to thousands every year, go to cnnheroes.com. thanks for watching. our coverage continues. good evening. the reviews are in after last night's democratic presidential debate, which was watched by millions on television. vice president biden says it is fair game for opponents to bring up his age, but he's also pushing back. and beto o'rourke is receiving not so veiled threats after he said, quote, yes, we're going to take your ar-15, your ak-47. we'll get to all that in a moment. we begin tonight with the sentencing of one of the most public people wrapped up in the sprawling college admissions scandal. the actress felicity huffman, familiar to television audiences of course for her role in the popular series desperate housewives, late this afternoon was sentenced to 14 days in federal prison. she'll serve a year of probation, pay a $30,000 fine, and serve 250 hours of community service. all this after she pled guilty to paying a college consultant to inflate her daughter's s.a.t. scores. she's the first to be sentenced of more than 30 parents charged

in the largest admissions scandal of its kind in the united states. she told the judge, quote, i'm deeply ashamed of what i've done. our randi kaye tonight has more. >> reporter: $15,000, that's what actress felicity huffman paid to get her older daughter's s.a.t. scores boosted. long after her arrest, she would try to explain she found motherhood bewildering, and she was deathly afraid of doing it wrong. perhaps it was that fear that landed the desperate housewives star in hot water in the jaw-dropping admissions scandal dubbed operation varsity blues. here's how it worked. a man named rick singer had set up a sham charity. wealthy parents paid in under the guise of donations to obtain fraudulent higher s.a.t. scores so their kids would be accepted to prestigious schools. parents also paid for fake athletic credentials, so their children who were not student

athletes would be accepted to the school's athletic team. the fake charity also bribed college coaches and paid off testimony supervisors to beef up students' answers. some of the top universities in the country have been ensnared in the scandal, including yale, stanford, and georgetown. >> you know what? one day i won't be able to help you because i won't be here. >> reporter: according to the criminal complaint, huffman is heard on a recorded phone call making a plan to pay for her younger daughter's s.a.t. scores to be enhanced, something she later decided against. on the call, she says, we're going to do like we did with my older daughter. singer responds, okay. so we'll take it with her and for her at igor's place at the west hollywood test center. huffman pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit mail and honest services fraud. she admitted paying $15,000 for her daughter's s.a.t. score of 1420, which was considerably higher than her first score. investigators say her daughter's

answers were corrected by the test supervisor. huffman is one of 14 parents who have pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty in the college entry bribery scheme. a far cry from a mother who once expressed she wanted to serve as a role model for her daughters. >> i want to model for my daughters being a woman of agency, having a voice in the world. and, you know, that means having influence and having power. and to tell you the truth, having money. >> reporter: and just this week, days before her sentencing, huffman penned an emotional letter to the judge explaining the head of the charity had said her daughter's math test scores were too low for a college acting audition. huffman wrote, i didn't want my daughter to be prevented from getting a shot at auditioning and doing what she loves because she can't do math. huffman said when the scandal broke, my daughter looked at me and asked with tears streaming down her face, why didn't you believe in me? why didn't you think i could do

it on my own? i could only say, i am sorry. i was frightened, and i was stupid. in support of huffman, her husband, who has not been charged in the scheme, sent a letter to the judge. william h. macy wrote, huffman now rarely goes outside, and their oldest daughter has, quote, paid the dearest price. her first choice school denied her application two days after the scandal broke. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> in court, huffman told the judge that on the way to the testing center, she thought about turning around. my eternal shame, she said, i did not. the federal prosecutor on the case said, quote, moat parents have the moral compass and integrity not to step over the line. huffman did not. some perspective now from frank bruni. also with, paul callan. frank, you've written a lot obviously about the college admissions process. what did you make of this

sentence today? >> i think the sentence was a message that things have gotten out of hand. i mean she could have been sentenced to no jail time at all, right? i mean the guidelines here were pretty broad and some of them were lenient. i think the judge understood we're at a moment in time right now where i think americans are keenly aware of the uneven playing field when it comes to college admissions. i think this case was the most vivid symbol of that yet. i think this got a lot of attention not just because celebrities were involved -- felicity huffman, lori loughlin's, whose case is coming up, because this is such a vivid illustration of the fact that the playing field is not even, of the fact that parent of means bring a lot of money and a lot of gamesmanship to the college admissions process. if you are not someone of money, if you are not someone who knows the little tricks, if you're not someone willing to play the games -- >> or hire the coaches. >> you're behind the eight-ball. she went over the line and did something illegal. i think that's rare. i don't think most parents are paying bribes or engaging in fraud. but they'ring in some cases

millions of dollars toendowment. that's the jared kushner harvard story. they're paying tens of thousands of dollars a year tutors. i think this judge was making an example of felicity huffman and saying this is enough. >> paul, to her credit, she pled guilty and essentially said, yes, i'm guilty. she doesn't seem to be making excuses here. did that contribute to the relatively low sentence? i mean, again, there could have been no sentence at all to prison time, but it could have also been 30 days. >> i think it had an enormous impact because when you plead early and you accept responsibility, that's something that makes a tremendous impression on the judge. i think there was a second factor, though, anderson. this is a case where the defense claimed essentially that the real victim of her -- felicity huffman's actions were her own daughter. the daughter lived in

humiliation after, didn't get into college, so she didn't rob anybody of a seat in college. so who really was the victim of this crime? she victimized her own daughter by making this idiotic decision to pay $15,000 so the daughter could get a higher s.a.t. score. all of this combined in a low sentence, and the judge made this observation when she was sentencing. she said, i could have sentenced you to no jail, but i want to send a message with this sentence that this is a serious crime, and you're going to go to jail if you do it. >> this same judge is going to be ruling on other cases in this scheme. i wonder if this tells anything about how else this judge will rule. >> i think it does. this sets really the low watermark of probably the best you can hope for. a lot of other cases involve expenditure of greater sums of money. some have money laundering claims in them. and i think there's one parent who expended $6 million. when that gets evaluated under

the federal sentencing guidelines, you'll see a longer jail sentence. >> frank, i mean looking at the college admissions going forward, is this actually going to change anything? >> you know, so far it hasn't, and i've been really surprised about that. i thought that at this moment, given all that's come to light, i thought we were going to see a couple of prominent universities step up and say we're going to end legacy admissions. we're going to do other things along those lines that are going to even the playing field. i've been sort of shocked to see none of them do that. now there's still time. they may yet. i think this process and all of its problems, it's so entrenched at this point, i don't think universities like yale, harvard, stanford even know how to get out of it. >> in a sense, they were co-conspiritco co-conspirators in this entire thing, not even checking to see if the athletic credentials that were claimed by some of these potential students were legitimate in any way. i mean somebody saying they want to be on the crew, and they'd never rowed a boat. >> it's also interesting because they intentionally, it seems like singer intentionally kind

of picked minor sports or sports which don't get a lot of attention. he want picking the basketball team at these schools or the football team. it was the sailing team, the crew team, which don't get the kind of, you know, eyes on from many in the administration. >> well, they're happy to charge $50,000 a year or $60,000 a year's tuition for each student. so i think they should be looking more carefully about who they're admitting. >> but i disagree that the only victim here is felicity huffman's kid. i think the victims are all the kids who are not getting places. this is a zero-sum game. when they admit certain students, they're not admitting others. i think those are victims. i think the other class of victims are the kids because there are a lot of them who work so very hard to get the slots at these schools, and now people are looking at them and saying, what game did they play? >> for everybody who is taking standardized testing, it's a horrible process. it's awful. i vaguely recall it, and i try to block it out, and i still have nightmares about it sometimes. to know that, oh, wait a minute, some people have been cheating

on this, that's -- it ruins the kind of -- >> and i think, frank, you're right about this in the larger sense about a huge number of victims. but you have to prove it in an individual case. still ahead, joe biden and the age card. like it or not, fair or not, his mental stamina center stage. we'll tell you what the candidate and his campaign said today about his fitness for office after julian castro questioned the front-runner's memory during last night's debate. also a texas lawmaker threatening beto o'rourke after the presidential candidate promised to take away all ar-15s and ak-47s. a live report from texas on that. at t-mobile,

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joe biden's mental acuity and overall medical condition, something previously whispered about or attacked on the president's twitter feed, is now a big topic of conversation in this election. the democratic front-runner is

now promising to move up the release date of his medical records to before the iowa caucuses and all because of fallout from this exchange last night with fellow candidate julian castro, where castro questioned the vice president's memory. >> you said they would have to buy in. >> they would not have to buy in. >> are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago? are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago? i mean i can't believe that you said two minutes ago that they had to buy in, and now you're saying they don't have to buy in. you're forgetting that. >> biden's campaign called it a cheap shot. today even as castro contents this was, quote, not a personal attack. nevertheless, this story is out there. for his part, biden took it in stride this afternoon. when asked whether it was fair for his rivals to play the age card, he joked sure it is. >> -- releasing your medical records to address concerns? >> yes. what concerns, man? you want to wrestle?

>> speaking about last night's debate, biden told donors at a fund-raiser today, quote, i think i could have done better. i will do better god willing. joining me now to discuss, congressman cedric richmond. so vice president says the age card is fair game. do you agree? >> look, i think the vice president stands by his record. he is who he is, and you can't do anything about age. so if the american people think age is a real issue -- and, remember, everything's relative. the guy that he will be running against is nearly the same age. but if the american people think that that is an issue, i think he's willing to address it. so i think it is fair. i don't think how it was played was fair, especially since the facts were wrong surrounding the exchange. >> are you concerned that this is an issue that's just going to keep coming up? because it's the kind of thing that once, you know, people start to think about it or focus on it, anytime then somebody

stumbles, any time somebody gets a word wrong or drones on as i often do, it brings the question back up again. it sort of becomes something that people watch for. >> look, i do it all the time also. i do it far more than i want to do it. but i think that it's a slippery slope. i mean i know seniors are -- my mother for instance will not say if she misplaces her keys because she doesn't want people to think that for some reason, she's losing it. and i think that we have to be very sensitive about that. and so if the facts bear it out, then it's something that we can address. but, look, vice president biden is very, very strong. he is very energetic, and i think he's running a good campaign. but to send it out there in the manner that it was done, one, i think it was inaccurate in the way it was portrayed. but, two, i think it was just basic rude, no manners, and disrespectful. >> it's interesting that this even coming up at all given it's

not just the vice president that's in his 70s. his two closest rivals, sanders and senator warren are as well. why do you think biden is the one being attacked for his age and not others? >> because he's winning. whenever you're in first place, you have to be prepared for attacks from everyone who is not in first place. last night that was nine other people. and i think that that's why the vice president said at his fund-raiser that he will do better. he knows he's going to get attacked. i think that the good thing about the democratic party is that we lead with our morals and our values. and so anything that's issue-related -- and for the american people, let me just say this, anderson. people are so busy trying to keep a roof over their head, food on their tables, clothes on their children's back and provide for their families. the last thing they're thinking about are cheap shots in the debate. they're trying to figure out how to beat donald trump, how to get this country united again, how to restore the soul of the country, how to love and care

for one another like it was intended to do, how to be this idea of america. that's what people are thinking about. they're not thinking about who can come up with the best one liner during a debate so that they can fund raise off of it or hopefully get from 2% to 3%. >> but people are very concerned about who can actually stand toe to toe with donald trump on a debate stage and take what he, you know, throws out and give back more. i mean someone who can actually beat donald trump on a debate stage and in a race. >> they are concerned about that, but all the polls show that we're the only democratic candidate that's beaten donald trump by double digits. so it's not a thin margin of victory for vice president joe biden over donald trump. he has a large margin of victory right now. but let's remember also that he had to debate former speaker of the house paul ryan, and he had to debate former governor sarah palin when the stakes were the highest, and he performed very

well. they won both elections. so sometimes you have to let experience show. and by the way, since when is experience and wisdom a bad thing? you know, it reminds me of the farmers commercial. i know a thing or two because i've seen a thing or two. i think that he can stand on the fact that he's been there, and he knows what he's doing. >> all right. congressman cedric richmond, thank you very much. appreciate it. i want to bring in former adviser of four presidents david gergen and maggie haberman. while the debate was taking place last night, the president was in the process of taking aim, i guess, at vice president biden and elizabeth warren. i just want to play what he said. >> i hit pocahontas way too early. i thought she was gone. she's emerged from the ashes, and now it looks like she could beat sleepy joe. he's falling asleep. he has no idea what the hell he's doing or saying.

>> obviously if people thought what julian castro said was a low blow, i mean it is just a taste of what, if there was those two on the stage, biden and trump -- there's going to be a lot worse than that. >> yeah. there's a couple different things going on in that castro-biden exchange. one is they seem to be on substance talking past each other. one is the question of the fact he won't say he was in fact taking a shot at biden's age, which is hard to believe since it's pretty universal appearance of that from everyone watching. but then there's the question of his reaction and the reaction of sort of how dare you, sir, that a lot of his supporters had. as you say, this is going to be a fraction of what he's going to see on a debate stage with donald trump, who insulted his way through the debates in the primary, who insulted his way through his debates with hillary clinton, and who is already honing his lines. so at a certain point, you know, what you have in front of you is the game you have to play. and there are real questions to the point you just made before about whether biden is the right

person to go toe to toe. democrats are assessing that. people are thinking about it because of his age, but also whether he can take a punch against this president. >> david, cedric richmond was saying, look, biden went toe to toe against sarah palin and paul ryan. that was a long time ago, and obviously we're all older since then. so is that something you can kind of relax and say, oh, he's a very experienced debater? >> no, no, no, no. we've all seen joe biden now debate several times, and clearly he's still effective. a lot of people like joe. sometimes when he makes a gaffe, they like him more. it's part of his humanity and who he is. but there's no question that this is a legitimate issue in a campaign when you've got a candidate who is in the mid-70s. just remember back famously when ronald reagan was running for his second term and he had a

first debate against walter mondale and he stumbled badly on several occasions. it looked like he was sort of out of it. the democrats went after him hammer and tong, questioning his fitness, and he had to have a good second strong debate to turn that around with humor as he did. repeatedly since then, fitness for office has become a question. who is asking more of those questions today than democrats about donald trump, whether he's fit for office? just as it's fair to raise questions about joe biden. i do give credit to joe biden today to say i'm going to get my medical records out there before anybody votes. >> it does seem like something -- a wise thing to do though clearly not every president feels that way because we only saw donald trump's kind of -- >> dr. bornstein note? >> i don't even know how to describe that doctor, but apparently he's a doctor. >> he's a doctor of something. we have not seen donald trump's medical records. we get the report from the white house now that he's president.

i think one of the reasons democrats get so frustrated with the criticisms of biden's age is -- and whether he is fully present is that the person in the white house often, you know, loses his train of thought or, you know, i remember being in the oval office at some point. i can't remember if it was this year or last year where he kept referring to john bolton as mike bolton. he does get these things wrong, and i think democrats get frustrated feeling like he doesn't bear any scars for that. i don't know if he does or doesn't. we're going to find out with voters. >> david -- >> anderson? >> go ahead, david. >> i just want to make one more point. that is it's right to raise the question of how he's going to go toe to toe with donald trump. that's an important question. but the bigger, larger issue is, is he going to have good judgment if he's president? is he going to be able to think clearly and come down in a really complicated world? that's important. trump is operating entirely by instinct and look how everything is getting all screwed up. you want a person in that oval

office who can think and think clearly. biden needs to demonstrate that, and i think, you know, he'll be put to the test in this campaign. >> maggie, last night there was a lot of criticism about biden's reaction to the question about the legacy of slavery and what to do now. he ended up sort of saying, make sure you have the record player on at night. there was both criticism that he basically veered off the topic and ended up in the sort of very convoluted thing and then also referencing a record player. as someone who just happened to have bought a record player in detroit in the last debate, there is an argument to be made record players are coming back, but i don't think that's what vice president biden was referring to. >> i think record players are wonderful, but, no, i don't think that's where he was going, and i don't own one. but i do think, look, on the issue of slavery and of this country's relationship to slavery, i think what biden was trying to do frankly was just not answer the question because the crux of his support in the democratic party is these two

different currents. one is this conceit that he can appeal to working class white voters, which really hasn't been tested and then that he is consistently polling fairly well with black voters. it's why you're increasingly hearing his aides say it's really going to come down to south carolina. i have a hard time seeing if he gets wiped out in iowa and new hampshire how the vote doesn't start shifting, but i think that's what you were seeing at play there. >> david, do you agree with that? when you hear they're saying, i won new hampshire, not so important for biden. is that a worrying sign? >> absolutely it's a red flag. i think maggie is right on target. if elizabeth warren pulls out a victory in iowa and then another one in new hampshire and she's got a very good ground game going in both states, she's getting big crowds. it's going to -- biden will be very, very much on the defensive and it may not be enough to come back in south carolina. >> david gergen, maggie haberman, thank you very much. up next, democratic presidential candidate beto

o'rourke telling a debate audience if elected, he will take your ar-15, your ak-47, his words. a texas lawmaker responds to what o'rourke says was a threat. we have details ahead. automatically goes into a money market fund when you open a new account. and fidelity's rate is higher than e*trade's, td ameritrade's, even 9 times more than schwab's. plus only fidelity has zero account fees and zero minimums for retail brokerage and retirement accounts. just another reminder of the value you'll only find at fidelity. open an account today. i've always been i'm still going for my best... even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'll go for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both.

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beto o'rourke received what he and others view as a death threat from a texas lawmaker after this comment on the topic of gun control during last night's debate. >> and in odessa, i met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an ar-15, and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that ar-15, hell, yes, we're going to take your ar-15, your ak-47. we're not going to allow it to be used against fellow americans anymore. >> now after that comment about ar-15s, texas republican briscoe cane responded to o'rourke on

twitter, quote, my ar is ready for you robert francis, which is beto's given name. o'rourke responded this is i a death threat. o'rourke's press secretary told cnn they reported the tweet to the fbi. ed lavandera is in dallas with the latest. i know you spoke with this texas lawmaker. does he regret sending that tweet? >> reporter: he does not. he told us that any kind of suggestion that his comments were a death threat is simply trying to manipulate the issue. he says that he was trying to take a modern twist on the old texas revolutionary battle cry of "come and take it indication a -- and even after beto o'rourke tweeted back at him that he shouldn't own an a. >> reporter: >> reporter: >> beto o'rourke's campaign has said this was reported to the fbi. i mean has he been contacted by authorities?

>> reporter: as far as we know, he has not. we spoke to him a couple of times today. he said he has not been contacted by the fbi. he says that that is clearly a sign that he didn't commit any crime, that what he said is protected first amendment speech. >> this isn't the first time that this topic has kind of -- or this kind of rhetoric has come up. >> reporter: yeah. you know, it's really been interesting here, anderson. over the course of the last month and a half with the two shootings in el paso, in odessa, after the odessa shooting there was an east texas state lawmaker who basically came out and said, you know, they will never change any gun laws, like universal background checks and that sort of thing. it wasn't as controversial as what happened today, but it really kind of spoke to this pushback on these calls for gun control legislation. but at the same time, you have prominent state lawmakers, the lieutenant governor here in texas starting to open up and show some signs of some willingness to accept universal or portions or a limited

universal background check. so all of this really kind of speaks to the heated dynamic that this issue is kind of -- that we see unfolding here in the state of texas. >> appreciate it. thank you. i want to look at how these comments play in the larger issue of gun control. i want to turn to kirsten powers and former special assistant to president george w. bush and cnn political commentator scott jennings. great to have you both on. kirsten, the comments from o'rourke, don't they just play -- i know he's got to do whatever he can to kind of get out of the edge of stage where he's at right now, but don't they just play into republicans' hands? >> well, i mean i think that democrats to a certain extent maybe aren't recognizing that things have changed, right? that's a little bit of the old playbook. i would say in the past, yes, if somebody said something like this, it would be pretty much dead on arrival in terms of a general election campaign. but things have changed a lot where we're having these

constant mass shootings, where i think people are becoming more and more concerned about this. certainly buybacks are certainly something that democrats support and a good number of independents support as well. republicans don't support it, and they're not going to vote for a democrat anyway. so i think if you want to play it safe, then you don't do that. you don't say what he said. i think that if you're somebody who is trying to break out like beto is, then he has nothing to lose. i think if he was to become the general election candidate, you know, this is a risky strategy. that's what i would say. it's risky, but i don't think it's the kind of dead on arrival it used to be. >> also, scott, he's not just talking about buybacks. he's talking about takebacks. buyback is a voluntary you give us your old gun and we'll pay you for it. the next step, if that doesn't take the millions of weapons off the street is he's saying we're going to take them, which is obviously -- i mean i know a lot of gun owners. i have friend who's are gun owners in texas who legitimately

believe and are concerned that could happen. >> well, for years republicans have worried about this. and when we have these conversations about what can we do about the mass shootings and gun violence, some republicans raise the idea that democrats want to confiscate your weapons, want to come and make it mandatory for you to give your weapons to the government. and democrats and media types and pundits and so on, they come along and say, oh, that's crazy. these are just talking points used to frighten people. and here beto o'rourke is now saying the quiet part out loud, which is in fact they do want to confiscate your weapons. there's a real concern among republicans it won't stop with this one particular kind of weapon because there's really no difference between it and other semiautomatic kinds of weapons other than it happens to look scarier. >> but you know that beto o'rourke is the only one who is calling for actually -- or talking about taking weapons. some support the idea of a voluntary buyback, but few people are actually calling for taking back weapons. s. >> i had the volume up on the debate last night, and i don't know that anything got as much

applause in that room as when beto o'rourke said he wanted to come and have a mandatory gun confiscation program. i imagine as kirsten said there is wide support in the democratic party. i think if they were to get full control of the government, there would be a huge push for this. look, i think this. most people want something. i think there are several reasonable proposals on the table. but when you inject the idea of this, it reduces the amount of trust in the process. and as you know, there was already very little trust to begin with. >> kirsten, it's an issue with beto o'rourke. it's certainly evolved. i want to play some of what he said just last year. >> i own an ar-15. a lot of our listens own ar-15s. why should they not have one? >> to be clear, they she have one. if you purchased it, keep it. continue to use it responsibly. we support the second amendment. if you own a gun, keep that gun. nobody wants to take it away from you. at least i don't want to do that. >> it is the exact opposite of what he's saying now. >> yeah.

well, i think cory booker was talking about this last night, the sort of empathy deficit that until something happens in your town, it's not something that you're concerned about. i think this is a good example of it. beto should have been able to have the, you know, sort of creativity to imagine what it would be like if it came to his town. now, it did come to his town and it was a terrible tragedy, and now he wants to do this. i think that honestly appears to be what happened. in terms of what scott's talking about, you know, how horrible and scary this would be to have people have to do some sort of buyback, mandatory buyback with their guns, look, guns have been -- we've banned machine guns. the world continued. we had an assault weapons ban. the world continued. so the way they create this idea that it's just this horror show and the country's going to somehow fall apart if somehow these weapons that never should have been available in the first place, you know, that there would be some sort of buyback, i

think that's fearmongering. >> with the assault weapons ban, it wasn't an actual ban. there was no confiscation of existing assault weapons. it was just you can't buy new ones. >> the point now is even that is claiming they have a ban is something they won't consider, and i would say if you're going to ban them, then why wouldn't you confiscate them? i mean i don't understand. it's like -- and even to say confiscate. we're saying having a mandatory buyback. people in other countries have done this where you come and you hand in your gun, and it's bought back. >> we're going to have to leave it there. kirsten powers, appreciate it. scott jennings, obviously this is a conversation that we will continue. coming up, has president trump changed his tune on vaping after announcing an effort to ban almost all flavored vaping products? breaking news ahead. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist. nothing stronger. nothing gentler.

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there's more breaking news tonight. president trump seems to be striking a different stone on vaping after announcing an effort to ban almost all flavored vaping products. in a tweet posted this evening, he wrote, while i like the vaping alternative to cigarettes, we need to make sure this alternative is safe for all. let's get counterfeits off the market and keep young children from vaping. on wednesday when revealing his proposed ban on most electronic flavored cigarettes, the

president said this. >> we can't allow people to get sick, and we can't have our youth be so affected. a lot of people think vaping is wonderful. it's great. it's really not wonderful. it's -- that's one thing i think we can say definitely, commissioner. it's not a wonderful thing. it's got big problems. we have to find out the extent of the problem. it's so new. it's so new. but we're going to find out. >> hmm. cnn's kaitlan collins joins us now from the white house. so how did we get from those comments wednesday to this tweet tonight where now the focus seems to be on counterfeit products? >> reporter: yeah, getting counterfeit products off the market is a big change from what the president was rolling out there in the oval office, saying they wanted to ban the sales of most of these flavored cigarettes, including mint and methanol. when the president made that announcement, it kind of startled the market because this was something we were told by sources was put together pretty quickly by the white house. they weren't sure what the level

of hhs was at the beginning of that proposal being put together. and clearly the first lady, melania trump, who was seated there in the oval office, was heavily involved in this. as the president pointed out multiple times. but also it's a change from what the president was saying just yesterday when he was leaving the white house and was asked what kind of advice he's given his own son about it. he essentially said they told him him not much except don't vape and the president said he didn't like vaping. so now it's going to be called into question what is the future of this policy, if any, that the president laid out in the oval. >> i heard, and tell me if this is correct, that two former administration officials now work for juul? >> reporter: yeah, that's true. >> are they high level? >> reporter: a former top assistant to jared kushner now works for the company, and then someone else left who worked in the executive office building next door to the white house also left the administration recently to go work there. now, the question of what kind of influence those two former staffers have over the president's decision here is unclear. but what we do know is that before the president made that

decision, he had been hearing from lawmakers, from officials who were concerned about this rise in vaping. but after that announcement was made, we're told that the president heard from the people on the other side of the aisle who were saying, no, no, you're going too far here with this policy, and you're not sure exactly what you're doing here, while you're laying all this out, so much that you're restricting by this policy, which a lot of people who are in favor of vaping said they believed went too far. >> you know, it's fascinating. in prior administrations or in regular administrations, you would go through a process where you would listen to different sides before announcing an initiative like he did and then have to backtrack later and say, actually, we're just looking at counterfeit stuff. kaitlan collins, we'll see where this thing ends up. still ahead, why the president has a beef with light bulbs. hint, it has something to do with his orange hue according to him. t the ridiculist coming up. ♪ ♪

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a friend of this program and a cnn contributor is in need tonight. his 3-year-old daughter needs a liver donor. she has stage 4 cancer and the family is looking for someone age 18 to 55 years old in good health and is o-positive or o-negative.

they want to go to surgery next week. there is a four to six-week recovery for the donor. they have the funds to pay for the donor's travel or take work off if they need it. if you want to help go to medstargeorgetown.org/ liverlivingdonar. their family is in one thoughts. want to check in with chris. >> coop, you are doing the right thing. one team, one fight. i was on the phone with him to give people the kind of idea the guy he is. he didn't tell me about this. he was on last night for a ton of time. i didn't know why he cut his hair the way he did. he did it, obviously, to connect with his daughter and what she is going through. he never even mentioned it

because he said he was here to talk politics. i mean, that's the kind of integrity he has. the good news, putting the word out like you did, it's getting a good flow of information. the need is great. so that's great to get that out. we have chairman nadler on tonight. what does he make of this press release from chairman schiff about this actionable complaint from the dni? what's going on with impeachment? what's going on with guns? the woman who made that ad with aoc's face blowing up last night. a and a representative from the vaping companies who say they are getting a bad name. we are taking it all on on a friday night. the president blames light bulbs for his orange glow. "the ridiculist" is next. what's the nfl's competitive edge?

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lightbulbs. oh, yeah. i said it. we are talking nasty politically correct socialist light bulbs. speaking last night in baltimore, america's top electrician suggested the current crop of energy-efficient bulbs are to blame for his own personal gold-plated glow. >> the light bulb. people said what's with the lightbulb? i said here is the story. i looked at it. the bulb we are forced to use, number one to me most importantly, the lights no good. i always look orange. and so do you. the light is the worst. >> well, this might be the first time i have heard the president acknowledge that he looks orange. he did say and so do you, which, i mean, no one has the same presidential glow. frankly, i'm glad he did. it's a relief. it's like acknowledging the

1,000-pound clementine in the room. i wouldn't have brought it up myself unless it's my own translucent death-like pallar. i give him props for poking fun at the orange glow. i don't know if it's okay to say now he brought to up, it seems to drop off without making its way around his neck or his eyes, for that matter. i don't know if that's because of those little glasses people wear in a suntan booth or spray tanning salon or there is cream involved. i don't know what's involved. i personally don't have a lot of experience with tanning. i prefer a ghostly death-like paler. it scares off kids and it makes my steely blue eyes pop. yeah, i mentioned steely blue eyes twice so far. true, i did get a spray tan once. >> wow. snooki.

i don't know. okay. yeah, okay, yeah. i was in a room with snooki. yeah. okay. look, it was daytime tv. i did what they told me. i also gained weight since then, which is not fun to see. and i really wish they didn't have me wear that shower cap. you can't pull that off. just doesn't -- and it doesn't work. anyway, isn't spray tanning and/or makeup the most likely reason the president looks orange? i think the shadowboxing with the ghost of thomas edison is misplaced. i doubt we will hear less about it, i am glad he broke the silence. i feel it's out there. be done with it now. we are only as sick as our secrets and it's not every day or year you hear president trump making a crack about himself. give him a little bit of credit. it's like halley's comet. only happens you however it happens. so, i don't really remember.

i didn't look it up. don't hold your breath for any more self-deprecation. as for the loathsome lightbulbs, who knows what the president might do. executive orders, national emergencies. he has never shied away from flipping the switch or throwing shade on the ridiculist. >> halley's comet every 75, 76 years. i will text you about the rest. have a beautiful weekend. i am chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." we have breaking news right now. the house intel chair has just issued a subpoena and he is also making a very serious accusation against the acting director of national intelligence. this is big and it's happening right now. also, why all this confusion about what's happening with the investigation of this president in congress? impeachment or not? does it matter or not? we have the one person who would know. to boy