was threatened with prosecution in the classified documents case is now cooperating with the special counsel's office. and a murderer's daring escape caught on tape. wait until you see this video for the first time showing how that pennsylvania fugitive broke out of prison is still on the lam this morning. this hour of "cnn this morning" starts now. ♪ ♪ good morning. we have a lot to get to do this morning. numbers and interviews hours from now, also president biden will be heading off to meet with the world leaders at the g20 summit in india. he is facing a whirlwind of issues as he embarks on major foreign trip. here at home, fears of a government shutdown. a few weeks left to reach a deal with house republicans. meanwhile, the justice department says that the president's son will be indicted after his plea deal that collapsed. on chilly, house republicans are gearing up for a potential impeachment inquiry. this comes as biden is asking congress for more emergency funding for ukraine in its desperate fight against russia even though polls suggest americans' support may be waning. kim jong-un's alleged plans to meat with russian president vladimir putin and possibly supply weapons for their ongoing war. >> and president biden is waking up to some very rough poll numbers that could spell trouble for his re-election hopes. brand-new cnn polling out this morning, here is the headline. approval rating has sunk to 39%. and a majority of americans think his policies are making the economy worse. in a head-to-head match-up, biden is down or virtually tied with leading republican presidential candidates and this is notable, nikki haley is up in a hypothetical matchup against biden by six points. donald trump is up by one. mike pence is up by two. >> former vice president mike pence hoping to close the gap in the polls between he and his former boss. he called him out directly by name and ideology on the campaign trail in new hampshire yesterday. >> would substitute our faith in limited government and traditional values with an agenda stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage. republican pop u loose would eroud our constitutional norms. a leading candidate for the republican nomination last year called for the, quote, termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the constitution. the truth is the republican party did not begin on a golden escalator in 2015. long before that day before that tay was defined as the conservative party in america. the truth donald trump along with his imitators often sound like an echo of the progressives they seek to replace. >> joining me now is former vice president mike pence and republican presidential candidate. thank you for taking the time. the decision to do this and the decision to do it now, reflects what i have heard from many republicans who have been in the party like a long time now. why did you decide now is the time for that speech? >> labor day is behind us. we spent a good time in new hampshire in town hall meetings. republicans are sorting out not just who will lead our party in 2024 but what we stand for. i thought it was important to seize that moment and lay out what i think is a clear choice for republicans, whether we are going to continue on the path of those time honored conservative principles, strong national defense, american leadership on the world stage, limited government, fiscal responsibility and reform, a commitment to right to life and values, or whether we are going to follow what i call the siren song of populism. conservative principles. my former running mate, frankly, some of his imitators in the field are increasingly walking away from those same principles, phil. i want people to know that i am the most consistent, the most qualified, the most tested conservative in this race, and if i am the standard bearer, we are going lean forward a future for our party and country grounded in principles that always make america strong and free. >> the inflection point you talk about this moment for the party. you look at our most recent polling in terms of the issues itself. your consistency on conservatism is consistent. but in terms of the best candidate to handle the economy, trump 69%, ukraine 63%, government overeach 59%. isn't this war over on your side lost? >> well, i know there is many in the media, phil, that would like to declare this over. labor day is really when campaigns begin. primary campaigns. you know, we were in salem, new hampshire, a big crowd turned out. a number of the candidates were there. i have been stopping into places across iowa and new hampshire where i think republican primary voters, caucusgoers in iowa are just now really beginning to focus their attention. what's driving all of this is, of course, what you saw this morning here in cnn's latest poll. joe biden has weakened this country at home and abroad. the american people are done with the failed policies of president joe biden and now i think republican primary voters and, frankly, many independents and many democrats around the country are looking for that leader and looking for that agenda that will restore our economy and ensure our national security and generations to come. >> you invoked president ronald reagan repeatedly over the course of yesterday. he was kind of the singular mount rushmore for conservatism for the last several decades. i want to play something for you from 2016. listen. >> i came to the republican party because of ronald reagan. we can emulate his dignified and civil way. carrying himself as president. i have a sense of this man. i have a sense of his heart. i have a sense of his hands on style of leadership and for all the world he reminds me of ronald reagan. donald trump may have achieved great heights in business and industry and in the world of entertainment, but his heart is with everyday americans. >> so, obviously, the first sound was from last night. the second was from 2016. i think my question is, do you regret the comparison between trump and ronald reagan back then? >> no, not in the least. when donald trump asked me to be his running mate we sat down and talked -- >> back then -- >> no, in 2016, donald trump promised to govern as a conservative. many people believed when he chose mean, someone in the conservative movement since the days of ronald reagan, it was evidence of the sincerity of his purpose. phil, we did govern as conservatives. we stood strong on the world stage. we rebuilt our military. we stood with our allies and stood up to enemies and achieved extraordinary security. with regard to growth in the economy, we cut taxes, rolled back regulations, unleashed american energy. we could have done a better job on fiscal responsibility and reform. because hopeful we would get there. we stood without apology to the right to life. what i said yesterday in new hampshire is donald trump and many of his imitators in this field are walking away from those very same principles. they didn't begin with ronald reagan. actually, i think as ronald reagan often said, they came from the heart of a great nation. i am proud of the record of the trump/pence administration. but i think republican primary voters have a choice to make whether we are going to stay on that conservative agenda or whether we are going to drift off to the populism that many are giving voice to today. >> where i struggle with what you are saying right now is trump in 2016 was not a conservative principles through and through candidate. even on issues, you know, abortion was tough. he eventually got to kind of where you are, wasn't there in the beginning. in administration, his trade policy is a complete anathema to what conservatives have been pushing on trade for a long period of time. it was almost his willingness to diverge away from traditional ideology which was a draw, more aligned with you. i think that's where i get stuck. i don't understand how you say he is different now than in '16 on policy side. >> i just -- tune in. turn up the volume. because the message is changing right now. it really is. and not just the president. but some of his -- >> did he ever care about policy? >> some of the other -- >> did he care about policy? was that ever the reason he was elected president in the first place? >> i think we were elected in 2016 to turn this country around after the slowest economic recovery since the great depression under barack obama and to turn back this kind of rising tide of socialism that, of course, has come of age under joe biden and a party largely driven by the philosophies of bernie sanders. we ran on that agenda, and i am incredibly proud of the fact that trump/pence, the administration was a conservative administration. you speak about trade. president trump did introduce the notion of fair trade as a part of free trade, but we also went out there and worked hard. i traveled the country to canvas and develop support for what became the largest trade deal in american history, the usmca. we re-did our trade deal with south korea. with regard to national security -- >> you sat down with kim jong-un. he had the helsinki press conference with president putin. removing troops from certain places i can't fathom is in line with why yoere you are on natio security issues. none of those things are the congressman pence i supported long ago would have supported. and i think widely understood as your approach -- >> phil, what was there to say? we had the largest increase investment in our national defense since the reagan add mrngs. we held our allies in europe responsible for their commitment to live up to our common defense. our nato allies were spending $100 billion more in common defense. we renegotiated our common defense agreement with south korea. of course, we unleashed our military. they took down the isis caliphate. 58 cruise missiles, twice into syria. took down salman any. we demonstrated the ability to use our american force. what i hear from the former president and, frankly, from others -- >> how do you -- >> well, it's war raging in eastern europe. i hear the former president saying we will end it in a day. the only way you end the war in ukraine in a day, phil, is by giving vladimir putin what he wants. vivek ramaswamy's idea is to do that, let putin keep what he has taken and promise ukraine will never join nato and adds to that a willingness to let china have taiwan after 2028. incomprehensionfully, vivek, who a good man, i met him a couple years ago, good family man, said we wouldn't use military force to defend israel in an attack by iran. this is the populous strain and pulling back from american leadership on the world stage that was not how we operated in the trump/pence administration. we were strong. we had a strong military. we stood with our allies w he stood with israel as no administration into my lifetime had done. and i believe that now we are hearing a withdrawal from american leadership in the world. we're being told that we have to make a choice between solving problems here and the wake of the failed policies of the biden administration or leading in the world. as i said many times, anybody that says we can't solve the problems here at home and be the leader of the free world has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on earth. >> we are running out of time. given the fact five plus years of your loyalty to the former president, how is it possible that -- you have been unflinching and never broke with him while in office, no matter what he did, including issues that you clearly idealogically would have disagreed with. how are you the best messenger for this message at this moment in your party? >> i honestly believe when people look at the long scope of my career, and you have known me for a long time, even though my hair has gotten a lot lighter than your hair has in those years, i was vice president of the united states. i am incredibly plowed of that record. we don't elect co-presidents in america. i am proud of the fact that most americans know me as that loyal vice president standing alongside the president when we rebuilt our military, revived our economy, stood for the right to life and values. and i stood loyally with him until a day came that my oath to the constitution required me to do otherwise. what i hope in the course of this campaign is that americans come to know me a little bit more like you do, i was a conservative governor that showed you can cut taxes and balance budgets as we did in the state of indiana, expand educational choice and even reform health care and i hope people know me as a conservative leader in the congress that fought the big spenders in my own party. we have a national debt the size of our nation's economy. we have to have leadership in the white house that knows how to get congress off the dime, take on the big challenges facing our nation, particularly our national debt, and i want people to know i am the most qualify, the most proven, tested, most experienced conservative in the race. >> it was important remarks, as you know, at a critical time. post-labor day. former vice president kamala harris, thank you for coming in. >> really great to have the vice president here anytime. mar-a-lago i.t. worker news that he has flipped on former president trump in the classified documents probe. we will ask one of trump's lawyers from his second impeachment trial what could that mean for trump's legal strategy? 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>> this is interesting. we have seen other employees for the former president charged alongside him, walt nauta, they have been using attorneys by the trump pac. that's not happening for yucil taveras. he has gotten another attorney. he is cooperating with prosecutors. basically, he was threatened with the potential charges and agreed to change his tune. again, this is someone who was talking to other employees about the surveillance footage at mar-a-lago. prosecutors say there was an effort to try to destroy that footage. i want to go back to some of the indictment that lays out the conversations. yard line is referred to as trump employee number four. he is in a conversation with carlos the property manager. it says he "trumping democracy: an american coup" employee four the boss wanted the server deleted. he would not know how to do that and didn't believe he would have the rights to do that. trump employee four doled doll vera he would have to reach out to another employee. he insisted to trump employee four that the boss wanted the serve he deleted and asked what are we going to do? even in the indictment you see the sort of reticence of yucil taveras to go along with this plot to try to destroy this surveillance footage and now he is officially someone cooperating with prosecutors again to avoid charges in this case, phil. >> clearly something that the prosecutors have been looking for. now they have it. sara murray, great reporting as always. thank you. let's talk a lot more about this and many more new legal issues facing the president. senior legal analyst elie honig is with us at the table. also joining us david schoen, one of the attorneys who represented trump during his second impeachment trial. great to have you both here. elie, let me begin with you on significance of yucil taveras cooperating here? >> it's a good win for prosecutors. he was person identified in the indictment as trump employee four. are it's clear that some of the energies in the indictment some of the allegations are based on testimony they got from him. important to know, yucil taveras didn't have direct contact with donald trump. he direct contact wde oliveira. he is going to say this other guy told me that trump wanted me to do this. still useful for prosecutors but not necessarily game over. david, we hear people say, sorry, i can't answer questions, i can't talk, advice of counsel, or i am not going it testimony, right, because of counsel that. is not the case with donald trump who told hugh hewitt that he would testify. i just want people to listen to this sound. >> if you have to go to trial, will you testify in your own defense? >> oh, yes, absolutely. >> you would take the stand? >> that i look forward to. >> not only would he, he would look forward to it. is that something you would recommend in any of these pending cases? >> listen, in my view, it's always the client's decision. i think the law recognizes that also. and whenever someone's life or freedom is at stake, i think it's very important for that person to make the decision. donald trump has wanted to testify before. he wanted to testify in the e. jean carroll case. lawyers counselled him otherwise. it's prudent advice for any defendant, generally. donald trump bleeelieves he is great communicator, has proven to be a great communicator, so i would expect him to testify. >> you would expect him to testify. i want to get into what i am fascinated by, this argument over the 14th amendment and whether it means that former president trump is disqualified f