tonight on 316 new reporting on how the former president has been preparing for next week cnn debate. now just eight days away. and word of a new name, it could be considering as a running mate also tight, let vladimir putin and kim jong un have agreed to a new military partnership. how concerned should the west b and ukraine plus louisiana becomes the only state in america? mandate displaying the ten commandments and every public classroom what happens now? good evening. thanks for joining us with just eight days to go until the former president faces off against the current one in cnn's first the campaign presidential debate. there are new details about how donald trump is preparing. they suggest is new york times maggie haberman will explain in a moment the hi and closed doors. the former president is taking it seriously at the same time, very publicly. he's also laying the groundwork in case he doesn't do so well in the debate stage by making completely wild claims that a good biden performance will be drug enhanced these going to be so pumped up, he's going to be pumped up you know, all that stuff that was missing about a month ago from the white house what happened? >> who drew left is somebody left at that i wonder, let's see, somebody left it's a laptop in an office of a gentleman was supposed to fix the laptop from hell. he never picked it up and somebody didn't pick up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine. i wonder who that could have been so just as a point of fact, the bag found in the white house visitor or a storage cubby last summer contain less than a gram of cocaine according to a storage to conservative republican congressmen who was briefed by the secret service on it. >> a hundreds of thousands of dollars for cocaine would weigh dozens of pounds also, taking up the idea that president biden will be medicated for the debate. congressman ronny jackson running jackson was the former white house physician who was allegedly so free and easy prescribing drugs without a prescription, he became known as the candy man, which the congressman denies jackson also administered a cognitive test are the former president, which the former wasn't claimed. he aced that we couldn't remember congressman jackson's last name. he kept calling him johnson the other day, joining us now with the new debate prep reporting your time senior political correspondent maggie haberman. so what do you view heard about how trump has taken this, as you know, there are ample opportunities for trump to make flubs as much as he tries to point out what biden does. trump is taking this more seriously than people allow publicly, right? i mean, in public, his aides often downplay the prep that he does. he's been doing not standard debate prep. he doesn't have stand-ins as of now for biden in these debates. >> so he's not doing mock debates, not doing locked debates, no. >> that could, that could certainly changed. but he's been doing what they've been describing as policy time, where they bring in different people to brief him a bunch of senators have come on, come in last week. senator marco rubio and senator eric schmitt both briefed him at the orange see headquarters after his meetings with lawmakers around capitol hill, which was his first major meeting with party members since he became the presumptive nominee and they are focusing on various issues that could come up. abortion, health care energy covid, and then very specifically in this was one thing that came up last thursday. what trump will say when asked january 6 related questions, particularly his statements about pardoning some of the people who were arrested in connection with the violence of willie. >> do we do know when he tried to be vague and not be pinned down on whether he'll pardon them all on that one. what they are hoping he is going to say. and again, who knows what he'll we'll actually say, but what they're hoping he is going to say is some version of it depends on the case. he has left it much broader in the past and said he'll likely pardon people again across the board. think that they're going to try to have him point to specifics, including people who were arrested where they were not that close to the building. >> do you know in past did he do mock debates? i mean, did he have somebody playing somebody? well, chris christie, i mean, played a version of hillary clinton and he played a version of biden in 2020. >> and then in 26 to 2016 before that. so yeah, i mean, those those were look trump doesn't like prep. i mean, he considers its school. so the fact that they've gotten him to do it this way is actually pretty revealing and also speaks to the fact that i think he knows that this has to go well for him. he has said to people multiple times that he knows that he interrupted too much in the first debate with biden in 2020 and having just re-watch that debate recently, it's really striking. i mean, we all talked about it at the time, but biden could barely get a word in edgewise and biden was kinda smiling throughout out as this was happening maggie's do with this. >> i want to bring in from white house foreign biden white house communications director kate betting field also, sarah longwell, publisher of the bulwark longtime republican strategists, a critic or the former president. what is your reaction to maggie's reporting that trump is apparently doing more of these policies sessions while biden is sticking to more traditional debate prep with your old boss, former white house chief of staff, ron klain i'm actually not surprised to hear this from maggie because i think donald trump recognizes that she said that the first debate in 2020, which was essentially a free for all where kind of his worst characteristics were on display. >> his most chaotic energy was on display. i think he knows and his team knew that wasn't good for him. and i think there's every reason to expect that a more disciplined version of donald trump may show up at this debate. mean think about it. the format is actually i would argue probably to trump's benefit no. audience, that mike's being cut off, it means he's not going to have the sort of rambling ram. the rambling rally, donald trump, that we get at his rallies and it will potentially be an opportunity for him to be a lot more discipline. so i think that it certainly makes sense if you're somebody who's strategizing on behalf of donald trump to try to convince him to show up and be that version of themselves. and i think it's reasonable to to expect that we'll see that version of it and you think not having an audience play, it helps donald trump i do because i think the thing that will be the most problematic for him is the angry energy, the chaotic energy, the interrupting he feeds off crowds. >> he gets whipped up into a frenzy and i think part of what biden should do in this debate and what i think he wants to do is try to kinda put the worst of donald trump on display, put that chaotic energy on display, and i actually think a more sedate room that will bring trump's energy level down is probably actually a good thing for donald trump sarah, i know you do focus groups to gop voters. >> do you think many of those voters will be impacted? by this debate or opinions already baked in yeah, we'll look for the base voters opinions are baked in and for a lot of those people, they think that joe biden has dementia, right? >> because that's what they hear all the time from right-wing media ecosystem. but what biden needs to focus on are these swing voters, these independence, even right-leaning independents? for them, you know what i hear in the focus groups. and we talk a lot about double-haters, them being the persuadable group. this election cycle and the good news for joe biden is they don't actually hate joe biden. those voters, they're just they're worried he's too old. and so when he has performances like he had at the state of the union, and if he has a good performance of this debate he shows up, he shows command to the policy material. he goes on some offense against donald trump around the conviction around january 6. they just want to see that he's still got it, that he can do the job. and i think if he clears that bar he can do a lot to take these voters who are pretty unhappy about this choice and move them into his column because while they don't hate joe biden, they do many of them hate donald trump. and so i think the more that these voters see of donald trump the more he comes back into their frame, the more they think. oh yeah, i really don't like that guy and i don't feel comfortable putting him in charge of the country and biden it's just got a hold the line, right? keep that anti-trump coalition together. >> mega understand according to reporting, trump's from working with senator haggerty is one of the senators who has been in they've had this rotating cast of characters who have come in to talk about different policy. what's interesting about haggerty is that his name has come up in the context of the vice presidential stakes in the last couple of weeks. as i mentioned, marco rubio. rubio is one of the people who was with trump last week. he is one of the top tier candidates. i don't think haggerty is, but it just speaks to the degree to which number one, the republican establishment is coalesced around donald trump and trying to help him in this election. and number two, that they see advantage in having director time with him this way, it is interesting that he's having all these people come and talk policies. policies, obviously not something that's front and center when you think of donald trump or even in his long rambling rallies, he has a series of agenda items that he can point to you from when he was president and that's what they're trying to focus his mind mind on to your point, a lot of what he has talked about over the last two years has been grievances. his court cases, i think he has been so singular and was during the manhattan trial. so singularly focused on what was taking place there that they're trying to get his mind back to what he can talk about, about what he did there are things that i think he can speak to about policy, but there's also a lot of stuff that is going to be a problem for him. the january 6 related questions, i think are going to be a problem. the pardons question is going to be a problem. his promises of retribution are going to be a problem when those come up. and i anticipate president biden will reference his criminal and i'll conviction now, i'm quite confident based on my reporting that donald trump will then 0.2 hunter biden's criminal conviction and this could be an uglier debate than we have seen in a very long time, omega0 to reference the 2020 debate between trump and biden. let's just play some of that vote. >> now in effect, you are, you in fact, let people know. he doesn't want to senator russia. i'm not going to answer the question. did that because the question is the question justice left. >> would you? >> who is on your list, joe, this don't you write, gentlemen, i think because. i just pack, the court get benningfield. >> i mean it wasn't sure on presidential and it is interesting for maggie is reporting that he has said to people, he thinks that was a mistake or not that moment. but that he was two negative yeah. >> yeah, two negative. and also just the constant interrupting. i mean, remember the audience that matters here is the television audience and watching that on television was unbearable, it was unbearable to watch i can just continue to interrupt, continued to berate the moderator, and i think again, like it really, really helped joe biden do do the work biden was trying to do there and really kind of showcase. this is not the guy that you want in the oval office is temperament, isn't right. he's disrespectful and it was really we saw in the data on the biden campaign after that debate, it it's really a turn-off for swing voters, for moderate voters, for suburban voters so i think to sarah's point, earlier in this conversation, i think this is joe biden's task for the debate to connect with those people you saw in that clip there looking directly to a camera, i expect that something he'll do a lot of during this debate as well, to really connect with those particularly moderate suburban voters who you can't stomach donald trump, maggie haberman, keep betting fields or along well, thank you so much for coming up next. vladimir putin and kim jong-un will show you the young, young pump but fitting red square and the cold war days and the cold war chill their new defense treaty conjures up also take you live to moscow and we're live as well in the final airlines in new mexico where hundreds of homes and buildings have now burned a second person has now died. there's also no. the threat of flash flooding duties celebrating freedom and legacy to light at ten on cnn so i hear some of you are concerned about the fact that i'm taking you know, for the company will rest assured companies in great hands marcy hit the homes.com. >> we've done on your homework now, that is worth celebrating i love it. >> thank you homework very clever, very clever holmes.com, who bike rider scandals dollars one, you'd have to kill me to get this jacket off electrifying dollars so scared of us like writers were your daughter only peters this friday crap. now, we got to get france something. >> wait we could use xi's gift mode. >> all right, done to do four not with good. now on etsy well done viv you got the presence, the balloons, and the raptor cake now how about something to put a smile on your face? 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>> yeah. i mean, it's gonna be a lot less ambitious. i think that those dramatic scenes that we saw in pyongyang, the kremlin says that it wants to establish closer cooperation on the nuclear issue. nuclear power generation in vietnam it was to boost educational exchanges, boost tourism. in other words, a lot more about increasing trade and business ties, lot less about fighting the united states and its allies so that the chance, thanks so much for spectral now from cemetery, former cia north korea analysts and currently a senior fellow and korea chair at the center for strategic and international studies. how significant do you think is this partnership now between russia and, and north korea? >> it's significant in this is a big deal this was it was leading to this and i think a lot of korea experts were warning about this because north koreans have been supplying russia with weapons, right? they've sent 10,000 over 10,000 containers of munitions and artillery shells and rockets and ballistic missiles and so on to be used in crane. and this was very concerning. and if you remember, kim jong-un went and russia met with putin last fall in september. and two months after they successfully launched a satellite or so when they failed to do so previously. so then there was also a question of okay. north korea of supplying russia with weapons. but what what is russia now supplying russia? north korea width. so now they meet and now they have this treaty. >> this is very big deal in vladimir putin was asked about cooperation on atomic issues. he said nobody's asked for, they haven't asked for