snakes, pigs, spiders, all kind of things. 250,000 support -- there are legitimate support animals for people with ptsd, for example. and then there are -- >> the peacock lady's got to be on "late night" soon. we need to hear more. >> thanks for joining us. i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. "new day" next. they have sarah huckabee sanders and joe kennedy. happy birthday, christine romans. >> the state of my birthday is strong! >> see you tomorrow. there has never been a better time to start living the american dream. >> what you saw was president trump with one hand reaching out his hand to democrats, and with the other hand, holding up a fist. >> my duty is to defend americans. americans are dreamers too. >> the president has offended his base deeply with this path

to citizenship with all the dreamers. >> you are part of our story. we will fight for you. >> he did highlight his biggest asset, the strong economy. >> we enacted the biggest tax cuts in american history. >> we have seen the worst of this epidemic. he didn't lay out plans to deal with it. >> the president very effective using his guests. >> let's embody the goodness of ou our nation. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> all right. welcome the our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is your "new day". it is wednesday, january 31st, 6:00 here in washington. and here is the starting line. the theme of president trump's first state of the union could be divided we stand. president trump's hailing the start of a new american moment, calling for unity, calling for bipartisanship. all of it mixed with policies that kept half the audience and

congress literally frozen. now, with the threat of another government shutdown looming next week, the president rushed of spending issues that will be very real. the focus was on the four pillars of his immigration plan. his offer of a path to citizenship for nearly 2 million undocumented immigrants is upsetting conservatives. however, the trade for that pathway has democrats on edge because of on billions for a border wall, ending the visa lottery, and ending family unification. and the president raising eyebrows by saying americans are dreamers too. >> in other key moment, president trump used the stories of everyday americans to put a human face through his 80-minute long speech. he issued a start warning that north korea could very soon threaten the united states with its nuclear-tipped missiles. a new poll on how speech watchers felt the president did last night.

we'll show you that. any mention of russia investigation absent. president trump seemed to offer a clue last night about the release of that controversial and classified republican memo that alleges surveillance of uses by the fbi. we have all of this covered for you. let's begin with cnn's abby phillips live at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. president trump tried to strike an optimistic tone, different from most americans see from him on social media. 80 minutes, that speech among the largest ever given. the president used his time to tout the dawn of a new american moment. >> i call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people. this is really the key. these are the people we were elected to serve. >> reporter: president trump striking a conciliatory tone

urging lawmakers to move past the deep divisions that defined his first year in office. >> this in fact, is our new american moment. >> reporter: mr. trump utilizing the same polarizing language that fermented the divide. >> americans are dreamers too. >> reporter: appearing to draw a line from dreamers to the ms-13 gang members that killed two teenage girls, their grieving parents guests in the audience. >> for decades open borders allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. they've allowed millions of low-wage work stories compete for jobs and wages against the poorest americans. most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives. >> reporter: mr. trump pledging to work with both parties to strike a deal on immigration. but his plan to restrict a program that allows immigrants to bring families to the u.s.

provoking boos from democrats. president trump touting his economic successes and signature legislative achievement. >> just as i promised the american people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. a claim a cnn reality check deems to be false. mr. trump calling on democrats to work with him on an ambitious list of agenda items, including infrastructure, trade, opioid addiction, prison reform and lowering the cost of prescription drugs, while boast building rolling back a number of obama-era policies, including the individual mandate and keeping guantanamo bay open. and taking an apparent swipe at nfl players while honoring 12-year-old preston sharp for his compassion toward veterans.

>> preston's reverence reminds us of why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem. sharp was one of a number of emotional stories the president highlighted during his speech. honoring guests like otto warmbier's parents, who died shortly after his release from prison and a north korean defector. calling on congress to bolster u.s. defense. >> north korea's reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland. >> reporter: and calling on congress to bolster u.s. defense. >> as part of our defense, we must modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it, but making it

so strong and so powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression. >> reporter: mr. trump made no mention of russia's supervision to the 2016 election but was overhead with jeff duncan talking about releasing a classified gop memo that alleges sur is have a lance abuses by the fbi, a move democrats say is meant to undermine the russia probe. >> don't worry. 100%. >> reporter: now, with that out of the way, the president is expected to make a decision about that controversial gop memo sooner rather than later, sources tell cnn. but what he won't be doing is taking his state of the union policies out on the road as previous presidents have done. the president has no plans to go out giving speeches as prior presidents have done in order to reinforce some of the messages that he pet out last night, alisyn and chris. >> abby, thank you very much. what did he say? what will it mean going forward?

a couple of big brains, executive director of political programming mark preston. and cnn politics reporter and editor at large chris cillizza. chris, what were your big takeaways in. >> number one, preston has an awesome title. director of political program stkphrg it changes 6th time he's on the show. boss. >> okay. in a vacuum, effectively delivered speech. >> 40% said high marks. >> people who watch it generally react very well to these things because you have the entire focus of everything. it was 80% about what he had done effectively, 20% about what he wanted to do. fool me once last year with his speech, which i thought was maybe even better. don't fool me twice. the last year suggested that what donald trump says, whether

it's the state of the union or anywhere else, it's just not borne out. and i think you're going to see ta in the next few days when he releases -- i'd be stunned if he didn't -- this nunes memo. a lot of senior fbi and intelligence have urged him not to do for a number of reasons. he says what he says on one day. we have a tendency because of past presidents we have covered should try to dry a narrative arc, try to draw a story line, is this the pivot to the presidency. no. this is awe guy who is unpredictable and euimpetuous. >> he started recognizing people in the audience with heroes, firefighters, hurricane harvey helpers, and that was effective. obviously that gets the whole room flapping. as you know, there are always those moments of republicans

standing and cheering. >> never had more than we did last night, that's for sure. >> there was a lot of that. but he started with the moments of everybody applauding heroes and things. >> he did. first of all, he walked into a room where half the room was divided. he had half the room against him. to your pointing to be able to point out american heroes, you know, the couple, the police officer who adopted the baby who was addicted -- >> who will be on later this spring with us. >> what a great american story that is. i would go one step further, though. he had very sad stories. the warmbiers, the two families that were there whose daughter was killed by ms-13 gang members. he does play this idea that he's going to come in and fix the american carnage, that he is going to clean up the streets. look, it was terribly moving.

my wife and i were watching it last night. and she had a tear in her eye when she was looking at those families. but, again, i didn't find it to be very uplifting. it played to his base. but for conciliatory rhetoric -- in there was a lot of dark talk. here's a signature moment from last night. >> struggling communities, especially immigrant communities, will also be helped by immigration policies that focus on the best interests of american workers and american families. for decades, open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. they have allowed millions of low-wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest americans. most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives.

>> so you had him laying out there. a fact challenge, no question bit. it was certainly something that was a salvo politically. van jones kind of captured how people on the left felt about it with this. >> he was selling sweet tasting candy with poison in it. what he said -- no. what he said about those young people, he implied, and he did it deliberately, that dreamers are gang members. when you look at the numbers, facts matter. >> some dreamers are gang members. that's a fact. >> you know what the numbers are? 39 kids. this is according to the u.s. government. >> picking on the dreamers and using that as a villain base is a mistake statistically. last night there were sad couples in the audience. african-american families whose kids had been killed by ms-13

members. the president described them as minors who had come into the country illegally. obviously there is a direct parallel to dreamers. this is a song i hear you humming all the time. demi lovato's sorry, not sorry. if you get the lyrics to that song it was spot on what was happening during the speech last night. he didn't even use the prompter on the side of the room. he was looking to his left where the republicans were. he would like and he would be like things are is tough, sorry. and then he would look here, not sorry. and he went on with a revenge tour, painting dark pictures of a american reality and what he is going to do about it. >> yeah. his rhetoric, his policies have been all over the place. but his rhetoric, this is to mark's point, hasn't changed all that much.

it is a -- based in fear. sit dark. there's no question. it is is only i can protect you from these things. we have been a little bit normalized to the rhetorical excesses he uses. some of that language in here. these people will come into your country and they can murder your kids just like those people in the audience. >> hence this rift. being so bad got me feeling so good. showing you up like i knew that i would. >> you actually did print out that demi lovato song. >> but this is who the guy is. and i think that he knows that it worked. fear is one of the most powerful motivating factors in politics. a lot of people voted out of fear in 2016.

most state of the unions are 50% victory lap, 50% here's what i want to do. that was 80% -- literally by time, over an hour of and then i did this, i did this. he wanted you clapping for him. he did some of his own clapping for himself. and he did. but it doesn't change anything, though i'm not sure there is a speech that could be given by donald trump that would change anything. >> something else unusual, not one democratic response. there were many. most unofficial. there were like four unofficial and one official. here is the official democratic response from joe kennedy. >> bullies may land a punch, leave a mark but they have never in the history of our united states managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future. >> what did you think, mark? >> i thought he was very effective.

i know a lot of people said on twitter, you know, that his lipgloss was too bright. it looked like he was drooling out of his mouth. look at the setting he was in. he was in a town that has been racked by the economy. he has his jacket off. he is very every man. for the democratic party who has been looking a lot their possible bench for 2020 candidates, and i'm not saying he is running in 2020. joe kennedy is the future. >> what about the message that they had so much unofficial, official. >> the biggest unreported story 2017 going into 2018 is the division in the democratic party because donald trump has sucked up all the oxygen. >> and unthing mentioned is joe kennedy was fixing a car. the hood was open. he popped in, gave a speech. >> demi lovato knows. look at the lyrics.

better walk that walk, baby. if you talk that talk, baby. that was the message for both sides. democrats have to deliver and the democrats have to work on the passion. >> next up, a poetry slam. we will talk about the state of the union with white house press secretary sarah sanders. she'll be here. and congressman joe kennedy who gave that rebuttal. and we'll speak exclusively with one of president trump's guests, officer ryan holiets. he goes and sees a couple of addicts. does he condemn them? no. he adopts the child. >> can't wait to talk to him. no mention of the russia investigation of course in the state of the union address. but the president did reveal what he plans to do with the

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president trump was caught on open mike telling republican congressman jeff duncan he will release the controversial nunes memo. watch this moment. >> let's release the memo. >> don't worry. 100%. can you imagine? >> don't worry. 100%, he said. let's bring in cnn legal analysts michael cordero and carry. of course he's going to release it. he wanted to release the memo. he said last night 100% he will release it. we don't know when. politically it would be unwise to do it today if it steps on his state of the union message. what's interesting is the department of justice and the fbi don't want it released. they want it vetted first to see if it's classified. where does that leave this memo. >> where it leaves this memo is that it is going to be released and the president made a decision to essentially take his

personal political interests further than national interests. when you're the department of justice and your intelligence agencies and fbi says, mr. president, please don't do this, this is not in the national interest of the united states, and he says i'm going to do it anyway, you know it is personal and political over on national security. and that's sad. >> you had rod rosenstein, there are rumors he is mentioned about what he did with respect to sraeur lance. yet he came to the white house, we're told, and lobbied chief of staff john kelly not to release it. that's according to the "washington post". because they're concerned. people are playing off the concerns of the doj as defensive and as political. but you have so much experience with this fisa process and this kind of intel. are there legitimate concerns or no? >> he would be arguing not to release because this memo is classified. with don't know what level it is classified, whether it's secret or top secret, which changes the

assessment how much damage can be done by its release. so he has a responsibility to protect that information. what's amazing about the reporting right now is that the president is saying he's going to release this document without having been briefed on it or read it. he should be receiving information not only from the deputy attorney general and the fbi director but his director of national intelligence giving him advice as to what the harm to national security would be if his memo is released at his current format. the justice department is concerned that the memo may be not accurate, that it doesn't reflect the rigor with which they pursued the fisa application. as far as we understand publicly, it makes an allegation they were not truthful or forth coming with the sur say lance court. >> the memo has to do that. just to have this enthusiasm politically, it has to suggest that the do's kwraeurbgs the

tru dossier was a heavy part in getting the surveillance. it has to be here. >> we talked about this yesterday. which is this is an effort to undermine the credibility of the steele dossier. because the steel dossier, if proven true, is very damage to go trump's personal liberty interests. that's what it is about. they don't care to read this stuff because they made a political decision. this is more important to them than the national security interests that you properly raised. >> it is. and the difficulty is the application that goes to the court has a number of facts in it that would establish probable case. and so what i suspect they are concerned about, the deputy attorney general and the fbi director, is this memo focuses perhaps on one fact when they know they made a full some

court. i presented many to the foreign intelligence -- >> there are several different levels. >> they are finished intelligence products, extraordinarily vetted. it has never been declassified that there was a fisa application. if the reporting was correct that there was a fisa application on an american affiliated with a campaign, that would garner the most amount of scrutiny. it would be considered highly sensitive. it would have been scrubbed really carefully and cautious in terms of the representations made to the court. >> next topic. robert muler and whether president trump will sit down with him. the president's lawyers seemed to be making the argument that robert mueller has not met the threshold for a presidential interview. tell us about that. what happens if president trump refuses to be interviewed by robert mueller? >> he should be subpoenaed. i think that the case that they're trying to make, that he

hasn't met the level for overcoming executive privileges is a spurious one. executive privilege is a communication privilege. it is the president getting advice from his top policy advisers. there is nothing about this case that has to do with policy advice. and a lot of it has to do with before he even became the executive. so the notion that this is executive privilege overcoming the need by a grand jury is silly. but the standard -- >> this is from the espy case, right? >> sit is important to the investigation and potentially unavailable elsewhere. that is the standard that mueller has to overcome. there is no credible argument that this evidence can be obtained anywhere else other than out of the mouth of the president. >> right. >> in the end, i think he's going to have to sit down. and if he fights a voluntary

interview, if i were mueller, i would send him a grand jury subpoena and let him deal with the ramifications of that. >> but that's a heavy handed political move. he's got to be thinking a little bit about that stuff. it does tell us, if nothing else, that the constant calls that the president is excited about this, he wants to do it, is not 100% true. because his lawyers would be be scrubbing back to the clinton days, the espy case, it is of dubious legal value. >> well, there certainly is a public messaging piece going on. so the president is publicly saying i'm willing to is sit down with the special counsel. >> i'm looking forward to it. >> i'm looking forward to it. that might be the right public message to have. and at the same time his lawyers are doing the job they should be doing, which is looking at precedent, looking at situations where there previously was executive privilege asserted. there is a precedent for sitting

presidents to be interviewed by investigators. so there is a history they can turn to on that point. >> carrie, michael, thank you. >> my pleasure. hillary clinton expressing regret for not firing a campaign ad accused of sexual is harassment in 2008. when she claims she would do if it happened today. next. [man] woah. ugh, i don't have my wallet, so - [girl 1] perfect! you can send a digital payment. [man] uhh, i don't have one of those payment apps. [girl 2] perfect! you have a us-based bank account, right? [man] i have wells fargo. [girl 3] perfect! then you should have zelle! [man] perfect. [girls] perfect! [vo] the number one mobile banking app just got better. [man] does your coach use zelle, too? [boy] of course! [vo] another way we're building better every day.

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it came from. buzzfeed news said her lawyer later confirmed that daniels did sign the statement. she was just having fun on kimmel, he says. as for eye nondisclosure agreement that stormy allegedly signed, she had is this to say. >> i know you either do or don't have a nondisclosure agreement, which if you didn't have a nondisclosure agreement -- do you have a nondisclosure agreement? >> do i? >> you can't say whether you have a nondisclosure agreement. but if you didn't have a nondisclosure agreement, you could most likely say i don't have a nondisclosure agreement. >> you're so smart, jimmy. president trump's lawyer paid daniels $130,000 before the 2016 election to keep quiet about the alleged affair. what i don't get is why keep

interviewing her. >> it is a channel stopper. you say, ooh, what's this before you realize she's not going to say anything. >> there's the answer. another headline. hillary clinton regrets her decision not to fewer an aide for sexual harassment during her 2008 presidential campaign. she explained why she thought a less severe punishment was appropriate saying, i did this because i did not think firing him was the best solution for the problem. he needed to be punished, change his behavior and understand why his actions were wrong. the young woman needed to be able to thrive and feel safe. i thought both could happen without him losing his job. clinton admits she would not make the same decision today but believes in second chaps and that the former female staffer read every word of her statement and gave the okay to use it. >> is they say he didn't go to

treatment. he wound up getting a second job with the clinton organization, and he did it again. is facebook the best way? you will debate that all day long. the state of the union lasted a near record. only bill clinton beat him twice. but he did not discuss russia's interference in the 2016 election. obviously intentional. implications next. t not any mor i am done with that. ooh, ooh hot - just gonna stay home on the farm, eat a beautiful idaho potato, and watch tv with my dog... tv anncr: the big idaho potato truck pulled into town today and it's really a sight to see. oh man...let's go.... (distant) you comin', boy? sfx: (dog) gulp! woof.

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president trump receiving some criticism for something he did not say in his state of the union address. the president mentioned russia only once in the speech but not their election meddling. joining us to talk about it all is the senior democratic on the senate foreign relations committee. thank you for being with us here so early. >> good to be with you. >> what did you hear? >> not much about russia. >> did you expect to hear about russia meddling?

why would that have been in the state of the union? >> because russia is a major security threat to the united states of america. it is very likely they will be involved in our 2018 elections. we saw over the last weekend they were involved with the czech elections. the president talking about the state of the union needs to talk about russia. >> what would you want him to say? >> we were disappointed the day before where he did not impose any new sanctions. >> let's stop there. the president has refused to implement them. why? >> well, one can speculate. but it is clear that mr. trump believes that he has a good relationship with mr. putin. he says when mr. putin says he didn't interfere in our elections, the president believes him. sit somewhat real he is allowing him to do these activities.

>> the state department siding with the president said they think russia has gotten the message. russia has gotten the message. no new sanctions necessary. your legislations spoke loud and clear. >> that's absolutely false. our intelligence community tells us mr. putin is still very, very active in the united states. we see that in the interference in our social media trying to get news at a higher level. we see that in activities as already mentioned in some european countries. with see that in syria. more and more cases where russia and mr. putin is doing things against our interest. no, russia has not gotten the message. >> is the u.s. prepared today to defend itself against any future russian meddling? >> no. with the president of the united states not taking the leadership the way our reelection system works, the way it is so open, you need to be sophisticated in your defense.

we saw that if you are, germany and france took actions. it was effective. their leaders recognize the risk and took action. president trump has not. >> what should president trump be doing? >> well, several things. first, you need to work with social media companies so we have complete disclosure with foreign insists, getting paid in advertisements, or recognizing they elevate news that is fake. >> facebook is tackling that. >> but not the president. there is no policy to try to protect our free election system. no efforts made to deal with russia's cyber activities. one of the sanctions we passed was new sanctions on russia for their attacks. we haven't imposed any of those sanctions. >> this house republican memo, the devin nunes crafted memo about whether or not there were surveillance abuses at fisa, are you prepared for this to come

out? >> to me this is sad and dangerous. we're talking about defending the role of law, the department of justice. you would think congress would stand up for the inside of the department of justice. there used to be a time when democrats and republicans joined together to protect the fbi, the department of justice. but it looks like the republicans are prepared to compromise our system in order to protect the president. >> i want to ask you about what happened in the recent meeting with mike pompeo. he met with his russian counterparts. they came to the u.s. including, though it's possible, they they won't confirm, a top russian spy. what are we to make of this? >> we find out through a russian tweet, as i understand it. russian authorities let us know he was here, sort of bragging here we have sanctions against the individuals. that person is here in the united states. so we're not even enforcing our

existing sanctions against individuals not permitted to be in the united states. >> have you shared your thoughts with director pompeo? >> i have not seen him since this came to light. i assure you that congress, i will be doing oversight to find out why current sanctions are not being enforced the way they should be and also to understand that we're going to watch the president i think said or the secretary of state said this is day one of imposing sanctions that were still open for imposing sanctions. we need to have congressional oversight including why this individual was here in the united states. >> senator cardin, thank you very much. a night to remember. for police officer ryan holets and wife rebecca, they were special guests of the united states of the united states and first lady at the state of the union. cnn was with them. they were there for a beautiful reason. their story next. and best in-class torque the f-150 lineup has the capability to get

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a lot of darkness in the

state of the union address last night. but not all. there were beautiful moments, and one stands out. truly powerful for all the right reasons. president trump honor police officer ryan holets and his wife who adopted a baby from a heroin-addicted holeless mom he came across in the line of duty. we will talk to the officer live in a moment. it is great to have him here. but the man who brought this story to you in the first place is ed lavandara. sometimes we do a service and you checked that box with the story. >> as amazing as the night was for the holets family, in interviewing them and getting to know them, never in our wildest imagination did we think it would end the way it did last night. the day was absolutely amazing. and stunning for them as they spent the day at the white house. then it culminated with the holets family center is stage at the state of the union.

>> the president of the united states. [ applause ]. >> reporter: even as a young kid ryan holets found watching mesmerizing. but seated next to the first lady was never even a remote fantasy. >> he's here tonight with his wife rebecca. >> reporter: and a standing ovation from the entire chamber, forget it. it all had to be a far-fetched fairy tale. but it wasn't. >> to get a standing ovation at the state of the union speech, what is that like? >> that was pretty amazing. it was just incredible. >> has it sunk in yet? >> no, of course not. >> it looks like you guys are ready to shoot up over here. >> the president recounted the story they first shared last month captured by ryan holets's body cam. >> he was on duty when he saw a pregnant homeless woman

preparing to inject heroin. >> why are you going to do that stuff? it's going to ruin your baby. you're going to kill your baby. >>? that moment ryan said he felt god speak to him. you will do it because you can. then he went home to tell his wife rebecca. in an instant is, she agreed to adopt. the holets named their new daughter hope. >> baby hope cradled by rebecca holets throughout the speech, won't remember this night. but her family will talk about the thunderous applause she inspired for years to come. >> ryan and rebecca, you embody the goodness of our nation. thank you. [ applause ]. >> reporter: the holets family spent the afternoon before the speech visiting the white house. a short visit with the president and vice president.

>> you told me you felt a responsibility to kind of carry the right message. did you accomplish what you wanted to accomplish? >> yeah, i believe so. >> in what way? >> i have been saying over and over people are valuable. >> reporter: baby hope toured the grand rooms of the white house and the iconic grounds outside. of and there was a selfie with the other guests in the motorcade from the white house to capitol hill. and the magical night ended with ryan holets simply thinking about baby hope's future. >> to me the most important thing is the fact that she has a family who loves her and she's going to grow up in an entirely different environment than she could have. and that's the most important. this will all fade away. >> reporter: and ryan's first sign that everything had faded away as we drove him over here to the studio, we stopped at every red light. the motorcade time is over.

smooth sailing to the capitol last night. this morning we hit every red light. >> don't you have a siren you can put on, officer? police officer ryan holets will join us live exclusively on "new day". where is your siren, officer? where is it?

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[mascot] i'm cool. i'm cool. [burke] that's one way to fire up the crowd. but we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ we've got a great reminder that the heart still beats, virtue does exist. albuquerque police officer ryan holets and his wife honored by president trump at the state of the union. he is the police officer who adopted a baby from a homeless mother addicted to heroin. he joins us now absoluexclusive. ryan, truly a pleasure. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> baby hope is home.

you have 125 kids already. no, you have five. hope is a little sick. so that's where mom and baby are this morning. >> yes. she's taking care of hope. >> how are you doing after this magical night you were called the embodiment of the goodness of america. >> well, that is just a stunning statement, i think. rebecca and i feel like we are normal, quiet people. and this -- everything that's happened has been very surreal. we're still trying to process what's happened. because never in a million years if you had asked me would i have told you at some point in my life i would be where i was last night. >> but you're not normal people actually. you came in -- as your work as a police officer, you came upon a homeless couple who were expecting a child and shooting up heroin. how did you get to that point from encountering them to you

and your wife deciding to adopt this baby? >> i went up to tom and crystal with the intent of doing my normal routine of investigating, probably taking somebody to jail. and when i saw that crystal was pregnant and began to converse with her, her humanity showed through her addiction. and the love for her child shone through and affected me in ways that are difficult to describe. and because i feel god led us to that point for whatever reason, we had already prepared ourselves for the possibility of adopting and fostering. and so when that moment came t out, there was no hesitation. we were just ready. >> you are 29 years old. >> i'm 27. >> i can't go lower than 29. i don't recognize any age lower than that. it makes me feel bad about myself.

you have five kids. what a beautiful demonstration of what you are. you are not out pounding your religious on people. you obviously have a very strong faith. that's not your message. your message through your own actions and your words is this was the right thing to do. people matter. and to hear it from anybody and a police officer and someone so young, that's the beauty of the message. you're not here to be a politician or to push religion on anybody. you are an example of how you lived your life. >> i try to do my best. anybody can say anything. but it's what you do that matters. for example, i told them of all different resources that were available and point her in all of these different directions. but if i didn't reach out to them, who was going to do it really? >> that couple, crystal and her partner who you encountered that day, they have now been in

rehab. and i know it was no easy feat getting them there. cnn featured those moments trying to get them to rehab and all the struggles. but they have been clean, as far as you know, 40 days. >> approximately 40 days. i was talking -- and i lose track of time with everything that's going on. >> you have a new baby. >> yes. >> five kids. >> i was talking to crystal on the phone and she mentioned they're exciting because the 40-day mark is coming up. i don't know if it's past yet or just about there. but 40 days sober. that's incredible. it's a hope that i always had. that is one of the things that i was so incredibly grateful to ed in the story, is that it went to such a platform that somebody stepped forward to help them. >> do you know what their

relationship is with the baby in the future? >> we are sending them pictures, keeping them updates. we want them to continue to see her. i think she's going to know how much they loved her and that's never going to be in question. >> let's talk about this reality. we were talking before we came back here live that you say 80% to 90% of your job on a daily basis somehow involves drugs or addiction, whether it's a crime of opportunity, or selling or whatever. it's a big issue now. good point for the president is opioids are on the spectrum now. heroin is on the spectrum. we need help. what do you see everyday in terms of where the need is and what still needs to be done by government? >> so one of the biggest issues