hello, everybody. welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing a very, very busy news day with us. we begin with major breaking news out of the biden white house. the president this morning testing positive for covid-19. the white house physician says the 79-year-old president is experiencing very, very mild symptoms, a runny nose and a dry cough. his planned travel to pennsylvania today is cancel. the president will isolate and work remotely until he tests negative. and he has already taken the antiviral medication, paxlovid. let's get straight to the white house and our white house correspondent, mj lee. what more do we know? >> the feeling at the white house today is that the inevitable has happened, more than two years into this covid pandemic. the president of the united states testing positive for covid. here is what we know about his condition. we know that he tested positive this morning. his doctor says that he is only experiencing mild symptoms, as of this morning.

that includes a runny nose, some fatigue, and the occasional dry cough. again, this is according to president biden's doctor. and he is being prescribed paxlovid. this is the antiviral medication that is said to be more effective if you take it as soon as you test positive. again, this is a medication that the president is going to be on. we, obviously, also know that he is going to be isolating for the time being. that means that he is not going to be seen in public. we've certainly not seen him today. but earlier today, we did see the first lady, dr. jill biden, and this is what she said about his -- her husband's condition right now. >> my husband tested positive for covid. i talked to him just a few minutes ago. he's doing fine. he's feeling good. i tested negative this morning. i am going to keep my schedule. i am, according to cdc guidelines, i am keeping masked. and so, i would like to go in and see the program here,

learning loss as an educator means a lot to me. so, thank you for being here today. >> thank you for coming over to talk to us. how are you doing? you must be deeply concerned? >> i'm fine. >> this news, of course, has created quite the scramble at the white house this morning. a trip to pennsylvania that the president was supposed to make this afternoon, that's obviously been canceled. we also know that the white house is in the middle of doing contact tracing right now, to really figure out, who are the close contacts that the president had in recent days to make sure that they are all aware. and also, we know that the resident staff, the folks who will be working at the residence as the president is in isolation, that is going to be kept to a bare minimum to sort of prevent other people being sort of exposed to the president while he is now testing positive for covid. now, the white house has been emphatic that he is going to care out all of his duties while he is in isolation. that means just doing his work,

over the phone. having zoom meetings with staff, and also one thing that is important to note right now is that the vice president, kamala harris, she has tested negative for covid. so this is important context, as well. you know, the general sense that we're getting from white house staff and also, importantly, his doctor, is that he is vaccinated, he is boosted. really, he is going to be fine. again, that is the messaging that we are getting from the white house. this is a scenario that the white house really has been preparing for months and months. but, again, sort of the inevitable happening this morning, the president finally testing positive for covid. john. >> to your point, mj, about the president planning to keep doing his duties, as you were speaking, the white house press secretary, karine jean-pierre just tweeting that the president is doing fine and doing work from the white house. let's get some important expertise and insights from the former baltimore health commissioner, dr. leana wen.

dr. wen, let me start with you. the president is 79 years old. he has been twice vaccinated, twice booster. the last booster was at the end of march. he is taking paxlovid. the white house physician says he has a little fatigue and an occasional dry cough that he started experiencing last night. this is not just any patient, it's a 79-year-old man who is president of the united states. does what you've heard so far from the white house sound right to you? >> it does. and i commend the white house for being so transparent. there's certainly a big difference between how they're responding now versus with former president trump. in this case, i do expect that president biden is going to make a full recovery, and that his symptoms are going to remain mild. and that's because the initial vaccination and the first booster already protects you very well against severe illness. then he got the second booster. and we know that initiation of the anti-viral paxlovid further reduces your chance of hospitalization and death by

90%. and so, of course, age is something that we worry about, individuals who are older have a higher risk for severe outcomes. but president biden is optimally protected, and i think this should be a guide book for what living with covid looks like in the future. that we are going to get covid. and so the -- we're all going to encounter it. and what we can do in preparation is to make sure that we are protected as much as we can through vaccination and boosters, and then, by taking the treatments, as soon as we test positive. >> dr. shaffner, both of you, dr. wen and dr. shaffner have lived through two and a half years of this. we're in the middle of the ba.5 variant. everybody assumes that's what this is. we don't know that for sure just yet. but help me through, dr. shaffner. the white house says the president tested negative on tuesday. obviously he was traveling on wednesday and started experiencing a dry cough last night. when did he likely get infected? maybe he didn't test positive until this morning, but obviously, he's had covid -- covid has been with him for at least a couple of days, right?

>> that's very likely, john. it's not clear when he became infected. he could have gotten before tuesday and had a somewhat longer incubation period. but there are times when you're exposed and you start to develop symptoms within 48 hours, also. i think it will be very difficult to. it exactly when it is he became infected, but this is, indeed, testimony to the fact that this ba.5 variant, we think that that's the most likely, so is very contagious. and it can infect people who are previously vaccinated and indeed, people who have have had previous covid. but, those experiences, the vaccine and the previous infections, really provide protection against developing severe disease. and so we expect the president with that protection from his vaccination and now having taken the antiviral paxlovid, i agree

with dr. wen, we expect him to do very well, although he may have a few days of fatigue, runny nose, cough, and perhaps even some hoarseness. >> put those symptoms, dr. wen, into context for us. again, twice vaccinated and then twice boosted. so two doses of the vaccine, and then twice boosted. runny nose and fatigue. are those the normal symptoms for the current variant, or are those the normal symptoms only if, like the president, you are double boosted, include that most recent booster, we're still inside of four months, when people say it's most effective. >> well, at this point, nearly all americans are either vaccinated or they've had covid or both. and so when people get ba.5, the dominant variant at this point, they're going to get, chances are, these pretty mild symptoms. fever, fatigue, headache, sore throat, runny nose. those are the common types of symptoms. i want to set the expectation that when we as clinicians say mild, we are referring to people who are not sick enough to go to the hospital. some people, even with mild

illness, end up having body aches and fevers and just overall not feeling well for quite a few days. they might say, well, that's knot really mild. but in our case, we really care about preventing people from becoming so ill that they end up needing to be hospitalized. that's what the benefit of vaccinations and boosters do. this is a call to action what everybody should know, what is their plans once they get covid? it is something we probably all will have to contend with. so the fact that president biden got paxlovid immediately is really good. the earlier you start this anti-viral treatment, the better. and i hope that everyone has a plan for what they would do if they were to contract the coronavirus. >> dr. shaffner, what is different if your patient is a 79-year-old man versus, say, a 35-year-old man, in the sense this 79-year-old happens to be the president of the united states. but are you looking for different things? are you monitoring more closely? are you testing in a different way? what are you watching for? is there a difference or is it the same? >> well, it's both.

obviously, the virus has its way with you, but with people of advanced age, they are more likely to develop some of the complications, and to develop, as dr. wen said, more severe disease that requires hospitalization. so, surely, we would monitor people like that much more carefully and they would all qualify for paxlovid administered absolutely as quickly as possible after the diagnosis has been established. i am sure that they are monitoring, for example, the president's blood oxygen concentration. that can be done very easily with a little device on your finger. and they were watching him for the potential development of complications, which we don't anticipate will occur, but they're watching him carefully. >> so dr. wen, what else is happening around the white house in the sense that the president traveled yesterday, and sometimes we see the president masked, he's outside, he's moving along, he's shaking a rope line. that's a picture aboard air force one with congressman jakes

on, what should the test be if you were around the president in the last 24 to 48 hours and your honor masked, what are you thinking right now? should you automatically get a test? is it if you were with him for more than 10 to 15 minutes. what's the new standard? >> well, it's a little bit hard to say. i'll tell you what the current cdc gluidelines are. the cdc guidelines are still referring to 15 minutes of cumulative exposure over a 25-hour period. and by that, they generally mean indoors without masks. but i think in this case, given how transmissible ba.5 is, even if you have a shorter period of contact, but let's say it was close contact. maybe you were hugging someone outdoors, i would say that that person should probably take these same precautions, as well. which is, if you are up to date on your vaccines, meaning you're up to date on your vaccines and boosters, you do not have to quarantine, even if you had substantial exposure. someone, for example, like the first lady, who presumably had

very closure ee exposure during time that president biden was infectious, does not need to quarantine and stay at home. but if she were to enter any public setting, she should be masked. and she, as any time that someone with exposure has symptoms, they need to test immediately. all of these individuals really should get tested now, just in case they also may have had covid. but also, they should test kfiv days' time in order to see if they possibly could have gotten infected from president biden and that exposure. i think using an abundance of caution is always a good idea. and i'm glad to see that the white house is taking these precautions in terms of contact tracing to let people know that they should be using these precautions, masking, in that period and also testing, if they were exposed. >> dr. shaffner, finally, we're told that the white house briefing later today, either the president's physician or the covid adviser will be there to lay this out for us. perhaps both, we will see. if i'm your patient, i get a level of privacy if i'm the president of the united states. what do you think -- dr. went

complements the white house for their transparency, especially compared to the last white house. what's the test now for the biden white house, "a," in terms of being transparent about the president's condition day-to-day, and "b," maybe using this as a teaching moment. >> it is a teaching moment. and i think the president and the team around him are setting a good example for the rest of the country. we can all learn from that. and i also complement them on their transparency. we need to know what's happening with our political leader. >> dr. shaffner, dr. wen, grateful for your insights. we'll continue this conversation in the days ahead. when we come back, much more on this breaking news. president biden tests positive for covid. dr. sanjay gupta joins us live, next. owed that a specific nutrit formula can help reduce e the rk of dry amd progression. ask your doctor now about an arededs 2 supplement.

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casey said, quote, he sounded great and is in good spirits. let's get insights from our chief medical correspondent, sanjay gupta. it's not just any president, it's the president of the united states, the leader of the free world, a 79-year-old man. he's immediately on paxlovid. i want to read you a memo from the white house physician, dr. kevin o'connor says, this morning, as part of our routine screening program for the president, the -- the covid virus was detected by antigen testing and then confirmed by a pcr test. on questioning, dr. o'connor says the president told him, he's experiencing minor symptoms, mostly runny nose, fatigue, and an occasional dry cough. does that sound normal, if you will, for someone who is double-dose vaccined, double boos boosted? >> yeah, when you look at the overall efficacy or effectiveness of the vaccines, the idea is that it could have turned otherwise more severe symptoms into something more mild, is what you would expect. and it is important to note when exactly his symptoms started.

that's going to give you some idea, at least, of how long they're likely to last. >> and one of the things we've learned, the president is now on paxlovid, an anti-viral medication that has proven to be very effective, the doctors say, in preventing the major severe side effects or harmful effects of covid-19. but there also are conversations at times about a quote/unquote paxlovid rebound. explain that. >> so this is an interesting point. i think what the data is pretty clear on with paxlovid is that if you take this, it's pretty protective or helpful in terms of preventing someone from developing severe illness. if you look at some of the trial data, it's 90% less likely to develop severe illness if you're on paxlovid. but what it seems to do, as well, in some cases, maybe 5 to 6% of the times, it seems now, you get rebound. which means you seemingly recovered, you tested negative and everything, and then a few days later, you test positive again. and you may have symptoms again. now, this happened to dr. anthony fauci, you'll remember, john, so he thought he was fine. a few days later, tested positive again and actually said

he was a little bit circumstance the second time around. that's something they've got to keep an eye on as well. you know that it works well in terms of preventing serious symptoms, but it's almost like you're stretching out, potentially, the duration of the illness. one thing i want to point out again, john. with the vaccines, there's so much protection there. if you look last year, 2021 around this time frame, and look this year at this time frame, the likelihood of dying if you've been vaccinated and boosted was about 29 times lower than last year at this time. so, it's -- i think the data is really clear on how protected he already is. >> so, help us, as a teaching point, "a," it's the president of the united states, the most high-profile patient you could have in american politics, anyway. but, being in this moment of where we are, on this roller coast we've all lived through in the past two and a half-plus years. we have a new variant, cases are rising just about everywhere. in the context of the moment, when you see the president of the united states out traveling, every american wing, wants to get back to as normal a life as possible. where are we?

>> it's a good question, john. in some ways, if you just wanted to provide context and look at periods during this pandemic where we were, in many ways, better off than we are now, and we were still in pretty significant mitigation mode. we've become, i guess, we've become more tolerant, if you will, of where we are right now. you still have, you know, lots of people becoming infected. and we don't really know, because most people who test at home don't report. there's a lot of people in the hospital, tens of thousands of people in the hospital, and still lots of people dying every day. so when we go into the cooler, drier months. and this variant does seem to be pretty different than previous variants, which means that your previous immunity, either from infection or from vaccine, may not be as protective. so more viral transmission, perhaps less protection, the waning of protection. i think, you know, it's going to be concerning over the next few months, and whether or not things like indoor masking, again, and indoor places is going to be recommended. there's some communities around the country that are already

starting to do that. i think it's going to become more widespread. at least the recommendations will. whether people follow them, i think, you know, you know, we've seen what's happened in the past with that. >> dr. sanjay gupta, appreciate your time on this day, as we try to sort this out. the president now the nation's number one covid patient. and the president just tweeted, folks, i'm doing great, thanks for your concern. i just called my scranton cousins to send my regrets for missing our event today. keeping busy. that from the president of the united states. more on this covid issue with the president at the white house. we'll be right back. i got some of my gold before i came to this country. i got some of my golold before you passed the bread. encourage one another... i can buy gold for this?! you can buy gold for this. and talk about life'e's wins and misses. responsibly sourced like my gold but not responsibly cooked. because at the end of the day, nothing keeps it all together quite like - gold. visit invest.gold to see how gold is everyone's asset.

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more now on today's major breaking news story and its fallout. the president of the united states testing positive for covid-19, just moments ago, we shared it before the break, the president of the united states there. that's the treaty room, the white house residence, an office the president uses when over in the residency. he's tweeting that he's doing just fine, he just talked to the people of pennsylvania he was supposed to visit today. the president's tweet followed by a tweet from his press secretary, korea karine jean-pi. the white house clearly trying to project the image of, yes, the president has covid, but, yes, the president still going about his business, just in isolation. safely, with me to share their reporting and their insights, cnn's nia-malika henderson and

cnn's melanie zanona. you covered the biden white house. the whole campaign was about, trump bungled the pandemic. we're a year and a half into the administration. we have seen even the biden white house trying, masks sometimes, not always. travel when you can. what has been the big shift, and on this day, they always said they were prepared for this moment. what is the mood in the building today? >> they have always been very rigorous, as someone who's traveled with the president a lot, the protocols that are in place have always been very extensive. testing, masks, everything. and they have indicated that they have been preparing for this for a long time. that said, you know, it's still going to be -- you know, there's some stunnedness here. he's a 79-year-old man. the oldest president in history. there is going to be some concern and some care taken. i'm very interested in watching those tweets of him, you know, in the treaty room, at his desk. because it's clear, they want to

make -- there's imagery here that he's strong, that he's tough, that the symptoms are mild. and that he wants to go ahead and do his work. >> they also seem determined, nia, to show that this is not the trump white house, where it is hard to get information, and we got conflicting information about donald trump's covid case early on. a memo saying, here's what we know. dr. jha, the covid coordinator saw jeremy diamond, our correspondent there, and said, the president does not have a fever, just a runny nose and they'll have doctors at the briefing later today. they seem determined to not only have the president saying, i'm feeling fine, but give you the medical information to back it up. >> very different from what we saw in the trump white house. he tweeted himself at 1:00 a.m. that he had covid, went through all kinds of theatrics of projecting strength, riding in his presidential motorcade -- i think his mask was off, and riding at the white house and ripping his mask off in dramatic fashion. i don't think we'll see that from this president. but we do see this idea of

projecting strength. this idea that i'm keeping busy. i will say that, you know, i think too many people sort of want to push through this illness and maybe it would be better to sort of listen to your body and just kind of rest, take a day off. i don't think americans would mind that. but that's just a personal aside. so, listen, this was an inevitable for this president. i remember sitting around this table when kamala harris tested positive and the white house coming out and saying, listen, the president is going to go about his business, dot, dot, dot. he'll likely get it. >> they can use this to make another push for vaccines and for boosters and remind the american public that we are not over coronavirus. i mean, it is still impacting our lives every day. it's worth pointing out that bennie thompson, the chairman of the select committee, tested positive for coronavirus. he can't physically chair the hearing tonight. it could be used as a reminder for that. >> it could be. just to make a point to those of you watching at home, those of us at this table, we take a test every day before we sit in close proximity, to be extra safe.

in that point, contact tracing and close contacts is language we've all got used to in the past several years. the calls are going out today to a pretty high-profile group. this is some of the people traveling with the president yesterday. ed marky and elizabeth warren, congressman keating, his own press secretary, gena mccarthy, massachusetts, member of red sox nation, although we're struggling. that's just part of it. plus the senior staff as well. congressman usauszenschloss. it's a teaching moment, but it's a high-profile teaching moment now. i assume every one of those people on air force one has had a test. >> and at last foreign overseas trip that biden was on. he's been increasing his public engagement lately. so it does seem inevitable to a degree. and my question now is whether the biden administration is going to try to pull back a little bit and try to implement

some of these protocols that maybe had been lax for a while. even though they've had strict protocols in place, but we have seen that dipping. and you can tell that they are wrestling with how much to put biden out there and how much should he be shaking hands with people. how much he should h be not having a mask on? >> and more broadly, what does this mean for the country? this variant seems particularly spreadable. and the other thing is, there's a question about whether or not they're going to approve boosters for folks under 50. people are waiting -- second boosters for folks under 50. how prepared is the country for the fall? are we going to see a third fall of record techcontagion from co in the way we've seen already? this is a critical moment. i think we're in a good place, because young kids can get vaccinated. a lot of people have been vaccinated. a lot of people have already gotten it. there's a built-in immunity, too, but there is a sense of, okay, are we ready for the fall in terms of what we might see. >> and from a public health

perspective, the most important part of that question. and the other piece of it is we're in another political year. this was a defining issue between now president biden, but then candidate biden and president trump. and a midterm election year. the president wanted to go to pennsylvania today. pretty important state. he want to have had a gun violence event there. he was going to have a big fund-raiser there. it's unclear whether he'll participate in that fund-raiser remotely or not. but if you're the white house political office and the president gets covid in late july, you know, late july, in an election year, you're scratching your head saying, okay, how is this going to affect the plan next week and the week after? >> absolutely. there's the schedule and making sure that he can do all the things that he needs to do during that time. and there's the messaging. we're talking here about the -- how pervasive the virus still is. and how the white house has an opportunity to kind of send a message and set an example for america. at the same time, the president also wants, you know, america to know that it can continue to move on. that the economy is still going. to not be afraid of the virus.

that's what the boosters are there for. to encourage people to do boosters. and for the midterms, you don't -- he ran, as you said earlier, on fixing this. on getting better. so to go into the midterms and having this continue to be a problem, where people are still scared is not a message that i think he wants to have. >> we'll watch it play out again, primary concern, the president's health at the momentum. he says he's doing great. and later today at the white house briefing, they'll have the doctors on hand to give an update, as well. up next, prime-time for the january 6th committee. tonight's hearing will focus on donald trump and 187 telling minutes. aides wanted the president to tell his writhing supporters to stand down. he wanted to watch it on tv. ♪ when you have nausea, heartbtburn, indigestion, ♪ ♪ upset stomach, diarrhea. ♪ pepto bismsmol coats and soothes for fast relief... when you need it most. time. it's life's most precious commodity, especially when you have metastatic breast cancer. when your time is threatened, time. it's life's most precious commodity, it's hard to invest in your future. until now.

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now to tonight's prime-time january 6th committee presentation. the committee promising to lay out how donald trump abandoned his duty and turned gleeful spectator as his supporters saultd police, broke into the united states capitol, disrupted the certification of the election, and threatened elected officials, including the vice president of the united states and the speaker of the house. the 187 minutes of trump in action will be toldly trump west wing insiders, including live testimony tonight from national security aide, matthew pottinger, and press aide, sarah matthews. adding backup from accounts from other top officials that are already part of the committee's public body of work. and you will hear tonight from donald trump himself, the committee has outtakes from a taped trump video message from january 7th, 2021. the taped message, the outtakes, sources tell cnn, show trump refusing, among other things, to say the election results were

settled. ryan nobles live for us on capitol hill. what else do we expect to hear tonight? >> reporter: i think the committee has said for some time that they have a lot of evidence that shows just what donald trump was not doing during that 187 minutes while the capitol was undersiege. we've already seen a preview of that already today through a clip that was shown by adam kinzinger on his twitter feed, from various officials, from in and around the white house, that have already been deposed. and they talked about him just watching tv, never leaving a back dining room, while the capitol was -- while the riot was ongoing. which is a way that they're going to demonstrate a dereliction of duty, which they've said over and over again. we also expect to hear from witnesses, at least videotaped depositions of witnesses that we have not heard from yet. people that have not appeared in these hearings in any way, shape, or form. and we're going to get live testimony from witnesses, that we've never heard from before, in the form of matthew pottinger, sarah matthews, two white house aides that ended up

resigning as we took place on january 6th. then there were those outtakes that we reported on last night, from the speech that donald trump gave on january 7th q, whh the committee shows him struggling to try to come up with an explanation for what happened on january 6th, and wrestling with how to refer to the people that stormed the capitol on that day, and refusing at that point to say that the election results were settled. there's no doubt, john, that the committee has been building towards tonight. this will only be their second prime-time hearing. many of the members i've spoken to say that this could be the most devastating blow against former president donald trump. we'll have to see tonight if it lives up to those expectations. >> ryan nobles live for us on capitol hill. grateful for the live report. let's bring the conversation back into the room with our great reporters. and to ryan's point, the power of the committee so far has been that the most damning testimony has been from people who were for donald trump, that worked in the west wing. these are not deep staters or liberal democrats. tonight we'll hear from donald trump himself.

but the most damning part, adam kinzinger tweeting out this morning, people who worked in the west wing, the capitol, remember that day, the capitol was under attack. law enforcement officers are being beaten, windows broken, the building stormed and ransacked, chants of "hang mike pe pence," chants of "let's find nancy pelosi," this is what donald trump was doing -- >> was the president in that private dining room the whole time that the attack on the capitol was going on, who did he go to -- again, to your knowledge -- to the oval office, the white house situation room, anywhere else? >> to the best of my recollection, he was always in the dining room. >> what did that say? mr. meadows or the president? at all during that brief encounter that you were in the dining room. what do you recall? >> i think everybody was watching the tv. >> do you know whether he was watching tv in the dining room when you talked to him on january 6th? >> it's my understanding that he was watching television. >> when you were in the dining room, in these discussions, was

the violence happening, physically, on the screen, on the television? >> yes. >> that, melanie, is what makes it so damning, that's the white house counsel there, retired counsel, kellogg there, kayleigh mcenany. the president was watching on television. the government of the united states was under attack. the vice president was being threatened. the president was watching on tv. >> we already knew that aides were going in there and telling him, so he was hearing it with his own ears. now we know without any doubt that he was seeing it with his own eyes. and not only did he not act, but we've heard other testimony that he was supportive of what was going on, including the "hang mike pence" chapnts. adam kinzinger said he was gleefully watching. and i think we've heard a lot about his actions leading up to january 6th and on january 6th and we're starting to get a picture afterwards, including january 7th, during those outtakes, when that film was filmed, he was not sorry, he was not remorseful. he wanted to continue spreading these lies and that is consistent with wow he's acted

ever since. >> wanted to continue to call the people who stormed the capitol patriots. patriots. not rioters, not criminals. patriots. >> right. this was a show that donald trump produced, right? it unfolded in the way that he wanted to it happen, from that tweet he sent after that white house meeting, saying, come to the capitol, it will be wild, to his property testations when hen front of that crowd that they were going to march to the capitol. of course he was sitting there and watching it, because those folks were called to the capitol by him and doing what he want thed them to do. the only thing that went wrong is it actually didn't work. they weren't able zwrto overthr the government. mike pence didn't do what donald trump wanted him to do. but it is a damning portrait of inaction. not just a dereliction of his duty as a president, but a dereliction of his duty as human. someone who can stop this rampage and violence from happening, and there he is sitting and watching it of television. >> and you lived through this,

covering the trump white house, if something didn't go his way, trump said, that person is a liar, they're with the fake news, they're a republican in name only, they're a liberal democrat, they're the deep state. we can show you some of the people. these are trump insiders, sarah matthews, cassidy hutchinson, pat cipollone, the list goes on and on. these are all people who worked with donald trump, worked in the campaign, worked with him to the end, some from the beginning. it's just impossible. they can criticize how the committee was formed. they can criticize the democrats on the committee. that testimony is damning because it comes from people who were very loyal to donald trump until the end. >> absolutely. i covered the trump white house for four years. i covered the nsc for quite a bit. matthew pott tingpottinger, sar mathews, while they might not be the most household names, they're very respected, including matthew pottinger, very involved with some of the top foreign policy. his testimony cannot just be tossed out. he cannot be painted as someone who is just a low-level staffer.

and he, i think as well as sarah marshall, are going to go through the timeline of january 6th, and not only show that president trump or former president trump was just watching tv, but all the different points that he could have done the right thing s. >> and all the people coming and begging him to do the right thing. ahead for us first on cnn, the department of homeland security inspector general tells the secret service to stop a january 6th-connected investigation. we'll tell you why, next.

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. i want to turn to some important new reporting this hour on a turf war over whose job it is to find some very important missing text messages. the attorney general instructing the secret service to stop its internal increasing why january 6th-related text messages were deleted. let's get the latest from cnn's whitney wild. whitney, what is this about and why is it important? >> the secret service received a notice wednesday telling the secret service to stop investigating the matter, because it could interfere with the inspector general's own investigation into what happened to the agency's text messages. this wednesday letter coming from the ig, telling secret service, in effect, stand down for now. the letter adds to this growing secret service 2000 the secret service and the dhs inspector general over these missing text messages, which are also being sought by the house select committee as part of its

investigation into former president donald trump's actions and movements on january 6th, 2021. here's a quote from this letter. to ensure the integrity of our investigation, the usss must not engage in any further investigative activities regarding the collection and preservation of the evidence referenced above. this includes immediately refraining from interviewing potential witnesses, collecting devices, or taking any other action that would interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation. john, we know that the ig has the authority to eventually refer things for criminal investigation. the problem here is that the secret service has already begun what they call a very rigorous event into what happened to these potentially missing text messages and why. that's because they were subpoenaed by the house select committee. they've told the house select committee they're conducting forensic examinations. they're doing interviews to try to abide by that directive. this is making things so much more complicated for the secret

service as it tries to abide by these oversight bodies. >> at odds with one another to say the least. appreciate that important reporting. joining us now, cnn legal analyst, gary cordero and the former deputy director of the fbi, andy mccabe. you worked at a law enforcement agency. that, yes, sometimes has to update the phones. sensitive investigations. there to be careful protocols in place. what in the world went wrong here? >> really great question, john. i have been through this process from every level from my time in the fbi. as an agent and a senior leader overseeing some exchanges, technological exchanges. i've never, ever seen a process that involved every individual agent or user of a phone putting the responsibility on them individually to preserve their own data. it's inexplicable to me. >> inexplicable, and we'll see how it gets sorted out, and if we'll get any of the messages. as part of this, we have the january 6th investigation. now you have this dhs inspector

general. the justice department investigation into january 6th, the attorney general of the united states said yesterday twice no person is above the law in this country, nothing stops us, in the context of, can you investigate donald trump. no person above the law in this country. i can't say it more clearly than that. did merrick garland just have to say that publicly or is there a message in that? >> i think that's about what we should expect for the attorney general, and really, we shouldn't expect much more. because if we want the justice department to be abiding by the traditional norms of not commenting on ongoing investigations, not casting aspersions on people who have not been charged with any crimes, and allowing them to conduct the investigation that they have, then, really, we don't want to hear that much more from the attorney general. so i think that is about as bland a statement as we could hear from the attorney general. but, frankly, i don't think he should be saying much more about it. >> well, the january 6th committee has been trying to lead the attorney general to the water, if you will, through its testimony in its public hearings. there's been a lot of damning testimony.

the legal expert who is look at this say, they see four potential crimes for the former president of the united states, obstruction of a official proceeding, certification of the election, seditious conspiracy, witness tampering. tonight, a prime-time hearing about that 187 minutes of what donald trump did. and more importantly, what he refused to do during that. is that proving dereliction of duty or do you think it's important tonight with these white house insiders to help prove, is that a crime, dereliction of duty is dereliction of decency. but what about when it comes to crimes? >> i think we need to step back from the crime cliff, as it were. and remember, what is the committee trying to do? the committee is trying to present a compelling and complete, author rthorough narr the american people to help them understand all the bad things that donald trump did. one of the bad things is completely obliterating and ignoring his oath to protect and defend the constitution, to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed. and he did that by -- as we'll see tonight -- twittering away, watching television, and doing nothing to stop the attack on the nation's capitol. >> yeah, i think tonight is less

about the committee laying out potential evidence for criminal cullability than it is about potentially having political arguments in the future to prevent him from receiving a nomination or assuming public office ever again. the dereliction of duty is really was the subject of the second impeachment. it is about his inaction and the things that he didn't do to protect the country, to protect the safety of lawmakers, and to protect the law enforcement personnel who were at the capitol site that day. but i don't think it's the same conversation as potential criminal -- >> and the committee promises some new information tonight. they have delivered on those promises in the past. we will see if we get it tonight as well. join cnn's special conch of tonight's insurrection hearing. it begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern. thanks for your time today on "inside politics." ana cabrera picks os up our coverage after a quiuick break. y sprays take hours asteprpro starts working in 30 minutes.

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hello and thanks for being here. i'm ana cabrera in new york. we begin this hour with breaking news from the white house, where president joe biden is in isolation after he tested positive for covid. president biden's symptoms are said to be mild. he tweeted a short time ago that he is doing great. he is taking an anti-viral medication to reduce the risk of severe illness. we also can tell you that a news conference is scheduled an hour from now. and cnn'