Mccarthy is leaning leaning toward removing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene from the Education Committee. Now greene has endorsed statements calling for the execution of democratic leaders. Shes harassed survivors of school shootings. Shes suggested Mass Shootings were staged hoaxes, and this morning the reporting is that mccarthy is leaning toward removing her from the Education Committee. Well see if it happens. Why . Just leaning . What might be pushing him this way . And what is she refusing to do that might help her keep her committee post. That in just a moment. First, Josh Campbell In Washington where officer Brian Sicknick lies in honor this morning. Josh . Good morning. Were taking you live inside the Capitol Rotunda where the remains of this fallen officer are currently Lying In Honor. There has been a steady stream of people coming to pay their respects. Lawmakers, as well as members of the capitol police. Many of them wearing black bands around their badges to symbolize this period of mourning. We saw Senators Romney and klobuchar and other leaders. Hes Lying In Honor after succumbing to injuries from that january 6th capitol insurrection. Last night there was a solemn ceremony as his remains arrived. They were carried up the east Capitol Steps and into the rotunda. Lawmakers and other officers there to pay their respect. We also heard just before 10 00 p. M. The president s motorcade departed the white house. A short time later we saw President Biden and the first lady there paying their respects, walking up to the remains, placing their hands on their hearts. Just a tribute to the life of this officer and the service that he gave to his nation. I want to show you one quick image here you see. Biden is there before a wreath. You see him just shaking his head, seemingly projecting what so many across the country are feeling right now and that is just this senseless tragedy. A Police Officer lost his life because of this domestic Terrorist Attack on the United States capitol and today he is being mourned finally. There will be a Departure Ceremony later on this morning. His ashes will be taken across the river into virginia where hell be interred at Arlington National cemetery. That small head shake really spoke volumes, didnt it . Theres been a question about why there havent been charges yet in the death of officer sicknick. What do we know . Whats the combination here . Sources are telling cnn that authorities are struggling with this Murder Investigation because they have not pinpointed a moment on this mountain of evidence, these videos, images, selfies and the like. They havent pinpointed a moment where they see someone inflicting an injury on this officer. What were told is that officer sicknick had collapsed later that evening on january 6th and then later succumbed to injuries. However, sources are telling us that, according to Medical Examiner review, he did not receive any type of bluntforce trauma so the cause of his death is still under investigation. Authorities tell us they continue to try to identify if there was a moment if there was a person or person that was responsible for inflicting some injury but its also worth pointing out, regardless of whether they pinpoint one person, this entire siege and insurrection caused the loss of life for one Police Officer, many more injuries as well. Just, obviously, a tough time for capitol Police Officers and the nation based on what we saw there on january 6th. Josh, thank you for all of the reporting from the capitol for us. Now more on the breaking political news. Politico reports Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy is leaning towards removing Qanon Believer congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene from the Education Committee. Does that go far enough . Joining us now, cnn political commentator scott jennings, a former Special Assistant to president george w. Bush and has worked on several of Mitch Mcconnells campaigns. Also with uformer republican congressman denver riggleman. Great to have both of you here. Congressman, we thought we might hear something last night after this longawaited meeting between Kevin Mccarthy and Marjorie Taylor greene. We thought he would come out with some sort of action plan or something to hold her accountable for the qanon Conspiracy Theories and the violent rhetoric shes embraced. But, no. So why is this so tough for Minority Leader mccarthy . I think hes taken a lot of things into consideration. If we take away our moral judgment of the awfulness that happened on the siege and the disinformation campaign, its political calculations right now. So how about fundraising . Marjorie Taylor Greene is fundraising a lot right now from the grassroots. What about a committee . My guess is theres going to be a compromise on the committee. I think theyll take away one committee but leave her on budget. They are talking about trump support. What do they do with that . Theres all these things that come into consideration on the political side and kevin is running for speaker in 2022. Does he want to diminish the amount of money coming into his coffers because hes going against somebody that seems to be popular with the base . It can be distasteful, but i believe this is a political negotiation going on behind closed doors. Ive been a part of these conference talks before. Ive been in the room, and i think thats whats happening right now unfortunately. And i thought something would happen last night, but again, its not a surprise it didnt. Fundraise and win at any cost . Yeah. Look, i hope the politico report is true. I hope Kevin Mccarthy looks at this. I dont know what were talking about or negotiating. The Republican Party cannot be defined by cranks, kooks. Were not talking about debating the finer points of trade policy or tax policy or some other interparty policy squabble. Were talking about whether this party, the party that seeks to be the Majority Party in the house, that wants to get back to the majority in the senate, the party that wants to win the white house in 2024, are we going to be defined by Conspiracy Theories that go so far beyond what we would consider to be on the normal political spectrum that most americans will say, we cant trust these people with positions of high governing responsibility. So this is a key moment in Kevin Mccarthys tenure. I hope the politico report is true. I hope he gets this right. He has to take a stand now. I will be the first to admit, i was slow to understand just how pervasive the Conspiracy Theory culture has become. I didnt understand it for a long time. I get it now. Look at what happened on january 6th. You cannot let this continue to metastasize. It has to be dealt with right now. If Kevin Mccarthy, part of what the report said was that maybe he would just take away one of her committee standings. So the Education Committee because how can she make any Policy Decisions regarding children after she doesnt believe that parkland and sandy hook happened or maybe they were inside jobs and shes harassed david hogg. So they might take that away. If they take one away, instead of two, is that good enough . No. Theres no half measure here. What they are deciding is who can carry the republican banner. They are deciding who they want to be affiliated with. They are deciding who they want to be defined by. And they are either going to say, were not going to be defined by these people or we are. Theres no half measure here. You either want to be in the room with the Sandwich Board Caucus or you dont. So my advice is, cut ties now. Theres no harm in it. You have nothing to lose. You have a lot to gain in terms of credibility with the American People if you make the right decision now. Half measures i dont think are going to cut it. Congressman, this is Marjorie Taylor greene now responding to this new reporting from politico. She says this morning, no matter what the gop leader does, Kevin Mccarthy, it would never be enough for the hate america democrats. As much as he genuinely tries to work with Speaker Pelosi for the good of the country, she refuses to see the hypocrisy of her own conference. What, congressman . Thats the issue. If he strips away her committee assignments, she becomes more powerful in certain parts of the twittersphere or social media. And thats the issue that you have right now is that this has become so pervasive. Scott is right. You want to make a stand. Ive been on this show so many times saying this is insane, crazy, nutty. But on the other hand, when they are looking at a lot of these districts and you see, 147 people, you know, were on the side of really the objecting to the electors. 126 people signed on to the texas ag lawsuit. Only 10 people vote for impeachment. Theyre trying to take Political Considerations into account and Marjorie Taylor greene doing this, its just trying to burnish sort of polish her brass right now and shes the one out there talking for trump. Shes the one tweeting for him, using the exact same language. Thats why they are having this negotiation and this is very sad. I want to tell you and scott is right. This should have happened weeks ago. I dont know why theyre having this discussion right now. I just dont get it. Thats the issue we have. Its nutty. And we dont want to pull in everybody from the Carnival Tent to vote here. Weve got to reject that. I hope the right decision is made. By the way, gentlemen, less than 12 hours ago well, a little more than 12 hours ago, she refused to apologize. She was on a radio show, skocot and she was asked, would you like to clarify anything you said in the past or rethink it, and she said, no. She doesnt think she has anything to apologize. This is the main tenet of their ideology. I was going to say conservatism as they see it but its not conservative. This is the main tenet. Unrepentant stupidity. Ignorance. Double down on every wrong thing because they are trying to triangulate people. I mean, somewhere deep down she must know that shes wrong, but she sees there are people out there who say, well, theres media hating on her and democrats hating on her, so im going to like her. They are trying to build a coalition based on unrepentant stupidity and ignorance. This is not conservative. Its not republican. Its not in the spirit of american democracy. Its not the spirit of our constitution. Its totally broken. And the if you are a conservative out there and i know, you dont like the media. I get it. This is not the hill you want to die on. Find another hill. This is not the one to die on. Youll regret it. This is limiting and it will relegate the Republican Party to National Minority status for a very long time. Scott jennings, denver riggleman, we appreciate your perspective. Thank you both. Thank you. They you. President biden speaking out on President Trumps Impeachment Trial and what he says his family will not be doing in this administration. We have details in this brandnew interview to share with you, next. My cat really needs me right now. Yknow, im trying to be less popular these days. Now . I use differin gel. Take the 90day challenge now and youll get consistently clear skin too. Do things differin. Were getting our first sense of the cases that will be made in the Senate Impeachment trial of the former president. Joining us now, cnn White House Correspondent john harwood and norm eisen. He served as counsel for the democrats on the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment of the former president. Ambassador eisen, i want to start with you. The brief filed by the former president s new lawyers is really interesting in the arguments they make. I put interesting in quotation marks. Special quotation marks. Let me read you quotes about how theyll defend the form Prerpt The 45th President exercised his First Amendment right under the constitution to express his belief the Election Results were suspect. Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonal jurist can say the president s statements were accurate or not and he, therefore, denies they were false. Your take, counselor . John, thanks for having me back on the program. Hes doubling down on the big lie that he stoked for so many months, repeated on january 6th and caused the insurrection. What an insult to those members of the senate who will sit in judgment as the jury. They were held hostage by the rioters driven by these supposedly suspect claims. And when he says no reasonable jurist can make a finding. 60 reasonable jurists, many of them appointed by donald trump did make findings and in more than 60 cases, those suspicions were thrown out. So this is really the same ugliness, slightly more polite words but its the same big lie that caused so much devastation, violence and death. But norm, one more point on this. This would never fly in a court of law. So that reasoning that they are using, insufficient evidence. You cant prove if its right or wrong what he says. That isnt how courts of law work as far as i know. This is purely their, they know they can make this because theyre in a political arena. Well, i think, of course, youre right, alisyn. I would be sanctioned after 60 cases if i went in and said its suspect because nobody can disprove the negative. It has been disproven. Even in a Political Court like the Impeachment Trial. There are limits. And although they buried it inside the brief and the lawyers claim theyre not going to rely upon it, these are fighting words. This is the same lie, and i think there will be consequences even in the senate if they press this point. And lets not forget that this week, Disbarment Proceedings were called for by the Michigan Attorney general, governor and Secretary Of State against Sidney Powell and some of the lawyers who raised these same, kwo quote, suspect issues. There may be other consequences for these lawyers as well. They are subject to discipline by the state bars of which they are members if they this prisargument. This is the very same argument that senator john cornyn said the former president should make. The former president has been warned. Dont do this. Republican senators dont want this. On another front, the house Impeachment Managers made a Prophylactic Argument against what the former president will say, which is that, you cant constitutionally hold a trial for a president who was no longer in office. And their case, john, is, theres no january exception to impeachment or an Impeachment Trial. You cant say that with a month or two months left in an administration, you can do whatever you want because we cant complete the process. Your take. Well, of course not. And the argument that you cant constitutionally do this is weak as mitt romney has said. The consensus of legal experts is that you can. And the evidence for that is that it has been done with Executive Branch officials. It was done in the 19th century shortly after the civil war. So that is a safe harbor for President Trump and his lawyers will take it. 45 republican senators have sought shelter in that argument. But i really think the point you were just discussing with norm amounts to a test, a trial in a sense for republican senators themselves. To what degree do they stand up and reject that assertion by the president s lawyers and say, no, a reasonable person could not have doubt about the outcome of the election. Mitch mcconnell has said it. Donald trump lost the election. Everyone knows he lost the election. But republican senators are scared of their base. It is a higher tone version of what Kevin Mccarthy is going through with Marjorie Taylor greene. Shes a kook. The Republican Caucus in the house depends on a lot of kooks and the energy they inspire for their election victories. Are they willing . Do they have the inner strength to stand up and say, no, we reject that for the longterm good of the party. In the same way, the republican senators are going to go a good bit of the way toward defining whether or not they are, in fact, a legitimate, reasonable political opposition to joe biden by their willingness to either reject that assertion by the president or remain silent about it. Norm, because you were the former white house ethics czar, i want to play for you, so this new bit of interview with President Joe Biden and the first lady where he talks about what his familys role will be in the white house. This was for people magazine. So watch this. No one in our extended family is going to be involved in any government undertaking, foreign policy, and nobody has an office in this place. Heres how i look at it. I said, the foul line is 15 feet away from the basket. Never get me closer than 17 feet because it really is a matter of public trust. Sports metaphor, but even i understood it. I understood what he was trying to say. Hes going to conduct business very differently than donald trump did. Well, its the right approach. Hes off to a great start on ethics, alisyn. As you know, i wrote president obamas ethics plan with the president. Biden built on ours. Its actually better than the obama plan that delivered a scandalfree presidency. Now hes got to deal with the family issues. I like hearing that he wants to stay well back of the line. He said hes going to announce tough rules. Well look forward to seeing those. And alisyn, just in going on the air and saying over and over again, family will have no place here, he is setting what we call in the ethics profession tone at the top. That is the proper tone. It sends a message to the clients of his brother, for example, hey, youre not going to get any special treatment in the white house or in the administration. And now well wait for the rules and lets hope they live up to that tough standard. Norm eisen, john harwood, great to talk to both of you. A new study may help answer this question do any of the vaccines slow the spread or stop the spread of coronavirus . Thats next. That makes your love shine. Even brighter. Zales. The diamond store. Wanna build a Gaming Business that breaks the internet . That means working night and day. And delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. Your books are all set. So you can finally give john some attention. Trusted experts. Guaranteed accurate books. Intuit quickbooks live. Breaking news. A new study in the uk finds the astrazeneca Coronavirus Vaccine not only protects people from serious illness but also substantially slows transmission of the virus. This oxford study has not yet been Peer Reviewed but it finds the vaccine could cut transmission by nearly twothirds. Joining us to talk about this and all of the Coronavirus News is rick bright, a former member of the Biden Transition Coronavirus advisory board. Rick, great to have you here. So thats good news because weve been waiting to see if the worry was that you could get vaccinated. It would protect you from severe illness and death but you could still be Walking Around as a carrier and infecting your grandparents or grandkids or whoever. So the astrazeneca thing is hopeful. It is good news, alisyn. Thanks for having me back on. This is encouraging, and its not actually totally surprising. It is what wed expect from most of our vaccines. I wouldnt be surprised to learn the other vaccines, the mrnabased vaccines, johnson johnson, didnt have similar results. Astrazeneca has gone the other mile to take additional swabs or nose samples from people after theyve been vaccinated to see if they get infected, and if they have enough viral load on those swabs that they think would translate into passing that virus on to other people. Its indirect labbased test. It needs to be vetted out in the clinical setting, but its really encouraging. Not surprising. Its what we see with other vaccines such as influenza, but its good to start having that data coming in. One of the Unanswered Questions in terms of coronavirus and the vaccines. Yes, it keeps you from getting sick but does it reduce or stop the spread . What are the ramifications here in terms of getting more people vaccinated in the meaning and importance of getting more people vaccinated as everyone engages in this new race against the variants . John, you hit the nail on the head. These variants are extremely concerning. What concerns me most about these variants is we do not have a National System in place as robust to be able to track these variants as they spread across the United States. Unlike the Hurricane Mapping that we see when we know a hurricane is coming into the United States days or weeks out in advance, we dont find out about these variants until theyre on our shore and spreading among our population and then one happens to pop up. Then we start looking for that particular mutation or variant. The viruses are continuing to mutate. And the variant that we know today is not going to be the variant that we have to deal with tomorrow. So we need to do a lot in our country and around the world actually to bolster our ability to track these viruses, do more Genomic Surveillance so we know how the viruses are mutating and the impact of these mutations. Were already concerned these viruses can spread more quickly, more easily. That will translate into more deaths. We dont have quality data just yet to know how effective the vaccines or drugs will be as these viruses continue to change. We need to scale up our efforts quickly. Rick, i hear your concern but even if we could map the Genomic Sequencing and know about these new variants, what would we do differently . We only have a certain amount. 52 million doses have been distributed of the vaccine. What could we do today differently. Theres a number of things we can do. Number one, people can start wearing their masks more frequently and appropriately covering their nose. Upgrading the mask quality so cdc is putting out Additional Guidance on the quality of masks we need to wear. Double down on our other Public Health officials to keep distance so we dont get infected with the virus. At the same time, we can track the changes to the vaccine quickly with the new technologies that we have such as messenger rna. We can start making that next type of vaccine to work against the variants or consider an extra dose of vaccine that would give us more immune, robust immune response against the virus. We just need that advance notice so we have time to do that. The Biden Administration announced its shipping millions of doses to retail pharmacy. This is the first step to get vaccines directly to retail pharmacies to be a key player in administering them. Why is this important . That amount struck me. Its not very high given that were vaccinating 1. 3 Million People a day. Youre dispersing a million dosd doses, is that enough . The challenge is getting the vaccine to where it needs to go to reach the people most vulnerable. Bigbox Pharmacy Chains such as cvs and walgreens have been doing a great job. We need to get the vaccine to more pharmacies in small communities and small towns and Grocery Store pharmacies. These broader chains of pharmacies that are going to reach and penetrate into populations that are harder to reach. And that is what the Biden Administration is doing now. It doesnt sound like a lot of doses initially, but its a smart strategy because we have to figure out the kinks. Its difficult to flood those pharmacies and those new outlets with a lot of vaccine and sort of crash the system up front. Its better if we turn on the spigot, test out the system, make sure everything is in place and robust and then start increasing the vaccine thats distributed to those outlets. I think the ultimate goal is to have over 40,000 additional outlets across the country. We need to test the waters gently and then ramp up quickly once we know the systems are in place to handle the additional vaccine load. Rick, i have one very Quick Development for you. A former biden transition adviser, im sure you know her, luciano borio, she has said that the plasma, the convalescent plasma, which i guess is the antibody cocktail, right, that some have used to treat as a therapeutic. She fears theres an Unintended Consequence by using the convalescent plasma that we may be training the virus somehow to mutate faster. Alisyn, thats something we need to look at very closely. I have seen some reports that indicate if we have partial immunity if you dont have a really strong immune response against the virus, maybe if youre treated with convalescent plasma and its not the right dose or too little of a dose or people immune compromised so they have a weaker immune system. These are all ideal environments for the virus to replicate in and to mutate within. So we need to look at how were using the treatments and look at the consequence of those treatments and see if we need to adjust those treatments to safeguard against this. But if we get more data that shows that treatment with convalescent plasma is encouraging or creating an atmosphere for the virus to mutate more readily, we need to look closely at how we alter in that type of treatment. Rick bright, thank you for being with us this morning. Appreciate it. Thank you both. Good to see you. So, you know, if you are one of the worlds richest humans i can relate. Go on. What do you do next . Buy disney world. Jeff bezos stepping away from amazon. But what do we know about why, and where hes going exactly. Thats next. It is love, love, love that makes it all worthwhile and it is love, love, love that cant help but make you smile. It is love, love, love. Send the love. Order now at edible. Com when did you see the sign . When i needed to jumpstart sales. Build attendance for an event. Help people find their way. Fastsigns designed new directional signage, and got them back on track. Get started at fastsigns. Com huge news in the business world. Amazon founder jeff bezos says hes stepping down as ceo. Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans joins us with more. Whats going on . He founded amazon 26, 27 years ago in his garage In Washington state. And it started, remember, as an online bookstore and became, obviously, a global powerhouse. Bezos really a tech trailblazer. He jokes when he first started amazon, people frequently asked him, so whats the internet . Not anymore. Amazon now 1. 7 trillion Retail Giant Makie ing bezos one of th richest in the world. Hes handing off the ceo title to andy jassy. A longtime member of the elite Leadership Group and now runs amazon web services, its biggest profit driver. Jassy turned aws into the biggest Cloud Computing provider. This is not his retirement. Hes going to focus on new products and early initiatives and spend more time on his space startup blue origin and on his newspaper, the washington post, as well as climate and education priorities. Timing here . He announced the new role in the companys Earnings Release which showed an epic quarter, an epic year for amazon. Its Online Retail presence and Cloud Computing services boomed. It makes bezos even richer. It comes against the backdrop of intensifying regulatory scrutiny of big tech and accusations of Monopoly Power over selling on its site and federal probes into allegations of anticompetitive behavior which amazon denies. Sdw john, hell remain an Executive Chair but giving up the daytoday responsibilities. Romans, was there a birthday . Yes, there was. I took monday off for my birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. Were observent of that, even if youre not. Nothing gets by you two. Thank you. Happy birthday. Distrust of vaccines among africanamericans has a long history in the u. S. And has major implications in terms of fighting the pandemic. Cnns Ryan Young Live In Atlanta to explain. Ryan . Yeah, john, it certainly does. Look, were at a covid19 massive vaccination center. You can see the workers getting ready to do those vaccines later this morning. But one of the things theyve noticed so far is africanamericans are not really showing up in the numbers theyd like to see. Thats something theyd love to see change. I do believe in covid. At Playmakers Barber Shop in atlanta, the tight fades are blended with energetic and sometimes loud discussions about who is the greatest public player of all time. My name was yannis before the basketball player. Reporter now covid19 Stimulus Checks and the covid vaccines are talked about just as passionately. Really dont trust it because it actually came kind of fast. Barber yannis feels sdrtrong the development of the vaccines was rushed and comes with serious side effects. People that take it, they have bell palsy. Outside the shop, james harris has other concerns. The doctor took it. It killed him and his nurse i know, it killed her. Reporter the cdc and fda are looking into those and similar claims around the country, harris and willis beliefs underscores a serious concern for lynn paxton and the team who are fighting it as hard as the virus itself. This vaccine is very effective and very safe. Reporter but its not easy. Especially when rumors spread on social media like posts claiming baseball legend hank aaron died from the vaccine because he received his dose publicly days before passing away. He didnt. The Fulton County Medical Examiner said he died from Natural Causes but many in atlantas Black Community believe the claim forcing Health Officials to speak out p. I think its just important that we quell these kind of rumors. Reporter which is why paxtons team is now distributing information in these communities. Seek out trusted sources for information about the vaccine. Facebook and your neighbor next doors postings are not trusted sources. Health officials worry misinformation could complicate the process of getting shots in the arms of black and brown communities. New cdc data shows black and latino people lagging way behind and those states reporting racial breakdowns. So far 60 of those vaccinated are white compared to 11. 5 latino and just 5. 4 black. Youre not giving me the option. Youre trying to dump it on me. Reporter misinformation isnt the only issue. History is also a major factor for some, including these black Health Care Workers who are still on the fence about getting the vaccine. The hesitancy with the Africanamerican Community goes back to the willing malpractice on africanamericans at the tuskegee experiment. Black men with syphilis werent informed or treated. Now playing a role in the uphill battle Health Officials face in trying to convince an already Skeptical Community to get the covid vaccine. Lets face it. Theres a crime against humanity what happened then. But that happened ages ago. And because of it, it completely changed the landscape for research. John, you think about this in terms of those Health Care Workers when even they say they dont want to take the shot. Think about that conversation they are having with their families. This is a room that will be full of people getting shots this afternoon. What Health Care Workers are so concerned about is that population thats being hit by covid so hard is the exact population thats not getting the shot. Thats a tough conversation to have on a daytoday basis, especially when weve been fighting this pandemic for a year. But you cant reverse years of mistrust in a few months. No. Look, the former Surgeon General jerome adams was working very hard to get the message out to as many people as possible. This is a real struggle. Its important to address it headon and acknowledge the history. Ryan young, thank you for this report. So Russian Court just heard an appeal in the case of a u. S. Marine veteran being held in a russian prison. Were going to speak to his parents about the case, next. Live pictures from the Capitol Rotunda. The Vice President of the United States, kamala harris, and her husband doug emhoff paying their respects to officer Brian Sicknick. He was the capitol Police Officer killed in the insurrection. He is Lying In Honor in the rotunda at this moment. He, of course, Lying In Honor in the very building that he died defending the Vice President and her husband laying a wreath there this morning. Also new this morning, u. S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed Fighting For His Freedom In Moscow after he was sentenced to nine years by a Russian Court for allegedly assaulting two Police Officers in 2019. Charges his supporters and family say are unfounded and politically motivated. Joining us now, joey and paula reed, trevors parents and his sister taylor. Thank you all so much for being with us. And we are sorry for what your family is going through. Joey, hes been in prison since 2019. A long time. And there was some time before you were even able to communicate with him. You have heard from him recently. How is he doing . Thank you for having us on the program. Yes, hes been in there almost a year and a half, and we started getting i visited him a few times and his mother and sister got to visit him once when his trial started in july of last year. And we started getting phone calls from him in the last two months, thanks to the embassy. And his health, hes holding up. Hes had some medical issues and medical treatment within the russian prisons is horrible. But he is holding up well and the embassy is doing what they can to make sure he gets basic medical care. Were speaking to you this morning. I understand that you were part of a conversation with the new u. S. Secretary of state tony blinken yesterday where he spoke to families who have sons, daughters, loved ones either being held hostage or imprisoned in various places around the world. And you said having that conversation was like having a weight lifted off your shoulders. Why . Well, it was very refreshing because we hadnt had any contact with higher level of the government in the prior administration. And the fact that Secretary Blinken was proactive in making the call to all of the families of the hostages wrongfully detained within six days of his new appointment was just awesome. We really, really appreciated it, and it showed a goodfaith effort and keeping the lines of Communication Open which hadnt always been the case before. So we were very thankful. Im curious about that because the past administration was quite boastful about the work it had done with people who were either being held hostage or in custody around the world but maybe not so much with people being held in russia. So im confused by the fact that they didnt address it to a way that satisfied you or you say even speak your sons name out in public. Why do you think that was . Im not really sure. We have a couple of theories. Ill let joey address that. Well, first of all, we think that if you talk about all the dozens or maybe even over 100 americans held hostage in other countries it might make you look weak and to only talk about really the cases that you get the hostages brought home, its theyre all wins. And we think that may be why they werent mentioned. Of course in the russia situation, there were all types of international and internal politics as far as dealing with russia. So but we did feel also that we were fighting against our own government. We were afraid to say certain things or talk about certain things that our son had in his Military History that might have offended the administration. And we now feel like thats been lifted and we can speak openly. In fact, Secretary Blinken said they want to hear all complaints all the time and theyll take all of that into consideration. It was interesting. He said we want to hear all complaints and speak, criticize us. Say whatever you want. We may do things that are in National Interest that you may not think are in your familys interest but that doesnt mean we dont want to hear from you. How did that land with you . It was great because i felt like our hands had been tied before. And now i dont feel that, and i also felt that Secretary Blinken was very empathetic and sincere. I get i got the feeling that he really cared about everyones Family Members and this is a very important that point to him that we are able to communicate openly and freely. Joey, another interesting point, timing point here, which is that alexei navalny, this russian democracy leader, this dissident sentenced to prison yesterday. You dont think this is disconnected thematically. You think this is part of the same theme from the russian leader. What do you mean . Well, first of all, you know, his arrest and then the misuse of the judicial system is exactly whats happened with our son and paul weland, the other american, former marine, held by russians. Its a the judicial system just backs up law enforcement. And then they do the bidding of the government. And so in that way, they are similar and we have kind of spoken out because there had been a lot of speaking out by our government for navalny and by officials in the prominent people in the United States and yet our sons name wasnt even being spoken. So we felt like if were going to ask for the release of a russian from russian prison, we should be asking for the release of Innocent Americans that were falsely convicted, probably because they are United States marines. Taylor, i dont know if you can hear us or speak if youre micd, but how can the rest of us help your brother, help trevor right now . Just to raise awareness. Were trying to get his name out there in the news and try to get as much support as we can. We have a twitter account going. Its free trevor reed. Com or our website and also a twitter page. We also have a gofundme. Its gofundme. Com ffree trevor reed. Were trying to get donations going for that for all of his legal expenses. Well, taylor, paula, joey, thank you very much. We are thinking of your son trevor reed who has been in prison for more than a year now, sentenced to nine years. We hope you get the help you need from the u. S. Government going forward. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for having us. Weve been looking at live pictures from the u. S. Capitol. Officer Brian Sicknick Lying In Honor in the rotunda in the very building he died protecting. Our coverage continues, next. For veteran families, when it comes to finding and buying your dream home, well be there to make it happen. Well be there when you want better rates too. Or to get money for retirement. Well be there because we work only with veteran families like yours to help you get the most life out of a home for the life of your family if you smell gas, youre too close. Leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. If you see wires down, treat them all as if theyre hot and energized. Stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. A very good wednesday morning. Im jim sciutto. Im poppy harlow. Its a critical day for the Republican Party and its path forward. Two congresswomen, two very different visions and values. And hours from now, republicans will hold a meeting to debate their fate. Liz cheney is fighting to keep her leadership post after voting to impeach former President Trump and freshman congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene is fighting to keep her spot on the Education Committee despite pushing Conspiracy Theories and endorsing violence. The future of the pa