Tonight seven candidates take the stage for the republican debate. One republican consultant says if ron desantis doesnt do well here, he might have to drop out. An attempt to destroy our city. That is how the Philadelphia Police commissioner described what happened there last night. Brazen and rapid fire breakins across the city, all caught on camera. Armed and dangerous, a manhunt is under way for a Murder Suspect in the killing of a tech ceo. Police say he will, quote, do anything he can to cause harm, including kill and rape. Im sara sidner with john berman and kate bolduan. This is cnn news central. Lets start with the new information coming out of north korea. State media there is now reporting the country has decided to expel the u. S. Soldier who has been in north korean custody since july. Now, the circumstances around what happened to Army Private Travis King have really always been somewhat strange since this happened. King seemed to willingly cross into north korea during a Civilian Tour of the Demilitarized Zone and the questions have mounted since then. Cnns Alex Marquardt is at the State Department with the latest. Alex, do we know where private king is right now . Reporter we dont, kate. These are were expecting to get details soon from the biden administration. At this point all we have is the information that has been provided by north korea and north korean state media and what theyve said is that they are expelling private travis king from north korea. Now, what that means exactly, how soon, where, these are all questions that we certainly want to get the answers to. As you noted, he crossed the dmz from south korea into north korea back on july 18th. Now north korea saying that following an investigation over the course of the past two months during which private king confessed to crossing illegally into north, they are expelling him, they say that he harbored ill feeling of inhuman treatment and Racial Discrimination within the u. S. Army. Kate, it is unclear whether those are indeed private kings own words. There were, of course, concerns when he crossed into north korea that he could be used for Propaganda Purposes or as a bargaining chip. We havent seen him, so they didnt really capitalize on anything in terms of propaganda. In terms of a bargaining chip, its not clear whether a deal was struck here. So lots of questions remain, but, kate, this was an extraordinary saga. He was meant to leave south korea where he was serving as a private in the u. S. Army, part of the rotational u. S. Military forces that are in south korea, and he was supposed to go back to texas to fort bliss to face Disciplinary Procedures because he had been accused of assaulting people in south korea. In fact, he had spent some 50 days in south korean custody doing hard labor because of an assault that he pled guilty to. He was taken to the airport by u. S. Military officials and as soon as they let him go he then left the airport. He then joined that Civilian Tour at the dmz, at which point he split off from the tour and crossed what is known as the Joint Security Area and a senior u. S. Army official said that he did so willfully and without authorization. Now, this was baffling to not just u. S. Military officials, but to his family as well. They said it was uncharacteristic of him to do Something Like that. But theres been extremely little communication, essentially no communication between the north koreans and the United States that we know of. There was an acknowledgment to the united nations, which is there on the dmz, by the north koreans that there had been a request for information about private king, but really we havent heard anything about private king in the past two months and then suddenly, kate, today this news from north korean state media that they are expelling him. But we certainly have a lot of questions about his time in custody, what conditions hes in and how hes going to get home, kate. All right. Stick close, we know more information will be coming really soon this morning. Alex, thank you very much for that. John . Mark your calendars. Today is september 27th, 2023. It might be the last best chance for any republican candidate not named donald trump to carve out a realistic chance to win the republican nomination. Seven candidates will take the stage at the debate at the Ronald Reagan president ial library in simi valley, california. As for the stakes a consultant actually backing Florida Governor ron desantis as saying, quote, if he doesnt do well here, in my opinion hes got to drop out. If he doesnt want to be embarrassed. Thats someone supporting ron desantis. As for donald trump, he will not be there. He is skipping the debate and speaking before auto workers in michigan. This fresh off the news that a new york judge ruled that he committed fraud and stripped him of control of some of the business he holds so dear. As of this moment he could be on a path to win the nomination, but lose his empire. Cnns kyung lah is in simi valley, california, the site of the debate with all these swirling realities hanging over your head. Reporter yeah, you know, you just pointed it out, trump has his plate full with his variety of problems, but hes choosing to dine somewhere else. He is counterprogramming and while he may have earlier this week called the debates, quote, stupid, deriding these debates, for these candidates who are gathering and will be gathering tonight in simi valley, this is extraordinarily important. It is their opportunity. Try to snatch the mantel as a trump alternative and try to make the argument that they are the strongest alternative and really capitalize on desantis Downward Slide and trajectory in the polls. So what you are expecting to see tonight as these campaigns are projecting in their comments theyre saying, look, they are going to be more aggressive, they are going to take it to trump. Weve certainly heard them testing out some of these antitrump lines from the haley camp. Weve heard from tim scotts campaign that he is going to push a more aggressive tone and Vivek Ramaswamys campaign has told cnn that what he is going to do is to lay out those policy and personality disagreements he has with donald trump on the debate stage tonight. I want to point you to this comment that ron desantis made just hours before showing up here in simi valley. I think its interesting all the voters to show up, defend his record, articulate what he would do going forward, what he might do differently. Hes running in 2024 on a lot of the same promises he ran on in 2016 and didnt deliver on. Reporter so this is their chance to speak not just to each other and to take all of these swipes at one another, but it is their chance to speak directly to millions of republican primary voters. And, john, also, do not underscore the importance, as you pointed out in what ron desantis backer was saying, is that this is their chance to talk to those fundraisers, to those financial backers and to keep the money flowing, john. Some of whom are getting a little skittish about backing someone other than donald trump at this point. Kyung lah in simi valley at the lovely Ronald Reagan president ial library, thank you for being with us. Now to another one of Donald Trumps problems, a judge in new york has ruled that donald trump and his adult sons have committed fraud in their Business Empire and should be held liable for t the judge found that the trumps defrauded banks and Insurance Companies by providing bogus Financial Statements for roughly a decade and overvalued their property sometimes to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, this comes just days before the new York Attorney generals civil case against the former president is supposed to go to trial. Cnns Brynn Gingras is joining us now. Brynn, the judge did not mince words, calling trumps legal arguments a fantasy world, not the real world, but i also hit trump where it hurts him the most perhaps, he is hitting trump for his ability to do business in new york. Tell us what happened. Reporter yeah, which is one of the objectives of the new York Attorney general. So this was a huge win for Letitia James ahead of this trial that is expected to start and likely will start on monday, but lets get into exactly what the judge has said in his ruling regarding the overvaluation of his assets by trump and his two sons. Let me put up a full screen of his assets. Right, we know his golf course, we know his hotels and we know his homes. According to this judges ruling trump said, for example, his trump tower triplex was three times bigger than it actually is, overevaluating it by 114 to 207 million. According to the judge, he basically said the discrepancy of this order or magnitude by real estate developers, sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud. So, again, the judge not mincing words as you said, sara, and saying that hes really living in a fantasy world. Now, what does this mean . The judge came harsh down on trump as well regarding his assets, regarding his empire, like john just talked about. Lets take a look at what hes decided now is going to happen. Essentially the judge is canceling the business certifications of trumps entities named as defendants in this civil lawsuit. That includes Trump Organization and whats going to happen now is a receiver is going to be put in place to determine how it will be dissolved. Now, its unclear exactly how thats going to go into effect, but, again, its a big blow to the Trump Organization. Let me get reaction from trump who said to this decision, it is a Great Company that has been slandered and maligned by this politicallymotivated witchhunt. It is very unfair and i call for help from the highest court in New York State for the federal system to intercede. This is not america. You can see right there they plan to appeal. Sara, there was already an appeal with this civil lawsuit on the books, will be in front of a judge, actually we are expecting to get a ruling sometime this week which could delay the start of the civil hearing next week. There is a lot going on in court, as you know, the trumps do like to sue and like to take their action to court. We will keep on following this. Really interesting that the judge made this Summary Judgment on some of the biggest things Letitia James was asked for before the trial ever started. Brynn gingras, thank you for that update. And tonight donald trump, he is trying to counterprogram once again. Hes skipping the second republican primary debate, instead hes headed to michigan to speak to auto workers there, also known as an Important Group of voters and an important battleground state. So much so that President Biden was there just yesterday and the Biden Campaign just released its first ad buy going directly at donald trump. He says he stands with auto workers, but as President Donald Trump passed tax breaks for his rich friends while auto makers shuttered their plants. And michigan lost manufacturing jobs. Joe biden said he would stand up for workers and hes delivering. Passing laws that are increasing wages and creating goodpaying jobs. Manufacturing is coming back to michigan. Cnns Kristen Holmes is in clinton township, michigan, for more on this. What is the Trump Campaign plan for michigan that youre learning about and what is he going to what is he going to see when he gets there . Reporter well, kate, look, this is the clearest indication that we have had from the Trump Campaign that they are looking past the primaries at the general election. Trumps team is not expecting him to get a warm welcome from Union Leaders like we saw for President Biden yesterday. Those Union Leaders have largely criticized trump and his administration saying his policies were pro business, antiunion and antiworker, but what they do think is that they can get people here in Mccomb County to receive trump and receive them well. Mccomb is a county in michigan that trump won in 2016 and in 2020 and im told by Trump Officials they believe that there is a wedge between Union Leadership and the rank and file. Thats what we are expecting to see here tonight. These previous former and current Union Leaders and the question is whether or not trump can be wellreceived by these rank and file. This location that we are at is called Drake Enterprises, its a nonunion shop, but one of the arguments that we are told trump is going to make is all about Electric Vehicles, essentially slamming bidens Electric Vehicle policy saying its going to cost auto worker jobs. We heard from the president of this location, of Drake Enterprises yesterday in an interview where he said if electric cars were to become prevalent that he would be out of business. Giving you a little bit of an idea of why they chose this specific location. But again, these working class voters, michigan itself, that propelled trump to the white house in 2016. Its also the same group that propelled biden to the white house in 2020. Whether or not trump can actually get these voters this time around will be a very different landscape than it was in 2016 when he didnt have a record to run on. And, again, those Union Leaders theyre hitting back on trumps record. They are saying he is no pro labor. It will be interesting to see how exactly that plays out in this state. No kidding. Great you are there. Thank you so much. With us now cnn senior political commentator, grumpy cubs fan, david axelrod. Senior grumpy cubs fan. I read this quote this morning from a republican consultant they say who backs ron desantis who said if desantis doesnt do well in this debate tonight he should drop out if he doesnt want to be embarrassed. Maybe hyperbolic but what does it say about this moment . Its extraordinary when you think about last fall when he was the man of the moment. He was the guy. He was going to take on donald trump. He was the clear alternative and he wasnt polling and now hes fallen back into the pack. Tonight he really has to show that he deserves that mantel or continue to fade. In the first debate he was great at landing these rehearsed lines, but that robotic quality is exactly why hes or one of the reasons why hes fallen back and he needs to get into the give and take and show some life tonight or i do think people are going to begin not begin, they already are doing it looking for someone else who might, might emerge as an alternative to trump. I think time is running out for that. You wrote an analysis leading up to tonights debate and i was looking through it and some of the ways that you describe the Candidate Field that will be on the debate stage tonight, the left side rans, the pretenders and the understudies. Yikes. Unkind . I dont know. What is it lets be honest, you guys, donald trump has done nothing but grow since he started getting indicted, four indictments later, hes got an almost insurmountable lead. He can be beaten but only if someone emerges and co aliases all of the voters who are willing to consider someone other than trump and time is growing short for that. So you do get the sense that theres sort of on the stage trying to be the understud in case he falters or maybe auditioning for 2028. It would be him fault ring against himself, it wouldnt be them forcing i think whats important tonight is how think handle the questions and how they handle each other. We focus on who is going to attack trump. I think you can be clear that Chris Christie will do that and he will probably attack the others for not being willing to do what hes doing, but the real issue is these things are like theyre oral exams and people want you and want to see how you deal with things in the moment. How are they in this moment . How do they deal with thrusts from each other. The person that i would watch closely is nikki haley who did very well in the last debate and has become sort of the flavor of the month among the desperate donors who are looking for someone other than trump. You touched on this that the more donald trump faces legal issues it seems the more his numbers and the polling grows, the more Republican Voters seem to coalesce around him for a myriad of reasons. Yes. I want to take a look at some polling on that because it is really interesting to see when voters were asked about whether or not it mattered to them, 48 said not really, no. Thats a huge number. So what is it that these candidates can do to pull away some of that support, being that they cant mention all the things that hes indicted for . No, its a tough spot because you cant you know, on the one hand it feels like you cant