jessica schneider following it for us in washington. thank you very much. joining us now, olivia troy, who served as homeland security counterterrorism and covid task force adviser to then vice president pence, and a former secret service agent and cnn law enforcement analyst. jonathan, of course i m starting with you on this one. are you suspicious of this erasure. let me take a quick step back. i think the whole situation is really odd. we have two entities within the same department, the secret service department of homeland security, and the inspector general. we have two conflicting stories coming out of the same department. right now i have a lot of questions for the inspector general and the secret service. first, the inspector general said that many secret service text messages pursuant to january 5th and 6th were erased as part of this technology upgrade. but there s a nuance here. that s a fact that the secret
devastating blow to president biden s domestic agenda. sources tell cnn that senator joe manchin will not support democrats efforts to address climate change or taxes on the wealthy, which are key to president biden s economic plans. but today senator manchin indicated there might be some wiggle room. cnn s jessica dean is on capitol hill. how much wiggle room is the question when we re speaking about joe manchin, but is he leaving the door open for a deal here? reporter: victor and alisyn, it depends on what you mean by deal. if it s severely pared down to one or two things, there might be some room. but the big sweeping reform that democrats were certainly hoping to have, that s gone. we know that s been gone for months now, but these new negotiations had started back up really focusing in on the climate and energy package, the tax provisions, and the democratic leader, chuck schumer, was really hopeful that
hill. secret service had assessed the threats were too great, that their ability to protect the president in that movement was limited, so they made the right call and did not go. now, this new information that is out is just further confirming it. what it doesn t do is it doesn t confirm the most salacious part of that testimony, which is the comments of the president leaning forward towards the steering wheel and potentially assaulting a secret service agent. there are only three people who know the truth, the former president, the driver of that vehicle and the special agent in charge. that s why testimony under oath is critical to adjudicate that one outstanding issue. and obviously the january 6th committee is working on that. meanwhile, olivia, there s no reporting from new york magazine , as well as cnn, that donald trump has decided that he will run again for president. he s just deciding when. so it s not if, it s when.
the saudis clearly would like to have some relationship with israel. they ve just cleared the airspace issue, which is very important. we ll likely see something along the nature of the abraham accords with the saudis in due course. we ve got so many issues to deal with with the saudis, and i think the saudis very much need our participation as they go forward with this vision 2030 project, with their concerns about iran, with their own existential concerns in the neighborhood. the last time an american president was in saudi arabia, there was a sword dance, a glowing orb, portraits stories high of the president, president trump, of course, i m speaking about. what is the saudi perspective of this administration as you understand it, this president as he is now there with the king and crown prince? i think in some ways they see this president as a successor to
jamal khashoggi, will you apologize to his family, sir? reporter: a bit of a smirk from the saudi crown prince when the reporter said jamal khashoggi s name, but no response. of course whether or not he is going to apologize, they still have not said where the remains of his body that was dismembered, where they are, and that has been a big thing that khashoggi s fiance and other supporters have pressed the u.s. administration to push the saudis on during this visit. what you see from that sit-down in the room there, victor and alisyn, is really it seals the fact that this campaign promise from president biden to make saudi arabia a pariah, to punish the kingdom for the grizzly death of jamal khashoggi has been sealed. the white house is basically arguing this is worth the political cost of president biden being seen with the saudi crown prince because they say they want to get the cease-fire