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the 650. but if he still is alive, i am sure we will hear quickly, unless he is using this as a way to go jounderground and stay ou of the limelight. >> a lot of mystery. thank you both very much. and earlier today president biden weighed in on that deadly crash. >> i don't know for a sfafact w happened. iechl not surprised. there is not much that happens without putin known. i don't know the answer. >> i want to bring in former u.s. ambassador to ukraine and ambassador william taylor. ambassador taylor, what do you think of what president biden saudi arabia says there? is putin behind prigozhin's death? >> mine, in all likelihood, yes. as he said, there is not a lot that goes on, certainly in the kremlin, certainly having to do with the russian government, that the president doesn't lead and direct. so, yes, i believe president
normal political times would i don't think this news has have been a very good one. surprised anyone here today. around an hour after that plane crash, the russian federal aviation authority released a statement confirming yevgeny inaudible. inaudible. her line prigozhin's name was on the passenger manifest of that plane. that is very fast for that particular agency. it usually takes much longer to respond to incidents like this. seems to have _ that already raised a few inaudible. inaudible. her line seems to have frozen. _ inaudible. inaudible. her line seems to have frozen. we - inaudible. inaudible. her line seems to have frozen. we will i seems to have frozen. we will come back to her latest copy do eyebrows here because after you think anyone managed to all, speculation has been make themselves stand out from swirling for some time now the crowd here, with absence of donald trump that is what they just exactly about what fate were all hoping to do, have a would await yevgeny prigozhin. shot at the limelight themselves? . , , when yevgeny prigozhin themselves? certainly these candidates _ themselves? certainly these candidates all _ themselves? certainly these candidates all of _ themselves? certainly these candidates all of them - themselves? certainly these candidates all of them talk l candidates all of them talk about their positions on the keyissues launched his mutiny exactly two about their positions on the key issues republican voters care about, this was more traditional debate talking about key issues from months ago, his wagner mercenaries seized a major integration to fiscal issues, to a number of other issues russian city and even that were front and centre marched on moscow. that was hugely humiliating for among republican voters the kremlin and vladimir putin is not the kind of man to forget that.
have not shown up and we believe that the last count, there were around seven who have not checked in or surrendered and many of them are made which would cause a lesser profile defendants in the high—profile ones we have seen for the most part, they're coming in the been checked in at the mug shots taken but for whatever reason, there are still a few who need to trickle and and you may assume that if you wanted to avoid the limelight in the spotlight, you might want to show up after the former president is already arrived in the media circus is gone and you left your cameras on you and you join to come in at midnight, that is a possibility as well. a handful of people out of the 19 have yet to surrender they have to do so by the deadline tomorrow and if they do not, they will then be arrested and forcibly brought here to the jail where they go to the same process. that is not something you would want to have happen if you are
in los angeles, you have a better chance of catching a bullet. doctors won't leave the limelight. be aware of the highly mutated strain. >> a highly mutated strain has just shown up in michigan. how concerned does the public need to be? >> virologists are concerned. put this in perspective, this variant is as different from all micron as it was from the original strain. this is a highly mutated variant. that is scott, the man is on the board of pfizer. >> there is a booster shot pfizer has talked about.
a bullet than a deadly strain of covid. bu lngeles, t who got rich and s during the pandemic won't leave the limelight. >> beware the highly mutated strain. e highly >> the cdc announced a highly mutated strain. covid has just shown up in michigan. ba2 .86. u how concerned does the public need to be? >> well, right now i've talked to a number of virologists who are usually pretty staid and they're pretty concerned about this. but again, put thise, in perspective. this new variant is genetically different from al-muqrin, as al-muqrin was from the original strain that emerged in wuhan. micrdis is a highly mutate variant that experts cbs was talking to is scott gottlieb. he's on the board of pfizer. now, i wondes r if the pfizer board member has any financial incentive in scaring viewers about new strains. >> there is a booster shot thato i know pfizer has talked about coming to market soon. >> it's still nopfizer ht avail. when do we expect it and does
these listless vessels. he said they were referred to people in congress and not voters. is that an aappropriating for the trump campaign? is it a gentlemen jitl re -- >> the danger for donald trump not showing up i think is this. if for some reason one of these candidates does something that catches fire, it's an interesting point. he won't be on stage to tamp that fire down. he won't be able to redirect. donald trump, if he's good at anything, he can take the limelight and steal it back. he'll be trying to do it through social media posts, which might not have the same impact as him being on stage. >> what about republican voters? wault wault journal op-ed, they have been critical of trump recently. on the idea he's ducking out of the debate, they said, he's carrying into the general election more baggage than british royals.
not showing up was better than the risk of actually showing up. the risk of showing up was greater and that was because of two things, one is you look at if this was going to be some kind of moment for another candidate, you look and see if someone could seize the limelight, get some traction, have a breakout moment. they believe that looking at those recent poll numbers that even if that were to happen, which it could, often does in these debates, that it wouldn't make up the gap there with the trump lead. the other part of this is trump as a punching bag. they believe if he is not on the stage it's harder to use him as a punching bag. i've talked to a number of other political campaign advisers who talked about how their candidates were preparing, saying they were preparing to try and get some of that limelight for themselves, to have their own breakout moments as i noted and the idea is how can they differentiate themselves from former president trump. and whether or not trump is still going to end up taking all all the oxygen on the stage even though he is not there. >> kristen, thank you so much.
host tucker carlson instead. cnn's kristen holmes is following the story for us from washington, d.c. trump says he's not interested in doing the debate, not going to do it, but this does give the other candidates a little chance at some limelight. what are we expecting? >> reporter: sara, that's exactly right. when it comes to trump i spoke to a trump adviser today and we knew that this was expected, that he wasn't going to attend this debate and they point to the fact that they believe that the risk of him attending the debate is actually more than him skipping the debate. you talk about his poll numbers, g we know trump has talked about himself, this commanding lead that the former president has when it comes to the republican primary, and they say that while there might be a breakout star, might be a star that has a moment during this debate, they look at that lead and they don't believe that it would be enough to close that gap that trump is leading by. they also talk about the fact that trump himself if he's on the stage automatically they believe will become the punching bag which they think makes it harder if he's actually not on
or allow rivals like chris christie to start gaining ground. i think if i had to guess what's going to happen is there will be, as there always is, in these debates, a breakout star. that person, whoever it is, will begin to climb in the polls. trump will see that. trump will get anxious about that. and he won't be able to skip, if not the next debate, then certainly the third debate. he's not going -- he's incapable, i think, in his constitution of allowing other candidates to grab the limelight. i wouldn't set sights so high for this pre-taped interview with tucker carlson. tucker carlson's stuff online has not done especially well. this was a canned interview. it's not live. i think when people hear that, it makes it less interesting, less compelling, less of a must
news that trump is aiming for an interview with none other than tucker carlson. as a way of counter programming the fox news debate. as of now, nothing is formally set. back with us tonight, victoria defrancesco, the dean of the school of public service at the university of arkansas. and former florida republican, congressman carlos curbelo. victoria, for weeks now, we've been asking, will he, won't he. i haven't had a single person who said yes he's going to show up at this debate. ivan had a single person who said yes it i think it's a good idea for him to show up at this debate. but now that we're in the moment, where we know definitively he is not showing up, not only is he not going to show up, but he's going to counter program, what does that tell you about where this republican field finds itself? >> it finds itself with donald trump in the limelight, alicia. the fact that he definitively did decide not to go to the first debate just sets him apart, not just in terms of him being able to control his airtime, but alicia, remember, they are asking the candidates who are going to go on that debate stage to sign a pledge.