>> malik, it goes without saying perhaps, but it is even though he endorsed obama, hillary clinton, and biden in the last few presidential elections, colin powell's career as it is was really made by ronald reagan who made him deputy and national security adviser before he was a stated republican and he was a registered independent. >> and that is when he became familiar to me, became familiar to my family and millions of americans. as i sat here, i thought about teaching my daughter about colin powell some day. she's only 20 months old. one day maybe she'll get to see this funeral. because it shows his life, the

lessons that his son talked about that were taught by colin powell. don't forget where you came from. do good and be good. sacrifice yourself in service of others. his character, not his resume, and that is the kind of powell doctrine, right. we talk about the global doctrine, but this sort of simple christian-based powell doctrine. it was so moving. and such a lesson that i want to pass on to others. >> so well said. the part of michael powell's speech that really got me was when he said people are questioning, do they make them like that any more. can a colin powell exist in today's society or come up in today's society? and his answer was it is up to us as americans to give that answer. and i thought that was very poignant because he layed the

theat us or the question out there, the proposition out there, i should say, and intentionally so to make people think about it. to not just look back on his father's life and to talk about how remarkable a career he had. but think about how we as americans would act in our own lives to make it so there are other colin powells in the future. >> it does -- it is a challenge for us all. it is a challenge for us all. wolf blitzer? >> a very, very moving, jake, funeral here at the national cathedral. all of us were moved. i think you will of us were moved by michael powell, general powell's son and his words as he was holding his dad's hands in the final night. jamie, you watched. it was hard not to break down listening to that. >> i cried.

i want to say that i think colin powell was listening today and heard three things that he would have loved. as was said, never forget where you came from, the other thing colin powell said over and over again, treat people with kindness, we heard that. and finally he would have gotten a great big laugh out of his son's describing how if you break your son's impala, you better not drive is backwards. i just think it touched on all of the points of his character and his personality. and how he touched so many people. >> it is the dignity of the service reflected the dignity of the man. and when you look, we heard the arc of his life. he lived the american dream. and he called his book "american journey", but working class family to the pinnacle of power. you could tell he had the respect of his family, the respect of presidents, the respect of his troops.

a life of character. just, wow. the country owes a great debt to this man to the point that dana made, do they still make his kind. in this town right now, our politicals are so course and people are so polarized. do they still make his kind? we could use some. >> it was a special two hours that we all saw just now. especially as you point out during this current political time. suzanne malveaux was watching carefully. what was going through your heart and your mind as you watched? >> well, wolf, i thought about what he said in his autobiography, that world war ii changed his name. before he was colin, the british pronunciation used by jamaicans and then colin kelly and to his friends on the block he became colin powell. but his family always called him

colin powell. and from i heard is that he served and succeeded in both of worlds, at being colin powell and colin powell. highlighting the loyalty to his country, to his son michael's comfort that he felt for the warmness of his father's hand. and three years ago when i had the opportunity to interview general powell with secretary albright, i asked him what he wanted his legacy to be and he said to me, as a kid coming from the south bronx, i could not have dreamed i would reach the positions that i did. but i did because this is a great country and i'm grateful to it. i hope my legacy is that he was a pretty good soldier, did his duty and loved his country. and so, wolf, i dare say that powell would be pleased. >> yeah, i think you're absolutely right. for those of us who got to know him over the years, this was a personal time just to remember and reflect and, jamie, you knew him for 30-plus years.

so did i. he was always so blunt and honest and kind in trying to make sure that we were reporting accurate news. >> absolutely. and could i add mischievous and the big smile. but he always took time for young reporters. how could i help you. what do you need to know? a lot of people don't do that. he did that. and i think that is exactly what we heard over and over about how he treated young soldiers. he was someone would reached out to people. >> he was so special, john, in the military and you covered him when he was visiting troops in saudi arabia just before operation desert storm began, and he would reach out to those troops and make them feel better. >> because both the commander and journal hertling mentioned it because he lived the life and he learned the lessons and did not like that vietnam was such a political roar so any time he

came with madeleine albright about the use of force in the balkens, he with -- we do not -- he was secretary powell but he remembered privates. that was his mission. with the opportunity of power comes privilege to remember the little guys. >> you know, jake, all of us are going to remember this funeral but we're also much more so, we're going to remember general powell for the wonderful man that he was and what he did for our country, indeed, what he did for the world. >> indeed, wolf. and one of the memories i have is if the obituary that we ran on my show the day that powell's death was reported, there was an excerpt of a video address, he had a special scholarship fund for immigrant kids in new york. and he was doing it by zoom. and i think his daughter or one of his daughters was running the program. and he got very emotional listening to these incredibly

impressive children of immigrants or immigrants themselves and it really said a lot about what motivated him in the sense that he never -- this is been said so many times today, but he never forgot that he was his early years were in harlem, his parents were jamaican immigrants, then he spent time in the south bronx, his dad had a winning lottery ticket and they got to move to queens. he never forgot where he came from. and it wasn't just that he didn't forget it, he tried to make sure as many people like him as possible and he was not necessarily destined for greatness as a kid. when he was in fourth grade, they talked about holding him back a little bit. but he just worked hard and he wanted to reward those who followed in his footsteps. >> jake, you bring up a great point. there is this disease that over comes old generals, it is emotional when you see young

people achieving things. it just talks to the future of america. and i think that is why powell at the end of his life, dedicated himself to the next generation. to leadership. to finding the people that would perhaps bring us together after the great divide we've been through. and that is what pleased him. he had accomplished everything possible in his life. but now it was to find ways to build that next generation. and build the bench that would pull it altogether. >> and commander,s talked about as a young sailor, you were inspired by him. he was a heroic figure to you. he did get to meet him ultimately. what was it like meeting him? >> so it is one of those things where you think you know someone because you read so much about them and see them on tv. i remember being in high school and seeing him doing the gulf war briefings every night. and then there he is. and he's humble and he's kind.

sometimes people coming from places of importance assert their authority when they walk into the room to remind folks of who they are and he wasn't. very unassuming because his life spoke for him. his morals and his principles spoke for him. and i will tell you, i left and immediately called my mom to tell her, you never guess who we had lunch with today and she bought me his book and i regular dog earring pages and highlights. now to defy the man, he was a man. but because he was tangible, because he was -- he accomplished things without being this super, superman, made everything he accomplished more special. and last thing i'll say is when he walked through new doors, he didn't let the swing back to hit the next person behind him, he knocked the door off the hinges so there was a path for those

that follow behind him and that will be what he left behind. >> he saw the best and worst of our country. he's very honest about in his autobiography. he was a reluctant warrior, but he would intervene when he felt it was necessary for the mefrn family. and the last few years he's intervened to remind us we can be a family and work together and his optimism was undaunted. and i hope we remember that example. >> he also used to tell soldiers that you have to understand politics if you want to be a good soldier. which is something that we don't think about and maybe you folks could talk to me a little bit about that. but i think that one of the reasons he had such great success in all walks of his life is that he always understood who he was dealing with. and what he had to do. and how he could achieve things.

and when it was time to leave jobs that he didn't like, or that he had no impact any more, for example in the bush administration, but he was somebody who was, as we say, the cliche now, the man in full, would really walked all of these different walks and succeeded because he understood the world in which he was living and never forgot the world he came from. >> he seems to also have a sense of joy in play, too. there was the example here of him dropping to his knees and singing an abba song and driving the car backwards down the highway when he screwed up the car. so that, too, was just such a great takeaway. here he was this man, many accomplishments and military bearing but also of play and fun and real joy and optimism about the life. >> and i like the reminder that he didn't start out headed for

west point. he said many times, i couldn't have gotten into west point. because his grades weren't that great. he was an enlisted man and whether it is in themill or any other walk of life, it is a reminder that you don't have to find yourself early. you can do it late. you could be a late bloomer and still succeed in a really robust way. >> great american success story and general powell would say his story was only possible in the united states of america. we have lost a statesman, we have lost an icon, the world is a slightly sadder and emptier place today. thank you for joining us for our special coverage of general colin powell's funeral at the washington cathedral. the news continues next after this quick break. stay with us.

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♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ hello, thanks for being with us. i'm victor blackwell. >> and i'm alisyn camerota. president biden is celebrate a big jobs report, the economy added 530,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6%. today the president reminded americans that those pluses and the more than 193 million americans now fully vaccinateds are signed that the country is

headed in the right discretion. >> our economy is on the move. this morning we learned that in october our economy created 531,000 jobs. well above expectations. >> but the president's legislative agenda, that is still having some rivers to cross. yes. thank you. house speaker nancy pelosis with hoping to hold a vote on both the president's bills this morning but a demand for moderates has pushed the votes back again. >> joining us now, cnn chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins and jessica dean. so jessica, help us understand this. the moderates now want the build back better act to be scored by the congressional budget office before they vote on it. is that a last-minute demand that we're just learning of. >> they've been talking about it but to get that score is going to take some time. that is not something they could

pull out of a hat. now just a second ago we saw a member of the congressional black caucus walk by. they just left a mosting with nancy pelosi and congresswoman batey flowed the idea this is an option being floated right now is that they would vote first on the infrastructure bill, later today. and then vote on what is known as the rule governing the build back better act. so in the house you vote for the rule and then the actual bill. so they could claim progress on build back better even though they won't vote on the bill today. s so the big question is will progressives agree and we've talked about this a lot and where the progressives go for this, that right now is something that we don't know. so that is one option that is being floated. but victor and alisyn, as you outlined, they hoped to be taking a lot more federal action on this by this time today and so far we don't have a hard and

fast plan as to when any vote might happen and if that vote will happen. >> jessica dean, thank you. let's go to kaitlan collins at the white house. we know the president for the past several hours has been at the funeral of colin powell but he is working to get congress to pass these bills potentially today. >> reporter: not just working, he's directly appealing to them saying you need to pass these votes today. he wabs to see votes on this and yes votes on this and what is what he told reporters today when he talked about the job reports a welcome sign for a white house that needs some good news and president biden was using that jobs report to make the case for passing this agenda and he was saying that he wants those house members to go and vote on the infrastructure plan and send it to his desk passed by senate and he wants to sign it into law and then when it comes to bigger bill that jessica was talking bankruptcy the social safety net expansion, has hundreds of billion dollars

to fiets climb change. they want to see the house pass it so go to senate because we know they're hoping that passed by the end of the month. even they have a lot of changes once it gets to the senate. but getting the votes in the house has proved illusive for nancy pelosi who set many time lines, only for them to delay it or miss that. including last night when they were hoping to vote on this. and now of course here we are at 2:23 on friday and this is still the vote that has not happened and they are waiting here at the white house to see what the movement on capitol hill is going to be. but president biden has made very clear what he wants to see happen. and that in and of itself is that we had not seen from the president because even when he went to capitol hill last week before the foreign trip and he talked to lawmakers and was urging them when these votes do -- or when the bills do come up for a vote to say yes. he didn't say you need to vote today. and they made that clear. but today the president was in

front of the cameras and out in the open saying he wants them to vote on it right now. and so of course, that is adding to the white house schedule and while that is in flux, the president is scheduled to leave the white house later this evening for the weekend to go to rehoboth beach and right now there is no departure time because they're waiting to see what is happening on capitol hill and whether or not they are going to get the momentum to put some action behind these volunteers and actually get them passed as the president is urging them to do. >> jessica, we understand you have some breaking news from progressives. what are they saying. >> reporter: we're getting new reporting that progressives would not go for this proposed plan, this possible plan of voting for the infrastructure bill first. so if they don't have some 20 votes of those core progressives, that is not going to pass. so right now this proposed option they have been floating around looks to be a dead end. but as you could tell by the fact that we're just getting this in, this is a very fluid situation right now. >> it sounds like it. please come back to us as soon as either of you have any more

information. kaitlan collins and jessica dean, thank you very much. let's discuss everything that is happening this hour with margaret, a cnn political analyst and managing editor and gloria borgyer. from minute to minute they are wrestling defeat from the jaws of victory. because we started this morning with all of the good jobs news, the economy was turning around, it looked like they were going to have even both votes today. what is happening? why are they now pumping the breaks. >> this is how the sausage gets made. and two things that i look to. one is when you look at the remembrance of general powell's life, secretary powell and the long arc of history and then you look at the minutia of what is going on in the hill today, they are discordent. i think it is like you have a microscope up on it and it looks horrific. a couple of important kind of

things that i'm watching. one is that a week ago, two weeks ago, would you say there was a lot of frustration and focus on the progressives, progressives inside of the democratic party and them holding things up. the balance of frustration and hold ups has shifted to the moderates since tuesday night's election results in virginia. of course we're beginning to see ads run against some of the front line democrats who are pressured in terms of political challenges next year. an that is part of what is slowing things down. my colleague andrew salinger on the hill hearing from progressives. we need tal-- time to talk abou this. and now the congressional black caulk is in the position of trying to be that caucus that has members in the progressive wing, in the centrist wing or the modesh at wing and try to bring everyone together around something. but no doubt, yesterday they

were like we're going to get this done and today it is going to take longer. >> the expectation was that it could have been a vote last night on the larger plan and then on infrastructure today. gloria, what it appears that is happening, at least today, is that this is the conflict between the two interpretations of tuesday night. you've got some democrats who say the message is to get this done. we need to move it. on the other side you have the moderates saying what we heard from -- slow down. nobody elected joe biden to be fdr and what do you see? >> having just watched the colin powell funeral, i'd say we move from the sublime to the ridiculous here. and at this point, it is ridiculous. originally it was the progressives who said you have to have the two votes at the same time and now the moderates are saying slow down. it takes herding cats to a whole new level.

and country is watching this and saying just get it done. just get it done. and nancy pelosi is trying to talk to moderates, some say let's do it now and let's pass infrastructure and others are saying we need to see the cbo score which could take a couple of weeks. it is absurd that nancy pelosi cannot get this to a vote. and i think they just all have to sort of go back in their own corners and decide whether they could get this done if they can. i mean, it is -- at this point, it is so ridiculous that it is almost hard to put into words. >> margaret, this was looking to be a very big day in the win category for president biden. >> yeah. >> you know, in terms of the great jobs numbers, in terms of if he had gotten two bills, through the house in one day,

which it looks like last night and this morning might have been possible. so when the moderates want the cbs score, do they understand the larger implications that this is hurding president biden because we've seen his approval numbers going down. >> look, this seems like posturing to go on the board trying to say i'm fiscally responsible here. there is a midterm election going on moving forward soon and everything they say now will be parsed later and i think all democrats understand that. but it will take days it sounds like to get an actual cbo score. the bill that passed out of the house will get reimagined in the senate any way. so get this $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan that most americans want, that republicans are also willing to vote for and have voted for, get it done. so you could tell people here is the money for the roads, the bridges, the internet, the stuff that we promised you that

someone like joe biden who is not caught up in the drama of the moment, could get that done. get that pragmatic thing done and then the build back better agenda. the progressives who have been in a holding pattern trying to get more of a commitm on the broader spending plan, they let it go and ready to vote on infrastructure or have been. it seems to me that this is still going to happen but think in the final hours it is ugly to watch. everyone trying to figure out what is the best order to do it in so they could say they were doing the thing they promised their constituents they were doing to do and it is very hard for biden. >> after the election, the moderates said if we passed those bills, maine terry mcauliffe would have done better. so the expectation was you come back and maybe they'll pass these bills. ins instead they're saying we still have some questions here. so there is a role reversal from the liberals and it just makes

you wonder what is going to happen to the democratic party in the future. because at this late hour, if they could not get together on this, what is going to happen as they head closer and close towards the midterm elections vm they have to prove their gove governing majority and they have not yet been able to do that. >> gloria borger and margaret. things are moving quickly. here is a plan. we have to go back and say that is not a viable plan any more. >> see you later. >> for more on today's job's report and what is happening on capitol hill, let's bring in jason ferman. jason good to have you. especially in this moment. considering the conversation we just had, why can't democrats get this done as soon as there is a potential plan, it is out the window. what do you see?

>> it is a very hard puzzle to try to solve with no margin for error. literally no margin in the senate. effectively no margin in the house. and a desperate set of views, y you have 99% of democrats on the sape page and you need 100% to get this done. >> so there are these moderates, five of them who want the score from the congressional budget office which estimates the economic impact, the cost of the legislation. should democrats wait for that cbo score which could take a couple of weeks before bringing the legislation up for a vote? >> i would love to see them vote as soon as possible. i understand the desire to see a score. i think the scores are really important. but we actually know very accurately what the projected year by year cost of this legislation is. it legislation as passed now would reduce the deficit

starting in five or ten years. now also a lot of things in it expire. i wish more of that was made permanent. i wish that they'll come back and plaque it permanent and pay for it. i don't think we need to wait for the numbers. we know, we pretty much know what they are. >> you say you pretty much know what they are but theest may have thes on the taxation and other independent scores was based on a framework that has changed since. paid leave is back. there are immigration clauses that have been added back. so to get a clear picture, some moderate democrats interpreting the results from tuesday's elections, want numbers, why not give that to the american people? to get some clarity. >> yeah. look, i sympathize. i love looking at numbers on these things. i think it is worth taking those into account. but we have numbers for half of it already. as you just said from the nonpartisan joint committee on

taxation. a lot of other pieces we also have numbers on from different places. so anyone who wants to see year by year numbers, the white house has put them together. independent analysts have put them together. all of those look roughly the same. the question is do you like this legislation or not. do you think we should invest more in childcare and in preschool, in clean energy, or not. i think you do and the sooner you do it, the better. >> let's turn to the jobs report, 531,000 jobs added in october. before we get into the specifics, what does this jobs report tell us about the overall strength of the recovery? >> the economy is doing pretty well. it is still 7 million jobs short of where it should be. so it has a long way to go. but this was a big step forward. there were also positive revisions for the last two months. on the unemployment rate, it is much lower than what anyone

thought. the vexing thing in labor markets right now is there is still a lot of workers on the sidelines. >> yeah, the participation rate still pretty flat. we saw wages rose by .4% up almost 5% from where they were a year ago. but when you balance that with or against the inflation, the increasing cost of groceries, of gas as well, less impressive when the cost of everything else is up. >> absolutely. you have tight labor market so workers are getting big raises. those raises are not as big as the inflation that their experiencing. and so on average workers are falling behind. it varies from sector to sector. leisure and hospitality have gotten big meaningful raises. but overall until this inflation comes down or wage growth comes up, it is still going to be challenging out there. >> jason ferman, thank you so

much. >> thank you. now after weeks of jury selection, in the trial of those who shot and killed ahmaud arbery, we'll go live to brunswick, georgia, where opening statements have not begun. >> more than half of the states say they will fight the biden administration vaccine mandates in court. what that will look like ahead.

opening statements right now in the trial of three white men accused in connection to the death of ahmaud arbery in brunswick, georgia. a 25-year-old black man was shot while jogging in february of last year after being confronted by two of the defendants. >> now that third defendant also recorded a video of the confrontation. today the judge ruled on two key motions that could end up swaying the jury potentially in this trial. cnn's amara walker is covering it for us. so what do we need to know about what happened today? >> reporter: so just a few moments ago one of the lawyers travis mcmichael just wrapped up giving his portion of the opening statement and they are on recess and we should have another defense lawyer presenting to the jury very soon. after we heard from the prosecution giving its opening

statement for about an hour and a half and there was one emotional moment in court that happened. that is when the prosecution presented this cell phone video that much of the public has already seen and sparked a lot of outrage across the country when he was killed. this video was shot by one of the defendants william roddy bryan. but this was a longer version of that cell phone video. never before seen. and what you see is ahmaud arbery being chased down by three men in their pickup trucks. what was interesting was that ahmaud arbery's mother wanda cooper joness had h never seen this video before and as you imagine it was a difficult moment for her. but she wanted to stay in court and watch this video. you could hear audible gasps according to the poll reporters who were inside of the courtroom. her sobbing. but she stayed for the remainder of that video.

after the statements she said she wanted so stay there and remain strong and see the last moments of her son's life. now before that video was presented, the prosecutor said there was a reason why ahmaud arbery was running away from these men for five minutes. take a listen. >> how do you know mr. ahmaud arbery was under attack by strangers with intent to kill him? because he told the police this. stop or i'll blow your [ bleep ] head off. that is what he said to mr. arbery, because he wanted to make sure he knew greg mcmichael was not playing. >> reporter: now for last hour or soo we've been hearing from the defense side bob ruben, one of travis mcmichael's attorneys and he was focusing on a couple of factors. mentioned that neighborhood where the defendants live have been experiencing at time an

uptick in burglars and break-ins an the second point he highlighted was that travis mcmichael served in the u.s. coast guard and part of his training included use of force and that compelled him to feel like he had to protect his community. listen. >> the training he had was not just classroom training at flatsy. it is scenario-based training. it is repetitive training. so that if you're ever in a real life situation where you need to make use of force decisions, your relying not just thinking back, your relying on muscle memory. >> reporter: now bob ruben, the defense attorney there, also said that travis mcmichael put himself at risk by trying to detain arbery. all three defendants have pleading not guilty to these

murder charges among others. travis and greg mcmichael, they have been claiming that they were trying to conduct a citizens arrest on ahmaud arbery because they suspected that he participated in some of the burglars in the neighborhood and they said that they were acting in self-defense when he was shot and killed. william roddy brian is maining that he had no part in the killing. back to you. >> thank you. make sure you tune in tonight for a cnn special report, it is called trumping democracy. key republicans are going to speak to our own jake tapper about just how close america came to losing democracy and jake going to join us next with a preview. >> also ahead, it could be a step forward in treating covid-19. pfizer said that its experimental covid drug reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by close to 90%.

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♪ ♪ principal. for all it's worth. back to capitol hill now, the latest we have is the progressives are now not on board with the possible plan of letting infrastructure pass with voting sent to the president without moving forward also on the social spending bill. you know, a small number of moderate found that they would not vote for the larger spending bill without seeing a cbo scoring which is an estimate on how much it will cost. they want to see that first.

>> luckily here to make sense of all of this, cnn chief washington correspondent and anchor of the lead, jake tapper, jake, i was naive enough to think when we knew we would be interviewing you today, this morning that we might actually be watching a vote on one or both of these bills while you were on. but now, why are they pumping the brakes? >> well, there are a number of moderate democrats, abigail spamburger from virginia. josh gottheimer from new jersey and others, who want what's called a cbo score. it's basic an explanation of what's going to cost what and for how much and how long and how the funding will work by the nonpartisan congressional budget office. and they want that cbo score before they agree to vote on the build back better act. a cbo score, of course, is not something that just, you know, takes an hour on the back of a napkin. it takes weeks. it's a very intense process, so

that's what the moderate democrats want, and as of right now, there is an impasse. i'm getting texts as we speak. and the latest i've heard from members of congress is that there's a proposal to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill today, and on the rule that would just basically introduce the legislative process for the build back better act, not actually the bill itself today. so that's the latest i've heard from capitol hill, from members of congress, is that's a proposal right now that there will be a vote on the infrastructure bill, and then the rule on the build back better act, and then perhaps a delay on the actual vote on the build back better act once the cbo score comes out. look, i mean, it's a very messy process, and very frustrating for a lot of democrats who would like to have this accomplished, which is, by the way, most of

them. most democrats are on board with both. but there are some holdouts on build back better, and there's some holdouts on infrastructure. this is a legislative process. this is what you get when you don't have an authoritarian rule. >> jake, is the theory behind the strategy of not moving forward with the cbo, which could take a couple of weeks, is that every day that democrats do not get this done it comes with a political cost to the party, to the president? >> well, we saw a political cost earlier this week, right, in the election results all over the country. it's difficult for members of the democratic party to go forward monday, tuesday, and argue, we're getting things done in washington when basically it has been, you know, a log jam. i don't know what political costs they pay for, from voters by having a delay of a week or ten days on a vote on the build back better act, but there is a

thing such as legislative momentum. we've seen that play out already. the reason that the democrats keep imposing these deadlines that they blow through is because of the hope that having putting a deadline on it will make people commit to the actual process and commit to vote for it. we have seen the momentum for the republicans to vote for the infrastructure bill. remember, 19 senate republicans voted for it, republicans in the house, they have lost a number of republicans, house republicans because the momentum is not there. >> jake, let me drill down on that for a second. how can reasons in the house say that they don't stand or modernizing airports and bridges. just because the momentum is slowing down, why don't republicans want what's in that infrastructure, bipartisan infrastructure bill? >> oh, we were talking about whether or not they actually support the legislation. i'm not talking about that. you're talking about whether or not they support something that they said they supported three weeks ago. this doesn't have to do whether they actually support it.

it has to do whether or not they want to be seen as supporting biden agenda, quote unquote. adam kinzinger told me before the vote on impeachment, he thought there could be anywhere from 25 to 35 house republicans that vote for impeachment. there actually were only ten. it's not necessarily a question of what they think is right. it's a question of what they think will help them get reelected. don't be naive. >> this is a sobering conversation. i appreciate that. >> let's talk about your documentary that's coming up tonight. trumping democracy airs this evening. you're hearing from republicans who work to stop the president's attempted coup. i think we have a clip of it. >> yes, if i could introduce it, because it does require a little set up. so, i mean, this is not just about january 6th, which obviously was a horrific day, this was about the campaign that trump waged against democracy,

against having legal accurate votes counted and one of the moments that was a really crystallizing moment for people like adam kinzinger, like liz cheney, conservative republicans who broke from trump, one of the key moments was when the texas attorney general, ken paxton introduced this insane bill, this insane lawsuit, rather, in which he was trying to get states disenfranchised, writing off their votes. it was a lawsuit full of lies, it was a lawsuit full of just crazy cliaims. it was not worth the paper it was printed on. we talked about that in the document. take a look. >> as the amicus brief was being prepared, i was urging my colleague who was preparing the brief not to do it. >> i didn't sign it because i thought it was just wrong, frankly, and that's when i started getting some phone calls from people going, hey, wait a minute, aren't you going to fight this thing?

this election cwas stolen. >> in the end, 126 house republicans signed their names to it. adam kinzinger, a republican congressman from illinois did not. >> how many people that signed on to it do you think actually believed the nonsense in it? >> if i had to guess, i'd say 5 to 10. >> i think there was a sense among those who did sign it, at least some of them was well, we're going to do this to placate president trump, and i thought that was not doing our duty. kevin mccarthy told me directly that he wasn't going to sign it. i said, good, this is not a brief we ought to be associated with, and then a few hours later, he signed it. >> the brief went out without kevin mccarthy's and then the next day claiming he was inadvertently left off, and he signed on to it. that was bad. he initially didn't want to sign it, and realized what was pressure there. and you see people that sign on to something they don't believe to avoid political pressure. it's leaders that are afraid of

their base and not leading their base. >> so that's just the crazy texas lawsuit. that's not everything. this is one part of the puzzle, but we also go into some of the claims in that lawsuit that were just out right deranged. that didn't deserve anybody's signature. you know, you could argue maybe you could see somebody like paul gosart or marjorie taylor greene or matt gaetz but 127 house republicans signed this, including all three current and past republican leaders, just embarrassing. >> that's interesting, we hadn't heard those details before. that was interesting for you to go and take a closer look inside there for us. >> looks like a fascinating documentary, looking forward to it. jake tapper, thank you, we'll hand it back in an hour. >> thank you, sir. good to see you guys. >> like wise, and be sure to joi join jake for his new cnn

special report. trumping democracy, an american coupe. this could be a step forward in the fight against covid. pfizer says the experimental pill reduces the risk of hospitalization, and death from the coronavirus by 89%. joining us now is cnn senior medical continue elizabeth cohn, this sounds significant, what do we know about this clinical trial? >> alisyn, it is significant. what's also significant is a pill by merck, an antiviral where results were announced a couple of weeks ago. these could be a game changer once people get covid. it's best to be vaccinated and not get covid. if you do get covid, in the future there will be an antiviral pill, this one or the one from merck or possibly both. let's look at the pfizer clinical trial. they took 775 people with early covid, within three days of symptom on set, and the folks who they gave a placebo to, half

the group got a placebo, a bill that does nothing, 27 of them ended up in the hospital over time, and 7 of them died. the folks who received the real pill, the real antiviral pill, three of them ended up in the hospital, and none of them died. that is quite notable. there were no side effects detected, of course this is a small group of people, 775. there's going to be questions about what happens when you give it to a larger group of people, but still, there's are promising results, and pfizer says they may be applying for emergency use authorization as soon as thanksgiving or by thanksgiving. victor, alisyn. >> interesting development. elizabeth cohn, thank you. and tomorrow morning on cnn our friends from "sesame street" are back for a new town hall. join dr. sanjay gupta, erica hill, big bird and more to get answers about your questions for kids, cnn "sesame street" town hall airs tomorrow