>> reporter: the biden campaign responded to those comments saying that trump is deflecting that this is just his latest desperate attempt at distraction. trump -- strategy of course is of accusing people of what he stands for being accused of. but those comments as the republican front runner come as warnings as what a second term with trump are coming into clear view. and how the stakes of it will be much higher, according to a report on the new york times that -- by well funded, outside infrastructure. we will 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. but this is coming out 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. anyone who has someone else to but themselves over the constitution should never be president of the united states again. >> reporter: we more now tonight from a former member of the january 6th select committee, democratic congressman, jimmy raskin. good to have you tonight, congressman. obviously what we've been hearing today is someone you've served on the january 6th committee with, congresswoman liz cheney, she's warning that if trump is elected again, she doesn't think he will leave the white house. she doesn't think he would leave power. what do you make of those comments? while we heard the same thing from michael cohen when he testified before the oversight committee several years ago. we've heard this from a lot of former trump people and the people who study the situation closely, he's reduced lincoln's party, which used to be a party of freedom, 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. which embraces political violence as an instrument of obtaining power. it has become an authoritarian and fishes stick party. they understand that that's 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 anti-democratic. 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 is surrounded himself with a bunch of former criminals who he pardoned. people like michael flynn and joe arpaio, and nudged, sues a steve bannon, these are all people who trump used the presidential power to pardon for crimes they were convicted of. and that they basically from the inner circle of his campaign. so you can see him trying to create the embryo of a fascist stick authoritarian criminal party once he gets back into office. this genie has got it absolutely right, if he gets back in, does any person think that really he would never leave office again, if you believe that you are just too innocent to be led out of the house by yourself. >> reporter: so you agree with, her that you don't believe that if he was elected to a second term, he would not leave the white house by his own well at the end of the term? 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 going to condition his followers to believe that the election was going to be stolen. and then when he lost by more than four 7 million votes, three of six to 2:32, he tried to overturn the election results by spreading the big lie. he was rejected of course and 16 federal state courts across america, including eight judges himself new to the bench. he continues to tell the, likely continues to say he will pardon the january 6th insurrectionists convicted of everything from assaulting federal officers to seditious conspiracy which means conspiracy to overthrow and put down the government of the united states. 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 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 -- >> reporter: can we talk about what that would look like? we on what that would look like. because i think this is an important part of this conversation. it's not just the fact that he's the republican front runner, or he could get reelected, which, based on what we're saying today he certainly could. but it's what he would do if he was reelected. he's made clear that he would use the justice department for revenge against his political opponents. he talks of purging the federal workforce, the harsh immigration policies. things that are not surprising for what what republican candidate will want to do, but some that -- what she's made clear that he would do to go after his opponents. as a lawmaker, what ability or will do you think congress would have and whether those more extreme policy plans, those ideas in a second term, would become a reality? what role does congress play in that? he would like to turn the presidency into dictatorship. his models are of course his heroes in the world, people like vladimir putin, the autocrat of russia. president xi, in china. orban, in hungary. the paul soul of illiberal democracy. he wants to hang around them, and he's been concerning with them. his son-in-law, jared crist, or brought back two billion dollars from saudi arabia for the company he created the day after the trump administration ended. it's a moneymaking operation from top to bottom. he has no public program. i sat there for four years. they talked about infrastructure we can, infrastructure month, they never had an infrastructure bill, joe biden got that done in the second month of office. we put 1. 2 trio dollars into rail, train, roads, and broadband. we have a plan for the country. the democrats aren't perfect, but we're a party of democracy which believes that the government must be an instrument of the common good for the people, not an instrument for private self enrichment of the president and his family and his buddies. 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. when the problems on earth are just too serious. the world is on fire right now. and we have to deal with climate change and the autocrats cannot save us. the kleptocrats, the plutocrats, the theocratic, like mike johnson, they're not going to do. it's only the democrats at this point. that is the basic frame for this election going into 2024. >> reporter: congressman jamie raskin, as always, thank you for your time tonight. for more insight into trump's latest claims, what he is saying, i want to bring in cnn 's -- new york times senior political correspondent, cnn's political analyst, maggie hein. who's been doing a lot of reporting on. this, maggie first of all what you heard the congressman talking about there, trump saying that biden is the anti-democratic candidate in this race. how much of that is an age old habit of his of accusing his opponents of what he himself stands accused of? literally in this case. there's no question -- we've seen him do that over and over. he did that with hillary clinton in a famous debate in 2016 where she called him a putin of putin and he said i'm milkovich, your puppet. that's something that he pushes back on. but i think a question is the right one which is why he's doing this now. and i think the congressman is correct, that there are enough voters in the country who are concerned about -- this is not concern about the framing of stories are concerned about trump's own actions. that when people talk about his efforts to stay in power, when people talk about what happened on january 6th, it's not a especially helpful fact said to trump that is -- your try to put this back on biden because there are trump supporters who are upset that he was criminally charged. you can look at the various things he was criminally charged with and decide whether you think that was necessary. that he is trying to turn this into how he's the victim which we have seen over and over again. >> reporter: i should note, he's not ad libbing but we're hearing, just off the cuff in random interviews. he is reading off a teleprompter often. maggie, it seems to suggest there is more concerted effort to push back on that charge. what do you make of whether -- i think this is a more formal -- >> reporter: a more formal position he's taking. it was certainly the case over the weekend,, caitlin when there were signs that a trump event in iowa accusing biden of -- it wasn't just an at live -- to go back to what we said, before they're clearly doing it for a reason. if this was not a trouble spot for them, if this was not a concern to voters, about trump 's own behavior and his own statements, they would be doing it. >> reporter: 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 is around him and what those efforts to enact his policy ambitions look like. my colleagues jonathan swan and charlie savage and i have been working on a series about what a trump second administration but look like. going back to june. this is not hypothetical, kaitlyn. these are generally based on his own words, our peace engine was about how he said he was going to appoint a real special prosecutor, quote unquote, to go after president biden and his family. he's talked about wanting to have more control over cities. there was a comment that he made in n march wherere he talkd ababout, for n not gonna w waitr permisission to gogo, and somemg to that t effect. it wasas a clear r reference t e insurrecection act w which he dd nonot use on u u.s. citieses whn there arare proteststs, some off whicich turned i into riots s i0 in resesponse to t the killingnf an armed b black man i in minne, gegeorge floydyd. bubut he is sasaying a numumberf things t that he is s planning.. he h has a policicy staff ththas working onon a very, v very radl imimmigration n plan. it's notot so dissimimilar fromm whatat trump wasas talking a abn 2016.. he i is outside e groups thahate woworking on e efforts to try yo not just staff in a second administration, but how pam got the civil service and try to take greater control over pockets of authority -- independents within the government. this is all from his own mouth. and either from his crystalize and advisers. this is what would happen next, time he would be walking into a presidency with a weekend congress, with the people who've been the most opposed to him in his own party such as itt romney leavwe can go down t. here we the row basically g >> rworry about havto after thatmaggie haberman, thank you. thank yo on learn republican debate on wwethat's r george george >> thank you botox keeps fillers keep >> reporter: this just, and the robust public hid national committee just confirmed will be on the debate stage this wednesday night for the next republican debate. the qualifiers down to. for as you can see here. nikki haley, ron desantis, chris christie -- all expect to be on the stage in tuscaloosa, alabama. what happens there could be made critical for these candidates and their bid to win the nomination who -- debate so far and plans to skip this one as well. joining me tonight, republican strategist and pollster anderson, and former national coalitions -- ashley allison. let me start with you because the debate stage has been set. but this is a group of people who, despite them shifting in the polls, nikki haley, they have not been able to dethrone trump's. what do they do on wednesday night? what do they need to do? there is what they need to do, and what i suspect they will. do what i suspect they will do is go after each other. they're 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. what they should do is spend at least some of their time talking about the guy who's not there. and why it is time to turn the page from trump. for someone like nikki haley, she may say, look, my strategy seems to be working this far. i'm going up in the polls. i don't to disrupt things and change gears to much. i do want to take off the part of the party that is still kind of like donald trump. but 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. >> reporter: the new york times is reporting that trump donor -- excuse me, a republican donor strategist are urging chris christie to drop out. they believe he should drop out, let the support consolidate to nikki haley type. he has no plans on during that, though. he told me he plans on staying in the race until the convention potentially. what does that look like for chris christie? i think chris christie is the extreme long shot of becoming a republican nominee. the question is what does that do for nikki haley. because if you -- don't know who's going to win iowa. i was talking to a friend who does republican polling today and i said i still think that donald trump will be the nominee. she left in my face, and she said people aren't even registering that there is a primary because they assume that trump is going to be the incumbent nominee. but if you go to new hampshire, we go past iowa, and you go to new hampshire where nicole is doing very well, getting chris christie's drop of the pot we could bring her closer to trump if not over the finish line. but if he says he's staying in, it's the question i would ask chris christie is why you're running for president. maybe to be president, but i thought it was ultimately so that donald trump would not become president. if that means that you need a drop off to consolidate on the right for someone to likely beat donald trump, then it might be the time to do that. >> reporter: and trump himself has treated this like a two man race between him and joe biden. he has dismissed his republican rivals -- could he maybe lose iowa and continue on with this? is it a given that he's going to definitely take iowa? i will not put any money against donald trump winning iowa. but i think what's interesting is to think about historical precedent for this. who sailed on the, trump east totally unprecedented. actually, think back to the 2000 campaigns, we're really reminding a quarter century here. but you have the juggernaut of george w. bush, a win in iowa, and then suddenly in new hampshire, things get. weird that's because new hampshire, independents play such a large role. john mccain that, year surprises everyone, takes new hampshire. the problem then is you go on to south carolina. that's where the juggernaut realizes, oh, know the insurgent campaign has got us. that's where i suspect, even if nikki haley is ultimately successful in new hampshire, can she sustain through her home state of south carolina? that's the bigger hurdle. that and also getting chris christie to head over his ten to 15% of the vote to her which he doesn't seem likely to do. >> reporter: he doesn't seem prepared. but can we give this picture of how far ahead trump is and we talked about what a second trump term would look like thanks to maggie's great reporting. and -- when you look at these polls, biden is not running away from 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 potentially winning this nomination? the way they need to address it is make 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 policy put in place, the muslim ban. who were the three supreme court justices that he put in 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 paying the contrast. i don't want to do a poly and a picture of this, i don't think just the alternative versus the -- joe biden's term -- i don't think that's gonna be enough for folks. i think enough to make it very clear for young voters, for voters of color, for the muslim and arab community, what a second term under joe biden would look like. because let's be honest, that population right now is not waving though joe biden flag, but i don't think what a year out that we can just say, okay, forget about those voters. there is an argument to be made. and i'll just close with this, before the conflict with israel and gaza started happening, joe biden's domestic policy was really popular with many of these young voters. whether it was on student death or decriminalizing marijuana or climate. there are things that people like about joe biden, the campaigns gonna have to go out there and salute to those voters. >> reporter: it's an interesting point, going to the second biden term and not just the trump term. thank copuge sortof the question is will peoe by what he is selling? ♪ ♪ ♪ first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. >> tonight, israel defense forces urging more civilian evacuations as it is stepping up its military operations in southern gaza. previously, they've been mainly in northern gaza, no we've seen the move to the south. in addition to airstrikes, the idf is now expanded the ground operations there to the entire gaza strip. this is a top humanitarian relief official, for the u. n., says that the situation is, quote, more apocalyptic by the day. another warning of a hellish scenario if more aide does not get into gaza soon. also tonight, the idf is confirming a repeport that twowo palestinian civilians haveve ben killed for everyone hamas terrorist. >> i can confirm the report, and i can say that if that is true, and i think that our numbers will be cooperated, if you compare that ratio to any other conflict in urban terrain between a military and terrorist organization using civilians as their human shields and embedded in the civilian population, you won't findnd that that r ratio is tremendous, tremendoususly positive. >> joining me now axios foreign policy reporters, barack ravid. can we just talk about that comment, saying tremendously positive. >> i heard it too. i am not sure that is a good choice of words. regardless of what you think about what's going on in gaza, i do not think the fact that 10,000 civilians if you take the version of the idf, 10,000 dead civilians is positive in anyway. >> also, as they're facing immense pressure from the u.s. as far as what they are doing right now with what is happening in southern gaza, stepping up these military operations, they have said they are more targeted. is that the sense that you have from what you are hearing from sources? >> everything is relative. what the idf did in northern gaza was basically before the ground troops came in. there was a massive barrage of airstrikes, basically to clear the area, and then artillery fired only than the ground forces came in. this will not be the case in southern gaza. in southern gaza, we will see much more targeted raids, i am not sure we'll