and tonight, donald trump s criminal defense team is renewing its requests for judge tanya chutkan to hold special counsel jack smith in contempt of court. with the election interference case currently on hold while trump s immunity claims get worked out in a federal appeals court, trump s lawyers lot of activity in the case halted, even the routine filing of documents which jacks mitt s team has said is permissible because it does not require the trump team to do anything. the motion to punish a jack smith for something that he is not prohibitive from even doing is yet another example of how donald trump has always referred to live in the world of alternative facts. with that strategy, it s on a collision course with the courtroom reality. that s what we saw this week as the disgraced former presidents that up for just a few minutes, in his own defense and the new york attorney generals civil fraud trial, when trump rambled, dissembled and presented himself as usual, as a
ballot. trump vowing to swiftly appeal. it s a crucial ruling. will other states follow? also breaking tonight, israel says it s ready for a week-long pause in the fighting for the exchange of release of more hostages and the live, spectacular pictures from iceland, lava at one point flowing so past it could fill an olympic sized pool in 20 seconds. we are live with fred pleitgen. let s go out front. good evening. i m erin burnett. out front tonight, the breaking news and this is important. the colorado supreme court ruling just moments ago that former president trump should be removed from colorado s primary ballot. the consequences of this decision be obviously enormous. the court upholding a trial judge s decision that trump engaged in the january 6th insurrection, and the colorado supreme court saying that therefore, he engaged in the insur eksz and he is not qualified to be a presidential candidate because of the 14th amendment insureccist ban. it says a person is inel
we are grateful. the the beat starts right now. you and everyone else in america is getting a law degree, one i paid for. but we are going to expend all that legal knowledge. thank you. and welcome to the the beat. i m katie phang in for ari melber. we have a lot to get to tonight. later, i will talk live to the lawyer for ruby freeman and shaye moss, the defamed election workers who won a $148 million verdict against rudy giuliani. now they are suing him again. plus, we ve got historian ruth who is here to talk about trump s threat to democracy and his gop enablers. we start the show with donald trump s desperation as legal deadlines pound him from the start, trump has tried to sow confusion, disgusting attacks on judges and witnesses, and above all, to delay his legal reckoning. the news tonight, special counsel jack smith is pressing forward with new moves designed to pressure trump and to stay on track. monday night jack smith forging ahead in the d.c. coup ca
states and around the world, i will blitzer a, you re in the situation room a live view from cnn studios in atlanta, where anticipation is building for a presidential debate. hello, like any other think if you re donald trump is going to take away this sort of circus-like atmosphere that we saw in previous debates. the interrupting that s what a yellowing the surface now alpha off of the crowd energy. and i think in some ways it didn t poses a seriousness to donald trump that he wouldn t get otherwise if it was a sort of crowd like atmosphere. and so in that way, i think that advantages him, right? i think the disadvantage for somebody like donald trump is you have to be serious. you have to fill up the time with coherent arguments, coherent talking points. so we ll see if he s able to do that. it s a two-minute he has time to respond, but he s got to talk policy and he doesn t often like to do that. listen, i think biden is an experienced debater. he, if you lo
very good to be with you. i m alex witt in for katy tur. what jack smith s case, that is the question being batted around before judge aileen cannon in court today as major questions about her own role in the trial hang over proceedings. there is still no trial date in sight. instead, to the frustration of many, cannon is hearing out what several legal experts have called another long shot argument to dismiss charges against the former president. yesterday, the new york times reported cannon rejected urges from two federal judges that she not take the case when it was firsthanded to her last june. the question is why, when a huge chunk of her rulings have drawn criticism from the prosecution and legal scholars. is it inexperience, she was only on the bench just over a year. is it potential bias? she has shown unusual favor to trump by intervening in the mar-a-lago investigation before he was indicted or is it simply judge cannon s way of proceeding over such a high stakes h