from medieval to defenseless to guilty as charged. steve bannon's next stop for defying the house january 6th committee could be federal prison. john berman here in for anderson. far from carrying out his pre-trial threat to go medieval on the prosecution, steve bannon did not even put on a defense in his contempt of congress trial, and it did not take long for a jury to convict the former president's one-time chief strategist and insurrection rabble-rouser on both counts.

now the man who cannot stop talking about overturning the election to his listeners, but refused to talk about his role when loftily subpoenaed, he awaits sentencing. cnn's katelyn polantz was in the courtroom and joins us now. walk us through what happened in court today and how bannon reacted when the verdict was read? >> well, john, as steve bannon moved around the courthouse today, on the grounds in the courtroom, he appeared to be very much himself. he was smiling throughout the day, right before the verdict came down, when the jury came back in, he was waiting, on his phone, what appeared to be looking at social media, thanking his lawyers, patting them on the back. but then when the jury came in to deliver their verdict, they came in about two and a half hours after they started. when they came in, steve bannon didn't show a lot of emotion. he smirked a little bit. he nodded, as the judge thanked the jury. but ultimately, he wasn't really that reactive in court. and the jury had bought what the

prosecution was arguing. that this was like a parking ticket, that steve bannon needed to have paid when he got this subpoena from the house committee. he got the subpoena, he should have turned over documents or showed up for testimony. he did not. he did not have the proper excuses. that said, steve bannon then exited the court and here's what he said on the steps of the courthouse. >> we may have lost a battle here today, but we're not going to lose this war. in the closing argument, the prosecutor missed one very important phrase, right? i stand with trump and the constitution. and i will never back off that, ever. >> now, those words, "i stand with donald trump," that's actually a piece of evidence that came into this trial that the prosecution presented, that he had been saying that when he was refusing to comply with this subpoena, john. >> so what is the january 6th committee now saying about this conviction? >> reporter: well, john, this really is a conviction that

underlines the power of congress, their ability to issue a subpoena and that there will be consequences if someone does not respond to a subpoena. so the house select committee's chair and vice chair, bennie thompson and liz cheney, they sent out a statement today. it said, the conviction of steve bannon is a victory for the rule of law and an important affirmation of the select committee's work. anyone who obstructs our investigation should face consequences. no one is above the law. but what they're saying there is about the consequences, it is not about the enforcement of the subpoena. and they are left with this conviction that is great news for them, but it didn't mean that they're going to be getting information out of steve bannon now and forcing that subpoena. they will not and may not ever learn what steve bannon knew about the lead up to january 6th and about his conversations with president trump. >> and katelyn, what's the timeline for sentencing and how fast can an appeal be filed? >> reporter: right. well, we don't have -- we don't have a long time ahead of us.

steve bannon now is going to be -- sentencing is set for october 21st. so that's about one year exactly from wherever he was supposed to sit for this testimony for congress. his attorney did tell us that they are going to appeal. we are watching for that now. it hasn't been filed. but he's saying it's a bulletproof appeal. we're going to have to wait and see whether or not that is indeed the case. other people have challenged this successfully decades ago in the mccarthy area, contempt of congress cases. we just don't know what that will look like now as it progresses through the court with steve bannon. >> katelyn polantz who was in the courtroom, thank you so much for sharing your reporting. perspective now from cnn's senior investigative correspondent, drew griffin, whose investigative report "steve bannon: divided we fall" airs right after this, as well as jeffrey toobin. jeffrey, what's your reaction to the verdict? is this what you expected? >> berman, this is not a cliff-hanger. there's a reason the government

put on its case with just about two witnesses and in half a day. there's no issue here. he got a subpoena for testimony and documents. he didn't take the fifth. he didn't negotiate. he just didn't show up. and he got convicted. and it's actually a very important case, because if somehow bannon had won, people would have been free to just ignore congressional subpoenas, and this is a vindication, i think, the committee was right, the rule of law. >> this matters for congressional committees, both democratic led and republican led. >> you can't have a system where people can blow off a subpoena. >> so you reported on bannon extensively for your cnn special report. what do you make of bannon's comments outside of court today, and the fact that he was smirking as the guilty verdicts were read? >> i think two things were very telling. one, he stands for trump and the constitution, which after the january 6th hearing of last night, we know are somewhat

mutually exclusive. the other thing that he said was pertinent was, he may have lost this battle, but not the war. and i think when people are celebrating this conviction, you have to keep in mind, bannon is in this for the long game. he was in it before trump, he will be in it after trump. and i image he will use this conviction to make himself a martyr among his followers, to raise funds among his followers, and continue that long game, which is to battle the current progressive movement by injecting a kind of cancerous poison within the united states in trying to rot out this country from the inside-out. so i do believe bannon thinks that he is in a war. i do believe this conviction was important for the january 6th committee. and for the rule of law. but, again, i say, don't celebrate too loudly, because bannon is in this for a very long, long viewpoint. >> you know, jeffrey, katelyn and drew just referring to this right now. a victory for the january 6th

committee. how much of a victory is it if they don't get bannon in front of them, which they won't necessarily do? >> they won't. i mean, it's a victory in terms of the principle. in terms of evidence gathering, it's not really a victory, because bannon is going to continue to defy the committee. he has now paid a price for it, but it's quite clear that he's not going to testify. and i think this just underlines how difficult the committee's job has been. because he's not the only one who has defied the committee, and look how long it took to get to this state. at least nine months to get a conviction for a committee that is running out of time. as i say, the principle is important, but they're not going to get any evidence out of him. >> so, drew, how do you think all of this will be viewed within the trump orbit. so steve bannon didn't testify. he stood outside the courthouse each day listing his political grievances, but it's a far cry from going medieval, which he

said he would do. >> right. or be able to get up on a witness stand and spew his rather or even just stand outside the courtroom and try to defend trump or put his arm around trump. two things i didn't say. i didn't see bannon fighting back vehemently on the street. i didn't see any of trump or trump's people coming to his aid, either. so it was very telling to me the distance that still remains, at least publicly, between these two entities, trump world and steve bannon. even though we do believe that there is some sort of level of communication or wink and nod communication, should trump run again. i'm sure bannon will be behind it. but it is telling to me that there is public distance between trump and bannon at this point. >> and jeffrey, what about the claim of a bulletproof appeal from bannon's counsel, who's basing that on the idea that bannon was doing this to defy the subpoena, on advice of

counsel. and that wasn't allowed to be submitted. is that something that can be appealed? >> no. i don't think so. i think that -- you know, it's just more bluster, more performance art from bannon that has no legal basis. you know, he was well advised by counsel and counsel can't tell you to break the law. and it is quite obviously that he broke the law. if he had simply taken the fifth or even had his lawyer write a letter saying bannon is going to take the fifth, none of this would have happened. because you're allowed to take the fifth. he simply defied the committee, and that's just not allowed. >> you know, drew, it's a minimum 30-day sentence for sentencing. do you think he cares about serving 30 days in jail? >> oh, i think 30 days in jail is 30 days in jail, no matter who you are. so i do think he cares about that. i think he'll, you know, kick and scream his way, trying to stay out of that, but, yeah, i

mean, 30 days in the slammer, i mean, you can ask jeffrey, is 30 days in the slammer. >> no one wants to go. and 30 days is the minimum. it could be up to two years. i don't think it's going to be two years, but, you know, people don't like to go to prison. >> actually, likely to be jail for a sentence like this. >> jeffrey toobin, drew griffin, thanks to both of you. next new reporting on the secret text messages. also last night's select committee hearing. that and everything else, much of it no less horrifying about what the former president was doing with the seat of democracy under attack. and find the answer that was right under their nose. or... his nose.

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when you have technology that's easier to control... that can scale across all your clouds... we got that right? yeah, we got that. it's easier to be an innovator. so you can do more incredible things. [whistling] new developments tonight in the missing secret service text messages from january 6th. reporting that shows that there were indeed more sent than just the one single exchange the agency gave the january 6th committee. cnn's whitney wild joins us now. whitney, what have you learned? >> john, two sources tell cnn that of 24 secret service agents whose text messages were requested by the inspector general last year, ten had metadata to show that text messages were exchanged around the 5th and the 6th of january of 2021, but the content was lost due to a data migration

that started three weeks after january 6th. investigators at the secret service found that another ten of those phones had no text messages at all. three had only personal text messages and one john, as we previously reported several times, one person did save a text message exchange. >> what are they doing to determine if the phones have relevant information? >> well, according to a letter that they sent to the house select committee, after the house select committee asked the secret service in a subpoena to produce these records to make a vigorous effort to try to find any text messages that might have been missing, they conducted a rigorous probe. and again, according to that letter, that included forensic examinations. speaking with some of the identified individuals to try to figure out, perhaps, what the content of these text messages were, but also to try to figure out if it's possible that some of these text messages were stored in locations that hadn't already been searched by the

secret service. however, john, those efforts have ground to a halt, because, as cnn first reported, thursday, wednesday night, the dhs inspector general told the secret service to stop its investigation because they are concerned those efforts could interfere with an ongoing criminal probe by the inspector general. >> whitney wild, thank you so much for that. these missing messages take on new urgency given what the select committee revealed last night about the danger to mike pence's detail from a mob the former president first incited with a speech, then enraged with a tweet. in short, what they were up against was far worse than anyone could have possibly imagined until last night. because last night for the first time, we heard secret service radio transmissions as agents tried to secure an escape route for the former vice president and his family and staff. >> help! they took the building. >> hold! >> if we're moving, we need to move now. >> copy. >> if we lose anymore time, we may have -- we may lose the

ability to leave. so if we're going to leave, we need to do it now. >> they have gained access to the second floor and i've got public about five feet from me down here below. >> copy. they are on the second floor, moving in now. we may want to consider getting out and leaving now. copy. >> will we encounter the people once we make our way? >> repeat? >> encounter any individuals if we make our way to the -- >> there are six officers between us and the people that are 5 to 10 feet away from me. >> standby, i'm going down to evaluate. >> go ahead. >> we have a clear slot if we move quickly. we've got smoke downstairs. unknown smoke downstairs by the protesters. >> is that route compromised? >> we have [ bleep ] is secure, however, we will bypass some protesters that are being contained. there is smoke unknown what kind

of smoke it is. copy? >> clear, we're coming out now, all right? make a way. >> so, did any of the deleted secret service text messages that day discuss any of this? we don't know. what we did learn from testimony last night, though, was chilling. >> members of the bbt were starting to fear for their own lives. there was a lot of yelling, a lot of, a lot of very personal calls over the radio, so, it was disturbing. i don't like talking about it. but there were calls to say good-bye to family members and so forth. it was getting -- for whatever the reason was, on the ground, the vp detail thought that it was about to get very ugly. >> and you could hear that over

the radio? >> we'll talk more about this shortly with a former secret service agent. the danger, of course, was amplified by the former president's tweet that mike pence didn't have the courage -- his words -- to help overturn the election. here's former deputy white house press secretary sarah mathews, who resigned later that day. >> miss matthews, what was your reaction to the president's tweet about vice president pence? >> so it was obvious that the situation at the capitol was violent and escalating quickly. and so i thought that the tweet about the vice president was the last thing that was needed in that moment. and i remember thinking that this was going to be bad for him to tweet this, because it was essentially him giving the green light to these people, telling them that what they were doing at the steps of the capitol and entering the capitol was okay, that they were justified in their anger. and, he shouldn't have been doing that.

he should have been telling these people to go home and to leave and to condemn the violence that we were seeing. >> which, he, of course, did not. in fact, according to testimony last night from administration insiders, for more than three hours, he did nothing at all to stop the assault. >> so, are you aware of any phone call by the president of the united states to the secretary of defense that day? >> not that i'm aware of, no. >> are you aware of any phone call by the president of the united states to the attorney general of the united states that day? >> no. >> are you aware of any phone call by the president of the united states to the secretary of homeland security that day? >> i'm not aware of that, no. >> did you ever hear -- excuse me, the president -- >> no -- >> did you ever hear the president ask for law enforcement response? >> no. >> again, according to the testimony, all from insiders, former supporters, republicans, other than his inflammatory tweet, he did nothing but watch as aides, advisers, family members, and besieged republican lawmakers begged him to call off the mob.

the committee also showed testimony about his resistance to making the video, telling him to go home, and his inability shown in outtakes from his taped message the next day to give up on his election lie. >> wherever you're ready, sir. >> i would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday, and to those who broke the law, you will pay. you do not represent our movement. you do not represent our country. and if you broke the law -- can't say that. i already said, "you will pay." the demonstrators who infiltrated the capitol have

defied the seat of -- it's defiled, right? i can't see it very well? i'll do this. i'm going to do this. let's go. but this election is now over. congress has certified the results. i don't want to say the election is over. i just want to say that congress has certified the results, without saying "the election is over," okay? >> a position he maintains to this day. the committee also presented video evidence to republican senator josh hawley's eagerness to egg on protesters that day with his now-famous clenched fist, which reportedly riled up the mob, later showing he has eagerness to get the hell out of dodge as fast as his feet could scamper and flee the very people he was once happy to incite. the video played to laughter in the gallery, but there was little comic relief after all we heard last night and the other installments in what we could learn when the hearings begin again in september. with us now, cnn senior law enforcement analyst and former fbi deputy director, andrew mccabe. also cnn contributor former

watergate hearing witness and nixon counsel, john dean, and abby phillip, anchor of "inside politics sunday." abby, we heard from former white house staffers that as the capitol was being attacked, the president didn't call the national guard, didn't call the secretary of defense, didn't call the fbi, didn't call the department of homeland security, and didn't call the capitol police. does that make the case to you, as the committee laid out, that he deliberately chose not to act? >> it's really, really important, john. and i can't overstress this. i think that presentation they put on last night is really the keystone to connecting this story they have laid out over the course of the hearings. so we've heard through all the previous hearings, all the attempts that the president made, the president and his people made to obstruct the certification of the election, to overturn the results of the election, to get in the way of this day of certification. and having failed in every other respect, from his lawsuits to

the request to seize voting machines, to pressure on doj, pressure on state officials, everything else they've done, he knew on that night of december 19th, when he sent that infamous text, it was in his hands. the only thing he had left to do was to summon a mob to come to d.c. on the 6th, to try to physically stop them from certifying the results. so seeing, hearing this testimony last night and realizing that the president sat there and did absolutely nothing why the attack was going on, it was -- it was -- it really shed a light on really two things. number one, he did nothing because that's what he wanted to happen. he called those people to d.c. for that purpose. they were executing his plan, his idea, so why would he stop it? and secondly, it was absolutely an affirmative choice. it wasn't just laziness or, you know, a lack of attention or not a failure to understand what the constitution required him to do in that crucial moment.

it was a decision to let a violent mob continue to attack the capitol on the off-chance that it might satisfy his desire to stay in power. >> so, john dean, does that strengthen a potential criminal case against the former president and perhaps increase the likelihood that the justice department will go in that direction? >> it depends on upon the case they seek to make. the case i think they should make is seditious conspiracy. the case i think they have made and it's pretty clear in this added to it, is conspiracy to defraud the united states. 18 usc-371, which happens to be the statute that got most of the people in watergate, including a draft indictment against nixon. so they've made that case. they've also made obstruction of congress. i think they have a case. but i don't think they have the right case yet, which, as i say, is seditious conspiracy, which is a very serious crime, but

this was a very serious event. >> abby, i want to play again the outtake from the former president, what he said on january 7th. listen. >> but this election is now over. congress has certified the results. i don't want to say "the election is over." i just want to say, "congress has certified the results," without saying "the election is over," okay? >> but congress has certified the results -- now congress has certified the results. >> i didn't say -- so, let me see. go to the paragraph before. >> you know, abby, what's the impact of him not wanting to say "the election was over" on january 7th, when we know in the last few weeks, he's still calling officials asking them to overturn election results in places. >> yeah, i think that that's exactly the point. is that his position on this, on january 7th is basically what it is today, despite the mountain of evidence that has come out

proving that all of his claims are essentially false. that is, you know, trump in a nutshell. he never wants to concede. and will say false things over and over again, despite all evidence to the contrary. in some ways, to reinforce that he -- just his own belief in his mind is sufficient. that's, obviously, not going to cut it for the january 6th committee. but i think the question is, at what point do republicans see all of this evidence and say, enough is enough. i mean, i remember watching that video when they actually released it and there were all kinds of cuts that were made to the video, because it took so long to get him just to put out this milk toast, you know, statement, more than 24 hours after a really horrific tragedy had unfolded in the capitol. it says everything that you need to know about how reluctant trump was even then to acknowledge what happened and his role in it. >> you know, our white house

team reported it took an hour to make this three-minute video. which even when we screw up on tv, that's not good timing. an hour to make three minutes, not good. >> exactly. >> andy, the secret service text messages, the ten secret service personnel that had phones that contain metadata, but not the actual text messages, what does that tell you? will we ever see that? and just the significance of the fact that there's now apparently a criminal investigation of sorts into this? >> well, the criminal investigation is very serious. and it is going to have the effect, unfortunately, of further confusing this issue, because now you have the original oig investigation, that was looking at the secret service over there performance on january 6th. you have the january 6th committee that was asking for the same information for their purposes and now you have this

criminal investigation. so very confusing lay down there. but let's go back to the comments that the secret service made last week, when this controversy really came to light. what they said was, in no certain terms, they said, no text messages were lost. and that seemed preposterous at the time and now we know, of course, that was false. we have phones on which the metadata proves there were text message, but the content is gone, and we have no idea what those messages are. this is just a confounding level of, in the least case, organizational, irresponsibility. the secret service is an agency of federal law enforcement officials. first and foremost, their obligation is to the rule of law. they have responsibilities to preserve their records. those records could be relevant in criminal prosecutions in all

different sorts. and now we know that their own systems and processes aren't sufficient to even meet those sorts of responsibilities. i think there has to be a very thorough investigation of how the service was handling this responsibility, and of course, they should go to whatever lengths are necessary to try trofr the messages that we now know we currently can't grab. >> vice chair liz cheney, abby, very prominent last night. she's got a primary, a tough primary. where right now, it looks like it may be hard for her to win in in august. what do you think is next for her, if she loses? >> liz cheney has been really clear. she is making a case against donald trump. this is about preventing trump himself from ever being in that white house again. and so she has basically put her own political career, at least in wyoming, on the line for

that. the question now is, where does she take it beyond wyoming? how far does she take it? and i think that there are a lot of possibilities here. there is a desire in some corners of the republican party, to find an escape hatch from trump. liz cheney is helping them find that escape hatch. and what role she will play, then, in this, you know, new era, if there is one, is, i think, hers to decide. i mean, she is the most prominent republican doing this kind of thing. no other republican of her stature is doing what she is doing. and i think for that reason alone, you know, it just means that i think that her stature in whatever post-trump future there is for that party, is going to be hers to decide. she is going to be writing the playbook for that. >> abby phillip, john dean, andrew mccabe, thank you all so much on this friday night. next, a former secret service agent's take on how much closer mike pence's detail came than we knew just a day ago, to what could have been a kill or be killed moment at the capitol. s found in natural tears, theratears® is one-of-a-kind hydration that feels like silk.

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before the break, you heard some of the testimony played last night from a national security official, identity concealed about radio transmission from mike pence's security detail. this is another portion of it, no less disturbing than the first. >> it was just chaos in there. they're just yelling. >> what prompted you to put it into an entry? >> they were running out of options and they're getting

nervous. it sounds like we're -- that we came very close to either service happening with legal options worse. like, at that point, i don't know. is the vp compromised? is the detail -- i don't know. like, we didn't have visibility, but it doesn't -- if they're screaming and saying things like, "say good-bye to the family," the floor needs to know this is going to a whole another level soon. >> thankfully, it did not, but only by the slimmest of margins. here to talk about it, jonathan wackrow. great to see you. a whole other level here when you hear that testimony. just how close the vice president was to that danger on january 6th. and their agents, you heard them, doing their best to avoid a bad outcome. in your experience, what would they have been navigated in those moments? >> john, good evening. through this radio transmission,

the corresponding video, the public is really getting a firsthand account of really never-seen-before actions of the secret service during a dynamic moment. and i think when i heard the transmissions last night. and i listened to them time and time again. to me, the communication was really clear can concise, right? there's no doubt that this was a tense situation. but this is what the secret service actually trains for. and, you know, they rose to the moment in a rapidly deteriorating operating environment. they actually provided clear and concise information, they communicated with each other, and did exactly what they're supposed to do in that moment. they're training, their tactics, and their experience took over to protect not only the vice president, the vice president's staff, and the vice president's family who were all there at the moment. so i want to push back on the anonymous source last night. i didn't see a level of panic. what i saw was agents actually

systemically doing their job, like i have trained for, like they have trained for, and this is the moment that all of that training comes to fruition and you engage the exact same way they did. >> i can't remember ever hearing transmissions like that about an event like we all saw. it's not just something that ends up in the public record like that. you mention this anonymous white house security official was how the committee identified that person, who said, in that testimony, the agents were starting to, quote, fear for their own lives and they were making calls to say good-bye to family members. how did that strike you? >> quite frankly, john, speaking candidly, i find it nonsensical. that is not how the secret service agency trains. when you're assigned to the president's detail or the vice president's detail, you are trained to operate under immense pressure. you know, saying that you are going to take pause and call your family, that's definitely not what the ethos of the secret service is.

they're mission driven. every single woman and man, officer and agent, is focused on the protection of that individual. in this case, the vice president. again, i don't know who this source was. i'm sure it was somebody who was in the white house situation room, who was listening to radio transmissions without context. what i saw and heard were things that we have trained on time and time again. what secret service agents train for are three big things. tactical, medical, and relocation situations. and in this case, we actually got two of them. we got the tactical and the relocation. one, the operating environment was deteriorating, so the security plan for that had to quickly be enacted. now that environment was destabilizing very quickly. we have to relocate the protectee. all of this stuff isn't ad hoc. this stuff is planned and

trained on time and time again, and that's why those women and men were on that detail on the day, because they are the best at what they do. >> jonathan wackrow, thank you for understanding this, because, again, it's not just something that we've had an opportunity to hear. not anything like it before. appreciate it. coming up, how president biden is responding to his covid treatment and the prognosis his doctor gave for him today. we'll have a live report from the white house, next. for unautd purchases on your discover card.

more than a day since the white house announced president biden has covid. his doctor says the president's symptoms, quote, have improved. the comments come in a letter released to the public. the president is isolating, but still meeting virtually with staff. at the end of one meeting with his economic team today, reporters asked the president how he say he was doing. >> sir, how do you feel? are you feeling better? >> thank you, guys. >> so, thumbs up, according to the president. i'm joined now by cnn white house correspondent, mj lee. mj, what's the latest tonight on how the president is doing? >> john, the white house is essentially saying that the president continues to feel fine, that his symptoms remain mild. that is according to both the letter from his doctor that you

mentioned and also the briefing that we got today. for the second day in a row from both the white house press secretary and the white house covid coordinator. according to this letter that was released earlier today from his doctor, at the highest point, his temperature yesterday was 99.4 degrees. that's not even a fever. he did take tylenol and his temperature remained in the normal range. we know that he is still feeling some fatigue. he still has a runny nose. his cough, which was dry yesterday, is now a loose cough. that's pretty typical in the course of these things. his voice sounds a little deeper and we saw that in the video that you showed before when we heard a little bit of the president speaking as he met with some of his aides virtually, of course. now, one notable thing that we learned today is that he has been using his inhaler a couple of times, according to doctor jha, who briefed reporters, since he tested positive for covid. you might know that the president did have asthma as a child.

dr. jha was emphatic that this isn't something that he actually uses with any regularity. the last time that he used it was actually last fall, when he had a cold. so, again, the big-picture message from the white house today is that the president continues to feel fine and the symptoms are really manageable and mild. >> so, mj, we have heard from dr. jha, who is the white house covid coordinator and we have had regular updates from them. but we haven't heard directly from the president's physician. he hasn't spoken to the press. why? what's the white house saying about that? >> that's right. you're talking about dr. kevin o'connor, this is the president's physician, who has been monitoring the president, including in person and virtually as well. but you're right, the person who has been briefing reporters the last two days has been dr. jha. though it's important to note that he has been in contact with the president, as well. now, what they are essentially saying is that they think that they are giving all the information that is necessary to the press, particularly given that his symptoms, according to the white house, remain mild.

but i do think that we saw at the white house press briefing today, there were some questions that probably could have been better answered by dr. o'connor. things like his vitals. details about his oxygen levels. that's not information that the white house has provided. and also, just the question of, why was it that president biden felt like he needed to use his inhaler. again, these are more details that you would presume the white house president's physician could answer better than dr. jha. but for the time being they said that they have no plans for him to directly address reporters. >> mj lee, appreciate the update. keep us posted. still to come, the vice president and the former president -- the former vice president, i should say, and the former president holding dueling events in arizona today, just one days after millions witnessed the evidence presented by the january 6th committee, showing just how each man reacted or didn't when the nation was under attack. we have a live report from arizona, next. with a jitterbug? or returned from war, dreaming of the possibilities ahead.

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a full on proxy war between the former president and his vice president was on display today with both men holding dueling events in the key state of arizona. the split between the two former

running mates also on display during last night's hearing on the 2020 election and all has implications for 2024 as well. kristen holmes has the details. >> reporter: a dual in the desert as donald trump and mike pence square off once again. >> i just wanted to tell you that you have a great, great fighter. >> i'm here because arizona and america need karen taylor robeson as the next governor of arizona. >> reporter: this time in a gop primary for arizona governor that's become a test of the former president's election lies, versus republicans calling to move on from 2020. trump rallying with his endorsed candidate, carrie lake friday. a former local tv news anchor who built a campaign around conspiracy theories and denials that joe biden won the 2020 election. >> you've called joe biden an illegitimate president. what does that mean? >> he lost the election and he

shouldn't be in the white house. we had a corrupt election. i'd actually like to ask everybody on this stage if they agree we had a corrupt election? >> i'm not going to play your stunt. >> re >> i also think this election should be about the future. i don't think we should think one more moment about 2020. >> reporter: including doug ducey whose once relationship with the form president has since soured. >> i know kari is going to be involved. what an improvement she's going to be over your current governor. he's a disaster. >> reporter: ducey joined the former vice president in crossing the state. >> kari lake discovered god,

guns and the gop about five minutes before she decided to run for governor. arizona cannot, cannot allow a fraud in the governor's office. >> reporter: some voters tell cnn they aren't ready to move on from the 2020 election or pence's role. while others hope to put it in the past. >> it impacted me in 2020 but we're in 2022, and we've got to look to the future, not the past. >> reporter: this is the second gubernatorial primary in which pence and trump have been at odds. the first time was in georgia when pence backed brian kemp defeated trump endorsed david perdue. >> when you say yes to governor brian kemp tomorrow you will send a deafening message all across america that the republican party is the party of the future. >> reporter: as pence and trump appear on a collision course in 2024. >> all right, kristen holmes joins us now live from prescott

valley, arizona. so kristen, early voting has begun there. how are the candidates looking who are actually on the ballot in that state? >> reporter: well, right now trump endorsed kari lake is considered the front-runner, but in recent weeks we have seen robeson start to close that gap. earlier today we spoke to a number of undecided voters and it was interesting, john, several of them told us they were planning their final decision on where these candidates actually stood on the 2020 election. one woman telling me she was there to hear from robeson because she was concerned robeson didn't care enough about what happened in 2020. another man telling me he was leaning towards robeson over lake because he was tired of talking about that 2020 election. so you can see here how deep the divide is within the republican party particularly here in arizona. >> kristen holmes, thank you very much. next just in uvalde's district attorney makes a bold statement about possibly indicting police officers in connection with the

robb elementary tragedy. so you can... astepro and go.

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request of his attorney. they'll meet at a later date with arredondo still on unpaid administrative leave. the news continues so let's hand it over to laura coates for "don lemon tonight." this is "don lemon tonight" i'm laura coates in for don lemon. now, i bet many of you held on to maybe a glimmer of hope or maybe a glimmer of disbelief, not because you're naive but because you probably thought, man, there's no way the president of the united states really just did nothing. i mean, maybe he didn't do enough, but nothing? no. that's not possible. yet, there was that sneaking suspicion, we'll call it reality, that might indeed be the case. and last night we learned that, sadly, it was indeed the case. now, imagine, if you will, a foreign adversary attacked any part of our country, let alone a symbol of our democracy, and