good evening to you. i'm sara sidner. this is "cnn tonight." our big story, the new special counsel. just days after the defeated twice impeached former president announces his third white house run, the doj appoints a special counsel to oversee the federal investigations of his role leading up to january 6th. and those classified documents at mar-a-lago. the former president reacting exactly the way you'd expect tonight. plus, with world cup fever heating up, the controversies are also heating up. qatar's abysmal record on human rights is no secret, and now world cup organizers are apologizing after security tried to stop danish journalists from

broadcasting. >> you can break the camera. you want to break the camera? you're threatening us by smashing the camera. >> qatar even banning beer in stadiums, which came as a surprise to budweiser, the world cup's official beer sponsor. and we'll have the latest on what could be a snowstorm like we've never seen before slamming buffalo, new york, tonight. we've got a lot to talk about. here with me cnn's legal analyst jennifer rogers and former watergate prosecutor nick acerman. thank you so much for being here. i want to talk to you first about the special counsel. i won't get to soccer, lucky for you guys. the beer is an issue but we will get to that later in the night. but, jennifer, in your opinion is appointing a special counsel necessary in this case? >> you know, it's funny. i've come around a little bit on this. i actually didn't thing that it was necessary for a long time, and i'm still not sure legally

it's required, but when merrick garland was talking at the press conference about how trump has now announced he's a candidate, biden is suggesting he's likely also to be a candidate, you know, what are you supposed to do in that instance, it makes a lot of sense and dove tails with the way merrick garland has treated this all along. he's been very cautious, very tliberate, very thoughtful. this is definitely a cautious, conservative approach, just bring in a special counsel, diswages some of the concerns about independence, and so that's what he needed. >> i want foolisteto listen a b merrick garland and what he said today about why he's doing this. >> based on recent developments including the former president's announcement he's a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, i have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a

special counsel. such an appointment underscores the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters. >> all right, so you heard him pretty much reiterate what you were saying, and he said it first, to be fair. you know, he talked about this is a really, i don't know, sensitive time. but, nick, a special counsel is s semi-independent, correct? it is not completely independent. so in the end doesn't merrick garland have to make a decision one way or the other? >> if you go by the strict guideline that's in the department of justice the answer's yes. but i don't think that's what he has in mind. i think he's really looking to have this special counsel be more in the mold of archibald cox who had total independence and could do anything he wanted

as long as it wasn't completely off-the-wall. so i think what this professional counsel is doing, he's not coming in with a staff, he's not bringing in lots of people. he's basically going with what is there, and what his job is to look at the evidence and really decide whether he pulls the trigger on either of those two cases. so that, i think, is his limited role here. and having said that, i think merrick garland is going to step back and let him make that decision as well he should. i mean, i think what you've got here is a conflict -- i mean garland has so much as said so. there's a conflict because his boss is running against donald trump who he's investigating, and even though you could trust merrick garland to do the right thing -- i mean he's not somebody who's a politician. he's not somebody who had been on the campaign. there's a certain sense of

propriety here, the appearance of propriety and that is of concern. this is rare situation where you don't have a special counsel starting from scratch, bringing in a whole staff, being there months upon end trying to put together this thing. he's just going to jump in just like what happened when a archibald cox was fired and leanne juwarsky came in. and i think that's exactly what's going to happen here. >> i want to bring in cnn's legal analyst preet bharara. does this move to bring in a special counsel mean an indictment might be more likely in your estimation? >> i think there's a reasonable argument in support of that proposition. i think there have been a number of things that have happened recently not just the appointment of the special counsel today but also the addition of some people, former prosecutors from the southern

district of new york who are are constantly professionals, known to be great in the courtroom, have a lot of experience, the fact they've been added to the team with respect to the mar-a-lago documents tells me it seems there's an increasing likelihood that a decision to prosecute will be made. i think there's an argument if it didn't look like there's a process that was going to lead to an indictment, why bother appointing a special counsel so i think that's correct. i also agree with jennifer there's nothing in the law that required a special counsel, nothing legally, morally that required that move. but prudence required td in some measure because it gives him a bit of protection to the special counsel in the case of the investigation of donald trump and other people or the prosecution of donald trump and other people extend past this administration to some protection from being fired. remember despite all the arguments about this and the hoopla about it donald trump in the end never did fire special

counsel mueller, so maybe there's protection there as well. >> i do want to ask you quickly because of what you said, that this could be pointing towards a potential indictment. how far along might they be at this point as the special counsel steps in? >> so i don't know because i haven't seen the grand jury presentations, of course, but i think there's a difference between the investigation of the mar-a-lago documents and the overall investigation of the interference with the peaceful transfer of power. with respect to the mar-a-lago documents i think it's a simpler case. it's an easier case. it's a more cut and dry case, if they decide to make it. less complicated, fewer facts, fewer witnesses, more direct law on point. i think that's much closer to a resolution and decision than the much more sprawling january 6th investigation of trump and a lot of other people. i wouldn't expect something about that case for quite some time. >> thank you, preet. that's really interesting. jennifer, i do want to ask you is this going to delay things?

because of course politically speaking a lot of people on the sort of democrat side are screaming like oh, my goodness how long is this going to take? and then you have republicans sort of weigh in on this decision. so what's the answer? >> so i don't think it'll delay things substantially. as we've been saying the investigation already has been going on. the people who have been working on it are going to continue to work on it. certainly the special prosecutor needs to get up to speed. pete was just saying there's a good amount of work to do on january 6th. and on the documents case merrick garland was poignant today in saying part of this agreement for the special counsel is obstruction of justice as it relates to the documents case. that means the facts he had them a year and a half and the back and forth and he was lying about

that and also what we've been hearing about surveillance footage, people moving documents in and out of mar-a-lago. so getting all those witnesses, their testimony into the grand jury and nailing down that obstruction piece may not be fully completed yet. so i had originally thought a special counsel would delay things a good bit, but, you know, as you kind of think through it and see that jack smith is ready tao go, showing p and ready to get working, it doesn't delay things much at all. >> i know we've heard from merrick garland and mr. smith this will not delay it. i want to ask you, nick, former president trump has spoken about this already and has said very flatly he's not going to partake in the case, but does that matter at all? >> no, not at all. it makes no big difference. he's not going to testify. if he's called into the grand jury he's going to take a fifth amendment, meaning a truthful answer would tend to incriminate him. and we have other acs going on around this that no one has any control over even the special

counsel particularly in georgia. the big question is will georgia beat the feds to the punch and wind up indicting donald trump before the feds do? and then what happens? the special counsel's going to have to decide, well, do we let georgia go ahead and we step back and we do the mar-a-lago documents case, or do we file another case? i mean this gets a little more complicated as you start moving along. >> nick, jennifer, preet, thank you so much for joining us. there's a lot to unpack here. we could spend hours on this, but i'm sure some people would rather we didn't. we'll have to wait and see what the special counsel does. and up next, the former president says he hopes the gop has the courage to fight the special counsel, but how many of them actually want to do that? even when you're not working. a plan that includes all your accounts so you can enjoy whatever comes next.

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former president trump slamming the doj special counsel appointment tonight calling it a horrendous abuse of power. i want to discuss the politics of this with and a journalist, cnn senior political analyst john avalon and political commentator margaret hoover. thank you all for being here. lots to unpack. i do want to first go to -- and i apologize -- but to donald trump first and some of what he said tonight. we've heard this sort of

rhetoric before, but he is at it again after the special counsel was announced. >> this horrendous abuse of power is the latest in a long series of witch hunts. it started a long time ago. i thought the investigation with the document hoax was dying or dead or over and the investigation into january 6th and my very peaceful and patriotic speech, remember, peaceful and patrioticically was dead only to find out the corrupt and highly political justice department just appointed a super radical left special counsel, better referred to as a special prosecutor to start the process all over again. >> is -- i'll start with you, margaret. is any of what he just said true? >> a special prosecutor was appointed. the adjective, radical far left

quarterback debatable. >> look, i understand from a legal perspective there's a real debate about whether this was necessary from merrick garland. from a political perspective everybody and their mother knows donald trump one of the very good reasons for him to announce to run for president is to insulate himself from prosecutions. this is a political posturing for him, and the only way merrick garland can put some space between himself from having heat, joe biden's appointee to the department of justice having to make the personal decision on his watch whether to prosecute the former president or not is to not make that decision and appoint somebody who is a buffer between the two, and i think that's what merrick garland was doing. >> this man who you know quite well has something to say. so i'm going to let john jump in. >> occasionally i do.

look, the special prosecutor is the right thing to do from a political standpoint given the inherent investigation of a former president who's running for president again, and trump is running for president as sort of a brush back pitch, make it that much more difficult to ensure there's equal and impartial justice, which is what he's afraid of. that statement was just another one of his mad-libs he stitches together in a notably low energy way, but all the greatest tips including calling the special counsel hyper-partisan far left, which it's not. the principle that we all need to be guarded by is simple and clear, the law. enforce the law freely and fairly and without favor. and if donald trump and his lackeys are afraid of that it's because they've got something to be afraid of. >> can i ask you what you think or who gains politically at all or just no one from this announcement of having a special counsel put in place? because clearly as john has said

it's about optics. >> that's a great question because it is about optics. it's a question of timing. why would trump make this announcement now and a lot of people said he wants to protect himself. by making this announcement now he's complicating things as far as the investigation goes because it does complicate and so what do the optics of this decision mean for the country? and the reality is for those on the far right, for trump's base it's not -- the idea that appointing a special counsel is a step towards creating a proper setting so that there is no conflict of interest, they are not going to see it that way. they are going to see the way that trump is portraying it, that this is a politicized, politically motivated witch hunt. and so it's not going to make any difference. but i think it does make a difference to people who are in the middle to the rest of the country that is paying attention, that is a little bit tired of this election denial drum beat being beat over and over again.

>> we saw it in the election. >> exactly. they're tired of the hyperpolarization, and they will see this as a smart move to just avoid a conflict of interest. >> i want to talk about some of what the republicans have already said, already jumping in is the republican senator from texas, john cornyn, and we'll pull up his tweet. he said this. he said this is an admission of a conflict of interest by doj now acknowledge the conflict of interest in the hunter biden investigation and appoint a special counsel, #no double standard. i'm going to go to you, john. is this a fair observation or plainly political spin? >> it's political spin. it's an attempt to deflect to an issue they'd rather talk about that doesn't have anything resembling the constitutional standard that is being faced -- that the former president tried to overturn the election. that's what we're talking about here. there was an assault on democracy by a former president

trying to run for president again. that's a totally different standard and the fact hunter biden is being investigated by the justice department itself is an admission there's equal justice. cornyn's statement is more tempered than ted cruz. >> yeah, i picked that for a reason. i want to go to you because you had a conversation with someone in a very high position who could have been the person who brought a case against donald trump, bill barr. what did he say? >> attorney general barr interestingly -- you've heard this repeated on the republican side of the aisle for some time. you know, if he stole -- if he took dume that were serious documents and then really didn't give them back and lied potentially about having them, that is a crime. and if that's a serious crime, then there should be consequences, but you shouldn't

indict a former president because that's a new standard and that's a precedent. you've heard a lot of people say that. but in this case bill barr said if those things are true, that's a serious crime and that should be prosecuted. if bill barr said that about donald trump. >> now, i know you talked to him before this announcement, because that just happened the special counsel announcement. for him to say that did he go further and say, yes, or i would have done this myself if i had seen this? >> he would not answer whether he would prosecute it. i can certainly see why merrick garland, the person who's really trying to be as above politics as possible would prefer to choose the path of a special counsel to make that choice instead. >> this was a wonderful conversation. thank you all so much for being here and for explaining all of this because honestly there's a lot going on. >> there's a lot going on. areas around buffalo, new

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cnn's pablo sandoval is in buffalo for us. tell us about the conditions you've seen throughout the day. >> reporter: still this event is far from over. we still need to see what's going to happen overnight. many of it travel bands those are still in place south south of where we are right now. the goal there is to allow those trucks, those plows to do what they have do to make sure those roads are clear. unlike here in buffalo where the city has fared pretty well, just about 13 miles south of here in orchard park, new york, they during the peak of this storm they basically experienced a snowfall rate of anywhere from 2 to 3 inches an hour. add it all up as of last check they've tallied up about 5 1/2 feet of snow. again, that's just a few miles south of where we are. when you hear from officials, hear from the executive county he'll tell you even for buffalo that kind of snow amount, the volume is extraordinary.

>> they moved the football game. i mean -- >> this is an event that's hit the south towns with a vengeance very hard, and all these communities are under a state of emergency at this point, and in some cases we're going to be far surpassed by 5 feet of snow, and it's a remarkable amount of time. >> and also confirms two storm related deaths. there were two men who suffered heart attacks while clearing up the snow. this is that wet, heavy snow and officials say, look, if you're safe, you have everything you need, then simply stay indoors. once this all over you can call on help to clear it all out. it's simply not worth the risk of going out if more snow is expected. >> you know it's bad if they have to move the nfl game from buffalo to detroit in the winter. i mean that tells you a lot.

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than any other provider. get started with fast speeds and advanced security for $49.99 a month for 12 months. plus ask how to get up to a $750 prepaid card with a qualifying bundle. the world cup will kick off in qatar on sunday. 12 years ago i was there at the moment that fifa announced qatar would be the 2020 host. take a listen. okay, you can hear the reaction. i can't hear you, but it is amazing. people are going crazy here in

doha. you can see behind me all of the people screaming. it is amazing. we were so shocked to be perfectly honest, that is why i reacted that way. my producer who was there with me, the photographer, nobody knew what was happening because it wasn't supposed to happen we thought. but since then the whole thing has been clouded with controversy with allegations of exploitation of migrant workers, which has long been an issue there in qatar, and human rights abuses against lgbtq people where homo sexuality is still illegal. thank you so much for joining me, jonathan. >> yeah, thanks so much for having me. >> so i just listed a bunch of different things and i left out the accusations of corruption of getting the world cup in the first place, qatar, with all the things that went on with fifa and the allegations of how it

all happened. should this game be played there? >> yeah, that's right. i mean that day back in 2010 i was in zurich watching the envelope opened with the name on it and we had no idea what was happening there either. i think there have been obviously a lot of questions about qatar as the host and, you know, the question of whether the world cup should be played there is one that fifa has kind of tried to sweep under the rug as much as possible. in the buildup to this tournament they've told the teams, the players, the fans, the media attending it's time to focus on the football. we've had ten years of people asking questions about this event and now it's time to worry about what's happening on the field. >> i do want to talk about the qatari government and has responded to these things saying the figures on the migrant workers which some estimate are in the thousands who have died have been misleading and

senitational headlines. and they've basically, you know, kind of said just come and enjoy the game. do they have a point there, that there are problems in every country and this is happening now in qatar, this is going forward regardless so just show up? or do they really -- has this really opened them up to real scrutiny? >> well, yeah, it definitely has opened them up to real scrutiny. i mean even that whole kind of idea of just show up and essentially it's going to be a great time. we saw today when on the eve of the tournament they suddenly, you know, performed this abrupt uturn and announced the sale of beer inside stadiums which they'd promised for a long time was going to be allowed was all of a sudden outlaw, there'll be no beer at the stadiums, the matches will be dry. the only alcohol served there will be zero alcohol beers. it makes you wonder whether a lot of these promises that qatar

has made will actually be fulfill. don't forget this was a tournament supposed to be happening in the summer. qatar and fifa assured us back in 2010 this would take place in the stadiums, it would be air-conditioned and five years later they moved to the winter. so there have been already a series of broken promises from qatar and the world will be watching to see, you know, which promises they are able to fulfill. >> i want to show you a bit of video that i'm sure you've seen that our audience may not have seen of qatari officials apologizing after a danish tv crew were there, they were credentialed but they were threatened by security staff. let's take a look. >> we are live on danish television. mr., you invited the whole world

to come here. why can't we film? it's a public place. we can film with this permit. we can film anywhere we want. no, no, we don't need -- you can break the camera. you want to break it? okay, you break the camera. so you're threatening us by smashing the camera. >> we've experienced -- i've certainly experienced this in some places but not when you have all the credentials, generally speaking. have you ever seen anything like this at a fifa world cup? >> no. and this will be my fourth world cup, and some of those world cups have also taken places in slightly problematic venue. we were in russia four years ago. but, no, i've never seen anything quite like that.

there are always sort of problems at the beginning of world cups as the host country sort of grapples with the fact the eye of the world are going to be focused on them the next four weeks and hundreds of thousands of people are suddenly arriving on their doorstep. but, no, it's not a good look for qatar, and, you know, it -- we are about to see the first week of the tournament i'd imagine, you know, what it looks like when this country that is very ill-prepared for this many western tourists suddenly receives this kind of huge surge of visitors. >> and there will certainly be some folks from the united states there because the u.s. mens team hasn't been to the world cup i think in eight years. they are going to be there. they qualified. what can we expect just quickly from the team? >> yeah, exciting tournament for the u.s. mens team. they're the youngest team at the tournament, the youngest group of players that qualified for the tournament.

so it will be, you know, a joyous experience for them to be back in the world cup albeit in a sort of unfamiliar and different setting, but the sense i think is that maybe this is a team built more to challenge and to make a deep run in the 2026 tournament, which will be held here in the u.s. in canada and mexico and that perhaps this 2022 edition of the world cup will be the chance for them to sort of cut their teeth on international soccer. >> thank you so much. all right, jonathan brought it up so i'm bringing it up again. since it is friday night and we can talk about beers here, so budweiser one of -- the beer sponsor of the tournament learns that 24 hours before we're not going to serve beer to the folks there. now, they've put in tens of millions of dollars to this. what do you think?

>> what's up with that? they tweeted, well, this is awkward. $70 million awkward, which was deleted. but that's the least you're going to say. this is the world's most predictable problem, right? this sponsorship is years in the making. to rescind that right for folks two days out reeks of bad faith. and if they couldn't deal with the fact they wanted beer, they didn't have to accept the money in the first place. by the way, they should probably give it back. but most of all let people have the beer! let the people have their beer! >> let the people have their beer, i can agree with that completely. and one, i think it's insulting to still serve the bud zero. i'm sorry but -- >> that's not a drink. we tried that once. >> and this is a matter of principle. it's a conservative muslim country, they don't want people drinking, okay. but you can still drink in the luxury boxes. so basically the message they're sending is if you're willing to

pony up thousands of dollars to sit in the luxury box you can get lit, you can have wine. >> there's no tequila either is what you're saying, it's not just the beer. in the luxury boxes, no, let the people have their beer. this is the world's most foreseeable problem and does smack of bad faith and doesn't look well on fifa who, by the way, is not without their recurring problems of bribery and scandal and frankly bad faith. >> the danish tv host i think said it well. you invited the world here, behave accordingly. there are going to be some tensions between the crowds and the customs of this country and there's got to be a mediation, a middle ground. >> there are cultural se sensitivities. in every culture we have those sensitivities. we've got to go. thanks for joining me on a friday night. up next i spoke with three of the most powerful women in

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in a cnn exclusive i sat down with former first lady michelle obama as well as a amal clooney and mulinda french gates. we covered a wide range of topics including what these three women would tell their you younger selves today. listen. what would you tell your 25-year-old self now that you've lived a life? >> i would say that life is even more beautiful ahead than you realize, and i would say to my 25-year-old self you knew in high school who you were, and you let go of submit some of that for lots of reasons,

people, situations, college, people around you. you knew who you were. and once you learned to re-be the girl you were in high school is when you grew into the full woman that you could be. >> boom. mrs. obama, that part -- >> just simply put i would tell myself you were good enough, you wereview valued, you were worthy. your starry matters, your voice matters. you will do the great things that you know you can do. >> you know, i would say defining failure as not trying because actually going for things and falling flat on your face is fine, is a learning experience, it makes you stronger. but if you don't try and if you don't actually follow your dreams or even admit what they are and go for it, it's something that will stay with you. >> back with me.

these ladies they opened up. they were not shy about who they were, but also they got pretty personal. and i asked them something about self-doubt. have we all experienced -- so when you heard melinda gates say -- i think we all took a deep breath. she said you knew who you were in high school. not what you were going to be or what you were going to do or where you were going to go to school, but you actually knew yourself then and things have changed. experience any of that? >> i certainly have, and hearing these three women basically give different versions of the same answer where they're all speaking to the way the world tries to make women smaller, where it tries to keep yourself small, where michelle obama says tell yourself i am enough, my voice matters, those are

affirmations she wish she could have heard her 25-year-old self. i have a picture of my phone of me as a 3-year-old because i want to remember what i felt like then, fearless, excited, full of energy, excited about life. so i think a lot of us are trying to make that journey back to ourselves before the world tried to convince us otherwise. >> margaret? >> look, the authenticity really is resonant, and it's -- it's self-reflective about the journey, and it just gives everyone permission to look at themselves and just to self-actualize, to be who you are and the best version of yourselves. i've not seen melinda gates so authentic, especially as someone who's had a raw personal experience play out in front of

everyone. that's inspiring and good for younger women to hear that, good for older women to hear that and my hats to all of them. >> it's good for all people to hear. >> i think that's the thing that struck me when i listened back to it i thought this can apply to any of us, any age, any of us. >> that's exactly right. and look, these are three women who are extraordinarily accomplished and successful by any measure well beyond distinctions of gender. and to hear people who are that successful and self-actualized be vulnerable and admit how they would give their younger selves a pep talk, that resonates and inspires in turn. that's an extraordinary interview. >> i do want to say that seeing this coupling here i know that you guys -- you go at it on certain things, on certain points and on certain, you know, political arguments.

but the support -- they talked about what men could do, and sometimes it was -- pardon me, but get out of our way. but sometimes it was recognizing the power of the person who you are with. do you guys experience -- do you experience that? do you get that? >> i mean, there's a lot of power over here so a lot of times it's like you do in a couple -- you have this, i'm sure you have this. when you have -- i mean it takes courage to marry someone and to partner with somebody who has as much power and energy and vision and ambition as you do. and then if you have double that in one space, you've got to work it out and you've got to balance it. and both people have to figure out a way to provide support for the other and also create space for the other. and yourself. >> i was really surprised at how open they were being that they know anything that they say is

going to be taken by somebody and sometimes used against them. and they just opened up. >> i think it speaks to who they know is listening beyond who will turn their words against them. they're not worried about that. they've been through enough where they just tune that stuff out. they're intentionally speaking to their younger selves, if you will, symbolically, those young girls doubting themselves who are unsure of their place in the world. i think it's a clear message they're sending to younger generations because they want them to know the heights they've achieved are not unattainable. they want them to know i'm just like you. >> that's exactly the words michelle obama used, i'm just like you, i was just a girl from the south side of chicago. thank you on this friday night. you can go have your beers. >> i'm having a tequila. >> be sure to tune in cnn sunday night at 8:00 p.m. for our special. i'm hosting michelle obama's

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1 in 44 american children are believed to be on the autism spectrum but studies have shown black and brown children are diagnosed later than white children and are less likely to access critical assistance. our top ten cnn hero is working to change all that in underserved areas outside chicago. >> being a parent of a child with autism in the '80s and the '90s was very, very challenging. the support groups i found i was the only black woman there. we had a color barrier, equity barrier, income barrier, period.

everything we've provided was a blueprint of what i was missing as a parent. we have the support group. kids go to their classes. we are a family, and i'm very adamant about educating community because people are afraid of what they don't understand. we want to make sure that first responders are trained in how to deal with our chirp. >> how long has your mom been doing this kind of stuff? >> because he's smiling it makes it a little bit easier, but what if you get ahold to somebody that's not smiling and they're running around and biting themselves? >> advocacy is a gift. i'm good at it, and it makes me feel so good. >> just an amazing story. go to cnnheroes.com to vote for debra for cnn hero of the year or any of your favorite top ten heroes. thank you so much for watching. our coverage continues. hello an