that and the paycheck. - [announcer] do you have an invention idea but don't know what to do next? call invent help today. they can help you get started with your idea. call now 800-710-0020. >> well good evening everyone.

i'm laura coates, and this is cnn tonight. and, look we saw it on january 6th, when election lies exploded into violence at the united states capitol. well now, the latest outbreak of allegedly politically motivated violence is in new mexico. a republican who lost his race for the new mexico house who tweeted after his defeat that the election was rigged and he vowed to fight it until the day he dies. now, that person has been arrested on suspicion of orchestrating shootings at the homes of four democratic elected leaders. now, no one was hurt thankfully. but homes were damaged. >> shot came through my home, right where i had just hours before had been playing with my granddaughter. >> more on all of that in just a moment. and plus, we have sources telling cnn about a member of president biden's inner circle

who has now been interviewed by federal investigators. we'll tell you who it is and what happened. as the biden ministration is now saying that tonight, it will continue to cooperate fully with the doj probe of presidential records. we also have some major developments tonight, a massachusetts missing mom, anna walsh. her husband is in custody tonight, facing a charge now of murder, murdering his wife. though her body has not been found. and there's no word yet on what the motive could be. the dea says more evidence could be disclosed tomorrow. what might we learn? for more on the developing story in new mexico, though, i want to bring in cnn senior national correspondent kyung lah, who's live from albuquerque, and cnn chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller. i'm glad to have you both. this story is so disturbing thinking about what could have been. and we've seen obviously, kyung, the idea of political grievance

more broadly sparking a whole lot of incidents. now what's happening there, tell me the very latest, what are we learning about this suspect who is now in custody? >> well, at the heart of all of this, according to the investigators here in albuquerque's election denialism. the police chief here says that the mastermind behind a plot, attacking for democratic officials here in the city, is a person who was on the ballot himself, salman peña. he is a -- well, he was a republican candidate for the state house. and he lost. he didn't lose by a little. he lost by a lot. you could more than double the number of people who voted for him. and he still would have lost. but that did not stop his thinking that somehow he magically won his election and he was posting on a social media account that he would not concede, that he supported trump in 2024.

and the people he blamed, according to investigators, and who he targeted with accomplices are for democratic officials. i want you to take a look at this list. these are four locations. you can see the dates of when these shootings happened. they're spread out over the month. according to law enforcement, this man, solemn and pena, went and hired people, he sent them text messages, he went and essentially cased these victims homes. and then he paid accomplices in order to target these people. and as you pointed out, laura, thankfully no one was hurt. but investigators say they believe this all again circles down to election denialism and this person who was on the ballot, laura. >> i, mean the trauma of what has happened. and you mentioned the idea of casing these houses. he actually went to some of these houses beforehand, right. he wasn't outside, sort of in an innocuous way. he actually went and visited

them. >> yeah, and i think that's really what's changed. if you talk to election officials nationwide, and i talked to a lot of them, especially at the local level, the sort of rage that we normally saw directed at federal officials is now being directed to the people who you can actually touch, who you can find. and that is what investigators believe that peña did. when investigators say is that they've been able to collect some ring video of him showing up at various homes. there is one county commissioner, he went and rang the doorbell, and specifically called out the county commissioner's name. it was actually her daughter's house. and then, he went around the corner. and he went to the county commissioner. that particular county commissioner, and he spoke to her face to face. and then he went and found another county commissioner who he was angry at, who he believed had rigged the election. i want you to listen to what she says. >> he came to my house after

the election. and he's an election denier. he weaponize those dangerous thoughts to threaten me and others, causing serious trauma. yeah, he was saying the elections were fake, really speaking dramatically. i didn't feel threatened at the, time but i did feel he was erratic. >> and i spoke with her in person, you know, a little earlier this evening, laura. and she was distraught. she's really -- >> of course. >> she's really upset by the fact that her sense of safety has trained. and something else i should mention, is this overall problem may not be ending nationally. but at least even albuquerque, police say they are zeroing in on peña. he has a court hearing tomorrow. >> john, just hearing this and thinking about what could have happened. i mean, the idea of the anger he expressed, as john was speaking about, face to face with some of the people whose homes were then targeted later on. i'm interested about the arrest and how their of the pieces

together, especially when you saw that screenshot of the different dates that were attributed each different peoples homes. and i wonder if there is an attempt to try and make disappear random. i mean the fourth, the eighth, the 11th, len in january, hoping to possibly not have connective tissue be apparent. i wonder what you make of this, john, and the idea of what happened in this arrest, and the motivation here and the climate we are in right now. >> well laura, i think the motivation was purely intimidation. which is, he couldn't reach these people by convincing them, so i wanted to send a message by literally saying you can't hide anywhere, not even at home. there is information in the case that at one point, the people that he had doing these shootings, he said your shooting too high. you need to shoot lower so that, you know, they know the bullets could have hit them. one of the bullets went into the home of a child who was sleeping. and you know, parts of the

ceiling fell down on their bed. and you know, it's, it's extraordinarily frightening. but one question is, where does a navy veteran who is running for the state house, you know, put together a crew of shooters to carry this out? and the answer is, well, his navy career was pretty unremarkable, his criminal career was pretty impressive. he was part of a smash-and-grab gang, they use trucks to drive into big box stores and steal high-end electronics. so, as we go forward in this investigation, a kind of makes a whole lot more sense where he could put together a crew to steal cars, do shooting, and help them wage this war of intimidation. >> i mean, not to mention, john, that point. the idea of intimidation, the idea of making someone feel like there is no safe recourse, no safe haven they could actually go to. or talk about the basis of somebody believing that they had a right to be elected to office. i mean, years ago, i would say even four or five years ago

perhaps, someone even say three, there would be no thought this could continue, this would actually happen here. and yet, now we're seeing more and more instances from the dhs bulletins about political grievance, what motivates people, to now. why do you think this keeps happening? is it the idea that people are emboldened, they won't get caught? or is there a blind spot when it comes to law enforcement focus? or is it politics at play? >> well, i think what you are watching is a threat that is continuing forward. where you see, you know, thousands of people stormed the capitol. but lots of them dressed in tactical gear, military gear, carrying weapons. and then you see an individual storms the home of nancy pelosi in san francisco with a plan to break her legs and hold her hostage and assaults her husband. and fights with police to, you know, a thing where in the midterm elections, you see people in tactical gear sitting around with rifles and polling locations, exercising their

second amendment rights. so, if you weren't expecting this to happen now, i guess you're expecting it to happen next week. this is the direction, the vitriol is headed. where in the chat rooms i was looking at last week, they were saying we haven't come this far just to come this far. >> john, kyung, thank you so much. i want to bring in olivia troye, former homeland security and task force adviser to president pence. and fbi assistant director peter strzok. it's very chilling to hear those words. i haven't come this far to see this come. far something that's most motivate people to do the right thing. now being used to air outs on grievances in a way that could lead to extraordinary violence is. and this is very personal to those who are often targeted in this realm, people who are going out there every day lives and in their positions, and find themselves at the receiving end of vitriol. you've had personal experiences, olivia, in this area.

and i wonder what you make of what's happening in places like new mexico. >> i feel like it's certainly a worrisome trend. i've certainly lived it. we make life decisions on how it impacts my family. i make career decisions based on that as well. and i think about this every single day. and i think about people like those people in albuquerque. some of those people were election officials. they were officiating and certifying election results, rightly so, just carrying out their duties. and now their lives are being threatened. you know, that woman's daughter was at the house. i think what people like. that this is a long-standing trend that we're seeing here. the rise that's directly related to the lies and propaganda that is being pushed out there. i mean, people are believing these election deniers. i mean, look at what happened. let's go back to cesar sock, remember him? he was sending out the pipe bombs to people, he was sending out the -- weight of that start? well, it started with the fake news narrative from someone sitting in the oval office, attacking the media, right. and next thing you know, i palms are being sent to cnn. or i guess the demonization of

political opponents. they were sent to political figures. this is an endless trend that we're seeing continue. where does it and? it ends in violence. >> peter, that's such a fine point. you raised olivia on that idea of following that thread, where it goes. and if you were to be very reductive, obviously, from fake news narratives to the idea of election denialism, it's about this idea that the government is trying to take away something from you. you know, they think you are dumb. they're trying to lie to you. people are having a visceral reaction to that, you know, false narrative that's been created. but that also brings people out of the woodwork who are already having grievance based lives, who are already finding their allies in chat rooms. is that contributing to the idea of the anonymity, the social media, the idea of finding ones companions, essentially, is that contributing to the emboldening of these criminals? >> i think absolutely it is. look, when you look at social

media, it is a self selecting environment. whatever you choose to believe, whatever you want to see, you can find it. and you can find other people who feel the same way. and unfortunately in the past, it was typically something in our society where you would see leaders, whether the political leaders, religious leaders, community leaders, saying this sort of violence is unacceptable. but unfortunately, we've seen over the past several years and continuing to this day, elements within the political elites, particularly on the right, who are encouraging violence. >> well, it's advantageous at some point. >> absolutely, and marjorie lee greene, just last month in new york, was recorded in conversation saying if i had led the attack on the capitol on january 6th, we would have won, and we would have been armed. and then what happens today? she is given a spot on the homeland security committee. and then on the house oversight committee. which is going to be looking at government investigations, investigating the investigators who are looking at january 6th, and rather than calling the sentiment of violence, doing things to stoke that sort of outrage. and again, most people are not

going to act on that. but the worry is you do get this very small percentage. but even if it's a tenth of 1%, that still a big number of violent. people >> so how do you -- i guess intimate the idea of the seeds that can be implemented by the cz of access to and others. and the idea of every little colonel. we talk about comedy, how it's been funny, a kernel of truth is contained in it, and it's exaggerated. well, the idea of false narratives, a colonel of some semblance of truth, and then it's exaggerated, or it's exploited in some way that heightens peoples awareness of things and capitalizes on the naivete and ignorance. olivia when this happens, you are shaking your head at the idea of these committee assignments. but more broadly, i mean, the truth is, is there a way to actually call this and stop it, if it's online chatter, if it's beyond, if you can access it and tangibly hold it? >> well, you pull it with facts. but the problem is you have a bunch of elected leaders who

aren't interested in talking about the truth. when they're doing, like he said, when you're doing a committee that's going to talk about weaponizing the government, people are taking that in and they're thinking, oh, the government is coming after me potentially. they're seeing that, right. they're going to investigate possibly covid, right. they're tracking doctors. it's a whole revenge thing, right. where doctors are actually getting threats. i've talked to doctors in texas. i mean, this is an ongoing thing for them that started during the covid pandemic, with a whole bunch of covid disinformation, right. so it pivots. and i've told people, it's not a matter of when disinformation comes for you, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. >> well, let me ask you, peter, how do you investigate this? i mean, how do you do it without being accused of being the thought police? >> i think you go and you follow the law. we have decades and decades upon generations of an established criminal justice system, certainly at the federal level, that has clear laws and mechanisms in place to do those investigations in a

way that's consistent with the law. and it's important to have accountability. and that's what's so frustrating, is that you've got doj right now, you've got prosecutors, you have investigators, you even have judges who are doing their best job that they can to look at what happened on january 6th and elsewhere, and where people broke the law, to find them accountable and hold them accountable. just like they did for the people who did break the law in the summer of 2020 with the rights around the u.s.. doing that job should not create a congressional committee or other pundits who are out there targeting the people who are trying to maintain the law and order of the united states. and i really worry somebody, again, the extremes of what we're seeing in politics today are specifically trying to do just that. they're trying to increase the emotion. they're trying to increase the outrage. they're trying to make it personal. and i'm really worried where it's going to go. >> finding those trigger points and leading to violence, really important. thank you both, i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> well, with the white house in turmoil over the documents investigation, we do tonight

have some new cnn reporting about who has been interviewed by federal investigators. we're going to tell you all about it, next. it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-1-week, deep wrinkles in 4 4. so y you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena® nothing. nothing. absolutely, thing. it really is something. as an expedia member, you can ve up to 30% when you add a hotel to your flight. so you can have a bit more money, to do even less. because you've got a whole lot of nothing to do and absolutely nowhere to be.

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response, of course. and a top official in the administration is cooperating fully with the doj's investigation. joining me now cnn's chief white house correspondent phil mattingly. phil, i'm eager to talk to you about this. because there are signs the white house is shifting strategy as this crisis is continuing to intensify. what's going on? is there truly a shift, recognition they didn't handle it the first time? >> i think there is a understanding they've been unsteady for the last eight or nine days. and that's maybe putting it charitably. and to some degree, what they have realize, or at least what they start to coalesce around, is the idea that there are things they can and should do as the special counsel investigation really starts to kick into high gear to try and address at least the public perception of this issue. now, that does not mean they're going to engage on the myriad of questions that are still out there regarding how these documents ended up in the biden think tank in the first place, in the presidents personal home in the first place, or any

other questions surrounding the two months while this review was ongoing before it became public knowledge. but it does mean they will make very clear that while they will not answer questions and they will fully cooperate, they have a pretty attractive foil and house republicans, who have launched two of their own investigations in that manner. and the course of the last two days, you've seen white house officials really ramp up critical offense when it comes to attacking house republicans are investigating this matter, particularly the house republicans who are not willing to investigate former president donald trump's own classified documents investigation that's been underway. trying to kind of coalesce around the idea that this is a political fight to have as well as long as the investigation and the legal battle are underway. while they will not deal with a legal battle, they will not address the legal battle, and they will maintain they will fully cooperate with that ongoing legal battle, when it comes to the politics of this issue, they say two things. one, they're very willing to attack republicans head on when they go after the president. but also they're going to try

and maintain some semblance of business as usual. you have not seen the president diverge from his schedule. you've not seen the president move away from issues he was planning to talk about before. all these issues came to light. of course, the wildcard here is they don't know necessarily if anything new is going to come out at anytime in the future. that was certainly a problem they faced in that first week here. and officials acknowledge, they don't know if more investigation or more searches will come to part. they also don't know if more documents will come to light. but at this point in time, they feel they have at least steady things, at least compared to where they were last week. >> i, mean it's quite a change. and you're right, it's only really been a week of having even had this story emerge. although this happened back in november, the first realization of. it phil, thank you so much for this. you know, i want to bring in now cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez, who has new reporting tonight on the story. and senior law enforcement analyst andrew mccabe, former fbi deputy director. evan, let me start with. you because you heard the reporting from phil, and the

idea that the words he was where unsteady at first, they weren't engaging. they were having a political response to the house republicans, who were going after it, and what they were doing. but you have some new reporting here tonight. because in an initial review of the handling of the classified documents, they've now interviewed a personal attorney of president biden, is that right? >> that's right. this is a long time attorney for president biden, political campaign attorney. his name is patmore. and he's based out of boston. and he was, among the people who was at the pen biden center private office that president biden was using during the trump years and this is where the first set of documents were found back in november. and you know, as part of that initial review that was done by the u.s. attorney in chicago, john laos, the fbi was doing the assessment, they interviewed pat moore and other people who were involved in the

moving of the documents. and in the case of pat more, he was there when they found these initial documents. now, among the things that we've learned is that, you know, they immediately obviously return those documents that they found, the classified documents, to the national archives. and our jamie gangel also reports that, you know, they basically out of an abundance of caution took a bunch of boxes, even if they don't have classified information, decided to return it, give it to the national archives, saying here, take a look at these. and then as a last measure, pat moore had some documents, including personal speeches and some reference materials, taken to his office back in boston. he had the national archives come and retrieve those documents. you know, what you're getting a picture of there is, you know, a biden team that is, you know, i think trying to draw a contrast with the way trump has handled his own documents issues, right. and they're trying to draw a picture of cooperation.

now as you know, they have a new special counsel who's going to be doing investigation. they may need to come back an interview some of these same people. we know that the initial interview with pat moore, for instance, was not done with a 302, as you know, which is the way these interviews are usually memorialized. >> that's an important point. the idea of not necessarily reinventing the wheel, andrew, but with the special counsel now assigned to oversee all of this, there might be a shift in the way that the interviews are even approach, maybe going back to fill in some gaps, maybe even for the first time having questions. i wonder what sort of questions do you anticipate the investigators now asking? because everyone keeps saying, well, you know there's a stark contrast, biden is cooperative, and he's saying he's cooperative, investigators, obviously part of their nature and job is to be skeptical, even with a statement like that. what are the questions they might be asking at this time?

>> sure, so you can imagine that the agents who were working under mr. lausch we're really trying to get their hands around the big picture and the basics of what happened. what the folks are now working for rob hur, what the special counsel will do, is likely reproach any those witnesses that have spoken. and give them an in-depth interview to get the entirety of the scope of their knowledge of an involvement with these documents. whether it's from the office of the house. it's going to first be -- you think of it as chain of custody type questions. they're going to say to someone who's president when the documents were discovered in the pen biden office, they're gonna say okay, where were you in relation to the closet where the documents were found, what they look like, what were they stored in, was that storage container sealed with tape or with other materials, you know, who lifted out of the closet, what did you do next, you know,

where did you and then keep the documents until the national archives folks came to retrieve them. all down to the details of every movement with those things. and then broader scope, people who are in that office who can talk to you about the scope of people who had access to the office overtime. people who can talk about president biden's habits in terms of how often was he at the office. i don't he was there, where did he sit? and did you ever -- did he ever ask you to get things of the closet for him, things of that nature. so, it's going to be very broad and specific and probably very wide in scope. >> you know, speaking of the scope of this, evan, you know, the questions of course are going to be about who had access, but who also accessed it. >> right. >> there is a distinction between who had access, and who actually accessed it. and a lot of talk about hunter biden, who is already a topic of conversation, you know, even before president biden won the election, let alone now.

we know that there is a republican led congress that's looking into hunter biden and investigations. but they're still the doj investigation. we can't forget about that. so, where does that doj probe into the hunter biden laptop and beyond, what does that actually stand right now? >> yeah, it's a bit of a mystery. the one thing we know is the u.s. attorney in delaware, who is a trump appointee who is held over to handle this, is now essentially the decision-maker. he is going to be the one who makes a decision as to whether to go forward with charges that would include tax issues that hunter biden tax violations, that hunter biden is alleged to have had, as well as a charge related to a gun. hunter biden describes that he was obviously using drugs during a period in which he went and bought a gun. and when you buy a gun and fill out the form, the background check forms, you have to a test that you are not addicted to

drugs. he has since in his memoir and his interviews said that he was. so, that is clearly, you know, it would seem some kind of violations. so again, those are the two things that we know investigators have honed in on. now, there could be other things. but the republicans are asking a much broader set of questions about business ventures they were going to ground, and whether his father, whether his father, certainly, president biden had any business interest in something's hunter was involved in. and other members of the family. >> important to think about that scope of it. andrew, what's your reaction to the doj investigation and probe? i, mean we were hearing bits and pieces. there's obviously been complaints about have people covered the story enough, it's hunter biden, the biden family getting a pass? it's become a politically-charged issue, even if there is not a lot of meat on the bone to go and work with, what do you say? >> well, you know, i'm --

i can't say much about the politics. that's likely to kind of continue fanning the flames, creating issues, maybe we're not really exist for the purpose of political advantage, that's how these things seem to work out. on that side. but on the legal side, i can tell you that if the department of justice in the fbi have taking a hard look at this, and what they're walking away with or considering toward the end of the investigation, if that's where we are, is what seems like a fairly minor false, potential false statement charge and tax issues. that is a far, far distance from where the primary concern from several of the legislators on the hill is still focused. that is, you know, night and day from a case based on political corruption issues or illegal, you know, business ventures, and influence peddling and things of that nature. and let's keep in mind also,

laura, that so many of the things that people think of in that lane of, let's say, influence peddling, those practices are unsavory, possibly unethical. not things that we want associated with our political leadership. but oftentimes, not specifically illegal. it takes you back to those political corruption statutes, which we all know are very tied to the idea of being able to prove in court a specific quid pro quo. you know, the acceptance of benefit in return for doing some official act is generally the way that's framed. and those are tough cases to make. so, it sounds like the government could be pretty far from what people initially thought they would find in this case. >> i mean, when you mention quid pro quo, i think everyone remembers the first impeachment and the idea of being difficult, impeachment managers, being able to try to make a case. obviously, outside of the court of law. but will continue to follow what's happening here. it's important to know how all of this will resolve and in

what capacity. we'll follow the story. thank you so much, both of you. speaking of the criminal system, and some really bad news happening, we've all been following the story of the missing massachusetts mother of three. and after several pieces of what can only be described as grim evidence, now, bryant walshe is facing a murder charge. remember, he was facing a potentially misleading investigators charge before. now, it's a murder charge for the death of his wife, ana walshe. the very latest on that investigation is next.

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>>, well there's been a major development tonight in the case of missing massachusetts mom ana walshe. her husband brian has now been charged with her murder. he will be arraigned on the murder charge tomorrow. and the police investigation has turned up possible evidence, including a bloody knife in the couple's home, as well as a hacksaw and apparent bloodstains at a trash collection site. sources also say that waltz

search the in from -- internet for information on how to dismember and dispose of a body of a 115-pound woman. cnn's john miller is back with me now. truly disturbing to think about all that is happening right now, and the developments at play. you know, what is the probable cause that authorities seem to have today that would go from the misleading investigators charged to murder? >> so, laura i think it's what happened in between, which is with the misleading, they told us that there, you know, in their court documents that there was blood found in the basement, that there was a bloody knife found in the basement, that he deceived them about where he was and what he was doing. and then they found out where he really was, and what he was doing, buying cleaning supplies and so on. if you combine that with what has happened since, which is another location, a trash transfer station, additional physical evidence, the scientific piece of putting those two things together and making dna matches and things

like a bone fragments, and what other other evidence they've collected, is what brings these things together from misleading to a warrant for his arrest for murder. >> and as we sit here tonight, we're not aware that a body has been found of this woman, ana walshe. and, yet they are proceeding with a murder charge nonetheless. >> so laura, they're relying on two important things, maybe three. number one, the circumstantial evidence. if this is not the story, take a look at the story he gave. which one holds up? number two, the scientific evidence. what does the massachusetts state police lab able to bring together in front of a jury, in able to say this would be statistically impossible to be otherwise? and three, precedent. this d.a.'s office is the one that had the other case, the first one in massachusetts history, where they convicted someone back in 2003 for a 1998 murder where they never recovered a body. another husband who killed another wife. >> you know, thinking about all of that in context, i do wonder

at tomorrow's hearing, are we going to get some idea of of a motive here? now there's a justification, which is always an interesting notion, but the motive that might be described in any of the documents, we have a sense it's coming? >> so, we're going to see a charging document that's probably want to lead us into the science portion. i doubt we're going to see a motive. i think if we see a motive, and as a former prosecutor, you know they don't need one to prove it. but a jury is going to want one. if we see a motive, i think we want to see that unfold at trial. >> really, we're gonna fall along. it's happening tomorrow. again, the mother of three. we're learning tonight her husband has been charged with the murder, she's been missing since the new year. john, thank you for the update. i appreciate it. while, we also know that multiple schools in virginia, they've allegedly been failing to get some students there national merit scholarship recognition.

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>> a virginia school district is under fire this week. the fairfax county public school system is accused of allegedly failing to notify students of their national merit scholarship recognition in a timely manner. now, that district is under investigation by the attorney generals office and virginia for unlawful discrimination and violation of the virginia human rights act. the governor, glenn youngkin, weighing in on the incident over the weekend. accusing the district of choosing equity over merit. >> they have a maniacal focus on equal outcomes for all

students at all costs. this overarching effort for equal outcomes is hurting virginia's children. and it's hurting even worse the children that they aspire to help. >> we have reached out to the district for comment. i want to bring in virginia attorney general jason miyares to the conversation. welcome, attorney general. i'm glad that you're here. this might not be an obvious connection for some people to think about, the idea of failing to tell the commended students about the recognition and national merit status. and then having a connection for a violation of the virginia human rights act. what is the correlation here? >> well, this is what we know. we know that fairfax county public schools hired an equity consultant, pay them a 455,000 thousand dollars for nine months of work. and when their recommendations for the school district was equal outcomes for every student without exception. that's their words, not mine.

and that included a directive that said to get to these outcomes, and may mean treating students possibly unequally. so what we've seen is over 70% of these national merit accommodations have gone to asian american students. and i want to be clear, there are two branches of one investigation. the start of this investigation actually was the mission policy at thomas jefferson high school, it's a magnet school, you have to reply. we saw him go to an equity base admission standards. which went to a close to 20 point drop in enrollment in asian american students. and i heard so many complaints from parents that their children, they felt, were being discriminated against. i had one parent say my daughters done everything right since the first grade. but she's been denied her dream of attending thomas jefferson high school, not because of anything she's done, but simply because who she is. because she's korean american. i think that goes against all of our belief in our society. we believe in the equality of opportunity.

i think that's so important. and for so many of these students, english is not even the primary language spoken at home. and i know as a child of an immigrant, my mom fled cuba penniless and homeless, education is a doorway to the american dream. it breaks my heart that some of the students have not gone this proper recognition. and all of the scholarship opportunities that possibly come with it, the national merit award. >> certainly, the national merit award, one in which many students would love to have a feather in their cap and express, and i understand the concerns you raise about notions of equity. and there being a tension between what the friction is. but i do wonder, in terms of the human rights element of it, what is the act that has happened, in relation to the commendation status in particular, that has led to you to have an investigation into this being related to the admission process more broadly? what is that connection? >> well, you are not allowed to deny anyone a benefit under the virginia human rights act, simply because of the racial or

ethnic background. >> so, okay, i want to cut you off her second. hold on, i want to make sure i'm clear for the audiences sake as well. so, the connection, the statement is, there is essentially some notion that this was an intentional act, to fail to alert these students, that they had a commendation? >> well, we know from the public reporting that one of the parents of a child who notify the school, why don't you notify? they said we didn't want other students to have their feelings heard. and the real world consequences of this as we know at least one virginia college that says you get to attend our school tuition free, it's a private school, if you are a national merit commendation recipient. all we require is a certificate. the principal who is in charge of providing that notification to the students, and that's a value close to $100, 000, and i can tell you, as somebody i worked all four years of college, how are you going to pay for college is much more scary and anyways then which called you get into. the idea that we have by one

estimate, 800 different scholarships availed to those, and those national merit award recipients, and they weren't even notified ended even have the chance to apply. i have to tell you, the time with skyrocketing student debt, i think it's pretty know where the schools didn't notify the schools. that's what we're trying to determine. >> i do have a statement from the superintendent of the district as well. and they say the current understanding around the delay in notifying students, and i'll read it for you, our current understanding of the delay, and obviously thomas jefferson high school this fall was a unique situation duty human error. and we'll leave it to our investigative review to draw any final conclusions. what do you make of the idea that this being initially spoken about as human error? how does that play into your investigation, and you have some skepticism to that point? >> well, we're going to find out. that's why we're doing the investigation. we know that the initial report was that this was limited to one high school. and it was human error at this

one high school. now we find out in fairfax alone, it's over seven high schools that have been subjected this. we know it's also happening in loudoun county. and apparently, this is happened before for several years. so, that's why we're investigating. >> you know, i am very interested in the outcome of the investigation, the idea that if this was an unintentional act to try and annihilate of that opportunity, that's very telling. as is the greater conversation we're talking about of overall admissions, an issue the supreme court is trying to grapple with as we speak as well. are really important conversation, we'll follow the story. thank you so much. and the golden state warriors, well, they were at the white house. and for the first time -- since former president donald trump. the team, they did not hold back on weighing in on several key political issues. the hihighest level of safety yu can earn? subaru. when it comes to l longevity, who has the highest percentage of its vehicleles still on the road after ten years?

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>> today, president joe biden welcomed the golden state warriors to the white house, celebrating their 2022 nba championship. now, this was the first white house visit since the high-profile clash, you may remember, with former president donald trump. he disinvited them after steph curry criticize him over his attacks on black athletes during the national anthem. now, well the visit was about celebration, some came not only to play, but with something to say. superstar steph curry said this about biden and the return of britney griner. >> a great opportunity from us in the basketball community to thank president biden and his staff for all of their hard work and diligence on getting brittney griner home. it was a big part of our

basketball family, and it means a lot to know that she is here at home, say for their family. >> and head coach steve kerr spoke out about taking part in a roundtable on gun violence and gun safety would senior white house staffers. >> i think we have a huge issue in this country, obviously, with gun violence on many fronts. and it needs to be addressed globally. it's not one group of people or, you know, one sector of society. this is an issue that affects everybody. >> indeed, it does. also ahead, george santos, marjorie taylor greene, paul gosar, what's the connective tissue? probably not names you'd expect to see get committee assignments in congress, perhaps. except they all now have them. so, what does this say about how this congress will function?

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