of him. i feel great sadness for his family tonight and his friends. and i'm grateful for the life he lived and what he gave of himself to the rest of us there was no one else like donald sutherland and there won't ever be, again the news continues here on cnn outfront next, trump's favorite judge, about to put jack smith and the hotseat as a judge in the classified documents case faces new questions. >> since tonight about whether she should step aside. >> plus the final word goes to trump new reporting tonight on why biden is letting the former president have the last say next week's debate. what is biden strategy? >> and sounding the alarm tonight, the chairman of the house intelligence committee accusing the biden administration of sleepwalking as putin threatens to put a nuclear weapon in space. obviously, mike turner is my guest tonight. let's go out front and good evening. >> i'm erin burnett outfront tonight. trump's cannon ball. trump's favorite judge, aileen cannon, could be hours away from deciding if jack smith gets fired. and at this hour tonight, cannon is facing new questions as to whether or not she should be even overseeing this classified documents trial, the mar-a-lago case according to the new york times and new reporting tonight to senior florida federal judges, reportedly told cannon to step aside after she was assigned to this get case. and in the world we live in, it's important to just say some of the facts here. one of the judges who recommended this to cannon is named cecilia alta naga republican an appointee. >> she is the districts chief judge with decades of experience. keep in mind aileen cannon wasn't even a judge until trump made her one 14 years ago. >> according to the new york times, cannon rebuffed any suggestion from these judges that she should give up the trump's case completely rejected it. >> a case in which she has done thus far everything that you possibly could and her power is a judge to slow roll the proceedings that includes appointing a special master to review the sensitive documents taken at mar-a-lago to now taking up trump's request to challenge jack smith's appointment has even being involved on the case, an issue that other courts have resoundingly rejected, but not cannon. >> she has given trump exactly what he hoped for i did nothing wrong. >> it's presidential records act. i did nothing. we have a deranged individual named jack smith. he's a deranged that dumb guy is at dumped son of a well, that's his feelings about jack smith and cannon is entertaining trump's requests to have evidence seized at mar-a-lago thrown out, as well, that hearing coming up and days the bottom line is this cannon's actions have now essentially ensured that trump's case does not go to trial before the election. in fact, she hasn't even decided on at least eight major issues, six motions to dismiss, a gag order request, and i guess on top of all of it, important to note, she has even set a trial date it is no wonder that judge cannon, thus far is trump's favorite, budge i know it's a very highly respected judge, a very smart judge, and a very strong jackpot. >> you appointed her. >> i did. and i'm very proud to have appointed her, but she very smart and very strong and the levs or country online. >> he posted this about jack smith's saying he should be sanctioned or censured for the way he is attacking a highly respected judge, aileen cannon and trump calling her smart, strong, highly respected of course, she became a judge when he appointed her to be a judge, he was prosecuted before that. it's night and day from how he treats other judges i was recently informed that another corrupt or new york judge, juan merchan gag made. >> this judge should be recused and the case should be thrown out. he's totally conflicted and goren is a huaxia when he sprays. >> and then i add, judge kaplan, luis har bias. >> i've been treated very unfairly by this judge. now, this judges of mexican heritage, i'm building a wall evan. perez is out front live in fort pierce, florida ahead of that hearing tomorrow, and evan, that is important and a lot of hearings coming up here for cannon that could be extremely significant what's going on? >> that's right there and we have three days of hearings beginning tomorrow. judge cannon has scheduled to listen to a number of issues, including one one that's very unusual tomorrow, where she's actually entertaining requests from from from several outside groups basically asks calling into question the legality of jack smith's appointment as a special counsel. the argument that trump has been making and is now being supported by these outside hi groups. is that because he wasn't a person who was approved by the senate. that the attorney general, merrick garland made a mistake and it's so essentially exceeding his authority by appointing a jack smith as special counsel. now, this is an argument that has been made by others, including by hunter biden a similar argument was made before two of the judges that are hearing different cases for hunter biden and those judges have have cast aside those arguments but judge cannon has decided that this is worth hearing. and so tomorrow we'll have several hours of arguments from groups that are both in support of jack smith's position and also against his appointment. we're also going to hear in the next few days on monday, we're going to have a hearing on a request by the special counsel to have a gag order placed on the former president and to have it in force essentially as a part of his release conditions. and of course, as you mentioned, erin, there's also his effort to toss the case an evidenced that was seized in the search of mar-a-lago. all of these things obviously are eating up the calendar, which is what of course is the the goal for the former president is legal team. >> all right. evan, thank you very much and in all of this is the crucial question, right? it was four years ago that judge cannon became a judge. she became a judge when then president donald trump appointed her and gave her the title judge. so if she qualified to be handling this case jessica schneider is out front license sincere thanks to the president for honor of his nomination judge, aileen cannon owes her nomination to the federal bench to donald trump. >> and in the two years she's overseeing the classified documents case against trump in florida her handling of the criminal case has raised eyebrows especially her slow walking crucial decisions that make a trial before the november election extremely unlikely. >> it's taking forever because judge cannon continues to indulge the defendant in just about every request granting hearings were other judges would have either rejected them or ruled based on the paperwork. >> and now the new york times reporting two senior federal judges in florida privately urged judge cannon to pass off the case to another judge when it was randomly assigned to her in june 2023, she had been on the bench just three years at that point after being confirmed by the senate in 2020, when she was asked if she had at any loyalty to president trump, she unequivocally responded, no then one of the first decisions related to the classified docs case, favorite trump, by granting his request to have a special master oversee the review of classified documents first seized by the fbi at mar-a-lago. >> it was a decision that halted the ability of doj's prosecutors to review the documents, and a conservative appeals court, including two trump appointees rebuked her by reversing her ruling that they described as untenable and allowing the doj to resume its investigation that led to trump's indictment. attorneys who have practiced before for judge cannon tell cnn for drawn-out decision-making process, isn't unique to trump's case. attorney saying she is not efficient calling her indecisive and noting she just seems overwhelmed by the process some of the defense attorneys who asked cnn not to use their names also say she is typically tough on criminal defendants and she is a very harsh sentencer. but they questioned her decisions on trump. one of them saying she's certainly playing a different game with the current defendant before her trump's former attorney, though, are he was her decision so far are about what he would expect in a criminal case at the beginning stages, there's a lot of people that are already kinda preemptively throwing stones at her saying she's over match doesn't know what she's doing. the reality is, she's doing stuff that's actually pretty typical. the federal practice for a non incarcerated defendant, judge cannon, also has been tough on the special counsel's team. she has reprimanded them for failing to follow local court rules. >> another attorney describing cannon style this way she doesn't like the government to come in and play bully steamroller. some don't see judge cannon is playing favorites though, and contend it just comes down to a lack of time on the federal bench. >> i think it's a matter of inexperience. she is sitting in a satellite courthouse by herself in fort pierce there is no senior judge to help her along and just before aileen cannon became a federal judge, she was a federal prosecutor in florida for seven years. >> but in that time, she only participated on trial teams in four criminal trials. and since she's been on the bench as a federal judge, she's actually only presided err on over a handful of criminal trials, and that includes one that a fellow judge in florida actually took over for her. so her experience is slim. and erin, it's proving to be somewhat of a major light line hi ability. >> all right. jessica, thank you very much. i want to go straighten out to ty cobb, the former trump white house lawyer. so taiwan, we're learning that two federal judges advised cannon to step aside. she rejected them. you hear others though, de of ehrenberg, saying that this was maybe all of this is more a matter of inexperience than anything else. what do you take away from this so i don't even think de believes that but i think what's regard to judge, cannon's behavior and her consistent rulings and trump's favor. >> we're way beyond the point of characterizing are merely as an experienced, i think it's like having a race between the tortilla chris in the hair and saying the tortoise is not a favorite. the reality is she is slow and she's slow on purpose. >> she has already delayed this case far beyond where it needs to be. >> keep in mind as late as march. both sides, trump's lawyers and the prosecution said this case could be tried this summer she's made that impossible and pushed it all back on her by herself is there anyone tie at this point who could make her step aside? so the 11th circuit can make her sub aside. >> i think you will call you and i discussed long ago when this case was first assigned, you know, how irregular that was in light of the 11th circuit? >> reprimand of her for her huge judicial interference and criminal justice process in connection with the search warrant and her appointment of a special master and some other things she made up out of whole cloth i think i raised it's time. i wonder why the chief justice, chief judge of the district didn't impose her will and make this make this go to another judge. well, i'm relieved today to see that she actually did that and i think very highly over for that, she's a very highly but he regarded judge very experienced in and thoughtful and i'm glad she attempted to do that and it's shocking the level of disrespect that young experienced judge of cannon's sort would disrespect her chief judge in connection with that or and another elder particularly when as we know, that there was a there's a specialty compartmentalize information facility in the miami accessible to the miami courthouse. that's not accessible. and four pairs. so at taxpayers expense, her refusal to have the case assigned to a more experienced judge in miami now resulted in the taxpayer is footing the bill to build such a facility just protect just for her in fort pierce where this will be the only case that it's every year just for its sort of incredible thing. and glad i'm glad you make that point because i don't think a lot of us realized that tomorrow tie cannons going to hear arguments as evan said, three hearings over the next few days, but tomorrow its arguments for an evidentiary hearing since this all comes down to a request by trump's team they want to get jack smith fire, get get rid of ms special counsel. say it's invalid in the mar-a-lago case. so what's really at stake here so nothing really in the sense that the law requires that she validate jack smith's appointment and it's not disqualifying jurisprudence on this goes back to 1988 when the independent council statute, which proceeded special council appointments when the independent council statute was fully vetted in the supreme court in upheld the dc circuit has upheld the special counsel appointments as evan pointed out, other district court judges have done it. >> this has been routinely litigated it's not going to be routinely litigated more. >> i mean, the mere fact she's having a hearing rather than just nine emotion as judge shailen pointed out, previously on cnn, is silly. >> the fact she doesn't deny most of these motions without a hearing is silly. the fact that trump can get a hearing on the flimsiest arguments is shocking but the other thing is more fascinated about tomorrow's. yeah, she's she's not just listening to the parties to march. she's opened this hearing. you to outsiders, people not even participating in the litigation are going to have a chance to say say their piece, the worst thing that could happen to her, is that she actually does rule for trump on this because that would go to the 11th circuit. and then i think this petty partisan prima donna would be putting their place and they would remove her. >> all right. petty parmesan. petty parson prima data alliteration at its best, ty thank you thank you, aaron. >> great to be with you e2 and neck cnn learning brand new details tonight on how both biden and trump our pairing behind the scenes. >> for the most important event of the 2024 race. >> next week's debate, you're on cnn plus the los angeles ballerina who is facing 20 years first in prison after being accused of donating $51 to a ukrainian charity. she is now on trial tonight. >> we hear from her family and biden painting, trump is a threat to democracy. and i'm going to talk to a democrat running for office right now who says that may not be a winning message based on his campaign and the people i believe talks to every day erin burnett outfront brought to you by the bike riders starring jodie comer it's been butler and tom hardy outsiders become legends the bike riders braided are in theaters tomorrow like writer scandals dollars on 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would we go i'm losing weight. >> i'm keeping it off and i'm lowering my cv risks check your mattresses made affordable the most anticipated moment of this election and the stakes couldn't be higher. the president and the former president, one stage two very different visions for america's future. the cnn presidential debate next thursday, 99 live. i'd cnn and streaming on max. >> i'm pete mundane at reagan national airport. this is cnn new tonight, the biden campaign, hoping that muted mics will be a significant factor during cnn's debate. that historic face off with donald trump is now just seven days away, and we are also learning tonight that trump will get the last word in the debate. now, this is because biden won a coin toss so then he had the choice when he wanted do you want to pick your podium position or do you want to pick whether you get to go closing statements first or second he chose to podiums and he chose the right side podium. not sure why, but that's what he chose. and then trump got the decision on who goes last and guess what? he's going to go last? so let's go straight to mj lee, who broke this reporting. mj. tell me more why. >> i guess let's start with why the biden campaign thinks the muted mics could be so significant yeah, aaron, it's interesting the biden team has been pretty tight lipped about debate preparations they don't want to give away too many details about their strategy on how they want to take on donald trump next week. but there is one thing about the debate next week that the biden team is glad about, and that is the two campaigns agreeing that the mic is going to be muted whenever it is the candidates, it isn't the candidates turn to speak. i was speaking to one senior adviser tonight who was pointing back to the 2020 debates between biden and trump, especially the first one where i think we all remember there was a lot of yelling and shouting by the former president a lot of interruptions, some long-winded, rambling answers that some name name-calling at times a moderator couldn't even get their questions in. i mean, it was widely viewed as having but utterly chaotic. and this adviser was saying, look, there's no question that voters interests were not served during that particular debate. >> and the muted ics could mean that the audience, this time around has a better informed view after the debate about exactly what president biden and former president trump stands for. and we know from all of our reporting that showcasing that contrast is probably the top priority for biden and his team they want the audience members to see donald trump is this device of chaotic figure and president trump is being the steadier and wiser alternative. that's how one campaign official put it and so i think there are hoping that the muted mics could ultimately help them a little bit in getting to that goal all right. >> mj. thank you very much. so let's go now. how to harry anton here with me, numbers, width, okay, so year from mj, th