top of the hour. i'm alisyn camerota. >> i'm victor blackwell. we're starting with two pivotal meetings at the white house. first, last hour, president biden met with nine progressives, i believe it's still going on. they're members of congress who are pursuing more programs and spending as parts of their social safety net package. now, later today, he'll meet with a group of moderate democrats who do not want all of those programs, certainly not all the spending. >> we know that the climate change provisions have been on the chopping block for some of the moderates, so today, senator joe manchin said flat out, he will not support a carbon tax in the bill. >> are you okay with a carbon tax? >> no, we have to talk about that. we're not -- the carbon tax is not on the board at all right now, okay. >> with us now, we have cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju, and cnn chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins. we understand you have new reporting about what happened at this caucus lunch today. what was it? >> well, democrats have emerged upbeat after this lunch. just moments ago, chuck schumer, the majority leader said he hopes that they can come to some sort of consensus, maybe an agreement among their own caucus by the end of this week on a top line agreement about what is in this massive expansion of the social safety net bill that has been badly dividing their party for months, progressives and moderates have been on different sides of the equation on the price tag, that details moderates like joe manchin, i'm told the closed door lunch, he spent the entire lunch fielding questions, going back and forth with members about the way forward, and members emerged thinking he could be on board ultimately by the end of the week. there are still so many details that they have to sort out, one of which is also a big detail, kyrsten sinema, the other democratic moderate who has been resisting what the progressives have been pushing, whether she also could get on board behind something that they could sign off on on both wings of the party. i'm told sinema was not in attendance in the lunch. she had her own private audience with the president earlier today as did joe manchin. how they get here from here until then remains to be seen. talking with democrats, they are weary about months and months and months of negotiations. they want a deal to come together, but still they actually have to sign on the dotted line and get behind specifics. we'll see if they can get there. >> so kaitlan, why is it the white house meeting with progressives and moderates together, i mean, why are they holding these meetings in the afternoon, then another meeting in the evening. >> it's a good question. those are the two groups of course that aren't agreeing with each other over how to put the president's economic agenda into law, and those are the two groups they need to agree with one another, they can have an agreement so they can move forward potentially on the other infrastructure bill waiting on a vote and move forward with this. they are not at a point, that does speak to the level of where the talks are. the white house says progress is being made. you see how the meetings are being conducted, largely the way they have over the last southe several weeks. now he's meeting with a group of progressive lawmakers from his party, and then meeting with the moderates, so we asked the white house earlier, why not just have all of these lawmakers in one room. those are the ones they need to hash out an agreement with. this is jen psaki's line of thinking when they have the two separate meetings. >> they aren't duels between factions of the party. there's broad agreement, actually about the vast majority of issues here. the president is basing the approach on five decades of washington, which is a pretty good guide for how to get things done. and he felt these were the appropriate groups. >> he wanted to keep them separate. >> it's important for people to understand, it's not as if these members don't talk to each other in congress or don't have meetings with each other. >> so of course there is still a lot of negotiating happening here. the white house does say they feel they are getting to the final stages of these talks, though of course a big critical piece of this, and that some lawmakers have said they like to see done today which is in agreement on a top line number. yes, there are many other areas in which they disagree, including climate change and what the provisions are going to be around that how do you get there, is there a carbon tax, is there not a carbon tax. they have not agreed on an actual price tag for this bill, and that is going to be a big stepping-stone before they decide the other pieces of what goes in and comes out, and that is not a place they are in yet today as these meetings are happening. >> i guess one woman's duel is another woman's in-person negotiation, but okay. manu, let's switch gears a little bit. we have seen this wave of republicans who are already embracing former president trump for a 2024 run. i know you just went to the minority leader mitch mcconnell's press conference. you asked him about that. is he excited about that possibility? >> it doesn't seem that way. remember, after january 6th, after the president's then former president, his impeachment trial that occurred in the senate, while that trial was ongoing and mitch mcconnell voted to quit donald trump. afte afterwards he said that donald trump was practically and morally responsible for the actions that happened on january 6th. since then trump of course has been attacking mcconnell relentlessly calling for a new republican to lead the senate republican conference, but we have seen republicans embrace donald trump, including at a donor retreat for the senate republican campaign committee in south florida last week. donald trump was the key guest there. also at an iowa rally over just about a week and a half ago, donald trump was there, offering his endorsement to chuck g grassley, who embraced that endorsement. i asked mitch mcconnell if he was comfortable with his colleagues embracing the former president. >> i do think we need to be talking about the future and not the past. i think the american people are focusing on this administration, what it's doing to the country, and it's my hope that the '22 election will be a referendum on the performance of the current administration, not a rehash of suggestions about what may have happened in 2020. >> reporter: so that was a key question, not about what happened in 2020. that's what mitch mcconnell said. he wants the focus to be on biden. of course the former president wants the focus to be on 2020. in fact he even said he hopes that voters will essentially not come out if republicans don't embrace what he has said, his lie that the election was stolen. that is a completely different message from the top two republicans in the party as they try to recapture control both chambers of commerce. he duoesn't want to talk about trump. he wants to talk about the future. >> i don't think senator mcconnell likes that don't vote strategy that president trump is floating. kaitlan collins, manu raju, thank you very much. don't miss a cnn exclusive, president joe biden takes questions from the american people. anderson cooper moderates a cnn presidential town hall with joe biden thursday night at 8:00. we are hours away now from a rare event on capitol hill. the house committee investigating the january 6th attack is preparing a criminal contempt referral against trump ally steve bannon. the last time something like this happened was in the reagan administration. bannon, as you know, is refusing to comply with subpoenas, citing executive privilege. we are learning bannon's attorney tried to delay, but the house committee denied that request. >> more resistance from former president trump himself he. he filed suit against the committee and the national archives. the former president is claiming executive privilege. his attorney's reported stop the steal lawyer who has tried to overturn election results. cnn's ryan nobles is on capitol hill. s explain to us what's going to happen at this committee tonight. >> reporter: there probably won't be too many surprises. the committee is going to gavel for a business meeting at 7:30, there will be a couple of opening statements, they will introduce this report, which will lead to a referral of criminal contempt of steve bannon. they will vote on it, and then it will be sent to the full house. we're not exactly sure when the full house will take that measure up. it could come this week, but possibly in the near future, once the entire house votes on it, it then gets referred to the department of justice who will prosecute the case against steve bannon, and this could be a lengthy process. it will likely end up in a court of law on some level as bannon works to defend exec tutive privilege on behalf of the former president and make the claim that any conversation or any communication that he had with the president while he was president falls under that executive privilege banner. some legal experts raise their eyebrows at that claim because bannon was no longer a federal employee at the time of these communications around january 67th. this is a message the committee is sending not just to bannon but even people they have asked to cooperate with their investigation. they're going to take this seriously. if you do not comply with the subpoenas or requests for information related to january 6th, they are willing to use whatever tool they have at their disposal to compel that cooperation. the first stage of that is tonight. they promised they would use a criminal contempt charge against bannon if necessary, and that is what they're taking action on capitol hill. >> we'll watch it, ryan nobles, thank you. let's turn now to this lawsuit from former president trump. the january 6th committee calls it a move to delay and obstruct, you know, donald trump has filed so many of these lawsuits. let's now bring in cnn editor at large and politics reportser chris cillizza. raise your hand if you're surprised? nobody. >> wait, no. i usually like to raise my hand because i'm polite, but not in this case, victor. let me start. we're going to go through a bunch of lawsuits donald trump has filed since he's been president and since he left the presidency. i want to start with this number, 4,000. donald trump in his professional life, before he became president, so about 30 years, was involved in over 4,000 lawsuits. that's 4,000 more lawsuits than i have been involved in so far. okay. now, let's go through some of these things. this is the one that ryan was just talking about. his sued the january 6th committee over about 40 documents that he doesn't want to release, we assume tied to january 6th that the committee wants. that's one of many. you'll remember this one, maybe one i'll refresh your memory, john bolton wrote a memoir about his time in office. trump sued the publisher to try to delay that publication. that lawsuit filed which, by the way, is another common thread through the lawsuits, they're frivolous or i that fail. good old cnn, i don't know if you remember this, but i do. donald trump threatened -- he had a cease and desist order that he threatened over a poll that showed joe biden beating donald trump during the 2020 election. i'm not sure how legally, i'm no lawyer, but i'm not sure that legally shakes out. we were far from the only people we sued. he threatened to sue the ”the new york times”. he threatened to sue, that lawsuit never happened. let's keep going. he threatened to sue over the philly election offices. so this was satellite office that is philadelphia had set up for people to vote in the 2020 election, because of covid-19 there were more mail-in ballots. they were not letting election officials in due to covid restrictions. donald trump threatened to sue, and of course he threatened to sue robert mueller. this is when he still had twitter. he threatened to sue the special council over a fraud investigation, a hoax investigation, which i will note led to a number of people going to jail and a number of people pleading guilty. the one thing that's not in here, more than a dozen women accused donald trump of inappropriate conduct in the run up to the 2016 campaign. he said he would sue every single one of them once the election ended. he has sued none of them. back to you guys. >> that is really interesting context, chris cillizza. thank you for all of that. let's look at that legal fight ahead for the house committee. peter shane is a law professor at ohio state university and has coauthored several books on executive power, and the separation of powers. mr. shane, great to have you here. so as you know, president trump is suing the house select committee. he wants to basically keep his records from his time secret. here are some of the things that his lawyer objected to today, or yesterday. here it is. for example among the myriad of other documents, the committee has asked for all documents or communications relating in any way to remarks made by donald trump or any other persons on january 6th, including donald trump's and other speakers' public remarks at the rally on the morning of january 6th and twitter messages throughout the day. aren't those really the heart of the matter. if he objects to that, those are the very things that the committee is studying? >> well, first of all, it's great to be with you. and yes, it's clear that the point of the lawsuit is to prevent the committee from getting the documents that will shed light the degree to which the former president was or was not involved in instigating the events that occurred on january 6th. it's going to be an up hill climb just as chris was describing for the prior lawsuits because even though former presidents are allowed to offer claims of executive privilege with regard to documents or transcripts or take place from their own administrations, it's not an absolute privilege, it's a qualified privilege. it has to be balanced against other things, and in this case, you know, the complaint says that congress doesn't have a legitimate interest in this investigation. this is an investigation into an attack on their own workplace. there's no court that's going to find that congress has an insufficient interest in investigating the events of the attack. >> one element we have learned just in the last few hours, that steve bannon's attorney has now asked the committee to hold off on this vote on criminal contempt referral that's supposed to happen this evening. they say because of this new filing. they want him to hold off for a week. the committee denied that, but is that a substantiative request or is that just, you know, par for the course delay and try to push this off as far as possible. >> well, you know, i don't have any private access to their thinking, but if you look at the response mr. bannon has made to this lawsuit, and to this investigation the way the former president is acting in the context of the way president trump and his associates have acted with regard to all prior congressional investigations, i would not be surprised if the presumption on the committee's part is that it's just delay. and remember, the committee vote is just one step, the committee can always say to mr. bannon, look, you know, the fact that we're voting today doesn't mean you're going to jail tomorrow. there will be time enough to continue to negotiate, but we're not staying off step one of the ladder just because it might eventually lead to steps two and three. we want to move forward. >> spoking of going to jail. in a real courtroom, don't we sometimes see, i don't think this is just on the courtroom dramas that we watch. don't we sometimes see a noncompliant witness who is held in contempt of court marched off to a jail cell? >> we do see that. what you're talking about witnessing, though, is typically civil content. what mr. bannon is facing is a charge of criminal contempt that would carry -- it would carry criminal punishment. civil contempt ends when either the official session ends or the person decides to provide the information that's being demanded. withholding -- withholding cooperation when you've been subpoenaed to congress is a crime for which you can be punished even after the investigation is over. and it would require a trial. >> all right. the vote is tonight, and we'll see as ryan nobles says, really not too much surprises that are expected from this vote from the committee. peter shane, thank you so much for the insight. >> you're very welcome. glad to talk with you. the cdc is eyeing a new method to keep kids in school even if they have been exposed to covid, so we will speak to education secretary miguel cardona about this test to stay program next. with clean, fresh ingredients, panera's new chicken sausage and pepperoni flatbread is a mouthwatering explosion of yes. craft? 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you got it. ♪ liberty, liberty - liberty, liberty ♪ uh, i'll settle for something i can dance to. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ ♪ ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ the breaking news into cnn, homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas has tested positive for covid. a departments spokesperson said mayorkas who is ice solating at home is fully vaccinated and experiencing mild congestion. he was scheduled to travel to colombia with antony blinken and his covid test was parts of a routine protocol ahead of the trip. the cdc is considering test to stay programs in schools meaning that students who may have been exposed to covid in school could still attend classes in person rather than having to quarantine as long as they test negative for the virus and exhibit no symptoms. joining us to talk about this and more is education secretary miguel cardona. thank you so much for being here. that would be a game changer for kids who have had some exposure in school, to another kid who tests positive but who themselves they have not tested positive, being able to continue in school would be, i think, a huge relief for the kids and the parents. is that going to happen, and in hindsight, has making them quarantine at home for ten days been a mistake over the past year? >> well, thanks for having me, alisyn, and first off, you know, i send my best to my buddy ali, i hope you're well. and you know, this is an example of what we want to see. we want to see an evolution of strategies and we want to make sure that we're providing the best opportunities for our students to learn in the classroom, and no, i don't think it was a mistake for quarantining. what we're finding is that when students are testing negative, they're able to be back in school, and we have to give them the best opportunity to learn in the classroom. but we also want to make sure we're not compromising safety. we know enough now to know that if a student was around someone that has covid-19 but tests negative that they should be able to have the opportunity to learn in the classroom where they learn best. >> yeah, the reason that i ask if it was a mistake is because we're also getting all of these new data points about mental health, and just how much kids have struggled over the past year plus with isolation and with staying home. i mean, look at these disturbing new findings. this comes to us from the american academy of pediatrics. 24% of kids age 5 through 11 had e.r. visits, in other words, emergency visits for mental health episodes, okay, those are young kids, and then for age, you know, teenagers 12 to 17 year olds, it's 31% for girls. 12 to 17, a 51% increase in the e.r. visits for suspected suicide attempts. that was just, i believe, in the six months at the beginning of the pandemic from march 2020 to october 2020, and so it really has taken a toll on kids. >> it really has, and i appreciate this being, you know, the topic of conversation across the country. our students are in need right now, and those data show the impact of the pandemic on our students, not only academically which is where we tend to focus, but under social and emotional well being. under the need for accessing mental health support, so we're hopeful that districts and states across the country are utilizing those arp dollars to double down on mental health support for our students. they have suffered a lot, and as we reopen our schools, we must reimagine to make sure that social/emotional well being is a part of the programming and we prv provide our educators with training as how to best support our students, it's so important to think of this when we reopen schools. >> obviously it has affected mental health. i want to show you a video from this month. this was a beverly hills school, walk your kid to school day, and this group of angry parents who don't want masks at the school are attacking a group of parents, confronting i should say, confronting a group of parents who want their kids masked at school. so watch this moment. >> traumatizing because you put that mask on him, and don't let him breathe through it. >> that's my choice. that's my choice. >> masking children is child abuse. >> it is. >> you mask your child, you're a child abuser. >> you should choose what goes on your child's face, and in your child's body. this is rape. this is rape. they're trying to rape our children. it's poison. >> i don't know if you can hear some of that rhetoric, but masking your child is child abuse, one parent was saying masking your child is rape was what they were also saying. i mean, do you think that masking kids has affected mental health? >> you know, that video just demonstrates how high emotions are and how hard our educators are working to protect students and staff. despite having -- being threatened or being yelled at. i do believe, i'm going to speak to you first as a father, my own children, the pandemic, them being away from school did, you know, affect their ability to learn, and i can tell you right now, alisyn that they're back, and they're happy and they're thriving because they're back. yes, they have to wear masks, but that's such a small compromise for being able to be with your friends and teachers in person, and i can tell you, in those places where mitigation strategies were not taken as seriously, where the vaccination rates are lower, there are more students at home disrupted learning because they're not doing what they can due to prevent the spread of the virus. believe me, i want masks off too. at this point, it's a small compromise to allow for in-person learning and our students suffered nenough. we really need to think about the students, not the adults. >> what do you think the answer is for how many angry parents we're seeing outs there? >> i think we need to continue to communicate what works. let's lead to the science. we are going to get through this together, and i really want to make sure i'm talking to all families. we need to come together for our students. you know, our country, we're going to get through this pandemic together and our schools are going to be places that are communities for all families. i really want to make sure as we reopen our schools we focus on building community, and stopping that division that you showed me there, and we see in different parts of our country. schools unite folks, education unites our country. >> you know that right now there's just so -- it's so v vitriol. if the fda approves vaccines for 5 to 11-year-olds, will covid-19 vaccines be mandated for those ages. >> those are state decisions. the federal government, i don't have a role in vaccination mandates but what i will tell you as i said earlier, we know what works. we know that when children are protected with the vaccine, they're less likely to have serious symptoms of covid-19. and we know that spread is less so i encourage all who are eligible to get vaccinated, to help not only protect yourself but protect your community. we will bounce back from this, and we will build back better. >> miguel cardona, thank you for your time. >> thank you. haitian kidnappers are demanding $17 million in exchange for the 17 hostages: a million each. 16 of those hostages are americans. we'll tell you the latest on how the fbi is trying to free them. i've spent centuries evolving with the world. that's the nature of being the economy. observing investors choose assets to balance risk and reward. with one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. agile and liquid. a proven protector. an ever-evolving enabler of bold decisions. an asset more relevant than ever before. gold. your strategic advantage. ♪ ♪ don't be fooled by the bike. or judge him by his jacket. while ted's eyes are on the road, his heart stays home. he's got gloria, and 10 grand-babies, to prove it. but his back made weekend rides tough, so ted called on the card that's even tougher. and the medicare coverage trusted by more doctors. medicare from blue cross blue shield. by your side, no matter what. that's the benefit of blue. find your local blue cross and blue shield plan at benefitofblue.com ♪ ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ age-related macular degeneration may lead to severe vision loss, so the national eye institute did 20 years of clinical studies on a formula found in preservision. if it were my vision, i'd ask my doctor about preservision. it's the most studied eye vitamin brand. if it were my vision, i'd look into preservision preservision areds 2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the nei to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. i have amd, it is my vision, so my plan includes preservision. this halloween, xfinity rewards is offering up some spooky-good perks. like the chance to win a universal parks & resorts trip to hollywood or orlando to attend halloween horror nights. or xfinity rewards members, get the inside scoop on halloween kills. just say "watch with" into your voice remote for an exclusive live stream with jamie lee curtis. a q&a with me! join for free on the xfinity app. our thanks your rewards. the hay sitian gang that kidnapped 17 missionaries, 16 of them americans, one canadian is demanding $17 million for their release. haitian officials say they are in contact with the kidnappers and they know where the hostages are. and fbi agents we know are now in haiti assisting with the investigation and the release of those hostages. gary pierre-pierre is a pulitzer prize winning journalist ands founder and publishers of the haitian times. what's been happening in haiti, more than 600 kidnappings in haiti this year, according to a human rights group in port-au-prince. up 300%, but what does this kid that happening tell us about the climate, what is happening in haiti. >> thanks for having me. i think what this represents is a break down of the rule of law in haiti. the gangs have taken control. they have gotten emboldened and feels there's no limit to what they can do. they first started attacking haitians and haitian americans, and now a large group of white americans who they see as high value, ask a ridiculous sum of money for their release and so haiti has been at this, victor, for quite some time, since 2018, haiti has been in a virtual lock down, and then we've seen the situation worsen and with the state being unable to do anything about it, and here we are. >> so tell us about this group, 400 miwoso, what do you know about them, and $17 million to fund what? >> to land in their pockets, that's essentially what it's been about. it's about making money. they feel the state is corrupt, the private sector is corrupt. one thing we have to understand is these gangs were really organized by political parties in haiti, and the private sector to sow terror. they had their own infighting and used the gangs as shock troopers: i feel like they don't need to be somebody's pawn, they can be the king themselves, and they have been playing the role of king maker. essentially what these groups are about, they are about the same thing, they are just operated different areas. for instance, the 400 mawozo operating out of the northeast corner of the port-au-prince capital city. if you want to go to the northern part of haiti, you have to cross that intersection, and that's very dangerous, and their mo is largely going after a large number of people as opposed to individuals. >> so if their goal is not, although you say they had their origins in political parties, it's not political now, how often do these hostage situations end with the releasing of the hostages. i guess i could answer it in the inverse, do they often end fatality. >> very few, very few. i have never heard of a case that the person was shot dead or killed. their motive, principally is money. i know many contacts, many friends who have been kidnapped and relatives got the money together and send the money to haiti, and they were released. they know that. but thousand they're dealing with a different situation with the fbi and the u.s. government whose model is not to negotiate with terrorists of any sort, and so it will be interesting to see what happens in this case. >> so is there any corollary, the history with negotiating with the haitian government, now that we know the fbi is in communication with the group, they know where the hostages are. >> well, i mean, the haitian government itself has negotiated with these terrorists, if you want to call them that. we call them gangs, but they are really terrorizing the country and they have been for quite some time. just on sunday, the prime minister negotiated with them, and they didn't hold up to their part of the bargain. what he wanted to do, he wanted to head over to the grave of the founder of haiti, independence, it was a routine thing that heads of states have done regularly over the centuries, and so they asked the gang to give them money not to disrupt the situation but the prime minister had to flee, okay, because it got so dangerous, and on top of it, one of the gang leaders, okay, barbecue as he's known, went wearing his best sunday whites and laid a wreath at the tomb of the country's founder, so that means a very strong symbol of who's in charge. >> yeah, it's interesting that the prime minister then has to ask for permission to move freely about the country there. gary pierre-pierre, thank you so much. >> thank you, victor. well, despite accusations of discrimination, a judge has ruled that the university of north carolina can continue considering race during its admission process. we have two to four things, legal edition, next. ever rushed to a doctor's appointment and thought: [whispers] "couldn't i do this from home?" only to get inside, where time stands still. 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>> this is a huge decision, and we should say this plaintiffs group have sued other universities, they sued the university of texas, and in 2016, the supreme court withheld the texas admissions policy that allowed them to consider race not as the only factor or sole factor but one of many factors. what these universities do is they consider grades, extracurricular activity, you know, test scores, socioeconomic background and a litany of other things, so i think this decision is huge. we know the university of north carolina, like so many have historically low admission rates for minority students, particularly african-american students and this allows that university to continue to admit students of color that reflect more of what the demographics are of that state and of that university. >> let's move on to this really heartbreaking case of gilani day, an illinois state university grad student. his body was found in the illinois river amid quote unusual circumstances, but the la salle county coroner still has not released the cause or manner of death and just for context, his body was found before gabby petito's, i believe, and he was reported missing before gabby petito, so they sort of happened in parallel, but we don't have answers of what happened with him. >> these stories are so heartbreaking, and one thing we have been talking about a lot with respect to gabby oos case -- gabby's case, and missing white women syndrome. when white women go missing, there's so much media attention, even from law enforcement, different agencies get involved trying to find that missing white woman. the same doesn't have for african-american, latinx, indigenous people who go missing, and this is one of the heartbreaking stories of a young black man who went missing, his family is begging and pleading for the fbi and other law enforcement agencies getting involved and hopefully by you all covering this story and other media outlets will get the t help they need for answers to what happened to their son. >> let's listen to jelani's mother after his funeral. >> he could have been anybody's son, he could have been anybody's brother, anybody's nephew, your cousin, but he was my son, and i want to know what happened jelani, so i need the state's attorney to do what he needs to do to get the fbi involved and find out what happened to my son. >> yeah, and you know, as we've covered this, none of these mothers want people to stop searching for answers in the gabb gabby petito case, just focus on our children too. >> and the mother makes it clear, this is not about saying white people who go missing shouldn't have the full force of law enforcement agencies and media covering the stories, but other kids that go missing, other young adults that go missing need that kind of attention because we know that kind of attention leads to results. gabby's body was found, and we know that there are clues that are found that help them find perpetrators of crimes when they are committed like this. hopefully this mom, you know, gets her prayers answered and the fbi does get involved, the state's attorney gets involved, and we get answers to this case. >> she deserves that. >> areva, great to have you here. disgraced attorney alex murdaugh is denied bond by a south carolina judge. it's just the latest chapter in this string of legal crises. we've got the latest on this case next. but, whatever work becomes, the world works with servicenow. in 2016, i was working at the amazon warehouse when my brother passed away. and a couple of years later, my mother passed away. after taking care of them, i knew that i really wanted to become a nurse. amazon helped me with training and tuition. today, i'm a medical assistant and i'm studying to become a registered nurse. in filipino: you'll always be in my heart. a south carolina judge is denying bond for the disgraced attorney who is accused of stealing millions of settlement dollars from the family of his deceased housekeeper. >> dianne gallagher joins us now. so this saga, as we've discussed, has been so twisted. this is the same man whose wife and son were shot to death. what did we learn at today's hearing? >> yeah, and that's just one of a whole thread that is just unspooling from cases that surround alex murdoch. a judge today denying his bond. the charges stemming from essentially what the state describes as misappropriated wrongful death settlement funds that are related to the 2018 death of gloria saterfield smeep was a murdoch family housekeeper. she helped raise their children. she died after a fall in the murdoch home. now, according to state attorneys, alex murdoch approached the satterfield family at her funeral and said, let me help you out here. i'm going to suggest an attorney. that attorney brokered a $4.3 million settlement. 3 million of which was to go to the satterfield family. according to the state of south carolina, they didn't see a dime of that. instead they say it went into an account that alex murdoch used and spent on other items for his personal use. now the judge did put some stipulations on the denial of bond saying that if he could get a psychiatric evaluation for alex murdoch that satisfied the judge, they could potentially set a bond at a later date. his attorneys have said that murdoch suffered from a decades-long opioid exacerbation. they say that they believe that they can get this done later this week. >> his mental status, i mean, is good. i spent -- jim and i spent a year with him and maggie and paul when apparently he was on oxycontin and opioids and he seems much more clear headed today than i've ever seen him. >> we think we can get him a relatively clean bill of health by the end of this week, next week from a psychiatrist based on the six weeks of examinations he's had by mental health experts at the detox center and rehab facility. >> now the attorney that brokered that deal, his law license has been suspended in the interim as well by the state of south carolina. victor, alisyn? >> dianne gallagher, thank you very much. 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