hello, i'm erica hill in new york. we begin with an ominous new threat hanging over ukraine at a

standoff between its allies. lloyd austin meeting with european defense ministers at ramstein air base in germany. we are also, though, just getting in some breaking news, cnn white house reporter natasha bertrand, oren liebermann joining us. what are you hearing potentially about what more we're learning? even this secret meeting that the cia director held last week with president zelenskyy? >> yeah, so about the meeting between ukrainian president zelenskyy and cia director bill burns we are learning that burns went there really to brief the ukrainian president on what the u.s. believes are the potential battle plans by russia to launch an offensive in the spring. now, of course, bill burns has been a very key emissary between the u.s. and ukraine as well as even with russia over the course of the war and this really just signifies the urgency the u.s. feels in this moment getting ukraine the information the intelligence it needs ahead of this potential russian offensive seeing this as a very key window

to give ukraine potential information that it can use for a leg up there. so burns traveled there, this is roughly the third time in the last three months that he has traveled to ukraine. you know, but we are also learning new information today about a key russian organization inside ukraine that the u.s. has been watching very warily, the wagner group, this russian mercenary organization that putin is increasingly relying on to carry out operations inside russia. the u.s. says that they now have new information, new photos that they are willing te to the public showing russian railcars traveling from russia to north korea and back picking up weaponry they say to be used in ukraine by wagner group so really a key kind of big escalation here by the north koreans to be providing this military equipment to this russian mercenary organization and, of course, it says a lot about how the russian defense establishment and vladimir

putin, the president there are increasingly relying on this russian mercenary organization to carry out these military operations in ukraine as the russian military there is really faltering. so, again, this information just coming in that the u.s. does plan to issue even more sanctions on wagner group next week and, of course, releasing new evidence to the public about what they say are deliveries by north korea to wagner group of very powerful missiles and other military equipment that they can use there. >> yes, certainly an important development. and we are, i should say we are waiting to hear from the white house on that so we'll bring that to you as soon as it begins. as we dig deeper here, oren, looking at wagner's role in ukraine, walk us through how it is understood that this group has been used by russia to this point. >> when russia began suffering a shortage of bodies essentially they brought in wagner, the mercenary organization infamous

for its work, its atrocities in syria and its what is done in africa, wagner was supposed to fill that hole. that's what they've done. the primary russian force fighting in bakhmut in eastern ukraine is wagner forces and the u.s. has said many of these are vicks who were released from prison specifically to fight for wagner with the promise that they would be released if they fulfilled their contract. if they fought for long enough. it was just a couple of weeks ago the u.s. also said wagner itself not the russian ministry of defense was getting artillery from north korea, the north korea was supplying this so this would be an additional step putting forward by the u.s. the evidence supporting that argument. it has been wagner fighting primarily in bakhmut making some gains they claim to have taken much of soledar, a town just north of bakhmut but that has become the primary russian force. it's also interesting we've seen as wagner has become the primary force there disagreements, even open arguments between the leader of wagner known as prigozhin and openly arguing with the russian ministry of

defense so those fractures have become evident. prigozhin claiming wagner is the most effective fighting force russia has right now and this is why they've gotten so much attention not only over the course of the past few weeks but longer as they have become primarily one of russia's key weapons in the fight in eastern ukraine. >> stay with me. i also want to bring in retired lieutenant general mark hertling joining us. cnn military analyst and former commanding general of the seventh army. when you hear the new reporting as to what's going to happen, curious your reaction to what we're waiting to hear from the white house and what the potential impact could be. a cou >> first, wagner is a transnational criminal organization. what oren described is sort of a scenario out of "sopranos." the russian government is

corrupt. they are relying on these paramilitary organizations to recruit criminals from prison putting them on the battlefield and having them attack en masse so that literally tens of thousands of them are killed used as meat grinders so what you're talking about is a military that hasn't been able to execute their war plans. have not been good tactically, operationally or strategically on the battlefield so they rely on prigozhin and his wagner group and it's causing a great deal of consternation within the pentagon itself, personalities are at each other's throats in moscow. having to do with cia director burns going to ukraine, giving additional information, you know, harken back to before the february invasion by russia into ukraine, burns had been to moscow several times, told them basically we knew what we were seeing them do, getting ready to prepare to attack into ukraine

and yet mr. putin brushed it aside. we have been reading their mail. the united states intelligence agencies know what russia is doing at every step of the way and it's great that they're informing president zelenskyy of what's occurring. >> how closely do you think these two events are tied together both the visit last week from cia director burns talking about plans for a spring offensive and the decision now to designate the wagner group as a transnational criminal organization. >> both of those are tied pretty closely truthfully. if i were a leader in the united states government today i would do exactly that. in addition to the coincidental serendipitous meeting of the ramstein contact group where continued pressure is being put on nato allies and partners to provide more equipment to ukraine. so a combination of all of those three things and as oren said a minute ago the wagner group has been effective but they've only been very effective in a small portion of the battlefield. in and around bakhmut.

they can't cover the entire 500 kilometer frontage that is the distance between the russian lines and the ukrainian lines so while they have been successful in that very area, they can't cover down all of russia's failures so it's fascinating to watch what prigozhin is doing with this group but he's not going to be able to sustain these kind of actions because he doesn't have the manpower and doesn't have the equipment. that's why they went to korea. >> it's interesting too that we're seeing all this play out on the same day that there is more and more discussion about tank, right, tanks from the u.s., tanks from germany, a little back and forth and secretary austin earlier today, but on the one hand it would seem to highlight what from the very beginning has been a discussion among nato countries, which is which weapons to send and what the potential impact of those weapons could be. not just on the battlefield but the broader impact. are you seeing a shift at all in terms of what these allies are willing to do? >> i am, erica.

they are certainly looking for more and more capabilities to provide ukraine for the next phase of the fight. by my count we're in about phase 5 of this operation. and that's the phase where russia is drastically trying to mobilize literally hundreds of thousands of more fresh meat for the battlefield and at the same time ukraine is trying to transform and build an operational and a western-style army that they can use to conduct counteroffenses against ukraine. or excuse me, against russia, so, yeah, it is a very unique position, while that's occurring on the battle front between russia and ukrainian troops, you still have russia firing missiles at civilian population centers and killing ukrainian civilians so it's a combination of how do you counter the russian strategy to pressure the civilians in ukraine and at the same time regenerate enough force on the battlefield and help ukraine transform their

military into a western-style high-tech counteroffensive force? it's all coming together well in this phase and i'm watching very closely in terms of what the ramstein contract group can deliver to ukrainen army. >> there's also the question of in terms of things we're watching closely would be the reaction from russia. not only to whatever we learn out of ramstein, right, but also to the expected designation when it comes to wagner and what the impact could be on a response from russia. >> yeah, and there's been, you know, a continued comment by mr. putin and now the former president, medvedev who are saying, hey, if russia does lose a conventional war the next step would be the use of nuclear weapons. well, that's becoming an old song for russia. they continue to threaten the use of nuclear weapons and they know that the potential for a retaliation or even a preemptive

strike for that could be catastrophic for the russian federation so while they continue to push those threats they're becoming less and less viable as russia continues to lose on the battlefield. >> what is the one thing you're noting you're waiting to see what the package is? we have a sense of the $2.5 billion aid package from washington in terms of ukraine, talking about more bradley fighting vehicles, those stryker combat vehicles. what in your estimation can we pinpoint to show in terms of impact and also where this battle is headed? >> well, we're seeing again going back to ukraine is putting together a combined armed force that can conduct offensive operation into the territory where russia is stretched very thin, i'm talking about zaporizhzhia, keirherson and cra but the list on the screen shows u.s. forces, the contributions

of 90 stryker vehicles is an ominous force, an additional 59 bradley vehicle, a great tank killing weapon and fought off both of nose in combat and they're good but you also need the tanks. that's what secretary austin is pushing but i would say a warning, though, too, erica, as i go down the list of the last couple of months that what had been given -- what has been given to ukraine by various partners, we're talking about bradley, strykers, denmark has given the caesar system, himars, m-rapst, leopards, 106ss, hawk missile systems, what i'm describing is a litany of different types of brand-new weapon systems. the ukrainian army can fight off of those of those. they need training on some of those but truthfully, erica, as i have become a broken record

i'm very concerned about the logistic support when you introduce those various types of weapons from different countries, it is really going to put a hard pressure on the ukrainian logistics and sustainment system to maintain that type of equipment. and that's what secretary austin is doing at ramstein ensuring not only is ukraine getting the kind of equipment they need but it's as simple as possible to put it to use on the battlefield. >> retired lieutenant general mark hertling, always appreciate your insight, thank you. >> thanks, erica. well, in washington, a milestone for the annual march for life. it's actually the 50th time anti-abortion advocates have taken part in the event. they're actually at this hour making their way toward the supreme court. this marks, of course, the first time the event has been held since the court overturned roe v. wade last summer and less than 24 hours after the supreme court revealed its investigation to determine who leaked that draft opinion which led to roe's

demise and shocked the nation, well, they figured out they don't know who did it. brian todd and joan biskupic with us. is there a different mood this year given that they accomplished for many people a lot of what they wanted to do, at least initially? >> reporter: well, eric characters you do get a sense there is a different mood. this is a celebration at one time but it is also a very significant show of resolve because so many people we've talked to say that the work is not done yet. i'll take you over here as we get ready for this march in just seconds from now, the march will begin over here and it's going to come over here and then go to the capitol building just to my right and over east of here. as we get ready to start this i want to talk to one of the marchers, marion has been coming here on and off you say for 35 years. you're moving and why come now?

what changed and why would you come now after that big victory? >> well, i think first we want to celebrate the victory itself which celebrates all of the people that have worked so hard for 50 years to make a difference and the reason why all human life matters and we care about human life and want to make a difference and help our country to understand that this is a great country founded under god, one nation and that we just want to see the rights of everyone recognized, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. >> the campaign and tactics how do you think the anti-abortion movement now has to change from maybe focusing on the federal component with roe being overturned to going to the states and grass roots? how does it have to change? >> when you go back to the states many allow abortion and many of them allow full-material abortion. massachusetts is one of them. and i think that our movement has to also be a movement of change of law but change of heart. reaching out to women, reaching out to men that are involved and

difficult pregnancy situations and letting them know that we're here for them no matter what and to be much clearer and much more available to them and to tell them, you know, if you're struggling we will help you. we will do this. i did 26 years of post-abortion counseling with men and women and i've seen the acne and the pain that it can cause and that too really makes me say i've got to stand up for women. >> very good. well, thank you for doing this. nice to see you and good luck. so, guys, there you get a sense of it, the movement they say has to change, more to the grass roots. this will be interesting because every year until now that they've done this they have symbolically ended the march at the supreme court. they are now symbolically ending it in front of the u.s. capitol hill to symbolize they want to take this again to the late legislatures and push for abortion to be restricted or banned in every state. that's kind of how they're shifting tactics now, erica. >> brian, appreciate it. thank you. joan, let's talk about this investigation because for months

now there have been questions about who leaked this information. the investigation basically found that they just don't know but did reveal that plenty of people, dozens of people actually had access to it, based on that, any changes moving forward in terms of access to these draft opinions? >> good afternoon, erica. yes, i don't think the number of people with initial access at the outset of negotiations, 82 as the investigators said in the final report, is going to change necessarily but how the documents are handled. most certainly will. what the investigators found was that they couldn't determine how many copies were made by the people who first had access to the various law clerks and other assistants, they didn't -- they couldn't determine how many copies were actually emailed potentially outside the building, whether they were downloaded to other devices, it turned out that several of the law clerks told investigators that they had actually confided

to their spouses about the vote count and opinion. so there were all sorts of ways that security was lax, not just in terms of, you know, who had access but then how those people handled their access. so it appeared that those were the kinds of things that would be changed going forward. you remember that when chief justice john roberts announced this investigation, back on may 3rd, the day after politico published the draft opinion, you know, there was a lot of suspense and anticipation about what they would find. and here we are about nine months later with no answers about who the culprit might have been but frankly more questions about the security and institutional protocols, it seemed like, frankly, erica, that this was a leak that was in some ways waiting to happen given how uncertain, unsecured various computers, printers and other i.t. protocols were at the

supreme court. >> right. i mean, it is really surprising. let's take you now live to the white house. john kirby, let's listen in. >> which is committing atrocities and human right as becauses in ukraine and, of course, elsewhere around the world. but first, i want to be able to provide some additional information about wagner's operations in ukraine. now, as his military continues to struggle in ukraine, president putin is increasingly turning to wagner which is owned by yevgeny prigozhin for military support. we are seeing indications including in intelligence that tensions between wagner and the prussian ministry of defense are increasing. wagner is becoming a rival power center to the russian military and other russian ministries, publicly prigozhin and his fighters have criticized russian generals and defense officials for their performance on the battlefield. prigozhin is trying to advance his own interests in ukraine and wagner is making military

decisions based largely, largely on what they will generate for prigozhin in terms of positive publicity. we continue to assess that wagner currently has approximately 50,000 personnel deployed to ukraine including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. our information indicates the russian defense ministry has reservations about wagner's recruitment methods. despite this we access they will continue to recruit right out of russian prisons due to recent events, we assess that it is likely there are mounting tensions between russian officials and mr. prigozhin. i also want to discuss a little bit north korea's ongoing support for russia's military operations against ukraine. by providing arms and ammunition to wagner. in part because of our sanctions and export controls russia is searching for arms from foreign countries including through

wagner. in recent weeks we have seen north korea, sorry, we have seen north korean officials falsely deny that they have provided arms to wagner. as we have said publicly north korea delivered infantry rockets and missiles into russia for use by wagner toward the end of last year. so today, we are releasing some imagery of this initial delivery. this imagery shows on november 18th, five russian railcars traveled from russia to north korea. and the next day november 19th north korea loaded those ra railcars with shipping containers and the train returned to russia. now, while we assess the amount of material delivered to wagner has not changed battlefield dynamics in ukraine we do expect it will continue to receive north korean weapon systems. we obviously condemn north korea's actions and we urge north korea to cease deliveries to wagner immediately. and we are going further, by taking action against wagner itself, last month the

department of commerce designated wagner as a military end user which means we expanded the entity listing of wagner to ensure it cannot access equipment anywhere in the world based on u.s. technology or production equipment. today, we are announcing additional actions that we are taking to help ukraine defend itself against russian and wagner forces. first, the department of treasury will be designated wagner as a significant trance national criminal organization under executive order 13581 as amended. in coordination with this we will also impose additional sanctions next week against wagner and its support network across multiple continents. this actions recognize the trance continental threat he poses through its ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity. with these actions, and there will be more to come our message to any company that is considering providing support to wagner is simply this, wagner is a criminal organization that is

continuing wide -- sorry committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses and we will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those who are assisting wagner. second, as we have stated previously the arms transfer the from the dprk are in direct violation of united nations security council resolutions so today we shared information on these violations with the security council's dprk sanctions committee panel of experts. we will continue to raise these violations at the security council alongside our allies and partners and, third, of course, and i think you saw secretary austin and chairman milley in ramstein today at the eighth iteration of the ukraine defense contact group. we are continuing to provide ukraine with the weapons and equipment that it needs to defend itself. so and you saw today the significant new package of security assistance which included more than 500 armored vehicles including bradleys,

stryker combat vehicles, mine resistant ambush protected vehicles and humvees. all in addition to the armored vehicles that we have already announced. this package also contains critical additional air defense capables including both more air defense systems and more surface-to-air missiles as well as more ammunition for the artillery system and himars, the advanced rocket systems the u.s. has already previously provided to ukraine. look, we've been clear and the president has been consistent, we're going to continue to support ukraine for as long as it takes to defend itself to defend its sovereignty and to defend its territorial integrity. you saw those actions today and everything we're doing as well with respect to north korea and wagner also reinforces those efforts. thank you. >> okay. let's take a couple questions. >> can you explain what the track tall effect is of this designation of a transnational

criminal organization? >> it will continue to open up avenues where we not only sanction wagner and put more squeeze on their act to do business around the world but will assist others in doing the same. it will broaden the network of nations and institutions that will be able to stop doing business with wagner. >> and can i ask one other question on ukraine. what is the level of frustration here at the white house over germany's position on giving tanks to ukraine especially since germany doesn't have to give their own tanks, they just have to allow another country to send tank to ukraine. >> we're working not only in lockstep with ukrainians but partners and allies all over the world and these are all decisions that each nation makes for itself. sovereign decisions. we aren't arm-twisting. and nobody is arm-twisting us. we are working inside what you could consider a coalition of

the willing here to provide ukraine with the defense and security assistance that is needs. germany obviously a strong nato ally but they have stepped up. they have provided a lot of equipment including some air defense and some armored vehicles of their own to ukraine and they have as we have evolved their support to ukraine over time as the war has evolved and changed and we are just in a different phase now in this war so we're all talking about what kinds of collective capabilities can be provided. >> way in the back. >> yes, john. thanks. -- asked this question many times. when you say -- with continue to support ukraine as long as they -- what do you mean by that, as long as they need? what do you mean by that? what does winning look like from you in ukraine? >> well, as long as it takes means as long as it takes, it

means i'm unable to give you a date certain on the calendar for, you know, when, you know, when that support won't be necessary anymore. it's necessary now. it's going to be necessary in coming weeks and months for certain and we want to make sure that we are meeting the need as best we can for ukraine and what does winning look like? president zelenskyy gets to determine what victory looks like. we're not dictating that to him either. what we've said we'll continue to help them defend themself, defend their sovereignty, win back their territory as they should, as they must and to defend their citizens and their infrastructure. >> what is buy beyond them to take crimea? >> crimea is ukraine and decisions about parts of ukraine that ukrainian armed forces are going to fight over or fight in or strike, that's up to president zelenskyy and his military leaders. >> thank you very much.

i have a question about brazil. the president said he's coming to the white house february 10th. can you confirm? >> we look forward to seeing him early next month. >> this week president biden said the institutional structures in brazil are collapsing. is the white house concerned that there is remain high and democracy in brazil is still in danger? >> the president said at the time of those violent protests that we have confidence in brazil's democratic institutions and we certainly have confidence in the way the president has been handling himself throughout that time and muchward and again we look forward to welcoming him here at the white house and having more and deeper discussions about improving and deepening the relationship between the united states and brazil. >> and when comes to investigations that are taking place in brazil right now, did the administration offer any

kind of assistance to brazil either cooperation from u.s. law enforcement or intel agencys? >> i think we made it clear at the time that we'd be happy to support in any way that we can. i'd leave to it brazilian officials to talk about their investigation, though. >> thank you. >> thank you. thank you. first on wagner, can you -- can you talk about what sanctions are on the table against north korea given the fact that you've already identified them as supporting wagner? >> i don't have anything to report right now in terms of specific sanctions. that's why we brought it up to the panel of experts on the resolutions committee. and we'll see where that conversation goes. but we're certainly not going to rule out the possibility for additional sanctions if that's deemed fit inside the u.n. >> and then secondly on the tanks can you just help us understand how badly ukraine

needs these advanced battle tanks right now or is it not time sensitive? >> no, it's absolutely -- we recognize it's a need, a relevant and critical need for the ukrainians so pardon me for repeating myself, but i think it's important to remember what kind of fighting we're talking about here. it's rough terrain and it's open ground. a lot of it in the donbas, i described it like kansas, a lot of farmland. and mostly towns and villages that are not that big, not major industrial cities. and so when you're fighting in an area like that and we fully expect, the ukrainians fully expect the fighting in the donbas will continue here for weeks and months ahead. combined arms maneuver, which is a fancy way of saying you want to be able to maneuver on the ground quickly, effectively with enough firepower against

adversary ground forces and so -- >> listen to john kirby there, he's currently talking about the tanks and why he believes they're needed saying it's time sensitive in ukraine. that it's a relevant critical need. this comes though if you're just joining us on the heels of a briefing where kirby was talking about the designation of the wagner group which is this mercenary group which has as we know been working on the part of russia in ukraine, they will be designated a transitional criminal organization. more sanctions could be coming next week. why now? it basically opens up the avenue for sanctions and also may have an impact on the group's ability to do business around the world. retired lieutenant general mark hertling is still with us. so general hertling, when we see this, you know, i think it's always a good question of, okay, so there's this designation, okay, there could be more sanctions next week, practically, though, what is that impact? >> it was a great question by the reporter in the briefing

room asking, well, what does this mean? when you talk about the treasury department opening up those kinds of investigations and sanctions, many people think the treasury department just handles money. but they look around the world to see how money is being transferred to different organizations through different people. so when you're talking about the wagner group attempting to buy weapons and literally becoming an international arms dealer with north korea, i'm sure a lot of people that are in private organization prigozhin's wagner group can be sanctioned, bank accounts can be discovered. they can look for how they're paying the north koreans for doing this as well as individuals in north korea. that's just one example, eric characters but there are other examples that you could garner more intelligence. you could find out more things that are going on between the relationship between north korea and russia. and it could be negatively affect russia's capability of fighting the war in ukraine.

so those are the kinds of things that happen. it's not just the ability to say, hey, we're going to call these people and classify them a certain group. it has to do with what legal, commercial, economic systems can then do against those organizations. >> lieutenant general mark hertling, again, thank, you as always for your expertise and insight. >> you're welcome. thanks. a secret list aimed at keeping america safe, turns out it's no longer safe. the tsa investigating a cyberhack after someone put a no fly list of suspected or known terrorists online. plus, for the first time the parents of the 6-year-old boy accused of shooting his teacher are speaking out and claim that gun was secured. the first of t. three generations, who all bank differently with chase. leon's saving up for his first set ofof wheels... nice try. really? this leon's papaying for his paint job on the spot...

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department will not be handing over several documents that they've demanded. those documents involve various high-profile investigations including one into former president trump's mar-a-lago probe. cnn's sara murray has this new reporting. what else is the doj saying? >> look, we're learning the justice department is informing the house judiciary committee which has asked doj for a flurry of documents that we would like to be helpful but when it comes to things like ongoing criminal investigates there won't be a lot you will get out of us. this is the response that we expected from the justice department but it's significant because it's the first time doj is going to be engaging withes new house judiciary committee which, of course, is run by republicans and jim jordan who is leading that committee has signaled he is very interested in delving into ongoing investigations and specifically pointed to the special counsel probe into donald trump's handling of classified documents and the special counsel probe into joe biden's handling of classified documents as areas he

wants to look into and this new subcommittee they authorized to look into the purported weaponization of the federal government. that subcommittee is authorized to look into ongoing criminal investigation but what is coming from doj is a signal of the hurdles house republicans will face as they try to get any information when it goes to ongoing criminal investigations. >> sara murray with the latest for us on that. also here with us former federal prosecutor elie honig. you just wrote about this which is helpful for all of us. as sara was pointing out this is what we should be hearing from doj, from the attorney general but there were some questions as to whether or not it would happen. just how important is this step? >> this is going to be a constitutional showdown. what merrick garland is doing is drawing a line in the sand. he's saying, yes, oversight exists, congress, you have oversight powers, doj can and should go up to capitol hill whether it's the a.g. or

somebody else and answer questions about their enforcement initiatives. but the line is in the sand we cannot talk about pending ongoing investigations whether you want to know about donald trump or joe biden or hunter biden or rudy giuliani or anybody else that is off-limits and important that merrick garland is drawing that line and an enormous problem if he were to testify about those cases but signaling here i'm not going to go down that road. >> what is important is one thing you wrote about in your piece, apparently you had a premonition, you talk about the importance, though, of merrick garland answering questions in the broader sense but it's okay if the house asks him to come in, it's actually helpful for him to go there and testify about perhaps, you know, practices, how things work. but it's the specific investigations where you have to be careful. >> exactly. if congress wants to ask the attorney general any congress any attorney general what are your top priority, where are you focusing resources, why are you emphasizing or de-emphasizing

this area of inc. enforcement, that's fair game but there's no mystery here, by the way, house republicans have said in their new subcommittee and statements we are going to ask about specific ongoing investigations. they want to dig into the trump probe and dig into the biden probe and those cases or united states versus unknown normal person should all be completely off-limits because once you open that door if you're doj you start testifying about ongoing cases you jeopardize those case, obviously, you jeopardize the presumption of innocence of the people who are being investigated and we've got a separation of powers problem where congress will have the ability to expose a kneecap any doj investigation. >> so there's also, i think this comes up a lot, i know you've spoken to it a number of times but there are claims from republicans of the reason we have to do this is because we believe that the doj is being politicized. there were plenty of claims under the trump administration where people thought that former president trump was politicizing

the doj. how do you wade through all that have. >> i do take issue with the premise there's weaponization. right? i don't think that's accurate or reflects what doj does on a day-to-case basis. congress has broad authority to investigate almost whatever it pleases and if they want to look into the purported weaponization, fine, you can do that in certain ways. what you can do not do is not go into past histories, you want to ask about policy, how do you do things at the justice department, how do you decide where your priorities sit, that's fine. but, again, that line that cannot be crossed is specific case. >> what happens if they come to doj and come to merrick garland and say we want you to talk about it. >> congress is only having a countermove to hole merrick garland in contempt of congress. he's not going to get prosecuted because who does the prosecuting. >> doj. >> headed by -- >> merrick garland.

we managed go 220 plus years as a nation without an a.g. being held in contempt until eric holder was held in contempt 2012 over the fast and furious this firearms investigation scandal. that was a republican congress but joined by 17 democrats who voted to hold him in contempt then in 2019 bill barr was held in contempt over the attempt to include a citizenship question on the census. now, nothing happened to either of them but contempt is meaningful. it's a symbolic slappen 0 the wrist. i think merrick garland has to take the slap on the wrist if it means protecting doj's core institutional values. >> elie, always great to see you. thank you. and another bit of news just in to cnn, more scandal for freshman republican congressman george santos. the latest denial from him, he's denying he ever performed as a drag queen calling it false, a longtime local performer in brazil is saying otherwise claiming they were actually at a rio area parade in 2008.

she provided us with this image from that time which she says is, in fact, so she says you're looking here at george santos. cnn has not independently verified the image. santos has not replied to a request for comment but just one of a number of stories that is coming out as there are more controversies, there are more lies exposed and more investigations tied to the congressman which is why numerous elected republicans are calling on him to resign. but what about his constituents in new york? well, miguel marquez asked them. >> reporter: what's the level of frustration right now? >> very high. i think it was above and beyond what many politicians do, you know, exaggerate a little bit. what he did was criminal. >> would you like speaker mccarthy and the republican leadership to freeze him out, to ask him to resign? i mean does something more need to happen? >> yes, i think they should get rid of him and vote him out on the house level. >> the other person had been in for a long time.

wasn't doing a lot for my town and nassau county and i was figuring, you know, maybe some fresh blood would be the best. >> what would you like to see now? would you like to see him leave office? >> well, i guess he has to leave office because of everything that he pretended that he was when he wasn't. however, i'm kind of like up in the air. i didn't donate any money so i don't have that against me. >> well, one person who thinks santos should stay right where he is, house speaker kevin mccarthy who, of course, can't afford to lose a single vote in his four-seat majority. lama damar hamlin is back. we have new details on that recovery. stay with us. the smoothing benefi ts of retinol are now for your whole body. plus, fast-working crepe corrector

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a long road ahead. buffalo bills safety damar hamlin has made amazing progress after collapsing on a sports field during a football game. but now we are joined by coy wire, and now, bring us up to speed after he has gone home, and tell us what is the lengthy home ahead? >> yeah, erica, we are reminded how scary and near fatal that injury was. his long time representative

tells me that he is still requiring oxygen and he is winded easily and his heart is monitored regularly, but damar is positive and he is ready to overcome this, and his teammates say that they are so settled now that he is getting better, and their spirits are lifted now that damar is back around the team in that building. >> it has been good to see him, you know, with a smile on his face, and, you know, the guys love to have him back in the building. >> to see 3 smile and wave and put his hearts up, and keep on pushing. it is like a positive energy bubble floating around the facility. >> positive energy bubble sounds great, doesn't it, erica? we can use that from time to time, and shawn mcdermott said that he is not sure that he is going to be at the game, but the players have to lock n because it is an emotional roller coaster, and one player said

that he cannot unsee damar collapsing on the field, but they have to get the invaders from the mind as the bills and the jaguars will kick off sunday at 3:00 p.m. >> they will have plenty of people watching. thank you, coy. and now, merck says it has finally found out how some of the diabetes drugs have been contaminated with a cancer-causing drug. and now, the fda said that merck found the potential carcinogens in some of the drugs. now they know how it got there, but still really troubling. >> yeah, it is definitely scary when you hear about this, but it does happen, and so we talked a little bit about this in 2018 about these compounds being found in some heartburn

medications, and you may remember that many of the drugs were recalled at the time, and in fact n2020, the fda issued some guidance to the companies about how to keep the nitrocimines from being introduced in part of the production. but these are found in the air and food and grilled meats and fish, and so we are all exposed to them, but the question is what level. it is when those levels are higher than acceptable for long periods of time that there is an increased risk of cancer. so some level is acceptable, and we don't know what level it is that merck has found, but they are clearly working on it. one key thing is that if you are taking one of the type two diabetes drug, and these are drugs that are based around a drug around junuvia, don't just

stop the drug abruptly, but reach out to your doctor about the next steps. we have reached out to merck, and they have instituted quality controls to consistently reduce the nttp levels and so that hopefully this is coming soon, erica. >> quickly before i let you go, there is a new report on opioids and emergency room visits, and what do we know? >> well, we know that opioids is getting a prescription for drug prescriptions for pain, and many of them are going unused an end up in circulation in communities and contribute to the misuse and overdose. the cdc is releasing the data suggesting that the numbers have gone down in terms of what the ers are prescribing, and so the rates of those opioids with the discharges dropped, you can see

from 2017 to 2018, and that is about 80 per visit, and in 2018 to 2019, it dropped to about 36.4, and so you can see that the decrease there, and also it went to 12.2% from 2019 to 2020. so it is encouraging to be one more step in the right direction. >> thank you, doctor. and now, we know it is a good condiment that could save your life. and so a man who was lost at sea lived thanks to what? catsup. a strong current swept him out to sea, and he tried to call friends, lost the signal, and then he spent the next four days

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