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here's the breaking news. the house january 6th committee voting unanimously tonight to recommend former white house chief of staff mark meadows be charged with criminal contempt of congress for refusing to cooperate with the committee and failing to appear for a deposition as required by the committee's subpoena. the committee revealing text messages between meadows and several fox hosts and even the then-president's eldest son as the capitol was being violently attacked by insurrectionists. let's bring in paula reid and john harwood. good evening to both of you. paula, i'm going to start with you. you have been going through all of these shocking new texts and information from the january 6th select committee. what do people need to know, paula? >> reporter: extraordinary information, don, revealing exactly what the white house knew on january 6th as told by some of trump's closest allies. the house select committee revealing this evening text messages from several fox news

personalities. text messages from laura ingraham, sean hannity, brian kilmeade to the then chief of staff mark meadows, urging him to get the president to do something to quell violence on capitol hill. they also revealed text messages from the president's son, donald trump jr., saying he, quote, has to lead now. the vice chairwoman on the committee, liz cheney, she laid out some of this evidence. let's take a listen. >> as the violence continued, one of the president's sons texted mr. meadows, quote, he's got to condemn this shit asap. the capitol police tweet is not enough. donald trump jr. texted. meadows responded, quote, i'm pushing it hard. i agree. still, president trump did not immediately act. donald trump jr. texted again and again, urging action by the

president. quote, we need an oval office address. he has to lead now. it has gone too far and gotten out of hand. >> reporter: these messages of illustrative of the former president's supreme dereliction of duty. it's important to note this is the stuff meadows handed over voluntarily. it makes you wonder what he might be withholding. >> what about members of congress? what were they telling mark meadows to do in. >> reporter: more remarkable evidence ref valed by the house select committee tonight. for example, we saw one message from a lawmaker saying, quote, the president needs to stop this asap. cheney says these messages show that the white house knew what was happening at the capitol in real time, when the certification happened in the early hours of january 7th, meadows received a text calling january 6th, quote, a terrible day.

quote, yesterday was a terrible day. this is from a lawmaker. we tried everything we could in our objections to the six states. i'm sorry. nothing worked. >> wow. >> reporter: that was the response. after a failed attempt to disrupt the peaceful transition of power. now, we know meadows is refusing to come in and answer questions from the committee. he suggested he does not have to come in because of executive privilege. but clearly he does not believe that there is any privilege concern with the thousands of documents he's already handed over. the committee is demanding that he come in and at least answer questions about all these materials he's already handed over. and clearly there are questions. >> john, i mean we tried. sorry, didn't work. we tried to overturn an election. i mean this is crazy. i mean the trump white house staff, members of congress, the former president's own son, they've all been trying to rewrite the history of january 6th since that happened, but we know the truth now of what they actually think about it. >> that's right. not only the trump white house

people, but also as you've been discussing with paula and others tonight, the fox news personalities. what they have in common, this group of people leading what once was a conservative movement, now is really an authoritarian movement, what they have in common is that they're lying for money and power to a constituency that is terrified that its way of life is going down the tubes. we're talking principally about white evangelical christians who think the country is being taken over by people from other countries, by people of different races, by people with different religions. they think their culture is changing. they're falling behind economically. donald trump appeals to that. fox news exploits that. and we saw the tragic consequences on january 6th. and it's now more. it's simply about the power and money of a corporation and a political party.

it's about the future of democracy as you were talking about with stuart stevens in the previous hour. >> yeah. john, this text, i can't get over this. i got to go back to the "i'm sorry, nothing worked" text. it is especially disturbing. i mean this is a sitting member of congress apologizing for not succeeding in helping to overturn the election. chilling, especially going forward now. >> well, there's no question about it. look, in the republican party, we've seen precisely two people willing to stand up and call out what happened on january 6th precisely, unabashedly for what it was, and that's liz cheney and adam kinzinger. the republican party is stepping back and ignoring, downplaying what happened on january 6th because they think the political winds are blowing in their direction. they don't have to do it. on january 6th itself, they were scared that it was going to

reverberate against them and, you know, kevin mccarthy came out and criticized donald trump. he's way fled that position. and so, again, the republican party as a whole is not willing to stand up for the constitution and for the future of american democracy. they are trying to obtain power even at the cost of that kind of insurrection. and, remember, we had sitting members of congress. mo brooks spoke to that rally and said, we're going to go up there and fight like hell. so, you know, that's what we're dealing with. >> yep. that is what we're dealing with. i just need to let viewers know the select committee has voted to approve a criminal contempt of congress referral for mark meadows. we'll be watching paula and others who will be reporting on that as this transpires. thank you very much. i want to bring in now cnn senior legal analyst elie honig and former fbi agent asha ran rangappa, now a legal and national security analyst.

elie, i'm going to start with you because these texts are extraordinary. the select committee laying out why meadows should be complying with the subpoena. but, you know, will the justice department actually prosecute mark meadows for contempt of congress? >> it's a big question, but first of all, this is just a wow moment. we have to step back. i mean this morning we got these texts about how the national guard's going to stand by to protect pro-trump people, and that's already sort of yesterday's news because we just got this whole new batch of texts. contempt of congress is important here. >> elie, we knew. we knew all of this, right? but this is the proof that they knew. >> exactly. >> and that they're lying about it. >> when we say they knew, everybody around the situation, everybody in congress, in media, allies of the president, people who are now trying to down play january 6th, on the day of they're sending texts and what they knew the people behind this, mark meadows and donald trump, everybody is begging meadows, you have to get him to call them off. that shows you they knew the

person who the capitol was stormed for. >> so do you think they will vote for contempt? what does that mean? >> yeah. so it has to go to the full house. and then it will go to doj. on the one hand, it's a harder case than bannon. meadows has partially complied, but overlying all of this, he's the former president. we just got a ruling last week from the court of appeals in d.c. that the former president doesn't get to call for executive privilege contrary to the current president. i think doj should charge it, but this will be a real gut check for merrick garland. >> does the fever break? i don't even know if this breaks a fever. it's just sad that it keeps going on and on. it just continues, asha. am i crazy to think that? you think, okay, here's the proof. everybody knows. this is a farce. all these people are lying about it. fox news, you know, don junior,

whatever. but yet the grift keeps going. do you understand what i'm saying? nobody cares about the truth, it seems. >> i do, don. but, you know, this is kind of one of those rare moments of clarity, right? there's a concept in the law in evidence called an excited utterance. it's an exception to the hearsay rule. and the reason that courts allow it is based on this idea that when someone is in a state of shock or under stress, that what they say is inherently trustworthy. and when i was listening to these texts being read out, i thought of this concept. these are excited utterances. this is how these people, these fox news journalists, you know, were perceiving this event at the time. whatever, you know, political comb-over they did in public hours later and now months later. and even don junior, who i don't think of as having a particularly well-worn moral

compass, is perceiving this in the same way. and i think as elie said, the question is, you know, why wasn't trump responding to this? he was the one who they all believed had the power to stop this, and he was the one who apparently didn't because these texts just kept coming. >> it's amazing to me don junior who is -- i was going to say the biggest joke of the trump family besides the dad, is on that day saying, you know, you've got to stop this. asha, mark meadows was on hannity just tonight. here's what he said. >> obviously it's disappointing but not surprising. and let's be clear about this, sean. this is not about holding me in contempt. it's not even about making the capitol safer. we see that by some of the selective leaks that are going on right now. this is about donald trump and about actually going after him once again, continuing to go after donald trump. >> it's -- it's painful to

listen to, guys. i mean, asha, enough. don't you think? >> don, here's the bottom line for meadows. he cannot be both loyal to trump and tell the truth. and this is what he is caught between in terms of cooperating with congress. given what they have, actual text messages, you know, between him and other people, he has to name names. he has to really -- he was in the thick of it. so he either has to throw trump under the bus, which is going to be, you know, political death for him, or he lies for trump, which many other people have done -- mike flynn, roger stone. and he will pay a price for that because he will undoubtedly be prosecuted for lying to congress. and so for him, i think, you know, taking the chance on this contempt of congress charge, which as elie noted, you know, is not necessarily a slam dunk, is just a calculation for him, a

risk/reward calculation because i think he has no wiggle room at all to fudge or obfuscate if he goes in and answers questions in front of this committee. >> if i could just build on that, we used to say as prosecutors, if someone was thinking about cooperating, you do not want to jump halfway across the ditch. you either want to stay over there and be a defendant or come all the way over here and cooperate. i want to know what happened to mark meadows. he went halfway across, gave over 6,000 incredibly damning documents and then said, hold on. now he's stuck in the middle. someday we're going to learn what happened, why he did that. it makes no sense. but he's already -- i don't know about may be incriminated, but given over incredibly damning information on himself and others. >> don junior and the fox propaganda hosts, could they be called to testify? >> if they were not members of the media, absolutely. but prosecutors and investigators do need to be sensitive to compelling members of the media to testify about their dealings. you know, first amendment

reasons and reasons we can understand as part of the media as well. if they were not members of the media, you'd be walking a subpoena there right now. >> this is an insurrection and please stop him. good evening everyone. nothing happened at the capitol today. it's ridiculous. thank you both. i appreciate it. it just gets worse and worse, every new revelation gives us a new terrible piece of the picture of what happened on january 6th. but will we ever know the whole truth? >> and mr. meadows' testimony will bear on another key question before this committee. did donald trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede congress' official proceedings to count electoral votes? mark meadows' testimony is necessary to inform our legislative judgments. ientist h. i just have to ask. does my aveeno® daily moisturizer really make my dry skin healthier in one day? it's true jen. really?!

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tonight. the january 6th select committee voting to recommend contempt charges for mark meadows. the full house will vote as soon as tomorrow. it comes as the committee reveals texts meadows received as the capitol was being violently attacked by insurrectionists. so much to discuss. garrett graph is here and former republican congressman charlie dent. good to see you. the more we learn about january 6th, the worse it gets. but do these stunning revelations get us any closer to the full story of what happened that day in your estimation? >> i think one of the things that we really see becoming clear is what we have known all along, which is donald trump is the center of this. that the people around donald trump, whether it's his own staff, his own family, or fox news hosts, realize that this crowd was acting to fulfill

donald trump's wishes and that, you know, for all that we try to pretend that these were tourists, you know, trying to get a tour of the capitol or these were, you know, a few random, disaffected people who broke off from the trump rally on the national mall, everyone that day who was around donald trump, around the president of the united states, understood what is becoming clear in these texts. that this crowd was reacting to and would follow the orders of donald trump. >> mm-hmm. charlie, congressman adam schiff laid out some of the texts mark meadows received from lawmakers. take a listen to this. >> this one reads, on january 6th, 2021, vice president mike pence, as president of the senate, should call out all

electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all. the second graphic. the president needs to stop this asap. if we could queue graphic number three. jed yesterday was a terrible day. we tried everything we could in our objection to the six states. i'm sorry nothing worked. >> wow. so we have a sitting member of congress. what happens when we find out who they are? >> well, it's going to be a real bad day for those members is all i can tell you. i think what we're missing in all this is that the capitol on january 6th was the site of a massive crime scene, and congress has every right to investigate that attack. people forcibly entered a restricted area. there was aggravated assault committed against numerous law enforcement officers. destruction and desecration of the capitol itself.

congress has a right to know -- hold those people accountable and those who may have aided and assisted them. to the extent it was lawmakers or protesters, mark meadows was having conversations with protesters on the ground based on some of the documented he released to the committee, you know, with members of congress, with the fox news hosts. by the way, somebody might want to look into the propriety of that. boy, that's a subject for brian stelter apparently. i'm just saying there's a lot here to investigate, and congress has every damn right to get this information. and, again, since mark already provided -- mark meadows already provided this material to the committee, i mean the committee has every right to ask about this, what adam schiff read off and also what liz cheney red off ear -- read off earlier too. this is really relevant to the investigation. i think mark meadows has got himself in a real pickle here. i think the truth will set him

free. the best thing for the republican party right now is for the truth to come out. it might help break the lock of trump on the party if we can understand what he did to aid and abet this group. >> what happened with mark meadows? could someone have possibly gotten to him and said, okay, shut your mouth? >> well, i think he's trying to run out the clock. you know, i think he's hoping that maybe he's filing a civil action, that this might slow things down, and we get to the midterms, and maybe this can go away for him. i think that's partly the strategy. i'm sure that probably donald trump does not want him in front of congress. that's probably a harsh reality as well. so i think that's certainly playing into his calculation. but it's hard to say what's motivating him. but i think he's kind of in a bit of a no man's land right now. i think elie said it well. he's kind of half in, half out. he hasn't quite crossed the -- >> the ditch.

>> hasn't quite crossed the ditch. >> it seems like he's in it. >> garrett, the committee is deliberately releasing some damning evidence, but will it shake up meadows or make other trump allies think twice about trying to subvert the investigation, or you think it's just they don't care about truth or facts or law or nothing? >> well, i do think what we have seen is that this steve bannon criminal charge of contempt of congress has, you know, shaken some of these cooperators, that it has had some of its desired effect. i think you're seeing that in mark meadows and, you know, the half in, half out challenge that he's found himself in, is that he was really trying to avoid this moment where congress would move for a criminal contempt charge and was hoping that he would sort of be able to

cooperate enough and argue executive privilege plausibly enough that he might get sort of cast aside and the committee would move on. it's clear that this committee, though, is pushing hard and that they want to try to get as close to the truth as they can, and notably i think they feel that ticking clock too. everyone understands that if republicans take back the majority next year, every ounce of effort that the january 6th committee has put in that has not been made public is going to be buried as deep as the republicans can possibly bury it. >> gentlemen, thank you so much. i appreciate it. so let's talk about what's happening with the pandemic now. covid cases, hospitalizations, death all up as hospitals brace for a winter surge. and now we're getting a better picture of just how quickly the omicron variant could spread. why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in...

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covid cases on the rise in the united states, up nearly 45% over the past few weeks, meaning that around 120,000 new cases are being reported each day. hospitalizations spiking as well just as the omicron variant is taking hold. so the country's on the verge of a terrible milestone, recording 800,000 deaths from covid-19. goodness. i want to bring in dr. megan ranney, professor of emergency medicine, associate dean of public health at brown university. we need some good news, doctor. good evening to you. good to see you. so the omicron variant's been reported in 32 states and d.c.

experts are warning that it's only time until this is the dominant variant. can you explain to us just how contagious this variant is compared to others? >> yeah. every piece of data that we have so far supports that this variant is, in order of magnitude, more transmissible than the variants that we have seen before. we are expecting that omicron will become the dominant variant across the united states by early january based on the data that we're seeing out of other countries. the one piece of potential good news is that so far, omicron seems to be pretty mild in those of us who are vaccinated, particularly in those who are vaccinated and boosted. but we don't yet know for sure because it is spreading so quickly. we don't yet have great data from the uk or other countries where omicron has already become the dominant strain of covid. >> we have seen, doctor, the u.s. follow behind surges in europe by just a few weeks.

look at the cases. this is the uk. the map is up there, this chart. this chart shows the average number of new cases over the past year. you see the delta surge in the summer, and now up again, and cases in denmark. new cases averaging triple what they were in october. do you expect this to be the u.s. in the coming months? >> i do expect that to be the u.s. you know, the patterns of the population, the patterns of vaccination in the uk and denmark are quite similar to what we see in the united states. there's no reason for us to think that our case patterns will not follow what they're seeing. the big question, the thing that we're all waiting on with bated breath, is what happens to hospitalizations in those countries? we know that hospitalizations usually spike somewhere between one and three weeks after a case is discovered. so we're watching to see how bad hospitalizations get in european countries because i will tell

you that here in the u.s., we can't take much more on top of the current delta wave. >> yeah. you're right about that. according to a leaked source, today alone the nfl saw 37 positive covid cases among players. on december 2nd, the nfl said 94.4% of its players were vaccinated along with 100% of the other nfl personnel. what does today's news say to you? >> so it's two things. the first is that even a small number of folks who are unvaccinated still put the rest of us at risk. but the other important thing about this statistic that we have yet to kind of follow through is that most likely, most of those cases are mild because most of those are going to be in folks who did get vaccinated, most likely have not been boosted yet, but who did get vaccinated. the purpose of these vaccines is not to completely stop

transmission of covid. that's not going to happen. instead, the purpose of the vaccines is to stop severe disease, hospitalization, and death. and so far we are seeing that happen. but unfortunately those who have not gotten vaccinated both continue to spread and continue to overwhelm our hospital systems. >> dr. ranney, thank you very much. we'll see you soon. >> thank you. families across the south and midwest devastated by a tornado outbreak. more than 100 people are feared dead. my next guest lost her brother and nephew, and she's still searching for her brother-in-law. symptoms, ft to fight your get your zzz's... and get back to your rhythm. ♪ the relief you need. the cash you want.

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the national weather service saying at least 50 tornadoes touched down in eight states across the south and midwest over the weekend. at least 100 people are feared dead. that number could rise. dozens of people are still missing. i want to bring in now sandy gunn, her brother steve, his son grayson and brother-in-law were duck hunting in tennessee when one of the tornadoes stuck. steve and grayson did not survive. jamie is still missing, and she joins us now along with her daughter, shanna. thank you so much for joining us, shanna and sandy. sandy, i'm so sorry for your loss and everything your family's going through right now. how are you doing? >> we're -- we're making it. we were just -- we're making it. >> in shock? >> absolutely. half of my family has been wiped out. they're just gone. >> how are you holding up,

shanna? >> trying to be strong for everyone right now. it's hard. it's hard. >> steve, grayson and jamie were part of this big duck hunting trip. they go with a larger group. on friday evening, there were weather warnings on their phones alerting them of tornadoes. where were they at the time? can you take me through what happened, what you know, sandy? >> so they were in tiptonville, tennessee, and they had been hunting all day. they got up that morning, and they just had the best time hunting. it was just -- it was absolutely wonderful. they were laughing. they had taken their sons. my brother had taken his son. my brother-in-law, jamie, was a last-minute fill-in. he had never went duck hunting before. he was a last-minute fill-in, and he just had the time of his life. they went to the restaurant in the facility, and there was a santa claus there, and he asked

him, he said where you boys are from. and the guy said florida. and they said, well, what do you know about tornadoes? and, you know, they're all in the place, and all these locals are still in there, and my brother-in-law said, you know, we're from florida. we don't know anything really about tornadoes. he said, well, you're going to learn about them tonight. but, again, nobody had a sense of urgency. they wasn't saying we got a shelter over here, come to the shelter. you know, in florida we get hurricane warnings all the time, and you know how floridians are. they don't really panic like that. it just didn't seem to be -- just a storm in the area. they went back to the hunting resort, and the kids are playing around, and my brother, he looked at his son, and he said, come on. we've been up since 3:00. let's go to our room and get some sleep.

we got to go hunting tomorrow. and so him and my brother -- my brother and grayson and my brother-in-law jamie, they were on the second floor, on the 45th and the 46th room. and my other brother-in-law and my brother's best friends were on the first floor. and he says, you know, it was a lightning storm. but, again, nobody -- you know, nobody in the resort was saying anything. they're just figuring it's just a storm coming through. he said the kids were getting nervous, you know, and they went outside and started videotaping the lightning and stuff. he said all of a sudden, the air changed. he said, it just changed like that. he said -- and he started running. everybody started running with their kids, and there was a building right across the rooms. it was like a little clubhouse, you know. and they ran in there, and they kicked the door open, and they

got in a bathroom stall, and they -- they put the kids on the bottom, and the daddies got on top. but my brother and my brother-in-law and his son were sleeping in their bed. they never even knew when the storm -- he said it just sounded like hell had come. he said when -- when it went silent for a moment, his babies was crying, daddy, daddy, we're going to die. you know, daddy, i love you, i love you. the boys are just screaming, i love you, daddy. he said he got up. he said, i ran outside, sandy, and the only thing standing was that bathroom stall. he said, i started screaming for stevie and grayson and jamie, and they were just gone. he said the whole second floor was gone. he said they did not -- there was no shelter.

he said -- he said, i tried to find them, and i couldn't find them. all of a sudden, another one started rolling in. he said, we had rented a van and it busted all the windows of the van. he said, i'm trying to get my son. my son is so scared. he said, we go traveling down the road, and i'm just trying to find shelter for my family. he said, when we found shelter, he said it was just -- it was just tornado after tornado that kept coming over them. >> oh, my gosh. shanna, can you tell us about steve, grayson, and jamie, please? >> you wouldn't find better men ever. my uncle was -- uncle stevie was one of a kind. he was the kind of guy that every man wanted to be. if you needed something, uncle stevie was the first one to say, how can i help you? it was never, oh, i have

something to do. he was the one that was going to do it. and grayson came into our lives, and grayson was the light of his world. i mean truthfully, he was the boy that, you know, he had nieces. so when he had the boy, it was him. he taught grayson everything. grayson was his partner in crime. >> yeah. >> he adopted grayson two years ago. >> we're so sorry for your loss, and everyone is thinking about you and praying, and you guys be well. thank you so much for appearing here on cnn. you take care, okay? >> thank you. >> thank you, shanna. thank you, sandy. i appreciate it. for more information about how you can help tornado victims, go to cnn.com/impact. we'll be right back. that means, you could be right back where you started. break the cycle with microban 24. just spray once and your surfaces are protected against bacteria all day. microban keeps killing 99.9% of bacteria

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california governor gavin newsom citing the new texas abortion law the supreme court has allowed to remain in effect, saying, quote, if that's the precedent, then we'll let californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets. if texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, california can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives. mirroring the texas law, the proposed legislation would allow people to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit in parts of the state of

california. and those people could be fined at least $10,000 per violation. so joining me now to discuss, cnn legal analyst areva martin, the author of "awakening." areva, it's so good to have you. you know california law. you know the law across the country. is this sort of fighting fire with fire? what do you think? >> well, we know, don, that justice sonia sotomayor warned about this in her dissent. she said, look, the court was setting a very dangerous precedent and that other states would start to model what the texas legislature has done. that's exactly what california governor gavin newsom is talking about, not with respect to abortions but with respect to gun laws. you know, some may say it's perfo performative, that legislature states cannot enact laws that subvert the constitution. but i can tell you this, don,

he's getting tremendous praise on social media from progressives, from democrats who are saying, you know, two can play this game. if republicans can go after abortion laws and try to restrict constitutional rights to abortions in the way that they have with this texas abortion law, that california can do so with respect to gun laws, which we know is something that republicans hold very dearly. so we don't know what's going to happen, but it's definitely getting a lot of support from those who are very concerned about the texas abortion law. >> a couple things you said. we don't know what's going to happen. some say it's performative. is there a legal path, or is there a stunt, or too soon to tell? >> i don't think it's a stunt. i think he's very serious. he was outraged by the ruling by the supreme court, that 5-4 decision that just came down, and the court did set a very dangerous precedent by allowing this texas abortion law to stand, allowing the state of texas to deputize individual citizens, allowing this law to

circumvent federal court jurisdiction, which is typically what would happen in a case like this. >> can you imagine, areva, what the -- their heads would pop off if this actually gained traction? >> but, don, women's heads and pro-choice heads of people who believe that women have the right to abortion as established by the constitution and roe v. wade, our heads are popping off because of the court's ruling in that texas case. like i said, judge sonia sotomayor warned of this. so i don't think it's performative. i just said some are calling it that. i don't think it's that at all. i think it's a legitimate case to be made that if it can be done with respect to abortion laws in the state of texas, it can be done in the state of california with respect to assault weapons. >> the supreme court has not actually weighed in, areva, on the constitutionality of the texas abortion law even as they allow it to stand. they claim they just followed the law. but could moves like the governor's factor into the conservative justices' calculations? could they be like, whoa, wait a

minute. i'm not sure about this? >> well, it is a conundrum, right, don? if they are going to allow the texas abortion law to stand, it would be hypocritical. it would be rank hypocrisy for them to rule a law like the one that governor newsom is proposing with respect to gun laws to somehow be unconstitutional. the court is going to have to get itself out of this pickle. what we see them doing with respect to this texas abortion law is being literally guided by this kind of zealous quest that some on the court have had for years to overturn roe v. wade. so are they going to do that? are they going to follow this zealous quest and put at issue other laws like the second amendment, other constitutional rights like the second amendment? that remains to be seen, don. but i think it's a bold, a brilliant move on the part of gavin newsom, and the court's going to have to deal with it. >> areva martin, always a pleasure. thank you. >> and thank you for watching, everyone. our coverage continues.

so anyone who says lactaid isn't real milk is also saying mabel here isn't a real cow. and she really hates that.

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