maybe you want to keep those seat belts fastened. the lead starts right now. major questions raised today about your safety in the air as senators grill the faa why the agency cannot be so sure there will not be more runway near misses and grounded flights. plus, nikki haley officially kicks off her 2024 campaign, bringing a pledge to bring in a new generation of leadership. but how long can she maintain this delicate dance, throwing subtle shade at trump while not alienating his supporters? and hayashi, you know, that first flying object shot down, the one that was deemed a chinese spy balloon. u.s. intel says maybe it wasn t supposed to be over the continental u.s. after all. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with our politics lead and the airport chaos taking over capitol hill after the series of near collisions and the nationwide ground stop that led to thousands of delayed and canceled flights. the acting head of the federal aviation administration
[ cheers and applause ]. congresswoman cheney made a point of calling out election denying republicans across the country and hinted this is not the last we will hear from liz cheney. today, as we meet here, there are republican candidates for governor who deny the outcome of the 2020 election and who may refuse to certify future elections if they oppose the results. we have candidates for secretary of state who may refuse to report the actual results of the popular vote in future elections. no american should support election deniers for any position of genuine responsibility where their refusal to follow the rule of law will corrupt our future. i have said since january 6th that i will do whatever it takes to ensure donald trump is never again anywhere near the oval office. and i mean it. [ cheers and applause ]. tonight we are also keeping a close eye on the special election for alaska s at-large house district where former ak ank governor and 2008 vice presidential
that was wo weeks of work. our military forces in ak ank, which by the way is the top cover of america, were so critical to our nation s defenses, they ve been working overtime. but i will tell you this. i ve been satisfied with the briefings i ve gotten from the military. general van hurt, the north com commander, has kept me well informed on the tracking of the object friday. i strongly encouraged him, by the way, in a bipartisan manner, to shoot that aircraft down, which is what they ended up doing. but where i have not been satisfied is the broader administration s lack of transparency. there are a number of things we learned in the briefing yesterday that i ve been aware of that i think the american people should know about. and, you know, there s things that they should let us know. there s things they should tell us they don t know. of course they shouldn t let on to sources and methods. but i don t think they ve been transparent enough. as you know, when they re not transparent
house district where former ak ank governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate sarah palin is competing against two other candidates to finish the term of deceased congressman don young. sarah palin is, of course, in many ways the foremother of donald trump s brash political brand. so it is no surprise that president trump endorsed her in that race. cheney out and pay len back in, what does it mean for the republican party and for american democracy. here to give us the latest on those key races and help us break it all down is the great steve kornacki at the big board. steve, what are you hearing out of alaska? and what should we sort of expecting on this night of nights? yeah. i guess patience. you should patient, i think, as we get results the polls through most of alaska are now closed. they indicated probably going to be about an hour until we start getting the results and what