two leading candidates for senate. two very different visions for california. steve garvey, the leading republican, is too conservative for california. he voted for trump twice and supported republicans for years, including far right conservatives. adam schiff, the leading democrat, defended democracy against trump and the insurrectionists. he helped build affordable housing, lower drug costs, and bring good jobs back home. the choice is clear. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. growing up, my parents wanted me to become a doctor or an engineer. those are good careers! but i chose a different path. first, as mayor and then in the legislature.

i enshrined abortion rights in our california constitution. in the face of trump, i strengthened hate crime laws and lowered the costs for the middle class. now i'm running to bring the fight to congress. you were always stubborn. and on that note, i'm evan low, and i approve this message. ♪ ♪ this morning, fani willis remaining defiant with no plans to step down. ncnn exclusive reporting on the fulton county d.a. leading the election subversion case against donald trump and others. new information coming out about the strike that killed three americans in the middle east and the eventual response coming from president biden. the mother of a convicted school shooter expected to take

the stand as early as today in a precedent-setting trial. she says she, quote, failed as a parent but is it enough to convict her of manslaughter. i'm john bur men with kate baldwin and sara sidner. this is cnn "news central." ♪ ♪ a cnn exclusive. we are learning fulton county d.a. fani willis has no plans to step down from the election subversion case against donald trump and multiple co-defendants. she is worried her departure would effectively end the case. the fulton county d.a. is facing scrutiny over allegations she has been having an affair with the lead prosecutor she appointed in the case, nathan wade. willis and wade are among a dozen potential witnesses subpoenaed to testify at an upcoming hearing. cnn's zachary collin brought us the exclusive reporting this

morning. zach, a lot of drama going on here. not a good look because this case is dramatic enough on its own, but tell us what we're going to sort of hear and what we imagine might be the response after some of your reporting. >> reporter: yes, what is clear is multiple sources telling me fani willis is digging in. she has no intention of voluntarily removing herself from this case and, look, that's at a crucial couple of weeks coming up here. on february 2nd, tomorrow, willis faces a deadline to file her written response to these allegations that she engaged in an improper romantic relationship with her top prosecutor and it will be the first time we have heard from fani willis since the allegations first surfaced. she spoke a couple of weeks ago at a church in atlanta but since then has been silent. i am told she has been working behind the scenes, intimately and directly involved in crafting a written response. we will see what that says. i'm told it will focus mostly on the legal arguments that will try to undercut this claim she

should be disqualified based on the allegations. she's not expected to really refute them directly. so we will have to see how she balances that and what it will mean for an upcoming hearing on february 15th where willis has been subpoenaed to testify. as you know, all of the hearings in this case are broadcast live on video. if willis does take the stand on february 15th, we would be able to watch it live. >> right. a lot of people will be watching. you know, all of this stemmed from a divorce that her attorney that she hired is going through, and she is embroiled in that. it has nothing to do with the case. but i find it interesting you say she believes the case would fall apart without her at the helm. we will be watching this. i know you will be watching it closely. thank you so much for your exclusive reporting. kate. let's talk about the reporting. joining us is former manhattan prosecutor jeremy solis. if this is what fani willis is expecting can happen, why she is not stepping down, she feels or fears the case would fall apart, do you think it would? >> i don't think the case would

fall apart. any competent leader the chief law enforcement officer has the caliber of assistant prosecutors who will help take that case and shepherd it through to its end. it is not a one-person show. she has multiple hands on deck to get this done. so i would not expect it would fall apart, no. >> short of falling apart, would it necessarily impact the case? >> impact directly, not necessarily. i mean there's a lot of moving pieces here. >> right. >> there sure are. >> is there misconduct, is there an ethical issue, should she be recused, does it warrant dismissal as they say on the constitutional. there's a lot of moving pieces. yes, it will impact the case because we have a side show, but it is a legitimate side show. any defendant should say if something that seems nefarious is going on, it should be explored. no one should fault roman and not necessarily the trump team but taking this action. >> we will head back to washington. we're told president biden is beginning his remarks at the

national prayer breakfast on capitol hill. thanks for your introduction and for your service on behalf of the people of northwest indiana. a few years ago i visited frank's hometown, indiana, with our dear friend great hoosier, joe donnelly doing an incredible job to the holy city, walkisng his face in service to his nation and well we all are called to do. frank, thank you for leading this year's prayer breakfast and congressman tracie mann as well. thank you, speaker johnson. it is an honor to be with you today, and majority leader jeffries, and senator gillibrand. heidi, i haven't seen you in a while. good to see you, kid, it really is. members of the administration,

secretary buttigieg, nasa administrator bill nelson and his wife grace who helped make the event what it is. members of congress and families including one of my home state senators chris coombs who, by the way, not only got a law degree at the same time i got a law degree he got a divinity degree at yale university, which makes me always wonder about him. i don't know. but all kidding aside, he is a great man. his wife annie is with him today. they're both dear friends. chaplain black, we have known each other a long time. on my last day in the senate chamber you offered a prayer that in our labor may we illuminate the darkness of doubt, may we distinguish between truth and falsehood, and may we see possibilities that are now hidden. your wisdom then and now this morning are deeply moving. to the incredible -- i think, by the way, i am an unadulterated

fan of bocelli, he will tell you, and you know it to be the case. god, he could -- anyway. he is incredible i think. jill and i had the honor to host him for christmas at the white house on our first year in office, and you performed with your son and daughter as if you were a choir of herald angels and in a difficult time for our family after we lost our son beau you expressed in a song what we felt in our hearts. from your song "fall on me," it goes like this. it says, "fall on me with open arms, fall on me from where you are, fall on me with all your light." andre, you are a gift, you are a gift to my family at that moment and you continue to be. i have attended many prayer breakfasts over the years, and jill and i have been humbled by the prayers of so many when we needed them badly. it means everything to us. we are all blessed to live in a

nation where we can practice our many faith and practice them freely, and where we can come together and lift up our nation and each other, each other in our own prayers, especially in tough times. our prayers continue to be with the families of the three american service members killed in the attack in jordan, sergeant william rivers, specialist breonna moffett and specialist kennedy sanders. i spoke with each of the families separately, and jill and i will be at the air force base to receive the dignified transfer of their bodies. they've raised their lives in harm's way, they risked it all and we never will forget the sacrifice in service to our countries that the dozens of service members who were wounded and are recovering now. i also see the trauma, the death and destruction in israel and gaza, and i understand that the pain and passion felt by so many

here in america and around the world. we value and pray for the lives taken and for the families left behind, for all of those who are living in dire circumstances, innocent men, women and children, held hostage or under bombardment or displaced, not knowing where the next meal will come from or if it will come at all. not only do we pray for peace, we are actively working for peace, security, dignity for the israeli people and the palestinian people. i'm engaged in this day and night and working, as many of you in this room are, to find the means to bring our hostages home. to ease the humanitarian crisis, to bring peace to gaza and israel, and enduring peace for two states, two peoples, just as we worked for peace, security and dignity for the ukrainian people as they show incredible

resolve and resilience against putin's aggression. we must continue to help them. the challenge of our time reminds ourselves as a nation to help each other, just and lasting peace delivered abroad and here at home. that's c wwhy we're fighting against the rise of all form of hate. this is a calling to stand against hate, to remember the very idea of america. we're all crazy -- we're unique in the world, the only nation on the idea we hold these truths to be self-evident. we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equal all right throughout our lives. we have never as a nation fully lived up to that but we have never walked away from it either. it is a covenant we have with one another that holds this nation together and, quite frankly, i knew it before i became president because i did a

lot of foreign policy and the -- in the previous administration with barack obama. we are the beacons of the world. the entire world looks to us. that's not hyperbole. this is an idea. it is an idea that was made real before the soul became flesh, before this dream became a fact. it was prayed for. it was hoped for. it was believed in. that's the story of america. let me close with this. it is fitting today, it is the first time a national prayer breakfast is being held in statuary -- statutory hall. this is where the house of representatives met for 50 years leading up to the civil war. congressman from illinois, abraham lincoln, sat at desk not 191 before becoming president and served our union and saved it. history remembers president lincoln's first inaugural address counseling us to heed,

quote, the better angels of our nature, the better angels of our nature. we would do well to remember what he said just a few moments before he concluded the same address. at a moment of deep division in our nation, president lincoln said, we are not enemies. he said, we are not enemies, but friends. we must not be enemies, he went on to say. i have long believed we have to look at each other even in our most challenging times not as enemies but as fellow americans. scripture tells us the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. i believe that's our collective calling today. here we are in this room among the statue of heroes who shaped our history, and here we know

faith is a living spirit. it awakens our passions to come down from the pedestal and act to serve. that's why over the door of the rotunda there's a scripture depicting cleo, the muse of history. in her hands is an open book in which she records the events taking place here, in a citadel of democracy. she is a silent witness to the american story of war and peace, insurrection and stability. as we gather this morning, what will cleo write for the future about what we did in our time? what will she write about us? my prayer, my hope is we continue to believe our best days are ahead of us, has a nation we continue to believe in

honesty, decency, dignity and respect. we see each other not as enemies but as fellow human beings, each made in the image of god, each precious in his sight. we leave no one behind. we believe everyone deserves a fair shot. we give hate no safe harbor. together we believe in america. that's my prayer, to remember who we are. we're the united states of america. there's nothing, and i mean this sincerely, nothing beyond our capacity if we act together. we're the only nation in the world that's come out of every crisis stronger than we went in when we act together. my prayer for all of you, in my church we've taken the 22nd psalm and turned it into a hymn. it says, he will raise you up on

eagle's wings and bear you on the breath of dawn and make you to shine like the sun. until we meet again may god hold you in palm of his hand. that's sincerely my prayer to all of you. we have really tough, tough differences. we really go at one another, but, remember, let's remember who the -- we are. we are the united states of america. it is all about dignity and respect. so let's practice it. thank you for having me. it is good to be back. >> president biden speaking at the national prayer breakfast, calling for national unity. catching himself at the end there, about to say let's remember who the hell we are. didn't get the full word "hell" out as he was praying with national leaders. every president since dwight eisenhower has appeared at the national prayer breakfast and every single one of them has

called for university any, almost. notable exception, donald trump prayed for ratings for "the apr apprentice." the next year he used it to attack vice president pence and nancy pelosi. also, for the first time since his unannounced hospitalization, defense secretary lloyd austin holds a preconference. we are expecting new insight into the response to the attack that killed the three americans in jordan. a bipartisan deal passes the house with an overwhelming majority. it could help thousands of low income families but one senior senator expresses concern it could help president biden. an airport hangar collapses, leaving three people dead. we have new developments.

all right. this is just coming in to us here in the "cnn newsroom." defense secretary lloyd austin is scheduled to speak at a news conference at the pentagon next hour, his first since his unannounced hospitalization due to complications with cancer. it comes at u.s. officials now say iran is getting increasingly nervous about their proxy groups as attacks on u.s. forces in the region escalate. overnight, a new round of u.s. strikes destroyed a major hub for houthi drones in yemen. this as president biden's retaliation still looms for the killing of american soldiers, three of them in jordan. and in the red sea we are now learning a houthi missile came within one mile of this u.s. warship that you are looking at over my right shoulder. past attempts have come no loser than eight miles.

natasha bertrand is following this from the pentagon. natasha, what are we seeing here because everybody is waiting for the response to the killing of the three soldiers in jordan, but we're seeing that iran is being reportedly concerned about their proxies. >> reporter: yes. so what we're learning from u.s. officials is that iran does not want to get into a direct war or direct conflict with the united states. yes, they train, support, equip these proxy groups in iraq, syria and in yemen with the houthis, of course, but really the goal of that support has always been to kind of harass u.s. forces and not engage in the kind of escalation that backs the u.s. into a corner and then forces the u.s. to respond in a very significant way, potentially striking iran itself. as we see, republicans have been calling for in recent days because of that attack on jordan that killed three u.s. service members that the u.s. is now attributing to iran-backed militias. so what we're learning is that the iranian leadership is

becoming a little bit nervous about what these groups are doing because we are to remember also that iran doesn't have perfect command and control over these groups in iraq and syria. so the question now is iran going to do anything about it. that remains completely unclear. are they actually going to try to rein in these groups because, again, you know, the question of yemen is a really good example of this. they don't have a lot of control over the houthis and their attacks on commercial shipping either. that is hurting tehran's bottom line because it is angering some of iran's closest and really only allies including china and india. so the question is are they going to actually make a move to rein in these groups. that remains to be seen. the u.s. has conveyed to the iranians privately they do expect them to try to control these groups a little better, but it is unclear if they actually can. so as the u.s. is weighing their response, of course, iran has anxiety about whether the u.s. is going to go as far as to

strike inside iran directly. that is very unlikely at this point we are told, but, still, the u.s. response is expected to be multi-faceted and potentially even sustained over time in multiple countries, sarah. >> all right. you will be watching all of it and get the details for us. natasha bertrand, we appreciate it. don, watching this for so long, every since the august 7th terrorist attacks and then you had israel respond saying we're in official war. there has been a constant worry it was going to blow up into a regional con flag ration. >> and there is constant activity. military analyst retired concern cedric layton. we don't know where the u.s. chip was attacked inside the red sea, but we do know what it used to repel this houthi missile which is a close-in weapon system. explain to us what we are seeing right here and what it tells us about how close this houthi missile got to the u.s. vessel. >> yeah, john, the close-in

weapon systems or ciws, is an automated -- basically. what it does, it is a close-range gun that is used when no other system has been able to engage a target successfully. so what that means is that houthi missile got really, really close to the "uss gravely" which is the detroit pictured earlier. that is one, you know, very close situation and it is the first time, as was mentioned, it is the first time we have had a situation like this in this particular operation. >> yeah. it just shows how much closer these houthi missiles are getting. news out of europe, colonel, which is that the european union has approved $50 billion in new money to help ukraine. now, colonel, if you had this new infusion of money, what would be the first two things on your shopping list for ukraine?

>> so, john, the first thing i would be getting would be air defenses and information. those would be the first couple of items and those would be the most important because those two things are really what ukraine needs right now. we have seen how much the ukrainians have actually had to scale back on their operations, even their defensive operations. with ammunition, they can improve their defensive operations and they can also potentially go on offense in selected sectors there. of course, air defenses are critical because the russians are targeting the civilian infrastructure of ukraine. if they can spread out their air defense architecture within ukraine, what that means is they can protect more people, prevent more deaths, and that then will allow the ukrainians to have a much better effort in terms of being able to counter the russians than they have in the past few months. >> what are we talking about in terms of air defense, the pate

reece missiles like we see here? >> that would be one aspect. the europeans have patriot batteries they could send to ukraine is addition to the ones they have sent. we also have a system which is german made and then we have a joint u.s./norwegian system designed for more close-in operations. those three systems probably would be the most important ones that the ukrainians could use barring perhaps the acquisition of something like an iron dome from israel, which is related to the patriot system. >> cedric, i just had handed to me a note, an alert out of ukraine with the ukrainian military is saying that it sunk a russian vessel somewhere in the vicinity of crimea here on the map. they say it was a russian corvette take was hit by ukrainian sea-borne drones. it was a russian guided missile

corvette. talk to me exactly what that means. is this more of a moral victory for ukraine? they keep on attacking ships in crimea, soing that they can, but does it get them anything in the long term in their battle against russia? >> so the ukrainian strategy that has evolved right now because of the static nature of the front lines in the ground war, john, they've evolved to a more asymmetric strategy which includes clearing the black sea of as much of the russian navy as they possibly can. they've been pretty successful considering the fact they really don't have a navy. they've been very successful using sea-borne drones to go after russian naval targets. they've sunk several ships including destroyers. they've also sunk transport ships and famously they sunk the

flag ship of the black sea fleet at the beginning. what it means is that ukraine is better able to export grain and other products through the black sea. the russians there are basically unsuccessful in really taking the western black sea as making it in asset a russian lake. they can't do that because of the ukrainian efforts and it is making the black sea fleet impotent. >> that does have long-term strategic significance because it means ukraine can't be saved by russia in the conflict. thank you for helping us to understand the breaking new, colonel leighton. kate. i failed as a parent, i fail miserably. those are some of the text messages sent by the mother of the michigan school shooter after he committed those horrific crimes. text messages that are now taking center stage in the trial. that mother -- of that mother as a jury decides if she should now be held criminally responsible. and she could take the stand today. we will be back. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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all right. behind me you are seeing a live look into as the trial resumes of the mother of the michigan school shooter. that's jennifer crumbley right there. you can see that she is crying. weeping there as this trial now gets underway. what is happening as we speak is that the prosecution is expected to finish its case today against jennifer crumbley, which then means she could take the stand in her own defense today, potentially as the defense starts laying out its case. we have been following this closely and jean cazares has

been all over it. looking at the images what you are hearing? >> first of all, lieutenant timothy willis is on the stand. he was the lead investigator of the oxford high school shooting. he is now the lead investigate contributor for this case. he has to bring this into this case because this is a homicide case. he's been talking about the victims, the four students that lost their lives, their autopsies. this is about hana st. juliana. take a listen. >> the official cause of the manner of death from the autopsy protocol is multiple gunshot wounds, homicide. she was shot in her upper torso, her abdomen, her thighs. >> could you refer to exhibit two.

>> as you can see, that courtroom very emotional. prosecution winding up its case now. that emotion, they believe, is important. it is not only the reality but it is important for the jury to understand the complexity of this case. they just talked about the backpack. we have heard about the backpack. we know the gun was in the backpack, but lieutenant willis just produced a piece of evidence for the jury, the journal of ethan crumbley. kate, we had thought this journal was always in his bedroom, door shut, parents didn't know about it. well, the journal was in his backpack, 22 pages. he talks about mass shootings, what he is going to do, all of his research on this. he really researched this mass shooting he was going to commit. so, kate, obviously the parents did not look in the backpack. so is that gross negligence

right there that amounts to causing the deaths of all of those students at oxford high school? >> jean, thank you so much. jean cazarez will be watching this and has been watching it day in and day out and will bring us more with us is attorney misty maris. we are watching this happen live where the mother of ethan crumbley has dissolved into sobs as she is listening to what her son did to someone else and all of the bullet wounds. does this kind of emotion have an impact on a jury and how they both feel about her and their ultimate decision or is it really based on the evidence coming out of this trial? >> look, the jury is always super aware of everything going on in the courtroom, especially the person who is on trial, the person who is in that defendant seat. so certainly this is having an impact, and looking at it in context of everything that came out this week, yesterday

testimony from one of the investigators who interrogated jennifer crumbley after this occurred and after they had been on the run said that she was very detached, very callous. so i think it is probably something the jury is paying attention to, this incredible, emotional response, and contrasting that with some of the evidence they heard yesterday relating to the immediate aftermath of this case. >> and we saw a little bit of video of that, them going in, saying, i love you, i love you, i love you, ethan, the father, and them coming out. the jury is going to see all sides of this, and jurors are keen to know if someone is being authentic. but watching this, it is hard to watch because you know what happened. i do want to ask you about some of the evidence. there was another text message that came out in court from jennifer crumbley. she texted, i failed as a parent to a man she was having an affair with. how did this come out in court and how will each side kind of use this? >> this is actually really interesting because she did have

an affair, and all of the evidence relating to that affair was initially precluded. there were pretrial motions which said the affair was not going to come in. the prosecution had argued it relates to their entire theme of the case, which is this is a woman who was detached from her kid, she was more concerned about her own life. the judge had ruled it inadmissible. yesterday her defense attorney said, we want to go the full breadth of questioning with this witness. >> wow. >> including these text messages, opening up the door to anything relating to the affair and more. but these text messages, they relate to her feelings right after. we already talked about another message where she says, ethan. >> don't do it, right. >> don't do it. this is all put together. i think this is why the defense committed her to taking the stand because there has to be some context and she has to explain them. now, that cross-examination is going to be something to watch and, you know, quite frankly, it is going to be very brutal. it will be interesting to see

what comes out and how she explains those text messages in context because they do not look good right now. >> they do not look good. it is actually interesting to hear that the defense is the one that brought it up because it wasn't admissible, but when the defense brings it up, it is fair game for everything. >> opens it up. >> the prosecution can go down that rabbit hole as far as they want. good to see you. john. this is a shirt. a new poll shows president biden opening up a lead on donald trump. plus, brand-new polling out of south carolina.

this morning the first new poll out of south carolina, the

next big republican primary contest, and it shows that donald trump has a 26 point lead over former south carolina governor nikki haley. at the same time a notable shift in a national general election poll, quinnipiac has president biden with a six-point lead over donald trump. there's the first. we will show you the second in a second. it is just one poll, of course, but a survey from the same pollster -- i'm talking about the q poll -- in december showed no clear leader. are we looking at a trend or are we looking at a blip? zblining us cnn political commentator anna navarro, republican strategist and former rnc doug hyde. anna, trump's margin in this remains over haley about the same as it was in september when monmouth took the poll. the difference here is that the field has narrowed to just two and he still maintains that margin. does that tell you with three

weeks to go voters are largely locked or that there could still be room because nikki haley needs that room in this three weeks to move them? >> well, two things. first, the trump base is loyal. the trump base is loyal to him. we have seen regardless of what happens surrounding donald trump, he could be indicted in 91 counts in different jurisdictions. he could be found liable for rape by a judge -- >> sexual abuse. keep going. >> sexual abuse. there are so many things that could happen and still they don't move. that's one. two is nikki haley is running out of money and she is running out of runway and she is running out of time, and there is nothing between now and february 24th that looks like it is going to make a shift and give her the numbers that she needs in her own home state, which would be even so much more humiliating for her, you know, a huge sign

of there's nowhere to go. >> leaving a lot of choices for a lot of people. doug, you get to choose your own adventure on this one. does the south carolina poll tell you more or does the general election poll between trump and biden from quinnipiac tell you more about the state of things? >> well, the south carolina poll tells us what we think that the field is going to look like come november, and it actually sort of bizarrely speaks to what nikki haley's ultimate message is, which nobody really wants this race. biden and trump, depending on what poll you look at, whether it is national or state by state, one person is leading in one, another person is leading in another, and what we see are voters overwhelmingly say we don't want this race, we don't want trump versus biden. this is the resistible force versus the movable object and it doesn't satisfy any voter except for the core parts of those bases that are fully behind biden and trump, which is not where most voters are. the problem is for haley, she is running out of some runway here and it is an argument that

within the republican party is not gaining a lot of traction because if a ron desantis leaves the campaign most of ron desantis's supporters overwhelmingly go to trump and so on and so forth. she may get most of asa hutchinson's supporters, there are not at lo of them. >> i would say so. as much as we appreciate asa hutchinson and his service. there's this interview that haley did with breakfast club and not enough was made about her appearance and what she said. to me it seems she may be summing up her entire thesis of donald trump. listen to this. >> he can't win m moderates, he lost in 2020, he lost in 2022. how many more times do you have to lose before you say, you know what? maybe that's not the guy. >> how has trump changed politics for the good and the bad? >> he's made it chaotic.

he's made it self-absorbed. he's made people dislike and judge each other. he's left that a president should have moral clarity and know the difference between right or wrong. he's just toxic. i mean he -- you know, i think a lot of the things he broke needed to be broken, but he doesn't know how to fix things again. this is a required appearance for democrats running in an election, not necessarily for republicans. what do you think haley is doing here? >> i have no idea. i really can't understand why she would go there. i don't think people who listen to the breakfast club vote in a republican primary. of course, in south carolina, there is a big black population. and you just played that sound,

but she was also asked about racism again. and again, she couldn't get her footing around the answer. this is now, i don't know, the umpteenth time i hear nikki haley reject the notion there i country. and charlamagne pressed her heart on it. and she sounded like a political wind sock that will sway whichever way the political winds are blowing. >> i really enjoyed listening to that interview and what he did there. so now, to the most important topic of all times, the taylor swift/travis kelce political conspiracy. as john berman said last night, america has been dying to hear what james carville has to say about it, and he did. listen. >> i don't think there's anything strategic about this. i think most of these people are sexually inadequate.

and they go for all this crazy stuff. and i don't think -- it's nothing strategic about it. it's just real stupidity to believe something like that. she seems to me, i'm not very familiar with her generation, she seems like a really nice person. >> and he goes on. everyone gets a stab at it today. doug, he said he does not get the meltdown in some corners of the political right about this one. do you? >> well, kate, one, thanks for leading with me on the issue of sexual inadequacies. i'm not going to touch that any further. >> i was not going to go there. god, doug. >> thanks for that. >> keep going. >> look, something slightly controversial you wouldn't expect me to say. donald trump can be a disciplined messenger when he wants to be. two examples. one, he put out two statements on the court case with jean

carroll since the verdict. he hasn't talked about her either time. that's discipline. two, while the republican party or parts of the conservative movement are going haywire, trying to make travis kelce the manchurian tight end, donald trump isn't addressing this. he could, but stay away from this. this is trouble and real lunacy. >> can i say something? amongst a group of people who have come up with some of the stupidest conspiracy theories we have ever heard, this takes the cake as the stupidest conspiracy theory. and their entire issue with her is not that she's in love. it's not that she's incredibly influential and very successful and their daughters all love her. their issue is that the woman tweeted out and said, go register to vote, and she burst the internet. it blew up, that she has that kind of political influence. if she was a maga person, they would love all sorts -- they would all be swifties. listen, i'm a pitbull and ricky martin person, but i'm telling

you, their bullying of this young woman and her joy and her happiness is making me a swifty, and i hope it has that kind of backlash, and i hope that he wins. i am rooting for taylor swift's boyfriend. i know nothing about football. i hope that taylor swift shakes it off. >> i have nothing i can add to this amazingness. thank you, guys, very much. thank you so much for replaying that important political moment. in the meantime, passing a bill that makes the president look good means he could be re-elected. actual words from an actua republican senator on s worried about a tax bill that passed the house with a huge bipartisan majority.

. all right, this morning, a rare show of bipartisanship on capitol hill. the house voted 357-70 to pass a $78 billion tax bill which expands the child tax credit and revives some business tax credit. it's unclear what happens in the senate where politics is already coming into play.

in an extraordinary act of saying the quiet part out loud, republican senator chuck grassley expressed concerns that, quote, passing a tax bill that makes the president look good, mailing out checks before the election, means he could be re-elected and we won't extend the 2017 tax cuts. lauren fox is on capitol hill. what are the prospects as it heads to the senate, lauren? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, there is a real question mark right now what the path forward is for this bill in the united states senate. you have some concerns like those expressed from chuck grassley that this could be a political boon for the president in his re-election. but you also have republicans saying that there is a question of whether or not this bill really does include all of the things they want it to. this was a negotiation between the chairman of the senate finance committee, ron wyden, and the chairman of the house ways and means committee, jason smith. that means the top republican on

the financial committee, mike crapo, has concerned about this bill as well. there are issues with work requirements that republicans are concerned about. there is this issue about the expansion of the child tax credit that would mostly affect lower income americans, john, that a lot of republicans are saying could help the president in his re-election because, yes, you are giving checks to people who, you know, may or may not look at that as a reason to vote for you in your election. so obviously, chuck grassley putting it very clearly there. but i think that sentiment and that concern is shared by other senate republicans as well. john. >> always interesting to hear them speak their true feelings out loud. lauren fox, thank you very much. sara. >> sometimes incredibly disappointing depending on which side of the fence you're on. >> defense secretary lloyd austin holding a news conference and takes questions for the first time since his unannounced hospitalization that had to do with complications of cancer.

we'll bring you that live, next.

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