17 life sentences without parole. one for each murder victim. jennifer lost her daughter in the massacre. she didn't plan to speak, but changed her mind and told the shooter to face the reality, just as she has had to. >> you shouldn't be sitting there with a mask on your face. it's disrespectful to be hiding your expressions under your mask when we as the families are sitting here talking to you. lowered down in your seat, hunched over, trying to make yourself look innocent when you're not. >> unclear why he took his mask off. they along with other victim families wanted the death penalty for cruz. he'll spend the rest of his life

in prison. it's time now for "ac 360". tonight president biden issued a warning about the fate of democracy itself. we'll get senator bernie sanders' take on it. the president began by talking about the attack on paul pelosi, the alleged plot to kidnap and ma'am house speaker nancy pelosi. he framed the issue as the shared and urgent need to fight for the american survival of the experiment. >> all americans, regardless of party, to meet this moment of national and generational importance, we must vote knowing what's at stake, not just the policy of the moment, but institutions that have held us together as we sought a more perfect union. the extreme maga element of the republican party, which is a minority of the party, but its

driving force. it's trying to succeed where they failed in 2020, to suppress the right of voters and subvert the electoral system itself. that means denying your right to vote and deciding whether your vote even counts. instead of waiting until the election is over, they're starting well before it. they're starting now. they've emboldened violence and intimidation of voters and election officials. it's estimated that there are more than 300 election denier on the ballot all across america this year. we can't ignore the impact this is having on our country. i ask you to think long and hard about the moment we're in. in a typical year we're often not faced with questions of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put us at

risk. this year we are. this year i hope you'll make the future of our democracy an important part of your decision to vote and how you vote. i hope you'll ask a simple question of each candidate, will that person accept the legitimate will of the american people and the people voting in his or her district? will that person accept the outcome of the election win or lose? the answer to that question is vital. in my opinion it should be decisive. >> whatever you make of the substance of what the president said t context is unavoidable. nearly 28 million people have already voted. the big name surrogates are on the trail. new cnn polling shows what is important to voters. it is the economy, second

abortion and then election integrity. joining me now kaitlan collins. it's a critical moment for the president. obviously voting has already begun. does this move the needle in any way? >> that's a big question. i'm not sure the white house expects it to. they felt like it was important for him to give this speech. it was a speech he had been wanting to give for sometime. president biden isn't often a mystery. you don't have to read between the lines. he truly believes what he said. this is important. it's an inflection point. he's been carrying around jon meacham's book on abraham lincoln. john meacham helped with the

president's speech tonight. if you're a cynical political person looking at this and you're asking is that the right closing message, is that what you want to be your last parting words to voters? yes, if you look at polls, people care about the health of the democracy. it registers, but fails in in comparison to the economy. look at what those democrats have been says. it doesn't look like the speech tonight, but the white house felt it was an important speech. >> economy and inflation 51%, abortion 15%. that's extraordinary focus. >> huge gap. >> it's also hard to see this speech will be seen through any other lens than a political lens this close to an election. >> which is interesting given all of the back and forth when he gave his philadelphia speech which was a white house event.

the white house said it was not a political speech to talk about the health of democracy and call out the maga republicans. this was a political speech tonight, a dnc event. one thing he said tonight, when he talked about what to keep in mind what they go to the poll. listen. >> hope you ask a simple question of each candidate you might vote for. will that person accept the legitimate will of the american people? will that person accept the outcome of the election, win or lose? the answer to that question is vital and, in my opinion, it should be decisive. >> that's a big question if whether or not that is going to be the last thing people are thinking about. that cnn poll said 50% of the people believe elections reflect the will of the people.

he prepared people for there are going to be candidates who don't accept the outcome. he was arguing you should brace for it. >> caitlyn collins, thank you. get some sleep tonight. joining us now is former democratic presidential candidate, bernie sanders. appreciate you joining us. you heard president biden say democracy is on the ballot. is he right? >> yes, he is. look, when you have a former president who went arnound sayig the only way he could lose an election is if there was fraud, think about what an outrageous statement that is. i've run in many elections. sometimes i've won. sometimes i've lost. people lose elections. clearly what trump and the extreme right wing are trying to do is undermine faith in

american democracy. the president is absolutely right. this is a major, major issue. i don't have to explain anybody. people fought and died against hitler in order to make sure that in this country it is the people who determined the future of our nation. you have people right now who are trying to undermine american democracy. it's outrageous. >> we were showing the poll. 51% of voters put the economy, inflation as the number one issue. do you think the president's speech is going to change any minds ahead of this election? >> well, i mean, i hope it makes people understand how consequential this election is. this election is about the future of american democracy. it's about whether or not women can control their own bodies. it's about whether we deal with the existential threat of

climate change which threatens the well being of our kids and future generations. of course, anderson, it's about the economy as well. right now what we are seeing is some 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. they are struggling to get by while the billionaire class has never, ever had it so good. more wealth income inequality today than any time in american history. when we talk about inflation, what everybody should know is that the profits of the oil industry are record breaking. huge profits for exxon mobile and the other companies. the food industry, people can't afford to buy the groceries. food industry profits are soaring. airline industry profits are soaring. what has happened is that in the midst of the war in ukraine, the break down in supply chain, which are important parts of why inflation is high, all over the

world. republicans forget to tell the american people inflation is not just an american issue. 8.2% here. it's worst in europe, over 11%. yes, the economy is very, very important. we cannot do as the republicans wanted, give massive tax breaks to the rich, cut social security, medicare and medicaid. that's not a solution. >> whether it's fair or not, as you know democrats are getting the blame. new cnn polling showing republicans gaining momentum. is there anything that can be done to turn that around? you are out there. you're in the midst of an eight-state campaign swing focussed on the economic message. is it too little too late? >> anderson, let me answer you in this way. what republicans are saying it's democratic spending that caused infl inflation. that's not true.

in europe, germany, england, inflation is higher. it's a global problem. let me say this, republicans say that it's democratic spending and what they really mean by that is it was the american rescue plan. i want everybody watching to go back to march 2021 when the american rescue plan was passed. at that moment 3,000 americans were dying from covid every single day in the midst of the worst pandemic we have had in 100 years. at that moment unemployment was soaring. small businesses were going bankrupt. hospitals were unable to continue because of so many people coming in for covid. yes, we passed the american rescue plan. that's 1,400 bucks for every man, woman and child. would save many families. we put money into hospitals. we extended unemployment. we did a $300 tax kcredit for

parents. i have no apologies for doing what i could, along with the rest of the democrats, to save the economy and help working families. >> i want to ask you about the attack on paul pelosi. the president spoke about that. do you see any of this vitriol danger to lawmakers, is that ever going away? will there ever be a level of decency restored or is it past the point of no return? >> let's hope it can return. you know, there is too much ugly rhetoric out there right now. this authoritarianism and attacks on democracy often lead to violent type rhetoric. i would hope that we can calm that down. people can disagree without being disagreeable and certainly without talking about violence. >> senator sanders, appreciate your time. thank you. next to arizona where former

president obama is campaigning. we're in phoenix. president obama has been crisscrossing the country in the final days of the election. is he still an effective messenger for democrats in arizona? >> well, if you talk to people here in this line, the line that just has disappeared behind me, it was wrapped all the way around for a block and a half or so and snaking through this parking lot. this people say he's the effective messenger, if nothing else to inspire the base to turn out. people here, democrats in arizona know what they need are the numbers. they need the turn-out. they think obama hitting the battle ground states is a good sign when it comes to control of congress. the question will be will it really carry through enough to blunt any republican energy. what democrats will tell you, at least here in arizona, they

might not be exactly voting for democrats on the ballot. i didn't talk to anybody here who said they were incredibly inspired by katie hobbs who is running for governor, but they're terrified by the republicans. this is a trump-backed ticket. the people on the ticket are election deniers and we've seen these vigilantes show up with guns. many people i spoke with say they don't feel that's the fabric of this state. >> appreciate it. next the month's long investigation into the shooting at robb elementary. another new devastating phone call from a student trapped in a classroom. later, as members of the pelosi family are shown videos of the paul pelosi attack, the

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welcome to fun dining. the next report contains difficult audio. if you have young kids in the room, you might ask them to leave. cnn has received never before released 911 calls from children inside robb elementary school during the massacre. it's the parents of the kids in this report who want this made public. for months in addition to everything else, they've had to -- they've been misled about what happened, which is why they want this audio played and this story told. if not for this reporting by shimon prokupecz, they would not be getting answers. that's what so many parents have been saying to us. mindful of how difficult some of this audio is, it's in that spirit we bring you this. shimon prokupecz joins us now.

what is this? >> the same phone call where a second student gets on the phone, a little girl maimed mia. she gets on the phone. our report last night was with chloe torres. chloe hands her the phone and mia takes the call and is talking to the 911 operator. this shows the continued lack of response, the lack of any kind of sort of way that police forced their way into the room, the fact they took their time. another significant thing that happens on this audio is there are gunshots. we don't air those gunshots out of respect for the family. again, it all paints a picture of law enforcement that did not respond appropriately, that failed as officials there in texas said. again, this is something the families have asked us to play and come forward with because they need answers and say this will help hopefully bring transparency. take a listen.

>> hello. >> i'm here.

side as she's talking to the 911 operator. you see the officers in the hall way. what's so striking is that when there were gunshots in the classroom, you see the officers advance toward the classroom. you see them going. it took nearly 30 minutes before they went into the classroom. >> that little girl is in -- this is a double classroom. she's in the same area with the shooter. >> in the same area of the shooter. at this point it appears he's in another room. he's in the same classroom. there's a door that divides the classroom. he appears to be in the other room. at one point you can hear her --

she was uncertain if he was in the room. she thought he was outside the room. >> as we heard in the phone call last night, which is part of the same phone call, there are dead people, children in the room. >> there are. what we don't show is because it's too difficult to air and is -- at some point you stop hearing noises in the background. you stop hearing people, kids, teachers. >> people who had been wounded. >> people who had been wounded and screaming for help. at some point you no longer hear them and you only hear these two little girls. it goes silent. some of them can hear the noises outside the classroom. they can tell there are police outside the classroom. they can hear the helicopter. they know there's activity. they don't understand what's taking so long and don't understand the officers are feet from the door. even after the gunshots are fired, after the officers knew these kids were inside the classroom alive trapped with this gunman with the gunshots being fired, it still took

almost 30 minutes. >> it's sickening. the courage of 10-year-old children, fourth graders, to call 911 and be on the phone with a 911 operator, narrating what is happening and officers being feet away and not entering the classroom, which is the training, and officers outside, many of them, knowing there are children alive calling 911. there was confusion, but there was the knowledge that these kids called. >> people in positions of power, people who should have been making decisions, they knew. that's the key in all this. >> shimon prokupecz, thank you. joining us now the father of that brave girl, miguel. miguel, i appreciate you being with us. when you first heard that audio of your brave daughter doing this, what did you think? >> i just broke down.

i broke down. heart broken. i had a lot of emotions running in me. i didn't know what to think. i didn't know what to think. i didn't know what to say. i was speechless. i was just -- i couldn't -- i couldn't say nothing. i was just mad. i was mad because now i know why my daughter was so mad and i'm very proud of my daughter. she did what she had to do to survive, but it took them a very long time just to -- just to get -- not only my daughter out, but the rest of the survivors out of the classroom. 77 minutes is too long. it's too long. my daughter and chloe had the courage to take the phone away from the teacher to call 911 to let them know that they're still alive and they need help. why not one officer jumped and

said, hey, we need to go in there? they still waited for a very long time to get any kids or to break the door down, anything. they took too long. i believe that students, even one of the teachers that was shot that my daughter was telling me, she would have been alive. a lot of these kids would have been alive if these officers would have breached that door as soon as they heard that phone call. >> did you say that chloe and your daughter -- >> what's that? >> did you say that chloe and your daughter got the phone from one of the teachers? >> yes. >> one of the teachers who was shot and killed? >> yes. between my daughter and chloe they brain stormed and got the phone and called 911. my daughter told chloe to call 911. >> they had the presence of mind -- this is the first i'm learning this. they had the presence of mind to

take a phone from a teacher who had been killed? they had the courage to do that and call 911? >> yes, sir. they had the courage to do it, but the officers didn't have the courage to go in and protect innocent kids. >> you must be so proud of her. >> i'm very proud of her. i'm speechless. i'm very proud of her. i tell her all the time i love her and everything. i mean, we were inseparable until now. now we cannot be -- we can be around each other, but i guess since a guy -- a boy did this to her, she's real angry against every man right now i guess. i'm not sure. lately we've been getting closer and closer. i love that -- our bond is getting back together where it was.

she's trusting me even more. >> she's been changed by this experience. it's not something she's just -- people think kids bounce back. you see the impact on her still. >> yes, sir. yes, sir. every day is a different day with her. every day we got to wake up and we got to see how she's doing, see how she slept through the night. there's nights she doesn't sleep. she won't sleep for two, three days. there was several days she wouldn't sleep and we had to stay up with her. me and my wife had to switch spots and stay up with her. >> did you ever expect -- when this happened, the horror of that day, did you ever think that we would be here all these months later still waiting for answers, still waiting for an actual minute by minute account and accountability?

>> no. i don't -- i thought it would have been way faster to put accountability on somebody. it's taking way too long. >> miguel, i appreciate you talking to us tonight. thank you. i just wish your daughter and your family the best. >> thank you. copming up, we'll have the latest on the attack on house speaker nancy pelosi's husband and the video being recorded, but not monitored in real time. plus, the comment of kari lake that she says was the product of creativeve editing. p at 5 a.m. to milk the cows a little easier. (moo) mabel saysys for you, it's more like 5:15. man: mom, really?

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president biden began his remarks about the threats to democracy by drawing a line to the attack on nancy pelosi's husband. we got this new video of speaker pelosi leaving her home. earlier today the family gathered to hear the 911 call and watch body camera footage on paul pelosi. this is the same day that the capitol police confirmed they

had cameras on the pelosi house that caught the break-in, but they weren't monitored at the time of the attack. no one was watching them in real time. it wasn't until about ten minutes after the incident that an officer noticed lights and sirens in the video. court documents filed tuesday say that the suspect, david depape, said he said he was on a suicide mission. the surveillance of the capitol police, no one watching it, does that surprise you? >> not in the slightest bit. it's a dumb question if people are thinking -- there's 1,800 cameras feeding into a command center in washington, d.c. there aren't 1,800 officers watching the monitors.

they're listening to police monitors and they're more attentive to the camera on the resident where nancy pelosi is staying in washington, than 3,000 miles away where she's not present. it's unreasonable to think they would be staring at it. >> it's literally 1,800 monitors. >> you see lots of monitors where -- there's five people in the command center doing numbers of jobs. if there's something on a camera where they say pull up that camera, let's see it. the simple fact that they saw police cars and lights and let's go to that camera shows they're paying attention. the nypd had 20,000 cameras. we couldn't watch 20,000 cameras. >> "the washington post" reported that speaker pelosi's round the clock security including a san francisco police cruiser, that was no longer

there. what sort of -- i mean i don't understand why there wouldn't be a burglary system or one officer on the scene at that house. >> she wasn't there. this may change. >> government protection is for the, quote, unquote, package, not the spouse of the package? >> if you're in the white house, it's the president, vice president and their families. if you're in congress, it's the protectee. the capitol police is 2,000 cops who cover 2.4 square miles of washington, d.c. it sounds like a lot, but when you consider the enormity of the capitol complex, divide that across three shifts, it's not that big a department. if 535 members of congress have a security detail, they would have to add 3,600 people. a lot of that is triage, but to

date if they're going to look at people in the line of succession for president, they have security details. leadership, they have security details. family, that's a question they'll have to go into because of this incident. it's never been that way before. on monday we played a campaign event for kari lake, specifically her response to a question about school security. during that response she mentioned the attack on nancy pelosi's husband. i want to play that same piece of sound. we'll explain why after. >> it is not impossible to protect our kids at school. they act like it is. nancy pelosi -- well she's got protection in d.c. apparently her house doesn't have a lot of protection. >> again, that is exactly what this broadcast played monday night. now kari lake is saying what you heard is a result of, quote,

creative editing. daniel dale joins us now. what is kari lake saying about her comments? >> she's claiming that she never made light of the attack on mr. pelosi and the idea that she did or said anything bad was solely the result of a despicable editing hit job by what she calls the fake news. listen to her comments. >> i never made light on the attack. i was talking about our children and why they don't have better security at schools. i said that our politicians have security and that athletes have security and we need to have security for our children. go back and look at the tape. don't do any creative editing like the fake media tends to do. you'll see what i was saying. go back and look at the video. a lot of creative editing was done. they clipped that clip and made it look bad. listen, nobody's -- i didn't attack anybody. i want to provide security for

our children at schools. >> wow. she just flat out lied. >> yeah. anderson, i watched that full video. it changes absolutely nothing. we'll show you that clip in a moment. she's asked about school security. she invokes the attack on mr. pelosi unprompted. much of the audience laughs. the moderator chuckles. at no point does she say it's not a joke. watch the clip. >> it is not impossible to protect our kids at school. they act like it is. nancy pelosi -- well, she's got protection in d.c. apparently her house doesn't have a lot of protection, but if our lawmakers have protection, if our politicians can have protections, our athletes, the most important people in our lives, our children, should have

protection. >> this is a playbook we heard a lot in the last few years. you make a comment that excites the republican base and when that comment gets you in trouble with other people, you claim you never did it. >> i get her doing this. this is her shtick. who is the guy interviewing her who covers this face like this is funny? when did human beings become -- when did we become like this? who is laughing in the audience as if it's funny? i don't understand. there's nothing funny about anybody being hurt. i mean, i'm just rambling. i'm shocked. i guess i don't know why i'm shocked. i'm not shocked by her because she's been faking stuff for a long time. just the reaction of these people. daniel, i'm sorry. i'm rambling. thanks. just ahead newly released emails that demonstrates how

worried one of the former president's lawyers was about him making false claims about voter fraud. dedetails about that next.

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election, was concerned the president could be prosecuted. the email written by john eastman were released by a california judge today. there's breaking news about an adviser to the former president. what is it? >> this is kash patel. he's an aid to former president trump and he's been ordered to testify before the grand jury in the mar-a-lago investigation. he's been given immunity. this is someone out there claiming that the former president declassified the documents. he was intimately involved in the documents at mar-a-lago. it gives prosecutors an opportunity to get information from him, to ask him whether trump declassified the documents when he's under oath without him facing legal ramifications.

he gets immunity when he appears before the grand jury. >> do we know when he's going to appear? >> we don't know. >> what was in the eastman emails? >> these are emails from john eastman, former lawyer for former president trump and in these emails you get a sense how uneasy lawyers are about some of the false election fraud claims. there's an exchange where they're talking about how they know the claims they were making about felons who voted, dead people who voted, inaccurate stuff, they know it's inaccurate. they're worried trump is going to sign on a statement submitted in court and could subject him to legal jeopardy. here's what eastman says in one email. i have no doubt that an aggressive district attorney or u.s. attorney would go after both the president and his lawyers once all the dust settles on this. just to give you an idea of how

chaotic this was, it was december 31st and they're trying to figure out a different way to get a notary to change this document, maybe get someone over zoom so trump doesn't have to sign a document saying under the penalty of perjury. >> what about the emails mentions justice clarence thomas? >> part of their plan was they wanted a case in front of supreme court justice clarience thomas and they were hoping he could intervene, maybe issue a tentative order that suggested that vote ns in georgia were no valid. at one point they say their only hope is to get something like this in front of clarence thomas to get him to issue an order. their belief was if something like this was pending before the supreme court you couldn't certify the election on january 6th. >> anything about why they're so confident in justice thomas? >> it's clear this is where they put their confidence.

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disturbing details in a new u.s. intelligence assessment suggesting u.s. military officials have discussed how and under what conditions russians would use nuclear weapons on the battlefield in ukraine. however, they do not believe vladimir putin was involved in the discussions. at the same time, russian foreign ministry today issued a statement outlining when such weapons might be used, namely in response to weapons of mass destruction or conventional

weapons which exist since the russian state is in jeopardy. former nato supreme allied commander, general clark, joins me. the reaction within the biden administration, some officials concerned, saying these conversations reflect intensifying frustration in the russian military. others believe the conversations could have been taken out of context. i'm wondering what your reaction is. >> my reaction is this is useful intelligence. the military is talking about it. and that would indicate that the weapons might not be used just for political effect. it might not just be a demonstration strike in the ocean or something like this, but they might actually be used to achieve a battlefield impact. >> both vladimir putin and the russian foreign ministry have made recent statements indicating the use of nuclear weapons and ukraine is not

necessary and does not fall under russia's doctrine of nuclear use. obviously comes after months of unveiled threats from putin on the use of these weapons. what do you believe is russia's goal with these kind of conflicting messages? >> i think the goal with the conflicting messages is to confuse and distract. remember that before the 24th of february, mr. putin and his foreign minister said they weren't going to invade ukraine. they say a lot of things that aren't true. this is -- this plus the other information about the dirty bomb, the blowing up, so forth, the evacuation of civilians from kherson, it all is -- it adds up to significant concern for us. >> i mean, what would -- what effect would a -- why would russia use a nuclear device? what military effect would it have? what would be the benefit for russia? >> well, i'm not sure they would

use a nuclear device unless they were going to go after a specific road junction or factory or energy plant. but if they're going after military forces, no, you wouldn't use a single nuclear device. you would use multiple devices, a dozen, two dozen. and you would wait for the ukrainians to concentrate their forces, and then you would fire a pulse of these weapons out across several miles. and that way you try to achieve a real battlefield effect. one, no. one is a warning. it's a political significance. 20, 30 weapons. that could do serious damage to ukrainian forces, let's say, if they were amassing to make an attack. >> if they're amassing near russian forces, would that not also have the possibility of hurting russian forces as well? >> sure. but if you give the russian forces warning, if they were dug

in in defensive positions behind concrete, deep in the ground, if you target the weapons successfully against ukrainian forces, you might be able to minimize that effect on trhe russian forces. on the other hand, the russians might be willing to risk those forces to achieve a dominant battlefield effect and impact from these nuclear weapons strikes. >> do you think this is , i mea, in the realm of -- what is the danger of this do you think? the chance of this? >> i think it's a possibility. i think we'll get some warning of this. and when we get the warning, we've got to step up, again, the efforts to persuade the russians not to do it. but the claiming of these four regions as part of russia, that would fit russian doctrine if the ukrainians were coming in there to seize that territory and if they were successful or about to be successful in doing so. >> thank you.

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