today on "inside politics," the trump 19 might actually break the internet after a judge says the trial of the millennium will be broadcast on youtube to the entire world. plus a disaster test and a desantis request. the florida governor tries to sell his national leadership chops by shepherding his state through a brutal storm while his super pac goes full "oliver twist" and asks donors for 50 million helpings, dollars, to get them through the next stretch of the campaign. and a mitch mcconnell mystery. the capitol physician gives the republican the all-clear to keep doing his job, but plenty inside his own party are worried about the leader. i'm dana bash. let's go behind the headlines and "inside politics." ♪ up first, he feels no need for speed. donald trump wants to make sure his trial moves slowly so he's now trying to separate himself from his alleged co-conspirators in fulton county, georgia. but whenever he sees the inside of a georgia courtroom, a judge ruled that the world will also see it live. we're going to start our coverage with cnn's zach cohen. >> reporter: dana, yeah, a judge ruling that all proceedings and potential trials in this case in georgia will be televised, does create a scenario where we could watch a criminal trial of an ex-president play out in realtime. we need to remember that this is assuming that the case is not get moved to federal court, where there are no cameras allowed. we know there's defendants in this case that are already trying to move their cases and potentially all 19 defendants' cases to federal court, and trump may have the best case of all of them to do that, but for now, this decision by the judge does mean and does create a tantalizing possibility of being able to watch as the criminal trial of donald trump plays out in realtime, and really does add a possibility of more transparency to that process, especially in a moment now where, you know, this case is already really polarizing in terms of the way different political -- corners of the political world are seeing it, and donald trump himself is out there constantly claiming that this investigation in this case is just election interference, so the potential for this to be televised live in realtime could give us a firsthand account and firsthand window into the trial as it's happening but we're going to have to wait and see if donald trump does try to move this to federal court, and if he does, that means we're out of luck, basically. >> exactly. we'll rely on great reporters like you to tell us everything that's happening inside the court. we're a ways away from there. thank you so much for that reporting, zach. here to share their insights, chris timmons, criminal defense attorney joey jackson, cnn political director david chalian and cnn senior justice correspondent, evan perez. chris, i want to start with you in georgia, and about this notion of the former president's request to sever. he said, or his attorneys said, "requiring less than two months' preparation time to defend a 98-page indictment charging 19 defendants with 41 various charges, including a rico conspiracy charge with 161 overt acts, would violate president trump's federal and state constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process of law." that's got to be something that the judge is going to take seriously. >> dana, absolutely. but i don't think it's going to be granted, for a couple reasons. first of all, i thought it was interesting, when you look at the pleading, that only steve sadow signed it, and they conveniently left off jennifer little. i'm sure that's intentional but i don't think the judge is going to forget that. secondarily, attorneys are told all the time, you have to go to trial. having a trial in september and then having a trial in october is not that big a deal, usually, in the criminal world. now, with regard to the trump indictment, it's a fairly large indictment, but the other thing you have to keep in mind is, a, there's two attorneys, and b, they're going to have a lot of jury selection to get ready. so, they know what the case is going to be, looking at the indictment. it's a playbook. they know exactly what's coming after them. they can pick a jury just fine using that information, and he can get up to speed while they're doing jury selection. the judge may not agree with me because ineffective assistance of counsel is grounds for reversal, but at the same time, i've had a lot of georgia judges tell me, tough luck, m mr. timmons, we're going to trial. >> and your point in saying that the newer lawyer, steve sadow's name was on there, not the other, to suggest it's just a new attorney and there hasn't been somebody who's been trying to prepare for a long time who's already been on the case. joey, what's your take on this? >> from a defense perspective, obviously, i view it entirely differently. you need an opportunity to move forward, and i think it's not unreasonable to the extent that you have a prosecutor who spent a couple of years sinking her teeth into this, having various witnesses, doing whatever she needed to do, so bring forth an indictment to then say, okay, because one or more defendants say they want a speedy trial, to lump them all in. the consequences here, dana, are quite significant. we know that. the room for appeals and other errors are quite significant. the notion of fairness to the public and treating the president fairly like anyone else is significant. we want a justice system where people should embrace the notion that there's justice. and so, when you have, in your paper, saying, hey, i'm on trial in september and we have this meaty case that i have to deal with, and by the way, it involves a former president, may i have it adjourned, i think that has to resonate with the judge, and i will be very surprised if it's not granted, and your honor says, listen, let's move the trial to another date where it's more appropriate. everyone's prepared, can move forward, and it eliminates the notion of not having a fair trial. >> split decision, as they say, among our legal guests. evan, talk to us about what you're hearing from your sources about whether or not they, on the trump legal team, think this is maybe going to be granted or not. >> well, look, i think they think it's a good chance of this. and part of the reason is you already have some of the other defendants who are trying to separate themselves because they want to go to trial very quickly. and so, i think there is, i think, a pretty compelling case to be made for the former president to also try to sever his case, and then take it, you know, certainly because he's going to -- we're going to see a filing from steve sadow in the coming weeks where they're going to be asking for this case to be moved to federal court, so there's going to be delays built into that part of the litigation anyway. i think there's a very good chance that happens. and you know, i do think that certainly for -- when you have this many defendants, the other thing that's getting lost is that no one really thinks that there's going to be 19 defendants by the time we get to the end of this. there are some of these people that are going to plead, because they're not in a position to defend themselves over the course of a long litigation. so, there are some of these lower level people who are going to make deals, and that's going to happen soon. >> deals that could potentially -- >> they're going to -- >> -- implicate the bigger fish? >> it's possible they'll agree to cooperate, or they'll simply find a way to make a deal with the d.a. >> david, i want you to listen to and react to the latest comments from the former president's former attorney general, bill barr, and this is just more broadly about how the campaign and all of these legal prosecutions intersect and whether or not the trump argument that he shouldn't be touched because he's a candidate is valid. >> if a prominent person commits a crime and there's -- and is seeking office, that doesn't give him immunity. the idea that, oh, oh, okay, i'm sorry, we'll let you run in the election, and then after, we'll address it. that's not a principle. it's silly. now, you can argue about whether he should have been charged and so forth, but the idea that this is interfering with the election is simply wrong. >> those words that bill barr used at the very end of that clip, interfering with the election, goes directly at what donald trump is trying to sell voters every single day. he labels this election interference, and bill barr is saying, flatly, he doesn't believe that's what's going on at all here. it is intriguing to hear the attorney general speak this way because as evan and i have talked about a lot, the timing of all of this matters. there is sort of a, you know, a year from now, i wonder if bill barr would be saying the same thing if we were in the midst of a general election season and indeed donald trump was supposed to go to trial, as you know, there's a tradition to not, within 60 to 90 days of an election, to actually pursue this kind of a thing with a candidate in office, and you know, we're not that far away from donald trump potentially appearing on ballots. that's not all that far away at this point. but his overall point, i think, is one we should all take heed of here, which is that why should these prosecutions wait for an entire election season to go, wouldn't it be beneficial to the voters across the country to have some sense of what is at the heart of these charges in the midst of a trial and perhaps adjudication before they have to make choices. >> yeah, that's one situation that's happening right now and is certainly an argument. the other thing that is happening, of course, along with donald trump, who is the main focus, obviously, all of these other defendants who are caught up in his alleged schemes, it's costing millions and millions of dollars to support their legal positions, and they're having trouble. >> they're having trouble. they're having to do crowd. >> funding. some of them, like jenna ellis, one of his former attorneys, during the election period when she was trying to claim there was fraud, she's gone publicly, she's now a desantis supporter, but she's gone out publicly to shame the president for not supporting people who are in the legal problems they're in simply because they listened to him. they thought they were supporting him, and now they're left on their own. look, the former president's sos sons are now trying to create a political action committee to help some of this, but donald trump himself has not really been very active in supporting them, certainly for their legal cause. >> and we should just make clear, when we're talking about the former president or not helping these people, it is not from his own wallet and writing a check. it is about using these political committees, raising money from americans across the country in small dollar amounts and applying it to legal fees. it's using political capital but not from his own wallet. >> and raising money making the same arguments. >> the grift is only for his own benefit. that's the argument a lot of people are making. joe biden is heading to florida. that's going to be tomorrow. he's going to go and see idalia's damage up close. will he meet with a potential, potential 2024 rival? details on that next. to raise your glass and reconnect. to reel in the fun and serve up great times. to help you get ready your a aspen dental team is celebrating 2525 years of affordable care with an epic summer of smiles event.. right now, new patients withouout insurance get a free full exam and x-rays. plus, everyone can get 20% off their treatment plan. but hurry, because while these summer savings won't last, the memories you make together will. aspen dental. book today. with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! uuuhhhh... 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losing jobs. in fact, my predecessor was one of only two presidents in history who entered his presidency and left with fewer jobs than when he entered. look, look at where we are right now. just this morning, we learned the economy created 190,000 jobs last month. all told, we've added 13.5 million jobs since i took office. around 800,000 of them, manufacturing jobs. we created more jobs in two years than any president had ever created in a four-year, single four-year term. we did it in two years. what's more, when i took office, the unemployment rate was 6.3%. the nonpartisan congressional budget office predicted that would not get below 4% until the end of 2025. now, unemployment and the unemployment rate has been below 14% for the last 19 months, the longest stretch in over 50 years. we recovered all the jobs lost during the pandemic. we've added a million more new jobs. more than 700,000 people joined the labor force last month, which means the highest share of working age americans are in the workforce now than at any time in the past 20 years. people are coming off the sidelines, getting back to their workplaces. job satisfaction is higher than it's been in 36 years. we've been -- we've seen record lows in unemployment for african americans, hispanic workers, and veterans. and workers without high school diplomas. and the lowest unemployment rate in 70 years for america's women. at the same time, inflation continues to fall. it's now around 3%. about one-third of what it was one year ago. in fact, we learned yesterday that of the past -- over the past three months, inflation will close -- was close to what it was before the pandemic. and incomes are higher now than they were before the pandemic. while pay for low-wage workers has grown at the fastest pace for low-wage workers in two decades. remember, some experts said to get inflation under control, we needed higher unemployment and lower wages. but i've never thought that was the problem. too many people having a job or that working people were making too much money. and now, months after -- after months and months of bringing inflation down while at the same time adding jobs and growing wages, it matters, and it's no accident. i came to office determined to build the economy in a different way from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. to move away from trickledown economics and instead focus on the middle class, because when the middle class does well, and this is not hyperbole, when the middle class does well, everyone does well. everyone does well. the wealthy do very well. the poor have a shot, and the middle class can make a living. the "financial times" and the "wall street journal" have heard me say it before, started calling my plan bidenomics. it's about investing in america and investing in americans. it's working. key pillar of bidenomics is empowering and educating workers who are the backbone of this country. i want to mention a few actions my administration took this week to support workers by raising workers' pay and helping more workers get good-paying union jobs. first, we proposed a new rule to extend overtime pay from -- for up to 3.6 million workers across the country. additional 3.6 million. and here's why that matters. until now, salary workers who were not paid by the hour were often not guaranteed overtime pay unless they made less than $36,568 a year. that was the threshold. if you were a fast food manager or made even one dollar more in salary, you were not guaranteed overtime pay, even if you worked an additional 40-hour week. the new rules we proposed this week raise that threshold to $55,000 a year. that means the mom in north carolina who makes $37,500 a year as an executive assistant and sometimes works a 60-hour workweek could now be gauaranted time and a half whenever she works over 40 hours in that week. plus, moving forward, that salary threshold automatically will update every three years, so that it stays up to date with wage growth and purchasing power. what would make it easier for workers to earn overtime in the future, it would. the automatic update was something we did in the obama/biden administration. my predecessor scrapped it. we've worked to bring it back. and it will make a big difference for a lot of american families. next, thanks to the inflation reduction act, which i might add not a single member of the other party voted for, we're making the most significant investment in clean energy and combatting the existential threat of climate change that's ever been made anywhere in the world. according to outside experts, the inflation reduction act is projected to create more than 1.5 million jobs over the next decade, which i said when i was writing the legislation. this week, the department of treasury and the irs announced guidance on new tax incentives for companies that invest in clean energy like building wind turbines and installing solar power. in the previous administration, companies got a tax cut, and they could go wherever they wanted to, including overseas, and hire whoever they wanted in order to get that tax cut. but on my watch, we use tax cuts for companies to stay in america and create american jobs in america. we're providing additional tax incentive for companies to pay their workers prevailing wages, waging you can raise a family on. and if you get -- and if they hire registered apprentices, like those trained and sponsored by unions, that's what happens. for some clean energy projects, they'll still be worth millions of dollars. this is a major incentive to pay prevailing wage and hire union workers. it's good for workers. it's good for the environment. and as companies are beginning to figure out, it's good for companies' bottom line as well. plus, many auto companies significantly ramped up their investments in electric vehicles. my administration has announced more than $15 billion in funding to help automakers convert existing auto plants while retaining existing workers at good wages, giving them a first crack at the new and different jobs for electric vehicle versus the combustion engine, bolstering the domestic supply chain and ensuring that auto manufacturing jobs remain good-paying jobs, including union jobs. the auto industry has long been a pathway to the middle class, provided good-paying jobs. i'm not going to let that change on my watch if i can help it. if anyone wonders whether unions really make a difference, i urge them to take a look at the new report from the treasury department. it's the most comprehensive look ever at the impact unions have on our economy, and it concludes definitively that unions raise workers' income, increase home ownership, increase retirement savings, increase access to critical benefits like sick leave and child care, and reduce inequality. all of which strengthen the american economy. plus, even workers who aren't in unions, even workers who have been laid off see benefits from unions when they're strong, because unions raise standards across the workforce and industries, pushing up wages and strengthening benefits for everyone. you heard me say many times, wall street didn't build america. the middle class built america. and unions built the middle class. let me close with this. we face some pretty tough times in recent years, a pandemic that took more than a million of our friends and neighbors, million fewer people sitting at our dining room or kitchen tables. people we raised and loved, people we grew up with, gone. the worst economic crisis since the great depression. it wasn't that long ago that 20 million americans were out of work, but the american people didn't give up. they never give up. they've never given up. and today, we have the strongest economy in the world, the lowest inflation rate among the major economies, 13.5 million new jobs. you heard me say it before, and i'm going to keep saying it. my dad said a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. it's about your dignity. it's about respect. it's about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be okay, and mean it. that dignity is coming back to places all across the country. while i'm proud of the historic legislation my administration has passed and the policies we've enacted, the real heroes in this story are the american people, average americans. they're the ones getting up every day, putting their heads down, going out that door and going to work. they're the ones starting new businesses, taking chances, hiring workers, fulfilling their dreams. three weeks ago, at a clean energy factory in milwaukee, wisconsin, i met an ibw electrician who builds and repairs america's growing fleet of wind turbine engines. he said, and i quote, "in america, with hard work and a little faith, anything is possible." in america, with hard work and a little faith, anything is possible. that's my father's generation believed. that's what these folks believe too. every day across this country, ordinary people get up and do extraordinary things. thanks to them, we're going to continue to grow our economy from the middle out and the bottom up with good-paying jobs, more breathing room for families, and american workers building industries of the future. they remind us of who we are. i'm going to keep saying this. we're the united states of america. very simply, nothing beyond our capacity when we set our mind to it and do it together. have a good labor day weekend, and god bless you all. thank you. >> why are so many americans living paycheck to paycheck? >> sir, americans living -- >> you've been listening to president biden at the white house speaking about the jobs report that came out this morning, 187,000 new jobs. we're going to discuss it with my colleagues here, margaret, manu raju, and david chalian. you know, this has been the biggest challenge of the biden administration/re-election campaign, that he's got all of these good economic indicators, he can't seem to get traction for it when it comes to how the voters see him. so, this is quite literally a rose garden strategy to say, this is what we're doing. please give me credit. >> and the reality is, he can't afford sitting at 37% approval on the economy to let an opportunity -- any opportunity to talk about the economy pass. he takes it because you can't throw your hands up if you're joe biden or the re-election campaign and say, it just doesn't seem to be breaking through. their mission is, every single day, they need to continue to be out there to try and convince the american people with all the numbers that you're talking about. i mean, he does have a good story to tell on job growth, on inflation easing. these are -- this is not like he doesn't have a story to tell, but you are right. there is no evidence yet that the american people have sort of grabbed hold of that story and buy it completely, and i'm not sure, by the way -- i'm not sure they will. it seems to me, the american people are pretty locked into how they think about joe biden, and i'm not sure that he's going to be able to turn that around dramatically. >> but as we all sat here listening to those remarks, we all heard the same thing. the president going after former president donald trump. >> out of the gate. >> out of the gate, full dark brandon, the whole thing. that's important for a couple reasons. the next election is going to be, in large part, about the economy. so, whether people like what boin biden is doing, he's going to have to talk about it. why not try to own it? he's not been able by, i think, the right political decision, he's not been able to go after trump on the legal stuff, because he's trying to show that he is completely firewalled from what the justice department and special prosecutor are doing, but he can go after donald trump on the economy, and that's what we're watching him do. >> specifically, he said that donald trump, not by name, but he said, my predecessor, was one of only two presidents to come into office with more jobs than america had when he left the white house. >> yeah. >> i'm sure fact checkers are working on that realtime. let's talk about the raw politics of it. >> the raw politics is democrats would like to see a lot more of that, him trying a contrast with donald trump on the economy. yes, we can talk about all the legal things. we can talk about how unpopular donald trump is, the criminal charges, but at the end of the day, if the economy begins to suffer as people -- if inflation goes back up, if unemployment ticks back up, that's going to have a real significant impact for joe biden in those closely contested swing races. he knows that. they're trying to make this an election that could certainly turn on the economy, make that contrast with donald trump. democrats wish they could hear a lot more of that. >> because opinions of him are so locked in, the contrast is their campaign. that's what it needs to be. >> you're not running against -- >> this needs to be not just a referendum on joe biden. it has to be a contrast campaign. >> not running against the almighty. >> exactly. >> the alternative. somebody might have said that named joe biden. >> i was just joking. but yeah, i think, look, manu was talking about if inflation goes up again. if inflation continues to go down, it's still not going to undo itself. everything is and is going to continue to be much more expensive than it was three years ago, and that is how he's going to go into re-election. even under the best case scenario. and the reason why the public is not responding to all these indicators is because when you go to the store and pay for stuff, it still costs more. he is doing two things. he's trying to say, my economic policies are better than trump's, and he's trying to find a way to go after donald trump without breaching that firewall that he has set up on the legal stuff. >> that's always the risk, right? if you go out and talk about how great the economy is, but people are not feeling it, you look out of touch. and so that is going to be his challenge, despite all these good numbers. you're right. people are paying a lot more for all these groceries. >> everything. >> at the store, it's still the case, people are still hurting in different ways. cheerleading, they have one decision here. point to all the good things here and try to convince people that things are getting better. >> yeah, but it really is that balancing act between saying things are better -- i remember covering the george w. bush re-election in 2004 when he had a line for a while in his stump speech, saying, we've turned the corner and it's not turning back, and they took it out because people weren't buying it. it's the same kind of notion of being able to sell your policies and sell what you have done and not look like you are just completely out of touch with what people are actually feeling. great discussion. thank you so much. up next, vivek ramaswamy may be the rising star candidate, but can he weather the increased barrage of incoming fire from his opponents? plus a war brewing between the new york city mayor, eric adams, and joe biden. we have never been reported before detail of what's going on behind the scenes. that's coming up. try killing bugs the worry-free way. not the other way. zevo traps use light to attract and trap flying insects with no odor and no mess. they work continuously, so you don't have to. zevo. people-friendly. bug-deadly. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ( ♪ ) woah. ( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) ( ♪ ) constant contact delivers the marketing tools your small business needs to keep up, excel, and grow. constant contact. helping the small stand tall. mlb chooses t-mobile for business for 5g solutions... ...to not only enhance the fan experience, but to advance how the game is played. now's the time to see what america's largest 5g network can do for your business. here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch, it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. it's been a week for 2024 presidential hopeful vivek ramaswamy, filled with controversial comments and mud-slinging from his rivals. the 38-year-old is gaining national attention by becoming a rising star within his party, but will his zinger-fueled campaign translate into success in iowa? cnn's kyung lah is live for us in des moines. you have been spending time with the candidate as he has been making his way around iowa this week. what is he saying? >> reporter: essentially, he's saying he has what trump had many years ago in a raw form, carrying that trump appeal, but what he now carries is youth. he offers diversity, and he says he's going to go even further in that maga style by delivering more results that he says trump simply could not deliver. his approach to washington, d.c., is to burn it all down, and he says it is his generation's time and his time. i want you to take a listen to what he said. >> well, i'm saying that you only get to be an outsider once, and trump was that outsider in 2015, and i think that was what was fresh about trump the first time around, and i think that's what's fresh about me this time around. you get to be an outsider once. >> reporter: so, he's got to peel away trump's support, which is formidable here in iowa. now, post-debate, we've been following him through events. we spent all day with him and all of his unilateral debate -- i'm sorry, unilateral events have been packed. they are standing room only, but the reaction from the people who are listening to him have been pretty polarized. i want you to listen to what two people said to us. >> i think he speaks the truth. >> reporter: are you choosing him over trump? >> absolutely. absolutely. no doubt in my mind. >> the thing is, when you're the flavor of the month and you don't have a lot of background, you're the new guy, no one's asked you tough questions yet. so, at some point, other candidates will start, and when i they do, you'll see him go down in the polls. >> reporter: and in his events, even, we heard questions about his foreign policy. a lot of concerns about this idea that he would give eastern ukraine to vladimir putin. but he doesn't seem to be bothered by this right now, dana. what vivek ramaswamy is really relishing is the fact that people know him now. that everywhere he went, his events are full. he says that this is the beginning and that he has the field game here, the ground game here in iowa that he can build on this momentum, and that's why he believes he could gain traction here. dana? >> so interesting. it's great to have you out there. i love the car interview. fantastic reporting. thanks, kyung. so, let's talk about this right now. and i want to just start with -- to add to kyung's great reporting, something that mike murphy, who is a long-time republican strategist, said -- he worked for jeb bush in the 2016 race. he said about ramaswamy. "ultimately, he'll wind up as a maga profiteer somewhere down the line. my view is that he peaked at the debate and will start a slow decline because he's an irritating pip squeak." it's not really clear what he feels there. >> mike murphy, always shy in discussing his opinions. i mean, i do think the test for him is clear, right? it is as kyung was describing there to prove himself more than just a candidate of this particular moment in the race and one that has staying power, and his challenge, as kyung was putting forth there, is fascinating to me. we've talked so much in this campaign season about how a lot of these candidates aren't taking on trump directly or are fearful of offending his supporters. for ramaswamy, he's literally occupying the same space as donald trump, so his path to success goes through actually taking donald trump's support, and you know, i don't know how possible that's going to be. it's one thing to be on a debate stage when donald trump is not there and be the fill-in and occupy that space. it will be a whole other thing as donald trump gets more engaged in this campaign going forward. >> yeah, sort of depends on whether he's really trying to be the next republican nominee for president or whether he's trying to secure a permanent spot as an influencer in party politics and ideological politics. i think if he's trying to be the next nominee, obviously, he's got trump's 30 or 40-point lead, a number of other factors working against him, but also, his anti-interventionism is probably less controversial to the gop base on ukraine than it will be on israel, and you see nikki haley hammering there already. i think he has a lot of ideological and policy challenges that if trump wasn't sort of the cult of personality figure, would be much harder for trump to pull off within his party. >> and david, you have made this point so many times, which is that -- and you basically just did again now -- which is that vivek ramaswamy right now is kind of the stand-in for donald trump when it comes to all of the other republicans who are, frankly, too scared to go after donald trump. he is kind of the stand-in for those attacks. >> yeah, and look, the reason why he has elevated it so much is because they focused and attacked so much on him, not donald trump, in the last debate. he got a lot of attention, and resulting rose in the polls. it's interesting to hear him try to begin some sort of contrast with donald trump. he said at the debate that trump was the best president. well, why are you running against the best president? but now, talking about him being an outsider, someone who's -- that donald trump is not, we'll see if he needs to be a little bit more direct in his criticism in order to gain some -- >> let's hear what the former president said about vivek ramaswamy. >> he's starting to get out there a little bit. he's a -- getting a little bit controversial. i'd tell him to be a little bit careful. some things, you have to hold in just a little bit, right? but he's got a lot of good energy, i will tell you, and he's been very nice to me. >> that last point, very nice to me. >> what happens if he ever changes that tune? >> a little bit controversial from somebody who knows about being a little bit controversial. >> yeah. all right, well, we're going to talk a lot more about this later. we're running out of time now, and one of the things we're going to talk about is the fact that he said -- vivek ramaswamy said that he is not a party man and he's using the republican party as a vehicle, which is fascinating. everybody stand by. up next, have you ever asked someone for $50 million? well, leaked audio captures the campaign sausage being made and what team desantis had to say about his rivals. that's coming up. are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh waaaay longer than detergent alone. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks, make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. struggling with the highs and lows of bipolar 1? ask about vraylar. because you are greater than your bipolar 1, and you can help take control of your symptoms - with vraylar. some medicines only treat the lows or highs. vraylar treats depressive, acute manic, and mixed episodes of bipolar 1 in adults. proven, full-spectrum relief for all bipolar 1 symptoms. and in vraylar clinical studies, most saw no substantial impact on weight. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. report fever, stiff muscles or confusion which may mean a life-threatening reaction, or uncontrollable muscle movements which may be permanent. high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death, weight gain and high cholesterol may occur. movement dysfunction and restlessness are common side effects. sleepiness and stomach issues are also common. side effects may not appear for several weeks. ask about vraylar and learn how abbvie could help you save. our ears connect us to the moments that matter. give them the nutrients they need with lipo. it's formulated with ingredients clinically shown to protect your ears from dizziness, ear ringing, and even hearing loss. never miss a moment with lipo flavonoid. - [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. the white house where we just learned a critical new detail about president biden's trip to florida tomorrow. arlette saenz is there. what are you learning? >> reporter: just as president biden was walking back into the oval office just a short while ago, he told me what he will, in fact, meet with florida governor ron desantis as he travels down to florida tomorrow to survey the damage after hurricane idalia. this will be an opportunity for the president and desantis to meet, we're still waiting to learn more of the details, but both men have talked about the need to put politics aside as the state is dealing with the wake of this devastating natural disaster. of course, biden and desantis have met on several occasions in similar circumstances before. if you think back to hurricane ian last year, they also met after the condominium collapse in surfside, florida, both moments that they have tried to look past their politics to focus on delivering what the state needs at that moment. but this does come at an important time as the 2024 presidential campaign is fully under way and desantis is running in the republican primary, this will be the first time those two men are meeting since desantis has launched his campaign, but both have insisted that they're trying to put politics aside at this moment. >> arlette, thank you so much for that. great get that you botgot the president to answer that question. let's talk more about that because we have seen historically in recent history the idea of a sitting governor trying to put politics aside while running for office or at least during a campaign and having a president who may help or may not help politically while of course they know that the president has to help when it comes to what really matters, which is rebuilding and helping with the hurricane -- >> the infamous chris christie -- obama -- >> that's where i was going with this. >> the hug. i was in the pool that day. >> oh, wow. look at that. you say it there it comes out here. >> yeah, the bro hug. i mean, i just think that's like the warning sign for all republican candidates, don't hug the democratic president, but new jersey is a different state than florida, chris christie is a different kind of guy than -- does ron desantis hug people anyway? i think there's no danger that ron desantis is going to hug biden, but first of all politically he needs to show that he can govern and take care of the people of florida. also it's the right thing to do, he is the governor of florida that's his real job, campaigning for president is something you have to fit in on the side. i think he knows how to do this, he needs to do this, and the problem is he has no choice. there are a lot of liabilities when you are the governor of the state and there are the downstream impacts of a hurricane but he has to show he can manage it. >> they're going to have to work together. there's going to need to be a significant relief effort in florida other states as well. desantis has been through this before, florida is a state that goes through this time and time again. he has to make it clear he can deal with something like this, especially if you are a president. >> chris christie wasn't running for president at the time but mitt romney was. >> let's turn to what is happening on the campaign trail with the desantis campaign with the super pac. there was audio, cnn got some of the audio of the people who are running that super pac begging for money. they are holding out the cup saying, please give money. chris jankowski the ceo of the super pac never back down we just need your help getting $50 million more by the end of the year and $100 million more by the end of march. i'm not worried about the second 50 we need the first 50. >> tremendous reporting by our colleagues. it's to make take you inside the room moment. there's nothing nefarious. this is what super pacs do. in the case of the desantis super pac we're seeing a super pac play a much larger role than we have seen before. legally they can't coordinate with the campaign for all intents and purposes this super pac never back down is the desantis campaign. they're doing the door knocking, advertising, organizing. when ron desantis is doing bus tours through iowa he's doing it as a special guest of the super pac, they are putting up all the events in-person as well. what i thought was fascinating about this pitch on the day of the debate last year was that they were saying we need to inject this $50 million right now. we have two important goals, we have to separate from the rest of the pac and we have to show we can dig into trump's lead and we need to show that in the immediate future. >> that sense of urgency was really telling. even if it's only messaging is telling, also it's a real sense of urgency. you don't need the money later if you are not in the race later. one of the interesting subbits to this story is the idea of the desantis index which is to sort of split off -- to split the republican base to say if you are highly educated and you are a higher income earner but also embrace the bible and church going that makes you a desantis guy. if that is the strategy that's playing out to donors behind the scenes as well as on the campaign trail, worth watching. >> and what's going to give desantis momentum, we saw after the debate he didn't get that momentum, he was a little bit of an after thought in the after math of this, could this change the equation? they need that otherwise things could go even more south. >> the imagery of 60 donors at the doubletree hotel just blocks from the debate venue with all of this going on is fascinating. great reporting. thank you so much, everybody. be sure to join me on "state of the union" this coming sunday, secretary of commerce gina raimondo is on the show along with mike rounds and nancy mace. i hope to see you this sunday 9:00 a.m. eastern on cnn. thank you for joining "inside politics." 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