>> announcer: "this week" with george stephanopoulos starts right now. border antics. >> every community in america should be sharing in the burdens, it shouldn't all fall on a handful of restates. >> republican governors play hardball on immigration. migrants dropped off at the vice president's doorstep in washington. flights arriving unannounced in martha's vineyard. >> they told there was a surprise. >> republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props. >> this morning, an in-depth look at unfolding humanitarian crisis and the politics of america's broken immigration system. el paso mayor oscar leeser on the crisis at the border and new york city mayor eric adams on

his plea for help. new threat. >> i think you'd have problems in this country. >> former president trump hints of political violence if he's indicted. our powerhouse roundtable covers all of the political fallout. and russia on notice. >> change the face of war. unlike anything since world war ii. >> president biden warns vladimir putin not to use chemical or nuclear weapons, as new evidence of russian war crimes emerges. ukraine's ambassador to the united states joins us in studio with the very latest. >> announcer: from abc news, it's "this week." here, now, co-anchor jonathan karl. with 51 days until the midterm elections two powerful republican governors, both of them with political ambitions beyond their own states, are making an extraordinary gambit

to put america's broken border as a front and center issue this fall. dropping busloads of migrants without notice on a busy washington street, right in front of the vice president's house, as texas governor greg abbott did this week, is a stunt pure and simple. so is chartering planes to transport migrants to martha's vineyard as florida governor ron desantis did, but beyond the political gamesmanship and the cynical use of human beings as pawns is something all too real, america is the in midst of an immigration crisis. the number of undocumented migrants crossing the southern border, most of them fleeing violence and economic devastation and trying to find a better life for their families is on track to hit 2 million this year, an all-time record. the influx is overwhelming the already-strained resources of the communities on the border and the biden administration seems to have no real plan to

address the crisis, dropping buses of people in front of the vice president's home won't solve the problem. neither will chartering a plane to an island off the coast of massachusetts. but those republican governors are promising more of that to come. >> i got $12 million for us to use so we're going to use it and you're going to see more and more, but i'm going to make sure that we exhaust all those funds. >> the mayors of el paso and new york are both standing by. we begin with abc news national correspondent mirea villareal who's in texas with the very latest. good morning. >> reporter: look as you know, border crossings is nothing new and politicians using immigration to rile up a certain amount of people that's nothing new either, but i have lived on the border, grew on the border and have been covering immigration for well over a decade. right now this busing situation

that's fairly new, but for people living here in el paso, the city leaders, this isn't about politics this is absolutely about people. martha's vineyard, is hardly the expected battleground for america's immigration crisis, but this week it was after florida republican governor flew about 50 migrants to the island, governor ron desantis taking ownership saying this draws attention to what he calls an ineffective immigration system. >> it's only when you have 50 illegal aliens end up in a very wealthy, rich sanctuary enclave that he decides to scramble on this. >> reporter: el paso, now averaging 1300 migrants a day, an influx so daunting the city had to open an emergency processing facility. is this city at a breaking point? >> we're at critical point. >> reporter: most of these families are from venezuela fleeing economic hardship and an

oppressive government. el paso now hiring its own chartered buses to help move migrants north, most of them heading to new york, since july the city has spent more than a $1 million on bus transportation. the act of busing is necessity for you guys. >> we don't have the shelter capacity and as you have seen on top of the people we're bringing in. >> reporter: separately texas governor greg abbott busing some 11,000 migrants north so far. new york's mayor says the city needs more resources. >> we need help. we have not been ashamed to say that. we need help. >> reporter: in the last month, migrants bussed to chicago and washington, d.c. and just one day after desantis flew migrants to martha's vineyard, another group from texas sent by governor abbott dropped off right in front of vice president kamala harris' home. many say they didn't expect to

end up here. >> reporter: immigration attorneys working with the groups now say the migrants were lied to. >> they were told a surprise was present for them and there would be jobs and housing awaiting for them when they arrived. this was obviously a sadistic lie. >> reporter: governor desantis defending the tactic. >> they're given a good ride and everything. it's the humane thing to do. >> reporter: the president calling this a political stunt. >> it's un-american. it's reckless. we have a process in place to manage migrants at the border. >> reporter: migrants now sleeping on the streets saying that help can't come fast enough. any concern how long this city can sustain helping the mass of people that are coming through here? >> it's a matter of keeping it together and healthy. not just give up on them. we'll find a way. we always do. >> reporter: and jon, just to be

very clear, these are not illegal aliens. it's not okay to say that, these are migrants, asylum seekers, that have been processed by our own border patrol right here in el paso. i also have to say, moving forward el paso says right now they don't need a surge of people coming from the feds, they need transportation, talking about setting up temporary shelter funded by the federal government. that's what they need right now on the border. >> mireya villareal, thank you. we're joined by the mayor of el paso, oscar leeser. mayor, thank you for joining us. the numbers that we're seeing, you saw mireya speaking about, 1300 migrants a day coming to your city, describe for us the challenge, do you have the resources you need to deal with this? >> well, the numbers aren't 1300, the numbers are two days ago we had almost 2,000, a

little bit over 1900 yesterday. we had, the day before yesterday we had a little over 1500, so the numbers have been continuing to increase and, you know, that's continued the rise and that's because a lot of the people in probably about 80% of them are coming from venezuela and that's where a big part of the migrant surge is coming from. >> and you've seen the reports, and we've seen directly the border patrol dropping migrants off on the streets of el paso, do you have a sense that the biden administration has a plan for how to address this? >> well, and you know, that's really something important. i have a great and incredible working relationship with chavez from the border patrol and our goal is never to drop anybody off in the streets of el paso and make sure that no one's

homeless or no one's hungry. our ngos have really opened up their doors and we've gotten hotels and the last few days we've not had any people released into the streets of el paso and it will continue to work that way, so, you know, it's been an incredible working relationship between el paso, the city of el paso and also, the chief chavez and the border patrol. i spent about two, three hours yesterday, driving the border and talking to a lot of the migrants and talking to a lot of the border pay troll agents that are down here working today and if you drive through the streets right now there's no one on the street today, and we'll continue to make sure we find them a home and work with them. >> we've seen governor abbott, you know, making a point of busing migrants to the vice president's residence in washington, but, and i know that you are also, the city is also

arranging for transportation for the migrants to north, obviously different than what's happening with the governor of texas, but explain to us what you're trying to do in terms of moving migrants out of el paso. >> okay, and that's a great question, because if you look at the people are not coming to el paso, they're coming to america, and that's something that's really important and we look at them and we talk to them, what's your destination? then we'll take them and help them get to their destination. the big difference that's happening today that was not normally was, about 95% of everyone coming had a sponsor, a sponsor is a family member or a friend, where they've arranged to have transportation to go to their destination. from venezuela they don't have sponsors. 50% of the people today don't have a sponsor. they don't have money, so we're

helping and working to get them to where they want to go, so that's been really important that we don't send anyone where they don't want to go, we make sure we help them and we put human beings and we put them on buses with food and make sure they get to their destination and make sure that we always continue to treat people like human beings. >> all right, mayor of el paso, texas, oscar leeser, thank you for joining us on "this week." let's bring in the mayor of new york city, eric adams. mayor adams, thank you for joining us. so, you have said that new york is overwhelmed by this crisis, what are you being told by the biden administration? what are they doing to alleviate the situation? >> a crisis calls for coordination, and i traveled to washington last week, spoke with senator schumer, senator gillibrand and other lawmakers, and sat down with the biden

administration to talk about how do we coordinate and their goal is to make sure that we get the resources that's needed as the mayor of el paso stated. these migrants, aren't coming to any particular city, they're coming to america, this is an american crisis that we need to face, a humanitarian crisis that were made by human hands made by governors in some of our southern states. >> you warned the other day that new york city is reaching a breaking point. 11,000 migrants have come to new york since may, but look at what we just heard for the mayor of el paso, the other day they had 2,000 in a single day, how is it that new york city is overwhelmed when it's a fraction of what we're seeing on the border? >> well, what's happening, a playbook that many of the republican governors desantis

and abbott are using is now to ship those migrants out to other states, particularly a place like new york. as you saw the mayor of el paso indicate that when you have sponsors, it's an easier transition. if we would have properly coordinated with the governors in these southern states and let's find where the sponsors are, we have large venezuelan communities in america, let's coordinate in that fashion like we did with other large communities we have in new york city, where we're able to get sponsors, work with our nongovernmental organizations, it's calls for coordination. there was no coordination at all with governor abbott and governor desantis wanted to use this political ploy instead of understanding these are people, family, human beings.

>> have you had any direct contact with the governor of florida or the governor of texas? what's your message to them? >> we reached out to governor abbott when we first discovered that he was compelling people to get on the bus, he was tagging them, he was sending them on a 45-hour ride, without any proper food, water or medical care, we've reached out and stated that let's coordinate and work together so we can deal with this crisis together, they refused to do so, and this is really -- >> wait, excuse me, they wouldn't even take your call? >> no, they did just the opposite. they took the call and stated -- that they would coordinate -- talking about governor abbott, that they would coordinate and they did not coordinate at all. it's more to do this basically political showmanship you're seeing now. >> you pledged during your campaign to keep new york city a sanctuary city, any concern that that policy is

attracting more people to the border, more people to cross the border to make that dangerous trip? >> no, not at all. the city has always been a sanctuary city and we always managed those who wanted to come to new york city to pursue the american dream. let's be clear here, we've all come from somewhere, our lineage came from a location and the pursuit of the american dream is what we all fought for. it can be done correctly by making sure that people legally entered the country and we coordinate in a proper way, and that's what i stated. i'll always believe that this is a country where people want to pursue the american dream and there are ways it can be done correctly. >> so you said new york city is prepared to welcome more and more of these migrants, but you want the coordination with the border states and you want resources from the federal government? >> no, what i'm saying, clearly, is what we've always done, new

york city has always been a sanctuary city, a city with a right to shelter, and we'll continue to do that, we have a moral and legal obligation to do so. we're not asking for people all over the country to send people to new york, merely because they don't want to take on their responsibility to help those who are seeking this american dream. that's not what we're asking for. we want to continue what we've always done, ensure people who came to this city were treated in a humane fashion. we're not seeing that now. this was created by human hands and i believe was a political ploy to overlook some of things that we did to dismantle human rights. everything from woman's right to choose, to gun control, the same playbook we're seeing playing out. >> vice president harris one week ago said that the border is secure, do you agree with that, do you think our southern border is secured? >> i believe that we can

continue to coordinate better to make sure that it's secured properly and i think that's crucial that anyone who comes in this country should not be coming here to harm americans no matter what entryway they're doing and i think that the partnership that we've been working out with the white house is going to do everything possible to make sure that continues. >> governor abbott has said that he's invited you to come to the brder to see the situation for yourself, any plans to do that? >> i believe that governor abbott should coordinate with every city that the buses pass through, to make sure that they're informed of what he's doing, and there are ways to do that without any political ploy. we don't have to stand up on the border to state that the crisis he created is a real crisis, it's time for him to be the chief executive that he is and coordinate with every city in every state the buses pass through so we can properly coordinate as leaders of these major municipalities.

>> all right, eric adams, the mayor of new york city, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. take care. let's bring in the roundtable for analysis. marc short, the former chief of staff to vice president mike pence. former democratic senator heidi heitkamp. washington post congressional reporter marianna sotomayor. and alex burns. so, senator heitkamp, let me start with you, it's a stunt clearly that's being done by desantis and by abbott, but is it working? >> i don't think it's working, and what's really getting missed here is what's going on venezuela, why are we seeing these migrants? these migrants, i was on the border two years ago between colombia and venezuela. let me tell you, the steady stream of people coming into colombia, then walking to peru, this was only a matter of time these migrants found their way to our country.

there was predictability in all of this and lack of preparation, i think -- >> lack of preparation by who? that has to fall on biden administration. >> and on the previous administration. the migrant crisis in venezuela started under the previous ed a main administration and ma dushgs ro, maduro is a horrible communist dictator. it's you know what, if i were joe biden today, i'd say, governor abbott, governor desantis, let's all sit down, call a big conference, call a big summit and sit down and actually talk about what we can do to solve the problem. and quit treating people as political pawns. i think that's the right political response as well. >> so marc, congressman tony

gonzales is a republican from the border region, part of his district is el paso, he's concerned about the border crisis, but he also doesn't like this strategy that we're seeing from governor abbott. here's what he told the hill. we have to be careful about turning politics into policy and that's what i see, it's so close to the midterms and it's just dangerous. do you feel comfortable with this idea of -- i mean, you used to work for someone that lived in the vice president's residence, dropping busloads of people including last night there was a one-month-old baby on a busy street. >> jon it would not have happened under the previous administration actually secured the border, let's be honest. >> no. >> this is highlighting the hypocrisy and fake outrage by some on the left and some in the media. the migrants on florida aren't arriving on the shores of florida. they're being flown in by the biden administration, so somehow it's okay to fly them across the interior of the united states, anywhere across the united

states, but it's wrong for the governors to send them to one of the wealthiest communities in america. >> there's a difference in doing it in a coordinated fashion or dropped off. >> if we're really concerned about the humanitarian crisis, we would be stopping the crisis at the border. 200,000 migrants every month and they estimate 50% of the young women are raped or sexually molested there. we had a policy in place to return migrants to mexico while they awaited for their asylum appeals you wouldn't have the same humanitarian crisis we have today. >> marianna, what do you see, there's a sense that's there a strategy from the administration on this? >> not as of right now. they're trying to control it, but there's also no strategy or conversation on capitol hill. this was developing of course when, you know, we talked about

flyout days, it might be a topic of conversation this week. however, it's right around the midterms. no one wants to talk about this except republicans, of course, they think they can gin up some support, but in terms of legislation, actual concrete actions, they tried, tried and tried again, there's no discussion right now whether to engage in any changes. >> we asked both governors, abbott and desantis to come on this show this morning to explain what they're doing and both declined. >> well, that really tells you a lot about who this directed at. they wanted to speak to cross section of the american people about the situation at the border. put forward a set of policies. this is the kind of platform they would be using to do that and sort of submit themselves to serious scrutiny and interrogation, they're not doing that. this is playing to gallery on the right in their own states, ahead of re-election that both

are highly, highly likely to prevail and turn around and run for president. i think, look, the immigration situation in this country is a generational, bipartisan policy failure, what these governors is doing that anything the administration can take seriously. that exchange between you and the mayor adams is really telling. do you agree with the vice pesident that the border is secure? didn't even pretend to answer the question. >> all right, we have to take a quick break. the roundtable will be back for. as ukrainian forces retake land previously occupied by russians they're uncovering war crimes. what if you were a global bank who wanted to supercharge your audit system? so you tap ibm to un-silo your data. and start crunching a year's worth of transactions against thousands of compliance controls with the help of ai.

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pictures from the coast, russian-ing onpied territories. destroyed buildings, killed people, and so, what can i say. >> ukrainian president zelenskyy this week, after visiting the city of izium, after ukrainian forces liberated the city last week from russian control, they discovered a mass burial site with 440 of mostly unmarked graves indicating possible war crimes. good morning, tom. >> reporter: the rows of largely unmarked graves at that mass burial site are hard to process. officials this morning saying the ongoing exhumation of hundreds of bodies there will probably take weeks. ukraine began this week, celebrating the fact that its forces had recaptured a large swath of territory in he region, it ended the week investigating

the deaths and mourning the victims of russian rule. this week, chilling evidence of a russian killing spree in northeastern ukraine, investigators digging up bodies at a mass burial site in izium, recently liberated from the russians after a stunning ukrainian counteroffensive. investigators here saying many of the bodies showing signs of torture. the forensic team here have just removed the body of a man from one of the unmarked graves. it's obvious that he had his hands tied behind his back. ukraine's military success revealing the horror. a forest with endless rows of wooden crosses. most of them only marked with numbers. overnight, president zelenskyy saying, ten torture chambers have been discovered in the newly liberated area of the kharkiv region. saying torture was a widespread practice there under russian rule, adding that's what the nazis did.

this week, ukraine saying its offensive in the northeast liberating more than 3,000 square miles including 380 communities. a u.s. official saying a relatively small ukrainian force managed to break through the russian front line. the u.s. providing vital intelligence and conducting war crime scenarios with the ukrainians to help plan the attack. >> the russians get suckerpunched. the ukrainians talked about how they were going to start an offensive in south. moved troops out of the north. as soon as the ukrainian saw the weak lines they counterattacked in the north with that left hook. >> reporter: izium, still the most strategic gain of the ukrainian offense. without the city, putin's primary aim of taking ukraine's entire eastern donbas region now in disarray.

russia's failure on the battlefield setting the scene as putin went face to face with his key ally, china's president xi, conceding that president xi has questions and concerns about the war in ukraine. later, an apparent public rebuke from india's prime minister modi, telling putin, today's era is not of war. >> i think what you're hearing from china, from india, is reflective of concerns around the world. about the effects of russia's aggression on ukraine. >> reporter: meanwhile, this week, the u.s. committing more military aid to ukraine, including artillery and mortar ammunitions, additional missiles for himars. and funding for training. bringing the total to $13.5 billion since january. that u.s. support vital in the battle for izium. where under the russians is still emerging. sergei telling us entire families were killed here,

buried now in that massive unmarked graves in the forest nearby. some of the people who died in your apartment block, are buried in the forest. we went there ourselves. how does that make you feel? >> now, empty. >> reporter: western officials telling us this week the ukrainian offensive in this region is over for now, ukrainian forces thought to be consolidating gains not far from here. a grinding offensive also still continuing in southern ukraine and pressing u.s. for longer-range missiles. for those u.s.-supplied himars. so far the biden administration resisting those calls. jon. >> a horrifying scene in izium. we're joined by ukraine's ambassador to the united states. oksana mark markova. thank you for being here with us this morning.

we just saw tom's report about, about what you've uncovered in izium, more in other areas that have now been liberated, what are you seeing in terms of evidence of russian war crimes? >> thank you for having me, jon. thank you for being on the ground. it's so important for everyone to see the true face of this aggression and see this terrorist attack russia is wa waging, unfortunately what we saw in bucha before and only imagine the city in mariupol and other places still under occupation. but it's tortures, rapes, killings, war crimes of a massive proportions, that's why we need to liberate the whole territory of ukraine as soon as possible, because clearly russians are targeting all ukrainians. whole families, children, so, there's no war logic in all of this. it's simply terrorizing and committing genocide against

ukrainians. >> do you have a handle in terms of those mass graves, of who the victims are, is this including russian troops who were killed as well? >> we have team of investigators there and we're getting a lot of support from the united states in this effort. preparing our criminal cases and other countries' investigation. so the work is being done. the majority of them ukrainians, we didn't see yet the russian troops there in the graves, but it's horrifying, some of them are families of like everyone in the families is killed. for no reason and the majority of them as your reporter already said was clear signs of torture and, you know. >> one of the remarkable things about this counteroffensive, where you recaptured so much

territory in the northeast, is you did it with a relatively small number of armed forces. do you have the manpower to hold this territory and to continue to push the russians back? >> thank you. well, in general, our force is much smaller than russian force, but the reason why they can't hold the grounds and we retake it is because they're not only fighting with our brave president and fighting with the armed forces. they're fighting all ukrainians. they're fighting for our loved ones and homes. therefore you saw how the people in kharkiv region, all of them were waiting for liberation, all of them are now very busy in helping not only the investigators but the police and others to get back to normal as

normal as it could be, so we don't need to hold this ground, this is ours. these people are ours. they prayed for ukraine to come back during this horrifying six months of occupation. >> putin said they're regrouping, that's going on, but that's not exactly what was going on. but do you fear what putin will do now, he's been pushed back, we saw that very stern warning coming from president biden against using chemical or nuclear weapons, what do you worry that russia will do in response? >> for all years that putin is in power they try to scare the world and they try to get all of us thinking what he will do next. i think we should focus on what we together as a democratic world should do and we should get, make this place, our planet, a safer place. it means russia has to lose from

what they've done to us, it meas we have to win, we have to continue on liberating ukraine and we have to clearly and altogether say to putin, and to all russians who support this, that it's not okay in the 21st century to attack a peaceful neighboring country. so, let's not worry about what putin thinks he should do, let's all stay the course, provide more support to ukraine, because it's going to be much cheaper and better for the democratic world to win this war while it's still in ukraine. >> all right, madam ambassador, thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much. coming up, with the midterms just over 50 days a way, the january 6th committee is preparing for its next public hearing and donald trump issued a new threat about what would happen if he's indicted. the roundtable weighs in on all the week's poll politics, next. ♪ ♪

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dan boldoc, who is now claiming the 2020 presidential election wasn't stolen. after spending more than a year saying it was. his race marked the end of a primary season with a familiar headline, a sweep for donald trump through new hampshire. we're now back with the roundtable. so, alex, we had governor hogan of maryland on this show, republican governor hogan earlier this year, obviously a trump critic and he said we will know by the end of the primary season how much of a hold donald trump has on the republican party, do we have our answer? >> i think we sure do, jon. i think it's pretty tight hold, look, trump didn't sweep literally every primary in the country, and in a lot of places including in new hampshire, his sort of most -- the trumpiest candidate got through in part of a fragmented and weak field of candidates, you saw this over and over again. blake masters in arizona, other

states where the candidate he endorsed or ran closest to donald trump ran, that's how donald trump got the republican nomination for the president in the first place and how he can get it again in 2024. for the forces in republican party like governor hogan hope that the republican base is ready to turn the page, there's everyday out there that's a significant portion of the republican population ready to. >> one thing donald trump did during this primary season is effectively keep out republicans that were critics, i mean, ducey didn't run for senate in arizona, hogan didn't run for senate in maryland. sununu didn't run for senate in new hampshire. but to his point, what do you make of, a guy won, trumpian as yu get, now moving away from him, what's going on? >> you've seen a number of these republican candidates, we've also seen it with house republican candidates who are scrubbing even, you know, trump off their twitter pages. we've seen a lot of evidence of

that. it's interesting, you mentioned how trump obviously did get involved, made some endorsements, but since i've been tracking a lot of house races, you have kevin mccarthy who wants to be speaker of house and he's been going out there trying to get less maga conservative republicans, because he's looking at as not just how large of a majority can get i need a governing majority, someone who's going to try to pass policies, and not be a thorn on our side. interesting to see how all that plays out. >> heidi, to look ahead to 2024, and we don't know if trump is going to run again, we have to assume based on what we've seen that he would be the overwhelming favorite in the republican nomination at least on today's facts. there was a poll this week that had biden at 45%, trump at 42%, that's got to scare you, because that's -- that's the formula for

a popular vote win again potentially. >> well, i know, and everybody who says donald trump can't, i want to say donald trump did. you cannot take -- you cannot underestimate his pull, you can't underestimate what he's able to do, but in the midterms i think what you're seeing right now, jonathan, is you're seeing people really saying, look, it's a little toxic. i can't win in state like new hampshire, i can't win in arizona, i can't win in pennsylvania if i'm pro-trump, if that's all i am, and they're fleeing away from him and i think it's also informative, never mind the polls, it's informative for the republican party that donald trump is not a positive, the chaos of the last administration is not a formula for a win in 2024, and if you want to repeat that you're going get the same result, and i think biden in spite of it all will win again. >> marc.

>> the reality is, in this head to head matchups other republicans do beat joe biden. i think the reality is, as we head to the midterms, this is a referendum on joe biden and there's crime rising in america, the border crisis we already discussed, a recession we're getting deeper into, good for republicans. if instead we're talking about mar-a-lago and the events around january 6th it's a distraction. >> will trump pay a price among republican voters if republicans don't win back the senate, if the gains in the house aren't as high, given that he played such a dominant role in picking these candidates? >> well, i think, look, he obviously has a huge influence inside our party. usually once the candidate's the nominee they usually win or lose on their own, and so i'm not sure if they don't survive that will be a cost for trump. i'm also confident that i think

joe biden other candidates will come across to win. >> if republicans don't win the senate, trump is in large part to blame, is he not? >> i think there will be a lot of media criticism that says that, i don't think the republican voters will be. >> i think the race really to watch is ohio, is tim ryan, you know, new deal, blue-collar democrat, you could not cast him better for i think the politics of ohio, can he win? if he wins it means a substantial portion of trump's base in ohio has moved away to vote for a democrat, and so it's not just about donald trump, it's about how do you win back rural voters, blue-collar voters, how do you better among hispanic voters that we haven't done that well with, and so i think that's the other lesson in the midterm, which is, has trump's base eroded in some of these places where he picked the candidate in ohio, right, j.d. vance -- >> i think ohio's a great example, though.

>> that to me is one of the cautionary tale for democrats in these midterms. a bunch of places probably a place like arizona, new hampshire, where vulnerable democratic senators are likely to win re-election against severely compromised republican candidates. but when you look at the underlining structure of american politics, and states like north dakota, states that are going to dominant the senate map two years from now, i don't know if we have a lot of evidence that democrats have solved their problems. >> they're already represented by republicans. >> sure. if tim ryan were to win that race it would be an earthquake a really steep climb, a kind of event that will shake republicans up to the point of maybe speaking out against trump a little bit more. >> there's a difference between trump and trump-backed candidates. because a lot of voters, especially like in pennsylvania for example, they don't want to be vote for someone who's trying to be like trump. places i've traveled to around the country are saying i don't

want the guy who's trying to be exactly like him. this guy is authentic on his own. that's why i like him. these guys are trying to copy trump, the playbook, give me something authentic about you. >> tim ryan is a great example, jon. he said i'm not going to campaign with joe biden in ohio. if you look at his website, he's embraced many of trump's policies. many people actually like the trump policies. the reservation is on the personality side. >> lot of those policies are classic democratic policies. let's open the door to china, nixon -- >> the weird thing is, we have the background of the criminal investigation, the january 6th committee restarting. i want to play something liz cheney said when i asked her about vice president pence possibly coming before that committee. >> when the country has been through something as grave as this was anyone who has information has an obligation to

stepford. i'd hope that he'd understand how important it is for the american people to know every aspect of the truth about what happened that day. >> so, does vice president pence understand the importance of what happened that day, will he appear before the january 6th committee? >> i don't think that's the same question. i think obviously mike pence understands the importance of that day, he lived that day, i think there are severe constitutional questions about a vice president testifying about personal conversations with the president. vice president pence wrote open letters to the american people explaining his decision that were published on january 6th. he was very open, he was following the constitution, but if a vice president is forced to testify about personal conversations it could change the role of vice president forever. >> didn't he suggest that he was open to it? >> he'd look at it if he got a formal invitation, but i think there were severe constitutional questions about that kind of testimony. >> meanwhile, we have, donald

trump made some comments to hugh hewitt that were quite eerie, saying terrible things would happen to cuntry if he were indicted. what's your sense how worried a message like that plays? >> i think there's real concern, certainly in washington law enforcement about the effect of donald trump ginning up people like that. it's why i think the constitutional issues with the mike pence going before the committee are what they are. it's up to them if they want to go on television and do sort of minute by minute of what happened that day and what they saw that day. if you don't want to deal with the constitutional issues around a subpoena there are other options available to you. >> identity from actor diego luna. we'll be right back. ht back. ne! (nurse) wait... did you say verizon for just $30?

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i want to thank you members of the congressional hispanic caucus, the same theme rooted in the strength of achieving our dreams. the nation always, always a work in progress, creating the possibilities and fulfillment of promise, that's been the american story, rooted in the strength of achieving our dreams. >> president biden at the 45th congressional hispanic caucus institute gala, kicking off hispanic heritage month and in celebration, abc news

emmy-nominated "soul of a nation" is presenting a one-hour special, mi gente, spotlighting three key figures in hispanic and latin community. here's a special look. >> but is it better now, is hollywood more accepting? >> i don't think hollywood exists anymore in the way we used to say hollywood. what hollywood meant, a man behind a desk, you know, saying people don't want to see that. people want to see this. like, that doesn't exist anymore. >> that's a good thing? >> i think it's a great thing. today the connection with the audience is shorter, faster, we have to convince still that our stories matter. i think of the boycott that chavez, he was talking about the consumer the power of the consumer, you know, and it's important to remind ourselves as an audience if you buy a ticket, if you click watch, you're sending a message.

the industry will react, is reacting. what stories do you want to have access to, the studios and the platforms are listening. let's make sure we support all the people that have something to do with us, that understand our context, that comes from where we come from. let's make sure we support their stories and we support their voices, you know, we can be a part of change, change is happening. >> "mi gente" is streaming now on hulu. we'll be right back. hulu. we'll be right back.

that's all for us today. thank you for sharing part of your sunday with us. before we go, a programming note -- abc news will have live coverage of queen elizabeth's funeral beginning tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m. have a great day. 5:30 a.m. have a great day.

>> the reward has increased in the search for a man suspected of killing a local bay area security guard. >> a live look outside, and we have a bit of a break in san francisco. windy and rainy weather on the way for the rest of your sunday. stay tuned, the forecast is next on abc seven mornings at 9:00.