top of the hour here in the cnn newsroom. thanks for joining us. i m erica hill. i m jim sciutto. happening now, attorney general merrick garland on capitol hill to testify before the jen at judiciary committee for the first time here. you see senators cruz and holly. he is expected to be hit with a wide range of questions including allegations from republicans as they said that the justice department is being weaponized against conservatives as well as updates into investigations into trump and biden and we ll take you there live as it happens. the annual cpac conference happens today as we get new cnn reporting about what trump s allies are doing to get house republicans in his corner. for 2024, not all of them are there. sdwloo also ahead, closing arguments are expected to begin today in the double murder trial of disgraced former lawyer alex murdaugh. jurors in that case at the crime scene at this hour. we will take you live to south carolina. let s begin this hour with
little to anything against churches and pro life centers. they will get in a lot. senator ted cruz asking garland during his last appearance before the committee about promise he made to keep politics out of the d.o.j. it went like this. i asked you quote, will you commit to this committee that under your leadership the department of justice will not target the political opponents of this administration? your answer, quote, absolutely. it is totally inappropriate for the department to target any individual because of their politics or their position in a campaign. that was your promise just a few months ago. i m sorry to say you have broken that promise. dana: that was more than a year ago. the committee will have plenty of ground to cover today. jason chaffetz ahead with reaction. david spunt starting us off on capitol hill. attorney general taking a seat behind me ready to answer those questions. he said multiple times he wants to keep politics out of the d.o.j. he wi
of mar-a-lago for classified documents. but also since he launched not one, but two special counsel investigations into both former president trump and president biden. we just saw garland walk into the hearing room moments ago. he didn t answer any questions on the way in. we are live on the hill. also, congress intensifies its scrutiny of china. one lawmakers even warning of a, quote existential struggle with the nation during the very first meeting of a house select committee dedicated to china. what we learned. plus, the warning from the head of the fbi about china s efforts to hinder investigations into the origin of covid. we are also following breaking news in greece, a devastating head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train carrying 350 passengers. officials saying dozens were killed with reports of people being thrown out of windows from the impact. the desperate search this morning for survivors in the wreckage. and an extraordinary moment
with senator murphy of connecticut to try to pass a bill to make it better. the bipartisan safer communities act addressed issues of straw purchasing which we have discussed before, the terrible death of a chicago policeman because of the straw purchase made in the state of indiana and this situation with the shootings of innocent individuals in hyland park. what have you seen, if anything, that has changed for the better since we passed our law? i think it s very important law and grateful to members who sponsored it and to the overall congress that passed it. done several things for us. first of all it has, as you said, established a stand loan crime for trafficking in illegal weapons. are these being prosecuted? yes. we have already brought trafficking cases and already
whether or not plowing any ground remains to be seen. if there are headlines we ll bring them to you. dana: protestors flooding the steps of the supreme court as the judges heard the cases challenging the student loan hand-out. the justices appeared skeptical of the president s plan. we know that the person with the college degree is going to do significantly financially better over the course of life than the person without. and then along comes the government and tells that person you don t have to pay your loan. nobody is telling the person who is trying to set up the lawn service business that he doesn t have to pay his loan. dana: joining me now is elaine parker, the job creators network that filed suit on behalf of the two borrowers in one of those cases. how do you feel about it yesterday? i think our lawyers did a great job putting forth the