the warmest years on record for central park, newark, theist lip area, miami, new orleans, san antonio and houston. you guys were scorching under record-breaking heat. the fingerprints of climate change combined with an el nino season all working together to create that extreme warmth that's brought the lack of snow. hopefully we'll change that this weekend. >> fingers crossed. for our kids. thank you. appreciate it. "cnn this morning" continues right now. the former president's legal team appealing the decision that keeps him off the ballot in maine. >> they are attacking arguing she was a biassed decision m maker. >> this case is crying out for the supreme court to get involved. two weeks until the iowa caucuses and three candidates will qualify for the iowa debate. >> voters do not care that trump is not participating. ron desantis is and nikki haley

fighting it out for second place. >> the reason that she is hasn't executed a strategy that does better is they are not sure there's one available that will work. >> his base is growing more loyal as the criminal charges stack up. a major blow hamas a strike has killed one of its senior leaders. >> we have seen promises of veng and condemnation. >> this is the kind of thing the biden administration has been worried about. this is a tinderbox right now. good morning. it's the top of the hour. this morning, donald trump is fighting to get back on the ballot in maine insisting he's not an insurrectionist. in his appeal, he accuses maine's secretary of state, a the democrat, of making biassed decisions to disqualify him over the january 6th attack on the capitol. also nikki haley and ron desantis, trump's top presidential nomination are heating up attacks on him on the

campaign trail. they are not attacking him on january 6th. it shows less and less gop voters think trump is responsible for the riot. >> a new "washington post" poll finds 14% of republicans believe he has a great deal or good amount of responsibility. that's a drop from 27% just two years ago. today nikki haley will be in the early voting state of new hampshire while ron desantis focuses on iowa. their big push comes 12 days before the iowa cut cusses as trump continues to dominate the polls. we have a countdown clock. steve joins us live to start off the hour from iowa. we all are aware that it is almost time. nikki haley and ron desantis out with ads targeting one another, taking swings at trump last night at their town halls. are we seeing movement on the ground before the caucuses? >> we'll find out in 12 days whether or not these caucus goers are moved at all by these

overkrurs. they have decided that they cannot overt by attack trump on one of his biggest vulnerabilities, the january 6th riots, these ballots and instead they have defend him. in fact in the last couple weeks, they would pardon trump if it got to that point. here's one area they have challenged trump on. his decision to not show up to any of the debates. ron desantis and nikki haley will appear at our cnn debate next week just ahead of the iowa caucuses. trump will not be there. he will be holdingen counterprogramming on fox news. here's what desantis said about trump deciding to duck the debate once again. >> why shouldn't he have to answer questions? he's running on things like deporting illegals and building a wall, but he did that in 2016 and didn't get it done. i think he owes answers to those questions. he's not been willing to do that. obviously, if you go by polling, it hasn't hurt. now that we're in the new year,

voters do expect them the to answer those questions. i think iowans expect you to show up and debate. >> desantis will be right behind me at this community center in waukee, iowa, later today. he will be trying to convince iowans it's time to move on. and this is a character sflau and it shows that he's not ready for the challenge of going up against president biden and carrying the mantle for the republican in another election. >> steve live in iowa, thank you. ron desantis and nikki haley take questions at the town hall moderated by kaitlan collins. they are live tomorrow night star starting at 9:00 eastern. new development this is morning in former president trump's battle to stay on the ballot in maine. trump formerly appealed to the superior court tuesday to reverse the decision by the democratic secretary of state who determined trump is an insurrectionist and is

constitutionally bar red from appearing on the primary ballot. trump's team argues that she is a, quote, biassed decision maker and has no jurisdiction. zachary cohen joins us now. can you tell us a the little more detail about the president's legal appeal when it comes to maine? >> absolute isly. the trump team is attacking the secretary of state accusing her of being biassed and saying she doesn't have the authority to make this decision to remove him from the ballot. we have to remember that maine is unique in that the process dictates that the secretary of state is the first stop for questions about whether or not someone can be taken off the ballot. from there, if appealed, it goes to the court, which is what we're seeing happen now. in maine the argument that trump is submitting here is he's attacking somebody at the core of what the secretary of state's decision was at. he says i'm not an insurrectionist. he refutes that point out right. that's really at the center of this section of the 14th amendment that has really not

just been the reason that the decision was reached in maine, but also some other states as well. they have 20 days until they issue their decision. from there, it would go to the maine supreme court which has until the last day to make its decision. >> do we have any sense of what the appeal will have in terms of process? >> absolutely. if and when trump does athe colorado decision, which is similar to the maine decision and why it removed trump from the ballot, it would jump the maine decision in line. it would be because it would go directly to the supreme court and what any decision by the u.s. supreme court would be the final decision on this issue. the supreme court will take up this case. there's been mounting pressure for them to do so as states have been litigating this on their own and coming up with a variety of different views and opinions on it.

some officials are calling the supreme court to add clarity to the situation with the election looming so close. >> one more thing. you arcticulate this immunity claim from the trump team and kind of how they are doubling down on it. >> so this is the one overseen by jack smith and relates to donald trump's alleged crimes in that case. donald trump is defending himself by saying i should enjoy absolute immunity. and the presidents should be protected from any criminal the prosecution on acts they committed or or took place while they were president. this is a really controversial argument that jack smith himself has forcefully pushed back on. trump reiterating that everything he did in the aftermath of the 2020 election he was doing in his official capacity as president. therefore, should not be able to be prosecuted for it. >> zachary cohen, thank you. president trump aims to win back the white house despite facing 91 criminal indictments

and countless controversies. "the washington post" is really interesting deep dive into how trump reignited his base and took control of the primary. trump turned them into a rallying kriel christ. the opposition failed to coaless around a sipg the message or challenger. it's been more professional and disciplined than the past. joining us now is the national political reporter for "washington post." one of the three by lines on a very good piece this morning. also with us is former trump communications director. thank you so much for joining us. i was fascinated with this piece because i don't think people remember when trump announce d that he was running, it was not at a moment of -- it was not a pinnacle moment. the mar-a-lago room was half empty. people didn't think he had a lot of juice coming out of the midterms. what changed? >> right.

it was an unusually weak moment for him politically. the room wasn't half empty, but it was padded with the front row joes and the other maga super fans. what you were missing is republican elected officials or major donors, who were staying away. then you have to remember the first thing he did after launching was have dinner with kanye west and say he wanted to terminate the constitution. so things did not get off to a great start for the trump campaign. and you probably wouldn't have predicted that this is where they would be now. so is a bunch of things changed. one is that the trump opposition within the party was counted of all pinning their hopes on desantis. he took his time getting into the not million may. trump used that to pummel delasantis and started bringing down his poll numbers and reminding republican voters what they liked about trump. and the other big factor you and steve were talking about what

the other kapds with respect attacking on. and throughout 2023, there was a lot of money spent on polling and focus groups with republicans what would work, what messages could actually be effective in attacking trump and they didn't come up with a whole lot. that's parking lot of the problem. even side by side comparisons in policy positions, trump supports this, this candidate supports that. these focus groups, that back fired on the other candidate was the voters viewed that as an attack on trump. >> i want to bring you into this conversation because there is this cop certificate issed effort to put more senior staff around trump. but this campaign is different in terms of who is around him. a lot of people and i have heard the people are more sophisticated.

>> in the sense these are professional operatives who had great success. they know when to reel him in, when donald trump says things line liening into he's going to be a dictator, they know to walk him back. i don't want to oversate this notion he has a sophisticated team around him. beyond the two individuals, it's probably a mishmash of folks that have been clinging to him or those that stayed after january 6th. those two individuals know that keeping trump out of the public eye is actually the best thing they can do he's not out giving huge rattle ilys at the way had hefgs in 2020. we're going to see that tick up. he's not on twitter. he's not giving big sit isdown in interviews. so i think the public is forgetting the chaos and the crazy of trump. that's reflecting some of the poll numbers we're seeing in how

much he's surpassing his challengers. the more that people see him, the more they remember the best operative in the world can not convince him to not be his own worst enemy. so that's what we're going to see in the first quarter of this year. >> i think that's almost, wait, we're going to draw him out more and build that contrast. i was struck when ron desantis had a candid moment where he acknowledged in his mind, his race changed after the da hush money payment indictment. you hear that from a lot of officials anecdotally. is that what you found or was it kind of what you're talking about, this to nuke desantis. nz. >> if you look at the polling trend lines, you can really see the beginning of april is where trump started to climb. and the campaign used that to

pressure other republicans elected officials to defend trump ands endorse him. the other effect on the primary voters themselves was a lot of them wanted to support trump buzz of those indictments. that actually brought people back to hum. >> help me understand the other candidates' thinking in not being able to find a way to critique the former president on this issue. >> that's an important point that the trump team is saying. we earned this place of him being back in the 234ur8 one spot. i would say that's because his challengers didn't take him out directly enough. ron desantis really dragged his feet and directly challenging trump and trying to make this generational argument. >> we heard earlier that chris christie has made this his soul campaign. they lock at that and don't see someone rising. >> the problem is you alienate

folks who still like trump. nikki haley is leaning into it now, but the problem is it maybe too late. if after 2022 the disastrous midterms for republicans, we didn't perform anywhere near we were supposed to. the red wave didn't materialize. if they said donald trump is destroying this party, it's time for a new generation of leadership. but also he's unfit for office. we all remember when we saw on january 6th. we just stauck to that messagin. >> they leave out that second part. then it becomes this defense end enforcement. you can't go full christie or full haley. >> i think it's what creates the space for the three years to the day since the january 6th attack. this new poll showing that fewer than 18% of republicans say the protesters were mostly violent, dipping from 26% in 2021.

7 in 10 republicans say too much is being made of the attack. it's time to move on. we're telling ourselves that based on our conversation, but when you look at these numbers based on your reporting, the dynamics to this race, does that surprise you at all? >> it's stunning how much they have increased since the event. and that's a reflection of not only trump, but right wing media figures and a lot of other republicans who have taken up the cause of the january 6th defendants, who have spread misinformation or made excuses for what happened. and just normalized idea of what happened either wasn't so bad or it didn't at a all. that's how you're seeing in that poll republicans really split off from the rest of the country in their views of something that we all watched in realtime. >> if i could just add, i think

this is also a direct result of elected republicans just lying to the public on january 6th. we know what kevin mccarthy said after. i'm done with trump. he bears responsibility. slowly within months, he's inching back into kissing the ring in mar-a-lago. you had elected republicans spread conspiracy theories about how it was feds that promoted it. that's where we are. i don't blame the public for believing their elected officials when they lie to their face, but everyone they saw, this needs to be litigated. >> everybody knows what they have done to that point since then. thank you. it's a very good story. i urge people to read it. a u.s. official is confirming that israel carried out a strike in lebanon that killed within of hamas' senior leaders. the concerns being raised about the conflict expanding in the middle east. audio from inside the passenger plane that went up in fl flames. what it's revealing about the

moments before the deadly collision.

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with qualifying internet. brand new overnight, a u.s. official confirmeds israel that killed a senior hamas leader. the strike happened yesterday at this office building in southern beirut. officials say two other leaders

from the military wing were among the four killed in the strike. joining us to discuss is fareed zakaria. talk about the significance of this particular moment. >> it's fairly significant both on the positive side and the negative side in the sense that from israel's point of view, this guy was a key hamas leader. he was probably the deputy leader of hamas in many ways very important in the military strategy. also he was extremely important and crucial liaison between hamas and hezbollah, hezbollah being the militant group in lebanon closely tied to iran. so he was sort of like the ambassador of hamas to hezbollah and iran. now that becomes particularly

crucial now because hamas is losing north mouls power and capacity and it's in the best wang. so it's going to rely on its support and that's probably what it was-and-a-half good faithing and negotiating when he died. >> we have been hearing that the biden administration didn't necessarily have advanced notice here. i want to play for you something from retired general mark hurtling who was on last night and had this to say about the strike. >> this is the kind of thing that the biden administration has been worried about. they have been trying to repress any kind of expansion of this conflict and this strike in beirut against the hamas leader is not going to help that at all. >> what does this say about this relationship right now? >> yeah, so that's when we get to the others it has positive

and negative aspects. it clearly complicates the biden administration's effort to keep this conflict contained. the benjamin netanyahu administration has been trying to expand the conflict. apparently, it was about to strike hezbollah or at least do strikes within lebanon and the biden administration prevail ed on the government not to do that. the reason for that is because if there are strikes in lebanon, there's a danger they will retaliate. there's a danger that iran starts retaliating. iran has many allies, including the houthis, who have been using drones to impede shipment in and out of the gulf. so the whole thing could get much messier. what the biden administration has been doing is trying to tell israel to focus on hamas, focus

on gaza, destroy the military power structure there, this is a dangerous move. i can see the advantages for israel. this guy was critical. everything will depend on how hezbollah reacts, how iran reacts. israel has september a signal saying it's focused on a war against hamas, trying to csigna to hezbollah that we're not trying to fight you. we're trying to fight hamas. will hezbollah take it that way or view it as an attack on their territory, one to which they have to respond. there's also the other complication, which i'm sure israel has thought about, which is hamas might respond in its own way and still has many, many israeli hostages. i would imagine that israel thought hard about that before launching this strike. >> when you talk about everybody is waiting with baited breath to see how hezbollah is going to respond.

but the strike also occurred at the same moment the u.s. has been engaged in quiet talks with lebanese officials trying to figure out some way to create circumstances that would incentivize hezbollah not to get involved no matter what. does this undercut those efforts? >> it cuts them. the biden administration has been trying to say, look, you have to use a certain amount of military force to respond. we get that. let us try to do everything we can diplomatically and politically to contain the conflict, to stop it from escalating, to provide palestinians withment some hope of a negotiated path for their political rights. so far, the israeli government seems to be pocketing the support and resisting all the pressure. there are some minor achievements the biden administration can point to. humanitarian aid going into

gaza, but given the level of american support, remember as ab israeli journal i-will say, every bullet being supplied by the united states. given that level of support, the biden administration must be frustrated that it has so far not really been able to have much impact on israel's decision making. >> thank you so much. be sure to watch fareed sunday. harvard's president is stepping down. we'll speak to reporters who broke the news. and bob menendez hit with new corruption allegations the gifts the new jerseyey senator allegedldly accepteded from qat.

harvard's president is stepping down after only six months on the job. he made the announcement yesterday following a fire storm of controversy. she also faced fierce criticism

for her testimony atten anti-semitism hearing where she and other ivy league presidents failed to call out genocide on campus. >> does calling for the genocide of jews violate rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no? >> it can be depending on the context. >> what's the context? >> targeted at an individual. >> it's targeted at jewish individuals. >> a resignation letter to the harvard community is in the best interest of harvard and noted, quote, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitment to confronting hate and upholding psychological larcenily rigor, and threats fuelled by racial an mouse. joining us now is harvard's reporters. they broke the story, they broke the news of her resignation

yesterday. just to be clear, you are also studying harvard at the same time. and i know just a few days ago, the crimson editorial board was saying, quote, we still have faith in our president as a scholar because we regard her. plagiarism is limited and unintentional and recognize that a stopgap would bring chaos. we do not believe she should resign. the scenario has nowment colt to pass. has this surprised you? >> what we know from our re reporting over the last really three months is that yesterday's decision is not out of the blue. there have been allegations of plagiarism that have been building over the last month. and really, the ongoing crisis this leaders have faced since their initial response to hamas' attack, they haven't gotten past

that. so while we didn't know that it was going to happen yesterday, this response is something that the signs have been there for awhile. the calls from congress, from students, from faculty, from really everyone in the harvard community, to some degree, has been building for a long time. >> your reporting said that gay has face d external pressure to resign. cam listed a number of voices, but were some more powerful than others? the board, donors, what really made the difference? >> i mean, there are definitely a variety of people at police here. there has been financial pressure on the university. we have talked to people who said that officers have been receiving numerous calls from donors either stopping or reducing their donations. so definitely donations have been played somewhat of a role.

major donors who had formerly donated $270 million to harvard medical school, recent ly announced he was pausing donations. again, tension on the board, tension from faculty, it all plays a role. overall, it cullminated in her resignation. >> cnn spoke with harvard law professor last night to get his reaction. i want to play for the two of you what he had to say. >> president gay and harvard university have been the victims of misleading narratives. one, the misleading narrative regarding her supposed indifference to anti-semitism. she said over and over and over again that she finds any instances of anti-semitism personally hasabhorrent.

she said that over and over. second of all, harvard university has been said to be -- people have said that anti-semitism is rampant at harvard university. not true. people have said that her work has been saturated with problems of scholarly integrity. not true. >> he was defending a number of things there, but for you as students, does this kind of comport with how you think about harvard? >> i mean, there are a lot of people who after the decision came out expressed it was unfair, both the former president's statement and the corporation statement both alluded to the impact of race on a lot of what has happened to harvard and president gay over the last few months.

i think the claims that these allegations of plagiarism that the broader narrative have been driven by ulterior motives is certainly something that a lot of people believe. the initial claims of plagiarism, the activists that brought them to light made it very clear it was supposed to damage the presidency. certainly, there are a the lot of people who feel that way. there are others who feel this is the right decision. so it's a mixed bag among a affiliates. >> thank you so much for sharing your reporting. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. we do have breaking news. we're learning that the house homeland security committee will formally begin impeachment proceedings against the homeland security secretary, he joins us live, next.

a federal appeals court in texas just ruled that doctors are not required to perform emergency abortions. what this means for women who need one, ahead.

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we have breaking news just into cnn. the house homeland security committee will formally bin impeachment proceedings against dhs secretary. lauren fox join us now from washington, d.c. what details do you have? >> reporter: we are learning more information in this new year, the house republicans are planning to forge ahead with an impeachment against the secretary of homeland security. obviously, this comes the at a really complicated political moment for house republicans and for the congress at large. that is because right now, there's bipartisan efforts in the united states senate to try to reach some kind of framework agreement that could actually

improve border security along the u.s. southern border. those talks have been going on for weeks. while they don't have an agreement yet, they are trying to reach one in order to pass this larger supplemental pa package, which would include funding for ukraine and israel and money for the southern border. but this dynamic now that the the house republicans are planning to moouch forward with this impeachment proceeding, it shows you just how hard it is going to be. even if the senate can reach a deal to get that deal through the house of representatives. so right now, this is a complicating dynamic as the senate is continue ing those efforts, and they are in washington today trying to find an agreement on that bipartisan border security proposal. >> lauren, thank you so much. joinings now is homeland security secretary. we appreciate your time. this was not planned this way, but since the house republicans

have telegraphed they wanted to move in this direction or planned to, now appear to be doing so, away what my colleague was talking about is the critical point here. you are so deeply engaged in the border negotiations that are going on in the senate. does this undercut any possibility of getting it on to house floor? >> i certainly hope not. thank you so much for having me this morning. yesterday i joined the bipartisan group of senators who are negotiating a solution to a much plagued, broken immigration system. i was very privileged to participate in that. before i did so, i was hard at work in the office with my colleagues addressing the situation at the border and addressing the many other challenges that the department of homeland security confronts. of after i participated in those negotiations, in provide ing

technical and operational advice to the bipartisan group of senators, i returned to the office perform the work of the department of homeland security. we have a broken immigration system that is the one single fact about which everyone agrees. and our administration is focused on solutions and we're really pleased to join a bipartisan group of senators who are similarly focused on solutions. >> is there -- i think the questions i have had over the last couple weeks is even if you guys reach a deal or if the senators reach a deal and you have been providing the technical assistance at length over the course of the last c couple weeks s there any commitment that house republicans move forward on an agreement if it gets 60 senators, especially when the speaker and dozens of his colleagues will be at the border today talking about this issue. >> well, when they are at the border, they are going to see the magnitude of the problem and why we have said now for about three decades that our broken

immigration system is in desperate need of legislative reform. so we are focused on solutions and we hope that they will return to washington and focus on the solutions as well. >> are you communicating with house republican leadership, with the speaker office right now? >> right now, i am focused on providing the technical and operational advice that the bipartisan group of senators have asked me to provide. i feel very privileged to do so. not only are we doing that to advance the negotiations. we're very focused on them, but we have also submitted this administration has submitted a package to congress for additional resources to plus up the number of border patrol agents, to plus up the number of asylum officers, immigration judges, to infuse our system with much-needed resources. >> to that point, we talk a lot about what happens if the

ukraine aid runs out. are you at risk? is dhs at risk without this national security supplemental package of running out of funding and what happens in thats case given how stretched the border and the government is at the border right now? >> we will not have the re resources to perform our jobs as fully and completely as we could do so. is and that would be a very sad state of affairs. we need additional resources now. ask that is why the president submitted a supplemental funding package quite some time ago. we need additional personnel to advance our security at the border. we need technology to advance our fight against fentanyl. we need additional asylum off officers to really accelerate the asylum adjudication process, so people are not waiting six years before they receive their results, which is, in effect, a

pull factor. the factor that people can stay here for six is years before their case is ajdjudicated is a powerful example of how broken our immigration system is and has been for long. we have a backlog of cases of about 3 million in immigration court proceedings. that has been building year over year over year for decades now. >> i want to get to the specifics of the border crisis and the issues you have been dealing with or stretched to try to deal with. have you closed out any issues in the bipartisan negotiations? and do you feel like the issues that we have been talking about over the course of the last couple months raised incredible standards, expelling migrants at the border, would that have a tangible reduction at border crossings? >> so i'm not going to get into the particulars of the negotiations. i will say this.

the negotiations have made substantial progress. they are focused on solutions. they are focused on solutions that will deliver results and improve a broken system, including and very importantly, a broken asylum system is. >> when we talk about numbers, abc news is reporting over 300,000 border encounters in december. cnn reported 225,000 apprehensions. these are record numbers. this has been a continuous transported line right now. is there anything on the e executive authority side that you haven't done that can stem these? >> we are focused on the fundamental solution to a long-existing problem. that fundamental solution is legislation. we have taken actions already to build lawful pathways to deliver consequences and do what we can. we promulgated regulations to do what we can within the confines

of the law, but fundamentally, the law is must change and this is something about which everyone agrees. and that is quite rare when one is speaking about immigration. >> it's about the only thing on immigration that anybody seems to agree with on some level. on a personal level, you have been in this job since the start of the administration. you take heat on a lot of issues. you have a massive agency that draws heat on everything you do. the idea of impeachment proceedings starting, does that affect you at all? know you work and will continue to do the work, but what do you think when you see that? >> i come to the office every morning. i am surrounded by incredibly talented and dedicated people. it is extraordinarily motivating to see the work they do to

witness firsthand their se selflessness, their talent, their tireless dedication, many sacrifice a tremendous amount. that's what i think about. and i'm incredibly proud to work alongside them and to support them in advancing the mission of the department of homeland security on behalf of the american people under president biden's leadership. that's what i think about every day. and i'm incredibly proud of coming to work every day and leaving the office as late as it might be having done the work with such is extraordinary people. >> last one before i let you go. you have been engaged in bilateral discussions in mexico. prth critical discussions that mexican officials will come to the started to implement up to this point? >> so, phil, we've started to see some results. these are not results that occur on the flip of a switch i have

an engagement with my counterpart with panama later this week. the issue of migration is a regional one and requires regional solutions which is why secretary blinken, homeland security advisor randall and i and the delegation was in mexico and why i will be traveling there again and will be traveling in other parts of the hemisphere to address a regional solution to what is a regional challenge. at the same time, with respect to the interest of the united states and our southern border, most particularly it is congress that must act. and i am hopeful that the bipartisan group of senators will achieve a legislative solution that the entire congress will pass and we will see reform that has long been needed. >> secretary alejandro mayorkas, appreciate your time, sir. thank you. >> thank you, phil. with uncertainty surrounding

abortion access, research shows thousands of women are stockpiling abortion medication just in case they need it in the future. we will dig that the data next. g

against democratic new jersey senator bob menendez after a revise the indictment reveals accusations of him helping a second foreign policy ceo, qatar. federal prosecutors said he accepted race car tickets and bribes in exchange for political influence to connect the qatari royal family to a friend, a new jersey real estate developer, fred davies in securing a major investment in a qatar fund. prosecutors point to the defendant's attending an event hosted by qatar are you's government in 2021 and say menendez got an email with a computer screen filled with photos showing luxury watches worth up to $23,000 with a note that said, quote, how about one of these? >> menendez was indicted last

october on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of the egyptian government. now, that stemmed from a raid on the couple's home in september where gold bars, cash, and a menendez were found. this indictment suggests after that raid the couple tried to cover up their actions and repaid tens of thousands of dollars worth of bribes in the form of payments for a home mortgage and a mercedes-benz. >> a federal you a peels court ruled that doctors in texas are not required to perform emergency abortions and the decision comes in a case where the state had sued the biden administration arguing against the 2023 federal emergency medical guidelines. >> with the fate of medication abortions in legal limbo, research found this uncertainty led to thousands of women requesting medication abortion pills in case they need them in the future. meg tirrell joins us now. i don't think people necessarily grasp the full second, third,

fourth order affects of this post-roe v. wade world. what has it done in terms of demand near? >> yeah, absolutely. so we know that medication abortion is the most common form of abortion in the united states, accounting for more than half according to data from groups that follow this. these researchers looked at data from aid access, a telehealth provider of medication abortion by mail and they looked at these advanced provision orders. folks ordering this in case they need it. they have been providing this since september 2021 but looked at the impacts around the leak of the dobbs decision, that first spike you see there in may of 2023. they found daily orders for advanced provision medication abortion pills went up by tenfold from an average of 25 day before the leak of that decision to almost 250 orders a day after that. that started to come down a little bit after the actual decision came out, but then in

april of 2023 when there was lot of legal uncertainty around one of the medications, mifepristone, those orders started to spike again. since september 2021, they say there have been more than 48,000 orders for advanced provision of medication abortion pills. of course, these patterns have changed a lot with all of the legal uncertainty. >> is there any sense of where demand has been the highest? i heard reports of people trying to get medications from mexico. i don't know if it's certain states? >> yeah, actually they looked at all of the states based on the status of abortion access. what they found is that the states where there was a lot of uncertainty, future bans were potential or expected, that's where they saw the biggest spikes during the periods of uncertainty. they looked at the characteristics of the people who were ordering these advanced provision orders and found that predominantly wealthier white over the age of 30 and didn't

have other children, which they suggested reflected some structural barriers. >> thanks so much. and "cnn this morning" continues right now. >> when they are at the border they are going to see the magnitude of the problem and why we have said now for about three decades that our broken immigration system is in desperate need of legislative reform. we are focused on solutions and we hope that they will return to washington and focus on the solutions as well. >> today house speaker mike johnson heading to the southern border putting pressure on the white house over immigration at the same moment house republicans forge ahead with steps to impeachment secretary homeland security alejandro mayorkas. >> also, former president trump appeals the decision that kicked him off the maine ballot for engaging in insurrection. he claims the process was, quote, infebruary th