welcome to politicsnation. tonight s lead, uncharted territory. right now, the week ahead promises to be an unprecedented one for our nation, which of course follows last week s unprecedented fbi search of donald trump s mar-a-lago estate. and the revelations that have followed since nearly a dozen sets of classified materials were retrieved from the former presidents home, as part of a federal espionage investigation. this weekend, we learned that a trump lawyer sent a letter to the justice department in june. claiming that all classified materials had been returned to the government. that s according to reporting from the new york times. according to four people with knowledge of that document. nbc news has not seen the document and is working to confirm the reporting. but today, top democrats in the house are calling for a damage assessment of those documents. trump s defense dubious claims of executive privilege and preemptive declassification. meanwhile, summon law enf
tonight cnn is learning that rosalynn carter has now entered hospice care in her home in georgia. the first lady had been diagnosed with dementia and a new statement from the carter center we found that she and her husband former president jimmy carter are spending time with each other and their families. former president is 99. he transition ed to hospice care nine months ago. they are the longest married presidential couple in u.s. history. we are thinking of them and their family tonight. thank you so much for joining us, each and every night this week, cnn news night with abby phillips starts now. did a judge just suggest that donald trump is above the law? that s tonight on news night. good evening, i m abby phillip in washington and we start the hour with a question. was richard nixon actually right when he said when a president does it that means it s not illegal? well a judge may have just said in one very specific and important way that yeah, he might be
laura: good evening, i m laura ingraham on the ingraham angle. joe manchin announced he would not seek reelection in west virginia. joe manchin saw the writing on the wall, he was going to lose and lose big. i made one of the toughest decisions of my life, i will not run for reelection in the united states senate. i will be traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is interest in creating movement to mobilize the middle and bring americans together. laura: the truth is, over time, voters saw through joe manchin s mask. he couldn t play good old boy in virginia and buddy up to schumer in d.c. democrats had grown tired of him. he has not been a reliable ally to the white house or democrats, i don t know if they shift strategy that we real democrats can play. he s been more reliable than a republican would be, though. better than to not have the seat at all. that is money that can go elsewhere. laura: joe manchin s exit is a huge problem for democrat
[cheers and applause] steve: live from the world famous jukebox diner in it s great to have you all here live at the world famous juke box diner. [cheers and applause] steve: look at this. all right. sit down. we have got three hours to go. it is 6:00 a.m. on the east coast, that means the polls are open now in some states on this election tuesday, including here in the commonwealth of virginia. i m here at the diner in manassas, virginia, talking to voters we re going to talk to all these people several times. we hope they are not on america s most wanted list because that would be embarrassing. [laughter] the balance of power is hanging just by a thread for the democrats today here in virginia. ainsley, brian and lawrence and everything could change by tonight. that s true, they need to flip the senate in order to have that trifecta which hasn t happened in 10 years. i m glad you wore your vest. i know you are talking to glenn youngkin this morning and i m sure he wil
convicted ex-president s latest bid to lift the gag order in the hush money interference case. what does it mean? right now donald trump is prohibited from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, jurors, court staff, and their family members. judge juan merchan has found donald trump to be in violation of the gag order ten times and the 11th could land him in jail as the judge has warned publicly. new york court refusing to hear trump s appeal, quote, upon the grounds that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved. or asa friend joyce vance put it, donald trump s first amendment rights are not violated by the order. it is a rebuke, of course, to team trump which has argued it had constitutional questions of the highest importance. it was part of a political appreciate to getting the gag order lifted and there is an important reason for that. there is nothing, the only presidential candidate running as a convicted felon wants to do more than delegitimize this proce