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 berning that president biden
sale on ebay. the price tag, $1,200. how did it get there? who bought it? let s go outfront. i m poppy harlow in for erin burnett. the former president s attorneys downplaying the classified documents seized from mar-a-lago. that comparison to an overdue library book made by trump s new lawyer, florida s former solicitor general. during the search of trump s home, the fba seized 33 boxes, which included more than 100 classified documents, which were marked confidential, secret and also top secret. that is on top of 15 boxes that trump s team turned over in january where there were 184 classified documents. they reiterated the trump for a special master to examine the documents seized. the judge in all of this did today stop short of making a final decision at the hearing. we could get her ruling on that any minute. we could soon learn more about what the fbi took in those boxes from trump s home last month. the judge said she s thinking about publically releasing a more det
into pardoning january 6th insurrectionists if he is in a position to do so if he runs and if he wins re-election. he says he s very likely to pardon insurrectionists. is that a message that, for instance, mitch mcconnell or other people in the republican party who want to take back the senate, is that a message they want to hear? no. i mean this is looking backwards. it s what donald trump wants his next campaign to be about. he wants it to be about relitigating 2020, righting the wrongs in his mind of how it was taken away from him. just this week he tweeted that he thought he should be reinstated or we should have a new election right now. does the combination of the former president saying that or does the presence of that give the current president ammunition in this speech tonight? well, of course. biden knows if they put trump at the center, trump will be all too happy to oblige it. and every day we spend talking about what trump is saying and how biden is framing it and i
they tried everything last time to nullify the votes of 81 million people. this time, they re determined to succeed in thwarting the will of the people. that s why respected conservatives like federal circuit court judge michael ludig has called trump and extreme maga republicans, quote, a clear and present danger to our democracy. while the threat to american democracy is real, i want to say as clearly as we can we are not powerless in the face of these threats. we are not bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy. there are far more americans, far more americans from every background and belief who reject the extreme maga ideology than those that accept it.
not talking about inflation and border and schools and crime. that s a day biden is going to win. so from a pure republican operative perspective, you ve got to not take you ve got to resist this. you ve got to put the american people and your constituents at the center of your messaging and not let donald trump hijack your campaign every day. biden knows this. that is why this is not an incorrect tactical impulse. they re not doing so hot on some of the economic stuff so to put trump at the center of it makes some strategic sense. this speech really felt like a reset that the administration felt like they needed. i m curious to see now in the weeks ahead, democrats really needed a midterm message. let s not forget how chaotic the last two years have been for democrats in washington in terms of being able to land some policy victories. finally in the 11th hour they have been able to be cohesive enough to secure some. but democrats desperately need a midterm message. he just provide