to prove fear ending up as a mean and a bizarre and alarming clash between china and the philippines on the high seas, the chinese coast guard launching a quote, brutal assault, a filipino general while slamming beijing's over the attack saying, quote, only pirates do this and artificial intelligence may be coming for all our jobs. >> and faster than thought possible. a new survey has a stark warning for americans were following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here. the cnn news central just one week from today, president biden and former trump will go head to head right here on cnn, the debate in atlanta will be the first of this year's presidential race. >> and we just learned that former president trump will get the final word after a coin flip to determine the order of closing statements and podium placements. but before they we take the debate stage next week, both candidates are preparing in very different ways today, president biden heading to camp david, where he'll hunker down with close advisors for several days of intense debate, prep that includes mock debates with advisers pretty standard, while former president trump is taking a less formal approach, hold holding, quote, policy discussions with some of his vice presidential contenders and other republican allies joining me now to look at some of the key numbers ahead of the debate is cnn senior data reporter harry entin. all right, where do things stand? >> gosh, tight, tight, tight, tight, tighter than my first new york city apartment with all the stuff in there, i think was like 200 square feet. all right. here we go. biden versus trump margin no clear leader. look, we had fox news come out last night in february trump is ahead by two. look at this biden ahead by two, but again, these are both both within the margin of error, but i think the trend line here is interesting, right? trending a little bit towards joe biden. we see that in the aggregate as well right in february, it was trump plus two. now we've got a tight race nationally. so the fact of the matter is there is a lot on the line heading into next week in a race that's exceedingly, exceedingly tight, tight tight all right, so trump's been lowering expectations for biden, for months. >> i wonder if that's a good idea, but i also wonder just what voters are expecting yeah, is it a good idea? is in an id, i don't tend to think it's a good idea necessarily, but one of the things that was so surprising given all the questions about joe biden's age and donald trump kind of lowering expectations. so joe biden was, how would voters sort of perceive things going into the debate? so biden versus trump, who will win the first debate. all right, in june 2024, look at what we are voters do think that donald trump's gonna win. but just by five points, i expected this margin to be significantly wider. and indeed compare this to where we were heading into the first debate back in september of 2020. >> look, donald trump, they thought would win the debate, but by just by zero point. >> so, yeah, maybe a little bit more on the side height of donald trump expecting a winter debate this time around them four years ago, but not significantly wider. that was a bit of a surprise me. of course, remember that the post debate polls last time around found that joe biden won the debate in the minds of the voters by a wide margin. so it was joe biden exceeding expectations. of course, this time around, we're just going to have to wait and see on that one yes, we certainly are one whole week now. okay. so ultimately this race is about the electoral college. where are we right now yeah. >> all right. we look at the national polls, but the fact of the matter is there ain't no national vote. >> i learned that lesson back in 2000 when i was a wee little boy watching al gore, win the popular vote. but of course losing this day it a florida by 537 votes and losing the white house. so where are things right now in the electoral college? well, the fact of the matter is joe biden's beth best path to victory runs through the great lakes. you see these yellow states right here. basically, if you're looking at the electoral college at this particular point, it seems that down trump has head head-start on joe biden, but this is why these three states are going to be so important. and i have heard that the great lake battlegrounds are awfully nice this time of year. so maybe i'll have to go and visit. but the question is, where did things look in pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin? it is, once again tight, tight, tight. look at this in pennsylvania, on average, donald trump's head, but by just two points, look in michigan, it's tied, looking wisconsin, it's tied. so the fact is, yes, donald trump has a head start on the electoral college compared to joe biden. but joe biden has a path. it may be a narrow path, but if he wins in wisconsin michigan, and pennsylvania, and given everything else you know what it gets too, he gets to exactly 270 electoral votes. and i have never seen any race quite as tight as that one. you have to go all the way back to 1,876 briana, my lord, you do some of your best work from the great lakes. >> i will say harry, so we'll see which one of these candidates does their best work. from that region. thank you so much. we will we will we shall say all right, boris from ronald reagan's, there you go again, line against jimmy carter to george hw bush, checking his wristwatch back in 1992 presidential debates often those what we now call all viral moments. >> the big question is which candidate is going to capitalize more on those moments at next week, cnn debate, joining us now to discuss is brian stelter. >> he's a special correspondent for vanity fair. brian, great to see you how do you see this debate potentially altering the race? >> normally, these debates are political junkies, dreams, but this year it feels more like a nightmare, right? this is a rematch. we've seen both these candidates debate before. we know how out of control was the last time. so there are some nightmares qualities to this, but i think you're keen on the most important detail, boris, what will the moments be? yes, tens of millions will watch this live. it'll be replayed, but it's also going to be sliced up, chopped up like never before. and i would argue right now, trump is winning the so-called medium war. he is out there pushing out of context, distorted clips about biden. the biden campaign is trying to figure out ways to fight back and this debate is going to be a chance for both those parties, both of those teams, to figure out how to compete in this oversaturated information landscape yeah, the meme war is an aspect of a campaign that obviously few presidential campaigns in history have had to even ponder. >> so if you're an either camp, what's the approach? two seeking out a moment at the debate. four, virality well, number one, i think these candidates, especially biden, are going to come into this, assuming that people have not been paying attention because yes, there are probably ten or 20 million americans who are news junkies, cnn fans who are up to speed on all the latest it's of elements they know about all of trump's temper, temper, tantrums. >> they know about all of his claims, his talk about being a dictator. but biden is also aware and his aides are aware that many americans have not heard about all of this. they've not been tuned in for biden, especially it's a chance to raise the salience of trump controversies and scandals and bring those home to americans. those are the moments i think biden is going to want to create to try to clip for trump it's anyone's guess, right? he's claiming he's not going to be prepping the way biden is, so it's anyone's guess, but i've been interviewing some former debate moderators for vanity fair. they say they want to always focus on policy that was the goal in the past. policy questions since questions, i think the danger or the fear with this debate is a donald trump's going to try to make it much more about personality and personal issues just to boil it down how cruel is trump going to be, right? how cruel he beat a biden those. that was actually those moments might really become viral in ways that could be positive or negative and know one knows for sure. >> so brian, there was a coin flip earlier today and cnn determined that donald trump is going to get the last word on the debate stage. how does he take advantage and deliver a closing message that resonates? >> look he's going to be able to point to joe biden the entire time and argue that biden is the older candidate, even though both of these men are elderly and we're experiencing this american jeran talk pros that the most americans want to be rid of. but trump is going to be able to point over to biden time and time again and reiterate that the point i also think trump's going to talk extreme extremely about affordability, right? about, about those basic price issues. >> i'm just happy this debate is still going on where we're a week out. >> neither candidate has threatened to back out. remember how much speculation there was back in may, but whether this would actually happen. and here we are with the details now being finalized. their networks coming out in, announcing they're going to simulcast the debate. so this is going to be seen by the entire country, honestly by the entire world. and i'm just glad neither candidates backed out yet yeah, and hopefully that stays true and we see this go down next thursday, more week. yeah. right. brian stilts or appreciate the analysis as always? >> thanks of course. >> sprout we are following some breaking news. >> the new york times reporting that two federal judges in south florida privately urged judge aileen cannon, to decline the classified documents case involving former president trump when it was assigned or last year. but judge cannon, who was appointed by by trump, wanted to keep the case and refuse the judge's recommendations, joining us now is charlie savage one of the new york times reporters who broke this story. pretty big scoop here. charlie walk us through your reporting and what these more senior judges told cannon absolutely. so of course, judge cannon's handling of the documents case has been highly controversial. she had earlier intervened in the investigation that led to the indictment in a way that shocked experts across legal leinz and was later reduced for that and reversed by a conservative appeals courts that included two other trump appointees. so that was the backdrop of what happened last summer when the random we'll assignment system in the southern district of florida hopped out her name as the judge who would handle the key itself after a grand jury indicted the former president and it turns out now that we didn't know until now, is that two senior judges that is to say more experienced judges, not the term of art senior, which means semi retired. >> two more experienced judges in the southern district of florida, including its chief judge, cecillia alto naga, who is also a republican appointee separately went to her are called her up. >> and urged her to step aside, essentially to recuse and let some other judge takeover the case through the through the assignment system again. it both times she turned them down. the first argument put to her was she was just too far away from miami. she's way up in fort pierce. that's a two-hour drive have a way. her a little courthouse up there didn't have a facility that can hold classified documents. there is one in miami. that's where the grand jury was some judge who sits past chambers is much closer to that courthouse in miami. should take it so very face-saving, neutral reason for her to decline it. and she we don't know the name of the first judge who went to her, but she rejected that rationale. then the chief judge, alto naga went to her. i called her and said offered a very more pointed let's say rationale for her to step aside, which was what had happened during the investigation when she had intervened to help trump and then was rebuked for it. by conservative republican appointees on the appeals court that cause of that just the optics of her handling this case we're sub-optimal and it would just be better if someone else handled it again what we're told is judge cannon insisted that she wanted to keep the case. and of course, since then, she's had a very testy relationship with prosecutors, is moved extremely slowly she has essentially ensured that president trump, former president trump is going to succeed in his strategy of trying to prevent their from being a a trial before the election. and of course, if he wins the election justice department to get rid of the case. >> yeah, certainly. we should know that one of the judges, charlie, we should note one of the judges, ulta naga, is the chief judge. you mentioned there declined to comment to cnn. the other judges you said is not named but can you just talk to what would normally be characteristic behavior here? can you speak to that? i mean, how unusual is it that a more junior judge like cannon would not once but twice? disregard what these senior judges are suggesting she do in a case like this well, it's extremely rare for judges to tell other judges that they ought to step aside. >> so it's not like there's a roadmap here that makes anything about this normal. >> however, one room from over is it is quite normal for novice judges newly appointed to the bench, like judge cannon, to look to her colleagues or their colleagues who had many, many more years of experience being judges for advice and mentor ship about how to do the job and that is a sort of informal culture in federal courts. probably state courts to mentoring and helping young judges sort of get their feet under them and this is certainly her rejecting that culture i'm going her own way yeah, really interesting reporting, charlie, thank you so much. >> do you enter your colleagues for bringing that to us? we appreciate it boris right now, dozens of demonstrators arrested at columbia university protests are facing a judge in new york city for the first time in april, pro-palestinian protesters and new york police officers clashed on campus when students barricaded themselves in hamilton hall, sparking similar protests that colleges across america, more than 100 people were arrested at columbia that night, about 46 of them were charged with at least one count of trespassing. >> that's the group that is in court today. cnn's jim on prokopenko is live outside the courtroom with more details. shimon, you are soon to head in for this hearing. what are you seeing now yeah. >> so we were just upstairs bores many of them are starting to show up now, about 46 of them were told are expected to appear before the judge here for the first time. remember, it was back in april around april 30 when the large presence of officers, some couple of hundred officers moved in onto the columbia campus after dozens of students and some outside people got on campus. and then took over one of the buildings on the campus, hamilton hall. and so the police that night hey, moved in with such force, they they went through windows, they searched through that entire area and they arrested over 100 people in total on the campus that night. now, 46 of them are in court today to see what happens to their case. many of them are expecting their cases to be dismissed. because of just the low-level nature of the charges, the trespassing charges. so we'll see what the de here does. it's ultimately up to the district attorney's office and the judge on what the outcome will be. but given the penalty here, given the crime here, none of them are expected to face any sort of significant charges, are that answer or anything like that? so just about an hour or so, we should know what the da here and what the judge are going to do borrows sherman park, oppose please keep us updated. thank you so much still ahead. >> the use of fossil fuels and emissions hit record highs as the world's struggles with deadly heat storms and fires, what we're learning in a new report about the climate and it may be one of the biggest rescue operations ever executed ahead. an incredible effort to move a pair of beluga whales from wore battered ukraine all the way to the spanish coast they are unpredictable sleeping giants every volcano has its own personality. >> or if we don't understand them, they are windows into part of our planet lives will be lost violent, earth would liev schreiber, sunday at nine on cnn time for growth, funding from bus to credit makes it possible are easy and convenient process makes it simple to take the next step on your journey this due credit funding. what's next there are giant so mughal they are the men and women building daibes. >> next general russian submarines they are giants and what they do because they work in a place where they can grow, where they can learn the skills to build careers as powerful listed we build giant because it takes one to build one nothing dems my light like a migraine with nortech ott. >> i found relief the only migraine medication that helps treat and prevent all-in-one to those with migraine. >> i see you for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura and the preventive treatment of episodic migraine in adults don't take if allergic to nortech odi team allergic reactions can occur even days after using most common side effects are nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. it's time we talk to a health care provider about no-tech ott from pfizer, your shipping manager left to find themselves leaving you lost unique to hire. i need indeed indeed you do indeed instant match, instantly delivers quality candidates, matching your job description visited d.com slash higher. >> it's so easy to get your windshield replaced using safe flight. and why don't you just get it fixed? 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