president joe biden suspend defending his memory in fiery white house remarks, details behind the scenes after a release of a special counsel report that has become a political bombshell. top republicans now suggest the president is unfit for office. vladimir putin get what is he wants out of tucker carlson and then some.

new fallout from the two-hour video that they filmed together. plus, we are counting down to kickoff in las vegas. will the 49ers or the chiefs lift up the vince lombardi trophy on sunday night? we're going to find out on sunday night, aren't we. kate bolduan is out. i'm side siara sidner with john berman. this is "cnn news central." angry, defiant, and emotional. those are just some of the few words being used to describe president biden and how he reacted both behind closed doors and in front of cameras after the final report on his classified documents probe dropped yesterday. the report questions his mental fitness and claimed that he couldn't remember when his son, beau, died. now the gop lawmakers are using this as a springboard to call for biden's removal from office under the 25th amendment, the

house gop leadership saying, quote, he is certainly unfit for the oval office. m.j. lee is with us from the white house. president biden was livid, reportedly, that his son was brought into this the way he was, and then put out for the public to see. what are you learning at this hour? because one of the headlines here that we should mention is he was not charged in this case. >> reporter: yeah. sara, this was as livid, i think, as we have seen the president recently, making clear that he has serious issues with the way that this investigation was handled. and if you look at this lengthy report, it makes many, many references to alleged memory problems that the president has. it said at one point that the president has diminished faculties and faulty memory. at another point in the report, it said he did not remember, even within several years, when his son beau died. as you saw last night, that probably more than anything else

was what made the president angry. we saw an emotional response to that from the president last night as he basically said to robert herr, how dare he ask that question. we are also learning this morning that in private yesterday he really erupted in anger again about that issue related to his son, but he said in a private meeting with democrats in virginia, how would i effing forget that? obviously, the issue here we are talking about is not about the white house taking issue with these unflattering and gra tus us to, according to them, comments about his memory lapses and, you know, recall problems, and that they do speak to this broader issue that voters have raised about his age and his mental acuity that is going to be a big issue heading into november. here are some of the ways the president answered a number of those questions last night.

>> i'm an elderly man, and i know what the hell i'm doing. >> how bad is your memory? can you continue as president? >> my hememory is so bad i let u speak. that's -- >> do you believe your memory has gotten worse -- >> look, i'm the most qualified person in this country to be president of the united states and finish the job i started. >> reporter: by the way, sara, the white house did acknowledge yesterday that the weekend that the president was interviewed by robert herr at the white house back in october, he was understandably distracted. you'll remember that this all happened as the war in israel was breaking out, and they said none of this suggests a bigger memory issue for the problem but all in all, sara, this is a white house and a president fuming about the fact that there were almost 400 pages that were released by robert hur and at the end of the day, there were no criminal charges brought against the president. >> mj lee, thank you. president biden made some

claims in his defense on the substance of this report. how do some of those claims hold up? cnn senior reporter daniel dale, great to see you, by the way, haven't seen you in a while. one thing that president biden said is basically that he stored the documents in filing cabinets that could be locked. let's listen. >> all the stuff that was in my home was in filing cabinets that were either locked or able to be locked. >> daniel? >> just -- just not true, john. this report from the special counsel includes photos. those photos include shots of boxes just sitting in president biden's delaware garage. the special counsel described it as a badly damaged box sitting amid household detritus. so there was some material in cabinets lock or lockable as the president said, but all of it certainly not. and that opened unsealed damaged

box according to the special counsel, highly sensitive, top-secret material about the war in afghanistan. >> another claim that president biden made. none of the documents were highly classified. let's listen. >> none of them was high classified. didn't have any of that red stuff on it. do you know what i mean? around the corners? none of that. >> daniel? >> that claim that he didn't have any material that was, quote, unquote, high classified, is also not true, john. the special counsel's report says that the president possessed multiple highly classified documents that were, indeed, marked as being highly classified documents, including some marked as top secret/sci, sent tif, compartmented i information. that is a very high level of classification. the special counsel discussed two top-secret documents about afghanistan in that open, unsealed, damaged box in the garage, one which he said contained highly sensitive info about military programs and another sensitive intelligence sources and methods.

now, it's not clear if any of those biden documents had those colored borders we saw on classified docs that former president trump had, which i think is what president biden was referring to when he talked about red around the corners. but still, whatever coloring these documents had, the special counsel says they were clearly marked as highly classified. then i should add he also said that investigators' analysis of biden's own handwritten notes from his time as vice president showed that these notebooks also contained highly classified info, though those were not marked. he said a sampling of 37 excerpts said 8 were top secret, 7 including human the intelligence sources and 6 others that were top secret. >> then the third claim that he made, daniel, there, was that he did not share classified information with a ghostwriter on a book he was working on. listen to that. >> i did not share classified information. i did not share it.

>> with your ghost writer. >> with my ghostwriter. guaranteed did not. >> but your special counsel -- >> i did not say that. >> so, he's entitled to say he didn't do it. he can defend himself. but he also said the special counsel didn't say that he did share that classified info with the ghostwriter. except the special counsel did say that explicitly, "mr. biden shared information, including some classified information from those notebooks, with his ghostwriter." he did say he shared that info by reading nearly verbatim from the notebook on at least three occasions, including notes from meeting in the situation room. he found that biden, quote, at times, tried to avoid sharing classified info by skipping over certain material reading to the ghostwriter, and he wrote that the evidence did not show that biden knew the info was class fied. nonetheless, even though the special counsel did give him some material to defend himself with, this is not a factual

defense. you could say the factual stuff, didn't know it was intentional, et cetera, but declaring a special counsel did not say what he said, john, is not a factual defense. >> important to note, daniel dale. always great to have you. thanks so much. let's continue the discussion with former republican congressman charlie dad. what's your takeaway from this? it was quite personal with a lot of details, but ultimately he was exonerated. he's not been charged in this. >> yeah. i think in many respects, sara, that president biden is a little lucky that he was not prosecuted, because when you get beyond, you know, he's an older gentleman with a faulty memory but look at the substance of the matter, he willfully retained class fied material. it does not appear he retained it in a way that was incidental or accidental. he knew he had it and he shared it with his ghostwriter. and it was obviously not

properly secured in his home. so, i think this is a real problem for the president, both substantively and certainly on the political side, based on, you know, the faulty memory. so i think this is a really bad look for joe biden in so many ways. again, as a former member of congress, i can tell you, i had the privilege to have access to classified material, and there was no walking out of a skiff with classified material. i'm not sure what goes on in the white house or at the naval observatory at the vice president's residency, how they hand that will material. but we've seen problems not just with joe biden but with mike pence and certainly donald trump. so, there is a big problem here, and i think bide season lucky he's not prus cuted. it was probably a close call, and the prosecutor decided he was not going to bring charges. >> i want to ask you about the politics of all this. attorney general garland appointed a trump appointee to try and show fairness, that the trump appointee was a special counsel in all this. i want you to listen to what

democrat dan goldman said about details of this report and have you respond on the other side. >> it was just a political punch-out in the middle of an election year when the special counsel knows that it's two elderly men who are running for president, and this one, who was appointed by donald trump, wanted to make sure that he got his licks in. >> is this, in your mind, purely political? you just said you think there's a "there" there. >> yeah, look, i understand congressman goldman's comments. you can make the case this was a bit gratuitous. there's a comey-esque feeling to this whole thing. james comey basically chose not to bring charges against hillary clinton because of her mishandling classified material through her private server. but then he indicted her publicly saying she was reckless handling that material. it kind of felt like that.

having said that, the politics of this is bad for joe biden. donald trump behaved horribly with classified material and was uncooperative. but this issue now is kind of a wash politically because i'm not sure how biden is going to be able to criticize trump on this. by the way, trump is in real legal peril because of his horrible handling of these materials. so i think right now, politically, biden doesn't have much to stand on. in fact, the bigger problem, though, is the issue of his memory that this special prosecutor essentially reinforced the narrative out there that joe biden is too old and has diminished faculties, diminished capacity. that's what really hurts the biden people. i understand why they're upset about it, but, hey, this is politics. it's a rough arena. >> a very rough arena. we're less than a month away from the primary. we are in the midst of everyone talking about this one particular issue. i do want to ask you about the 25th amendment.

you have republicans already bringing that up saying that should be used to take him out of office. do you agree? >> no, i would not go down that road. look, joe biden is acting like a man who's maybe 80 years old, and he is, and i'm not saying -- and he has -- i tend to think he has diminished capacities. is he still capable? yes. is he able to do his job? yes. but i don't think we have reached that point where you have to think about removing him from office. i think that's unfair. i know this happened to donald trump. people wanted to remove him. but i feel it's a little tit for tat. >> yeah. the economy is going up, there's a lot of things happening in his favor that he has had some of his policies have been working. but this has been a huge point, the age, mental acuity, and i'm sure it will continue to be. charlie dent, thank you. >> thanks, sara. new reporting this morning on the fallout from vladimir

putin's two-hour appearance with tucker carlson. how do colorado officials feel this morning after the supreme court seemed to reject their arguments that donald trump should not be on their state ballot? and football, fanfare, and taylor swift. sound like enough for super bowl sunday, right? but, no. you also need kittens. and we have them.

so, now we wait. after the supreme court heard comments over whether colorado can keep donald trump off its ballot because of the 14th amendment's ban on insurrectionists, with us is colorado's secretary of state janet griswold. thanks for being with us. i don't think i found one analyst out there on planet earth this morning ing who thinks the supreme court hinted that they're going to side with colorado in this case. how do you feel it went? >> first off, thank you for having me on. and we know this is a court that has not been friendly to democracy, voting rights, and fundamental freedoms. i think ultimately this case is really important, and, you know, it was stunning yesterday. we can just see the capitol right across the street, reimagine what it was like, those congress people running

for their lives, a violent mob going to stop the peaceful transfer of power, and then being in the supreme court and hearing donald trump continue to lie about his role in the insurrection. so, it was a bit surreal, and just like all americans across the country, i'm waiting to see what the supreme court ultimately will decide. >> but you don't think after yesterday that you're going to win, do you? >> i think it's important to explore section 3 of the 14th amendment, because it was designed for this exact situation. it was designed with the understanding that insurrectionists in office is tremendously dangerous, that insurre insurrectionists, if they are elected, can destroy democracy from within. so, ultimately, we'll see what the court ends up holding. i'm always hesitant to take too much from oral argument, and i'm going to wait to see what the ultimate decision is.

>> what do you make of the fact we barely heard from the oral arguments or questions from the justices, they didn't seem to delve into the issue of whether donald trump committed insurrection at all? what was your takeaway on that? >> i would say the one thing they delved into was how the heck would they ever define insurrection? which was a bit shocking to me, because it's the united states supreme court. they have all the tools to be able to define what an insurrection is. but to your point, it is surprising. we are only before the supreme court and in the middle of the case because there's the unprecedented situation of a president trying to hold on to power by inciting an insurrection. make no mistake, donald trump broke the laws. he incited that violence mob, some of whom had plans to hang the vice president of the united states, to try to steal the presidency. so, i do think it was really

remarkable that the court did not really get into the specifics of january 6th, which, of course, was just part of donald trump's plot to steal the american election, the presidency, from the american people. >> if there was one consistent thread that seemed to unite most of the justices who asked questions, it was that, look, how is it that one state can decide what happens in a federal election? they seemed to have real issues with that. what would your response be? >> well, two-part response. first off, how one state has that ability is the united states constitution, which gives states the ability to regulate our elections. and colorado has for decades and decades kept ineligible candidates off our ballots, as have other states. but on top of that, i found that line of argument or questions

from the supreme court justices a little ironic because, if they are looking at the politics of how the constitution should work, if they're concerned that one state can flip a presidential election, well, then, they better go and do another review to all the voter suppression laws in georgia, which are there to try to suppress the vote of certain people. they should then go to florida and texas and montana, every single state that has tried to restrict the vote for electoral gain under the supreme court's now concern about that should be susceptible to this line of argument. >> so, what happens now? >> now we wait. ballots go out to colorado primary voters next week. the county clerks can start sending them on monday but then have to get them in the mail by friday. and i do urge the supreme court,

number one, to affirm our state power to keep an oath-breaking insurrectionist off the ballot. but also to render their decision quickly, because coloradans deserve to know whether their vote for donald trump is going to count, and americans deserve to know whether this supreme court thinks that an insurrectionist has all the right to be president of the united states. >> colorado secretary of state jena griswold, we appreciate your time today. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. ahead, a stunning sitdown in moscow. tucker carlson going one-on-one with vladimir putin. what the russian president is saying about carlson's request to take a jailed american journalist home with him. plus, he lied and lied and lied and got kicked out of congress. now a fiery debate in the race to replace former congressman george santos. we'll show you how heated the affair got.

this morning, new reaction to the two-hour video appearance shared by vladimir putin and tucker carlson. cnn senior correspondent melissa bale is with us now. what was your big takeaway from this? >> reporter: mostly, this was as we'd expected not the interview of an autocrat that you would

expect any ordinary or proper journalist to carry out, john. in fact, it was remarkable in the questions, the outrageous falsehoods made about russian/ukrainian history and american politics as well that went completely unchallenged. amidst this two-hour essentially propaganda stunt for vladimir putin just over a month before his election is due in russia in march, what did emerge of interest, perhaps the one part that stood out, was when he was asked about the "wall street journal" journalist evan gershkovich, who's been, of course, incarcerated since march of last year, predetention, that has been extended and extended. of course, this journalist could face 20 years in jail. tucker carlson did ask the russian president about his fate. this is what he had to say. >> translator: we're willing to solve it, but there are certain

terms being discussed via special services channels. i believe an agreement can be reached. >> reporter: now, what we did find out more about were the russian demand being made for his release. in fact, specifically, the russian president mentioned a russian national who's currently serving a life sentence in a german jail for having killed a chechen on the streets of berlin in 2019, vadim krasikov. now, you'll remember at the time of brittney griner's release, it was viktor bout, a notorious russian arms dealer, that had been swapped for her release, and it could well be, we understand, that this particular russian national we understand has been part of moscow's demands at the time of brittney griner's release may prove to be the price of evan gershkovich's release. certainly, some movement there and the hint, the glimpse of some hope for evan's family and friends.

>> let's hope. melissa bell, thanks for being with us. appreciate it. sara? retired brigadier general peter swac joins us to discuss. how big of a win is this for putin and the kremlin? what did you see in that interview that could potentially hurt ukraine as well? >> sara, this was a significant success, i think, for the russian putin's information openo operat. he pretty much shut off from the free-minded world who would listen. but carlson, just the spectacle of this visit gave putin a two-hour opportunity to

transmit. and it comes as no surprise to me. i was in moscow before the war at a conference. late at night in a hotel was tucker carlson talking about these things. he's a rock star there. the russians brought him in, and putin played him. i don't think that carlson expected to be, frankly, used the way he was. putin dominated 80% of the conversation. also, right before the war, if you remember, putin published a treatise kind of explaining ukraine/russia and how ukraine had no right to exist. it wasn't a real country. and the same narrative again two years later. >> when you see this, we also

know that in this interview putin, again, suggested that the path to ending the war in ukraine, that he, by the way, started, with direct associations between washington and moscow. is there any type of agreement that you could see as viable at this point with this war going on and ukraine being very clear about where they stand on this? >> in the near to midterm, sara, no. things have to happen on the battlefield, and any, any negotiation, if you will, over ukraine or -- i don't want to say on behalf of ukraine -- has to be with the ukraine consent. this is their country. and also, we would want to be in close touch and linked to our nato and eu allies who have skin

in this game too. no. i think doing anything -- anything -- the talk of a new administration and fixing it in 24 hours is just absolutely wrong, and it needs to be in concert with ukraine and our allies, or else i don't think it holds much. >> the country that's being bombed out of its mind has to be a part of these negotiations. and zelenskyy has been very, very clear that russia has to leave before anything can happen. all right. i want to move on to israel's war with hamas. netanyahu has just ordered the evacuation of rafah. there are more than a million people there, many of them displaced from other parts of gaza, regular citizens. if palestinians have to leave rafah, where else can they go? it is such a highly populated place, most densely populated city perhaps in the world.

>> sara, i think here, i am an ardent supporter of israel. and i along with most americans, most people who would support israel, including our leadership, you can't countenance the civilian slaughter that has occurred in gaza since that horrific day on the 7th of october when israel had the moral high ground. we supported them now and support them now. but it's ugly. it's hard. pressure has to be put on netanyahu and his hard, hard right members to stop or move out because this isn't working. netanyahu still has a lot of support, but it is fading. israel is marginalized, and this just gets back more and more

dangerous as we can see throughout the mideast with houthis and iran-backed militias and all the things that we've been reading the last few days. >> yeah. the fear of a wider war is real in the middle east. brigadier general peter zwack, thank you so much for your analysis today. a showdown to fill the house seat vacated by expelled congressman george santos, who has the edge this morning in a race that really does have new jersey national implications? we all know what it's like to have your baggage weighed as an airport check-in, but what if an airline got to weigh you as well? one airline giving it a try.

a critical election on thursday. s there a face-off to replace former representative george santos. it's a race that could tell us a whole lot about what to expect in the 2024 presidential race. miguel marquez, cnn's correspondent. what were some of the takeaways from their very confrontational jabs going on last night? we're seeing a little bit of that play back and forthright now. what is at stake here? >> reporter: yeah. it was their one and only debate, and we're, what, three or four days from election day. early voting is going on right now. look, the stakes couldn't be higher for both parties. democrats want to take this seat because the congress is so

thinly divided right now. if there is a vote, again, on mayorkas and impeachment, whoever gets in in this race will be voting in that vote. that's how contested this race is right now. look, this debate was very, very fiery. it was everything from abortion to gun control to israel, the state and local tax deduction and reinstating that, which donald trump put into effect, that was one of the most heated debates of the moment. but immigration, above all, it was the first thing the debate started with, and here's little bit of thousand that debate went. >> 2018, when i was in congress, i was one of only 18 democrats that voted to fund i.c.e. when people said let's abolish it, i was one of 18 democrats. >> when you were in congress,

you voted to open the borders. you created the migrant crisis. and yes, you kept i.c.e. as a county executive, you are in charge of this county. doesn't matter what the commissioner will tell you. in the end, you make the decision. >> reporter: so, this is a fascinating race because tom swaz si is the democrat, a pro, represented this district three terms for unsuccessfully running for governor. his opponent has a fantastic personal story. pitting them together is interesting to see how this will turn out. he kept her on the defensive for most of the night, but a he's very good at that, but it is not clear that, for all the smoke and the fire and the anger, that any mind was changed by what they saw last night. issues, because everyone was just talking about the lies that george santos kept telling. we will see what happens, but a very interesting story. i'm glad you're on it.

thank you, miguel. this morning, thin air is asking passengers to voluntarily step on the scale for flights to hel helsinki. finland's national carrier says it will give a more accurate estimate of weight before takeoff. 800 participants signed up to join the survey. in return, they'll receive a gift, a very nice reflective baggage tag. crews are assessing the damage after an unprecedented tornado in february in wisconsin. the national weather service confirms it was spotted just south of madison last night. this is the first time ever a tornado has been reported in wisconsin in february, this early. officials do say it caused some injuries. the los angeles lakers unveiled a new statue of kobe bryant. >> for the record, kobe picked the pose you're about to see. so, if anyone has any issues with it, tell [ bleep ].

>> that was vanessa bryant, kobe's widow. the new 4,000-pound bronze statue captures the moment bryant walked off the court following his career-high 81-point game against the toronto raptors in 2006. just so you know, we have the purr-fect lineup joining us on the set. we'll show you some adorable friends. not me. they're waiting to take the field on sunday. the cutest showdown you will ever see -- kitty bowl and puppy bowl. but we're doing the kitties.

two leading candidates for senate. two very different visions for california. steve garvey, the leading republican, is too conservative for california. he voted for trump twice and supported republicans for years, including far right conservatives. adam schiff, the leading democrat, defended democracy against trump and the insurrectionists. he helped build affordable housing, lower drug costs, and bring good jobs back home. the choice is clear. i'm adam schiff, 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. dogs. puppies. cats and kittens are meowing and barking their way to glory on the gridiron. who will win the great american rescue bowl this weekend? team cuddler or team adorable? >> that really is the question. beth stern with north shore animal league america, what's going on here? what is the rescue bowl? >> first of all, i think they're all winners. if you're the cuddlers and the adorables, who's the loser there? it's really a celebration of rescue and finding these guys homes. we are so proud to be on great american family, and we're going

to be presenting the second annual great american rescue bowl, and we have adoptable dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. what's better than that? >> honestly, i've heard of the puppy bowl. i didn't know there was a kitten bowl. >> yes. >> who's this? >> we love that it's the rescue bowl. we're promoting going to local shelters. we have shelter partners across the united states who are holding parties on that day, where there are special adoption events. so, we're really using that day to focus on getting these guys homes. >> there's a fight going on here. i think there's two quarterbacks right there going at it over i don't know what. a cheeseburger that's there? >> do some of these guys need introductions? >> sara and i are holding a little sister duo from puerto rico. we just did a big rescue in puerto rico. we just did an upstate new york rescue. i have two can ikittens coming oman next week. we rescue from all over the

world. the rescue bowl, we feature kittens from hawaii that were displaced from the fires, so really, we go and get them from wherever -- whenever they need us, and we were able to round up the most amazing dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens for sunday. >> the phone lines are open. how do people who are watching this -- who you can they get? >> couldn't be easier. you can just log on to animalleague.org and visit us at our port washington campus, and these guys will be there this afternoon. everybody's healthy, ready to go. and yeah, hopefully -- i don't think these guys will stand a chance. i think they'll be adopted after your viewers see them within ten minutes. >> i want to take them all home. there are a couple of escape artists, you will see. >> yes. lucy is a little escape artist. >> do you know all their names? do you not want to say ? >> on the website, their names are there, but they were just given, i think, once an animal comes home, they're adopted, the family should all join in and come up with the perfect name.

>> they become part of the family. >> how did this all start? as someone who goes into super bowl weekend to watch football but has noticed there's all this other stuff sprouting up and has over the years? >> i think on sunday, it's the lead-up to the big football game, and what's so great about great american family, we are airing it at noon, so it's before, really, the super bowl festivities start, so to get excited, get ready, get in your seats, get all comfy, cozy, get your dog or cat and start watching us at noon. >> you know what i see is that they're really playing a lot with the san francisco hamburger. >> do you see that? >> what does that mean? they're favoring san francisco. >> yeah. but there is a little -- >> sorry, taylor. >> yeah, i don't know. >> these are anti-taylor cats. i don't want to start a controversy. but these cats are going for the san francisco 49ers. >> look. it's happening. it's happening. i do want to ask you, you think i t -- i think there are some numbers. there's the puppy bowl. we have some statistics on what's going on here.

you know, the cud bdlers and th adorables, as you're looking at this, how long has this been going on? why is this so important to you, personally? because i know it is. >> every year -- >> uh-oh, an escapee. >> over the last seven years, eight years, it's the day of celebrating adoption and rescue. my husband and i are right now in -- really into animal rescue. we have 28 fosters right now, cats and kittens, special needs ones, whoever needs us. we have had over 2,000 come through our home, and we found forever homes. >> whoa. >> so, really, partnering with great american family into spreading that and doing what we do in finding forever homes for kittens in need, i think that's the most important thing. that's what it's all about. this year is so fun, because we opened up to puppies and dogs. >> it's inclusive. >> beth stern, thank you. thank you for this lovely ending. we really appreciate it. >> i'm so happy that i was able to bring smiles today. >> all right, thank you all for joining us. this has been cnn cat central.

"inside politics" is up next.

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