What he texted. In stark contrast from each other . Yeah. Anderson, nick valencia, thanks. The news continues right here on cnn its thursday, february 20. Happy week here right now on cnn this morning the Supreme Court agree agrees to hear Donald Trumps absolute immunity arguments, throwing his 2024 trial schedule into turmoil, plus yet another legal challenge for trump for an illinois judge booting the former president off that states ballot will look at that and a deal to keep the federal government open is going to have a vote in a matter of hours or still the threat of a shutdown looms all right 05 00 a. M. Here in washington, a live look at the United StatesSupreme Court, the center of it all this morning morning. Good morning. Im kasie hunt. Its wonderful to have you with us. Were going to start there. The Supreme Court agreeing to decide whether or not former President Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for the actions he took on and leading up to january 6, its a move that the court made that plays right into Donald Trumps deflect and delay strategy. And it really is a big win for the former president whos doing everything legally possible to push his trial dates past the november election. The justices are going to hear arguments in late april on this a ruling not expected until late june. Meanwhile, in illinois judge has removed trump from that states ballot based on the 14th amendments insurrectionist ban. The former president s legal team has a narrow window to appeal the decision. The Supreme Courts already considering whether states have the right to remove a candidate from the ballot. Joining us now to discuss all of this is White House Reporter catherine lucey. Catherine, good morning to you. Its great to be here in studio with you inperson for sure. So this decision by the Supreme Court is in many ways a gift to donald trump because it really does delay the start date for this this trial really late in the summer. We expect how is the trump team viewing this . How is the biden team viewing this . What are you hearing from your sources . This certainly, as you said, it plays right into trumps strategy, which always has been trying to lay all of this as much as possible. It means that the earliest probably if this were to go forward, we late summer at that point, the Republican Convention has already happened. Early voting starts in some states in september, right . So it really pushes this right into the general election season. So this is what trumps team is looking for. They want to keep pushing these things off as much as possible. The biden folks, they want to draw contrast between themselves and trump. You see them doing this very aggressively now, trying to show his what they argue is his leadership compared to trumps chaos. Theyre going to continue doing that. These trials remain in the news whether or not theyre moving forward the legal chaos surrounding him is there. Theyre going to continue doing that regardless. Right . So the Justice Department has a policy generally not to interfere in president ial elections. I mean, thats its usually considered in the context of deciding to indict someone or not. Right. And there is obviously a lot of criticism of james comey around this back in hey 16. If were looking at a Labor Day Trial in the jack smith case, what do they do . I dont i think we re such uncharted territory on it free thing here. I mean, look a point, like the number of trials stacked up, the number of different proceedings, state courts, federal, et cetera. So i think well have to see how that plays out, but youre right. Hey, its just weve never seen anything like this before and how it impacts i mean, to pull it back, how it impacts voters how voters see this. We do see in polling that there is a difference for some voters depending on whether this is a trial versus a conviction. So thats why they are trying to keep pushing all of this stuff off, right . I mean, innocent until proven guilty, right so the president , the former president , put this on social media last night, he says without president ial immunity, a president will not, president will not be able to properly function or make the decisions in the best interest of the United States. President s will always be concerned and paralyzed by the prospect of wrongful prosecution and retaliation. After they leave office to just talk about the arguments here for a second. I mean, again, were in unprecedented territory. The Supreme Court is now going to have to decide, okay. Our president s immune and potentially under what Circumstances The Dc Circuit was pretty clear in how they decided this. We should underscore this is trump appealing that decision mean they called him citizen trump, right . In those arguments, the prospect was raised that a president could try to use American Military resources to try to assassinate a political rival, right . I mean, the potential examples here are pretty stark how do they thread the needle here . I mean, it does seem like theyre going to have to make if theyre going to give him any immunity from prosecution, theyre going to have to make a Distinction Somewhere im sure thats where i i mean, i do think weve seen lower courts ruling this theyve been pretty clear we have to see how the Supreme Court fuses. We havent really seen them in a space like this before, so we have to, were going to have to see how this plays out. Oh, i hate to keep saying territory so outside the realm of anything weve seen, but it does. I think also it puts them between this and the other colorado the other cases in kyiv mentioned yeah. But the colorado case about whether or not he can start from the ballot. It just puts the court in the center of the election in a way we havent really seen what since 2000, right . It puts, it puts them in the middle of this campaign. Yeah. I mean, i think to certain extent, i was a little bit surprised, honestly, because when we were covering the arguments around this live, there seemed to be this or i should say, when we were covering the live arguments around the ballot cases, right. Because the court is also involved in deciding is it started in colorado. Were now seeing kind of expand illinois did this yesterday. The court heard arguments about okay. Should donald trump be kicked off the ballot under the insurrectionist ban, they seem very inclined to decide to keep him on the ballot to tell states you cant do this. Hes not necessarily been convicted of anything yet, et cetera and then the flip side of that was going to be well, they could have just denied hearing this Immunity Thing altogether. They could have led The Dc Circuit Courts Stand and that would sort of kind of split the difference because youre right, like the court itself is honestly facing a crisis of confidence. If you look at the numbers of people who trust it do you think how do you think that is going to play into our politics overall, if it starts to feel to americans as those Supreme Court has decided the election and americans dont want to see that, right . And youre right, polling shows less confidence in the court than in past eras in america and just less confidence in systems. I think broadly. And so you do potentially have a situation where people dont feel competent in results and we know that can have real consequences. Yeah, for sure. All right. Catherine lucey. Catherine. Thank you very much frankly, being with us this morning, i really appreciate it. All right. Coming up here on cnn this morning, replacing Mitch Mcconnell, Top Republicans in line to be the partys next Senate Leader plot plus wildfires in texas out of control, burning over 100 miles of power lines. And Vladimir Putin speaks to russias parliament what hes saying about the war in ukraine next one, our change. How you see the world when data to the bottom of the world every sunday night, cnns best journalists tell the whole story. The whole story with anderson cooper, sunday at eight on cnn works hard at our one is twice as hard when you take it again the next day. So betty could be the barcode beat conduct lets be more than our allergies. And for fast allergy relief with a powerful decongestant tries their Tech D Fashion moves fast. 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But his nation and gulf in a war of his own making, putin kicking off his address by telling the russian people that the west is trying to bring trouble to our homes and make us weaker joining me now, Cnn International anchor max foster. Max. Good morning. Always wonderful to see you. So what do we heard so far from putin . What i think its interesting just seeing him. He doesnt always hold these addresses. He tends to get up there and speak to the nation as it were when he has something to say and hes got a lot to say. It has got a lot of momentum behind him, of course, in ukraine, these pushing frontlines forward. So just seeing that sort of confidence i think is quite symbolic general themes coming out there. One of them essentially, his usual one, that america basically needs to get over itself. It doesnt rule the world anymore. I did pick out a couple of things which i thought were interesting. He saying that russia needs to strengthen its western border referring to how sweden and finland joined nato. So he sees that as a defensive move thats how hes spinning it anyway, he says concerns about russia attacking europe all the thoughts of total ravings of lunatics. The other one, casey, i know youve been talking about this recently. This idea that russia thinking about putting nukes into space i saying these are planted stories by the us. He actually criticized the us for blocking russian proposals, which included a draft treaty on preventing weapons in outer space that they prepared as early as 2008. So hes essentially suggesting that the us actually isnt saying no to Knutson Space and projecting onto russia is false, but usually these are just obviously putins words, right . I mean, we do and i will say like the headline in the ft is about leaked files that russia set a low bar for the use of Tactical Nuclear weapon i just want to note this is what im looking at here at cnn reporting, you might, you might have better idea than i do about where we actually stand on this, but i mean, i do think from often from our perspective and from the perspective of republicans, democrats, i talked to here in washington. I mean, i dont think theres a view that what putin says is credible, right . But like the point is that hes trying to send a certain message. But im interested, max. We understand a lot of how he talks and he does he can speak in english. This is obviously for a russian audience. How is he balancing the optics of this in terms of the audience that hes talking to for Something Like this. It doesnt have to balance all that much because most of the Russian Media just tell his story that lay a lot of the independent media has gone away, so theyre not sitting there with critical analysis of it and youve got all of his people listening to him. There, including religious leaders the conversation in washington, i think it doesnt change, does it . Because as long as hes repeating the same lines is he would say that i didnt think it really does change the conversation march, but in terms of russia is just about over the long term building his momentum as a tough guy, a winning tough guy, the one taking on the west. He talks a lot actually about the brics countries which were traditionally the developing nations who worked together as a group, saying that theyve got this massive cart, the World Economy now. And thats all speaking to the same thing is compare its more powerful than the g8 therefore, the west is becoming weaker. Hes on the winning side. Thats the entire narrative right . Weak versus strong. I mean, it sounds like someone else that i all right here in the United States, max foster live for us in london. Max, thank you. As always, i really appreciate it more than 30,000 people have been killed in gaza since october 7, according to the hamascontrolled Palestinian Health ministry, that number underscores a horrific monthslong ordeal for the palestinian people. Israels airstrikes have displaced nearly the entire population and created a devastating humanitarian crisis. Israel estimates about 10,000 hamas fighters have been killed since october 7, more than 1,200 people in israel were killed during hamass attacks on that day. And more than 250 were kidnapped and taken hostage in gaza. All right, up next here, wildfires in texas turning deadly, destroying homes and almost every direction. Plus hunter biden on capitol hill Scolding Republicans for trying to impeach his father bragg room deals, cia sequence of fairs bribery, corruption, prostitution theres so much more to the store in knighted states of scandal with jake tapper sunday at nine on cnn, not flossing. Well, then add the wo of listerine to your routine. New science shows. Listerine is five times more effective than floss at reducing plaque above the gum line for a cleaner, healthier mouth this three feel the world hey, as liz got you going through it, grad new column for q or asthma attacks. Nikola is a once monthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma, not for sudden Breathing Problems plus allergic reactions can occur, get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing, infections that can cause shingles have occurred. Dont stop steroids and less told by your dr.