and finally tonight jay leno about to under go a second surgery after suffering second degree and possibly some third degree burns to his face. this is according to his doctor. he said the comedian was working underneath his car saturday when it burst into flames. his doctor says some of the burns to it comedian's face are a little deeper and more concerning, doctors do say he's expected to make a full recovery. and we're all hoping that full recovery is speedy. thank you for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening. we begin tonight with breaking

news. cnn's projections tonight when all the votes are counted republicans will control the house. that along with democratic control of senate means a whole new political world in washington and new schalg challenges certainly for the biden administration. what happens now? >> reporter: first order of business for kevin mccarthy is secure the votes to become the next house speaker. behind the scenes he's been moving to lock down the votes. he's about 30 votes shy right now. needs about 218 in the first week of january in order to become speaker. unclear if he can get there. he's confident he ultimately will be. then there's the question about the republican agenda which is still being formed. they're expect today have a narrow majority, which will make governing incredibly difficult, even passing messaging bills that have no chance of passing the democratic senate will still require compromise and also major issues like raising the national debt ceiling next year,

extending government funding to avoid a potential shutdown. those are big ticket items that will be on his plate in inrepublican majority. and they're also talking about a heavy investigative agenda. that is one thing they can do in the republican majority. they'll have subpoena power, committee chairmanships and the ability to drive those investigations forward, one of which will be looking into hunter biden and the biden family's overseas business dealings. and tomorrow, anderson, we expect jim jordan, james comer to announce how they plan to proceed on that front. so the plans are starting to take shape. >> what did congressman mccarthy have to say today? >> reporter: he didn't say he would support trump. in fact he was asked about his speech. he said, quote, i thought he gave a great speech, referring to that last night. and anderson, that is in keeping with a lot of how republicans are dealing with donald trump. a lot of them simply are not

saying they are willing to get behind donald trump's third presidency bid as they plan -- they're hoping to essentially ignore the subject as long as possible until they have to respond. >> what more are you learning about what on behind closed doors in the secret ballot election for mitch mcconnell. >> reporter: it was pretty intense. this was rick scott versus mitch mcconnell. this is the first time mitch mcconnell has faced a challenger in his 15 years running the republican conference in the most public discension we have seen over his leadership. there was a push by a number of conservative members to delay today's election, wait until after the december runoff in georgia. there were 16 republican members of the 48 who were present who voted to delay the election. that was not enough to succeed, and then there was the vote to replace mitch mcconnell with rick scott, the florida republican senator, the leader of the senate gop campaign arm. he had ten republicans vote in his favor. one voted present, 37 voted mitch mcconnell as the two and

their allies went back and forth over mcconnell's leadership, over scott's leadership of the republican senatorial committee and ultimately mcconnell prevailed in a secret ballot election. and anderson after all that feud mcconnell poised to become the longest serving party leader in u.s. history in the united states senate. but still a lot of dissatisfaction and disappointment after last week's senate races. >> what's the white house saying tonight about the new majority? >> for all the chest thumping about defying historical precedent this is a white house now very much confronting a reality that will define the second half of joe biden's presidency. that is a reality of republican majority of power sharing and of course critically that subpoena power that republicans will now have to conduct a range of investigations into the biden administration. and so tonight we're hearing from president biden in a statement he congratulates the

house republican leader kevin mccarthy. and he says this, as i said last week the future is too promising to be trapped in political warfare. the american people want us to get things done for them. they want us to focus on the issues that matter to them and making their lives better. and i'll work with anyone republican or democrat willing to work with me to deliver results for them. the president has been a lot clearer about the things he'll not compromise on with p renes like a national ban on abortion, for example, than he has been on the areas where he is willing to compromise with republicans. but nonetheless this is a president trying to set the table for what is to come over the next two years. >> do we have any idea about any preparations they may have made for this new reality? >> reporter: part of the preparation is what we've heard from the president which is republicans have to work with me as much as i have to work with republicans. showing strength by touting by losing fewer seats than any democratic president in decades,

trying to get their leverage up. what they've also been doing, anderson, for months even before these mid-term votes were cast was preparing, preparing for these republican investigations expected to be wide ranging from everything from the afghanistan withdrawal to the president's son, hunter biden, and the biden administration's handling of border security. so this is a white house that has been gearing up for a long time preparing for this possibility of a republican takeover of the house and is now confronting that reality. officials say they're ready for it. one other thing, anderson, they're looking to see how this narrow majority affects all that, and even some white house officials giddy i can tell you about the prospects of watching kevin mccarthy trying to rally that republican caucus with as slim a majority as he has. >> appreciate it. want to turn now to our senior politics correspondent. so abby, how consequential is the victory by republicans in

the house, and what does it mean for the way it's going to operate in the next two years? >> i think it's important who holds the gavel especially. it really determines as jeremy was saying what kind of, you know, investigation president biden is going to have contend with. i think kevin mccarthy is going to be dealing with a really difficult situation, in and some cases that might actually mean more problems for president biden. mccarthy is going to be forced to give, you know, the right flank of his party more that he'd like to give them, empowering them in ways that can make leading closer to the middle much more difficult and make life more difficult for the white house as well. so i think that both of those dynamics just the fact they have

power is going to be one thing. but how he has to wield that power, a caucus that is not fully behind him is going to be very, very challenging for him. >> jeff, it's a majority, a very slim one. how difficult does that make it for kevin mccarthy? >> it makes it very difficult for governing. "a," he has to win the speakership, but let's assume he does seven weeks from now. he's contending with a majority only likely to be a handful in a divided congress with democrats controlling the senate. and, you know, despite the gridlock often seems like the common denominator here in washington, there are simple things the congress must do like fund the government, for example, to keep the government afloat and to avoid a shutdown. even simple things like that may be difficult, but there's no question that governing in the next era is going to be difficult unless some people come together and some coalitions come together to sort of accept the message that

voters sent and get something done. we heard senator mitch mcconnell say that today. he thought voters sent a loud and clear message they want something to be accomplished. so all of these house members stands for re-election in 2024. president biden also stands for re-election in 2024. many senators do as well. so there is an impetus to try and get something done. i'm just not sure how likely that is. but before any of this happens kevin mccarthy has to win the speakership, which of course the concessions he makes to do that could complicate all of this even more. >> abby, that certainly seems to be the message for voters, they want competency and things get fixed. but with the former president's candidacy what kind of impact does that have on the new house majority? >> look, i think republicans in general have to rewire their brains a little bit in light of a smaller majority because i think they thought they were going to be getting a different lesson from voters than they

did, and the one person who is the least likely to take the message that voters send to heart is former president trump. i mean, he's going to be running on the big lie. he's going to be running on investigating biden. he's going to be running on a kind of grievance politics that is actually not that related to passing laws that actually affects peoples live. and how mccarthy is able to balance that, you know, with the need to actually keep some of his, you know, members going to be on the front lines in 2024 comfortable and safe for their re-election is going to be difficult. he's going to be speaker, mccarthy, in part because trump is not trying to oust him from that role. there's no one else that's really opposing a significant challenge. it might be difficult but i think it's notable that trump has basically kept his hands off that situation. melanie zunona has reported he's been making calls to back up mccarthy, so mccarthy is going

to own him something, and how he balances that is going to be a huge factor in what kind of leader he's going to be for the republicansch. >> jeff, you mentioned this a little bit, but the concessions mccarthy is going to have to make in his own party to get to the 218 votes and in order to win, there's a lot of folks in the caucus he's going to have to make concessions to. >> he is. and one of the central things is an air cane motion to vacate the chair. and the big question hanging over this is he going to have to restore that? and essentially he would put a rule in place that allows any house member at any time to call for a vote of no confidence and a new election as speaker. no person wants this. it's essentially what led to the demises of speaker boehner and paul ryan, just the threat hanging over the speakership. this is something he wants to

avoid, but some house freedom caucus members wants it to be imposed. not just one small example of concessions he has to make along with committee assignments and other things. abbey is right, there's no one who's emerged as a leader, no one who's emerged as an incredible alternative. we have seen speaker elections in years gone by not so far in recent history here. actor newt gingrich, for example, when he was deposed. bob livingston was going to be the next speaker until he wasn't. there was a scandal there and then congressman hasker from illinois became speaker. kevin mccarthy thought he would become speaker seven years ago and he didn't. but we do know the concessions he makes now is likely to make his job harder if he gets the job. next, ukraine and the missile that landed in poland putting nato and the world on edge. a live report from the region and pentagon tonight.

also more on the former president's 2024 run now he's in some of his biggest -- i should say former backers and donor and daughter who say they don't want to pardon his presidential run. the fallllout ahead. with unitedhealthcare my sister has a whole teamam to help her get the most out of her medicare plan. ♪wow, uh-huh♪ advantage: me! cat wait 'til i turn 65! ke advantage with an aarp medicare advantage plan... on from unitedhealthcare. ♪ i had a bad relationship with my student loan. the interest was costing me... well, us... a fortune. no matter how much we paid it was always just... there. you know? ♪ so, i broke up with my bad student loan debt and refinanced with sofi. turns out we could save thousands. break up with bad student loan debt. refi and you could save thousands. plus, we're paying off up to a million dollars of student debt. enter at sofi.com/million sofi get your money right.

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when we left you last night tensions was rising after a missile landed on the polish side of the border with ukraine. today there's still a lot we don't yet know a finger pointing surrounding it all. the situation appears to have disescalated when it might easily have gone the other way. as you know the incident which killed two people prompted an emergency meeting in brussels, urgent talks at the g20 summit and a level of concern fitting to what might have led to a confrontation with russia. so far it has not, thankfully. and we're learning more tonight about why it hasn't. we have correspondents around the globe on this. cnn's alex marquardt at the

pentagon, i want to start with alex. what's the latest from the department of defense? >> reporter: anderson, as this news broke out of poland top u.s. officials reached out to their counter parts including the u.s. secretary of defense lloyd austin who said today there's no reason to doubt this preliminary pollish assessment this was a ukrainian air defense missile that fell into poland. the polish president said this, unfortunately, looked like an accident. u.s. experts are on the ground working with their polish counter parts to determine exactly what happened. secretary austin today held a press conference alongside the top u.s. general mark milly and the first question they got was what to make of president zelenskyy of ukraine's comments if this was in fact not a ukrainian missile. now, secretary austin tried not to disagree with president zelenskyy saying there's an investigation going on, he wants to see the end of it and allow it to proceed before he comes into a conclusion. take a listen to a bit more of what he had to say.

>> we won't get ahead of -- of, you know -- of the investigation, but, you know, our information supports what president douda said earlier in his preliminary assessment that this was most likely the result of a ukrainian air defense missile, but we'll let the investigation play out here. >> reporter: and earlier president biden in bali had said it was unlikely this missile had originated in russia. now, regardless of what actually ends up being determined, anderson, nato's leaders from all across nato are saying that ukraine is not at fault here, that ultimately russia bears the responsibility. we saw almost 100 missiles fired at ukraine yesterday, and of course russia has been waging this war against ukraine for the past nine months. now, secretary austin was making these comments following what's known as the ukraine defense contact group.

that's when ukrainian allies come together to discuss military aid for youcrine. secretary austin saying that aid will of course continue in order to allow ukraine to defend itself and to carry out continued defenses against russian forces. >> alex marquardt appreciate it. i want to go next to ukraine with cnn's sam kylie. what's the response been from ukrainian authorities? >> reporter: well, they're sticking at the moment to the president's line that zelenskyy was saying he doesn't believe based on the information that he was given by his military structures beneath him that this was a ukrainian missile, but there were other elements within the ukrainian administration that had earlier accepted there was a possibility it could have been a ukrainian missile because of course ukrainian missiles were being fired close to the border with poland to defend ukrainian cities like lviv.

there were 13 in and around, for example. three of them got through. ten were shot down by this rather old-fashioned surface-to-air missiles. and there is also now an argument being made in ukraine, essentially ukrainian officials saying we need more modern 21st century more nato-style weapons such as those recently received from the united states where secretary austin said they had 100% success rate in bringing down missiles and drones being fired at them by russia. and i think actually the ukrainians will expect one of the fallouts from this tragedy will be that they actually maybe get more of the sorts of missiles that they need to protect themselves from the air whilst they continue their advance on the ground. >> sam kylie, appreciate it. be careful. perspective now from cnn's chief military analyst and retired

admiral general wesley clark. it appears the system worked as it should have. nato and the u.s. moved calmly and quickly to investigate, so the escalation was averted for now. as someone who worked in the nato structure and probably trained for instance like this i'm wondering what your thoughts in the response are? >> i think we have to follow through on the investigation. the russians are using sa3 missiles in the bombardment. their sa3 missiles are being used to attack cities as a ground to ground missile. so there's a slim chance maybe there was something fired from belarus. secretary austin said we'll get more information and know the trajectory of this, and maybe that's what it was. we don't know, but the likely thing it was a deflected air defense missile that somehow went off course. those things do happen.

i think the good points on this are nato came together very quickly. we've got full leadership attention. we are going to have to look at our air defense protection of poland as well as air defense protecti we acknowledge that we don't have a complete anvil for protection. there are additional assets, additional reconnaissance efforts. and maybe the air defense assets should be moved forward into poland where they could guard against this kind of an accidental or something more intentional. but, you know, i think the real teaching point here is first reports are sometimes wrong, don't overreact, get the information out and then learn those appropriate lessons. >> how -- i mean can russia

continue firing barrages of 100 missiles at ukraine indefinitely? >> not indefinitely, but they still got a large stockpile. in fact, they still have a third of the missiles that had been staved, and, you know, the report is they're going to get some iranian ballistic missiles. the iranian ballistic missiles supposing they have terminal guidance which means they don't follow up pure ballistic trajectory, which means the mathematics of intersection don't necessarily work, which means they're likely to get through, they carry a large warhead. if those ballistic missiles are shipped to ukraine, this is going to continue for a long time. >> general clark, i appreciate your time. thank you. next the former president declares his candidacy and his one time supporters, big donors declare they're not with him now. what that means for his third presidential run and how it might or might not affect his

loyal base. also his daughter ivanka trump announcing she's staying away this time. and former vice president mike pence joining jake tapper live for r a cnn town hall.

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this morning rupert murdock's new york post did not have the former president's announcement. last night in the headline the story was relegated to page 26 of the paper with a small banner

which simply read florida man makes announcement, which was likely a blow to the ego of the former president, but mr. trump's campaign took a blow when this millionaire said he won't back another trump run. and another big donor a hedge fund ceo called trump a, quote, three time loser. and mike pompeo apparently reacting to last night's speech. he tweeted we need more seriousness looking forward not claiming victimhood. here to talk about it cnn political commentator, one time campaign advisor to the former president. you know the former president well. he's obviously defied conventional political wisdom many times before. do you think these defections have an impact? >> yeah, anderson, they definitely have an impact. whether it's positive or not still to be determined. a lot of people in america, a lot of people attend trump rallies don't know who steve

schwartzman is or ken griffon and i saw ron louder a billionaire said he's not going to support trump either. so i don't think people who are going to rallies in latrobe, pennsylvania, care. i think it's important for a wide variety of reasons in terms of funding and signaling, you know, who they're going to support. but i think the question is the one senator asked or yesterday when she was going to support donald trump she said her question is who's the current leader of the republican party. and in her view it's currently ron desantis of florida. i think that's what's up for debate at this current point in time until other folks who the vice president we're going to hear from shortly or my west point classmate, mike pompeo, gets into the race. that's the question who's currently running the party?

>> is he a national enough figure at this point to be considered the leader of the republican party? >> look, you remember that opening scene from paton where he says americans love a winner, and ron desantis was a big winner tuesday night. and in the state of florida and nationally that resonated. and i think he built a coalition if replicated will carry the gop to victory nationwide. so i think he's the current national leader of the party right now. >> desantis declined to weigh in on the ruined divide i guess you could say on republicans who represent the future of the party. i just want to play what he said to her today. >> we just finished this election. people need to chill out a bit on some of this stuff. seriously, we just ran an election. we had this georgia runoff coming, which is very important for republicans to win that

georgia runoff. i know around the country florida was kind of the biggest bright spot. it was not so bright in other parts of the country. it was substandard performance given the dynamics that are at play. >> and it's interesting desantis telling people to chill out, folks from georgia. trump mentioned herschel walker i think in his fund -- i don't think money will go to herschel walker if he is in fact raise money for him. it seems desantis, you've got to feel pretty comfortable in order to tell people to chill out. >> listen, he is right. i think kind of "the new york post you mentioned says something like 720 days until the next election, kind of tongue in cheek. there's a long way to go between here and there. and i think people do need to exhale here and see what happens in the coming months and i think ron desantis is right to say that. when you're the lead dog you've

got to say that. it's easy for him to do. >> i'm wondering what you heard from people about the former president's announcement last night in the wake of it. were people underwhelmed, excited? >> yeah, so interesting i was at the republican governor's association meeting in orlando last night with a lot of -- a lot of governors and a lot of supporters, lot of republicans. they're top donors around the united states and kind of the chattering class, and nobody was particularly paying attention. you know, the 9:00 hour kind of came and went and people were asking, wow, did trump actually do it, so people moved on in that organization where they are focusing on the governors that won, right, so brian kemp was there and governor sununu was there. a lot of people who kind of stood on their own, mike dewine, people who soared without being tagged with the former president or by the former president. >> interesting. ivanka trump's ten-year senior

advisor was notable for two reasons. any lack of experience in government or public policy and for her absence at difficult moments during her father's presidency. this time around, though, she says she's taking her out of the picture before it starts. >> reporter: it didn't take long for ivanka trump to weigh in on her father's run for the white house. saying in a statement i do not plan to be involved in politics. while i'll always love and support my father, going forward i'll do so outside the political arena. a big change for the former president's eldest daughter whose high profile role in the first administration ranged from work force development to women owned businesses, space, human trafficking, and lots of foreign travel displayed in instagram worthy posts. her all over the place portfolio was a target for critics who questioned ivanka's

qualifications especially on high stakes foreign trips with actual world leaders. a self-styled diplomat, the only presidential daughter at a g20 summit who was given the cold shoulder by these world leaders. domestically ivanka trump and her husband, jared kushner, who sources tell cnn will also not actively participate in donald trump's white house redo, gate keepers of the west wing. unless, of course, the couple often leaving town when bad news occupied headlines. >> the amendment is not agreed to. >> reporter: trump's health care bill floundered. they were on a ski trip in canada. during the violent white supremacist riots in charlottesville,ivationing in vermont. the government shutdown, seaside at mar-a-lago. her father now left with sons eric trump and donald trump jr.

and their significant others in his official children's cheering section. >> we must continue to prioritize women's economic empowerment. >> reporter: ivanka after inserting herself in just about every part of the trump administration is bowing out. kate bennett, cnn, washington. well, coming up we're less than half an hour away from cnn's town hall with vice president mike pence. we'll have questions about his political future and whether that will collide with the former president who declared his presidency last night and jake tapper as well. and we have news whether pence wants to testify before the january 6th committee. we'll be right back.

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we're about 20 minutes away from the special cnn town hall from former vice president mike pence. you can see the studio there where it's about the take place. the former vice president will be taking questions from jake tapper and the studio audience. we're expected to hear him answer more questions tonight about that as well as his relationship with the former president who declared his own candidacy last night as you know. just a short time ago cbs announced his interview with pence and stated he'll not testify before the january 6th committee. listen. >> i served for 12 years in congress. it's inconceivable to me that one party would appoint any member of congress. that's antthetical to the whole

idea of the system. i never stood in the way of senior members in my committee testifying. but congress has no right to my testimony. we have a separation of powers under the constitution of the united states, and i believe we'd establish a terrible precedent for the congress to summon a vice president of the united states to speak about deliberations that took place at the white house and i'm closing the door on that, but i must say again the partisan nature of the january 6th committee has been a disappointment to me. it seemed to me in the beginning there was an opportunity to examine every aspect of what happened on january 6th and to do so more in spirit of the 9/11 commission, nonpartisan, nonpolitical. and that was an opportunity lost. >> i'm joined now by

conservative commentator erikson, host of the erikson show and cnn political commentator alyssa farah griffin. january 6th obviously the biggest area in which former vice president pence has broken from the former president, yet he's criticizing the january 6th select committee. not only are there two conservative republicans on it, but as you know a 9/11-style commission equally passed the house. senate republicans blocked it, so why is he making this position? >> you know, it sounds like he's trying to thread a needle to keep conservatives happy but at the same time he has a legitimate argument on the executive privilege from the white house the vice president. it really is a bad precedent to set for the vice president or for the president to testify before a congressional committee. but by wording it that way it sounds like he's trying to split the baby so to speak with conservatives skeptical of the committee even as he allowed his team to be cooperative with him.

>> released a statement saying, quote, the select committee proceeded respectfully and responsibly in our engaget so it's disappointing he's misrepresenting the nature of our interviews while promoting his book. he is putting details in a book to sell instead of testifying. >> as eric said the vice president has legitimate claims to privilege. if i were advising mike pence, which i'm not, i would say start turning the page and move forward on making your case against donald trump now he's a declared candidate. he's not winning any time he talks about january 6th fundamentally. he did the right thing that day. he stood in the ring for democracy. i'm not sure most elected republicans had they been in his shoes would have done the right thing. it's a tremendously difficult needle to thread because there are people who see the committee

as highly partisan. my experience, i've sat down with the committee a number of times, it was not partisan in the slightest. so i just disagree with that assessment. >> also to your point of, you know, setting himself in opposition to president trump, he doesn't seem willing to do that at this point. i mean on basic questions of his trump, should he be president and is he qualified to be, he sort of lays it out and said that's for the american people to decide. >> i'm curious to see what he has to say tonight to jake tapper, other questions because i give him credit he was the first of the potential 2024 challengers to trump to come out and at least be definitive to january 6th. i think he went further than some of the others like nikki haley and mike pompeo. if the he does get in the only lane is to run against donald trump. i think the sooner you ripoff the band-aid and just accept it, the better it is. >> erwreck, if former vice president pence does run do you

think he'd appeal to voters who support the policies of the former president because the appeal for the former president is not just about any particular policy but sort of the whole package. >> even i had him on my radio show yesterday the robust defensive the administration did the book is a full biography when he was a kid but there's whole sections on defending what they did. i think it comes down to a issue and after january 6th he realized he didn't sustain some lie the election was stolen in 2020 and began a pretty strong divergence from trump. >> do you think mike pence would have a shot? >> you know, i think if people -- if they want to keep the trump era, they go with trump. if they want to move the trump era beyond it i don't think they go with somebody from the trump administration. so a very difficult thing for mike pence to thread. he's a long time thread, i really like him, but if voters

are ready to move on from the trump administration, he was part of it. >> i see this a little differently. i think there's a very narrow lane for mike pence, so i still believe the evangelical base which for decades has been one of the most powerful elements of the american base is larger than the election denier base. so if he runs on the good policies he's proud of in the trump administration but critiques the lies on the bad pa policies, which i know first-hand he was most instrumental in reversing and is able to definitively tell that story, there's a better angels lane he can lean into, sort of how joe biden contrasted him to trump. if he's going to run that would be the way he should go about it. >> eric, do you think -- i interviewed the new leelected president of the southern baptist convention who speaks very well of the former vice president and also said he would

support him in a primary. do you think he would get a lot of evangelical support? >> listen, the whole reason he was picked as vice president for trump was to block evangelicals and he does have that lane to travel. there may be others competing with him. he started surrounding himself with a team of operators within the gop who know how to reach out to evangelicals to make that case. they'll probably become more prominent in the next few months. the head of the great guy, and, yeah, there's a genuine affection for evangelicals that goes beyond even the trump administration. >> thanks so much. appreciate it. just a reminder our town hall with former vice president mike pence begins in less than 15 minutes. and afterwards our panel with a complete analysis of what was said. a man who was the acting chief of the uvalde police the day of the robb elementary school children where 21 were murdered including 19 children.

video which was first put on-air by cnn has parents angry about his apparent refusal to act that day. today they thought they would have the chance to confront him at a public meeting. cnn's shimon prokupecz has the story of what happened instead next. for over 120 years,, mercedes-benz vans have been built, upfitted and ready to go. because we believe dreams - should never stay that way. harvey is aware of complaints about his treatment of women. and he's working on that. do you want to expand on that? this is about the system, protectingbusers. this is all going to come out. if you have type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure... ...you're a target for chronic kidney disease.

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before we get to cnn's town hall with vice president pence, i want to bring an update about the story reported on monday about the acting police chief the day of the uvalde school shooting. 21 people were murdered that day, including 19 children. audio showed that the acting chief knew from a dispatcher that a child was trapped with the shooter in the classroom, had called 911 about those who were still alive, yet he did not organize an effort to immediately stop the shooter. today, parents hoped to address him at a county commission meeting. instead, all they saw of him was an empty chair. crime justice correspondent shimon prokupecz joins us from san antonio. you were at the meeting. what happened? >> reporter: us frustration. they came here expecting to see him.

this is a position he was re-elected to last week. for most of the families there, the parents, grandparents, of these kids, what they're so angry about is it's taking so long to get this information. and in talking to them, you can hear and sense that frustration. take a listen. >> mr. vargas, by now you realize that i'm talking about you. you have brought shame to the community. you have brought shame to law enforcement. you have tarnished the badge. >> this video footage exposed and put into sharp focus the true character of commissioner vargas. >> you, sir, walked out on my daughter and the rest of her classmates. you are not worthy of this title. i'm not asking. i am demanding that you step down as county commissioner. >> and so he is still,

lieutenant vargas, remains a lieutenant with the police department. he continues, anderson, to continue to get paid by the county. >> you interviewed the mayor of uvalde on tuesday. how did he respond to the newly-released video? >> reporter: well, he's frustrated too, anderson, because he doesn't have access to this information. he's never seen the video we aired. he's never heard that phone call that you mentioned. so, he's saying, i need this information because i can't make decisions about the city, about the police department, without this information. and the city is not able to access this information because the district attorney and the investigators are not cooperating with them. they're not giving them the information to make critical decisions. six months into this, and he's still not getting that information. asked of the lieutenant mariano pargas, the mayor says he wants him gone.

he wants him off the police department. we're awaiting word from city officials of what that process is going to entail. i know city officials were in meetings today trying to figure out what the next step is. as far as the mayor is concerned, he said by the end of this week, he expects mariano pargas will no longer be part of the uvalde police department. >> it's stunning to me that these families are getting this information from you, your reporting. you're getting these videos, you're doing this reporting, that law enforcement is not informing or the district attorney is not informing the families of what is going on is just so outrageous. and -- yeah. it's just stunning to me. this is just outrage after outrage after outrage. it's sickening. shimon, i appreciate all the reporting. coming up, the cnn town hall of former vice president mike penn with jake tapper.

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cnn's town hall with former vice president mike pence. i'm jake tapper. he is the man at the center of one of the most fateful days in american history, january 6, 2021. and tonight the former vice president will lay out the events of that day in detail, and his days in the trump presidency. mr. pence joins us just 24 hours after mr. trump announced he's running for president a third time. the questioners are republicans and independents and democrats from the new york area and from mr. pence's home state of indiana. please welcome former vice president mike pence. so, we're going to get to the audience in just a moment. but first i have