street, set the scene for us, where are we at this moment? >> reporter: well, we're beginning to hear that downing street will go into lockdown shortly, which is what the police and security do here ahead of the prime minister or another senior official coming out of the building. it is expected that the podium that hasn't been put out yet will be wheeled out into the street. typically that takes perhaps half an hour to get the podium in place, the microphone set, the speakers set, and that would set the stage for the prime minister to be able to speak to the nation which is what he said he will do. it does seem within this coming hour we will get that precise or more precise understanding about precisely the handover and changeover that is going to take place at number 10. will the prime minister have his wish and be able to hang on until the fall? that's not clear. there is a huge amount of pressure for him to leave, but in the interim period, we know

the prime minister has been replacing those members of his cabinet, who have either resigned or have been fired or shifted into other positions. that is a work in progress. a big work in progress for the prime minister, because so many of his senior officials have stepped down in the past 24, 36 hours, but that precise understanding of how the party will handle this moment is yet to be made clear. and if the prime minister, again, as he did yesterday, appears to want to dig in and refuse to go and wants to hold on, on his terms, until the fall, that could bring an addition to this already historic level of chaos that is surrounding this transition, absolutely huge. historic, without precedent, boris johnson had more people resign from his cabinet and senior positions in 24 hours

than any other prime minister has had during history. these are monumental moments and monumental hours and minutes we're waiting for right now. >> bianca, what is the argument for boris johnson to stick around? is that in the interest of britain or is that in the interest of boris johnson? >> reporter: certainly in the interest of boris johnson. whoever you speak to in the party, his fiercest critic who says boris johnson has a self-interest which borders on sociopathy or those who acknowledge his entire political career has been about his personality, he loves to be the center of attention and coveted the role of prime minister, he will not want to vacate that role any earlier than he has to. but as nic was saying and i would corroborate what nic is seeing at downing street, i heard that statement will be coming in the next half hour and it is stunningly brazen to see the prime minister making appointments like his new education secretary, within the hour that he's going to make a

resignation statement. it does add fuel to the concerns that many members of parliament have that he will continue with agenda, wanting to consolidate whatever legacy he desires to have, and i'm sure that the prime minister in a speech that we're about to hear will also be leaning in to the war in ukraine, because what we have witnessed over the last few weeks when he's come under greater and greater pressure at home and been under more scrutiny is he's more comfortable on the world stage and enjoys being a statesman and presenting himself in that way, and while he has lent into the war in ukraine, conversations with zelenskyy and so on, when things have gotten fractious and difficult for him, i expect to hear something about that in the speech too. the concern here today is what happens over the next few months because in any ordinary circumstance it would be normal for the prime minister to continue as a de facto caretaker throughout the summer until a new leader is found. that would offer a measure of

stability. but if there is one thing that boris johnson doesn't bring to government, over the last few months, it is stability. and with over 50 members of his government resigning, this is not a prime minister who can command confidence and support. if he wants to stay on for the few months, can he fill those roles, would those ministers be willing to go back? this is an unusual set of circumstances and one where process is really up in the air like never before. >> it is a country with a long history and this is unprecedented this country has never seen anything like this before. nic robertson, the government, these officials have resigned, largely because they say they don't trust boris johnson anymore. this cloud of scandal, what is the most recent scandal, because there have been a lot that precipitated this mass exodus. >> the most recent scandal is an appointment that boris johnson made, to a deputy chief whip,

senior in responsible position, within the party, of an mp called chris pincher. now, pincher was alleged earlier this week and found to have been -- found to have sexually assaulted two people at a private club in london. boris johnson then fell under scrutiny because he appointed pincher, pincher had a previous track record of sexual assault, the prime minister denied initially knowledge of those -- that sexual assault, it then emerged by a former government official who wrote a very public letter saying he knew for a fact that the prime minister had been informed of chris pincher's past misconduct, the prime minister then had to back track by then, but by then a senior cabinet member -- a senior cabinet member had already been out speaking on the prime minister's behalf, defending the prime minister, not knowing the extent

of deception that was going on behind the scenes. so the prime minister eventually admitting that he did know about this past misbehavior, that he did make the appointment in that knowledge, and that it perhaps wasn't the smartest thing to do. but that was the straw that broke the camel's back. that's what signaled to members of his cabinet and senior government officials that he was no longer trustworthy, he had just lost two bielections, one of those bielections, local elections in the uk had been a massive, monumental, historic swing from a conservative member of parliament to another, from the liberal democrat party, away from the conservatives. so all of this mounting up against the prime minister and it is his credibility, it is his ability to lead the party and his credibility within his own party where he was once sort of perceived as a magician who

could conjure a huge electoral majority as he did in the elections back in 2019, and 18-seat majority, huge at the time, that was boris johnson's star power that did that. the whole party was behind him. and that's gone right now. that's entirely gone. >> all right, nic robertson, bianca nobilo, stand by, please, both of you. it appears imminent at this point, the countdown is on for boris johnson to make this public statement. we will bring it to you live the second it happens. >> joining us now is ambassador peter west cot, uk ambassador to the u.s. ender prime minister david cameron, author of "call it diplomacy: 40 years of representing britain abroad." we know boris johnson is resigning. the question is is he going to give three months' notice. in your opinion, can he stick around that long? >> well, this the debate that everybody is having here in london at the moment. most of the people who think it was time for him to go wanted

him to go and hand over the reins of government to a caretaker, probably his deputy, dominic raab, the least controversial. but everyone is puzzled by the fact that boris made these ministerial appointments to fill some of the vacancies left by 55 or so who resigned from his government and they wonder what he's playing at. is it possible that he's going to stay in charge for the next fly three months or so while the succession is sorted out by his own party or will he go quickly, having made some appointments with some of his friends and allies, if you like, in the government, to ensure that it remains broadly favorable to him and perhaps pursuing some of his policies? we do not know. it is a muddle. and people are a bit bothered that he might be announcing he's going, but not going at all. >> and, again, we're waiting to hear. we just don't know at this time how this is going to play out. so you may end up with controversy on top of controversy and scandal, just in the next few minutes. ambassador, he's leaving one way or the other, whether today or

three months from now. what is he leaving behind in terms of how the world now sees the united kingdom? >> his legacy really is that he got a brexit bill through the british parliament, which his predecessor failed to do, theresa may. not a very good package, but he did it. and then he won the election, majority, with 80 people in the house of commons, absolute majority, his party was thrilled. they thought he was a winner. that was at the end of 2019. he's made achievements therefore, finalizing sort of the brexit deal, though there is a lot of loose ends still there. and winning the election. beyond that i'm afraid, it is not a lot. i suppose you would probably add that the degree of leadership and commitment he showed to the cause of ukraine against vladimir putin in the last few months has been a foreign policy achievement. otherwise, i'm afraid he leaves behind a very divided

conservative party, and one which is very bothered about the decline in public standards about the loss of integrity and responsibility of public office. those are the big complaints which his own party colleagues have leveled at him in the last few days. >> his flamboyance is a double-edged sword, right? his style and maybe, i guess, the cost of his style is sort of his legacy more so than some of what he leaves behind in his achievements. >> well, yes. much of this is about style. there are people who have known him most of his life who say this is one great big theater act. that's why you have the smirk, the grin, the hair ruffled up deliberately every time he has a public appearance and a lot of the bluster and the same things that he wants people to hear, perhaps wants to believe,

without there necessarily being much substantial backing to what he said. government is feeling a bit of a muddle and one of the accusations that the opposition leveled against him is that he seems to believe that saying something makes it so. but he says he's built 40 new hospitals and it turns out hasn't built any, then people begin to say, well, how much of this should we believe? so there is an issue there. he never really had very many friends and allies in the parliamentary conservative party, but they backed him because they thought he was a winner and now not backing him partly because they think he's no longer a winner, but mainly because of the questions of integrity and standards which they expect for somebody who is the prime minister of the united kingdom. >> you worked in the united states, you've been ambassador in the united states, how do you think the united states will feel about this and seeing him go as a partner and getting a new one? >> well, the former guy, as president biden calls him, got along very well with boris johnson, and i think the

personal level, president biden and johnson, have done okay. but it has been no secret that on issues like brexit and issues like -- >> we appear to have lost the ambassador peter westmacott. we thank him for giving us his time this morning. there is a scathing report on the law enforcement response to the deadly school shooting in uvalde, texas. we'll speak to a member of the investigative team that wrote the report. and former fbi director jim comey and his deputy andrew mccabe both facing suspicious intensive audits by the irs. the former irs director joining us to discuss. and the breaking news this morning, boris johnson resigning as prime minister. we expect to hear from him in just minutes, but how and when exactly he is leaving is still an open question. like any family, the auburns all have... individual priorities.

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they could have been saved. that is the conclusion of a new report on the police response to

the deadly elementary school shooting in uvalde, texas, a shooting that took the lives of 19 children and 2 tooteachers. an officer spotted the gunman outside the school, had him in sights and asked for permission to shoot him. that moment of hesitation proved to be consequential because the officer's supervisor did not hear him or responded too late. joining us now is j.p. blair, the executive director at advanced law enforcement rapid response training at texas state university. this is the organization that wrote this report. we know this report isn't about assigning blame, it is about understanding what happened to try to make things better going forward. so in this specific instance that you write about, what did happen, an officer had the killer in sight before he went in the building? >> correct. the officer saw the suspect moving along the side of the building and moving toward that door in the northwest corner. and had an opportunity to shoot

that suspect, potentially, before he did. he paused to ask his supervisor for permission to fire. and by the time he got a response, or turned back and looked at his supervisor, the suspect had entered the building. the officer also indicated he is concerned about his backdrop because he is firing toward a school, and if he misses the shot, he has to be concerned about where the rounds will go and potentially could injure a student. >> do you feel that an officer needs to ask for permission to fire in that type of circumstance? >> under texas law, they do not. the law makes it clear that the officer believes that the officer's life or someone else's life is in danger, they're authorized to use deadly force to protect their own life or someone else's life. >> and in the vain of being constructive going forward, what is it that you hope people understand about this type of situation? >> well, the first thing for the public to know is these decision

s are happening quickly, use of force decisions are not done in isolation, they're done under stress, they're done in a short time frame, and so oftentimes people do make judgments that you might later look at and say i don't agree with that judgment, but you also have to understand that the officers making that decision and that moment, obviously that officer's responsibility about what happens, if they were it take the shot, injure a student, would be responsible for that, just as if they had shot the suspect and stopped the suspect. that's important to keep in mind, we're judging these things. we want to do in the report is get accurate information, get it out there, to make sure other officers are able to see that, to look at it, to think through the situations beforehand, so they have a clear picture in their head what they would do in that type of situation. >> it is all about the training, it is all about creating almost a muscle memory of an officer so they don't have that moment of pause the next time god forbid that this happens. you also write in this report that the officers who did go inside the building quickly lost the momentum. what do you mean by that?

>> yes, so they made entry to the building pretty quickly and then they moved toward the classrooms that the suspect had entered. and as they got close to the classrooms they received fire, and they fell back to an intersection at the north end of the hallway. and that's not unexpected, if you haven't been training regularly, if you haven't been under fire before, it is very common to see people who have that kind of hesitation, that falling back action when they receive fire. however, after they fell back to that intersection, there was still a driving force, they had heard gunfire, there was gunfire that happened after they fell back to the intersection. and that gunfire should have driven them to move forward. if they didn't hear gunfire going on, they could assume that a number of rounds had gone before then, there were people injured and they needed to get to those people to provide help. and after they received that first gunfire, they're doing a good thing going to where the attacker was at, and they fell back, they didn't regain momentum for more than an hour. they were stuck in that intersection there and didn't

really move forward. >> so, pete, i know it has to be hard for the families there who lost loved ones to look at this report and see that had a few things happened differently this might have been prevented. what is the biggest takeaway you want people to take from this, that had x happened, it might not have come to y? >> well, there were many things that happened throughout and if you read the report, you'll see that all these things had to line up perfectly from the exterior door of the school being unlocked to the interior door lock apparently being broken it allow access to the stalling of the officers after that initial push, all those things had to line up to produce this, and it is rare that you see those things occur, and it is horrible that it happened in this case, but we also have seen other cases happening and since this particular shooting where the officers were able to successfully get to the attacker, stop the attacker quickly and save lives. >> we appreciate the work you do on all of this. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me on.

so "the new york times" reporting this morning that former fbi director james comey and former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe are facing rare intensive irs audits, both men famously at odds with former president trump to say the least. and in a new statement to cnn, the agency says, quote, it is ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior irs officials somehow targeted specific individuals for national research program audits. we spoke with andrew mccabe in the last hour. and here's how he responded. >> it is clearly not ludicrous. we're talking about a coincidence that really is almost impossible, statistically. i think it raises some very interesting questions about the irs, and about how they're administering this program. the americans need to be able to have trust and faith that the institutions they rely on are conducting their business in a fair and impartial manner. and there is an indication here that might not be happening.

>> joining us now is former irs commissioner john a. coskinen. l ludicrous, do you agree? >> i don't know if i would say it is ludicrous. it is far out of the normal experience of the irs. and this annual review they do to test the compliance of the tax system and the noncompliance of the tax system. the audits that are selected are selected by a separate division. they're selected randomly, they're designed to randomly audit taxpayers across the entire spectrum including companies. so on the one hand, it is a very carefully managed process, and reviewed, and i got a lot of confidence in the irs employees, it is a great workforce that i had the privilege of working with for four years, on the other hand, as mr. mccabe says, it is odd at least to see two

head of the former head of the fbi and his deputy under great attack to show up in randomly selected audits. they're up to usually about 13,000 audits a year, over a three-year period, to determine the tax gap. and that 13,000 a year is out of 150 million individual taxpayers and over 200 million total returns. so it is, i think, from the standpoint of the irs important for the inspector general, someone to take a look at all of this because it is important for the public to be confident that the irs as it has for years is treating all taxpayers fairly, is not targeting anyone, and is not subject to political, you know, either manipulation or force. on the other hand, as everybody knows, with some of the things you think would never have happened like the insurrection a

year and a half ago, it is hard to say it is impossible. >> hard to say it is impossible. does the timing of these audits, does that raise any questions for you, for instance, comey found out he was being audited right after attorney general bill barr decided that he wasn't going to pursue charges for how comey had handled his memo, which was something that former president trump wanted for bill barr to pursue. his audit year was 2017, which was when he had a lucrative book deal. mccabe found out he was being audited in 2021, but it was his 2019 tax return and he found out right after he was cleared, his personnel record was cleared, and his pension was reinstated. are those things that just could be coincidence or does that raise questions for you that the ig should be looking at? >> well, as i say, it -- as i said in the past, you can have a

strange event once, to have it twice in this case with two different individuals in a random process certainly seems to me worth looking at. i got great confidence in the agency. it is a criminal violation to target a taxpayer or do anything with the tax payer's return other than normal course of business. so this would be something truly extraordinary and out of the ordinary. i think it is important for the ig to look at it just to ensure that the process ran as normal and this is one of those rare unique circumstances that occurs, you know, in various ways in life. but it is, you know, it is a little odd. >> viewers may remember certainly and this was an experience of yours in the time at the irs, you became a boogie man for republicans when it came to accusations they had about your political bias as they saw it or the political bias of your predecessor at the irs during the obama administration.

what can those who are skeptical of the irs motives take from this? >> well, i think what they have to understand is there are only two political appointees at the irs, the commissioner and chief counsel. everyone else is dedicated career employee. every year employees take a course, video course, which i took every year, reminding them of the fact that no one has the ability or is authorized to even look at anybody's tax return, your brother's, your aunt's, your ufncle's, unless they have an authorization and need to do it. the system is designed to protect every taxpayer's return and information. the employees take that seriously. so i think that it is, as i said, extremely unlikely this is what happened, but the fact that it has been given visibility and that it did happen, it does seem to me it is important for people to be satisfied, internally as

well as externally, that the system continues to run fairly and treat everyone equally. >> former commissioner of the irs, john koskinen, we appreciate your insight here. thank you. >> thank you. we continue to follow this breaking news out of the uk, british prime minister boris johnson is set to resign amid several scandals and dozens of cabinet minister level resignations. he's expected to speak here in just moments. we see here the podium is out in front of 10 downing street. so any moment here we're going to bring this to you. we're live in london. [whistling] when you have technology that's easier to c control... thatat can scale across all your clouds... we got that right? yeah, we got that. it's easier to be an innovator.

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good afternoon. thank you. thank you. it is clearly now the will of the parliamentary conservative party that there should be a new leader of that party, and therefore a new prime minister. and i have agreed with sir gram brady, the chairman of our back bench mps, that the process of choosing that new leader should begin now. and the timetable will be announced next week. and i today appointed a cabinet to serve as i will until a new leader is in place. so i want to say to the millions of people who voted for us in 2019, many of them voting conservative for the first time, thank you for that incredible mandate, the biggest

conservative majority since 1987. the biggest share of the vote since 1979. and the reason i have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because i wanted to do so, but because i felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019. and, of course, i'm immensely proud of the achievements of this government from getting brexit done to settling our relations with the continent for over half a century. reclaiming the power for this country to make its own laws in parliament. getting us all through the pandemic, delivering the fastest vaccine rollout in europe, the fastest exit from lockdown, and in the last few months, leading the west in standing up to putin's aggression in ukraine.

let me say now to the people of ukraine that i know that we in the uk will continue to back your fight for freedom for as long as it takes. and at the same time, in this country, we have been pushing for a vast program of investment in infrastructure and skills, and technology, the biggest in a century, and because if i have one insight into human beings, it is that genius and talent and enthusiasm and imagination are evenly distributed throughout the population. but opportunity is not. and that's why we must keep leveling up, keep unleashing the potential of every part of the united kingdom. and if we can do that, in this country, we will be the most prosperous in europe. and in the last few days i've tried to persuade my colleagues that it would be eccentric to change governments when we're delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we're actually only a

handful of points behind in the polls, even in midterm after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging. when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally. and i regret not to have been successful in those arguments, of course, it is painful not to be able to see through so many ideas and projects myself. but as we have seen at westminster, the herd instinct is powerful, and when the herd moves, it moves. and my friends in politics, no one is remotely indispensable. and our brilliant and darwinian system will produce another leader equally committed to taking this country forward through tough times, not just helping families to get through it, but changing and improving the way we do things, cutting burdens on businesses and families and yet cutting taxes because that is the way to generate the growth and the income we need to pay for great

public services. and to that new leader, i say whoever he or she may be, i will give you as much support as i can. and to you, the british public, i know that there will be many people who are relieved and perhaps quite a few who also will be disappointed and i want you to know how sad i am to be giving up the best job in the world. but them's the breaks. i want to thank carrie and our children, all the members of my family who had to put up with so much for so long, i want to thank the civil service for all the help and support that you have given, our police, emergency services and, of course, our fantastic nhs who at a critical moment helped to extend my own period in office. as well as our armed services and our agencies that are so

admired around the world and the more conservative party member and supporters whose selfless campaigning makes our democracy possible. i want to thank the wonderful staff here at checkers, here at number 10 and checkers and our fantastic prop force, detectives, the one group, by the way, who never leak. above all, i want to thank you, the british public, for the immense privilege that you have given me. and i want you to know that from now on until the new prime minister is in place, your interests will be served and the government of the country will be carried on. being prime minister is an education in itself. i've traveled to every part of the united kingdom, and in addition to the beauty of our

natural world i found so many people possessed of such boundless british originality and so willing to tackle old problems in new ways that i know that even if things can sometimes seem dark now, our future together is golden. thank you, all, very much. thank you. >> boris johnson, announcing he is resigning as prime minister. a defiant boris johnson announces he is resigning as prime minister, bragging about his accomplishment in more than two years in office, bragging still about the electoral mandate he thought he won nearly three years ago, and most importantly or very importantly not giving a timetable for when he will actually leave office, saying that the timetable will be announced one week from now. >> interesting. he also appealed to the

ukrainian people, but i wonder what do the british people think, right? obviously he's very popular in ukraine and took credit there, saying leading the west, when it comes to ukraine. but i do want to get to christiane amanpour to see what she thought. >> you both picked up on the key lines there, a big wow. there was absolutely no sense that he had any understanding that he could read the room or himself about why this is has happened.them's the breaks. like it was an act of god. he simply did not apologize. he didn't talk to the british people, who we have seen plummet in the popularity. in the last week, we have seen the number of british adults who want him to resign rise to 7 in 10. that is a huge number of british adults who wanted him to resign.

and at no point did he acknowledge all the things that have happened over the last two years that have led him to this point of personal destruction. this is not about policy, remember. this is entirely about a lack of integrity as it has been viewed, a lack of honesty as it has been viewed, a stampede of his own cabinet and ministers, from under his wing. and indeed plunging popularity and the inability to win certain important local elections. he at no point acknowledged that. as you say, as you say, he did not answer the $64,000 question, which is when, when does he leave? he implied it is in his writ to appoint a new cabinet, who is that going to be? they have all resigned. which numbers of people are going to want to work? maybe he's got that sorted out. and how long can he stay? and another open question is will this famous committee that deals with confidence votes and

certain amount of process in the tory party, the so-called 1922 committee, will it actually have its election as it said it would do on monday, change the rules, allow for yet another vote of no confidence and then boot him out? presumably not. but if he continues to stay in until several months, maybe they will have to figure out a way around that. because most analysts have said and most politicians have said this morning that he cannot stay in as a credible caretaker prime minister. so those are still open questions, john and brianna. >> want to bring in nic robertson who is at 10 downing street. nic, boris johnson says he will announce a timetable next week, even in resigning, trying to buy more time, it seems, for some of the back room politicking that has gone on. >> reporter: absolutely vintage boris johnson. this is precisely how he rolls. he does not want to leave the

job. he spoke about it there. this is the best job in the world. he's been trying to find ways to hold on and hold on for as long as possible. he's obviously realized this morning very belatedly that the party no longer wants him, he had originally suggested that he would hold on until the fall, until the conservative party conference, and he still seems to be trying to head toward some sort of bargain where he might last out a bit longer. it was very striking, standing here, watching not only party officials, government workers, come out of their office, but one of the last to join them was carrie johnson, boris johnson's wife with their latest baby. she came to watch, i remember standing here when he made his acceptance speech, coming into downing street, the 24th of july, three years ago now. at that time she came out on the street to watch him, proudly looking on. there was a big cheer, big cheer and big round of applause from

her and those workers around her, those government workers around her, when boris johnson came out, a sort of rousing cheer. that was at that end of the street. at thor end of the street where the public are, it was boos and they were vying to drown out almost the prime minister. a lot of people outside of downing street here, obviously. they have a vested interest in coming down and trying to shout down the prime minister. and that's the nature of politics in this country. but it was very striking that on the one hand you had the small groups supporting the prime minister, others trying to shout him down. and rather a metaphor for the cracked and chaotic nature of boris johnson's final weeks in office, the speaker system here next to me just did not work. it was delivered a crackering -- crackling low level version of what the prime minister was saying. even leaving office, as unclear as his speech was from his lips,

the mechanism to deliver it wasn't up to the job. that's been a metaphor boris johnson and his cabinet, and indeed the way that the country is increasingly perceived as a less reliable traditional partner. >> a very interesting view there from the ground, in that in particular. christiane, he's talking in his speech there about a mandate, that's the reason why he's going to keep fighting, he's going to keep staying in the interim. does he have a mandate? >> well, the short answer is no, bianna, because he might have done, and this has been his and downing street's defense, over the last, you know, crisis weeks and days, particularly the last few days, that they have said, listen, 14 million people voted for us in 2019, this is a historic majority we have achieved in parliament, we have even bust into the opposition labor party heartland and stronghold in the north, and we have done something extraordinary. that was true, that was true

three years ago. and it is not true now. because that mandate that he talks about belies his -- the facts. the fact is in the united kingdom there is a parliamentary system, this revolves around the party. it is the party that people vote for, not the person. the person who is the head of the party then becomes prime minister. it is the party that is on the ballot paper in each and every election. and then furthermore, his mandate, so to speak, has been whittled away in terms of popularity polls. as i said, his popularity has been plunging like a rock over the last days and weeks and months. he does not have that mandate that he claims from the people, 7 in 10 british adults want him to resign, that's up ten points from last week when it was 6 in 10. in that interim, his party has lost very key local elections. so in no way does he have a

mandate, not to mention practically his entire cabinet stampeding out. so many dozens of ministers and cabinet secretaries. he doesn't have a mandate from them either. he doesn't have a mandate from his party either because they want to change the rules and to call another confidence vote. they wanted to do that before they announced he would resign. for somebody who has delivered great speeches in the past, this was not a great speech. clearly he had not prepared anything. he only had between the time that he told the bbc his people at 8:30 this morning he was going to resign and before he walked out to write something, it was a very subpar speech, not historic, not churchillian as he likes to compare himself to churchill and here is an ironic fact that churchill's great nemesis was neville chamberlain, booted out for appeasing the nazis. two of them have had exactly the same time in office. and, yes, he's been very vocal

and front and center in supporting ukraine, but that is a british government policy. and it will remain a british government policy. it does not demand or depend on the person of boris johnson. so that also is neither here nor there. we heard a historian say today, that in the 300 years of british, you know, centuries of parliamentary history, with 55 prime ministers, this is the first one to have gone down in such spectacular personal flames. not about an issue of policy. and there was no emotion, guys. even theresa may shed a tear. margaret thatcher shed a tear and david ramcameron, not boris johnson. >> when the herd moves, the herd moves, and then said them's the breaks. that's what boris jonsson says as he resigns from office.

you talked about the historical nature of this. let's bring in kate williams, royal historian. she joins us now. kate, unprecedented to say the least. a max exodus from within his own government, 60 officials fleeing over the last 48 hours. put this in perspective. >> it is unprecedented. we had an unprecedented level of chaos. we lost our chancellor and health minister and everyone else followed. 60 people resigned and seven people resigned before breakfast. it was as boris johnson called it a herd, i call it a flood. a flood of rez ig nation resign. really this has been a lesson in johnson refusing to see what was in front of his face, he lost the confidence of the party, parliament and lost the confidence of the public. there has been a series of scandals, sex scandals, partygate scandals, people were partying in his office and he was there too, during lockdown, when everyone else was under

severe lockdown rules. he has lost complete confidence, but couldn't see it. and in his mind, he still is this great statesman, christiane was talking so brilliantly about how his speech wasn't statesman-like. that's how he wants to see himself. at the moment, he's not a statesman. this is going up in flames, this has been complete okay complete. we don't have a schedule, we don't know when he's going to resign, wanted to hang on to the floor, but he's talking about hanging on for a week or so. there is no certainty. this will affect the market. it is going to crash if we don't have some certainty about who is in charge here. >> we can't forget there is also a scandal we are embarrassed the queen. he had to apologize to her. kate, what is her role in this right now moving forward? >> we have no written constitution. we have no precedent on who is caretaker, we expect it to be deputy prime minister, but we

don't -- there is no precedent. this is the same for the queen as well. no specific precedent, no specific -- you might think the queen might be able to come in and say we're going to sort this out, but she can't. she can only call someone to former government, when that decision has always been made. we understand they have their usual conversation on wednesday evening, the queen and boris johnson, but really she has to kind of stand by, a bit like the rest of us, watching while this happens. i'm sure she has a lot of opinions, but she has to wait until there is a clear mandate, clear decision about who is the next prime minister and then she will call the prime minister to her, to form the government. until then, she's almost as helpless as the rest of us. >> clear as mud right now. nothing is clear in london right now. boris johnson put a timetable of a week for another announcement. thank you. nic robertson, stand by, these developments are coming fast and furious. questions here in the united states, who is on the other end of the line for the next few weeks. what is on thor the other end o

line? word that the russians have bombed snake island in the black sea as the ukrainians raise a flag there. we're going live to ukraine for that. wnba star brittney griner is facing another hearing in moscow. this as the family of another detained american paul whelan shared their frustration with the president. only at vanguard you're more than just an investor you're an owner. that means that your priorities are ours too. our interactive ols and advice cahelp you build a future for the ones you love. that's the value of ownership. liberty mutual customizes you, so you only pay for what you need. [ sfx: submarine rising out of water ]

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a major fight brewing between united airlines and the federal aviation administration. united is blaming the faa's air traffic control system for the recent flight delays and cancellations. but the faa is defending itself saying there are multiple reasons for the recent travel disruptions. pete muntean live at reagan national airport, where it is the passengers, pete, caught in

the middle of this. >> reporter: it is so true, john. this is a big showdown over who is really to blame for these massive flight cancellations. 2200 nationwide in the five days leading up to july 4th, according to flight aware. united airlines says, though, the federal government is partly to blame for all of this, because of staffing issues at faa air traffic control centers. it is important to remember that airlines got smaller over the pandemic. here is what united says, the reality is there are more flights scheduled industry wide than the air traffic control system can handle. particularly in new york and florida. until that's resolved, we expect the u.s. aviation system will remain challenged this summer and beyond according to the united airlines. last night, the faa fired back, in a new statement, saying on july 3rd and 4th, there were no faa staffing related delays at all, yet airlines canceled 1100

flights, the faa says, a quarter of which were at united airlines. this back and forth has been going on for a few weeks now. i want you to listen to pete buttigieg for who is to blame for this. >> so we have seen a number of different overlapping issues. some of it has to do with staffing, a lot of pilots were invited to take early retirement, air crews weren't brought back at the level we need. when you look at air traffic control system, for example. that is not explaining the majority of cancellations and delays. >> this is not over. airline experts say we'll see a summer of misery when it comes to flight cancellations. as for thinning out all of this bad blood, that will be on the biden administration's new nominee to lead the faa. phil washington who runs the denver airport, big job ahead of him, john. >> big job indeed. what passengers want, they want their planes to leave on time.

pete muntean at reagan national airport. thank you so much. right now wnba star brittney griner is back in a russian courtroom for another hearing. she has been detained in a moscow jail since february after being accused of drug smuggling. yesterday cnn learned president biden and vice president harris spoke to griner's wife by phone. but other relatives of detained americans like my next guest are expressing frustration that the president's personal attention isn't consistent as they see it. joining us now is david whelan, his brother paul has been detained in russia since 2018. he was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a trial that u.s. officials denounced as unfair. thank you so-so much for being h us. can you tell us how your brother is doing? >> the sanctions have now caused the textiles and buttons and things they send to the labor camp to slow down. so there is not very much work. it is a pretty awful existence. >> what is your worry right now

when it comes to the biden administration and its efforts to get your brother out? >> well, we're on our second presidential administration, so three and a half years in, and we really still haven't seen any forward movement to get paul released. we haven't seen the u.s. government create a framework or environment in which they will preempt the sort of wrongful detentions going forward. so we sort of feel like we're not going anywhere. >> does this call on behalf of brittney griner of the president, does that worry you, raise concerns for you? >> no, i was thrilled that president biden and vice president harris took the time to speak with miss griner. i don't think there is anything more valuable to the family of wrongfully detainees than to hear from the government. the frustration is the inconsistency of how the u.s.

government interacts with wrongful detainee families how they communicate with us, how they give us updates or let us know what the reality is of what is and what isn't possible. day to day, month to month, as the years go by, as we sort of look out toward 16 years for paul, it would be useful to understand exactly what we need to do, when we get messages from the state department that we need to make more noise, our family needs to make more noise, get in the media and so on to raise paul's awareness around paul's case. we need to know that that's actually having an impact and so things like presidential calls can be meaningful to some families. >> your sister is upset. can you explain that? what is -- is the concern here that relative to, say, brittney griner, that he's being forgotten? is that her worry? is that your worry? >> oh, no, not at all. there is no question in our family that president biden and his administration is aware of paul's case, and is most likely doing what they can on paul's

case, whatever that is, and i think the challenge for us is that when trevor reed was released from russia, in april, there was an awful lot of media speculation and perhaps rightfully so that the white house had created a perception that a meeting or a call with the president was going to be definitive for your case being a priority, your family, your loved one's case being a priority. i think it has made it difficult for families to know what we're supposed to be doing to ensure that our cases are being handled as a priority. and if all that we're hearing is that they are a priority, that doesn't necessarily give us any information about what's going on or what's happening. i think additional communication from the white house about the specifics in each case would be very useful. >> david, i'm so sorry for what you and your family are enduring and we appreciate you talking with us about it. thank you. >> thank you for having me. "new day" continues right now. this is cnn breaking news.