Transcripts For CNN The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20240706

George santos is defiant amid growing calls for him to resign over the many lies he told voters. House speaker Kevin Mccarthy standing by santos even as he acknowledges a lack of trust. Were tracking Severe Weather right now in the southeast including significant damage from a large and extremely dangerous tornado in alabama. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. We begin with this Special Counsel investigation thats about to get under way. Amid new revelations about classified documents found at President Bidens home and office. Lets go right to our chief White House Correspondent phil mattingly. The white house is attempting to defend its response as a new timeline is raising a lot of questions. Thats right, wolf. The white House Counsel saying they will fully cooperate with the new Special Counsel investigation and say they believe by the time the investigation is over it will be clear this was an inadvertent problem, a mistake that was made. A new timeline detailed by the Attorney General as he announced the Special Counsel certainly raising questions about a process that has been anything but transparent for the public. Im here today to announce the appointment of robert herr as Special Counsel. The dramatic escalation of a perilous moment. It was in the Public Interest to appoint a Special Counsel. Reporter appointing former u. S. Attorney robert herr to investigate the possible mishandling of classified documents and revealing more detail about an issue biden and his lawyers kept quiet for weeks and have desperately tried to manage since the story broke four days ago. People know i take classified documents and material seriously. Reporter coming after bidens Second Public statement about a second set of classified documents found at a second location. As part of that process, my lawyers reviewed other places where documents from my time as Vice President were stored and they finished the review last night. They discovered a small number of documents with classified markings in Storage Areas in File Cabinets in my hope in my personal library. Reporter garlands timeline underscoring at the time of bidens first statement on the issue earlier this week. Cooperating fully, cooperating fully with the review which i hope will be finished soon. Reporter his lawyers had been aware of the second set of documents discovered at his Wilmington Home for nearly a month. A timeline that started with the discovery of ten classified documents that led garlic to appoint u. S. Attorney john loush to investigate the matter. President bidens personal counsel informed mr. Loush that additional documents baring classifications markings were identified in the garage of the president s private residents in wilmington, delaware. All key factors for what was recommended to garland last week. On january 5th, 2023, mr. Lausch briefed me on the results of his initial investigation and advised me further investigation by a Special Counsel was warranted. Reporter the recommendation that came four days before the initial discovery of classified documents leaked and before days of white house statements that intentionally avoided key details in part out of an effort to avoid this very moment, sources said, and to follow strict limits set by his lawyers. Ill get a chance to speak on all this god willing soon. Reporter as Due Dill Vence for more documents was still on going. This morning President Bidens personal counsel called mr. Lauch and stated an additional document was idea food at the president s personal residence in wilmington, delaware. Reporter wolf, white house lawyers say theyve cooperated closely with the Justice Department in the review up to this stage. That cooperation will continue Going Forward. Also, we have now reported that during that review they interviewed individuals tied to the then Vice President s time in office including kathy chung currently at the department of defense. She was the president s Executive Assistant at the time. This was a fluid period of time of the then Obama Administration in terms of how the documents got to the think tank and his Wilmington Home. Lets break all this down with our correspondents and analysts. Paula reid, let me start with you, our Senior Legal Affairs correspondent. I know youre doing a lot of reporting on this, on whats going on behind the scenes. What more can you tell us about this u. S. Justice Department Decision by the Attorney General to go ahead and appoint a Special Counsel . Its pretty important. Incredibly important and an ongoing process. Merrick garland is a former judge. Once a judge, always a judge. He believes in the process. The Justice Department was informed of the discovery of Classified Information on november 4th. Ten days later he tapped the u. S. Attorney in chicago, a Trump Appointee to review what happened here, and suggest whether or not there should be a Special Counsel. Just a few days after that he tapped jack smith to handle the trump investigation. He clearly had Special Counsels on the brain. On january 5th it is recommended by the u. S. Attorney he should indeed appoint a Special Counsel. Within a week he found someone. A very short list of people who are qualified, never mind willing to do this. I spoke with rob rosenstein, the former Deputy Attorney general. He said he was one of my top deputies, he knows exactly what hes getting into. Seems highly qualified indeed. El eliot, lets talk about whats going on. Is this in part an opportunity where the Justice Department and the Attorney General to appear to be avoiding a double standard, one standard for trump, another for biden. The word appear is doing a lot of work in that sentence. At the end of the day, the Justice Department could have investigated this case. I worked there for six years and folks there can investigate matters of people of the same political party, up to and including the boss. The problem is a conflict is real even if its perceived under the guidelines and the fact that there are folks in the public who would regard any action by the Justice Department as being political. The a. G. Probably had to go down the road of appointing a Special Counsel here just to give the appearance of impartiality. Jamie, its interesting, i noticed the Attorney General when he was making his statement today, he went beyond what the white house was saying. He provided new information. We have for the first time really a sense of the timeline, including they found one more document this morning. This is not great. Youre doing a thorough search, and then, whoops, theres one more. Just to go back to something that elliott said, there are going to be constant comparisons here with trump, fair or not. I think that while nobody wants a Special Counsel and you dont know where this is going to lead, it was one way to appear evenhanded, impartial, and im told by sources that rob hur has impeccable conservative credentials. Which is interesting to me that you would have to go to a conservativeleaning person to be perceived as impartial in a Special Counsel situation. But i think youre right, jamie. The existence of a Special Counsel for trump necessitated that one would need to be in place here because of the perceptions problems. I think theres probably a Special Counsel for trump perhaps only because trump is already a candidate for the next election and could face biden again. That political layer is never going to go away. I do think theres real questions about this timeline that was laid out by the Attorney General and why in my mind i dont understand why the biden camp didnt do the searches earlier. Why did it take even until December 30th to take that second batch of documents. Why were they finding documents today . Theres a limited universe of places where these documents could be. One could imagine those searches could have been executed pretty much immediately after the second set were found. You saw the Press Secretary today basically cueing to a Statement Writ Attorney on a piece of paper and saying they were following the book. Again, theres just a lack of transparency here on the timeline, information they certainly could have provided. For those of us who covered the white house, today was a bad day to be at the podium, whether youre a republican or democratic. One other thing to add, wolf. We know they did the right thing when they found that first paper. Cooperation is the key. They immediately reached out to the white House Counsel who said call the National Archives. But to abbys point, this has gone on now for weeks and weeks, now months when theres just this mixed bag here of cooperating, trying to do the right thing. But then unanswered questions. How did these classified documents get there and why have they not been more transparent . To me its a tell. They know this is a political problem for them. Otherwise, i think they would have tried to give at least a more clear timeline of what happened, how many documents there were, et cetera, because they put out a statement this week that had details in them. Again, its not the same thing. Theyre giving the documents back not trying to hold on to them. That is a key fact. But from a political and perhaps a Public Relations perspective, theyre trying to hold Back Information because of where we are in the political cycle. Wondering, because i know youre doing reporting on this, paula. Where does the other Special Counsel investigation, jack smith Investigating Trump and his mishandling of highly classified documents . We know hes been busy. Two months into the job, there was a flurry of activity before christmas. They gathered a lot of evidence. There was another round of subpoenas to Trump Associates in recent weeks. They have an enormous amount of evidence theyre going through as they decide whether or not to bring charges. This is a much more complicated investigation. Not only are they dealing with january 6th, looking into that. Theyre also looking into maralago, not only the potential mishandling of Classified Information, but also this question of cooperation and potential obstruction. Its a very complicated investigation. As we know, jack smith was abroad for most of the past two months. Hes back in the u. S. Getting his office set up. Time is of the essence. Theres a lot of concern over how far these investigations will go into the election season. Theres a lot of pressure to move quickly. Its important to know the difference between a pr issue and a legal one. Now, one can quickly become the other, and something can spiral out of control for the current president s administration. Look, they are doing everything, as it appears, to cooperate with the investigation here. W they have a communications mess. What it seems former President Trump is sitting on is a series of legal problems compounded by his own conduct and that of the attorneys around him that could end in criminal charges. We know the history of Special Counsels investigating a sitting president of the United States going back many years to nixon and reagan, bill clinton and others as well. It usually doesnt necessarily work out all that great for the sitting president of the United States. Guys, everybody stand by. Just ahead, embattled congressman George Santos dodging cnns questions about bly tant lies on his resume as a growing course of republicans wants him out of the house. Live to ukraine where russia is fighting for a Battlefield Win after a string of defeats at a very steep cost to its forces. Hey, thanks for helping me out. Of course. You can easily get Helpful Customer Service over the phohone or on the progressive app pretty much anywhere. Like at the coffee shop, at the park, just kidding. Its another coffee shop mucix nightshift fights your worst nighttime symptoms so you can get to sleep and wake up ready to g how could you . Wake up to a new you. With mucinex nightshift, its not cold and flu season. Its always comeback season. Meet Three Sisters learning how to spend, save, and budget. All with chase first banking. Freedom for kids. Control for parents. 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Newly elected republican congressman George Santos of new york is defiant amid calls for him to resign over multiple lies hes told about his background that have been exposed since he won his house seat. Cnns chief Congressional Correspondent manu raju has been trying to give santos a chance to address the controversy. Manu, whats the latest . Reporter when i approached him today and asked him to address his widespread lies about his past, he refused to engage, even as more and more republicans are calling on him to step aside. Right now six total House Republicans have urged him to resign. Theres one person who is making clear hes not joining those calls to resign, thats House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy. Freshman congressman George Santos defiant i will be continuing to hold my office elected by the people. Reporter facing growing gop calls for resignation over his web of lies, but saying hes not going anywhere after winning 142,000 votes last fall. 142 people ask for me to res resign, ill resign. Mr. Santos, why did you lie to your voters about your qualifications, your past, why did you lie to them . Dont the voters deserve an explanation about your widespread lies about your past . How can you be trusted with sensitive security information. Reporter telling a fellow republican he has been honest. Ive worked my entire life. I live an honest life. Ive never been accused of any bad doing. Reporter santos has admitted to lying including by saying hes jewish and his family survived the holocaust, he owned 13 properties, he worked for citigroup and goldman sachs, saying he graduated from the top of his class and was a star volleyball player. None of which is true. Hes lost the confidence of people in his own community. I think he needs to seriously consider whether or not he can actually do his job effectively, and right now its pretty clear he cant. Reporter are you saying he should resign . Theres no way i believe he can fulfill his responsibilities. The fact he claimed he was jewish, that he had family who escaped the holocaust. Thats not something i can tolerate. Reporter he has critical support from Speaker Mccarthy who wont call on him to resign. The voters of his district have elected him. Hes seated. Hes part of the republican conference. Reporter some raising National Security concerns given santos is potentially phasing Fraud Charges in brazil. Hes got a long way to go to earn trust. There are concerns with him. He will go before ethics. If anything is found to be wrong, he will be held accountable exactly as anybody else in this body would be. Reporter if santos resigned, hed vacate a district President Biden won by eight points, given democrats a chance to cut into mccarthys razorthin majority. Is this someone you truft to have access to the nations sec secrets . I think well still keep looking at this and get the facts. Reporter santos also faced questions about 700,000 of money he put into his campaign. Hes faced a complaint from a group that is asking the federal Election Commission to look into the matter. He was asked about that today by Congressman Matt Gaetz on a progress. Hell tell you where it didnt come from, not from china or ukraine. He didnt divulge the source of the Campaign Cash as hes faced questions and an investigation into those Campaign Finance disclose yours as the scrutiny intensifies on him and everything he did in the runup to the campaign. Manu raju on capitol hill, thanks very much. Lets dig deeper with our senior political analyst niamalika henderson and National Politics reporter eva mcken. You heard santos say he has, quote, lived an honest life. How can he say that when he has admitted to multiple lies about his background . He can say that because hes someone who fabricates complete identities. Hes fabricated an identity of someone who lived an honest life. We know thats not true. Hes sfab kated different scenarios and College Degrees and jobs as well. I think this is going to be a continuing problem for republicans. Theyre going to continue to get questions about him. But if youre George Santos, you have every reason to hold on to this job. He stands to make Something Like 400,000 over the next two years as a member of congress. It will be up to the voters in two years to see whether or not he continues in this job, but hes going to hang on even as some of these questions hangover him including Ethics Committee questions at some point. If he does survive over the next two years, the question is will he face a republican challenger in a primary in his district on long island. The chorus of republicans in queens, in long island where he represents is growing and growing. How long do you think he can hang on . I spent the day trying to catch up with some of santos constituents on long island. I spoke to a woman who lived in north hempstead, a former supporter, a republican she would describe herself as a republican activist. She says there are nearly daily meetings amongst Community Members trying to strategize what to do. Thats because the republicans there are really concerned about preserving this seat. It was a huge deal for them to flip the seat. They are moving on beyond santos. They are urging him to resign and theyre trying to make themselves viable for future elections. A real Grassroots Movement happening i think in his district. I think that what we see is that the establishment often has to sort of be pushed along by the grassroots efforts. That is what is under way i think in the district. Well see if mccarthy feels some pressure after so many of his constituents are trying to do just that, put pressure on the establishment. A lot of republicans are. Mccarthy is still with him, at least right now. How long will that continue . Mccarthy has a fourseat majority. He cant afford for santos to not be there, to possibly put this seat back in the hands of a democratic. If youre mccarthy, another political calculation is, so, if you call on George Santos to resign and he doesnt resign, you look like a bit of a weak leader. I think thats one of the reasons hes saying, listen, the voters have decided. It will be up to make a different decision perhaps in two years. In the meantime, hes got santos there and thats a vote for Kevin Mccarthy when it comes to anything he wants to do in congress. How big of an issue will this be, the whole santos uproar for the republican party, for other republicans Going Forward . Well, im curious to see if their ultimately is an Ethics Investigation. That could change the calculus here. I think about former embattled congressman anthony weiner, and ultimately speaker pelosi, wasnt speaker there, but when she was leading the democratic caucus, she did at the very least i think push a little further and did call for an Ethics Investigation of weiner. We know he did step aside because he couldnt handle that investigation. He didnt have the money or the resources to withstand that pressure. Maybe santos might not either. We really dont know how much money he has. This money hes making now in congress could be the most hes ever made in his life. We cant trust any of the past financial disclosures. Good point. Nia, two House Democrats have formally filed an ethics complaint now against santos. Is that going to go anywhere . There will be some sort of Ethics Investigation. Theres concerns that the ethics and oversight of this congress has been a little weakened by some of the new rules. But mccarthy seems to feel like this will be part of the process that will be handled to the extend it can be, by the Ethics Committee. If youre mccarthy, you really want this to go away. You want to be able to say, listen, this is going to be handled by ethics, the people of new york have spoken and well see what happens in two years. You think of somebody like santos who again is a serial fabricator. What else is there to his background . You know cnn, new york times, new york newsday, all of these pup cases have missed this story going in, are certainly digging into his background. What else is to be uncovered . We shall see. Thank you very, very much. Russia names a new commander for its war on ukraine, but will that be enough to salvage moscows serious losses right now out there on the battlefield . Let it pull you. 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For Russian Forces i should say. Its not clear whether president putins decision to appoint a second commander in just three months will be enough to turn the tide of the war. Cnns scott mclean has our report in ukraine. Reporter a major shakeup in the highest ranks of the Russian Military. General Valery Gerasimov is the experienced Commander Putin has put in charge of the socalled special military operation. His predecessor was shuffled out barely three months in following setbacks on the battlefield. But the kremlin says it is making progress in the small but that teamingic town of soledar where both sides say the fighting has intense. The situation is difficult, but stable this ukrainian soldier says. We are holding back the enemy. Nobody leaves the positions. The positions are being held. We are fighting back. The involvinger in Mercenary Group claimed to have taken full control of the area with Russian Forces blockading the citys southern and northern access routes. Kyiv denies the town has been captured despite some indications its lost considerable ground. Translator the enemy has high losses. The area outside of the city is covered with the bodies of putins troops. Nevertheless, theyre moving over their own corpses. Reporter Satellite Images reveal the devastation in soledar, Craters Scarring the landscapes, buildings reduced to rubble. Local Officials Say hundreds of civilians are still there, most of them elderly. Translator as of now there are 523 people there. It would be wrong to say that they dont want to leave now. We are doing our best to help people to leave. Reporter for the russians, victory here would be a morale boost for a stalled campaign. The kremlin spokesman hailed the enormous effort in soledar but said the main work is still ahead. It will only get tougher. For the First Time Since the war began, ukraine will soon have tanks, after poland agreed to send the germanmade leopards. Germany and the uk are mulling the same decision. Wolf, this is pretty remarkable. The Russian Military group says not only did they capture soledar, they did it without any help at all from russian troops. The reality is the battle may still be raging. Frankly, it is not looking good for the ukrainians. Weve been in touch with one soldier in soledar who says his unit feels abandoned. They are pinned down. They have no food. They are running out of water and their window to actually evacuate or withdraw is closing very fast. In fact, it may have closed already. Wolf, this is the very same soldier who just two days ago said that ukrainian withdrawal was only a matter of time. Scott mclean, thank you very much. Scott is in kyiv. Stay safe over there. For more on the war in ukraine, lets bring in retired u. S. Army general wesley clark, cnn military analyst. Thank you so much for joining us. What do you think . Is russia about to take this town of soledar . If they do, is the win largely symbolic rather than strategic . Wolf, i think that that is purely a tactical discussion. I think its very possible that they may take the town, but i think weve got to look at a larger picture here. Putting general gear as move is, we can see the mobilization coming, we can see the use of mass use of conscripts, the positioning of forces in belarus. We have to anticipate that sometime between now and the 24th of february, maybe on the 4th, youll see something much different. So this is really an effort to bleed ukraine. And if involvinger in group is claiming credit, fine. Maybe they want to challenge the regular military, maybe theres some of that going on here. But, in fact, what this is just a more of the same. What we have to be concerned about is the larger picture. Not this town, but can we get enough supplies in, equipment in to ukraine that they can hold against this offensive and regain their territory. Right now, wolf, it doesnt look good. 50 bradleys, a few martyr vehicles, discussions about some 1970 vintage leopard tanks, not so good. That stuff needs to be in there now in bulk, and it isnt. Im concerned. I want to press you on this decision by put tien to replace the leader of this Ukrainian Military operation with his top general right now. Give us a sense of how significant that is. I think it says that for putin this is war. This number good says this is a war against nato. Hes not taking this any longer as a military special operation. He knows its a threat for control of his regime. We in the United States may prefer to look at china, forming Special Committee in congress to look at china. This is the war thats going on right now. And if gerasimov comes in, pulls things together, maybe uses tactical nukt lar weapons to get a breakthrough inluhansk, at that point its too late to do the big surge of equipment in there to help the ukrainians. We no ed to be really looking at this closely right now. Weve got maybe six weeks to get this right or were going to have an entirely different situation on our hands with nato. General, you mentioned these first westernmade tanks being delivered from poland into ukraine. Give us a sense of the boost this could give the Ukrainian Military. I think its helpful. This is good german equipment. If its the equipment i think it is, its got the 105 millimeter gun, not the 120 millimeter gun, its not the most modern tanks that are available. They are diesel powered, so thats good. Ukrainians are very adept mechanically. Theyll quickly take care of it. How many are we talking about . Really. This is a Major Military operation. If you put 50 tanks in, thats what we would say in the United States is onetank battalion. Its not a large force. It may not even be 50 tanks. Good point. Retired general wesley clark, as usual thank you very, very much. Just ahead, more on the top story, Attorney General of the United States Merrick Garland appointing a Special Counsel to carry out the biden documents investigation right now. Well be right back. Ur houses well, almost perfect. Dont worry. Sell with confidence to opendoor. Yes done. Request a cash offer at opendoor. Com one role of a lifetime. One sore throat. But she had enough. She took Mucinex Instasoothe sore throat lozenges. Show your sore throat whos boss. Mucinex instasoothe. Works in seconds, lasts fohours. My a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. Rays a1c is down with rybelsus®. Im down with rybelsus®. My a1c is down with rybelsus®. In a clinical study, oncedaily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill. In the same study, people taking rybelsus® lost more weight. Rybelsus® isnt for people with type 1 diabetes. 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Duckduckgo, privacy simplified. Were getting more reaction this hour to the new appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate President Bidens handling of classified documents. Were joined now by a Veteran Member of the House Intelligence Committee, democratic congressman jim himes of connecticut. Thanks for joining us. First of all, do you support the decision by Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the biden documents probe . Absolutely, wolf. It was exactly the right move by the Attorney General. Its really important that whatever has occurred here with the presence of classified documents in President Bidens possession, it be investigated, impartially and fully so we understand what happened. It was exactly the right move by Attorney General garland. This investigation for all practical purposes only just beginning with the new Special Counsel named today. The white house has been criticized, as you know, congressman, for whats being described as a series of contradictory statements about these classified documents. Does It Con Sirn You that the Biden Administration wasnt forthcoming about any of this until it came out in the news . Wolf, let me say two things that we think are true. No Classified Information of any kind should ever be outside of secure spaces. It doesnt matter how classified it is. If its class need, it means its disclosure could classify the National Security of the United States. Whether its in maralago or wilmington, delaware, that needs to stop. Thats not a partisan statement. It needs to stop. Now, thats, of course theres pretty important distinctions between what the white house is dealing with and what the previous president dealt with. The white house, upon the discovery of the documents apparently in the two locations, has handled this precisely right, by disclosing it, saying weve got this stuff. At maralago, not only did they not disclose, but they so resisted the department of justice in their attempts to recover that information that ultimately agents had to basically knock down the door to get the stuff. Theres pretty substantial differences between the two cases. The bottom line is Classified Information should not be outside of secure spaces. Could damage National Security if released. Youve served on the House Intelligence Committee and youve reviewed sensitive documents for a long time. Youve been on the House Intelligence Committee since 2013. The new gop chairman of that committee, congressman mike turner, has asked for an immediate review of the classified documents that have been discovered. Do you think the committee needs to investigate this given the fact theres a Special Counsel now doing so . Well, we have an important oversight role, wolf, that is independent of the oversight that is conducted by the department of justice, by inspector general, by Special Counsels. So mike turner is right. Now, as you know, we have been asking for a very long time for a Damage Assessment associated with the documents recovered if maralago. We will ask for exactly the same thing with respect to documents that were in these apparently two locations for biden. Its really important for us to know what secrets may have been compromised. We dont know theyve been compromised. Obviously when they leave a secure space, thats always a possibility. This is not so much a partisan issue though. I will note that an awful lot of my colleagues treated this whole problem one way when it was associated with donald trump, excusing the behavior, suggesting that stuff maybe isnt that classified, and now they have a different tune to sing now that they see political advantage with joe biden. Bottom line, wolf, forget the parties. Whats important here is we understand how this happened, it doesnt happen again and if theres any possibility that that information leaked, we need to understand how that might affect the security of the United States. Very good point. Congressman jim himes, thanks, as usual, for joining us. Coming up, tornadoes are Ravaging Alabama and georgia right now. More could be coming as millions of americans are under severe Storm Threats across the southeast. Ace benefits and retirement savings. With voya, considering all your financial choices togethther can help you make smarter decisions. Voya. Well planned. Well invested. Well protected. Will you pause it real quick . mumbles just sold the car to carvana. What . All i had to do was answer a couple questio d got a real offer in seconds. Then, they justpicked r and paid mright on the spot. Sell your car at carvana dot com today. Start your day with nature made. 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Duckduckgo, privacy simplified. Right now were getting in lots of brand new video as dangerous tornados menace the southeast. The governors of alabama and georgia declaring states of emergency amid all this devastation. Lets get right to cnn meteorologist jennifer gray. Shes over at the cnn Weather Center for us. Give us the latest, jennifer. These storms are still incredibly dangerous. We had several hours of these storms producing tornados and theyre still doing that. This tornado watch you can see shaded in red goes for the next hour or two across the southeast. You can see right around charlotte we did have a Tornado Warning on the north side of charlotte a few moments ago. That has expired. Now we have another one basically in columbia. Anyone on the southeast youve got to get to your safe place. These stormerize moving incredibly fast, about 55 miles per hour, so youll have very little warning so consider this your warning there are some very dangerous storms across the southeast. You can see these severe thunderstorm warnings. You can see all the way across southern portions of of alabama and georgia. The area shaded in orange, thats going to be your highest risk for tornados, damaging winds, large hail. But we really could see showers and storms anywhere in these areas, and they even extend all the way up to the midatlantic and northeast. So the rain is going to be far reaching. As we go into the overnight hours the storms should weaken and start to clear out tomorrow. Some cold air on the backside of this, but were also going to see Rain Accumulations anywhere from 1 to 2 inches, inside of those individual thunderstorms you can get some higher rates. Definitely a nasty day across the southeast as the storms are still ongoing. Nasty indeed. Our meteorologist jennifer gray, thank you very much. Just ahead as his Special Counsel launches its probe into President Bidens handling of classified documents were going to break down how white house records should be maintained. To feeeed your dog real food. Itss real meat and veggies. Freshlymade. Developed with vets. Delivered right to your door. Thats why dog lovers are choosing the farmers dog. A smarter, healthier pet food. Delivered. Visit tryfarmersdog. Com and get 50 off your first box of food. This feels so right. Adt systems now feature google products like the nest cam with floodlight, with intelligent alerts when a person or familiar face is detected. Sam. Sophies not here tonight. So you have a home with no worries. Brought to you by adt. With a little help. And to support my familys immune health, i choose airborne. Unlike some others, airborne gives you vitamin c and so much more. Its an 8 in 1 immune support formula. Airborne. Do more. Meet leon the third. 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Experts on Document Preservation Tell Cnn the sensitive papers from the Obama Administration discovered at President Bidens wilmington, delaware, home and his former think tank simply shouldnt be in those places. Vice President Bidens team didnt do a careful job of segregating his private materials from his public materials, so thats a problem. Even an expresident cant take documents like this home because they belong to the american government. They belong to the american people. Under the president ial records act. All documents from president s and Vice President s are supposed to be saved for posterity by the National Archives. Experts say the archives has people dedicated to helping a president ial administration preserve those documents from the beginning of each presidency to the end. What if was to take an important document with them when they leave office . Who do they have to clear with the National Archives . Theres a process within. You would work within the white house. Theres officials who are there who are in charge of document handling. They consult with the National Archives. And experts say its really up to the staff of a president or a Vice President to comb through their documents carefully and coordinate all this with the archives toward the end of each administration because the archives itself doesnt have a list. So its not possible for the National Archives on january 20th of inauguration year to have a checklist and say, okay, weve got them all. Anything work related a president or Vice President writes, signs, or even jots a little notation on is supposed to be saved for posterity and turned over to the archives. Little posties, a Hand Written Note to somebody, writing on a note card at the National Security meeting, these belong to the american public. Analysts say the documents found in President Bidens stash marked top secret could compromise National Security if they fell into the wrong hands, but they also say this kind of mistake likely isnt unprecedented. Given the amount of our paper that our president s and Vice President s have generated it is always possible that interfiled with unclassified private papers there might be a classified record or two. Now, is there a way to make the transfer of president ial and Vice President ial documents airtight at the end of an administration . Former Nixon Library director tim naf tally says one reform that has been discussed is mandate the process of a white house staff working with the archives on documents begin much sooner than it does now, in year three of a presidency so its not rushed. He says hed also like to see the Archives Themselvesed Admore people to their rank, people who would have the sole task of helping to preserve white house documents. Wolf, theyve got to find a way to make this more airtight. Theyve got to learn the les lessons of what has happened. Thank you for your report. And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. You can always follow me on twitter and Instagram Wolf blitzer. You can always tweet the show cnnsitroom. Erin burnett out front starts right now. Out front next, more classified documents at bidens private home. The Attorney General naming a Special Counsel and the question tonight for biden is w