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it is 11:00 p.m. this is don lemon tonight. there's a lot to get to in the hour ahead. a republican election official in arizona pushing back against trump and his big lie, calling the former president's claims about the state's baseless audit unhinged. plus matt gaetz's wingman pleading guilty to paying an underage girl for sex. he is promising to give prosecutors substantial assistance. we're going to talk about what that means for the congressman. and president biden announcing the u.s. will share 80 million vaccine doses with the world. but here in the u.s., many are still refusing to get their

shot. what states are the safest in terms of vaccination rates. all of it ahead this hour on "don lemon tonight." joining me now is denver riggleman and john avlon. thanks so much for joining. john, you have been reporting on how the insane lies about election fraud have taken over the gop, especially in arizona. it may seem really fringe, but this is the rule and not the exception in the gop even though a few brave republicans are speaking out. >> that's exactly right. i mean the big lie has become a litmus test, and that cuts to the heart of our democracy. you can't claim to be a patriot and back a lie that undermines confidence in our democracy. that's why it's notable that a few arizona republicans are starting to stand up to the insanity and call it out, call out the president's lies as unhinged and call out this fraudit which has been going on, which is really just a partisan attempt to rerun an election, to

give, you know, credibility to conspiracy theories. it's a disgrace to democracy, and it's good to see some republicans calling it out. we need a lot more. >> denver, as you know, if you don't support the lies, you're likely to get canceled. we saw it with liz cheney last week. now today it's georgia's lieutenant governor jeff duncan announcing he won't run again. he says, it always feels coldest right before the sun rises. i believe that is the exact moment in time the republican party is caught in right now, and i am committed to being a part of creating those better days ahead for our conservative party across the country. denver, is the gop's commitment to the big lie shrinking the party? >> well, yes. but it's also in some areas like here, i would say expanding the party in some rural areas, maybe shrinking it in some suburban areas. but again, i was talking about this earlier to somebody. we were looking at data, and it seems to me this is still the

way forward is election integrity. john was talking about that. i apologize. my dog just came into the room. sorry about that night. >> it's quite all right. it happens. >> here comes my second dog now, so i apologize. but what john was talking about is that it is the litmus test if you think about all the gubernatorial candidates here in virginia, every single one of them ran on election integrity. i want to talk about john when you talked about geoff duncan but also cyber ninjas. it seems like grift is a big part of the republican party right now. i've always wondered why arizona, which i used to deploy there in the air force for technical issues in scottsdale, phoenix, tucson. there's an amazing sort of technical area there. i'm not sure why they would go to florida with somebody named cyber ninja. to me it's a grift. it's some kind of payback and the lack of professionalism and the lack of technical acumen seems to be part of this republican party grift that started with president trump and some of the people around him. and election integrity or stop

the steal is part of that. that's why john is exactly right. i really don't know how to say it any louder or clearer than what john already said. >> the republican senator lisa murkowski says she is offended by members of her party claiming that january 6th was a peaceful protest, like, you know, it was tourists. she also voted to convict trump for inciting the insurrection. she is facing re-election next year. in today's gop, could siding with the truth hurt her? you think it's going to hurt her? >> absolute ly. geoff duncan doesn't run because his consultants probably looked at the polling, the fund-raising that was coming in and said, geoff, buddy, we think you're great. we're glad you're out there fighting but you can't win this election. that's what happened. here, there's two districts here that just had elections, don, and i want to talk about this really quickly, is that the polling there -- again, and i've said this to you before. if i did, i apologize, don.

but the polling for election integrity, for stop the steal, was 20 to 30 points ahead of the nearest other topic. the candidates said that president biden was legitimate lost. they lost, don, by a lot. so what do we do? if you're going to actually win in the republican party in many of these districts, you embrace it. you say we need election integrity. the election was stolen. i support trump in '24. that's the litmus test. >> yeah. don, let me just jump in there about murkowski in particular. this isn't her first rodeo with the radicals. in 2010, she lost a tea party primary. she ran as an independent, as a write-in, and she won. so i think that it's important to remember that a lot of these divisions are not -- have not happened overnight, and the answer is to have the courage of your convictions and go out in front of your constituents as an independent candidate if necessary. declare your independence from the extremes.

be judged on the content of your character and refusing to back the big lie. the structural problem is these folks are afraid of losing a close partisan primary. but they'd do well in a general election if they had the guts to stick it out one way or the other. >> john, denver, thank you. john denver. >> west virginia. >> hey, man, that's where my family is from. rocky mountain high. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> take care. i want to get now to the man matt gaetz called his wingman, pleading guilty to six federal charges including soliciting and paying an underage girl for sex. joining me now, daverenberg, the state attorney for palm beach county and he knows the gaetz family. i appreciate you joining us tonight. joel greenberg was facing 33 charges, but since he agreed to give substantial assistance to prosecutors, he only had to plead guilty to six, on six of

those charges. what does that tell you about the kind of information greenberg could have? >> yeah. good night, don. it's great to be back with you. you know, fellow prderal prosec are not going to cut a sweet deal with a child sex trafficker unless that person has real information that could lead to a prosecution of someone equally or more culpable than he is or a bigger fish. we know joel greenberg is the most culpable person here. but when it comes to a bigger fish, you've got a sitting member of congress out there, a person in a position of trufst. that is joel greenberg's lifeline here. it is ironic, don, in our criminal justice system that the person who is the worst gets the deal that is the best because he knows the most. >> interesting. the person who's the worst gets the deal that's the best because he knows the most. very good observation.

take a listen to what -- that's the truth. it's not your observation. that's the way it works. this is what we heard from greenberg's attorney today. here it is. >> does my client have information that could hurt an elected official? i guess this is just, you know, must-see television. you'll just have to wait and see. >> wow. how worried should congressman gaetz be right now? >> yeah. to quote clubber lang from rocky iii, my prediction is pain. and this lawyer is talking pretty loosely, and that's unusual because federal prosecutors like to observe a cone of silence because they don't want to tip off anyone. if you start tipping off targets, that target can flee. that target can attempt to tamper with witnesses. so lawyers have to be careful when they speak out on these matters. but gaetz is in a lot of trouble. but ironically, it's the fact that joel greenberg is so

desperate that could be a lifeline for gaetz because joel greenberg is a walking criminal enterprise. the fact that the charges were reduced from 33 counts to 6 gives gaetz's lawyers, if he's ever charged, the opportunity to say, aha, you did it to save yourself. not only did you lie on the stand to save yourself, but you've done this before. in the plea deal, he admits to making up a false accusation about another political rival back in seminole county, a teacher who ran against him, who he labeled as a pedophile. so gaetz will just say, hey, this is joel greenberg doing joel greenberg things. >> so then that -- does he have a credibility problem because, again, this was -- his lawyers are pointing out -- gaetz's lawyer is already pointing out that greenberg has admitted to falsely accusing another man of having sex with a minor. that would give him credibility problems, so would prosecutors have needed him to back up his accusations with proof in order to cut a deal because he has

this credibility problem? >> yeah. joel greenberg's words mean nothing. he's like a james bond villain without the metal teeth or the nuclear reactors. this guy needs corroboration to get a deal. so he's got to have the venmo receipts, the text messages, the emails. and i got the plea deal here, 86 pages. 60 pages of it are facts, facts to buttress the claims that joel greenberg is making, and he's got to have the receipts. apparently he does or else the feds wouldn't cut a deal with him. but another crucial point is there also have to be some additional witnesses, and i think the feds have them in their back pocket, who will also testify to back up what joel greenberg says. people like the 17-year-old victim here or maybe matt gaetz's ex-girlfriend, who doesn't have an axe to grind. they got along well, and she apparently works currently for florida state government. she'll be tougher to discredit than joel greenberg, or the victim in this case, who is according to reports is now an adult film actress. but not so for the ex-girlfriend, who i think could be a powerful witness in any

future trial. >> gaetz is going around the country with marjorie taylor greene, making light of the accusations. he's denied all these accusations, but it's interesting. instead of not talking, he's out talking and joking around about it, again, denying all the accusations though. joel greenberg, thank you very much. aronberg. i don't know. >> we're very different people. >> david aronberg, thank you very much. i appreciate it. i want to turn to the latest on covid. joining me is dr. peter hotez. doctor, good to see you. i'm glad you're here to explain some of the science and what's going on right now. we need you more than ever. so the science is clear. vaccines save lives, but we're still seeing a lot of hesitancy, especially among white evangelical christians. this is what reverend franklin graham said earlier on cnn. >> vaccines are important.

i would encourage people to pray about it, consider it. i would never tell somebody they had to have it or try to mandate it, but i think we certainly should encourage people to consider the vaccine. and if you don't take it, there's some real risks for some groups. >> has the white house, reverend graham, actually reached out to you about this and asked you to do a public service announcement, something along those lines? >> no, not yet, but i'd be glad to if they call. i certainly would try to work with them and help them in any way i could. >> so look at your -- i want to put up on your screen now. there's a pew research center survey. it found that 45%, 45% of white evangelicals say that they definitely or probably won't get vaccinated. do you think this message is going to make a difference, doctor? >> well, we certainly need people like reverend graham, and i'm really thrilled that he went out and did that.

we just need many more leaders like that because, don, what we're seeing is very scary. i worry we're diverging into two covid nations. what we've got now is a situation where up in the new england states, new york, new jersey, and california, new mexico, we're hitting really great numbers. 65% of the country, single dose. 50%, two doses. we'll be there pretty soon. we're going to have a big impact on reducing virus transmission and vaccinating our way out of the epidemic. then there's the other america, and the other america this time around is something that's not good. it's the southern part of the country, the bottom states are all deep red states. georgia, tennessee, alabama, half that vaccination right. also up in idaho and wyoming. as a country, we cannot vaccinate our way out of this epidemic unless we can bring the south and a couple of those mountain states up to the same

levels. and that's going to be one of the biggest challenges of the biden administration this summer. >> wow. unbelievable. this is a map of the top ten states with the highest percentage of their population vaccinated. all states that went blue in 2020, and the bottom states, all states that went red except for georgia. i mean this is something that you've written about that could really affect the future of covid in this country. explain to us, doctor. >> well, it's almost as though people have tied their political ideology or their allegiance to not getting vaccinated, just like they tied it to defying masks and social distancing. and we have to find a way to take the anti-science out of conservatism. it never used to be this way in this country, and this is something new and something very unfortunate, and it's going to take work because the spread between the blue states and the red states is growing every day. it's not shrinking. and so that by the summer, if

you remember last year at this time, don, we were at a nadir in our epidemic. then if you remember in july and august, you had me on a few times because we had that massive surge across the south in the summer. and i don't think it will be as bad as this time around because we do have some people vaccinated and some are infected and recovered. but it's still going to be pretty bad, and i don't want to see that. i don't want to see new variants emerge. so what we're looking at is some dire forecasts for the south unless we can fix it. >> i hear the strangest things as i've been out. at the barbershop, i have a cousin who works for the health department, a friend who works at a doctor's office. there's so much misinformation about the vaccines. so you're right, we need more leaders to get the word out. thank you, doctor. i appreciate it. >> thanks, don. all the best on the new show. >> thank you very much. the former president transformed the supreme court into a conservative majority, and it's not just the nation's

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well, tonight the supreme court agreeing to hear a major abortion case next term. a case that could directly challenge the landmark roe v. wade decision. it involves a controversial mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks and does not make exceptions for rape or incest. a federal judge struck down the law 2 1/2 years ago. cnn political analyst mr. ron brownstein is here and emily basilon, staff write fore"the new york times" magazine and a fellow at yale law school. emily, can we start with you because i want to talk about this current supreme court that is a 6-3 conservative majority bench. three of those judges appointed by the former president and now they will hear this mississippi case that severely limits roe v. wade. this is what conservatives have

been waiting for, and trump and mcconnell certainly delivered. >> that's right. i mean i think what you're seeing here is the way in which conservatives decided and rightly so that the supreme court is really important in american life, especially for social issues, abortion, access to firearms, questions about the role of religion in american life. so these three justices appointed by president trump join three other very conservative justices, and it seems as if this decision to take this challenge to the mississippi abortion ban could signal major challenges and major changes to access to abortion in the united states. >> ron, the supreme court's next term, they're also taking up a case of gun rights and may also hear a case on affirmative action. things are moving very quickly. are we seeing just how trump's judges and this conservative court could impact the country for years to come? >> yeah. look, i think this is a

foreshadowing of what's going to be one of the biggest structural conflicts of the coming decade. this case is momentous not only for itself but for what it could portend for a whole series of other issues -- voting rights, immigration reform, lgbtq rights, the balance between religious liberty and civil rights. and we have a situation that i believe we have been in before, where you have a court majority that is putting itself directly at odds with the priorities of what is emerging as the nation's political majority. democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. no party's ever done that. they've represented a majority of the country in the senate for all but two of the past 40 years, and yet this court is in position to block much of what that majority is trying to do. much like we saw in the 1850s when you had a court appointed by pro-southern democratic presidents blocking the agenda of the emerging republican party majority, and in the 1930s when you had a court appointed by previous republican presidents blocking the agenda of the

emerging fdr majority. i do think this is going to be n, don, a rising conflict through the coming decade. >> trump with the help of mcconnell and senate republicans made lifetime appointments to nearly 30% of the federal bench. all these issues including voting rights, you know, as ron just mentioned, they're going to go through an increasingly conservative court system. what does that portend? >> well, what that means is that the more than 200 lower court judges who trump appointed will be in a position to build the record. in a lot of cases, what happens at a trial or at this first stage determines what the higher-up judges, including supreme court justices, can actually look at. and so if you have lower court judges who are determining those outcomes at first, that can have a real effect on the people kind of up the judicial food chain. and it means that you're less likely to hear the kinds of challenges to conservative views

that might perhaps persuade or at least create some factual problems for very conservative members of the supreme court. >> got it. listen, ron, this isn't the first time that you and i have had conversations about this issue. but now they're actually making their way to the court. you wrote last year that the then gop-controlled senate represented well below half the u.s. population, elevated a justice to the supreme court chosen by trump, a president who lost the popular vote. that happened three times, right? so you posed this question. can majority rule survive? what are you thinking about that now? >> look, i think this is that core conflict that we're heading toward in the 2020s. five of the six republican justices on the supreme court were nominated by presidents who initially lost the popular vote. four of them were confirmed by senators who represented well less than half the population. that was the case in each of the trump nominees. and as i said, they are positioning themselves in opposition to virtually every

priority item on the agenda of this majority that has won the popular vote in seven of the past eight elections. you can even look at it in generational terms. you look at the social and kind of racial priorities of generation z and the millennials who are becoming the dominant group in the electorate. this court is likely to oppose almost every single one of them. and because of their age, they are in a position to maintain this majority well into the 2030s. i think that is inherently unsustainable. i think if you look back at the 1930s with roosevelt, something is going to have to give because i do not see these generations allowing this court majority to simply deny their priorities for potentially 15 more years. >> ron, emily, thank you so much. i appreciate the conversation. up next, people you think were some of the smartest in the country spreading misinformation. we're going to tell you why this hand gesture had a whole bunch of past "jeopardy!" contestants. plus jake tapper is here to talk truth. why we need more of it, and why

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tonight an example of what happens when cancel culture, disinformation, and social media collide. it all started when "jeopardy!" kelly donohue made this gesture on the show last month. that gesture perceived by some on social media to be a racist white power symbol, one that's supposed to be an okay sign with three fingers. the accusation made its way to a facebook group of almost 3,000 former "jeopardy!" contest tanltds and "the new york

times"s reports that many in the group were outraged. some even appealed to the anti-defamation league. as "the times" reported, almost 600 former contestants publicly signed a letter calling for "jeopardy!" to address the symbol. but here's the thing. donohue did not make a white power symbol. he was holding up the number of fingers for each of his wins. in every appearance following a win, he held up a number of fingers to indicate how many times he won. one, two, three. the fact-checking website snopes debunking the claim and the contestant himself condemning white supremacy and saying exactly what he was doing in the facebook post, writing, during the taping of my fourth episode, i was simply raising three fingers to mark my third win. there was nothing more i was trying to indicate. so here to discuss now, the professor of government at dartmouth. brendan, thank you so much. i appreciate you joining us. it's an important story about how, as i said, all of this stuff collides, social media,

cancel culture, misinformation. so because of social media, the false claims spread like wildfire. what makes this case so incendiary, do you think? >> well, it brings together people's fears about racism and white supremacy, and of course they have every reason to be concerned. we just lived through george floyd's murder and a president who played footsie with white supremacists. the story just reminds us that everyone can fall victim to misinformation and conspiracy theories, especially online in spaces that can facilitate their spread. and that even the most knowledgeable people, people who can learn that much information to compete on "jeopardy!" can still fall victim to these kinds of claims. it's a reminder that, you know, we're all potentially, you know, culpable in the spread of misinformation online if we're

not careful, and we need to slow down and avoid spreading something before, you know, we ruin someone's life or at least, you know, scar them forever, right? these internet mobs can get going very quickly. >> yeah, and these are, as you said, really smart people. they won "jeopardy!." some of them, you know, champions many times. "the new york times" is reporting that some members of this "jeopardy!" winners facebook group were furious after the adl refused to -- but the head of the adl told the tmtz, he wished people could pause and fact-check before the storm erupts. he has a point. why don't people pause and fact-check. does seocial media make that impossible? >> it probably makes it a little too hard. that outrage, that impulse to mash the share button when you feel that twinge of outrage that someone has said something wrong on the internet or something that offends you. there are not enough kind of

circuit breakers between you and sharing that further. these closed facebook groups too can be a real problem. we saw them playing a key role in the stop the steal movement for instance. they can create these bubbles where people may, you know, not correct each other effectively. so i think there's more we can do, but ultimately, you know, we all need to be careful. we all need to take that sober second look and think, is this something i should be sharing? this isn't the most important story in the world but it reminds us both sides can fall victim to misinformation and that even the most knowledgeable people among us can do it. i think that's a great lesson for all of us. weir all human beings, we all can make these mistakes, but let's not make them with people's reputations. we don't want to have a world where everyone instead of getting their 15 minutes of fame, is getting their 15 minutes of being a social media

pariah. that's a kind of terrible world to live in, especially when there's no justification as in this case. it's just some guy who was making a symbol on his chest because he was happy he won a game show, and that's it. >> i'm often surprised, though, that people are surprised -- that people are outraged on social media. if people weren't outraged on social media, something would be wrong. i feel like that's what it was invented for. but you're right. people need to step back and wait for the facts, at least do some digging for more information before just jumping to conclusions. thank you. i appreciate it. i'll see you soon. so he anchors six days a week. i don't know how he did this. he has a wife and kids. now he's got something else in the works. jake tapper is here next. plus navy pilot speaking out about ufos they say they've seen.

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monitor, check and lock down you money with security from chase. control feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. congresswoman liz cheney doubling down on her warnings about trump's grip on the republican party just days after she was ousted from her house gop leadership post. cheney saying it is dangerous that trump continues to push the big lie of election fraud and that a violent insurrection like the one that happened on january 6th, that capitol riot, could happen again. lots to discuss with my cnn

colleague jake tapper, the author of the new novel "the devil may dance." excited about that, jake. good evening to you. thanks for joining. >> good evening. >> we'll talk about the book in just a little bit. first i've got to talk news of the day and that includes what's going on with the gop and the truth, or i should say the gop and lies because republicans continue their efforts to restrict voting access. do you think this is a play to set themselves up for minority rule? >> i think this is a play for them to remake what happened in november 2020 but with different laws and with different players in key positions so that if they need to, they can undo the election. i mean if you look just at georgia, for example, one of the provisions that they changed in the law when it comes to voting rights has to do with provisional ballots, which is you go to vote, and you make a mistake, and you go to the wrong place to vote.

well, under georgia's law before, you could just cast a provisional ballot, and assuming that you were who you said you were, then the vote would count. they would just figure out what district it belonged to, what voting district. well, now they're making that more difficult. so with that, combined with the fact that they are trying to replace people who were in power at that time in georgia who upheld the law, like the secretary of state, brad raffensperger, for example, they're trying to replace him with jody hice. this is what they're trying to do. this is what liz cheney is warning about. she's saying they're going to try again to undermine this democracy, and we can't let him -- can't let them. that's what she's saying. >> jake, let's see. you do two hours of television five days a week, and then you do another hour of television on the weekend. and then you write a book,

and -- >> you wrote one too, don. you wrote one too. >> i don't know. i don't know where you find the time because i have time to do it on weekends. at least i'm off usually. the book is called "the devil may dance." it's a sequel to your first novel. it's a thriller set in the early '60s. it's centering around hollywood, the rat pack, the mafia and politics. i don't know where you found the time but give me the inspiration for your characters. are they based on real people? >> well, the heroes of the book are charlie and margaret, and they were the heroes of my first book, "the hellfire club." in this story, it's based on a real story, which is sinatra, sammy davis jr., peter lawford, dean martin, the rest, the rat pack. in 1960 they worked their hearts out to get kennedy elected. then in 1962, sinatra thought that president kennedy would stay with him at his rancho mirage estate outside los angeles. he had the place built up, phone lines, rooms, a helipad built.

and then bobby kennedy had a decision to make because he was going after organized crime at the justice department. and sinatra was friends with some of these mobsters. so bobby kennedy had to decide, do i offend sinatra, one of the biggest stars who helped my brother get elected, or do i let my brother stay in a house. >> reporter: -- where literally mobsters have slept. i decided why don't i have my heroes go in there and investigate it? obviously that's where the thriller comes in. >> yeah. i think it's fascinating because you handle so many issues in there, including racism. you deal with misogyny in hollywood long before the me too era, the way sammy davis jr. was treated and how frank sinatra handled the blatant racism towards his friend and fellow rat packer sammy davis jr. >> this was one of the most interesting discoveries that i made while researching the book,

which was the rat pack could be really racist onstage towards sammy davis jr. they thought they were being funny, and maybe in 1962, it was funny to some people. i don't think it's funny. but behind the scenes, sinatra was actually revolutionary in terms of civil rights. he helped make sure that the hotels in vegas integrated. he fought for equal pay for people in his band, and he really was way ahead of where the kennedys were in 1960, 1961, 1962 in terms of civil rights for people in his world. now, that didn't always translate to his hijinks on camera, but in that way, sammy davis jr. had much more to thank sinatra for in terms of actual civil rights activism than he

did president kennedy at the time. >> yeah. he wouldn't play certain venues, wouldn't stay at certain hotels. it was fascinating. he was way ahead of his time. >> exactly. >> jake, thank you. the book is called "the devil may dance," by my esteemed colleague, mr. jake tapper. >> thank you, my friend. all right. look at this. it's a ufo. that's what the pentagon is confirming, but they won't use the word "aliens." stay with us. spots? it's not your dishwasher's fault. simply add finish jetdry 3in1 to rinse, dry and shine your dishes. solve 3 problems at once with finish jetdry 3in1.

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usa navy pilots going on the records and speaking openly about their encounters with ufos. more on this from cnn pentagon correspondent oren liebermann. >> reporter: an object skimming the surface, apparently at high speed when -- >> oh, got it. >> reporter: bull's-eye, the aircraft sensors hone in on the unidentified flying object. it's one of a few videos of these ufos the pentagon confirmed as authentic. >> you know, i think that over years, we've sort of said, hey, man, if i saw this solo, i don't know that i would have come back and said anything because it sounds so crazy. >> your mind tries to make sense of it. i'm going to categorize this as maybe a helicopter or maybe a drone, and when it disappeared, i mean it was just -- >> reporter: alex dietrich has never told her story publicly.

she's one of several navy pilots who spoke with "60 minutes" who have seen or picked up on sensors similar objects often moving fast with odd shapes and no obvious method of propulsion. >> there's definitely something that -- i don't know who's building it, who's got the technology, who's got the brains, but there's something out there that was better than our airplane. >> reporter: no one is using the word "aliens" here. the pentagon calls them uaps, unidentified aerial phenomenon. >> there's a whole fleet of them, look on my asa. >> my gosh. >> they're all going against the wind. the wind is 120 miles to the west. >> reporter: pilot rayen graves picked this up on his infrared sensor in 2004 off the coast of san diego. >> look at that thing. >> the highest probability is it's a threat observation program. >> could it be russian or chinese technology? >> i don't see why not. >> reporter: late last year, the pentagon created a task force to look at the nature and origin of

uaps. what are these things? where do they come from? and is there an intent here? the government sees this as a possible threat, something that may be able to outperform military capabilities. lawmakers are demanding it be treated seriously. >> we have things flying over our military bases and places where we're conducting military exercises, and we don't know what it is, and it isn't ours. so that's a general question to ask. if it's something outside this planet, that might actually be better than the fact that we've seen some technological leap on behalf of the chinese or the russians or some other adversary. >> reporter: next month the director of national intelligence and the defense secretary are scheduled to deliver an unclassified report on uaps to congress. former director of national intelligence james clapper applauds the transparency but isn't expecting too much yet. >> i expect this report will be filled with ambiguity as well, and people depending on their leanings will extract what they want out of this report.

>> reporter: for years, the government and the military downplayed the significance of the reports of ufos. now the pentagon's handling of those reports is under its own investigation. the dod inspector general announcing earlier this month that the pentagon's handling the reports of ufos is understand investigation. don? >> thank you so much toer that. i appreciate it. thank you for watching, everyone. our coverage continues.

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♪ hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world, i'm rosemary church. just ahead on "cnn newsroom," israeli rockets target gaza in a second week of conflict with the death toll climbing and calls for a ceasefire growing louder. plus -- >> some people may want to continue to wear masks, even if they are fully vaccinated. that's a decision they can make. >> america's guidance on masks has become a controversy of its own. why some health