right now on "ana cabrera reports," the president's son on capitol hill, hunter biden

testifying behind closed doors this hour. what his testimony means for the house gop's impeachment inquiry into his father. plus, donald trump and president biden claiming victory in michigan's primaries, but the state's voters did send warning signs to both campaigns. also ahead, inferno on the panhandle, the governor of texas, issuing a disaster declaration as a raging wildfire threatens a nuclear weapons facility. the pope hospitalized early this morning, what we know about his condition at this hour. thanks so much for joining us. it's good to be with you. it is 10:00 eastern. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. we begin with the breaking news from capitol hill where hunter biden is behind closed doors this hour for a deposition with the house oversight and judiciary committees. now, today's testimony is the result of months of negotiations by house republicans to compel

the president's son to testify in their impeachment probe into his father. let's go right to the hill and nbc's ryan nobles. also with us msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin, and "new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker. ryan, how is this all going to go down told? what are we expecting? >> reporter: well, everything's going to be behind closed doors today, ana. of course that was a point of contention between hunter biden, his legal team, and the committees investigating his father, the president of the united states as part of their impeachment inquiry. hunter biden really wanted this to be in a public setting because he was concerned that republicans would take out of context some of the answers to their questions that he would provide them. they've worked out a deal. this is expected to be a lengthy deposition that's going to take place here today. he will be under oath. he cannot lie to congress and there is the promise that a full deposition with a transcript of his remarks will shortly come out after. but it also comes at an important time in this impeachment inquiry, ana.

we've really reached an inflection point with republicans with a degree of fatigue amongst rank and file republicans concerned that this impeachment inquiry frankly hasn't delivered the goods that many of these impeachment investigators had promised. specifically they have yet to demonstrate a clear link between president joe biden or hunter biden or his brother james biden and his business dealings or that the president specifically used his public office in order to help benefit those business practices. i pressed james comer who's the chair of the oversight committee on that exact point earlier before this deposition took place. this is how he responded. >> we've had several people already testify to that. >> there was no evidence that joe biden did anything -- >> he got $200,000 from -- >> what did he as a public official -- >> jim biden said -- no, listen. >> he wasn't vice president at the time. >> you can defend joe biden all day long. >> i'm not defending -- >> you can be on his legal defense team, kevin morris would probably play your legal bills. >> what specific action did he

take as a public official, an elected public official that -- if you have that evidence present it. >> calm town, it's okay. it's okay. >> reporter: so aside from the chairman calling me names, as you note that he didn't actually answer the question that they have yet to demonstrate specifically something that joe biden did as president or vice president that would benefit his son's business dealings. but there are questions about the relationship and the way that hunter biden may have used his father's name around the world to gain access to business contracts that he might not otherwise have had. the question, though, ana, which is what we've come back to every single time is how does that rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. it's something even republicans are now starting to question, and it's something that they're going to really need to hope they can garner up through this lengthy deposition that's scheduled to take place here today, ana. >> and hey, stay with me. we just got a statement released

by hunter biden. i'm here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry. i did not involve my father in my business. not while i was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. never. again, that's a quote, statement from hunter biden going into this closed door testimony. so let me ask you, ryan, because he fought having to do this behind closed doors. he said i'm happy to testify. i want to do it out in the open so the public can hear everything i have to say. he was worried about the republicans on the committees cherry picking from his testimony. so what happened in negotiations that got him to agree to appear now this way? >> well, the most important reason and probably the number one aspect of these negotiations that drove hunter biden to agree to appear behind closed doors is that he was put under subpoena,

and then he was also threatened with contempt of congress. that was a real possibility. he likely would have faced the situation of being held in contempt of congress by the full house of representatives, which would have then put the department of justice in a position where they would have potentially to prosecute him for ignoring that congressional subpoena. once that became a real situation that hunter biden had to deal with, that's when the negotiations got serious, and there's been two aspects of these negotiations that were a very important part to getting him into this position. first, that republicans have promised him the ability to testify publicly at a later date, and secondly, that they're going to release the transcript as soon as humanly possible. so we'll have to see if they follow through on both aspects of those negotiations, ana. >> peter, any concerns from the white house about hunter's testimony today? >> well, look, obviously the president of the united states not happy to have his son being hauled into congress to testify, but i think they're feeling pretty good about where they are at this point.

the collapse of that allegation of bribery by a witness who turns out to be lying, according to the fbi. that makes the white house feel like they've got a certain degree of momentum here, that there's not much -- there was never any there there to begin with according to the white house, if the reasons ryan just said, whatever it is that hunter biden did to profit off of the name. biden in his business has not led to any kind of implications of the president himself, of any kind of high crimes, every presidential family has members that use their -- you know, the president's name to some extent. obviously it's unseemly, but there's no unimpeachable precedent. a pretty paltry effort to find some dirt on the president that hasn't worked out and that they think is going to work to their benefit. that doesn't mean republicans won't necessarily follow through and actually try to do some sort

of impeachment. the white house feels if they do that it would look partisan and be discredited by most voters. >> we saw the video of him moments ago walking in with his lawyer abbe lowell. hunter biden is facing a dozen charges. if you are his lawyer going into this testimony, what is your advice? >> hunter biden has to balance two roles, ana. he is both a criminal defendant and a political son who understands that his legal troubles and his father's political fortunes are intertwined. the charges that you mentioned have nothing to do with the scope of the inquiry, at least as it's been outlined. they are tax charges and handgun charges. but the focus of the inquiry is apparently supposed to be on whether joe biden knowingly benefitted from hunter biden's businesses. so for hunter biden, he wants to deflate those allegations but also do so in a way that doesn't leave him exposed to future criminal charges including by a

department of justice not potentially controlled by his own father as president. >> and ryan, what about alexander smirnov charged with lying about hunter biden and president biden to the fbi, kind of spurring a lot of the allegations related to foreign business dealings, i should note. smirnov has pleaded not guilty, we just learned his trial date is now set for april just at the end of the month there. has this developmen changed republican impeachment pursuits at all? >> well, i don't think the investigators would ever admit that publicly, ana. the fact of the matter is that it took a lot of the wind out of their sals. they pointed to this fbi tip sheet, which alexander smirnov was the source of as being one of their most important piece of evidence that backed up their claims that joe biden was part of a bribery scheme. the fact that he's now accused

of lying to the fbi really takes any sort of weight that was associated with that tip sheet out from underneath him. and it's part of the reason that the fbi was so insistent that the committee and the impeachment inquiry not rely so heavily on that tip sheet because tip sheets are just the impinge of an investigation. they're not necessarily admissible in a court of law. i do think just in the quiet conversations we've had with moderate republicans who have been skeptical of the impeachment inquiry from the very beginning, you're starting to see them become even more skeptical, and the idea that you could put on the floor articles of impeachment that would get 218 votes, seems to be a hill that gets steeper and steeper by the day, ana. >> peter, hunter has acknowledged he made mistakes when he was in the throes of addiction and says he takes responsibility for this. he recently talked with "axios" about his battle to stay sober. saying in part, i have something much bigger than myself at stake, we have in the middle of a fight for democracy.

how does his father see this personal, political intersection and the potential impact on the election? >> well, i think that his father believes that a lot of americans could certainly understand a family that goes through, you know, a situation where a member has addiction and at times seems to be out of control or doing things that are unwise, maybe even illegal, and that are, you know, self-destructive. i think that's what they saw here with hunter biden. the president is very concerned about his son according to aides and very concerned about any kind of, you know, relapse. right now he seems to be doing well. he's remarried. he is confronting these issues on the hill and in court. but you know, they worry the president and his wife, jill biden they worry about him at all times, you can imagine why. i think they don't like the idea that he's part of this political conversation. but they've gotten used to it. it is what it is. they've now been seeing this for five, six years. it hasn't stopped the president from deciding to run for

re-election. there's some tension, of course, between the needs of the white house and the needs of the son and his legal team, and from time to time, you see that. from time to time, you see the son's legal team do something that the white house either didn't know about or didn't necessarily approve of. there is that sort of, you know, dichotomy there and disparate interest that we'll see possibly play out in the months to come. >> peter baker, i always value your textured reporting, thank you. ryan nobles, thanks to you. keep us posted, and lisa, we'll see you back later this hour. breaking news from the vatican, what we're learning about pope francis's hospitalization early this morning. plus, wildfires in texas spurring a nuclear weapons facility to suspend operations. also, the message from michigan, key takeaways from tuesday's primary as we rocket toward november and the fallout intensifying today in alabama as patients, doctors, and advocates protest the state court ruling on ivf that's left families in limbo. on ivf that's left families in limbo. (ella) fashion moves fast.

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we're back with breaking news out of the vatican. pope francis hospitalized in rome early this morning. he has since returned to the vatican. we are told the 87-year-old pontiff has been fighting the flu. let's bring in nbc news international correspondent, claudio lavanga, he is joining us in rome. >> reporter: issued a very short statement following the general audience of the pope today. just said the pope all of a sudden went for a visit to a hospital here in the center of rome and has since returned to the vatican. well, now, they didn't really explain why he went to the hospital, but we know so far that for the past few days he has had a bit of a flu that even made him cancel a few meetings that he had scheduled back on friday and then on monday. and then this morning, as he does every wednesday, he

presided normally, the general audience in a conference hall insides vatican. he was seen being wheeled on stage as he does recently because of problems with walking, but he also stood while giving a blessing of the faithful, hundreds of people present in the conference hall. when he started speaking, though, he kind of did have a broken voice, and he had to stop sometimes to cough. and he even apologized at the end of the speech by saying, i'm sorry, but i still have a bit of a cold. and all of a sudden the vatican said he went to the hospital. >> again, 87 years old. thank you so much, claudio lavanga for that reporting. back here in the states, we also have breaking news in texas, the governor has issued a disaster declaration as wildfires spread on the texas panhandle. the largest of the fires, the smoke house creek fire is threatening a nuclear weapons facility.

this as a wild and massive storm system crashes its way across the country this morning. let's bring in nbc news correspondent adrienne broaddus capturing all of this. it has been a roller coaster. >> reporter: it has, a few minutes ago it was snowing here, and this time yesterday we saw people swimming in lake michigan, so in a 24-hour period, we've seen multiple seasons. overnight strong winds and destructive tornados really hammering parts of the midwest, and in other parts of the country, fire is the threat. this morning, a fire raging near a nuclear weapons plant as out of control wildfires swept through the texas panhandle. >> let's pull out, we got too many spots. pulling out, pull out, everybody pull out. >> reporter: and the state's governor issuing a disaster declaration, concerns growing about the pantex plant near amarillo with an uncontained

fire nearby, the plant suspending operations overnight. workers back on site this morning. >> we are continuing and will continue on through the night to ensure that the plant is protected and safe. >> reporter: strong winds and dry conditions fueling widespread blazes throughout the state. meanwhile, wild weather continuing in the midwest with reported tornados in illinois and michigan. the dangerous storms splintering structures leaving them in pieces. it's already been a wild weather week for millions nationwide. >> to have this kind of dramatic swing that we're having with this wild 55-degree temperature swing, that's what makes this really unique. >> reporter: with more than 100 cities hitting daily record highs this week including typically chilly rochester, new york, which tied for its warmest february temperature ever recorded at 73 degrees. >> there should be 12 inches of snow on the ground. >> reporter: some anglers in missouri even out fishing and not on ice.

as extreme weather wreaks havoc for millions across the country. and back here in illinois, this is what people will see when they return home, trees have fallen. their roots exposed, pieces of siding now resting in the grass. it's hard to believe there were no reported injuries when you look at this apartment building, portions of the roof lifted now hanging on tree branchs. over to the left, what looks like a child's room, you can see stuffed animals inside. the blinds bent. bricks that were holding part of this building together ripped away. members from the national weather service will be out to survey this area and others across the region. it's that team that will determine whether or not a tornado struck here. i can tell you, ana, neighbors we spoke to told us just moments ago they hid to cover when they saw a funnel cloud in this area. become to you. >> how scary, adrienne broaddus,

thank you so much. up next on "ana cabrera reports," michigan minefield. in a state where every vote will matter in november, the flashing warning signs for democrats and republicans. is there enough time to course correct? plus, the political bind facing peeker johnson with time running out to avoid a partial government shutdown. shutdown. not you. you! your business bank account with quickbooks money now earns 5% apy. (♪♪) that's how you business differently. intuit quickbooks. i know what it's like to perform through pain. if you're like me, one of the millions suffering from pain caused by migraine, nurtec odt may help. it's the only medication that can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks. treat and prevent, all in one. don't take if allergic to nurtec. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain.

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president biden and former president trump are edging closer to a rematch in november after they both easily won their michigan primaries, trump defeating nikki haley on the gop side while president biden face add significant protest vote in the democratic primary over his response to the israel-hamas war. now, the campaigning are turning to the crucial super tuesday elections next week. our steve kornacki has the breakdown at the big board. both sides will make michigan central to their election strategy, i assume, to what did we learn yesterday about trump and biden's strengths and

weaknesses there? >> yeah, i think basically the results just kind of reinforced things we already knew about michigan and really about some of the dynamics nationally, although there is some michigan specific stuff in terms of that protest vote with biden on the israel-hamas war. we have known since 2016 where does donald trump struggle in general elections? where was his defeat, where did it come from in 2020, it came from the suburbs. it came from suburbs with high concentrations of college degrees, with voters who are more like white collar professionals. so a place like oakland county. this is a gigantic suburban county just north of detroit. this made up about 15% of the vote on the republican side last night, and trump won it. you see here his margin was less than it was statewide, and oakland is the kind of county that gets donald trump into trouble in a general election. you know, he lost it by 14 points back in 2020, and so, again, you're seeing some slack

for him in oakland that you don't see elsewhere. this is a county when we're here on election night in november, if we're talking about a trump/biden race, we're going to be looking at oakland county and asking how much is joe biden winning it by. has it gotten worse for trump since 2020, has it gotten better? we'll ask that in oakland and a number of these other suburban counties. trump struggles in the white collar suburbs. he does very well in blue collar areas. here's the biggest blue collar suburban county in michigan, this is macomb county. look at the kichbs here, trump wins by bigger than his statewide margin. macomb county, trump flipped it in '16, kept it in '20. it's another one we're going to be looking at in november. can he do well enough to offset some of those losses. on the democratic side, there is that question of statewide over 100,000 votes for uncommitted. we see it most concentrate instead a place like wash na

county, college county, university of michigan in wayne county you're seeing it as well. that's where dearborn is. the question that's posed, it's a little bit more michigan specific than what we were talking about with trump is, you know, with the large arab american population, muslim american population, is this a protest vote against biden that will come back to him in november? will it sit out in november. there's a bit of a question mark there around that. in a state that biden won in 2020 by 150,000 votes. >> i always feel like i'm going to school with you, steve kornacki, and preparing for that final which is going to come in the general election. i'm fiercely taking notes and trying to pack it all in. >> i'm studying too, trust me. >> great to have you. joining us now is co-host of democracyish podcast, danielle moody, and republican strategist susan del percio. susan, as we just learned, there

were a lot of votes against both donald trump and president biden last night. do either of them come out of michigan with momentum? >> not so much momentum, but i think they end up, like steve said, kind of where they were yesterday, if you will. things haven't changed that much as far as them driving their narratives. biden does have an issue people are saying with the base. will they show up? will they turn out? michigan is a little bit of an outlier because of that uncommitted vote, but the end, i don't think it hurts him so much in november. because eight months from now, we're going to be having a whole different kind of conversation. it will be focused on those suburbs that steve kornacki just talked about. in those suburbs, the republican folks who don't like trump, who didn't vote for trump in 2020, they're not turning out for trump in 2024. whereas biden, they may still come out for him because whether it's abortion on the ballot,

very big issue or democracy, so i think biden has a better chance of keeping his initial voters. >> let's just drill down into the uncommitted vote a bit, danielle, about one in eight democrats voted uncommitted in this democratic primary, in some predominantly arab american precincts, in dear born, around three in four democrats voted uncommitted. take a listen to what some of those voters had to say here. >> because i am frustrated, i am appalled at the constant genocide that is occurring before my eyes, and the fact that my taxpayer dollars are going to support it. >> he has to know that it is because he has not called and pressured for a permanent cease fire. >> if he doesn't get it together and change what he's doing and what congress is doing as far as sending our money to israel to fund a genocide, we will not vote for him in november. >> danielle, how big of a

problem could this be for president biden in michigan come november? >> this is an enormous problem for the biden campaign. it isn't just in michigan. michigan just had the ability to show out. at the end of the day, there are many different groups, whether it is the black church, whether it is muslim americans, whether it is generation z that are not happy at all with the way that this administration is dealing with the war in israel. and so for this, we have to understand that in 2016 the folks remember donald trump won michigan by i think 10 or 11,000 votes. we're talking about an uncommitted protest vote that was over 100,000 votes. biden does not have any room for error here. if i am that campaign, i am paying attention to this base the way that the trump administration -- the way that the trump campaign and the republicans pay attention to white evangelicals. this is a big problem r for the biden campaign, and this was an alarm. they have eight months to change course, and i suggest that they

do so. >> susan, the gap between nikki haley and donald trump is widening. how much runway does her campaign have left? >> as much runway as her funders are willing to give her because that's how the campaign continues. >> she lost the coke brothers this week. >> she lost the koch brothers, although they had started to move away from her in new hampshire. her new money is significant. i will say the koch brothers did bring a ground game, which is really important to turnout any voters that she can get, but the big question is what does she do after super tuesday? and she has a couple of options, but the biggest question will be will she be funded past super tuesday. >> danielle, something you mentioned about how close this state was in the general election, in 2020, in 2016, 150,000 vote difference the last time around, just 11,000 vote difference in 2016. can either trump or biden afford

to lose michigan and still win the white house? >> i honestly don't think so. i think that our elections are getting closer and closer every single -- you know, every single presidential term, i think that we are watching as, you know, we're looki 10,000, 11,000, which is why we say every vote matters. every vote counts and needs to be counted. and so when you see the kind of pushback that both biden is receiving in michigan and donald trump is receiving from, you know, from highly educated white voters, college educated white voters, this is not a state to take for granted. no state is a state to take for granted but definitely not michigan. >> danielle moody, and susan del percio, thank you both. great to have you ladies here. president biden on the move this morning, he left the white house to go to walter reed for what aides say is a routine partial physical. he's scheduled to be back at work this afternoon, and the white house says it will release a summary of their results later today. we will bring you updates as we get them. up next on "ana cabrera

reports" shutdown deja vu, the latest on efforts to avoid one this week and a breakdown of why these spending showdowns keep happening. plus, the reproductive rights fight happening in alabama right now as patients, doctors, and advocates protest the state's ivf court ruling. e'g (♪♪) we come from a long line of cowboys. (♪♪) when i see all of us out here on this ranch, i see how far our legacy can go. (♪♪) with so many choices on booking.com there are so many tina feys i could be. so i hired body doubles. 30,000 followers tina in a boutique hotel. or 30,000 steps tina in a mountain cabin. ooh! booking.com booking.yeah [coughing] copd isn't pretty. i'm out of breath, and often out of the picture. but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful.

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welcome back. congress is running out of time to keep the government running with a friday deadline that is looming getting closer, yet speaker mike johnson says he is very optimistic that an agreement can be reached. he has a new strategy, we're learning, that could buy congress another two weeks. let's bring in nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake and nbc news senior business correspondent christine romans. garrett, what are you learning about this two-week strategy? >> yeah, ana, if a football team had this strategy, they would lose a lot of games, wu for congress right now, the strategy is just keep punting and hope you figure it out later.

that is essentially what the johnson strategy right now boils down to, this government funding is still split up into two deadlines, one right now for this week, one the following week. the idea is to push the first deadline back until next week. the second deadline back a few more weeks, and see if negotiators who long ago agreed on the top line spending numbers can finish their homework, write these bills and come up with enough of an agreement that they can pass without triggering a short shutdown. the problem with this strategy is, of course, house republicans in particular hate these kind of continuing resolutions despite the fact they are largely caused by that body's inability to decide what they want or how to pursue it. >> and can you remind us what partially actually shuts down if congress doesn't meet this deadline on friday? >> so the way these bills are divided, about a third of the federal government would shut down. you'd see things like the department of agriculture, which could affect food safety inspections get shuttered for a time. transportation is on this list. that could affect the pay, at least in the short-term for air

traffic controllers. in the past longer shutdowns of that agency have led to flight delays with air traffic controllers knowing they weren't going to get paid until the government reopened, just called out sick en masse. those are probably two of the things i'd be watching for, kind of the most consumer impact. obviously so many different elements of the federal government, the v.a. would be part of this, benefits wouldn't be affected, but a lot of other operations would. it's just a mess, ana, even if it's only a short shutdown of a day or a week for congress to get their ducks in a row. >> keep us posted. thanks, garrett haake. >> let's dig deeper with christine romans. tell us more about what happens if we see another cr, this short-term resolution, and why does that keep happening? >> i have my own metaphor. this is a place holder. it's not policy. this is not doing the people's business. this is the way our business has been going over the past ten years, this is what we've been doing over and over again, just continuing resolutions, crs

again and again instead of making policy and tough decisions to get the government running. so we do know that the democrats and republican leadership have set a spending target in january. we were fighting about this last time. $1.59 trillion. what they're hashing out now is how to actually spend it. here's something else interesting. because of a twist in the law from last year, again when we were having a shutdown threat and continuing resolution fights, there could be an automatic 1% cut to all agencies if they're doing this continuing resolution rodeo by the end of april. that would be even cuts to defense, for example. this is all just not the way to run a business and certainly not the government of the largest economy in the world. all the research shows that it's very unstable financial planning for all of these agencies. the pause in hiring and training is incredibly difficult. as garrett said, you're talking about a scenario where you could have the irs in the middle of

tax season with a government shutdown. you could have training pause there. there are a lot of reasons why this is just not great. it's also not great for the public confidence in the american government. look at this, the last time we were fighting over a shutdown in september, this poll shows that democrats and republicans, their trust in government amid a shutdown threat declining because of what happened there. so look, it's not a good way to run the government, not a good way to run the economy, not good for the public trust. >> there's so much uncertainty the whole time. >> absolutely. >> thank you so much. >> good to see you too. right now in alabama, families are rallying outside the state capital demanding changes after a controversial court ruling cut off access to ivf treatments at some of the state's biggest treatment facilities. >> our most successful treatment has been taken from us. we are calling on the alabama legislature to hear the urgency in our message, while many of you wait on the ability to move

forward right now on medications waiting for this word, we just have a goal of having a baby. >> and now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they are working on a fix. nbc's kathy park joins us from montgomery, alabama. what are you hearing from the families gathered behind you? >> reporter: good morning to you. the common theme i'm hearing is that the lives of ivf patients and their families are currently in limbo. behind me the rally is just wrapping up. this is essentially part one. you'll notice this crowd is now entering the alabama state house right now. they have a packet of talking points and the goal is to meet directly with lawmakers pressuring them to make a change with this recent ruling. meanwhile, the governor of alabama suggesting a bill will be on our desk soon. this morning alabama lawmakers moving quickly to protecting ivf treatments, weeks after the state supreme court ruling that

defined embryo as an unborn child. alabama republicans introducing bills that would shield ivf clinics from civil and criminal penalties. state democrats presenting their own measure last week saying any fertilized human egg or human embryo that exists outside of the human uterus is not considered an unborn child. amid the scramble to resolve the legality of ivf for the state, at least three fertility clinics have hit pause on treatments upending the lives of patients. hanna miles has been trying to conceive for three years. >> having a child for you is priceless? >> yes, yep. you do everything that you can because what other choice do you have? >> miles was weeks away from a scheduled embryo transfer when the ruling came down. >> we more than anyone know that an embryo does not equal a child because if it did, i'd be pregnant. >> her clinic has paused new ivf

treatments, but she says her embryo transfer appears to be on track for now. meanwhile, the impact of alabama's ruling is even being felt across the country. in northern california, military wife heather says her last embryo is currently with an alabama clinic that has paused embryo transfers. >> i received a phone call from my doctor and i could hear the devastation in her voice, and that's when i knew this isn't happening. >> her heartache felt by so many other fertility patients who shared their stories with the nation's top health official xavier becerra in birmingham. >> we're trying to figure out at the federal level what we can continue to do to try to be supportive of people who want to access their health care rights. i think it's become pretty clear that this isn't just about abortion. >> reporter: and ana, obviously this is still very much a developing story. later on this afternoon, the

republican bills that were presented yesterday will be taken up in the health care committee meeting and it is open to the public. ana. >> kathy park, thanks so much. next here on "ana cabrera reports," what a key witness said or didn't say in court about the romance between two prosecutors overseeing trump's georgia case. plus, what we've heard so far from the supreme court as they weigh a legal challenge to a trump era ban on bump stocks. s she found it. the feeling of finding the psoriasis treatment she's been looking for. she found sotyktu, a once—daily pill for moderate—to—severe plaque psoriasis... for the chance at clear or almost clear skin. it's like the feeling of finding your back... is back. or finding psoriasis can't deny the splendor of these thighs. ♪♪ once—daily sotyktu was proven better, getting more people clearer skin than the leading pill. don't take if you're allergic to sotyktu; serious reactions can occur. sotyktu can lower your ability to fight infections including tb. serious infections, cancers including lymphoma,

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new questions this morning about whether fulton county d.a. fani willis, the top prosecutor will stay in charge of the georgia election interference case of donald trump. the judge heard testimony yesterday from special prosecutor nathan wade's former law partner and divorce attorney, terrence bradley. trump and his co-defendants hoped bradley would provide testimony that willis had a romantic relationship with wade before she hired him posing a possible conflict of interest. instead bradley testified more than a dozen times that he didn't know or didn't remember details about that relationship. the judge has scheduled another hearing for friday. lisa rubin is back with us. joining us criminal defense attorney danny cevallos. you said yesterday that bradley was either lying, speculating or covering for willis and wade. did he provide any clarity at all here or just further muddy the waters? >> i think he muddied the waters a lot because he was either, as i said yesterday, lying and/or speculating when he communicated with ashley merchant over text

about the origins of the relationship and how early it started, or he was lying on the stand yesterday because he was deeply discomforted by having to testify essentially against his former law partner and even more troublingly his former client, nathan wade. so i think it was a wash. the question is where does that leave the defense in establishing a conflict of interest. i don't think they're any further along in showing that there was a conflict. on the other hand, if judge scott mcafee finds that bradley is a liar, is that enough for him to create enough doubt that he wants to see things like the phone records that trump's lawyers have offered to provide to him? >> danny, what's your assessment of where we are right now? >> building on what lisa said, i think judge mcafee really has two choices here. he can conclude, if he does conclude -- and my sense is he didn't find terrence bradley credible -- let's say that's what he concludes. he might conclude, well, he didn't say anything and therefore, there's no additional

facts that bolster the defense's case here. that's a possibility. or what if he says i find this witness and maybe the other witnesses not credible, and as a result i will infer the bad things that they were trying to hide. this happens all the time. i hate to tell you people get on the stand and lie all the time. juries are instructed if you don't find that person credible, you can imagine all kinds of bad things are actually the truth based on their false statements or their lack of credibility. that might be really one of two options, and it really is the ultimate question here. what will judge mcafee do with what i think just based on his body language, that you saw many times he would stop questioning, like, look, you've made your point. i think he was saying you've made your point that terrence bradley is being evasive, and he's not going to answer the defense's question. so what will judge mcafee do with that? really it begs the question, what if the prosecution in this case, let's take a step back.

we're weeks into this. what if they had said from the outset, you know what? all this is true. what if there was a relationship. what if it predated wade's appointment. what if wade did take fani willis on vacations and he paid for them, so what? because all this resistance now they're almost in exactly the same place they would have been except now some people have taken the stand and they've come off as less than credible. you argue the law under georgia, this would be a close call even if everything the defense was saying was true. >> not only is there the focus now on the prosecutor and the special prosecutor in this case and not on the defendants, but like you said, it just is getting kind of worse and the lack of clarity here is troubling, right? if this case is to go to trial at all. we've had days of hearings on the issue. and so yet another one come friday. why can't the judge make a decision at this point? >> one, they are entitled to have a closing argument on their

motion. remember how we got to this place is through an underlying motion to disqualify fani willis. and i want to push back a little bit on what danny said. even if everything that the defense is saying is true, it still has yet to establish that there is a disqualifying financial conflict of interest that disadvantages the defendants here. and so that is the question for judge mcafee. is there a conflict of interest that hurts the defendants. doesn't hurt the people of fulton county. we could say what happened was ethically suspect and that theh have been hurt. but that is not the question. the question is if it hurts the defendants. so he will hear closing arguments on that. and then he will also hear argument on a motion trump's lawyers filed that so far has been ignored which is he arced that when fani willis went to speak to a church earlier this winter and denied some of these allegations, that her rhetoric

was itself disqualifying because she accused the defendants of their own racism and putting nathan wade to the test. that forensic misconduct motion will also be argued on friday. and finally, they will have some argument about whether the phone records trump's lawyers seek to admit are relevant now. the evidence has been closed. mcafee said i won't hear expert testimony on that, but you will have to convince me that that is still relevant to my decision making. >> so best case scenario for willis looks like what? >> it is hard to say. is it possible she's disqualified? i think the odds are slim. i think the law is actually in their favor. all they judge mcafee has made reference to the appearance of impropriety, let me give an example. georgia has special prosecutors. you could make the argument that every single one because they are billing by the hour has an incentive to overprosecute a defendant. and yes wade apparently been

bade over half a million dollars so far. i've taken court appointments. that is an astonishing amount of money, but that doesn't really matter. the mere fact that prosecutor is making more money the more hours they bill is not a conflict of interest. it never has been. special prosecutors have been around for a long time. so if i'm the prosecution, i argue the money going to wade if that is not an ethical violation, it can't possibly be a violation when he takes her on vacation. these are arguments they could have made months ago. let's say everything you are saying is true, we won't fight it, let's argue the law. but now by possibly submitting false statements, they may have gotten the defense just a little closer to actually winning this long shot motion. >> thank you both. up next, second amendment case at the supreme court this hour over whether a trump era ban on gun bump stocks is law enforcement. the potential ripple effects as our country grapples with gun violence. with gun violence

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this afternoon the suspect in the killings of four university of idaho students is due back in court. the judge is expected to set a trial date for bryan kohberger who is facing four counts of first-degree murder. prosecutors want the trial to start this summer. kohberger's defense says that is too soon. as we speak, a high profile gun case is being argued before the u.s. supreme court. at issue here, the trump era ban

on bump stocks, an attachment that allows semi automatic rifles to fire even faster. and whether the government can ban them without an act of congress. this ban was enacted in 2017 after the mass shooting and that mass shooter used firearms equipped with bump stocks to open fire on a crowded music festival in las vegas killing 60 and injuring hundreds. firing around 1100 rounds in just 11 minutes according to the fbi. joining us now is justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. there have been multiple attempts to get this case before the supreme court. how did we get here and what are the arguments so far? >> killer's use of bump stocks helped make the las vegas massacre the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. and then president trump ordered the atf to ban them. and even the national rifle association at the time didn't oppose if. justice department lawyers initially said the sfwoechlt

government didn't have the authority do that but then changed their minds. so this is not about the second amendment. long standing ban on machine guns as been upheld as constitutional. this is the case about whether the executive branch exceeded its legal authority by re-enter prettying the existing law to cover bump stocks. whether it fits the definition of machine gun. biden administration says it clearly converts a semi automatic rifle into a machine gun by allowing it to fire hundreds of rounds per minute with a single pull of the trigger, but opponents says what if actually does is facilitate rapid pulls of the trigger. in other words it is depressing in single shot mode over and over faster than a human finger could pull it, technically that is not how a machine gun works. >> and so i understand despite the atf ban that is in place, bump stocks are still on the market. so how is that possible? >> well there, are two circuit

courts, 5th and 6th, that actually have ruled that this ban was invalid. those rulings have been stayed but nonetheless some dealers in those states are trying to sell bump stocks. aff says that is illegal, but we're not aware of any enforcement actions against those dealers. >> so important to watch. thanks. that does it for us. thank you for joining us. we'll see you back here tomorrow same time same players. and you can catch the show on youtube and other platforms. i'm anna came barra. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage. good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pa stisk. at this hour president biden is at walter reed medical center where he is expected to undergo his annual physical. the exam was scheduled, but was off the record this morning