. >>> with us now cnn political commentator republican strategist al stewart and john avalon. didn't want to set a precedent on capitol hill by not giving a guy who admitted to lying about much if not most of his past a committee assignment so they gave him bad committee assignments. only in the house do you get this kind of justification. we didn't give him good ones. is that enough? >> no, of course not, but it's not just that, they gave him small business. this is a guy who lied about having an mba, lied about his business experience entirely. it's kind of a chef's kiss. the only way it could be worse is if you put him on the house ethics committee. it's ridiculous on its face. >> alice, he is facing multiple investigations now. why did they feel that out of all people they owed him anything? >> well, to your point, he is facing many charges and there are many investigations under way, but to melanie's point until he is found actually guilty of something, house members really didn't have much choice. i spoke with many members of the republican conference and most of them did

. >>> joining us now cnn's senior political analyst john avalon.o picking up there, what's interesting as we look at all of this, i think, is that there is this call for budget cuts, right, by the gop, the conference, though, doesn't seem to have a clear list of what those cuts would be, what the amounts would be and let's be honest, they haven't needed one, nate cohn pointed out well this morning this was certainly not a rallying cry for republicans in the midterms, right? they were focused more on perceived cultural issues. so how does kevin mccarthy, then, or can kevin mccarthy, i guess is the question, get his caucus on one page here? >> well, you know, kevin mccarthy has struggled to do that from literally day one of his speakership. but i think you point to the right issue which is that republicans haven't actually set out what their spending cut goals are, and usually when you negotiate with someone they have a list of requests, demands and you bounce them back on the other side. as you point out none of this is done with the full faith and

please welcome john avalon. thank you, john. john: it's an honor to be with you all. i feel like they put me between you all that i'd really have to keep you guys apart but this is a real friendship and some of the fun we're going to have. i want to welcome you all formally to federal hall, and all of you -- i see steve israel and barbara com stock. fergus -- by the way, i loved his book and used it for research i used on george washington's farewell address. this is really a civics base, a sacred civic place. the birthplace of the bill of rights. george washington stood and took the oater here. lower man hatten is one of the most historic and patriotic places you possibly could be. i recall when ted cruz once said dismissably about new york values. i think a walk around lower manhattan reminds us how much of the history we share here and commute with it daily. welcome. i want to ask you about what fergus talked about. how does it feel as current members of congress to be in a sacred place where the first congress served on a day we've had hearings about january 6, wh

please join us on march 2 for an evening with cnn john avalon and chris whipple, author of the best-selling the fight of his life, inside joe biden's white house. we'll have more programs to announce to our friends soon here and please join lbj presidential library director marc lawrence for his free ongoing virtual series the american presidency, decisions for war and peace. the next session will take place on february 2 with climate center executive director will him alone on his critically acclaimed new book the peacemaker. ronald reagan, the cold war and the world on the brink. you can find more information on the series at lbj library.org. now i will turn the podium over to a alissa starzak, the acting chair of the public interest classification board who introduced director haines. please join me in welcoming alissa starzak. thanks. [applause] >> thank you thank you . good evening and welcome to the conference america's secrets come classified information in our democracy. as acting chair of the public interest declassification board i'm excited for this conference every opportunity t

. >> back with us cnn political commentator, and senior political analyst john avalon. read a little bit more about their relationship. because it's fascinating. so that gentlemen says he met santos in 2014 when he himself was 18 years old, santos was 26 at the time and married to a woman. they moved in together, shortly after vilarva graduated high school, he became increasingly suspicious of santos who said he was going to take him to hawaii but never did, santos eventually stole his phone and hocked it for cash >> what a love story. >> where to go, listen, let's take the, you know, aggrieved exboyfriend's account with a grain of salt. >> in fairness to mr. santos. >> i just feel like, you know, maybe not the best character witness or maybe he is i'm not sure but without his account there's 100, 100 stories this bong kers and you have to wonder is there something wrong with him? i don't know the answer, but pretty sure something wrong it's not just all the lies that you have most of your life. it's the indignant attitude he walks around with when asked about it >> jus

also here, ryan goodman, coed t tor in chief at the defense department and john avalon.ing here, guys. you just heard evan's reporting. what do you make of, you have to say it's the possibility of other locations being searched. what do you make of that? >> it stands to reason that both for national security reasons, we would want to have these other properties searched. if there's any likelihood that other documents are out there, they want to recover them. and then for legal reasons, you would think that in some sense, this would have already been conducted. it's a little surprising they didn't do all of the properties that biden was at and where he might have stored files so the fact that it's happening now is a bit of an oddity. that said, if you just compare it to the trump case, president trump's team was notified in may of 2021 by the archives there were missing documents and it took them until november of 2022 for them to conduct other searches when they then find additional documents. >> we also have that the white house secret service says there are no visitors

be able to come back together and work together, which i'm just going to throw you a small bone john avalon, which is to say that while there is this fracture, are they going to step up. will they find places to work with democrats on some of the upcoming legislation. perhaps even on the rules package yet to be approved. >> in the earliest version of this movie, let's not forget, at the end of the day when there were government shutdowns and other things, the only way that things got done was republican leadership working with moderate democrats or all democrats to stop all deadlocks. it doesn't represent the electorate. >> it also required the speakers to be willing to help facilitate -- >> or have the power to do that. >> and we don't know whether kevin mccarthy will have the inclination or the ability to do that. >> that's right. >> and at the end of the day when the moderates stick their heads out, they get punished by the electorate. which is what i was saying. this is why mccarthy and leadership, whether it's mccarthy on his face or outside groups, no, no, no, this happens in the sena