including kauai and oahu. and it's not just severe rain hitting hawaii. snow storm prompting a rare blizzard warning there. the first in more than three years. it's responsible for all the precipitation. hawaii residents are warned damage to public and private property remains possible. thanks so much for joining us. it's time now for "ac 360." good evening. a lot to report tonight on the january 6th investigation. three big stories, all speaking to how busy the house select committee has been but also how much work still lies ahead. first, a cnn exclusive on committee efforts to obtain phone records of some of the key players in and around the insurrection. also, a court date for steve bannon's contempt case, which may not let him run out the clock entirely. but is certainly not speedy, either. former chief of staff mark meadows, also, deciding he'll no longer cooperate with the committee. setting the stage for contempt

proceedings perhaps as early as tomorrow. it's a lot. we start with cnn's ryan nobles. so, ryan, what about these phone records? what are they? >> so this is an attempt by the committee to paint a picture of exactly who was talking to whom on the days leading up to and on january 6th. this is the outgrowth of the preservation requests that the committee had put in place to many telecom companies over the summer. this is now them formally asking for these phone records. now, these aren't the messages themselves or the phone calls themselves. instead, it is just a record of a number that called another number, at what time that call toolk place, and for how long. it will allow the committee to piece together conversations that took place in and around that time, and then begin to ask questions to these witnesses about exactly what these conversations were about. will it be able to paint a picture of whether or not there was any level of coordination between these different groups that were a part of the riots that took place here on january 6th as they try and get to the bottom of exactly what happened here, anderson. >> and committee members can't

be happy about meadows deciding after not cooperating, then cooperating, now, he is not cooperating and bannon's trial date is being set farther away than they had hoped. >> yeah, i don't think there is no doubt there is a level of frustration from many committee members about the lack of cooperation from some of these key targets and before i came on with you, anderson, i talked to a number of members of the select committee about that exact topic and they did push back on the idea that this is going to make it impossible for them to get to the bottom of what they're looking for. adam schiff, who is a member of the committee, stressed that even though they have met -- been met with some resistance from some of these individuals, that he described them as outliers and that they still talked to more than 250 people who have given them a lot of information about what went wrong on that day. still, there is no doubt that they are running into roadblocks. you are seeing some of these key trump allies now beginning to evoke the fifth amendment, which will make it that much more difficult to prosecute them for criminal contempt if it gets to that point. and also, you talk about the timeline. the fact that the bannon hearing

or the trial is not going to take place until july -- that just makes the timeline in which that they will have information to glean from him that much shorter. there is a strong belief, anderson, that this committee has to wrap up their investigation before the mid-term elections because if democrats are unsuccessful in their efforts to hold onto power in the house of representatives, it is very likely that this committee's work will be forced to come to an end, anderson. >> ryan nobles, appreciate it. thanks. joining us now, cnn senior law enforcement analyst and former fbi deputy director, andrew mccabe. also, author of devil's bargain, steve bannon, donald trump, and the storming of the presidency. and cnn chief political analyst, gloria borger. andrew, let's talk about the phone records. what kind of an impact potentially could they have on the committee's investigation? >> you know, they can have a -- a very important effect on the direction of the investigation, anderson, because with the phone records, the committee will be able to kind of dump all of those returns into a database and what will come back is a --

is almost a graphic representation of the associations that took place on phone calls, on text messages, and possibly even on e-mails during the days leading up to and on january 6th. and that gives them a roadmap to guide their questioning of other witnesses. so without that information, they might ask a witness who did you call on, you know, 1:00 on january 6th? and the witness -- witness might say they don't remember. now, they can say our phone records indicate that you called this person on that date. what did you talk to them about? and the witness is then in a much tougher position to be able to avoid revealing the details of those conversations. so, it's an essential piece of any large investigation. >> is it hard to get phone companies to cooperate in something like this? >> it's really not. the -- of course, the fbi -- you know, having -- having conducted and presided over many, many investigations in my career, i can tell you that the phone companies -- they have well-established processes to

receive subpoenas and to produce the results from those subpoenas and deliver them to whoever has lawfully requested them. usually, that's the fbi. but in this case, it's congress. >> gloria, i mean, given the fact mark meadows' lawyer specifically referenced the subpoenas for these communications in his letter and informed the committee meadows would no longer cooperate. how much of that decision do you think is really about phone records? and how much of it is just not wanting to upset the man in mar-a-lago? >> well, i think it's about both, anderson. i mean, our annie gray is reporting this evening that congressman pete aguilar, who is on the january 6th committee, is is saying that what they have learned from these phone records is that mark meadows, on his personal phone, was in communication with individuals involved in the planning of the january 6th rally. we don't know what was said. we don't know with whom he was communicating. anything else. but that is a way for them to connect the dots, and it is

probably something that mark meadows does not want out there. as for donald trump, of course donald trump has been furious about the book. he is furious at mark meadows. meadows is trying to get back on his good side. and any notion that he was cooperating with the committee by turning over thousands of pages of documents probably doesn't sit well with the former president. >> josh, the -- the justice department wanted to see bannon's trial in april. bannon's team wanted october. the judge settled on july. it's a compromise. is it good for anyone? >> i think if anything, it's good for bannon's team. i mean, he wanted to delay this trial, to drag it out. the government wanted to move quickly in order to make an example of steve bannon and try and put pressure on other witnesses. i think the july trial date doesn't do that. and also, the fact that meadows came out and is now refusing to testify shows that at least when it comes to the marquee

witnesses, like steve bannon and mark meadows, the pressure tactics don't seem to be working. >> andrew, how much do you think steve bannon and frachnkly any r trump ally who chose to go that route will be able to use legal maneuvers to jam up the investigation well into next summer? >> i think steve bannon is likely to be very successful at that but he is an individual who is really not similar to any other witness. to -- to defy the government and to -- you know, to pursue this course in which he is likely to go to trial, this is great for him, right? it puts him on the front page. it burnishes his reputation as a b bomb-thrower and everything else. so he has nothing to lose by going in this direction. and even if he goes to trial and loses and exhausts all his appeals, none of that results in compelling him to actually testify and provide information. so, steve bannon is essentially a lost cause for the committee. they are never going to get information out of him whether this -- his process concludes

before their investigation does or not. >> gloria, i mean, in terms of mark meadows, it looked like he was trying to kind of walk a fine line between not wanting to be held in contempt of congress, which can then be expensive to, you know, litigate. and not wanting to get on the former president's bad side, which can be expensive also because then whatever, you know, avenues of -- of money that mark meadows has access to would probably dry up. you know, whether it's, you know, trump fans not buying his book or going out in the lecture circuit or getting to work for the former president again. what effect could this have on other former members you think of the administration? >> well, look, they have already indicated that they are not really interested in cooperating. and, you know, you have threats of contempt of congress against other folks. um, you have somebody like mark short who worked for -- for pence who's been subpoenaed. and he is -- we don't know what he's going to say but he hasn't

been threatened with contempt of congress yet. so they are going -- they are going to come to heads because this is what they've always done. they stonewall and i think the committee is at a point -- and i don't know what andy mccabe would say about this -- but they are at a point where they have to decide whether it's worth it to pursue these folks if they are just going to continue to stonewall and stonewall because they are looking a the a very tight deadline. they want to produce a comprehensive report for the american public before their committee could, you know, be out of commission if republicans take over the house. and so, they want to get stuff done. and they can't waste a lot of time. they interviewed over 250 people. let's see what those other people produce. >> go ahead, josh. >> one other point here. you know, steve bannon has sabotaged this committee by setting the bar for what constitutes loyalty to trump to mean refusing to testify, as we've seen for meadows.

so um, you know, i think in that sense, we're already seeing the maga crowd kind of take control of this committee and kind of steer it into a ditch which i think is the other significance from today's news. >> an interesting idea, gloria, josh -- that steve bannon has sort of set this high bar for what it means to truly, truly be slavishly loyal to the former president. >> well, he has. and um, i'm sure donald trump loves it. and that's exactly what steve bannon wants but -- and don't forget, steve bannon has the worst case for privilege of anybody up there because he wasn't serving in the administration. and yet, he has decided to make a cause out of this because it works to his benefit. i don't think it works to mark meadows' benefit, as you were pointing out. or to other trump admin -- administration officials' benefit but bannon's kind of a special case. >> yeah, josh, the difference between meadows and bannon certainly seems, you know, i guess meadows -- at least in the

past -- didn't want to be held in contempt of congress. steve bannon seems to want nothing else. it helps him for all the reasons andrew said. i mean, is this battle with the justice department -- i guess, financially, i guess he has a lot of money and -- and it's good for his reputation in the world that he exists in? >> well, yeah. i mean, i think for bannon, you don't have to look any further than the fact that he brought a camera crew to his arraignment and stopped in mid-perp walk to do a live interview to show you what it is that steve bannon hopes to get out of this whole experience. i think the pressure it puts on people like meadows is it forces him to decide are -- you know, is mark meadows going to be a true blue -- or i guess a true red maga loyalist or is he going to try to keep one foot in the respectable corporate republican establishment world? and what bannon is doing is forcing the issue in a way you really can't do both. you can't straddle and now trump has taken notice of this and is

furious at mark meadows. it looks like he has decided against upholding his reputation and helping the committee. and instead, kowtowing to trump and -- and sort of performing this slave iish act of loyalty. >> yeah. this guy was a member of congress. it's incredible. andrew mccabe, gloria borger, josh, thank you. what we are learning about president biden's call with vladimir putin. with russian troops massing on the border at ukraine and tensions probably higher than any moment in recent history, certainly. talk about the president's leverage to deter an attack and options in deterrence fails with tom friedman. and later, reporting you will only see on cnn from a country experiencing horrible extre extreme. first, droughts. now, terrible flooding issue the worst in 60 years. our clarissa ward is ahead on 360. hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪

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biden and russian president putin but now, what we have are the accounts each side gave of it. the president's national security adviser saying the administration does not believe believe putin has made a decision whether or not to invade ukraine, adding president biden was very clear in laying out the consequences if he does. the kremlin, for its part, saying quote responsibility should not be shifted onto the shoulders of russia since it is nato that is making dangerous attempts to conquer ukrainian territory and is building up its military potential at our borders. what shouldn't be forgotten, though, is what happened in -- with -- what is happening has all the trappings of a 20th century cold war superpower confrontation. it's the 43 million people who live in ukraine -- real people -- who are now under the gun. and war, if it comes, will be in their hometowns and their backyards. sometimes as cnn's matthew chance found out, conditions resembling the first world war than the last. >> reporter: i mean, we have

entered this -- of -- of trenches that have been dug along the frontline. i can tell you i mean, it's like being thrown back to the early-20th century and the -- and the great war. because i've not seen anything like this in modern warfare. but this is modern. the reality of confrontation with moscow and its proxies. >> joining us now, "new york times" foreign affairs columnist, tom friedman, best selling author of many books including the world is flat. so, tom, how much is on the line right now for russia and the u.s. on the border with ukraine? >> well, certainly, a war in -- in the middle of eastern europe right now would be terrible. terrible for the world. by the way, it would affect energy supplies and global gas prices. but it would just be -- it would be a disaster i believe for russia. you know, anderson, i remember we talked about this a while back about putin. vladimir putin, once again, demonstrates he is america's bad

boyfriend from hell. he just won't go away. we really want to break up. we want to date other people. we'd really like to date and he just won't go away. and so, he is always acting up. and he is always looking for dignity in all the wrong places in all the wrong ways. the loss of ukraine was part of soviet union so that's humiliating. and then, the fact that ukraine is becoming actually more ukrainian, more young ukrainians now speak ukrainian and not russian has -- has a big cultural, religious impact for russia because kyiv in ukraine is deeply embedded in russian religious history and -- and -- and cultural history. i get it. but -- but this putin approach, marry me or i will kill you, i don't think that is going to play with the young generation in ukraine. and so, i think it'd just be a disaster all around. and i think biden's done a good job here of not only communicating to him what the consequences would be economically to begin with for russia.

but also, rallying all of europe. um, after a time when there was a lot of tension between us and the european allies, anderson, i think biden's done a good job of -- of putting up a solid front with our allies against this. >> when, you know, russia makes the argument that, you know, nato is the real threat to russia. and that, you know, it talks about nato taking over ukrainian territory. obviously, russia is concerned that nato would admit ukraine into nato. >> yeah, i mean that's a legitimate issue. it goes back to the '90s. um, i wrote back then that i thought nato expansion was a huge mistake. um, uh, um, that we had a chance actually to bring then russia, a much more democratic russia, into europe. into a more democratic europe and i think the decision to -- to sacrifice that, um, to extend nato to poland and hungary and eastern europe was a huge mistake and it's the mistake that just keeps on giving,

anderson, because putin basically dines out on that. anytime his polling falls inside russia, he simply says you got to rally. nato is coming. >> there are obviously sanctions that the president is threatening. i mean, beyond that, what sort of leverage does the u.s. really have here? >> well, you know, certainly i mean i don't know if they would do this but they have talked about kicking russia off the swift international payment system, which would be a huge problem for russia. but, you know, i -- in these situations, you know, anderson, i -- i -- my princess di rule. remember, princess diana said my problem is that there were three people in my marriage? well, there's three people in this story. there is america, there's russia and there's what i would call weaponized social media. can you imagine if putin sent 180,000 troops into russia. i am not saying this will stop him. all i am saying is he will become a real international -- if he sent 180,000 troops into ukraine. >> yeah. >> he would become an international pariah, um, in ways that i am not sure he fully understands. that is, the next time he wants

to go to france, to london, to germany. um, if he is -- if he's seizing another country in the heart of europe, i don't think he fully grasps what the blowback could be on that as well. just at the sort of popular level. >> also, though ukraine has many ties to russia other than the part of ukraine that they have, you know, fought over already. much of ukraine does not want to be taken over by russia. and certainly, it would not -- i mean, it's not that ukraine couldn't be defeated by russia. um, but certainly, it would be messy. >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, there -- there would be real resistance. you would have 180,000 russian troops in ukraine in the middle of winter, um, facing real resistance. you have the russian economy being hammered. i will believe anything would happen, i'll predict anything here but it just to me would be just a terrible, terrible mistake for the world, for russia, for ukraine. >> i mention the national

security adviser jake sullivan briefed reporters today after the call between the two leaders. i just want to play some of what he said. >> there is a further invasion into ukraine, a military escalation in ukraine, obviously, many of our partners on the eastern front are -- our baltic allies, romania, poland, other countries, will be increasingly concerned about the security and territorial integrity of their countries. they will be seeking, we expect, additional capabilities and potentially additional deployments and the united states will be looking to respond positively to those things, in the event that there is a further incursion into ukraine. >> essentially, saying that the the other countries that putin doesn't want already to be in nato would be wanting to increase their military capabilities. >> yeah. and the ones that are already there. i mean, if you don't want nato on your border now, um, imagine what will happen if you invade ukraine. i mean, all these countries will

be desperate for more military hardware, more american presence. it would create exactly the world one would think he doesn't want. >> looks like we lost tom. but we appreciate the conversation. try to get him back if we can. we should note australia just announced their own diplomatic boycott of the upcoming olympics in china. coming up next, the new account of how ill with covid the former president was from one of the people who deceived the public about it at this time. ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ the new sensodyne repair and protect with deep repair has the science to show that the toothpaste goes deep inside the

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new account of the former president's encounter with covid bolsters reporting at the time that he was very ill indeed it comes from his former chief of staff mark meadows, who as you know has a book out and seems a lot more willing to talk when a publisher is giving him some money than he is when lawmakers hand him a subpoena. meadows as you know was part of a white house effort, which included the president's physician sean conley to publicly downplay the severity of the former president's illness. now, at the same time, he was trying to surreptitiously leak the opposite and was even caught on camera, if you remember, doing it outside walter reed. he and others also actively con s sealed the fact that the boss tested positive a few days prior, shortly before presidential debate and several other functions. now, meadows is trying to downplay that and stay in the former president's good graces. here's what he writes about the

day the former president went into walter reed and just as a reminder, that evening, dr. conley put out a memo saying quote i am happy to report that the president is doing very well. so quoting now from meadows' book, that warning dr. conley pulled me aside and delivered some bad news. although the president's condition had improved slightly overnight, his oxygen levels had now dipped down to about 86% and could be trending lower, a dangerously low level for someone his age. then, came the former president's sort of odd limo ride in a sealed car around hospital grounds in the evening and his mask removing rueturn t the white house. we now know began with a positive covid test on the 26th of december. now, according to recent analysis by "the washington post," in the six days between testing positive and going to the hospital, the former president came in contact with and, therefore, may have exposed, more than 500 people. 500. which brings this item to mind by way of contrast. then-citizen trump attacking a doctor who contracted ebola

treating patients in africa, that returned to new york. was hospitalized. kept in complete isolation for three weeks and not released until he was free of the virus. a virus that was not airborne the way covid was. >> i consider that doctor extremely selfish. he went on crowded subways during rush hour. had dinner in brooklyn. went to a bowling alley and bowled and went all over the place. i think he is a very selfish person. >> again, he was quarantined once he tested positive and not released until virus free. he is, of course, dr. craig spencer, director of global health at emergency medicine at new york presbyterian columbia university medical center and he joins us now. dr. spencer, appreciate you being with us. putting aside the -- i don't know if it's irony or just absurdity of the former president's attacks, knowing what you know about the timeline of the former president's covid test, and how sick he was when hospitalized and "the washington post" reporting he may have come

in contact with 500 people. i'm wondering what your reaction is? >> well, i should start by saying quite honestly none of these revelations are a surprise to me. i am an emergency medicine doctor. my job is to put together small pieces of information that are said or things that might be overlooked or not said to really, you know, make a diagnosis. put together a story. and it was very clear from those press conferences last year when the president went to walter reed that he was much sicker than they were leading on. it was clear that he was on oxygen. it was clear that he was a patient with severe covid. now, granted, the president -- former president and i have disagreed about infectious disease threats since at least 2014. i have long since been vindicated but this revelation just shows that in those days, the president was doing what we were all concerned he might be doing, which was attending a superspreading event that had emerged from the white house and was putting the rest the country at risk. >> he met with gold star families. it's really kind of incredible, the list of people he met with.

how dangerous is an oxygen level of 86%? meadows says that's what the former president's oxygen level was before he was taken to walter reed and that's -- yeah -- that's him going to walter reed i think. >> that's incredibly dangerous, especially in a 73-74-year-old man. your risk of dying at that point is incredibly high and so when we have patients whose oxygen levels dip below 90%, they were admitted to the hospital. they were given steroids. they were often given high-flow oxygen and we treated them very, very carefully because their risk of decompensating, of getting worse in the first 24 or 48 hours was incredibly high. and again, we saw this nearly every single day in march and april of last year. we saw this throughout the pandemic. we still continue to see people who come in with oxygens really low and always take it seriously because these people get sick really fast. >> meadows said the former president couldn't carry his briefcase when he walked out to marine one. the weight was too much for him. from your experience treating covid, what other symptoms would

the president have been feeling at that stage of an illness? i mean, what does it feel like? >> well, as someone who's had -- had a bad illness, it feels horrible. it feels worse than a bad flu. you feel incredible weak. your fever and the malaise. your whole body aches and it's hard to do very basic things. i imagine that's exactly how he was feeling, especially if his oxygen was dipping that low. you don't feel despgreat. it's hard to muster the energy to do anything. >> i want to talk about the omicron variant. in a small study using samples from 12 people, doctors in south africa found that people who previously had covid and received the pfizer vaccine are likely to be well protected against the omicron variant. they also found that people who only had the pfizer vaccines were as protected. so, given all the mutations that the variant has, does that surprise you at all? what does it tell you? >> well i think the first thing it tells me is that we need to be eternally grateful for the

scientists in south africa that have been doing this work despite travel bans making it difficult to get the reagents that they need. but look, i don't think the study was too surprising to a lot of us who have seen the mutations on the omicron variant, who have suspected that it was going to decrease potentially the protective effects of our vaccines. but remember -- >> and sorry, doctor, by the way, i misspoke. the people who just had the -- the pfizer vaccine are not as -- as protected as people who had pfizer and covid. >> right. well, this is also -- this was a lab study. this was in a dish. this was, you know, looking at tissue from 12 patients so i wouldn't extrapolate it too far. but look, what we know is that people who had covid and got vaccinated were more protected than people who had covid and didn't. we know people who got vaccinated and got a booster are going to be more protected than those who haven't got a booster or who have not been vaccinated. so the study shows us that the vaccines likely are still going to work. it's important to get a booster and even if you have had covid,

it's really important to be vaccinated. we know it's already spreading here. delta is our problem right no but we need to make sure we are able that thwart off this coming wave of omicron infections as well. getting vaccinated. >> yeah. today cdc director dr. rochelle walensky said the anime convention, which was held in new york city will likely provide some of the earliest data on transmissibility of the omicron variant in the u.s. of the 53,000 people who attended, 35,000 have been contacted and encouraged to get tested. i mean, there is usually not that kind of level of testing. what will you be watching for among this large group of people? >> well, we are going to be looking to see what the attack rate is in people who were there, meaning what percentage of people who get tested test positive. and hopefully, do that sequencing to see how much of that is somicron. look, this was happening at the same time we were having 90, 100,000 cases a day so it won't be surprising if some people ultimately test positive. it will be unclear for a while how much of this is omicron

spread, how much omicron is likely to be more of a superspreading virus than delta. all indications seem to be that it is more transmissible but we are still doing that science. the anime convention, as well as all the research that is happening in europe but especially in southern africa is going to give us a lot more clues in the coming days and weeks. >> dr. craig spencer, appreciate talking to you again. thank you. another bizarre day in court as the defense rests in the jussie smollett criminal trial. what the former "empire" actor said in court, next.

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hours ago, the defense rested its case in the criminal trial of jussie smollett. closing arguments set tore for tomorrow and it was another lively day in court. smollett tireiterating his clai he was the victim of an anti-gay hate crime and did not stage the attack for media attention. prosecutors contrasted with evidence they say prove it was all a hoax and new details revealed on smollett's interactions with his alleged attackers in the days leading up to the incident. cl nn senior national correspondent, sara sidner, joins us from chicago. so prosecutors grilled smollett about this -- the rope -- the noose he reported was part of the alleged attack. what were they trying to point out? >> they were trying to point out

inconsistencies in his story and basically what they asked was whether or not he had taken that noose, taken it off and then put it back on once the police showed up to his house. the prosecutor's intimating that basically it was done to make the crime look more severe and more serious. but smollett answered him that yes, indeed, he did take the rope from around his neck and then put it back on when police showed up. and he said he did it because he had a conversation with a colleague and the colleague told him that you don't want to tamper with evidence, and so he decided that he should put the noose back where it was during this alleged attack that he had talked about. and so, that was the reason why he said, yes, he did do that. and then, the prosecutor said, but why did you go on television and do an interview for "good morning america" and tell them that you have the noose around your neck the whole time and you never took it off? to that, smollett acknowledged what he said during the interview because you couldn't not. it was played for the court.

but he never addressed why there was an inconsistency in what he testified to, versus what he said a couple of weeks after the alleged attack. anderson. >> i mean, which is one of many inconsistencies it seems in -- in his story. how did he respond to the testimony from his -- well, the guy he says is his former trainer and the trainer's brother who said he planned this and paid them to do it? >> yeah. so, the brothers, one of which was smollett's trainer at the time of the attack -- they testified very clearly in court, under oath that, indeed, smollett had given them money. and that -- that they -- he had planned it and that they had just simply carried it out, what was planned by smollett and themselves. he -- when -- upon hearing that and upon hearing the prosecutor reiterate that to the jury, what the brothers had testified to, he called one of their stories a bold-faced lie. that was his trainer.

and said that the two of them are liars and not to be believed. >> sara sidner, appreciate it. thank you. joining us now is criminal defense attorney, sarah azari. sarah, i'm wondering what you made of smollett's testimony on the whole? did you think he was very credible? i mean, as a criminal defense attorney, do you think he helped his case? >> no, anderson. he hurt his case. there are two reasons why we put up a defendant to testify. one is so he could humanize himself and the other is to explain a story that can't be explained, otherwise, and argued. so with are to humanizing himself, of course, he got up and testified in a compelling way and a calm way. but he is a trained actor, right? so the idea that he is a self-made man, he's hustled, he's worked hard. trust me, believe me, don't con convict me. okay. then you get to the explanation part which completely fell flat, anderson. the idea that on a frigid chicago january night, they just happened to find him at this location without any planning is

not plausible. you know, the idea that, um, he says he has sex with one of them but then they're homophobic and they hate me and they planned this attack. how do you reconcile that? you can't. the idea that they met and that meeting was about nigerian herbal steroids. i mean, do you believe that? because i don't. but i mean, credibility is -- is a jury question. >> also, drove by the future-alleged crime scene multiple times with the brothers in his car. >> right. on surveillance and he can't really explain that. and then, more damning than everything, anderson, is the idea that you are a victim of a hate crime and then you don't cooperate with the police so that they can capture and bring the perpetrator to justice, right? so, they asked him for his dna and he is like i don't believe in ancestry.com. they said okay what about your cell phone and medical records? i don't trust you, i don't trust the police, you are all maga

people because sof course at tht time donald trump was in office. so it's really -- the jury has to believe some really strange explanations to be able to not convict him. >> also, he repeatedly sort of pointed out that he doesn't want attention. i mean, the profession that he is in exists on attention. i mean, it's -- it's -- it -- i mean, the idea that he doesn't want attention seems hard to -- to believe. the prosecutor also seemed to get under smollett's skin at certain points and he kind of snapped back at several questions. does that play well on -- on the stand? >> no, anderson, because, look, you know, you can be firm, you can be prepared, you can be compelling but once you start getting snarky with the prosecutor and defensive, it doesn't fare well with the jury because they are going to say, well, why? why are you so defensive? i mean, just answer the question. that's -- that's in the good for him. >> and i mean, if he is found guilty, do you expect likely he would serve jail time? would he get probation? what -- what are the potential costs of this? >> yeah.

so remember that these were, initially, 16 counts that magically disappeared and were dismissed. and now, we're left with six counts of disorderly conduct. each of them, carrying one to three years with the likelihood and potential of probation but not at this stage. you know, once the defendant exercises his constitutional right to go to trial and testifies, he is taking the risk of this judge really listening and hearing and watching the evidence. and if -- if the judge feels that he's lied, that -- that his testimony was bogus, he will get punished more. so that -- that probation possibility is out the window. >> hmm, sara azari, appreciate it. thank you. last night, we brought you clarissa ward's remarkable reporting from south sudan about what some are describing as biblical-level flooding there. clarissa joins us again for a must-see report. that is coming up next. we'll be right back. ♪

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reporting from the ground on south sudan on the devastating floods impacting unity state. and as the flooding brings food shortages and diseases, it's also having a huge impact on schools in the region. according to unicef, the floods have destroyed, closed, or closed access to over 500 schools in south sudan. clarissa ward joins us now. i wander what the most pronounced effect you're seeing on the ground there as a result of the floods. >> well, obviously, anderson, in the sort of short term, the most pronounced effects are just this devastation, as a result of this massive flooding. and particularly, as a result of the displacement of hundreds of thousands. some 800,000 people across this country have been affected by the flooding. many communities are still isolated, unable to get out to safety. they're building these makeshift camps, the conditions are terrible. disease is rampant. malnutrition is rising.

but beyond these kind of short-term life saving interventions that are needed, you also have to think about the mid to long term because south sudan is a country that has been mired in a vicious civil war for many years. it ended just a few years ago. development was put on pause here for such a long time. and aid agencies and, you know, and the government here had just started the process of rebuilding some of these schools, opening 50 schools in the last couple of years. and now all of that has once again been put on pause. take a look. >> it's pretty deep in here. >> teacher shows us what remains of the local school. what were you teaching in here? >> so here, i'm teaching english. >> the classrooms are all deserted now, overrun by the fetid, stagnant waters. is the water getting any lower?

>> no, it's still increasing, the boughter. >> this water also is filthy, it's dangerous. there's disease in it. >> yeah, there is diseases, and there's snake bites, also. and we're drinking inside this water also. >> this is where most of his students have fled to. a narrow strip of dry land now home to some 6,000 people. books are brought in by canoe. classes are taught under a white t tarpolin. according to unicef, more than 500 schools have been hit by the floods. and there are real fears that the next generation of this conflict-scarred nation may be lost. >> i mean, is the international community honoring its commitment to help developing nations dealing with climate change? >> well, i mean, if you look at

the pledge that was made by the world's wealthiest countries for something in the realm of $100 billion a year to help countries like south sudan adapt to the effects of climate change, to become more resilience, to become more efficient in terms of their own emissions, then what we're hearing is simply no, those commitments are not being honored. you know, we discussed this yesterday, andersonerse just th disproportionality and injustice of this because a country like south sudan simply hasn't been contributing to even a fraction of global emissions. there's roughly 125 miles of paved road in this country, and yet, according to the u.n., it's countries particularly in the african continent that are disproportionately paying such a high price. and it is only going to get to be a higher and higher price if more action isn't taken. particularly in terms of the infrastructure, the pumps that are need, the diggers to help try to build up those dikes, to

fortify those dikes, and to really help south sudan strengthen its defenses against the effects of climate change. >> yeah, all the evidence points to this only just increasing in the future. clarissa, appreciate it. sgroo up next, the date that will leave in infamy, 80 years later, we remember the attack on pearl harbor.

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hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ morning of december 7th, 1941, hundreds of japanese war planes launched a surprise attack on the u.s. naval base of pearl harbor and other locations in hawaii. more than 2,400 americans were killed. the pacific fleet was left in ruins, and the u.s. was drawn into world war ii. shocking assault was famously called a date which will live in infamy by then president franklin d. roosevelt. today in hawaii, dozens of

survivors gathered to mark the solemn anniversary with a moment of silence and other ceremonies. in washington, d.c., president biden and the first lady visited the world war ii memorial to pay their respects. in a proclamation marking pearl harbor remembrance day, the president encouraged all americans to reflect on the courage shown by the brave warriors that day. the news continues. let's hand it over to michael smerconish and cnn tonight. >> i'm michael smerconish. this is cnn tonight. president biden put vladimir putin on notice there will be consequences if russia decides to invade ukraine. but was he able to dial putin back today from the brink of war in their two-hour video summit? that's the looming question tonight. it certainly looks like the brink of war. russia's been amassing tens of thousands of troops on its border with ukraine, potentially as many as 175,000, along with weapons and tanks and other military equipment. all caught on satellite cam. could it all be just a bluff?