totals have been. i want to show you the radar. you can see both bands that are continuing to pump over lakes erie and ontario. we have this cold, arctic air that's coming across, the ice free and relatively warmer lakes. that's what pumps the moisture into the cold sierra and gets all of that snow on shore of the lake. when you look at that snow depth, you can see where those two bull's-eyes are, just the totals that are racking up. incredible to see this much snow, this is their second round of it. if we look at the ice on the great lake, it is well below average for this time of year. typically we would see about 20% of ice coverage. we're only at about 8 and that's what fuels the snow as it continues through the day today, guys. >> alyssa rafa, thank you very much. welcome to cnn, we're so happy to have you here on "cnn this morning," thank you. >> thank you. and we continue right now. >> nikki haley is counting on

democrats and liberals to infiltrate your republican primary. what's that all about, a vote for nikki haley this tuesday is a vote for joe biden and a democratic congress. >> i know trump threw a temper tantrum about me last night. i've heard that, and i've seen the commercials. this is the chance to say do we want more of the same or do we want to go forward? we don't want more of the same with the trump/biden thing. >> the attacks are flying in new hampshire ahead of the primary on tuesday. nikki haley, donald trump trading shots in the granite state last night while ron desantis shows his focus to the next race in south carolina. can haley break into trump's commanding lead. today the justice department will release its long-awaited review of the law enforcement response to the 2022 shooting in uvalde, texas. that attack left 19 children and two teachers dead at robb elementary school. in just a moment, we will talk to texas state senator that

represents the district. the prosecutor investigating this attack on the television station in ecuador last week gunned down in broad daylight. the country's attorney general says she will press ahead in this crackdown on organized crime. we have a live report from ecuador straight ahead. this hour of "cnn this morning" starts now. just five days to go until the new hampshire primary, and it is quickly turning into a two-candidate battle. tonight nikki haley takes questions in a cnn town hall in new hampshire. it comes as donald trump focus his attacks on her and ron desantis seems to be giving up on his chances in the state. trump is seeking a knockout blow on tuesday. he's now co-opting haley's electability message and claiming he's the only one who can beat president biden in november. the clock is ticking down for haley to stop trump's seemingly inevitable march to the nomination. >> that clock underscoring why anxious republicans are urging nikki haley and her campaign to

escalate her attacks on the front runner, be more aggressive in these closing days. last night haley took a swipe at trump's age. >> the majority of americans have said they don't want their options to be two 80-year-olds for president. we've got to move past that. >> meanwhile, ron desantis appears to be seating new hampshire. polling staff and resources out of the granite state sending them to south carolina instead for next month's primary. desantis's super pac and the super pac supporting him laying off several of its people. trump now predicting desantis isn't going to be around much longer. >> what the hell happened to ron? does anybody know what happened to -- i think i happened to ron. i think he's going to be gone. i think all of those -- applause, that was funny, but i think you can probably save him for about a week or so because i think he's going to be gone. >> we start with cnn's senior data reporter harry enten with

all the numbers. explain why trump is so unhappy, upset about the undeclareds? >> why is trump so unhappy? i guess, you know, trump always finds something to be unhappy about. but okay, take a look at our last poll from cnn, the choice for gop nominee in new hampshire with christie and ramaswamy voters reallocated to second choice. if you look among registered republicans, look at this large advantage that donald trump has over nikki haley. 63% to 24%. but look among undeclared. you see basically the inverse of that, right? where nikki haley's at 59%, and donald trump's at 22%. so not really much of a surprise that he wants republicans voting in this primary and not undeclared. here's the question, what is that all about donald trump keeps saying. what is that all about that you have these undeclared voting in the primary. i want to take you back through history a little bit. this is new hampshire gop primary voters who aren't registered republicans. this year according to our poll,

it's going to be about 45% of the electorate that isn't registered republicans. the question i had, poppy, is how unusual is this? look back through history. in 2016 when trump, of course, won new hampshire, it was 40%. the last time there was no competitive -- really competitive democratic primary, right, when there was a democratic incumbent in 2012. look at that, it was 47%. that is basically the same as we're seeing right now. 45% versus 47%, so the fact is what's going on in new hampshire isn't all that unusual. >> okay. so i had one other question, this would be then democrats and undeclared? >> this would be registered undeclareds or those who rental s register on the day of the primary. >> we didn't hear him complain about it much in 2016, is that right? >> we didn't hear him complain much about it in 2016? why, because he actually did better among registered undeclared than he did r

registered republicans. he's changed his mind. nationally trump is still so far ahead. so new hampshire may just really be a bump in the road. he's complaining now. he's still probably going to win new hampshire, but it will be closer, but the fact is trump is still the heavy favorite. >> wants to motivate his supporters to get out. later today, the justice department will release its review of the uvalde school shooting where 19 children and two teachers were gunned down inside robb elementary. since that day nearly 20 months ago, there have been questions about why it took 77 minutes to stop the gunman who opened fire in two adjoining classrooms as more than 370 law enforcement officers arrived at the scene. attorney general merrick fgarlad traveled to uvalde yesterday. >> the briefing that we received today was very positive. we look forward to seeing the

report because we think it will validate a lot of our feelings already as to what transpired and what didn't transpire and what should have happened. >> there was a lot of information, and i guess the next step is to find out what will be done with this information. >> joining us now is texas state senator who represents uvalde, roland gutierrez, he's also running fo senate seat against ted cruz in the democratic primary. we appreciate your time this morning. i want to start with based on what we know up to this point, what do we expect to be in this report? what do we expect parents and families to be able to read here? >> yesterday i got a briefing -- thank you very much for the time, by the way. i got a briefing from the attorney general's office last night and essentially it looks at everything from a to z. 1,400 pieces, individual -- 14,000 individual pieces of evidence, 280 plus interviews of people on the ground, family members and so on.

i think that what we're going to see is everything that didn't happen and everything that was supposed to happen. there was tremendous error by state officials, by local officials on the ground. there was lapses in communication. there was failures of equipment. there was delays in getting equipment they didn't need to begin with. there was miscommunication, post miscommunication by way of law enforc enforcement. even in interviews to the media, those inaccuracies and those misstatements caused confusion in the community. there was a lack of victims coordination, if you will. parents were told that their children were dead when they were indeed alive and some were told that their children were alive when they were indeed dead. there was a tremendous folly of errors that occurred on that day and on the days and weeks and months thereafter, things that i've seen and known about and talked about but now finally we're getting some transparency

and some light here so that people can see what happened. >> so important for those families and so important for this country in preventing future responses like this. when you were with us just last year, you said to me i hope everybody in the united states understands the full effect of what happened in uvalde and the full effect of how government has failed them in the state of texas. do you believe as far as you've been briefed on this report, that what it lays out in the sunshine, you know, on these issues, the transparency will prevent a response like this ever again in texas or elsewhere? >> i think it's important to note that this is the worst law enforcement response to a school shooting in our nation's history, period, and we can't ever let this happen again, and there are policies that should be in place in texas. unfortunately, the policy holders in this state, the people that are controlling this state, republican leaders both in the house and the senate and of course our leadership have

decided to -- gun laws that allow anybody and everybody to access a weapon of this nature. this young man was 18 years old, he bought a gun at a small town in texas at the only gun shop in texas on day one. on the next day he bought 900 rounds of ammunition. on the third day he picked up an ar-15 again. no one thought that set of events was significant. in other states that would have been considered possibly a red flag. it's my hope that we not only learn best practices, sure, going forward, but we have to change our policy, and if our policymakers aren't willing to create some changes, then we need to get rid of those policymakers. >> to that point, you worked both on the legislative front and with the families pushing legislation related to changes in gun laws in gun policy in the wake of what happened in uvalde. you ran into a lot of resistance. do you feel like this will help those efforts moving forward? give you another chance to move

forward on those issues in a state like texas? >> you know, i don't know what people need to see. the fact is after this horrible tragedy happened, even 70% of republican voters were saying they needed to raise an age limit in texas, you needed to have extreme risk and universal background checks. maybe it wasn't the full-on assault weapons ban i often talk about with certain exceptions, but the fact is republican politicians just simply aren't listening in this state. they're not even listening to their own constituents that want change in this space. our children are growing up with a different kind of anxiety. these children die just like we tell them to, they shut the lights, close the door, they huddled in the corner, and in the end in that second classroom, you see two stacks of kids, two teachers trying to shield their kids. the second teacher died in a parking lot because the cops had surrounded all the arterial streets and the ambulance couldn't get to the hospital. we have to look at these

tragedies and understand they don't happen in a vacuum, and understand that things happen and cops make bad decisions and sometimes cops are just plain cowardly. i've seen all of the videos. i've seen even the audio statements where cops are saying there's an ar-15 in there. there's an ar-15. i've even seen the audio tape and the videotape where one cop says i don't want to die today. those children didn't want to die either. >> texas state senator, roland gutierrez, i'm so glad you're with us on such an important and meaningful day for the families. thank you. happening today, an israeli family will hold a public event marking the first birthday of the youngest hostage. the family is expected to make an impassioned plea for his release, as well as the release of his family and brother. it's unclear whether the child is still alive. the israel defense force was assessing a claim that the infant was killed in an israeli air strike.

cnn has not been able to confirm the deaths or the claim of the air strike. house speaker mike johnson pouring cold water on the latest proposal on a border deal from the white house. >> that also means any new aid to ukraine is in real jeopardy. we're going to speak to close biden ally democratic senator chris coons about where things go from here. stay with us.

well, this morning the fate of an immigration deal is really up in the air. congress attempting to do the nearly impossible, compromise on immigration. bipartisan negotiations are continuing in the senate for a border deal that is tied to

unlocking more funding for israel and ukraine. however, if that bill passes the senate, its fate in the house is very uncertain. our kaitlan collins pressed sp house speaker mike johnson on that. >> you said the devil is in the details. why did you tell the republican conference in a call the other day that bill is dead on arrival. >> if the bill looks like some of the things that were rumored, of course it would be dead own arrival. you can't leave parole untouched because it's a giant loophole that would allow all these people to continue to come in. >> will you still be able to say the border is a crisis if you reject add deal that maybe doesn't do everything that you wanted but does do some stuff to address the border? >> kaitlyn, you're asking me to address a hypothetical, i have no idea. >> but it's not a hypothetical. because -- >> no, it is -- >> the senate's going to pass something soon they said. >> you knew the general outlines of it though.

>> kaitlan collins is with us now. i love that exchange for a number of different reasons. he's saying it's dead on arrival. it's not a hypothetical question because there are senate republicans, multiple high level senate republicans who have said it's not going to get better than this, unless we have 60 votes in the senate, next cycle, it's just simply -- there's no better moment. what was your thought after you were done with that conversation? >> phil, you know how this works on the hill, and to hear people like senator mcconnell and john cornyn and john thune come out and say, you know, we should take this. this is a good deal that they feel like they've got the white house on the ropes when it comes to having leverage here, that doesn't really happen that often, and they're clearly signaling to mike johnson. so they had this meeting at the white house yesterday, and it's chuck schumer, president biden, mike johnson, hakeem jeffries. mike johnson's on an island in that room. he is the only one who is kind of thinking in his mind what the far right in his party, the

hard-liners, how they're going to respond to this bill. i think the issue that he finds himself in and where we may see the pressure really amp up on him in the coming days is the senate is signaling they're preparing to move on their immigration bill. there are broad outlines that have pretty much stayed the same. the question is what does he do. he has not committed to putting it on the floor. i do think it puts them in the issue of they're taking tripping to the border. they're doing all of this. if they don't take this compromise deal, if they say we'll do nothing instead, can they still continue to message on it the way they have been? >> this is all tied to does the u.s. send more funding to dwruk a ukraine and israel. you asked him about ukraine last night. so interesting, you're like what did the president say in response, and he's like basically they all went around the table and said their own sort of thoughts. here's part of your interview with him on ukraine. >> we all oppose vladimir putin and the barbarism and the aggression he's shown there, and

he must be stopped. what's happening in ukraine right now, that status quo cannot be maintained. that's unacceptable. we cannot spend billions of dollars without a clear strategy articulated and i told the president in the meeting today, again, as i've been saying repeatedly. sir, you have to articulate what the strategy is, what is the end game? what is the outcome of that that we're trying to achieve, and how will we have accountability for the dollars, the precious taxpayer dollars of the american people? >> to be fair, that is something that he has maintained, has been his position, and he's been generally more positive about providing more funding for ukraine than -- since he's become house speaker than we've heard from a lot of republicans. when you look at public polling, there is not the support we used to see a year ago for ukraine. he actually was in the room and had the opportunity to ask those questions and i asked what answers he got, and he said essentially that they just went around the room and all kind of did their talking points. it wasn't an actual back and forth on the substance. >> it was surprising to me listening to it.

>> this is your chance to ask the questions. jake sullivan is in the room, the national security adviser laying out what ukraine needs. i think what is going to be the heart of the issue for speaker johnson is even if he is okay with getting the ukraine fund passed, people like marjorie taylor greene says if any ukraine funding passes the house, she said she'd personally intro in introduce the motion to oust him. she doesn't care what the white house articulates. she doesn't believe any more funding for ukraine should be passed, period. >> real quick, his thoughts on trump. because he's going to play a role, whether or not this moves forward. he truthed about it last night. >> trump doesn't think this -- we haven't even seen this bill. trump doesn't think the senate immigration bill should pass. he said they are talking about what they're hearing, what policy they're trying to pursue in the house if they could pursue anything, but they've had an interesting relationship because back in 2015, mike johnson, you know, congressman from louisiana was not a fan of

trump's and posted that he didn't believe he should be the nominee. he did go on to endorse him. of course we've seen how that relationship has evolved, just speaks to the power dynamics on capitol hill and the role that trump is playing in what we're watching happen. >> kaitlan, thank you for getting up early, really compelling interview. appreciation it. joining us now is one of president biden's closest allies in washington, senator chris coons of delaware. he's the cochair of the biden/harris campaign. just came back from a big trip as well talking to world leaders, top business people. senator, there's a lot i want to get to here. i want to start with kind of what i thought was the biggest -- one of the biggest takeaways from kaitlan's interview with the speaker was, which is basically regardless of what comes out of a senate bipartisan group working on immigration, i don't necessarily get the sense there's a path forward in the house. >> phil, our job first is to make sure that the government doesn't shut down, with a series of votes today, we will send to the house a continuing resolution to keep the government open. it's my hope the house will do

the same. the next job we have in front of us is to finalize this border security deal, which is very close to being done and to pass the supplemental that president biden requested months ago. phil, every conversation, every meeting i was in in europe, the first question was will the united states continue to partner with 50 other countries who in combination are providing the funding, the support for ukraine? for the first responders who put out the fires when russian missiles strike power plants and hospitals, and for artillery shells and material and weapons support for the brave ukrainians who are fighting on the front lines. i am optimistic, even confident that we will, but the politics of the house are concerning. >> was the second question after the question about ukraine is donald trump going to be president again? >> yes. >> and what did you say to that? >> no. i'm confident that joe biden will be reelected, but this will be a difficult election. there are many americans on both sides of this debate, and

frankly, phil, one of my concerns is that president biden in his first state of the union asked congress to fix our broken immigration system, to take up and pass policy changes, revisions to law that he needs in order to fully secure our border and make our immigration system more legal, humane, and just, and we've had some republicans saying in recent days in the house, they don't want to fix the immigration system in advance of the election. my hope is that the cooler heads will prevail in the republican caucus, and those who have worked very hard here in the senate, both democrats and republicans to give president biden both the funding he's requested to secure the border and policy changes they say are essential that when we passed that in the senate, the house will recognize this country can't wait ten months more. this is urgent skp, and we need make progress on securing our border. >> do you think democrats, from a policy perspective, what they

are willing to entertain, what they are willing to sign off on when it comes to restrictions relating to immigration, are in a different place that happen they were a year, two years ago because of what happened on the border? >> yes, i think there's a willingness to reconsider, the initial screening standard for asylum, for example, because so many people are now using the asylum process who ultimately years later after a court review will be deemed ineligible for asylum. that's one of the biggest changes in recent years. but there's many democrats who question whether the policy changes demanded by republicans will actually make a difference at the border. most democrats would prefer a regional engagement that addresses the conditions in the countries folks are flowing from towards the united states in addition to changes in how we screen for asylum and in how we treat folks when they're being detained or deported here. this has been a vigorous debate as long as i've been in the senate. we have tried and tried and hopefully the politics of the re-election campaign will not

get in the way of our proving some path forward here does exist. >> a senate agreement in and of itself would be, i mean, something we haven't seen since the bipartisan bill back in, what, 2000. i've lost track of the last couple of decades, just you know better than anybody. >> phil, it was 2013 when i was in the room, we pass add broad -- >> 65 votes if i recall correctly. >> immigration bill and the house never took it up. >> right, and i think that's why -- where there is concern about whether house republicans will act, it does seem to be merited basteed on history. i do want to ask on other foreign policy issues, there is a lot going on right now. the fourth u.s. strikes in yemen targeting houthi rebels. the biggest question that i have given, one, the reticence of the administration to take this action until just a couple of weeks ago or a week ago is what is the end game here? >> well, president biden and his national security team are

correctly working tirelessly since the october 7th hamas attacks on innocent civilians in israel to deter iran. i'll remind you, iran is the regional source of all this violence and all these challenges because they are the folks who train and support and help fund the houthis, hamas, hezbollah, the militias that have been striking american targets in iraq and in syria. it is iran that most needs to be deterred. president biden and his team took a disciplined, thoughtful approach to these houthi attacks of drones and missiles on ships. they went to the u.n. security council and got a resolution. they got 11 other countries to sign up to share the burden of the naval interception. they warned the houthis. they took modest initial actions, then they took more aggressive strikes. in the last two strikes, we've been hitting -- forces have been hitting houthi launchers as they are about to strike ships. so my hope is that we will find

a way to deter iran, but for the intermediate term, it's going to require more action to prevent the houthis from striking shipping, a huge percentage of global commerce goes through the red sea, and we're going to begin to see impacts if every ship that's going from asia to europe has to go around the very south of africa. >> certainly a cascading effect on the global economy. senator chris coons, always appreciate your time, sir, thank you. a prosecutor investigating ecuador's surge in organized crime over the last month, that prosecutor shot and killed in broad daylight. we have a live report on the ground ahead. the princess of wales hospitalized for the next two weeks as king charles prepares to check into the hospital next week. the outpouring of concern for the royals. that's ahead. your stories need to be told.

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a prosecutor in ecuador assassinated while leading an investigation into an attack on a local television network earlier this month. the focus of prosecutor caesar suarez's work was on organized crime. >> suarez was nfrinvestigating storming of a local network by armed men while it was broadcasting live on january 9th. david culver joins us from ecuador with the latest. david, it was remarkable, very unsettling to watch happen live. what do we know about this prosecutor's assassination? can you explain to people the broader context of what's happening right now? >> reporter: i'll tell you first, that takeover of the television station, phil, it happened on live tv. you're right, it was remarkable. that really woke up this country. fair to say the rest of the world as to what was happening right now with this latest outbreak and violence. it's something that involves the

prosecutor who was investigating that tv takeover, and we went, by the way, to that station a couple of days ago to get a rare tour of what it looks like now. there are bullet holes riddling a lot of infrastructure inside, the folks are terrified. the prosecutor investigating that shot and killed yesterday on the way to a court hearing. we know two people have just been arrested. we confirmed that in the past couple of hours. the question remains, why didn't he have security? this is a sensitive topic to be investigating. this is a very dangerous place with organized crime. we put that question to officials. the attorney general's office has said there was security provided to this prosecutor, cesar suarez. the national police are supposed to provide that security. however, according to suarez himself, the day before he was killed, he said i don't have any security. so there's a lot of conflicting information, something that we're trying to clarify with national police, phil and poppy, but it speaks to the dysfunction right now and really the concern as to anyone connected to these cases, their lives may be at

risk. >> that's right, david, and i think looking at the broader context of what is happening in ecuador right now, the president of ecuador spoke with our krisht yan amanpour, talked about the problem being much larger. can you speak to that as well? >> reporter: i think this is crucial, it's an international problem because of the drug flow. he cites 35 to 40% of drugs that would leave from the organized crime units here in ecuador would eventually make their way to the u.s. outflow of drugs, sure, that's an issue. but poppy, you've got to think about what you were just talking about with kaitlan in the last hour with rosa, and that is the border. this was known as an island of peace. this country was very calm, was at ease amidst a lot of other turmoil in latin america. what you see now is if this happens to continue to unfold, you've got folks here who happen to think, well, it's not safe. at some point, i'm going to get

up and go, where are they going to go? they're going to go north. they're going to continue adding to the migrant influx. if you look at how spread thin the u.s. is with resources, this is a country that needs resources. yet another conflict zone added to the middle east, to ukraine, where the u.s. is being asked to step in. >> you've got to address it also at the root, right, and at the border. david, thank you. >> reporter: right. >> thank you, thank you. donald trump ramping up his attacks against nikki haley claiming he is more electable than haley and that democrats actually want her to win tuesday's new hampshire primary. is there any truth to that? i'm going to predict the answer here. we're going to ask n new hampshe governrnor and nikikki haley supporteter chris sunununu up n.

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nikki haley is counting on democrats, the radical left democrats are supporting nikki haley because they know she's much easier to beat than trump. in iowa nearly 50 p% of haley voters say they plan to vote for biden in november. that means she's like a democrat. i actually think she might go to the democrat party. >> that was donald trump last night, the former president really escalating his attacks on nikki haley as he seeks to deliver a blow, a knockout blow he wants in new hampshire on primary just five days away. trump this week making clear that he views haley as a serious threat. he did dial up his attacks on her on social media. he went after haley while referring to her first name. she is the daughter of indian immigrants. she took her husband's last name when they got married. trump also recently amplified a

post that falsely claimed that haley was ineligible to run for president because her parents were not u.s. citizens at the time of birth. haley was born in south carolina. she is a u.s. citizen. this is a playbook we've seen from trump time and time again using racist dog whistles like referring to former president obama but his full name, barack husain obama. haley pitched herself as the best alternative. watch. >> now, i know trump threw a temper tantrum about me last night. we have to win in november. but if you look at these head-to-head matchups, that's a hard truth. head to head. trump and biden, it's going to be another nail biter of an election. >> with us now, new hampshire governor chris sununu. he is set to do an event in just a couple of minutes.

what do you think trump is doing here with those specific attacks that i laid out on haley? >> yeah, so look, he's scared. there's no question about it. he wouldn't be paying nikki any mind if he didn't realize this was a one-on-one race. she's challenging him to potentially beat him here, which would be an amazing feat. nikki's kind of exceeded expectations. now it's just a matter of how close we can bring the gap in the next few days. what he's doing is riling up his base. he's afraid his base isn't going to come out for him. that's his very bizarre way of getting out the vote, if you will, with his core voters. i mean, obviously he knows -- he preys on nikki haley for years as being so great and tough and wonderful. and now that she's finally saying look, thank you for your service, mr. president, we're moving on from you. he takes everything a little personally. he's a little sensitive that guy. >> is he using racist dog whistles to go after her? is that what you're seeing now?

>> look, he's going to keep trolling her. he's going to keep anybody who supports nikki haley, just going to ignore desantis. >> specifically on what he's doing because we've seen the playbook, i laid it out. we saw it with obama, with elizabeth warren, you're nodding your head. is that what he's doing to nikki haley now? >> yeah, look, yes, i mean, it's just his playbook. it's his way of trolling. but those things are really just to rile his base up. he's not going to convince anyone to come to his side with comments like that. he's riling his base up. in iowa alone, 56,000 votes, that's it out of a state of 3 million. voter turnout was very low for him. at the end of the day, as we drive voter turnout, those are new voters, that all goes to nikki haley. he's scared his voters will be apathetic and stay at home. that's what he's doing is trying to rile up his base. >> a couple of days ago, nikki haley was asked about this country and if it's a racist country. i want to get your response to

this exchange with her on fox. >> are you a racist party? are you involved in a racist party? >> no. we're not a raceist country, brian. our kbgoal is to make sure toda is better than yesterday. are we perfect? no. our goal is to make sure we try and be more perfect every day that we can. >> was that the right answer to that question? >> well, look, you have to acknowledge, again, this is not -- this is not a racist country. there's racism and elements of racism. >> she said we've never been racist -- >> just the words, she's never -- she said it's never been a racist country. >> yeah. look, i think what she's doing is she's trying to say we have to find those elements of racism. we have to be vigilant on them, we have to put spotlights on them, we have to learn from them and be better about it. it's all about moving forward in the future. her approach, she's the first female woman of color to be a

governor in this country, a strong tea party conservative candidate in conservative south carolina. so she carries great conservative credentials. folks across the spectrum are loving what she's bringing to the table. there's no doubt about it. when you talk about the issue of racism, what are we tackling today? how do we learn from this today and make sure this country is better tomorrow? she appreciates that more than anybody. >> for sure, but accurate history informs how we address the issues that we face today, and the point you make is an important one, and i bring it up because there's a broader context here. i mean, it was just, you know, a couple of weeks ago that she didn't say slavery in an answer to what caused the civil war. my question to you, governor, is i think it's confounding to some voters why she didn't say that. why those answers were both the w . >> it's not affecting the voters. she acknowledged when it comes to the question, she took a

couple weeks ago. she said of course slavery was at the crux of it. that's obvious to everybody. i know the media tries to make she used this word and that phrase and all this. at the end of the day, her numbers go up. voters are worried about inflation. voters are worried about the cost of their fuel. voters are worried about how they can pay their bills and not have massive credit card debt. that's driving the vote to move this country forward. that's why joe biden is actually in trouble. six months ago, i told you directly i don't think trump can win this thing at all. joe biden would beat him. in the last six months biden is this bad that trump may even have a chance, but this is the most important thing by republicans. nikki wins by ten, nikki wins senate seats and governor seats and all these other things up and down the tickets. her electability so far exceeds anybody else's. trump is the weakest candidate. nikki has strength. it's a one-on-one race. >> words do matter. inflation matters, all these things matter. words matter too. finally, though, you told

kaitlan, our friend kaitlan collins a couple of days ago you would vote for trump if he's the nominee, even if he's convicted. how does that not hurt the candidate you're arm in arm with right now, nikki haley saying that? >> yeah, so that's a hypothetical. that is not going to happen. my point -- i was trying to make a point in saying that -- >> you don't know that that's not going to happen. >> it's not going to happen. that's a complete hypothetical. these cases are going on for years. if you're waiting -- my point is a very important one, if you're waiting for a court case or something to defeat donald trump, you can't do it. you've got to come out and vote. he gets defeated at the ballot box. that's democracy. we want everyone to engage in the process the right way. that's how trump gets defeated. he's never beaten by these external things. i see so many people saying this court case will make him go away. don't wait for that kind of nonsense. it's very hypothetical. you got to get out and vote. be part of that democratic process here in south carolina, wherever it is, and the more people that come is and vote, the more likely it is we can

defeat donald trump and put somebody that galvanizes this country together. that's a very important point. >> you've got a packed house behind you. i'll let you go, always appreciate the exchange. thank you. >> you bet, thank you. be sure to watch nikki haley one on one with our jake tapper tonight answering voter questions at a town hall in new hampshire right here at 9:00 p.m. eastern. the supreme court agreeing to take a look at a case that could potentially wipe away felony convictions for dozens of january 6th rioters that could significantly impact jack smith's case against trump. we'll tell you more next.

just posted on his truth social account that all presidents should have full immunity. he argues, quote, even events that cross the line must fall

under total ity or it will be years of trauma trying to determine good from bad. after what his lawyer said in court, that's a big deal. >> trump is making this argument, as he asked the federal appeals court to shield him from charges in his federal election subversion case, and dozens of rioters are asking judges to hold their trials after they agreed to hear how the justice department prosecutes. did they comid a felony. the supreme court's ruling will have the greatest impact on defendants who weren't violent during the riot and for former president trump. katelyn polantz joins us now. to that point, what is the argument that is actually being made here to have the cases thrown out for these rioters? >> these rioters are going to the supreme court now and they're going to have oral arguments on this to say this law has not been used correctly by the justice department. it's a felony charge of obstruction that there wasn't a

clean fit for how to charge these january 6th rioters. instead of charging them with misdemeanors. people who were nonviolent but did serious things, people like the qanon shaman with the spear, people like the drywaller from delaware who carried the confederate flag inside the capitol, they were charged with felony counts of obstruction, and they're saying that law shouldn't apply to what happened on january 6th. it's not the type of proceeding, not a trial, not something with evidence where you can use this sort of charge. not just those people but lots of defendants are hopeful the supreme court will overturn the justice department's ability to use this law in these cases and dozens have asked to delay their sentences. there's one person who will be let out of jail early and may have to go back to jail if the supreme court upholds the law. >> if the supreme court goes in the way that the rioters are petitioning it to go, this could

affect jack smith, the special counsel's, work. >> very much so. donald trump in his case related to january 6th, he faces four charges. two of them are based around this obstruction charge that the supreme court is looking at, a conspiracy and an obstruction. and trump's team, according to my sources, are seeing an o opening here. when this case goes back to the trial judge, they can challenge the fact that he is charged on these two things. now, jack smith has already tried to get ahead of this and in court papers has written trump is different than those lawyers because the fake elector certificates makes it different for obstruction, but it's going to be a really big question, a lot to watch here with the supreme court. >> no question at all. thank you, as always. well, the princess of wales recovers from surgery, king charles is getting ready for his own hospital stay. we have an update on the british royals next.

not just any whiteboard... ...katie porter's whiteboard is one way she's: [news anchor] ...often seen grilling top executives of banks, big pharma, even top administration officials. katie porter. never taken corporate pac money - never will. leading the fight to ban congressional stock trading. and the only democrat who opposed wasteful “earmarks” that fund politicians' pet projects. katie porter. focused on your challenges - from lowering housing costs to fighting climate change. shake up the senate - with democrat katie porter. i'm katie porter and i approve this message.

so we do have new pictures of prince william leaving the hospital after visiting his wife, the princess of wales. she's been recovering from abdominal surgery. she was last seen on christmas day. king charles is also expected to do hospitalized next week. max foster is following all of

it from london. the confluence of all of these things has a lot of people paying a lot of taattention. >> reporter: yes, charles is older. we heard from kamila today, who is out and about, representing the monarchy. a big moment for her as well in terms of public attention. she said charles was fine. so people are feeling quite confident about charles. he's got this procedure next week he has to go through, but the -- the condition he's got is benign, so people aren't concerned he'll be out of the picture too long. the story about kate that we talked about yesterday was interesting because initially, people were interested, and then they got more concerned as they learned she's got this very long recuperation period. up to more than three months potentially. so some concern as to why that is. we're not getting the detail, but all of the tabloids have to say, being quite well behaved, they're not speculating at all. here we have one of them, the

mirror, talking about prince william, who has actually taken time off wurb as well in order to support his family. we saw him visiting the hospital there. daily mail saying let's pray that they're both okay. this is the sense of shock i was talking about. kate, such a vibrant, youthful figure, no one ever thought she would end up in the hospital, the only other time she's been in the hospital is when she had the kids. the sun talking about the royals rocked by kate op. the queen having to step up, represent the family, she'll have the support of edward and anne, but they don't have the heft of the top four. quite a lot of pressure to represent the family and represent continuity. >> absolutely. we know you'll keep us posted on this. that's it for us this morning. cnn news central starts right now.