behind us, end quote. not really. our coverage continues now with wolf blitzer. he s in the situation room, actually he s replaced by alex marquardt today. i ll see you soon. happening now, donald trump brushes off questions about a report you heard first right here on cnn, that is, federal prosecutors now in possession of audiotapes undercutting trump s defense over retaining classified documents. we re also getting reaction from one of the former president s previous attorneys. in the senate the debt ceiling deal could come to a final vote as soon as tonight. even as members of both parties raise serious concerns. majority leader chuck schumer telling senators, they have to stay in session until the bill passes. and russia says that regions near the border with ukraine have suffered dozens of attacks in just the last day. the kremlin condemning international silence over the recent strikes on russian territory. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and
aisle alex marquardt, and you re in the situation room. let s get straight to the latest developments in the special counsel s investigation of donald trump. the former president ignoring questions about a cnn report which could undercut a key piece of his legal defense. our senior legal affairs correspondent paula reid has more. reporter: former president donald trump today campaigning in iowa refusing to take questions on the bombshell revelation he was recorded discussing classified information. mr. president, why did you take classified documents concerning reporter: but continued to claim he s a victim of federal investigators. i m a victim of it. they ve come after me. they ve come after me on many things. reporter: this after cnn s exclusive reporting that prosecutors now have an audio recording of trump talking about a classified plan to invade iran
been happening actually for quite a long time, but they re happening in smaller towns, and now when it s really happening, the people in those towns are saying, hey, you haven t been paying attention to us, but you begin to pay attention when moscow is hit with drones, in other words, there are disparities in russia, big ones between the elite and regular people, and that, i think, is a problem for putin. what does he say? does he come out, you know, really strongly condemning, et cetera, they did say notably that putin called the mayor of this town and even that, alex, the people in the town said people in the media, the state media can t even pronounce the name of our town, so they don t seem to care. we are waiting for this counteroffensive. general clark, how much do you think the strikes inside russia are playing into how ukraine is shaping this looming counteroffensive?
final details of that agreement, make sure everyone is, indeed, on board, and they re hoping to actually vote tonight even if it takes some time. it could go late into the tonight or early tomorrow morning trying to get this done here, but not everyone has been thrilled about how this process has gone down. take a listen. i think we re being jammed by joe biden. we re backed up here against the x date and this could have happened months ago, so i m not happy with him. i m not happy with the process. th default is not an option. i ll have to swallow hard on some parts of it. i m sure other members say the same thing but the responsible thing to do is pass it. reporter: but the bottom line here is despite the grumbling on both sides of the aisle, congress is poised to avert an economic catastrophe and avoid the first ever default with just days to spare, alex. discussions continuing right up until the end. thank you very much. let s get more from our chief white house corresp
jess, what is the governor saying about these latest taunts from the former president? well, alex, i m going to lower my voice because the governor is speaking to a crowd here in manchester just behind me but all day, we have noticed a trend with governor desantis and that s when he s on the stump like he is right now, he is talking about his record, he s talking about his vision for the country, he is laying out what he and his team call the florida blueprint trying to introduce himself to voters and make the case that he s a sitting executive that knows how to get things dong, that he doesn t get distracted by any sort of distractions or anything that is palace intrigue, those kind of thing, drama, he says he doesn t do any of that. he just focuses on the job. that s his central pitch to voters here in new hampshire and iowa and tomorrow likely in south carolina, as well. but when he s off the stump, that s when we re seeing him going directly after the former president. listen to