lawyers raising eyebrows by admitting that mar-a-lago guests are frequently in the same office that classified documents were found during the fbi s search, saying, i do have firsthand knowledge, i m down there frequently. she went on to say, anybody that knows president trump s office, he has guests frequently there. one of donald trump s former attorneys, michael cohen. he received a three year sentence for making hush money payments to women who claimed they had affairs with donald trump. cohen is the host of the mea culpa and the author of a new book. that will be released october 11th. it s been a few years. it s been a while. thank you for being here. what do you think? you were one of trump s lawyers. are you surprised to hear things like i just read from one of his attorneys? absolutely not.
i mean, can i have a bite? only from xfinity. nah. unbeatable internet. made to do anything so you can do anything. you are looking at live pictures of independence park in philadelphia where moments from now president biden will give what the white house calls a quote battle for the soul of the nation speech about the anti-democratic forces he sees growing across america. according to newly released excerpts, biden will say maga forces are determined to take this country backward to an america where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. it comes as biden is increasingly concerned about former president trump s influence on this growing movement.
quinnipiac and it s hard to find anything more to the point tonight. 67%, two in three, say american democracy is in danger of collapse. the percentage of democrats and republicans who believe it, identical. however, don t go looking for a bipartisan silver lining. the poll doesn t ask people to give a reason why they believe this. so it s possible, even likely given such other recent polling that a deep partisan divide exists over what people think is wrong. to use a political science term, ain t good. it does not bode well. but it certainly sets the stage for what the president will say tonight. and the backdrop, significant new developments in the court battle over documents seized from the former president s mansion and what he said today about pardoning january 6th defendants. let s go first to cnn s jeff zeleny who is at independence hall in philadelphia. jeff, what more are you learning about the speech tonight, which begins in just a few minutes? reporter: john, we are bernin
commander in chief to stand up and say, those kinds of threats are inappropriate. i m glad he is doing that tonight. see if that clarification comes. jonah, as the president is getting ready to address the nation on these threats to democracy, in a new interview, former president trump is defending the people charme char the january 6 attack. i met with i m financially supporting people that are incredible. they were my in my office. very much on my mind. it s a disgrace what they have done to them. if i decide to run and if i win, i will be looking very, very strongly at that pardon. full pardons. our polling clearly shows 55% of republicans think trump could have done more to stop the insurrection. is it smart to be defending the rioters right now? weeks out from the midterm elections. trump defends anybody who he
trump s office, he has guests frequently there. i think they wanted to show there were things with top secret markings for the public to justify the raid. what that doesn t tell you is that things are declassified that are marked classified. they don t change the marking when they do that. not just that, but between that and the other attorneys, i have heard many different defenses here. what s interesting is the legal team didn t actually address some of the core defenses trump himself has made. i declassified that, et cetera. the lawyers didn t go there. who do you think these defenses are coming from? trump? or the legal team? what do you make of them? it s originally coming from trump. he directs them through a document, i m sure. this is what i want you to say. alina is possibly the last lawyer on the planet that should be out there right now defending