or, ask how to get up to a $750 prepaid card. complete connectivity. one solution, for wherever business takes you. comcast business. powering possibilities. ♪ i think the american people, no matter how you vote, are sick and tired of drama, and this is

nothing but drama, we're on multiple days now with multiple candidates from this group. so i'm not sure how lauren boebert on one hand can demand so much out of kevin mccarthy but then demand nothing out of someone else and be willing to vote for them as speaker. >> marjorie taylor greene saying the american people are sick of drama. has marjorie taylor greene met marjorie taylor greene? that's rich. three days, 11 rounds of slvoti and still no speaker. good morning, everyone. kaitlan is in washington d.c., again. and kevin mccarthy is suffering a historic defeat. hours from now, what will happy ahead of the chamber's 12th vote. >> they're hoping there's a glimmer of hope. there have been tense negotiations happening behind closed doors, questions whether or not a final proposal may be on the horizon. something that mccarthy and some of the party holdouts can agree on. we'll wait to see if the hard liners can. and also this morning what

we are laerearning about the suspect of the murder of four college students in idaho. in a few hours from now, the house is going to resume today, still no speaker in place. kevin mccarthy is going to try to succeed where he has failed 11 times over the last three days. could the 12th one be the charm? not likely. in vote after vote mccarthy has not gained ground despite concessions to republican holdouts who kept him short of the 218 votes he needs to win the gavel. mccarthy doesn't appear to be worried. he said there's no time line for getting the 218 but the contest is already the longest in 164 years. there are major questions at this hour on whether or not his time is running out. jessica dean joins us now. that's the question. he says there's no time line but the question is whether or not those voting for him are willing to keep doing so or whether or not there reaches a breaking

point for them. >> these moderates and people that have supported him say they're going to be there but their patience is only going to go so long. eventually he needs to show progress. that's what he was hoping to do yesterday. if you ask mccarthy and his allies they'll show you he did show progress because they're getting closer to a deal with some of the holdouts. but the fact remains they're not there yet. here's what he said last night leaving the capitol. >> no, no, i'm not putting any time line on it. i think we have some progress going on. we have members talking. i think we've got a little movement so we'll see. >> so again, this was intense negotiations yesterday. we saw a lot of the holdouts going in and out of meetings with mccarthy allies, mccarthy himself stepping in there. key concessions he continues to give away but the fact remains if he peels off some of these people today, which he's hoping to do today. the goal today is to solidify the deal and get at least 10 or

12 of the 20 on his side. do the math. you still have to get to 218 he can only afford to lose four so he still has to bring more over. some of these more moderates are getting a little twitchy about all the things he's giving away. so we'll see how he does the splits here to try to win. >> some coveted gavels. i know on capitol hill math is the point here, even if he makes the progress, they could pressure on those remaining but when marjorie taylor greene says she thinks there are going to be six absolute noes, i think that sends a message. >> yes. six when he can only afford to lose four. >> you have a busy day ahead of you, thank you for joining us. just a remarkable moment playing out. >> it is. we have to remember all of this is playing out today, which marks two years since the attack on the capitol. and some of the same people who voted against the certification of an election are up to their same tricks right now.

ignoring the people's business. and if the inmates are running the asylum, it is kevin mccarthy who helped hand over the keys to him. here's how. his leadership pac has given more than 300,000 to 17 of the 20 republicans refusing to vote for him to be speaker. one of the largest recipients is the ring leader of the group, scott perry. he's gotten $50,000 for his campaigns in the past decade. when it comes to the others, mccarthy defended many or remained silent when they were accused of inciting violence, except in private. didn't say anything publically. audio obtained by "the new york times" showed that mccarthy urged leaders to monitor the statements of lawmakers such as matt gaetz and alert him of any potentially dangerous messages. >> the tension is too high, the country is too crazy. i do not want to look back and think we caused something or

missed something and someone got hurt. i don't want to play politics with any of that. >> again, mccarthy calls some of these fringe members a threat to their colleagues in private but in public he refused to punish folks like paul gosar who posted a video depicting the murder of alexandria ocasio-cortez. mccarthy opposed a resolution to censure him and remove him from committees. it's not just mccarthy. fox media, which is a mouthpiece for the party has highlighted and put a spotlight on many of these republicans for years. take, for instance, lauren boebert. she and hannity got into it over her opposition to mccarthy. watch. >> kevin mccarthy does not have 218 votes. >> and you have 20. >> i -- kevin mccarthy -- >> i asked you a specific question. if by friday you don't have 30 -- >> i will not. i will not withdraw.

. >> here's the thing when you create the monster. problem is hannity has personally hosted lauren boebert at least four times since she's been elect preponderance of the evidence -- been elected and matt gaetz has appeared on fox more than 180 times since taking office in 2017. so if mccarthy handed the keys to the inmates. the fox network gave them a map of the facilities. and perhaps the most noteworthy of all, the one who arguably gave birth to the hard liners is, of course, donald trump. he wants mccarthy. but they're not listening to the warden either. >> even having my favorite president call us and tell us we need to knock this off, i think it needs to be reversed. the president needs to tell kevin mccarthy, sir you do not have the votes and it's time to withdraw. >> and here's gaetz last night. >> i love president trump, i

defended him a great deal in congress, but hr wasn't always his strong suit. i think president trump is wrong to the extent that he supports kevin mccarthy. >> and in case there's any doubt that the wing doesn't have a plan or cohesive strategy. watch. >> so i nominate president trump because he must make our country great again. >> gaetz nominating the man who helped inspire the insurrection on the eve of the two-year anniversary. says volumes. >> it does. it's the kind of moment you can't miss, don. >> right on. >> and one of the people -- you laid out there, don, so well, the people that have been playing a central role in this, one of the people who say they regret the role in the rise of the republican party now, is the former republican congressman joe walsh who's joining us here. when you look at what's happening and don has gone through what set mccarthy up for this moment.

you believe mccarthy is the reason he's in this position right now? >> kaitlan, i think it's a perfect storm of the fact you have seven to eight members who would blow up that chamber if it would get them on tucker carlson's show. combined with the fact that mccarthy is weak and pretty untrustworthy. and that goes back to when i was in congress, eight, ten years ago. members over the years don't trust him because he'll say anything to anybody. but kaitlan, this cannot be said enough. gaetz, boebert and a handful of these members love this. they love what's going on right now. in fact, these people would prefer to be in the minority so they'd have an opposition. they could go on fox news about it and yell about it every night. >> some of them said they'd be okay if it was ah hakeem jeffris as a speaker of the house. i know trump gets a lot of

credit for this but a lot of this is house freedom caucus vibes and john boehner in 2015 and what it looks like when he was pushed from power. >> this goes back to the tea party caucus, then the freedom caucus in 2010, 2012. we made life hell for bajohn boehner we wanted to be in the majority but it was always about policy. there's no policy with gaetz and boebert and the rest of these hard liners now. it's literally all about being on fox news. being on conservative talk radio. kaitlan, they love this. i've spoken to a few members, though -- i mean, most of the republican caucus knows this makes the republican party look bad. >> what about a chip roy or someone who is saying, actually, the reason we want to change this is because we want to change the rules. we want more members to have a

voice. that's what brian mast, who's voting for mccarthy told me the other day. >> chip roy harkens back to what we were like eight, nine years ago, it's about policy, process to him. chip roy knows what's going on right now is making this party look bad. but you have the seven to eight to nine, boebert, gaetz, and the rest of them, who just don't give adamn. they want this. >> it's going more -- they have more momentum i think than they initially believe. that's the concern i've heard from mccarthy allies that i've been speaking with. once this gets resolved what does it look like the next two years? are we seeing the next two years of government in washington? >> this is a distraction. boebert and marjorie taylor greene are on opposite sides of the speaker debate. the minute this thing is over, they're allies again. they're all allies and they all want to investigate hunter's

laptop, they want fauci's head. it's way more than just these 20. so when we get into all of the substantive battles and the investigative stuff the next two years it won't be 20, it'll be over 100 because the megacaucus of this party is bigger than 20. >> we'll see what it means for republicans in the next election. i've heard implications for 2024. joe walsh thank you for joining us on this morning on capitol hill. >> thank you. this morning new details also from the affidavit offer really a much clearer picture into what happened on the night of the murder of the four college students in idaho. we also learned about a surveillance operation that led to the arrest of the suspect that was seen placing garbage bags into neighbors' bins. john avlon is with us. thanks very much. the affidavit said so much because we didn't know how much in terms of how they got to this

suspect and why. >> the affidavit is the anatomy of a common criminal investigation. over the last seven weeks we heard people say the case isn't going anywhere, the police aren't telling us anything, why isn't this solved already. but the affidavit tells us from the day of the murder, start with the video canvas and develop pictures of a white hyundai elantra. it's a car, not a person, they don't have a plate. they ask other police departments to look for that car. college police officer finds one, they then look at the own erof that car. on december 23rd they get the cell phone records showing the owner of that car has been what appears to be from the records staked out in the area of that murder house a dozen times since august. so they start to zero in on bryan kohberger. but when you get into the affidavit, the chilling details, down stairs surviving witness hears crying upstairs and a voice saying it's okay i'm here

to help you, the dog barking, more crying. and then sees a figure clad in black walk the door through the sliding glass wearing a black mask it's frightening to read. >> it turns out as people were saying -- i guess everyone sort of thought what's going on? doesn't anyone know anything? isn't there any evidence? turns out there was a lot they were working on that we weren't aware of. >> a lot. i've been in cases like this before, where you have great leads and they fizzle and then other leads working and one of them starts to pan out. s it was a lot of evidence but it came in bits at a time and two days before christmas really accelerates. but some of the interesting things that haven't come out in the affidavit, they're staked out in pennsylvania at bryan kohberger's house at -- at his family's house at a rural area. and the surveillance team watching from a pretty great

distance sees him come out and clean the car from top to bottom, inside and out, using surgical gloves to handle items as if the car was about to be sold almost. they see him taking out the trash at 4:00 in the morning. bryan kohberger himself. and then putting it in the neighbor's bin next door. why is he under surveillance? one they're waiting to get probable cause to arrest him so he doesn't get away, disappear, they don't have to find him. but more importantly they're there to see if they can recover that abandonment sample something he threw away that would have his dna on it that's why they went to the trash, collected it and tested it that allowed the judge to okay the warrant. >> the most important thing, motive. >> we still don't have motive. the clue to that is not only in the affidavit but poppy, they came out, the day they announced the arrest and said, who knows

something about this guy who can share it with us? because they're still trying to get into that. one other thing that nobody has talked about. pennsylvania authorities are looking at this case that happened on the other side of the country but saying this guy lived here. and based on the offender characteristics of quadruple murder done with some efficiency in the dark, they don't believe that is his first encounter with violence. most killers don't start off with something like that. >> you're right. >> so they're going back through unsolved cases in pennsylvania to say what fits the mo, the pattern, the offender characteristics of the crime scene to see do we have an unsolved case that fits here because now we have things we didn't have, a name, dna, things to compare. >> you're right, no one is talking about that. john miller, thank you. we're grateful for your analyst. president biden facing growing pressure to deal with the surge at the border. we'll talk to homeland security

secretary joining us now about the administration's new immigration crackdown. that's after the break. and this -- >> i don't like how he went down. >> we need everybody. all call. all call. >> it's new audio from the emergency response after bills' safety damar hamlin collapsed. the latest on his condition next. ♪3, 4♪ ♪ ♪hey♪ ♪ ♪are you ready for me♪ ♪are you ready♪ ♪are you ready♪

well, we fell in love through gaming. but now the internet lags and it throws the whole thing off. when did you first discover this lag? i signed us up for t-mobile home internet. ugh! but, we found other interests. i guess we have. [both] finch! let's go! oh yeah! it's not the same. what could you do to solve the problem? we could get xfinity? that's actually super adult of you to suggest. i can't wait to squad up. i love it when you talk nerdy to me. guy, guys, guys, we're still in session. and i don't know what the heck you're talking about. as a business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind. so start saving by switching to the mobile service designed for small business: comcast business mobile. flexible data plans mean you can get unlimited data or pay by the gig. all on the most reliable 5g network. with no line activation fees or term contracts. saving you up to 60% a year.

and it's only available to comcast business internet customers. so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. so this morning, cnn obtaining new audio of the urgent moments after damar hamlin went into cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field. emergency workers wasting no time coming to his aid. >> i don't like the way he went down. >> we need everybody. all call. all call. >> bring everybody. we need everybody. the cot, medics, all of yous, and ged woods out here. >> hamlin's doctor say he is making substantial improvement

but still faces many phases of recovery. to coy wire now in orchard park, new york. it is amazing how this quick response saved damar. how are his teammates reacting now? >> reporter: incredible work in the moment. the players calling the trainer who leapt in and administered the life saving cpr as a hero. sean mcdermott saying he's an assistant trainer. it is easy to lead on sunny days but great leadership shines in the darkest storms despite being whipped by the iwinds of agitation. we've seen, don, poppy, more and more professional athletes being open and honest about emotions, pain, and now this nfl team,

these players, this coach making the decision to quit playing in the middle of a game, demonstrating we don't have to play on just because that's what's always been done. buffalo has smashed the status quo. here's how team captain josh allen assesses all of this. >> we have had some very open and honest and deep talks. some unbelievable, embraces as men, just hugging somebody and leaning into them. there's been a lot of that going around. you need every bit of it. you do. i think the fact we keep hearing good news about damar it keeps pushing us forward. >> so they push on and push forward, about 48 hours from now they'll step out on the field and play for damar. their father told -- josh allen said he's demanding that they go out there and do this for damar hamlin. >> coy wire, thank you so much.

you've been terrific on this story. we appreciate it. >> thanks, don. >> he really has. president biden has unveiled the new border plan that both accepts but also expels thousands more migrants. homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas is with us live next. help manage your blood sugar..o live every moment. glucerna.

♪ welcome back to cnn this morning. president biden has announced new immigration restrictions including a program to expel migrants from four countries who fail to use the legal pathways. at the same time it expands a program to accept migrants who come from those countries legally. it comes as the administration faces growing pressure to confront the surge at the border. >> today my administration is taking a several steps to stiffen enforcement for those who try to come without a legal right to stay. my message is this. if you're trying to leave cuba, nicaragua, or haiti or have agreed to begin a journey to america, do not, do not just

show up at the border. >> so this new program effectively expands the controversial trump era border restriction known as title 42. but this is what president biden said to reporters just yesterday. >> i don't like title 42. but it's the law now. i have to operate within it. >> rosa flores who has reported extensively on the border joins us this morning. good morning. help us understand this. we thought the administration didn't like 42, it's in the hands of the supreme court now. what does this mean for title 42? >> reporter: you know, it is effectively an expansion of title 42. and reaction to this program has been mixed. this is republican governor greg abbott calling it a band-aid which echos the sentiment from other republicans who say this is not enough. and immigration advocates on the border will tell you they're

disappointed of the biden administration because they say this is the biden administration using a trump-era tool to manage the border when president biden campaigned on much more humane policies, and human rights first on the border has documented that thousands of instances of violent acts against migrants who have been expelled into mexico under title 42. here's the policy in a nutshell, poppy. in essence, there are 30,000 slots from those four countries that you mentioned, cuba, venezuela, haiti and nicaragua, that the united states will allow to enter. but there will be vetting, they have to apply, they need sponsors. and this has to happen legally. and the key is, if they don't, they will be expelled back to mexico. poppy. >> rosa, thank you very much. stand by for this because we'll bring in now the homeland security secretary, mr. alejandro mayorkas. good morning. >> good morning, thanks for having me.

>> the biden administration says it wants to end title 42 but then yesterday the administration does this and effectively expands the program. how do you reconcile the two? do you want to end it or use it and expand it? >> poppy, that's very easily explained actually. let me step back and share with everyone what our underlying approach is. and that is to build safe and orderly pathways for people to come to the united states who qualify. to cut out the smugglers that are so ruthless causing death, tragedy and trauma. to incentivize people to use the legal pathways and not take the dangerous journey and place their lives in the hands of the smugglers. that is our underlying policy. we are unable to use our ordinary legal authorities because a court in louisiana has compelled us, has forced us to

use the title 42 authority that expulsion authority, to the extent that we can. and so, we are incentivizing through these lawful programs that rosa referenced, and we are devising using the authority we are obligated to use right now. >> i hear you about the federal judge in may of last year but in november the federal judge in d.c. ordered the end of it and now it's up in the hands of the supreme court. you talked about smugglers and this policy but isn't that a hope and not a guarantee but you have a lot of democrats, including four democratic senators, who say they're disappointed in the plan, calling it an inhumane expansion of the trump era title 42 and will further enrich smuggling networks. how do you know it won't? >> poppy, that is not what we've seen through the successful launch of precisely the program

we announced yesterday. but when we implemented it with respect to the venezuelan nationals we saw venezuelan nationals willing to wait and apply through the process that we're expanding as of yesterday. we saw them wait to apply to avoid the smugglers. we saw a 90% drop in the number of encounters of venezuelan nationals in between our ports of entry. and we saw an increasing number use our process and fly safely to the united states knowing they were prequalified to enter and to gain work authorization. a very successful launch that we are now building upon. >> but you would concede this is an expansion of the trump-era plan to deal with the crisis at the border? because you're now applying it to three more countries, cuba, haiti, nicaragua. >> poppy, what we have done has

no resemibblance to what the prr administration did to individuals seeking humanitarian relief. the trump administration tried to shutdown the asylum system in its entirety. we're building, safe and lawful and orderly pathways. fundamentally we are dealing with a broken immigration system. everyone understands it to be so. the president, on day one, presented the legislative package to fix that broken system. we need congress to act. >> i was specifically talking, as you know, secretary, about title 42 not the other ways that the past administration dealt with immigration and migrants at the border. i want to ask you because you brought up asylum and how your administration is handling this so differently for asylum seekers. the department of homeland security this week is now proposing a new rule that would place additional restrictions on

migrants seeking asylum in the united states. but this is what you told my colleague jake tapper in september of 2021. >> do you think that asylum seekers who are fleeing violence, fleeing political instability, fleeing natural disasters, are they welcome in the united states? >> they most certainly are. >> and u.s. law says clearly, u.s. code 1158 anyone that sets foot in this country can seek asylum. has that changed? >> it has not. it has not, poppy. what we are doing is trying to bring order and safety to the asylum system. we are trying to cut out the smugglers and so what we are doing is incentivizing people to come in an orderly way, in a safe way, to our ports of entry, rather than placing their lives in the hands of smugglers. i will tell you, i have been to the border nearly 20 times.

and each and every visit i have spoken with our front line personnel about the tragedies that they have witnessed firsthand. we have an obligation to cut out the ruthless smuggling organizations and to open our arms to individuals who qualify for asylum. we are trying to do both through the policies that we are implementing. >> so let's talk about those people because yes, you've been to the border so many times and so has our colleague rosa flores, who our viewers just heard from. she covered it extensively. last month she spoke with a migrant family about the terrors of what they're experiencing. this is what they said to her. >> she said she thought her daughter was going to die overnight because it was so cold, they had just crossed the river, they were wet, desperate, she said she started knocking on doors asking for help.

she says that she prayed to god, hugged her daughter as tight as she could and tried to warm her with her own body heat as much as she could to try to save her daughter's life. >> so mr. secretary, rosa is still with us and i want you to have the chance to ask the secretary a question since you're the one who's there. >> reporter: yeah, thank you so much mr. secretary for your time. i want to focus on the human impact because i'm the one who interviews these people face-to-face. i can tell you i've interviewed women in mexico who really just wanted to seek asylum in the united states but they were expelled under title 42 and once back in mexico, they were kidnapped, raped and you know there are many cases, thousands of cases of violent acts of migrants expelled under 42. so what is the government doing

to prevent such violent acts on individuals attempting to come to the united states and seek asylum? >> rosa, it is precisely what i shared with poppy and you and i have discussed previously. it's why we are trying to build the safe and orderly pathways to the united states. we're trying to spare these individuals the trauma that they endure by placing their lives and their life savings in the hands of smugglers. it is also why we have conducted an unprecedented attack against the smuggling organizations. we have accomplished more than 7,000 arrests. we have dedicated, really, untold resources, personnel, technology, investigative capabilities to break up these smuggling organizations, to disrupt them. you and i have both seen too much tragedy on the border. it's precisely why we're trying to build a safe and lawful

pathway that we announced yesterday and we've been implementing since day one? >> would you, secretary, qualify what is happening on the border right now as a crisis? >> you know, we have seen the situation at the border managed in an orderly way. we have seen it in extraordinary challenging circumstances as well. you can rest assured, poppy, that we're doing everything that we possibly can to build a system that provides humanitarian relief in a safe and orderly way. while trying to persuade congress to fix what is a broken system. >> i understand that. but just what you're seeing, what you've seen the 20 times you've been there. the record number of migrants at the southern border, and last year it was nearly 2.4 million. if that's not a crisis,

secretary, what is? >> you know, poppy, we have seen 2.4 million encounters at our southern border and it is reflective of the greatest level of displacement of people in the world since world war ii. it is reflective of migration challenge that is gripping the entire hemisphere. when i was in columbia, i spoke with the president of the country, the foreign minister, the minister of security, and they spoke of 2.4 million venezuelans in columbia now. we're seeing costa rica's population explode with nicaraguas. a regional challenge requires a regional solution which is why president biden has led the regional leaders in addressing it. >> i understand that, mr. secretary, but this is in the hands of you now and the biden administration. i would just finally say that

border officials have been consistently telling rosa flores, our colleague, they feel abandoned by this administration, by the federal government. so why has it taken two years for president biden to go to the southern border? >> poppy, we have been dedicating our efforts to the situation at the border since day one. we are incredibly proud of our front line personnel who are tirelessly and selflessly dedicated to the mission. the president knows the border very well. he has had his secretary of homeland security visit multiple times since the very initiation of the administration. and he's going to see the border not for the first time in his public service career. >> right. i understand that. >> this sunday and i'm looking forward to joining him there. >> but as president to see it firsthand, the net effect.

secretary mayor kas, thank you for your time and your work. thank you. >> thank you. thank you, poppy. >> thanks to rosa, too, who's been down there. >> very good interview. speaking of president biden, he plans to honor those who fought to protect the capitol on january 6th. we'll be joined by the former d.c. metropolitan police officer, michael fanone, that's next. find your beat your moment of calm find your potential then own it support ur immune system with a potent blend of nutrients

and emerge your best every day with emergen-c

just look around. this digital age we're living in, it's pretty unbelievable. problem is, not everyone's fully living in it. nobody should have to take a class or fill out a medical form on public wifi with a screen the size of your hand. home internet shouldn't be a luxury. everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting. just look around. this digital age we're living in, it's pretty unbelievable. problem is, not everyone's fully living in it. nobody should have to take a class

or fill out a medical form on public wifi with a screen the size of your hand. home internet shouldn't be a luxury. everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting. this morning president biden set to mark the two-year anniversary of the capitol insurrection by awarding 12 people with the presidential citizen's medal, included are officers who were injured or died after defending the capitol and election workers who rejected the former president's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. mj lee is life at the white house with more this morning.

tell us more about who will be awarded with this very special honor. >> reporter: don, as you know, president biden often speaks about the events of january 6th and the stain that those events left on the country. and some of the many heroes that emerged from that day. today, some of those very individuals will be paying an important visit to the white house. >> usa! >> reporter: exactly two years after the nation's capitol was rocked by chaos, violence, and lawlessness, president biden will mark the anniversary of the january 6th insurrection with a tribute to the people who held the line. >> make sure that such attack never, never happens again. >> reporter: for the first time in his presidency, biden will award the presidential citizens medal to 12 individuals. the medal is one of the highest civilian honors given by the president to american citizens.

the dozen recipients share a story of heroism and defiance in the aftermath of the 2020 election. and in the face of a deadly riot on capitol hill. capitol police officer eugene goodman, lured rioters away from evacuating lawmakers by using himself as bait. former d.c. police officer michael fanone was brutally assaulted by rioters. >> i heard chanting from some in the crowd, get his gun and kill him with his own gun. >> reporter: capitol police officer, caroline edwards. running back into the violence after losing, then regaining consciousness. >> i ran towards the west front and i tried to hold the line at the senate steps. >> reporter: and one hero will receive the metal posthumously,

brian sicknick, who died the day after he responded to the insurrection. biden will also recognize election workers who rejected efforts by former president trump and his supporters to overturn the results of the 2020 election. mother and daughter election workers in fulton county, georgia gave testimony describing how trump and his allies publically disparaged and harassed them. >> it's affect my life in a major way. in every way. all because of lies. >> there is nowhere i feel safe. nowhere. do you know how it feels to have the president of the united states to target you? >> reporter: over the past two years, biden has spoken out fiercely against the events of january 6th.

>> democracy was attacked. simply attacked. >> reporter: and made attacks on american democracy a central political theme ahead of the midterms. >> make no mistake, democracy on the ballot for >> and all week we have been talking about the contrast about the drama unfolding on the house floor and president biden getting to work here at the white house. i don't know if that contrast gets more stack than what we're going to see today. the president did insist earlier this week he isn't enjoying seeing this debacle. he said it's an embarrassing look for the country. >> thank you very much, m.j. lee. and as we have been saying, here we go. two years later this is all playing out. what's happening with kevin mccarthy and then you have the anniversary of the insurrection and now these people who are getting awards, and that's very special for them. >> yeah, m.j. is totally right, to see the contrast, to see what's going to be happening,

what's playing out here with what president biden is going to be doing today is remarkable. joining us is one of the 12 people going to get the presidential medal today. michael fanone, the author of hold the line, the insurrection, and one cop's battle for america's soul. i wonder what it's like for you to be here on the two-year anniversary. what were you thinking when you were coming over here today? >> can was thinking it's really early in the morning. >> really, you know what i mean. it has to be strange to be back here two years later. >> in a way, i'm tired of coming back here. i'm frustrated at the lack of accountability for those that were responsible for orchestrating the attack on our capitol on january 6th. we're two years out. and while we have cycled a lot

of individuals through the criminal justice system that participated in the attack, donald trump is still walking around a free man. >> what about what we're seeing play out, when we talk about this split screen with kevin mccarthy, because you wrote this op-ed for cnn.com yesterday and you said that he once told you he could not control the fringe members of his party, and we're seeing it play out in real time when it comes to getting the speaker's gavel today. >> a lot of people predicted what is happening today, and i certainly am not surprised. again, i had that conversation with myself and officer harry dunn and gladys sicknick, the mother of officer sicknick, and he told us, i can't control the fringe members of my party. and so here we are. aubt year and a half out from

that meeting, and kevin mccarthy is desperately seeking the speaker's gavel and cannot control the fringe members of his party. by definition, a leader should have a firm grasp on all the members of his party. he doesn't. he's not a leader. >> what does it say to you about that infamous trip he made down to mar-a-lago in the days after what happened here two years ago? >> i mean, that just goes to show you the type of person that kevin mccarthy is. you know, kevin mccarthy cares about kevin mccarthy. and his concerns lie in his professional future. he's the type of person who would in the immediate aftermath of this, you know, historic event, the attack on our capitol, would lay the blame at the foot of the president, former president donald trump, and then when he saw it as not being politically advantageous, not leading to the speaker's gavel, he goes down to

mar-a-lago, kisses donald trump's ass, and here we are. >> if kevin mccarthy doesn't get the votes to become house speaker, which he may not, what do you want to see and to hear from the person who is eventually the house speaker? >> i want to see the new leadership denounce political violence. and hold its members accountable for the rhetoric that they use, that we have seen time and time again inspire acts of violence across the country. >> one thing they have done here in recent days i have noticed is remove the magnetometers outside the house chamber that had been put in place. what do you think of that? >> i don't understand in this day and age when we're dealing with a rise in crime across the country and a rise in political violence across the country, and we know that the capitol and members of congress are targets of that violence, that we would be doing anything to lessen the

security posture at the capitol. >> michael fanone, i know this is a strange moment for you to be here two years later, but thanks for joining us. >> yes, ma'am. thank you. don, as you were noting there, you know michael fanone very well. to see this moment playing out two years later as this is very much still a conversation under way when it comes to security here at the capitol, security nationwide, what these threats look like nazwide and this fight playing out on capitol hill. >> and safety. i could say the insurrectionists picked the wrong people to mess with and also the election deniers and lawmakers because michael fanone is going to say what michael fanone thinks, and he's going to say how he feels as we have been witness to on many interviews here on cnn. we want to talk about the insurrection and the election lies. it's impossible not to mention rudy giuliani, a new cnn documentary takes a closer look at how america's mayor became

trump's right-hand man. >> forget paris and forget london and forget everything else. new york city is where it's at. >> i don't know how close giuliani and trump were personally in the '80s, but they occupied similar spaces. >> they're outer borough guys. one thing they have inherited from their fathers is a certain kind of awe and resentment of manhattan and those rich people. >> rudy represented the every guy who came from the boroughs and came to new york and made it big. >> if you or a person who is looking at a snow globe, if you will, from the outside, even if you end up inside the snow globe, you always feel like an outsider. >> giuliani didn't come from the upper crust establishment. that may have fueled his ambition. did it also contribute to some deep sense of insecurity? that he was an outsider. and in that, maybe he does identify with trump.

>> joining us now is cnn senior political analyst and anchor john avlon, a former chief speechwriter for mayor rudy giuliani. so many lives you have lived. thanks for joining us. we're talking about rudy giuliani, i guess he could be the chief of the election deniers under donald trump, and then you have all of the election deniers now who are causing the chaos at the capitol. it's all related. it's all come full circle. >> and here on the second anniversary of january 6th attack on the capitol, it is worth remembering as michael fanone said, how accountability still has not been imposed and the legacy of january 6th is very much with us. take a look at the chaos with kevin mccarthy on capitol hill. the 20 or so hold-outs, the vast majority were election deniers. they voted tooverturn the election after the attack on the capitol. talking about rudy on this day also ties into that, because that's about somebody who once was a law and order figure, someone i had the honor of

working for when he was mayor, which i would argue a distinguished record and the descent to being trump's lackey and playing a role in inciting january 6th by combat comments which i thought was unforgivable. >> go ahead. i read his cues. >> no, because listen, i covered rudy giuliani's first day as mayor. >> you did? >> yes, i was a field producer at wnyw fox 5 and part of my job as a field producer that day was to cover his first day on the job. i remember going from deacons to rudy giuliani, we have been the last ten years, so d.c., even more. i think since obama, so d.c. focused, but we forget the influence that new york city and rudy giuliani had on our politics in this country. >> that's right, and look, one of the things this documentary

does is i think it deals with the different chapters of rudy's life. the first chapter, u.s. attorney. the italian american who breaks the back of the mob. the second act, the mayor of new york city, and the record is extraordinary. when he came in, new york city averages 2,000 murders a year. they fell almost 70% under his watch, almost 60% reduction in crime, welfare cut in half. >> i totally reject that. i think that's nonsense. and i think there's a lot of lessons that frankly are from the policies put in place at that time which were adopted by mayors across the country which could be relrned right now, and part of the tragedy is the lessons of that era are less available because of what he has done in the fourth act of his life. and that is part of the tragedy. >> i think it's amazing if we take that shot of him standing on that island looking at the statue of liberty, alone on the island on a rock right there,

this was america's mayor and i wonder for you how surreal it is. when i moved to new york in 2001, a lot, it was so great, largely because of a lot he had done. >> which is not to say he was not a controversial mayor. and one of the things i learned on 9/11, i was 27, 28 when i became his chief speechwriter. i learned a lot from the man. all this own evolution in its own way has been painful to watch. >> surreal for you. >> of course it is. it was a long time ago. to see the descent from america's mayor. the principles he advanced. one idea i loved was to be locked into partisan politics doesn't allow you to think clearly. >> it's like two different people. you know what, i was daonna han hanover's producer. >> we'll talk more about that. >> john, thank you very much. and you guys