yevgeny prigozhin apparently dead in a highly suspicious plane crash. we begin with all we've learned the last few hours about that crash in a private jet in russia russia. yevgeny prigozhin and his top lieutenants were on board. a social media platform linked to the group is saying he's dead. this is some of the footage showing the plane spiraling toward the ground, from the looks of it, with possibly only one wing falling at nearly 8,000 feet per minute toward the end. the circumstances highly suspicious. president biden saying he wasn't surprised and that not much happens in russia that vladimir putin isn't behind. -- he also lived in and reported from moscow for years. he joins us now. what's the latest we know about this crash? >> reporter: we don't have a lot of information, anderson. there's an investigation underway by the russian authorities. you can see the aftermath, the flames that engulfed that entire area. it's about 60 miles or so outside of the russian capital, moscow. it's not far. the plane had just taken off from moscow and was traveling at all altitude of, i think, 26,000 feet, when they lost radio contact with it. you can see that video there of the plane spiraling to earth before it crashed into that fiery, you know, kind of a fireball at the bottom of it. look, there's all sorts of narratives that are coming out in social media. as i say, there's an investigation underway. but the main suspicion, certainly from, you know, kind of observers outside of russia, is that this is connected with the state in some way. remember yevgeny prigozhin is the man who headed that attempted coup against moscow in june. he's the person who challenged vladimir putin's rule to the greatest extent in the past 23 years. and vladimir putin called that coup attempt a stab in the back and was absolutely furious. and so, you know, was this coincidental? well, i mean, that's something that we may never find the reality about. but certainly there's a lot of suspicion. as you mentioned, president biden against them, that the kremlin may have, in some way, been involved. >> wasn't the head of the russian air force who previously had been in charge of the fighting in ukraine who had been linked with prigozhin? wasn't he just fired within the last 24 hours? >> yeah. surovikin. he was very close to the wagner group. in fact, we reported that he was actually a secret member of the wagner group at the time when the attempted coup took place. he made a very nervous appeal during that coup attempt for wagner to back down. after that, he simply disappeared from view, and he hasn't been seen in public since. he was once the commander of russian forces in ukraine. he was, of course, the commander of russia's air force. it was announced today that he was no longer in that role. we still haven't seen him in public. it seems this is a sort of clearing of house of all these people that may have been connected with that uprising. it wasn't just yevgeny prigozhin, of course, on board this plane. it was the top leadership, essentially, of wagner. it was his chief of security. it was dmitry up kin as well. there were three crew members, seven others. all of them were killed in this fireball. >> so, it's a real decapitation of the top ranks, the top leadership, of wagner. >> yeah. it seems to be that way. obviously there are still wagner commanders on the ground in the field in ukraine, in belarus, as far as we understand. of course, in african countries where wagner has played such an important role in propping up some dictatorial regimes there. but, look, i mean, the top leadership of this organization has now been completely decapitated, as you say. and it's shocking but it's not surprising. one of the more surprising things about the events of the past couple of months is that prigozhin lived for so long after staging this huge uprising, this massive challenge, to vladimir putin's power. that is what people in russia were most surprised about. >> matthew chance, we're going to come back to you shortly. we'll also be joined by clarissa ward, and steve hall, former chief of operations. this is the man once known as america's mayor and "time" magazine's person of the year. fulton county inmate p11 -- white male, 5'11", 230 pounds, hair described as gray or partially gray. eyes, brown. he, sidney powell, and jenna ellis all booked today in atlanta. these are the attorneys who represented the former president through 61 failed challenges to the election that he lost. they're the ones that made countless false statements and unfounded claims on his behalf, and allegedly counseled him on actions that were legally or constitutionally dubious. three members of the bar, mr. giuliani, spoke with the press after his release. >> i am very, very honored to be involved in this case because this case is a fight for our way of life. this indictment is a travesty. if this can happen to me, who is probably the most prolific prosecutor maybe in american history and the most effective mayor for sure, it can happen to you. >> he was asked whether he still believes the 2020 election was rigged but either did not hear or chose not to answer the question. nor did he say who paid for his flight on a private jet to atlanta. giuliani told a court last week he's effectively out of clash. jeffrey clark and the former white house chief of staff found out that they are out of luck when it comes to delaying their surrender or arrest. a federal judge late today denying their arrest to freeze fulton county proceedings until their motion to move the trial to federal court is decided. clark, you may remember, tried to justify it in part by claiming it would help him avoid making rushed travel arrangements. paula reid joins us from atlanta with more. what more have we learned about giuliani's surrender? >> reporter: anderson, that mug shot is a reminder that even being a very successful top prosecutor in this country does not give you immunity from becoming a criminal defendant. giuliani surrendered at the fulton county sheriff's office earlier today and he was processed in under an hour, which is pretty quick for defendants in this case. but the sheriff's office tells cnn that he was handled just like any other defendant. in addition to that $1,150,000 bond, he'll have to post a portion of that in cash, he also has some restrictions he needs to abide by if he wants to continue to be a free man. among their restrictions, though, he cannot talk about the case with any of his codefendants. former president trump is, of course, one of his codefendants. trump will be hosting a fund-raiser to help giuliani raise money for his legal fees in just a few weeks. now, giuliani had some words for the district attorney earlier today. let's take a listen to what he said. >> fani willis will go down in american history as having conducted one of the worst attacks on the american constitution ever when this case is dismissed. she has violated people's first amendment right to advocate the government, to petition the government for grievances, like an election they believe was poorly conducted or falsely conducted. people have a right to believe that in america. >> reporter: well, it will be up to a jury to decide if he was just advocating on behalf of a client or if he was engaging in a conspiracy to undermine the election. as you noted, he flew in here on a private jet. unclear how he afforded that because he has been telling the court that he's out of money. but he was able to get a georgia lawyer, ryan tefs, to help him with a bond agreement. he needed a georgia licensed attorney to sign that. when i asked mr. tevis if he'll represent mr. giuliani throughout the case, he said that remains to be seen. asked if he's getting paid, he did not answer. >> mark meadows and jeffrey clark requested delay their surrenders. willis had responded to those motions earlier today. what did she say? >> anderson, both men are trying to get their fulton county case removed to federal court. meadows believes if he can get his case moved to federal court he can get it dismissed because there are federal protections for some government employees. they are protected from state level prosecutions. but both men asked the judge to delay any surrender requirement at the state level until after that federal question is answered. meadows actually has a hearing on that case on monday, but a judge denied that request. so, both men still have to surrender by noon on friday. just a few minutes ago, the district attorney, fani willis, weighed in on this meadows pursuit of getting this moved to federal court, dismissing any suggest that what he was doing was protected and part of his job as chief of staff. he said, no, what he was doing was political activity. >> paula reid, thanks so much. senior legal analyst, elie honig, michael moore, and cnn political commentators alyssa farah griffin and david axelrod. david, it's fascinating to hear rudy giuliani talk about how fani willis is going to go down in history. you look at that mug shot of giuliani. i mean, how far this guy has fallen from, i mean, you know, once on the cover of "time" magazine. >> it's extraordinary. you know, i was working the mayoral race in 2001. he was leaving office when 9/11 happened. and he -- i remember how exalted he was for the leadership he provided then, such that he was the front runner for president of the united states in 2008. and so, yeah, this is -- it is an extraordinary fall. but it's also, you know, so cynical to be engaged in a plot or an alleged plot, i guess i should say, to undermine the presidential election in ways that were, you know, clearly, clearly wrong, and then accuse others of undermining. it's orwellian, really. >> that's what he's saying about fani willis, she's attacking the constitution. he was there on january 6th rallying the crowds to go forth. >> right. we remember that crazy rnc press conference that jenna ellis, sidney powell, and rudy giuliani spouted -- hugo chavez, who wasn't even alive at the time. what stood out to me -- we'll likely see mark meadows arraigned in the next couple of days -- is shortly after the election was called for joe biden, meadows was trying to keep some of these individuals away from the president. there was a period he was talking to mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy and say we're going to get trump around to it. we're going to keep the crazy car away from him. at some point that flipped and now he's going to be remembered in history in a rico case. >> you know his reputation clearly as a prosecutor in manhattan. to see him like this -- >> when we first saw that mug shot, it was jarring for me. it brought me back -- if you're in the southern district of new york building, there is a wall with every justice. and there is rudy. and it's framed similarly to this mug shot here. but the circumstances couldn't be more different. he's got the flag behind him and he's smiling proudly. the truth of the matter is he was a remarkable and historically significant prosecutor. he's an indicted in one case, a coconspirator in another case. he's being sued for defamation by various parties. it's a tragic shakespearean fall. but let's be clear. it's his own doing. nobody picked on him for reasons of amusement or politics. >> i want to ask you both about this move by ken chesebro, which has not gotten a lot of attention. his attorneys have filed papers, essentially demanding a speedy trial. talk about the significance of this. >> georgia has a statute that's called the speedy trial act. and it's a little different than we think about in a federal court. what it says is a defendant can come in during the time they're indicted and ask the court to try their case. and it gives the district attorney just a few months -- and in this case, it would be really through october to put the case on trial. so, if they don't do that -- if they don't try the case in the time the law says, then the charges are dismissed. so, it's a clever move, i think, by the defense attorneys here. i think you're going to see, likely, motions to sever other defendants because they're going to claim we're not ready this quick. we don't want to do it. and it puts the d.a. in a unique position because she's going to have to decide what does she do with chesebro. and is she going to try to give the other side a trial run and let them take a look at what they want to put forward with the case? or is she thinking some of these will be moved to federal court? we don't know. it's a good move. they've indicted you, they've taken your picture, they've put you in jail for a few hours. let's tee it up. >> chesebro is accused of being the brains behind the -- the creator of the fake elector scheme to begin with. so, could he just go to trial and anybody else who says they want a speedy trial to go along with him and then others, to your point, the rest would be severed? >> i think that's the most likely scenario. those who want the speedy trial are legally entitled it to. here's why it's so important strategically. it will give people in the later group, which surely will include donald trump, a free look at the evidence. michael's right. they called the bluff here. what's going to happen is there's going to be a first batch and donald trump is going to get to see all the government's witnesses, how they're cross examined, what points missed. there's a real tactical advantage there. >> how much of an advantage do you think that is? >> i think it's valuable if you're a defense attorney, especially one of the top tier folks waiting to see what happens in the case. the indictment tells the story of rico, but being able to watch it first hand and hear it out of witness' mouths and have a dry run at it, that's something you can't put a price on. it was a clever move by his lawyers to do it. >> so, tomorrow obviously the former president's going to be booked yet again. the -- are republicans paying less and less attention to this do you think or is it -- >> i mean, i think so. we've seen in primary polls, his numbers have only gone up. other candidates behind him have gone down with the indictments. i would point out the latest general election polling has him lagging the most behind joe biden han he has in the last six months. there is this moment where the general public is sick of the indictments and the noise. that's where the party -- we're going to see a republican debate later tonight -- needs to realize he is too weak a general election candidate even if he may be sweeping in the primary polls. and try to unite behind somebody else. >> here's the thing. you mentioned this was rudy giuliani's own doing. this isn't the plot that he -- but he is running in trump's tracks here. and trump has laid these tracks and he's been very effective. people believe, his supporters believe, and republicans have embraced the idea that these are politically motivated prosecutions. so, when you say, well, yeah, these are politically motivated prosecutions, but he can't win so, we've got to let him go, you're going to hear some -- even asa hutchinson has been making that argument. i think people say, no, you're just abetting the plot by saying, we're not going to support trump. that's exactly what they want. it is very, very clever and diabolical what he's done. but it's been very effective. it's not -- i think it jeopardizes him in a general election. but so far it has strengthened him in a -- it has been his force field in the republican primary. >> now there's going to be a fund-raiser that the former president is having for giuliani. is that kosher? >> there's nothing illegal about it. it could give rise to a conflict of interest. >> can they talk about the case to each other? >> according to the order, the bail release order, they're not allowed to discuss the case because they're codefendants. but they may enter into a joint definite agreement, which happens a lot. at that point you absolutely are entitled to discuss the case with your codefendants. judge can't stop you from doing that. seems to me donald trump is trying to keep rudy giuliani in line without having to open up the checkbook. >> what is the -- what's the benefit of having a joint arrangement, besides being able to communicate? >> t it takes some of the secrecy out of what your codefendants are dog. it gives you the chance to make sure you're on the same page. i don't think there's a case you're necessarily cutting down on the work in a joint defense agreement. this is a case you want to make sure people are saying the same thing. >> i know what's interesting is mark meadows has been very much away from trump world for some time, and jenna ellis as well who has come out as a strong desantis supporter. there are some wrapped up in this indictment that may end up not aligning. >> do you want to be in a defense agreement with sidney powell? does that sound like a good idea to anybody? >> probably not. it doesn't seem like a good idea. >> it becomes like "lord of the flies." everyone will find their own tribe and who's competing with who. watch the knives come out. they're going to go after each other. >> were you surprised the federal judge rejected mark meadows' request? >> i wasn't surprised. i thought there was a chance he might do it. he's going to have a an evidentiary hearing on monday, where they'll dig into the issue of transferring the case back to federal court and they'll talk about whether or not they're federal employees and entitled to the relief under the removal statute. he basically said, look, there's no provision to allow us to do a temporary injunction to stop the d.a. he's going to get processed -- it's very likely because there are charges out there. this just moves the ball forward. it was, i think, a meaningless thing at noint. the judge felt like he was giving him his day in court on the bigger motion, which is what matters. >> michael moore, elie honig, david axelrod, alyssa farah griffin, thank you. coming up, the plane crash and clarissa ward who confronted one of the agents allegedly behind the poisoning of alexei navalny. and later,r, a look behind tonight's first republican debate. vo: they love visiting farms for photo ops. the republicans. throw on blue jeans, stand next to a tractor. but right now, our farms are hurting. from droughts in wisconsin, to floods in iowa, to extreme heat just about everywhere. climate change is crushing our farmers. and they won't do a damn thing about it because that would mean taking on the oil industry. yeah, they'll stand up for photo ops, but will they ever stand up to big oil? 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are they -- they were in belarus for a while. how many are still in ukraine? are they actively engaged in the fight still in ukraine? >> i think since two months ago when there was that attempted coup, their role has been significantly diminished on the front lines and ukraine has been pulled back for kind of what was characterized as rest and relaxation but was, in fact, sort of moving them out of the way so that defense ministry regular forces could take over while the kremlin decided what to do with them. many of them have been moved to belarus, the neighboring country, of course, where alexander lukashenko, a close putin ally, the president of that country, said he would be using them to train belarusian forces in, sort of, combat techniques because of the experience they had. but, you know, it was all very sketchy, and it's not altogether clear that any training was undertakenen. and even know we know they were there because we saw video of them in sort of tent-city camps that were built close to the belarusian capital, there are rumors that they've been filtering away and in fact they may be taken back to russia proper in the days and in the weeks ahead. so, it's not clear what role they play anymore in this special military operation. the euphemism that russia uses to describe its war in ukraine. i suspect that, you know, this decapitation of the wagner leadership is not going to have a massive impact on the war itself in ukraine. >> clarissa, you know, i don't know if this is the case of revenge being best served cold. but there's certainly been a history inside and outside russia of assassinations and/or attemp attempt assassinations -- you did the report on the assassination attempt of alexei navalny. how does this crash fit into that history? >> it very much fits in that history. we've seen president putin being asked, what's the one thing you cannot forgive? and the answer was, betrayal. traitors he believes to be the worst kind of specimen of human. if you look back, whether it's alexei navalny being poisoned, whether it's a former double agent being poisoned, again and again we have seen putin showing no mercy in his attempts to extinguish this kind of a threat. i think what was really sort of fascinating to people, anderson, was how it was possible that yevgeny prigozhin was wandering around very visibly, seem ingly very freely, visiting belarus, visiting africa, apparently, greeting african leaders for a whole two months after this extraordinary mutiny took place. everyone was waiting in disbelief. surely at some point this has to come to an end. and surely at some point putin must exact his revenge. we're hearing from some sources and people that watch the kremlin really closely that this really just gave them a two-month period where they had the time to go about dismantling wagner, getting all the pieces set in place so that they could go ahead and exact their revenge once and for all. >> i don't know if it's a sign of confidence prigozhin had that he and a lot of his top people would be all together on a plane or just foolishness and, you know, lack of -- his security chief was apparently on this plane. that doesn't speak well to his abilities. >> yeah. the security chief, one of the founders -- or the founder -- of wagner, dmitry ut kin, a former military man, was on the plane, prigozhin himself, and a few other senior wagner commanders as well. i think probably -- although we'll never know. i think it probably speaks to the idea that prigozhin thought he got away with it. he thought that he'd come to an accommodation with the kremlin to settle, you know, some of the grievances that he had when he staged this march on moscow in june. and he probably thought that he was too valuable to the kremlin to be disposed of. he's got very significant operations through wagner in countries in africa and elsewhere as well, operations that really do extend the kremlin's influence into that continent, into the middle east as well. and he may have just made the calculation that he was home and dry and that putin was not strong enough to act. but obviously this is a -- if it is state involvement, this would be a very strong message to the contrary. >> matthew chance, clarissa ward, thank you. coming up next, analysis of the prigozhin plane crash video. and joins us for his take on prigozhin's apparent demise. th ey charge you a lot. we charge you a little. they put theheir names on arena. we put ours on my lower back. so naturally when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you. and if this were one of their ads, they'd end it here with a "happy customer". so we'll end ours with an angry goat. oh h-ho, look at the angry goat. i'll always take care of you. ♪ i'm gonna hold you forever... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ be by your side... ♪ ♪ i'll be there... ♪ we, the moms who have lost our children to social media harms. we, we, we have had enough. our politicians have failed. working for lobbyists, not us. we need your voice to pass the kids online safety act this fall. join us. join us. join us. join us. ♪ let's lead the way. ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) ( ♪ ♪ ) experience the sanctuary of handsfree highway driving with lincoln bluecruise. it's the final days of the lincoln summer invitation event. right now, get 3.9% apr and $1000 trade assist cash on a new 2023 lincoln. welcome back. airplanes in level flight at cruising altitude do not ordinarily just lose a wing and spiral to earth, as this one apparently did. in fact, there are very few ways of making a plane crash in the fashion this one did that did not involve foul plane. means and motive, two things vladimir putin certainly had, when it comes to yevgeny prigozhin and his wagner leadership. we're joined by aerospace analyst and pbs correspondent melissa brian -- former chief of russia operations for the cia. steve, first, what was your reaction when you heard about this crash and that prigozhin's name was on the manifest? >> not a great deal of supply. a lot of watchers were saying, look, this is coming at some point. we didn't know exactly how or when, but people familiar with putin realize it's not conceivable that yevgeny prigozhin could do what he did and get away with it unscathed. this is a strong message obviously to others who might be considering something similar to that. one of the reasons putin is probably pleased is seeing all the videos circulated, he wants that message to be understood very clearly. >> miles, i know you've had a chance to see the video of the crash. there's images sort of early on, as the plane is going on. then there's some cloud cover, and then it comes back. what stands out to you in it? >> well, anderson, it's coming down quickly in a spin, and it's trailing a lot of smoke. so, this is an aircraft that was on fire. and it looks like some structural pieces, aerodynamic surfaces, were missing. there are some reports i've been reading that maybe some piece of the rear section, perhaps the vertical stabilizer, or tail, was missing. i think what you have to assume in this case is that an aircraft like this, as you pointed out, they just don't catastrophically drop out of the sky without something very unusual happening. so, i would think that investigators in this case, to the extent that it will be investigated in russia, will be looking at an explosion either inside the aircraft or outside it. inside a bomb. outside would be some kind of missile. >> obviously if there was a missile, steve, would u.s. intelligence or some, you know, ally intelligence service be able to pick that up? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, i'm sure all of allied western intelligence service is trying to figure out what the actual cause of this was. there's a lot of technical things that can be done to track launches and such. there's radio communication. there's all different ways to figure out how this happened and why this happened. i think the target was two people here, not just yevgeny prigozhin and not just to people that might be aspiring to his goals, but also there's some deniability with the russian people. prigozhin was popular with some people. there has to be some sort of explanation, pilot error, some sort of terrorist bomb, did the ukrainians do it. it will be interesting to see how the kremlin decides to spin this. >> what about the plane that was involved? the embraer legacy 600? >> it's got a flawless record really, anderson. back in 2009, a similar aircraft was involved in a midair collision over the amazon. there was a -- really it was a flight controlled miscommunication as much as anything. and the aircraft, having collided with a 737, the 737 craft and this aircraft was able to land safely. so, it's a well-built aircraft for sure. no other accidents on record. and really no reason to believe that it was in any way flawed. >> steve, in "the godfather," big culminating, things always happen in groups. people get massacred at the same time. maybe i'm reading too much into this. but the fact that the head of the air force who was an ally of prigozhin and had been in charge of the war in ukraine and was accused of maybe colluding with the rebellion is suddenly fired on the day that prigozhin goes down. that seems kwens dental. >> like so much inside of russia, the coincidences can rarely be written off as only that. obviously it's two months to the day since this mutiny was started out. and putin is a guy who likes his anniversaries and the symbols that go with that. so, that's one thing that tracks. also, other people, you know, like these other generals and other contacts of prigozhin's are now beginning, in close succession, to meet if not their actual ends, their professional ends. we're going to see how it plays out and how the kremlin decides to message this inside russia. >> just ahead, coming up next, more on how the crash is being investigated outside russia. to steve's point how american intelligence and others are trying to get to the bottom of it. - "best thing i've ever done." that's what freddie told me. - it was the best thing i've ever done, and- - really? 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>> first on the read of this death -- i've spoken to a number of western officials. they say, much like president biden said today, that nothing on this scale happens in russia without the knowledge and approval of the russian president, vladimir putin, particularly when it involves someone who was such a close ally of his through the years but also someone who too wants to led a failed coup against the former president. putin could emerge stronger in the time after this coup because it would give him an opportunity to smoke out, as it were, potential challengers. and that's why it's important -- and you were speaking about this in the last segment -- to look at not just one but two events today, the loss of that aircraft, as you're watching it now fall to the ground, but also the removal from his position as head of the aerospace forces of general voef kin. attempt at a coup two months ago. those two moves today point to something that two western officials tell me could have been a message in their meant to scare anyone who might have challenged putin in the past or would think about doing so in the future. that is the current western intelligence read of this. >> and jim, matthew chance was points out, that general who got fired today, he has not been seen since the rebellion. >> he very visibly disappeared, if that's a way of describing it, immediately following the coup. and russian officials said he was resting, which was an almost comical explanation for why the man who led, for a time, your military operations in ukraine would disappear suddenly. so, now he's been officially removed from his role. and the view from the u.s. is that this is part of a campaign post-coup to get rid of anyone who challenged him or might challenge him. >> and kayla, has the white house commented on this at all? >> well, anderson, the white house and the national security city council stopping short of confirming the details of that plane crash and confirming prigozhin's death. but they're tracking the intelligence and wanting to make absolutely sure that they know all the details before they step out and do so. but president biden had no problem engaging on this topic. he stepped out on this topic on lake tahoe, and he said this when asked by the press pool about those events. >> i don't know for fact what happened. i am not surprised. there's not much that happens in russia that putin is not behind. i don't know enough to know the answer. >> jim, what are your sources saying about what this crash means? >> the national security counsel with the official word from the administration -- s sorry, go ahead, kayla. >> the national security council, anderson, had the official word on the. they released a statement about four hours ago saying while they cannot confirm the reports, that russia's disaster led to a private army marching on moscow. now it would seem this. they're alluding to these events being accurate but not confirming them just yet. >> jim, what do you think this means for putin? >> it could mean that he's been able to consolidate his power and eliminate, for now, challenges to his power, the most visible one being prigozhin, who had the nerve and the support, it seemed, to drive his forces within a couple hundred miles of moscow on a highway and greeted, frankly, along the way with cheers and the apparent approval of folks along the way. that's the near term, though. when you look at this longer term, with the progress or lack of progress for russia and the war in ukraine, there are genuine threats to his leadership. and there is no one i talked to who says that putin is, you know, impregnable, untouchable forever. but at least in the wake of this, he may have taken advantage of an opportunity to consolidate his power. >> thanks so much. cnn's coverage of tonight's first republican coverage debate begins at 11:00 p.m. eastern with dana bash. john king is going to break down where each candidate stands ahead of tonight's faceoff. ♪ feels more easy. ♪ ♪ my doc and i agreed. ♪ ♪ i pick the time. ♪ ♪ today's a good day. ♪ ♪ i screened with cologuard and did it my way! ♪ cologuard is a one-of-a kind way to screen for colon cancer that's effective and non-invasive. it's for people 45 plus at average risk, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider for cologuard. ♪ i did it my way! ♪ that's why comcast business de is launching theal. mobile made free event. with our business internet, new and existing customers can get one year of unlimited mobile for free. it's our best internet. powered by the next generation 10g network and with 99.9% reliability. plus one line of free mobile for an entire year. it's the mobile made free event-happening now. get started for just $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get one free line of unlimited mobile. comcast business, powering possibilities. eastern, dana bash and i co-host cnn's coverage of tonight's first republican presidential primary debate. eight facing off to emerge azle party's top alternative to the former president. cnn chief national correspondent john king will be there with his analysis. who is going to be on stage and where do they stand? >> these are the candidates other than donald trump you will see in the first debate tonight. governor desantis and the entrepreneur vivek ramaswamy in the middle because they are leading the nationals polls. also governor former ambassador nikki haley, senator tim scott, governor doug burgum, mike pence, chris christie, why is this the lineup on the stage? because of norational polls. ron desantis leads among this group. remember this group not donald trump. he leads among this group with 17% nationally. that's not a a strong number but stronger than the other candidates in the national polls. now you pick nominees, delegates, state by state. these are important as they set the debate stage. the first two states, in iowa desantis still leads among this group. again no donald trump here. but you see ramaswamy at four, pence better in iowa, senator scott better in iowa. the other candidates, tonight, anderson, trying to improve the numbers. let's look at new hampshire, which is second. desantis leads among this group. he is above 20% in the most recent poll. we will get to trump in a minute. 8%, 5% for the others. not good. what are you trying to do? first challenge is catch desantis, try to move up into, quote, unquote, second place in the race, create a buzz in the early states. >> it's a race for second place right now? >> it is because the guy who is not on stage tonight is donald trump. and look at this national polling average. donald trumpt 57%. ron desantis 40 points behind him. when trump says i am not debating these guys because they are not in my league, he passes the fact check. he is telling the truth when it comes to the polling numbers. if you look at tit this way, we are going to talk about that in a legal context tomorrow. never has a candidate with this big of a lead in history at this point in the race been beaten the. he is the faraway frontrunner. the other candidates trying to defy logic, history, math. it's a longer than long shot to catch that. >> it's a crowded field. do you see deja vu to 2016? >> absolutely. trump is much more powerful. first insert the caveats. there is long way to go. a lot could happen. a lot of trump legal drama could change this. another debate in a month. the iowa caucus five months away. super tuesday. a lot of delegates at stake in early march. 19 195 days away. yes, these candidates could strike gold or trump could implode. look at this. donald trump was beginning -- this was before the first republican debate in 2016. again a crowded field. donald trump was essentially neck-and-neck with jeb bush. this was the beginning of donald trump's hostile take over of the republican party. running against a field with considerable political experience, included past presidential campaigns, huckabee. he was 18%. he at 57% now. so deja vu because of the crowded field. donald trump starts in such a much stronger position which makes him harder to beat. again can any of these candidates catch donald trump? any of them? he is at 57. the best he is, 20 something in the poll. so, yes, deja vu because the field is crowded, but that is just a wow number. >> that's incredible. and when is the next debate after this? >> the end of september. you have 35 days to that one. that's the second debate. there are two more planned. you will get iowa, you know, in this season in here, between iowa, super tuesday and march. remember, new hampshire and nevada vote in here. there is time. there is events. there will be debates. maybe donald trump will show up. we will see. if you are donald trump, the numbers are very much on your side right now. >> john king, thank you. coverage of tonight's republican presidential primary debate begins on cnn at 11:00 p.m. eastern. coming up next, back to russia. interesting new video the wake of today's suspicious plane crash. i have active psoriatic arthritis. but with skyrizi to treat my skin and joints, i'm feeling this moment. along with clearer skin skyrizi helps me move th less joint pain, stiffnes swelling, and fatigue. and is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter dos. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. there's nothing like clearer skin and better movement-and that means everything! ask your doctor about skyrizi today. learn how abbvie could help you save. 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"the source" with kaitlan collins starts now. ♪ tonight straight from th