that's why they're talking about extremely severe economic sanctions, including unplugging russia from the global financial system, which would be a very serious step to take, and you don't know how russia would react to that. but we've seen that it's very difficult given the fact that the united states is not prepared to commit troops to resist russian aggression in ukraine, it's very difficult to stop. george w. bush couldn't stop it. barack obama couldn't stop it. donald trump didn't want to stop it. and by the way, that's part of the political backdrop of this call. remember, russia assisted donald trump's campaign in 2016. donald trump then responded by trying to shield russia by suggesting maybe ukraine was responsible. and he also tried to pressure the ukrainian president, who vladimir putin is now trying to destabilize, to dig up dirt on joe biden. the president refused, and of course that resulted in president trump's impeachment. so a big political backdrop to the call in addition to the national security issues. >> it certainly is. you set it up well for us. ambassador, the u.s. is weighing new sanctions against putin's inner circle in russia invades ukraine. how likely do you think it is that russia will invade, and how would you describe the threat level at this point, at this moment? >> don, i'd say the threat level is very high because in answer to your first question, it's hard to say. no one can get inside mr. putin's mind. he's invaded ukraine before, so we know he can do it. he can make that decision. my bet is he hasn't decided which way to go. he must know that a decision to invade will be very costly not just in the way that john just described, that is, the sanctions that probably would be imposed on russia, but also just in terms of soldiers dying, russian soldiers dying. the ukrainian military is much stronger now than it was seven years ago when russia first invaded. it is better equipped. it's better trained. it's got better weapons. we have provided lethal weapons to the ukrainians. so it will be bloody if he decides to do that. on the other hand, he sees ukraine kind of slipping out of his grasp, and it's only going in one direction. so time's not on his side. so in answer to your first question, i'd say 50-50, and they need to be prepared. >> interesting. john, the white house is confirming today that the biden administration will have a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 beijing winter olympics over china's human rights abuses. but athletes are still going to be going there. will this really pressure the chinese government, and how do you think they're going to respond to this? >> not all that much. you know, it will create some bad publicity for the chinese, but it's not going to fundamentally disrupt the games in a significant way, and i think there's a reason for that. joe biden was in the senate when jimmy carter in 1980 decided to boycott the olympics in moscow over russia's invasion -- aggression in afghanistan. that did not work out particularly well for jimmy carter. it became a bit of a political albatross, and i think joe biden's not interested in that. so you heard jen psaki from the white house podium say today, we support u.s. athletes. we're not going to wreck all their years of training. so they take the step of not sending diplomats. that gets noticed. it shines a spotlight on some of those human rights issues. we'll see whether or not in beijing, the u.s. athletes raise those issues as well. but i think this is a modest step. >> russia is building up to menace ukraine and china. china is acting more aggressive than ever towards taiwan. do leaders like putin and xi believe that the u.s. is too caught up with domestic issues to step in, and are they right? >> i don't think they believe that the u.s. is diverted to only domestic issues. i do think, however, that the chinese are watching the united states response to president putin's threat against ukraine. i think the chinese will be interested to see how strongly, what kind of pressure the united states can put out, what kind of cost the united states can impose on russia if they do invade because the chinese have this, as we know, have designs on taiwan. and if they see that the united states is trying to accommodate the russians, is trying to appease the russians, the chinese will take a lesson. >> ambassador, thank you. john, i appreciate it. so i want to turn now to cnn's exclusive reporting. the former chief of staff to the former vice president mike pence, marc short, is cooperating with the committee investigating january 6th. joining me, elie honig and charlie dent. good to see both of you. elie, let's begin with you. you say that marc short could end up being a huge witness. he was in the capitol with pence on january 6th and at a key oval office meeting on january 4th where trump tried to convince pence to overturn the election results. what do you think short can tell this committee, elie? >> well, don, marc short and witnesses like him may be the committee's most realistic chance to get a firsthand, full, and truthful account of what was happening in those key days and meetings leading up to january 6th and also what was happening on january 6th, what it was like to be side by side with mike pence when he was getting ushered out of the senate chamber as that mob attacked. so i think marc short is going to be a crucial witness here. look, the committee has put a lot of focus on its battles with bannon and jeffrey clark and soon probably michael flynn and roger stone. but let's be realistic here. those people are never going to testify fully and truthfully. it's going to have to fall to people like marc short to tell us the real story here. >> charlie, short is a key figure working with the committee. there are so many others who are stonewalling, exerting executive pilgrimage or pleading the fifth. how important do you think this testimony will be in getting to the truth? >> i think marc short's testimony will be extraordinarily important. what's most interesting is he seems to be a friendly witness. it also seems to be pretty evident that he's doing this with the blessing of his boss and friend, mike pence. as elie just said, marc short was in the room, in the white house and with the vice president in the capitol, and was of course working with the vice president to make sure that the election was, in fact, certified. so i think there's a lot of information to be gotten from marc short. we're going to learn a lot from him and probably learn a lot about the president's state of mind and the actions of john eastman and others in the white house who came up with these crackpot legal theories to try to overturn the outcome of the election. >> more from jamie's reporting here, elie. a source is telling jamie gangel that the committee is getting significant cooperation from pence's team. is the committee taking advantage of a rift here? it's kind of similar to what charlie just answered. >> exactly. that's exactly what i would do, looking at this from a prosecutorial angle or an investigative angle. that's what you have to do. you have to look at really two questions. does the person have access? and when you look at marc short, he was literally in the room on key occasions. the second thing is what's the motivation here? where does the loyalty sit? clearly marc short and other people around mike pence, their loyalty is to mike pence, and it seems at least some of them, the loyalty is to telling the true story of what happened as opposed to the true diehard maga types who are going to go down in flames to protect donald trump. there's a key distinction and the think the committee is right to focus on that and try and get whatever information they can out of that rift. >> charlie -- i almost called you marc, charlie. >> i got more hair. >> good one. do you think short would be cooperating if he didn't get the go-ahead from pence? you said you think he's doing it with his blessing. are you sure about that? >> well, i can't be completely sure, but i think marc short would do it anyway. but i'm just looking at the politics of this situation. i think mike pence, you know, wants to secure his place in history as the guy who stood up -- >> he does, but at times it seems like he's speaking up for the president, i'm very proud of what i did, the lean in, in the pence voice. go on. >> that's true. yes, he was very obsequious to president trump up until this moment. then, you know, he and marc short and a few of the other advisers, they did the right thing when they had to. they pushed back, and i think they want to get the story out. i think it's pretty evident too that mike pence may want to run for president at some point. whether he'll be successful or not, i have no idea. but the good news for him, he can put out a narrative, the truth from his perspective, and there's no better person to do that than a loyalist like marc short, who is first loyal to the vice president, far more than to president trump. so i think this is really -- i absolutely believe that short is doing this with the blessing of the vice president. whether the vice president will admit that or not, we'll probably never know. >> obsequious is the perfect word for the relationship between -- you know, pence's relationship with trump. that was the perfect definition or description there. listen, charlie, we know pence has aspirations, right, to run for president? most people, they want to be president. they don't want to be vice president. it's good. look at the current president now. is the report that points the finger to trump and his allies something that he could be amen anticipating? >> i think if you're going to run against donald trump for president, especially if you're vice president pence, you have to draw a hard contrast. i don't think anybody wants to be a mini trump if they're running. they have to draw a hard co contrast. they were on completely opposite sides of the election certification. trump did the right thing, and trump was trying to obviously do the wrong thing. i think this is a case where pence can show some difference. there's some daylight between trump and pence on this issue. so if i were mike pence and i wanted to run, i'm going to need to find some separation issues. >> it's not just separation. don't you think if you're going to go after the king, you got to wound him pretty good because he's going to come after you, especially this character. >> that's what they say. if you're going to kill the king, you better kill the king. >> we mean that as a metaphor. >> figuratively speaking, exactly. but, look, he's got to take him down. all these people who are running against donald trump in the previous elections, you know, in 2016, they really didn't try to lay a glove on him too much. they thought somehow he was going to implode. but in a campaign, you have to draw a sharp contrast, and you have to explain why the other guy is unfit and why are you fit. there's no shortcutting this. >> i'll tell you what my prediction is for all of this off camera and we'll see if it comes true. elie, the committee is engaged in legal and political battles with people like steve bannon and jeffrey clark and may not get anything useful from them. can people like marc short provide enough information to get to real conclusions about who's responsible for that day? >> well, don, one of the realities of any complex investigation is you're never going to get all of the facts. and i think the committee's right to take on the fights that they've taken on and to play hardball with steve bannon and i think potentially soon jeffrey clark and mark meadows. i think they have to do that. they can't let these folks sort of wriggle away and give them nothing. that said, you still have people in the key rooms at the key times who i think have a sense of duty, enough of a sense of patriotism, perhaps enough of a fear of being held in contempt, that they're going to do the right thing and tell us what happened. so maybe that january 4th oval office meeting, look, we're not going to hear from donald trump. we're not going to hear from mike pence. we're not going to hear from john eastman. but the fourth person in that room was marc short. he can tell the committee what happened in that room. if you attack it that way, i do think you can get towards the truth here. >> charlie, elie, thank you very much, sirs. see you soon. obviously from our previous conversation, the warning lights are blinking red for our democracy, and time is running out to make sure the next election is truly secure. if january 6th was a trial run, will they succeed next time? 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>> no, but i actually did help a lot of them. >> reporter: election officials from both parties stood up to trump in 2020. but democracy advocates aren't convinced these election skeptics would do the same. >> what we're seeing is the use of out and out lies spreading across the country to change the way elections are run in this country. really a global model for how elections should be run is now being undermined and in some cases hijacked. >> reporter: when trump hopes state legislators would seat alternate electors and overturn biden's victory -- now state representative matt mat okay wants to be state's next gop house leader. >> we've got about a handful of legislators in michigan that are going to be sending a letter to vice president pence today telling him not to certify the michigan electors. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: after secretaries of state stood up to trump's efforts to meddle in the vote, he's backing election deniers like christina karamo, who said trump was the rightful winner in michigan. >> very excited to get president trump's endorsement. >> reporter: the former president has also endorsed backers of his false fraud claims running for secretary of state in two other key battlegrounds, arizona and georgia. after 18 run attorneys general rallied behind a lawsuit to try to upend the 2020 election results, trump is aiming to tip the scale in those races too, backing matthew deperno, a purveyor of election misinformation, for attorney general. >> by extrapolation and based on other data we've seen from other parts of the state, we can say there was fraud throughout the state of michigan. >> reporter: for democrats like jocelyn benson running for election for secretary of state -- >> everything we've overcome this far was truly just the beginning. it's not hyperbolic to look at 2020 as a prelude to a much more significant challenge to our democracy loom ago head of us with the 2024 election. >> reporter: for these folks still running for elected office, it's still a little unclear what their path forward is going to be. a number of them are facing republican primaries. they're going to face off against democrats in the general election. it's true of these candidates in michigan, and in a number of these other battleground states. >> sara murray, thank you very much. i want to turn to republican election lawyer ben ginsburg. ben, it's goiod to see you, sir. thank you for joining us. we heard in sara murray's story how experts are concerned that the big lie and the insurrection on january 6th, they're just the rehearsals to outright steal the election in 2024. how real is this threat? >> well, there are a lot of pieces that are going in place that means people should be on guard. that includes what sara was reporting about, about trump supporters trying to get into election official roles. who knows for what motive? there's certainly a lot of speculation about that. and you've got the rules of the game being governed by something called the electoral count act, which is a vague, antiquated law that in fact would just be a devil's workshop if it ever became outcome determinative in a presidential election. >> you know, ben, we are, as you said, there are things being put into place. we're seeing it all over the country. the republicans passing laws to restrict voting and putting themselves in positions where they can tip the scales in their own favor, rejecting electors, appointing their own. i mean it didn't work in 2020 barely, right? but my question is what happens next time? >> well, i think next time there's going to be a lot of attention paid to these issues that are being surfaced now, and what is true in every election is it's never quite what people think it's going to be three years out. so all these preparations for dealing with election officials in place for the wrong reasons, intimidation of existing election officials, changes to give state legislatures more power, providing the counting and cassinting to be done by pa instead of pros. i think things never turn out the same factually. look at a couple of things you know are going to be different. number one, a democratic vice president, kamala harris, is going to be chairing the senate, not somebody of donald trump or the republican party. there's no way to know at this stage who's going to have majorities after the 2024 election to be able to do similar shenanigans. if there in fact are efforts in the states to tilt votes to overturn the popular vote, then that's a situation that is what people really do need to game out. but we've never had two really tight elections in a row in this country. >> listen, i want to get to what you wrote in the national review, but real quickly, you know, many people are saying this is a break glass moment. you don't seem to be there or convinced that it is at this point. maybe heading in that direction. am i reading that right? >> well, i'm really worried. don't get me wrong. i wouldn't have written that column for the national review if i wasn't, nor formed a legal defense network for election officials who are being threatened with prosecution. >> let me tell people what's up there because this is your new article in the national review about what congress can do to safeguard the 2024 election. so democracy is at stake, but go on. you were saying that you're really concerned. go on. >> well, it's really concerning just because of all the different pieces that appear to be being put in place by trump forces and by republicans in the states. so that's really important. should it come down to a really close election, or one that one side wants to make close because of what happened in the different states, it's all governed by something called the electoral count act. that's what republicans on january 6th tried to put in place to help trump and failed this time. but that was a blueprint the trumpy folks did that ought to frighten both sides because again you don't know the electoral situation in january of 2025. >> yeah. listen, ben ginsberg has a great article in the national review about what congress can do to safeguard the 2024 election. i suggest you pick it up. we thank you for joining us. thank you, sir. appreciate it. >> thanks, don. the prosecutor in charge says that the michigan school shooting was preventable and she is not ruling out charges for school officials. plus new york city implementing one of the strictest vaccine mandates in the country. 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♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 tonight police in michigan executing a search warrant at the home of the man who allegedly helped the parents of the oxford high school shooting suspect before they were arrested on saturday. police say they question the man extensively, that he is being cooperative and has not been charged with a crime. 15-year-old ethan crumbley is charged with murdering four classmates at his high school. his parents charged with involuntary manslaughter. i want to bring in now law professor and expert on students rights, katherine j. ross. we're glad to have you, professor. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for inviting me, don. >> sure thing. let's walk through some red flags that came up in school. november 29th, a teacher reports that crumbley was looking up ammunition on his phone in class. his mother was contacted, didn't respond. text messages show her telling her son, quote, lol, i'm not mad at you. you have to learn not to get caught. the school was concerned enough to tell the parent. why did it stop there? >> they -- the first day, there might not have been enough red flags in place. but within 24 hours, one of ethan's teachers saw a very disturbing page that he had doodled on, drawn on, and written on, and it included the words "blood everywhere," with an illustration of someone who appeared to have been shot at least twice. the words "help me," messaging about being unable to control voices, and the teacher was appropriately very disturbed. we don't know publicly whether it was one teacher who was involved in both incidents or whether two teachers were sufficiently aware to flag this behavior. and so both times he was removed from class and apparently brought to the guidance office. on the day of the shootings, there was much more to be concerned about because these drawings could be interpreted as a threat of violence directed toward the school. and they already had the information that he was looking for bullets the day before. so now we have a context that should have been very alarming. >> yeah. >> the school officials have emphasized -- the superintendent said, well, he didn't have a disciplinary record, and that is a rather narrow view of how to assess context in an emerging situation because this is new knowledge about a student. >> well, so let me jump in here because we do know that it was two different teachers, okay? so for -- >> i see. >> but the school held a meeting with his parents at this point, professor, and told them to get him into counseling within 48 hours. then they let him back into class after his parents resisted taking him home. why let him back in class? >> that is, to me, the single most shocking aspect of this whole incident. first of all, they had 90 minutes to think about what to do before the parents arrived. the parents had not been responsive the day before, didn't respond to voice messages about the incident about the ammunition. the parents refused to take him home, and the school let the parents abdicate that responsibility. it isn't up to parents to decide whether their children remain in school or not or what penalties a school might impose. that is entirely in the school's discretion, and if the school were to suspend somebody wrongfully, the remedy is later, the parents can follow procedures or even bring a lawsuit to demand that that be taken off the student's record. so at that point, the school should have said, if you won't voluntarily take him home, we are suspending him. he has to leave the building. that was in their power to do. and you were correct to mention the fact, the very important fact, that the school said he must be in counseling within 24 hours. and it wasn't a suggest -- >> 48 hours. >> it was a demand. and the school backed it up by saying, if we don't know that he's in counseling within 48 hours, we're going to turn the family over to protective services. so it wasn't a casual request. and the thing that really troubles me the most is that it's clear that the school had reason to be concerned that ethan could be a danger to himself or to others in the school building because that's the only explanation of why they said he has to go to counseling. >> before i let you go, i want to ask you, the prosecutor has said she's not ruling out charging anyone, including school officials. quickly, do you think they'll face charges? >> i would be surprised, and if they do, it would be probably unprecedented, if not virtually unprecedented. i haven't been able to find any reported cases in which a school official was criminally charged after a school shooting. >> what kind of charges? >> it would probably be a negligence charge. >> yeah. >> anything more than that, they would have to show intent. i can't imagine a situation in which there would be intent, much less intent that could be proven. >> you said it would be tough, right? you don't think that they will? >> very tough. >> yeah. well -- >> the prosecutor might do it to make a point. >> we'll see. >> i think it would be more productive to focus on the lessons that school officials and parents can learn. >> right on. thank you, professor. >> thank you. >> appreciate your time. covid cases are on the rise again, and new york city is enacting the most expansive vaccine mandate in the country to fight it. plus former "empire" star jussie smollett taking the stand today, defending himself. uses smart conditioners to micro-target damage helping to repair hair without weighing it down. try pantene. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? 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(vo) ask your doctor if it's right for you. learn how we could help you save on imbruvica. jussie smollett, the actor accused of lying to police about an alleged hate crime in 2019, testifying in his own defense today. at the time, smollett told police two men had attacked him in the street, yelling racist, anti-gay remarks, put a noose around his neck and poured bleach on him. smollett has repeatedly denied staging the attack against himself. he is charged with six counts of disorderly conduct and suspicion of making false reports to police. joining me now with the very latest from the trial is cnn correspondent omar jimenez. smollett was on the stand today for hours. the prosecution pressing him under cross-examination on key details of his story. tell us about that, please. >> reporter: yeah, don. so the day ended during cross-examination, and jussie smollett, for one, denied tampering with the noose seen around his neck after the alleged hate crime attack in january 2019 to make it look like a more serious lynching. however, he did tell jurors that he took that noose off at one point but put it back on before police got there because he and his manager agreed that police should see the evidence. he later said right after that it looked less like a noose once he had put it back on the second time. smollett was also asked about why he didn't turn his cell phone over to police in the initial investigation after the alleged hate crime attack, and the prosecutor specifically pressed him, asking if it was because he was worried that it would show extensive communications with bola osundairo in the days leading up to the alleged hate crime attack. smollett said no because at that point, bola was not a factor in any sort of issue at the time. >> it's really risky to put a defendant on the stand. why did the defense do that, and what were they trying to prove, omar? >> reporter: for one, they were trying to push back on some of the major points in the prosecution's case. for one, they went back -- or smollett took jurors back to the car ride where the osundairo brothers had testified was when smollett first brought up this alleged scheme, and the defense attorney asked him if that's what happened. and smollett said no. all they did was drive around and smoke blunts. now, when the defense attorney specifically pushed in and said at any point in time, did you talk to bola osundairo about a hoax, he answered emphatically no. smollett said he would do this routinely, drive around smoking, sometimes do it by himself, with bola. too many times to count were his words. separately after an alleged hate crime letter was sent about a week prior, smollett said he was offered security but refused it. the reason that's important is because the prosecution has argued one of his main motivators for allegedly staging this hate crime was because he believed "empire" wasn't taking the threats against him seriously. >> smollett tried to -- he testified that he hired the other osundairo brother to be his trainer. am i correct? but he repeatedly asked to also be his security guard. what point was he trying to make there? >> reporter: that's right. so this goes back to the point of when the alleged hate crime letter was received, and smollett testified that bola had previously asked smollett to be his security, so much so to the point that smollett thought it was a running joke. but that after this letter was received, those asks only intensified. and the reason that's important is because the defense has argued that one of the reasons that they believe the osundairo brothers carried out a real attack was because they were trying to intimidate him into hiring them or at least bola for security. >> got it. he also alleged a relationship with one of the brothers. how does that affect the case? >> reporter: well, that was something that came in contrast to what bola osundairo had testified, but smollett said he had had multiple sexual encounters with bola osundairo, which again bola had denied at previous testimony. but the reason that's important is because the defense has argued that one of the motivators for the osundairo brothers doing this -- again, what they say was a real hate crime attack -- was ola osundairo, being homophobic. that may have been one of the drivers of this. smollett said he didn't tell police at the time because he had issues with weaponizing sexuality, but that of course in regards to the testimony in this trial was the real significant portion going to the defense theory. >> what's next in the trial, omar? >> reporter: well, we finished with closing -- or we finished with cross-examination on this day, and so that's where we're going to pick things back up in the morning. the judge had told jurors that he was 100% sure the case would be in their hands by tuesday but now is saying that may get pushed into wednesday. that came after an initial estimate of this being done in four to five days. we are now past that, don. >> thank you, omar jimenez. thank you for watching everyone. our coverage continues. ogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. start your day with crest 3d white and from mochaccinos to merlot, your smile will always be brilliant. crest 3d white brilliance. 100% stain removal, 24 hour stain resistance to lock in your whitest smile. crest. the #1 toothpaste brand in america. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? 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