we are grateful. the the beat starts right now. you and everyone else in america is getting a law degree, one i paid for. but we are going to expend all that legal knowledge. thank you. and welcome to the the beat. i m katie phang in for ari melber. we have a lot to get to tonight. later, i will talk live to the lawyer for ruby freeman and shaye moss, the defamed election workers who won a $148 million verdict against rudy giuliani. now they are suing him again. plus, we ve got historian ruth who is here to talk about trump s threat to democracy and his gop enablers. we start the show with donald trump s desperation as legal deadlines pound him from the start, trump has tried to sow confusion, disgusting attacks on judges and witnesses, and above all, to delay his legal reckoning. the news tonight, special counsel jack smith is pressing forward with new moves designed to pressure trump and to stay on track. monday night jack smith forging ahead in the d.c. coup ca
you re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in atlanta. four, three, two, one. engine s full power. and liftoff. falcon 9, go axiom. [ applause ] together we expand this is a beautiful sight if you just missed it, right now four private astronauts are on the way to the international space station. the axiom 2 mission blasted off from the kennedy space center just minutes ago. we ll go there live in just a few minutes to wrap up some really remarkable developments on the space coast. but on the meantime, here in atlanta and in washington, negotiations are resuming to confront the looming debt crisis. the talks will be at the staff level for the moment but they will set the stage for a high-stakes meeting between the president and kevin mccarthy. they spoke today and this new glimmer of optimism, if we could believe it, comes as the prospect of a quick compromise appears increasingly bleak. are you at all optimistic about what we could accomplish today. could we g
it is now highly lookly the united states won t be able to pay its bills by early june. also tonight, trump accuser e. jean carroll is seeking further damages from the former president for disparaging comments he made about her during a cnn town hall. and in ukraine after months of brutal fighting, it now appears bakhmut has finally fallen to russia, but ukrainian forces say they still hold a small portion of the totally ruined city. i ll get reaction from the former ukrainian defense minister. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s get straight to our top story right now. the speaker mccarthy and president biden, they are diving into another round of debt limit negotiations as the treasury secretary issues her starkest warning yet, that default is now just a few days away. we re covering the story from every angle over at the white house up on capitol hill. let s begin over at the w
hard evidence that shows donald trump and his top advisors knew of the correct declassification process while donald trump was president which flies in the face of what trump has claimed in the past. tonight the documents could be in the hands of the special counsel as we speak in a criminal probe. now, in just a moment we will try to get answers from trump s lawyer who will be joining me live. first, a look at the brand-new information gathered by our cnn team. their sources say there are 16 records that the national archives is handing over to jack smith. the records apparently indicate trump and his top advisors were made aware of the correct process to declassify material while trump was president undercutting claims like this one. i took what i took and gets declassified. they become automatically declassified when i took them. and also this claim. it doesn t have to be a process. you re the president of the united states, you can declassify just by saying it s dec
i m paula reid in washington. jim acosta has the day off. we are following several developing stories on this busy afternoon. the u.s. takes another step closer to running out of money to pay its debts. despite a deadline as close as 12 days away, the high-stakes negotiations between the white house and republicans have broken down. and it s not clear when they will resume. meanwhile, president biden will cut short his asia trip to address the looming debt crisis, but before heading home tomorrow from the g7 summit in japan biden will meet with ukraine s president. president zelenskyy is making a dramatic appearance at the gathering to ask world leaders for more help in the war against russia. zelenskyy s plea comes as russia claims a major victory in ukraine. today the head of the mercenary wagner group says his fighters captured bakhmut after months of brutal fighting. ukraine says it still holds a small portion of the city. cnn s phil mattingly is at the g7 summit in hiros