he's boasting about the fact that he that he canceled roe v. wade. i think joining us >> thank you to our viewers. thanks very much for watching our special coverage of debate night in america continues right here, right now on cnn with anderson cooper and erin burnett good evening from cnn headquarters in atlanta. >> we're just two hours from now. history will be made joe biden and donald trump's squaring off on the stage. we are showing you in the earliest ever presidential debate, the first ever between the president and ex-president the first in which one of the candidates is also convicted felon awaiting three other criminal trials and so much sets this debate apart from others, including rules tailored just for this occasion in and agreed to by both candidates. >> but there are so many unknowns about what will happen tonight. anderson, can president biden overcome the difficulties that so many incumbent presidents have faced in their first debates, can donald trump do what his advisers have been urging him to do and stick to what they see as winning issues or will he repeated the nastiness of his first debate with biden? >> in 2020 2021. >> thing is clear, anderson, is it we're going to be getting answers to that. and very soon, what's also clear is just how high the stakes are tonight, how much it matters for the candidates themselves, for their chances and for many millions of voters to get a better sense of what the choice is really are in november in this election for what the united states of america will look like a year from now, it is a crucial night and i want to get straight to it with our mj. lee was new reporting on how the biden campaign is gearing up for tonight. so mj, what are you learning? >> well, aaron, it is not lost on the biden campaign. what a unique opportunity they have tonight for president biden to make a lasting impression to american voters and to cast himself as the better alternative to donald trump last week of preparations at camp david, we're obviously really all about up the 90 minutes that he is going to be spending on the debate stage. but we are learning tonight of another way in which the biden campaign is trying to capitalize on the fact that many americans will be tuning in. they are going to be airing three ads around the debate tonight. that were specifically chosen to really try to drive away at three of the core arguments he believed are going to be really politically salient heading into november the 1st ad is on reproductive rights, featuring a texas woman who said that she was denied medical attention after she suffered a miscarriage. and you'll remember as she specifically blames donald trump for what she went through the second ad features of michigan sheriff who denounces president trump's handling and actions around january 6, and then the final ad will be hitting trump's out record and his character. and this is the ad where they described donald trump as a convicted criminal who is only out for himself. aaron, this is just yet another example of the fact that the biden team believes that there for path to the presidency is all about presenting a binary choice. they want to reach voters who have not been tuned in much so far, this election cycle and who do not believe that november is going to be about joe biden versus donald trump. and i should also note biden advisers, we have been speaking to do believe that this is a potential actually going to be the most prepared a donald trump has ever been heading into a debate and that he could potentially be more disciplined and more on message than we have ever seen him and everybody be watching for that. mj. thank you let's go to cnn's kristen holmes, who's got new reporting from inside the trump camp. >> i understand you've got some new details on whether trump team has been focused on leading up to the debate particularly andrew serwer, the last 24 hours, they are looking at performance, the art of the performance, as well as visual. remember out as hard donald trump is a performer and he and many and his team believed that that's just as important as the substance of the debate his team on the ground here in atlanta has spent the last 24 bowers really honing in on every single detail i'm talking about the minutia, the steps it takes to get from behind the curtain to the podium, how far the podiums are part even the hype and where they are angled. one of the things that they were talking about was how the audio sounded from each podium to make sure that it was clear enough from the former president's podium, donald trump himself believes that these visuals like how he performs up on that stage, is going to impact how people view this. and so his team has really put in the effort to make sure that it is to his liking. he channeled trump himself is scheduled to do that candidate walk through at any time let me we'll see the layout, but one of the things to remind you, he often talks both privately and publicly about how he looks on stage, how he sounds on stage, what the crowd looked like, looking at him. this is something he cares deeply about and that's obvious as he steps on the stage. obviously this again, goes to all of the preparation that they have been doing on policy. they have been having formal conversations. but right now, that team here, they were looking at the visuals and optics ahead of the debate mission homes, thanks so much, aaron all right. >> anderson and i'm here with audie cornish, chris wallace, kaitlan collins, and kasie hunt. all of us here through the night so chris, we're now in minus two hours before they walk out. they're gonna walk out actually a little bit before 9:00. what what do they do here in these final moments? they are both here. they have both arrived. we know that we saw trump get in later there are obviously around 530 local time get off the plane what do they do in these final moments? >> well, if they're smart, they're basically left alone to think about it i suppose some of the canada at some of the candidates advisors might sit there and give them pepper drills, but it does font. you just want to collect yourself, figure out what are the main pain points. remind yourself, what are the main points that you want to make the holes you don't want to fall into. i can tell you one thing that the trump campaign has been talking about and thinking about is how he was when he walks out onto the stage, should he shake hands with joe biden or not? this is a real issue because one of the i want to project his strength versus weakness and they think physically donald trump looks stronger and walks better than joe biden with his somewhat halting gate. so i don't know what he's gonna do. i don't know what the big decision will be and it may well be the trump decides on the fly hi, as he walks out. but one of the thoughts is to shake hands and try to project strength versus bring up the handshake adi, this is actually very central. the gate is crucial because everyone's going to see that and so much of this is optics, but the handshake, we know the biden team has been thinking about that too, and whether he even wants to shake trump's hand. so is this something that literally in that moment, i think it'd be decided, you should think about all of this as a big reset, right? like jay-z says as loud, like let me re-introduce everybody, wake up. campaign is happening. this election is happening. these are the people in front of you. and if you haven't been tuning in, this is your chance. similarly for the candidates last time they did all this, it was during covid, the handshake thats why there wasn't are handing yeah, like so this is literally a reset moment. how do we do this? how should it look? what's the most effective way to deliver this information to voters and how they spent their day today, kaitlan, we know trump posted on social media joe biden's a threat to democracy, a threat to the survival and existence of our country itself. all caps sort of what you would expect. but that was what we heard. >> donald trump has always been a big fan of the i'm rubber your glue kind of retort anytime someone labels a critic, loves or criticism at him, he often returns it to them, but i think when you look at them on stage tonight, what's different than four years ago is that joe biden obviously has a presidential record. he had never been present before he was only able to scrutinize and attack donald trump's record as president. that will obviously be different tonight for donald trump, though, he is a criminal record for the i mean, he's never been on the debate stage since he was a convicted felon, since he had multiple, dozens of indictment and counts and charges against him. so there is just a completely different dynamic, even though we've all seen this movie for, we've all seen the two of these guys on stage before. they are the most recognized political figures, everyone knows their backgrounds and their records, but we've never seen them on stage with these dynamics before. so that's the thing to look for tonight is what's different now than it was four years ago and they've also tried to flip the script though casings your trump, trying to take the democracy point, but they are there seems like attempted that amine we'll see if that's what he tries to tonight. there's absolutely i mean, that's a tried and true trump tactic to duck something that's a weak point for him and claim, oh, actually the other guy is doing that. but when i think about what's really different between the last time we saw this happen when chris was in charge. and now i may have been a lot i was not very home i know. i mean, i've spent a lot of time actually watching that debate recently, but the level of personal animosity between these two men is just at a much higher level than it even was. then, i mean, let's be real joe biden, i don't think it's ever really liked donald trump. we know how donald trump has felt about joe biden over the years. but now you have a sitting president who sees across the stage from him a former president who tried to steal an election from him, right? and one of the main things i think we're gonna be looking for tonight is how donald trump handles january 6, in front of a crowd of millions that may be turning in, tuning into this election for the first time. they may not have seen his campaign rallies where he starts off with a solute to what he calls the january 6 hostages. so i do think that there are many, many layers tonight that to your, to your point, these are different people in different points in their careers, but there are also different in personal ways. as well as how they spent the de it i went through trump's social media posts, joe biden actually posted a video on his social media sort of highlighting certain points about trump. i want to just play that data hiring, dangerous threat to democracy, cannot in good conscience, endorse donald trump. we don't take an oath to a king or queen. would a tyrant or a dictator we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator those are the voices of former aides of trump. and only a few, only a few. and obviously there's many more, right? you could choose from, but that's another thing i'll be looking at tonight. how are these things framed differently? it's one thing for the president to bring up january 6. it's another thing for joe biden to talk about political violence and to use a word like that, there's going to be different ways that they talk about familiar issues that will give us a hint about what the next couple of months will be like in terms of their messaging the flip side of that is how donald trump handles. >> and i can tell you the plan that doesn't mean that the plan has got to laugh, but very much to get stuck into re-litigating 2020. not they get stuck into talking a lot about january 6. and if he does talk about pardoning, he's going to qualify it and cite the pardoning the non-violent offenders, but certainly not pardoning the violent offenders on that day. but they very much want to pivot off that and hi, in fact, enough about 20:20, even though he's done nothing but talk about it for four years enough about 20:20. let's talk about the future. let's talk about american people's problems. we'll see whether or not he aged able to stick to that plan. but that's that's what the idea is going in. >> i also think that first debate in that performance was seared into his mind because donald trump walked off that debate with you and he thought that he had crushed it. he thought he had done such a great job. and as it is often the case with donald trump, his perch perception is shaped by the coverage and what he sees after and what he hears from his advisers after. and obviously he interrupted president biden a lot during that debate and he's even admitted it. he did it this week in an interview with the washington ching-te an examiner that he interrupted too much during that debate. and so donald trump takes advice from a lot of other people. he doesn't always listen to it or actually observe it. i do think he remembers and as we have been playing at length this week, the clips from that debate, he's reminded of how often he interrupted and what that looked like. will see if you maintains it passes it's the first 20 minutes or the entire debate. >> well, i also wonder how much the reality of the rules and the way that this is being set up is going to affect how donald trump is able to do that. i mean, i think that the perception has shifted over the course the last couple of days too. i certainly have talked to a number of people who have suggested that perhaps it will help donald trump that in the event that he, he does have trouble biting his tongue, which we know that he sometimes does that he will be he will not be heard by a television audience because i think one of the things with this, this debate is gonna be very unusual, of course, because there's not going to be an audience in the room. there's going to be basically just the moderators, these people, the people that have to do the technical work to get it on the air. that's different from previous years. so it's just going to be the two of them centered like this, experiencing it in the room though, is not the same way that americans experience that on television. and it can be a mistake when you're in the room to take what you feel like happens there and extrapolate because you can miss things will come across one of the room and you having sat there here at that debate different feeling there versus what you when you watched it later no, i knew it was a disaster. >> i didn't i will say i actually think those question of the audience is overstated it is very intense in that little circle in my debate, they were ten feet apart in this debate, there eight feet apart. i mean, they could just there really were very, very close to each other trump has said that the audience matters. >> there's a little bit of living first, you got to be able to play to someone we were but they didn't play does someone and they were very much under orders not to the audience, to applaud. i'm telling you that having been on that stage age they it's the two candidates and the moderator. and that's really it. i do not think that lack of an audience is going to be a mature. >> we are all going to see that shortly and all of you, of course, are gonna be here. we're here together and i hope all of you will be sticking around and more and more joining as the hours go just ahead, we will be joined by trump surrogate, and new york republican congresswoman elise stefanik. that closer look at what the former president and president biden will see an experience in that room at their podiums, which will not be like anything, any candidate whose seat before sunday on the whole story. >> short battles in american waters, dive into the debate between conservations fisher, and sharp gutters store 40 with anderson cooper sunday at eight and don't miss discovery sharpening starting sunday, july 7. >> to me, harlem is all a home is also your body. last one. i asked myself why does it pilates exist in harlem so i started my own studio, get in a brick-and-mortar in new york is not easy chase thank has supported us from studio to studio three. when you start small, you need some big help and chase ink with that for me, earn up to 5% cash back home business essentials. but the chain inke business cash heart and chase for business make more of what's yours hi there. >> i'm an ad ever notice how some ads just speak to savvy advertisers place their ads where people like you actually are streaming your favorite programs. that's why they choose vi. it can make an impression if you want the latest ai powered buying tools to execute and measure your connected tv campaigns on premium streaming inventory, choose wisely choose, phi joe biden opened 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setup of the stage and studio first, anderson, which is obviously the important the candidates will be at the electrons. >> these electrons, as you can see, this is actually the electron were donald trump will be standing, they are eight feet apart said another way, not far apart at all. in previous debates, the electrons have been about 12 ish feet apart for a woman who's 54, that's three or four depths apart. so there's a physical proximity dynamic that will be at play tonight. donald trump will be screen left. joe biden will be screen right when they are here, they are allowed to take notes. ronnie, let's show them notepads, empty note pads and pens right here with the candidates are not allowed to do to bring prepared notes on to the stage with them. what you'll what they will be looking at right here, we see our awesome crew getting ready to go. what they will be looking at is not a studio audience only are moderators jake tapper dana bash, they will be the only people that they 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