Debate Countdown, Netanyahu Cabinet, L.A. Fire
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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 Monday, June 17th. Right now on CNN This Morning, Biden and Trump courting votes and cash on the campaign trail with the first debate less than two weeks away. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolving his six-member war cabinet, insisting it does not need to exist. And over 1,000 people forced to evacuate as a raging fire north of Los Angeles continues to spread out of control. 6 a.m. here in Washington. 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. We begin with President Biden warning Americans not to vote for Donald Trump, while Donald Trump warning Black Americans not to vote for Joe Biden. A busy weekend for both candidates, raising cash and courting votes, with just 10 days to go before the first presidential debate right here on CNN.

President Biden attended a big money fundraiser at a star-studded event in Los Angeles, warning a second Trump term could mean a hard shift for the right for the Supreme Court. The next president is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees. Two more. Two more.

He's already appointed two that have been very negative in terms of the rights of individuals. Could this be the scariest part of all of it? Well, I think it is one of the scariest parts. But look, the Supreme Court has never been as out of kilter as it is today. Now, Trump spent part of his weekend in Detroit trying to exploit signs of waning enthusiasm for Biden among some black voters.

The crime is most rampant right here and in African American communities. We don't want to get robbed and mugged and beat up or killed because we want to walk across the street to buy a loaf of bread. But the black population wants law enforcement more than any other population.

All right, let's bring in David Frum, staff writer with The Atlantic, Jesse Hunt, former press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, and former White House communications director, Kate Bedingfield. Good morning. Thank you all for being here. Kate, I want to start with you about just Trump's trying to win over black voters, just to get a sense on the viewers remember how black voters...

voters came down for Biden in the 2020 election. The exit polls there showed that Biden won overwhelmingly, 87% to 12% to Biden versus Trump. And then you break it down, it is much tighter. The margins, according to public polling right now, how much concern is there in the Biden camp right now that the margin's getting tighter? Yeah. Do they believe it? Do they believe those polls? I

Do they believe those polls is maybe a little bit of a tricky way of framing it? I think they certainly believe their own data. And I think that there's a recognition that the base is not as solid for Biden as it was at this point in 2020. I think they're very eyes open about that. You can see that in the way that they're campaigning. I mean, you can see they've done a lot of work to put together

outreach efforts to black voters. You see they're spending, you know, if you want to know. Probably more than before that they were investing earlier. But also if you want to know where a campaign is focused, look at where they're putting their dollars. And they've done a lot of advertising to the black community. So they know that this needs to be a significant, they need to shore these numbers up. This will be a significant piece of his winning coalition if he's reelected. So I think there's definitely an acknowledgement. I don't know that the public polling is,

I don't know that they believe the public polling as it stands right now captures where things will be in October and the first week of November when people are really facing the choice of going into the voting booth and choosing Joe Biden or Donald Trump. But they definitely recognize that this is a space where they need to keep doing work. And I think you're seeing them do that. And just to get viewers listening and to listen to what Trump was saying.

to voters in Michigan as he was trying to attack Joe Biden and his handling about issues affecting the black community. Biden wrote the devastating 1994 crime bill talking about super predators. That was Biden. You know, he walks around now talking about the black vote. He's the king of the super predators.

So, I mean, he didn't actually coin the phrase super predators, but is that an effective strategy? Look, if Trump were making inroads into the black vote in reality and not just in bad polls, you'd expect he'd be able to get some people to show up for him in Detroit, but he couldn't. There was a report that said it was mostly a

He created a completely fake media event. He rented a church. He busts in people who are wearing not church clothes, but rally clothes. They are obviously not locals. They are obviously not attendees. You don't have to do that if you have support. And then he told a series of preposterous lies. Detroit has recovered this year, is having a magnificent turnaround. First population growth in half a century. Lowest number of homicides in half a century.

That notorious, derelict train station, I broke into it about 10 years ago to tour the ruins of the train station, and it was a tragic thing. It's just been restored beautifully, and it's about to reopen. Detroit is now a magnet for attracting new artists. It is a great American turnaround story.

When you have to tell so many lies, when you have to bust in people, it tells me you probably don't have a lot of indigenous support in that town. And that tells me that probably these polls are reflecting kind of disaffection with people who are bearing the brunt of price rises. But Trump just lies all the time. And we have to be very careful because of the code of our profession, and it's a good code, where the candidate speaks and you report it. But when you've got a candidate who lies all the time, I mean, it raises a question that CNN is going to face with this coming debate.

which is you're going to have this unprecedented event. You're going to have a president of the United States on a stage with a convicted criminal.

I worry about the security implications of that. Are you going to do some kind of special pat-down to make sure he hasn't brought some kind of weapon with him that might harm the president? He's a convicted criminal on the stage with the president, and he lies all the time. Well, I want to just get back to the discussion that you were raising about his pitch. He's a not effective one to court black voters, but Trump is trying to talk about crime, talk about immigration,

as a way to win over that key voting bloc. What do you make of his argument? - Yeah, well, I think, honestly, to Kate's point, like, the proof is in the pudding. Clearly, the Biden campaign is a little concerned about the slip that they've seen among Biden's standing with minority voters, black voters,

I think it's quite appealing. Obviously, the issue that's top of mind for every voter, regardless of their demographic, is inflation. You know, cumulative inflation under Joe Biden is at almost 20 percent. That's not something that, you know, any working class American wants to deal with. And I think that's what's fueling some of the support for Trump as it relates to these specific topics. You know, there was a recent poll that came out from CBS that showed that that

over 60% of voters, Hispanic, or voters in general, supported Trump's immigration policies. Over 50% of Hispanic voters support Trump's immigration policies. So I think that's something that a lot of minority voters are attracted to and clearly it's working. Yeah.

But I also think this super predator line of attack is sort of a bizarre one for Trump, right? First of all, I mean, to your point, this super predator is not a term that Joe Biden coined. But also, it's a line of attack that is rooted in the crime bill, right? Which Trump and the Republicans tried to make a divisive issue in the 2020 campaign.

In a moment when people are concerned about crime, focused on crime, this is sort of a weirdly discordant argument to argue that Joe Biden, who authored the crime bill, which by the way was effective in bringing crime down at a time when Trump himself is trying to argue that he's the law and order president,

I'm not sure that the super predator line of attack really sticks or has any intellectual consistency, but I guess that's never been Donald Trump's big concern, has it? Between 1990 and 2014, we saw the steepest reduction of crime in American history. By 2014, we probably had the lowest crime rates in the history of organized American society. Unfortunately, after that, things...

Things went wrong. And especially under Donald Trump, we saw the steepest increase in crime since the 1960s. The Trump years saw a terrible crime wave, partly because of lax gun laws in the year 2020. We saw more guns bought in a single year than ever bought before in American history. The good news is, since Trump left town,

The crime rate has begun to come down, and this year it's coming down very dramatically. So, Donald Trump, look, Donald Trump's genius, and he does have one, is he's the world's leading marketer of crap products.

Anybody can sell a good steak. He sells a terrible steak. Anyone can sell a good vodka. He sells a terrible vodka. And he's doing that now. The guy who presided over the steepest increase in crime since the '60s is saying, vote for me. I'm anti-crime. The guy who saw the steepest increase in the number of guns out there is saying, I will make you safe when you go buy a loaf of bread if you

If you're in danger, you're probably in danger from a gun that was bought under Trump, stolen under Trump, that is now being used against you. - Oops, oops, I knocked over my water as I was turning to you, Jesse. - You're okay. - Real quickly, just on Biden and Trump and-- - Well, I'd say first of all, the spike in crime that you saw was predominantly under Democrat-run cities and Democrat policies that they were implementing on the local level.

I'd also point out that it took burning cities. It took a massive spike in crime in these cities that we're talking about to get Democrats to wake up. They saw the polling and started to course correct. I don't necessarily think voters are that interested in somebody being reactionary with their policies. At the end of the day, of course, it depends on how the voters are going to feel come November. We're going to talk much, much more. We have more to get to next.

Chilling warnings from Steve Bannon if Donald Trump retakes the White House. Plus, evacuations near Los Angeles as wildfire continues to spread. And Donald Trump bragging about his mental fitness while confusing a key point.

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.

I got to know him pretty well and I had absolutely no concerns about his cognitive ability or his neurological functions. The reason that we did the cognitive assessment is plain and simple because the president asked me to do it. He came to me and he said, "Is there something we can do, a test or some type of screen that we can do to assess my cognitive ability?"

And that was former White House physician, now Texas Congressman, Ronny Jackson, talking about the cognitive test he gave former President Trump in 2018. Now, over the weekend, Trump challenged President Biden to do the same right before confusing his former doctor's name.

It's Ronny Jackson, not Johnson. My panel's back. Okay, what is your reaction to that? Who among us?

I mean, look, of course, we all make mistakes. I make mistakes. But, you know, you do it when you're ridiculing the cognitive ability of your opponent. That's different. That's certainly a fair point. But I do think, honestly, the biggest test that we're going to see is this debate that's coming up. Right? This is the earliest presidential debate, general election debate that we've ever seen, at least in modern memory. Right? So...

in terms of a cognitive test or whatnot, the proof is really gonna be in how each candidate handles himself on that debate stage when they're contrasting ideas against each other and seeing who performs the best. So we're gonna have a true test coming up in the next week or so.

Go ahead. No, I broadly agree with that. But I mean, look, the entire the entire thing is preposterous. Like the fact that you have Donald Trump up here arguing, you know, we should take a cognitive test. My dear, dear friend whose name I can't remember or accurately repeat while I'm trying to dunk on Joe Biden. I mean, it's just like it's embarrassing, honestly. It's embarrassing. It also kind of shows the futility, I think, of this conversation.

line of attack. I mean, people see Joe Biden. They saw him on the world stage. They saw him at the G7. You know, you had the chancellor of Germany talking about how sharp, you know, Biden is driving the allies, you know, forward as, you know, Russia is on the march. I mean, these are, these are, you know,

there are serious people attesting to biden's uh capability in the job and then you have donald trump up you know arguing that uh they should take a cognitive test and he can't even remember his doctor's name it's embarrassing and voters of course will assess that we all admire the u.s navy so when you put a clip of someone in a naval uniform on television attesting to the mental fitness of donald trump of course we believe it and only some of us will remember wait a minute was that the guy who was busted from admiral to captain because of

and sexual misconduct. Was that the guy who, as White House doctor, was prescribing dangerous drugs at a rate 10, 100 times ever before seen in a White House? I worked in the Bush White House. The idea that I would go to the White House doctor and say, give me opioids, unimaginable. But...

Lots of people, including maybe the president, were getting massive quantities, unprecedented quantities of drugs from that doctor's office. That was the doctor who signed his name to obvious lies about Trump's height and weight. We can all judge height and weight. Any one of us has been to a county fair, and we can see that Donald Trump is not a prize heifer.

But he signed his name. So it is amusing that Trump can't remember his name, but it's alarming what that person said. And when we play the clip, we have to have the context. That is not a person whose word you can take. I mean, we'll see. I mean, it's all about expectation setting.

And Trump keeps setting these very low bars about Joe Biden, and Joe Biden may easily clear those bars in the debate. We're gonna have to jump in more about this much later in the show, I assure you. Ahead, what VP front runner JD Vance just said about being Donald Trump's running mate. Plus, another rough foul against Caitlin Clark. One of the five things you have to see this morning.

Alright, 23 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. 1,200 people forced to evacuate as a wildfire burns out of control north of Los Angeles. It has already burned nearly 15,000 acres and was only 2% contained as of late Sunday.

Police in Germany shooting a man who threatened officers with a pickaxe. The suspect is recovering in the hospital. This happened in Hamburg hours before a match in the European Football Championship. And nearly 30 people trapped upside down for nearly 30 minutes on an amusement park ride in Portland, Oregon. The ride, the atmosphere had to be manually lowered and it shut down until further notice.

And Caitlin Clark roughed up again, followed hard by the Chicago Sky's Angel Reese in Sunday's WNBA game in Indianapolis. Reese was called for a flagrant foul, but Greg's fever won the game. And take a look at this new brew from Milwaukee, Not So Horrible City IPA. It's a local brewery's response to Donald Trump calling Milwaukee a horrible city. The beer rolls out right next month before the Republican National Convention.

and an oppressive, dangerous heat wave engulfing much of the country. Meteorologist Alison Chinchar joins us to break down how bad it's going to be for so many people, Alison.

Yeah, that's right. Over 80% of the U.S. population is actually going to see a temperature above 90 degrees in just the next five to seven days. So you're talking a pretty widespread area here. But it's not just having those temperatures be on the warm side or be slightly above average. For a lot of these areas, it's actually going to creep into record territory. In fact, nearly 200

100 record high temperatures can be expected over the next week. The bulk of them, yes, are going to be across portions of the northeast and stretching into the Midwest. But you'll notice some dots down here in the southeast, also some dots farther out to the west. So this is not really limited to just one particular area. This is why you do still have, though, the bulk of the heat alerts focus, however, over portions of the northeast and the Midwest, because this is where the bulk of those records are going to be set.

Now, for some, it's not just daily records, though. We're also looking at all-time records possible. Caribou, Maine's forecast for Wednesday, 99 degrees. Their all-time record, only 96. So they could beat that previous record by three degrees. And a lot of the Northeast is going to be feeling that heat. Take a look at Albany.

Looking at 90s for the next several days, those temperatures about 10 to 15 degrees above average. Same thing for New York, Boston and Philadelphia, all looking at these highs about 15 to 20 degrees above where they normally would be. 195 record high temperatures. Just so brutal. All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you. And up next, the FAA is investigating a Southwest flight that came dangerously close to crashing into the ocean.

Plus, Trump ally Steve Bannon vowing prosecution and prison time for the former president's enemies. Accountability Day. That's how Steve Bannon is describing Inauguration Day 2025, if Donald Trump wins a second term. The longtime Trump ally delivering a series of chilling warnings at a conservative gathering in Detroit. Vowing a win by Trump means investigations and prosecutions of anyone who has crossed the former president.

November 5th is Judgment Day. January 20th, 2025 is Accountability Day. Trust me, on the afternoon of the 20th, we're also going to start the pick and shovel work

to take apart the administrative state and to take on its rogue element, the Praetorian Guard, the deep state. We're going to run them all out of town. Are you prepared to fight? Are you prepared to give it all? Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield? Ladies and gentlemen, it's very simple. Victory or death.

Well, you know, you could dismiss this as a Trump ally who's saying it's not Trump, but this is what the former president himself has said about the idea of retribution. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. Based on what they've done, I would have every right to go after them. Well, revenge does take time. I will say that. It does. And sometimes revenge can be justified. Okay, you're a Republican strategist. Um,

sure that riles up the base, but is that the message, the language you want to appeal to swing voters? Obviously, you know, the president has a unique, unique way of communicating. And a lot of these sort of comments are, are common for his, his, you know, stump speech and what he says on the trail. Uh,

But we have seen a lot of voter dissatisfaction as it relates to institutions. So I actually don't think this falls on deaf ears. I think there is an audience out there that does want a degree of disruption, that does want some accountability in Washington, and they haven't liked what they've seen from Joe Biden over these last four years.

Now, obviously, the president is going to want to, or excuse me, the former president is probably going to want to focus on the issues that matter most, you know, the economy, inflation, talking about Joe Biden's record, because ultimately that's what he needs to turn this race into, which is a referendum on Biden. That's why you're seeing Biden in Biden's campaign try to draw Trump out and force him to make more news that kind of overcomes whatever Biden's doing in the office. That's why they're doing a presidential debate so soon. How does the Biden campaign see it?

This is not a winning message in a general election. That is, I think, how the Biden campaign sees it. I also think that that is demonstrably true. I mean, this is a message that is all about Donald Trump. Yes, is it energizing for the MAGA base? Of course it is. We know that. But we saw throughout the Republican primary, there was a not insignificant number of Republican voters who said, I reject Donald Trump. I don't want this. And Trump is making the entire race about him. At the end of the day, given where how people are feeling behind

broadly about politics, the kind of level of disinterest, all the discussion of the double haters. The campaign that is able to effectively make this race about their opponent is probably the campaign that's going to win. And so Donald Trump is helping the Biden campaign do that by going out and talking only about himself in terms that have almost no resonance to the average voter in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, who wants to know what he's going to do for them if he's reelected. How much of this revenge, retribution talk is just rhetoric?

versus reality if he becomes president again. It's 100% of the reality. A reelected Donald Trump will have two items on his agenda and only two. One, abandon Ukraine to Putin. And two, wage war on the legal system of the United States. Everything else, all the things we call serious issues, Trump either has no real plan or no plan that he can execute. He has no plan on crime and he has no real plan on immigration. His tariff plan, well, tariffs have to pass through Congress and he'll have no ability to do that. The thing he will be able to do

will be to stop the flow of aid to Ukraine so that his friend Putin can grab it, and second, to try to overturn-- appoint stooge people through the Department of Justice, have an acting stooge attorney general, and then say, "I want everyone who committed a crime for me to be let off, legally or illegally, and I want you to use the power of the state to go after my enemies." That's real. All the stuff we say is real, that's not real. That's the rhetoric. What Bannon said, that is the real face of Trump, too. Everything else...

Vaporware. Speaking of revenge, bitter ideological tensions within the House GOP will be on full display tomorrow as voters cast their ballots in the contentious Republican primary for Virginia's 5th Congressional District. Sitting Republican Congressman Bob Good, the leader of the House Freedom Caucus, will attempt to fend off a challenge from John McGuire, who earned Trump's support following Good's initial endorsement of Ron DeSantis for president. Though Good has since endorsed Trump,

even traveling to New York to support him during his criminal hush money trial. The former president, though, has slammed Goode, calling that endorsement, quote, too late. And while Trump-backed candidates have seen particular success this primary cycle, Goode told me he is still confident about his chances. Donald Trump backing your opponent.

And how much does that hurt your campaign? We're going to win. The people are behind us in the 5th District overwhelmingly. Everybody needs to be coming together and winning on November 5th. The time to talk about previous endorsements or supporting previous candidates is behind us. Again, we're going to win on June 18th. I mean, this is a really fascinating...

of where the House GOP is right now. Good is one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy, but he could be the one to lose, not necessarily because of the vote to oust Kevin McCarthy, but because he did the unforgivable sin of not endorsing Donald Trump. Yeah, Trump never forgets slights, right?

And so obviously in this situation, you see some members of the House Freedom Caucus up against Donald Trump, which is uncommon in today's Washington. Typically, they're they're aligned on different issues. Look, at the end of the day, I think this is probably like the last that we'll talk about a House primary like this, given all the other complex issues that are going on in the world and how, you know, Biden and Trump will take center stage very soon or other high profile down ballot races when you're talking about control of the Senate.

But for right now, it's obviously entertaining to see Trump going against a member of the House Freedom Caucus, which is, again, uncommon. Trump's war on good could be the headline for every day of the past 10 years. If it's good, he's against it. But I think...

I think this does portend something that really does have a lot of significance, which is I think we really don't think enough about the likelihood that the Republicans are going to lose not only the presidency, but also the House in 2024. This is a fractured, disunited party full of full of House members who obviously hate their national champion. And

campaigning on abortion restriction. And while at the top of the ballot, criminality is going to be the dominant issue, Trump's criminality, every race down below the presidency is going to be abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion. If you're a vulnerable House Democrat, do you run with Joe Biden? Do you show up and campaign with Joe Biden in these swing districts? Yeah.

I think you do. You do? You think you should? I think you do. Look, depends on the district. And look, Joe Biden would be the first to say that. I mean, he always tells people, I'll come campaign for you or campaign against you, whatever's going to help you more. So, you know, are there some districts where it makes more sense not to stand shoulder to shoulder with Joe Biden? Yeah. Yeah.

That's political reality of the landscape right now. What I don't think makes sense is running against Joe Biden's record. I mean, David's exactly right. The issue of abortion is going to be incredibly motivating for obviously for the Democratic base, but also for suburban voters, for independent voters. So if you are a Democrat, you should be linked arm in arm with Joe Biden on protecting the woman's right to choose, on combating Trump's extremism, on going hard on January 6th.

So I think that there are good and important motivating arguments that Joe Biden represents that Democrats in vulnerable districts should embrace because running away from it, first of all, it's very hard, broadly speaking, to separate yourself from the national party in a presidential year. But I think the substance of what Biden

not only is accomplished, but the message frame that he's laying out, the choice, what's at stake in this election, that's a winning message frame for moderate Democrats, for Democrats in swing districts that they should embrace. And whether they literally stand next to Joe Biden or not, that's a political decision that they need to make within their own.

So how do you think the top of the ticket plays for both sides? I mean, there are 17 or so House Republicans in districts that Joe Biden won and in New York and California. But a lot of them have endorsed Trump. They don't necessarily view it differently.

as a liability to endorse Donald Trump. Do you think it's a liability in those districts? Republicans are going to be excited if Democrats embrace Joe Biden on the campaign trail. I know they've referenced abortion being a top concern, a top issue for the Biden campaign. Ultimately, it's going to come down to how people feel about the economy and how people feel about inflation.

It's increased 20% under Joe Biden, and that's everyone's top concern right now, regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum. I'd also say that right now in battleground states, real clear politics average, Trump's in head in every battleground state, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia.

Pennsylvania, and they're pretty neck and neck in Wisconsin and Michigan. So I think that's going to help lift everyone down ballot, House candidates and more specifically Senate candidates as well. You know, we're talking about control of the Senate. Except I would just say quickly, look at Kentucky in 2023. Republicans really tried to make that race a referendum on Joe Biden. They ran ads. They wanted to tie Bashir to Biden and Bashir won. Donald Trump will not consent to the election being a referendum on Joe Biden. If he had any sense, if he had any self-control. But, you know, before Trump is a thug,

He's a crook. And before he's a crook, he's a head case. So he will not... Of course he should make the election about the incumbent. That's what every challenger should always do. But when the challenger is a raving, out-of-control egomaniac, he can't do it. So the election will be about Trump and

And the central, there's one poll that has mattered over the past 10 years, and that is this. Blah, blah, blah, Donald Trump, blah, blah, blah. And the answer is 47% yes, 53% no. So David says that he thinks that potentially the House could flip to Democrats. It sounds like you'd think that the Democrats will pick it up. Could happen. Could happen. Absolutely could. It's going to be a very tightly contested

down ticket race. Who holds the House? Do the Republicans hold the House? - Republicans can hold the House. A lot of times, what we see on a presidential stage, excuse me, on a presidential cycle, is the House goes along with the President, and right now, Donald Trump is the favorite.

I don't know about that. I don't know if you could say he's the favorite. It's a very, very close race. All right. Okay. All right. Well, we will see. Coming up next, the one rule at the upcoming Biden-Trump debate that could be a game changer. Plus, the concert that just shattered the all-time U.S. attendance record.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolving the country's war cabinet. The decision comes after opposition leader Benny Gantz announced his withdrawal from the war cabinet last week. CNN's Ben Wiedemann is live for us in Beirut. So, Ben, tell us about this decision of disbanding the war cabinet and how significant is it?

Well, it was sort of inevitable when, last week, Benny Gantz left the war cabinet and left the government. He was essentially a minister without portfolio, so his role was to serve on that war cabinet. He resigned along with Gadi Eisenkot, who was an observer but basically a participant in this five-member war cabinet. So now it appears that...

matters relating to the war in Gaza and, for instance, war possibly on the border between Lebanon and Israel, those issues are going to be discussed in a broader security cabinet. This cabinet, however,

includes people like Bezalel Smotrich, who's the finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gavir, the national security minister. These guys are hardliners. They don't want any ceasefire in Gaza. They want the war there to continue until Hamas is totally destroyed, a goal most neutral observers say is impossible to achieve. So what this means is that when discussing matters relating to the war in Gaza,

Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be in the room with some real hardliners. Benny Gantz was considered somewhat less hardline. He was somebody who was pushing the prime minister to agree to some sort of ceasefire and hostage deal that might wind down the war in Gaza. Now sort of those railings are off, and it appears that the likelihood of a ceasefire agreement

is going to be diminishing in his absence and in the presence of these real hard liners in the security cabinet. Manu? Hi, Ben. Wait a minute. In Beirut, monitoring the fallout. Thanks for that report. And it's 48 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

At least nine people shot in what appears to be a random shooting at a splash pad in suburban Detroit on Saturday. The gunman found dead in his home with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police are still looking for a motive. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he plans to bring up a vote this week to restore a ban on bump stocks after the Supreme Court overturned a federal rule outlawing the device.

With the flick of a pen, the Supreme Court undid this very much needed law. This MAGA court shows you the poison pen. Now, Bob Sox increased the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons and effectively turned them into machine guns. The FAA investigating a Southwest flight that came within 400 feet of crashing into the ocean. That April incident only came to light after Bloomberg reported the company sent a memo to pilots about it. I think this is how I'm

And the king of country music, George Strait shattering the all-time attendance record for a ticketed U.S. concert. 110,900 fans packing Kyle Field in Texas Saturday night, breaking the record previously set by the Grateful Dead nearly 50 years ago.

Now, over the weekend, a band of Trump VP hopefuls took the stage at a convention hosted by Turning Point Action, a right-wing organization tied to conservative activist Charlie Kirk. But according to convention's attendee, one VP candidate stood out above the rest. Now,

43% of the nearly 2,000 attendees said they prefer J.D. Vance, the senator from Ohio, as Donald Trump's vice president. Their second choice, Senator Tim Scott, at 15%. Here is Vance speaking at the convention about what he views as a crucial quality for Trump's eventual running mate.

This applies to the vice president. There are a lot of smart, good people that Trump is looking at. But it also applies to our senators. It applies to our congressmen and women, too. We need to have people who are supporting Trump, not trying to stab him in the back. It's very, very simple. So, David, who do you think would be the most the best choice for Trump?

The best choice for Donald Trump? Yes. Okay, so the best choice, that's the opposite of the best choice for America. So what Trump... Your view, of course. So what Trump is going to look for, I think, is an absolute human zero. That he learned his lesson from Mike Pence, that he thought with Pence he'd found someone who was deferential, who was subordinated. But at the last moment,

Pence showed some integrity, some constitutional loyalty, and for that he was nearly killed. And that is the one thing that Trump is going to be looking for. So somebody like J.D. Vance, I mean, J.D. Vance is not a man of high character, but he is a man of high intellect. And Trump

can't trust him. It's the same thing with Doug Burgum. Doug Burgum is a man of, he's not a man of great charisma, but he's a man of great accomplishment. Trump can't trust him. But you can trust a Tim Scott because he's a zero, and you can trust Marco Rubio because he's spiritually broken. So I think he's going to be looking for one of those sort of more negligible human beings rather than somebody with high intellect or high character. So how does the, who is the Biden campaign concerned about as a running mate?

I actually don't think the Biden campaign is concerned about any of these people because all they do is serve to reinforce all of the worst aspects of Donald Trump. And that is the Biden campaign's winning message here. So, you know, J.D. Vance is somebody who's shown that he's willing to go out and advance any Trump lie. And, you know, Doug Burgum has gone out and shown that he's willing to advance any Trump lie. So for all of these people, really all they do is serve to underscore how unpalatable Donald Trump is.

And so for the Biden campaign, it's sort of like, you know, pick whichever one of these guys you want. It doesn't change the fact that Donald Trump is the driver of the message here and is somebody who's, you know, willing to put his own ego ahead of the country. And the Biden campaign is going to keep making that argument regardless of of who's on the undercard. So this is the straw poll looked at 43 percent. This is at the turning point action. That's that hard right group that Trump spoke with in Michigan this past week. Forty three percent change.

chose Vance, 15% in the straw poll, Tim Scott, and then you see Bergam and Rubio. Look, these straw polls may not mean anything. This happens in all these types of events sometimes. It means something, sometimes it doesn't. As a Republican strategist here at this table, who do you want to see Trump pick? First of all, I disagree with some of the characterizations that we just heard there about a lot of the individuals. I think they all have really inspiring personal stories and have been pretty effective during their respective times in office. Look, they all bring unique qualities to the table.

As I mentioned, some have more inspiring stories, others have executive experience, others have private sector experience. At the end of the day,

What truly matters is who Trump is most comfortable with, who he identifies with, who can kind of echo his message. At the end of the day, he wants loyalty above all else. So I think that's going to be an important factor. You know, he's nothing if not a good show producer. So I think that's why you're seeing so much interest in the vice presidential sweepstakes, if you will. And he's going to allow that to continue through till the convention in July. So stay tuned. Some of them, of course, have said things that have not been particularly

positive about Donald Trump over the years and months, including Doug Burgum, who is the former governor and was a presidential candidate, dropped out of the race, but has changed his tune just a bit. Would you ever do business with Donald Trump? I don't think so. Why?

I just think that it's important that you're judged by the company you keep. This guy is tireless. He's committed. He's smart. He's funny. He's nothing like he's portrayed in the press. And so if you asked me that same question today, I'd be like, absolutely, I would do business with him.

Changes of two. So one of the things that Donald Trump... He also has said that he's gotten to know Trump over the years. One of the things that Trump is going to be worrying about is fundraising. Because while the Trump campaign is raising a lot of money, they're also stealing a lot of money, and money is short. Biden has bought many more hours of television commercials. So...

So, Burgum offers the possibility of being able to write a pretty big check. He's a very wealthy man. And J.D. Vance has access to the vast wealth of Silicon Valley. He's kind of a Peter Thiel protege and is connected to the Thiel fundraising network. But Donald Trump does enjoy torturing people and making them and humiliating them and

The more they have criticized him in the past, the more pleasure he takes in putting them through. Remember what he said about J.D. Vance when J.D. Vance was running for Senate? He got Trump's endorsement. Trump would do events where he'd say, J.D. Vance is kissing my ass. He would humiliate him in front of his own face. Trump loves that. Yeah, I've said this before, but these guys are all on the parade of debasement. That is what they're doing. They're showing us how much they believe their own soul is worth. But I mean, look, couple hairs grew.

- He criticized Joe Biden. - Not all that much. - Kamala Harris criticized Joe Biden in 2016. - There's a difference between taking, there's a difference between a policy difference and personally attacking members of your family as Donald Trump has done with some of these folks, attacking your spouse, I mean, openly telling people that they're kissing your ass. I mean, he is intending-- - Organizing, trying to organize their murder. - He is intending to humiliate these people and they are more than happy to let it happen.

I do want to turn to the debate because we've learned about the debate rules. Muted mics, coin flips, and no props. The rules for the 2024 presidential debate are officially set with both the Biden and Trump campaigns agreeing to the parameters of the CNN event. As the June 27th date approaches, the two candidates are entering preparation mode as they get ready to share a stage together. The last time around, though, it sounded like this.

The question is, the question is, the question left. Will you shut up? Listen, who is on your list, Joe? This is on your right. Gentlemen, I think this is so unprecedented. He's going to pack the court. We have not going to give a list. All right. So who benefits from the muted micro?

Look, maybe the public. Kate probably remembers this all too well from 2020, right? Like that first debate was was kind of off the rails a little bit. And look, like when it comes to debating, Trump's a street brawler. If this is a boxing match, it's probably a decent strategy for Biden, knowing he's not as quick on his feet as Trump to maybe lean on the refs a little bit to enforce some order.

because that's the type of debater that Trump is, and he's unpredictable. So it makes sense for why Biden's campaign would pursue this. I don't necessarily project a level of strength and confidence, but...

You know, we're here. Absolutely not true that Biden's not as quick on his feet. Go back and look at some of the seminal moments from that first debate. Donald Trump saying, you know, the proud boys stand back and stand by. If you watch that exchange, Biden baited him into saying that. So I think the strategy for the Biden campaign here is put Donald Trump on full display, drive contrast, make everything about Biden.

Trump's worst inclinations and let Trump run a little bit. 'Cause I think those moments where Trump is really showing the country who he is, it benefits Joe Biden. - And so how are they preparing? This is how Donald Trump was talking about how he has prepared. This is dating back from 2015 until 2020 about his debate preparations.

Well, my whole life is preparation for a debate. You know, if you think about it, what's preparing for a debate? There are a million different things. I think I'm preparing somewhat like I prepared for the other debates. I think I'm preparing, you know, I enjoyed the debating process. I think this whole thing, though, is debate prep. You know, what I do is debate prep every day. I'm taking questions from you people all the time.

You know, what's different, though, this time is that he did not participate in the primary debates or has been doing many interviews beyond friendly interviews. Is he ready for this? Show Trump a rule and he will break it. You say to him, look, you just have just stop defaming that woman you raped and you won't have to pay any more money. So he does it again. Next time it'll cost you a million. Next time it'll cost you 10 million. Next time it'll cost you 90 million. Just stop doing it. He can't.

Telling Trump that there's going to be a mute is like telling him, don't put beans up your nose. He's going to find a bean and he's going to put it up his nose. That's one way of putting it. Do you think that Trump is ready for this? I think Trump, as you mentioned, does a significant number of interviews with people who might not necessarily be all that friendly to him. So I think his life has been one big media engagement. And ultimately, these debates are an earned media opportunity. And if you're the Biden, if you're Biden,

Do you bring up all of Trump's, you know, the fact that he was found liable for sexual assault? And do you bring up all of this? How much do you focus on his convicted felony? I think you do it in service of your larger message. I mean, you don't, I wouldn't expect that Joe Biden will make a central statement

strategy of the debate to hammer him on the sexual assault case, but will he mention it as painting a picture, as he's painting a picture of Trump as somebody who is not fit to go back to the Oval Office? I think it's very possible. I think he, I would imagine he will be prepared for Trump to be incredibly personal

Going after Biden and the like. Yes, exactly. And so I think I imagine that he'll be armed to do that. But in service of the message, which I think is what was one thing that Biden is very good at, staying focused on the on the bigger picture. All right. We shall see. And thanks to our panel. Thank you for joining us. I'm Manu Raju. CNN News Central starts right now.

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