thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." you can follow me on twitter or instagram. tweet the show @cnnsitroom. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. outfront next trump's hand picked fbi director destroying the conspiracy theory saying there is no evidence antifa or fake trump supporters were behind the insurrection. will this put an end to the lies? plus a lot of breaking news on covid at this hour biden announcing the u.s. will have enough vaccines for every american adult by may as texas ends its mask requirement in full defiance of the cdc. more breaking news this hour at the white house pulling neera tanden's nomination. the first biden cabinet failure. did it come down to her tweets? let's go outfront. good evening.

i'm erin burnett out front this evening. the fbi director takes down trump. today christopher wray testifying before congress driving a stake through the heart of the conspiracy theories that trump and his allies continued to push about the deadly insurrection. conspiracy theory number one, you know, which trump even said that day, it wasn't actually trump supporters who were behind the attack. >> based on your investigation so far do you have any evidence the capitol attack was organized by, quote, fake trump protesters? >> we have not seen evidence of that. >> we have not seen evidence of that. no evidence that there were fake protesters, meaning that what you are about to hear from a sitting u.s. senator from the michigan senate majority leader and from right wing media is all a known lie. >> a very few didn't share the jovial friendly ernest demeanor of the great majority. some obviously didn't fit in. he describes four different

types of people. plain clothes militants, agents, fake trump protesters, and disciplined, uniform klucolumn attackers. these are the people that probably planned this. >> that's what? not at all. >> that's been a hoax from day one. >> they were likely not all trump supporters. >> it's probably not trump supporters who would do that. >> well, except it was. it was trump supporters. start to finish. and wray shutting down republican attempts to rewrite history confirming what we all saw with our own eyes that day that it was a trump supporting mob incited by the president who stormed the capitol. now, conspiracy theory number two. that antifa specifically was behind the attack. here again an exchange today with the fbi director christopher wray. >> there is any evidence at all

that it was organized or planned or carried out by groups like antifa or black lives matter? >> we have not seen any evidence to that effect thus far in the investigation. >> remember that this is trump's appointed fbi director, who is just speaking the truth. knocking down the lies that trump, himself, by the way, has put out there. he even claimed them on the day of the attack. remember the phone call to the house minority leader kevin mccarthy when he said it must be antifa or whatever and kevin mccarthy goes, no. these are your supporters. and this whole line about antifa is something that because trump has pushed and continues to push his supporters have also been pushing since then. >> they were masquerading as trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa. >> there is some indication that fascist, antifa elements were involved. >> we have many credible reports that antifa was very much

involved. >> i think a lot of it is the antifa folks. >> there were probably some under cover antifa that dressed as trump people. >> no. just to be clear the last person you heard from is the ceo of my pillow someone trump has turned to again and again for advice but all of the talking points you just heard from people who either had no idea what they were saying and just making it up so the president would hear what he wanted to hear or knew they were lying at the time, who knows, but it is all untrue. there is no evidence. you heard it from director wray himself to support what team trump continues to say about who the rioters were. today for what feels like the 100th time the fbi had to state this for the record. >> to be crystal clear on this as fbi director that these would be federal crimes, you are aware of no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, correct? >> we are not aware of any widespread evidence of voter

fraud, much less that would have affected the outcome in the presidential election. >> okay. so you could believe him. you could believe all the courts. you could believe all the secretaries of state across this country. you could believe all the people around the voting -- who run the voting systems. you could believe the former attorney general bill barr. you could believe anybody who knows anything and you would know there was no widespread fraud that impacted the election but you wouldn't know it if you listen to the republican party at their detached from reality gathering this weekend. >> we did even better in the second election than in the first. you know i won the first and we won the second. >> 17% of the 80 million that voted for joe biden. >> i objected during the electoral college certification. maybe you heard about it. [cheers and applause] >> i did. i stood up. i stood up and i said, i said,

we ought to have a debate about election integrity. >> the reason that people stormed the capitol was because they felt hopeless because of a rigged election. >> and we won the second. if anybody thought that anybody would learn their lesson or change their tune, again, disabused of that notion. manu raju is live on capitol hill. you just spoke with senator ron johnson and i just showed him there saying the people behind the insurrection would have been the provacateurs and fake trump protesters. what is he telling you now? >> reporter: he said he never said himself fake trump protesters were behind the january 6th riot or were involved in organizing it or antifa was directly involved in organizing it. he said he was just citing an individual who said he witnessed on january 6th and wrote an article about it for a

conservative publication that johnson later cited at the high profile hearing about what happened on january 6th and submitted that to the record. he told me absolutely he would submit such an article again for the record even though christopher wray the fbi director essentially dismissed the account that fake trump protesters were behind all this. i asked ron johnson and he said, quote, i never said that they were. he said i never said or implied that they were. he said i entered into the record an eyewitness account by a trained observer and he said he would do it again. this comes also as congress is probing the aftermath of what happened on january 6th in addition to the runnup to january 6th and also the impact that this is having not just on the budget and taxpayers but also on threats to members of congress. in testimony that is going to come out tomorrow from the acting police chief of the u.s. capitol police pittman, she says that threats have increased to

members of congress by 93% in the first two months of 2021 compared to the same time period in 2020. at the same time she says the budget, they are going to request, erin, the increase they are asking for is going up from a $36 million increase to $107 million increase. it just shows you the cost of taxpayers that continues from the deadly attack. >> manu, thank you very much. he says ron johnson said ron johnson didn't say what ron johnson said. ron johnson quoted from an article of a first-hand witness then added his own thoughts these are the people who probably planned this. he did say that just to be clear. he did say what he says he didn't say. outfront now, former assistant secretary of homeland security and bill kristol editor at large of "the bulwark." fbi director wray was very clear today, right, in the same thing everybody else has been clear on but he is the director of the fbi. they are investigating this soup to nuts and happened to be named by trump to his post and he is

saying there is no evidence of fake trump supporters in this crowd. no evidence of antifa. and yet, you know, you hear senator johnson and that whole other list of people that i just played. they don't care. do they? about the truth? >> no. they don't care. donald trump doesn't care. you know what could help? if the senate minority leader and the house minority leader, mcconnell and mccarthy, put out a joint statement saying for example or the ranking members of the committee or anyone. i don't be if any republican even said this today. thank you, fbi director wray for being clear about this. we just want to say we accept this and understand this to be the case that the election was not rigged. it was not a hoax. there was not widespread voter fraud. that the january 6th assault was by trump supporters and was not a bunch of antifa people dressed up as trump supporters and it was real and dangerous. is that too much to ask the leaders in congress and the senate, maybe governors, others, former cabinet officials of donald trump to say?

i mean, a lot of trump voters are just going to believe what they want to believe no matter what. maybe that would have a little effect. no one even thinks that party should rise to that level of basic civic responsibility. >> and yet it's amazing because kevin mccarthy, minority leader to whom bill is referring, at the time majority leader, talked to trump during the riot. they're banging down my door. they're breaking my windows. trump goes oh, they're antifa. he goes no. these are your supporters. right? it was a quote. he never disputed it. >> i think the maga flag was the dead giveaway. the trump flag and the maga hats. >> so why do people lie? >> this is where wray's testimony got really interesting. this wasn't about answering hypothetical questions that senator johnson has. senator johnson knows the answer. what was amazing and important about wray's testimony was later on when he says, you know, you can focus on the conspiracies. you can focus on the lies. you can focus on the crazies.

but this is fundamentally a racist, white supremacy movement. that the violence that the fbi is worried about is about racism and about targeting minorities. so why aren't republicans accepting that? to me, that is clear, which is the republican lie is based not on the fact that they don't like people voting. they don't like african-americans voting. they dose like hispanic americans voting that they voted in phoenix or in georgia. what you see is a line from charlottesville to the january insurrection to now over 200 bills in republican state legislatures to deny voting essentially. that is why they're perpetuating the lie. it is not for -- not for 2020. it is for 2022. and they are promoting the violence through the promotion of the lie. >> and, bill, you also have, right, you know, wray saying what we know to be true. we know to be the fact but saying it again no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

he put the emphasis on, much less anything that would have changed the outcome of the election. i think it is important to emphasize the way he said that. much less anything that would have changed the outcome. bill barr said it. we know this from every court. we know it from every secretary of state as i just went through. yet you just had trump on stage in florida say, we won. he is still putting it out there. he won. >> you had kevin mccarthy who as you said in real time knew what was happening. going along later on with trying to overturn the election, meeting with trump in mar-a-lago, with his colleagues trying to perpetrate the lies. it is very dangerous for deep reasons as julia said but deep reasons of democratic citizenship convincing tens of millions of people the system was rigged, there was widespread fraud, you open those to further conspiracy theories, in the service of a certain ideology as

well. obviously. yeah. again, it is a failure of commission by the people who perpetrate the fraud. there is a failure of omission by the republican leaders who don't stand up and say wait a second. that is wrong. christopher wray is right. we've got to stop doing this. it is really dangerous. >> it's scary. there are people providing that leadership. it is just not the people -- you need other people to do it, right? mcconnell thinks that speech he gave which was a powerful speech was going to be enough but it isn't. one more thing before we go the white house pulling the nomination of neera tanden to lead the office of management and budget. i know you know her. you've been very vocal. that you thought it was not right the heat that she took for her tweets and her nomination overall. they've now pulled it, right? that is going to be a failure for that nom flination. is it the right thing to do? >> if they don't have the votes you don't have the votes. she would have been a good omb director. the entire party is against someone who have been a tougher

director a little more opposed to big government spending measures than whoever gets the job. she'll still be in the administration and life will go on. she is not the most liberal person nominated yet somehow she was the one who took the brunt of the assault. why exactly was that? >> i'll leave it there but i note quickly to our viewers you have republicans allied with people like bernie sanders who didn't like her, bernie sanders and the progressives because she was they thought too conservative, too in bed with wall street so it makes the point you make. thank you both so much as always. next, breaking news, the white house pushing back against texas, now the biggest state to drop its mask mandate. why right now? plus officials increasing security at the capitol. qanon supporters cling to a new conspiracy theory. >> on march 4th trump will be reinstated as president. >> and should schools rethink

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ordinary tissues burn when theo blows. so dad bought puffs plus lotion, and rescued his nose. with up to 50% more lotion puffs bring soothing softness and relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. breaking news, white house officials criticizing texas over its sudden decision to fully

reopen and drop the state's mask mandate. in full defiance of the cdc's dire warnings. as the case count across the country has plateaued. it was plunging and now not anymore. it comes as president biden makes a major announcement tonight on the vaccine front saying there will be enough vaccines for every american adult by the end of may. jeff zeleny is outfront. right now this is a major push by the white house to get vaccines to the public. this date has been sort of a moving target right? end of summer, end of spring. now end of may. so that would be much earlier than a lot of people thought. what else did biden say? >> it is a full two months earlier than president biden said a couple weeks ago and that is because they are seeing more vaccination supply being rolled out. of course with this johnson & johnson as well as merging with merck to produce more vaccination for the supply later this summer. but the president says he does believe there will be enough supply to get a vaccination to

every american by the end of may. that doesn't mean every american will get a shot by then. that is because it is still a challenge to get the vaccines in the arms of many americans because of hesitancy by some and simply having a hard time finding enough people to vaccinate americans. it is certainly a dramatically sped up, accelerated movement of the supply. also, the president said he thinks every educator is a front line essential worker. they should have their first dose by the end of this month. that is a dramatic change as well in part of this ongoing effort from the white house to push back against some teachers unions dragging their feet quite frankly in opening schools. he directing states to put teachers at the head of the line as well. >> i want to ask you about this late breaking news about neera tanden, the white house pulling her nomination to be omb director. that nomination derailed in part over tanden's past tweets. what more can you tell us? >> the white house had been fighting this.

this has been apparent for a little more than a week but the white house has been pushing this trying to find every last vote and trying to get senator lisa murkowski republican senator of alaska to support this. she was undecided we are told but there were also questions on the democratic side. budget chair bernie sanders had not said if he would support her nomination so the white house decided to back away because the writing was frankly on the wall. they spent a lot of time and capital on this and they need the capital right now to be put into the covid relief bill where the focus is this week. there are many concerns about the variety of the democrats from progressives to moderates over this covid package. i'm told they did not want to be distracted by this neera tanden nomination which was going nowhere so they want to focus now on this covid relief bill. >> thank you very much, jeff. i want to bring in dr. jonathan reiner who advised the white house medical team under president george w. bush. we've all been hearing case counts are going down and now

that is no longer the case. they have plateaued. some have been deeply concerned the variants could cause another surge. the plunge has stopped. we are plateauing. that is at the same time that the governors in texas and mississippi are lifting mask mandates and allowing businesses to operate at full capacity. is this a mistake or not? >> this is a gigantic mistake. in texas, for instance, they have a test positivity rate of 13.5%. compare that to the overall rate in the united states of 4.4%. they had 54,000 cases last week. that's 12% of all the cases in the united states. they also had more than 10% of the deaths in the united states. the state by the way has 8% of the population in this country. so they are not doing well. so, you know, this is obviously a political ploy on the part of the governor who is just coming

out of a horrible winter storm under intense criticism for the state's performance in a state where basically millions of people were freezing in the dark. now in an attempt to appease the public and do something he thinks they want he'll endanger the lives of millions of texans. this is his mission accomplished moment and it is not a good one. we've seen this movie and it doesn't turn out well. >> one concern we've heard about, not just whether there could potentially be another surge but also whether the vaccines work is going to be new variants and how quickly they roll out. i take you back to texas. the largest city in the state. houston the first city in the united states according to the latest study, every major variant, the ones we can vaccine efficacy, every single variant according to houston methodist hospital, in texas, a study. okay? add that context to this. the whole point we've been told

is to do things to prevent these variants from developing in such a way they can evade vaccines. now the place we're seeing the variants is the very place they're taking away all the restrictions. >> right. they're going to drop masks. i work in the district of columbia where the test positivity rate is now 2.8%. every single person on the street is wearing a mask. that is why the test positivity rate is 2.8%. what is going to happen to the amount of virus in texas when you take away the mask mandate? it is going to rise. we saw this. we saw this when states opened early in april. that was the summer surge. this is not the time to do this. >> what about the vaccine? they're moving it up two months, which is great. everyone can get one in may but they don't have enough people to administer them. having enough is not the same thing as allowing everyone to get one. how do we jump over the final hurdle? there is a big question mark with the variants but on the

vaccines how do we say we have enough to get into people's arms in may? >> we will have enough by may to vaccinate 300 million americans. it is a gigantic accomplishment. now we have to focus on not vaccine availability but vaccination availability. we have to be innovative and have 24-hour vaccination sites. we have to have loads of vaccinators. we need better management systems to allow people to schedule their vaccinations. i love by the way the biden administration's announcement today that they'll vaccinate teachers. that is a big announcement and it is a turn-around for them. i like the fact they were willing to listen to reason on that. we get teachers back into schools and kids back into schools. it is a big deal. >> it certainly is. i appreciate your time as always. thank you. >> my pleasure. next inside the qanon conspiracy theory resulting in

stepped up capitol security tonight. . >> trump will take office as the 19th president of the united states on march 4th. >> and new york's governor andrew cuomo facing pressure to step down after accused of unwanted advances by now three women. has it now become a question of when not if he is gone? $25 a m. but it gets crazier. bring a friend every month and get every month for $5. boom! 12 months of $5 wireless. visible, wireless that gets better with friends. seeing blood when you brush or floss can be a sign of early gum damage. new parodontax active gum repair kills plaque bacteria at the gum line to help keep the gum seal tight. new parodontax active gum repair toothpaste. antibacterial or moisturizing body wash? definitely moisturizer! antibacterial can i have both? new dove care & protect body wash eliminates 99% of bacteria and moisturizes for hours

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tonight acting sergeant at arms timothy blodgett announcing security will be heightened at the capitol on thursday. due to a qanon linked conspiracy theory that former president trump will be inaugurated as president on thursday. yeah, you heard me right. sara sidner is outfront. >> on march 4th, trump will be reinstated as president. >> i'm about to enlighten you. are you ready? >> then the real president, president trump, can be inaugurated. >> reporter: qanon followers are at it again not able to let go of the conspiracies that have proven false time and time again. now they have grasped on to another impossible theory. >> trump will take office as the

19th president of the united states on march 4th. >> reporter: they believe in an old inauguration date in place before the passage of the 20th amendment. it changed from march 4th to january 20th in 1933. what is the significance of march 4th? >> the real inauguration will happen on march the 4th when our dear leader donald trump will actually be publicly inaugurated as the president. >> the problem with qanon is that it is kind of like a big tent conspiracy theory that welcomes everyone regardless of what wild conspiracy theory you happen to believe. >> reporter: the latest conspiracy was made popular by a movement known as sovereign citizens. the fbi has called the movement a domestic terrorism threat. >> we have many examples of shoot outs or attacks or sovereign citizens who literally went after police officers or sheriffs. >> that is what happened here. members shot and killed two

deputies in west memphis. while qanon believers don't necessarily share all sovereign citizen ideology they use what they need. >> they move the goal posts in order top wait for their reality to come to fruition. >> reporter: qanon followers are not monl ithic. they can be rich or poor, educated or not, from the city or countryside, black, or white, and everything in between. we encountered this group in 2020 >> i do think there is a sex trafficking ring. i do think that is going on from d.c. to hollywood. trump has been talking about sex trafficking. that's suspicious. >> do you have any doubt that anything you believe about that is incorrect? >> in my heart, in my gut, no, but anything is possible. >> pedophiles in hollywood killing our children and using their blood for sacrifices in children. we're trying to save our children. our children matter. >> reporter: there is no evidence whatsoever of blood sacrifices of children in hollywood or anywhere. there have been no mass arrests.

donald trump has not exposed a massive ring of blood drinking pedophiles. there is not one shred of evidence to support all of these beliefs but the believers persist. even though president joe biden is already working after being fully sworn injure as the legitimate u.s. president. >> they don't believe things because of actual evidence. they believe things because it excites them to be part of this grand story, so as a consequence of that really no amount of real reasoning or counterargument or debunking is very effective on them. >> reporter: and they see donald trump as the hero of that story. they sometimes see themselves as the heroes as well. speaking of donald trump, this is his hotel behind us here. we noticed something interesting that the rates for a stay for a night in the next couple days when qanon followers may show up here in washington, d.c. have nearly doubled. don't know why that is. we have also seen hundreds of

members of the national guard in and around many of the hotels, not standing outside to guard them but you definitely see the presence here in d.c. >> incredible. thank you very much. doubling in rates. i want to bring in donie o'sullivan who has been covering qanon extensively for cnn and talking to people who believe in some of these things. so let me just ask you, because you have been talking to qanon followers since long before the insurrection. right? so in that context is the language you're hearing for them now about march 4th similar in any way to the language that you heard from them before january 6th? >> yeah, erin, i would say a lot of the rhetoric is getting more dangerous. this whole idea of march 4th came about after the inauguration of joe biden because you'll remember in the days leading up to the inauguration qanon followers were convinced that trump was going to declare martial law and the inauguration would not happen obviously the

inauguration did happen and then they began focusing on the march 4th day. and this is all tied to qanon followers' sort of obsession that the military is on their side. that the military is on trump's side. and i've heard from qanon supporters in the past few weeks who have been look ath what is happening in myanmar where there has been a deadly military coup and saying they hope that happens here in the united states of america. that is how perverse this is. >> is perverse and incredibly difficult to understand because some of the basic tenets of their beliefs, these blood drinking parties, it is just completely farcical and very hard to understand. but to that point, donie, i know some qanon supporters are at a turning point. there seems to be a bit of splintering after the inauguration, some who are going all in on this march 4th, others who aren't. what happens after march 4th do you think? and the coup that they predict

doesn't happen? >> reporter: you spoke to ashley vanderbilt, the south carolina mom who believed in qanon until inauguration day and was convinced there was going to be a military martial law and when she saw the inauguration take place it was actually these messages about march 4th that she said, no. i've had enough. i'll stop believing. some people may actually stop believing after tomorrow and some qanon followers have already said they don't believe that anything is going to happen on thursday i should say on march 4th. but what is going to happen to a lot of folks, i spoke to one woman in california a few days ago last week and said are you going to feel foolish on march 5th if trump is not president and bind is still president? she said that wasn't trump's plan then. they'll quickly move to know another date, another plan. this all comes back to the main lie, the main conspiracy theory that trump is pushing which is that in some way the election

was stolen. that is still what keeps so much of this alive. >> thank you very much. i should point out to everybody he said it again this weekend. he said he won the second presidential election just this weekend. up next the "new york times" reporting governor cuomo is quickly losing allies, three women now having accused him of unwanted advances. is cuomo's time as governor coming to an end? the company that controls dr. seuss's works is pulling six of his books. is it cancel culture? my next guest will explain why like so many things this is not that simple. eel. but, when used at the first sign, abreva can get you back to being you in just 2 and a half days. be kinder to yourself and tougher on your cold sores. itchy? scratchy? family not getting clean? get new charmin ultra strong. it just cleans better, so your family can use less. hello clean bottom!

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new tonight the growing number of new york democrats calling for governor andrew cuomo to resign or be removed from office. the crisis around the governor is growing after a third woman has come forward detailing unwanted advances by cuomo. out front now jess mckinley who broke the story. annie philip our senior correspondent. thanks so much. the first member of new york's congressional delegation has now called for cuomo's resignation. you have six state lawmakers calling now for impeachment proceedings. i don't know what you're working

on right now whether there will be even more accusers coming out here. when you put it all together has this become a matter of when cuomo resigns not if? >> i think we're kind of on a razor's edge at this point. i think it could actually break either way. i think in albany in the halls of power in the state capitol there is anger, upset, and a growing number of lawmakers who are very upset about this and would consider impeachment or resignation. i don't think they quite have the numbers at this point to push governor cuomo to a resignation but once again as you pointed out if other allegations are made credible or if other women come forward the calculus i think could change and in a hurry. >> so to that point, abby, it took three weeks for former democratic senator al franken to resign following the first allegation of sexual misconduct of him, pictures appearing of

him on a comedy trip he took overseas. what happened there seems to be haunting democrats now, right? they went to the purist zero tolerance policy. here is senator dig durbin today when he was asked whether governor cuomo should resign. >> it is a troubling situation but i have been through this before with other colleagues and i just have to say is the investigation should be completed and should be as quickly as possible and credibility given to the charges. >> abby, what are we seeing? many of them regretted moving so quickly on franken. is that why now there is this whole let's have an investigation? what's going on? >> yeah. i think democrats are trying to balance two things which is that there were a lot of democrats within the base who felt actually franken was pushed out unfairly or too soon especially given the context of the allegations against former

president donald trump that are in the dozens of accusers but at the same time they have to give credence to these accusers. there have been so many republicans who democrats have said for example on the supreme court that ought not to be on the court because of allegations. i think you'll see democrats like dig durbin holding on to this investigation, buying some time with it, and saying this is how we're going to establish some form of process around this so we don't have to be in the position to make a judgment about whether he should stay or go. you'll see i think a lot more democrats hanging on for as long as they can unless of course as jesse points out there are more people who come forward. i pleasing be that is really the thing we don't know yet. if there are a lot more women who come forward it changes the calculus of all of this. >> it absolutely will. i'm sure, jesse, you will be the first to hear and share that. to the point abby is making, look. governor cuomo did a lot of

things in terms of policy against sexual harassment. he vocally supported, obviously not his personal practice, but vocally supported the me too movement. here he is. >> you had thousands of women stand up and show the courage to come forward with the me too movement and speak about the sexual harassment that is endemic in our society. >> and change should come to this nation's policy vis-a-vis sexual harassment against women, which is chronic, long term, and endemic. it has to stop. we're going to do our part. i have tremendous respect for the women who have the courage to come forward. but it says to the nation, once the problem is revealed, do something about it. >> okay, jesse. so you can look at that, roll your eyes, and laugh and say what a hypocrite. yes. of course you could do that. does that help him though with

lawmakers who say okay he did a lot of things so he can find his way out of this or does he need to do exactly what he said once the problem is revealed do something about it as in get out and see ya later? >> i don't know that speeches from a couple years ago are going to save him right now. i think past action is not going to be the type of thing. they're like oh, well but he did say all this nice stuff about the me too movement. i think the political quandary that mr. cuomo is in right now is about current action. the apology he gave on sunday probably fell short for a lot of people. i think the explanations have fallen short. keep in mind, erin, he hasn't been seen in public in almost a week, he hasn't given an interview, hasn't taken questions from the media. so a lot of open questions are going on right now about these allegations we have documented and that have come out prior to

that with lindsey boylan and what have you. until those questions are answered satisfactorily for lawmakers and voters and residents of the state i think this problem could persist. >> like trump governor cuomo is someone who would take every camera he could get. loved to call in to shows. now suddenly silent. thank you so much. next, are some dr. seuss books still appropriate for school kids and do you think the whole thing has gone too far? my next guest does think schools should rethink this. it is thoughtful not just this black and white cancel culture thing. you'll want to hear it. plus a year into the pandemic we'll look back at how life has changed. what happened a year ago tonight could very well change the course of history. and phosphate - helping keep teeth strong, white and protected from sensitivity. new pronamel mineral boost at novartis, our goal is to help keep cosentyx accessible and affordable.

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>> tonight conserve tis blaming cancel culture because of offensive imagery. >> the post modernest almost academic left, they are not satisfied until almost every single piece of literature, film, or pop culture is eliminated if there might be one thing that could be found

potentially wrong. >> reporter: with the culture today, sphakespeare gets cancel every past that can't match the standards of liberals today, so everything will be cancelled. >> okay. let's show you the sorts of images we're talking about. dr. seuss enterprise is making this decision. this is from one of the books that will no longer be published called if i ran the zoo. "outfront" now, carrig granger is an english tempacher. why schools should rethink dr. seuss. it's cancel culture or isn't. you've been careful. you talked about how you received a collection of dr. seuss books for your soon to be born son and thought it would be a great addition to his book collection. my mother wasn't into dr. seuss but when i graduated, i got the

book "the places you'll go." now you peel dfeel differently that gift for your son. tell me why. >> there is a lot of learning taking place and awareness that is happening. i wasn't as aware seven years ago when i had my son about the racist images in a lot of dr. seuss' children's books but now that i'm more informed, i think it's worth thinking through a little more and maybe moving towards books that are more inclusive and more diverse. there are so many other options that do exactly what dr. seuss books have done that aren't seeped in racist stereo types. we can use those to help all children feel included. >> six books that are no longer that are going to be published include, "beyond zebra, the cats quizzer, to think i saw it on mulberry street." an asian wearing a hat holding

chopsticks and eating from a bowl. so look, some are going to say these books could be used to teach about racism, the whole point would be you show a young child this and explain why it is racist, why this isn't appropriate. what is your response to that thinking? >> there is a time and place for having those discussions, and i think it is important for children to become aware of our history and some of our racist past, but when children are learning to read and are beginning their love of literature, i think what is more important is that they see themselves reflected in the stories they are reading that they are able to build their self-confidence and self-worth by seeing experiences and stories that tell what they have seen and their experiences and there is a place for critical analysis of dr. seuss' work by no means do i think that books should be banned. i'm a former english teacher. i believe in literature and the power of books, but there is a place that we can have those

discussions and look at dr. seuss in a critical and thoughtful and an lit anna -- i them to see books that reflect them. i want them to know that their stories are important and that diversity is important. it should be celebrated and i don't want them to see themselves reflected as a monkeys and. >> alan:. >> alan:s -- apes from africa. . >> i read a book from dr. seuss today and did not realize how aware he was in his book. his work during world war ii, art spexplains dr. seuss' work would rail against racism and anti-semitism with lacking in most american editorial pages.

seuss railed against jim crow, charles lindburg and the america first policy, which is an echo of what we see now but seuss speaks now of anti asian tropes. what do you make of this? far from perfect but some of what he was doing is to rail against racism? >> i don't think becoming anti racist is a point that you reach and then you stay there. i think this work towards becoming anti racist, this work towards learning and unlearning some things is constantly happening. so by no means do we categorize seuss as perfect or imperfect. he grew, perhaps, and that's good and that's what we all need to strive towards as we work towards more anti racist curriculum to be more aware. we recognize that while we may have had some thoughts in the

past, those thoughts may change and that's a good thing. the work needs to continue. but that's it right there. the work needs to continue. it doesn't stop. and when we know better, we can do better and we know that dr. seuss had some anti racist images in his books and we can do better. >> all right. carris, appreciate your time and thoughtfulness. i hope everyone approaches it with the same level of care. thank you so much. >> thank you. "outfront" next, what was your life like a year ago tonight, you know, before all of this, when there were six covid deaths? c can stop frequent heartburn before it begins? heartburn happens when stomach acid refluxes into the esophagus. prilosec otc uses a unique delayed-release formula that helps it pass through the tough stomach acid. it then works to turn down acid production, blocking heartburn at the source. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection. prilosec otc.

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one year ago tonight, life was about to change but we did not know it. if you think about where you were, what you were doing on march 2nd, 2020 you may not remember but you were most likely an an airplane, eating out, out and about doing something, living your life. covid was a blip on the public's radar, if you thought about it, masks are something doctors wore. college basketball's march madness was in full heat. everything was going. ten more days of that.

nba full. the country was deep in the presidential election. in fact, one year ago at this very hour, i remember we took this live pete buttigieg dropped out of the race and all of this, there were sixth u.s. deaths o that day. soon the mundane things will be celebrated again. there is a lot to be hopeful on the news in the vaccine. here is to hope and right now, here is to anderson. good ervening. the former president's hand picked fbi director blew a hole in the effort to make the capitol insurrection something it's not and while he was at it, he destroyed the lives about the election that set the stage. we'll have that story in a minute but first, there is breaking news. the race between vaccinating the country against covid and the virus itself got more complicated. in texas where nearly 30 million people second to california, the governor just lifted the state's mask mandate completely and told