00:00a cnn exclusive federal prosecutors have interviewed michigan's secretary of state jocelyn
00:05benson the interview occurred in march as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into donald
00:10trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss benson told my colleague caitlin collins that the
00:16questioning lasted hours and the focus was on the impact of misinformation and threats against
00:23election workers cnn's caitlin polance has more on the investigation and where it is in this moment
00:29caitlin what does benson's interview add to what is known about this this aspect of the special
00:35counsel's investigation well kate it really is filling out that map whenever you look at the
00:41battleground states we have known for a while that special counsel investigators had sought documents
00:47from officials in lots of the battleground states they had wanted to talk to fake electors a long
00:53time ago and now they're coming back and interviewing the top people in those states who would have
00:58either had direct contact with the trump campaign or were on the receiving end of some sort of
01:04pressure or harassment or threats people like rusty bowers the former house speaker a republican in
01:10arizona he says he was interviewed and now we have jocelyn benson the secretary of state in michigan
01:15also add to that brad raffensperger the secretary of state in georgia so arizona georgia michigan we
01:21also know that fake electors in nevada had gone to the grand jury in recent weeks so put all that
01:26together it's a lot of activity in the special counsel investigation building out what they know
01:31about what happened in battleground states and when benson was interviewed by case caitlin collins last
01:37night she spoke a little bit more about what she thought was some of the most valuable testimony
01:41she was able to provide to the federal criminal investigators
01:47i think it's a connection between you know what we witnessed uh which i've talked openly about for
01:53several years now a real coordinated uh strategic effort to try to block the counting of votes in
02:00our state the certification of an election in our state and then spread lies that then transformed
02:06into threats against lives of election officials who are simply doing our job
02:12so that's benson's recollection of what the most important things were from this interview she did back
02:18in march with the criminal investigators but of course kate she sat for several hours of questioning
02:24and so they could have covered a lot of ground for this ongoing investigation kate that's for sure
02:33that's for sure it's great to see you caitlin thank you so much sarah thanks kate the republican
02:39presidential debate stage getting a little more crowded this morning we've learned chris christie
02:43and senator tim scott now have enough donors to participate in next month's debate the republican
02:49national committee requires presidential candidates to have at least 40 000 individual donors the former
02:56new jersey governor and south carolina senator joined donald trump and three other white house hopefuls
03:01to meet that threshold cnn's jeff felony is with us now jeff to make this debate the candidates also
03:08needed to hit at least one percent in the national poll there are so many people running who might miss
03:16out on this well sir that is the hot question of the summer on the republican presidential campaign we
03:22know who is likely to be in and that is a big development for uh former new jersey governor uh
03:29chris christie
03:29making that threshold of 40 000 donors uh you may think it sounds like you know that should be easy
03:35it's
03:35actually pretty difficult from 20 different states uh you also have to have a polling threshold
03:40of polling at least one percent in either three national polls or a combination of national polls and
03:46early state polls so that is why there is a bit of an obstacle here but the people who have
03:51still not
03:51qualified as far as we know um and they don't have to announce this until august right before the debate
03:55is former vice president mike pence he is first and foremost at the top of the list there for not
04:00qualifying
04:00yet uh for the donors they have time to do this and of course several other candidates uh have not
04:05as
04:05well former arkansas governor asa hutchinson is uh is out there trying to qualify as is north dakota
04:10governor doug burgum of course he is doing the unique thing of sending out gift cards of twenty dollars
04:16for people who contribute a dollar to get on the roll so uh clearly the debate stage is uh setting
04:21up but
04:22for chris christie this is essential for him to have that national uh stage to make his argument
04:27why he believes donald trump is uh is a disqualified but sarah the question
04:31will donald trump be there and if he isn't there that would seriously diminish this debate because
04:38he is the front runner correct it would certainly change the debate and it would certainly uh diminish
04:45chris christie's efforts to confront him directly and that of course is the challenge here uh but i'm not
04:50sure it would diminish the entire debate because the the challenge here among all these republican
04:56candidates is who is essentially uh going to rise above this second and third tier of candidates
05:02for florida governor ron desantis he's never been on a national debate stage like this this debate is
05:08essential for him whether trump is there or not would the other candidates try and define him is he able
05:13to sort of rise to the occasion here so these presidential debates happening much later this year
05:18but very very important in terms of winnowing down the field so many questions between now
05:23and august 23rd in milwaukee when that first debate happens sarah yeah we're looking at all 12 of the
05:29potential candidates um who have to sort of rise up and try and get that one percent and those 40
05:35000
05:35individual donors thank you so much they will all be on stage right you bet thank you appreciate it
05:41kate coming up for us more encouraging news in the fight against inflation the key measure that's
05:47cooled to its lowest level in nearly three years and first here's dr sanjay gupta with this week's
05:55chasing life
05:58i'm dr sanjay gupta host of cnn's chasing life podcast wildfires are causing smoky skies across
06:06the united states this year and that's pushing air pollution to dangerous levels and yes even putting
06:12our own physical health at risk now besides trouble breathing all that particulate matter in the air can
06:18cause burning eyes dizziness even heart problems so when you see air quality warnings it really is
06:25important to protect yourself just like you might think of from a bad storm start with staying inside
06:31when possible but if you do have to go out consider wearing a high quality mask like an n95 you
06:37should
06:38also avoid any strenuous activity on those bad air days you see that particulate matter can not only
06:44get into your lungs but your bloodstream as well polluted air can also end up inside your house so
06:50it's important to keep your windows shut your air conditioning on and consider using a high quality
06:55hepa filter or an air purifier and you know just like you check the weather every day you can also
07:01check
07:02the air quality just go to airnow.gov and if you
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