t the lead starts right now. ukraine is pushing, pushing, pushing. cnn is live as the 31 nations meet. and why special counsel is accusing donald trump s right-hand man of trying to delay the prosecution of him. and the once in a thousand year rainfall behind devastating flooding in parts of america ears noamerica s northeast, trapping drivers in cars and on roads and forcing some to swim to safety. we start today with our word lead. the president in lithuania with one goal on his list unity. ukraine will be the main focus of the two-day meeting but for a group that has been, frankly, stunningly united, there are public fractures in the alliance starting to emerge, ones president biden will have to fix over the next few days, mainly overs decision to send cluster bombs to the front line, one that has been banned by most of the allies who will be sitting around president biden at that table in lithuania. they will have to decide when and how they will let ukraine join
studio? i like it like this. is it you doing this? i don t even know. i m a kind of go along to get along dude. i like being with you, so if that s the cost of sharing a studio. we can raise it up, whatever you want. just feet away from each other. i ll just wear a sweater. thank you. have a good evening, chris. thank you for joining us tonight. i m ali velshi in for alex wagner. we re going to warm up in the next few minutes. president biden hasxt released s first campaign ad of 2024. and in that ad president biden makes clear what he believes will be the central issue of thisce election. i ve made the preservation of american democracy the central issue of my presidency. i believe in free and fair elections and the right to vote fairly and have your vote counted. there s something dangerous happening in america. there s an extremist movement who does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. all of us are being asked right now what will we do to maintain o
the country and he declined. i m sorry, vindman. volodymyr zuenlen skae. you re a pretty brave guy, too. hegu stayed in kyiv. he postedta videos every night,e gives a message every night. he motivates his people and tells them that they can win the war, and yet around the world the ukrainian people see this, he s got his officials, he s got himself going to america begging, saying we could lose this war if you don t continue to fund us. how dangerous is this? could ukraine lose this war? it s t unlikely ukraine coul lose in the next year or two. i think orabsent this funding, this supplemental funding for ukraine, things get considerably more complex. the u.s. can move in the direction of asset forfeiture and transfer, that s one of solutions.
to be made toward membership. reporter: there could be some news on fast tracking ukraine s entry into nato. it was tweeted there has been some agreement, that ukraine coul could skip some tsteps in joinig nato. that is something that president zelenskyy has been pushing for, they want the invitation or a concrete timetable for when they re going to be able to join the alliance. this is existential for them. joining the alliance means having the support of every nato country behind them should russia attack them in the future after there is a peace. but that is something that the alliance still has not come to an agreement on. as we heard president biden say over the weekend he does not think right now that ukraine is ready to join nato. he believes they still need to make a number of reforms before