how much did you actually make off these ppp loans? was substantial. >> reporter: in an abc news exclusive, we sat down with someone who was criminally charged with exploiting ppp funds. diamond blue smith made a name for himself in the early 2000s as part of the r&b group pretty ricky. >> i went from famous to infamous overnight, in the snap of a finger. >> reporter: smith says the covid-19 pandemic hit him hard when it forced his group's reunion tour to shut down. >> it was devastating, i think for everybody. >> reporter: a lot of mouths to feed? >> a lot of mouths to feed, for sure. >> reporter: smith says he was looking for ways to keep making money during the lockdown when he says someone he knew and trusted toltd told him he could help him get a loan. >> so he's calling me, "yeah, man, open up your phone, click right there, yeah, click it, that's it, man, that's it." i ain't read nothing or nothing. >> reporter: he said, fill out these forms and you filled out the forms? >> i didn't fill them out, they filled them out. i clicked

the last thing i will say is osc looks at ppp's retaliation and we also look at senior leader misconduct and poor performance and retaliation by a supervisor, so our mandates are a bit larger. that is only one side of our health. we have another side that does a lot of things so we add a lot of value. rep. kiggans: thank you. mr. calhoun, can you explain why a whistleblower would want to contact oawp rather than oig? dir. calhoun: thank you for the question. we have different authorities. it's broader when it comes to protecting whistleblowers within the v.a. for example, they received their authority from the various acts. none of that gives them the authority to investigate general misconduct. the burden that whistleblowers carry to prove their case is quite high. the next panel will be addressing that is they've done historically. but we have the ability to use the policies to make sure that even if they don't reach that threshold of the retaliation case, the senior leaders are not violating policies and going after whistleblowers. rep. kiggans: thank you and my time is up so i will y

terribly upset there and say that you know, another 2 years... if there is such growth, then russia by gdp pppy will germany, in 2 years russia will overtake japan , and this is simply a terrible catastrophe, we don’t know what to do, so everyone is pessimistic, that is, the resolution, they are forced to recognize the crisis that they have they stand, and most importantly , they don’t recognize the absence of any prospects and any horizons. for a long time that their economy is in crisis, just so as not to misinform the people, we are actually ahead of someone, but we are only talking about purchasing power, there are many, many more circumstances where we lag behind and lag behind quite seriously, but in this context we pulled ahead and overtook germany, we are the first in europe, but only in this context, yes, that’s why now... they are forced to admit, that they are in crisis, they are forced to say that they really have very distant prospects for restoring, essentially, the european economy, and uh, in fact, no plan is being proposed in davos on how this can be somehow implemented, that’

>> let me just share with you that we saw during ppp, that actually, the small community institutions you mention really punched above their weight class when it comes to serving small businesses. many of them have those relationships. so we were under a court order to complete the final rule by march of this year. the cfpb was sued a few years ago for not doing the rule. we increased the loan threshold which accepted a large number -- i don't have the exact number of small banks, but of course, i share with you that we don't want -- we want a robust and really fair small business lending market. >> i'm going to reclaim my time quickly here. when was the last time you actually spoke to a community bank about this rule? >> so i have conducted sessions with i think every single banker association represented in this committee and more. i think i have met now with thousands of community bankers. you're right. many of them do mention this and other issues. they have done branch visits. >> i'm going to reclaim my time again. i think it is more than a couple of them or some of them. every s

is, well, it's far, but you have to consider that there is such a system in unmanned vehicles , as ppp. today there are drones that have from 700 to 1100 rr and pass through all these channels, and this is necessary, well, this is a rather difficult situation, and we are working on it today, how to create effective interference in such a wide range in order to be able to cover such a wide range, and pprch, an unmanned aerial vehicle... can be on any of these frequencies, accordingly, it must be a fairly powerful system that covers such a wide range by establishing interference. you said at the beginning conversations, what is the most optimal over there, or is the current range of suppression systems up to 5 km, despite the fact that we know that these enemy drones now have a range of 18 km, sometimes a little less, but within 18 km, or can we... conventionally speaking, to have a reb system of such power that the russian fpv drones do not even take off, is this an overly optimistic vision, is this an overly optimistic vision, that is, for this there must be extremely powerful systems,

president biden was there with us to give us additional food stamps president biden was there to give the pppbusinesses. president biden was there to give us the stimulus check people were unemployed got unemployment benefits in the state and the federalfi government. in new york as high as $1000 a week. president biden was there to provide the child tax credit $3500 per child under five years and $3000 over five years until 17 years of age. he was doing our biggest crisis our worst crisis of our lifetime. he ushered us through that crisis. i think we will remember that. >> how well do think he's doing delivering that message himself? particularly to hispanic voters? >> the message could be delivered a little bitcu better. particularly to the latino community which is very diverse. the message should puerto rican like yourself very differently then you message to a dominican like myself. we must do better to message with the president has done. but clearly during the crisis of our lifetime they are senate next to us for. >> let's hear from lee he is in illinois democrats for representative ad

affairs of ukraine dmytro kuleba, one of the key topics will be the link strengthening of the ukrainian ppp. kuleba also emphasized the holding of this meeting, quoting: it demonstrates euro-atlantic unity against the background of russian terror. what to expect from the states? as of next week, america will return to active political life, and the main thing that interests and confuses is what 2024 will be like in relations with ukraine, and how the pre-election fever will affect them, and it will start to be felt already in mid-january. our special correspondent in the united states. dmytro anchenko asked authoritative americans about it, who were as determined as possible pro-ukrainian we will hear what opinions and conclusions they share in his material from washington. the first days of january are the right time to collect the messages from the political heavyweights that sounded in 2023 and set the accents. to move away from the statements that we heard, what was said on the run, during the events, from what was quoted, but not analyzed deeply , and to talk. and how will all this aff

i understand you l are campaigning at the moment for the pakistan general election and you are the ppp country and he is in prison, jailed for corruption charges that he denies. he has lost his appeal is to be allowed to run in the election. his pti party's logo was withdrawn from the party, a logo which associates that party for many voters. critics of all of those moves say that this is effectively trying to ban the pti as a party, so do you believe these elections that are due on the 8th of february are going to be free and fair? this february are going to be free and fair? �* , ., .,, february are going to be free and fair? a ., ..,, february are going to be free and fair? a ., .., ,., fair? as far as elections are concerned. _ fair? as far as elections are concerned, they _ fair? as far as elections are concerned, they are - fair? as far as elections are concerned, they are going i fair? as far as elections are l concerned, they are going to fair? as far as elections are - concerned, they are going to go ahead on the 8th of february and i'm hopeful that they are as free and fair a

get some added perspective now on the current state of the race with cnn political commenter se cu ppp. happy new year. so former president trump, he's hoping for a real knockout there in new hampshire. while nikki haley is looking to secure a strong enough showing to spring board her campaign. both have been ramping up attacks as we just saw the latest example on one another in recent days. a little too late for this or is this good timing in which to do so? >> it can't hurt at this point. she's trying to court independents and moderates. there's a lot of them there. that's a smart strategy. but i mean, for any of them to have really had a good shot against trump, they should have been conditioning the environment months and months ago. with attacks against trump. and really setting the stakes for why. and choosing someone else. that could be everything from trump to be in jail on election day to trump wanted to overturn democracy and would probably try it again. or what nikki has been saying he didn't deliver on the promises he made. there are a lot of avenues to go down if you wante

the last thing i will say, osc looks at ppp with retaliation but we also look at senior leader misconduct and poor performance and retaliation by the supervisor. our mandate is a bit larger and that is only one side of the house but we have a whole other side that does other things that we have a lot of value. >> mr. calhoun, can you tell the reasons a victim of whistleblower retaliation would want to contact oawp rather than osc ? >> congress gave as different authorities. our authority is broader than osc when it comes to protecting whistleblowers. they receive their authority from the civil service reform act. none of those laws give them the authority to investigate general misconduct. the burden that whistleblowers carry to prove their case is quite high. the next panel will be addressing that as they have done historically seeking star protection for whistleblowers. we have the ability to use va policies to make sure that even if they don't reach the threshold of retaliation case, then va supervisors and senior leaders are not violating policies and going after whistleblowers. thank

there needs to be flexibility around -- you know, the ppp program is a great example. there was flexibility around seasonality so that our seasonal business we were able to apply. we need to institutionalize that. i think across a lot of programs. >> thank you. and can i give mr. drummond the last word here? so you're the small business. and do you want to just talk about the impact of severe weather events that maybe impacts your business or maybe some of your friends that you talk to that have similar types of small businesses or seasonal businesses? >> yeah, absolutely. like as you mentioned, too much snow can be dangerous. we do have avalanches, but honestly, that's, that's kind of not our problem. you know, we just want cold winters and, and normal summers like these extreme weather events that come, they affect the ski conditions. if we have these big warm ups, we're so reliant on manmade snow at the ski resorts these days, especially in new england that again, it's, it's a ton of money to run the -- run the compressors to, to blow the air and blow the water to c

how money that was supposed to go to save small business during the pandemic -- >> he said this was a ppp

great insight into whether that's a a reflection of perhaps actions by the taliban or crack down on ppp but this security issue is, i think dominating the taliban's relationship with pakistan, pakistan's relationship with one of its neighbors. to the north i will give you one example among the difficult issues with the taliban is over a particular canal that the taliban are seeking to build in the north that could divert large percentages to have river that supports tens of thousands as well as turk men. that's one issue. at the same time they are generously will providing electricity that supports the afghan people. on iran, again you know, the iranians like any other country in the region have embassy in kabul. they have a special envoy and they probably have steep steep security concerns as well. yes. i think they probably have concerns, look, i don't want to talk for iran but any country that's attacked i think they would have concerns about the ability of a neighbor to take action to ensure those attacks , don't happen. >> i've gone over, i yield back. >> we now proceed to congress

biden was there with us to give us additional food stamps, that president biden was there to give the pppns to small businesses. that he gave us the stimulus check and that people who were unemployed got unemployment benefits from the state and federal government. in new york as high as $1000 a week. that president biden was there to provide the child tax credit, already $500 per child in the five years and -- under five years and $15,000 from five to 17 years of age. he was there through the biggest and worst crisis of our lifetime. he ushered us through that crisis. i think that we will remember that and we will get him reelected. host: how well do you think he is doing delivering the message to particularly hispanic voters? guest: the message could be delivered better especially to the latino community which is very diverse. a message to a puerto rican like yourself would be different than to a dominican like myself. we must do better to message what the president has done. but clearly during the crisis of our lifetime, president biden was there. host: lee in illinois, my credit line.

it is the investments that we make directly in them, we have talked about what we have done with our pppable doing business with banks. those partnerships and commitments will continue. $2 b in cdfis.q: it is very interesting and the way it can help us including a lot of us participate in the veterans home front where cdfis us participate in this and we think they can reach y with can other things that are critical. not that we do not do a good job we have $40 billion in small business loans outstanding and it grew 10% year-over-year is just that they -- our commitment has been there for many years, since they started, we just ga >> i appreciate that. i have worked with the chairman and senator warner and others t runs small business administration and the treasury when it comes to cdfis, i look forward to pushing hard as a vehicle going forward. we have had many conversations over the years about late fees, obviousl overdraft fees have a disproportionate impact on people living paycheck to paycheckover at brookings estimated if the united states adopted a real- time payment system in 20