unlike anything we have seen before in one week, president biden and donald trump will face off in the earliest general election debate in modern history. the biden campaign is a deliberate choice to challenge the saturday show a an early debate to force voters to reckon with the reality of the choice they have to make sooner rather than later. today, we got the details of how the debate will play out. independent candidate robert f kennedy junior officially failing to qualify for the debate, leaving trump and biden to share the stage alone next week. president biden won a coin toss allowing him to choose his referred position on stage, he will be changing at the podium on the right of the television screen while trump will have the podium on the left, the same configuration of the two debates held four years ago, donald trump got to choose the order of the closing statement, he chose to go last to give him the final word. we have new details on how the two candidates plan to prepare for the debate tonight, president biden camp david where he is expected to spend the weekend engaging in intensive preparations with this top campaign officials. by contrast, trump opted for less formal and vice presidential hopefuls. early ahead of a big debate, allies of the candidates working to manage expectations, trying to paint their candidate as the underdog to this, as you know, not a normal debate season in the last two months, trump and his allies and conservative media worked tirelessly to try to convince voters joe biden is a feebleminded old man in the throes of senility. in order to downplay expectations, conservative media has been trying to invent a reason why joe biden might appear more cogent than their viewers have been led to expect which is why fox news is screaming to promote the baseless conspiracy theory that joe biden, a lifelong teetotaler, is secretly on drugs. >> will be all hyped up, hyper caffeinated, whatever it is, it is interesting 70% of the country does like the idea of drug testing, i like the idea. >> should they be drug testing before the debate? >> i will tell you, i agree with that, they should, joe biden comes in, he is jacked up. >> biden was just up or whatever . >> the chairman of the doctors caucus in the republican party says he is jacked up. >> i'm assuming they will try to redo that. >> i was at the state of the union address, joe biden must have been checked up on something that day. >> donald trump lowered the bar, jacked up himself, who knows. >> assumed the same jacked of performance at this debate so be on the lookout for wide eyed joe biden. >> if you're following along, fox news wants to believe joe biden is senile but also he has access to secret drugs that will turbocharge him ahead of next week's contest. this week, trump himself permitted the theory joe biden would be on drugs during next week's debate during a rally in wisconsin. >> he will be so pumped up, he will be pumped up, you know all that stuff missing about a month ago from the white house, somebody didn't pick up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine. i wonder who that could have been. i don't know. actually, i think it was joe. >> like i said, this is not your normal start to an election season. looming over all of this, the fact the first time in history, one of two candidates on the debate stage is a recently convicted felon currently awaiting sentencing. this week, we also started to see signs the reality of a second trump term a breakthrough with voters. yesterday for the first time in months, fox news poll found joe biden pulling two points ahead of donald trump, three point shift since may. key to that, 11 point swing toward biden among independents in the last month. trump's conviction last month and 24 felony counts mark this first major inflection point in the campaign. the question is when the next debate will mark the second and which candidate will come out on top. joining me now is democratic strategists and former communication's adviser for hillary clinton 2016 presidential campaign and tim miller, writer at large at msnbc political analyst, thank you for being here. what is it sadie you republicans feel they have to manage expectations around how excellent joe biden might be during the debate and the way they have chosen to do that is by suggesting perhaps he is on some type of performance- enhancing drug? >> if there is a magical drug that reversed senility or dementia, whoever invented that would be rolling in so much money, no way to keep that secret. i love that is the line they decided to go with, very strange. this whole play has been strange on their part, i am wondering about their inability to lower expectations on this, they got burned on the state of the union went president biden came out and was clear and forceful and presidential and authoritative, all the things they said he could not possibly be and they clearly know they got burned on that, that is probably why they are trying to make this mad dash scramble at the last minute. their team, with trump, every accusation is an admission. whatever he says you are doing, he is doing. trump's mental acuity isn't great. >> the speeches more than 30 seconds, the syntax does not make sense. >> he held a roundtable with ceos predisposed to support him , who left less inclined to support him because he could not hold a thought. they were concerned, these are pro- business ceos that should be in trump's corner who were too concerned about his inability to follow the conversation, to continue to support him. that is the candidate they have to put up next week. it looks like a desperate play because it is. >> to underscore the desperation, not only donald trump, his allies talking about biden, lashing out on truth social saying, quote, looks forward to seeing president biden at the fake debate on thursday, also attacking the moderators. the fact that he feels the need to undermine the debate, not necessarily surprising but it is still a towel -- tell. >> reporter: they got on the skis with the dementia joe saying and expectations way out of whack, they are grasping for anything to change the narrative around this. it is crazy listening to that, i turn on fox from time to time to know what is going on over there. just the amount of discussion about this fake conspiracy they came up with, sober joe biden, all of a sudden decided age 80 he would start doing uppers, it is so wild, the fake news happening over there to borrow a phrase, it would be like if i cannot write on this panel, i think maybe donald trump might need it diaper on the debate stage next week. for two days, would he think about the diaper strategy? should he have a diaper, not have one? it is made up, i think it shows they don't have a lot to work with. >> let's talk about the elements that will be part of the debates, this idea of which podium you choose, this idea of who goes first and who goes last with closing arguments, we know that trump was incensed during his new york case that his attorneys did not get to make the final closing argument. does any of it matter? >> the truth is, almost everybody tuning into a presidential debate has already made up their mind. let's say that right there. with this is going to do, repeat several of the arguments being used against president biden, i'm not seeing that happening the other way, trump is a show man, entertainer. he is very good at that so i'm sure at that end of all of his reality shows, he got to have the last word. i was in college when that show was on, it would end with him in the room, he would dispense wisdom the producers had written for him and that was how the show ended. i'm sure he got used to that formulate, reality tv is formula and i kind of think that is what he thinks is happening here. he has the idea that whoever speaks last will linger in the minds of everybody watching. maybe that works for him but that is not really the way most people process information. it is not that important, what side of the stage you're standing on. i'm glad president biden chose the sites he competed last time, i'm sure that matters more to donald trump than it does to him. >> indeed, thank you for reminding me of the apprentice the last time donald trump had message discipline of any variety. you have the debates on the horizon, the new york times reporting that billionaire timothy mellon is giving $50 million to a pro-trump group. we are learning billionaire michael bloomberg will give $20 million to biden pac. help us understand that level of money, what it means, it is more money than most of us can wrap our heads around and what it means at this point in the race, if you think it means anything? >> reporter: i think it means a little thing, joe biden had huge money advantage to date, that in the conviction can explain the poll movement you mentioned in the intro. level the playing field, it is worth noting donald trump changed his tune on several issues because a couple billionaires have given him money, specifically the tiktok ban is one, others recently. trump understood there was a gap, felt like he needed money and element of desperation into it, i think that is starting to get shored up on the trump side of things. the one other thing relatable with the ads and debate, i don't know anybody out there is switching from trump to biden, i'm sure there will be somebody or vice versa. i think the important thing for biden in the ad campaign from bloomberg and the debate stage is, there's a group of democratically aligned voters that are not on board with him right now, maybe concerned about his age, maybe inflation. you can see the numbers, democratic senators are running ahead of him. that is his main goal next week, to do well enough to demonstrate he is up for the job to remind people, that base why they like him. the swing voters are important, you think about the ads and the debate, that is the low hanging fruit, biden has room to grow in the polls if he can bring those folks in the democratic coalition, traditionally, back into his camp. >> let's talk about that, new reporting in the new york times about sliding in support for president biden among women dropping from 13 points to eight points since the 2020 election. that is part of the constituency he has to win back. >> i think tim is correct. biden is talking to the democratic base, i think trump is talking to his base. trump has been very clear he is not interested adding new voters to the people who voted for him in 2020. he has done nothing to broaden that. biden does not have that strategy, he needs everybody he got in 2020 and once more than that. i think especially with women, there's a lot of contrast here. if joe biden is interested talking about the absolute decimation of reproductive freedom and donald trump being responsible for that, the reason why we have women dying from miscarriages, women scared to travel while pregnant, the reason why we have people putting off starting families or adding to families is directly because of donald trump . i think women do understand that and the more we focus on that, especially with the upcoming attack on ivf and birth control, trump is also behind, i see that writing itself. >> aliseda caveat here being, one, talking about a lot of folks not to, to your point, not necessarily following every movement of this election. yes, in polling, some of the women may say inflation, i think has become the catchall for economic insecurity more broadly, you could talk about corporate greed as much as you talk about inflation talking about prices going up. it pulls higher than reproductive rights, it does not necessarily mean it is the issue that drives you out to the polls. >> absolutely, the cost of living is something you deal with multiple times a day, it is a lot harder to see who the villain is. it is price gouging, corporate greed, supply-chain issues that are still being worked out post- pandemic, it is a global thing, every country is talking about the cost of living. it is not just us. you interact with that every day. when you interact with reproductive rights, it is a foundational, intimate, never forget experience when you actually stop and think about what it means to have a politician take away your decision, when and whether to have a child, what does that mean for couples who will need ivf to conceive? what is it mean for women starting their careers in their 20s and they don't want to have families until they are in their 30s. women make these decisions all the time, not just the ability to access abortion. everyone interacts with every person who can get pregnant interacts with their idea of reproductive freedom. having politicians all of a sudden be in charge of that, that is the kind of issue that really motivates you. that is the kind of issue you get out of the house regardless of how busy your schedule is that you vote on and you know who to blame for it. it is really hard to make one vote work for inflation but we lost roe v. wade because of donald trump and we will lose more if he is president again and people understand it is an easy case to make. >> tim, part of the reason you're talk about presidential debate in june, the biden campaign understood this binary choice needed to be before voters as soon as possible. talking about the context of the debates, eric levitz on fox pointing out this week as of late may, the biden campaign airing $13.6 million worth of ads, the trump campaign had yet to spend a single penny on tv spots. the biden campaign knows that they have to set the narrative for the race, right? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. i think it is because the biden campaign had the money and the trump campaign didn't because they're spending it on lawyers and struggling to raise money. they have the money to spend. the biden campaign, going next to the group, women, working- class black and hispanic men, young voters, there's a certain group, they tend to be the ones not as tuned into the news, traditionally democrats, right now, just aren't going for biden at the rates biden needs. it is tv ads, youtube ads, tehran, paid surrogates, they all had to do that earlier to reach those folks because that is the way to reach them, they are not being reached on news programs with traditional media. >> jess mcintosh, tim miller, thank you for getting us started tonight. we have a lot to get to, the governor of louisiana tries to tempt the supreme court to separation -- dismantle the separation between church and state. explosive reporting about the florida judge overseeing donald trump's criminal prosecution over classified documents, that is next. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. 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[music playing] want to save on some of the biggest names in streaming on the network made for streaming? x marks the spot. now you can add the new xfinity streamsaver™ that includes netflix, peacock, and apple tv+. that's xfinity streamsaver™ for just $15 a month. all your favorites. all in one place. only from xfinity. for more watching and less spending... x marks the spot. do it all on the network made for streaming, and bring on the good stuff. judge aileen cannon first randomly assigned to oversee donald trump's criminal trial over his handling of classified documents. questions were repeatedly raised about whether she was the right judge to handle it. the fact she was nominated by the defendant, donald trump, there's a relative lack of trial experience compared to other federal judges in florida. she presented over four short reaching criminal cases during her tenure, nothing remotely close to the complexity of the case involving felony criminal charges against a former president. since taking the case, judge cannon's rulings spark more questions among legal experts about the way she is overseeing it. today, like bester, the new york times reporting indicates those legal experts are not alone. back when she was first appointed to the case, judge cannon's own colleagues including the chief judge in her district expressed concern about her taking the case. according to the times, just after she drew the assignment, more experienced colleagues on the federal bench in florida urged her to pass it up and handed off to another jurist area judge cannon refused which leads us to where we are today. the case that has stalled indefinitely, favoring donald trump's defense strategy of delay, delay, delay. joining me now, msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin. thank you for being here. i always come to you with the trump legal stories and ask you to contextualize how big of a deal a story is or isn't. you were kicked back on your heels by this. >> i was totally kicked back, text destroyed a producer on our network earlier today, literally i think i looked like the person on the commercials in the 1980s commercial setting back like this. here is why, the fact the story exists is almost as big of a deal as the fact two different judges, colleagues of judge cannon, called her up and asked her to consider removing herself from the case. the reason is is, federal judges have lifetime tenure. they are generally perceived to be secure in their jobs, they don't talk about when another or their cases outside of school. this is taken to the new york times reporting last year of all the consideration that led up to dobbs in the first place, the fact the justices voted among themselves to take the case but concealed that from the public for a long time. the very fact somebody wants to give the public insight into these processes happening in the scenes, including the fact two more senior judges are calling judge cannon and asking her to consider stepping back from the case, that in and of itself is a huge deal, separate and apart from the substance of the conversations. >> let's talk about the substance of the conversation, part of it her relative inexperience, also her ruling that made it seem as though there could be an appearance of bias. >> part of what we a