in the senate. all these candidates talking with voters and somebody not even on the ballot loom over one race. what will today s election tell us about donald trump s influence and the future of both parties? also this thundershower you have president biden back at the white house after speaking in buffalo, where he said democracy s in danger after that deadly racist attack. and he s calling out people who spread and profit off the so-called great replaisment theory. we ve got a context check on where that theory came from, and we re live in buffalo and on the hill with congress setting up a showdown over domestic terrorism. this just coming in from michigan on the state s abortion law there and what would happen in roe vs. wade is overturned. we re going to tell you what it says and what happens next from here. i m hallie jackson from washington. i want to bring in our team who s following that election in pennsylvania, because voters are voting. senior political editor
Of the uks biggest newspapers. Even though its been debunked, it still popped up today as Cricket Thanks for joining us. The news continues right here on cnn its thursday, may 23, right now on cnn this morning, another controversial flag one flown by rioters on january 6, seen flying outside of home owned by Supreme Court Justice Samuel alito, plus a strong gust of wind causes a stage to collapse in mexico, the death toll is now rising and nikki haley announcing shell vote for donald trump. And offering some advice for the former president 5 00 a. M. Here in washington, alive. Look at tahoe on this thursday morning. Morning, everyone, im kasie hunt its wonderful to have you with us. Another provocative flags outside of home belonging to Supreme Court Justice Samuel alito, causing new controversy this morning, the New York Times was first to report the appeal to heaven flag that was seen on display at alitos newark, new jersey Vacation Home last summer. The flag dates back to the Revolu
as mark said, this state overwhelmingly votes the day of. they are using those resources to contact those very voters and get them out to the poles. kathy barnette, that operation didn t exist. yes, she worked hard the last 13 months going from county gop events to churches herself. but i was talking about a national adviser that came in literally four days ago, hallie, and said none of that was in place. there was no phone contact list to reach out to. so they have some volunteers who are trying to get out through neighborhoods at the same time that doesn t exist. but if kathy barnette pulls it off, it will speak to, hallie, and the west virginia we ll be having tomorrow is just how strong the gop group is that through social media alone they were able to turn out the vote for kathy barnette. let s not forget the stakes of this race here, particularly about the senate race on the republican side, but also the democratic side. julia, as you well know, as all
reporters and he joins me now. matthew, maybe you could just start with describing what your initial reporting uncovered about what you termed an influence operation by the emeratis. yeah, thanks, chris, for having me. what we found was that the u.s. government and u.s. intelligence community had discovered that rasheed al malik was acting as an intelligence agent for the head of the intelligence service and that his job was to conduct it s not espionage in the sense that he was a spy trying to pull secrets out as much as he was trying to gain access to the trump white house and assert emerati influence into trump s the trump administration s foreign policy, in particular with the middle east. and he used his relationship with tom barrack, which went
tom barrack, which went back a few years in real estate, as the means to do it. and so what we reported was that the emerati had looked at the trump administration early on and decided that what they were gonna do is to use healthy emerati business people to try to get them into trump s inner circle and rashida who was also charged yesterday with tom barrack, you should note for the same thing, for acting as a foreign agent without registering with the government. this influence operation didn t seem that secretive in some ways in so far as the presence of saudi and emerati interests were swirling around the administration and they were constantly doing things that seem to be favorable to the saudis and emiratis, they famously went to saudi arabia first.