Debate Strategies, Roe v. Wade, Iowa Underwater
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It's Monday, June 24th, right now on CNN This Morning. The countdown is on. New reporting on the strategies Joe Biden and Donald Trump plan to use during Thursday night's historic CNN debate.

Two years to the day since the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade. How that ruling is impacting lives and our political landscape today. It's hard to deal with that much water. It's a monumental undertaking. Nearly two dozen counties in Iowa underwater. The governor seeking emergency relief from the White House. And this.

Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters clashing violently outside a Los Angeles synagogue.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the White House on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. The rematch Americans say they have been dreading will be fully joined later this week when three days from now, President Biden and former President Trump meet for the first presidential debate of 2024. When they take the stage in Atlanta Thursday night, it will be the first time a president and a former president face off.

Donald Trump and his allies have been painting Joe Biden, as to put it directly, senile. So incapacitated by age that he cannot possibly run the country. The challenge that that creates is setting the bar so low that it might not be that hard for Biden to clear it. Hence these comments from North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who's being vetted to be Trump's vice president.

You have to look at the guy's run for office more than a dozen times. He's run for president four times. He's been campaigning since President Nixon was in office. This guy has got the ability, and we've seen him in debate four years ago. We've seen him in the State of the Union this year, that when he needs to, he can step up.

Some classic expectation setting right there. President Biden has been reading briefings, engaging in mock debates for three days at Camp David. His team wants to frame the conversation around abortion, upholding democracy and Trump's economic plan, which they claim benefits the rich. But let's be real. Here is Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu on their message.

It really doesn't matter how Donald Trump shows up. If he comes in unhinged like he is most of the time, or he sits there and is quiet, people are going to know that he's a twice-impeached, convicted felon who's been found to have defamed somebody, sexually abused somebody, and gone bankrupt six times. They will always know that, and that is something that the American people have to think about.

All right, it's a big week, so we have the guests for that. CNN chief national correspondent John King is here. Philippe Reines, former spokesman for Hillary Clinton, and Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you. Philippe played Donald Trump in mock debates for Hillary Clinton, so he's going to sit here and think about how to practice that impression, which you're going to get to show to all of us. I usually hold it for weddings and bar mitzvahs. Okay, well.

just think about what you're going to say. But John, I want to start with you on the stakes for both of these men this week and how you're thinking about this. It's a giant moment for both of them. And you hear Mitch Landrieu there. Look, the Biden people have an attack planned against Trump. I would argue he's the incumbent president. I would also say

That's the way I look at it from history. Never have we had two presidents running against each other. So the American people are going to be watching this. And there's the last three and a half years of their life in Joe Biden. And there's the four years of their life before that in Donald Trump. So I get the Biden campaign wanting to go after the Trump record, of course, of course. But I would argue from my travels, they also better affirmatively look the American people in the eye and say, here's what I would do, not just what he would do, but here's what I would do on cost of living. Here's what I would do on other issues.

He's the incumbent president. And history tells us people are essentially deciding, do I like what I have or do I want change? Now, that argument is a lot more complicated when the change is Donald Trump. And that's the argument Biden can make. But as the incumbent, yes, I get it. They want to take on Trump. They would say, you don't want that back.

You don't want the chaos back. You don't want that character back. You don't want how he behaves back as president. I get that. But there's a whole slice of people out there who don't like both. That's the challenge. The people who will decide this election don't like Joe Biden or Donald Trump. And so can one of them say, like me a little bit more? Philippe, take us kind of behind the scenes of what's

what it takes to prepare for a moment like this and obviously biden has stood opposite trump on a debate stage before but the stakes are very different this time the realities are very different this time yeah to start i mean it's interesting it's been by mycal 1 343 days since these two have even been in the same place at the same time and you know they don't like each other and that that's pent up and that sounds silly but this is already infused with enough

emotion and anger that that's going to take over. I think John hit the nail on the head about what prep is like because there's a tension there. You have your to-do list. You want to say why I've done a good job, why I'm going to continue to do a good job. Here's what I'm going to do for you. Here's why this guy is terrible. The problem is this guy's got a to-do list also. Now, Donald Trump's to-do list isn't a strategy. It's just sort of a list of grievances and things he's upset about with some economic data sprinkled in.

So, and you know, we always forget there's, you know, your colleagues will be there too. They have a say in what's discussed and how it's discussed. Look, 90 million people viewing. By which you mean the moderators. The moderators. Yeah. People are going to be watching TV looking for things we don't know about. Some people will be looking to see how Joe Biden looks. Some people will be looking to see, you know, how Donald Trump looks. You don't know, but it is a clash of.

that it is hard to thread that needle. And that's what they're working through for five days up there. And look, when you're in prep around this time, you're doing those mock debates. You always want to go if you're in Philippe's role as the opposing candidate or if you're playing Biden in Trump's camp, you always kind of want to go to here.

Because the objective is you want to get them to such a place where anything they see in the debate, they at least haven't seen or haven't already felt before. You want to try and elevate it so much that there's nothing foreign to them and there's nothing that's going to surprise them. You want to try. I mean, Bob Bauer did this a lot during the Biden campaign. I've read about it where he said every name in the book against Hunter Biden with the objective that when Biden

By the time Joe Biden went out there that night, he was not phased, not surprised. That is the sort of thing you want to do right now. You want to get that person, just like it was football, you want to get them seeing every possible play so that when the time comes, they've seen it all. Yeah. He makes a very good point about the personal part of it, that you can study all you want.

and you get into the room and you look at each other, they don't like each other. I mean, are they even going to shake hands? Right. Yeah. That's a great question. It is a great question. And one of the American people process of that, this town gets too caught up in expectations. Like, you know, sometimes the American people aren't sitting around their breakfast table this morning going, well, it's Joe Biden. You know, how many times has he debated? And, you know, they want to see who's my president? Who do I trust? Who do I trust? So the way I would look at this is both of these guys have considerable strengths. Both of them also have giant weaknesses.

And so in prep, what are you deciding? What's my number one priority, to expose his weaknesses or to try to fill in the cracks in my strength? Biden has, the Democratic coalition is more complicated, and Biden has a lot of cracks in that coalition. So how can you answer some of those questions? Can you deal with apathy in the African-American community on the debate stage? What can you say to try to tell people, hey, think about this, really think about this. You don't want him because of this.

One thing the Biden White House policy first, but also politically, they had hoped to have a ceasefire in Gaza, for example, because he has a giant hole with younger voters and with Muslim and Arab Americans in places like Michigan. Not going to be able to do that as a debate. So you almost have to set that one over. We'll have to deal with that some other time. Right. If you don't have a policy initiative or some progress, you can cite to say this. So set that one over here. But if you're if you're Trump, do you raise that? I don't I don't think that there's a big enough policy difference there.

But that's my question for these guys especially. You're in there saying, what's priority number one? Expose his weaknesses or fill in mine? Well, hopefully you're doing both at the same time. You're saying, this is what I did and he couldn't do it. In fact, this is what I had to clean up because this is what he did.

And, you know, I think it's important to note that the debate is not this isolated event disconnected from the campaign. So you're ideally going in and you're saying what you say day to day. The reason I bring that up is because we're in between the trial of his 34 convictions and his sentencing.

And while the trial did not move numbers dramatically, they did expose sort of a soft underbelly with some groups. They moved a little bit. But it also said there are some people who, you know, I'm not happy about this. I don't know that I'm going to abandon the former president. And I don't know I'm going to go to Joe Biden. But Joe Biden has some maybe not low hanging fruit, but he's got some fruit to try to reach for. And it's an opportunity to go for that in ways that not...

You know, Roe, the two years of Roe is a big moment for that economy, what he's done for black voters, which has been a huge debate within the debate for four weeks. But Matt brought up a good point that it's really just it's no surprises. You want to throw everything at them so that when they are out there.

- So you did this with Hillary. I remember going somewhere after you were done with prep, you were literally dressed like Donald Trump, the shoes, the cuff links, the whole thing. - Character actor. - Like what's-- - Daniel Day-Lewis kind of guy. - What's the one Trump line you'd give to Biden right now? If you were standing on stage. - Give to Biden on stage? - To try to prepare him. - I would say, you know, it's been a couple of weeks, but I want to take a moment to wish Donald Trump a happy, what is it, 79th? 78th birthday? - It's me.

Can't get him to do it. Just can't do it. All right. If he does it, he better get it. Well, that was he said to Biden. I mean, Trump would be like, no, I'm not. I'm a much better. But he's going to do a thing with the mic. He's going to be like, why is my mic off? They gag me. They want to put me in jail. They turn off my mic. This is what he does. He knows damn well. He's big on, you know, why they're playing with the teleprompter, why they're playing with the mic.

he will play dumb as part of his, you know, they're out to get me. Very interesting. All right, coming up next, what voters are thinking three days out from the presidential debate. John King has been here. He has a new podcast all over the map. If you haven't been following this series, it's amazing. We'll bring you more of it up next. Plus, how politics and the lives of millions have changed two years after the demise of Roe versus Wade. Plus, there was this, protesters storming the 18th Green at a PGA Tour event.

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.

All right, welcome back. Many voters have made it crystal clear that they don't like either of their choices for president. It's kind of like, I actually like kale and broccoli. They say it's like choosing between kale and broccoli. We've got some more evocative terms for later on in the show. But with the big debate just three days off, what is on voters' minds right now? Our John King explored that question in All Over the Map. This is a special three-part audio series that's dropping episodes today. And then you'll see more on July 1st and July 8th. Here's a little bit of what you'll hear.

In terms of your personal politics, you say a caring conservative. You decided to vote for Nikki Haley in a primary a couple months after she dropped out of the race. Yeah. Why? I'm sad that we only have these two choices, honestly. And I'm tired of celebrities sort of being in politics. I don't like Trump, but I have to say we are

For us, personally, we were better off when he was president. I don't like how you can't, he's so unreliable in some ways. You never know what he's going to do next. I just want a normal person. Like, I just want someone normal. I don't want a celebrity, and I don't have confidence in Biden. So I feel like I don't have a choice.

Of course, John King is here. That was a remarkable distillation of what's going on in this election. And so Linda Rooney lives in Media, Pennsylvania. She's in the suburban collar. My parents used to live in Media, Pennsylvania. She's in the suburban collar around Philadelphia that will settle Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania may well settle the election. And people like her in other swing states are going to settle the election. What makes her interesting? She's a Nikki Haley voter, cast a ballot for Nikki Haley six, seven weeks after Nikki Haley left the race.

almost 159,000 people did that in Pennsylvania. So there's a target of opportunity for Joe Biden. Republicans who don't like Donald Trump so much, they were willing to vote for Nikki Haley seven weeks after she left the race. But Linda Rooney voted for Trump in 2016. Then she voted for Biden in 2020 'cause she couldn't take all the Trump chaos.

But she's a Republican by DNA. She doesn't like the Biden policy agenda. She thinks, and we could debate this if you want, that he's become beholden to the left. She thought he was a centrist and he's become beholden. She doesn't like the economic policy. She says she cannot forgive Donald Trump for January 6th.

She doesn't like how he behaves, but she might vote for him. She says she cannot vote for Biden, so she'll either vote for Trump and hold her nose, or she'll write somebody else in. So that's Joe Biden's challenge. You want to win Pennsylvania? Try to win her back. But if you can't win her back, at least get her to write in Liz Cheney or Tim Scott or somebody else. Do something in the debate that convinces her, I just can't do it. So there's so many different layers of the onion. What are you trying to do? If you can't get a voter, can you at least keep her from going to him?

Yeah, I mean, is that the challenge? I mean, cutting through, there does seem to be some Trump nostalgia, right? So even if she says, well, I can't forgive him for January 6th, whatever he did was not front and center for her. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's nostalgia, but it's definitely some sort of amnesia. I don't think, and to tie to the debate a little bit, look, Trump has not done a lot of media outside of his usual right-wing bubble. He's been off Twitter. I think a lot of people are going to watch him in the debate, and it's going to be a jarring reminder of who he is.

And what do you buy? I mean, the Biden team kind of believes that the people I believe it because, you know, John alluded to this the first time in 134 years we had two presidents trying to get their jobs back. And it's very weird. I mean, I don't remember what gas prices cost on January 19th, 2021 versus January 21st, 2021. It all blurs together. But what Joe Biden, I think, has to do is this notion that we've seen this movie before.

And it's not that bad. Like Linda Rooney might be thinking, "Okay, I don't like his shenanigans, but I can live with it. He's not going to storm the Capitol again. He's not going to do this." The truth of the matter is, is that President Biden has to make clear that the sequel will be the real horror show. The real blood and guts will come when he is now completely untethered and empowered. And I don't think people process that. I don't think they think that it could get worse.

when in fact it sure as hell could get a lot worse. - Very briefly. - Look, I think the difference is, you know, do Democrats really go after kind of everything that I think is priced in? Oh, can you believe what he said now? Or do they do kind of what you saw a little bit here, abortion, which I think could be very fruitful for them and some other issues that are a little bit more policy focused that make it more of an affirmative case. - All right.

Don't forget, you can check out John's special all over the MAP podcast series wherever you get your podcasts. Episode one is out now. All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, today marks two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade. Ahead, how the Biden campaign plans to capitalize on the anniversary. Plus, two people rescued from a plane crash near Turks and Caicos. This is one of five things you have to see this morning.

All right, 24 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Protesters storming the 18th Green at a PGA Tour Travelers Championship. Extinction Rebellion, a climate activist group taking responsibility for it. Six of their members now facing criminal mischief and criminal trespass charges. Here was the eventual winner, Scotty Scheffler.

Two people rescued off the coast of Turks and Caicos after their small plane crashed. Both are in stable condition. Officials say their flight from Palm Beach experienced failure in both engines Saturday morning.

A stranded hiker found after 10 days lost in the California mountains. 34-year-old Lucas McClish says he survived by drinking a gallon of water every day. I want a burrito and a taco bowl. That's what I thought about every day when I, after the first five days, when I started to like kind of realize that I might be all over my head.

Over my head. Alright, violent clashes erupting outside a Los Angeles synagogue over the weekend. Police responded to the altercations between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-protesters. Governor Gavin Newsom condemning their actions, calling it appalling. Days of heavy rain pushing rivers to historic levels in the upper Midwest, causing major flooding and forcing evacuations and water rescues in the region. Officials say at least one person was killed in South Dakota.

and time now for whether in that extremely saturat while triple digit tempera and southeast. Our meteo

Good morning, Casey. We still have flood warnings in effect from Mankato in Minnesota all the way to South Dakota, Sioux Falls, northwest Iowa, and then down the Missouri River from Sioux City to Omaha because this area is so waterlogged. The rivers are still aggravated and could still rise and cause some flooding because we've got 10 to 15

inches or more of rain in just three days. You see that pocket there over parts of northwest Iowa, just south there of Sioux Falls, another pocket of some heavy rain around Mankato, but a huge swath. All those reds and oranges that you see are totals that are four, five, six,

seven inches. I mean, we're talking about 17 inch totals in parts of South Dakota, totals nearing a foot in Rock Rapids, Iowa, more than six and a half inches in Sioux Falls, makes it the top two wettest Junes on record. We'll continue with the major and the moderate flooding as we go through the day today. So hopefully finding these rivers trying to come down a little bit. Casey. All right. Elisa Rafa for us. Elisa, thank you very much.

All right, coming up next, the double haters. Just wait till you hear how one voter invoked South Park to describe her choices this election. Plus, the cargo ship that crashed into a Baltimore bridge finally leaving. Your morning roundup is ahead. All right, welcome back. Two years ago today, the Supreme Court's conservative majority issued its landmark Dobbs decision overturning Roe versus Wade, the ruling that had, until then, federally protected a woman's right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.

In the last two years, the Dobbs decision has impacted the reproductive choices of countless Americans and unleashed a completely unsettled political landscape. Looking at a map of abortion restrictions in the U.S., it's clear states are moving in vastly different directions, 14 establishing near or total bans, and some red states employing new strategies aimed at further restricting the abortion pill, Mifepristone.

emergency abortion procedures and even throwing into question the legality of fertility treatments. Our panel is back with us now. And John King, I want to start with the Biden campaign is out with a new ad this morning because we have seen this. This is going to be the first test that we have at the presidential level since this happened. It's just been two years. We've seen it really make an impact in some of these midterm races, in no small part due to very emotional, personal stories around this issue. Let's watch this.

I was right around 11 weeks when I had a miscarriage. The pain that I was feeling was excruciating. I was turned away from two emergency rooms. That was a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade. He's now a convicted felon. Trump thinks he should not be held accountable for his own criminal actions, but he will let women and doctors be punished.

So this is really the hard... I mean, they're mixing a lot of things up in that ad, including bringing Trump's convictions in, but it's raising the specter of criminal prosecution. And she does bring up this real issue. I mean, the Supreme Court's had to, you know, take up

whether emergency rooms in the state of Idaho can turn women away and for what? This is going to be one of the more fascinating topics in the debate because we know Donald Trump doesn't like to talk about this issue in the sense that he thinks it's a loser for Republicans. He thinks, back to those suburban voters we were talking about earlier that are in the podcast, it's a loser with

them however he also says that israeli's how proud he is to have named these justices who overturned roe v wade so he has to tend to his base which is happy with what the court did but he's also trying to reach out to the middle and the biden campaign is very smart to press this issue the evidence is just irrefutable that since the dobbs decision you can look in conservative kansas you can look in purple michigan you can look anywhere on the map where this has been on the ballot

And it has been an issue that has worked well for the Democrats. So how do you press it forward? Again, this is my 10th campaign. Michael Dukakis in my first ran an ad against George H.W. Bush saying you can't elect him because he would get Supreme Court picks who might overturn Roe. People didn't believe it. John Kerry did it against George W. Bush. Right. People didn't believe it. Well, it has happened now. And so how can Biden look at Trump and say, you know, the person you elect on this stage might get the next pick?

We already know what has happened. You know, can he play the issue? And then my bigger question, you can see Biden prosecuting this issue. It's a good one for the Democrats. My bigger question is, how does Trump handle it? So speaking of Trump, and I'm glad you sort of laid it out the way that you did, because we can show everyone what happened over the weekend in terms of Trump doing exactly what you just said he did. So let's show these two back to back. First, this is Donald Trump speaking to,

his base, this is the Faith and Freedom Coalition, so this is a gathering of conservatives, many evangelicals, social conservatives, a lot of people who played a role in the fall of Roe. Here's what he first said about the appointees that he made to the court and what they did. And then what he had to say about how the Republican Party should be talking about it today. Watch.

In my first four years, we totally transformed the federal bench. Thanks to these justices, we have also achieved what the pro-life movement fought to get for 49 years. And we've gotten abortion out of the federal government. And I believe in exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest. Some people do. I think most people do, actually. But some people don't. You have to go with your heart. But you have to also remember, you have to get elected.

You have to get elected. Have to get elected. I mean, we've seen this in 2022 and we see it now. Look, there's no denying, if I was a Democrat, I would push this issue very, very heavily. And I would expect Biden to as well on the debate. I think what's interesting to me is Arizona, the Fox poll came out, I mean, a couple of weeks ago, Arizona, 68, 70% of folks want to enshrine abortion, whatever the wording was, support abortion at that state level. Trump is winning by five.

Now, maybe that doesn't hold, but what I'm interested to see, and I think the Trump folks are too, is is there a separation between the folks that believe in abortion at the state level, but also would vote and support Trump at that level? And I think the other thing too is, unlike 22,

we're seeing a salience of immigration where I think you're right. Like there's an uncomfortableness on the right, talk about abortion, and like there isn't a left with immigration. So you have these two competing issues that act as a lot, I think in a lot of ways, single issues, motivating factors for a lot of voters. Which one wins out? Does abortion get blunted a little bit or not? And I think it's going to be very interesting to see.

Philippe, how do you see Biden? I mean, John referenced kind of how he could talk about this. In fact, let's show how Biden recently did talk about this. This was during a fundraiser with Kimmel Lodge. The next president is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees. The idea that if he's reelected, he's going to appoint two more flying flags upside down. Two more flying flags upside down. Yeah, you know,

The challenge for Biden, well, there's ups and downs. On abortion, I'm not part of the group that has ever thought Trump is an evil genius. He does have an innate warning sign on this, and he has for years. But Biden and, frankly, the moderators need to press him when he starts using

you know, tried and true code, like it's up to the states. It should be up to the states. That was an easy way for people to get at it for a long time, except now when you say it's up to the states, the states are doing some pretty draconian stuff. So... Yeah, I mean, this is the box they put themselves in when people say, oh, this is the dog that caught the car. Right. So when he says on Thursday night that like, look,

This is now a matter for the states. Someone's got to say, OK, but there are women now who have to travel four states over and are almost dying from the procedures. That's just a very different dynamic. And in that case, Trump has that bluster where he just repeats himself five times over. So it would really be a matter of pressing him. But he cannot be allowed to rely on that old standby.

Part of your strategy going into the debate, as I said earlier, is to fill in your weaknesses and what works best for you. For Biden, if he can prosecute this effectively, number one, it gets at some of those moderate Republicans who probably voted for Trump in 2016, Biden in 2020, and are sitting at home going, oh my God, these are my choices, I don't want to do this, right?

So if you can't get them personally, if they don't love you because you're a Democrat or they don't love your policies the last few years, can you get those soft Republicans, the anti-Trump Republicans, on a policy issue? Vote the policy, not the person. And then with younger voters, the president, it's mostly because of Israel Hamas. Some of it's a disconnect. Younger voters don't feel any disconnect to an 82-year-old president. But younger voters care about this issue. So on places where you can't get them to say, I love Joe Biden, can you get them to say, I'm going to vote for Joe Biden because of this issue? This one, again, interesting.

Maybe in front of us, something will change. But in the rearview mirror, since Dobbs, this has been a win for Democrats. Well, I mean, as you were talking about immigration versus abortion and just saying these are two issues that challenge the respective sides, it strikes me that what we're talking about is an intolerance for extremes in the American electorate. Right. And, you know, one of the things that Republicans have tried to do is paint Joe Biden as extreme,

on immigration, but Democrats were in part able to neutralize that because of the rhetoric that Trump was using around immigrants and separation of children that was viewed as extreme, right? This was something Trump said over the weekend about migrants that I just wanna show and we'll ask John about whether it matters. This is him talking about an idea, Donald Trump talking about an idea he apparently had for undocumented migrants to the country. - Dana.

I have an idea for you to make a lot of money. You're going to go and start a new migrant fight league. Migrants, only migrants. And then at the end of the year, the champion migrant is going to fight your champion. And I hate to tell you, Dana, I think the migrant might win. That's how tough they are. So, John King, just briefly on this. I mean, it's it's it's.

Republicans have gained ground on immigration. There's no way around it. But this is kind of Trump's way of talking about it. Do you view that as something that's going to turn off the people that you talk to every day? I think it's a great question. Number one on the policy, this has been the quicksand of American politics for 25 years now, and there's a huge problem, and we should...

It'd be nice if they could get everybody in the room to actually have a policy conversation. However, when you get to that, the Trump people will say he's joking. This is one of the things where they say he's joking. He's just throwing something out there. He's having some fun and his base loves fun. Get over it, Washington. Get over it, lamestream media. You know, this is just him having fun. Right. That's the way they describe it. But you're right. There are some people out there who, you know,

Is it Christian to speak ill of immigrants? And so there's a space out there where some people who are probably going to vote for Trump or inclined to vote for Trump kind of get the, ooh. Yeah, the Pope would say no. And then can Biden turn to his own base again, which has some enthusiasm issues and say, look, you know, you may not love everything I'm doing, but that's what you're going to get if you don't come out to vote. All right. Coming up next here, Donald Trump's lawyers moving to dismiss his classified documents case at a hearing that begins hours from now.

Plus, Caroline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, joins us live as we count down to the debate. All right, 46 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. In just hours, prosecutors are expected to ask a judge to gag Donald Trump at a hearing in his classified documents case. On Friday, Trump's lawyers argued the case should be tossed entirely, claiming that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was invalid and that he's part of a shadow government. Okay.

The death toll climbing to at least 19 people after what appears to be coordinated attacks on churches and synagogues in western Russia, an area with a history of separatist violence. No group has claimed responsibility. The Dali cargo container ship set to leave the Baltimore port today, 12 weeks after it lost power and crashed into the famed Key Bridge, destroying it and killing six people. Several investigations into the wreck are ongoing.

And groundbreaking in Pittsburgh for a new Tree of Life memorial and museum nearly six years after a synagogue shooting at the site took 11 lives. First gentleman, Doug Emhoff, who's Jewish, was on hand for the event. When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or identity, or when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is anti-Semitism, plain and simple.

All right, let's turn back now to the 2024 race, this week's highly anticipated presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. It's going to be right here on CNN. Each candidate preparing in their own way. Biden is huddled with a close circle of advisors at Camp David. Donald Trump was bouncing ideas off the crowd at his Saturday rally in Philadelphia. Both, of course, working towards this showdown with a memory of the 2020 debate that, just want to remind you, sounded like this.

You agree. I just want to make sure. I want to make sure. You graduated last in your class, not first in your class. I want to make sure. Mr. President, can you let him finish, sir?

Joining me now is Caroline Leavitt. She is Trump campaign national press secretary. Caroline, thanks very much for being here on the show. We played that to remind everyone that that was some of what they saw on the debate stage in 2020. Of course, President Trump went on to lose that election to Joe Biden. Can you tell us what Donald Trump is going to do differently on the debate stage this time?

Sure. Well, President Trump is well prepared ahead of Thursday's debates. Unlike Joe Biden, he doesn't have to hide away and have his advisors tell him what to say. President Trump knows what he wants to say, and he's going to relay his vision to the American people to make this country strong, safe, secure and wealthy again. He's been doing that across this great nation to all corners of this country. That's why he was in Detroit, Michigan last week. He was in Philadelphia for a big rally on Saturday night. And that's why

President Trump is knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network on CNN with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years and their biased coverage of him. So President Trump is willing to bring his message to every corner of this country, to voters, to ensure that he wins this election in November. He looks forward to doing that. And I know the American public look forward to hearing from him.

So I'll just say my colleagues, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, have acquitted themselves as professionals as they have covered campaigns and interviewed candidates from all sides of the aisle. I'll also say that if you talk to analysts of debates previous, that if you're attacking the moderators, you're usually losing. So I really want to focus in on

what these two men are going to do and say when they stand on the stage. Now, we have a little bit of what Donald Trump, your boss, has said in trying to set expectations for this debate. I want to play some of a series of his comments and then we'll talk about it. Watch.

Maybe I'm better off losing the debate. I'll make sure he says I'll lose the debate on purpose. Maybe I'll do something like that. I assume he's going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater. Should I be tough and nasty and just say you're the worst president in history? Or should I be nice and calm and let him speak?

So he's basically saying there, well, will I let Joe Biden win? It does seem as though many Republicans have set the bar very low in terms of arguing that Joe Biden is basically senile. Now you have people like Doug Burgum coming out and saying, well, President Biden's very accomplished, trying to set expectations in a different place. What do you expect from Joe Biden?

Well, first of all, it's to take someone five minutes to Google Jake Tapper, Donald Trump, to see that Jake Tapper has consistently. Ma'am, we're going to stop this interview if you're going to keep attacking my colleagues. Ma'am, I'm going to stop this interview if you continue to attack my colleagues. I would like to talk about Joe Biden and Donald Trump who work for. Yes. If you are here to speak on his behalf, I will have this conversation.

I am stating facts that your colleagues have stated in the past. Now, as for this debate, the expectation for... I'm sorry, guys, we're going to come back out to the panel. Caroline, thank you very much for your time. You are welcome to come back at any point. She is welcome to come back and speak about Donald Trump, and Donald Trump will have equal time to Joe Biden when they both...

Join us now at next early later this week in Atlanta for this debate. Our thanks to Caroline. John, that, of course, is something that we are going to see from the right. Right. It's going to be a tax on how this debate is conducted. As you know, our colleagues Jake and Dana have played a role in our conversations throughout. They have interviewed candidates on both sides.

Let's talk, though, again about the candidates and what they are going to do. Look, what you just heard there, it is part of the strategy, and it always has been. It works for Trump with his base. Does it work for Trump with the small slice of people he needs to, you know, get to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona? I would argue let's deal with policy, let's deal with that. But that is part of their strategy.

Again, this is a remarkably consequential moment for both of these men. If you look at this, Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report about two weeks ago wrote a great article about how this has been the most static race of his lifetime. Right. And you haven't seen big swings in the polls. Often as you go through the summer, you know, candidate A proposes something and the polls swing three or five points. Candidate B returns to that and the polls swing back and forth. This race has been remarkably static.

Right. Slight advantage. Trump. Biden's come back a little bit after the convictions. Why hasn't it moved? Because so many people are unhappy with both choices. So it's not like they're going to jump back and forth a lot because you're just like if you're soft for Biden or soft for Trump, you're like that. But I would argue from my travels that just beneath that static,

are all the ingredients of volatility. There's economic anxiety. There's the abortion question. There's the character of Trump issue. There's people who just don't have a North Star where we're going in this economy right now. There's a lot of COVID hangovers still that people are processing. So beneath the level static race is a ton of potential volatility. The question is, which candidate can find an issue that moves people?

That, to me, is the big challenge for this debate. It's an early debate. They're not even officially the nominees yet. But they do have a chance to take something that has been incredibly static and move it. The question is, who figures that out? So we're going to take a little break for some humor here. And it plays quite well into what John was saying, which is that people have been very unhappy. The race has been static. There are some that feel like their choice is like this.

I better get used to having to pick between a douche and a turd sandwich because it's usually the choice I'll have. He's going to vote! He's going to vote! He's going to vote!

That callback was from when George W. Bush was running against John Kerry in 2004. And we have it thanks to a Wisconsin voter who is one of those so-called double haters, voters who don't like Trump or Biden and who are likely to decide the outcome this fall. The douche and the turd sandwich, that is what I'm reading, that is what I feel like it is, said small business owner Kate B. in the Washington Post, which is less bad.

I had forgotten about that episode, by the way. Can I go back to kale or broccoli? Well...

I mean, I like both kale and broccoli. The Biden sandwich, without a doubt, because Biden doesn't risk killing the whole world with the press of a button. Well, what I would say a little bit, I think, to John's point, it is remaining static a little bit. I think what I took a little bit from what Caroline said with going to Detroit, going to North Philly, there is an effort, I think, from the Trump team to at least in kind of a little bit under kind

a noticed way, try and break out of that a little bit. Trying to get African-Americans, African-American men who are less static. A lot of these voters they're targeting are low-pensy voters. They don't vote every single election, right? They maybe vote one out of four, two out of four election cycles. So I think that is a way to kind of break out a little bit of that staticness

And I think that is where they hope they can make it up some ground, especially with some of these Haley voters that might go against Trump. Their expectations is really pretty bad. I mean, let's be clear. A debate is an argument. A debate are two people going at it. Donald Trump has been preparing for 78 years. This is not about whether someone has been doing it in plain sight or not. They have now said that Biden is going to win because he's taken a shot of something in his ass that, uh,

Do we have to bleep that word? Ass. Well, you made me choose between. You made me choose between. Only the third time. How am I supposed to know between what's acceptable and what's not? We're going to put a delay here. You know, and it's crazy when they hit the stage, it's going to be a clear contrast like it was four years ago. And I do think it's going to shake people.

enough people who are maybe unhappy as hell about their choice, but they know they need to make one. The thing is that we're gonna have this conversation 20 more times between now and November. - It's so weird. It's not even July yet. We're having the first presidential debate. It's so weird. It is not used to it. And I think, look, we don't have another one of these leaks scheduled til what, September 10th, I believe, somewhere in that area on ABC. So there's a lot of gap between now and then. It's a very, very big moment.

Yeah. The current president of the United States, the former president of the United States. So the expectations debate to me is just silly. You have two men have sat in the Oval Office, have had to deal with these crises. They should be prepared to stand there and make their case, whatever the issue. One other question I will add, there will not be a third party candidate on that stage. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not qualify.

This to me is a lot like 1992, though. You do have a large slice of the electorate so unhappy they're willing to at least look at third party candidates. Can Trump and Biden convince them, don't do that, stay with the two of us? Or after this debate, do people still not like them enough that they continue to look at the third party candidates on a state by state basis? We don't know the answer yet. Which candidates makes which battleground state ballots? Do they spend any money? Where's the fall? But that's still a potential wild card. This is a big moment between the two clear front runners in this race.

But one of the other questions we have to keep in mind, even though there's only two candidates on stage,

And not just that, but... Philippe can tell you the third-party candidates could have a big impact. Well, that's the thing. The biggest difference between 2020 and 2016 was that there were no third parties. Jill Stein took enough in 2016. Well, and again, just for viewers who may not kind of realize where you're coming from on that, I mean, when you were working with Hillary Clinton in 2016... Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. In these swing states, right, there were third-party candidates on the ballot, and you guys were very acutely aware of their impact. And the margin, yeah. And with RFK, it's confusing because you don't know...

who he's taking votes from or who would flee to him and who it redounds to. I mean, there was this Mr. Mellon person who gave $50 million, I guess, to Donald Trump. He had given $25 million to RFK. There's such an overlap there on, you know, vaccine denialism and other stuff that...

Donald Trump seems to be afraid of RFK, but just because he's not on the stage doesn't mean he doesn't exist. - If I'm Trump, I loop in RFK into some of the attacks on Biden. I try and lump them together a little bit because look, rightly so, I think Trump and his team view RFK as a threat in some of these states.

All right, with all of that, we've been doing a ton of politics this morning for obvious reasons, but I do have to leave you with this. Taylor Swift, stunning, a London audience, bringing her boyfriend Travis Kelsey on stage. Guys, can we get some Nat sound here? On the final days of her Eros tour there, the Chiefs tight end surprised Wembley Stadium in tails and a top hat, literally sweeping the pop star off her feet during a song. Guys, you cannot make this up.

performing a short routine alongside her dancers. Also cannot make that up. And he wasn't the only famous guest at the show. Oh my God, that's Prince William. Wait, bring it back. Prince of Wales, there he is. Look at that. On his 42nd birthday, two of his children were also there on Friday night. And I have to say the smile from the selfies. Look at Princess Charlotte.

Oh my gosh, I just thought this was so sweet. Swift met the royals backstage. She snapped a selfie alongside her love, Kelsey, but it didn't stop there. You hear that? The British Royal Guard getting in on it. A little can't stop, won't stop grooving. They got music on their mind too. That's all right with us.

Very much fun. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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