getting winded. i was using all the energy i had left in me and i came to the point where i was accepting my death. >> an attorney representing a victim who died in the crush of that crowd will join us in just a moment. >> plus, new subpoenas issued by the january 6th insurrection investigators. these subpoenas target top members of then president trump's re-election campaign. many of them helped spread the big lie which fueled the capitol insurrection. will they comply with those subpoenas. and testimony under way right now in the ahmaud arbery murder trial, the prosecution is set to call its fifth witness, officer jake brandon bubrandonbury who to the scene. let's begin with cnn correspondent rosa flores who is following all the latest developments in houston. rosa, at least 18 lawsuits have now been filed in reaction to the events at the astroworld festival. what are they claiming? >> reporter: a lot of these lawsuits are claiming negligence, in essence that the concert organizers put this together, but it was not a safe event to attend. and so there were people who were trampled, and people who died. now, that was the case for donish baig and his family. he was trying to save his fiancee when he died and describing some of the moments, the really tough moments for this family, his family talking to cnn this morning, here's what they said. take a listen. >> i want everyone to know that people who lost their lives shouldn't have lost their lives in this festival. all the parties that were -- that set up this event should be held accountable. it is just -- just for them, just for donish. just for the victims and justice for the families. that's what we want. in terms of that, if that means rules and regulations need to be changed, how they do things, how they act and make these events, they need to do something about it. they have blood on their hands. >> reporter: and all eight victims have been identified. here are their names. 23-year-old pena, 23-year-old franco pa tino, 16-year-old brianna rodriguez, 14-year-old john hilgert, 27-year-old donnish baig, 21-year-old axle acosta avila. some people are still fighting for their lives. that's the case of a 9-year-old who according to his grandfather, he is in a medically induced coma. he has so much trauma to his little body, that most of his organs are damaged including his heart, his liver, his grandfather telling cnn this little boy was with his father at this concert, it was supposed to be a dad and son event where they could spend some time together, and instead he is now fighting for his life. his grandfather saying that the little boy was on his dad's shoulders and i heard this from concertgoers that at some point during this concert, it was very difficult for people to control their bodies because they were just swaying with the crowd, many people describing how they couldn't breathe, and that was the case for this family, erica and jim. this grandfather telling cnn that the father eventually passed out, the little boy was on his shoulders fell on to the crowd, and was eventually transported to the hospital as a john doe later identified and now fighting for his life. >> guess in we hope that little boy turns it around. all the victims so young. rosa flores, thanks so much. let's speak to tony buzzby, an attorney with the law firm that represents the family of one of the victims, axle acosta. good morning. thank you for taking the time this morning. >> good morning. >> you, of course, are representing axle acosta, who lost his life and other concertgoers who were hurt. you described the event as utter chaos. i want to ask you, what specific security failures do you see evidence of? >> well, if you see the video, 2:00 on friday afternoon, when concertgoers crashed the gates, literally, and tore down barrier and ran past security, just to get into the concert venue. you can only imagine how it would have been seven hours later that night, about 9:00, when travis scott went on stage. let's not forget that travis scott, the performer who was performing at the time this all occurred, has been arrested on two different occasions for inciting a riot, for encouraging people to rush the stage, to blow past security, and in this very concert he tweeted before the concert that those people who were not fortunate enough to get a ticket to this sold out show should go ahead and come anyway. that he would sneak them in. it was -- it was just a complete mess. >> the pictures there show just frankly an out of control security situation from early on. i do want to get to the impact of the past charges here, but before we get there, we now know that a detailed operations plan for the festival did not include contingencies for a surging crowd incident. i wonder whose responsibility is such a contingency, the performer and husis team, the venue, both? >> it is those two as well as the promoter, the organizer. security team, the medical team this is supposed to be a joint effort amongst all those entities and it was a complete failure amongst all of them. >> you mentioned that travis scott pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in arkansas, 2018, after he -- police say he encouraged people to rush the stage in a 2017 show. are you aware of any changes that he and his team, his promoter, made following that arrest to address security concerns going forward? or were there no changes? >> no, and in fact, just yesterday, when we talked about this, since those incidents, those two different incidents, we have video of him screaming at the crowd to literally beat someone up. rescue someone that he had directed to get beat up by the crowd. we had other video where he was encouraging someone to jump from the top level into the crowd. at the same time somebody actually fell and was badly injured. nothing has changed. and, in fact, you should know that the police chief of houston met with travis scott before this concert, before he went on, expressing his concerns with some of the rhetoric that scott had let go before the concert. and i mean it was a mess. and this should have been stopped from the very beginning. and what we know for sure is that travis scott continued to perform even after people were being taken away in ambulances. >> i want to ask you this, the harris county judge, linda hidalgo, told my colleague wolf blitzer last naight there was evidence of drug use. counterfillfeit pills possibly d with fentanyl. i'm wondering from a legal perspective, would the presence of drugs or the medical examiner citing drugs as a part of the cause of death, would that affect any legal liability here? >> i don't think it would affect legal liability. certainly it would be something that would have to be dealt with and confronted. and figure out how that happened. i can tell you that, you know, we have taken 50 different statements from people that came in and out of that venue, and there was no screening whatsoever. there was no screening with regard to covid, no screening with regard to what people were bringing into the venue, and apparently people were openly using marijuana, who knows what else drugs were being used there, you know. i'm not sure what we're going to learn from the autopsies. i'm quite confident that mr. acosta will not have any drug use in his system, because this young man did not drink or smoke or do drugs. so we'll see and ferret that out as it goes forward. but it needs to be emphasized that live nation and travis scott have a long history of these types of incidents and we need a full scale change in the united states in the way that concerts are handled, organized, promoted, and the security that is provided when you send -- this could have been anyone's children. this could have been anybody. my own child, two years ago, went to astroworld, it could be anybody. it could happen to anyone and we have to get a handle on this and make these venues safe if we have live music. >> please do pass on our best to the family of axle acosta and those of other victims. our heart goes out to them. thank you for taking the time this morning. >> thank you for that. >> the january 6th committee is significantly ramping up its inquiry into former president trump's inner circle and their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. panel issuing subpoenas to six top members of trump's re-election campaign. trump 2020 campaign manager william stepien, former senior campaign manager, jason miller, angela mccallum, national executive assistant. >> also subpoenaed by the committee, bernhard carrick, the former new york city police commissioner who participated in a meeting at the willard hotel in washington in jansen terred around efforts to overturn the election. john eastman, a trump lawyer who crafted a plan for pressuring then vice president mike pence to invalidate the election results. and there is also trump's form nae er national security adviser michael flynn. joining us now, cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider. tell us what is next for these six top trump advisers, big question is do we expect cooperation or do we expect them to fight the subpoenas as some others have? >> they might fight it like we have seen the others fight it. but first deadline for the six to comply is actually just two weeks away. the committee is demanding documents by november 23rd, they scheduled depositions for the last week of november, and the first week of december, each of these six, the committee says, has key insight and information about efforts to promote the big lie, the election was stolen and several were actually involved in key meetings involving those efforts to further push those false election fraud claims. there is the breakdown of the deadlines for each, but as we have seen from other trump administration officials, that the committee has subpoenaed these deadlines could easily slide, even if they start engaging with the committee in working with them to supply information. we have seen that from some other trump officials and allies, but, of course, the defiance of steve bannon looms, even though the justice department still has not acted on the criminal referral. all these six people, these are people who were and are very close to former president trump. so we'll see if the former president puts pressure on them not to comply as we have seen them do with other former officials and people like steve bannon. now, the only person we have heard from so far is bernie kerik, the former new york city police commissioner, now aligned with donald trump, kerik paid for rooms and sweets at the willard hotel in washington, a spot that served as election related command centers and kerik also worked with rudy giuliani to investigate those baseless allegations of voter fraud. so here's what bernie kerik said in a statement to cnn last night. i will not be threatened, intimidated, forced into bankruptcy or silenced at the hands of this committee for not looking for truth, but targeting patriots and members of the president's legal team that wanted nothing more than to investigate and expose those irregularities. jim and erica, we are already seeing defiance from the one person so far in this batch of six who has responded at least publicly now to these subpoenas being issued. we'll see what else comes from the other five. guys? >> jessica schneider, thank you. also with us, former federal prosecutor laura coates. based on what we know, as jessica said, the defiance of steve bannon looms. even just what we heard in that statement there from bernie kerik, any expectation that any of that's six will comply. >> the chest thumping continues, doesn't it? the idea is why it puts more pressure on the attorney general merrick garland who as of right now they have yet to indict steve bannon on acting on the idea of thumbing his nose at a congressional subpoena. as long as that happens, as long as there is no consequence to the idea you can just say, no, i don't feel like showing up, i'm not going to show up, you have to prove to me you have some basis to be able to subpoena me, they hav is really incumbent up the justice department to figure out if they're going to fish or cut bait. >> where does the justice department stand? do you have any sense of whether they have a leaning here, and how long it will take to make a decision. as you know well, dragging the process out is part of the strategy here. and if one can drag it out, and wait for the justice department to decide, so can others. >> it will have a domino effect. remember, this is not a case where you got complicated facts at play. the assertion of executive privilege, none of these people were part of the administration, it is still this red herring, it does not apply, you're talking about for a former president, it is not settled, really people who have not actually been in the administration who have even relinquished the privilege by speaking about it quite openly through either podcasting or other means, essentially that removes any hope of the privilege. you have here the idea of it is important to be deliberatiiive about the process. you have a subpoena that was issued. subpoena. it is for the average case load and average drug case, for example, a homicide investigation, the idea of not showing up and being responsible and supplying to the subpoena would not be a weeks long task to get that indict edindicted. i'm curious to figure out what are the delays. i hope it is not a political reason because that would be nonsensical, unethical and impractical. >> well, listen, big questions continue, can the system respond to this kind of threat? still to be tested, laura coates, thanks so much. a sitting republican congressman sends out an altered anime, japanese animation video, showing him attacking the president and congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. now there are calls to suspend his twitter account. the prosecution could wrap up its case today in the trial of kyle rittenhouse. details on the tense cross examination of the emt shot by rittenhouse and survived. later, a group of senate democrats asking biden to act to bring down gas prices. but how much can the president really do? ♪ 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. ♪ i'll shoot you an estimate as soon as i get back to the office. hey, i can help you do that right now. high thryv! thryv? yep. i'm the all-in-one management software built for small business. high thryv! ow. get a free demo at thryv.com. what happens if you ever need to miss work for a long period of time? 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what's an office? or solving a workplace challenge that's yet to come. whatever the new world of work takes your business, the world works with servicenow. president biden is expressing optimism that congress will pass the second part of his economic agenda. that $1.75 trillion social safety net bill. it is optimism that comes with a healthy dose of reality it will likely be a tough fight. >> will there be changes made in the coming weeks? jeff zeleny is outside the white house this morning. jeff, the president is waiting a few days to sign the infrastructure bill that passed congress the end of last week. what event is he waiting for? >> reporter: he's waiting simply for senators and representatives to come back to washington. congress is on their recess this week, which means the vast majority of this bipartisan group has left town. the president, of course, spent the majority of his time in the senate, wants there to be a big event here at the white house. he wants to shine a light on the fact that 19 republicans in the senate and 13 republicans in the house joined virtually all democrats to vote for this bill. the white house wants to give a little attention to this. the reason why is his approval rating, he knows the american people are not necessarily understanding everything that is in this bill. the white house believes that by biden beginning to explain it, they can begin to make the case. you can see the approval ratings right there. look at the strongly disapprove. 36%. when you add up the disapprove, it is 51%. and the approval, of course, is 48%. so not a big difference there. the intensity of the disapproval certainly is something that is of concern to the white house and, of course, that is one of the things that the president going to the port of baltimore tomorrow to make the case again for why all this legislation is good, but the white house has a sales job, they know it. that's why they're waiting until next week to sign this big bill. >> sometimes a little spectacle, big part of washington, jeff zeleny at the white house, thanks so much. this morning, twitter is facing intense pressure to suspend the account of one of former president trump's fiercest defenders in congress. sunday night congressman paul gosar posted a photo shopped anime video that depicted him, hearing this right, killing congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. it also showed gosar attacking president biden with two swords. >> cnn correspondent donie o'sullivan joining us now. it is interesting, twitter flagged this video last night, but decided not to take it down. why? >> that's right. if a regular user, a nonelected person was to tweeted this video, probably would have gotten taken down, probably suspended from the platform. twitter has different rules for politicians. and they flagged this tweet from gosar as essentially saying that it violated their rules about hateful conduct, but it determined that it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible. basically, the argument here on twitter side being that they know this is hateful, potentially dangerous stuff, but they want to show it for what it is. that is one argument. others will say, well, this is also ginning up the base and it is dangerous. so it should be taken down. we're pointing out here that gosar also posted this video on instagram, which is owned by facebook, which, of course, is now called meta. facebook has done nothing about it. hasn't responded to our questions. we contacted them last night. but i guess this also comes back to the point, of course, that of course these platforms have responsibility and it is right we ask them questions of what they're doing. but also just rather remarkable that a member of congress is sharing something like this. take a look at what aoc responded. she described gosar as a creepy member of congress, shared a fantasy video of him killing me and he'll face no consequences because kevin mccarthy cheers him on. gop leader cheers him on with excuses. without excuses. so, you know, it comes back to, i guess, there is responsibility here on the person who is sharing it, the part of the platforms and on republicans to call this sort of thing out. and final point i should also mention is that the -- gosar's staff told the washington post that this is a cartoon, don't need to be worried about it, don't take things so seriously, and i expect we will see a lot of people very upset about big bird getting vaccinated over the weekend now defending this as just a cartoon. >> yes, those people who are upset about big byird are misinformed in their reaction to it, thinking he was doing it on his own without input from grannie bird. don't let the facts get in the way. >> can we leave big bird alone? >> no, they can't. they can't. donie, thank you. >> thank you. still ahead, the jury sees graphic images of ahmaud arbery's gunshot wounds and now prosecutors set to call their fifth witness to the stand. we're live outside the courtroom next. and we're moments away from the opening bell on wall street, futures relatively flat this morning after both the dow and s&p closed at record highs yet again yesterday. the federal reserve warned that real estate troubles in china could potentially spill over to the global economy including here in the u.s. investors are keeping a close eye on china, as well as infrastructure related stocks which you're seeing a boost after the house passed president biden's infrastructure bill last week. we're watching all of it. power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools, and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24/7 support when you need it the most. plus, zero-dollar commissions for online u.s. listed stocks. 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>> no, man. >> did brian ever say he was trying to arrest ahmaud for criminal trespass? >> no, ma'am. >> loitering? >> no, ma'am. >> burglary? >> didn't mention it. >> attempted burglary? >> no, ma'am. >> aggravated assault? >> no. >> anything? >> no ma'am. >> and did brian ever say that he told ahmaud that ahmaud was under arrest for anything? >> no, ma'am. >> cnn's ryan young is live in brunswick, georgia, this morning. what more do we expect to hear from this fifth witness today? >> reporter: well, good morning. right now the trial is just starting. they already have taken the first break sort of because there is a back and forth between the attorneys and the judge right now. the officer who arrived on scene, who was tasked with talking to greg mcmichael, his name is jake brandonbury, the first time ever in front of a court setting. they were getting ready to play his body camera and the defense said they don't want all the body camera being played. the judge looked annoyed, asked the jury to step out. this is all playing out. let's not forget yesterday was one of the days where the first officer who arrived on scene was describing what he saw as soon as he arrived and we had his body camera video and you saw he didn't render aid to ahmaud arbery on the ground, he said he was worried about his safety. and there was the conversation that happened around that body, saying where people admitted they blocked him five times before the shooting happened. we're supposed to get more video. this is really sort of being pieced together by the mosaic of video, not only the video taken as he was being chased and the video from the officers, all this is going on, but just think about this, there is a mother sitting in that court who had to watch this terrifying video. those pictures that we saw yesterday were quite hard to see and people who were in the jury were wrestling in their seats when they saw those pictures. but take a listen to ahmaud arbery's mother talk about why she was here in court and what she saw when she looked at that video. >> i avoided the video because i didn't think i can take it. but then the trial started and i knew it was time for me to get familiar with it because i was going to see it over and over again. i hope the jury sees what the world sees, ahmaud hadn't committed a crime, he was simply out for a jog. he did stop by that unoccupied home, but, again, ahmaud didn't commit a crime. and ahmaud was chased and eventually killed. >> reporter: you think about yesterday and that testimony that lasted for more than four and a half hours, that one officer, so now we have another officer today, things are just getting ready to get started with this body camera video. we had the delay because the defense said they don't want that body camera being played. something we'll continue to watch and, of course, if something pops up, we'll let you know. they stepped out of court in terms of the jury and they're going to move this forward after having some discussion about more body camera being played. >> that poor mother ryan young, good to have you there, and we are watching live pictures here from inside that courtroom. as we do, let's before i in attorney and cnn political commentator bakari sellers. i'm curious how the citizens arest law plays into this. we should note it has been largely repealed since because of this case, but it was the law at the time. what was behind that, and, you know, what relevance does it have in your view as a lawyer to the prosecution and the defense? >> i think that the defense in this case are going to hang their hat on that antiquated outdated law which breeds vigilanteism. and most people have gotten rid of it, most states have gotten rid of the ability to do these type of citizens arests because of incidents just like this. what you have is a young black boy out running, who visited an unoccupied home, and, if that's a crime, like i say often, my wife and i, we go through houses and look and see what people are doing, people are walking through the house we're doing right now. people do this quite often. but for it to end with the death penalty, which is what these three men carried out, is a fundamental problem. even if you do have the ability to commence a citizens arrest, you don't have the ability to hand out the punishment in the most severe form they did, murdering ahmaud arbery. >> and also based on what we heard yesterday and that little bit of sound that ryan played for us, that line of questioning, right, that the officer who arrived on the scene testified that william bryant never told him he was trying to make a citizens arest. yet this is one of the two key points for the defense, the other one self-defense. the officer also talking about how this truck chased him five times. everything that is being laid out, if you're the prosecution, you're trying to poke holes in the defense. but this is -- does not bode well just based on what we're seeing at this point at the argument we're expecting to see. >> yeah, but pardon my being jaded, i think, by reality in this case, and pardon me for just being somewhat cynical because i recall that these facts were laid out for two different prosecutors, which both declined to prosecute this case, even before charges were brought. look at the makeup of this jury. this is still going to be an uphill battle for justice. i do agree with you. i think the prosecution is laying out a brilliant case. they're poking holes in this theory of self-defense, they're poking holes in this theory of commencing a citizens arrest. but it is still very early in this trial. and this is still going to be very difficult convictions to get, however we're prayerful that justice is had in this case. >> i arhave to ask you, you bri up the idea of vigilanteism as it relates to the arbery case. it is relevant to the other case we're watching, kyle rittenhouse. 17-year-old from out of state, drives up to events out of his own state to self-appoint himself as a lawman, right, in the midst of protests and looting there. how does the law treat that case? specific circumstances, but also what led to this, right, the idea that anybody can pick up a gun and go somewhere else and say, hey, i'll help the cops. >> yeah, i mean, i think what you're outlining here is what i used to hate in law school, the slippery slope argument, where does this stop? let's look at both cases, there are two key facts in both cases i want to point out. the first is that if you recall in ahmaud arbery case this was videotaped, like, they literally took their phone out and began to record this, there was some level of premeditation going into that. if you look at the rittenhouse case, he crossed state lines. his mama drove him across state lines, dropped him off, so that he could help the cops and do whatever he thought he was doing, and the only person who fired shots that night was rittenhouse. but we're seeing this somewhat unequal doling out of justice and right now it is left up to juries of our peers and two separate parts of the country, and let me tell you, i'm fearful that both of these will come down -- not guilties, just because of, again, as i told erica earlier in my jaded sense of reality. >> you're also seeing frustration, i think, with not only the makeup of the jury you're seeing there in georgia, but also the comments as we know from the judge in wisconsin related to not even using the term alleged victims. there is a lot here, not done looking. bakari, thank you. >> thank you for having me. up next, pressure on president biden to respond as gas prices, which you have likely noticed, hit a seven-year high. so what can he do? 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tums vs. mozzarella stick when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast heartburn relief in every bite. crunchy outside, chewy inside. ♪ tums, tums, tums, tums ♪ tums chewy bites your table could be a rlitte bit more crowded this thanksgiving. aaa expecting more than 53 million people will travel for the holiday this year. that despite gas prices hitting seven-year highs. people happy they can get together again. >> can't wait for the political conversations at the thanksgiving table. those are going to be awesome across the board. cnn's aviation and transportation correspondent pete muntean at a gas station outside washington this morning. so what is the preference here? better to fly, better to drive? >> reporter: maybe better to fly. those numbers also off the charts. 48 million people will drive. the vast majority of folks, and really the big headline is this is going to feel more like 2019, rather than 2020, in fact the numbers aaa anticipates for driving are really not all that far off from 2019, 3% difference. so the big headline is the traffic will be back, jim, also the cost of driving will be back. don't get used to the 2020 gas prices that you paid last year. it has gone up $1.30 since. gas prices hit a seven-year high. what is so interesting is aaa anticipates people will still hit the road and in spite of that. >> we're close to prepandemic numbers. so we're telling people, look, you're going to find lines at the airport. it is just inevitable. get there, that old-fashioned two hours early, and if it is an international flight, three hours early. >> reporter: so the national average for a gallon of gas, $3.42. $3.27 here in alexandria, virginia. aaa says the gas prices are really not being driven up by the demand on the horizon, it is more about the supply. they think oil producing nations are constricting the supply a little bit because they're trying to recoup their pandemic losses. so we'll see how high the numbers get by thanksgiving, john. >> that's how cartels work. pete muntean, thanks so much. new this morning, a group of senate democrats are calling on president biden to fight or do what he can to fight rising gas prices. in a letter to the president, the 11 senators said the seven-year high in gas prices has, quote, placed an undue burden on families and small businesses. >> -- urging biden to consider releasing barrel from the nation's emergency oil reserves or taking the more extreme step of banning oil exports. cnn business reporter matt egan is following all of this for us. matt, in this letter, they're specifically pointing out things that they think can be done. there is also a reality of what that actually would result in, in terms of prices. walk us through that. >> erica and jim, alarm bells have got to be ringing in the white house over prices at the pump. now the president is under pressure from his own party to do something. elizabeth warren, and other democrats, they're calling for the president to use all available tools, including releasing barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve, or even banning oil exports. let me read you a key line from this letter from democrats. they wrote continued u.s. exports in overseas supply collusion could be devastating to many in our states contributing to higher bills for american families. and businesses. but, you know, unfortunately the president does not have a magic wand to lower gas prices. that's just not the way it works. now, nonetheless, we could still see the president act here. we could see a release from the strategic petroleum reserve. but industry experts that i'm talking to, they don't think that's going to have a lasting impact on prices, which you can see have gone up and really recovered after going negative in april of 2020. that's because a release from spr won't get at the underlying problem. another idea is that maybe the u.s. is not going to act alone here, maybe other oil consuming countries in asia and europe, maybe they're going to release barrels as well. that could are a bigger impact and also used as an energy diplomacy tool, saying either you act or we will to opec. and if you don't act and we do, you're not going to be getting those -- that oil revenue. we could see that as well. clearly the president is under pressure here to do something, but there is no easy options. >> yeah. >> no easy options. it is painful, though, i have to say when i filled up my car over the weekend. americans get the pain, we'll see what happens next. appreciate it, thank you. >> thanks. up next, can't tell by the smiling faces, the focus this morning on the astronauts who came back from a six-month mission in space, not really on the time up there, it is about their journey home and the need for diapers. a live report is next. ♪ ♪ 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. ♪ bipolar 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