newsnight. aaron brown, the longtime journalist right here at cnn and at abc news, has passed away. he was 76 years old. brown started as a talk radio host in minnesota before rising through the ranks to anchor cnn's prime time coverage. he helmed newsnight with aaron brown and what we do every night here on this program is try to emulate his excellence, both his passion and his no nonsense precision in telling you what we know as we know it. brown started at cnn in 2001 and had the heavy, heavy responsibility of taking the country through that day that will forever live in infamy for those of you just joining us, let's just briefly recap what we know about an hour ago. >> about 845 eastern time, one plane

journalism. brown is survived by his wife, his daughter, as well. may his memory be a blessing. >> good evening and welcome to laura coates live two american cities tonight. starting off the new year in the worst possible way. new orleans grieving the loss of 14 people after an i.s.i.s. inspired attack on bourbon street, of all places. while las vegas remains on edge following a bombing inside of a cybertruck that was placed outside of a trump hotel. authorities say the two, as of now, are not connected, but even they admit it's too early to say for sure. >> if these turn out to be simply similarities. very

strange similarities to have. and so we're not prepared to rule in or rule out anything at this point. >> so what are those strange similarities? well, both men have military backgrounds. the attacker in new orleans, shamsud-din jabbar, served for 13 years in the army. the suicide bomber in vegas, matthew livelsberger was active duty. a green beret on his leave from his post in germany. now both got their trucks from a rental app. they both attacked on new year's day. but again, the fbi says that that is where the similarities end. the vegas attacker, who calmly drove around the strip in the cybertruck, shot himself before he blew his truck up. that's according to police, and his motive is unknown. now, while we are in the infancy of the investigation, the motive in new orleans seems more clear he posted several videos to an

online platform proclaiming his support for i.s.i.s.. >> in the first video, jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the, quote, war between the believers and the disbelievers. end quote. additionally, he stated he had joined i.s.i.s. before this summer. >> look at the back of the white pickup truck the jabbar used. it has an i.s.i.s. flag attached to it. police say that he drove that truck from houston to new orleans intent on carrying this out, mowing down people on bourbon street. he then crashed his truck. he got out of the truck. he fired his gun before police shot him dead. cnn has obtained exclusive video showing jabbar unloading the truck outside of an airbnb before the attack. and the truck, we're told, was not the only weapon he was intending to

use. >> fbi bomb technicians also recovered two ieds in coolers, one from the cross section of bourbon and orleans street, and the second at an intersection approximately two blocks away. we did obtain surveillance footage showing jabbar placing the devices where they were found. >> now, if you look at your screen there, police say that that cooler was one that had explosives inside of it and could have actually been remotely detonated. now, thankfully, it was not. now we know jabbar was born in texas. he served in afghanistan. his brother says he converted to islam a long time ago. but according to court documents, there was more. he had marital troubles, was divorced twice and also had money problems as well. but police believe that he was radicalized at some point, though they maintained tonight he acted alone. >> we have the three cell phones and the two laptops been

able to initially triage or go through that, and there is just nothing to indicate through call records, through anything on those devices, through interviews, through anything in our systems that he was aided, aided, aided in this attack by anybody. >> well, joining me now, john miller, cnn chief, law enforcement and intelligence analyst, jameel jaffer, founder and executive director of the national security institute at george mason law school. and pete lap, retired fbi special agent. we begin with you. john, investigators are looking into all of this. of course, they say jabbar was inspired by i.s.i.s., that he pledged his allegiance to terror group as well. how important is it to find out how he became radicalized and if he was directed or just inspired by i.s.i.s.? >> it's pretty important to find out how. it's even more important to find out if he was directed, because you're going, you're going to want to trace that back to who is directing him. does i.s.i.s. have people

on the ground? do they have do they have people on the ground in a country other than than syria or those territories? so that would be critical. but, you know, he has three phones, two laptops that they've recovered. they got into one phone very quickly. and i believe that helped validate some of this fealty to i.s.i.s.. they have to crack a couple of other phones and computers, but that will get them along the way to answer questions about what propaganda he was looking at, how many times he was looking at when that intensified, whether he was communicating on a platform that might be in one of those devices, including some of the encrypted platforms where that trail might still be there. all important to know, but clearly he fits the model of pretty much who i.s.i.s. targets with that propaganda, which is someone who is having money troubles, family troubles, business troubles, self-esteem problems, whose

life is spiraling downward. because what's the promise? laura. right. they say, if you go with this cause, you get valor, you get belonging, you get empowerment. it fills the voids and and offers what we call this loser to lie in phenomenon. >> you know, you're you're nodding along and you hear that. and i have to ask you here about they're seeking people out. how does one find this? i mean, to be radicalized. there are a lot of people who fit the bill of people who have money problems, marital problems, who don't then get radicalized by i.s.i.s., are not found by them in some way, shape or form. when you're looking to try to untangle that web, where are you going? >> well, a couple of things. one, you have to look at whether he had some mental health issues. obviously, a guy who's talking about killing his family and that not being enough, that not being enough of a splash to get his message across, that guy's obviously got mental health issues that go along with his marital problems, along with the financial problems, along with the radicalization. then you add to that he he's probably going out and searching for content online,

right? videos on youtube or other platforms or on websites. right. there's a lot of information available to americans if they want to go find it, of all sorts of terrible varieties, including terrorist content. and so that's one of the challenges. and then, of course, once you get into those networks and those circles, people start pushing you content. you might be having conversations with people who might be trying to direct you or radicalize you even further. so we don't know today whether he was simply inspired or directed and whether he was radicalized by another individual online through communications, or just sought it out himself. but what's clear is he had the requisite troubles, as john correctly laid out, and he probably, to be candid, had some mental health issues that led him to believe it was important to kill his own family. >> i mean, he had multiple layers of this attack. pete, it was not just the truck. it was also the idea of detonating other devices. thank god they did not get detonated. but you hear from his family and his own brother told us, quote, he was very well tempered, slow to anger, kind, soft spoken. something screwed him up. he's the type of person, someone or something fogged his mind. you hear that from his brother? of

course. and they must be in shock of what's gone on. but is there a way, when you're looking to figure out what happened to prevent this again? obviously he's dead. he can't be brought to justice in terms of a criminal prosecution. but can you prevent others from this sort of radicalization? >> it's hard. the lone wolf phenomenon is really difficult because there's a radicalization that goes on, whether it's self or whether others are involved. but there's a there's a lack of leakage, if you will, in terms of your intent. you know, i don't know how close his brother and he were or the rest of his family and everyone who's coming out, who's being interviewed after the fact in newham are saying that this is so atypical for the kind of guy that we knew him to be. but i think when we don't see these leakages until it's too late, you know, it's hours before his attack when he's on facebook and social media, you know, his intent is very clear if you're following that, those are real difficult. the most difficult cases for law enforcement to really assess and take action to prevent,

because there's just not a lot of hints that are out there. >> an important point in terms of the when they would know this. well, john, cnn obtained a bulletin from the homeland security department that had warned law enforcement about possible vehicle ramming attacks during the holidays. was there a breakdown of some sorts in new orleans for the security? >> you know, i think one of the problems with new orleans in this incident is that this isn't a one off for them. i mean, there's crowded nights like new year's eve, but on bourbon street every night is a party, and it's often blocked to traffic. and they're used to things going on there and maintaining control. also, laura, there's this flipside, right? i mean, they've had ten shootings on bourbon street in the past months with multiple casualties, but that is something that, you know, new orleans residents have learned to take in stride because crime is an issue. they understand there. this was something they couldn't wrap their heads

around because it was terrorism. and clearly there's clearly there's going to be a reassessment about bollards, about blockers, about concrete block or large vehicles, because it may be locking the barn door after the horse is gone, which is probably the wrong expression for a tragedy this deep. but it's a common malady which is taking care of the problem. after they had these barriers, they went into disrepair. some were removed, some were just left to rust. they were going to be replaced, but who knows when. maybe for the super bowl things, things were happening too slowly. there's a lack of a sense of urgency there which will now be fixed, but for all the wrong reasons. >> john. thank you. it's i mean, the idea of there being a warning about potential vehicle ramming. you can imagine so many cities across the country preparing for the unknown. and now we know what has happened. pete, thank you so much, john. jamal, stay with me and please stand by. tonight, the sugar bowl,

they held a moment of silence for the 14 people who were killed on bourbon street. 14 lives cut short in the blink of an eye. many of them. they were only in their 20s. and tonight we do know some of their names. matthew tenedorio 18 year old. ni'kyra cheyenne dedeaux kareem badawi. reggie hunter. tiger bech. hubert gauthreaux. drew dauphin and billy dimaio. their lives should and will not be forgotten. they should not. we're also hearing from people who survived the carnage on bourbon street. one man who uses a wheelchair described to our anderson cooper the moment he was struck i didn't see anything. >> and while i was hearing these shots, i was still like disoriented. and i. and the whole time i was like, pretty messed up. i really didn't know

what was going on, and i was just glad that i didn't get shot. like, i'm thinking the gunshots, i'm laying on the ground. i should be safe. and then, um, my leg was messed up. i kept messing with my leg. i'm like, trying to figure out what's going on with my leg. and i saw this stuff around me, which was parts of my wheelchair. so i started scraping and trying to find my phone. i really couldn't tell what was what, so i tried to get my phone. i wanted to use the phone. i was going to call my wife and tell her i was alive jeremi sensky survived. >> his wheelchair was destroyed, but he says he won't live in fear despite what he has experienced. with me now, new orleans councilwoman leslie harris. councilman, thank you for joining. this is unbelievable. to think of this being the start of the new year, the loss of life, the impact on not just the people, but the ripple effect throughout the entire community and country. how will new orleans help survivors and families to recover and try to get any accountability that might be out there?

>> well, as you know, we are a city that's gone through a lot of tragedy. we've had hurricanes and weather events, and as your panelists said, we have had other incidents on and around bourbon street, and we will do what we do as new orleanians, which is join together as a community and heal and make sure that our community, the victims, the victims families are as one. and i know that sounds trite, but that's what we do. we are a resilient community, and we will put our arms around everybody and come together to make sure that we continue to be a united new orleans in the face of this horrible, horrible attack. >> it doesn't sound trite to me at all. i think unity is something that people crave in these tragic moments, and wanting to feel like they're not alone. the second thing they look for, though, are answers as to why and how it could have been prevented. and we obtained here at cnn a bulletin from the homeland

security department that had warned about possible vehicle ramming attacks during the holidays. was new orleans aware of that one or properly prepared for something like this on new year's eve? >> we have been preparing for super bowl since it was announced in october, and that includes sugar bowl, which is a big event that comes every single year, as well as mardi gras, which is coming up next month. so we believe that our law enforcement was adequately prepared to defend against any sort of attacks. we've been doing water testing, air quality testing in anticipation of the super bowl coming up. this was an unfortunate, unfortunate attack that i think even with the issue around the bollards could have happened no matter what, because this person was dead set on attacking our great community. and so whether or not it happened at that intersection

or at another intersection along bourbon street, i think this person was aiming for new orleans for whatever reason. and i don't know that anything could have prevented prevented this from happening. what i will say is that, excuse me, that does seem very unsettling, though, right, councilwoman, to think about the inevitability of the attack. >> certainly he seemed to be intent. but now we know bourbon street is open with new security barriers that are in place. could those not have been in place before this happened? >> we had law enforcement stationed at that intersection. and as you know, the person who they went around onto the sidewalk around our law enforcement went about three blocks barreling down the road. but our law enforcement immediately responded. so three officers immediately responded and ran towards the attacker, took him down, killed him, and

in the process, two of those officers were wounded. but they prevented what could have been a really large scale attack. my point about the bollards is this new orleans and bourbon street itself is not a pedestrian area. there are pedestrians, but it's also there are also cross streets and there aren't stations at every single cross street to prevent this. it's like any city, but this person could have gone down canal street. and again, i think that this person was just dead set against on on this havoc that he wrought on the city of new orleans came from houston to do it. >> councilwoman, it's just such a tragedy to know that this has happened, but certainly i know that you and others will work very hard to ensure that this does not repeat and that the community does lift everyone up. thank you so much for joining us. councilwoman leslie harris, i appreciate you. >> thank you. >> next, the final fatal moves

of the driver who exploded a cybertruck right in front of a trump hotel in las vegas. what they reveal as investigators still search for a motive. and ahead, the year's first big test for republicans. will speaker johnson hold on to his gavel or lose his job? >> everybody's looking for a hero. >> chris wanted to change the world. people walking because of him. >> i wouldn't have missed this for the world. super man. >> the christopher reeve story coming in february on cnn. >> your life is pretty smart, but when it's time to eat, suddenly you feel out of sync. refresh your routine with

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duty, active duty green beret based in germany, but he was on leave. a relative tells cnn livelsberger was a strong supporter of president elect trump, praising him for helping the military. now, investigators say they found livelsberger military aid inside the burned out cybertruck, along with two weapons. additional fireworks, his passport and iphone, and a smart watch. and police used tesla charging stations to track livelsberger movements before the explosion. they say that he rented the cybertruck in denver on december 28th, before driving through new mexico and arizona and arriving in las vegas just yesterday morning. now, security cameras showed the truck pulling into the front of the trump hotel once before leaving and visiting other businesses up and down the strip. but an hour later, the truck heads back to the trump hotel, pulling into the valet area and parking before exploding. 17 seconds later. now, despite

all of this evidence, police are still searching for why this happened. but investigators say they're aware that a tesla cybertruck exploding in front of a trump hotel. well, it raises questions for a lot of people, doesn't it? >> it's not lost on us that it's in front of, you know, of the trump building, that it's a tesla vehicle. but we don't have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology or the, you know, any of the reasoning behind it. >> mhm. well, john and jamal are back with me, along with bishop garrison, senior fellow and adjunct professor at george mason law school's national security institute. glad to have you here, bishop. thank you. let me begin with you, john, on this, because you've got some new reporting on matthew livelsberger. what would what why would he have done this? >> well, this is the thing that kevin mcmahill the sheriff in las vegas, and spencer evans, the special agent in charge of that office, and their teams

have been poring over, which is get into the phones, get into the computers, get into the house. are their communications with radical groups or extremists, right wing extremists or foreign extremists? left wing extremists? and that's what they're not finding. are there connections or communications or associations with the new orleans suspect who blew up, um, who had ieds and did the ramming attack there? that's what they're not finding, what they are starting to see, though, are personal issues in his life, things going on in his family life that were problems for him, things going on in his army, life as a special forces green beret, counterterrorism, counterinsurgency specialist, signs of depression, uh, signs of sadness about long deployments and being away. talk about ptsd, about, you know, the

amount of violence that they're exposed to, the killing, collateral damage of noncombatants, civilians who were killed. these are things that affect a lot of special operators. so they are as they're looking for connections between the new orleans attack and this explosion in las vegas. what we're starting to see is the cases drifting apart instead of together. this could have been a organized suicide after a series of life depressing stressors and a final stressor that might have broken the camel's back, where he wanted to go out literally with a bang in a symbolic location. what does that mean, laura? is he trying to say these are the problems that america's most elite soldiers are facing? and i want the new president to know about it. it's a bizarre way to deliver a message, and maybe that's a reach, but it's what they're looking at now,

along with many other things. and, you know, they're keeping an open mind because you don't know where the case is going to go. >> we don't know, bishop. we don't know what the connections, if there are any. we do know that there are some red flags, maybe coincidences, but whether they will turn out to be anything, i don't know. but we do know this is somebody who is a green beret. active duty, by the way, he had been awarded multiple medals. the atf says the, quote, level of sophistication is not what you'd expect from someone who has all of these sort of accolades and training. but tell me, pick, i'm picking your brain here. what does it suggest to you that this correlation between all of his training and the way this all went down? >> well, first and foremost, my heart goes out to the communities here, both new orleans and with las vegas, because this creates so much tension, so much trauma for those individuals that are just trying to live their lives. >> uh, given that we know that he was a former master sergeant and active duty with special forces, the operations tempo over the course of the last 20

years. when you talk about gwot, when you talk about the global war on terrorism has just been so high for these individuals, so much stress as i myself served two tours in iraq. i served with a great many special forces officers and enlisted. i know just the pressures that they're going through, both while they're actively in combat and then back at home. when you come back and you have some of these added stressors that john kind of alluded to. um, the first things first, we need more information. we need to understand a little bit better about what was going on in his life, what might have driven him to this type of activity, why he was on leave, why he was on leave, why the trump tower, why there are so many different ways that he could have gone about doing this, that could have made a bigger statement, that could have made more destruction, that could have made less, that he could have written an email, could have written a letter, or he could have had a more powerful explosive given his skill set. so we just don't know. and there are too many folks that are taking the threads of information we do have and going online and looking for

some type of coordination or some type of connection between the two. uh, the two events that we've seen and everything else, it's just going to create more misinformation, disinformation and more terror. so we just need to kind of take a breath, let law enforcement do what they need to do, and we need to understand better about his life what was going on. but knowing the amount of stress and pressures that we have, these these soldiers under special forces operators, this we should understand a bit more of what we can do to help that community and support them properly. >> i certainly understand that not having served, but i can appreciate the stressors. it's one thing to talk about what happened in las vegas versus what's happening in new orleans, and the loss of lives, other people who were killed as a result of it. but when you look at the psychology and you think about ways in which law enforcement is trying to investigate with an eye towards deterrence, you know what sticks out to you? >> yeah. >> i mean, look, it's hard, laura, because you got to figure out how do you identify these people? one. how do you

identify them ahead of time? and to bishop's point, how do you get them the help they need before they turn into a terrorist? in the case of shamsud-din jabbar, where he's becoming radicalized, whether it's on the internet or elsewhere, how do you solve it? in the case of matthew livelsberger, where he's going and putting himself in a truck and blowing it up with campfire gas and fireworks, right. how do you get ahead of that? how do you prevent that from happening? how do you prevent the radicalization and the activity that might take the lives of others? these are very hard things. and then how do you harden our society against those things? how do you collect the right kind of intelligence? how do you identify lone wolf terrorists? we have an authority for lone wolf surveillance that's expired four years ago because congress didn't act on it. we have 702 authorities surveillance of foreigners located overseas. that's set to expire once again just in a few months. congress may not reauthorize it. these are real challenges. taking those tools off the table for our law enforcement, our military and intelligence communities is exactly the wrong thing to do. congress is gonna have a chance to deal with that and other issues going forward. >> a lot of the curiosity you both speak of what to do next is the likely result of terror,

right? it makes people wonder and question and look at each other very differently. and of course, look to congress and other agencies to know what they can do about it. gentlemen, thank you all so much. up next, speaking of congress, a former navy seal turned republican congressman ryan zinke. he's here. we'll talk about these two veterans under investigation for two separate attacks on new year's day. and the will they won't they moment that everyone in the house is talking about. will speaker johnson be voted out of a job tomorrow? >> kobe believed in himself at the youngest possible age. >> it's one of the most remarkable stories in sports history. >> i don't want to be remembered as just a basketball player. >> kobe premieres january 25th on cnn. >> it's halftime. time to go to the bathroom. >> never slams. >> shower and count how many full baths you have. >> it's a jack and jill. >> selling your home to open

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local officials have recovered precursor chemicals usually used to make explosives in the houston home of the new orleans attacker. this, as the army community tonight, is rattled and stunned in the wake of the bourbon street attack and the explosion in las vegas. the men responsible served their country, though at different times. and we mentioned the one behind the vegas bomb was active duty, while the veteran who attacked new orleans had been discharged in 2020. joining me now, republican congressman from montana and former navy seal ryan zinke. he served in the united states navy for 23 years. congressman, thank you so much for joining me today. it's been an unbelievable start to a new year. the tragedy that has ensued has been really mind boggling for so many people. i wonder what comes to mind for you when you learned that the two men allegedly behind these two tragic events in new

orleans, in las vegas, they served in uniform, one active duty and dead. >> and it's troubling. >> unfortunately, this is not the first time an active duty or a former military has committed a heinous crime. you may recall in 2002, we had the beltway sniper. that was an individual that was in the in the back of a of a truck with an accomplice, 17 innocent victims were killed. and then fast forward, you know, and you look at a veteran, a veteran at some time in his life has raised his right hand, and he's given an oath to the constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. so what takes a person that has given an oath to this country? and what takes a person so far out of that, were they're willing to, you know, run over innocents or shoot innocents at a mall? the case in tesla, we still don't know. although he was active duty and he was a special forces guy. that's just not a run of the mill. there's

a lot of training behind special forces, but, you know, something's going going on. and i think we have to look at it. you know, what is causing, you know, this pain. >> what do you think is this? i mean, solution would be the worst word to use when you're thinking about maybe deterrence in the long run. but what could be something that congress could be doing or the government could be doing to look into whatever has led to these events? >> you know, you look at the tone. i you know, when i grew up, republican and democrat, yeah, perhaps. but at the end of the day, you're all american. and i think we got to focus on the greatness of our country. and whether you're on the republican or democrat side, i think all of us can say things aren't going swimmingly. you know, we have problems. we do have a border problem. we have an economic problem. we have a problem where we're young, you know, individuals coming up get a job. you know what? maybe a

home is outside their reach. so i think we need to focus on on what's important in this country. the constitution, making sure everyone has an opportunity and kind of push the craziness out because it's causing a lot of distraction and it's preventing congress, in many cases, from getting done what we should be doing. >> just to clarify, when you say border issues, you mean more broadly there's not a connection with the border issues and these particular tragedies that we've heard about. but congress couldn't very well be at a standstill if they do not have a speaker as of tomorrow. you know full well, as a member of congress, if there's no speaker, then a lot of things can't happen. tell me about your level of confidence when it leads to whether speaker johnson will retain that gavel. >> and i think the president said it best is that johnson is a good man. he's a good man. he's hard working and he's a religious man. as far as political and where he sits in

the spectrum, he's the most probably the most conservative speaker we've ever had. but it isn't the speaker per se. it's how we've gotten. there were 1 or 2 voices can collapse the entire system. in fact, one defector. >> defector could be all, which could derail the entire process for speaker johnson. right. and you have to have the majority of all those who will be voting. that means one person, one republican, could say no. and if more than that happens, that's it. >> it has consequences beyond the vote. it means you can't get things done. you can't certify in the sixth, you can't certify the election. you can't swear new members in. but beyond that, you also are not doing your job. the reason every member is here, is we represent people and everyone in this election said, you know what? we have a better future ahead of us. we want to get things done and these distractions, you know, prevent that. and it's not it's not whether it's one speaker is better or another. it won't

change unless rules are applied, in my opinion, to the house. yeah. because if you're constantly breaking rules and everyone has a voice, but no one has the voice, not even the speaker, and and as a body, you have to realize that you know what compromise is not. you never compromise your your values. you or your principles. you compromise for solution to get things done. >> but there is well, i don't know if he's going to be the voice, but he's a voice right now and it's thomas massie a congressman. and he has said, when asked about the pressure to fall in line, supporting who trump supports, who you have supported. i saw the hashtag. i like mike as a way to support speaker mike johnson, he told the wall street journal. i know, i don't know how to say this without cussing. if they thought i had no f's to give before, i definitely have no f's to give now. well, he has a vote he could give. he doesn't want to give it to speaker johnson. what does that tell you that your colleague does not want to do that? >> well, i can tell you that he

is here because his constituents supported him, and i'm not sure his constituents are going to like this decision. if he's the one that's blowing up the tracks for donald j. trump and let's be clear, the reason why the republicans have the majority is because donald j. trump was at the top of the ticket. the reason why many members remember when you got a donald trump endorsement that was like a gold standard. and so donald trump was actively involved, probably more actively involved in congress than any president in my lifetime. at the front line. he was there doing rallies. et cetera. et cetera. so to dismiss that and saying, well, i'm not going to support my president, which is donald trump, nor am i going to support his agenda because his agenda cannot happen unless you have a speaker and the house is in order. >> well, we'll see how long you'll be in that voting limbo as of tomorrow. congressman,

thank you for joining us. we'll see what happens. >> always a pleasure. >> thank you. >> well trump getting in on the action calling the house holdouts telling them to back mike johnson for speaker. is it going to work. >> have i got news for you is back for a new season. whether you like it or not. >> are those the only two choices? yes. >> you like it or you don't? >> i'm on the fence. >> this is going to be a long season. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on check in. time is three. >> it's 255. >> i know, is this what he's doing now? >> as your host, i have some rules. first, no showers longer than five minutes. this isn't a spa. no games, no fun. >> yes, coach. >> meanwhile, at a vrbo, when other vacation rentals make you share your turf with a host, try one. you have all to

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that? ours or theirs? september 5th. rated r. >> i wish my tv provider let me choose what i pay for. >> sling lets you do that. >> i wish my tv provider let me choose what i pay for and let me pause my subscription when i want. sling what you do that. >> yeehaw! >> i wish my tv provider let me choose what i pay for and let me pause my subscription when i want and have hundreds of free channels. sling let you do that too. >> maybe choosing customize your channel lineup or watch for free. sling lets you do that. >> i'm elizabeth wagmeister in los angeles and this is cnn. >> it's the calm before the storm on capitol hill. speaker johnson, staring at the narrowest house majority in nearly a century. and he faces a razor thin reelection vote in just a matter of hours. now, that's even despite president-elect trump agreeing to call potential holdouts. i want to bring in former democratic congressman joe crowley and former communications aide to senator lindsey graham t.w. gregg. nice

to have you both here with me tonight. joe, how much do you miss being on the hill, knowing that tomorrow will be a kind of day for speaker johnson? >> well, you know, it is kind of exciting to some degree, especially when you're in the minority and you get to watch the majority burn a little bit. >> um, but yeah, i mean, six years, no hard feelings. six years is a long time now. i feel, i feel, i feel i'm getting over congress now, so i'm doing just fine. >> well, he might be doing fine. not just fine tomorrow, right? because speaker johnson, he wants this to be a very quick round, but it could be longer. he has one ability to lose one person, and massie already says no. >> right. >> yeah, it might take a round or two. and with such a thin majority, everyone has the chance to like, be their own. joe manchin. but look, the thing is, mike johnson will be the next speaker of the house. he has donald trump's support. he has the support of all leadership. and the fact is, there's no one else who can get the necessary votes. so this you know, and also, i want

to add massie can do whatever he wants. he's known to, you know, not give a f, as he said, but you're standing in direct opposition to getting the trump agenda done soon. and i think that's the message that donald trump's giving to members of congress right now. >> is that going to be convincing to the holdouts that trump is saying no? i mean, he didn't work for the debt ceiling. >> well, i think it could be a little messy. i agree with t.w. on this. i think that in the end, i do think that johnson does get it. you know how long that will take will be the question. there have been known to muck things up a little bit. and i think tomorrow could be another example of that. just a bit. where are they going to go though? if it's not johnson, then who? and i haven't heard a single person who wants this job. quite frankly. and who's the alternative if there's no. alternative? right. it's going to be johnson. >> it took 27 days to get johnson that particular post. mccarthy. but there's a lot riding on this because if you don't have a speaker and january 6th is coming up very, very soon, you can't certify the election. you can't do anything in congress that the speaker you can't even have

the new congress come in. they must realize the consequences. >> yeah. look, i think everyone knows the consequences. even massie. i think there's people who want to do a little horse trading and get a little bit more leverage. like what with johnson, who knows? we've heard about chip roy, maybe on rules committee or certain things like that. so i can see them holding it up to get us to sweeten the pot a bit. but no one wants to relive what we did with mccarthy. that was horrible. and it will screw up. we have two years with donald trump in a full united republican congress. at minimum. we can't waste time. >> but, you know, manu raju who i think has like a murphy bed now on capitol hill, and he showed her a plaque he's reporting tonight that speaker johnson is reluctant to make any of those sort of side deals, a la mccarthy. good strategy for him at this point. >> why does he have to? as i said before, there's no alternative. we know the democrats are going to be fairly very disciplined tomorrow. i think that hakeem jeffries and the democratic caucus will be disciplined. >> do you think no one's going to go vote for him? >> i don't see that happening at all. and i think i

think johnson appeals to his conference and says, listen, they're united. we need to be united. and i think he wants to do that without without having to make as many deals, as few deals as possible to make that happen. i don't think he wants to be a hostage. i don't think he likes that. that positioning and the least he can do of that, i think. i think that's that's where he'll be. >> it also hurt mccarthy because everyone wondered what those side deals were. they weren't particularly clear. that was gaetz part of his issue with mccarthy. they didn't know it was it wasn't. transparency. is johnson making the right move by essentially relying on the trump endorsement? >> yeah. >> and by the way, oddly, i don't think it counts for much. but gaetz actually also endorsed mike johnson. yeah. no, look, this is people won these races, especially of the 14 who are saying that they might vote no. they got massive amounts of help from donald trump. and there's a mandate now to deliver on the trump agenda. and if they're going to stand in their way, the constituents of those folks are going to really cry out. so, yes, by doubling down with the man who delivered a victory and a

majority, yes, i think is the right strategy. >> they're also going to make a rules change that will also make it harder to, to, to, to, to to challenge the speaker in the future. but the real problem though is if they if they limit the ability of minority of the democrats to do that, that will be very undemocratic. and i don't think they should do that right now. my understanding is only the majority can bring a motion to vacate the chair. i think that would be a blow to our democracy if that were to happen. >> by the way, the rules would the parliamentarian step in at some point? >> they're not they're not likely to to allow these different rule changes to have either a temporary speaker without the new person being sworn in or other areas as well. >> right. >> well, the congress could work its will if the congress decides that it wants to create a rule that allows for a temporary speaker or a caretaker, they could do that. i don't think there's going to be a need for that and give a certain date, like once people are sworn in and once the the elections are certified, then you'd have to have another vote. congress can work its own

will. the parliamentarian can only work off the rules that they make for themselves. >> this might be assuming he gets that gavel again. the easiest part of the next couple of months of his life. speaker johnson he's got a lot ahead of him. the march deadline of the new the cr will lapsed by then. he's got to make sure his his caucus is happy and also appeal to democrats as well. this is quite a daunting task. >> yeah, absolutely. and like i said, we have at least two years of a united republican front to get this stuff done. so let's go after the things that republicans have been talking about. let's get the easy wins. let's go after the help on the border. and immigration is to you right now, though, on those issues. of course it is. yes. i think we can build a strong republican consensus on the border and on immigration, and that we can do it on taxes and spending. let's get the wins where we can get it and try to to build some momentum and take it from there. >> thank you both. we'll see what happens. the big question, will speaker johnson keep his job? well, join cnn for special coverage of the vote for speaker live tomorrow, beginning at noon eastern.

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>> i'm rafael romo at the georgia state capitol in atlanta. this is cnn. >> closed captioning is brought to you by skechers. hands free slip ins. >> we talk on the phone, hands free. go hands free to turn on our lights. and now there's hands free footwear. revolutionary skechers slip ins. you just slip in and they're on. try skechers slip ins. >> we have breaking news out of south korea where learned that authorities there have now suspended the attempt to arrest their impeached president. cnn's mike valerio is live in seoul right now near president yoon's resident. mike, what's happening? >> so, laura, this is a month since martial law was declared by the now suspended president of a top american ally, south korea. we're talking about suspended president yoon suk yeol. so a move out of the way show you what's happening right now. this was an attempt, laura, by prosecutors and investigators

to hold the suspended president accountable for throwing the country into chaos and declaring martial law in the late evening hours of december 3rd into december 4th. these are all supporters of president yoon and the prosecutors. and investigators said essentially just minutes ago, laura, you know what? the president does not want to give himself up the equivalent of the south korean secret service is not going to play ball here. they're not going to give up the suspended president, either. so they are temporarily calling off their arrest warrant. they could try in the next few days. laura, to attempt to bring south korea's suspended president in the process of impeachment in for questioning. but this development throws the whole process into chaos. will south korea's president be arrested? that, as of right now, is an open question, laura. >> well, take us back to how all of this started. >> it was through martial law on december 3rd. so the president yoon suk yeol not getting a lot done through his

agenda. laura. so he decides, in a move that is still being questioned and is befuddling. so many of us declares martial law in order to arrest his political rivals from the other side of the aisle. because, laura, this country has a history of authoritarian rule going back into the not so recent past. we're talking about 1987 really tamping down in 1988 a whole multitude of people rise up and say, hey, you got to be kidding me. we are not having martial law again. so martial law is canceled after only six hours. fast forward a month. this is the attempt by prosecutors to say what you did is against the law. outside of presidential powers, we've got to take you in for questioning. they tried to do that. this was a seven hour back and forth, laura, throughout the day here in central seoul, south korea. and we just found