a big day. good morning, everyone, i'm poppy harlow. >> i'm jim scuitto. we are 40 days out from the election and the president is executing on integrity of the election, threatening to invalidate mail-in ballots, sending our country perhaps already torn apart by protests into the danger of real chaos. >> will you xh it to making sure there is a peaceful transferral of power after the election. >> well, we have to see what happens. you know that. i have been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. >> but people are rioting. do you commit to make sure there is a peaceful transfer of power? >> we will commit to the ballots. there won't be a transfer, quite frankly, there will be a

continuation. >> wow, a clear signal to his supporters that if joe biden wins the white house, do not accept the results. also breaking overnight, two officers shot in louisville just hours after a grand jury in kentucky did not charge three police officers in the deaths of breona taylor. protests erupted across the country. first, let's begin with john harwood from the white house. we know the trump campaign is already taking a number of measures, right, suing several states over the validity of mail-in ballots laying out steps to contest the election. but these comments from the president, similar to what he said to chris wallace, not that long ago and similar to 2016 are striking as we're 40 days out. >> reporter: poply, it's unamerican behavior. it's authoritarian behavior. it's dangerous behavior. let's beclear about a couple of things. one, the things the president is

saying about mail-in balloting is false. there is no evidence of fraud in mail-in ballots. it's widespread across the country. the reason he is doing that, he is losing the election. he is behind by a large margin and significant margin in more than enough battleground states for joe biden to win the election. now, what the president is doing in the last couple of days is explicitly linking the supreme court appointment he is due to make on saturday to his desire to a favorable ruling by a conservative majority on his challenges. take a listen. >> we need nine justices. you need that. with the unsolicited millions of ballots that they're sending, it's a scam. it's a hoax. everybody knows that. the democrats know it better than anybody else. so you will need nine justices up there. i think it will be very important. because what they're doing is a

hoax with the ballots. >> it's not a scam. it's not a hoax. but the president is mounting legal challenges all across the country as you can see. important to note that so far he's not been faring particularly well in those challenges. democrats had been vindicated in many of the most significant cases. however, the trump team, the republicans have signaled they're going to appeal a pennsylvania case all the way up to the supreme court. that concerns ballot drop box and absentee ballot deadlines. i don't know whether that will be send by the supreme court. but that's one place where the composition of the court ultimately and the decision of the court in the meantime before the election, before that additional confirmation will be highly relevant. >> and we should note, by the way, that the president has said that mail-in ballots in republican-run states, florida, for instance, acceptable. not in democrat-run states. politics very much at play, john harwood at the white house,

thanks very much. let's discuss this with a senior white house reporter elly honig and cnn historian douglas brinkley. elly honing, i want to talk to you first as the legal expert. the words most striking were we want to get rid of the ballots, he is saying with his inside voice, what is happening here, right, is a challenge to mail-in ballots, virtually across the board. can you explain what those legal challenges are and what the law is here. >> reporter: yeah, jim, sure. so that was a preview of what's to come here. look, this is very serious and very real. because donald trump has said this kind of thing before. this is not out of nowhere. one important thing to keep in mind, we do not have one unified national election system. we have 51 separate systems for all the states in d.c. that

funnel into congress. there are lawsuits happening right now to challenge all manner of mail-in balancing. do we send out absentee ballots? do states need to purge their voter rolls? count on those lawsuits to continue up to and after election day to try to just throw this thing into chaos. >> douglas brinkley, you're a historian and we need a historian to put this into context for us. do that. >> this is our first time we've ever had an authoritarian president, someone who tries to strong arm the democracy, to shatter our norms to create uncertainty about an election and to cozy up with a foreign adversary in this case, russia, to try to dismantle and talk a wre take a wreck ball to a u.s. presidential election. donald trump is realizing he is falling way behind in the polls. he has a chance to win the first

debate september 29. it's a great opportunity to pick up some points, but alas, trump is not like other american presidents. he is basically putting down the hammer fist saying i will not leave if people say i've lost, i really didn't lose. that's what a dictator does. >> brian, of course, you asked that question that we showed earlier of the president. have you covered the white house for some time. the big precedent is president said and pursued a lot of things. is the white house behind him on this effort? is the republican party behind him on this effort here? beyond the president, himself? >> i think the white house, the people that work in the white house have cast their lot with the president and i believe they're going to continue to cast their lot with the president up until the point that they no longer can cast their lot with the president. i think it's up to the republicans to come forward at some point in time and to stand

up for you know the constitutional rights of everyone and what the constitution says. i have to tell you, jim, i thought that was a fairly simple question. i thought it would be, have a fairly simple answer. okay, i'm going to follow the rule of law. i was a little shocked i got the answer that i did and the fact that it is a controversy with this president is sobering for all of us and should make usual think. >> brian, your podcast is aptly titled, just ask the question. thank goodness you did ask the question and press again to try to get the answer. what i wonder is how many mitt romneys and liz cheney and a congressman from ohio who all basically said, no, no, no, no, no, this is so clear on the constitution, don't go there, mr. president. but are they going to be lonely on an island or, of course, will republicans joan him or will most republicans say, oh, the

president didn't mean it? >> i think it boils down to who are you going to follow? there is the lincoln project. those are disaffected republicans, including anthony scaramucci now speaking out against the president. what it will take is for them to convince people, give them a safe space to do so, those two are still in office and those who are in races that are close, i think you are going to see them at some point in time move away from the president in order to protect their own souls. >> there is another effort beyond douglas brinkley, beyond the efforts over lawsuits and signature and deadline for counting et cetera. but efforts in gop-controlled state legislatures, raising what i think is the unprecedented possibility of a state legislature just saying forget what the votes say, we're going to swing our electoral votes in this state to the president. is there any precedent for that

in this country and, constitutionally, is that really doable? >> there is nothing like that in modern american history. in the early days, there would be horse trading and swapping. nobody really knew what would happen. what donald trump is going to try to do is use every tool in his kit, anything he could do to stay in power. he's living by one law and only one law right now and that's richard nixon's statement that if the president does it, it must be legal. and he will look for any little opening, a crack, where he could stay and hold power in any state anywhere he can and getting that 9th supreme court justice on is a big plan. it gives assurance if it goes to the court, they'll vote in his favor. they clearly would. >> douglas, i didn't mean to interrupt you. so glad you brought up the supreme court. i want everyone to listen to the president talking about exactly

that yesterday. >> with eight/nine justices, you need that. with the unsolicited millions of ballots that they're sending, it's a scam. it's a hoax. everybody knows that. and the democrats know it better than anybody else. so you are going to need nine justices up there. i think it's going to be very important. because what they're doing is a hoax with the ballots. >> elly, can you connect the dots for us, so the rush for nomination and confirmation on the court and then saying that this whole thing is not going to be legit, so it will go up to that court, connect it for us. >> yeah, poppy, so the u.s. supreme court, of course, is going to be so important here. to meet the scariest snath scenario is what mr. brinkley talked about. the constitution does allow a state legislature to undermine the actual vote in that state. the constitution does not say the electors have to be based on the vote f. that ends up in the

supreme court, it's so important to see whether the president gets his nominee through and confirmed in time. if so, the ballots goes from a 5-4 conservative majority to a 6-3 conservative majority. what that does is give the president john roberts' insurance. last term there were several big cases john roberts joined over to create a 5-4 decision in the liberal core. even if roberts splits over, it's still not enough. you need to see roberts plus one in order to give the liberal block a win in the supreme court. >> i never heard it put that way. john roberts' insurance. not exactly the name the chief justice wants. it's a good one. thank you all so much. we have a lot ahead this hour. still to come, two police officers in stable conditions after being shot in those protests in louisville after a grand jury decided not to charge any of the officers directly in

breona taylor's death. we will speak with the governor of kentucky ahead. so president trump makes a basis claim, another one, that the fda is getting political, says the white house might overrule strict vaccine guidelines. what that means for your health. plus, the push to begin vaccine trials for children. what a trial for kids would look like, how difficult it would be for parents to allow their children to participate. it's a big question.

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after the agency announced it is considering new rules that would definitely push even emergency authorization of a vaccine beyond election day. the president says, no, no, no, it's the white house that has the final say. listen to this. >> it's fairly political. why would they do this? they come back with these great results. i think you will have those great results. but, we're going to look at it. we're going to take a look at it and, ultimately, the because has to approve it. >> the former acting director of the cdc dr. richard besser is here. good morning, thank you for joining us. does the white house have to approve it? >> i'm sorry? >> does the white house have to approve a vaccine like the president just said? >> you know, this is one of those issues that's going to have to be worked through. the fda is a part of the executive branch. they would have the role of approving a vaccine.

but it's a big question whether the white house could overturn that. there has been instances in the past where the fda has recommended either approving a medication or not approving the medication and the department of hhs, which fda is a part of, has reversed that. so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the fda could overrule -- that the white house could overrule the fda on this. >> wow. >> d. besser, that is an alarming reality. especially since we know this is one in a series. we had the fda exaggerate convalescent plasma and the president pushing hydroxychloroquine before there was data to indicate that it's helpful for a large portion of the population. i mean, this is a genuine concern here, is it not, given the importance of the vaccine into bringing the outbreak under control?

>> one of the things we were hearing so forcefully from the head of the fda is to try to restore faith by the american public that the process for approval will be based burly on science and to provide some transparency on that. so in his remarks and in what fda is talking about, they're talking about following people who got the vaccine a little longer to ensure it's safe and making sure in people who got the placebo, so they didn't get the actual vaccine, that there are enough cases of covid-19 so they can say how truly effective it is, importantly in the elderly. it's important for me as a doctor to recommend a vaccine to my patients, i want to know this information and it's very reassuring to me to hear that fda wants to go that route. it is concerning to think they're not going to be allowed to. >> what do you think this does in terms, dr. besser, in terms of the confidence of the american people. the fact that the most recent

polling already showed us 54% of folks said they wouldn't take a vaccine if it were released on or around election day. now this, it seems like every little thing chips away at people's trust in a really necessary thing. >> what you want to be hearing from the white house is that we're going to let science do what science does best and we're going to let the cdc and fda and nih do their work so that the public can have confidence that any vaccine that gets approve is safe, is effective and should be taken. without that, you can have all the vaccine in the world. people don't want them and aren't going to get them. they're not going to have the impact that you really want to see. >> dr. besser, you served as acting director to the ctc in this role. given the collection of decisions now, right, that have the appearance at the very least of political influence and now this, the president saying

directly from the podium, we will look at that, at the idea of overruling the fda's own guidelines on this, should people watching this program be confident that science will rule the day. science and medicine and not ploik politics so they can be confident in having a shot in the arm, or their children having a shot in the arm when a vaccine is available? >> we will have to see how this plays out. what you would see is the leaders of the fda and cdc draw a hard line in the sand and say that we are going to ensure what we recommend going forward is based on science and if we're told to do otherwise, we are going to call that out. you really need to see that from the top if you want to see confidence in the process. >> we're going to could that out or resign. that itself the ultimate statement. >> it has to be that firm. that's right. >> dr. besser, we appreciate you, especially on morning, like this for setting us straight.

thank you very, very much. a really interesting development, united airlines announcing they will soon become the first carrier in the united states to offer coronavirus testing on passengers. it's for the hawaii-bound passengers out of france. the goal is avoid what is a 14-day mandatory quarantine in hawaii, so, united is actually going to give them, jim, what's interesting, that 15-minute abbott lab test we have been hearing so much about. >> a lot of folks want access to that test. right, particularly when making decisions about travel. you and i included. still ahead, grief and outrage across the country after no officers were charged directly in the death of breona taylor. there was one charge this as protests in louisville turned violent, sadly, two police officers were shot. i'm going to speak to the governor of kentucky.

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two police officers are now recovering, thankfully, in stable condition after being shot while responding to protests in louisville, kentucky overnight. their injuries we are told are non-life-threatening. we have learned a suspect is now in custody. nearly 100 demonstrators were arrested after the kentucky attorney general announced that none of the three officers involved in the death of breona taylor would be charged with her killing. one officers was charged with shooting into another apartment we saw outrage after that decision. protests in several cities the long-awaited grand jury decision came more than six months after taylor was shot to death in her home while louisville police officers executed a late 95 night warrant in a narcotics

investigation. joining me is the governor of kentucky andy beshear. >> thanks for having us. it was a long night last night in kentucky. but every morning givers us hope of a better world and a better commonwealth here in kentucky. >> that is good to hear. i wanted to, if i can, on the officer's non-life-threatening injuries, did they have any update? >> i talked to one of the officers. he's a major directly last night while he was shot, his prognosis is actually very good. he thought he might get to go home last night. we got a chance to talk about our families. we both have kits, we didn't spread out far no. he was in good spirits. i talked to the mother of the other officer who had to have a couple surgeries last night but is expected to recover. i'm going to check in again this morning with him. we got to remember just like when we think about everybody's paying today, that these individuals also people's

children, oftentime's people's parents. we are rooting for a full recovery. >> governor, you previously served as the attorney general of kentucky, yourself. you are a lawyer, yourself. are you satisfied with the grand jury's decision in this case? >> well, the challenge here is that the facts and the evidence have not been shared with the public. i trust the people of kentucky with theto see the truth, read the evidence, look over what grand jury may have seen or the investigators or the attorney general looked at. so i've asked the attorney general at this point given that they've announced that they're not pursuing charges, at least in one direction to post it all online. it's been done in other places and let people read it and process it and then to be able to ask the tough questions that we as elected officials have to be able to answer. but then we don't have that

vacuum.nformation and our frustrations and emotions can fill it up. everybody deserves the facts themselves. >> the attorney general as a republican called this last night self-defense and said that given kentucky's vigorous self-defense laws, as he described them that this shooting was justified. what's your response to that argument? >> well, my response is that's a conclusion and we ought to be able to see the evidence and see the facts that led to that conclusion. again, i trust the people of kentucky with the truth. i trust them to be able to look at the facts, but they're not able to do that right now. you know, throughout the last six months, there hasn't been any explanation of the process. the evidence you'd have to secure. what it even takes to make certain charges and then the evidence, itself, to date has not been shared.

certainly, i this i that now is the time. let people read it. put it out there. trust people with the truth. >> there was in the wake of the quilling of george floyd, there were discussions, negotiation on legal changes. have you issues such as qualified immunity, et cetera, that many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said it makes it difficult to prosecute police when deadly force is used. i wonder, do you believe the law as it is today is sufficient to handle cases like breona taylor's or do we need if you laws? do we need to change the laws as they stand? >> i think any time a tragedy occurs, any time where there is a loss of life that may have been able to be avoided, we ought to look at ways that we can do things. better, whether our processes are right. now here, we've already started having discussions on general changes to the law.

warrants, whether it is training and i think what we have to be able to do is to make sure that every single day we're trying to do better because in those moments, somebody's life might be on the line. i have been talking with our black legislative caucus in kentucky. i have been talking to law enforcement groups. we have been trying to find common ground for even a potential session. what's been made very clear to me is if we will do something like that, we have to make real progress. not window dressing. not something to make people feel better, but real progress. and i'm committed if we go a little broader to addressing systematic racism here in the commonwealth. >> okay. >> it exists throughout our country. we have to be willing to acknowledge it and willing to start the conversation with admitting that i will never feel the depths of what that feels like and of the frustration. but being committed to listening

and trying to hear. >> breona taylor lost here life, right. was this a failure of justice, in your view? >> well, i hope, we can look at any situation like this and say how can we ensure something like this does not happen moving into the future and then willing to share the facts, the truth, the investigative file, everything out there. we have the attorney general who went through and described different pieces of evidence the other day but didn't put the evidence out. he described two ballistic reports f. we describe them, put them out and let people see them. but again right now, what we got are conversations with a vacuum of facts and we need to make sure that people can actually see those, evaluate them and process them. let's trust the people of kentucky and the people of america with the underlying evidence in this case. >> the president tweeted last

night that he spoke with you and that you, he says you are prepared to work together immediately upon request. do you need or are you asking for the president's help? >> the president did give me a call last night. he said it looked like we have things under control here in the commonwealth. i believe we do. he said to call if we needed additional help. but again he had stated and ai gree thi agree we have things in place to allow people to express their first amendment rights to express their pain and frustration, but at the same time keeping everybody safe. because we saw last night we can have 99.99% of people doing the right thing, but one person that wants to get out there and do the wrong thing. it caused a lot of harm and can even change the perception. so we're doing everything it takes in kentucky to make sure people can be heard but that we can keep them safe.

>> final question, if i can, we saw images of civilians armed to the teeth on the streets of louisville yesterday, vigilante groups, militia groups, self appointed law enforcement. i'm curious, as governor of kentucky do you see any place of groups like this responding to protests? >> i see no place for what are often white supremacy groups in our society in general. they've protested me. they hung ne in effigy on our capitol grounds, with the ability to cause chaos if they choose to potentially ton something peaceful into something that is not is incredibly dangerous. they need to go home. they need to go home. >> governor andy beshear, thanks for take time this morning. we wish people of louisville the

best of luck and peace going forward. >> thank you very much. wow, good man sax just downgrade their economic outlook. cutting it in half. why? because still hus talks are all but dead in washington. we will look ahead with former obama's chief of economic advisers. what are the implications for everyone? next. at kay, we believe that nothing should get in the way of love. get 20-40% off all engagement, wedding and anniversary rings. only at kay jewelers.

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to stir that fire, university of phoenix is awarding up to one million dollars in scholarships through this month. see what scholarship you qualify for at phoenix.edu. well, news of 870,000 more americans filed for first time unemployment last week. that the stimulus talks essentially stalled in washington just as millions and millions, almost 13 million unemployed americans are desperate for more help.

joining me from the university of chicago and white house council economic advisers under president obama austin, good morning. >> great to see you again. >> so congress doesn't act and can't get its act together to make a deal. you've got 13-plus million americans desperate for help. have you goldman sachs cutting their fourth quarter economic growth outlook in half because there is no progress on a stimulus deal on a business roundtable. all the big ceos saying you got to do something or it will stall. what are the implications of being here? >> i think it's crazy that we could be adding more than 800,000 new people to the unemployment rolls and war not talking about finding relief or rescue for these people. i think we could be saying at the aggregate level for the whole economy a clear slowing down of what was supposed to be

a fast rebound and then over the longer run, i think the thing that you got the k-shaped recovery with some people doing really well and millions of people really struggling. we will live with that for some time. >> for sure. not to mention the disparity when it comes to race. i think the rich will be better. a lot of people go like that and the implications of that, for example, for african-american% than white unemployment rate. their recovery in this has not been a stimulus recovery for many white americans. so, on that note, you work the obama administration. you don't like the skinny deal that mcconnell put forward. however, at this point with no deal, the republican of south dakota says the democrats seem to be saying they would rather

have sera than what we put up. do you think he has a point or half a point that they will accept nothing when they go home? >> maybe. look, i'm an economist. so i come at this strictly as a policy guy and that's more of a political question of should you accept a tenth of a loaf at a moment of crisis? >> well, let me reframe it. that's a fair point. for an economic one. for our economy would something be better than nothing right now? >> something would be better than nothing and something bigger would be a lot better than smaller. >> all right. >> i think the context that it definitely feels like we are not as keeping our eye on the ball after lowing the spread of the disease. that's the thing that's knocked tout furnace and we can talk about rescue and relief. i think it's important money to states, money to the unemployed, there are millions of people struggling, may get evicted from their homes. but at the end of the day, if

you can't stop the spread of the disease, what we see is a continuation of this u.s. as the outlier in the whole world of all the rich countries so they've gotten control of the disease, even though there is not a vaccine in germany and korea and japan and various places, and so it's more than just public health. their economies are able to recover faster because they got control of that. >> right. you made the argument that you can really aid in an economic taking these steps. fair point. i wish more people were listening to it. you are also an informal adviser to joe biden's campaign. i want to ask you about these polls, because you got unemployment that has surged as we know. you got businesses going under. we've seen how devastating this is for maul businesmall busines. we have farmers that say they can't compete.

every single poll has the president beating joe biden on the economy. i went through all of that arizona, wisconsin, pennsylvania, quinnipiac national poll. why do you think that is? >> i don't totally know. i know the polls show they're close to even and that's the president way down from where he was. >> not totally, austin. it's like ten points, 11-point spread in florida. 15-point spread in arizona, i'm just talking about the economy. 10-point spread. it's the economy, joe biden needs to get those economy numbers up, no? >> he definitely needs to get the economy numbers up. no doubt about that. my point is if you go back eight months, the economy was president trump's strongest area by far and even in the polls now, he's down, the president is down substantially from where he was at his peak and i think that is because people are slowly

realizing, maybe we aren't snapping back as fast as the president said. we are going to have the greatest economy in the history of the world unless we actually do something. so, i think this one is one that is just playing out by time. in my read of the biden plan, when asked about the content of what's in the biden policy plan, big substantial majorities of the country favor joe biden's policies over the policies that president trump put forward. >> okay. do you think, with your informal advice of the biden team then be to get the message out there more strongly because we're less than a week away from a debate and it doesn'tti seem like the people are trusting the president and more than they trust joe biden. >> look, you don't want to ask a guy with a ph.d. about message advice.

yes, he should get his message out more. after labor day we're in the thick of the campaign and people start paying close attention to what you say as president. i think at the debate, that's not a debate that the vice president biden needs to run from at all. i value working with him in the obama administration when we turn around a depression-like economy to something that will be the longest boom in american history. i don't think vice president biden needs to shy away and his politics are solid. >> obviously, we have a jump. we will go to the supreme court. i always appreciate having you. thanks, very much. >> nice talking to you. >> we have the picture. supreme court, jim. >> this is the casket, of course, of the late supreme court justice ruth bader

ginsburg lying in resuppose on the steps of the supreme court. the president, we are told, is on his way to the scream court. his limousine has left the white house. he will be visiting there with the first lady. we have been covering these events the last 24 hours or so, tell us what the mood is there today and what we expect the president to do on arrival. >> reporter: well, you know, jim, the president and ruth bader ginsburg had a complicated relationship. she was known with being friend with justin an on tce antonen s said trump was a faker and should have released his tax returns. he later regretted making the statements. he fired back with a strong response on twitter. but after her death, he did release a very poignant

statement. he called her a titan of the law and i'll read his statement. he said, she was renowned for her brilliant mind and her powerful dissent of the supreme court. justice ginsburg demonstrated one can disagree without being >> that's what he said after she died, jim. >> the president -- go ahead, poppy, i'm sorry. >> that's okay. okay. sorry. we thought we were going to go to a commercial. stay with us, because it sounds like the president is arriving at any moment. the comments from the president in minnesota right after he learned of her death, quote, she led an amazing life, an amazing woman. whether or not you agree she was

an amazing woman. he had very kind words for her after the death and i thought the words we heard from the chief justice yesterday about her as well, it just -- speak to it in terms of moments of division in this country and what she can teach us all about unity. >> well, that's one of the things, of course, that she talked about with her clerks a lot in these lessons that she gave, and she said, you know, this is a lesson -- she gave them lots of lessons about the law but also life in general, but one more thing to keep in mind is that the president did not name his nominee. he could have maybe done it before this memorial, but, poppy, he chose to wait, and that was obviously in deference to some of these memorials, i think, but also keep in mind there are people in this building behind us who are very close with the trump administration but also with ruth bader ginsburg and that's the scalia family, right? they may have thought it was

better to wait and in one poignant clarence thomas moments, at one point, when ginsburg was having difficulty negotiating the back of the bench, she would wait and clarence thomas would lift, have his hand out and take her hand, take her off the bench down those steps, and they would leave together, ideological opposites hand in hand so that was vintage ruth bader ginsburg. >> well, ginsburg getting enormous respect in the ceremonies we're seeing here now on the top of the supreme court steps. tomorrow she will be the first woman, remarkable for that to be a fact, but the first woman to lie in repose in the capitol rotunda, statuary hall in the capitol tomorrow. we'll, of course, bring you those images live as well. this as we await the president's arrival at the supreme court to pay his respects along with the first lady to the late justice ruth bader ginsburg. we're going to take a very short break, and we'll be right back.

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>> all right. take a look. the president there on the steps of the supreme court. he is there along with the first lady to honor and pay his respects for the late supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg. jim, you'll remember when president obama made a similar move when justice scalia, ruth bader ginsburg's best friend on the court, passed just a few years ago. >> that's right. the president, then president barack obama, along with the first lady visited to pay his respects there. president trump chose not to pay his respects to representative john lewis after the civil rights hero lay in the capitol

rotunda, not invited to john mccain's funeral. it's cnn's reporting that the president -- some of the president's advisers were pushing to announce his nominee to replace ginsburg this week. he says he will announce it on saturday, wanting to delay it until after the memorial services were over. we can see the first lady there, too as well. >> yeah. >> next to the president. i wonder if you can tell us about the scene. we're hearing something in the background. what are you seeing and hearing on the steps of the supreme court? >> it's not the steps. it's to the far right and they are protesters and booing and protesting trump's presence here. i will say that i think it's probably the same group that just a couple hours ago was in front of mitch mcconnell's house here protesting the supreme court because, keep in mind, that when president trump does come across with his new nominee, it is going to raise

this bitter fight. the democrats haven't forgotten that it was mcconnell and the republicans who refused to have hearings for president obama's nominee, and the republicans are still furious becaus of the way they think that justice brett kavanaugh was treated during his confirmation hearings. you'll recall when he was alleged to have an improper sexual relationship when he was a young high school student, so that's what's going on here. we're really beginning to see, poppy and jim, the next fades of this after the memorial of ruth bader ginsburg. we are looking toward a big fight that's going to start across the street from here. >> i think we'll get back to images of the president in a moment. it's really notable that he is wearing a mask, right, as is everyone there. >> yes. >> he just walked back inside and he was outside wearing a mask after repeatedly mocking vice president biden for wearing extraordinary

timeline that the hearings would be october 12th. i had one person saying that they wanted the vote by the end of october. that would happen obviously before the election. keep in mind, poppy, as you know, the supreme court term starts the first monday in october, and another thing is one week after the election this supreme court is going to hear one of the biggest arguments, of course, of the term, having to do with the affordable care act. >> yeah, and possibly the election. i believe we just saw that was robert o'brien also paying respects, the national security adviser, perhaps the chief of staff mark meadows as well, joining the president. we're going to continue to cover this solemn moment for our nation playing out on the steps of the supreme court, the late justice ruth bader ginsburg lying in repose. we'll bring you more. a moment for our country.

and a good morning to you, a solemn morning for this country, saying good-bye to ruth bader ginsburg. i'm jim sciutto. >> and i'm poppy harlow. also, a lot of news this morning. part of the president's re-election strategy apparently assault the election itself. already laying the groundwork to contest the results making it clear that if he loses he'll not go quietly. listen to this. >> will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transferral of power after the election? >> well, we'll have to see what happens, you know that. i've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. >> i understand that, but people are rioting. do you commit to making sure that there's a peaceful transferral of power -- >> get rid of the ballots, we'll have -- there won't be a transfer frankly. there will be a continuation. >> listen to those words. get rid of the ballots. that's the sitting u.s. president talking about -- about disqualifying ballots in the upcoming election. the other breaking news

overnight. two officers were shot in louisville hours after a grand jury in kentucky did not charge three police officers in the death of breonna taylor. one officer was charged with wanton endangerment, this for shooting into breonna taylor's neighbor's apartment. we've see to the governor of kentky while ago who said that the protests in louisville were mostly peaceful. first though, let's get to cnn's john harwood on these comments by the president. and, john, the president said, he didn't hint, he said in so many words they are looking to get rid of ballots, valid