The Burning Man Festival. The famous dj and music performer diplo managed to escape after walking miles through the muck. Donald trump widening his already huge lead over his gop rivals in a new poll. And it shows that an overwhelming majority of Republican Voters think that his actions after the 2020 election were legitimate. And 385 people are still unaccounted for after the catastrophic wildfires on maui. This hour of cnn this morning starts right now. You know, it was a bit of an odd moment yesterday when betsey klein, our white house producer sent a pool note, shes in pool with President Biden and it was about the president getting an update on burning man, which was not something i ever expected to get from our white house team. And yet thats where we were. Especially since it was about rain in the desert. Rain in the desert. Again, a lot of unexpected events, but just hours from now, maybe the end is near. Roads are about to reopen or could reopen at the Burning Man Festival where Tens Of Thousands of people are still stranded in the desert. Organizers say theyll be announcing the decision this morning. Now, roads leading in and out of the festival have been shut down since saturday after heavy rain turned the ground into angledeep mud. Officials say the thick muck made it virtually impossible for cars, buses, and rvs to leave. Some people walked for miles to get through the mud and get out. Here, you can see some vehicles that tried to leave but became hopelessly stuck. So much water. We are flooded. Were going to be stuck here at least a couple of days. This is nuts. This is what people have been trudging through. For days now, festivalgoers have been hunkering down and told to conserve their food, water and fuel. Camilla bernal is live near the festival. Lets just start with the latest on the situation. Hey, audi and phil. Its still muddy, its still messy, and its still pretty wet from what we can see in some areas. Were exactly at the main exit and entrance to the playa. This is what they call the eightmile access to the playa. So its where the playa turns into the road. Weve seen a couple of cars today trying to get out of here. Even in the middle of the night, and its going to be difficult today. The shelter in place is still own. If youre trying to get out, they will let you, but you will have a very difficult time. I want to show you what the vehicles of the bureau of land and management look like. They have been in that mud and they are completely covered in mud. The operation here is just getting started, because theyre waiting for thousands and thousands to try to get out. The people who get out, their cars look like this, and the people who try to walk out say, it has taken me three hours. They get these plastic bags and wrap their shoes with duct tape and have told me that really is the only way that you can walk for miles and miles to try to get out, to make it to this road to the main exit. Again, its just difficult. People were not expecting so much rain, so much mud but a lot of people say they had a great time at the festival and trying to make the best of this situation. But officials are telling them, conserve water, conserve food, if they do have to stay here for days, a lot dont have a lot of food or water for a number of days they had not planned for. Thats the concern for a lot of people. They had been sharing. This is an event where people essentially feel free to selfexpress, to create art, to come together. Youre seeing those vibes and positivity, but officials say, be careful, because you may not be able to get out. Theyll look again after the sun comes out, decide after they look at the mud and conditions and how things improve or not. In the meantime, were just Waiting For The Sun to come up to see how things are going end to up going for today. So far, its still looking muddy and still messy. We do expect to see people coming out. The question is whether officials will give them that green light and make it official. Guys . Thanks so much. That muddy mess couldnt stop diplo to stop him from making it to his next concert. He hiked out to make sure he made it to washington, d. C. On ti time. And he was joined by chris rock in the back of a truck with a group of fans. Diplo made it to the Airport Walking barefoot on the tarmac and poised to his instagram, quote, no one would believe we would get to d. C. For the show tonight, but god did. Joining us now the threetime grammy award winner, diplo. Welcome to the program. Hi, how are you guys doing . Zb good. So were you barefoot in walking, duct tape in bags walking . What were we dealing with in terms of a plan to get out . I tried the duct tape and walking, i had pretty good boots with zippers instead of ties. They worked pretty well. They were caked with mud. They got pretty heavy. They were like three pounds each at one point. I have some pretty strong leg muscles after that walk, but when you started to walk in the mud, you kind of realize that you have to stay low to the ground and its very slippery, and if you dont walk on where it was chewed up from tire marks, its pretty easy to move out of there. What was it like watching other people . I mean, was there a lot of dialogue in between tents where people actually debating, should we leave . Should we stay . It was around friday, i think, 11 00 p. M. , i was having dinner in our camp, and our camp next door, chris rock was there, Sidney Crawford was there, austin butler. A bunch of people were there that were living in that camp and they had the news that theres no chance theyre leaving tonight, because theres going to be even more rain forecast. And the main issue is quegt a c car out of there is impossible when its muddy. So if they have a lot of cars stuck on the playa, it will create huge traffic jams for the eventual exit of people. I think at 10 00 a. M. , we said, lets regroup and see if we can walk out of here. I said, thats the only way we can do it, if we can walk out. And we planned an excursion the next morning and i think we headed out. Me and about 20 other people, and we just walked. And we didnt see many people on the road, and we just kept walking. They said the gate was closed. Its a general term for the gate. The gate was not allowing cars in, people come to burning man the last day for the burn. They love the saturday and sunday, but theres no actual gate to open or close, its just a matter of the mud ends and a paved road begins. And that paved road goes to gerlach, nevada, skand we had t walk to that paved road. Are you still in Contact People . A lot of my friends did get out. My dj friends were like, how did you do it . Its labor day weekend, so of course we have to work. We all made it out. Some of them are still there in the camp, theyre having a good time, waiting it out. You know, this the mud always drys up there. Its the middle of the desert. You dont expect rain, but if you have sunshine, it can dry up in four or five hours with direct sun. Its just been overcast the whole time, so hard to dry out. The moment between deciding you were going to actually launch the excursion and the video that i think everybody in the country has seen, up to this point, including what seemingly random appearance of chris rock as you scrolled around the camera, which wasnt so random since he was in the camp next door, what was that like . Were you talking, what were you doing as you were making this trek towards finally getting picked up . I mean, for sure, chris is going to have a huge bit in his next special about burning man, because he was really bizarrely scared of what was going to happen. He thought there was going to be cannibalism a day later. I was like, look, people know what theyre doing here. Everybody here is camping. They all have selfreliance. And we just said, i was surprised, he had his New York Knicks jacket on and he just got up with us and started walking. And we walked about three hours in the mud and he was happy it was me, i think Cindy Crawford walked with us, austin butler, randy gerber, a writer, a Couple Producers of tv, a couple of people who wanted to get home to their children, and we didnt take no for an answer. It was like, we can make it out. It was a challenge, but honestly one of the highlights of the whole trip, just getting out there and enjoying the time out there and seeing the desert and walking through the mud and meeting fans and some kids recognized me on the road and they were like, well give you a ride up the next two miles and we gladly took it. We rode for about four miles into the city, and sat at a bar for a while and hung out with people and found a ride to reno. Anything for that kid, free tickets or some signed diplo herch. I got his number. He lives in nevada, so hes going to come to some shows. His name was tony, he was awesome. And we found some hippies in the street, who had a van, and i was like, ill give you A Thousand Dollars if youll take us to the airport. And he had some beers and we got in the back and we drank some beers. I had no idea how it happened, but went to My Show In Dc and had a great time and back in nevada here in las vegas for a party. Yeah, im glad i made it out. But i think people at burning man, the organizers are very prepared. It doesnt rain often. Its the first time in history that it rained during the festival. But it rains sometimes, and theyre prepared for this kind of situation. I think a lot of people that arent navigating and camping and like able to handle themselves might have been scared. But it wasnt that bad. There wasnt any ebola breakout, like i saw the memes. There wasnt any cannibalism. People were making mud sculptures, and kind of continuing with their art. There might be two extra days, but they had a great time. Between a rock with chris rock and that car ride you described, sounds potentially better than what a normal burning man might have been. Diplo, we appreciate the time. Glad you got out. Awesome you got to d. C. And back. Shoutout to tony. We appreciate it man, thank you. Bye, guys, thanks. On to politics, because a new Wall Street Journal poll shows Donald Trumps big lead over his republican opponents is actually Getting Better and more Republican Voters say that his actions after the 2020 election were legitimate. Harry enten is here with this mornings number. Hi, harry. Together can help you make smartrter decisions. Voya. Well planned. Well invested. Well protected. Its tough making ends meet for sure. Republicans inongress say if we just cut taxes even more for the biggest corporations the money will eventually someday trickle trickle down to you. Right. Joe biden would rather just stop those corporations from charging so damn much. Capping the cost of drugs like insulin. Cracking down on Surprise Medical Bills and all those crazy junk fees. Theres more work to do. Tell the president to keep lowering costs for middle class families. Lactaid is 100 real milk, just without the lactose. Delicious too. Just ask my old friend, kevin. Nothing like enjoying a cold one while watching the game. Whos winning . No idea. Real milk. Real delicious. And dont forget to try some delicious, creamy lactaid ice cream. Whats that mabel . mooo wow, smart cow trying vapes to quit smoking might feel like progress, but with 3x more nicotine than a pack of cigarettes vapes Increase Cravings trapping you in an endless craving loop. Nicorette reduces cravings until theyre gone for good. The allnew tempurpedic breeze makes sleep feel cool. So, no more sweating all night. Or blasting the air conditioning. Because the tempurbreeze feels up to 10 cooler, all night long. For a limited time, save up to 700 on select tempurpedic Adjustable Mattress sets. Dry skin is sensitive skin, too. And its natural. Treat it that way with aveeno® daily moisture. Formulated with nourishing, prebiotic oat. Its clinically proven to moisturize dry skin for 24 hours. Aveeno® commanding lead in the gop president ial primary. According to a new Wall Street Journal poll, the former president is pulling away from even his closest rival, Florida Governor ron desantis. Not even his four criminal indictments, nor his decision to skip the first debate seem to be making much of a dent in trumps support. Cnns Senior Data Reporter joins us now, so harry, what is todays number . This mornings number is 46 points. Thats how much ron desantis now trailing donald trump by in the republican primary post debate. He was down just 24 points back in april. So desantis is going in the wrong direction. Of course, thats just the top line effect, that trump is ahead 59 to 13 . Its underneath the hood where i think the most trouble comes in for desantis. This is the very Foouavorable V Of Trump and desantis among republican primary voters. Look in april, look how close they were. Trump at 53 . Desantis at 55 . Desantis was slightly aide by this metric. Look where we are postdebate. Look at Donald Trumps very favorable view among republican primary voters. 60 . Desantis down to 32 . Its not just that trump is Getting Better polling numbers, its desantis is getting worse polling numbers. Help me with the math here. Does this mean that some of those points went to any other candidates or is it really all trump . It really is a lot of trump, but there is one candidate that ron desantis is very worried about, his super pac is especially worried about, and thats Vivek Ramaswamy. And why, why are they worried about Vivek Ramaswamy given that trump is running so far ahead in this race. I want you to take a look here. This is an interesting question. Second choice for the gop nominee. You can see that desantis is ahead on this metric at 35 , but look whos second. Its ramaswamy at 16 . So the idea of whos going to be the alternative to trump, desantis folks believe it could be ramaswamy. Its also that the more republicans see of him, the more they seem to like him. Whose Debate Performance most exceeded your expectations . Look at this. Who came in at number one, Vivek Ramaswamy at 35 . Look however desantis was at just 9 , guys. All right, harry, thanks so much. Thank you. Well, joining us there, cnn political commentary and White House Communications director and jamal simmons, former Communications Director for Vice President kamala harris. I want to start with you, i look at the numbers and i feel like im on a kind of hamster wheel, and coming to the same conclusion, a, the republican primary is over and b it seems like everybody to some degree is right to be the Vice President or trying to attack one another and not the guy winning by 40 points. Listen, theres no historic evidence or example where another candidate has overcome such a significant lead. And i think where this springs from, a lot of consultants who are advising the lets call them tier 2 campaigns, say youve got to really wait for the right moment to go after donald trump, because you cant risk alienating his base. The problem is, when hes 35 to 40 points ahead of you, you cant make that up. And im not sure when the moment comes or the debate stage. And when you look at also his legal calendar, theres if youre banking on some kind of a conviction taking him out of the running, thats likely not going to happen ahead of july when we have the gop convention. I hate to say it, i think its pretty much cooked at this point that donald trump is going to be the nominee, saring some major external factor. What is about the ramaswamy kind of surge right now thats, like, whats the genesis of it, i guess . A lot of people who arent into politics arent living in the conservative media space, maybe havent listened to him much, dont understand, only see little snippets of it. He sounded like trump, he carried himself that way, he was bombastic, he attacked people, he did the outsider thing, it kind of makes sense that he would see a surge after the debate. Hes also been working. This guy has done a lot of selffunding, spent a lot of time in iowa and new hampshire. Hes a pit of a rightwing media darling, but hes got a ceiling. There are some polling that shows that his number actually dropped after the debate. I dont think this is someone that was a serious candidate. Hence the numbers for nikki haley. We just passed over her, but she was next in line after the debate. The thing im most interested in, when you have this dynamic right now is, there are a lot of democrats who are anxious because theyre democrats, no offense. But my sense is that theres a lot going on underneath the hood to some degree, both the Democratic National committee and with the biden campaign, and maybe people understand. Youre connected to that world, worked inside the white house for a period of time, what are people missing right now that when if they think that trump is the opponent, either likely or almost certain to be, that democrats should know in terms of what the operation is actually being set up to do. First of all, theres an assumption that this election will be about the economy and inflation. That was the arguments the republicans are going to try to make when they go into the election. I think on the democratic side, what we also know is the election is going to be about culture and its going to be about democracy. And so the question is, are we going to have an america where everybody gets to participate, where women get to be in charge of their own bodies, where lgbtq people are going to be treated fairly. Is that going to be an america that were going to have, and an america where the rule of law actually matters, and were not going to have revolts against the congress when theres a problem with the election or people perceive a problem