california, just as president biden prepares to survey damage on maui. >> this is a really hard disaster. >> as the climate crisis gets worse, is the u.s. ready? the fema administrator will be here. and take four. donald trump will surrender to georgia officials. now two legal experts say he's disqualified from being president again. gop senator bill cassidy who voted to convict trump after january 6th will be here as well as michael luttig and lawrence wade. >> it is time to put the negativity and drama behind us. >> david axelrod talks debate strategy ahead. hello. i'm casey hunt in washington. hurricane hilary is barrelling toward the west coast of the united states and could dump more than a year's worth of rain where the state has forced evacuations, closed beaches and marks and forced the governor to declare a state of emergency on saturday. as they also prepare for the pr president's visit to survey the devastating wildfires as they face a record breaking year of billion dollar disasters. administrator chris wells, thank you for joining us this morning as so many fellow citizens are facing very difficult times ahead. can you give us the latest on hurricane hilary? how dangerous will it be? and what should people in the affected areas be doing to prepare for this storm? >> good morning, casey. hurricane hilary is going to be a serious impact and threat to southern californians. what i encourage everybody to do is take this storm serious. listen to your local officials. if they're asking you to evacuate or stay in place, they're going to have the best information that you need to make sure you are doing everything you can to protect you and your family. we are in close coordination with the governor's team and we have staff that are in california all the time and embedded in the office. we have staff that are working with them side by side right now. california's a very capable state with a lot of resources but we have also moved in additional resources just in case it exceeds capabilities so we can quickly come in and support if asked. i think the biggest thing again, casey, is people need to take the storm serious, they need to listen to their local officials and they need to make sure that they're not putting themselves in harm's way as the storm passes through. >> we really aren't used to seeing hurricanes on this side of the country. this is the first ever tropical storm warm for southern california. these warnings are about catastrophic flooding, landslides, mudslides. i realize this is the first time this has happened. you're saying that this is ready. in the future are you going to be able to handle things like this time and time and time again? >> this is what we are seeing, casey. we are seeing just this increase in the number of severe weather events, but not just an increase in the number, it's the severity of these events. we knew with el nino coming in the forecast was a more active pacific season and that's exactly what we're seeing right now. we have to also look at what is the change in the climate doing to these severe weather events? what is the risk going to look like into the future? work with our communities to understand how severe these storms are going to be and invest in mitigation projects that are going to reduce the impact from these storms. we will continue to respond and support our states and our local partners, but we also have to support them right now in investing in mitigation projects so we can protect people and so that as tehese storms occur, th impact is less and there's less people in arm's way. >> let's travel to hawaii. you're traveling with the president tomorrow, 114 dead. the hawaii governor said that who are than 1,000 individuals are still unaccounted for. is it possible that many of them were lost in the fires? how many are still unaccounted for >> yeah. the actual number, i would just refer you back to the governor and the local government there and maui county for what that exact number is. what we are doing is making sure that we go through every bit of the burned area to make sure that we have identified any remains that might be there. the report that i got last night is that we are 78% complete with the search and our teams are continuing to go through the day to go through every part of that and help identify anybody that might still be missing, and we brought in additional teams, right? the fbi is on scene. the department of defense along with hhs to help identify and also reunify people that may be in shelters, may have gone somewhere else, making sure that we can work together to identify who is still unaccounted for, where people are and as we continue to identify those that, unfortunately, have been lost by this tragic event, making sure we link up all of that information. >> you say that we have to ask the hawaii officials for the count, but you also say you are working with them. i think it's hard for people to understand there are potentially a thousand people that perished in this fire and how could we not know about this this many days out? >> again, we take all of our numbers out of the local officials and we are supporting our teams to better understand and the unaccounted piece is making sure that we are accounted for anybody that was missing and it could be that we are staying with family and friends and we haven't been able to contact them yet. there's a lot of different reasons on why people are unaccounted for and we have to work through this area as far as where fema's role is as anybody that was lost in this event and that we are going through every inch of this space in lahaina and identifying anybody that is still there. >> so you and president biden are -- you are joining president biden on his visit to maui. >> i am. >> the president has faced some criticism from republicans because he spent about five days not talking about this as many as many of the devastating images and numbers were coming, do you think the republican criticism of the president's willingness to talk about this in public or lack thereof is fair criticism? >> you know, what i can tell you is the president directed me to go to maui to assess the damage, meet with the governor and meet with the local officials and giving me the opportunity and the space to make sure that i can understand what's going on and then i report back to the president. i was in complete communication with him throughout this event helping him understand what i was seeing and what needs -- what resources needed to come in and we're doing everything we can to help the people of maay and to bring in all of the federal resources to help with this immediate response, but also to begin thinking about what this long-tomorrow recovery and rebuilding is going to look like. >> what have you told the president that he needs to be aware of, and what have you said to make sure that we address this? >> the biggest thing is he's really going to be able to see the impact and just feel this devastation and the community and how wide spread it is across this community and he's going to be able to talk to families that have been impacted. i think what he will be able to do is reassure the people of maui that he's there to support them and we're doing it in a way to rebuild the way they want to rebuild, and i think that's the biggest message that he's going to be able to get across, right? that we are here for them and we are going to help them with their vision for how they want to rebuild lahaina. >> big picture, you said last month that people's disaster relief fund could run out of money by the end of the month. we're dealing with maay and we have this potential hurricane in the -- on the west coast, congress is in an absolute standstill and we might face a government shutdown if that happens? what are we going do? >> yeah. one of the things that we always take into consideration when we are doing our analysis of where we're at with the disaster relief fund is incidents just like this. what we saw in maui is what we're seeing in california. we do still anticipate that we will have a shortage of funding at our current spending levels by mid-september, and so what we will do is we will continue to push. we will push projects, recovery projects into the next fiscal year. so we always have enough money to support any of the immediate life-saving needs. we will take measures to ensure that there is always going to be enough funding to continue to support immediate responses to these types of severe weather events and the administration is working with congress on what we can do to help facilitate the recovery projects for the rest of this year, but also going into next fiscal year. >> all right. tough times ahead. administrator deann kriswell, and are thoughts are with those in maui as well. you heard the fema administrator say she needs more funding from congress while bill cassidy joins me next to talk about his plan and the latest trump charges. plus, trump won't be on the debate stage so how should that change his rivals' strategy? 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(vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. - [announcer] do you have an invention idea but don't know what to do next? call invent help today. they can help you get started with your idea. call now 800-710-0020. welcome back to "state of the union." i'm kasie hunt. the u.s. faces more frequent and more destructive natural disasters. i want to bring in a lawmaker who is no stranger to that process, republican senator, bill cassidy of louisiana. sir, thank you for spending part of your sunday with us. >> kasey, thank you for having me. let's start with the climate. for so many americans it was this past summer of how the climate crisis is starting to impact their lives and in just as many months, americans experienced sweltering heat and there have been record water temperature in the gulf and other events. you're representing the state on the front lines and drive home the threat of climate change for you. what are you doing about it? >> a couple of things about that. i'm aware that my state has lost land about the size of delaware, so we're no stranger to this issue. you've got to have a rational response. the people sometimes forget is that emissions from the united states are now lower than they were in 2005. lower despite a bigger economy, and many more people, et cetera. why? because natural gas has replaced coal. the drivers of international increase, co2 emission, asia and principally china. . we'll have a rational solution then we need to address china's emissions and i'm about to introduce legislation for a farm pollution fee. china does not want to enforce international forms for the environment and then -- and they want to import it good to us and a good that would not produce here because of the associated air pollution because there will be a fee to pay back the united states for the harm that china is doing. so one, i want to continue to promote things like natural gas to replace coal worldwide and secondly, try to specifically address china's particularly role in driving increased air pollution. >> that could drive up prices a little bit for americans. do you think you'd get 60 votes in the senate? >> kasey, if i may, weigh have tariffs on those chinese goods and so what this would do, it wouldy replace the tariffs with what we have now with the tariff related to the mrugdz that they're not paying to reduce. by the way, i'll point out. we are already paying for that pollution. about 25% of certain classes of pollutants in the western united states come from china. it blows over the pacific. we are paying now, let's just make the chinese pay instead of us. >> all right. you just heard the fema administrator warn that the disaster relief fund is going to run out of money. we're not even in peak hurricane season yet and house republicans are demanding spending cuts right no and this is bringing us to the brink of a government shutdown. would you support more money from fema and would a shutdown be acceptable to you? >> i would absolutely support more money for fema. absolutely. americans help fellow americans and we in louisiana are so indebted to those fellow americans and everybody, if you've not yet been hit by disaster sooner or later one will hit you. we are committed to helping hawaiians and i think the cajun navy is there as a direct route from louisiana. it is largely talked about and impacts the lives of americans and most likely there will be a continuing resolution and i think there will be eventual funding. >> so let's talk now about the proes deshl race and we are 72 hours from the first republican presidential debate. it will be missing the front-runner, donald trump, the former president. he is facing federal charges over his efforts to overturn the election, and you do vote to convict him in his impeachment trial after january 6th. you said, quote, because he is guilty, the former attorney general bill barr says that the charges that have been brought against him are quote, unquote responsible. do you agree? >> well, i'm not an attorney. there are 91 charmges, i think. the one that seems like a slam dunk is the one mishandling of classified documents. so -- so i can't comment on the rest of them because apparently, you have to prove state of mind. you'll have attorneys after me who can comment on that, but there's at least one that has the mishandling of the federal documents which seems, again a very strong case and there is a tape recording of him speaking of it, if that is proven then we might have a candidate for president who has been convicted of a crime. i think joe biden needs to be replaced, but i don't think americans will vote for someone who has been convicted. so. i'm just very sorry how all of this is playing out. >> do you think that donald trump should drop out of the race? >> i think so, but obviously, that's up to him. just asking my opinion, but he will lose to joe biden if you look at the current polls. i'm a republican. i think any republican on that stage in milwaukee will do a better job than joe biden, so i want one of them to win. if former president trump ends up getting the nomination, but cannot win a general that means we'll have four more years of policies that have led to very high inflation, to a loss of purchasing power for the average american equivalent to $10,000 and to many other things which i think have been deleterious to our country's future. if donald trump does ultimately win the nomination, would you vote for the republican over the democrat on the ticket? >> i'll vote for the republican. for any person who wants to be the leader of the country is will you take care of the issues before us? unfortunately, social security is going insolvent in eight to nine years which means that somebody watching this who is getting social security is going to get a 24% cut. former president trump and president biden is saying you'll get a 24% cut because i'm not going to do anything. my threshold is if you want to be the leader of our country is to lead and right now we need someone who will lead on that issue. >> who on the debate stage on wednesday night, of the other republican alternatives to donald trump, do you think could be a leader on this issue that you raised social security? >> at least we're talking about it it. frankly i have a different approach than they and the first thing is to acknowledge that there's an issue. the reason i hess taitate, and plan i put forward was to create a fund separate from social security. no social security dollars to invest in the u.s. economy and allow it to grow over time. you do that and you can take care of 70% of the shortfall and you can make sure that there's no cuts for people currently receiving social. we also put in work incentives. we repealed rep and gpo and we put in poverty alleviation provisions and president biden could have endorsed it. instead, he's decided to be political and make this an issue. it should be an issue, but it should be an issue of fixing it and so far he's not come up with a credible plan. >> so one last question for you, just sticking with the debate stage coming up on wednesday. we know the former president donald trump is planning not to be there. was it a mistake and do you think the debate's going to matter? >> i think the debate matters and governor hutchison which is a great guy, some of the scholars think he'll be disqualified based on the 14th amendment. i'm not an attorney. one of them quite likely will be the presidential nominee and i think any of them would be better than joe biden. so if you're concerned about the future of our country, watch the debate and find your candidate and support that candidate. >> senator bill cassidy of louisiana. thank you very much for joining us today. very interesting conversation. >> thank you, kasey. >> with trump on the sidelines for the debate, will the other candidates attack him or will they turn on each other. david axelrod and larry hogan join me next. ♪ this just in ♪ ♪ got the keys to what you want and what you need ♪ ♪ something new something sweet ♪ ♪ moving to a different beat ♪ ♪ okay now (what?) ♪ ♪ can i get a (get a) drumroll? 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[whip sound] take the first step to see if your small business qualifies. wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. and it's all right here. streaming was never this easy, you know. this is the way. you really went all out didn't you? um, it's called commitment. could you turn down the volume? here, you can try. get way more into what your into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. the union." i'm kasie hunt. republican presidential candidates are if debate prep and with the front-runner skipping the stage will they fight for second place? janing me to discuss is david axelrod and former republican of maryland, larry hogan. gentlemen, thank you both very much for being with us this morning as we talk through what the strategy is, should be. so sources -- governor hogan, tell cnn that trump is planning to skip the debate and instead they're touting this interview that they have done potentially with tucker carlson. what impact do you think trump's absence will have in the debate and do you think it doesn't matter? >> i think the debate still matters and obviously it's a much different thing without the, you know, far and away front-runner being there and the counter programming is typical trump, right? he wants to suck the oxygen out of the room and he wants all of the attention to be on him and not all of the other candidates and to some extent he'll probably have some success with that, but there are going to be people tuning in to this debate and i think it's a great opportunity for each of them to try to make their case. i think, you know, it would be a better debate with trump there, but i think it's still going to be important to watch. >> david axelrod, is there any chance, is the ability as strong as it once was. he's got tucker's star power, as well and i think there will be quite a few people with that assuming twitter doesn't collapse and i middle from the beginning that trump would be nuts to show up. he's got a gargantuan lead. desantis said the other day -- he implied that trump followers were like listless vessels and he's got quite an armada with 40 point ahead and no one has had four indictments going, four separate indictments going at the same time either and this is uncharted waters and his not being there, once everybody who wants to, chris christie takes shots at him and they're going to turn to each other and i think desantis is the guy who is in most jeopardy here. he started off his whole candidacy was premised that he was the alternative to trump and you know, getting back to the vessel reference and now he's in jeopardy of losing that distinction of being trump's principal challenger and that's an opportunity for everybody else on the stage. >> i agree with that. sorry, governor, go ahead. >> i agree with that. i think it's a make or break moment for ron desantis who has been in freefall and dropped nearly 20 points and it's been going on for quite some time and he's really got to turn it around and distinguish himself. the fact that trump's not there, not only chris christie and the number of others will be coming after desantis. you saw the memo when they told desant toys go after ramaswamy and he had to defend trump. he better defend himself because there will be some hits coming to him, as well. >> what did you make of the super pac and the campaign because that memo that you mentioned came out of a desantis super pac and outline all of the things that they think ron desantis should do in the debate and suggesting that the campaign couldn't handle the prep for him. the campaign came back with their own memo saying we're want going to follow any of that advice. what does this back and forth say about the campaign, governor hogan? >> well, the campaign is somewhat of a disaster, and it's been one stumble after another since the failed launch of it on twitter when he first kicked off his campaign and it was just the latest in a series of things. they're trying to utilize the super pac in ways that nobody has in the past and so the super pac is spending most of the money and they're crossing over into territory where they can't share information with the campaign so they put it out there for the campaign to utilize, but it was a dumb move. we now know what his strategy is and it came out publicly and i don't even know if it's a good strategy because people will be coming after desantis and he has to distinguish himself from trump. he's the number two guy at this point. so it's going to be -- it's going to be a tough night for him. >> david axelrod? >> unbelievable -- unbelievable case of malpractice because none of the things they recommended he can now do or he'll look like a trained seal act and everybody will points that out and the reference was to ramaswamy and he started out as an unknown and he proved to be a cultural warrior than desantis himself going after the woke and so on. he's been much more compelling at it, and i think what's going to be interesting on that stage to some degree is the interaction between ramaswamy and christie. i imagine christie will continue to go after trump because that's a basic premise of his campaign and ramaswamy is going to appoint himself as he has on the stump, the number one defender of trump, and i think there will be some fireworks between them and the others have to find a way to break through, to convey a message and to do it in a way that will provide viral hits because most people won't be watching this, so they need to provide viral hits that give people a sense of why they should be for them and it's a tough task. >> not going to disagree with you, but that's where we are. we're going to viral hits. briefly, governor. >> i think chris christie will be the guy to watch. he's the most skilled debater. he's coming after trump, desantis and ramaswamy and it's going to be entertaining. >> rarely dull when chris christie is on the debate stage. governor, i do have to ask you, your group, no labels is preparing a break glass in case of emergency option basically to run a third party ticket in 2024 and you argue, voters are really dissatisfied with both trump and president biden. if trump does get the nomination here is no labels going to go through with this plan to run a third-party candidate and would you serve on that ticket if they asked you to? >> look, i think we're at a point that we've never been in this country where two-thirds of the people are not interested in voting for the democrat or republican nominees. the people are completely fed up with politics. they think washington is broken and even though this normally is not something that we consider and talk about seriously because it hasn't happened in the past and this is something that could happen. we'll have to see how this campaign plays out. this is a long way off. >> is this a yes? >> trump and biden are going to do it. if trump and biden are the name naes it's very likely that they'll offer an alternative and if most of the voters don't want a or b, we have the obligation to give them c, and i'll give you the last word, david axelrod. >> thank you. >> doesn't that pave the way for donald trump? doesn't that siphon votes from joe biden and elect the person you have criticized so heavily? >> actually, no. that's the democratic talking points because they're scared to death about this potential opportunity, but no, they would only be in it to win it and they would pull in just as many votes from donald trump as joe biden. >> david axelrod? >> yeah. i love larry hogan, but that's just not true. i think that broken glass will be the jacket edge that cuts the throat of the biden campaign. history shows that. trump has a high floor and a low ceiling. if you lower the ceiling to where his high floor is good enough to win he will win and he benefitted from third parties in 2016. this would be a dreadful mistake if the goal is to deprive donald trump of the presidency. this is his -- this is his hope. this is his prayer. >> all right. david axle rod, larry hogan, i am so grateful for this conversation this morning. go to cnn.com/audio to sign up for new episodes of david's podcast "the axe files". >> thank you, kasie. >> thank you. thank you. >> does the constitution bar donald trump from being president again, a former judge and constitutional scholar explain yes and they'll explain why coming up next. the chef's cooking up firsts with her new debit card. hungry? -uhuh. the designer's eyeing sequins. uh no plaid. while mom is eyeing his spending. nice. and the engineer? 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joining me now is michael luttig and constitutional law scholar. thank you very much for spending time with us. mr. tribe, i want to start with you, and i want to read from section 3 of the 14th amendment which is what you focus on. it is known as the disqualification clause and it was passed after the civil war to deal with former confederate officials and it says in part, quote, no person shall hold any office, civil or military, under the united states or any state who having previously taken an oath to support the constitution of the united states shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. you're arguing that it applies today, but we should be clear here, donald trump hasn't been charged directly with rebellion, sedition and treason. so can you explain why you believe he's disqualified from office? certainly, kasie. when that language was written it was clear that the insurrectionists were not going to be criminally prosecute said because the president of the time, that became part of the constitution was andrew johnson, no longer abraham lincoln. his justice department was not about to prosecute those people who tried to overthrow the constitution of the united states, and so they put this provision in. it's a permanent provision even though it was triggered by the civil war and its aftermath. they put this provision in for the very specific purpose of making sure that if any secretary of state or any other official were to try to put someone on the ballot then that official would have to decide by whatever process was appropriate whether the candidate issel ij to be president or is disqualified. this was not a punishment. they knew that some of these people were not going to be punished and a lot of them got am in theys, but the question was, could they again take part in running the country? and the people who wrote the 14th amendment were not fools. they realized that if those people who tried to overturn the country, who tried to get rid of our peaceful transitions of power are again put in power that would be the end of the nation, the end of democracy, and as the scholars ably demonstrated as judge luttig and i have long believed and it's an honor to be on with him, by the way, as we have long believed this language means exactly what it says and it should be enforced in every state of the union. >> so let's talk about that enforcement, exactly, and mr. luttig, i want to sendz this o to you. you are saying that trump is quote, unquote, disqualified. what does that mean in practice? does that mean that local election officials can and should leave donald trump off the ballot in the primary or in the general election if he's the republican nominee? >> so as professor describe and i have written, this is section 3 is self-executing. by that we mean all officials, federal and state who have a responsibility to put on the ballot candidates for the presidency of the united states, for instance, they, himself or herself, are obligated under the constitution to determine whether donald trump qualifies to be put on the ballot that is, they must determine themselves whether he is disqualified from being listed on the ballot by section 3. now here's how this will work. any secretary of state or state election official charged with that responsibility will make the determination. whether that person decides that former president trump is qualified or whether he or she determines that he is disqualified by section 3 and therefore doesn't list him, that decision will be immediately challenged in federal court, and it will quickly move to the supreme court of the united states where this decision will have to be made prior to the 2024 election. >> all right. >> stakes could not be higher there. judge, professor, thank you very much for being with us this morning. >> thank you, kasie. let's get a response to that new theory with my panel here, and former attorney general ken cuccinelli, i want to ask you to put that hat on as you respond here. do you buy this? >> i don't as a practical matter here. the 14th amendment was written after the civil war acts passed and there was a historical landmark for the united states and we are debating as a country what the consequences of donald trump's actions were and that is best especially in the midst of a campaign to be left to the voters. this invites additional weaponization of the weapons system and that's not appropriate, and the american people should decide. >> i want to bring in former lieutenant governor, jeff duncan of georgia. the former atlanta mayor and it will be at the center of so much of what unfolds in this political season, in this election. jeff, if trump's convicted in your state, should he be on the ballot in georgia? >> look, i'm not a constitutional scholar and never been accused of being one and i'm looking through the lens of an average american and he has 91 indictments that should be the president of the united states. i sat in front of a grand jury this week that was laser focused on the facts on exactly what happened and he'll have a tough road in front of him. i think this is an interesting case. 19 indicted and 30 unnamed co-conspirators all trying to fate for their freedom and no one cares about being in donald trump's cool kids club anymore. >> nobody is interested in being part of the cool kids club, is interesting way to put it. >> no matter what the decision the secretary of state makes and whether or not he should have access on the ballot, we know this will ultimately be decided by the courts and it's been very difficult to predict what the courts and how the courts will rule and we will likely go to the 11th circuit and then to the supreme court, and i think at the end of the day, whether or not donald trump is the republican nominee really is up to those who will vote in the republican primary. so we will have to stay tuned on this one. >> so far, they don't seem to be moving there and that's a good segway to our next main topic as we're heading into the debate season and paul begala, you have been in many a room where you have prepared a candidate for the presidency for one of these events. i think we can all agree, although feel free to disagree with me that this is a major test for ron desantis and what do you think paul begala will do on that stage. some of my sources think it is pretty embarrassing with the super pac and the campaign and telling him what to do and what not do, where does he stand going into this. >> he's got to show why ron desantis and not donald trump. >> he's the elephant that's not in the room. i find it interesting, by the way. he's going to do -- he's with some fired cable host on a failing platform. i think the next debate he'll be with bill o'reilly on myspace. >> does myspace still exist? >> that's my point. twitter doesn't either. >> trump shouldn't show up as a strategist. i wouldn't send him either if i were trump, but if i worked for desantis you have to say why me and not him. desantis has been far too careful and pussyfooting around about ron desantis. >> just a remind tore our viewers, attorney general cuccinelli you are also the founder of the never back down super pac of which we are discussing all of this. was a mistake to put those talking points out? >> it was, but to paul's -- >> it was? >> to paul's point, the key here is in the introduction. if history is any guide that will be the first and for some vote voters, the only observation at the center of the stage and for the reasons we're talking about him and he has four of the toughest media, and he hasn't made a mistake and that's pretty darn good preparation for what happened on wednesday and while he has very high name i.d.n. republican electorate. he has very high favorables and there isn't a sense of knowing him yet like people know like they know donald trump after seven or eight years for good or ill, and so he's going to have that opportunity, and now being the number-one, personally to voters, he does have to make the case and he's shown a great ability to make the case and i agree with paul that he has taken on trump from issues from the minute i was in the race. >> the name kaling and the trump juvenile-level of -- >> i getten gaming trump on the issues and there was a pretty interesting moment in a recent interview where governor desantis talked about trump supporters. he used the words listless vessels. >> he wasn't talking about trump supporters. >> hold on. i'm going to play it for everybody and you can go ahead. let's listen. >> a movement can't be about the personality of one individual. if all we are listless vessels that are supposed to follow whatever happens to come down the pike on truth social every morning, that's not going to be a durable movement. >> everybody just saw there that there was a cut. you cut from the beginning of that quote to the listless vessels. you just did what the problem is. so everybody when just watched that understand go read the transcript. >> okay. fine, you summarize for us what was it that he was trying to say? >> first of all, his first point is about america. >> how do we get from listless individuals? >> there's a pretty big cut. some of who endorsed trump and referring to us collectively, we can't sit back and take all of this, the listless vessels and we have to move ahead from the vision and folks, go read the transcript. you don't have to listen to me. you can go read it yourself. >> i've been a contrarian since hours after the 2020 election and the contrarian was let's move to a 2.0, better direction forward. i think all of the republican candidates for the most part have been aiming at the wrong audience of republicans. there is a 35% group that are just in love with donald trump. he's who they were speaking about that he can shoot someone on fifth avenue. there are 65% of republicans that are approachable. they don't want crazy. they want someone who can step up to the mike and this should be an opportunity to step up from the haves and have notes. donald trump was wrong and he lied to us and he forfeited the right to be president of the united states again and here's my vision to tackle the border. here's my vision to beat joe biden and here's my vision to talk about inflation and the national security and public safety and we have to refrain this conversation as republicans. if we're sitting here in 12 months and paul and mayor bottoms are still talking about joe biden's record, we'll lose every day of the week and fiso sunday. >> do you agree? >> if this is about americans and not individuals why has the republican party allowed donald trump to hijack the republican party? it's donald trump all day every day, and i think when you see desantis on the stable, you will see this glass jaw that we talk about, when he can't handle a question from a reporter without getting offended, what will happen when he's got all these people on the stage? and i think what we need to look at is why is this about donald trump? there are real issues, and we're talking about a former president who has been indicted. multiple times, why will the republican party not take back the party? >> you just said -- it's all donald trump all the time. why won't these folks talk about donald trump? which is it? desantis has rolled out an economic program. he's rolled out an effort for the military. the only veteran running for president and there's credibility there, and these are things that matter at the national level. >> let me parse one session because we want to show viewers from cbs news that goes to the point you're making which is a national poll that shows 62% of the republican party is with donald trump. that's why. >> yeah, and i don't buy that. we're knocking doors, over a million and a half doors with the super pac. the undecided is very, very high and in new hampshire and in iowa, over half of republicans don't want donald trump to be the next nominee. >> i talked to reporters this weekend who were at the iowa state fair and people going up and taking pictures with donald trump and this is the selfie they want, but they come out and say, well, i'm not voting for him. >> it's not a political party anymore. judge luttig said that. it's not a political party, it's not. >> it's a cult of personality and the party of lincoln and the party rig an didn't have a cult of personality. which is the last time trump used to talk about or the border or immigration, but it's all that my joke has been like pavarotti warming up for the opera. me, me, me, me, me, but never you, you, you, you, you. the party's become a cult of personality and good luck on taking on that personality. i hope you do. good luck. >> we are unfortunately, out of time or i would let you continue with your opera singing. >> thank you for spending your sunday morning with us. fareed zakaria gps starts next. s on ancestry. this is the uh registration card for the draft for world war two. and this is his signature which blew me away. being able to... make my grandfather real... not just a memory... is priceless. his legacy...lives on. my cpa told me i wouldn't qualify for the erc tax refund, so i called innovation refunds. their team of independent tax attorneys will work with your cpa to determine if your company is eligible. 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