learned who has made the debate stage for wednesday night, the fourth republican debate. also, george santos already has a new gig days after being ousted from congress. he is now making personalized videos for anyone who is willing to cough up the cash, labelling himself an icon. i'm kaitlan collins, and this is "the source." ♪ good evening. tonight, we are now just six weeks out from the first votes being cast in iowa and with former president donald trump still holding onto a significant lead in the 2024 gop primary, he's not only sharpening his rhetoric, using the language of autocrats, he also appears to be making a concerted effort to accuse president biden of what he himself stands accused of doing, undermining democracy. >> but joe biden is not the defender of american democracy. joe biden is the destroyer of american democracy. and it's -- it's him and his people. they're the wreckers of the american dream. the american dream is dead with them in office. >> the biden campaign responded to those comments, saying that trump is deflecting, that this is just his latest desperate attempt at distraction. trump is a tried and true strategy, of course, of accusing himself of what he himself accused of. those comments from the republican front runner come as the warnings about what a second trump term would look like are now coming into clearer view, also why the stakes of it would be much higher, including a report in "the new york times" about how trump would be backed in a second term by a well-funded outside infrastructure. we'll have more on that report with maggie haberman in a moment including on what the staff of a second trump term could potentially look like. this is coming as some of his own former cabinet members have warned he should not be president again, including his vice president. >> president trump asked me to put him over the constitution. and anyone who asks someone else to put themselves over the constitution, should never be president of the united states again. >> more now tonight from a former member of the january 6th select committee, democratic congressman jamie raskin. good to have you here tonight, congressman. obviously what we have been hearing today is from someone that you served on that january 6 committee with, congresswoman liz cheney. she is now warning that -- she says, if trump is elected again, she doesn't think he would leave the white house, that she doesn't think he would leave po power. what do you make of those comments? >> well, we heard the same thing from michael cohen when he testified before the oversight committee several years ago, and we've heard this from a lot of former trump people and the people who studied the situation closely. he's reduced lincoln's party, which used to be a party of freedom, a pro-immigration, anti-slavery party, into a cult of authoritarian personality around him, which doesn't accept the results of elections that don't go their way, and which embraces political violence as an instrument of obtaining power. it has become an authoritarian and fascistic party. and they understand that that is becoming very clear to large parts of america. so, of course, trump will immediately try to cloud the picture by pointing his finger at joe biden and accusing him of being antidemocratic, which is ridiculous. when he says joe biden is not the defender of democracy, you know that joe biden is the defender of democracy. meantime, donald trump has surrounded himself with a bunch of former criminals who are he pardoned, people like michael flynn and joe ar pay you know and da nesh dezu za, and steve bannon. these are all people trump used the presidential power to pardon for crimes they were convicted of, and now they basically form the inner circle of his campaign. you can see him trying to create the embryo of a fascistic, authoritarian, criminal party once he gets back into office. and liz cheney's got it absolutely right. if he gets back in, does any person think that really he would ever leave office again. if you believe that, you're too innocent to be let out of the house by yourself. >> so, you agree with her. you don't think if he was elected to a second term that he would leave the white house of his own will at the end of that term? >> well, i mean, he's been spreading the big lie from even before the election, when he knew he was going to lose and he was trying to condition his followers to believe that the election was going to be stolen. and then when he lost by more than 7 million votes, 306 to 232, he proceeded to try to overturn the election results by spreading that big lie. it was rejected, of course, in 60 federal and state courts across the land, including by eight judges he himself had named to the bench. but he continues to tell that lie and he continues to say that he will pardon the january 6th insurrectionists convicted of everything from assaulting federal officers to seditious conspiracy, which means conspiracy to overthrow or put down the government of the united states. so, he's made it clear, and he's repeatedly said explicitly that he is more important than the constitution, and the constitution should be set aside in order to restore his, you know, his power. and does anybody think he's got any public interest in mind? no. what does he want to do? he wants to get the money making operation going again. >> can we talk about what that would look like? >> transform the presidency into -- yeah. >> on what that would look like, i do think this is a really important part of the conversation. it's not just the fact he's the republican front runner or he could get re-elected -- based on what we're seeing today, he certainly could. but it's what he would do if he's elected. he's made clear he would use the justice department for revenge about his political opponents. he talks about purging the workforce of the harsher immigration policies, some things that aren't surprising for what a republican candidate would want to do, but some using the justice department to go after his opponents. as a lawmaker, what ability or role do you think congress would have in whether those extreme plans, those ideas, in a second term would become a reality? what role does congress play in that? >> well, he would like to turn the presidency into dictatorship. and his models of course are his heroes in the world, people like vladimir putin, the autocrat in russia, xi in china, warban in hungary. these are the people he wants to hang around and he's been consorting with. his son-in-law, jared kushner, brought back a cool $2 billion from saudi arabia for the company he created the day after the trump administration ended. and it is a money-making operation from top to bottom. he has no public program. i mean, i sat there for four years. they talked about infrastructure week, infrastructure month. they just never had an infrastructure bill. joe biden got that done in the second month of office. and we put -- into rail and trail and the roads and highways and broadband. we've got a real program for the country. the democrats aren't perfect but we are a party of democracy, which believes the government should be an instrument for the common good for the people and not an instrument for private self-enrichment of the president and his family and his buddies. and we know that's what they want to do because that's what they did before, that's what they've been doing ever since, and he wants to keep the grift going. the world is on fire right now, and, you know, we've got to deal with climate change. and the autocrats cannot save us, the kleptocrats, the plea cats, it's only the democrats at this point. that is the basic frame for this election going into 2024. >> congressman jamie raskin, as always, thank you for your time tonight. and for more insight into trump's latest claims, what he is saying, i want to bring in "new york times" senior political correspondent, cnn's political analyst, maggie haberman, who is here and has been doing a lot of reporting on this. maggie, first of all, trump saying that biden is the antidemocratic candidate in this race. how much of that is this age-old habit we have seen of his of accusing his opponent of what he himself sustatands accused of, literally in this case? >> there's no question. we've seen him do it over and over. he did it in a debate with hillary clinton famously in 2016. no, puppet, you're the puppet. whatever he gets tagged with, he pushes back on. i think your question is the right one, which is why is he doing this now? i do think the congressman is correct that there are enough voters in the country who are concerned. this is not concern about the framing of stories. are concerned about trump's own actions. when people talk about his efforts to stay in power, when people talk about what happened on january 6th, it's not an especially helpful fact set to trump, i think, that his team is aware of that. so, they are trying to put this back on biden. because there are trump supporters who are upset who are upset he was criminally charged. you can look at the various things he was criminally charged with and decide whether you think that is necessary. he is trying to turn this into how he is the victim, which we have seen over and over again. >> i should note, he's not add libbing what we're hearing off the cuff. he's reading off a teleprompter, often. and maggie, i mean, it seems to suggest this more concerted effort to push back on that charge. i mean, what do you make of whether or not -- >> i think that -- >> -- this is a more formal position he's taking? >> look, it certainly was the case over the weekend, kaitlan, when there were signs at a trump event in iowa, accusing biden of attacking democracy that were on various seats. this wasn't just some impromptu add lib. this is something his team had thought about. to go back to what we said before, they're clearly doing it for a reason. if there was not a trouble spot for him, if this was not a concern to voters about trump's own behavior and his own statements, they wouldn't be doing it. >> what are you hearing from sources on what would be different in a second trump term in terms of not just trump himself but who's around him and what those efforts to enact his policy ambitions look like? >> so, my colleagues, jonathan swan and charlie savage and i have been working on a series about what a trump second administration would look like, going back to june. and, you know, this is not hypothetical, kaitlan. these are generally based on his own -- piece in june was about how he was going to appoint a real special prosecutor, quote, unquote, to go after president biden and his family. he has talked about wanting to have more control over, you know, cities. there was a comment that he made in march, where he talked about, you know, we're not going to wait for permission to go, something to that effect. it was a clear reference to the insurrection act, which he did not use on u.s. cities when there were protests, some of which turned into riots, in 2020, in response to the killing of an unarmed black man in minnesota, george floyd. but he is saying a number of things that he is planning. he has a policy staff that is working on a very, very radical immigration plan. it's not that dissimilar from what trump was talking about in 2016. he has outside groups that are working on efforts to try and not just staff a second administration but help him gut the civil service and to try to take greater control over pockets of authority -- of independence within the government. so, this is all from his own mouth. or from his close allies or his advisers. and this is what would happen next time. and he would be walking into a presidency with a weakened congress, with the people who have been the most opposed to him and his own party, such as liz cheney, not in her seat anymore, mitt romney leaving, can go down the list. there were not many of them, and they are basically gone because he has bent the party to his will. and he has a supermajority of conservatives on the supreme court, which could change things as well. >> yeah. and no worry about having to be re-elected after that. maggie haberman, great reporting, as always. thank you. >> thank you. up next, trump is not going to be there on wednesday night, but very learned who will be there in tuscaloosa, for the next republican debate on wednesday. we'll talk about what their strategy could be. that's next. also from lawmaker to accused lawbreaker, george santos now has a new way to make money. >> thank you for the love, thank botox keeps you love, fillers keep you plump. this just in, the republican national committee has now confirmed who will be on the debate this wednesday night for the next republican debate. the list of qualifiers now down to four. as you can see here, nikki haley, ron desantis, vivek ramaswamy, and chris christie, all expected to be on the stage in tuscaloosa, alabama. what happens there could be, maybe, critical for some of these candidates and their efforts to win the republican nomination, to defeat donald trump, who, yes, qualifies for these debates but has skipped every single republican debate so far and plans to skip this one as well. joining me tonight, republican strategist and pollster christian solstice anderson, and -- ashley alison. let me start with you because the debate stage has been set. but this is a group of people who, despite some of them shifting in the polls, nikki haley, they have not been able to dethrone trump's lead. what do they do on wednesday night? what do they need to do? >> there's what they need to do and what i suspect they will do. what i suspect they will do is go after each other. they are all fighting over this piece of pie that they think is the sort of republican voter who is open to an alternative to trump. the problem for them is at the moment that does not look like a big enough slice of the pie. so, what they should do is spend at least some of their time talking about the guy who's not there and why it's time to turn the page from trump. now, for somebody like nikki haley, she may say, look, my strategy seems to be working thus far. i'm going up in the polls. i don't want to disrupt things and change gears too much. i don't want to tick off the part of the party that does, kind of, like donald trump. if you're ron desantis, if you're chris christie, at this point, what do you have to lose? you need to go for the big guy. >> and "the new york times" is reporting that trump donor -- excuse me, republican donors, strategists, are urging chris christie to drop out. he believe he should drop out, let the support consolidate to nikki haley. he plans to stay in the race until the convention potentially. what does that look like for a chris christie? >> well, i think chris christie is the extreme long shot of becoming the republican nominee. the question is, what does that do for a nikki haley? because if you -- who knows who's going to win iowa? i was talking to a friend who does republican polling today, and i said, i still think donald trump might be the nominee. and she laughed me in the face. she's like, people aren't even registering there is a primary because they assume trump is going to be the incumbent nominee. if you get to new hampshire -- let's say we move past iowa -- and you get to new hampshire where nikki haley is doing pretty well, getting chris christie's share of the pot, if he were to drop out, could bring her much closer to trump. if he's saying, i'm staying in it, the question i ask chris christie, why are you running for president? maybe to be president. but i thought it was ultimately so donald trump would not become president. so, if that means you need to drop off on the right for someone to beat donald trump, it might be the time to do that. >> trump himself is treating this like a two-man race. he's dismissed his republican rivals. is it guaranteed based on, you know, what you heard from that republican pollster, the idea -- could he maybe lose iowa and continue on with this? is it a given he's going to definitely pick iowa? >> i will not put any money against donald trump winning iowa. i think what's interesting is to think about historical precedent for this. think back to the 2000 campaigns -- we're really rewinding, like, a quarter century here. you had the jugger not of george w. bush win in iowa. in new hampshire, independents play such a large year. john mccain that year, surprises everyone, takes new hampshire. the problem is you go on to south carolina. and that's when the juggernaut realizes the insurgent campaign's got us. i suspect even if nikki haley is ultimately successful in new hampshire, can she sustain through south carolina? that's the bigger hurdle. that and also getting chris christie to hand over his 10 to 15% of the vote to her. >> he doesn't e seem prepared. just given this picture and the how far ahead trump is and what we just talked about, what a second trump term would be with maggie's great reporting, what does the white house think about this? when you do look at these polls, biden is not running away with this race. and a lot of them in key swing states, he's down to trump. why is that, and how are they planning to address that going forward, given trump's likelihood of winning this nomination. >> the way they need to address it, if it's donald trump and joe biden, make a true comparison and remind voters what it was like under a four-year term of donald trump. what was one of the first policies he put in place, the muslim ban? who were the three supreme court justices that he put on the court to overturn roe, which is an issue around abortion that is a really bipartisan issue with republicans, independents, and democrats. it's really about painting the contrast. i don't want to do a poliannish picture of this. i don't think just the alternative versus what is joe biden saying -- i don't think that's going to be enough for folks. i think they also are going to have to make it very clear for young voters, for voters of color, for muslim and arab community, what a second term under joe biden would look like. that population right now is not waving the joe biden flag. but i don't think with a year out that we can just say, okay, then forget about those voters. there is an argument to be made. and i'll just close with this. you know, before the conflict with israel and gaza started to happen, joe biden's domestic policy was really popular with many of these young voters, whether it was on student debt or decriminalizing marijuana, or climate. there are things that people like about joe biden. the campaign is going to have to get out there and sell it to these voters. >> it's an interesting vote about a second biden term, not just a second trump term. of course up next for us, after being unceremoniously booted from the house of representatives, former congressman george santos has a new gig, sort of. the question is, will people buy what he is selling? . tonight, the israel defense forces urging more civilian evacuations, as it is stepping up its military operations in southern gaza. previously they had been mainly in northern gaza. now we have seen them move to the south. in addition to air strikes, the idf has now expanded the ground operations there to the entire gaza strip. this, as a top humanitarian relief official for the united nations, says that the situation is gets, quote, more apocalyptic by the day. another warning of hellish scenario if more aid doesn't get into gaza soon. the idf is confirming a report that two palestinian civilians have been killed for every one hamas terrorist. >> i can confirm that report, and i can say that if that is true -- and i think our numbers will be corroborated -- if you compare that ratio to any other military and terrori