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it's the top of the hour. we are waiting for the white house press secretary to take questions after a morning of drama, really, no other way to put it, on capitol hill, with the president son at the center of it all. three hours ago hunter biden, stunning capitol hill by appearing unexpectedly. lawmakers considering holding the president son in criminal

contempt of congress for not complying with a subpoena to sit for a closed-door deposition last month. a vote before the full house could happen as soon as next week. >> but today the scene in the corridor as biden walked to the scene was close to chaos. it was just a preview of what unfolded when he sat down before the committee. lawmakers squabbling with each other as hunters sat down quietly and silent before then. and moments after it began, it was over, as republican marjorie taylor greene started to speak. the younger biden stood up and walked out, without a word. his lawyer then spoke to reporters after. >> they are commandeering an unprecedented resolution to hold someone in contempt who has offered to publicly answer all of their questions. the question there, is, what are they afraid of? >> let's get the latest from capitol hill reporter melanie, we also have legal analyst and federal prosecutor jennifer rogers to discuss. do we know what led to hunter biden appearing today, why that

decision? >> reporter: the strategy from biden was likely a mix of pr reasons and also legal reasons. hunter and his legal team have been trying to make the point for several months that he is willing to show up and publicly testify for republicans under oath, i might add, and he just doesn't want to sit for a closed your deposition but republicans have pushed back and they say this is not how congressional subpoenas work. he does not get to dictate the terms of his appearance, although several republicans have defied subpoenas in the past. so this showdown really has been brewing for months between republicans and hunter biden, the president son but it really came to a head today when that

surprise, dramatic appearance from hunter biden and it led to fireworks at the beginning of the hearing. let's take a listen to one of those contentious exchanges. >> you are the epitome of white privilege, coming into the oversight committee, spitting interface, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. what are you afraid of? you have no balls to come up here -- >> esther chairman -- >> mr. chairman. >> if the gentle lady wants to hear from hunter biden, we could hear from him right now. -- >> am i not allowed to speak -- >> hold on hold on. >> are women allowed to speak? >> now this hearing is still ongoing, as well as another hearing in the house judiciary committee which is also marking a resolution that would refer hunter biden to the doj for contempt of congress but ultimately, if the full house does pass this resolution which we are expecting to happen as early as next week, it's going to be up to the doj to

determine whether to prosecute the president son. they are already looking into hunter biden over other charges but no doubt, just a remarkable moment here on capitol hill, as republicans pursue their impeachment inquiry into joe biden. >> just when you think you've seen it all. the house also began its first hearing on whether to impeach homeland security secretary mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis, what is happening there? >> so this comes as the impeachment inquiry has really struggled, republicans have failed to come up with a definitive link between president joe biden and his sons foreign business deals and as the search of migrants across the border has become such a big issue, they are prioritizing impeaching mayorkas . i talked to mark green, he's the chairman of the committee and he said it's the first hearing and so far it's a rehash of an investigation that he had been conducting. but mayorkas was not at this

hearing. and republicans were trying to make the case that just because he hasn't committed a crime necessarily, that gross incompetence is still a standard for impeachment. >> democrats a policy disputes are hardly rising to the levels of high crimes and misdemeanors. they see this is a political stunt on behalf of the republicans, so republicans are trying to move quickly on this. this is likely going to be one of a handful of hearings from the homeland committee before they eventually try to move to the full floor. >> melanie, standby. let's take it over to jennifer rogers. i'm curious to get your thoughts on this appearance by hunter biden, really, a surprise. what do you make of that strategy? >> it's interesting, i mean, i don't know what it is, apr or political strategy but i think it's pretty smart as a legal strategy. hunter biden is fighting two criminal cases already, he certainly doesn't want to have a third for contempt of

congress. and i think perhaps jamie raskin said it best in his five minutes or so, talking during the hearing, he has not failed to comply with the subpoena, not only did he show up today but his lawyers have been negotiating in good faith about the appearance since he obtained the subpoena so it would be completely unprecedented for doj to proceed with a criminal case here and i think hunter biden and his team wanted to really put the nail in that coffin, that he should not be criminally charged here, no matter what happens, no matter whether doj handles this as it normally would, or whether they decide to refer this to hunter biden's special counsel, david weiss, for resolution. >> jen, i think we can see, this is an election year, it does seem republicans are not operating in full faith with some of these investigations. but i think we should be clear about the process. it is up to them to determine

how an interview or an appearance goes. i mean if they wanted to be behind closed doors, isn't that up to them just as it would be up to democrats on the flipside, if they were in the majority? >> it is up to them, briana, as far as how they hold their heads but that it comes to the question of whether someone can be criminally charged for contempt of congress. that's not what doj will consider. what they will consider is whether there was good faith negotiations, whether the witness completely blew off the subpoena, failed to negotiate at all, just denied it altogether, as in the case of the two people who were actually charged of contempt of congress, steve bannon and i'm forgetting his name, the economic advisor to former

president trump because they refused to even negotiate at all. when you're looking at the criminal standard, it's not quite well congress gets to have it the way they want it and if you don't comply with their demands, you potentially go to prison. it's a different standard. if you negotiate at all in good faith, at least that's how doj has considered it in the past, then you will not be criminally charged. there is no basis under the set of facts, for hunter biden to be charged. but i think doj will, as they always do, take a referral from congress and give it some thought at least, before coming forward with their decision. >> i think it was peter navarro you were speaking about. i just wanted to google it before i said. >> sorry. >> no. it was peter navarro. >> thank you for your perspective. let's expand the conversation with someone who was in that hearing, joining us is california democratic congressman robert garcia, he's a member of the homeland security committing. obviously there are proceedings in place that prevent hunter biden from doing a hearing then

and there but what message do you think he was sending by actually showing up today. was this a publicity stunt? >> let's be honest with the fact. the truth is that hunter biden is agreeing to testify publicly on numerous occasions, and the head of the committee, james comber, continues to refuse. james comer isn't calling for a public testimony , house democrats, we agree we should hear from hunter biden. we were all ready for the public hearing but they refused to allow this to happen. so obviously, hunter biden came today and he was ready to answer questions and he wants to let people know that he wants to publicly testify but the republicans aren't interested in that. they are interested in this complete sham, political stunt, in the impeachment process that absolutely has no evidence linking hunter biden and his business dealings with president biden and the white house. so we've got to be clear about

what happened today. republicans are only interested in creating as much chaos and dysfunction as possible. >> you do write the rules when it comes to a determination on how an appearance is to take place, though, it's up to them, even if comber initially said he would do it publicly and now he wants to do it privately, it's still up to republicans on the committee. >> it is, and i made a motion in the committee, when it was my turn to speak, to actually hear from hunter biden directly, either today, or at a future hearing. and they rejected that motion, so they could have at that moment, accepted a public hearing which we want to have, which hunter biden himself wants to have but they are not interested in that. let's remember who's driving the car here. this is all about marjorie taylor greene, on day one of president biden's inauguration, she filed an impeachment motio n

on his very first day in office, so this is her impeachment fantasy, this is donald trump's impeachment fantasy come to life, where they are upset to do whatever they can to ensure that they stop president biden and try and have this revenge fantasy of donald trump and marjorie taylor greene. so we are hoping to having the sunshine in and the hearing but they rejected it once again today. >> republicans argue that hunters testimony would help prove wrongdoing by president biden which the white house has denied. i want to be clear about this. republicans have not shared any direct evidence that joe biden profited off of these business dealings when he was in office. they do, however, point to witness testimony that hunter sought to enrich himself based on axis or the illusion of access to his father. can you say with 100% certainty that joe biden wasn't aware that hunter was doing that? >> absolutely, i mean there is zero evidence linking president biden to any sort of wrongdoing. hunter biden is going through a judicial process right now.

obviously, he's going through a serious process and he will deal with that as a civilian but at the end of the day this is about what president biden, what he's doing, and his vision for the country and this is all a political sham to essentially hurt president biden and try to reelect donald trump. and they have in fact said as much, marjorie taylor greene has said as much, we've got to be honest about what's actually happening today. and what the american public wants is transparency. what's more transparent than having hunter biden actually ask questions in front and answering questions of both republicans and democrats. >> to that point, republicans are pointing to these messages allegedly sent by hunter biden about chinese businesses and he mentioned specifically in an email, a 10% cut for the big guy. do you believe the big guy is joe biden, shouldn't that be investigated? >> first of all, the judicial process moving forward, absolutely not.

let's be clear once again, republicans have produced zero evidence linking the president to any wrongdoing. and in fact, republicans, over and over and over again, in the house, outside the house, across the country, are saying themselves that there's no evidence, so the one thing there is bipartisan agreement on is that there is no evidence linking the president to any sort of business dealing or wrongdoing. but hunter biden is going through his own judicial process and that's when the information will come out. but republicans are more interested in these clowns show political stunts. they do it every day. we are facing a government shutdown over the course of the next week. >> lastly, the efforts not only to impeach biden but key members of his administration including secretary mayorkas over the record number of migrant encounters that we saw in december, do you believe that mayorkas has been

derelict in his duties to protect the southern border? >> this is ridiculous. again, who's leading the effort? marjorie taylor greene, so you can go back to marjorie taylor greene, essentially being the leader of both of these sham impeachment efforts. here's the reality, the real issues along the border, the president recognizes this and democrats understand this. we want to send more resources to border patrol agents that need it. we want technology along the border. we want to help the nonprofits that are working along the border but you know who rejects every single one of those republicans -- proposals? the republicans. the president has proposed millions of dollars to help the borders, that's been rejected by the republicans because we actually don't want solutions on the border. they want to turn into a political talking point for donald trump and we are happy to have a debate on the border. we want to have that debate. we propose funding but they are not interested in any of this. this impeachment idea is a

marjorie taylor greene creation, and everything she's doing at this point is completely not, so we've got to take it for what it is and try to get the business done for the american people. >> we will have to leave it there. thanks. former president trump lawyers had discussions with the judge presiding over his new york civil trial on allowing the president to speak tomorrow during his closing defense. we have learned that the judge indicated he does not expect trump to speak in court because trump failed to comply with the judge's precondition terms. katelyn, what were those precondition terms? >> the judge made it clear. earlier today, we did learn the full story that trump's lawyers had said to the judge in new york, we want him to speak, he wants to speak and address the court for a closing argument,

really unusual for someone who's the defendant to do that and the judge said, yes, and at that time, and documents we just got from the court, the judge wrote, he may not seek to introduce new evidence, he may not testify, he may not comment on irrelevant matters, in particular and without limitation, he may not deliver a campaign speech and laid out to his attorneys, those are the rules, and if he doesn't follow them, i will cut him off, i can do a bunch of things. and then in the documents we just got, there was a back and forth, where the attorneys weren't willing to agree to these terms because they said, trump wasn't willing to agree to these terms. they tried to bring the death of melania trump's mother into this and try to postpone the closing argument. they asked the judge, we are not meeting the deadlines, can

we postpone the arguments, he won't be in court tomorrow and the judge said, those are the terms. i'm not going to move the closing argument, if he wants to be there, he can. his attorneys came back and said okay, he will speak tomorrow. and they still wouldn't agree to these terms that the judge is setting, so at that point, that's when the judge said, that's i t, you can either take this offer that i'm giving you as the judge, or leave it, you have until noon today, so that's today, to tell me if he agrees to this. they never responded, according to these documents. and so now the judge is laying it down and saying, it's over. you didn't agree, and so, he's not going to speak. >> to be clear, there are rules for what you can and cannot say in a closing argument, they are just asking him to abide by

them. >> yeah, and this isn't a situation where one side is trying to get the other side to abide, it's the judge's courtroom, whatever the judge says, goes, and what's interesting about this, too, is there are legal possibilities where he can appeal, try and claim the judge was unfair to him but the judge is specifically indicating nbc mills with his lawyers, i'm going to put this in the public record so if you want to add this to what you are saying in your appeal against me, you can, but he lays out, under the law, where he says, these are what my plans are, you can either agree to them or not, take it or leave it, and apparently they didn't take it. >> you have to remember what the former president was intending to say, if it was a team that -- they were going to appeal anyway. >> our understanding from the sources that i was talking to earlier, along with christian homes and other reporters was that it wasn't that trump himself was interested in abiding by certain restrictions it's that he didn't want preconditions placed upon him before he was about to stand up and speak. i mean we know he speaks off- the-cuff.

>> facing several gag orders. >> in this case included. still ahead, for the very first time, nikki haley and ron desantis are facing off, one on one, on a debate stage. everything on the line in iowa as both candidates try to become donald trump's number 1 challenger. plus secretary of state blinkin warning there will be consequences for the continued attacks in the red sea. this comes after the u.s. navy shut down 21 missiles and drones on tuesday. and in his first address since the midflight low out on an alaska airlines flight, boeing's ceo acknowledging a mistake was made that contributed to the situation. we will have the latest on the investigation, coming g up.

tonight, nikki haley and

governor ron desantis are going one-on-one for the first time. the two hopefuls will be sparring in des moines iowa, doing it right here on cnn in the final republican presidential debate before the first ballots are cast. can you call it ballots? >> they are technically ballots because they use pieces of paper. so i guess those count as ballots. >> okay, so that's what they will be doing ahead of the ballots being caught -- cast in the caucus. front runner donald trump, he did qualify for tonight's debate but he is once again skipping it. >> it doesn't seem to have heard him much in the polls. we will see if that changes before monday as we take a live look at the debate stage. you see our cnn team getting it ready and shipshape. these two rivals have a final opportunity to make their case directly to islands about who should be the last trump challenger standing. mark, the latest i will pull,

trump has almost 6 in 10 support in the hawkeye state. desantis is in second, leaving haley by nine points. is there much haley can do at this point to catch up to desantis? and is there much desantis can do to catch up with trump? >> i think on both counts, there's possibilities. iowa is famous for making decisions very late and very quickly. think about rick santorum, ted cruz, mike huckabee, all surprised at the last moment. so, you know, this has been a pretty stable race thus far but historically, lots of things can happen, so i expect just not spark tonight but flamethrowers. >> i think you are right. what are you watching for and how much of an impact you think it'll have? >> the thing i'm looking at tonight is, is there going to be this viral moments that allows someone to search.

new great -- newt gingrich had that and he surged. could one of those to have the breakout moment that really starts to move the needle and you know, i agree with mark, voters are starting to really pay attention. there will be a lot of people looking at this which is why former president trump is also doing his own thing concurrently because he wants to slow down the eyeballs, he wants to make sure that no one gets too excited about his potential opponents here. >> is there any particular demographic or geographic area in iowa that you are watching to be an indicator of how well donald trump will be performing across-the-board and other primary locations? >> the thing about iowa is the have evangelical voters and he's had a dynamic and problematic history with those voters on the way they vote has changed over time. they have come to adopt donald

trump despite and because some of his struggles, but, that's always what we look at in iowa, is where are the evangelical voters going? could that provide a search for somebody like vivek ? the traditional notion is there are three tickets out of i will. >> does anything that happens in i, and we're talking, if someone does poorly, if they drop out, how can that affects what happens in new hampshire, in a big way? >> well it can absolutely affect it, first of all, someone will get momentum coming out of this, someone will try and say that they are the alternative to donald trump, and if nikki haley were

to finish second, rick santorum is basically over, he would likely get out of the race and allow haley to have her one on one shot. and so, the same, haley wants to get as close to second as she can, a strong third, it would be fine because she's bedding all her cards on new hampshire and south carolina. so momentum really, really matters, and a bunch of candidates are going to go away the next morning, people like asa hutchinson, and probably vivek and other folks who aren't going to get one of the three golden tickets. >> thank you so much for the perspective. look forward to watching tonight. and for folks at home, don't miss it, cnn's republican presidential debate live from iowa, the fun starts at 9:00 eastern, right here on cnn. so we have details on the hospitalization of the defense secretary lloyd austin, we are learning senior white house officials actually push the pentagon to release a statement on the secretary's hospitalization. much more on the fallout of

that straight ahead. plus the secretary of state arguing that there will be consequences for houthi attacks in the red sea. this as the u.s. navy and great britain shoot down one of the largest attacks yet. stay tuned.

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>> listen, they have time constrictions, they need to know where the moderators are going to be, there are a lot of lights pointing on them so it's nice to have a moment to acclimate to what the stage is going to be like so that maybe they cannot think too much about that. they can think about what they want to say to caucus goers. >> all eyes will be on nikki haley and ron desantis as they try to cancel each other out. we will keep an eye on this and bring you the latest from iowa but we do want to post to the white house because we are learning that senior white house officials actually asked

the pentagon to release a statement on the secretary of defense, lloyd austin, and his hospitalization and the pentagon is still facing questions about why it took so long to inform the white house and other security leaders that the defense secretary had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance. >> oren, tell us what is happening at this point? what is the pentagon doing to make sure this doesn't happen again? >> reporter: the key effort there is to make sure that this 30 day review of notification procedures is moving forward, that was ordered by the defense secretary's chief of staff to make sure this doesn't happen again. a situation where austin is in the hospital for an extended period of time, he was under general anesthesia when he came in and though there had been a delegation of responsibilities, no one knew that he was under general anesthesia, it seems and it took days the second time when he went back on new year's day, for others to find out, including president biden. and we also learned from

officials that when he went in, after he had been in for several days, and word started getting out for example, the president only found out after he had been there for three days that the national security advisor and the white house chief of staff urged the pentagon to make a public disclosure. it would still take another 24 hours for that statement to come out late on a friday evening. meanwhile the pentagon pushing on that, he said on the afternoon of january fourth, the chief of staff immediately engaged, drafting of a public statement. this was part of a coordinate effort that involved multiple stakeholders to include the white house. the problems will continue to come to light. it's obvious what a problem this was in terms of the failure of notification and on top of that, nobody knew that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in early december until effectively, yesterday.

>> thank you so much for that. we continue to follow that out of the pentagon. it's one of the largest attacks yet, by iran backed houthi rebels, the u.s. naval -- maybe shooting down missiles and drones and the secretary of state is warning that there will be consequences for these attacks. plus owings ceo now acknowledging a quote, mistake, after alaska airlines terrifying midflight incident where the door plug blew off as the plane was in the air with the ntsb, what they are saying about that comment, that's ahead on cnn news central.

a quick update for you now from the white house, where the

press secretary was giving a briefing to the press and was asked about hunter biden surprise appearance before the house oversight committee today. he didn't appear to answer their questions but he showed up during a hearing, without members being aware that he was going to be there, at least according to the members. let's listen to what karine jean-pierre said a few moments ago. >> was though white house informed that hunter biden would show up on the hearing today? >> hunter is a private citizen, he's not a member of this white house. he makes his own decisions. like he did today, about how to respond to congress, so i would refer you any further questions, any questions about this process, i refer you to hunter's representatives. >> so we are following

escalating tensions in the red sea right now. the u.s., defending itself against what the secretary of state called the biggest attack yet iranian backed militants. the pentagon reporting houthi fires launched a barrage of weapons from yemen and the u.s. navy responded. they shut down 18 one way attack drones, cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile. the uk ministry of defense says it's guided missile assisted the u.s. and released these images today. and today a military spokesman for the houthis said that it was targeting the u.s., specifically in response to an attack last week when american military helicopters sank three houthi boats . a short time ago, the secretary of state had this to say.

>> if these attacks continue as they did yesterday, there will be consequences. again, this represents a clear threat to the interest of countries around the world and it's important the international community come together and this bond. >> let's talk more about this now with cnn military analyst, retired colonel cedric leighton. why is this attack that we are seeing, different than other ones? >> i think one of the big things is the way in which they put everything together. you've got 18 drones that are going one way, their sole mission is to blow up the things they are targeting, then you have cruise missiles and one ballistic missile, so what this means is they are coordinating their actions, so this has all the hallmarks of guiding the houthis which allows them to put these coordinated attacks together.

>> when we hear something has gotten bigger, you know, this is the biggest attack we've seen yet. when you look at the broader zone of conflict here, and we have these concerns about this escalating into a broader conflict, what are you keeping an eye on? >> keeping an eye on all the different things, especially not only in the red sea but also, what's happening in gaza of course, what's happening in the northern border because hezbollah is sitting right up there, plus, what's going on in the west bank but there's a broader picture to look at as well, and that's what's happening in places like iraq and iran, where the you as can get heavily involved in what is going on in iraq, and plus there's the domestic issue that iran seems to be dealing with, with isys and the other different regime challengers that are out there in iran, so all of this, it's really an explosive tinderbox and it

could very well become quite a major issue for us on several different fronts. >> you mentioned gaza, let's take a look, this is the idf in gaza. let's take a look at the damage analysis that we are seeing. all of the red is the damage from the war, we see them in the south, you are seeing that the concentration of course is in northern gaza around gaza city there. as israel is entering a new phase in the war, what are you looking toward and do you think that we are going to see a lot more red on the map or is that going to be minimized? >> one of the key things to think about with this map is the red stuff is everything that occurred until december 24th. the yellow stuff, these yellow dots, that is new damage that occurred up to january fifth. so we are going to see a lot of yellow and red and all of these different areas, of course, as you pointed out, what happened in the north was really the

first thing that the israelis concentrated on but notice what's going on, even today we have a lot of reports from the israelis, that there are attacks going on here, that they are concentrating their efforts in all of these different areas and the idea here is to root out the remnants of hamas, as they have moved from the north into the central part and into the south. so i think in all of these different areas, you are going to see attacks, including in the south right here which is right along the egyptian border. >> there's a lot of yellow there and that's just here in the last couple of weeks. center, thank you for taking us through that. the ntsb expanding its investigation after that in- flight blowout with a door plug on an alaskan airlines flight. this is happening and you have owings ceo telling employees that the company is s acknowowledging ththat mistakek what i is the mistake,e, thougu we will l discuss that, nenext. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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> closed cacaptioning b brou yoyou by gelt. the contractor that builds the boeing 737 max 9 fuselage say it's now part of a federal investigation into the alaska airlines midflight blowout. this is the top safety investigator probing the incident is cautioning against allowing the plane model to fly again. >> we know what broke. we need to understand how it broke. but i would recommend that they not put those back in service until they absolutely no how this occurred. that will tell them what inspections need to take place and what repairs need to take place.

yesterday during an all staff safety meeting, boeing ceo acknowledging what he calls a mistake that contributed to the door plug ripping off of the plane. for now the faa says it owing to keep most boeing 737 max 9 jets grounded because the inspection plan needs revisions. what more are you learning about where this investigation stands and what that mistake is that he is referring to? >> the developments keep coming and the mistake is an interesting way of phrasing this. alaska airlines just announced that it will not fly it's 65 boeing 737 max 9 's through saturday so we will likely see more cancellations and impact as a result of the blowout. the max 9 remains grounded across the united states as airlines await instructions that have been mandated by the faa and we also just learned spirit aerosystems is now part

of the investigation. that's the contractor that builds the fuselage for boeing and we are now hearing from boeing ceo dave calhoun for the first and only interview since alaska flight 1282. he acknowledged yesterday in a closed-door meeting with boeing employees that boeing made a mistake but he did not say exactly what the mistake is and now he is qualifying, in a cnbc interview he says it was the door plug coming off that was a mistake. i want you to listen to what calhoun told boeing employees during the closed-door meeting yesterday. >> i've got kids. i've got grandkids. so do you. this stuff matters. everything matters. every detail matters. we are going to approach this, number one, acknowledging our mistake. we are going to approach it with 100% complete transparency every step of the way.

>> still a very controlled media message from boeing. one question investigators will ask boeing is whether or not they had previous problems with the door plug, that's the part on the left side of alaska 1282 that shot off with an x elusive bang. this is a door visible from the outside of the plane. what is critical here are the bolts. that essentially keep this part from shooting off. both alaska airlines and united airlines say they discovered loose of alts as they prepare for these faa mandated inspections, united noted possible installation problems. today boeing ceo calhoun said the tolerances on the bolts are measured in millimeters, not centimeters and this unnamed mistake should have never escaped its quality control. >> to be fairly precise if they are looking at millimeters, not centimeters. thanks. today hunter biden made a surprise appearance on capitol hill and then made a swift exit. we will follow new reaction on this and just moments.