options for potential evacuation of americans in the event of an invasion. we're tracking this with two of our senior correspondents, phil mattingly and what are we learning so far? >> still learning details about the actual call itself. we should see more in an hour when they are celebrated to see the transcript of the phone call. president biden went into the call with two real clear coles. one, to make clear that this is -- that there are diplomatic options for an off-ramp as the buildup has commenced and options that don't involve an invasion on the russian side and perhaps severe sanctions and the other is to make clear and it should be proposes and u.s. are looking at a significant amount of bite targeting potentially.putin's inner circle, their financial system and energy sector as well and types of sections that officials hope that would lead president putin to back off or pull out troops. going into this meeting, this virtual meeting, not a sense that.putin had decided to get bilateral discussions with the president of the united states or if there was something else in the conversation. this is a serious issue that they hope they can walk.away from either in the call or just ahead. >> emphasizing what's at stake, the important about potential vaccination contingency planning right now. what more can you tell us about that. >> there's been discussions about contingency planning in the event of a russian investigation and these are preliminary plans, nothing is on the table in terms of hitting the green light on them at the moment. sources made clear that the airports are still open and neighbors are still open as well and it underscores the seriousness what they have been watching over the last couple of weeks and making clear they want to be prepared for any type of contingency or anything that may happen. nothing moving forward but there's a palpable sense inside the administration about how serious this is and how preparations are under way on several fronts including that one, ana. >> stand by for me. matthew, the ukranians have seen this movie before. what are they saying about this moment? >> well, ukranians, ana, are watching these talks very carefully indeed because it's the future of their country at stake depending on what president biden says to vladimir putin of russia, could depend and determine whether the military tensions building on the russian side ratchet up even further or whether they de-escalate. vladimir putin went into this conference with his own demands as well. setting out the u.s. cleared, that they want legal guarantees and the american military alliance won't move any further. they want a legal guarantee of that and they also want legal guarantees that even if they don't join nato it won't be the base for further sort of military deployments. nato's military infrastructure, things like that. they are looking for the nato alliance and what they are looking for very carefully, they want to join the western military alliance and what ukranian officials are watching for watching very closely is what concessions the u.s. president might make to.putin of to russia to allay his security concerns and perhaps to avert who would be an absolutely devastating invasion by russian forces if a decision was taken to go ahead. ana? >> okay. matthew chance, thank you so much. phil mattingly, our thanks to you as well. we'll await for more reporting. for more i'm joined by republican senator roger wicker and senior member of the senate armed services committee. thanks for your time. as we await more details about this call, what do you hope comes from this virtual meeting? >> i certainly hope that the president approached this with a message of strength and resolve. there's no excuse for the president doing this. there's no pretext he can offer as an excuse amassing some 90,000 or perhaps over 100,000 russian troops on the ukranian border, so i hope the president didn't rule out anything. i hope he didn't rule out a military response frankly from the united states, but i hope he also made it very, very clear that-ins not a good way to get concessions from the west and from the united states of america and the best thing that he can do is withdraw his troops and if he wants to talk about further economic engagement we'll have that conversation but we're not going to make concessions. while 90,000 troops are on the border of a country that president putin has already invaded once. >> you said he hoped he didn't rule out a potential military response. what would take it to that level in your mind, and what kind of a response would you support? >> i think the thing to do is not take anything off the table. you know, when it comes to our nuclear policy, if you'll recall, we don't take things off the table there. we -- we make it clear that every option is open. that's been a policy of democrats and republicans, administration there and n and administration out. as a matter of fact, u.s. national guard troops from california are present in ukraine today. the california national guard and the ukranian military have a partnership so there are uniformed american servicemen present there today just as there are mississippi troops in some of our other allies in the former soviet union states. >> there's all kinds of contingency planning happening right now including potential evacuations of americans. should putin invade ukraine. just given that that is something being discussed right now, what does that signal to you? >> well, it signals that we take the situation very seriously and the fact that our commander in chief spent two hours on the phone with this leader of our adversely regime is important. i'm glad that he did that. i think also -- i hope the president made it clear that should mr. putin persist in this and not withdraw its troops, the consequences and the sanctions will apply not so much to the russian people but to vladimir putin himself, to his oligarchs. they are the ones who have ravaged the russian economy. they are the ones who have become multi multi billionaires at the expense of the people of russia who we would like to be our friends, and so we're going to hit -- i hope the message is that we're going to hit them hard with sanctions if they make a move. >> well, the sanctions are reporting and are being considered would be against putin's inner circle, the russian energy producers as well as a potential nuclear option we're told which would be disconnecting russia from the swift international payment system used by banks around the world but i'm just wondering why you think more sanctions would be effective. we know that this administration has hit russia with multiple sanctions over the course of taking office from starting in march, sanctions imposed and connected to the treatment of and a half any and a month later this have sanctions because of the cyber attack and solar winds and a week throwing were more sanctions that the biden administration imposed having to do with the nordstream 2 pipeline, and clearly that has not deterred putin's actions. >> well, clearly those sanctions have been ratcheted up, and i support them, but -- but i -- i can tell you that the ultimate tool of disengaging them from the world financial system is something that vladimir putin does not want. he's already frankly run the economy and the russian system into the ground. the people there are not being well served, but this would be a devastating blow, and so i -- i can just assure you that there is bipartisan support among senior democrats and republicans in the congress and on the armed services committee for much tougher sanctions. there are things that have been done that's in the message, and i approve of them, but there's much into can be done to actually make it clear that this would be the cross of a line that we absolutely cannot accept. mr. putin has surprised us twice before, at least on two occasions. 2008 when he invented a pretext to -- to invade georgia, a free sovereign former republic in the soviet union and in 2014 when you went through the pretext of sending ununiformed and unidentified troops in which everyone in the world realized immediately in crimea were -- were russian troops. >> clearly this is not something that happened overnight. he got to this point over the course of a number of years. do you feel like the last administration emboldened putin by weakening it in some ways the nato alliance? >> no, but i -- i will say that perhaps i'm a stronger advocate for nato than some people have been in the last several administrations. i believe they are a vital tool, and i think in the end the trump administration and biden administrations came down clearly in support of nato, but this is a time for resolve. >> well, trump -- trump frequently -- >> mr. putin understands -- >> in addition to financial consequences. >> i do want to ask you about china as well. the former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley called president biden's diplomatic boycott of the beijing olympics window dressing and said the u.s. should boycott the came all together. do you agree with her? >> if i were the president of the united states i would pull -- i would pull our american team out of the -- out of the beijing olympics. this is a brutal genocidal dictatorship who is not our colleague, is not our international partner but who is a sworn adversely, not only of our presence to open shipping lanes and have free trade around the pacific but also to those countries, independent democratic countries who have chosen to live free and not be under the communist chinese thumb so i would do that, but also let me say what we did in afghanistan sent an unwanted unhelpful signal to russia and china, and how we resolved situation in the short term against mr. putin and his clear provocative designs on ukraine will send a strong message to president xi in the chinese communist regime. >> china says the u.s. will pay the price for this diplomatic boycott. what kind of response do you expect? >> well, i -- they are welcome to say what they would like. our response should be a bipartisan response of resolve that we are going to make sure that our friends, that the significant industries of the taiwan friendship act between the united states and america and our friends in ukraine can depend on the united states to supply them with the ways and means they need to defend them zefl. just as israel defends itself. i don't want to get in a war in taiwan. i don't want to get in a war in ukraine, but the best way, and we've learned this centuries in and centuries out, the best way to avoid or to preserve the peace is through a clear demonstration of strength and resolve. >> okay. senator roger wicker, got to leave it there. thanks for taking the time to share your perspective. thank you. >> thank you, ana. >> telling all and backing out. trump's former chief of staff mark meadows now says he will not comply with the january 6th committee on the very same day that his new book revealed secret details about trump and his fight with covid so how can he explain executive privilege. finally relief with the prices you pay. why gas prices are now starting to fall and rapper travis scott officially responding to the slew of lawsuits filed against him for the deadly astroworld tragedy. you're in the cnn newsroom. we're back in a moment. because the nfl is connected. and at any moment, the fate of the season can come down to this. billions of secure connections, per second. when the game is on the line and the game is always on the line touchdown! the nfl relies on cisco. real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? 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why this sudden change of heart? >> well, mark meadows has published a book which really describes in some ways the president's state of mind on january 6th and a lot of other interesting information about how sick he was during covid i might add, but those leaders of the committee have said publicly we would like to ask him about these things. these are some things we want to talk to him about and his attorney in a letter today said wait a minute, you can't do that because that's covered by privilege, and their point warnings well, if you wrote things in your book, then maybe we should be able to ask you about it, and his attorney said, no, we were happy to answer questions in writing but we're not going to come in and do a deposition anymore. the book is responsible. the other thing i think behind the scenes that donald trump is absolutely furious as we reported last week at meadow for writing these things in his bok. >> right. >> and i think he's trying to pull back. >> well. let me just read an excerpt from the book as you describe. this was meadows writing in his new book from october 2nd of last year. >> mm-hmm. >> he paint the picture. >> he says dr. connolly. the white house if i circumstances pulled me aside and delivered bad news. although the president's condition had improved slowly overnight his oxygen levels had now dipped down to about 86% and could be trending lower, a dangerously low level for someone his age. meadows said he had arranged for four doses of the monoclonal antibody drug to be sent to the white house in secret. actually got approval from the fda for the president to receive this treatment, so as you point out our reporting is trump is not happy with meadows about this and other disclosures and revelations coming in his book. let me get this straight. meadows is willing to throw trump under the bus about this, was half cooperating with the january 6 committee and not so much t.seems like he's trying to have it both ways. >> well, he is. i think he is and perhaps he was a little bit flummoxed by the former president's reaction to what he was saying because if you remember the narrative, both from the president's doctor at the time, dr. connolly and the president and folks in the white house was the president was doing okay. meadows, in fact, was the only one at the time who told journalists that the president was not doing okay. remember. he tried to keep that off the record, but he was photographed doing that, so they had to put that on the record, so they were trying to keep this a little hush-hush from the american public, and, of course, they didn't succeed and trump who wants to run again for president, by all accounts, doesn't want this out there. >> right, and so elie, my question to you if meadows isn't cooperating with the january 6th commit and the fact that he's written the book about the time in the white house, how do you square those two things in terms of his executive privilege argument. >> well, ana, this is yet another infirmity problem with mark meadows executive privilege argument. a privilege is inherently a confidential communication between two people. if one writes a book about it generally speaking you've given up that privilege and you're have a former administration asking for executive privilege that looks like it will be shot down in the court and these conversations aren't covered by executive privilege because they appear to deal with wrongdoing and not policy decisions. the game plan looks like delay across the board. >> the good news is not everybody is doing that. let's talk about pence's former chief of staff mark short. we're learning he's cooperating with the january 6th committee. how significant is this? what sort of information could he provide? >> i think it's incredibly significant. mark short was with mike pence a lot of the time. for example, he was with him for most of january 6th, as you've just put up here. he was in the oval office on january 4th, and, remember, that was the time when donald trump was really making his argument to pence and saying, you know, you've got to stop -- you've got to stop this count, these electoral college votes, and after he did that, you know, he was banned from the white house by donald trump. i think mark short has a lot of information about pence and pence's conversations perhaps with him and how the vice president really felt, and i think he is probably going to be very forthcoming because he's probably very upset at the way mike pence was treated. i mean, remember, the former president did not even call mike pence on january 6 when poem in the capitol were saying hang mike pence to see how he was doing. >> elie, good investigators use short's cooperation to encourage others to cooperate with the committee? >> absolutely, aprila. that's the real path here to finding truth. the committee realistically is never going to hear from donald trump or mike pence or bannon or clark or potentially meadows now either. that said, that doesn't mean they are at a dead end. good investigators know you have witnesses all around a scene like this. have you advisers and people who maybe were on the outside looking n.mark meadows -- mark short can tell us what happened at these key meetings. i mean, you look at that january 4th meeting in the oval office. donald trump, mike pence, john eastman, they won't testify but guess who was there. mark short was there. he can tell the committee exactly what happened in the oval office that day. >> quickly, elie on steve bannon just this afternoon, a judge set a trial date in his contempt of congress case for july 18th. i mean, that feels like a long ways away. that's seven monies from now. >> yeah. bannon wanted to make it even farther out. he wanted it in october. look the sixth amendment of the constitution gives every criminal defendant like steve bannon a right to a speedy and public trial. he wants the public part, not so much into the speedy part. trying to delay this. yet again the playbook seems to be delay, delay, delay. seems to have partially succeeded getting it kicked out at least until july. why so long? i don't understand. this could give anybody else who doesn't want to cooperate with the committee reason not to cooperate. >> i completely share that. i went through this frustration as a prosecutor trying to get judges to try my case quickly. that said. this case is different than your normal federal case. there's constitutional and separation of powers interest here. i think the judge should have moved this up. prosecutors wanted to do this april. prosecutors said we can try this case in one day. bannon said we can do it in ten days. that's what a circus he wants to make this. the judge should have taken this and moved it to the very top of the queue. >> much more to come. thank you both for your thoughts and insight. don't look now but the dow is soaring as gas prices for both your car and your home finally are falling. what's behind the moves and will they last? one... two... whatcha got for me, whatcha got? watch those eyes... healthier is doing what you have to do while doing what you want to do. you're going to do just fine, you will. ♪ this is what healthier looks like. ♪ >> man: what's my safelite story? 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>> yeah, ana, finally some positive developments on the inflation front where americans really need it the most. the national price for a gallon of gas down to 3.35 a gallon. that is still high, but it's actually a seven-week low, down from 3.42 a month okay and that's for two big reasons. one, the u.s.-led intervention in energy markets really stopped the oil rally in its tracks. the president announced the biggest ever release of emergency barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve. really more of a band-aid than a long-term fix but it has cooled prices off. the other factor is more ominous here and those omicron. you know, initially there were a lot of fears on wall street that this would really slow down energy demand. the good news is those concerns have'sed over omicron but that's actually lifted oil prices, ana, have you to remember that gas prize move with a lag to oil so the fact that oil prices have moved back up suggest that maybe the relief on the gasoline front may be short lived. >> then there's the natural gas which is experimenting an even bigger drop right now. is that expected to last? >> well, ana, that's all up to mother nature because natural gas fufrps are down by about 40% over the last two months. as you can see, a pretty sharp decline since october, and that is largely because temperatures have been warmer than expected, warmer temperatures means less demand for natural gas which is the most popular way to heat homes. this is a also eased some of the fears in the marketplace about a european-style shortage of natural gas. those concerns were always overblown because the u.s. is actually the largest producer of natural gas on the planet and production has ticked up. i do think it's probably too early to -- to -- you know, for an all clear signal on the natural gas front because, you know, winter hasn't even officially started yet. cold prices could drive natural gas prices back up, but i do think for the moment energy market is offering some glimmers of open for inflation-weary americans. >> okay. i like the that. not all doom and gloom today. matt egan, thank you so much. rapper travis scott is finally responding to lawsuits after this deadly stampede at his houston festival and he's fighting back. plus new revelations from actor jussie smollett testifying about his history of drugs and a sexual relationship with his accused attacker. ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ i'm on fire ♪ ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em... ♪ ♪ you pour your heart into everything you do, which is a lot. so take care of that heart with lipton. because sippin' on unsweetened lipton can help support a healthy heart. lipton. stop chuggin'. start sippin'. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash... and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. if you're on medicare, remember, the annual enrollment period is here. the time to choose your coverage... ends december 7th. so talk to unitedhealthcare and take advantage of a wide choice of plans... including an aarp medicare advantage plan from unitedhealthcare. it can combine your hospital and doctor coverage... with prescription drug coverage, and more, all for a low monthly premium or in some areas, no plan premium at all. take advantage of $0 copays on primary care doctor visits, virtual visits, and preventive dental care. plus $0 copays and deductibles on tier 1 and mail order tier 2 prescriptions. and a free gym membership with locations nationwide. so call unitedhealthcare about the variety of plans we offer, including ppo plans that let you see any doctor who accepts medicare, without a referral. enrollment ends december 7th. take advantage now. call or go online today. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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[first responder] it's okay. you're safe now. a mountain of toys to fulfill many wishes must be carried across all roads and all bridges. it's not magic that makes more holiday deliveries to homes in the us than anyone else, it's the hardworking people of the united states postal service. rapper travis scott is now responding to several lawsuits filed against him after the astroworld music festival tragedy. ten people died when a massive crowd surged towards the stage during scott's concert last month. correspondent rosa flores is joining us from houston with details. rosa, there are dozens of lawsuits pending. scott's attorneys have now filed a response to six of them. what are the specific allegations and how is scott responding? >> well, ana, scott is denying legal liability through his attorneys. that's where the court documents say saying, quote, defendants generally deny the allegations set for the and they reached out to the defendant in all six cases and has not heard back there. owes more than 140 lawsuits filed in this case, and overall the general allegations is that there was negligence, gross negligence on behalf of the star and also the organizers and that these people were set to make a lot of money from this concert that ended up with the deaths of ten poem between the ages of 9 and 27 and in the immediate aftermath of the festival travis scottish you'd a statement saying he was devastated and was offering to pay for the funerals of all ten victims. i don't know about all ten victims but i do know about the youngest one, 9-year-old ezra blunt, his family declined the offer saying in part, quote, he, meaning travis scott, he must face and hopefully see that he bears some of the responsibility for this tragedy. this email goes on to say, quote, there may be, and i hope there is, redemption and growth for him on the other side of what this painful process will be. for now mr. scott must respect the fact that his pain and his devastation pales to ezra blunt's father, mother and other victims. >> thank you for that update. the defense just rhetted in the trial of jussie smollett. moments ago a tense cross-examination of former "empire" actor jussie smollett wrapped up, and the special prosecutor challenged smollett's timeline of events that led up to the reported attack on a frigid night in january of 2019. smollett repeatedly refuted claims that he staged a fake hate crime and lied to chicago police about it. cnn correspondent omar jimenez is covering the trial. omar, what new details are you learning? >> well, ana, for starters, the defense and prosecution have now wrapped as of a few moments ago and the judge has ended court for the day and what we're looking at next is closing arguments and then it will be in the hands of the jury at which point he said don't make any assumptions about how long it will take. he told that to the jurors specifically. in regards to what we learned in court today. really the purpose -- the majority of the day was cross-examination of the prosecution for jussie smollett who had been on the stand for hours at that point, specifically going through some of the major points and what happened back in january of 2019. for one, they looked at when jussie smollett drove past the scene of the alleged hate crime in the downtown chicago area, allegedly with the brothers, the osundairo brothers inside that vehicle and the prosecution asked is this what you were showing what you were going to do and he denied that. there were many tense exchanges over the course today, even when the special prosecutor was reading out intergram messages that jussie smollett had sent the evening before where he used the "n" word. the prosecutor is saying that actual word out loud and smollett interrupted him and asked him don't use that word for the sake of every black person in this particular courtroom, but bottom line, this came after hours and hours of jussie smollett on the stand. he was there for over eight hours and now it comes down to the attorneys on each side to synthesize everything that's opinion said over five days of testimony and low of their impressions on the jury. >> omar jimenez, thank you. breaking news, moments from now we'll learn more details from the two-hour video call between president biden and russia's vladimir putin. the white house is about to brief reporters. we will bring that to you just as soon as it starts. stay with us. you're live in the cnn newsroom. , they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dollars. hey tex, can someone else get a turn? 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>> today, she's thriving. she's a happy 3-year-old. but it was a very scary time. spending that time in the nicu and my health complications, it was all just a lot to handle. >> we mentioned how women of color are so much more at risk. black women in particular are three times more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women, and the racial disparity remains despite a mother's income and education level. why do you think that is? and what needs to change to fix it? >> yeah, there are several issues, but one is there is this implicit bias in our medical system, and a lot of times, women of color, our pain isn't heard. things are missed, and we really have to speak up and advocate for ourselves. unfortunately, that's the case until the systems in place really change, and so raising awareness and events like today really a commitment to further research and resources to this problem. >> you've talked about finding your voice on this issue, and given your platform that you have an opportunity to really shine light on a number of different issues. as a former collegiate track and field athlete myself and a mother as well, you're someone i really respect and admire personally. you've been able to perform at such a high level for so long in your career, even after having a child. it's amazing. but i do wonder, what goes through your mind as you watch the battle happening there in washington over stuff like paid family leave? if that gets gutted from the build back better bill, what message does that send, especially to working women, mothers? >> yeah, you know, as someone who has competed on the highest level, i really advocate for other women to be able to do the same, and it is a difficult thing to do, but continuing to fight, continuing to push forward. my own experiences with these issues have really opened my eyes and make me want to lend my voice to continue these efforts. >> and while i have you, i do want to ask about the upcoming olympics in china. you've competed in five olympics. you've won 11 medals. the u.s. just announced a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming winter games in china. u.s. athletes will still compete but this means u.s. officials will not attend. what's your reaction? >> yeah, i mean, i think things are being done in the best way to raise attention to what's going on and i think that's all that we can ask at this time. and continue to move forward and keep an eye on things. >> do you think the diplomatic boycott was the right decision by this administration? >> i think it shows the importance of what's happening and it's really -- i think it is a good move, and yeah, the olympics always have so much that is on the line and so many eyes, and i think that people will pay attention to this as a good step. >> china has vowed some kind of retaliation. we don't know exactly what that is, but i did speak with an expert yesterday who said athletes may not be safe. do you think athletes should feel safe going and competing? >> i think as an athlete, our -- all we can control is our performance, and we really trust those who are in places of power to make the best decisions on our behalf, and so as an athlete, that's where our trust is, and we're hoping that obviously the best decisions will be made with the athletes in mind. >> allyson felix, again, pleasure to talk with you again today. thank you so much for taking the time. so grateful to hear that your daughter is thriving as a 3-year-old now, and thanks for speaking out and shining light on this issue of maternal health in particular. >> my pleasure. that does it for us today. thank you for being here with us. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 1:00 eastern. reminder you can always join me on twitter,@ana cabrera. the news continues next with alisyn and victor. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ opportunities... are all about timing. so now that medicare annual enrollment is here, it's time to take advantage of a plan that gives you more for your medicare dollar: an aarp medicare advantage plan from unitedhealthcare. this opportunity to enroll only comes once a year, so give unitedhealthcare a call today. take advantage of $0 copays for primary care doctor visits, even virtual visits and $0 copays and deductibles on tier 1 prescriptions, at the pharmacy or with home delivery, and $0 copays on mail-order tier 2 prescriptions. now's the time to get more savings. our plan members saved an average of over $9,000 on prescriptions last year. with this plan, get $0 copays on preventive dental care, free yearly eye exams, free designer frames and prescription lenses. all for a low or $0 monthly premium. call unitedhealthcare today. find out why we're america's #1 medicare advantage plan provider. now's the perfect time to take your shot and join a plan with medicare advantage's largest provider network. and only unitedhealthcare offers renewactive, with a free gym membership and access to medicare advantage's largest gym network. annual enrollment ends december 7th, so don't miss your chance. call unitedhealthcare now. learn about our wide choice of plans, including ppo options... that let you see any doctor who accepts medicare without a referral. take advantage of more benefits. more ways to save. and more support. catching a good opportunity is all about timing. so, call unitedhealthcare today. with over 40 years of experience, you can lean on us when you need it most. we'll help you easily enroll... before the moment slips away. aarp medicare advantage from unitedhealthcare. take advantage now. what's strong with me? 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