beijing recently announced incremental changes to covid restrictions, but said the country is sticking to its zero covid policy. and for people who have lost their loved ones in lockdown, these changes are all too little too late. >> and erin, that whole story and my conversation with you right now, all of that is being censored on airwaves in china, even though it's no secret here that this zero covid policy is unsustainable. but to come of this, experts say there need to be a few major changes. number one, the vaccine rate of the elderly population needs to increase. second, china's messaging needs to change. there is growing outrage, but many are still deeply fearful of getting covid because of the propaganda and demonization of the virus. erin? >> unbelievable. selena, thank you very much again for another extraordinary report. and thanks so much to all of you for joining us for it. "ac 360" starts now.

used to be the only three sure things in life were death, taxes, and donald trump not releasing his tax returns after promising to for years. soon, though, it could be back to two sure things. john berman here for anderson. today the supreme court dealt the former president a big loss, refusing to issue a stay that would have kept the house ways and means committee from seeing the returns. and it wasn't the only legal hit he took today. taxes first, though. briefly, the law says upon written request from the chairman of the committee on ways and means of the house of representatives, the secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request. the committee asked for the return three years ago. keeping them honest, the only reason they had to ask at all of course is candidate trump and later president trump, unlike any other in modern history, refused to make them public from the get-go. >> i don't mind releasing. i'm under a routine audit, and

it will be released. i've been audited i think for 15 straight years. when the audit is done, i'll release them. >> i'm under routine audit. and i think it's a very unfair thing. >> as soon as my routine audit is done, i'll release my returns. i would be very proud to. >> i would love to give them, but i'm not going to do it while i'm under audit. it's very simple. >> according to maggie haberman's new best-seller "confidence man", i'll release it when it's over is something trump came up on a flight in march of 2016. quoting in the book, "you know taxes under audit. i'll release them when i'm no longer under audit because i'll never not be under audit." he didn't tell voters that part. but when democrats in congress demanded the returns, he didn't try the audit excuse on them, he just said no. here is his acting chief of staff at the time. >> to be clear, you believe

democrats will never see the president's tax returns? >> oh, no, never. nor should they. that's an issue that was already litigated during the election. voters knew the president could have given his tax returns. they knew that he didn't, and they elected him any way. >> so if your head isn't always spinning, that's mick mulvaney saying the former president had the voters' seal of approval for promising them something he had no intention of delivering and then breaking that same promise. in any event, as the legal battle to keep his returns private dragged on, reporting, especially a 2020 piece in the piece in "the new york times" made clear what the former president was concealing. quoting from the lead, donald j. trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. in his first year in the white house, he paid another $750. he paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years, largely because he reported losing much more money than he made. just today in the state of new york's case against the trump organization, an accountant for

the company confirmed some of that story. admitting under cross-examine that the former president reported losses on his personal returns from 2011 to 2018. and soon the house ways and means committee will be able to see what else the former president went all the way to the supreme court to keep private. but that's not all. also today, his 2020 election sidekick, senator lindsey graham, who also took his case to the supreme court and lost finally went before a georgia grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the election there. and if that's not enough, 11th circuit court of appeals court today cast doubt on the former president's arguments for why the fbi's search of mar-a-lago required a special master to review the materials that were seized there. all three judges on the panel were appointed by republican presidents, two by the former president himself. cnn's kaitlan polantz has much more for us tonight. what have you learned? >> donald trump tried a pretty bold tactic in court today in atlanta. his lawyers were basically

argues that he was wronged, that his constitutional rights were violated when the fbi came in and searched mar-a-lago and took out thousands of documents. one of the things they mentioned was among these things that were taken, there were celine dion pictures, there were golf shirts taken, and that they say was inappropriate. that's why they wanted a special master, a court's intervention to try and make sure that the justice department was doing things correctly, accessing what they needed. but these three judges at the federal appeals court basically said, and this was a quote from one of them, what are we doing here? why is the court even involved? they didn't make a ruling today, but they had a lot of harsh questions for trump's lawyer, jim trusty, cut him off at one point are you really calling this a raid? because he was using the word "raid" to describe that. another of the judges, the chief judge of this court said that he didn't think it was the fault of the government if someone has intermingled classified documents with all kinds of other personal property.

and so this hearing was actually quite short. they spent most of their time really grilling trump's lawyer. and they didn't seem to be taking that much issue with what the justice department is arguing here, getting rid of the special master, and letting their investigation go forward full force. >> certainly an interesting development. give us a sense of where the timeline is now in the investigation and how this panel of federal appeals court justices affects that. >> right. this case is about the special master. that's a different guy that was appointed by a court, then the special counsel, who just was appointed to oversee the investigation around mar-a-lago. special counsel jack smith, from what we understand from lots of reporting is that he's told his team full speed ahead. keep doing what you're doing. and the way that this case compliments that or functions in what smith is doing, it's just a part of it, right. in the mar-a-lago case, the justice department, smith's team is going to have access right now to all of those documents marked as classified, classified documents, taken out of the

florida beach club. what they're not able to access just yet and potentially they could if the court rules quickly, what they're not able to access right now are all of the rest of the things, potentially more evidence. but it depends on how fast this court could step in here. if they do rule in the justice department's favor, smith would be back on track to do just what he is planning on doing when he returns to the united states from europe. >> all right, katelyn polantz, thank you very much future that report. john dean, also cnn legal analyst paul callan. paul, i want to start with what we heard from katelyn's reporting there on this appeals court panel. seeming skeptical. basically, the whole idea of the special master. how much does that surprise you? >> it doesn't surprise me at all. you have to understand, these federal judges are used to seeing search warrants that involve drugs and guns and other things being seized. and here you have classified documents, and you have a magistrate who said there is

clear probable cause to seize the classified documents and the other documents. so i think they're not at all surprised that the warrant was granted by the court. what they are surprised about is the asking for a special master, because this is a clear-cut justifiable search. >> so, john, if this appeals court does rule against the president here, if the appeals court says hey, no special master, could the president then take this all the way to the supreme court? >> theoretically, he could. that's his standard playbook. whether the court will accept it or not is another issue. but the court has been very deferential on process matters with this former president, even though not always ruling in his favor there is a good high probability he will try to run this up, because i think he will lose at the 11th circuit. >> speaking of the supreme court and process matters, john dean, the supreme court today denied the former president's request to stop the release of his tax records. does the former president have

any further recourse here? or will these records end up in the house ways and means' committee's hands? >> i think this is the end of the road. it was an emergency appeal he took after the d.c. circuit ruled against him. i was surprised that chief judge -- chief justice roberts gave him three weeks more as the court looked at this. and then they issued today, of course, a flat this is the end of the road. there are no avenues for him to go to other courts. >> so paul, what happens when the house ways and means committee gets their hands on these records from the irs, interest treasury. the democrats early in the majority for another eight weeks, if that. >> they're running out of time, john. i think they need a plan b. and i think a good plan b would be for them to contact the senate. there is a senate oversight committee that oversees taxation and the irs, and possibly share

the information with a senate committee that could continue the investigation. because, remember, the senate will remain in democratic hands, even though the house will be republican. house republicans are likely to kill this investigation immediately. so if it's to be -- if it's to stay alive, i really think it's needs another forum, and the senate might be that forum. >> what are the chances the public will see or find out what information is in here? >> i think eventually the public will find out what's in there. because it's clear that congress, when it's investigating something, has the right to go public if it's something of a serious public interest. and they may just choose to do that with respect to these tax records. they've been trying to get these tax records since 2017. and there is a great interest in the public to see what's there. >> john, the special counsel, we just heard from katelyn polantz. the special counsel as opposed to the special master. we know that the special counsel wants to go very quickly here and is already diving into this investigation. in your mind, is this quickly

enough? because a lot of people think the whole appointment of a special counsel will just slow down this process. >> i don't think that criticism is well taken. this particular prosecutor has a record of being able to step in, move quickly. he certainly showed that in the pleadings in the 11th circuit and the argument. he blessed the argument they were going the make as well, showing he is on top of the case. its various tentacles. i think they're misreading this. from my talk to people who know this prosecutor, they say he is no nonsense. he is aggressive, and he will not -- he'll be the last to slow this down, and more likely to speed it up. >> pauly, i feel you nodding beside me. >> absolutely. i agree with john completely. this guy, see a tough prosecutor. he is a fair prosecutor. but the one thing he knows is there is going to be no more stalling. and this thing has been stalled for long enough. so i think you'll see him moving swiftly. >> so less investigating, more decision making as it were?

>> yes, i think so. this investigation has been going on for so long, it really is getting close to decision time. now i'm not saying it's going to happen within the next month, but certainly it will be a fast-moving investigation. >> right, paul callan, john dean, our thanks to both of you. appreciate it. as we mentioned at the top, today also saw senator lindsey graham testifying before the georgia criminal grand jury. cnn's sara murray joins us with what we're learning about that. sara, any sense of what prosecutors wanted to learn from senator graham? >> look, graham fought for months to try to avoid this, but today was his day to appear before the grand jury. we know prosecutors were very interested in calls graham made to election officials after the 2020 election. in particular he made a call to georgia's secretary of state brad raffensperger. raffensperger came away from the call thinking that graham was asking him to discard ballots, which is something graham has denied. you can bet that was a focus for prosecutors. prosecutors also wanted to know more about any coordination lindsey graham had with the trump campaign in that period after the 2020 election when

obviously trump and his allies were trying to overturn the election in georgia, john. >> senator graham, has he said anything about his appearance today? >> his office did release a statement acknowledging he was there for more than two hours today. they said he answered all of the questions posed to him that was a big question, whether he was going to challenge anything that was put before him. and they said he felt like he was treated with respect and with professionalism. >> how close is the district attorney there from finishing this probe? what more does she need? >> she has some decisions to make. she has said she wants the grand jury to wrap up their investigative activity this year. but we know there are high profile witnesses, people like michael flynn, people like mark meadows the grand jury has yet to hear from. so she is going have to to decide, do we keep this grand jury going to try to get every possible witness, or does she feel like she has enough, does she move forward are, the grand jury write the report and move ahead with indictments. we've been previously told she could move ahead with indictments as soon as december. >> right around the corner. sara murray, thank you very

much. still to come tonight, breaking news on the ongoing legal problems surrounding infowars alex jones. a big win for a parent of one of the children murdered. and the lack of answers into the murders of those four students at the university of ididaho. ♪ 'cause it hanangs the♪ ♪ to see someone like you ♪ ♪ but you gotta make your own kind of music ♪ life gets bigger when you break from the herd. ♪ sing your own special song ♪ the volkswagen tiguan. ♪ make your own kind of music ♪

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our footage also came with another hand, so we can let you know if you switch to mint, you'll get three months free on all of our plans. even unlimited. feels like that deserves an exclamation point. whoa. easy, easy. breaking news tonight. more than a week after a billion dollar verdict in connecticut, a texas judge has ruled that alex jones must pay the full $45.2 million in punitive damages to two sandy hook parents despite a state cap. that would bring total damages to almost $50 million for the parents of jesse lewis, who was killed at sandy hook elementary school. 26 people were murdered that day, including 20 children. jesse's parents had sued alex jones for defamation. both parents testified in court. scarlet lewis, jesse's mother was able to confront him in

court. she called the death of her son an unbearable pain. worse she said was to have someone on top of that say, quote, that it was a false flag and that i was an actress. we're fortunate that scarlet lewis could join us this evening. she is also the author of "choosing love: the pathway to flourishing, creating a more peaceful and loving world." very nice to see you again. judge gamble in texas said he wanted the amount owed to you and jesse's father so it isn't, quote, affordable. enough to keep anyone from inflicting this kind of emotional damage again. what's your reaction tonight? >> i thought that that was -- you know, it's a very, very strong message that's sent out. obviously, i think we're over the billion dollar mark with the other judgment in connecticut. so it's a huge -- it's a huge amount, but i think the message is the most important thing here, that this is not going to

be tolerated and i'm hoping that it will never happen to anyone going forward. that was -- that was the intention that i had. >> do you or your attorneys have any sense of how much money alex jones actually has? >> i -- i know that that's the big question. we really aren't certain, no. >> $45 million, does he have that much? >> i do believe, absolutely, that he has that much. >> you've told me before that this isn't about the money, or even about destroying alex jones. so why was it important to you to bring this lawsuit? >> yeah, it's absolutely not about the money or the destruction of another human being. it's about the truth. it's about the importance of truth in our society.

it's about having somebody intentionally inflict pain on a victim's parent. it was unprecedented, this type of lawsuit. and, you know, i just hope that -- i hope that it never happens again. i hope that it sends a very strong message out, and it was really important. i felt like it was my duty to do this. we have to maintain truth in order to have a civil society. and i've spent the last ten years trying to keep our kids safe with the choose love movement, and safeguarding their health and well-being. so to have somebody out there saying that the shooting never happened, that jesse never lived, that i'm not a real person, it definitely goes directly against what we all have to be working on as a society. our children are our priority.

their safety, health, and well-being. and they are compromised right now. to have somebody that's out there, that is directly working against that. and compromising efforts to make them safe, that is absolutely not acceptable. >> and you think these verdicts might stop the next person from spreading lies like this? >> i think this high dollar amount, yes, absolutely as judge gamble says makes it unaffordable for someone to do that. >> i have to say, when you said you spent the last ten years fighting for this, my heart sort of skipped a beat. it's a reminder that it will be ten years this december that the shooting took place. how do you plan to mark that day? >> you know, it is the ten-year anniversary of the sandy hook shooting. it is also a celebration in a way for the choose love movement because we have also been in existence for ten years,

offering free essential life skills that i know address the root cause of the suffering that we're seeing that leads to the violence, to the substance abuse, to the mental illness. we can actually reduce and prevent the suffering before it starts. so this is what iowa been working on for ten years. we're actually celebrating at the same time the choose love movement and all the millions of people that we have positively impacted. our programs are in over 10,000 schools in 120 countries. they are no cost. and so i just invite any of your viewers that want to help be part of the solution to join the movement. it is -- it is kind of a celebration also in the face of a terrible anniversary and something that we all really need to wake up to in our society. our children need to be our priority. we can keep them safe.

it is possible. and, you know, we can have healthy, flourishing kids. we know how to do that. it's not rocket science. we just have to kind of buckle down and do it. >> the choose love movement is a tribute to jesse's legacy. you've been doing remarkable work for ten years. and i know you will continue to do it. we're thinking about you. just know that over the next month during this difficult anniversary. scarlet lewis, thank you very much. >> thank you. next, the latest from colorado springs in the wake of the club q shooting. we'll get perspective on this crime and the larger moment from the mother of matthew shepard, one of two murder victims for whom the federal hate crime act is named.

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flight attendants, prepare for big savings. drop everything and get to the xfinity black friday sale. click, call or visit a store today. the alleged colorado springs mass shooter is out of the hospital. he faces an initial court hearing tomorrow and could eventually be charged with hate crimes according to the local d.a., in addition to counts for the five people murdered and 17 others wounded at club q saturday night. that comes with reported hate crimes up in the fbi's most recent data, which is from 2020, and a concern the problem has grown worse since then. with us tonight is judy shepherd. on october 7, 1998, her son matthew was brutally murdered because he was gay. in the wake of a judy amatthew'

father established a find dags and in 2009 what would become the matthew shepard james byrd junior hate crimes prevention act. it's an honor to speak with you tonight. thank you so much for joining us. your son matthew was killed 24 years ago. it was a murder motivated by anti-gay hate. now we still don't know exact the motive for the colorado shooting. what went through your mind when you heard about this happening at club q? >> well, first i want to take this opportunity to convey my condolences to the families affected by club q. i know what they're going through. there will be scars seen and unseen forever for them. and i really feel for them. this is another tragedy, senseless on all sorts of levels. of course, your mind goes to the incident at pulse in 2016, and even what happened to matt and the many hate crimes committed against the gay community before and after matt.

>> has he mentioned the 2009 hate crimes act was named in part after your son. and there has been progress since then in some ways. some progress, but, but. >> yeah, but. >> you do have the sense that something feels different now, that there is something uniquely dangerous about the moment that we're in for the gay community. >> absolutely. when the hate crime bill was signed in 2009 in the obama administration, i think all of us felt like we were on the right path to achieving equality and equity in the u.s., to be treated as an american citizen like everyone else deserves to be treated here on an equal playing field. and then 2015 happened, and then 2016 and all that hate was just unleashed. and it's just grown. hate crimes have gone up every year since then. and in 2020, the rhetoric just

got all ramped up. in particular -- well, not even in particular. every marginalized community. today it's the gay community. last week it was the jewish community. before that it was the african american community. it's just senseless. and being encouraged in some quarters. it definitely feels different now. >> so an individual who was at the club q vigil in colorado springs said, quote, it feels like when is it going to happen to me as opposed to thinking this kind of thing will never touch me. how dangerous do you think it is to be gay in america? >> i think it's -- i'm sorry to interrupt, but it seems extremely dangerous to me. and it's the same things we heard from matt's friends. when is it going to happen to me? it's not if, it's when. the whole community feels especially vulnerable right now, knowing that a copycat could occur. same thing happened when matt

was killed. it's not if, it's when. and you feel it -- you feel it all the time. walking down the street, being afraid to hold hands with your partner. it's ridiculous. it's absolutely ridiculous. but it's there. >> you know, we've heard fundamentalists preachers calling for the execution of gay people. there is that. what about political leaders? how much responsibility do you think political leaders have for creating this type of discourse? >> well, i'm going to take issue with the word "create." i think that amplified it. i think your first instinct to mention the pulpit was a good start. even when matt was killed all those years ago, that was where hate was coming from, and it still is, and it's amplified from a different arm perhaps of faith leaders. certainly not saying all of them. but there is a selection of them who persist hate, picked up by political leaders because i

think right now they think it's politically expedient for them. but in my opinion, the election we just had proves them wrong. >> so you said previously that you hope there would be a point at which you and your husband thought you would be no longer needed to run the matthew shepard foundation. and what both founded, that you could close your doors and society had left behind the bigotry and maybe the hatred against the gay community. so is that day getting closer or further away? >> we actually thought we were closer until 2015. and then it became obvious that it was going to run away from us again. but i think even initially it just showed us how naive we were to think we could change centuries of hate and bigotry directed toward the lgbtq+ community. we really felt people would see that people from the gay community were just like them. same dreams, same ambitions.

what difference does it make who they love? they've done nothing to harm you. it was even a challenge to get hate crime laws passed. how is that going to harm you, to protect the gay community if they are harmed? it was just -- i didn't understand any of that, and i still don't. but i know we are nowhere near close to closing our doors right now. >> listen, judy, you've made some big changes. you made a major difference in this country already. and i have a good feeling that you'll make a bigger difference going forward. thank you so much for being with us tonight. >> thank you for your time. i really appreciate it. still ahead, authorities tonight say they are making progress in the investigation to the murders of four university of idaho students. they've also released new details about what they found at the home where the students were killed. that's next. make this december one to remember. together. happy holidays from lexus. ♪

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tonight, idaho authorities say they are, quote, making progress, unquote, in the investigation into the murders of four university of idaho students, but they're still not providing many details. police tell cnn today that they have interviewed more than 90 people and received at least 700 leads. investigators also said they found a dog at the home where the students were killed. the dog, who is seen here with one of the victims, was found unharmed. but at this hour, there is still no suspect in custody and still more questions than answered. cnn's natasha chen took a look

at the police response. this is her report. >> reporter: the incomplete and sometimes contradictory information came in the first days of the investigation. >> we believe this was an isolated targeted attack on our victims. >> reporter: those words echoed in the press, perhaps leaving the impression that the police knew something that should make the public less worried. but some residents and neighbors near the crime scene were not comforted by the terms "targeted" and "isolated." >> at first i actually thought they had something going. so that makes sense. oh, it's argued the. you wait to see what they say. but now they've said nothing and that they know nothing. how can you say it's argued the? >> reporter: then the local mayor went further, telling the "new york times" it could have been, quote, a crime of passion, later clarifying that is just one possibility. >> they don't want people to panic. and yet unless you have the evidence you are willing to share with the public and be transparent about how the investigation was going, these words were completely giving false confidence. >> reporter: but police say they can't share their entire case

for fear of compromising the investigation. >> you can't just put that out into the public's eye. it would impede the investigation, and ultimately it might impede justice at the very end of this. >> reporter: but with no suspect identified, many students packed up and left town. >> there is no perp caught or anything. it's definitely uneasy on campus right now. >> reporter: by day four, police recognized their assurances of public safety weren't resonating as residents fixated on the fact a killer was not caught. police chief went before the cameras. >> we cannot say there is no threat to the community. >> reporter: still calling the crime targeted, but pulling back on assurances there was no public threat, and pledging to release more. >> i probably should have been standing here a day or so ago. but i'm here now. >> reporter: between 2016 and 2021, there were no murders in moscow. so when the quadruple homicide stunned this town, the 36-person police force was pressed into unprecedented action. with no full-time communications staff. >> the messaging was a little

bit off. >> reporter: idaho state police were brought in to assist with public messaging. >> and really put out hopefully the best information we can. >> reporter: but the requirement mill has been hard to control. a report of a man loitering at a food truck near two of the victims was knocked down by police who later said they eliminated the man as a suspect. reports that someone's pet dog was, quote, skinned three weeks before the killings are also believed to be unrelated. meanwhile, police are trying to protect the integrity of the investigation. >> if you flood the public with information of everything that is going on, then stories might start emerging. >> stories are already emerging. rumors are emerging. >> unfortunately, rumors are out there. people want answers. all the time on tv, these are solved within 60 minutes. there is an appetite to make sure these are done. we totally respect that and we will put out as much information as we can as soon as we can. >> reporter: those victims' families have expressed frustration. >> together we want to extend gratitude to the following. >> reporter: this week the family of ethan chapin

acknowledged answers and justice can only come now from police. >> the moscow police department, who now carry the burden every day not only for us, but for all of the impacted families. >> reporter: you know, i asked about the threat level to the community, given the initial confusion of that message. and erin snow here told me that it's always a good idea to be vigilant since the suspect hasn't been caught, saying it's a good idea to walk in pairs, to lock doors at night. an he did not rule out the possibility of perhaps more than one person responsible for these killings. i also asked about this being a targeted attack. and he reiterated that they still believe it was based on evidence found at the scene and the fact that two people in the house survived the attack. so if it were a bit more nondiscriminate, that perhaps everyone might have died. we hope to hear much more information coming out at a press conference tomorrow at

1:00 p.m. local time. john? >> natasha chen in moscow, idaho. a terrific report, thank you very much. more perspective now from former deputy fbi director andrew mccabe, who is now a cnn senior law enforcement analyst. andy, we just mentioned we're expecting officials to release more info tomorrow. it's now been more than a week since the murders, and we really don't have any answers. what do you make of the lack of details? >> well, john, there are a couple of things that are really troubling here. one of course is a lack of detail. now you would never expect any police agency to share all of the details of a crime of this nature with the public. but you would expect them to tell you some of the basics about how they're doing and what they're thinking, simply to calm fears, to let folks know they're on the job and they're getting things done. not only have they not done that, they have actually made statements that are contradictory and caused more confusion than they've helped. so they are definitely behind the power curve here in terms of managing this crisis response

with their press outreach. and we're just hoping that that's not indicative of a lack of organization or focus or capability in getting this investigation done. >> because in your mind, there is still very real current public safety concerns there? >> no question. you have a quadruple homicide. you do not have by their own admission, they do not have a suspect identified. they don't -- presumably, not that we know of, any way. they don't have a communication or any sort of claim or motive or purpose that. they don't have a murder weapon recovered yet. so without any of those facts in place, i don't see how they can possibly state with any confidence that there is not a threat to the community. clearly there is that threat still out there. >> one of the things police have said they have ruled multiple people out. how useful is that in an investigation to rule people

out? >> you know, eventually, john, you want to rule people out. but i was struck with how quickly they ruled out a fairly large group of folks who seem to have played key roles in the discovery of this crime. so you have the two roommates who were on the premises when the murders were taking place. you have some number of either a friend or some friends who came over to see those roommates the next morning before the 911 call was made. you have the individual who drove the two females from the food trucks back to their house right before the homicides took place. and all of those folks have been kind of dismissed as having no involvement. it just seems kind of quick to be writing off folks who were so close to this event. you'd think you would want to do a pretty substantial thorough investigation of each one of those people and their networks to ensure that there is

absolutely no connection before you go out to the public and say yeah, we've cleared all these people. but again, i don't know what's going on behind the scenes. >> andrew mccabe, thank you very much for helping us understand the limited details we do have it. appreciate it. >> thanks, john. just ahead, a pro wrestler makes a big splash with audiences in appalachia, who love to hate his deeply liberal progressive character. the details ahead. ♪ ♪ this... is a glimpse into the no-too-distant future of lincoln. ♪ ♪

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so fans of the former president in and around appalachia don't have to wait for a possible match-up against president biden. they've got it already, complete with full nelsons, piledrivers and maybe the occasional atomic drop. cnn's elie reeve has the story of how a popular villain on the local pro wrestling circuit has turned a mirror on our national politics. >> reporter: this is politics in america right now. channeled through a pro wrestling ring. >> i just criticize their way of life and tell them how they need

to follow a real man like myself or my hero joseph r. biden. >> reporter: the progressive liberal dan richards is a wrestler who fans in appalachia love to hate. >> when i grab a hold of him and i look in the crowd and say hit him in the mouth? and they all come to their feet, yes. i hit him in the mouth. and they go he did that for us. >> reporter: dan and his mentor beau james came up with the gimmick when trump was first running for president. >> i said my god, if we had a guy that was the anti-trump and we could send him to the ring in these towns, how much heat would we get? >> they want to see you get your ass kicked. that's the heat you want. >> it's the greatest feeling in the world. it's a high. >> reporter: now that politics has gotten so intense it's getting too real for dan. >> the response to me and people who think like me are more violent. >> reporter: dan really is liberal. i first interviewed him in 2017, which now bizarrely feels like a more innocent time.

so in 2017 you wore a hillary shirt and were hillary focused. >> hillary! >> what pieces of current events do you pull from to sort of trigger people? >> well, i've got a biden collage shirt and one of kamala harris. the biden one triggers more people than anything because i don't think half these people even know who kamala harris is. >> reporter: dan says he gets more heat now than when trump was in office. he thinks fans feel like they got their hero taken away. >> donald trump! >> there are so many people that think the election was stole. i sell realism in emotions. it gets an emotion out of people. so whatever the headlines are that week that's what we're going to use. >> but do you ever talk about the election being stolen? >> yeah. if dan wins by cheating, then his opponent can go to the microphone, like i do, and i say a lot of these good people here tonight think you stole that just like an election was stole.

the building goes nuts. >> reporter: they usually wrestle in appalachian counties. some went for trump by more than 80%. >> it's a small mountain town. poor county. poor community. no hope. he represents to them everything that's put them in that position. >> and do you think it's changed in the last five years, how intense it is? >> yeah. it's more dangerous. >> the moment i realized things had changed i think is when i had rocks thrown at me and someone tried to light me on fire and someone pull a knife on me. >> so recently? >> yeah. that was a month ago. >> people are even more frustrated. they're even more divided. so now here's this guy in our town saying this stuff that we see on television that we don't agree with. so we can't get those people, we can't get the politicians, let's get him. >> reporter: they'd advertised dan would be wrestling beau in stickiliville, virginia, a

community of about 330 people. fans came ready to boo dan. >> we all have our own opinion, but his especially in this area is a lot different. everyone wants to punch him in the face. >> we love wrestling, first of all. but to come and show the liberal like hey, wie know what we stan for. >> yeah. >> and definitely not the left side. >> so do you want to see him get beat up? >> yes. >> do you want trump to run again? >> amen. >> you do? >> yes. >> okay. >> reporter: cory smith wrestles as white trash millionaire. he doesn't like dan's politics, but he's off the trump train. >> i don't see how things could get any worse. but with trump we would find out. >> you think so? >> i believe so, yes. when you stop putting america first, start putting yourself and what you want to do first. i'm jumping off any train. >> you've got to tell me when that moment was. >> twitter.

if i'm at my job and i'm constantly tweeting, i'm getting fired. i want somebody that leads this country by actions, not by words. >> reporter: the crowd was loud for other matches, but when dan walked out it was next level. [ yelling ] then he got out of the ring and riled them up more. a guy looked ready to fight dan. some fans fought each other. beau cut the match short. backstage they said the crowd got too hot too fast. >> we felt it coming. we pushed it too far. >> it's a different kind of hate now. it's at a level that i haven't experienced previously. so anyone who doesn't think it

could get more violent and on what side it's coming from needs to have a reality check. >> you have to know how to let it breathe. you have to know how to hear it, feel it, live it. you can be great and do all the athletic moves, all the stuff. if you don't know your audience, it doesn't matter. >> elie reeve is with me now. first of all, fantastic wrestling moves. second of all, this is amazing. is it all about trump for these fans still? >> well, the wrestlers told me that they used to get trump chants, but those have actually kind of fallen off. even if this real hatred for your political enemy still exists. and they also said that there were definitely fans in the crowd who agreed with dan and wanted to hear what he had to say. they were just a little bit nervous about letting other wrestling fans know that that's how they felt. >> wonderful, wonderful report. elie reeve, thank you very much. we'll be right back. i see an amazing place. feels like a dream.

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with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy. a quick programming note before we go. this sunday night "360's" friend lisa ling is back with a new season of "this is life" right here on cnn. once again she'll take viewers on a journey around the country exploring communities that are often unknown or misunderstood. don't miss the debut of the final season of "this is life" sunday at 10:00 p.m. the news continues. so let's hand it over to kasie hunt and "cnn tonight." kasie. >> john, thank you so much. i am kasie hunt and this is "cnn tonight." the supreme court has once again rud