think i probably listened to that song a thousand times. however my top song was actually billie holiday's blue moon, which may tell you that i mostly am just spending my time trying to de-stress from doing this every day at home in my living room, but i will say not everyone is happy with this year's musical roundup. some outlets are reporting that some people are upset that this year's wrapped doesn't deliver some of the creative statistics that it has in the past. i have to admit i don't remember stephen, though. let's do a quick roundup. >> top artist r.e.m. never made it out of the 1980s. >> okay. well, yeah. you're showing the generation gap is showing alex green day. >> because i finally saw them. it was like, sort of a high school wish. >> i love green day, man. dookie is like my my favorite album. >> t-swift obviously. >> obviously aaron bean. mine was taylor swift and not surprisingly, one of the top songs is going to be my first dance song at my wedding. it made my top five list this year because apparently i can't stop congratulations. what song?

quickly. it is you're all i need to get by. i love it. all right, guys, thank you very much for being here and for sharing your spotify wrapped with us. thanks to all of you for joining us as well. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere. cnn news central starts right now. >> what was written on the shell casings of the bullets that killed the health care ceo right here in new york. we've got major new reporting this morning as new video surfaces and the manhunt ratchets up pete hegseth vowing to fight like hell or his words to keep his nomination alive. >> but even after an all out media blitz senators who will decide his future still remaining mum, is this his last stand today and the dow surging to a new record high as we learn more americans planning for retirement are millionaires. i'm kate bolduan with john berman. sara sidner is out today. this is cnn news central

all right breaking overnight major new clues in the hunt for a killer in new york city, now at large for almost exactly 24 hours this morning, abc news reports the words deny defend, and deposed were found on shell casings right where unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson was gunned down. >> so there are also a series of new images of the suspect. a photo obtained by the washington post appears to show him leaving a subway station 30 minutes prior. the new york times has new video that appears to show him on the phone near the scene arriving only about ten minutes before the clearest image of him was taken at a starbucks where he bought energy bars and water. police have recovered a cell phone and a water bottle, and they say the video of the actual shooting shows that they are dealing with an experienced

marksman. so, as a possible motive overnight, thompson's widow told nbc, quote, i don't know details. i just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him. all right. so a lot of new developments as this manhunt continues with us now, cnn chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller. john, you just walked in. what's the latest? >> well, police are very focused on these words written on shell casings. two of these words deny and depose, are found on shell casings. one is on a live round that he ejects when it appears he's having a jam. the other is on a shell casing from a round that was fired into the victim. uh these two words would fit together with deny, delay, depose the three ds of the insurance industry as they're cynically called by critics who say the industry's job is to try and not pay in cases where they don't want to pay so the killer here could be sending us a message, and there could be

another round in that gun that contained the third word, or it could have been burned off on one of the recovered shell casings after it was fired. >> all right. so just to be clear, these words, some people do see a connection between these words and the health care industry itself. >> exactly. there was a book written with a version of this about practices in the health care industry. this is if you go online, you will see numerous blogs and articles with combinations of slightly varied. but of these general three words as critical of the health care insurance industry. >> all right. so these may be the biggest clue as to motive although it was clear he was laying in wait. the killer was at the time. >> and let's think about what that could mean. right. it could mean that there's a case involving unitedhealthcare and an individual who feels very aggrieved by that some treatment was denied some disease he may have some family member who may have died very

personal or it could be an individual who used the trip of this person to new york at this meeting that was publicly disclosed as an opportunity to strike out at a high level executive, which is why yesterday, the heads of major health care concerns and their security departments were adding people security details, precautions mail screening across the country. >> all right. that certainly makes sense. the status of the physical manhunt at this point, john, and you've got perspective on this having been inside the new york city police department. what's happening this morning? 24 hours later, 24 hours later, they are sifting through very good tips, coming in from the public about individuals who people out in the public suspect for different reasons they'll run those down. >> that is standard old fashioned detective work. on the flip side, they're using all the most modern technology, including this expanding video canvass, to try and recreate the killer's steps from the moment those shots are fired before that, at the coffee shop

and then see if they can. then take that backwards to the moments before the shooting. already they have a sighting on video of him prior to the shooting on the upper west side, carrying what appears to be a battery for an e-bike. they're trying to close that circle to have what was what was his trail to get there, what was his trail to get away. and do either one of those? either start or end at home. >> do they think he's still in manhattan? do they even have that level of detail? >> well, they don't know that. but there is a working presumption that this individual may be a new yorker because of the way he moved around the stashing of the e-bike, the transport of the battery. and, you know his his general appearing to be very comfortable, knew how to get around the city, knew there was an alley behind the ziegfeld, knew how to get away through central park, knew that he could avoid more cameras inside the park than on the street. there's a lot of savvy here but there also may be some local familiarity. all right, john miller, we'll let you get back to work on this. >> thank you very much for filling us in on the very

latest. thanks, kate. >> so, president elect donald trump, his pick for defense secretary, heading back to capitol hill again today continuing on his full on blitz. pete hegseth is fighting to hold on to his nomination and, uh, and also in doing so, trying to calm republican concerns about his qualifications to have the job and allegations in his past. among allegations that hegseth denies is that he was known to drink excessively and new reporting from the washington post cites six former fox news employees who say that they witnessed it, saying that hegseth, quote had a reputation as a heavy drinker and say that they saw him drinking on the job or visibly drunk at work events. yesterday, according to a senior transition official hegseth also faced blunt questions from lawmakers such as are you an alcoholic? are you a womanizer do you embezzle money? cnn's kristen holmes is

in west palm beach for us with the very latest on this. what is in store today? kristen yeah. >> kate. i mean, that's not really the starting line you want when you walk into these meetings. now he has a full dance card today. more senators. he'll be back up on capitol hill. he we're told he's going to be meeting with rick scott. mike rounds among them tom cotton, which fun fact about tom cotton. he was on the short list to be defense secretary before he withdrew his name to see what these questions actually are. now, one thing to be clear, donald trump has not yet pulled his support for hegseth. but we do expect more serious questions, particularly around his drinking. after that report in the washington post after that whistleblower report that the new yorker published yesterday. hegseth did seem to try and address this to quell fears about his drinking when he was talking to megyn kelly. take a listen to what he said first of all, um, i've never had a drinking problem. >> i don't i've never no one's ever approached me and

said, oh you you should really look at getting help for a drink. never. i've never sought counseling never sought help. i respect and appreciate people who who do so not again, not the starting point you want when you're on tv defending yourself and defending your drinking. >> and these reports obviously allege a drinking problem. one thing to keep in mind here that we've been watching very carefully is how the senators are reacting when they come out of these meetings with hegseth. some of them are still mom. now, donald trump's team believes that he could still get the votes. they obviously know that this is in peril they know it's a dicey situation. they know it's an uphill battle, but they have not yet pulled their support for him. and one other thing about hegseth doing that interview, there is a reason you have not seen other cabinet nominees, other administration picks out there on the airwaves. that's because donald trump's team doesn't want them out there. essentially quote, unquote, stepping in it before those confirmation hearings. they are clearly having a strategy here when it comes to hegseth, to try and get him out there to

address these issues, whether or not it works, it's something we're keeping an eye on kate. >> yeah, that is exactly right. whether or not it works. it's great to see you kristen. thank you. john. >> all right. the woman who snuck past multiple security checkpoints to stow away on a flight to paris is in court. this morning. what delta now says went wrong. two kindergartners are in critical condition after a gunman opened fire at their school. we've got new information this morning about the suspect and do you want to be a millionaire? well you might already be one. a new record just set for the number of 401 k millionaires. we'll tell you why. you may want to check your balance. this morning and cnn heroes, an all star tribute meet and celebrate the honorees. >> then find out who will be hero of the year. plus, a special tribute to michael j. fox, cnn heroes, an all star tribute sunday at eight on cnn

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had a chance to win this cup with a time is now. >> your goal is to get to vegas. that's money time and i understand the assignment. >> the emirates nba cup continues. watch on tnt and stream b r sports on max so the stowaway who managed to evade multiple levels of airport and airline security to hop a flight to france that she did not have a ticket for. >> she's now finally back in new york. the woman is also now identified 57 year old svetlana dali and she's expected in court today for an initial appearance on at least one federal charge. cnn's polo sandoval is tracking this one. i keep calling this like the latest chapter in the strangest, weirdest trip to france ever. um what's expected to happen next? >> yeah, we're now almost a week and a half into the story, right? and it continues to bring new developments. right now, we're trying to find out exactly when this 57 year old woman will face a judge in brooklyn. but as we learned yesterday, according to multiple law enforcement sources, who tells cnn that they expect that federal

prosecutors will charge her with being a stowaway on an aircraft without consent, and that could carry up to five years in prison if convicted. we were there at new york's jfk yesterday as her plane landed soon after that. that's when the fbi confirms that they went ahead and detained her, that they arrested her. and that's what brings us to today with that initial appearance, is scheduled not long after the plane landed. we also heard from delta for the first time since the initial stowaway incident last week, and in a statement, they basically not only thanked their french counterparts in terms of orchestrating this, making sure that she was able to get put on that plane and made it to new york incident free. but they also said that they described kate as a deviation from standard procedures. it's what allowed this woman initially to get on that flight to paris. they said that they are aware that they are addressing this matter, but they did not exactly elaborate on what that deviation was, only saying that they're taking care of it. >> so their point is our systems work. if you follow the systems, is what they're trying to say there. but also there's a question for what happened with the systems when it comes

to the tsa. tsa. >> that's a big question right now. so the tsa insists that out of 18 million passengers who flew during the thanksgiving holiday, this was the one passenger who actually had unreported access. but as we know, it takes one to compromise security. >> and that's the challenge for tsa, right? they they can't just be perfect. 99% of the time. and this is the problem. >> and they do insist, as we know, that after she bypassed that boarding pass security checkpoint, she did actually get screened, not only herself, but her bag. so they were pretty sure that she didn't have any sort of threat. >> so that level of a security threat was mitigated. >> but she still made her way onto a plane. unrestricted access and all the way to paris. so but the prosecution is going to be interesting. i will tell you this. it was just this past january that a man holding an israeli and a russian passport was prosecuted by the department of justice after he actually snuck on a plane from copenhagen all the way to lax again, he was convicted for the same crime that this woman will be charged with. he was sentenced to time served three years probation, and had to pay the $2,100 ticket that he avoided when he flew from copenhagen to lax. so it gives us a preview.

>> let us see if this is the final chapter in this saga. it's almost hard to believe. it's good to see you. thank you very much. all right. coming up for us the manhunt continues to find a suspected hitman. the gunman who shot and killed the ceo of unitedhealthcare yesterday right on the sidewalk. we have more reporting on what police are learning from clues that he left behind and bitcoin hits $100,000 for the first time ever. what does that mean for you can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther never too much. >> new year's day on cnn. >> resolve your pet knows if a mess is really gone. if not, they may mark the spot. resolve gets rid of pet messes better than the leading competitor. destroying stains neutralizing odors, and preventing

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one of the largest providers of 401 k retirement plan shows the number of accounts with balances topping $1 million jumped last quarter. cnn's vanessa yurkevich is here maybe we should call them. 802 k's. the dow jones are free. >> very good, very good. >> but fidelity looked at their account holders, 24 million account holders and saw that they had more millionaires in the mix. this quarter compared to last quarter. the amount of millionaires up 9.5% from q2 and they saw that they had about 550,000 account holders that were now millionaires. and they were carrying an average 401 k balance of about $1.6 million. they also looked at gen x. this is the next group of folks that are going to be retiring. people have been saving for close to 15 years now. they saw that folks in that range had about a balance of about 600,000. so up about 6% from the previous quarter. why is this happening? obviously we've had a strong market stock market, but also

people are saving. so we're seeing that folks are contributing more and then the company matches are somewhat higher, about 14% on average in savings. they're also though not everyone is so lucky to be a millionaire and not everyone is so lucky to have a 401 k. the average account balance for fidelity account holders is about $132,000, still up from the previous quarter, but obviously a far cry from the million dollars that about half a million of their account holders have right now. >> look, it's just been a good few years to be in securities, period full stop. and if you are a young employee, invest in your 401 k's. when you're young, it helps. all right. there are new news about tariffs and companies that seem to be upset with them. >> always, every single day we're hearing from a new company. we are hearing from dollar tree. now they are saying that 40% of their sales are on goods that they import. and so they are preparing to be hit by tariffs. if they go through so 40% of goods are

going to be impacted. dollar tree saying we're going to have to look at buying from other countries. we're going to have to negotiate with our vendors. we may have to raise prices and this is not just dollar tree, obviously walmart has said the same thing. they're known for low prices. they're going to have to raise their prices but an analyst from ubs expects that the base price now at dollar tree is not a dollar, by the way. it's 125. but they expect that they're going to have to raise prices about 10 to $0.20 on their items. and obviously for folks who go to dollar tree, it's because they're feeling the pinch of inflation and they're looking for deals. so 10 to $0.20 may not seem like a lot, but when you're buying a lot or everything from dollar tree, it does make a difference but this is just the latest company dollar tree to be preparing for president elect's tariffs that may go into effect come january. very soon. >> and we've spoken to just about every shoe manufacturer in the country. and they tell us that they're not looking forward to the possibility of price hikes either. vanessa yurkevich, thank you very much. all right. new reporting this morning that several former fox

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disappeared into central park. now this morning abc news is also reporting this detail that deny, defend and depose were found on shell casings at the scene a cell phone and a water bottle were also discovered, but this hour is unclear if police know his name or his identity or have a clear lead on where he could be at the moment. with me right now, let's talk more about this search and where it heads is bounty hunter zeke unger. he also works with the us marshals service often on fugitive matters. it's good to see you. thank you for coming in so from let's start with the security footage that's been released, the images that have been put out of of what? of the incident as it happened and also in that starbucks afterward. what sticks out to you as most useful and also what is missing here well, i think what's very useful is the fact that this is not a professional killer a contract killer um, by his mannerisms and, uh, by the failure of the weapon. >> i think when you start

looking at all the video footage and you see the malfunction of the weapon with the noise suppression unit causing a major malfunction um, this is not the sign of a hired killer. i believe that the individual, by looking at the footage is, uh, has some psychological issues. that this is a revenge shooting. um, if you look at the homicide investigation in the totality of the circumstances you can see that, uh they say he was laying in wait. i don't believe that because in order to do that, you have to have prior information as to where the target is going to be and what you know, particular time. i think he was followed, and i have a feeling that the individual um, had a revenge issue with the health care industry or maybe a prior employee, but definitely some psych issues in this case. >> on this one. so some. so this is kind of one of these questions as this hunt continues, is was this a professional hitman or not some

say they believe how quickly he fixed fixed the issue when he when he had the problem with the gun showed that he had a lot of knowledge and experience with the weapon you think otherwise why does this matter? why is this significant and impacts how you go about this? search for him sure. >> well, you know, normally contract killers as a whole know their weapon very well. this is the first time that that weapon was used with a noise suppression on the weapon when that happens, the weapon needs to be modified. the ejection ports need to be modified, and the reason it's stovepiped so many times is because the weapon had never been fired with that particular suppression unit, causing the jam and a sophisticated killer would have put many rounds out of that weapon before using it. um, the type of clearing a jam is taught within the first hour of learning how to use a semiautomatic weapon. uh, this

this individual is getting way too much credit so interesting. >> zeke. now we're like, just over 24 hours of after the shooting happened and after he went on the run how do you track him down? how does the search change if it's 24 hours and he's been on the run well, the first thing to is a professional does not leave dna behind. >> um clearly by the shell casings being left, you know, you can tell that this is a revenge shooting so the u.s. marshals service who are the best at what they do, have some alleged dna that they're going to be working with, maybe to identify the suspect and once, uh, once we identify the suspect, we'll be able to now put out the you know, the bolo, be on the lookout, show the picture of the defendant. uh, excuse me, the suspect and um, move forward in the

investigation. cell phone information, whether or not they can get into the cell phone, whether the cell phone company is going to be willing to cooperate on this matter. this is all things that we have to see you have said that this is a difficult case what makes this unique in its challenges well, the fact that we don't know a lot of times when we're dealing with fugitive cases, we know who the fugitives are. prison break, uh, situations like that. as of right now, we have not id'd the suspect yet so building the information is the first part. disseminating the information to the general public will be the second part. and then looking at, you know, cell phone records or any other information will be vital in the apprehension of this fugitive when the reporting and you kind of are alluding to it, to this reporting from abc news that the words deny, defend, oppose were found on shell casings, shell casings that were seen were that were at the

scene. >> some people see a connection to those words and the health care industry, specifically those words being used by critics of the industry to describe what they believe are the unfair practices of the health care industry. if this is a revenge, if this is a grudge, if this is a revenge killing, how does that help direct the search to try to identify this person well, sometimes there may be, you know internet trail, um sometimes there's phone records um, it all depends. >> each case, you have to look at the totality and, and go in that direction. so you're not chasing a red herring. you know, you can easily be taken in the wrong direction. and you need to stay focused. i'm sure that the marshal service is not letting out information that they already have um, i think this one's going to take a little bit longer than normal. just because we don't know the who, the who, the actual shooter is. xai unger, thank you so much. question would be

oh, go ahead, go ahead well i was just wondering why a ceo of a major company would be walking down the street alone without a protection team. it seems very odd to me yeah, zeke thank you so much, john so this morning, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy head to capitol hill to discuss their plans to slash government spending. >> also on the hill and hanging in the balance. pete hegseth president-elect trump's pick for defense secretary, who survived another night, at least for now. cnn's lauren fox is with us with the very latest. she is on capitol hill. nice to see you there, lauren. so what are we expect today well john, it was a huge day yesterday for pete hegseth as he met some of the maybe hardest members to convince on the senate armed services committee. >> one of those key meetings happened yesterday with senator joni ernst, a republican from iowa, who divulged very little about the contents of her meeting with hegseth, telling reporters over and over again

that it was a thorough discussion. but i also spoke late last night with senator from north dakota, kevin cramer, who made clear that at this point, after his meeting with hegseth, which spanned more than an hour, john he does feel like he could be on a path to voting affirmatively for his nomination. here's what he said. they talked about in that meeting the drinking thing is a pretty significant issue. >> whether you have a problem or don't have a problem or you think you have a problem or you think you don't have a problem, and he said, my commitment is to not touch alcohol while i have this position and kevin cramer said that during the course of their conversation, he made clear to pete hegseth that as the defense department head, you need to be ready to take calls at three in the morning. >> and pete hegseth said back to him, essentially that three in the morning, three in the afternoon, every minute in between he would be prepared to take those phone calls.

obviously a really important role for national security. he meets again with lawmakers on capitol hill this is just part of making the rounds getting some of those commitments. i would note, though, that i did ask republican whip senator john thune, who will be the next republican leader. he had a meeting with hegseth yesterday if he was ready to back him. and repeatedly i asked throughout the day, john thune made clear that he is just going through this process, and he confirmed to hegseth that he would have a fair process throughout this confirmation battle. john. >> all right. lauren fox up on capitol hill, thank you very much with us now, kristie setzer, a democratic strategist and former spokesperson for al gore's presidential campaign, and matt gorman republican strategist, former senior adviser for tim scott's presidential campaign. on the last episode of cnn news central. i asked our guests, this was yesterday if it was going to be the last day of the pete hegseth nomination, and yesterday they thought yes, well, obviously that was wrong. he has survived a full

24 hours longer. so is he on the path now to confirmation, kristie no he's not. >> even if this takes until friday or saturday or early next week, that does not mean that he is any closer. look it's not just the drinking issue though. that has been the focus of a lot of our conversation. it's also the fact that he has rank inexperience. it is the fact that even his own mother said he's kind of a bad guy to women. and that's before you even get to the policy concerns, which are the fact that the statements that he's made about not wanting to see women in frontline combat positions, which one would imagine is probably pretty irksome to someone like joni ernst. right look, i think that there are a number of republican senators who are ready to vote against this guy, and i don't think he's going to want it to get to that. so i think you're going to see him pull his nomination you know, over the course of the next few days. >> matt, the promise to quit

drinking if he's confirmed was a hell of a statement. i mean, just on its face, it's not the type of thing you usually hear from someone trying to be a major cabinet secretary sure. >> and look, i think the game where this could be the day now, this could be the day. look, the the reality is this, right? if he can get through, i'd say the next 48 hours without kind of another major story dropping that's that's a step in the right direction certainly. but then as we get to next week the two of the most important meetings lisa murkowski, susan collins right. those are the two of the kind of the prime swing votes for any cabinet nomination. so you combine them with joni ernst. those are going to be the ones i'm watching most closely now. stepping back a little bit with some of these nominees, there is strength in numbers because who are we talking about? five days ago is all about kash patel so when you have a couple of these nominees whether it's tulsi, rfk, you divide the scrutiny, you divide the media attention and some of the outside money coming in where last time around it was really only betsy devos that got a lot of that outsized attention. so

maybe, uh, senate republicans will sink, maybe one, maybe none. but there's no way. now, with all of this, you're thinking, i say a third of the cabinet, 4 or 5 of these nominees. no way no. >> and again, i would be the framing of it like sinking the nomination when you're dealing with nominees like matt gaetz and the question surrounding pete hesketh from republicans and democrats, it may not be an affirmative sinking of a nomination. it may be people who actually have legitimate questions about that nomination we've been hearing those questions from republicans over the last few days, including those who met with pete hegseth. i'm still curious. 24 hours later, christie, about the effect of the float. the very public float of ron desantis as a possible replacement for pete hegseth. it just seemed so deliberate from the trump team and then to have desantis not deny it how could it not have an impact

that's right. >> that was the moment that i thought oh, this is over. once the trump team is officially floating, alternatives that means that they know it's done. um, and the fact that, frankly, much like the situation with matt gaetz versus pam bondi, the person that they are promoting or floating as an alternative is someone who does have more experience and does answer some of the questions that one would have about pete hegseth. so i think they know. and this is just a, you know, a ticking time bomb, and it's going to go off at any any day now. >> yeah, i mean the flow to desantis, matt. it made me think for republicans and frankly, even some democrats looking at this saying, you know what this is someone they would say who's just a better pick. like, you can have someone with all the same views who's just a better pick. so why not look, i think we should be careful on desantis. >> i think we should pump the brakes. just a bit. as i understand, there's still no love lost. i think between the

desantis and trump teams, especially so one, one name i'm watching very closely is colby, aldrich, colby. i think he could be someone who could step into that breach who's well respected. certainly among the republicans, but also could probably get some democratic votes and look, i think it goes to the point too. and you talked about kind of the doge thing before where it's the state of the resistance is really very different from the first time around where you have john fetterman, mark kelly willing to vote for ron desantis as a cabinet nomination where, you know, in 2016, 2017, these were down the line uh, democratic nose all the way around. >> and i get it. although the resistance here in this case to pete hegseth, has been the likes maybe of lindsey graham and kevin cramer. not exactly liberal bomb throwers there. um, christie, i want to ask you about reporting that came out in axios just before we came to air and the gist of it was, you know democrats are really at joe biden. and it had a bunch of reasons why and a bunch of different levels of anger. one

quote from the axios article, some democrats tell us they're so furious about biden's abrupt, clumsy pardon of his son hunter, that they're threatening to withhold donations from his future presidential library. i guess might just open ended. question to you is how upset are democrats at biden right now? just not just for the hunter thing, but axios points out for, you know, not leaving the presidential race a lot earlier yeah, i mean, i think that's what we would call misplaced anger right? >> i don't think they're really mad about the hunter biden pardon and if they are, i think those people don't understand what we are up against in in incoming trump administration. i do believe that people are angry at joe biden for not getting out of the race sooner, but ultimately, i don't know that that would have made a difference. you know, we've talked about this on air before, which is the fact that there was just this, you know global anti-incumbency movement that had been happening not just here but, you know, in in many countries around the globe. so you can be mad at joe

biden but i have to think that that's not really what you're mad about we're mad about the situation that we are presented with. right now, with a second trump term and no levers of government, not disputing, though, that democrats are angry at somebody, wherever that anger is placed right right. yeah, that's exactly right. um, you know, look, i think that it's interesting people can believe that kamala harris ran a great campaign, that she did everything that she possibly could have done. but again at the end of the day, i don't believe that even if joe biden had gotten out, let's say, six months sooner, that she was going to be able to turn around what in some cases was, you know, an eight point swing to the right. look at new jersey where it only ended up being a 5 or 6 point margin. right. those were really hard mountains to climb. >> new york was closer than texas. all right. matt gorman christie sasser, thanks to both of you. thanks so much for being with us, kate. >> so two boys, five and six years old are in critical condition this morning after a

shooting at their school in california. there's new detail on why police think that the gunman may have targeted the christian school, but the motive was behind that. and there's also new information this morning about the search for the missing grandmother, who fell into a sinkhole. we'll be right back i just took a shower above the clouds. >> you know why? because this is the emirates a380 still congested. >> nope. >> uh-oh. new mucinex 2 in 1

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biggest case of the term, the conservative majority on the high court appears inclined to uphold a tennessee law that bans gender affirming health care for minors. >> the law prohibits medical providers from giving puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender kids. the biden administration was was arguing the case for the transgender kids and their families in court yesterday, and told the justices the law violated the constitution by denying equal protection to transgender people, primarily by discriminating against them based on sex. the state's lawyers argued in court that the law was passed for medical purposes, having to do with age, primarily not sex. chief justice john roberts and conservative justice brett kavanaugh. they raised a broader question on whether they are the right people to be to be deciding this. >> my understanding is that the constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor. >> the constitution doesn't

take sides if they're strong forceful, scientific policy arguments on both sides. in a situation like this. why isn't it best to leave it to the democratic process? >> and joining us right now is the attorney general of tennessee jonathan skrmetti. thank yoso much for coming in. i really appreciate your time. how are you feeling about the chances your chances with this case coming out of oral arguments yesterday well, you never want to speculate as to what the court's going to do. >> you know, there will be months while they review this and put the opinions together. but we put on a good case yesterday, and i think we have some strong arguments on our side. ultimately, i think the chief justice of the point that you just played on the clip is an important one. and that is we live in a government of the people and ultimately the people decide what the law should be. and the more the courts interfere with the policymaking process the less healthy our democracy is we

need to be continually working on our self-government. so i think that's a really important component of this case but the other issue is there is a huge scientific dispute here. every systematic analysis of the research shows minimal to no benefit to kids from these procedures. and the risks are huge. so there's a lot of enthusiasm on both sides of the argument but we've seen countries in europe with very different values than tennessee reached the same conclusion and severely restrict access to these treatments for kids. >> there is definitely a debate over that, over the medical evidence. and that is part of this discussion. and we saw that playing out in court for sure. i want to read for you something you, i'm sure will remember this moment that justice elena kagan said challenging the solicitor. tennessee's solicitor general's contention that the ban arose from medical concerns distinct from any classification based on sex, which is a central question here here's what kagan said. the prohibited purpose here is

treating gender dysphoria, which is to say that the prohibited purpose is something about whether or not one is identifying with one's own sex or another. the whole thing is imbued with sex, she says. you might have reasons for thinking that it's an inappropriate it's an appropriate regulation, but it's a dodge to say that this is not based on sex. it's based on medical purpose. when the medical purpose is utterly and entirely about sex to that you say, what well, it's just a fundamental fact that boys and girls have different bodies. >> they react differently to different hormone treatments and so if you want to protect kids from these cross-sex hormones, you necessarily have to use a different you have to protect against a different drug on one side versus a different drug on the other side. if you give a boy with a testosterone deficiency testosterone, you're solving a medical issue. if you give a girl testosterone to deal with

gender dysphoria, a psychological condition, you are creating additional medical complications and so the fact that sex is involved is only because every human being is one of two sexes. and it's necessarily part of it. but that shouldn't mean that we're constitutionally unable to protect kids from these treatments. it's the treatments that are the issue, not the kids sex attorney general. >> what was not squarely at issue with this specific appeal before the justices right now is parental rights. do you think parents should have the right to make medical decisions for their children i think to some extent, parents should. >> i think parents have a huge role to play in their kids lives, but the government also has a role to play to regulate the medical profession and if the evidence is showing significant harm with minimal benefit, the government does have a role in ensuring that kids are safe. now, this is a very contentious issue. the

court did not take up the parental rights issue, and i think it would have substantially complicated the arguments because it's a a whole other very complex issue to address but you know, there's there's significant evidence of real harm. the research has been manipulated. i don't know that parents are getting accurate information necessarily about the risks involved. and about the benefits. and in in situations like that, the government has a role to play to protect its citizens, especially its young citizens. >> the reason i raised it is because there is another appeal out there asking the court to consider whether parents should have the right to make to make these medical decisions for their kids. so similar question, different framing as you as you know, would you like to see the high court take up that question regardless of what they do with this case when it comes to transgender procedures and issues the supreme court has a lot going on.

>> you know this is such a relatively new area just overall, we've seen an explosion of cases dealing with gender identity we've seen an explosion of kids being treated for gender identity disorders and that's why this question of fundamental parental rights when it comes to medical decisions is a fundamental one. well, i mean, i think we need to resolve the equal protection question before we move on to anything else, because that suffuses so many of these legal issues and there's no clarity for the lower courts. >> that is certain. there's no clarity right now for sure attorney general, thank you for coming in. i appreciate your time. john all right. >> this morning, two kindergartners, just five and six years old, are in critical condition after a man shot them at their school in california. authorities say they found the gunman dead at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. investigators say he may have targeted the school because it is affiliated with the seventh day adventist church. one student describes actually seeing him we were running to the gym i looked back and i saw

a shadow with a gun. >> so i told most people to run. even faster. my face had a cold expression, but inside i was breaking down. >> oh poor girl. police say the shooter was there for a meeting about enrolling a family member, but they're trying to figure out if that was just a ruse to get inside. the search for a missing grandmother in a sinkhole in pennsylvania is now a recovery mission. authorities say they have seen no signs of life as they try to find 64 year old elizabeth pollard. they believe she fell in earlier this week as she was looking for her cat, kate han duck-soo chris aston. >> we're also following some breaking news we want to bring to you. intense fighting by rebels has forced the syrian military to withdraw from the city of hama. it's the second setback for syria's president bashar al-assad quite a time. we are watching something that i think a lot of people would say they would not expect, as this war has gone on for so many years. cnn's ben wedeman joining us now with much more

on this. ben, tell us what's happening yes. >> the city of hama has fallen to the rebels. >> this happened just within the last few hours, whereby the government simply said they're pulling out of the city after an intense assault by those rebels. now hama is the fourth largest city in syria. aleppo, which the rebels took over on friday, is the second largest city in syria. so in the in the space of a week, the rebels have made massive gains and it doesn't seem that the regime of bashar al-assad is really able to stop this rebel advance. this is a city that historically is very important because back in 1982, the father of bashar al-assad, under his regime, there was a massacre of more than 10,000 people in the city of hama, has never been under rebel control. and certainly this is a real