President ial debates also tonight, Michael Cohen is bracing for round two of his fiery crossexamination in Donald TrumpsHush Money Trial the next moves by the defense could go a long way toward deciding if jurors believed the longtime trump fixtures incriminating testimony against his former boss at a cnn exclusive this hour for inside the illegal gun trade in haiti, a cnn team flies over the country devastated by Gang Violence to see how Deadly Weapons are smuggled and why thats making efforts to feed starving people even more dangerous welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer and urine the Situation Room our top story tonight the deal is now done and the date is set for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to go headtohead on the debate stage here on cnn, a first in their historic rematch. Cnns jeff zeleny has bore and how this all came about, and i would could impact the race well, make my day pal, ill even do it twice with those words today. President biden, formerly challenged and donald trump quickly accepted two president ial debates with their first facetoface encounter now set for late next month on cnn the june 27th showdown, followed by a second one on September 10th on abc, would become the earliest president ial debates in memory. A sign that both rivals are eager to appear sidebyside to gain advantage in their historic rematch after weeks of taunting from trump, who often deploys an extra podium as a prop. Thats for joe biden. Im trying to get him to debate the Biden Campaign sought to gain the upper hand and the debate over debates in a video today found trump lost two debates to me in 2020 it sends said he hadnt shown up for debate. Now hes acting like he wants to debate me again, so lets pick the dates donald, i hear youre free on wednesdays. That message and not so veiled reference to the former president s criminal trial now underway in new york. Court is not in session on wednesdays even as the accepted two debates, trump called for more. I really think he has to debate. He might as well get it over with. Probably should do it early so that he can hes not gonna get any better televise debates have long been a storied part of president ial campaigns. With historymaking moments for candidates. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience. But American History offers no modernday guide for sql. Said this because they want to give kate, if i may ask a question, sir, would you use the word smart so you said you went to Delaware State but you forgot the name of your college. He racist the worst, whereas america has ever had as their 2024 contest intensifies, biden trump are both hoping to keep the debate stage free of thirdparty candidates like robert f. Kennedy jr. Who blasted his rivals saying they are trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid i would win if pfizers to biden and trump have been working behind the scenes in an effort to bypass the commission on president ial debates its the group has organized such forums since 1988, and at three president ial and one Vice President ial debate already set for this fall in a statement today, the commission said, the American Public deserves substantive debates. We will continue to be ready to execute this plan now that June 27th Debate is about three months earlier than debates historically have been wolf, but elections have changed the timelines have changed because of early voting. Thats why both campaigns wanted to have these debates earlier. Now, later in the de, the former president said he was accepting in debate on fox news in october, the Biden Campaign says they have made their plan for two and no more. So wolf, there is no doubt this will be the biggest moment of the campaign. And both sides want to stand sidebyside. But for very different reasons. Important point in d, jeff zeleny. Thank you very, very much. Lets get some more on all of them. This are political experts are joining us and david chaldean, let me start with you, trump and biden, dont agree on much as we all know, but they did agree to completely undo modern history, to debate each other months earlier in the political calendar what does that say . Well, id say i think it says two things one, i take both campaigns at their word that they thought that the scheduled debates in the fall come too late, given how americans are voting earlier and earlier in the process and they wanted to get before a large swath of americans before that, that process says begins to give them the information they need in their decisionmaking. But i also think as geoff just noted, wolf both of these guys see incentive in getting to a debate stage soon, the Biden Campaign has for months said that they believe a lot of the voters that theyre trying to reach or dialed out and not fully realizing that the Trump Versus Biden match up is on and that by getting on the debate stage with the former president , that will be literally put before the eyes of those americans, the reaching on the trump sayyed trump has been saying for months he has so eager to debate biden because he firmly believes as does his team team that this matchup benefits him, that he shows more energy that he can dominate a debate stage in a way that they dont think joe biden can, and they are eager to have that sidebyside but comparisons well, so when everyone sees incentive in doing it, it happens. All right, let me get Kristen Holmes into this conversation and Kristen Trump is asking for even more debates than the two debates and biden has already agreed to whats his strategy here . Well, as david said, donald trump has long believed and its not just him, its his allies as well as his closest advisers that he can outperform joe biden, honore debate stage. They have always wanted a number of debates, so now they are saying that two is not enough. They want four debates, but there is also another part of this, but just the donald trump has really made debating biden a key part of his campaign. As you saw, geoff mentioning the fact that donald trump often brings an extra podium up to the stage to mock biden mock the fact that biden had not agreed to any debates. He also gave out talking points to surrogates, insisting that they say on television that donald trump was ready to debate at anytime and any place today, do biden took control of the narrative . They announced that he was willing to debate and they accepted debate, putting donald trump really on the offensive. And that was a change of pace. So now youre seeing donald trump trying to take back some of that narrative when it comes to those debates by saying hell do a third debate yeah, important point to Alexia Johnson is with us as well, alexia is President Biden the agreeing to this early debate, an admission that he does believe these current poles that show here hes losing this race in several key Battleground States look, i dont think its an admission, but i do think its an acknowledgment that their voters who wants to hear directly from him on issues that they care about around the economy, around immigration, around abortion, around whats happening, and what the israelhamas and so the debate is the opportunity to get in front of those voters very early on and making, as the other guests were saying, making voters start paying attention a lot sooner than they usually do. Im a president ial campaign that a lot of times voters dont start paying attention until the end of the summer. But this election is unlike any other than any of us on this panel have ever seen earlier that they can get in front of voters the better biden is in a position to go into the summer strong, doing the ontheground work that this campaign has been bolstering for the past year . Yeah, thats important as well. Alyssa Farah Griffin is with trump is setting very low dictations right now for President Bidens performance posting today, that biden quote, cant put two sentences together. You think elicit thats going to backfire around him yes, thats a terrible strategy and its only a matter of time between before susie wiles and Chris Lacivita havent walked that back. Listen, this is what they did ahead of the State Of The UnionDonald Trumps campaign essentially said, if he doesnt kill over at the podium, that was the bar that they sent. And so joe biden outperformed expectations and got a bump after the State Of The Union. Entirely the wrong tact and i want to mention one thing. Theres this notion out there that president ial debates dont really matter. They dont historically move the needle. And i would say thats not the case for this one. Its because this is not a debate for the locked in partisans whose minds are made up about these two men. It is for those sort of doublehaters, those swing voters who arent necessarily happening with either candidate. But we know are going to decide this election seeing the candidates earlier go headtohead, i think is incredibly important. I think its good for democracy. And i think its an Open Question over who it benefits joe biden, a creature the senate, hes good when hes not in front of a big audience. Donald trump loves a big audience, but at the same time, donald trump actually might be a bit more scaled back in a more intimate setting. So a very, very important develop youre right, david, by cnns June 27th Debate, trump could potentially, potentially be a convicted felon, or potentially be acquitted in this first criminal trial, hes facing. How would that factor into what already would be an extraordinary debate . Well, i dont know how that factors into the debates, specifically wolf, but i think once we have a verdict in hand, well know whether or not soon thereafter and Public Opinion surveys and conversations with voters in reporting out what the campaigns and their assessment, the impact that that verdict is having on the election landscape overall and of course, those fundamentals will shape the debate. No doubt where the campaign is. But i look into verdict less about its Immediate Impact on the debate stage, and more just doesnt move the overall nature of the race prior to the debate. If indeed the verdict comes in before them alyssa, how much do you think voters will actually benefit from these debates . So will it break through during this very busy Summer Season . I think it will. I think having donald trump in the courtroom and not on the Campaign Trail as much as probably softened a lot of people to some of his more dangerous rhetoric. Theyre not hearing him saying things like immigrants poured ways in the blood of this country every other day of the week. But i think seeing the juxtaposition next to joe biden, the question is going to be the vitality of joe biden and then just be outrageousness of donald trump. Is he able to stick to policy, is able to stick to a forward looking agenda. I think setting it early to someone elses point earlier, it makes people realize this is happening there grace, as soon were six months out from the election and now is the time to tune in alexia, the Dow Jones Industrial average just hit an all time record high today after report showed inflation here in the United States, slightly cooling, but the cost of everything from food to housing is still stubbornly high. Does President Bidens Debate Performance even matter if voters feel the economy isnt improving i think that Debate Performance actually does matter because this is a chance for President Biden to make the American People understand that he understands that people may not be feeling the policy yet right . All of us understand that it takes a little bit of time for folks to actually feel policy in their pocketbooks. And hes able to make that case to the American People. Hes also able to close the gap between what was happening at the beginning of his presidency and whats happening now, and the direction that he would like to take the country n. And so im hoping that couldnt biden is actually going to use this time to tell the American People that he understands this was certainly be extraordinary and historic to all of you. Thank you very much for urinalysis and just ahead slovakias Prime Minister is in the hospital right now after an Assassination Attempt we have details on the shooting and the latest that his condition right after a quick break russia for trying to hi on us. We were spying on them this is a secret war. Secrets and spies premier sunday, june 2, beta1 home cnn. With armor all a little bit of this protects you from a lot of that honore. 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The way only cnn can bring it to you, legal insight for analysis and realtime updates live from the courtroom follow the facts, follow the testimony, follows cnn Close Captioning is brought to you by skechers massage fit sandals check these out. Skechers, mr. Fit sandals. They give you what massage with every step the secret is skechers patented Wave Technology that gently massage is your foot with every Step Skechers Massage that Sandals Ricky News is suspected gunman is in custody tonight after shooting slovakias Prime Minister multiple times. And what officials are calling a politically motivated Assassination Attempt slovakia is a nato ally. See you in an International Diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson has are report and a warning to our viewers some of the video youre about to see is graphic as Prime Minister robert fits. So approaches a Security Barrier would be assassin pulls a gun five shots fired into fit. So this film from another angle, the Prime Minister unable to walk manhandle