♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ rudy giuliani speaking to federal investigators. a cnn exclusive, and now cnn has also learned georgia's secretary of state is set to do the same today. how this investigation into trump is heating up now. how high did it go?

new reporting just in on the plans in place for the revolt in russia, including a plot to kidnap key putin advisors. and flying off the handle. passengers enraged at airports. more than 700 flights have been canceled and some passengers being told they can't get a flight out for days. be ready, this holiday travel weekend could leave you stuck. i'm sara sidner along with john berman and kate bolduan, "cnn news central" starts now. ♪ ♪ after today special counsel jack smith could be a major step closer to deciding if donald trump will face charges related to the ongoing probe into trying to turn -- to overturn the 2020 election results. these two men are the reason why i say that. former trump lawyer rudy giuliani and georgia secretary

of state brad raffensperger. cnn has exclusively learned federal investigators interviewed julian ngiuliani in weeks and raffensperger is expected to face questions. this has to do with the parallel special counsel investigation by the justice department into trump's, forts to change the outcome of his 2020 election loss. you'll recall raffensperger was the state official that donald trump asked in that phone call to find the votes he said he needed in georgia. let's get to the person who has covered this soup to nuts from beginning to end, sara murray joining me now. let's start with rudy giuliani. what more are we learning about this? >> well, kate, my colleague paula reid and i found out that rudy giuliani did sit down with federal investigators in recent weeks and his political adviser said that it was a voluntary interview and it was conducted in a professional matter. we don't know what the focus is, but we know that giuliani got a subpoena from federal

investigators looking for information about payments he got around the 2020 election. we also know that jack smith, the special counsel, has been looking into the whole fake elector scheme and giuliani played a role in overseeing the fake electors across seven battleground states and we also know witnesses were getting questions about what the lawyers around donald trump in the wake of the 2020 election were doing. a number of them, including giuliani, were spreading baseless claims of election fraud and these are areas the special counsel could be probing and we're seeing a lot of activity around the january 6th investigation and some sources familiar with the case said jack smith could be nearing some charging decisions. >> brad raffensperger, what are you hearing about what his sitdown could mean today? >> well, he is sitting down with investigators from jack smith's team in atlanta and this is interesting because it's pretty late in the game to see big names like brad ravffensperger and giuliani talking to investigators. raffensperger who was in donald trump's crosshairs because the

phone call that trump made to raffensperger in may of 2021 was so public. let's just take a listen to a portion of that call. >> so, look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state. >> so again, this is an interview raffensperger is doing with federal investigators. we don't know yet of any grand jury appearance and we don't know if this is jack smith's team checking the box making sure they talk to him or if there could be per to this sort of georgia angle that they're investigating, kate. >> great question. sara, thank you. john? this morning donald trump with new reaction after cnn obtained an audio recording where he seems to be discussing a secret document he still had in his possession after leaving the white house.

trump now claims he, quote, did nothing wrong. >> the voice was fine. what did i say wrong in those recordings? i didn't even see the recording. all i know is i did nothing wrong. we had a lot of papers, a lot of papers stacked up. in fact, you can hear the rustle of the paper and nobody said i did anything wrong other than the fake news which, of course, is fox, too. i had a whole desk full of lots of papers and mostly newspaper articles and copies of magazines and copies of different plans. >> that argument not convincing to some republicans including former utah governor and trump's own ambassador to russia jon huntsman. >> would you vote for him in 2024 if he's the nominee? do you think he can win the election? >> no and no. i think the legal entanglements, kaitlan, are going to be severe and i think it will cut into the base that he has and make the mathematics absolutely impossible for victory.

>> with me now is someone running against donald trump, north dakota governor and republican presidential candidate doug burgum, thanks so much for being with us this morning. i assume you heard the tape obtained by cnn where you can hear trump talking about something, saying i have a big pile of papers. this came up. this was him, they presented me this. this was off the record, this was him, this was from the defense department. what do you hear in that and what concerns might you have? >> well, what i hear is when we're talking about 2020 election, when we're talking about documents we're not talking about the future. we're talking about the past, and what i'm running, i'm running because america, we're facing challenges with our economy and with our energy policy, with national security and the challenges are going on in the world and what's happening with russia and ukraine and what's happening with china. we're in a cold war with china and we're in a war with russia and we have the troops, and i

know it's great for president biden when all we're doing when we're talking about the past and i'm running for president against president biden and at least in our campaign we want to talk about energy. we want to talk about national security and the things that matter to americans going forward. >> how one handles national secrets is an issue before, during and after. look, if you win the white house some day you'll be a former president. would you have a discussion like that as a former president? >> well, john, i spent 30 years in the tech sector and it just astounds me that we've got a document management problem in this age and that we're still talking about paper, but whether it's hillary's e-mails and pence, trump, biden. i think we have a document management problem. we have 2 million federal employees. when:p when i'm president i am going to make sure that the the documents

in place that when an official leaves office, we won't have the nation talking about past document handling versus us talking about the things that matter to americans because when we're out on the trail and we're talking to people worried about inflation on food, the price of gas at the pump, these are things that are touching everybody right now and this is what our nation needs to be focusing on because you know who loves when we're talking about internally fighting over how we managed or mismanaged documents in the past is of course, our adversaries around the world. china, russia and others love it when we're having the internal battles. >> one of those adversaries, i would think that you would consider to be vladimir putin, the leader of russia. >> the president thinks president putin is weaker there because of the revolt there. what do you see as the u.s. interests in removing putin from power? >> well, i think that what we

see with the week's events, in the past week's events, the revolt, is that there will be a regime change in russia. we just don't know when, but wh when you have a nuclear power controlled by one individual, what is putin estimated to have amassed over $70 billion in personal wealth and prigozhin, and the wagner group has taken over gold mines in the central african republic and all over latin america and they're essentially a large criminal enterprise and that was someone that was basically a creation by putin. so we don't know what's ahead and i do know that when we put sanctions on russia, on energy, for example and we think that we're hurting russia, russia has to sell their oil and gas on the market at a discount because of the sanctions. who's buying it? china, the world's largest importer and now has an

opportunity to buy energy at 20% off. i think americans would like to have the opportunity of lower gas prices and some of the things we're doing with battle with russia, it's not independent. russia has become a chinese gas station and the sanctions, if they're helping china, that's not helping america. >> i'm looking at the primary calendar here. the early nominating states, iowa, nevada, february, and new hampshire february, super tuesday, early march and michigan at the end of february. when you look at this calendar, governor, where is the first place you need to win? >> we have to have a strong start in iowa anden? we have to have a better showing in new hampshire. the way these work, the way they've always work side momentum coming into the middle of the season when they're going to the polls and starting to vote in the primaries and we have a great presence in iowa and new hampshire. we've got, coming from a small

town in north dakota, i was -- you know, grew up in a town of 300 people and my dad was a navy veteran from world war ii. he passed away when i was a freshman in high school and that was tough. my mom went back to work, a widow with three kids and i inherited farm ground from my dad. i bet that farm ground as the mortgage to start a software company and we turned it, 18 years later it was an overnight success story. we're selling products all over the globe and had built a company with 2,000 people and so when you think about iowa and new hampshire, a lot of those primary voters live in small towns and they appreciate what it was like to get up every day and every job i had until i was in my mid-20s i took a shower in the day, and i was working on the farm, in the ranch and a chimney sweep to get my way through college. >> one more interest of

parochial interest. should roger maris should be in the hall fame? >> absolutely roger maris should be in the hall of fame, incredible, his record stood for decades and decades and it's just a tragedy he's not already in there because one of the most coveted records, and just improbable, amazing story, absolutely he should be in. >> north dakota governor doug burgum, thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. come back to "cnn news central". >> one thing about john, he loves to cover approximately ticks, but loves sports even more. now the former president is bringing a case of his own. he is counter suing e. jean carroll. you will remember she sued him civilly and a jury agreed with her that trump sexually abused her and defamed her. trump now claims carroll defamed him after the verdict when she appeared on cnn. cnn's kara scannell is here.

what is donald trump claiming specifically? >> this is a new lawsuit filed yesterday, a counterclaim, as you say. e. jean carroll had assumed and a jury had awarded her $5 million because they found that trump had sexually abused her and defamed her when he denied raping her. now trump decided that e jean carroll defamed him after the verdict and was asked about the jury selecting that he had sexually abused her and not raped her. here's what she said. >> this jury found that trump did not rape you. what about that moment? >> robby can explain the legal -- >> sure, and i want you to, but i just wonder, e. jean, what went through your head what went through your head. >> i said through my head. oh, yes, he did. yes, he did. that's my response. >> it's that statement this trump is saying is defamatory. e. jean carroll's attorney kaplan who was sitting with her

issued this statement about the lawsuit that donald trump argues contrary to both logic and fact that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused e. jean carroll. a judge has allowed carroll to amend his initial lawsuit from 2019 to include comments that trump made at a cnn town hall after the verdict where he doubled down, denying that he raped her and denying that he knew her and carroll is seeking $10 million in punitive damages for the lawsuit set to go to trial in january. >> kara scannell, i do not think there could be more legal issues with the trump team. thank you so much for your reporting. john? >> just minutes from now, president biden expected to land in chicago for a speech on his economic priorities. they're calling it bidenomics. cnn spoke to one of the president's top advisers. the supreme court getting ready to rule on one of the biggest cases on affirmative action. what direction do they seem headed? more than 80 million americans

under air quality alerts as wildfires spread south, we'll tell you where the air is the most dangerous.h hair damage? dryness and frizz that keeps coming back, could be damaged hair that can't retain moisturere. you need pantene's miracle rescue deep condititioner. it's fililled with pro-vitamins to help hair lock in moisture, visibly repairing six months of damage in just one use, with no weigh-down. guaranteed, or your money back. for hair that looks healthy and stays healthy. if you know, you know it's pantene.

sleep more deeply. and wake up rejuvenated. purple mattress's exclusive gelflex grid draws away heat, relieves pressure, and instantly adapts. sleep better, live purple. save up to $800 off mattress sets during purple's july 4th sale. visit purple.com or a store near you.

biden will arrive in chicago where he's hoping to convince voters the u.s. economy is in good shape. the white house says this is part of their bidenomics campaign, taking credit for where the economy is headed while also rejecting policies of

past republican administrations, think reaganomics, but speaking to reporters this morning the president said he first heard the term bidenomics from reporters and the media. cnn's jeremy diamond joins us from chicago where it is very hazy. what are we expecting to hear? there are some key indicators in the economy, but not everything is rosy. >> yeah, well, and listen, the president's speech today is all about addressing what is his central political challenge heading into his re-election effort and that is to try and convince voters that the economy is actually in good shape and that he gets the credit via his policies. the president has a real challenge there. yes, inflation is still high, but it is cooling and the jobs market has remained strong. despite that, though, despite the fact that the economic indicators are all trending in the right direction. voters don't seem to buy it and that is where the president's challenge is. i asked the president's top economic adviser about that

disconnect in an interview yesterday. >> a cnn poll last month found that only 23% of americans rate the economy as at least somewhat good. so how do you explain that disconnect? >> so i think the american people have gone through just record economic uncertainty over the last two years, a global pandemic that just went on and on, so i think what the president would say is people need to see it. they need to see it in their communities, and that's what his policies are all about. as americans see that and experience it, the president's confident that they are going to feel much more optimistic about their own economic futures. >> and lil brainard said that their finances are doing well

and when asked about the state of the economy that is when they give negative marks. when you look at the president's approval ratings on the economy you can see voters are blaming him for what they perceive as a bad economy. 66% of americans disapproving in may. 36% of americans disapproving of the president's handling of the economy. they will try and flip those numbers. it is a central political challenge for the president and it also runs the risk of republicans appropriating that term to point to the bad elements of the economy and blaming it on the president, and also, even though biden's economic advisors are increasingly confident that we are headed for that soft landing, that elusive soft landing, there is still the possibility of an economic downturn and that also could be hung on the president. sara? >> in regular, presidential candidate times, the economy is everything. we will wait and see what happens here seeing the president from earlier this morning coming off the plane at

joint base andrews in maryland. thank you so much, jeremy diamond. appreciate it. kate? all this week you need to keep an eye on the supreme court. over the next two days you can expect the high court to hand down some major rulings on cases involving gay rights, biden's federal student loan program and even affirmative action. cnn's ariana devogue, which is catching the most attention? >> probably the affirmative action cases. people are watching them to see what the court says, can universities and colleges continue to take race into consideration as a factor in admissions? the plans at issue are the university of north carolina and harvard and the schools say we need diversity here. we need to be able to improve the academic environment. it is better for our schools. they say, look, the schools are

the pipeline to society. it's important, but on the other hand you do see conservative critics and the challengers in this case and they basically say that amounts it a violation of the equal protection clause. that discriminates on the basis of race in violation of federal law. so we'll see the justices and oral arguments seem skeptical of this conservative court and once again they are being asked to overturn precedent and that's a big case and all eyes are watching it. >> absolutely. i mentioned the student loan -- the federal student loan program. talk to me about what you could see is really at stake here for president biden and how the justices decide? >> right. there's a lot at stack for president biden. he put forward this policy with the aim to really give relief to millions of people, giving them up to $20,000 relief on these

student loans because of covid and the states, republican-led states again came to court and they said, look, you can't do that. that amounts to trying to erase billions of dollars of debt and if you're going to do something like that, congress has to step in, not you. congress has to do it. so if the court rules against biden, that's going to be a big blow, but here's one thing to watch in this case. this is an argument that the states don't have the legal right to bring this in the first place. it's a hurdle and conservatives, they usually don't like too many people to be able to get in court. if the court dismisses that, says they don't have standing and then that would be a win for biden. so again, that would be an interesting case to watch and we'll get it either tomorrow or friday. >> all right. and we wait with bated breath, for sure. millions of american affected by the cases. good to see you, ariane.

john? >> a new report on the scope of the plot in russia. plans in place to kidnap top putin advisors. so what's the lasting impact here? former centcom commanding general david petraeus will join us. ♪ ♪ huh,h, huh, so did their dog roger. ♪ ♪ gain scent beads keep e even the stinkiest stuff smelling fresh. - i got the cabin for three days. it's gonna be sweet! what? i'm 12 hours short. - have a fun weekend. - ♪ unnecessary actn hero! unnecessary. ♪ - was that necessary? - no. neither is a bwn weekend. with paycom, employees do their own payroll so you can fix problems before they become problems. - hmm! get paycom and make the unnecessary, unnecessary. - see you down the line. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85,

and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80, what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial penn program. it has an affordable rate starting at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock

so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. - [mo] if you're thinking about going back to school, this is for you. ♪

- i ended up spending less money my entire time at snhu than i did in just one year at my other university. - [juan] my time at snhu has given me more confidence. now i can go for that promotion. - if you're ready to go back to school... you can do it. southern new hampshire university has changed my life. and it can change yours too. ♪ - [announcer] visit snhu.edu.

the revolt in russia over the weekend. "the wall street journal" is now

reporting that wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin had originally intended to capture two of putin's top military leaders as part of his march on moscow and when intelligence agents discovered the plot prigozhin was forced to move up his time line. joining us with more on the real impact of all of this, former cia director and centcom commander general david petraeus. thank you for being here. if these details check out that prigozhin planned to kidnap two military leaders as part of his rebellion and also what "the new york times" is reporting that a top russian commander knew of prigozhin's plan ahead of time, what then do you make of putin allowing yevgeny prigozhin to escape to exile in belarus? does it add up? >> well, keep in mind that the wagner group is still a very useful tool in the foreign policy arsenal of the russian

federation. in fact, the foreign minister came out yesterday and said it would still be active in mali and the central african republic and elsewhere in the african republic and syria and so forth. it has been very helpful to the russian cause in those areas and they don't have a replacement for that yet. it is also largely self-financing abroad. we know now that some of the financing for the actions in russia and ukraine were coming from the russian federation, but the whole affair is just nothing short of fantastic. it reveals how desperate prigozhin had to feel. his contracts were cut off and that his soldiers would have to sign contracts with the ministry of defense and he was going to lose his army and his russian source of revenue and he was so desperate that he would launch this fantastic aal expedition t kidnap the minister of defense and the chief of the general staff whom he'd been

criticizing, of course, publicly for many months and then right before that, of course, he also criticized the overall decision to invade ukraine and then the way in which the war was being conducted. so really an extraordinary moment and then putin, of course, disappears and he was awol in the day of this operation. he took the ride, unlike president zelenskyy at the start of the war, this last invasion and he has to now reassert himself. he's got to show that he's still firmly in charge. he does allow prigozhin again to go to president lukashenko in belarus where again you'll sort out, but he has an investigation launch against prigozhin perhaps as leverage if he needs it at some point in time and there is an extradition treaty with belarus. so again, we'll see how putin is able to re-establish himself now, but in the meantime, this weakens the russian forces on the battlefield at a time when it appears that ukraine is

starting to ground out some gains and still in the early days and we still don't know where the main effort is going to be. i want to ask you on those fronts, the thing that we haven't seen prigozhin in belarus, does that mean anything to you? >> no, i think he's probably trying to figure out what is his posture going to be going forward? is he going to start criticizing the minister of defense and the chief of the general staff. i suspect not for a while, at least. i think he realizes how close he came to again ending up, you know, poked by an umbrella or falling out of a window and he still needs to be careful about both of those, so -- and i'm sure that lukashenko has him a bit under wraps as well and part of the deal was you keep this guy quiet and keep him under control and we'll sort out what the future is, keeping in mind again that the wagner group abroad is a useful tool for russian foreign policy. >> i was just handed this because we have new reporting

coming in kind of getting to what was going on behind the scenes, general, i want to ask you about. a european intelligence says there were hints that russian security services might have had notice of the rebellion this weekend and key to this, of what we were talking about off the top, might have wanted it to succeed. i'm kind of curious, when you hear that what putin should do now? does another military shake-up amongst the ranks under putin seem like that could be in the offing right now? >> well, i don't think he wants to do this immediately because it will do what prigozhin had recommended be done which was to fire the minister and fire the chief of the general staff. so i don't think he wants to do this in the short term because it would seem to respond to what prigozhin was -- was counseling, but look, no. he's a student history. he knows that history is unkind to russian leaders who lose wars. he's got to try to figure out

how to stabilize the front lines in the face of this mounting summer offensive by the ukrainian forces that have additional training and all kinds of other combat support and service support elements. so that's really got to be his focus. how does he avoid losing this war noting that the leaders who lost the ruso-japanese war in world war i did not stick around after that. there may be people around the security services and intelligence services who are starting to think, you know, maybe we should consider what might come after putin. >> something, a thought that -- he's been, what? his grip on power has been 23 years. a thought that probably has not crossed the minds of many amongst his ranks for a very long time if at all. you were in ukraine last month and there's been a lot said about the counteroffensive under way in ukraine so far.

do you have con fidence in the ukrainian counteroffensive? >> i am cautiously optimistic that the ukrainian forces are going to do what no force on either side has done so far which is to put it all together. tanks, infantry, artillery, engineers, air defense, drones, good command and control and follow-on forces right up behind the lead elements so that when they culminate after 72 or 96 hours as is typically the case in tough fighting, you can maintain the momentum and they can crack the russian lines. we just don't know where that will be and i'm not sure the ukrainians do because in probing attacks and reconnaissance in force across the 600-mile front. think of the distances here and how tough it is to put forces in position, set the conditions as they say for the main effort to be launched, and so it's hard to

say when that will come. we know it's very tough. again, multiple belts of minefields, obstacles, trenches, defense in depth and so forth, and the russians are doing this phase fairly competently, but i do think at some point in time the ukrainians will break through and hopefully the morale of the russians has been damaged a bit by this whole episode, as well because prigozhin has said what a lot of people are thinking that this is not going well. it was probably a mistake and you know, who wants to be the one that's the last to die for this war that is not going well? the ukrainians know what they're fighting for. this is their war of independence and the russians are much less certain about that. >> general david petraeus, it is always great to have your perspective on the show. thank you very much. >> thanks, kate. good to be with you. >> thank you. john? fascinating discussion. all right, a wave of

cancellations and delays just in time for the holiday weekend. you in information you need to know before racing out to the airport. satisfaction, and road-test evaluations... and the results are in. subaru is the twenty twenty-three best mainstream automotive brand, according too consumer reports. and subaru has seven consumer reports recommmmended models. solterra, forester, outback, crosstrek, ascent, impreza, and legacy. it's easy to love a brand you can trust. it's easy to love a subaru. arthritis pain? we say not today. tylenol 8 hour arthritis pain has two layers of relief. the first isast, the second is ng-lasting. we give you your day back, so you can give it everything. lenol. number one doctor recommended for arthritis pain. (bridget) with thyroid eye disease i hid from the camera. and i wanted to hide from the world. for years, i thought my t.e.d. was beyond help...

but then i asked my doctor about tepezza. (vo) tepezza is the only medicine that treats t.e.d. at the source not just the symptoms. in a clinical study more than 8 out of 10 patients taking tepezza had less eye bulging. tepezza is an infusion. patients taking tepezza may have infusion reactions. tell your doctor right away if you experience high blood pressure, fast heartbeat, shortness of breath or muscle pain. before getting tepezza, tell your doctor if you have diabetes, ibd, or are pregnant, or planning to become pregnant. tepezza may raise blood sugar even if you don't have diabetes and may worsen ibd such as crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. now, i'm ready to be seen again. visit mytepezza.com to find a ted eye specialist and to see bridget's before and after photos.

martial arts is my passion. i work out whenever i can. but with my moderate- to-severe eczema, it can be tough. my skin was so uncomfortable. the itching was so bad. now, i'm staying ahead of my eczema. there's a power inside all of us to live our passion. and dupixent works on the inside to help heal your skin from within. it helps block a key source of inflammation inside the body that can cause eczema. so adults can have long-lasting clearer skin and fast itch relief. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems

such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. healing from within is a powerful thing. ask your eczema specialist how dupixent can help heal your skin from within. fresh, warm hot dogs! when i'm not selling hot dogs, i invest in a fund that advances innovations like robotics. fresh, warm hot dogs, straight out of my torso! one for you, one for you. oh, you're a messy one. cool, right? so cool. anyone can become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq, a fund that gives you access to nasdaq-100 innovations. hot dogs! fresh, warm hot dogs! before investing carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com.

this morning a mess at airports across the country. now days before the holiday weekend, not a good sign. crews at boston logan airport there working to catch up after a short groundstop earlier in the morning. hundreds of flights have been canceled nationwide for the second day in a row leading to long lines. there's newark. there we go. there are some long lines in newark right there. cnn's pete muntean joining us from reagan national airport. pete, are they going to get this

in order in time for the weekend? >> the airlines right now are really in recovery mode, john, because this has been going on for days, building and building and now they simply have to figure it out and try to make it so the airlines are not in shambles going into the long holiday weekend. the numbers are already really big, but it was 2.8 million people according to the tsa here and at airports across the country and that is the highest number we will see since the start of the pandemic. the cancellations and delays today, a bit better than they were yesterday, but the day is still young, check flight aware. 160 cancellations so far today. 2100 delays or about a third of where we were yesterday although i just want you to look at this image about how bad things were in the new york area last night. all three airports there, new york -- or sorry, newark, jfk

and laguardia, all under groundstops. laguardia, they put the groundstop by the faa because they were worried about gridlock on the ground. there was simply no place to put airplanes but on taxi ways, using every nook and cranny of pavement they can find and the delays and cancellations and the top airports today, laguardia, newark, jfk, boston and chicago o'hare. united airlines still top for the delays and cancellations on flight aware for the fifth straight day. united ceo scott kirby late friday night put the blame here on the faa saying there was not enough air traffic controllers to handle all of the flights going in and out of its big hub in newark on saturday, but that spilled over into sunday and things apparently got even worse on monday. so we will see as the day goes on how well the airlines perform here and the faa already warning

of groundstops in new york, boston and miami later on today, john. >> not promising. by my count, it is wednesday, a holiday weekend. for pete it begins now, but it begins in a couple of days. pete muntean, thank you very much for that. sara? just in to cnn, we have breaking news. the first pictures of the remnants of that doomed titan submersible that imploded, killing five people. why those pieces could be crucial for investigators trying to figure out what caused the titan to implode. we'll have those next. this electric feels different... because it's powered by the most potent sourcece of energy there is . ... you. this is the lexus variety of electrification ... inspired by, created for and powered by you. ♪

i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80, what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too.

if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial penn program. it has an affordable rate starting at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information.

this is just into cnn. the first images we have seen of pieces of the submersible that imploded. there are parts of the vessel as they were pulled up from the ocean floor. you're seeing those images now. paula newton has beentology this. she's here now. it's remarkable to see just how many and how large these pieces are that we're seeing in these images. >> it was very surprising as that whorizon arctic, it is the ship that went out there to help with recovery and salvage operations. if you look at them in the still pictures, they can be matched to titan, to the submersible. while obviously this was a horrific incident, this bodes well for any kind of investigation. when we heard about the debris field, which wasn't too far from the wreck of the titanic, what was said by the coast guard is

they call ed the environment unforgiving. at that moment in time, they didn't know how many pieces of debris they would be able to bring up. while we don't have anything specific, it's fairly impress i-in terms of what you see because it will give investigators a lot to look at in tropicaerms of determining w might have caused this very violent implosion. i want to get a statement that just came into us from the company that deployed that remote-operated vehicle to the depths. more than two miles down to the wreck of the titanic. our team has successfully completed offshore operations. that means they have come in now and are not going back out. they retrieved as much debris as they will in the next few days. they say it will take about ten for them to continue their demobilization from that area. they will release more information about the degree they have, but they are leaving

any information about this investigation to the u.s. coast guard. also i can tell you i just got off the phone with a spokesperson from the safety board here in kcanada. they say they have absolutely no information regarding this debris. would not say where it would be going next or if they had a look at it themselves. their investigators are still on the ground in st. johns, but key here is where do these pieces of debris go next. there are likely four to five parallel investigations ongoing right now. safe to say as many people could see, we kould see in the toe toes, large pieces of debris of titan were retrieved from those deep sea depths. >> as we're reminding people that there are multiple investigations happening at onces into what happened before and down in the deep. what are you hearing about where the investigations are? we don't know where this

material is headed, but what is the progress you have heard about? >> i think what's key here is the fact that while you have an investigation into the safety of this, which includes transportation safety board, canada and the u.s. coast guard, which began its own investigation. there's an examination that the royal canadian mounted police here or the national police force is conducting right now. what is interesting and more complicated is that perhaps certain pieces of that debris, other interviews done by the transportation safety board are protected, meaning the rcnp, if they go with a criminal investigation, they will have to take legal matters into thundershower own hands to be able to retrieve information about that debris that you see there in the stills, and also crucially to obtain transcripts from any interviews that were

conduct ed from the mothership, the polar prince or be able to conduct the interviews themselves. the rcnp are in the preliminary stages of the investigation, but to keep in mind, it's a two track. one involves safety and regulation, how this happened, how we can prevent it happening again. the other has to do with criminal responsibility. no one is suggesting that there is any criminal investigation that has started or any charges are pending, but both the coast guard and the national police here have indicated it is something they will be looking into. >> standby for a moment. joining us now is tim taylor, ceo of the sub sea. also an underwater explorer. i don't know if you had a chance to look at this debris, but i want to be sensitive to the fact that this is the wreckage of a vehicle, of a submersible where five people did lose their lives. i don't know if this tells you anything about where the weak points likely were in the structure of this vessel.

>> of the pictures i have seen so far, what is mising is the crew housing. and that's telling. s the fibers just turn into straw. and the weight of the ocean was upon whatever was in it. i don't see any of that. and potentially there's some imemployeesive housings in there that could have failed as well.

the crew quarters are gone. unless they are not showing that. >> i have a question when it comes to what happened here. we think of what an explosion does. is it like squeezing a tin can, but why was the debris field so large? >> well, if this imploded over the wreck in the water column 100 feet, 1,000 feet, whatever, above the wreck, it's going to rain down. and this current down there, there's a current down there. so it's going to scatter like leaves in the wind and land in a pattern. just like the titanic did. it left a pattern as it fell down and pieces and parts rained out on the bottom. so i would think they mapped this before they ever retrieved that. so then they could piece it together based on -- the debris field is a lot of clues on how it failed and where it went and

so this is very good nooz in a way they were able to retrieve this. it was feared because they might not have been able to retrieve some of the larger pieces at this time. >> one thing we heard from paula newton is what's not clear in this moment is where these pieces will go, who is going to be taking custody of these peoieces of the submersible nows part of the investigation, but there are four or five, i don't know six investigations into the disaster that happened. why are there so many investigations? what do you think that's going to mean? we have international passengers. we have international countries of origin. it's a u.s. company being launch

ed out of canada. and uk and indian passengers. and it was an international rescue as well. so there's tremendous interest in this because of the nature of the accident. the titanic itself, and this is the first time it has happened in decades. this is important to understand that this is not an outlier. this isn't a statement on the industry and submersibles. this is an outlier and people want to understand. >> thank you for explaining all that and also to our paula newton. we should just remember there were five people, his son, who was the founder of oigs gate and all of them perished in this accident. >> thank you for joining us. "inside politics" starts now