Kim jonguns planned and very rare trip to russia. What it could mean to ukraine, and what a former american four star general makes of that and other Key Developments in the par. Plus, is it passover already . The exodus is on from the burning man desert, where Tens Of Thousands have been stranded by a plague of mud. Good evening. John berman here in for anderson. We begin this labor day evening with a picnic, president ial politics, and polling. They all came together in New Hampshire. Several republican Candidates Stumping at the same picnic, and new polling thats no picnic for all but donald trump. It matters, the experts say, because now is when voters really start paying attention. And this is attention getting. Trump now has the race nearly to himself. 59 Report Support from republicans. His nearest rival, ron desantis, now 46 points behind. As for a potential trumpbiden matchup in the general election, its 4039 and a large number, 17 , undied. Head to head without third parties forced to choose, the two were tied at 46. Jeff zeleny is in New Hampshire tonight. How many of the republican candidates were there tonight, and what are they saying . Reporter john, about half the republican field was in New Hampshire today holding a variety of parades and picnics, as you said. So, about four or five candidates. We just finished an event in New Hampshire with former Vice President mike pence. And he gave a message that certainly many of his rivals could agree with. They hope the campaign is at the starting point, not the ending point, making the case that labor day is the traditional Launching Pad of a campaign. So, that is very much an open question. Yes, of course, the former president has many supporters, as you were just saying, in those national polls. But state by state, the surveys are a little more competitive without question. And the burden is on many of these candidates to make it even more competitive. When you talk to voters, when you talk to Republican Voters, of course, and here in New Hampshire, the allimportant independent voters, there is a sense of many more open minds here trying to see what the field is doing, trying to see who could perhaps, you know, confront the former president in a one on one race. But his former Vice President mike pence here just a few moments ago was answering a question from an independent voter here in New Hampshire. And john, if theres not a democratic contest early next year, those independents, all important here, could vote in the republican primary. Thats, of course, what Chris Christie is hoping for. Mike pence was even trying to woo that independent voter. So, that could be a wildcard. But there is no doubt whether the campaign is the Beginning Stage or somewhere in the middle, donald trump has an overwhelming, commanding lead. Independents obviously do matter in New Hampshire. You are there. What else are you picking up on the ground . As you do note, its a state by State Campaign to the republican nomination. Iowa first, then New Hampshire. What is the specific State Of Play in New Hampshire . Look, the State Of Play in New Hampshire is similar to iowa. The former president certainly has a sizable lead at this point. But there still is a sense that some republicans are window shopping, are eager to win the general election. And they wonder if donald trump is the person for that. I was having a conversation earlier today with the New Hampshire governor, chris sununu and he pointed out how donald trump fared here in the general election back in 2020. Lost to joe biden by some 60,000 votes. Four years earlier, he only lost to Hillary Clinton by 3,000 votes. So, he believes if there was a rematch between trump and biden, that this simply would not be good for the Republican Party. So, yes, there is no doubt donald trump has a lead in this race. But even some trump voters with trump hats on, trump shirts on, still say they are sizing up this field of candidates, paying careful attention to the debate. So, the burden is on someone or perhaps a couple people to, you know, certainly increase their standing here. So, yes, hes the leader, the front runner. But, you get a sense of some open minds here as well, john. Jeff zeleny in New Hampshire. Jeff, great to see you. Joining us now, former republican congressman joe walsh, host of the white flag podcast, also stuart stevens. Hes currently an adviser to the lincoln project. His upcoming new book is the conspiracy to end america five ways my old party is driving our party to autocracy. Director of Syracuse Universitys institute for journalism and citizenship. Stuart you have seen a lot of labor days heading into primaries and general elections. At this point, do you see any evidence that any of the republican candidates are doing anything to puncture Donald Trumps lead . Well, john, youll remember when we first met in 2000, i was part of the brain trust that took a 60point lead for george bush in New Hampshire, and we lost my 19. You really have to work at. So, i think anything is possible. Theres going to be a race here. Trump isnt going to just walk away with this. The market demands a race. To me, the question is, the person in second or third, are they going to be offering an alternative vision to trump . And right now, the top three candidates in the republican nomination all support putins position in the war. They really all of them say they will pardon trump and the insurrectionists. Theres really no difference. There is trumpism whether or not trump is the messenger or ramaswamy or desantis is the messenger. So, that, to me, is the question. Can someone who offers a different, very different, view of where the party should go and the country should go, do they have a Fighting Chance in this primary . I think the answer to that is, no, but well see. Congressman walsh, ive heard you say the idea that its a race at all is an illusion, its trumps party, his nomination full stop. That said, what advice would you give to someone along the lines . What advice would you give to Chris Christie, what advice would you give to mike pence, what advice would you give to the people who are campaigning in New Hampshire tonight have to any chance of beating trump . John berman, its always good to be on with you, and its always good to be on with my friend stuart stevens. There is no race here. I dont want a full stop because id like to say a little bit more. But im going to repeat myself. Im a broken record. So many people in this country, so many people in your business, john, so many people in my business, pine for and pray for some kind of a race. And they just cant accept the fact that this is different, that my former party is not a party, that it is a cult. And donald trump is a cult leader. Theres no race here. Nobody stuart said it, john. Nobody in the field is trying to beat trump, nobody. If you are a critic of trump, you have no shot in the party. If i were giving advice to anybody who wanted to run for president , it would be to go after donald trump with everything that youve got. But if you do that in this Republican Party, youre done as a republican. I dont want any full stops in this conversation. Let me just be clear about that. To that end, margaret, let me try to go about this a different way. The latest republican polling is nt wa in the Wall Street Journal. They do paint a tough haul, a long road for any republican not named donald trump. Four indictments and skipping a debate wont hurt him. Is there anything that you think could . I think youve summed it up correctly. I mean, what Republican Voters in this survey are saying is that theyre really treating trump like he is still the incumbent and that hes just running for reelection rather than, sort of, treating him like you would see the expresident who lost the last election and tried to overturn it. Thats not what the surveys suggest. This Wall Street Journal shows desantis crashing, a slight uptick for candidates like nikki haley. One unknowable and i think this is what stu was, sort of, alluding to is that we havent seen what would happen if every gop rifleval held hand and said, donald trump cant be the guy anymore. Maybe it wouldnt make a difference. Maybe his numbers would continue as they are. The reason they wont do it is because nobody wants to step out and have everyone else step back. And consultants are telling them, its a death wish, dont do it. If you add up every other rivals support plus ron desantis support, trump is just as solid if not more solid than he was before the four criminal indictments. And suggests that joe biden has a real race on his hands for the general election if it ends up being a trumpbiden contest. I think thats why were starting to see biden ramp up the criticism on the union stuff and the economy. Were going to get to that in just a second. Stuart, margaret brought up something i wanted to talk to you about. She mentioned the idea of everyone else dropping out of the race. You mentioned you worked for george w. Bush in 2000. I also covered you when you were working for mitt romney in 2012. He wrote an oped where he suggested that the other guys running against trump need to get out. He said, get candidates they support to agree to withdraw if and when theyre past the nomination or close. That decision should be no later than february 26th, the monday following the contest in iowa, New Hampshire, nevada, and south carolina. Based on what youre seeing, do you think these candidates should think about getting out if theyre in the low Single Digits . And if so, when . It depends on which candidates. I want someone who will oppose donald trump. I want someone whos going to go out there and say that donald trump is a huge danger to the country and trumpism is a huge danger. You know, ive tried to organize these things before, and i can say ive had 100 failure rate. You know, people run for president because they want attention. They want to be on the debate stage. And campaigns never end because, like, Somebody Just gets tired of running. They end because you run out of money or you run out of time. A lot of these campaigns are going to live off the land, be on debates. A lot of them are running for four years from now. Some are running for cabinet positions. Some are running, probably action for veep. Most of the people in this race arent really running for president of the united states. But you know, john, the thing is we just have to accept donald trump represents where the Republican Party is. He didnt hijack the party. He revealed the party. And thats why hes doing so well. Joe, there had been conventional wisdom that donald trump maybe couldnt lose the primary but cant win the general election. The Wall Street Journal poll has his neck and neck with joe biden. Do you think that conventional wisdom needs to go out the window . John, if we havent learned anything in the past seven years its that every aspect of conventional wisdom ought to go out the window. When you poll Republican Voters, they particularly believe that trump has the best chance of beating biden. Look, i think mitt romney is living in la la land. This is craziness. These people just cant accept none of us i have a hard time accepting it and i come from the base of the party. The base of the party is not where mitt romney is. Its where trump is. Stuarts right. A candidate should come out and say, donald trump is an existential threat to this democracy, because he is. But if you say that as a republican today, youre done as a republican. I think the country needs to understand that. Joe walsh, stuart stevens, margaret, i look forward to speaking much more with you in the future. Next on patrol with the Ukrainian Drone team searching for targets. Plus the impact their new Defense Minister could have. And what the possibility of north korea supplying arms to russia could mean on the battlefield. Later, james taylor on the passing of the truly original, sadly irreplaceable Jimmy Buffett. 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Melissa bell reports. [ speaking in a nonenglish language ] reporter Ukraines Security Service preparing for a raid across enemy lines. In a war of artillery and drones and plenty of creativity. It looks almost like a toy. Its chinese toy with some upgrades and some innovations, with some magic. Reporter enough magic that this specially made drone will travel far beyond the zaporizhzhia front line. In search of a Russian Air Defense system, it flies deep into Enemy Territory towards a town that is one of the main objectives of the southern counteroffensive, tokmak. [ speaking in a nonenglish language ] reporter at the other end of the phone and watching the same screen, a himars unit is ready to launch. A call center is back here, a reminder of his life before the war when this land was still ukrainian. Now you can see on the road, this is russian vehicles moving. This is check point, russians. You can see in tokmak. [ speaking in a nonenglish language ] reporter but tonight theyve been unlucky. The air Defense System they wanted to hit is no longer there. [ speaking in a nonenglish language ] reporter home for tonight is a field about 15 kilometers north of the front line. Using only red lights to avoid detection, theyve got a birds eye view of the battle below and whats happening beyond. We are hunting for them for some time. We have some results. We know where theyre hiding. We know where they are moving. So, its a question about time, just to find them. Reporter and each time it flies, the Drone Records precious information, the state of russian defenses, vehicles, and systems being moved. Even if tonight a