♪ all right. we have breaking news, a big jobs report just in, beating

expectations, a strong economy, details shortly. new criminal charges filed against hunter biden. how big of a mistake was it for him to let that plea deal fall apart? plus, today is sentencing day for the teen responsible for the deadliest school shooting in michigan history. the parents of one of the victims calling for the harshest punishment possible. will the president of the university of pennsylvania survive the day? after her controversial answers about genocide, major donors calling for her to resign. i'm john berman with fredricka whitfield, sara and kate are off today. this is "cnn news central." and the breaking news, an early holiday gift on the economy. in fact, in a way, it's the gift that keeps on giving. the jobs report just in a few minutes ago, beating

expectations, 199,000 new jobs added and the unemployment rate dropped, it is low. cnn's rahel solomon is with us now. rahel, like i said, this is the gift that keeps on giving, the story of 2023 is an economy that just stayed strong. >> yeah, john, it's the story of 2023, it's the story of 2022 because, as you pointed out, this is the 35th month of job growth. so this is the gift that's been giving for almost three years now. so let's go through the numbers. 199,000 jobs, as you pointed out, in the month of november. to put that in perspective, the expectation had been closer to 180,000. when you look at the prior two months, so october, that actually remained at 150,000, that was not changed. september, however, was revised lower by about 35,000. if you look at the chart on your screen, you can see, look, this is a strong report, but you can clearly see a slowing there, a cooling there, but it is gradual in the way that i think a lot of people would like to see. now, part of the boost this

month, john, was that strikes came to an end, right? you think about the auto workers joining the payrolls again, you think about some of the actors joining the payroll. so that was a sort of boost for november. if you look at the industries and really get under the hood here, health care, government, manufacturing all adding between 28,000 jobs to 77,000 jobs for the month of november. we did, however, see some declines in retail trade. now, unemployment. this is the part of the report that folks were watching very closely, in fact, citi bank put out in a research note this is the most important aspect of the report and it actually ticked down to 3.7%. we have been in this tight range for almost a year and a half of about 3.4 to 3.9% for unemployment for, again, about 18 months. so we're still stuck in this tight range. the question now is it's a gradual softening but still strong. so what does the fed do with this? we will learn more about that when they meet for their last meeting of the year next tuesday and wednesday. best believe, john, they will be

asked about how they're interpreting this report but at least for now it is the gift that keeps on giving. >> inflation cooling, unemployment not rising. that is the sweet spot that so many economists had been looking for the last few years, and as we sit here at the end of 2023, it seems to be at least being achieved. >> it is the soft landing. it is the soft landing that everyone sort of had hoped for and it looks like the cause that we may actually -- that the fed may actually get this right are growing but we will only know as the months go on. as you pointed out, inflation is cooling, the labor market is cooling slowly, yet consumer spending at least from what we can see still hanging tight. >> and the idea, just one last point that you made there, we've been in this band of 3.4 to 3.9% unemployment. that's really low. for an economy to be stuck at a rate less than 4%, that's a very low place for unemployment to

be. >> it's a great point. and the one thing that you've heard a lot from jay powell over the last, you know, year and a half is that we need more workers. you want to see more workers come off the sidelines. that's part of the reason here, right? so it's very low. we are starting to get some help on the labor force participation side, but this is a sweet spot. this is the goldilocks that so many people had been hoping for. >> rahel solomon, great to have you. thank you so much. we are going to hear from acting labor secretary julie suh in a little bit. fred? john, this morning we're standing by to see president biden for the first time since his son hunter biden was accused of a four-year tax evasion scheme that alleges he spent millions of dollars on things like drugs, escorts and exotic cars, instead of paying his taxes. hunter biden's new federal indictment dropping overnight as the president soon leaves the white house to campaign. in the nine-count indictment justice department prosecutors say hunter, quote, willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017,

2018 and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds. the indictment then listing his alleged expenses, including nearly $700,000 for payments to various women. $188,000 for adult entertainment. $71,000 on rehab. ultimately a grand total of $4.9 million. the charges could mean 17 years in prison if convicted. cnn's katelyn polantz leads us off now. katelyn, ever since this stunning collapse of hunter biden's plea deal over the summer this legal peril for him has been looming. walk us through these new charges. >> fred, the legal peril has escalated significantly. that plea deal was about misdemeanors and now hunter biden faces nine charges, including three felonies. this isn't just about not paying the irs $1.4 million that the federal government said he owed them in the years 2016 through

2019, it's also the federal government, the justice department, the special counsel office of david weiss saying that hunter biden lied to the irs. that he was not forthcoming about the money that he had. they're saying that he had $7 million that was incoming to him and it wasn't going to where it should have been, his taxes. here is a quote from the prosecutors in the 56-page indictment yesterday. between 2016 and october 15th, 2020, the defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels an rental properties, exotic cars, clothing and other items of a personal nature. in short, everything but his taxes. one of the areas, fred, that this indictment particularly goes into detail is about 2018, that's where these three felony counts are all around, and it is about personal expenses that he was making that were not for personal -- where he was saying that they were for business

expenses, rather than personal expenses, and that is a really rich text of this indictment. it's $1,500 that he venmoed to an exotic dancer saying it was for artwork, that exotic dancer the prosecutors note was not providing hunter biden artwork. $11,000 for two nights with an escort. $40,000 for a luxury hotel. a lamborghini rental and then $27,000 that hunter biden put on a business credit line to pay for online porn. the prosecutors note that was a fifth of all of the business expenditures on that account. that's a personal expense, they say, and not a business expense and that is the main thrust of what the felony charge is. that he was lying about these personal expenses. now, his team is saying that they are going to be fighting these charges, that they shouldn't have been brought because he previously had that plea deal, and we did get a quote from hunter biden's attorney, abbe lowell. if hunter's last name was anything other than biden the

charges in delaware and now california would not have been brought. he does have that gun case ongoing still in delaware. there isn't anything in this indictment that ties him to his father. it is something very clearly that his attorneys are going to keep trying to say that he is a political victim and not a tax cheat. >> all right. katelyn polantz, thank you so much. keep us posted on the ongoing developments here. john? >> with us now cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. hunter biden now faces felony tax charges. he had a plea deal in place for misdemeanor tax charges. if you are attorneys for hunter biden, how much are you just kicking yourself that this plea deal fell apart? >> if i'm hunter biden's attorney i am wishing i could go back in time and solidify that deal and make it go through. it was such a better deal for hunter biden. let's remember, though, hunter biden's team wanted the deal then, it turned out they didn't have a full agreement with doj as to all the terms, but the deal that hunter biden was minutes away from pleading to would have been two misdemeanors

and a probation sentence, that's it. now he's looking at nine charges, three of them felonies, several which carry likely jail time, maximum sentences of five and three years for those felonies. it's gotten way worse for hunter biden and to think back how close they were to having this thing wrapped up a few months ago, now it's completely turned. >> to be clear these new charges aren't just you didn't pay taxes. >> right. >> it's that you tried, basically, not to pay taxes. >> exactly. what differentiates a misdemeanor from a felony in the tax world is that intentionality, that evasion. if you owe taxes to the federal government and you just refuse or fail to pay, that's a misdemeanor generally speaking, but if you start moving money around, trying to trick people, trick the irs, now you are into fraud, now you are into felony. as katelyn laid out that's the allegation here. in the main way they allege hunter biden did this is he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal travel, personal expenses and said these are all business expenses so i get to deduct them and the indictment makes quite clear he was not doing any such business.

>> we're euphemistic, personal travel, personal expenses, they lay out in great detail -- they lay out the salacious detail in the case. >> yeah. >> so anything in here adjacent to president joe biden? anything in here that has to do with influence peddling or anything else or charges outside the world of taxes? >> the short answer is no. first of all, there is no explicit mention of joe biden, there is no explicit mention of any money going really anywhere outside of hunter biden's own individual orbit. the other thing that's really important to keep in mind, the indictment makes clear that hunter biden received $7 million in income over this four-year period, primarily from companies in ukraine and china. the indictment makes quite clear hunter biden did not earn that money in any normal sense. he wasn't doing a job the way normal people do a job, but also the indictment does not charge that the payments were bribes or part of a foreign lobbying and influence effort. if they had been, doj absolutely could have charged that. so when you see representative

comer now trying to sort of -- it's a little bit of an awkward fit, but he's trying to pigeonhole this indictment into the impeachment inquiry, it's just apples and oranges. it just doesn't match up. >> all right. under the radar in the last 24 hours, a huge potential development in the federal case against donald trump for trying to overturn the election. his lawyers have indicated they are going to appeal a ruling from judge tanya chutkan, she basically said donald trump is not immune from these charges because he was president, which is something that he asserted. the trump team made clear they're going to appeal that as high as they need to. what does all of that mean? >> two different really important things happening in that criminal case. donald trump's team argue that because he was in office and they argue what he did relating to the lead up to january 6 was related to the office of the president, he's criminally immune. now, we don't know the answer to that. we've actually never had to resolve an issue like that. the district judge, judge chutkan, rejected that. now trump is taking it up to the

court of appeals, very likely to end up at the u.s. supreme court eventually. at the same time trump's team is arguing while our appeals are pending, everything in the trial court has to stop, has to be put on pause. meaning no motions, no discovery, no conferences. doj will take the opposite position, they're going to say, go ahead, donald trump's team, have your appeal. while that's happening, we're going to continue prepping as if trial is going to happen because doj wants that trial date to hold in march and donald trump's team surely wants that trial date to fall back past march and probably past the election. >> the first thing to watch for is, a, the possibility of a delay. >> yes, absolutely, there could be a delay and bigger picture here if trump prevails on this motion and, again, we are in unprecedented territory here, it will end that federal doj case. i don't think it's more likely than not that he prevails, i wouldn't put it over 50%, but it's also not completely meritless, i think he has a unch approximator's chance, he has a shot. >> elie honig, great to have you. thank you very much. fred?

this morning we're less than six weeks away from the iowa caucuses and while donald trump's rivals court voters in key primary states the former president is due in a courtroom. trump is preparing to testify monday in his own defense in his civil business fraud trial and while he's doing that, nikki haley, vivek ramaswamy, chris christie and ron desantis are all campaigning in iowa and new hampshire today. cnn's alayna treene joins us from washington with more on this. you know, trump is bouncing between cases, meantime, his competitors are campaigning for votes. >> reporter: that's right, fred. i actually think what you're seeing play out with this new york fraud trial where he attended yesterday and he's going to be on the stand on monday, it offers us a really good preview of what we can expect from donald trump next year. we know that in the midst of the height of election season he's going to be facing a series of trials and as elie just pointed out, you know, there's still

questions of if some of them will be delayed but it's more likely than not that donald trump is going to continue to have to spend a lot of time in the courtroom. you're seeing that play out now. now, i do want to just talk about monday and him giving this testimony. one thing that's been clear is that he doesn't necessarily have to be in court. he attended court yesterday, he didn't need to show up, but he wanted to be there. on monday he is testifying, even though one of his attorneys had pointed out and she said this yesterday, that it was the advice of them not for him to take the stand. it's not smart to advise a client who is under a current gag order to be taking the stand, but donald trump wanted to do so. there's questions of he's been advised of that in the past and ultimately didn't testify, but he's deciding to now. i think what we're kind of seeing play out and what i think you can expect on monday is the merger of his political strategy and his legal strategy. we know that his campaign has really started to mesh the two and try to play it up because

they're seeing the benefits of, you know, talking about his legal troubles, talking about all of this and trying to paint it as he has done time and time again as a witch-hunt. and i do think you're going to see some of that political rhetoric when trump is on the stand on monday. he did testify last month, at that point he was being grilled by prosecutors. this time he will be answering questions from his own defense attorneys. so he will be able to frame his own narrative and really have the final word because he will be the last witness that the defense calls when he takes the stand monday. >> right. and he's finding a way to cash in on his court appearances or at least his cases by getting people to make their donations and contributions and so far it seems to be working in his favor. alayna treene, thank you so much. this morning the teenager who opened fire at a michigan high school and killed several students is in court for his sentencing and the families of the victims are making statements shortly. these pictures from just moments

ago. police have charged a woman with attempted arson at martin luther king jr.'s childhood home. civilian bystanders tackled her to the ground. and the israeli military says it has detained dozens and dozens of hamas fighters. new reporting coming up.

happening now, the sentencing hearing for the teenage murderer who pled guilty to killing four classmates at oxford high school in michigan in 2021, he could get life in prison without parole. at this moment families of the victims and survivors are telling the judge how the shooting affected them. these are some of the victim impact statements.

listen. >> to the waste that took my daughter's life, that name will never come out of my mouth. that life will cease to exist to me and just like trash it will be forgotten. so while the attention that he has been seeking for this horrendous crime, you will get no reaction from me. but, again, this is the life you chose. if he really wanted to make a different outcome, he would continue -- he wouldn't continue to make the excuses he does now. the suffering will come when he least expects it. the regret will consume you as you sit alone with the only voice -- only voices in your head. built will eat away at your soul. this might not happen tomorrow, next year or ten years, but it will happen.

as you get older you will realize the path you have chosen and it will haunt you. just like the idol that you admire so much, both of you forgotten in the system. and when these emotions flood into your body like you're bleeding out, no one will be there to save you. no one will forgive you. your hand will no longer be held as you claim insanity. your outburst for attention will go unnoticed. no one will love you and no one will come. as i don't wish death upon you, that would be too easy. i hope the thoughts consume you and they replay over and over in your head. the thoughts won't stop. i'm sure you heard that paraphrased before. i hope the screams keep you up at night and they cause real hallucinations. you won't be able to write it on paper for the attention that you so badly seek. those four walls become your

home, suffocating in guilt. it will come, i promise you. i'm happy you decided not to be a coward that day and take your own life. i'd much rather you stick around to see what the life you have chosen for. what suffering really feels like and that your significance is not above anyone else. i truly feel sorry for you that you thought this would be a better life choice. so, your honor, i have chosen forgiveness. we live in a world where forgiveness is not deserved but needed. forgiveness. >> that is the mother of madisyn baldwin who was killed at the age of 17 two years ago. you can hear the emotion in her voice there. cnn's jean casarez is in pontiac, michigan, for us this morning. this is going to be an emotional day, jean. >> reporter: oh, john, you know, as the hearings of this

prosecution have gone on and i have been at them, the victims' family members, they are in court, they are silent, they don't say anything. the focus is it completely on the defendant, ethan crumbley, but today is the day that we will hear from the families, those victim impact statements. we are expecting dozens of them and according to the michigan victims crime act, they are allowed to speak for as long as they want to in court. the state encourages that and madisyn baldwin's mother is number one. today is the formal sentencing of ethan crumbley and that is a very important aspect to this entire prosecution, but today is the day for the victims' families. now, if we talk about ethan for just a minute, this is precedent-setting today because he was 15 years old when he committed the mass murder at oxford high school. he pleaded guilty to all 24 charges. under the precedent-setting u.s.

supreme court course of 2012, miller versus alabama, a juvenile shall not be sentenced to life without the possibility of any parole unless he is i incoragable. a minor's mind according to the u.s. supreme court and experts across the country is not fully developed. this is a different situation than an adult being sentenced to the harshest life penalty possible. the miller hearing this last summer, days of testimony and judge roe finally determined that he can be sentenced to the possibility of life without any possibility of parole at all and that will be the finite end to this once the victim impact statements have concluded today. john? >> all right. jean, as you said, you've been there for so much of this, thank you for being there today. keep us posted.

i'm joined by defense and trial attorney misty mares. powerful impact statement from the mother of madisyn and there is more to come. how is the judge going to tender his decision? what are the things that he is considering before making a decision about life with or without parole? >> fred, as we predicted, this is such an emotional day in court because we're hearing for the first time from the victims' families. the judge right now his job is to weigh what's called aggravating and mitigating factors. of course, aggravating factors are going to come from the prosecution, mitigating factors, that will come from the defense. the victim impact statements, another factor that he will weigh. the impact on the victims, the impact on the community because, remember, here there is a terrorism charge. that means the pool of people who can speak today is open to anyone who was in that school. so all of that the judge will take into consideration, but a primary factor, fred, can this

person be rehabilitated? that's going to be something the judge will be laser focused on. >> and, you know, you point to that terrorism charge. i mean, this is very unique. he is the first of a u.s. school shooter charged with terrorism. four students killed at oxford high school as we saw their pictures. he has pleaded guilty. how do you see this potentially influencing the judge as well as those impact statements and hearing from the community of the impact that it has made as a result of what happened two years ago. >> yeah, this is going to be opening the door to many more people who will have the opportunity to speak. this particular statute, wide ranging. adds jean said, no limitations on time. no limitations on the individuals that can come forward. so this is a really large boom. hundreds, if not thousands could be impacted and could speak today in court. so we're not only hearing from those families who lost a loved one, we're hearing the terror and the horror from people who

were in the school that day. so certainly to be a huge you're a judge, you have a job, but you're also a human being. that's going to be something that's going to sway you in the course of the decision-making. >> they will forever be living with those feelings. just as you heard from the mother, it's her thought that he, too, will forever be living with the feelings of the results of what happened. thank you so much, misty maris, appreciate that. we will continue to monitor the impact statements taking place there and will dip in as we learn more. new calls for the university of pennsylvania president to resign after controversial answers about genocide. will her job survive the day?

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all right. this morning the pressure is mounting for university of pennsylvania president liz mcgill to resign. she has faced scathing criticism since her congressional testimony about anti-semitism on campus, most notably failing to explicitly say that calling for the genocide of jews would violate their code of conduct on bullying or harassment. and now the powerful wharton board of advisers, which leads the university's prominent business school, is calling for a leadership change. cnn national correspondent athena jones is following this story from philadelphia. athena, all of this comes after the school's board of trustees held an emergency meeting thursday. what more are we learning? >> reporter: hi, fred. that's right. coming out of that hastily arranged virtual meeting a spokesperson for penn said that there's no board plan for an imminent leadership change, but that's exactly what the wharton board of advisers is calling

for, sending a letter directly to president liz mcgill of the university of pennsylvania saying in part -- they said it on wednesday -- saying in light of your testimony before congress we demand that the university clarify its position regarding any qualls for harm to any group of people immediately. change any policies that allow such conduct with immediate effect and discipline any offenders expeditiously. and this board which is a who's who of business leaders, penn alum and donors alike said that they remain deeply concerned over what they call a dangerous and toxic culture on campus that they say the university leadership has allowed to continue. so that's just one bit of the voices adding insult to the chorus of voices calling for president mcgill to resign. we also know that another penn alumni ross stevens who is the s threatened to rescind $100 million worth of stock that penn holds if mcgill is kept on.

we've been talking to students and people affiliated with the university here this morning. more than two dozen. there is a mix of opinions. nobody want oed to appear on camera but several students said they felt because president mcgill put the university in a precarious financial situation with donors pulling money and this threat of rescinding $100 million in stock it was inevitable that she would be forced to step down, but i also spoke with a couple of pro-palestinian students who felt they were not being well supported by the president and felt that she doesn't step down because she could be replaced by someone in their opinion worse. so a lot of pressure building on president mcgill here at the university of pennsylvania. we will see what happens today. fred? >> all right. athena jones, thank you. keep us posted. john? all right. developing this morning, an alabama woman is under arrest charged with trying to set fire to the birth home of dr. martin luther king jr. witnesses stopped the woman after police say they watched her pour gas on the national

landmark in atlanta. she faces multiple charges this morning. cnn's isabel rosales is outside the house. what's the latest? >> re can you hear us? isabel, can you hear us in new york? all right. hang on one second. >> reporter: all right. fred -- john, sorry for that, a couple of audio issues here. i can tell you some new information that we got from the national park service this morning from historical architect who says thankfully there is no permanent damage to the property here. it doesn't appear that there's any permanent damage, however, there is still a strong odor coming from the property that they are allowing that to air out and then, of course, a big concern is any sparks. so they're keeping any potential sparks away from the property. i do also have new information from an atlanta police department via email telling me that this woman that has been charged with attempted arson,

that she was transferred first to a local hospital here for a mental health crisis evaluation before then being taken over to the fulton county jail. but witnesses here described an extremely shocking scene, seeing a woman, this woman on the porch here of this federal landmark, the birthplace of martin luther king jr. where he spent the first 12 years of his life and then just pouring gasoline all over the porch and on the front door as well. and then we heard from apd that it was thanks to two -- two tourists from utah that were paying close attention, they saw the woman in action try to converse with her and then interrupted her. and then two off-duty nypd officers who chased after her and pinned her to the ground until officers could arrive there and then detained her. but this was certainly a very close call here. a fireman said that these bystanders, these good samaritans, saved the crown

jewel of atlanta. listen to the fire chief. >> it could have been a matter of seconds before the house was engulfed in flames. it was really about the timing and the witnesses being in the right place at the right time. >> reporter: right. and then the king center also put out a statement thanking those good samaritans saying in part, quote, fortunately the attempt was unsuccessful thanks to the brave intervention of good samaritans and the quick response of law enforcement. our prayers are with the individual who allegedly committed this criminal act and that is a 26-year-old woman, she's facing two charges, attempted arson and interference with government property. and since this is a federal property, this of course opens her up to potential federal charges as well. guys? >> precious piece of u.s. history. keep us posted. thank you very much. fred? still ahead, we're watching court in michigan. families of the victims of the

oxford high school shooting giving emotional impact statements. we will go back to the courtroom. and images are circulating of a mass detention by the israeli military. prisoners forced to strip down to nothing but their underwear and blind folds. we're live in israel next.

all right. happening now we are watching the sentencing hearing for the teen aged killer who gunned down four of his classmates in michigan in 2021. we are listening to the victim impact statements, these are family members who talk about what has been taken from them.

the father of tate myre who was killed is speaking right now. >> for the past two years our family has been navigating our way through complete hell. tears filled with pain, they fall like rain. we wear the pain like a heavy coat, constant reminders every day. every hour is the darkest time of the day. i understand from journal entries this was desired outcome. for us to feel the pain that you had. i will tell you this, we are miserable. we miss tate. our family has a permanent hole in it that can never be fixed,

ever. as we fight and claw our way through this journey, we are realizing that we are completely miserable and there does not appear to be a way out, so to this day you are winning. but today is a day where the tides change. today we are going to take ours back. we are all cried out. we are all tired out. we need to take this chip off our shoulder. we've been on this island far too long. we are the prisoner, not you. nobody else can set us free but

us. in life sometimes what you need is exactly what you fear. we fear forgiveness for your selfish acts. so today how hard it is, we need to find a way to start working our way to forgiveness. forgiveness to you, forgiveness to your parents, forgiveness to the school. what other options do we have? be miserable for the rest of our lives and rob our family of normal normalcy? be miserable and rob trent and ty of a normal life filled with friends, their future wife and

kids? be miserable and rob sherry and i a happy life that we worked very hard for and earned? believe me, we will never forget about you, ever. we want you to spend the rest of your life rotting in your cell. what you stole from us is not replaceable. but what we won't let you steal from us is a life of normalcy and we will find a way to get there through forgiveness and through putting good into this world. >> all right. that's buck myre the father of tate myre who was gunned down, killed at the age of 16 in 2021 by a mass killer who killed four students at oxford high school in michigan. these are the victim impact statements that we're listening to this morning. today is the sentencing hearing of legal significance because this killer, who killed when he

was just 15 years old, it is possible he could be sentenced to life in prison without parole, which is very unusual. so we are watching to see what the judge decides. stay with us.

this morning, the fda is on the verge of approving a breakthrough treatment for the sickle cell disease, and it is the first medicine in the united states to allow a technology to allow the scientists to modify the dna of living things. meg tirrell sat down with a young sickle cell patient whose life has been transformed by this new treatment. >> reporter: two years ago it was hard to imagine 2-year-old johnny luben for doing this for long. born with sickle cell disease, an inherited disease that affects his blood, he has been in and out of the hospital dealing with extreme pain and bouts of complications. >> it was hard to have fun, because i would be worried if i would have a pain crisis or not.

it would be mostly in lower back, and it would be like a pounding pain in my back, and so it hurt a lot. >> reporter: how long would they last? >> sometimes days. >> reporter: until now, the only hope for a cure for the estimated 100,000 people in the u.s. with the disease was a bone marrow transplant, but with 80% of the patients with sickle cell, he could not find a donor. >> we were desperate. what is going to be next? we thought that we were doing the lose him. >> reporter: so johnny and his family decided to try something that has not been done before. >> i was worried that i might get like paralyzed or something. >> reporter: and so for a new kind of treatment, johnny is one of the first people in the world to have his genes edited using cri crisper. >> i thought that is cool, and

freaky. >> do you feel like a medical pioneer? >> i feel like a guinea pig. >> reporter: in sickle cell, a genetic mutation causes red blood cells which carries the oxygen around the body to be misshaken like crescents and then they are stuck in the blood cells to be stuck, and crisper allows you to make a precise cut in the dna and then cells are removed from the body to turn on a production of a different form of the oxygen-carrying heem globin and the type that we have when we are babiessh, explains s doctor. >> and so it a hemoglobin process. >> and that is all there is to the process. >> we know that it is going to have more to the oxygen-carrying process, and so it is more than good enough. >> reporter: and so far, it has been good enough. 29 out of 30 patients, including johnny, met the trial's goal and

being free of having a pain crisis for a year of having the treatment. how long has it been? >> two years. >> reporter: tray celebrate the treatment date as the second birthday. >> october 4th is the date of the infusion, and i got the whole new dose of the cells and stuff. >> reporter: and while johnny did not turn into a super hero, what he got was better. >> i am starting to teach him how to drive and that is more to worry about a, and stepping into the regular worrisome of raising a teenager. >> reporter: the chance to be a regular kid. >> he is a clown. my baby is a clown. >> yes, i am. >> reporter: so, they are continuing to follow johnny to see how long it lasts, and the hope is lifelong, but because you to get the cells removed from the body and edit them, there is complications that go with it, you have to have chemotherapy and stay in the hospital for a month, and it is intense to go through, and it is a price tag of as much as $2

million, and the questions are about accessibility, but a huge day for science potentially and medicine. >> indeed. i think that johnny is a super hero with the super human powers, because, look, he has lived all of this time in pain, and he has endured it, and he is an incredible musician, and look at that smile and optimism and the family, too. so super hero family. >> definitely. >> meg tirrell, thank you for bringing that to us. thank you so much. john? >> president biden is set to leave the white house any minute, and the first chance to comment on the new federal tax charges filed against his son, and allegations of hundreds of thousands of escorts and adult entertainment and exotic cars.

first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones