welcome to this special 8:00 hour of the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington and we begin this hour with an emotional anniversary of a pivotal moment in american history. on a busy weekend when the race for the white house was taking shape. president joe biden was in selma, alabama, today for the anniversary of bloody sunday, and a speech before some of the country s most prominent civil rights leaders. while outside washington, a very different scene in a very different speech, as former president donald trump spoke to the conservative political action conference, vowing retribution in his words. and earlier today in california, the politician who could be trump s biggest rival for the gop nomination in 2024, florida governor ron desantis, speaking at the ronald reagan library. but we begin in selma, alabama, with arlette saenz. arlette, what can you tell us? jim, president biden used the anniversary of bloody sunday as an historic moment in civil rights history,
money payments to stormy daniels. remember that? now, that could come back to haunt him. his former attorney and fixer, michael cohen, says trump can t hide from the paper trail. calling the new grand jury convened by the manhattan d.a. his biggest legal threat yet. and there are many. meanwhile, the former president is suing journalist bob woodward for $50 million. we ll explain what that is all about. plus, more fallout and firings in the aftermath of tyre nichols death. we ll go live to memphis for the latest in that case. for the second time in three years, lawmakers on capitol hill are talking about police reform following a high-profile murder case involving officers. we ll look at whether these discussions have a real chance at being successful. and president joe biden announces a major policy shift on covid in response to strong opposition from house republicans. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is tuesday, january 31st. joe will be back tomorrow.
to acknowledge or, you know, disagree with your statement about what the district attorney is specifically looking at. obviously, everybody knows about the hush money payment, but i don t suspect that that s the only thing that they re looking at. i am going back again for additional prep, for grand jury prep. i am very confident, and i suspect that alvin breg and his really fine team of prosecutors believe that there is enough within which to charge donald trump. now, again, that s alvin breg s decision. i think that they finally see what mark pommeransk saw about a year ago. but now it s alvin breg s term. stay tuned. stay tuned is right. i didn t mean to put you on the spot, but i want to talk
president both declined comment to us on this matter. former trump attorney, michael cohen, you ll remember, went to federal prison for his role in the hush money payments. he says he met with prosecutors in recent weeks and may be asked to appear before the grand jury. donald will ultimately be held accountable for this stormy daniel payment. this investigation that was to be brought by alvin breg s office is the most detrimental to him, his freedom, livelihood, business, et cetera, because it s the easiest to prove. the checks are the checks. we know a lot. there s recordings. the first three-month payment was made by donald trump. i gave those to the house oversight committee who posted them and so on. so he s not in the same position where he can deny or lie the way that he will in some of the other matters.
conduct, served his prison time. cy vance, before brag, opened a sprawling investigation, including the hush money payments, as well as some other financial crimes. when alvin took over, two officials resigned because they felt like bragg didn t have the an tide to move forward. he lost his desire to prosecute trump on an individual basis. fast forward. bragg has two wins under his belt against trump. criminal wins against weisselberg. this case has been referred to as the zombie theory because it just won t die. apparently, it s been resurrected. it s coming back to life. take us inside one of your