>> we have very big part of all of humanity living close to a volcano. and if we are able to harness the volcano directly, reducing the risk by, by lowering the pressure in lowering the tension in the, in the volcano. then of course we have a win-win situation using the earth for this natural energy without burning fossil fuels the scientists acknowledge there is still a long way to go and a lot to be learned, but they also believed the potential energy supply could be virtually limitless and totally clean for plug-in, cnn berlin all right, tune an violent earth was liev schreiber, new episode airs tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. we've got another hour of news. >> let's go hi everyone, you're in the cnn newsroom. i'm omar jimenez in washington. we are just five days people, five days away from the first presidential debate of 2024 and today we are seeing a pretty stark difference between income president joe biden and his republican challenger, former president donald trump, as the two men prepare for this high states face off. now, biden is holding intense meetings with a close group of advisors at camp, david trump is right now in india campaign trail. here he is just a few hours ago. i'd an event in washington rally 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? >> alright, cnn, steve contorno is live in philadelphia, where trump is going to be speaking tonight. and steve, i just want to ask a little bit about are we hearing anything new about any potential pick for vice president from the former president well, we've been hearing for while the president has former president sees me has has decreased as shortlist down to just three names at this point, j.d. >> vance, marco rubio oh and doug burgum, the north dakota governor and he was just making a stop in pennsylvania for some philly cheesesteaks where he was asked if he had made it decision. he said quotes in my mind. yeah and someone said to you, do they know who it is? and he said no, nobody knows. now, trump has previously said but then he is most likely going to wait until the convention to announce that pick what he said he might go ahead and do that in the coming weeks instead, and we have been hearing for awhile that again and those three names are the front runners, though trump, you know, he has also been floating some other individuals names out there are at least a phonic tom cotton, his former whole a hud secretary, ben carson, so those are sort of the names that we're monitoring entering this final stretch where we expect the former president to make a decision. >> all right, so you can torno at a campaign rally where we do expect to see donald trump a little bit later this evening. really appreciate the reporting. now while trump hits the campaign trail and pennsylvania sources tell us president biden is going over binders, going over possible scenarios holding okay, debates as he huddles with a close team of advisors at camp, david cnn senior white house reporter, kevin lived tag is here with us in the studio with more detail tell them how the president is preparing for this high-stakes debate really at this point. so what do we know? >> well, we're on di2 of debate camp out at camp david in the mountains of maryland. and what we're hearing is that it's going to start off relatively informally. they have prepared these binders for the president to go through it, kind of crystallizes the policy differences between himself and former president trump has some questions that has some potential answers. and i think really our goal is to bat around some retorts, some zingers, some comebacks. really try and frame the debate in the way they want it to eventually were told that this is going to culminate into some of these mock debates. the full 90 minutes standing at a podium i'm going back and forth. and that has been interesting because we've been hearing over this past week or so from bob bauer, he's the president's personal attorney and he played president trump and biden's mock debates back in 2020. and he talked about what it was like to embody trump in that listen to what he said whenever you do this, you want to strike a balance between trying to approximate the experience but it's not an opportunity for theatrical that's a distraction. so you want to find some balance between recreating the experience and not attempting to, if you will, audition for saturday night so an not an impersonation, more of a character study, if you will. >> i think if you were to boil down the strategy here it's too sharpen that contrast, make voters absolutely clear that this is a choice between trump and biden in november particularly for those people who just haven't been paying attention until now and look just give us a little bit more insight into what is this team. he's working with? what is this team he's assembled to try and prepare here? >> yeah. >> and it's actually a fairly large number of people that he's got out there at camp david over the next couple of days he's got the traditional advisers that people who have been with him for a long time, people like ron klain, the former chief of staff, aside from being is formed once you've for staff is the most seasoned democratic debate coach that you can find its been doing this for a long time. >> he's got mcdonald and geoff science, these people who are with him in the whitehouse all the time on the policy side, he's got jake sullivan, the national security advisor. he's also got bruce read the policy chief and the white house. he's got some messaging people before like needed done mcdonald when he also has people from the campaign side, michael tyler, quentin fulks, rob flaherty, people who haven't necessarily been in the box in an orbit for a ton of time, but are coming in and are contributing to all of this is oscar got jen o'malley, dillon, julie chavez rodriguez cedric richmond, people who are sort of voices on the political side who have been helping biden kind of frame this over the last several months. normally, when a president is out at camp, david like to get outside a little bit. i looked it up. the high was 98 degrees at camp david yeah. >> i think they're getting the air conditioning, but certainly they got a lot of work to do and it will be interesting to see you because look, the dynamic over policy disagreements when you're actually the president versus fighting for your policies on a debate stage, very different dynamic so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. kevin lib tech really appreciate it. i want to go now to someone who does have experienced managing those dynamics joining us is former ab you see news anchor carol simpson. she made history in 1988 becoming the first woman an african-american to be the sole moderator of a presidential debate for a major network, carroll thanks for being here. i really, really appreciate your time. i want to just first yeah. really the unprecedented nature of this debate we've got an incumbent president and a rematch against a twice-impeached former president. how would you be preparing going into this debate i am so excited about this debate because it's going to be like none other how would i prepare to moderate took your debate? you really almost can't because you don't know what trump is his the unknown factor. >> and who knows what he may do or say during the debate. and so i think jake tapper and dana bash are having a really tough time trying to anticipate all the things that could happen like even someone falling out have fainting. i mean, you don't you don't know. so i think it would be very difficult in 1992 when i debate it was very easy because everybody was good everybody behaved. they listen to the commission's rulings and they kept by the rules this time who knows? >> and that's. part of why the hope is that some of some of these rules that are in place, like time limits and cutting the mics once that time limit has been reached and a lack of body may tamped down a maybe some of those graininess factors. but as you mentioned, you can't, you can't predict what's going to happen on stage, especially with these two candidates. and look, we've also never had two candidates in their late 70s and 80s on the debate stage before and obviously age has been an issue for both of these candidates over the course of their campaigns. and i guess this is a big opportunity for voters to see these candidates actually in an environment where there's no teleprompter, it's not a campaign rally. and i guess my question he was do you think that adds a different level of expectations from the voters who will be watching at home well everybody is expecting biden to mess up to do something that may kill his chances of ever being repeat elected. >> but let me tell you, i'm at three and biden is at one. and i know he's walking slowly and i know he's holding on and looking tentative you're at so things are not your legs and things aren't moving as well as they used to be some years ago but the brain, the brain is still functioning. and i think if trump tries to make an issue of biden's cognitive ability, it sounds so ridiculous to me that he's trying to bring that up but biden is smart and he is sharp and i think he will do well answering the questions at the debate and trump, i think is who knows what he, he's showing age two having trouble finding words and there's some cognitive decline there too. then in 2016 or 2020, even. >> so, i think everybody is going to want to see what these old guys are able to do and biden has a chance to show people. >> yeah, i'm old, but i can do the job and trump i don't know if he's going to be able to show that he is cognitively able and able to do the job. so i think the age thing will override every other thing that we'll be talked about. >> well, and we'll know and just a few days, of course, when this actually kicks off and as we were talking about the rules a little bit with this debate, one of them will be to mute each candidates mike's wants their time up while the other candidate responds to a question, look, it might not stop them from muttering or verbally reacting to the other based on past debates trump is known for doing exactly that. i want to play a moment from one of their 2020 debates. take a listen the question the question, justice left. would you listen? who is on your list? you, this one you gentlemen. i think pax6 court then we're not going to give a look so i guess the question is, how do you think muted mics will impact this debate or do you think we're just going to see another dynamic like what we just saw there. no i think i think the muting of the microphone's it's a good idea because it was disastrous in 2020. i watch all the debates i might debate junkie so my watch them all. >> and it was so bad. >> last time they looked like middle school kids in the school yard talking to each other. so i think the ability for the moderators to be able to turn down trump. it's he, we have to worry about. it's an biden, but he's the one that wants to talk over his candidates. so i think it's he'll be a great idea. and the fact that there's no audience another great idea, because people show their favoritism and that's not fair. now look we know based on history that as people watch, they're going to be looking at every detail they possibly can one tiny slip-up could even overshadow a candidates in time? hi or performance and potentially even put them in a bad place for the race as a whole. so i guess what what can a candidate due to avoid one of these moments? and are there moments that come to mind for you that, that really, you thought put a candidate in a bad spot yes. >> in my debate george w h w bush the father, was running in intubate with ross per row and bill clinton and i remember people after debate telling me why did bush keep looking at his watch. and because i was tied up with moderating, i hadn't noticed that he had done that but people really all kinds of people were saying, where did he have to go? that really struck them, that he was looking at his watch. and then when i watched the debate, i saw four times he had checked his watch and it did look like he wanted to get out of there so that was a thing that really hurt i don't know how you avoid those things where human beings, you react to things as they happen. it's hard not to, and your forget that they're ten cameras on you and that people all over the world are watching you. and so think about the fly and mike pence's head was its own it did i became a meme so you know, things can happen. and as i say, we're human beings and we react. unfortunately, sometimes not wisely but we do react while look all of those can i tell you one other thing? i think the fact that it's being held so early is good because people can focus in more intently on the campaign but, you by november, if they don't have a debate in september, they're going to forget about this and i'm wondering what can happen in-between time that this debate will mean nothing except for the history books. well, look, we will have that answer a very soon. i will start with the debate. it's south and just a few days where, as you mentioned, anything can happen. we'll try to keep an eye out for a fly getting into the studio, hopefully, not the case this time around carole simpson. appreciate you being here thank you, omar of course all right. >> now, in an exclusive interview with cnn, detained american paul whelan is appealing billing for the white house to help him come back home as he marks another milestone in a remote russian prison camp. he's now been detained more than 2000 days as 5.5 years. whelan was arrested in moscow in 2018 on espionage charges. he denies he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. the state department says he is he was wrongfully detained, telling cnn that 2000 days is far too long for paul to be wrongfully detained in russia. our hearts go out to paul and his family who feel the pain of separation in a way that very few people have experienced. cnn's jonny hansler is with me now. now, jenny you spoke to paul, you spoken to him? multiple times at this point. what else do you have to say? >> oh, mark was incredibly disheartening and in disbelief at the fact that he has now been detained in russia for 5.5 years for 2000 days. he pointed out that you go to high school, for example campbell, you go to college. those are four years, five-and-a-half years far surpasses these major life events. so he is calling on the biden administration to take decisive action section to bring home both himself and evan gershkovich, the detained wall street journal reporter. he says he believes the us government is taking his case seriously, but he wants them to take it more seriously. and he laid out a series of atoms he thinks would show that the us government is taking decisive measures here. take a listen to what he told me us needs to go out and do something. >> i'll fill up guantanamo bay with russian officials rushed russian spies do something that makes the kremlin sit up and take notice and say, okay, yeah, right. now it's time that we are going to get evan and paul back and then we want back what you've got a bowers i will call it a day and now it's interesting because he makes the argument that until the u.s. >> take such action, they'll continue to detain americans in russia and we have seen a number of americans detained over the past months and years there. the other interesting thing omar, is that he is aware that evans trial is coming up next week. he thinks this could be a milestone for both of their cases because in the past we've seen russia want to move forward with these trials and exact these convictions which the us government says are false, which paul pointed out or false he thinks this could be helpful in his case, but in the meantime, he has now spent 2000 days in detention and good majority of that has been in this really remote russian labour camp about a day's drive from moscow. and he describes the conditions. there is just absolutely deplorable. this is what you told me about them yesterday everything is dusty and dirty and nasty and you do everything you can just to stay cool under sustained claim the food were served as horrible we really do rely on personal purchases to stay healthy medical cares now, there is no dental care at all. >> it's it's it's the worst environment you can imagine. i mean, it's, it's unbelievable anyone could even consider this human rights it's nothing that you can get used to so he is calling on the us to do everything they can to bring him home. >> the us government says that they are working on this is a top priority. we know they've put afford what they described as a substantial proposal to the russians at this point, the russians have not said yes to that proposal. we don't even know if they're seriously considering at this point, omar hello kitty there's been so much time at this point, jenny, thank you for bringing us his perspective and with your reporting appreciate it all right. >> we're falling a lot of stories as well. well ahead. including when we could see some relief from scorching hot temperatures that are smothering more than 100 million americans this weekend. plus a pair of astronaut thoughts are still in space as boeing racist to understand what's wrong with its new top of the leinz space craft that is supposed to be there, ride home you're in the cnn newsroom, stay with us the most anticipated moment of this election. >> and the stakes couldn't be higher. the president, and though former president, one stage, moderated by jake tapper and dana bash, the cnn presidential debate thursday night at nine live on cnn and streaming on max these days, everyone staring at screens, am watching their spending. good vision is 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