secretary mayorkas's actions have forced our hand. we cannot allow this border crisis to continue. we cannot allow fentanyl to come

across the border, criminals to walk in undeterred and we cannot allow a cabinet secretary with no regard for the separation of power and rule of law to remain in office. >> the impeachment of secretary mayorkas is a baseless sham. and the few rational republicans in the house know that. >> the real reason we are here as we all know is because donald trump wants to run on immigration, and you don't have to take my word for it because he said it himself. ♪ good morning, everyone. it is the top of the hour. glad you're with us. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york, and new this morning, the stage is now set for the house to vote on impeaching homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas as soon as next week. after midnight, house republicans approved the articles of impeachment over the crisis at the southern border.

>> at the same time, those same house republicans are lining up to kill the most substantial bipartisan border security deal in decades over the senate side, the same senate that won't convict mayorkas if he is impeached and they're doing so at the behest of donald trump. speaker mike johnson set to speak on the house floor about the border battle. he's pushing back on the notion he's trying to block a border deal, just to help trump in his presidential campaign. >> are you simply trying to kill this to help him on the campaign? >> no, manu, that's absurd. our majority is small. we only have it in one chamber. we're trying to use every ounce of leverage that we have to make sure this issue is addressed. i have talked to the former president trump about this issue at length, and he understands that. he understands that we have a responsibility to do here. >> meanwhile, we are getting a reality check on the border and the escalating battle between the state of texas and the federal government on all of

this. ed lavandera is live in eagle pass where so much attention has been paid because of this standoff, despite what the supreme court ruled. what is the situation this morning? >> reporter: well, as you have all of the issues there raging in washington here on the ground, eagle pass, as most people well know has become the epicenter of this fight between the state of texas and the federal government. we decided to take a closer look at what is called operation lone star. governor greg abbott's efforts to try to control the border. gaston fled venezuela and crossed into texas in the summer of 2021, just a few months after governor greg abbott launched the state funded border security plan called operation lone star. [ speaking in global language ] >> reporter: instead of being

detained, he was arrested by troopers. arresting migrants for trespassing on to private property. governor abbott said these would deter. >> you were handcuffed, arrested, you spent more than a month in jail in texas. >> reporter: he says the experience was hell. he spent his life working as a human rights lawyer, now seen as a criminal. the trespassing charge was dismissed by a judge, and almost three years later, santander is in colorado awaiting his asylum hearing. the state arrest did nothing to derail that. kristen etter is a lawyer who has worked with groups that have defended thousands of migrants snagged into the net of operation lone star. >> it's really just a political stunt, and has no real effect on immigration. >> reporter: the state says they have made nearly 10,000

trespassing arrests since 2021. etter says many of those misdemeanor cases are dismissed. >> operation lone star has been a $10.5 billion temporary and harsh detour to the asylum system. it doesn't actually prevent a person from being able to request and receive asylum in the united states. >> reporter: since operation lone star started almost three years ago, governor abbott has continued to escalate the number of state troopers and national guard soldiers deployed to the border. state officials say operation lone star has turned over nearly 500,000 migrants to border patrol and has led to over 35,000 more serious felony charges. >> we have deployed more national guard, thousands of national guard than ever before in the history of the state. >> reporter: but according to federal immigration data, the number of migrant encounters along the texas/mexico border has increased overall since operation lone star launched in march of 2021, but the texas governor's office points out that other states on the southern border, like arizona

and california, have seen much sharper increases in migrant encounters than texas. state representative eddie morales once supported operation lone star but now says the $11 billion price tag hasn't been worth it. >> the numbers have continued to increase. we have to answer to texas taxpayers. i don't think it's enough what we're doing, as a matter of fact, it's only gotten worse. >> reporter: morales represents eagle pass, the border city that's become the epicenter of the ongoing fight between state and federal authorities over immigration. state authorities have taken over a public park and are limiting border patrol access to the area. the state has also installed miles of razor wire along the rio grande. texas sued the biden administration to prevent them from cutting wire to apprehend or rescue migrants. the supreme court ruled that border agents can remove the wire while the case plays out in

court. >> this is all political theater. you walk, you know, a mile down that way or a mile down that way, and it's completely open. >> reporter: and we should tell you, cnn teams over recently weeks and months have seen migrants cross underneath the razor wire installed here in parts of eagle pass. despite all of this and the controversy by the border initiative, the governor is rounding up support not only from republican governors and attorney generals from across the state but also republican lawmakers in texas that have passed more security, border security measures trying to increase the criminal penalties for entering the state illegally. all of that continues here in texas. poppy and phil. >> ed lavandera for us, thank you for that piece. and as trump inserts himself into the immigration debate we're learning more about how donor money trump is spending to defend himself until the 91 criminal counts he faces. the former president spent about $50 million in not his money, donor money on legal bills and investigations and expenses in

the last year. the exact numbers will come out later today when he has to file records with the federal election commission. >> on top of that, reuters sat down for an interview with trump megadonor, robert bigelow, who says he's given a million dollars to cover legal bills. former white house communications director, aless -- alyssa farah griffin. on immigration, the question that manu asked speaker johnson that was so crucial, people heard at the top of the show, are you house republicans torpedoing this immigration deal because of trump at the behest of trump. johnson suggesting that is a absurd. knowing if he wins it's going to be near impossible to get a deal better than this for republicans. >> right. i mean, donald trump is the de facto speaker of the house. we know mike johnson spoke to him, that he did not want to

support the border deal, and the fact is this, this is the best border deal that republicans and democrats are going to be able to collaborate on, and i think it's very craven and frankly transparent to the voter, there's a crisis, we saw over 30,000 apprehensions. whistleblower going to wait until january of next year when a new president might be sworn in. that goes against everything we have been running on. the border is an animating issue with voters. they care about it. it's harder to make the case you're serious about addressing it if you're going to put it off another year. >> they're impeaching the homeland security secretary. you were involved in the debates from the base side when you were on capitol hill. could you have ever imagined democrats going as far as they have gone on the policy? >> that's a great point, phil. that's what's stunning. democrats are actually coming around to what is an objectively good bipartisan deal that even the most right wing republicans

get some wins in. this is not a john boehner era deal. this is the biden administration, the white house acknowledging there is a crisis, we have to do something. i think it just shows frankly how right wing the house republican conference has gone, that they can't come around and get on board on this. there's a chance you might see quiet whipping of this vote for republicans in the house, looking it will pass on democratic support. >> if trump wins, he inherits this. without having measures in place that empower him more to do what biden is saying, give me the power to do this now on the border. >> that's what's stunning. he's going to put himself in a position to act unilaterally through executive authority. >> which only goes so far. >> only goes so far, and by the way, if you believe it is a crisis, which i believe it is, this is going to be incredibly hard to fix. if this keeps going at the pace it is a year from now.

donald trump is tying his own hands. by the way, his team is talking about going a lot further, day one, deportations begin. they're talking about the biggest deportation plan in american history. that's not getting nearly enough attention. >> can we talk nikki haley? >> yes, always. >> we mentioned the donor money, and i'm struck, and i wonder if you see the same thing, her posture, tone, how she's operating is a little different. she seems released. the donor money came out, and nikki haley tweeted over the top of it on x, you can't beat joe biden if he's spending all of his time and money on court cases and chaos. she trusted the jury on the e. jean carroll, didn't weigh in on the case, there's a lengthy memo from the trump campaign, laying out all the reasons she had no path forward, to which the haley campaign responded, the campaign manager, with a mean girls gif, why are you so obsessed with us. i got a kick out of that.

they're different right now than they were two weeks ago? >> i love this nikki haley. i mean, i questioned her strategy early on of not going hard enough against trump. it's clear she was waiting for it to become a two-person race f. she went full chris christie, she wouldn't get enough republican base support. her numbers are still lagging donald trump's but now she's trying to draw this contrast of his issues are in courtrooms, defamation cases, sexual abuse liability, and he's going to be spending donor money to pay his legal bills. i'm going to be running a 50-state campaign, talking about going after the popular vote, something republicans have given up in 20 years. to me as a republican, there's not a more clear contrast and opportunity here but for some reason, the strength of donald trump is still there, and the's still very much the front runner. >> our reporting is she's going to start targeting trump and biden in ads as grumpy old men.

a great movie. >> this is my first time seeing this. that's amaze ing. >> it is a great movie. thank you. a new warning from fbi director christopher wray. his concerns about china and the threats to american infrastructure next. and top tech leaders in the hot seat on capitol hill, the questions the leaders of meta, tiktok snapchat face with children online. we'll explain next.

this morning, fbi director chris

christopher wray is expected to issue a stark and direct warning about the threat posed by chinese hackers on critical infrastructure in the united states. he's expected to testify to house lawmaker that is china's hackers are positioning on america's infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real world harm to american citizens and communities, if or when china decides the time is to strike. >> let's go to katelyn polantz, what more do we know about what china is target something. >> director wray is being very public and direct about what he's saying, and what he is planning to tell the house select committee on the chinese communist party at this hearing today is that there are very specific things that the u.s. government, u.s. intelligence believes there could be the hackers from the chinese government targeting. those include water treatment plants, the electrical grid, oil and natural gas pipelines, and transportation systems, essentially infrastructure, the type of things that in the belief of the fbi and the message wray will be delivering

is that those hackers are looking at potentially disrupting infrastructure in a way where they could be positioned if there needs to be some sort of blow back from china where they would want to hinder a u.s. response to a -- some sort of chinese invasion of taiwan. there's a lot of things at play here on the national security front that wray is warning directly about in the context of military operations and national security. but he's also saying that it's not just hacking in tech that there should be a warning about, that the american public should be aware that the chinese communist party, they are targeting our freedoms, reaching inside our borders across america to silence, coerce, and threaten our citizens and residents. that is another portion of what wray plans to say today. >> it's striking not just the words, but also that it comes the day after our colleagues have this great scoop about how in a private conversation,

president xi promised president biden the chinese will not interfere in the 2024 election. how wary are american officials about election meddling when it comes to china right now? >> american officials are always going to be wary about it because there have been several elections where there has been foreign interference, maybe not hacking in the last election, but in 2016, there was the russian hacking of the democratic party, and then what we were talking about with what wray is warning today, that is about technology and hacking related to technology, but on the election front, there are a lot of other ways that there can be influence, and so sean lingus, and mj lee were able to report exclusive that president biden and xi jinping were able to have a discussion about this in november at the high stakes meeting in california. it was a very delicate moment where they were trying to build the relationship between china and the u.s., and at that time, china was saying, and xi jinping was saying that beijing was not going to be meddling in the

american election this year. that's been reiterated to the national security adviser in recent weeks in the u.s. from china, but still, it's going to be a concern, and there are some u.s. officials that continue to be wary. does xi jinping of china even have full understanding of everything that the national security apparatus is doing, and they want to do in the u.s. election. there's always going to be a lot of concern here, not just related to hacking but more subtle ways that there can be foreign influence in american elections and toward voters. >> thanks for the reporting. also today on capitol hill the senate judiciary committee will question the ceos of five major social media companies, tiktok, meta, snapchat, discord and x. they are expected to testify at an online child safety hearing, and this comes as efforts to regulate online platforms really ramp up across the united states and lawmakers accuse companies of failing to protect kids.

>> joining us cnn media analyst and senior media reporter, sar fischer, i love these meetings because you realize what law firms prepped these individuals going into it and what lawmakers understand about the technology itself. what are you watching and who are you watching specifically? >> i mean, it's a great point. senator dick durbin is the one to watch here today. he's the one championing a set of bills around child protection. the thing, though, is that these bills have been introduced in the senate so many times, and they have gotten nowhere. i expect these senators to feel a little bit exasperated when they're probing some of these tech firms. i expect you to hear from some of the more hawkish people around china. senator hawley has been very hard on tiktok and the safety measures it has been doing with data and privacy. you'll hear things that are wider. expect tech ceos to be pretty prepared. because these bills have been around for so long, they have a pretty good sense of what they're going to get asked and

what response they should have. in fact, some companies, like snapchat and meta have already started implemented changes from some of these proposed bills like the kids online safety act to get ahead of any proposed legislation and to get ahead of today's hearing. >> you mentioned tiktok, the ceo going to be on the hot seat when it comes to questions about china. i'm also interested to hear testimony from linda, the only woman up there, the ceo of x, what should we expect them to be pressing her on today, and what are we looking for there? >> it's interesting, poppy, linda and the ceo of snapchat, evan spiegel, and the ceo of discord, this is their first hearing ever in front of capitol hill. first and foremost, i want to see how postured they are, how comfortable they are. mark zuckerberg has done this eight times. i think from linda you're going to expect her to hear about the reforms they introduced over the weekend, including building a

100 person safety team in texas to be able to monitor this type of thing. i expect democrats to come down very hard on her, poppy, about other measures that x is taking to, you know, prevent abuse. over the weekend, we saw viral images of taylor swift on x. >> right. >> you know, using ai to make it look like she was doing sort of sexually promiscuous things. x had to sort of block all of taylor swift's searches, it got messy. expect her to have to answer to that. i want to see what she's going to say about x's broader efforts on content moderation. >> it's going to be fascinating to watch on several fronts, and we know you'll be watching all of it. appreciate it as always. new insight into the pressure campaign trump lunched on georgia to find more votes to overturn the 2020 election. a new book reveals who recorded that infamous call and why. that's next.

the embattled special prosecutor in donald trump's case has reached a temporary divorce settlement one day before a hearing where he would have had to answer questions about a relationship with fani willis. donald trump and his attorneys are pointing to the alleged affair trying to have the sprawling case against the former president dismissed . >> this comes as we get insight into the inflames phone call to brad raffensperger, the recording of the call kicked off the subversion case in the state against the former president that led to this also infamous

mug shot. a new book uncovered how that recording even came to be, revealing that raffensperger's deputy jordan fuchs recorded that call without rafen perger's knowledge to protect him. and credit her with doing more than anyone to deliver justice, writing fuchs did what is arguably the gutsiest act in the post election battle, the authors of the new book "find me the votes" a hard charging prosecutor, and we're so happy to have them at the table this morning, and welcome. >> good to be with you. >> thanks for having us. >> let's start with jordan, and the fact that she's in georgia when she records this, which is a two-party consent state, so she's risking legal jeopardy, and doesn't ask her boss for permission, doesn't get per miss

from trump and hits record, and that leads to all of this. >> look, absent that, we would not have the most compelling evidence of trump's pressure campaign to alter vote totals, something that is front and center, not just in the georgia case but also in jack smith's election interference case in washington, d.c. >> can we play a little bit for people to remind them. here we go. >> all i want to do is this, i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. because we won the state. >> yeah, so, look, here's the back story of this, and it's pretty fascinating. the trump people have been trying to get in touch with brad raffensperger for weeks now, and he was ducking the call because the trump campaign is suing him, and, you know, they're in ongoing litigation. they don't want to get on the

phone with trump. and knowing trump's habit of perhaps distorting what would get said in any conversation between the two of them. but mark meadows reaches out to this young woman, jordan fuchs, a republican strategist, hired at 28, 30 years old at at the time, serving as the chief of staff to brad raffensperger and the president wants to speak, she relents, gets brad raffensperger to relent. she knows the risks that raffensperger is facing and she's determined to protect the call. she's on the call, but you never hear her voice. she put herself on mute and taped the whole thing. i talked to colleagues, they would have never had the guts to do what jordan did. as we say in the book, it was the most consequential act of

the post election battle because it delivered the actual evidence of trump's -- the extent of trump's pressure campaign. >> there's such value in this book, sorry, i'm actually touching the book right now because there are so many disparate elements. you have that as the most consequential or significant, but it's felt like there are 50,000 pieces of this investigation that are moving and uncovered at various points and, you're able to kind of bring it all together. what was striking to me, danny, is the role that qanon in the backdrop of all of this played in that through line to some degree, which i don't know that people necessarily recognize. >> i think that is an under appreciated part of this story. you know, people knew that some of the players involved in this were involved in some extent with qanon. not to the extent that this cult conspiracy, really, drove the, you know, this whole enterprise. so we focused, for example, on lynn wood, who is a celebrated

lawyer, people remember him from the '90s, jonbenet ramsey case, the richard jewell case. he goes down the qanon rabbit hole. he is a full on devotee. tweeting that mike fence is going to be executed by firing squad, that chief justice john roberts is involved in pedophilia and sex trafficking of children. it's not that long after that that the trump campaign brings him in to the inner sanctum of their legal battle, the foundation of the kwlegal battl. we have audio of this. trump is calling him on a regular basis and cheering him on, and it's extraordinary, you know, it's not just, you know, it's colorful in some ways and exotic, but it's also dangerous because lynn wood and some of these other people are flooding

social media with these crazy conspiracy theories and dangerous stuff that's riling people up, riling up other qanon devotees, and that's leading to these horrendous threats that, you know, racial, sexualized and terrible threats, terrorizing average people in georgia. and that's an important part of this story, which is the human dimension of what was happening in georgia. >> i love, and i know that was a motivating factor for you in writing this was really the human element of all of it. the reporting on lindsey graham on this who fought as hard as one could fight to not have to f talk. >> it's one of the great stories. >> he finally has to, he goes, and there's a literal embrace of the d.a., fani willis. >> graham, you know, defending the president, fighting the subpoena, finally has to testify

before the special purpose grand jury, according to one source familiar with his testimony, he throws trump undered the bus, i you told trump martians stole the election, he also suggests trump cheats at golf. after the testimony, he sees fani willis, who thanks him for testifying which he sometimes did, and he says thank you for having me testify. that was so cathartic and then he hugs fani willis. i mean, the prosecutor who's pursuing donald trump, the guy he's out -- >> she's a little perplexed by that, our source who saw it, says her reaction was whatever, dude. >> there's that. his office, here's what they say, senator graham never spoke to the authors, you guys, and what they're selling is pretty much total and complete bs, their words, not mine. at the end of the day, this is all just trash. >> i did speak to senator graham, by the way, and -- >> you did? >> yes, i did, and we had an

eyewitness to the scene. >> before we go, the body double story. >> yeah. >> which is fascinating. can you explain that? >> yeah, so in the days leading up to the indictment, these terrible threats are intensifying for fani willis. she's getting them on her cell phone. guys calling, computerized, disguised voice threatening her with rape, with lynching, pronounces the names of her daughters and indicates that he knows where they live. a couple of days before the indictment, her security team sees on a dark web maga site an assassination threat. the best time to shoot her is when she leaves the building is what this threat said. so they set up an elaborate decoy operation. fani willis, right after that midnight press conference which she announces the indictment, she goes to a back office, press is all there. we have no idea that this is

happening. she changes out of her work clothes, her black, you know, business suit, and changes into sweat pants, a t-shirt, baseball a cap. meanwhile, the body double who's an investigator on her staff about the same size, puts on clothes resembling what fani willis had been wearing, the black suit, a string of pearls, pumps, even a wig to more like fani willis, and the body double. >> and a kevlar bullet proof vest. >> the body double puts on and some deputies posing, men posing as her deputies, they walk out the front of the courthouse, they get into official black suvs, and they leave. meanwhile, fani willis, and her team, posing as civilians sneak out the back of the courthouse, get into civilian unmarked

sedans and leave for an undisclosed area. >> she was smuggled out of her own office. >> one of the more dramatic stories in her book. >> what a read. congratulations to you two. >> by the way, the idea that lindsey graham wouldn't have spoken to two veteran investigative journalists and the issues they covered is one of the funniest things i've heard. >> thank you, guys. >> thank you for having us. maybe we'll find out what they're going to do with interest rates, we'll see what jay powell says, what economists are looking for, that's ahead. an assault scandal rocks professional hockey. five players charged. we'll discuss next.

we still have a ways to go, no one is declaring victory, that would be premature, and we could not be guaranteed of progress. we're moving carefully in making that assessment of whether we need to do more or not. >> that was fed chair jerome powell sounding cautiously optimistic about the fed's progress fighting inflation. today once again we'll get an update from him on what the fed may do with interest rates this year. the fed has raised rates at the fastest pace in four decades, rates being the sole weapon in trying to bring down inflation. so far, so good, according to the latest ddp and jobs data. no cuts are expected to be announced today by most. the big question is whether the fed could signal more cuts starting in march. that has big implications for you at home, your finances, economy at large, politics a bit. served as the chair of the council of economic advisers

under president obama, welcome, good to have you. did we stick a soft land something. >> good to be here. i think it is. look, jay powell is rightfully cautious. he's the fed chair. he needs to be super duper careful. i only need to be somewhat careful, and so i'm going to say we've had a soft landing. >> do you mean because, yjason n december of 2022 you said it was most likely not going to happen? >> it is a surprise to me, and it was a delightful surprise. i was overly pessimistic, i was wrong. i'm thrilled that's the case. >> if only every politician spoke the way you do, i was wrong and moving on. what about a recession? can we just, no recession or is that just still somewhat of a risk in 2024? i wonder if people are giving too much credit to the good gdp reports we're seeing? >> yeah, look, you should always be nervous. i took a moment to be happy there, and now you got me back

to the nervous mode. >> great. >> we could have a recession. you can always have a recession. there's issues in the commercial real estate sector. borrowing rates for things like mortgages have come down in anticipation of fed cuts later this year, but they're still high. there's dramatic events around the world, especially in the middle east, and there's a lot of risks to the economy. inflation could come back. wage growth remains pretty high. i think wage growth is going to moderate, and we saw some data showing that this morning, and it's going to be consistent with slow price growth. we could still get inflation coming back. there's always risks. the important thing for the fed, though, is right now the risks are roughly balanced. i don't think either of those risks are abnormally high, and that's why they could be preparing the ground for a rate cut at the next meeting or the meeting after. >> this is an economy that is still hard for many folks to afford. this is the least affordable housing market since 1984, according to one measure.

why can't the biden administration seem to get it right on their messaging on all of these good economic factors? and by right, i mean resonating with the people they need it to resonate with. >> yeah, first of all, one thing to understand is inflation really was very high in 2021 and 2022. wages have outpaced inflation for the last year, but we were in a deep hole, and we're still digging out of that hole, and we're still somewhat in that hole, and so i don't want to tell people that everything's perfect. the soft landing i do think has happened, but it's going to be a while before all the damage from the inflation is repaired, and that's real, and that's legitimate. the other thing i would say, though, is the latest numbers on confidence and sentiment are consumers are actually more optimistic and more positive about the economy. they are seeing that good news. i think they're feeling that good news, and they're feeling a little bit less bad or a little bit better than they were a few

months ago, and i hope, you know, that's what continues to happen. >> we all hope so. thank you for the sunshine this morning, jason furman, a little bit of good news. appreciate it. >> good to see you. >> you too. well, this week, president biden and donald trump are in a battle for the union vote, how trump is trying to make a play for a traditionally democratic base. that's next.

five things, brought to you by carvana. carvana, they'll drive you happy. ♪ it is a busy wednesday morning. our five things to know, the house republican effort to impeach alejandro mayorkas moving to the full chamber, but the effort is going to fail in the senate. president biden will make his first visit to east palestine, ohio, next month, one year after a train derailed and

triggered an environmental disaster there. the white house says he'll meet with residents and leaders. the fist of as many as 100 babies and children injured in gaza during the israel-hamas war have arrived to rome. an assault case in professional hockey, four current nhl players and a former player accused of sexually assaulting a woman in canada in 2018, all five players denying those accusations. and california is bracing for the strongest storm yet this winter fueled by el nino. the storm could bring up to 10 inches of rain and 3 feet of snow in the sierra nevada mountains. we'll have more on these stories all day on cnn and cnn.com. don't forget, download. donald trump will be back in washington, d.c. today, talking to the international brotherhood teamsters. president biden after getting the coveted vote last week. how important is it going to be?

>> cnn's senior data reporter harry entin is going to tell us. just how important is the union vote for biden and trump going forward in '24? >> there's a lot of belief that the union vote has voted democratic. george, nevada, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, this is among union members in the key swing states. joe biden at 47%. donald trump at 47%. this is a clear movement from what we saw in 2020. the recall vote on that was biden plus 8. so this is a movement towards donald trump. donald trump gaining among union members as he has gained nationwide as well. and, of course, those key swing states that we're talking about here where union members are 10% or more of workers, again, the key swing states, michigan 14%, nevada near 15%. i think a lot of folks forget that union members make up a lot of those workers in those casinos out there and often times get out the vote, drives driven by those union members, and pennsylvania over here at

14%. two places you keep an eye on. the great lake battleground states and the southwest where those union members, specifically those casino workers, are a big part of the democratic coalition, at least traditionally speaking. >> what about the trend line for union workers over time? >> yeah. that trend line. let's look nationally. we're looking at the key swing states. let's look nationally. the union vote nationally in presidential elections. members have absolutely trended republican. recall back in 1948, although i was not alive back then, a huge union vote. 62 points harry truman won that vote by over thomas dewy. it was a big reason he won. union members back then made up a much larger share of the vote. jump to 1992, we see bill clinton won that union vote. i don't know why that didn't go. there we go. won that union vote by 31 points. in 2020 joe biden carried that vote only by 22 points nationally. i was looking at some of the national polls there and we're seeing that trend line more

towards donald trump this time around. union members a big part of the democratic coalition, but fewer and fewer of them and fewer of them are voting democratic and why is that? what is going on here? well, union member vote in 2020, among college graduates, joe biden won union members by 46 points. look with no college degree. donald trump won that vote by 6 points. we think of unions and blue collar workers but there are a lot of white collar voters in unions and those voters are going over from biden, but look at the blue collar workers they're in the trump camp. >> trump has been able pull the rank and file and shawn fain is so fascinating. i could have sworn you took the picture of the dewy defeats truman in the newspaper? >> might have been me in my other life. >> i would hang out with that harry. >> i would too. >> thank you. elmo asks us one simple question, but it triggers a crisis online, people dumping

their trauma on the muppet and open a window into despair many of us feel.

muppet muppet,

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. growing up, my parents wanted me to become a doctor or an engineer. those are good careers! but i chose a different path. first, as mayor and then in the legislature. i enshrined abortion rights in our california constitution. in the face of trump, i strengthened hate crime laws and lowered the costs for the middle class. now i'm running to bring the fight to congress. you were always stubborn. and on that note, i'm evan low, and i approve this message. hi, elmo. >> hi, big birded. >> what's the matter? >> big bird, elmo is trying to show what sad looks like. elmo tried and tried, but no matter what elmo did, elmo could not find anybody who feels sad.

>> but he did. elmo learned an important lesson this week, be careful what you wish for. everyone's favorite furry red monster posted a question on x on monday, quote, how is everyone doing? here's what happened. >> people decided to unload their very real problems on to poor elmo, posts ranging from i'm depressed and broke to the world is burning around us, elmo. a day after the lions' playoff loss the detroit free press weighing in we've been better. resisting the urge to tell elmo i'm kind of sad. >> elmo's question and the avalanche of responses underscore the worsening mental health crisis in this country. a gallup report from last year found one in six adults in the u.s. say they're depressed and receiving treatment for that depression. that is a 7% increase from 2015. >> while elmo may have unexpectedly sparked a thread of gloom and doom, it wasn't all bed. some of his best friends stepped up in a big way. ernie telling elmo, quote, if

you ever need some cheering up let me know. burt, saying i'm here if you need a shoulder to lean on. i will make a warm cup of tea. abby said stop by her garden if he ever needs to know how magical he is and if he ever needs to talk cookie monster will supply the cookies. president biden weighed in, even though it's hard you're never alone. elmo responded to the overwhelming popularity of his post saying he was glad he asked that question, and he, quote, learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing before saying he will check in again soon. he also added a message that "sesame street" fans know all too well. ♪ most of us yes most of us ♪ ♪ elmo love you ♪ >> this is how file about elmo. >> how i feel about harry. >> who is here with us. what do you think about this? >> i don't know. sad. no. -- >> that was good. >> thank you. >> i would say this, elmo is

finding out what a difficult job it is to be a pollster. he went out and took a poll of his constituents and found that a lot of folks down the street of sesame are not exactly thrilled with the way things are going in this country and i don't think it's necessarily a big surprise. you know, you put up those depression numbers. we know a lot of people think the country is on the wrong track. i think that elmo is learning the way of the american public. folks aren't happy, and i guess we've learned about it in a slightly different forum than we're used to. elmo has always been there for us, and hopefully, he will continue to be there for us. >> ask your friends how they're doing. >> polls are a snapshot in time. that snapshot is clear right now. ask people how they're doing. "cnn news central" starts right now. thanks, buddy.