We begin tonight with a rare warning about our democracy. It is in dire straits, and that is not according to just one or two, but rather 13 president ial libraries dating back to herbert hoover. All of which, on thursday, released a joint statement calling for a recommitment to the countrys bedrock principles, including the rule of law and respecting a diversity of beliefs. Cant save us enough. This is an unprecedented move from the group. Never before had the president ial libraries engaged so directly in political affairs. While the joint message stopped short of calling out individuals by name, the subject of the warning was clear. The declaration read, in part, americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and respect for human rights around the world, because free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home. But that interest is undermined when others see our own house in disarray. Our elected officials must lead by example
do their dangerous and difficult jobs. dana: homeland security secretary mayokas facing tough questions in a senate hearing underway defending president biden s border policy after illegal policies have hit record highs. they want an additional $14 billion to support operations along the border including temporary detention and processing centers and money for cities to expedite work permits for non-citizens. senate republicans are calling for solutions including resuming construction of the border wall and asylum reform. a full report coming up for you later this hour. also on capitol hill the house judiciary committee is holding a hearing on free speech on america s college and university campuses along with the rise of anti-semitism and violence against students supporting israel. welcome to a brand-new hour of america s newsroom. i m dana perino. bill: good morning. nice to be with you. i m bill hemmer, good morning at home. today s house hearing happens as reports
political ads do. pennsylvania, you can freely vote by mail now. some lawmakers want to get rid of it motivated by trump s false claims about the fraudulent nature of it. a lot of people will use it. there is a partisan divide in how voters use it. the republican national committee is trying to under dl mine that. democrats vote by mail in higher numbers. ads like this will keep the divide. you did so much reporting about election integrity and looking into what is new in different election cycles. thank you for your efforts. appreciate this reporting. stay on it. that s it for us today. see you back here tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. catch our show online around the clock on youtube, on other platforms any time. thank you so much for joining us. andrea mitchell picks up our coverage right now. right now on andrea mitchell reports, biden and trump are in the final phase of debate prep, but taking opposite approaches to what could be a game changer. team trump
2004 campaign. kick us off here, dasha. let s talk voter mindset as we head into this debate. you talked to a group of voters from battleground pennsylvania. what did you hear from them? reporter: yeah, we talked to a very specific slice of voters in that critical battleground state. and in a critical county, erie county, pennsylvania, where we re following voters very closely. we talked to republican voters who went out and voted for nikki haley in the pennsylvania primary. now, that happened months after haley dropped out of the race. so these voters went out, voted for a candidate that was no longer in the race. they did it to send a message, ana. and those haley voters, we went to see what they re thinking ahead of november. some of them are going to come back home, to their republican party and vote for former president trump. some of them are considering voting third party, still persuadable, they don t like either candidate, they don t know what they re going to do.
right here on cnn, our own jake tapper and dana bash will all right. you can watch it live next thursday at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn and streaming on max. the news continues on cnn with wolf blitzer in the situation room happening now extreme weather, a heat wave is intensifying in the mostly densely populated areas of the united states, more than there are 100 million people are under heat advisories right now, we re watching all of this also happening now the preps and the posturing, there are underway right down our huge, huge debate coming up next week also tonight, we re watching very significant legal developments unfolding, right now. the judge in the trump class despite documents, case just wrapped up a hearing on whether special counsel jack smith was legally appointed after pushing trump s lawyer defend an argument she called ominous plus, the united states supreme court upholds a federal gun law aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence. we re breakin