody in America. All right, my panel's back. Okay, so he says that we have no interest in accepting this Larry Hogan. We have no interest in accepting it. It's something that doesn't really, it's not something that we're going to be promoting. But I can assure you that Democrats will be promoting that. Of course.

Of course they are. They're going to try to tie him to a very MAGA Republican party and make sure that the Democrat wins. I mean, that just seems pretty obvious to me. And they want to tie him in with, you know, the Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump ways. And that just strengthens their candidate. Yeah, I mean, look, what's interesting about Trump in this cycle is that, you know, in the past he would be...

someone has criticized him. He would throw him under the bus. I guess he still does that. This time it's been a little different. I mean, Larry Hogan has been critical of Trump. And he's endorsing him. Mike Rogers in Michigan, a pretty establishment Republican

Trump endorsed him as well. What is up with that? - I mean, a lot of people in the party, including some folks who are advising the former president, have really tried to gear him in a different direction in terms of the types of candidates the former president endorses. We saw, what, just two years ago, former president endorsed a slew of candidates.

most of them did not win. We did not take back control of the frickin' Senate because we endorsed crappy candidates. And a lot of people blamed Trump for doing that. They did. So I think it was smart for Hogan to say, look, we don't want the endorsement. The endorsement's out there, though. And there are some Trump voters in Maryland. Hopefully they come out and vote for the former governor. But I do think it's important, considering the bend of the state, to sort of be a neutral Republican and

The folks of Maryland know who Larry Hogan is. He's been the governor twice. So I think that's going to be to his benefit. Yeah, but look, even though polls, at least there's one from March saying that he had a high favorability rating, that was really before a lot of the onslaught of ads. This is certainly, we'll see how it looks. This is different. This is not running for governor.

in a blue state this is a federal election control of the senate is on the line and democrats are more than happy to nationalize it because of how the blue tilt in maryland and that's why larry hogan said no thanks thanks very much but no thanks right but i do think the dynamic is interesting in terms of messaging i mean i think it comes back to your point earlier about the debates for michael that

Former President Trump is a little bit more disciplined than some of these things, and that is showing there. But his party isn't necessarily, or at least his apparatus isn't. If you see Laura Trump saying, this guy deserves no respect from Republicans or Americans at all, that's not on message in terms of trying to get a Senate to go Republican.

And there are some Republicans who are just not happy on the right that Trump is backing is what they would say squishes, moderates and the like. You know what? Not the MAGA folks. It's interesting when people say this. I did a focus group about a month ago on a whole different topic. And I asked some of the Republican voters in that focus group how they felt potentially about more

moderate leaning or establishment Republicans winning federal offices. And they all came back with a very similar conclusion. If it means regaining control, we're okay with that. So I think some of the leadership are completely opposed to what the actual base wants, and that is to have electoral victories. Yeah, and that's what causes the tension. That's what caused some of the losses. That's called the fighting in Capitol Hill, that tension between... Look at Bob Good, for example. Yeah, exactly. It brings up...

and all the bits and all. Still going on, man. District race in Virginia. All right, ahead, a man holding furniture from a New York City skyscraper. One of the five things you have to see this morning. Plus, where Donald Trump's fundraising dollars are coming from.

22 minutes past the hour. So five things you have to see this morning. A brazen daytime smash and grab robbery at a South Bay, California jewelry store. Up to two dozen suspects stealing nearly $2 million worth of jewelry in less than three minutes. Five of them captured in a police chase that followed.

Oh my God!

A Florida man charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief after illegally entering a building in New York and throwing chairs, benches and tables from the 20th floor terrace onto the street below. No one was injured. But police say the suspect apparently visited the consulate general of Haiti inside the building to complain about housing and then snapped.

Tropical storm Alberto tripling normal rainfall totals for June in cities across Texas and Louisiana, with significant coastal flooding along the Gulf, up to three feet in some areas. And oppressive heat hits the Midwest and East today, with Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Newark set to break records, and the Southwest bracing for more flooding. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam tracking all of it. Derek, any relief in sight?

No, and I'm wondering if you're ready for 100 degree heat where you are in D.C. No, I'm not. It's coming your way. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, you're not alone because much of the Mid-Atlantic is in the depths of this heat wave that is building. It's gotten some relief across northern New England, but really over the next seven days, we're going to be in the middle of a heat wave.

We're talking over 80% of the US population experiencing temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. You factor in the humidity levels, it feels oppressive outside. That's why we have these heat alerts across the mid-Atlantic, and it doesn't stop there. Many portions across the West into California.

also experiencing extreme heat. So 50 record highs through the course of the weekend. You can see this is what I was talking about in DC as well as Philadelphia. Triple digit heat by tomorrow lasting through the early parts of the weekend. Lots of heat and humidity across the southeast as well. That's the big story starting to sound like a broken record

We're also focusing on heavy rain across northern portions of the country, particularly across Minnesota and into New Mexico as well. The remnants of Alberto bringing an excessive amount of rain to an area that's been very, very drought. Of course, we've had the wildfire conditions there, so it doesn't take much

to inundate that area. So flash flooding a concern. There's the current radar very active across the Four Corners region with additional rainfall anticipated through the next several days. Manu. - This is June, what does August look like? All right. - Yeah, great question. - Thank you so much. All right, next, Donald Trump's latest attempts to derail his classified documents case. Plus, why air traffic controllers had to issue an altitude warning to the crew of a Southwest flight.

All right, it's back to court today for Donald Trump's lawyers as they take aim at the prosecutor who brought criminal charges against the former president over his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Federal Judge Eileen Cannon will hear arguments in Florida on a request by Trump to declare Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel in the case as invalid. Trump is not expected to attend. Now, Cannon's decision to hear the request

comes amid growing accusations that she is slow-walking the case in order to help the man who appointed her, Donald Trump. The New York Times also reports two federal judges in Florida urged Judge Eileen Cannon to hand off the classified documents case, but Cannon wanted to keep the case and brushed off those requests, according to the report. Now, at the time Cannon was assigned the high-profile criminal case, she had already faced some public backlash.

An appeals court had rebuked her handling of a Trump lawsuit challenging the FBI's 2022 Mar-a-Lago search. Joining me to discuss all this, retired New York State Supreme Court Judge Diane Kiesel. Judge, thank you so much for joining me this morning.

Can you talk about this request by the Trump team to invalidate Jack Smith's appointment here and the decision by Judge Cannon to allow this hearing to take place? How unusual is it for a judge to entertain such a request? Good morning. Well, it's quite unusual and somewhat surprising.

The issue of the appropriate or the legality of appointing a special counsel seems to have been put to rest a long time ago. There was a special counsel appointed during the Watergate investigation, which is, what, 50 years ago now. And actually, the concept of a special counsel goes back to President Garfield in the 1880s.

So the idea that she is entertaining something that has been put to rest a while ago is certainly puzzling. And there have been some criticism that this is part of a pattern with her. We're granting a lot of Trump requests, essentially slow walking it. We've been hearing a lot about that. Do you think there's reason to question her neutrality in this case?

Well, I'm loath to call her biased. I don't know the woman at all. But let's just look at it from a legal aspect, okay? The first thing you always do as a judge is you make sure you have a trial date set. She doesn't even have a trial date. That invites

nothing happening, if you will. Whether she's doing this because she's inexperienced, whether she's doing this because she's not confident in her decisions, whether she's purposely slow walking it, who knows? The result, however, is absolutely nothing is happening here, and it's subjecting her to a lot of very valid criticism.

I mean, in your experience, obviously, there's been no real cases like this in American history of a former president being prosecuted. But nevertheless, in such a case like this, how long would it take for the time that someone has been indicted to go to a trial? And is this taking longer than what would be expected under such a time frame?

I think the short answer is yes. In the federal court system, there is a magistrate system, if you will, where federal judges can give some of their motion practice to the magistrates. She could have done that ages ago.

moved some of these moat free trial motions much faster than she already has. She could have set a trial date holding the lawyer's feet to the fire to move this along and she could stop having prolonged hearings on matters that seem to have been resolved years ago.

Do you think that this comes as there was a report in The New York Times, of course, that the two judges had urged her to step aside from this case? Should she have recused herself, in your opinion? Well, there's a couple of issues going on here. It's my understanding that she works in a satellite court away from the main court of the Southern District of Florida.

You know, it's very important, and she may be working there as the only judge. It's very important as a judge to be able to talk to your colleagues, particularly about complex cases. That's the first problem. I don't think she has any colleagues there to talk to. Number two, she's very new and inexperienced. In a case like this, an unprecedented case of first impression, it really needs experienced hands.

It's my understanding that one of the judges who spoke with her was the supervising judge. I don't know the protocol there, but it seems to me that if the supervising judge felt she was not experienced enough to handle this case, perhaps it should have simply been reassigned. Although I don't know if that's the way things work in that particular court. - All right, well, retired Judge Diane Kiesel, we're grateful for your time and expertise. Thank you so much.

And now turning back to the 2024 race and the two billionaires boosting both Biden and Trump. Biden buoyed this month by a $20 million donation from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And Trump helped by an even bigger $50 million infusion to one of his super PACs from billionaire heir Timothy Mellon. Now, federal filings released last night indicate that in all, Trump did donate

It dwarfed Biden in fundraising last month after his criminal convictions unleashed a GOP donation frenzy. Now, May also marks the second month in a row where Trump outraised Biden, erasing that sizable cash advantage that Biden held earlier in the cycle. My panel is back. So should Biden be concerned about the...

The fact that Trump is surging in fundraising and he's, now it's the other way around. We've been talking for months that Biden was dwarfing Trump. Now it's the other way around. Should the Biden team be concerned? No, I don't think they should be concerned, right? This election is going to take an extraordinary amount of money. It's unprecedented amounts of money. I think what this does is...

you know, gives Trump an advantage to be putting boots on the ground and have an organizing game. But I do think, you know, they also have a lot of money. I think they just announced yesterday they hired their 1,000th staffer, which is a lot of people on the ground in the state. So I do think that they are working towards their organizing. They've been putting together a ground game for a year now since he announced. So, I mean...

I think the Biden campaign is moving, you know, moving the ball forward in terms of boots on the ground. But, you know, this is going to be a lot of money regardless. So I do think, you know, it's not going to be a lot of money. But I mean, you talk to the Biden campaign, you cover the White House. Do you what do you hear about how the Biden team sees this, where the race is right now, whether it's fundraising or there's poll numbers? Well, you get a lot of information.

uh... an impression from the buying campaign of the confident whether or not that confidence is well placed or not is perhaps a separate issue but i think they are confident i think that the the money's shift is not to their advantage that doesn't mean present by doesn't have a lot of money absolutely does but for at least a few months in this race

talk about in the campaign could talk about the fact that they were far out raising former President Donald Trump and that's just not the case anymore. - And just if you look at the numbers just to break it down more, raised in May, Trump 75 million, Biden 38 million cash on hand.

$117 million for Biden, sorry, for Trump, just 92, not just, that's still a lot of money, 92 million, but it's still an advantage, Trump over Biden. May and April, Trump outraces Biden for a second month in a row. But Megan brings up a valid point, Sir Michael, the ground game. That is obviously what determines elections. The Biden team has invested a ton of money on the ground.

Trump does not have that same operation. Are you concerned as a Republican about that? That's a good question, Manu. I actually was worried about this a couple months back, and I raised it several times on air, like, hey, we need to catch up here. Considering how close this is going to be, you look at the margins in at least six or seven of the battleground states, the fact that they do have that 1,000th

person, advantage, man on the ground will be crucial in terms of voter contact, but ultimately voter penetration. And by that I mean figuring out where those voters are and constantly hitting them to make sure that they vote early and to make sure that they turn out on election day. So at this point on our side, we are going to be playing catch up a little bit, but I do expect the campaign to begin to hire really, really swiftly and to also begin to place very expensive ads in some of those crucial states. Okay.

- I just listened to a business leader talking about the concern about speaking out against Donald Trump. - And I literally talked to business leaders who are fearful about speaking out against this 'cause they're fearful of retaliation. - Are you concerned that Trump could retaliate against you? - Of course I'm concerned.

Of course, I'm concerned about retaliation business leaders speaking out against Donald Trump. A lot of them are still contributing to him, but maybe concerned about maybe his own style, personal politics and the like. President Trump just spoke with a bunch of business leaders at the Business Roundtable. The chief of staff of the White House did the same just within the last week. According to my source at the White House, the White House message there came immediately.

went over very well, that business leaders actually like a lot of what's happening at the Biden White House, but they also like tax cuts, and they like a lot of what President Trump did. The issue of fear, I think it's quite interesting that he's saying that out loud. Be curious to see if anybody else says it as well. Yeah, we will be curious to see. People say a lot of things privately, not publicly, but some of them have prominent ideas. Actually, very interesting.

Alright, next, a new one-of-a-kind law in New York targeting social media algorithms that target our kids. Plus, it's Friday, that means Michael Spurconish is here.

45 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. An altitude warning on a Southwest flight, flight 4069, flying just 525 feet above Yukon, Oklahoma, early Wednesday morning. That forced air traffic control to intercede. The Boeing 737-800 then climbed briefly and successfully landed in Oklahoma City. The FAA is in contact with Southwest about the incident.

A federal appeals court denying Steve Bannon's request to postpone his July 1st prison sentence. It's likely he will now take his case to the Supreme Court. Bannon was found guilty of contempt nearly two years ago for not complying with the House January 6th committee's subpoena. Amazon reducing its use of plastic packaging after pressure from environmentalists. The company says it is cutting out 95% of those puffy plastic pillows and replacing them with recycled paper.

And the last day of school canceled today in Boston. The superintendent there blames the heat and the big parade later this morning for the NBA champion Boston Celtics. If you're a Boston kid who loves the Celtics, perhaps this might be the best day for you. All right, turning now to this. CNN actually flipped a coin and the winner got to pick if they wanted the left or right podium.

-Biden won the coin toss and elected to be on the right side of the screen. That's great for all the voters who are like, "I don't like what you stand for, but I like where you're standing." Yeah, Biden chose to be on the right, although chances are he'll just wander until he hits something screwed into the ground. -Alright, the devil is in the details with next week's CNN presidential debate. The two candidates determining the final logistics for the coin toss. President Biden won and opted for a podium position on the right side of the stage, the president appearing confident.

As for Donald Trump, well, he'll get the last word into the debate, delivering the final closing argument. Here to talk about all those intricacies and who they may benefit is Michael Smirconish. He is the host of CNN's Smirconish and a CNN political commentator. Michael, great to see you. Thanks for being here this morning. So give me the Smirconish take of how you see this debate playing out.

Manu, it's great to be with you. I think that Fox News and Donald Trump's campaign have been at cross-purposes all week long. Every time they show those videos on a loop with the intention of portraying President Biden as being infirmed, all they're doing is lowering that bar. And I think these debates are all about expectations. That bar has now been set so low for President Biden that he'll probably be easily able to exceed it, much like he did in that State of the Union address.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny you say that because we actually had played a comment from Trump earlier where he said that Biden is a worthy debater. He actually said that. He's now changing his tune. And actually, why don't you listen to what he had to say? This is what Trump had to say. I watched him with Paul Ryan and he destroyed Paul Ryan. So I'm not underestimating him. I'm not underestimating him. I assume he's going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater.

So now worthy debater?

Manu, that was a twofer for Trump because you know what he thinks of Ryan, right? So he got to take a shot. He got a shot at Ryan and he also had the opportunity to try and elevate Joe Biden. But I think it's baked in. I think it's too late. They've been running that G7 video where the parachutist land, the L.A. fundraiser and also the Juneteenth celebration constantly in a bid theoretically to say we haven't edited this tape. But every time they show it, I mean, I hear from radio callers constantly.

who question whether President Biden is going to be able to put sentences together because they're so used to seeing that reflection. That's so interesting. Now, immigration, obviously, we expect to be a focus. This has been what Donald Trump's calling card has been since he came into the political seat. He has taken, of course, a very, very hardline stance on immigration. But yet last night, he softened a bit on the issue of green cards. Listen.

What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country. And that includes junior colleges too. I know of stories where people graduated from a top college or from a college and they desperately wanted to stay here. They had a plan for a company, a concept.

and they can't, they go back to India, they go back to China, they do the same basic company in those places, and they become multi-billionaires employing thousands and thousands of people, and it could have been done here. Now this is a much different message than what we've been hearing from Trump for years.

I don't think you're going to hear that next Thursday night. I think instead what you'll hear from him is that President Biden just offered amnesty to half a million individuals who are in this country. I'm talking about the change relative to marriage that he's proposed. Each side has a great issue to drive the base for Republicans. It's porous borders. And for Democrats, abortion rights are undefeated since Dobbs overturned Roe versus Wade. And then, of course, on top of all of it, you've got the economy.

Yeah. And I wonder, what do you think about how Biden should handle the fact that Donald Trump is a convicted felon, 34 felony counts, and whether or not this should be a central part of how he approaches Trump next week? So it's not that I see parity between Donald Trump and Hunter Biden, because one's running for president and the other is presidential offspring. Having said that,

I think President Biden is probably going to be loathe to use that felon word because you know what Trump's response is going to be. I'm also aware you're aware of this reporting that suggests that President Biden and Mike Donilon still think that they ought to be talking all about January 6th and the threat to democracy. But that just hasn't stuck, Manu. That has not played well. I really think it's got to be more about the economy and what Biden can do for people rather than a relitigation of the events of January 6th.

So we also know that Donald Trump is preparing for these January 6th questions that could inevitably come up or the attacks from Biden over everything that happened that day and Donald Trump's role in all of it. So what do you expect from Trump on that question? Does he walk back? The fact that he has increasingly been embracing of things that have happened on January 6th and has said that he's going to pardon all the people who have been in prison for their involvement in that riot.

How would Trump deal with that? Dig in, give the red meat to the base or walk some of that back? Right. So it sure has worked with the base. And how do we know that? Because Donald Trump, despite one conviction, three outstanding indictments, is the Republican nominee and was able to get there in essentially a cakewalk. And look at the recent financial numbers that have just been produced that show that he's he's exceeded Joe Biden in fundraising in the last few months.

Yeah.

Yeah. All right. So much to process in the week ahead. It's going to be a huge, huge night. Michael Smirconish, appreciate your insight as always. Manu, thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow morning, 9 a.m. to Smirconish right here on CNN.

Now, big changes are coming for New York's youngest social media users. Governor Kathy Hochul signing two bills into law just yesterday, clamping down on digital platforms, algorithms and the use of teens data. The move makes New York the first state to pass a law regulating social media algorithms amid nationwide allegations that apps like Instagram and TikTok have hooked young users with addictive features. Now, Hochul calling on leaders in Washington to step up and do the same.

Congress needs to act. Let's get that out there. Congress can and should act. They can have a national standard. We can protect our kids. We can tell the companies that you are not allowed to do this. You don't have a right to do this. That parents should have say over their children's lives and their health, not you.

I mean, interesting development here. Do you think this is something the White House jumps on? I'm not sure that they would jump on it right now. I mean, there are a couple of social media issues that are tricky ones for the White House. TikTok is probably the biggest one that comes to mind. The campaign is using TikTok while the White House is considering banning it. But I do think they care about kids and they care about whether or not kids are being harmed by social media.

I'm just not sure that they're going to jump on something that's that critical right now, the companies. What do you think about all this? I also-- I mean, I don't have children, so I'm speaking a little out of turn here. But I also think that parents need to take some accountability here. Kids are monitoring what their parents are doing, and then they are mimicking that behavior. We should all put our phones down. So yes, we should call on social media companies and the algorithms, and I applaud New York for doing that. But also, we need to be--

Parents can also dictate what their kids are seeing and how much they're using their phones too. So I think we all need to be a little bit more responsible in our phone use. So this is what the New York Times op-ed said. It's called, at least, we can do. It says, telling teenagers something is bad for them may work for some kids, but for others it is practically an open invitation

invitation to abuse. To add muscle to a mere label, we need to prohibit its sale to people under 18 and enforce the law on sellers. We need to strongly regulate social media, as Europe has begun to do, and ban it for kids under 16. Ban? So as a Republican, someone who does not like federal overreach, is that federal overreach? You know...

I would typically say yes under the ordinary set of circumstances. I think this is different though. I was reading an article talking about this law in New York and one of the articles referenced an interview with a counselor at I think a local high school. And when they were removing the phones from the students, the students were having to go to the counselor because they were having like withdrawals as if they were like going through an addiction phase.

That is incredibly problematic. I do think we need to look at this as if we would look at alcohol or smoking cigarettes. The debilitating mental impacts this could have long-term could be something we come to regret. So at a minimum, we should at least have the conversation, Manu, about how we properly assist our kids with the technology that's easily at their disposal. Yeah, no question about that. So while that is happening in New York,

there's also an interesting political story that has happened. Lots of interesting political stories. One of them, also in the New York Congressional District, involving a progressive incumbent Democrat, Jamal Bowman. He's got a primary coming up next week, and he's facing a pretty intense primary, in large part because of his views on Israel, his

strident criticism of the Israeli government, some of his things that he did in the past, such as pulling a fire alarm in the United States Capitol and the like. He is very vulnerable right now. But the issue of Israel is one that has come up in this primary, which is threatening his seat. And this is what the group, the pro-Israel group AIPAC, released in a series of ads over the last several weeks.

Jamal Bowman keeps attacking President Biden. Jamal Bowman has his own agenda and he's hurting New York. Will you make your voice heard? Will you confront Jamal Bowman's lies and conspiracy theories? Or will you sit by silently?

In a lot of ways, this fight is really just emblematic of the divide within the Democratic Party over Israel right now. Absolutely. I mean, and one of the things that Bowman is saying is that the AIPAC is giving all sorts of money to his opponent and that that's one reason why he's doing so poorly. But his

his comments about Israel, not to mention some of his previous sort of flirting with conspiracy theories, that stuff comes back to haunt you eventually, and it certainly is him right now. And listen just to the debate and Bowman's side of things when he and his opponent George Latimer went back and forth. They're spending more money in this race to get me out

than they have ever spent in their history, meaning AIPAC. More money than they have ever spent in their history. That sounds like a dog whistle to me. Why? Because I'm fighting against the genocide in Gaza and because I'm speaking up for black and brown people here. Do you think that President Biden...

I mean, he's not involved in this primary, but does he want a progressive like Jamal Bowman in the House Democratic Caucus? Or does he want a more middle-of-the-road Democrat? I mean, you can argue both ways. You have someone on the left maybe who riles up the base and can generate a lot of interest, but then someone who could be a thorn in the side at times as well.

the president wins after re-election i think the president likes it back into all the house and so whatever we need to do to do that uh... it's what he's gonna want regardless of the candidate wants a democrat in the seat uh... but i do think that this is why you have you represent a district and if this is not your district wants for you then they are going to figure out a way to get you out with a primary opponent side i mean this is how elections work and this is why we have found what do you think that i'll i do not like the way to mobile man tried to racialize is talking about because he's

talking about issues impacting black and brown people no sir it's about your anti-semitic comments about israel he hasn't said a single thing about the students in on many college campuses in new york that have faced a horde of discriminatory attacks verbally some even physically assaulted so my opinion just as i would call out a conservative who dances with racism but a call someone is a democratic dances with anti-semitism he should not be in the united states congress in the meantime

Benjamin Netanyahu is coming to talk to a joint meeting of Congress in just a matter of a couple of weeks here. And I'm wondering, it's interesting how the White House is handling this. How is the White House handling his upcoming address to Congress? Kamala Harris will be sitting right behind him when he speaks to Congress. Yeah, I mean, that relationship between President Biden and the Prime Minister of Israel is very tricky. They haven't been wanting to say whether or not the two men would sit down and talk. They have...

Obviously, the president's position on Israel hasn't changed. He's very supportive of Israel's attack and fight against Hamas in Gaza. But he's probably not dying to sit down with Bibi. Do you think that the president should come out and say something? I don't know what the president's position is about whether he's fine with him coming and speaking to Congress.

Should he come out and be, join the criticism on the left? I mean, it's not the president's invitation to extend or to make comments on. I think that the president, like Jeff is saying, has made his positions very clear on what's going on. I mean, I think that John Kirby yesterday had some pretty strong comments about BB's comments back to us. So I just, I mean, I think that the president is,

probably preparing for a debate and then we'll face that. And then you'll have to deal with that for a few days. All right, thanks to our panel. Thank you for joining us on Manaraju. Join me for Inside Politics Sunday at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN. And CNN News Central starts right now.

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