>> there. people, the know the bigger the support can be for this bill thank you both thank you so much for joining us. >> see you in a news night with abby phillip starts now donald trump tries to set expectations for both debate possibilities. that's tonight on these good evening. i'm abby phillip in washington. great expectations or not so great expectations tonight. new sound from donald trump shows that the care that he's putting into a soft landing should joe biden put them on the canvas at next week, cnn presidential debate? trump thinks that he will do well and the biden is in cognitive decline. there's no evidence for that, of course, but trump also says, the biden is a worthy debater. just listen all i could change this. i watched him with paul ryan and he destroyed paul ryan boride with the water he was chugging water at a left and right. i didn't think a human being would be able to drink so much water at one time and he'd be paul ryan. i'm not underestimating him. i'm not underestimating them. it is what it is we'll see what happens. i assume he's going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater. yeah, i would say i think i don't want to underestimate him what's also clear tonight is what the super bowl of political, the political calendar is going to look like. thanks to a coin flip, the stage for next week showdown. that's been sat joe biden will appear on screen, right? that's what his campaign wanted. after winning the toss and donald trump will appear on screen left and he will also go last delivering the second closing arguments to voters joining me now is fleet brightness. he is a former spokesperson for hillary clinton. he also played donald trump in her debate prep, also with us bryan lanza former deputy communication structure for donald trump's 2016 campaign trump is taking this seriously. he's preparing, he's getting briefings, he's he's in debate prep and it sounds like he's trying to lower expectations. >> i think the challenge he has is really hard to lower expectations with sort of seen the video of joe biden for the last three-and-a-half years? that's what everybody has. it feels like a little bar. i think the challenge that biden has, the bar that biden has done mr. fan in his economic record i think if trump focuses and puts his target on their, you know, it's a hard barter defend. but if it's if it's if we get other conversations that have nothing to do with inflation, i have nothing to do that affect the middle class. biden will have a good debate and luck. this is the big thing with trump is kenny stay on message, but the other thing that is going to be a huge part of this debate is what happens with the mics. >> they're gonna be turned off and both campaigns, i guess somewhat surprisingly, are okay with that. i'm not surprised. biden loves it, but trump is okay with it. how will that affect the dynamic on the stage? i mean, you anticipated trump trying to bulldoze over hillary clinton. >> well, for one, those of us who are trying to watch and actually here we'll be able to actually hear what they're saying. trump might be a little frustrated that while he's yelling at joe biden, no one else vote here and i'm sure at some point and trump will right? >> yeah. i mean, it's not going to be only 190 million of us will here. we donald trump is muttering it's good. >> it's sad that it has to be that way. it's good that it is that way. if you look back at the first debate in 2020, it's clear that it has to be that way otherwise, they're just going to take each other. these two guys don't like each other hall your job. they don't like each other and it showed they were getting pretty nasty with each other the idea i mean, this is a debate. the idea that donald trump kind of practices, kind of preps, not really a debate is an argument, is a disagreement. donald trump has been preparing for debates for 78 years. i mean, this is what he does. he games mouth he sets up his own take a human debater. he walks around. >> he is a moving debate state but it's the, it's the discipline, discipline, or lack there of that could be a real problem for him. i mean, you kind of hit the nail on the head if he focuses on an economic message, you can see victory for him. but donald trump, you get them talking for 90 seconds and he'll probably hit like six or seven topics that are totally unrelated. maybe two he's supposed to be thomas and that becomes a challenge, but i think at the end of the day if president trump's focus on the contrasting record of the two, because there's a lot in 2000, you didn't have to presidential records to compare you were in 22,020 in 2020. >> we didn't have those records in 2024. joe biden has a presidential record, is an economic record as president. he has an economic record on the world stage. and president trump has an economic record as president. he has an economic record on the world stage. so there is plenty of ammunition that president trump can do to compare the two records to say you are that are off four years ago than you are today. you will just look at inflation, just look at the wars they're taking place that didn't exist four years ago. so there is more ammunition. yours trump was on the defensive with covid. people were criticizing covid. they weren't criticizing his governorship before covid. >> there criticizing the response. >> now, everybody's criticizing joe's biden's shepherd should of separate sheet have this economy of inflation. and he's failed it. so trump has a lot of ammunition if he hits it, he's going to hit it hard as department readout, trump doesn't come in with a strategy. he comes in with the list, he comes in, it will list of things that are pent up that he wants to say he does that daily, but particularly to joe biden knew he hasn't seen in person in nearly 1,400 days. he's going to come in and he wants to talk about immigration. he wants to pound on his trials on doj, haunting him on all the things that he's aggrieved about. now the question is the list said brian said the question is the order. does he come out and does he immediately starts saying you're department of justice is coming after me jack smith is a moron. everyone knows that it's illegal. what's going on in new york, this judge, what where does it come out and say that sade twice as many people are coming through the border. then when i always present, what does biden do, you have prompt hillary clinton. what, how should he tactically approach trump? next week? >> well, it really depends. first of all, it depends on what the question is. i mean, there's there's a responsibility with the moderator to start if the question is, sir x question about immigration and donald trump starts talking about russia and molar and porn stars than it, sir, i asked you about immigration. but to answer your question more specifically, if he starts ranting about something else you want to find your home base. so if donald trump starts talking about his various legal issues, there's a through line there. this is someone who is breaking the law, who has been found guilty of felonies, who says that nearly 1,000 people who were found guilty of insurrection and other related crimes on january 6 should go free and that his trials are bogus. you've got someone there who's basically saying, i don't believe that justice and law applies to make, and that's a topic that joe biden feels very strongly about. so you have to, if you're joe biden, you bring it back there. >> if you're dividing, you cannot talk about the economy and you can't talk about it, but that's not true. 100% in terms of how do you defend your inflation record, but you want hero for 36 in bringing down inflation numbers to your own goal job. but instead of goal of 2% of hitting inflation, he's not hit a single month that he is present. how does he defend that? how does he defend that against trump? are trump's that i didn't have this inflation. >> what i'm saying is that person to trump defend not creating jobs and 500000000, brian is going to say, i had covid but then donald trump's going to save covid, didn't really exist covid wasn't real, but somehow covid prevented him from an economy would spiral out of control. and they think for covid, with donald trump's says, listen, the reason covid, the reason they started again is because covid concluded and can co-mingle hula because of vaccine came, please. >> so everything that happened on mine hi, watch my donald trump watch is because of other things that i can't control everything good that i don't think the lungs donald trump for covid. we blaming donald trump for covid. i blame him for a way he handled go kim is gonna go away. it'll be interesting to you and i tb the vaccine didn't work. >> i said it did work. is i said we should think donald trump for the vaccine. what is trump going to say about the vaccine given that so many of his supporters at this, even if you can't denied, he actually took it. would be thanks. >> let's less. time he showed up, he had to go to this if he's talking about covid is a loss discussion. he needs to be talked about immigration. he needs to be talking about the economy needs to be talking about inflation. he needs to be talking about joe bar, joe biden's policies where he reversed all the executive order as long as the border which president trump had which restricted a significant amount of people coming if he's talking about covid, if he's talking about his grievances with russia, if he's talking about molar, it is a loss debate. there is plenty of ammunition for donald trump to have this conversation and make the case that joe biden has failed the american people on an array of issues that matter let's talk about, okay, i got one last thing for you guys, so there's a lot of campaign finance stuff happening this week, but to me, the one important thing trump is ahead in terms of how much money you raised after the verdict in new york. but one thing that they won't say in the trump campaign is how much cash they have on hand and the biden campaign is. notice that do you think it's because they've been spending a lot of money on trump's legal fees. >> they're spending a lot of money and everything and they're going to continue to spend a lot of money and everything. but i would say this one of the results of the trial that took place as joe biden had a final angela advantage of rep. fundraising advantage before the trial, after the trial, the financial advantages wiped out. so it's positive and negative for trump. you remember the democrats were talking about how if trump was found guilty, he's going to lose 20% of the republican vote. this is going to be our election he's now emerson poll just came out today that shows him winning seven swing states. so i think the dream scenario that we predicted that would take place at least that democrats were due to take place is not happening. and the fund raising, the money is coming in and that's a good thing. >> i'm going to end on the bipartisan agreement with brian by saying joe biden has an absolute advantage by not being found guilty of 34 felonies and therefore not have to spend $100 of his country contributors money to defend himself. that is why he has more money. he has more support amongst mole donors and this, remember in 2020, donald trump had a very, very high burn rate at the time it took a lot of money for him to raise money from small donors. now, in this case, luckily, as we saw tonight, he has several very large donors which both campaigns do. i don't think money is going to be the dispositive difference between these candidates are both going to be well-funded, plenty to go around, believe brightness bryan lanza. thank you both very much breaking moments ago. steve bannon is going to prison in ten days and appeals court tonight refusing to delay the start of his sentence for contempt of congress. meanwhile he is casually promising to use the power of the government to settle personal scores if trump is elected bannon isn't just satisfied with generally suggesting revenge. he is naming names why is andrew mccabe mr. >> tough guy, mr. fbi tough guy. why is he wedding him? so why is he wet himself on national tv? he's scared because he understands the end is near. get your passport, get the hell out of the country because hey welcome. over and grabbed the long arm or the law going to grab you back, bro, if we will hunt you down and bring you back and you will stand accountable before the american people earlier tonight for the first time, andrew mccabe responded to that i know what to expect. >> it's not about me. i'll be fine. it's about people who will be experiencing this for the first time. and more importantly, their families like i talked to former officials and everyone is in the same place like we are still committed to this country and seeing this through, we still have faith in the systems that are that are built to protect the rights of every american. but that's a hard thing to explain to your family when their thinking basically they don't want to have to live in this kind of fear in terror for another four year 20 to meted out to discuss this is cnn anchor, jim acosta jim, i mean steve bannon is sort of, you know, he's kind of a cause player of something. but what he's talking about seems very real. and i think it sounds like andrew mccabe and many others there's around him, people who were involved in investigations or trump wants payback for they are taking this seriously. >> yeah. and i wonder if some of this has to do with what you just read a few moments ago that bannon has lost another opportunity to appeal his case. it looks like he's gonna be going to prison and ten days on july 4, first, unless the supreme court intervenes and he's been slowly ratcheting up his rhetoric. he's been calling election day this year, accountability de, he has been talking about going after or perceived enemies and opponents of former president donald trump on his podcast, which, you for some reason it's still going, it's still has this war room podcast going let's not forget he was the one who has ratcheting things up right before january 6 and you and i both though because we covered the white house together, bannon was a very important strategies to donald trump when he was president of the united states. i mean, i wrote about this in my book, came out five years ago. this is how long we've been dealing with all this that bannon and trump sat together and came up with the idea of using the term enemy of the people to go after the press. and so trump and bannon had been sort of partners in crime in this sort of intimidation game that's been going on for six or seven years. if you're in the press, if you're an opponent, perceived enemy of the president, foreign president, they're going to come after you and they no. the stakes and all of this, abby, we know this all too well. well, back in 2018, there was a pipe bomb are named caesar say accenting pipe bombs to cnn and other folks that the president at that time was targeting out in the press. and a lot of this gets ratcheted up because of the rhetoric that trump and bannon uses you know, well, that there are plenty of countries in this world welcome, their people who are afraid of political prosecutions have to leave. yeah, they have to pick up their families and they have to leave this in this country. >> we've never been at that brink before. but what oedema cave is saying, what liz cheney is saying, and others is that were there people yeah do you think that that's an exaggeration or is it real? >> i mean, i do you do hear people in the press talk about this. i mean, i dealt with threats. there are other folks in the press were covering donald trump when he's in the white house, dealt with threats abbe, you've probably have heard some of this when you've talked to people around a dc and in politics and immediate, you do run into people from time to time. i've talked to former trump officials who have said, i'm thinking about moving out of the country if he gets back into the white house because i've been outspoken and talking about donald trump's so the threat is real. >> and the next time around, i think people fear there's not going to be a recourse is that's right. >> that's right and part of that is because any mckay was saying, well, or institutions will hold and so on. and we all hope that that's the case, but trump has talked about this as aids and allies have been talking about this, it's been reported that they plan on stocking the federal government. in particular, the department of justice, with people that donald trump can count on to exactly this campaign of retribution that he's been campaigning on out, on out on the trail this entire year? >> yeah. all right. jim acosta. great to see you. thank you very much. jim will be in the chair for laura coats at the top of the hour. stick with us for that and breaking tonight, the revelation that trump's favorite judge refused, please, from two federal judges to step aside from the documents case due to her experience, plus to louisiana lawmaker's join me to debate the state now requiring the ten commandments in classrooms and attempts situation is developing in space by nasa astronauts are stuck there and how boeing is involved. this is newsnight cnn news night with abby phillip brought to you by the bike riders, starring jodie comer austin butler, and tom hardy outsiders become ledge. >> the bike rides rated are in theaters tomorrow. >> good black writers lady the like writers, where you're dollars only theaters tomorrow whether you're moving across town or across the country, you can count on pods to deliver with say we will, which is why we were voted america's number one container moving company will cure move today at pods.com. weight knew i can design a personalized weight loss plan for me. >> well, again there's no about transfer newest class can be personalized for both your needs home up dead bought, get your personalized plan today at noon.com. >> i managed good the last room for hundred and 90 bucks. i put the last from a week ago. >> i talked yesterday, some sites panic q into booking their last room instead, trivago compares hotel prices from hundreds of sites. so you can save up to $50 a night hotel, trivago one second. >> you feel safe? 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