house minority leader hakeem jefferys. happy new year to you. happy new year to you, my friend. absolutely. i want to welcome everybody to the beat, and i wish you a happy new year as well on our first show of 2023. so, thank you for starting the new year with us. now, we are already tracking new developments tonight. i have a special report coming up about the pressure on d.o.j. to act on the evidence that is in that lengthy january 6th report which dropped heading into the holiday period. while our stop story is the election eve, of sorts, in washington. democrats expanding their power in the senate and republicans taking over the house where the faces of each caucus leader here actually reveal a lot about the state of these parties. hakeem jeffries replacing nancy pelosi with a show of democratic unity, while republican kevin mccarthy is in the fight of his career as his own close allies now find it hard to see a path for him to win tomorrow. mccarthy facing down r
very different timelines when it comes to the appointment of a special counsel when it comes to the handling of classified documents. merrick garland appointed a special counsel to investigate the handling of some classified documents. his appointment follows the development that a second set of classified documents were found, these in a storage space in the garage of president biden s home in wilmington, delaware. the president s lawyer said it was a small number of documents. watch. on january 5th, 2023, mr. laush briefed me on the results of his initial investigation and advised me that further investigation by a special counsel was warranted. based on mr. laush s initial investigation, i concluded that under the special counsel regulations, it was in the public interest to appoint a special counsel. as i have said before, i strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity, but under the regulations, the extraord
a to do list including sop of the most precedent setting decisions as they prepare to present closing arguments. add to that list what to do with the mountain of evidence they have accumulated specifically about donald trump s role, hands-on role as the driving force behind the campaign to overturn the 2020 election. one that would ultimately endanger his own vice president and members of congress. here s what committee chairman bennie thompson said about this when speaking to reporters on tuesday. i think now that the department of justice is being proactive, i think it s time for the committee to determine whether or not the information can be beneficial to that investigation. so thompson added in that press avail that the committee will issue an interim report in october followed by a final report by the committee at the end of the year. all the vital work by the the select committee happens as the existential threat to democracy posed by trump and his big lie, a threa
Im back tomorrow. The lead with jake tapper starts after a short break. Donald trump heading to the scene of the january 6th crimes. The lead starts right now. Sources tell cnn that the former president wants to go to capitol hill, where he wants to add his two cents on the debate over who should be the next speaker of the house. Do republican lawmakers want him there . Ill talk to a republican who has been in touch with him this week. Plus, one of the deadliest strikes in ukraine since the beginning of russias invasion. A horrific scene of putins war. More than 50 civilians killed after a Missile Strike Hit a grocery store. But first, for years, donald trump said build the wall. Now its President Biden picking up on the new construction. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. Im going to start today with our world lead. A number of developments happening right now, including the Immigration Crisis and the chaos at the u. S. Southern border. In moments, were going hear from top Biden Cab
cart in georgia. it s going to weigh on his campaign, and now we see the special counsel being announced for hunter biden. and and so this is going to be a big issue. and most importantly, it s going to be a distraction for the candidates themselves. but notably, joe biden is not under investigation, and there s been no ed that s come forward to can evidence to suggest that he s committed any griff: we don t know that s true, it s going to be hard for him to see his son going through this. i think what s important is jack smith, both when he announced the indictment on the classified documents case and the january 6th crimes, he said he s innocent until proven gl. the same holds true for joe biden excuse me, for hunter biden. he s innocent until proven guilty. it s good that we have special counsels in both cases, and let s let them do their job. let s let the process of rule of law play out, and let s try not to let it be a distraction. it s going to really weigh on the cand