>> no more insight on this week's billboard hot 100 chart isn't from the senior, actually, from this decade, or the decade from where that. it's actually twice my age and then some. in fact, if it were person it would be old enough to collect social security. as the holidays near though, it's it's probably when you've been hearing a lot. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ >> brenda leaves, rocking around the christmas tree is making history, 65 years after it was released. now, breaking the record for the longest time to debut between, debuting and reaching number one. this achievement, fueled by a music video and tiktok campaign from lee, who recorded the song when she was just 13 years old. she is now 78, and celebrating this milestone, as she turns 79 next week. a nice early happy birthday to her. the song is set to break the record, that also is a christmas-- classic, -- -- of course, a lot of christmas music around here for the next several weeks. i want to thank you so much are joining us tonight, cnn news night with abby philip starts right now. -- that's tonight on news night. good evening, i'm abby philip in new york. tonight, what you might call the law of political physics. every action has it's equal, opposite reaction. president joe biden has now essentially confirmed that he is running for one reason or, rather, because of one man, and one man only. donald trump. those remarks came undone off camera fund-raiser in boston, and they are jaw-dropping, if only for the clarity in their simplicity. if trump wasn't running, he says, i'm not sure i would be running, but we can't let him win. the biden campaign was caught off guard, according to sources. yikes was how one top campaign advisor reacted when he learned what biden had said. now the remarks are short to create some headaches in the days ahead. and to renew some conversations that are ongoing about president biden's age. moments ago, trump himself tried to turn biden's admission to his own advantage. >> when i ran for president four years ago, i said we're in a battle for the soul of america, and we still are. >> now the comments today to echo 2020. you can see the parallels with his 2024 campaign announcement. >> i when i ran for president four years ago, i said we were in a battle for the soul of america, and we still are, >> but the context here is far different. biden is now 81 years old, not 77, and he has long since discarded this promise. >> look, i view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. there is an entire generation of leaders who stand behind me. they are the future of this country. >> a bridge. but, to what? to himself? well, it's something democrats say they do not want. and it's a big reason why the presidents age and his health, and his mental competency are questions that come with all of this. also tonight, the standard bearer of a famous political family says she might run for the exact same reason as joe biden. liz cheney, the former republican congresswoman who worries that donald trump might never leave if he wins again, sat down for an interview with our very own anderson cooper. and she would not rule out joining the 2024 field, if she thinks that it accomplishes one mission, and that is stopping trump >> if you were to determine that your candidacy would take more votes away from trump that it would for biden, will that be a catalyst to get into the race? >> i am going to look at this over the next couple of months, through the lens of how do we stand on some level, it's not about me, it's not about i'm going to do or not do. i look at it very much from the perspective of right now, absolutely we have to keep our eye on the goal of stopping him. right now and in this election cycle, i'll do whatever i have to do to make sure donald trump is not elected. >> interesting cooper joins me now. anderson, it was really striking how liz cheney really went after her former republican colleagues. let's take a listen to what she had to say. up >> this group of elected republicans can't be counted on to defend the constitution. and, that's a very sad thing for me to say, it's a very dangerous place for the country to be. but that's what we've seen, based on the actions of the last several years >> and she of course knows this from personal experience, because she was there. and they basically abandoned her. and, she watched him participate basically in parts of the things that led up to january 6th. what did you make of how she thinks about not just the trump -- but the republican party? >> yeah, that's one of the things that i found so extraordinary but what she has written. the idea that the republicans in the house, the body that she served until very recently cannot be trusted. she is top particularly if an election is so close that it ends up being determined in the house. i just find it stunning that liz cheney, who spent her career in the house, who's been a die hard republican for so long, and comes my very conservative family, is saying something so strong. i mean, it's kind of remarkable. >> and there is also, now there is the speaker of the house, who is an election denier, mike johnson. >> someone who she writes extensively about in the book, which is fascinating. and she obviously wrote the book before mike johnson was named speaker. but she had a lot of interaction with him, and she was telling me that people who were involved in the book were sort of like, why are you spending so much time talking about michael johnson. and now, it's very prescient that she did include him in the book. but she really does view him as somebody who betrayed himself as a constitutional scholar, who is making spacious constitutional arguments, and sort of putting out a gun -- amicus brief that president trump -- >> do you get the sense that she thinks it's a lost cause, that the republican party is a wholly owned subsidiary of donald trump's now. >> it does. certainly this iteration of the republican party, it does seem she thinks it is beyond salvaging. she has talked about thinking about a third party run, or the creation of a another party. i'm not sure, obviously i think there's a lot for her to figure out on that, and obviously it is a lot of obstacles for that. >> so she talked about what would happen if donald trump were reelected to a second term. listen to what she said. >> what it means if the president of the united states won't enforce the release of our courts. and that is absolutely what he has said he will do, he has gone to war with the rule of law. and a president who won't enforce the law, creates a situation where things just unravel. and, he will have people around him who will help him do it. >> i just a couple of days ago, i was talking to john bolton, who is to be clear, no fan of donald trump's. and he thought that that language was pretty alarmist. and i've actually heard that from several pretty anti trump republicans. they think that she has gone a little too far and how she talks about this. she is not moved by that at all. and she is doubling down, it seems. >> oh there's no doubt about it. i mean she seems to very much believe that the guard rails of democracy, that not only are they not as secure as many of us like to believe they were, or before trump administration, but also that the former president has learned from mistakes he made, and thinks he wasn't able to do before, and would not make those same mistakes. that essentially, the people around him have learned from the mistakes of the first administration. >> you mentioned the third party run. did you get the sense that she is keeping that option open, but more likely or less likely to go that route? >> i mean, i don't have really any insight on that. i mean look, i don't think she wants to do anything that would help donald trump become the next president. i is she saying that no or to kind of get attention, which many people do in order when you are out with a book, and she's making another headline? >> i'm not sure. but look, a third party run for her, i think that would be a difficult calculation. >> yeah, it certainly would be. anderson, thank you so much for joining us on that. >> and you can check out anderson's podcast about grief, for an interesting interview with president biden. and you can listen to all there is first-ing tomorrow morning, on apple podcasts, spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. >> i at a fox town hall tonight, the former president refused to say something very important. sean hannity tried to give donald trump an out, to put to bed these stories about a second term, and what it would look like, and whether there is a specter of authoritarianism or fascism. trump refused to say no. >> i is there any way, do you have any plans whatsoever, if reelected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people? >> you mean like they're using right now. so in the history of our country. [applause] what's happened to us, again has never happened before. over nonsense, over nothing, made up charges. >> i want to go back to this one issue though, because the media has been focused on this, and are attacking you, under no circumstances, you are promising america tonight, you would never abuse power, as retribution against anybody? >> except that they won. >> joining me now -- it's tim alberta. he is a staff writer for the atlantic, and he is also the author of the new book, the kingdom, the power, and the glory, american evangelicals in an age of extremism. tim, thanks for staying up for us. the perfect person for this particular moment. as always, but that, from the trump town hall, it is pretty extraordinary. i mean once again, hannah tea handsy is almost like leaving a horse to water, and ask him to drink. and he won't do it. why won't he simply say, the answer is no? >> you know, i've called this before like the fifth avenue theory, abby. we remember when from 2016 said that he could shoot someone on fifth avenue get away with it. and he has over the past eight years, almost seemed to play this game where he wants to see how much he can get away with. he just keeps pushing and pushing and pushing. >> and frankly in that setting, answering the question the way that he did, or i guess more accurately not answering the question the way that he did, he knows he can get away with it. he realizes that there's no consequence for it, there's never been any consequence, at least not from his base. and so he is going to keep playing these games until it's almost like the hot stove thing, right. like until he really gets burned by it, i don't think we should expect anything else. but it is just extraordinary to pause, and reflect on that. like, hannity is begging him like, come on, really you're not going to turn into a tyrant are? you >> i might,. >> and you know it reminds me of. the last time we saw trump pull something like this was just before the 2020 election. he was repeatedly asked, will you accept the results of the election if you lose? and he refused to say. and then afterwards, he refused to accept the results of the election. so it's not just a rhetorical game. i mean, the audience was laughing. this would be a signal of what is to come. >> it's almost like we should start taking him seriously, right. i mean, even a couple of, i think it was 36 hours or so, a couple of days after the election, i believe it was november 5th when trump gave a speech from the white house, where he basically said we are living in a banana republic, you can't trust our elections anymore, it's been stolen from me. you, the people need to do something about this. and i remember being horrified, and fearful at that point of what was going to happen. and everybody was shrugging it off saying oh, this is just what he says, this is his stick. and it's like well hold on, there are tens of millions of people who voted for this man, and who believe him when he says these things. so it seems as though just as with your example, where he was almost priming people for how he might behave in the aftermath of that election, is he now priming people that yet again to say yeah, i might just pursue an authoritarian style of governing, and maybe people won't really have a problem with that. >> you kind of touched on this in your book. you talk about kyle thomas, who plays a pretty important role in the rise of modern evangelicalism. he said this to you about evangelical christians. he says, you can't have a gitimate conversations with these people, who are all in on trump, because if you find any flaws in him, even flaws that are demonstrable, they either excuse it or attack you. and, what he's describing there, does that make you, or him, worry that that's a recipe for authoritarianism? >> well, especially abby, yes. i mean it makes me worried. and i think especially when you take the elements of authoritarianism, but then you inject the religious zealotry, and the religious justification. nothing from himself, but from this base of conservative right wing white evangelicals, whom he has cultivated over the past eight years. and these are folks who, if you look at january 6th, some of the religious imagery around the siege of the capital. if you look at the language he deploys when he is in front of explicitly evangelical audiences, talking about giving back power to christiane christiane 80, want to take on christiane at his enemies in the culture. i mean, this is loaded language. and you don't have to look far to see just overseas in ukraine, russia's invasion was loaded with this sort of religious identity therrien rhetoric. and trump in some ways is borrowing from that same playbook. so it is very worrisome. >> so i want to play for you something that trump said over the weekend. listen >> i'm but i think i'll be if you had a reelection, and jesus came down, and god came down and said, i'm going to be the scorekeeper here. i think we win there, i think we win in illinois, and i think we're gonna win in new york. >> our evangelicals comfortable with that? that you invoke god and jesus in his quest to sort of claim that he deserves to win everywhere? >> you know, if you had asked me that question just a few years ago, abby, i would've said no, of course not. but i think we have to recognize how dramatically the paradigm has shifted here, and how donald trump has sort of re-written the rules, inside the modern evangelical movement. i mean look, in many ways, what trump has effectively done is he has conditioned evangelical christians in this country, at least the millions of them who are loyal to him, and to the maga movement, to expect that sort of rhetoric, to expect this sort of antagonism, this pugilism. and anything short of that, almost doesn't pass muster. like if you watch mike pence as he campaigned for president, he would go in front of evangelical audiences and talk about civility, talk about decency, talk about turning the other cheek. and he would get booed, and geared. >> he got booed off the stage. >> yeah, and so just, we've lived through, in a very condensed period of time, we are just almost a wholesale remaking of that alliance between the evangelical movement and the republican party, and trump is obviously at the -- >> yeah, i mean it makes you wonder if there has been a break between evangelicalism and its religious origins. now that trump has sort of made it not necessarily about the values of christiane italy, but about other things, about his personality, in about who he is. >> well you know, there was some fascinating research done during trump's presidency that showed that there was an uptick in white conservatives who were self identifying as evangelical, even as simultaneously the number of white conservatives who are attending church was going down. so there is an identification phenomenon here, where for many of these folks, evangelical is now a cultural, apolitical, a tribal label that is basically hollowed out of its spiritual meaning, which i think is just, it's just an incredible disservice to the gospel of jesus christ. and for those of us who believe in that gospel, and who feel that we have a responsibility to evangelize, to take that gospel to the nation, to try and share the news of jesus christ, it's hard to do that when everyone now attaches this political label to the term itself. >> all right, tim alberta thank you so much for joining us, and everyone pick up his book, the kingdom, the power, and the glory. available right now. thanks so much. >> thanks abby. >> and next, chris wallace joins me on biden's surprising remarks tonight about running against donald trump. and, the new speaker says that he is blurring the faces of the january 6th footage, so that the rioters won't be prosecuted. and, is vladimir putin winning his deadly war in ukraine? why shouting match tonight in a classified set a briefings may have the answer to that question. >> just a few moments ago, reporters asked the president about his admission that donald trump is his sole reason for running. >> would you be running for president if trump wasn't running? >> i expect so. but look, he is running, and he does not have to run. >> -- what about >> no, not now. >> i have to run, he says. and as we pointed out at the top of the show, donald trump responded to joe biden's comments just in the last hour. >> if trump wasn't running, i'm not sure i'd be running, he said at a campaign event today. how do you react to that? >> well i think somebody gave me talking point, they thought -- >> the person they don't want to run against its us, it's us, it's not, meets us. because it's a movement, the likes of which this country, sean, has never seen before [applause] . >> joining me now is cnn anchor chris wallace. chris, i want to start with this new comment from president biden. he told democratic donors today that he wasn't confident that he would be seeking a another term in the white house, if former president trump was not in the race. here's what he said. he said quote, if trump wasn't running, i'm not sure i'd be running. and added that democrats cannot let trump win. it's really astonishing. but perhaps in line with what he said in the past. i mean, how do you think this comment plays, now that he is on the ballot, and just before this election really gets into gear? >> well, i think it would play a lot better if you are actually leading donald trump in the polls. in fact there are a number of polls that show him dead even or even trailing trump. i know that was the argument in 2020, he was the one democrat who could defeat donald trump. and, he did. so, you have given that credit. but there's an awful lot of people who think he might be the one democrat who could lose to donald trump. and, with a lot of other people out there, none of whom are going to take on joe biden in the democratic primary, because he is the incumbent president. but you think of gavin newsom, the governor of california, governor whitmer of michigan, pritzker of illinois. you know, i do think it's a harder case to make when there is so much doubt about him. and you know, the idea, he's basically saying i am the only thing that protects the country from a donald trump second term. i think there are a lot of people who would question. that >> i mean, isn't that kind of an acknowledgment himself, that age is a factor here? that he would be doing something else, maybe retired himself, if it weren't for trump. >> well, i haven't thought of it that way. but i suppose that's true. because you know generally speaking, a first term president is-bent on seeking a second term, and the fact that he is saying that if it weren't for trump, i'd be out in -- . it certainly does rage the age question, i'm sure not sure in that way -- >> as all of this is happening, we have former congresswoman liz cheney, out there saying that she hasn't close the door to ru