i'm marg read brennan in washington. this week on "face the nation," from the courtroom to the campaign trail, election 2024 is in full swing. crisscrossing key states, former president trump and president biden spent the week rallying crucial groups just about one

month before they've agreed to face off in the first presidential debate of 2024, but will it be enough to turn out voters? we'll talk to ohio senator j.d. vance, a possible running mate for president trump, and one of the people who showed up to support president trump in new york where he faces charges. and we'll hear from michigan senator gary peters who's in charge of defending democrat's slim majority. plus, new threats to our elections. what do we need to know about foreign interference and the dangers of ai? we'll get the latest from cybersecurity expert and analyst chris krebs. then russia's advance on the second largest city of kharkiv marks one of moscow's biggest territorial advances to date. we'll have the latest. finally, robert gates once led the cia in the defense department serving under eight presidents. we'll get his thoughts on the

state of u.s. national security, the 2024 election and more. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." good morning. welcome to "face the nation." with election day less than six months away, president biden is navigating a host of challenges at home and abroad. his national security adviser is in israel today for talks with embattled prime minister benjamin netanyahu as the war in gaza enters its eighth month. netanyahu himself is facing an ultimatum from a member of his war cabinet, benny ganz, who is threatening to quit government unless a post-war plan for gaza is delivered by june 8th. earlier this week the defense minister also publicly

questioned netanyahu's strategy. that conflict overseas is making waves at home. voters' dissatisfaction with president biden's handling of the war in gaza is overshadowing his address at morehouse college in atlanta where they have protested the speech. the speech is one of the stops aimed at shoring up support from black voters. recent polling suggests he's falling behind his opponent in key states. a new cbs poll shows the president trailing trump by 5 points in arizona despite biden winning that state in 2020. the in florida trump is comfortably up by 9 after winning that state in the last two cycles. we begin this morning with nicole killian who's in atlanta. >> reporter: protestors greeted president biden outside of morehouse ahead of the address at the college. >> you want to remain constant

about what's going on in the world but at the same time it's time and place of everything. >> reporter: hundreds of morehouse students and faculty petitioned to rescind biden's invitation arguing the president's support against gaza goes against the legacy. >> i think this is an opportunity for biden to come out, talk about what he has done for the black community as well as address young people and borders with color about the disdain for gaza. >> the fact is that this election, a lot is at stake. >> reporter: saturday mr. biden stopped by a popular black-owned restaurant in atlanta continuing his push with black voters as recent polls show him trailing former president trump in several key battleground including the peach state. >> you hear about how, you know, we're behind in the polls. well, so far the polls haven't

been right once. >> particularly rebellious bunch. let's be rebellious and vote this time, okay? >> reporter: in texas the former president picked up an endorsement from the national rifle association. he encouraged gun owners to turn out, even teasing a third term which is barred by the constitution. >> we want a landslide, that is, here's the expression, too big to rake. >> reporter: back here at morehouse, some of the students and faculty are holding a silent protest wearing palestinian scarves or the color of the flag. president biden will keep making his case to black voters heading from here to detroit speaking at an naacp dinner today. margaret? >> nicole killian in atlanta. we're joined by j.d. vance. good to have you here. >> good morning. >> good morning to you. so you were at mar-a-lago recently. you were in new york at the manhattan courtroom. you were in ohio alongside donald trump at a fund-raiser.

i know you keep getting asked whether or not you're going to be vice president or not. you said you haven't spoken to him about it. >> sure. >> we're also looking at a pretty tight race in the senate. do you think you're more helpful to him in the senate or the white house? >> well, i'll let him make that decision. what i've said is i'm happy to be an advocate for the agenda in the united states senate. that's the best way to help the people of ohio. i'm interested in helping in other ways if that's what matters. we have to re-elect donald trump as president. the contrast is so extraordinary between higher inflation at home and war overseas, that's the biden record, and the trump record of peace at home and prosperity. that is an incredible thing to run on. and importantly, it's an incredible thing to deliver for our country. i think we need to help donald trump get across the finish line. that's why i've spent a fair amount of time helping him raise resources and spending time in new york. it's all about getting elected

as president. i don't care who the vice president is because trump is going to govern. >> you call yourself one of the most pro labor republicans in congress. you were out there with automakers striking and you've been broadly supportive of tariffs. why are you opposed to president biden then putting tariffs on batteries and electric vehicles and other technology from china? that seems inconsistent. >> there are two things here. many of the tariffs joe biden has endorsed in the last couple of weeks are tariffs he ran against in 2020. now that he sees that donald trump is leading in the polls, he's adopting the agenda. that's not being a good policy president and that's shifting. >> he's targeted these pretty directly. >> there's a second thing, margaret, important here. biden's entire agenda, such that it exists, has been about protecting green energy jobs at the expense of the industrial hartland. if you are in wisconsin, tennessee or pennsylvania, you are not engendered.

him applying tariffs on the green agenda stuff, does it help steel makers? natural gas workers? does it help the heart of the american economy? no. >> you know, chinese electric vehicles are less than 2% of the market but the point here is -- >> well, but a lot -- >> all tariffs. to your point, all tariffs, which you seem to be in favor of, they're inflationary. how is the trump/vance idea going to make things more affordable if you are putting taxes on goods they're purchasing from overseas. >> i don't buy the premise. if you apply tariffs, what you're saying is we're going to penalize you for using slave labor from china and importing it. what you do is you end up making more things in -- >> that did not happen in the trump administration though. >> well, it actually did happen in the trump administration. >> manufacturing jobs came back? >> had significant on shoring. you had significant increases in it people investing in factory construction but it takes time,

margaret. that's one of the things -- one of the reasons why i think we need a second term of president trump is this stuff is not going to happen overnight. the american heartland wasn't destroyed in four years. it's into the going to be rebuilt in four years. you need to double down on the policy of bring being good jobs back to the heartland and more importantly, making stuff in america. we have to be self-relieant as company. >> there are 10 to 60% in tariffs. dune what the plan is? >> i'm not going to speak for donald trump. we need to apply broad-based tariffs especially on goods coming in from china. not just solar panels and ev stuff, we need to protect american industries. here's the thing, margaret. the reason china beats us, it's not because they have better workers, they're willing to use slaves. >> state funding. >> we want american workers to make this stuff with good wages. >> i want to ask you some of the stuff you've said about american universities. you said the closest

conservatives have ever gotten to dealing with the left wing domination is victor orban's approach in hungary. i think his way has to be the model for us. not to eliminate universities, but to give the choice of survival or a much less biased approach. he seized universities and put them in foundations run by his allies. is that what you're advocating being done in the united states? >> what you're seeing is universities are controlled by left wing foundations, not controlled by the american taxpayer and yet the american taxpayer is sending hundreds of billions of dollars -- >> i don't want taxpayers controlling education necessarily. is that what you're advocating for? >> what i'm advocating for is taxpayers to have a say of how their money is spent. universities educate our children, produce important intellectual property. they get a lot of money because of it. if they're not educating children well and layering them

down in mountains of student debt, then they're not meeting their bargain. >> america's university still attract talent from around the world. you went to one of america's top schools. >> there's still good things but it's going in the wrong direction, margaret. >> victor orban, as you know, he rewrote the constitution, neutered the courts, tried to control the media. these are not necessarily conservative principles. why would you want to mimic him? >> i'm not endorsing every single thing victor orban has ever done. i don't know everything he's done. what i do know is on the university principle the idea that taxpayers should have some influence in how their money is spent at these universities, it's a totally reasonable thing. i do think he's made some smart decisions there that we could learn from. >> he was just welcomed at mar-a-lago. leader mcconnell spoke out on the floor of the senate after xi jinping visited hungary. he's trying to broker trade deals. not just with russia but with

iran. orban, because of this, mcconnell said should be red flag for anyone seriously concerned be about competition with china. so why take any policy cues from a man and a country and a strategy cozying up to america's adversaries. >> hungary is a nation of 10 million people. america is a nation of 330 million people, the most important economy in the world. i don't think we should take every cue. i have to reject the premise here. why is victor orban getting closer to china? in part because american leadership is not making smart decisions. we are pushing other nations into the arms of chinese because we don't make enough stuff, because we pursue a ridiculous foreign policy very often. we have to be more self-reliant. i don't like china. i don't like that china has stolen american jobs. the reason they have done it is because american leadership has made bad decisions. that's our fault and something we can fix, you've talked about the need for the united states to pivot to asia and let the

europeans focus on europe but xi jinping is focusing on europe. why would you seed influence? because you've really been opposed to helping ukraine in its fight. you've said a lot of things that are sucktive that you just want to pull back. >> let me address that point, margaret. first of all, i think the reason we have to be smart in ukraine, we don't have a strategy. what is joe biden going to do? what is another $60 billion going to accomplish that $120 billion hasn't? we have to have strat strategy. >> 80% funds the u.s. industrial defense base. >> europe and china and the intertwinement. the reason europe has become weaker is because they deindustrialized. why? because they pursued a green energy agenda following the lead of the biden administration and that necessarily empowers china and russia. we need to acknowledge that it's our decisions that are making these countries stronger. we need to fix that, not whine at countries that have 10

million people. >> or people like cheap stuff no matter where they live. they look for -- >> they'd love to have cheap energy in europe but they don't have it. >> i want to ask you about abortion because we see in our polling it's motivating. president trump has adopted this position that it should be states that control abortion access. >> sure. >> you said back in 2022 that a proposal to limit abortion access after 15 weeks of pregnancy was something you would support and some minimal national standard. what is the minimum national standard that you want the federal government to have on abortion? >> well, look, margaret, i think that first of all we have to acknowledge that political reality is motivating a lot of these considerations. what donald trump has said, which is very consistent with what i said during my own campaign, is that the gross majority of abortion policy is going to be made at the state level. if you compare his view of saying, look, this is a tough issue. we need to let people debate and decide this tough issue in this new environment. >> you want minimum federal

standard. >> margaret, compare this to the biden administration saying we want christians to perform abortions and. >> that's not true. it's prohibited under the -- >> so you don't have a minimum national standard. >> margaret, what i've said consistently is the gross majority of policy here is going to be set by the states. i am pro life. i want to save as many babe why is as possible. it's totally reasonable to say late-term abortions should not happen with reasonable exceptions but i think trump's approach here is trying to settle a very tough issue and actually empower the american people to decide it for themselves. >> senator vance, thank you for joining be us today. >> thanks, margaret. we turn to michigan democratic senator gary peters. good morning, senator. >> good morning to you. >> well, you just heard us run through a whole bunch of these statistics with our polling data and you are in charge of helping to defend the slim democratic

majority in the senate. are you still confident that you can pick up a seat in florida and are you bullish that you will actually be able to pull off a win in arizona? >> i am. i'm still very, very confident we have all the pieces in place to be successful and basically it's very similar to how we were successful in the last cycle when folks thought that that was not possible in a mid term with a party in power in the white house. we did. we made history last cycle. we're going to do it again. it's primarily because of candidate quality. we have outstanding democratic candidates. outstanding democratic incumbents who have served their state against deeply flawed republican candidates so i'm confident we can win. >> to put it up on screen because i don't think we did that. the candidate in arizona, rubin gallego is leading kari lake by 36%. that's pretty stark.

are you confident? >> i am. the lead is great. i take every poll with a grain of salt. we're still going to have a tough race. we're still going to be focused on arizona to make sure ruben wins. if you look at the contrast, his service to the state of arizona through his work in congress versus kari lake who's an election denier, traveling around the country, not in arizona. people of arizona want someone who's going to be there fighting for them and that's what they have in congressman there. >> but that is what's happening down ballot, but president biden in the state of arizona is down 5 points versus donald trump. so what is -- what are they missing at the top of the ticket here? >> well, i'm so confident that joe biden will win in arizona as well. the election will continue to play out. these are going to be close races. as i said with his lead, i always take these polls with a grain of salt. the fact that these are

competitive battleground states. by definition, they're going to be very close. we're going to win not just because of the candidates but also because of our ability to run better campaigns, reaching out to voters, getting them engaged, getting them to the polls. that's how you win the close races. that's what we did last cycle and that's what we'll do this year at election time. >> in florida and hei arizona, polled in both states. they said president trump would be better for finances than biden. trump is leading by 10 points on who cares about you a lot. the economy again, number one issue. what can president biden do to fix that? >> well, president biden has been focused on the economy and actually if you poll folks about their individual view about themselves, polls are pretty consistent they feel good about what's happening in their family and it's about focusing on that aspect. ask people about yourself and

are you better off. but certainly president biden as well as democrats in the senate have been looking to reduce costs, for example, prescription drugs bringing down the price of prescription drugs for families. it is a focus of the president that will continue. you know, you have to look back in the previous administration. folks forget that when the former president was there, we were in a pandemic and he just mishandled that pandemic in a regular fashion that caused so many hardships. >> that is why it's so stark when they say he's going to be better for their finances. pretty stunning. >> we know on the facts the number of migrants crossing the southern border has actually been declining for the past few months. the biden administration has talked about new efforts underway here, but it's not showing up in any sort of better reviews for the president's border policy. that is so essential for support in the state of arizona.

he's trailing by 5 points. what does he have to do on the border that's going to help stop the bleeding? >> well, as you said, the numbers are getting better. they'll continue to get better and president biden and his administration has been focused on that. >> does he need to talk about it more? >> we also as democrats -- absolutely, and that's what a campaign is about. the campaign to make sure people have that information. as you also know, democrats work with republicans to have the most comprehensive border security bill that would have been passed in decades. >> and it didn't. >> and yet donald trump said don't vote for it because it's going to be a political win for biden. >> right. >> he'd rather see problems on the border. american people don't want that. they want people to roll up their sleeves and get things done. we were on the edge of doing that and donald trump tanked that. if represent karns listened to them, they're hip critz on this. >> he consistently talks about

immigration. president biden very, very, very rarely discusses the things that you are talking about. the the and on immigration we just see that these policies here, 13% of biden -- say bidens policies benefit u.s. citizens over immigrants. trump policies overwhelmingly are viewed as more positive. i mean, there's just a perception issue here. how do you battle that? >> well, that is a perception issue, it's not a fact issue. the facts are clearly wrong when it comes to that. president biden has been addressing this issue. the numbers show it. that's what a campaign is about. that's what we can do, to make sure there's a very clear contrast painted when voters go into the voting booth in november. they will know the facts. they will see there's a clear contrast and they're going to vote for the person who's actually delivered, which is president biden as well as senate democrats across the country as well. that contrast will play out as

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welcome back to "face the nation." we continue our conversation now with ukrainian ambassador to the united states. ambassador, president zelenskyy has made clear on multiple occasions now that ukraineds