saying there are sleep trackers that can give you some information. things like the fitbit, apple watch, the treatment band can give you ideas about the sleep trends, but those specifically measure sleep fragmentation. but both of them said the important thing to try to improve this is to identify any potential underlying causes. if there's something going on like sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome, you need to get treated. otherwise tips we hear about for improving sleep. >> relaxing bedtime routine is on the list. i have four kids. >> new year's resolution. work on it. >> thank you. "cnn this morning" continues right now. donald trump asking the supreme court to overturn the colorado ruling that took him off the ballot in the

insurrectionist clause. this is the u.s. constitution. this is the supreme court that's the final word on what it means. nikki haley and ron desantis days to go before the caucuses. >> i don't play for second. i never have. >> 2016 it was a lot about america first. now i think it's more about trump first. >> courtment documents. >> donald trump, nothing yet is a blockbuster. but there's more to come. >> house spieaker mike johnson and dozens of lawmakers visit the southern border. >> they see what has to be done. they try to hold up those dollars. this is not about sending more money. it's about changing a policy. good morning, everyone. it's the top of the hour.

>> poppy harlow is off today. the supreme court now has an extraordinary decision to make. can a state remove donald trump from the ballot. >> trump is now appealing the highest court in the land after colorado's top court ruled he engaged in insurrection and was disqualified under the constitution. now in trump's appeal, they argue the ban does not apply to the presidency. they say congress, not judges, should decide if a candidate is eligible. trump's lawyers insist january 6th was not really an unsur recollection. trump told supporters to be peaceful during his rally right before the march and attack on the capitol. here's part of the speech his lawyers skrieted. >> everyone will be marching over to the capitol building. to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. >> in their appeal, trump's attorneys point out he never told supporters to enter the capitol even so the supreme

court ruled that trump did incite violence to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power during his january 6th rally. here are the specific remarks that justices highlighted in their ruling. >> we're going to walk down to the capitol. you'll never take back our country with weakness. you have to be strong. >> with fight like hell. if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. we're going to try to give our republicans the weak ones, because the strong ones don't need any of our help, we're going to try to give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. so let's walk down pennsylvania avenue. >> so the nation's lawyers have been waiting with what this appeal would look like. let's break it down with elie honig. let's start with the appeals

officially has been filed. what does it tell us? >> i'm going to insist we start with the 14th amendment itself because we have to start with what grounds us. it tells us no person shall hold any office who shall have engaged in insurrection or given aid to the enemies thereof. we are learning now a lot more about how this works. let's look at the arguments now that donald trump makes in his brief. we have a case now trying to get trump inflthrown off. the first argument, there was no insurrection and trump did not engage in any insurrection. now this is really not for the supreme court. this is largely for show. the supreme court does not rehear trials. i they don't make their own independent findings of tact. this is not going to be the basis ultimately for the decision. the second point that trump's team makes, it is up to congress to tell us how to enforce the 14th amendment, not the states.

the states can't use different procedures to go about this. in support of that, donald trump's team cites section 5, which says the congress, that's the u.s. congress, not the state legislatures, shall have the power to enforce legislation or provisions of this article. that's the second. argument number three, trump argues there was no due process meaning what was done in colorado they didn't follow their own procedures and the hearing with some witnesses, some hearsay omitted. this is not enough due process for me. i wasn't given a fair chance to defend myself to make my case. the process itself was unfair. is and then trump's fourth argument is that the president who does not qualify for purposes of the 14th amendment, the 14th amendment says it applies to senators, representatives and officers of the united states. we wonder how that could be. here's another part of the

constitution. this is the impeachment part. it says the president, vice president, and all civil of officers, so the argument is the president must be different from all. it doesn't say other. they argue these are two different things. it worked in the lower court of colorado, so we'll see. those are the main arguments. >> trump's legal team in a different case said he was an officer. all eyes on the supreme court. there's no precedent here. do we have a timeline of when things may happen? >> first of all, the supreme court give lines. they will rule on this whenever they like. now they can rule at any moment. it's important to note four justices are needed to take a case. you only need four to take the case. we should be on moment by moment notice. >> elie honig, we have a lot more to get to in the days, weeks, months. >> stay with us. >> we appreciate it. less than 11 days to go

before the first in the nation ballots are cast in iowa. tonight ron desantis and nikki haley will participate in back to become live town halls hosted by cnn in des moines. that's where we find steve contorno. give us a rundown of the strategies. >> reporter: trump's rivals are spread out. there's a sense of urgency from their supporters they need to do more to take on donald trump head on. with 11 day ss to go, the windo closing for donald trump's top rivals to make their case to republican voters before the iowa caucuses. florida governor ron desantis on the ground wednesday in iowa. >> it's great to be back in dallas county. >> trump's grip on the party will first be tested. and former south carolina governor nikki haley delivering her pitch to voters in new hampshire. both candidates in a frantic push to emerge as the leading

alternative to the gop front runner. stepping up their attacks of the former president on the campaign trail. >> i do worry. i don't think he could get elected in this country in spite of what i they say. >> chaos follows him. you know i'm right. chaos follows him. and we can't have a country in disarray and a world on fire and dpo through four more years of chaos. >> they are also facing criticism from some voters that they haven't hit trump hard enough. >> i have articulated all the differences time and time again on the campaign trail. i think what the media wants is they want republican candidates to just kind of smear him personally and do that. that's just not how i roll. >> reporter: superpac supporting desantis and haley spending millions on the air waves. ignoring trump and exclusively attacking each other. >> in a world of chaos, the last

thing america needs is another dumpster fire. >> nikki haley, questionable judgment. >> they are leaving a lane for chris christie who are is rejecting calls from haley allies to step away. the soouch pac supporting him releasing a a new ad attacking his opponents for refusing to take on trump. >> don't mention his name. don't criticize him. don't do anything. i can't standby and silently acquiesce to that. >> during a campaign stop in new hampshire wednesday, haley pressed by one voter if she would support the constitution should trump pick her to serve as vice president. >> i don't play for second. i never have. i'm not going to start now. >> and yes, we will always follow the constitution. that's the best part about our country. we have to protect it. >> entrepreneur vivek ramaswamy also spent wednesday in iowa. the race here is really

intensifying. the ad wars have as well. $115 million has been spent on the air waves. interesting development lately. nikki haley is actually outspending ron desantis here, which is a state he really needs to do well in. >> looking forward to tonight. thank you so much. >> also this morning, hundreds of new court documents have been unsealed in the jeffrey epstein sex trafficking case revealing new details in court depositions. the names mentioned again in those court filings, prince andrew, donald trump and bill clinton. and more than 200 other names are expected to be revealed. epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial. shimon prokupecz joins us now. these three names have been mentioned before. have we learned anything new? >> you're right. these names are not new. they are going to be in these dlts, it's important to note the names that we have learned, everyone in there has denied any

sort of wrong doing. what this essentially does is that it reveals some of the relationship between jeffrey epstein and these individuals. >> reporter: documents finally released. the first batch of court filings pertaining to the jeffrey epstein were made public wednesday. the documents stemmed from a civil defamation lawsuit brought in 2015 against epstein's former girlfriend. prominent figures including prince andrew and bill clinton and donald trump included in a 2016 deposition of a former employee of epstein. she says in the document that she and epstein had had a conversation and said one time that clinton likes them young, referring to girls. when asked if clinton was a friend of epstein's, she understood epstein had dealings with clinton. clinton has not been accused of crimes or wrong doing related to

epstein and has denied any criminal activity. but in 2019 he admits to having flown on his private plane but knew nothing of the terrible crimes. he also recalled a time she was with epstein on one of his planes and pilots said he needed to land in atlantic city. jeffrey said, great, we'll call up trump and go to -- i don't recall the name of the casino, be but we'll go to the casino. she says she never gave a massage to trump. this was the first reference to donald trump, but he's not accused of any wrong doing. >> right now, the only person who has been prosecuted is a woman, who certainly should be behind bars, but it's interesting the network of all these men who have been trafficking young women for decades and yet the only person that's been prosecuted is a woman. there are many other people that

should be held accountable as well. >> the drmt documents also contain excerpts of depositions taking a virginia roberts who are previously reached a settlement in her sexual abuse lawsuit against prince andrew. alleged in her deposition that maxwell directed her to have sexual contact with people, including former governor bill richardson, prince andrew. and attorneys said in a statement on wednesday she has consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence. this is the first set is of documents to be unsealed under a december 18 court order with more expected in the coming weeks. the documents are expected to include nearly 200 names, including some of epstein's accusers, prominent business people and politicians. and later this afternoon, we are expecting to see more documents released by the court. everyone that has been named so far in these documents has

denied any wrong doing. >> thank you. breaking this morning, a deadly strike hits a pro-iran base in baghdad. details on the attacks as fears grow. right now, a manhunt is underway after new jersey mom was shot and killed outside a mosque. what officials are saying this morning.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ breaking news out of iraq, a

pro-iran militia base was hit by a drone strike in baghdad killing a top commander and another fighter. it's unclear who ordered the strike. militias have been ramping up attacks on u.s. forces in iraq and syria since mid-october. cnn's paula hancocks joins us now. if we can just start with what we know and get a little into how this gets wider attention in the region. >> reporter: we do have new information this coming from the iraqi military spokesperson saying that it was, in fact, a drone attack that carried out this what we are seeing in the footage. pro iranian militia base in baghdad being targeted. what we are hearing from the iraqi side as well is that they consider it a blatant violation of the sovereignty of iraq. now there hasn't been an admission of who carried out

this strike and it's not clear who carried it out, but it's according to that spokesperson who believes that the u.s. coalition, no comment from that side. this point they called it also an unjustified attack, but what we have seen in recent months, in fact, since is those october 7th attacks by hamas is a significant number of attacks by pro militias against u.s. targets in both iraq and also in seyria. is and there has been a significant increase in those attacks. so at this point, we are awaiting comment as to whether or not this was from the u.s.-led coalition. it's certainly what the iraqi side believes. >> come here. >> . >> this comes a day after the

deadly blasts in iran, which comes just a day after a top hamas official was kill ed in beirut. so alling to, there was definitely a concern that these worries have a wider conflict in the region. something that europe and many others december blat plattly do not want to become more likely. so with every event that happens, every incident like this inevitably the concern will increase. >> paula hancocks, thank you. you want to bring in kevin live at the white house. the various elements, the various threats that are occurring right now in a region where the u.s., the president have tried extremely hard over the course of the last 8 to 9 weeks to prevent an escalation, what's the level of concern right now? >> i can tell you that it is a high degree of concern. this has been ongoing since this conflict began. really what is underlying the fears is this any wider conflict

could potentially draw the u.s. in further. more directly to this conflict in the middle east. and when you see this con influence of events that paula was laying out there, the ass sass nation of the hamas leader, this blast in iran yesterday, you do see these elements all contributing to the growing fears of a wider conflict. when it comes to what happened in iran yesterday, we did hear from senior administration officials that this sort of bears the markings of isis and not necessarily israel, but they acknowledge it is nmysterious what happened there. but the greatest fear that you hear from administration officials is in the red sea, in the houthi attacks on commercial and merchant vessel this is are trying to pass through, certainly, yesterday we did hear stronger language from the administration releasing this joint statement along with 11 other countries warning the houthis to call for an immediate end to their attacks and warning

that the houthis would bear speedometer of the consequences should they continue to threaten the global economy and free flow of commerce in the critical waterways. what we heard from officials is that vooid president biden did task his team with coming up with an effort to bring in his allies to try to put out a more forceful statement on the h houthis because the u.s. has stopped short so far of directly targeting the houthi rebels in yemen. the options do exist on the table. and president biden eventually will have a decision to make whether to take some sort of preemptive action against the rebel group, take out some of the drone and missile sites causing so much havoc and d disrupting commerce in the red sea. so far his effort has been focused on this maritime coalition of countries who are trying to beef up security through u.s. warships, but just last week, we did see the first

direct engagement between the when a helicopter shot and killed some of the boats. so the tensions are ratcheting up. one thing an official said is this would be the last warning to the houthis going forward. certainly, there are tensions ever present in that region. >> great reporting. thank you. also this morning a manhunt is underway for a gunman who shot and killed a man in new jersey. he was shot several times. he was rushed to the hospital. officials do not know what m motivated the shooting. members of the community are devastated. they say he was a beacon of leadership in gun violence. investigators are now searching through video to try to spot the assailant. they are asking members of the public to come forward with any information. the house speaker and other republicans visited the u.s./mexico border and saw the migrant crisis first hand.

could this help the stall talks? we're going to show you the shocking video of a man leaping over a court bench and attacking a judge. you see itit there.

house speaker mike johnson blaming president biden for what he says is is a disaster at the southern border after crossings surged to a record high. johnson traveled to eagle pass, texas, wednesday with 60 house republicans where they toured border facilities and spoke with local residents is and officials. >> the trip is happening at the same time negotiate irs are

attempting to strike a deal on border policy is measures to critical aid to ukraine and israel. some house republicans say it will support any deal that have the restrictions they passed last spring. we have team coverage this morning. lauren fox is live with the latest on those talks. but first ed lavandera is in eagle pass, texas. you were there. you were on the ground. what did lawmakers see and have to say about their visit? >> they toured the border area here in eatgle pass, which has become one of the main focal points. now he had met with local officials. at one point as the group of lawmakers was walking along the area, there were two groups of migrants that crossed the river in the very areas where they were standing. it was a little strange because there's so few border crossings in recent days here. however, in december there were

staggering numbers according to oklahomaland security, there were 225,000 illegal crossings here along the border in the month of december. numbers that we haven't seen in more than 20 years. because of that, these republican lawmakers on the ground trying to ratchet up pressure calling for a return to some of the trump era policies that they believe helped control illegal immigration in the u.s. this is some of what they had to say yesterday afternoon. >> it's to go back to the policy this is work. it's our legislation. more of the solution is simply i think one sentence. no money can be used to process or release into the country any any migrants. >> how do we fix this? we end catch and release. how do we fix this? we deport people that are here illegally by the thousands, not by the dozens. >> reporter: what is also interesting is i spoke with several of the republicans who

were here yesterday. many of them saying that they believe if they do not get what they want in the border security bill that's being negotiated by senators, they will had support shutting town the government here in the weeks ahead. many democrats very call of what they are calling for. they believe these ideas will really influence a lot of the illegal immigration and what we did not hear a lot from yesterday is any kind of willingness to accept immigration reform or to negotiate on that as well. >> ed lavandera, that tees us up perfectly for lauren fox in washington, d.c., where there's been bipartisan talks in the senate. at this point, especially with red lines being laid out by the speaker and top republicans in the house, what is the path forward? >> reporter: yesterday was an incredible con influence of

events. they started out the day announcing they were going to move forward with the impeachment of the homeland security secretary. then they were onned the border. you saw many of them that they are starting to draw this line that they are not going to accept anything, even if senate negotiators could come up with a bipartisan agreement that is short of their house passed immigration bill that they move through the chamber last may. now we should note that even if they were trying to move that bill again, if it included funding for ukraine and israel, it's unclear where the votes would come from to actually get that across the minnish line. many conservative who is like that bipartisan funding worth be supportive. so it's a really interesting

position, be it show yos that mike johnson is really starting to stick with these conservatives, making it clear that hr 2 is the position for him as well. here's what they said yesterday. >> the reason we have insisted on the provisions of hr 2, which is the bill we passed seven months ago sitting on chuck schumer's desk, the reason we have insisted upon that is each of the provisions worked together to secure the border. and what we see here is absolute mayhem. >> the only we're going to get this done is in a bipartisan way. when house clings to hr 2 as the only solution, we're not going it get a deal. >> reporter: you can imagine the comments coming from house republicans yesterday really are going to have an impact on senate negotiators' ability to true to find a path forward. they are already having a hard time finding a compromise. house republicans signaling they won't accept a deal from the senate makes thats process even harder for them. >> no question about it.

thank you. harvard's ousted president issued a new warning about what happened to her in a "new york times" op-ed. she writes, as i depart, i must offer a few words of warning. the campaign fwens me was about more than one university and one leader. this was merely a single squirmish in a broader war to pillars of american society. college campuses in our country must remain places where students can learn, share and grow together, not spaces where proxy battles and political grand standing take root. >> her resignation after weeks of pressure is a strategic win and a sign of things to come in conservative's war on higher education. tweeting, a reckoning is come ing for higher education. the tweet linked to an editorial from "the new york post" calling for more of harvard's board to resign. >> the conservative activist who spear headed the ouster bragging in a "wall street journal" op-ed

about the effectiveness of his pressure campaign. laying out the strategy conservatives should follow in the future and highlighting renaissance diplomat's controversial writing as a guide to help them wield power. joining now is political commentatorer scott jennings and bakari sellers. can i get your reaction to yet another university chief stepping down. >> i think this is more nuanced than people give it credit for. this entire episode, i have said this before, i had an immense problem with the way the university presidents handle d the hearing. i think not being able to answer questions is a huge problem. and one that has to be dealt with. if you are able to talk about the process whereby professor gay was ousted from harvard, we

can't help but see the racial an mouse and overtones in this. you can't help but see the attack on higher education. this is even more troubling. can't hp but see the complicity in mainstream media. when you have institutions platforming and giving him ab interview and giving him a q&a, that's not journalism. what we're seeing is that someone -- this wasn't an attack from her peers. this wasn't an attack from other colleagues who had a problem with her utilizing their words without the proper sites because it doesn't rise to level of plagiarism. this is the right wing conservatives attacking another black woman in authority if people have to call it out as such. i'm sorry she had to be that individual. she did not help herself in this cause, but we have to be on high alert at our institutions that

this is come asking that day of reckoning is going to be something you have to fight against. >> can i buld off something bakari, which us is feel like you can say plagiarism is bad. the response on genocide at the house hearing was bad. and yet the credit and the banging of the drum and declaring of war that some conservatives are pursuing right now is not great. >> i kwifl with the phrase war on higher education. i think it's a war to reform higher egs. what you see is the conservatives have a long had concerns ab about the way these institutions are being run, are we actually having academics on these college campuses or more about other things. and the case of the professor, she became a focal point not

because of anything conservatives did to her, but what she did to herself. conservatives didn't invent time travel and make up plagiarism instances and conservatives certainly didn't cause her to sit in front of the american people and the united states congress and fail to unequivocally condemn genocide. that's not anybody's fault but her own. i would say in the case of heaarvard. this is our flagship university. heaarvard is our national flagsp university. the president of that university has to be held to the highest standards in terms of both morals and values, in tropical storms of condemning anti-semitism, but academic rig deport. when the plagiarism issues popped up. to ever say that we won't hold the our president to the same standards that we would hold our students. >> we want to let bakari jump in and respond. >> two things. we actually refer to harvard as

morehouse of the north. it's not the greatest academic institution. this is when we have to draw the line. i cannot sit here on national tv and allow individuals to attack the credentials and the academic record is and the professionalism of clau dean to get the position. because that's what this conversation has devilled into. this black woman didn't dezeser it in the first place. had when we go down this path of saying she had a thin academic record to begin with, she was overly qualified. she was just as qualified as the 30 people who came before her who just all happened to be white. and so that is the -- when we begin to talk about racial an mouse that creeps into this conversation, you have the hearing. and yes, you have the issues of citations, which were ginned up by the right wing, we can deal

with that. now we're at this point where they are saying this black woman didn't deserve this job in the first place. i saw this message that was full of just i can't use the word because it's too early in the morning on live tv, but it was full of that. and when you have people questioning diversity, equity and inclusion and then question the record of this black woman, we have to draw the line and say that's the game we're talking about being played. she didn't cause that on that part on herself. we have to root that part out of the conversation. >> bakari sellers and scott jennings, thank you so much. up ahead, new research suggests hearing aids could help you live longer and our crews are on the ground in the city that was the hardest hit by japan's earthquake. >> it's hard to believe it used

to be a tourist hot spot. people would come here tone joy the town and the market that i'm standing in now. after a very powerful earthquake struruck the prerefecture onon year's's day, thouousands werer forceded to leave.e.

a nice morning in new york city. this morning a new study suggests that hearing aids might do more than help you hear

better. it says you can even live longer. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is here to explain. millions of people in the u.s. have hearing loss. they can actually live longer if they wear their hearing aids. >> that was the headline of the story. this is really interesting study they looked at. first of all, just quantifying how many people have hearing loss. the numbers, they surprised me a little bit, but you're looking at adults in the united states. about 30 million adults have hearing loss. the problem is the next line there, which is less than 15% of people actually use hearing aids. and there's all kinds of reasons for that which we can talk about. the study tried to say let's follow these people along. people have normal hearing vs. people with moderate hearing loss. you see what happens to them over 20 years. and take a lock here. take a look at this graph. the top line of this graph

really so 24% lower risk of death if you have hearing loss. but take a lock at this graph. the top line is basically normal. that's normal hearing loss. even with mild hearing loss, that's the red line in the middle. there's about a significant increase in mortality there. when you get to severe hearing loss, the mortality goes up even higher. that was pretty remarkable. this is an association, so it's not a cause and effect, but you can see a very clear pattern starting to emerge there. with hearing loss, you increase mortality. then what if we add hearing aids into the mix there. if we add hearing aids, how much of an improvement in mortality can you have and you saw that number briefly, but a 24% reduction in mortality over 20 years if someone has regular use of hearing aids. and regular use of hearing aids

was really critical here, not intermittent use. sometimes people use it intermittently. that didn't have as much of an impact overall as regular use of hearing aids. so it's the first time i have seen the study where you have had such an impact using hearing aids alone. >> do they know why this might be? >> it's interesting. people who have hearing loss, we know from previous studies they have increases in dementia, increases in depression, low er physical activity, they are more isolated, they have lower quality of life. all those things probably play a role here. it's not entirely clear which of those plays the biggest role. people with hearing loss also have fewer inputs actually going into their brain. and what happens then? could certain areas of the brain start to not function as well as a result of those decreased inputs, we don't know.

but it's probably a combination of those factors. >> can i swing back to something you said in the first answer. what accounts for a low rate of hearing aid use? >> yeah, this is sort of interesting. i think it differs among different people, but there seems to be three drivers of this. for a long time, cost. these things are expensive. lack of awareness. that means people not realizing they have hearing loss, not getting their hearing tested. and then finally stigma around hearing aids. back in 2022, the fda approved hearing aids to go over the counter and that might help address the first and third causes. and costs come down as a result of seeing all these new hearing aids. but if you look all the them out there, they are sleeker and cooler and less intrusive. that might decrease stigma. bottom line, get your hearing tested.

this isn't is just old er peopl. this is people 20 and older in these studies. all adults, but 20 and older. many of them had undiagnosed hearing loss. >> it's a fascinating study. i'm very struck by the study and all the numbers. thank you very much. for more than 30 years, the world has been captivated and frustrated by those little falling blocks. tetris was the first by nintendo in 1989 and had been a video game staple for kids and adults ever since. and now for the first time in the game's history, it has been beaten. >> oh, my god. oh my god. i can't feel my fing rs. >> that is a 13-year-old tetris

prodigy. we're going to tell you more. not even half the age of tetris. had a high score when he reached level 157 on the original version of tret tetris. it was long believed to be the kill screen where the game freezes due to its coding. but that couldn't be proven until now. you can see there the game is stuck. he said it's the simplicity of tetris that he loves so much. it's easy to start but hard to master. i think it's safe to say you are the master. >> take the win. now on to other news. jury selection is underway in the trial that could end the career of of the nra's long leader. the allegations are impacting the national rifle association as a whole. that's up ahead. ghislaine maxwe.

. shocking video show the

moment a defendant violently attacked a las vegas judge in the courtroom. she was in the middle of sentencing a man for attempted battery with substantial bodily harm and suddenly he runs towards the bench, leaps over it and begins attacking her. the judge did suffer injuries and her condition is being monitored. the court tells cnn redden's request for probation has been denied jury selection underway in a trial that could end the career of the nra's long time chief wayne lapierre and transform the nation's largest gun rights group. it stems from a 2022 lawsuit against him and three other nra executives accusing the organization of decades of corruption. >> they use millions upon millions of dollars from the nra for personal use, including for lavish trips for themselves and their families, private jets,

expensive meals. >> that was new york attorney general letitia james in 2020. she is seeking to oust lapierre. they have denied wrongdoing, lapierre saying this is an unconstitutional premeditated attack aiming to destroy the nra. the nra is well governed and committed to good governance. "the new york times" highlighted sop revelations in recent years that will be front and center. he was a regular at a boutique in beverly hills where he spent $40,000 of nra money in an outing, build $250,000 for travel to, among other places, palm beach, florida, reno, nevada, the bahamas, and lake como. he said these are legitimate business expenses. the nra has seen power decline in recent years.

they raised $213 million in 2023, half the 2016 total and lost over a million members since corruption allegations were leveled against lapierre and others in 2019. that was first reported by our next guest who has been extensive reporting inside the nra and intraorganization wars taking mace over the course of the last several years. he is firearms reporter from the reload.com. i am a regular reader. i wanted to talk to you about this because i remember following you on twitter going to conventions back in 2019 and seeing just how much the organization had changed and also how wayne lapierre always survived despite the push back inside the organization. is that survivability about to come to an end? >> yeah, it very well may because these allegations in the new york trial are significant

and the nra has mostly sidestepped the efforts to reform the organization. i mean, they have made some changes, but lapierre is at the center of most of the corruption allegations and he is still effectively in charge. he survived to this point. but he may not any belonger. >> in charge of what? that's my biggest question. when i was coming up in washington they were everything in lobbying, everything in campaigns, not because they had a ton of money, they did, but because their membership could be activated and motivated at the snap of a fingers. i don't know what they do anymore. >> yeah. i mean, that's actually a very big question. and the fact that they have seen this tremendous recession in membership does have an impact on their political effectiveness, i think. you saw the first major federal

gun law passed in 2022 while they were in the midst of all of this chaos and, you know, they were a big part of why donald trump was able to become president in 2016. they were one of the only outside groups that spent a lot of money on his behalf and motivated their supporters to turn out to vote for him. and with this election coming up where he is still a frontrunner in the republican party, the fact that the nra won't be able to build that sort of movement again is probably going to be very significant. >> do you have a sense of when wayne lapierre is no longer the head of the nra, is there somebody who fills that vacuum? obviously, there were the battles in 2019 trying to get him out, people considered potential frontrunners. who would replace him? >> yeah, that's another golden question because lapierre and allies have effectively gutted the institution of any opposition. there was chris cox was the head of their lobbying arm, the

institute for legislative action for years and years and years. he worked closely with the trump white house and he was ousted by lapierre and allies during this fight in 2019 and there really isn't a figure like that left at the nra. it is very top heavy at this point with lapierre being the one who drives pretty much everything that goes on there. >> stephen, as this trial begins, what are you going to be watching given how closely you have covered all this? >> yeah. i mean, i am going to be watching what the ultimate outcome is going to be. the judge has taken off the dissolution of the organization, which is what the attorney general wanted. she has also been a political opponent of the group. removing lapierre. if that happens, you know, it's unclear exactly what the nra will turn out to be after this. it shrunk so much. but it's still very large, still very powerful in the scheme of things when you compare is to other groups in the space. and with new leadership perhaps they put in different reforms.

they are not spending so much on legal fees and all the costs that come along with that and maybe they can come back to the point that they had been in the past. >> yeah, it will be fascinating watch play out. the membership, 4 million is still a lot of people and a lot of people who dropped off are supportive of the causes. fascinating to see. thank you for taking the time. we will be following this with you throughout the next couple of weeks o. "cnn this morning" continues right now. i'm phil mattingly. poppy harlow is off today. nikki haley and ron desantis are going to face iowa voters tonight in cnn town halls. why haley says new hampshire republicans need to correct the hawkeyes. and the first batch of the jeffery epstein documents are unsealed. what it reveals about his relationships with former presidents bill clinton and donald trump. should donald trump be allowed to run for president