former president will stand striel next month. in kyiv, secretary of state antony blinken has made a surprise visit, he is there right now, set to meet with ukrainian president volodymr zelenskyy. senate republicans getting ready to meet with mitch mcconnell as concerns grow over the gop leader's health after he froze in front of reporters again. this hour of "cnn this morning" starts now. here's where we begin. in a few hours, the first televised hearing in the georgia alex m alex m election /* election interference begins. the judge says he is going to address critical scheduling matters for the trial. it could begin october 23. there are 19 defendants. they have all all entered not plea pleas. the hearing will look at breaking up the case and trying some of the defendants separately. >> yeah, that's a loaded calendar you are looking at there. meanwhile, in the federal election interference case special counsel jack smith is accusing former president trump of making daily extra judicial statements that threaten to threaten the jury pool. elie honig and michel moore join us. on the federal side of things, what we have seen from prosecutors, it echos a little bit of what they were doing the start of the case. what does it mean? and will it have any seteeth or substance? >> going to the judge to put a clamp on donald trump, a lot of this is under seal. we don't know exactly what they are asking for. they are trying to find a workable middle ground because donald trump is taking to social media and making aggressive, perhaps over-the-line pronouncements. polluters can't let this happen without asking the judge to do something. i think prosecutors understand they can't ask to lock you have donald trump given the reality he is running for president. special treatment, which it would be, i think they have to be aware of that reality. so my best estimate here is they are asking the judge to take a middle ground. one thing judges can do, they can impose financial penalties if you are -- if defendant is violating an order of a court. a judge can say you are in contempt and i am going to fine you a certain amount each day. they need to do something here. >> michael, to the georgia proceedings and what we are going to see on television today, it's 1:00 p.m. eastern time will air it, people will get to see it, that's important for transparency purposes. this is state case, cameras in the courtroom, et cetera. can you explain to folks what is going to happen as they watch this today? >> yeah, sure. grad to be with you. today is nothing unusual that doesn't happen in courtrooms every day in georgia. it's different only because of the players sort of in the play and the media interest in the case. the judge will talk to the lawyers. he will have lot of lawyers there because of the number of the defendants and say, look, i want to find out how we are going to try this case. madam district attorney what's your plan or do you have departments you are willing to separate off or are you still insistent that you push forward with this sort of a joke october date? he will also hear from the defense lawyers about the need to be prepared, the fact that there is no possible way they can get prepared. they will be building a record, the defense attorneys building a record to make sure that any appellate court will know if they are pushed to trial in october there is no way they could provide effective assistance to their clients. we have had a little bit of the drama removed because the defendants will be there, sort of minimizes some of the circus a little bit, since they have waived their i rain. . this will be a status conference with the judge. the difference is the mag you'd of the case and significance of the parties involved. >> it's important context, too, that this is a normal 30 procedural part of the process. important nonetheless. i want to ask about the classified documents case. one of the former president's attorneys took voice memos about conversations with trump. abc news has transcripts of the voice memos. cnn has not reviewed them. based on what we have seen up to this point and what we knew prior, what stands out to you? >> the importance of the transcripts is it sets the stage for the obstruction of justice. we are talking about mar-a-lago, the classified documents case in florida. donald trump is accused of hiding the documents not just from the grand jury and fbi but his lawyer. he duped his own lawyer, evan corcoran. there comes a moment where corcoran says you got a subpoena we need to comply. this is serious. we need to turn everything over. reporting is that trump flipped out and became defiant. if you are trying to explain to a trial jury how do we get to a point when trump was obstructing justice, hiding documents, this is the setup for that. >> the trump spokesman told abc these reflect legal opinions and thoughts of the lawyer, not the client. >> anyone wondering about attorney-client privilege and when that can be pierced. could you explain that? >> well, attorney-client privilege is sacrosanct. and i think people are -- if you think about a priest and a confessional and how you keep things quiet, the priest is not allowed to talk about it. the difference would be if, in the attorney/client scenario, if there is some type of effort to commit a crime, and to involve a lawyer in a crime. so if you think about it from simple terms, you can't ask your lawyer where can i bury the body and get advice and claim that's attorney/client peripheral. so i think it raises some questions. we have seen courts kind of go across the line and back and forth as they've navigated the attorney-client privilege aspects in some of these cases. i think this was -- is one that will likely wind its way into some appellate brief at one point but one they have to deal with now as they try to move forward. >> michael, elie, thank you. today senate minority leader mitch mcconnell will talk behind closed doors with the senate republican congress about his health after he froze in front of reporters twice in two months. what the capitol hill doctor said and didn't say about the recent health scares. that's next. others, it supports 7 brain health indicators, including mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me sharp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. ♪ ♪ wake up, gotta go! c'mon, c'mon. -gracie, c'mon. let's go! guys, c'mon! mom, c'mon! mia! 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(soft music) when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis takes you off course. put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when i wanted to see results fast, rinvoq delivered rapid symptom relief and helped leave bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc tried to slow me down... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc caused damage rinvoq came through by visibly repairing my colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief... lasting steroid-free remission... ...and the chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check, check, and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least 1 heart disease risk factor have higher risks. don't take if allergic to rinvoq as serious reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant. put uc in check and keep it there with rinvoq. ask your gastroenterologist about rinvoq and learn how abbvie can help you save. in a matter of hours senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is expected to address his recent health scares in closed-door meeting with senate republicans. this is after the capitol's attending physician released a letter, there is no evidence that you have a seizure disorder or experienced a stroke, tia or disorder such as parkinson's disease. when he froze last week, it was the second time this summer. that's what that note is in reference to. the kentucky senator later made a reference to his freezing episode on the senate floor yesterday. take a listen. >> now, one particular moment of my time back home received a fair share of attention in the press over the past week. but i assure you, august was a busy and productive month for me and my staff back in the commonwealth. >> joining us to discuss cnn chief medical correspondent sanjay gupta. in terms of the letter, the tests they mentioned. tell us about the tests they would have run and if this would be enough to rule out those conditions as the physician did. >> so the first question in terms of what the tests are, it was pretty exhaustive, phil. they did a brain mri scan which would be to look for evidence of a stroke or a tumor or something like that. sounds like that was a normal result. he had an eeg, not an ekg, beg, to get a snapshot in time, if you will, of what the brain's electrical activity is. and then also a consultation it sounds like with four different neurologists, according to manu from his reporting. i don't know t-- if senator mcconnell met with or talked to those neurologists. after all that, that's where they concluded no seizure, no stroke, and no evidence of something like parkinson's disease. a movement disorder. one thing i will tell you real quick, if you look the video, again, one of the things, obviously, when you look at all these tests is that there was a level of concern. when you order tests like this, it's a significant level of concern. when you see this aide come up to the right side of his body, he is frozen. also his eyes are sort of deviated but he is not looking to his right over there. it's only when the aide comes to the left side where we actually see him turn his head to the left. why is that relevant? because it gives us an indication that there is something what we call focal going on. something that's involving a specific area of his brain. which is apparently what the doctors thought as well, which is why they did all these tests. what doesn't sort of describe this is lightheadedness. that's not focal. that's general. somebody says may head hurts, i feel lightheaded, i got to sit down. that doesn't match here. what they sort of concluded, look, he had this fallback in the spring, got a concussion, which is a sort of -- which is a brain injury, and that brain injury has led to lightheadedness and led to these episodes. those dots quite connect and i think there are still a lot of questions. >> this letter rules some things out, sanjay, right, but leaves us still with a number of important questions given his important role in our government? >> yeah. i mean, look, first of all, he is totally entitled to his privacy. if the letter was sort of designed to answer these questions, it didn't really do it. i will say there is exhaustive testing here, which is really important. but take that eeg, for example. again, it's sort of a snapshot in time. so what people do, say, look, i have a high level of concern for seizure. they will monitor the eeg for a period of time, not just one eeg. they may do challenge tests, see if you can elicit a seizure and find that on eeg. important to do mainly to make sure this doesn't keep happening to him. whatever it is, thankfully, seems to very quickly come and go. and i think that's an important clue as well. >> on a different topic, also happening yesterday, we saw president biden presenting a medal of honor. wasn't wearing a mask. we know he was exposed to someone a covid-19. cdc guidance has constantly changed. the question i had, what is the actual guidance? what should people are doing? should biden have within wearing a mask there? >> yeah, look, i think what was particularly confusing about president biden was that he was wearing a mask and then he took the mask off. and i think that that's very confusing. let me tell you what the cdc guidance is now if you have been exposed to covid, which says it day zero through ten wear a mask, watch for symptoms. if you develop symptoms, you should test immediately. that's what the guidance is. now, one caveat is if you are testing regularly and you are getting a test known as an antigen test, that could can give you a indication whether or not you have enough virus in your nose and mouth to spread it. he probably those tests done. if those are negative, that could be a reason not to wear a mask. what was confuse being president biden, he was wearing a mask and then when he got around the individual in close proximity he took it off. that didn't make a lot of sense. either you wear or don't wear it. if you have been tested and the tests are negative, especially if you had two tests over 48 hours, then you really don't need a mask because you are not likely to transmit at that point. >> okay. super helpful on all those fronts. dr. sanjay gupta, thank you. there is a new warning which the national hurricane center. tropical storm lee expected to intensify into a dangerous hurricane in the atlantic ocean by this weekend. derek van dam standing by. it is one after the next after the next. >> that's right. we are this close to calling this and referencing this as hurricane lee. it is gathering strength, organizing as we sit here and analyze the satellite imagery. 65 miles an hour. winds, of course you need 74-mile-per-hour muss to be considered a hurricane. and clearly and explicitly the hurricane center showing a strength anyone tropical storm into a hurricane and into a major hurricane by this weekend. leeward islands, yes, you are not included in this cone. but remember the average error from the center of the storm is roughly 150 to 200 miles at day four and five. if that deviates further south and west, puerto rico into the leeward islands will feel the impacts of this. at the minimum, high surf, rip currents and large waves, potentially coastal erosion. this is moving into an area of above average record temperature water. that is fuel for strengthening storms. that's exactly what we anticipate with this particular incoming hurricane, which will be a major hurricane by this weekend. where does it go? the long-term, we're talking day five and beyond, it's all about what's happening in the upper levels of the atmosphere. a ridge of high pressure to the north steering this to the west and whether or not that breaks down, does it interact with a trough over the eastern u.s.? that would be a big deciding factor on any potential impacts on the eastern seaboard of the u.s. for the second half of next week. something here this team of meteorologists at cnn will be monitoring very closely. >> we know you will. thank you. this morning a new report shows that blistering deadly summer was the hottest on record. from june to august, the average temperature was 62 degrees farenheit. that's the warmest since records began in 1940. it comes after summer riddled with extreme weather events, including historic wildfires in hawaii, strong winds and a drought-stricken landscapes that sends flames tearing through homes in lahaina in august. hurricane idalia leaving behind buildings and massive wreckage. in greece, fires across the country since last month score km change 230,000 acres. parts of europe are dealing with historic floods. >> this is video from bulgaria, greece, and turkey. bill weir joins us now. bill, you were covering hurricane idalia on the ground and the murdaugh fires in lahaina. you have seen this up hand. >> we grew up in predictable patterns. not anymore. we are setting records at a broken record pace. you can fieel it from europe to africa to japan to most of the united states this summer, feel like living in a giant pizza oven. that reminds you of the famous hockey stick graph. we look at carbon dioxide temperatures through the ages and how temperatures mirror how much planet pollution we are putting in the sky. this usually gets broken by hundredths of degrees. it got shattered by 0.3 degree this summer. everything became so obvious. >> i could be wrong. you're the expert. isn't what we are feeling now in this pizza oven we are living in a reflection of what has already happened, we have already done to the environment? >> yes. >> so then it's just going to keep getting worse? >> yeah, the bad headline, this is one of the coolest summers of the rest of our lives, that this is not reversing itself. the polar caps are not -- >> no matter what we do? >> no. there is new science that says if we stabilize the amount of carbon dioxide in atmosphere, the warming will stop relatively quickly. michael mann, the scientist who put out the hockey stick graph says if you can stabilize it, it won't be this delayed stunted effect. but it has to happen fast. and if you look around, you know, exxonmobil, the most profitable counties in humanity, getting the biggest subsidies in history now and they have license to keep burning because fossil fuels are everywhere. these companies show no interest in changing business mods regardless of what we are experience. >> exxon, this is about globally what choices we and other -- and leaders are making. if we make a lot of changes in the u.s., doesn't make as big an impact unless china, india do the same? srjts it's all hands on deck. it's every country trying to achieve this at the same time. historically, the united states is the biggest offender and has the moral responsibility as the richest country in human history to lead on this. you are starting to see that. you are starting to see huge innovations uncorked by the inflation reduction act and governments in australia and brazil are trying to get back in touch with the earth and take care of it, but everybody's going to feel this regardless where you live. if you live on the coast or not, because insurance now is affected. five major insurance companies this week told the regulators that they are going to stop covering fire in california, for example. >> really? >> or hurricanes in florida. they will cover your house against theft or whatever, but the major disasters that threaten these communities won't be insurable in this new world. >> entire business model is unsustainable. >> it is. what happens to mortgage, property values and tax bases which pay the cops and teachers when you want to live in paradise and say it's worth the risk, what if you have to assume all that risk on your nest egg, your home. these are really dangerous a times. we should be talking about it with an urgency. >> you have been been doing it for many years. >> from maui to whatever happens with this tropical storm lee, knowledge is power, hopefully. >> thank you. so the special counsel jack smi