billion with a b. we've got this honore got this. we don't force in america thursday, july 4 x 70s dirt on cnn hi, everyone. >> you're in the cnn newsroom. i'm omar jimenez in washington. we are just five days away, people from the first presidential debate of 2024. and today, we're seeing a pretty stark difference between incumbent president joe biden and his republican challenger, former president donald trump, as the two men prepare for this high-stakes face off, while biden is holding intense, meaningful, a closed group of advisors at camp david trump is skipping the tradition no route for now and is instead hitting the campaign trail. here is just a few hours ago at an event and washington rallying his supporters for the big showdown with biden nobody is going to be watching the debate on thursday night, right nobody. >> will anybody be watching cnn's steve contorno, we'll be watching him in person soon live in philadelphia where trump is expected to hold a campaign rally in just a few hours. so steve, can you tell us a little bit more about the trump campaign strategy going into thursday's debate. >> obviously, he's busy today omar know cram sessions today for former president trump. he's not holding mock debate sessions either. instead, he has hit the campaign trail. he'll be joining putting me in philadelphia and a few hours right behind me. and earlier today, he spoke with a christian conservative audience in washington, dc and very talked about what he did for them to get. this. his antiabortion justices on the supreme court, he said he has wounds all over from fighting for religious liberty. >> and he's so the right to freedom of worship does not end at the door of public schools. take a listen to what he told his crowd answer to the bureaucrats in washington. >> we answered to god and heaven, who likes to ten commandments by the way, going up in the school but christians cannot afford to sit on from the sidelines of joe biden gets back in christianity will not be safely have also achieved what the pro-life movement fought to get for 49 years and we've gotten abortion out of the federal government trump came out in support today of that controversial louisiana law that will require all public schools display the ten commandments part of his outreach to this question conservative audience where he told them, look you don't have to vote for me. >> four years from now, you need a vote for me. now, sort of saying like this this is the time in place to get active. he was concerned that christians have not been getting out to vote in recent elections. and it's time for them to step up for him this election cycle. >> and steve, i want to asked you about another aspect in the trump world that we're following because it sounds like the trump team is narrowing their search for a potential vp. i know we've heard that a decision iran is likely by the time he get to the convention next month. but who are the top contenders, right now three names have emerged as a top contenders. >> this point, it's senator jd vance of ohio senator marco rubio of florida, and north dakota governor doug burgum. all three. i've been bedded at this point i've been going through the process of getting bedded and have his advisers are coming up with pros and con list for each what's interesting though, is that we've also learned that there are influential backers for all of these individuals at well who are trying to get in trump's year as he makes this key decision, it's been broken down by this j.d. vance has the support of some of the farm all right figures and influential figures in trump's orbit such as don junior, his son steve bannon, his former adviser, as well as tucker carlson, whereas rubio as support from some of the donor class and sean hannity, kellyanne conway, his former adviser. meanwhile, doug burgum, he has a lot of fans in new scorpion hooper for docs kingdom. he has been pushing burdens name and a lot of his publications lately yeah. >> i'm interesting to see how that field narrows and to see what happens at later tonight. and philly. but steve contorno will be there for us to keep an eye on on at all. thank you so much all right. >> now, while trump hits the campaign trail on pennsylvania, sources tell us president biden is pouring over binders, going over possible scenarios, holding mock debates as he huddles with a close team of advisors. advisors at camp david cnn senior white house reporter kevin lip tack is here in studio with me to talk a little bit more about how the president is preparing here. that's not to say he also has not been busy over recent weeks, but what do we know about how he's preparing? but this debate this weekend? yeah, he has been busy and advisers do point that out when you're in the you're the incumbent, you always have to balance being president with being a candidate and that has been something that president biden has been balancing two. but he is now on day two out at camp david debate camp out in the mountains. >> and what we understand is that this was going to begin somewhat informally. advisers have prepared these binders for the president to go through what they're doing is trying to crystallize some of the policy differences between himself and president trump, and really trying to hone how he's going to describe those on the debate stage. so they have some answers, they have and potential questions they want to talk about how they're going to respond. but they are also preparing for attacks from president trump on president's policies. yes. but also on members of his family on his fitness for office, basically, they want to be ready for anything that trump can throw at them on the debate stage. this is eventually going to culminate into some mock debates. it's that the president is going to undergo later in the week, and it's been interesting because we've heard from the person who actually played president trump during president biden's preparations back in 2020, his name is bob bauer, is the president's personal attorney and what he's been saying is he doesn't necessarily do a full impersonation of trump. it's more of a character study. and one of the things that he's really focused on is making sure that his attacks are credible, that he can go after president biden in a way and sort of a ferocious way that they think that trump is going to demonstrate on the debate stage as well. one of the things that i think that they're very likely to raise in this debate is the issue of abortion, which steve was talking about as well and it's interesting because monday is the enemy diversity of the supreme court decision. the dobbs decision that overturned roe versus wade, while president biden is at camp david, the rest of his team the vice president, the first lady, are all going to be out sort of commemorating this anniversary, talking about this issue with voters, which is when the biden camp really does believe is going to be a galvanizing one for them. november. >> and we know it's we've seen results to this point that that's an issue that that's been galvanizing for many voters from the midterms too special elections that we've seen in specific states where abortion was literally on on the ballot in those cases. but kevin, i wanna go back to a little bit of what you said before because who are these people that he is actually preparing with? what do we know about this team? he's a biden is notoriously, he has a notoriously tight group of advisers. he doesn't let new people and all that often you are seeing this at his preparations camp, david, it's being led by ron klain, who is his former chief of staff, but probably more importantly, he is the most seasoned debate coach and the democratic party. he has been doing this for years. he did it for biden and 20 he did it for hillary clinton and 16 he has been doing this for a long time. you also see some of his messaging gurus and anita dunn mcdonald now and also as current chief of staff, jeff sites and bruce reed, who is his policy chief and helped sort of put these binders together. i do think it's interesting. ron klain back in 2012 worth this list of debate rules as he was preparing. so it does give you an idea of what they're doing. one of them is developing a list of three items. you must say in the debate study or what your opponent has been saying especially in the days just before the luckily trump has given them ample tape to review no practice is more effective than mocked debating. so certainly there are going to be doing that in the days leading up to thirst day. make sure you get feedback from a prep team that is compact and candid. well, he's got there that up there at camp david, it's a pretty small group. it's people who feel like they know joe biden pretty well. >> and one of them is if in doubt, don't essentially don't go rogue. >> and the debate stage, that's not the place where it know what you're gonna do, know what you're gonna say. >> that's probably good advice for just general life. yeah. >> so we'll see if all of those play out on the debate stage in just a few days now, kevin, great to see you as always in-person. i've been very all right. let's keep this conversation going because joining me now is democratic congressman seth molten of massachusetts congressman. thanks for being here. now, look, you ran against by i didn't. and the democratic primaries in 2020 and i'm just curious just as a former competitor, a direct competitor, what did you notice about his debate style and what advice would you give him now as he prepares to face off against trump? >> sure. we'll all my first of all, thank you for remembering that you're one of the few remember, americans who remembers that ran for president years ago. but look, joe biden needs to come into this in. just show americans that he's in control. he's competent, he's, he's a normal guy. and that's such a contrast to the convicted felon. he's running against this is not a time for zingers, brazil, a tree biden just needs to show confidence command of the facts and command of his really impressive record. in contrast to trump's criminal record, that what biden does well, he just comes across as the ordinary guy. you can sit down and have a bilk shake with. that's what we need to see from joe biden on the debate stage. >> and look, i think the stakes are very clear here to this point, polis have really shown no real clear leader at this point, but i guess bottom line, do you think a good debate performance? we'll actually give him a legitimate boost in the polls here. >> i mean, let's be honest, the criticism about biden is that he's old and when he came out of the state of the union after a magnificent performance with tremendous energy everyone, even conservatives the fox news talking heads, were talking about how much energy joe biden has that's what he needs. now again, that's not by going over the top. that's just by showing confidence command. he's a commander in chief. if he can demonstrate that he can stand on that debate stage and take all the hits from trump who clearly is not much of a commander in chief. then joe biden will come out ahead and i think that a lot of this will then depend on what the press says. write a lot of studies show that it's not about just who wins the debate, but what the press says about the debate afterwards he needs another performance like the state of the union. and if he gets that, i think it will set them ahead in the polls and as we know, we just heard from kevin a little bit earlier, president biden is at camp david with advisers going through debate prep. >> former president trump is out on the campaign trail right now. i want to ask you about a common at the trump actually just made regarding migrants at the conservative christian event in washington this morning. here's a clip i said de and i have an idea. >> why don't you set up a migrant league? >> fires? and have you irregular league of fighters and then you have the champion of your leg. these are the greatest fighters in the world fight that champion of the migrants. i think that my migrate guy might win. that's how tough they are he didn't like that idea too much, but actually not the worst idea i've ever had. >> now. look we've heard what i would call a wide range of language from former president trump when it comes to migrants. but i play that because do you think the nature of those types of comments is something that president biden should bring up during. the, debate when he's asked about likely a very serious question about policy and immigration look, of course, those are offensive and derogatory comments, but i actually don't think that that's what biden should bring up. >> he should focus on one thing that trump and the republicans are playing politics with immigration while democrats are trying to fix the problem that's the message that we need to get across. immigration is a huge issue in this election. it's an issue not just on the southern border, but in communities like the ones i represent up here in massachusetts, we have a real issue with migrants but let's remember trump told the republicans to sink the bipartisan deal in the senate. he said, i want this to be an election issue. he said to america, i want to play politics with this issue that's what joe biden needs to focus on. the present needs to remind americans that he's proposed solutions the he's doing things to address the border crisis. trump is playing politics with it before we go a current spin, i want to turn our politics abroad because look, you're a member of the house armed services committee that biden administration announced is prioritizing critical air defenses capabilities for ukraine over other countries. >> this is on top of that ten-year agreement with ukraine for military assistance as well. meanwhile, we're seeing putin threatening the arm north korea if the west continues to arm ukraine. so i guess my question is, is the us doing enough, you believe to strengthen our allies as russian? sure ramps up its attacks and rhetoric well, i think the biden administration has been doing well, but all along, i've encouraged them to move more quickly to get ukraine the permissions that they need to use our weapons and the weapons themselves even more quickly than we have. >> and, you know what? again, when it comes back the debate here, let's remember that biden is the commander in chief, who's taken charge of this incredibly dangerous world and a very dangerous time for not just our allies, but for america as well, dealing with crises and israel with russia and preventing a war in china. we don't want a madman and donald trump being commander achieve the more that president biden can remind people that this is a dangerous world, and we need competence in the oval office. i think he'll will do he'll do well in this debate. >> and congressman, we do have to go, but i do want to ask you very quickly about the gi bill that you're we're putting forward with a few other members of congress. if you can quickly, can you just tell us what the significance of this and what you are trying to accomplish here. >> this is the anniversary of the gi bill. i use the gi bill millions of american i can have used the gi bill, but it was denied to a lot of black veterans of world war ii. so my bill is the gi bill restoration act, which simply restores the benefits. those heroes aren't. i hope it gets a hearing in the house yeah. >> congressman seth molten. thanks for being here on a variety of topics. really appreciate your time. >> good. see you, omar for everyone else you can catch the cnn presidential debate right here on cnn coming up on thursday at 9:00 p.m. eastern and streaming on max next, i'll see you there all right, meanwhile, a heat dome is baking the eastern part of the country, putting more than 100 million people under heat alerts as officials born of dangerously high temperatures plus the hamas-run government and gaza says, dozens of people were killed and a new round of strikes today as the idf's operation nearby rafah intensify your in the cnn newsroom, stay with us historically, the soviet union killed traders i started to run two kgb cars, had come behind us. >> i didn't know what to do. >> secrets and spies. a nuclear game tomorrow at ten on cnn for your took it on a black stone, you get a better cooking experience cook, anything any time, any go to your nearest black stole retailer or blackstone products.com now and make everything better on a black stone three body serie a city client uses city's financial expertise to help drive its growth and keep it supplied sane, moving some more pet parents can get everything they need, right when they need it keeping more pets and families happy for the love of moving our clients forward, for the love of progress one, second, you feel safe and then the police are on their way. >> well he's still do when you're a small business owner your to do list can be a log that's why progressive makes it easy to save with a commercial auto quote online. so you can take on all your other to dos. or you did see if you could say that progressive commercial.com looking for a smarter way to mop, try this with her power mom and all in one cleaning tool with a 360 degree swivel head that goes places a regular mop just can't for now, much smarter with the swiffer palm up if you have chronic kidney disease, you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with bars sega because they're places who'd fled to be for cql can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis it may be fatal dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections and low blood sugar a rare life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur, stopped taking four sika and call you your doctor right away. >> if you have symptoms of disinfection and allergic reaction or ketoacidosis what makes ewc so special? 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