Im paula reid. Welcome to cnns special coverage of the 2024 election. The first debate and the surrender of former President Trump in georgia. We are on the cusp of a historic week for the nation and a pivotal week for the 2024 race. First, the former president and the latest indictment. Donald trump faces a friday deadline at noon to turn himself in to authorities in Fulton County, georgia. The result of his fourth criminal indictment. A senior Law Enforcement official tells cnn trump is expected to turn himself in thursday at the earliest. That would be just one day after the first debate of the 2024 president ial race which will take place without trump, who is the frontrunner for the repuican nomination. Just hours ago, he made it official, he wont attend. Now, the eht candidates who will attend all trail trump by doubledigit margins, and all of them are running out of time if they hope to catch him. Let me turn now to cnn senior crime and justice reporter, katelyn polantz. Katelyn, for the first time this local jail will have to defend w deal with a defendant who has secret Service Protection. What can we expect later this week . The sheriff here has said that donald trump and others would be treated like any other defendant. But the bottom line is that is not like any other defendant, because as you mentioned, he does have secret Service Protection. However, there are many pieces of the week that were going to see play out. Its not just donald trump and the 18 codefendants around him showing up at this jail in Fulton County, georgia. First they all have to negotiate. All of their lawyers are going to have to talk to the district attorney, the Prosecutors Office that brought these charges related to january 6th and the 2020 election, and theyre going to have to negotiate bail terms. Once they get that done, that is something that we could see happen as soon as tomorrow morning where lawyers are expected to be coming in to the area to speak to the d. A. Once they get those negotiations done, then a judge signs off on the bail. And then from some point between that negotiation and friday at noon is when each of the 19 defendants are going to have to arrive at the jail and be processed, just like any other defendant. Whether that means a mugshot for donald trump is still remains to be seen, but it is very likely that the rest of them and trump included will have their fingerprints taken, some of them or maybe most of them would be searched, and they will have to wait around inside this jail, a jail that has quite a notorious history for being a very tough place for a lot of the inmates there. And so the arrest process, the waiting around for things to happen, were going to have to watch and see just how long donald trump is inside the Jail Building to become a criminal defendant in georgia. A busy week for you coming up, katelyn polantz, thank you. Joining me now, cnn legal analyst elliot williams, cnn Political Commentator kristin sole advertise anderson, cnn anchor and chief legal paul begala. Donald trumps legal problems colliding with the 2024 race. Kristen, what do you make of the fact that hes not going to be at the debate . We didnt expect him to be there, but is it debates, plural . Do you think he means all the debates or just the republican ones . I think it will depend how his poll numbers look after he misses this first one. I dont think missing the first one is going to do huge damage to him. What im sort of hearing from some Republican Voters and focus groups is effectively that donald trump as the reigning champion kind of gets a firstround bye. You bring people into the debate, hash it out. The next debate, once the threshold is a little higher, maybe donald trump could expected to come in. If hes planning to not show up to any debates, thats a different conversation. But i expect him to be the strong frontrunner even after missing this first debate. What do you think is the big political moment this week . The surrender in Fulton County or the debate . The surrenders going to be much bigger. Its the biggest thing to happen in atlanta since they surrendered the city to sherman in 1864. Its going to be huge. And the fact that trumps not at the debate in person hell there be, hell dominate, because hes but hes ahead by so much. I think kristens right, youre making the right decision not to come to thdebate. I think hes making the wrong decision the way he selected his counter programming. Hes going on with a fiery Talk Show Host on a failing platform. Hes donald trump, he should have a rally. Thats what he does best. Not sitting around whining with tucker carlson. He needs to go to iowa the first day, have a big rally. He would blow out the debate. Thats me as a strategist. Im not protrump, obviously, i dont support the guy. But he seems like hes being more interested in being petulant and punishing fox news, going on twitter with his or their exstar. What he taught to do is worry about winning an election, not about punishing fox news. In part, this could be one and the same, right . Because part of his strategy, i think youre right, in terms of his more pique than point. When you look at the consequences of this indictment, of one of many indictments, he has had some gains as a result of it. Because it seems as though the campaign strategy, up to now, has been, look, im an outsider. The governments weaponized. I am essentially your last line of defense. Theyre really after you, but theyre going to go through me first. If thats part of what hes doing, what hes talking about, i could see the political moment inuring to his benefit saying, here i am once again with my back against the ropes. What he he dance to On Naug Ation night . I did it my way. Frank sinatra. The onetwo punch. Of course, sinatra had a famous mugshot. Is that going to happen thursday or friday . That is the mugshot i think of every time we talk about this question, should he he do a mugshot . Elliot, look. He knows that an arrest is not a good look, but if this is going to be the political moment of the week, is there a way for him to spin this and make it work for him politically . Of course theres a way to simin it and make it work for him politically. Just look at his numbers havent really been affected despite four indictments and sort of multiple engagements with the criminal Justice System. The bigger question in all of this is, how special is donald trump as a defendant . We hear repeatedly from the folks in atlanta and elsewhere, its just going to be like any other case, treated like any other defendant. We know that is nonsense. Even this mugshot question, im lure saying okay, it makes sense, hes the most popular, famous person on the planet, you dont need a mugshot to identify him. But frank sinatra, wesley snipes, tom delay, a lot of famous people got mugshots. Why is donald trump the one who is sort of getting this special accommodation . Thats going to be the question in Fulton County. At the federal level, they didnt opt to do the mugshot. Elliots point, i mean, can you really have a former president who doesnt get special treatment . What do you think . This is going to be a former president who will have, unlike most defendants, their attorneys, some of whom are going to be appointed by the state if they are indigent for some reason. Youre going to have Secret Service coordinating on his behalf, trying to figure out where to bring him in. You have, to be fair, some of the Significant National security or security risks that having him walk through the front door as any other person, being exposed to every other person, fingerprints, for example. Never having been a president of the United States yet. I was going to say. Man, i was going to thank you all for that moment. But never having been the president of the United States, i dont know if having fingerprints of a former president is some sort of breach of some kind, if there are any risks of doing so. I dont know if having him in general population, so to speak, would be something that would be all that different than a notorious or highprofile criminal accused of a crime and kept separate from everyone else for security reasons. There might be reasons to keep him separate, but rolling out a red carpet, you know asking if he would like a cappuccino as opposed to rolling his thumb, a very different scenario. Fulton county doesnt feel like the cappuccino sheriffs office, thats just my impress. Absolutely not. Sort of notoriously a prison system. Its a fair question, though. Important point here. President s of the United States, regardless of what you think of them, get 24hour secret Service Protection until the day they die. That involves strict management of where they go, the rooms theyre in, the people theyre exposed to, who can shake their hand, who can pat them on the back, whatever else. Its hard weve all learned weve been in prisons at virus points before, as attorneys. Certainly theyre not places that are necessarily easy to control, no matter what Fulton County says. Its still somewhat of a chaotic environment. You have to think about how to protect a sea correct Service Protectee in that environment. At the debate, is it wise for these candidates to call attention to the surrender or better to focus on what they have to offer voters . I think if you are the type of republican who is tuning in, youre probably the type of republican whos still shopping around. Maybe you like donald trump. Youre not necessarily tuning in to hear a bunch of people throw punches at donald trump, but you want to see what else is on the menu. Maybe ill choose Something Different than the usual. At the same time, these candidates have all been so averse to going after trump, and theyre all in single digits. Hes eating their lunch. At a certain point, dont you have to change up the strategy . Im curious to see what happens. Well have much more on the Republican Debate and the impending surrender of former President Trump this hour, but first, we want to update you on hilary, the storm. Which is inundating Southern California with unprecedented amounts of rain. The storm is Wreaking Havoc On Air Travel with hundreds of flights canceled. But the rainfall could do far worse to a region that is just simply not equipped to deal with a tropical storm, and in fact hasnt seen one since 1939. Kyung lah joins us now. What is it like where you are right now . Reporter you know, paula, what weve been seeing throughout the day here in san diego is, youll have these moments of lighter rain like were seeing now. But a bit more wind. Then periods of very heavy rain. Its been very unpredictable. It is extraordinarily rare for it to rain in san diego in august. And so what the city has done is they have tried to block off areas like this. This is a roadway that typically floods. So this entire street is shut down. They have blocked it off to traffic, and this is just emblematic of some of the preparation that the city of san diego has taken part in. The worst of the storm has really been in the desert area just about an hour away from here. There have been some mudslides. Part of it is that the infrastructure isnt designed to take on all of this water. So what youre seeing here is something that you might be used to in your neighborhood, water going down the drain. But when were talking about a region like Southern California that is not used to all of this in august, this can create major problems. So the School System here in san diego, as well as the School System in the los angeles district, they have both shut down, saying that they simply do not have the staff to go check school by school to see what the damage is. We are Hearing Reports from other School Districts that some schools have sustain some damage. So its really going to be piecemeal on what exactly happens overnight. City officials are warning people to remain at home because this is still a very unpredictable situation overnight. Kyung lah, thank you. Coming up, eight 2024 gop hopefuls will step out in front of the Debate Lights on wednesday night. For some, there will be the first time voters have heard their names. Theyre all hoping the attention wont be taken by someone who wont even be there. All that ahmed when cnns special coverage continues. Hungry for all your Breakfast Favorites . When you want americas biggest breakfast starting at 7. 99. At dennys, its diner time. Now open really late. 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Tomorrowish. ben we proudly declare that yes, we are still watching that. ariel and no, we wont be cooking tonight. damon we, the lazy, are taking back lazy. doreen . By getting comfy on our lazboy furniture. vo lazboy. Long live the lazy. Tourists tourists that turn into scientists. Tourists photographing thousands of miles of remote coral reefs. That can be analyzed by ai in real time. So researchers can identify which areas are at risk. And help life underwater flourish. Its crunch time for eight 2024 gop hopefuls as they polish their Talking Points and zingers ahead of the first gop primary debate. Here are the gop candidates who have qualified for wednesdays debate so far. Former president Vice President mike pence, Florida Governor ron desantis, former ambassador to the United Nations nikki haley, entrepreneur and author vivek ram swaummy, dougburg ram, Asa Hutchinson, and former new jersey governor Chris Christie. And if youre wondering where the front runner will be, donald trump has just confirmed he will not be attending the debate. He will likely be participating in counterprogramming with former fox news host tucker carlson. Joining me now to discuss is former democratic South Carolina state representative and cnn Political CommentatorBakari Sellers and former White House Communications director under trump, alyssa farah griffin, also a cnn Political Commentator. Alyssa, lets first talk about your former boss. Hes not going to be at the debate. We didnt expect him to be. But hes there in spirit, right . How long do you think before hes brought up on that debate stage . I suspect that hell come up pretty quickly. If not there wont be opening statements, but i could see him being one of the first questions. The fox hosts that are leading the debate have previewed that they are going to ask about donald trump and his legal woes. I think thats something unavoidable. But look. He looms large over everything. He wont be present, yet he will take up a lot of the oxygen in the room. I think as most of us have been predicting i never really bought the theory that he would turn himself in on wednesday. But thursday makes a lot of sense. If nikki haley has a really good performance, what better to do than take all the oxygen out of the news cycle by turning yourself in . Thats classic donald trump. Classic, indeed. Heres how Asa Hutchinson says he is going to address trump. Lets take a listen. Im not going to defend donald trump. I will be a prosecutor. I will be telling the truth on donald trump. And whether hes there or not, he will be a focal point of issue, both what happened on january 6 but also how he will not lead the Republican Party well into the future. Chris christie also expected to take a similar approach. Those two are going to be pretty much the only antitrump or trumpcritical candidates. What do you think of that strategy, bakari . Well, i actually think that Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson probably have the ability to perform the best at this debate. They come in with this prosecutorial experience. Both of them have led states. Both of them have won elections multiple times over. So, i do believe that legal background is going to bode them well at this debate. We all know that the individual who has kind of the most to gain and the most to lose in this outside of Donald Trumps just looming presence is ron