who is undoubtedly receiving all the information as well and wondering if there's justice on behalf of their son and loved one as well? >> peter alcuin, what eight case. thank you so much thanks for having me. >> thanks thank you all for watching anderson cooper 360 is next tonight on, 360 with cnn press. >> first initial debate just two nights her now we have breaking news and the biden campaign aimed to paint donald trump as po, two injurious and reckless, unquote to be president that and what the former president acknowledges he did too much of the last time they debated also tonight polls closing shortly in new york congress spending jamal bow bowman's attempt to keep his seat in a contest, hitting the democratic party left and center over israel and gaza. and from gaza tonight, cnn's jeremy diamond with an up-close look at the pier, which american forces built to bring in humanitarian supplies. but it's been plagued with troubles good evening. >> thanks for joining us. it is crunch time time times two ahead of thursday's cnn presidential debate, we begin tonight with new reporting for the second night running of a tougher tack, the biden campaign appears to be preparing their candidate to follow when the two men meet. also new word and how differently they're practicing or not for the big night and a hint from the former president that he wants to dial back one aspect, at least of his demeanor from 2020 reporting on that and more tonight from cnn's mj lee at the white house, kristen holmes at the trump campaign, and cnn political director david chelyan at the debates site in atlanta, mj lee he starts us off. so what have you learned about this contrast? the biden team is hoping to make against the former president. >> will anderson, even though domestic policies are really top of mind hi in for the biden team, i am told by a source, the foreign policy has come up in these debate prep sessions at camp david, led by the president's national security adviser, jake sullivan, and the president of course, is prepared during for the possibility of foreign policy coming up on thursday night. and as one campaign official put it to me, they said that when it comes to foreign policy, the contrast at the president is going to try to draw on thursday night really could not be more stark. they said, president biden stands up to dictators and defense freedom. trump is a loser who is too dangerous and run reckless to ever be anywhere close to the oval office again one famous line from donald trump that is source had said is likely to come up thursday night, is it's recent claim that he would be a dictator on day one, but i do think it's worth noting a challenge for the biden team potentially as they're preparing for these foreign policy issues, is that some of donald trump's up positions on foreign policy issues? these are really murky and ambiguous on gaza, the actually hadn't said much publicly on ukraine. he has said that he would have resolved the conflict in one day, but he's never elaborated on how exactly he would have done that. and certainly the other side of that coin is the president is going to try to make an affirmative case for his leadership on the world stage as well. >> and i know you've learned more about the level of detail the biden team is incorporating into the preparations for the debate yeah. >> i mean, this is really the stage where they are trying to find tune every single detail and make sure that the president can be as prepared as you can b and i'm told by a senior adviser that that includes knowing exactly what he is going to see once he is behind that podium, that he watched the president of video that gaffer had taken during a walk-through of the cnn studio in atlanta, so that he could get a sense of exactly what he'll see once he is standing behind the podium. now, you'll recall that the biden team at did win that coin flip. and what they chose was the right podium position. that means that he is going to be on the right side of the state of the tv screen for the audience that is watching president trump is going to be on the left side. and you might say, you know, these are really superficial details, but perhaps not because i think for any team and particularly clearly for the biden team no detail is too too small, and i do think we're getting a sense of how seriously they are taking all of the debate preparations and they've been doing, i mean, there's a true, they've been doing mock debates and if so, how are they structuring the practice? just debate? >> yeah, we reported that the mock debates started in earnest yesterday. we know that the president has been using a podium as a prop, and that there are different advisors that are standing in for donald trump, for colleagues, jake tapper and dana bash, though no word yet on exactly who is playing those roles. but this is really anderson about right? replicating the experience of the president will have on thursday night as much as that is even possible. and that includes a force just going over all of the substantive issues that could come up going over the different ways in which donald trump might behave. and it also includes just a test for his stamina. he's going to be standing there for 90 plus minutes and they want him to be as focused and ash sharp as possible. and folks that we have talked to who have been involved in the past have said, the person that is playing donald trump in these mock debates, they have a balancing act. they want to give him bad experience that they want to make sure that there isn't too much the athletes involved because that could end up being really distracting mj lee, thanks very much. >> want to go to cnn's kristen holmes, not far from mar-a-lago. how is the former president preparing for this debate? and what topics are his allies advising him to focus on? do we know? >> interested? it's been far less consistent, and traditional than what we've seen from president joe biden. a lot of that because team is trying to fit what donald trump does, doesn't really like this. sit down on and focus instead, it has been shorter conversations, policies, sessions n as donald trump often does calls with allies, advisors seeking their advice. now when it comes to what exactly they want him to focus on, they want him to focus on three things in particular, the economy specially inflation. they wanted to focus on immigration as well as crime. these are things that they have seen the data on. they believe that voters think that donald trump is better on the these issues. then president joe biden, they also are trying to talk to him about how to pivot away from questions on democracy or abortion? yes, they are coming up with answers, but how to get back to those three topics? that they believe are key that will help present a former president trump, quote, unquote, win that debate on thursday. now, donald trump himself actually got rather cannon ended in an interview with the washington examiner talking about his debate prep two things of note here. one is what he said about how it's difficult. he said it's very hard to prepare for the debate. you've got to know this stuff from years of doing it. and i know all the leaders and i know what i know. oh, i think debating is an attitude more than anything else, but not just attitude. donald trump clearly also reflecting on his previous attitude, particularly in those 2020 debates with joe biden, he specifically mentioned how he interrupted joe biden too many times. times during that debate, clearly going back through those debates and trying to hone his strategy heading into thursday. again, his team believes he can do well if he stays on message, particularly focused on those three issues, anderson and how to perform pros. and those random talk about the debate format der, they think it will help or hurt him? what's been really interesting to see kind of an evolution among his closest allies and advisers who won. they are publicly bashing the format which they of course agreed to, but they have said that it doesn't better donald trump that having an audience doesn't work for him. having muted mics. but it's really been a shift behind closed doors and in private conversations, i've had with these allies and advisers kaiser's one, they originally said that they thought the lack of an audience would hurt donald trump, that they thought he couldn't be energized without it that he really builds and feeds off of that audience. now, there has been a shift in this menu enthalpy that, that might actually be good, that we've seen donald trump go on these rants when he's in a big rally with a lot of his supporters, where he's off topic and completely the focus perhaps, and this is the hope again of his allies and advisers that without an audience, he can actually stay on message. the other part of this is those muted mics. you heard donald trump himself saying that he interrupted joe biden too many times and that first debate in 2020, this really takes that element out of it. he's not going to have the capability as you continue to go after biden while biden in is speaking and some of his close as closest advisers actually believe that that could help them. but obviously anderson, we are in uncharted territory here, particularly because it is former president donald trump and who knows how these elements are going to play out until thursday when they're on that stage. >> yeah. kristen holmes, thanks so much. want to go to atlanta or cnn political director david challenge, it has more on the format as kristen holmes just mentioned, the set of rules, the two sides agreed to, and how different this debate night we'll look because of it. so talk, to us about the rules well, anderson, one of the biggest changes i think the view we're at almost is no audience will be a part of this debate. there'll be the two candidates and the two moderators in the room. there kristen, you heard mentioned that the microphones will be turned on for the designated speaker at the time they are designated to speak in the debate his opponents microphone will be turned off at that time timing lights are visible to the candidates throughout the debate. so they'll know when their time is running out and the two candidate podiums are eight feet apart from each other. obviously, that's a lot closer than these two candidates were to each other on the debates. stage compared to four years ago when we were in the height of covid. >> what are the rules regarding how each kennedy supposed to respond to questions that the debate is set up and these are cnn's format that both campaigns agreed to in order to participate in the debate was that there would be a big macro topic and candidate today, we'll get a question on that topic. they will have to minutes to answer that question. then there will be one-minute response from candidate b. if you will, and another one-minute response from candidate a. and then it flips the other way, staying within the broad topic area, but a different slice of a question related to that topic, candidate b will get two minutes at that starter question, candidate gets a minute to respond. candidate b gets two minute to respond. of course, jake and dana at moderator discretion can ask a one-minute followup, anderson, i would note also though these candidates, once they hit the debate stage, there is no staff know aids. they can't communicate with their team until after the debate has concluded. so the viewer will be seeing on at-home the sitting president and the former president unprecedented debate and they will not during the course of the debate, be consulting with any aids. >> all right. david giant, thanks so much. johnny showers biden biographer evan asna's republican strategist, got jennings and former trump white house communications director alyssa farah griffin evan, you've reported and spent a lot of time with frozen biden over the years. how does he prepare mentally emotionally? 4 big moments like this? >> he does a lot of preparation. he can write down to the last minute. he'll be marking up a speech in this case, of course, there's no speech really this is not about stuffing your head full of facts and figures. this part of the process is about poise, getting enough command and comfort with what's about to happen that when you get up on stage, you are comfortable lasing those facts into your comments and let's face it also preparing for whatever it is donald trump's going to try to do to get under your skin and we know for a fact as mj mentioned earlier, that they have got to helping him try to visualize the space that's very important. even all the way back in 1960, richard nixon didn't really have a good sense the room and a debate. he spent too much time looking at the clock. people thought he didn't look enough into the camera and it hurt him. so that's kind of thing they're thinking about. alyssa based on mj lee is reporting, what do you think of the way president biden seems to be preparing for this versus the former president. >> well, he's certainly leaning into hunkering down. i'm actually surprised by the level of specificity in detail we're getting from whitehouse sources of law. he's preparing and the kind of topics he's focusing on. i assume that's meant to telegraph that he sees this as highly important. but i also think it raises the stakes and expectations of how he's going to perform, what he's going to run into as this biden loves to defend his record, he feels like he's not gotten enough credit for it. but what happens is you're looking backward. he also needs to be able to defend his record, but look forward and present a forward-looking vision and all the while being up there against somebody who is known to try to throw him off of his balance is going to try to throw in jobs when it says time to speak. and i think it's always a little bit harder for the incumbent and these debates, yeah, i mean, it's got legendarily, incumbent and precedents have a really hard time on first debates. they haven't been confronted the way they do on a campaign. they, they were used to people's sort of kowtow into them if you're joe biden, you can't believe you've got 38% approval rating. you can't believe these polls that say that people remember the trump presidency more finally, you just need to explain it to them. why you just listen to me, talk about how smart i am. you will also know when i think about these two, i think about them being like musicians and biden is going to be like a technical, he's reading off the sheet of music and trump is sort of like the guy with the cow bell exploring the studio one technical, one vibe driven in this thing are people really listening for specific policy or are they looking to see, are you plausible? do you seem like you could be plausible for four years, this is hurting biden because people think he's too old to serve another four years. i think this is i mean, i haven't this one. >> i think it's just gonna be so fascinating. i can moderated the second debate in 2016, the hilar clinton invade, write out the access hollywood tape, and that was where trump is sort of wandering around on the stage and the tension was so extraordinary. this is that tension times, i don't know what i'm going to scott's point of sort of, you know, biden is about policy and trump is about riffing and this weird political jazz but it's also in the end the thing that americans are really looking for is somebody who is in command, in command of the moment and commanded themselves. somebody who's able to convey a sense that they understand the gravity of the job. you know, a lot of this in the end comes down to who can convey the sense that they will be more normal president bruce read, one of the senior policy advisors who are spending a lot time with biden and debate prep said to me earlier this year, look, america is a normal country and americans are normal people. what he means by that is fundamentally there is a level of exhaustion out there. we all see it when we talked to voters, when we talk to our friends and family, people want to have politics take up less space in their minds. and part of the goal is the person who can get up on that stage and say to you, look, i've got this and it's not clear and a lot of people's minds that donald trump has the capacity for self-control. or let's face it, the joe biden can convey the kind of vigor that he needs to on that. >> i'm going to listen to the advantage biden had the last time was he was not the incumbent and trump was and there was a lot of animosity and a lot of angst and he was more of a blend. biden was more of a blank slate. he's now in the position where he's not a blank slate and trump is our memories where shorter than i are very short. i painfully rewatch the first debate and you very much see that donald trump is more on his heels. he's defending the covid response. joe biden's able to work in jobs that him yes. the onus is more on the incumbent, but let's think for a second, how much has happened since trump left office roe v. wade comes down january 6 happens. you have 88 felony indictments. you've got the criminal felony charges. you have both candidates investigated for mishandling classified documents. there's actually a wealth of things for donald trump to have to defend as well. >> so what i'm curious to see us, how much or his advisors able to break through to him to say, don't get caught up re-litigating january 6 or talking about the stolen election and go back to the economy, to the border issues that he's actually strong. he's got the chances him re-litigating the 20 his thoughts than the election. i mean, it seems almost inevitable. >> the smart answer is look everybody here has different opinion than me. you know what my opinion is. i know what yours is what we need to talk about is inflation immigration. if he did that every time it was brought up that would be a huge win. i mean, there's a lot of things for him to do here. i hope he actually speaks to the moment we're having on antisemitism as a i'm in this country, remember joe biden launched his campaign. he said, because of charlottesville we've got this issue in los angeles this week. we have these anti-semitic events all over the country. i know it's not one of the top issues everybody is talking about, but to me it is fundamental to how biden got into this race and why he said he was running. and i think trump could cause some havoc on that stage. age if he used it at the debate, he did sit down to dinner with neo-nazis. i mean, so he has weaknesses on that front as well. does he not? >> oh, he's certainly does. and that is a conversation that by the way, should be had and i suspect our moderators will be prepared to fact check if anyone white washes either their records. but i think scott's write that he can and call into question. well, you're supposed to kind of bring about healing. you're supposed to get us past this moment, but that's where biden the onus is so much on him to remind people of the worst things donald trump has done and said, the other thing is, does the former president just attack biden on the former president has been saying awful things on the campaign trail. about, oh, he's on drugs, he's not not all there. >> does he just do that directly to him 4 the bulk of this debate throughout this debate, i mean, when i heard that david chelyan was saying that there's eight feet between them i mean, one of my thoughts was, does he honor that eight-foot distance? >> i mean, does he i think that this podium arrangement will confine him to his side of the ring. frankly, it'll be pretty weird if he begins wandering over there. but i have no doubt he's going to bring up this notion, this kind of idea that they're pumping up biden with something to make them perform. look, the fact is, i don't expec