heartbreak goes so much deeper. at least 25 people are now confirmed dead in mississippi. another person was killed in alabama for perspective in all of this, consider this fact more people have been killed by tornadoes and the past 24 hours than in all of last year in the united states last hour, i spoke with mississippi democratic congressman bennie thompson, whose district includes some of the worst damage from the storm. here s what he had to say. it was devastation beyond imagination. uh first of all, we had no lights in the entire community. uh people were absolutely stunned at what had just occurred. and so as the night wore on, it was clear. that this was something, uh, that people have never seen before. congressman thompson also told us that tomorrow the head of homeland security alejandro mayorkas, will visit the area along with the fema administrator. cnn s nick valencia, is in rolling fork mississippi. nick ah, good to see you back on the air. i know that devasta
sell certain technologies depending on the country, but this is very different. this is the speech of million 150 american million americans, and so i think that s going to have challenges. there s going to be the consumer backlash. um there s all kinds of things. and then there s the forced sale possibility, which is to me, uh , two things the united states stands for is the first amendment in capitalism and so and democracy. and so that s one of the big issues here. it s this. we re not china, and so we can t. they can t just by fiat just decide things and that s where they re going to run into real problems. aside from other delightful speeches, uh at congress in congress last week. and one of the things that came up this past week. tiktok users having some fun at the lawmakers expense for some of the questions that they asked, seemed to suggest that some of these members of congress don t really understand how the internet works, which is not the first time we ve seen evidence of t
democrats and republicans that tiktok user data. will be secure from chinese government spying and joining me now to talk about this is cara swisher. she s a contributing writer for the new york times opinion section and host of the sway podcast. keira were you swayed by anything that took place in this hearing? good to see you. no, no, no. which side which side? i saw congress . you know, it was sort of performative act of things they probably can t do and they didn t really want to learn anything or figure out how to fix it. they just wanted to yell at this ceo who tried his best but really was had a losing hand even before he got there. yeah i have to ask you this. i mean, how much of uh, i stopped you put in this talk of a possible ban and the question the reason why i ask is if this country were to ban tiktok, or slap restrictions on the site. doesn t that set some kind of a precedent for the government to take action against other social media apps in the future? well, it s also
accountability, or do we try to somehow heal the nation? and if the former president is involved in many forms of wrongdoing, and ultimately prosecutors back away? whether it s in new york, or whether the department of justice because they fear that it will be too politically difficult for the nation. what we loses accountability, the guardrails follow away once again. ah politicians see they can get away with a lot and they won t necessarily be blow back in 2030 years from now. we will see a system where these are not things that will destroy politician. you can break clause you can violate ethics. that s the question on the table and get away with it. so a lot is at stake right now, and accountability matters a great deal, and many people think when ford pardoned nixon, it wasn t a successful act that actually failed to achieve the kind of accountability and we re still living with that to this day.
eldrick walker. um, when i went down to the civic center earlier , congress is being a thompson was there. um mayor flags from vicksburg. vicksburg was there people are coming in from all over to help out can tell us what your constituents are telling you, because we have heard some just really heartbreaking stories, people finding their loved ones under the rubble, others who survived without a scratch, even though their neighbors perished. and you know one lady. it was so funny one of my constituents she called me and she was like um, i heard your house was totally destroyed. i said yes, ma am, and she was like, but you out here giving water to us and giving us hot food and i was like, well, that s what we have to do. you know, even though we lost everything this stuff can be replaced material. things can be replaced, but to lose a loved one. it was just heart reaching at least 25 people that death toll likely to go up, and i actually talked to one of the