answers. we begin with cnn's nick watt. >> reporter: covid-19 cases and hospitalizations climbed around 40% this past month. deaths, says the cdc, forecast to rise in the month ahead. the delta variant still rampant. omicron on the rise. >> it's here now, and it's spreading and it's going to increase. for unvaccinated we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death, unvaccinated. for themselves, their families, and hospitals they'll soon overwhelm. >> very soon it's going to be the dominant variant. we've seen that in south africa. we're seeing it in the uk. and i'm absolutely certain that's what we're going to be seeing here relatively soon. >> reporter: for the vaccines this variant is now the most complete escapee, say researchers in the new preprint study, although vaccines are still highly effective at preventing severe disease or death. >> it is reassuring that these infections seem to be less severe. but that's really only true probably if you're a healthy person who's been immunized and ideally immunized with three shots. ♪ i am not throwing away my shot ♪ >> reporter: meanwhile, "hamilton" among the broadway shows canceling performances once more after cases amongst the cast. just two months after reopening. princeton and nyu just joined cornell and others, moving what's left of the semester back online. a depressing dose of deja vu. officials in philly are warning don't party with people outside your household over the holidays. >> it's hard and it feels impossible, and it feels unfair. these gatherings when we get together with friends and family are when we infect each other with covid. >> reporter: pro sports teams demonstrating how the virus is spreading. odell beckham jr. scored monday night. next morning joined the long list of players and staff testing positive or quarantining after exposure. >> they're really a window into community spread. and kudos to the sports leagues because they are actually doing a fantastic job of surveillance testing. and the rest of the country, we're driving a car down a dark road with the headlights off while looking in the rearview mirror. >> reporter: this afternoon -- >> we have 15 yeses, zero nos. >> interpreter:. >> reporter: cdc vaccine advisers unanimous in recommending to change its guidance to say that the pfizer and moderna vaccines are preferred over the j&j. why? well, those very rare blood clots connected to the j&j that can be fatal. so anderson, what's changed since the johnson & johnson vaccine was authorized, recommended earlier in this year? well, it turns out that those very rare clots aren't quite as rare as estimated. i mean, we're still talking fewer than one in a million people who get the johnson & johnson get the clot and die from it. also there have been studies that show the johnson & johnson vaccine is not as effective as the moderna or the pfizer. and also earlier in the year remember there was a fear that there would be a shortage of vaccines. that fear no longer exists. we have enough vaccines. we just don't have enough people to put them into. so now with a glut of vaccines we can be a bit more choosy. and one of the advisers who is also a doctor said during the meeting today at this point i can't recommend the vaccine, the johnson & johnson, that i know can lead to a condition that can lead to a death. so he says he's telling his patients just to steer clear of johnson & johnson. the johnson & johnson vaccine is still available, though, will still be available for anybody who still wants it. anderson? >> nick watt, appreciate it. thank you. more now on the implications of all this especially as it impacts on daily living. joining us, cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta, author of "world war c: lessons from the covid-19 pandemic and how to prepare for the next one." also with us cnn medical analyst and former baltimore health commissioner dr. leana wen, author of "lifelines: a doctor's journey in the fight for public health." so sanjay, you heard nick watt call this a depressing deja vu. you see college exams being moved online, some sporting events, broadway shows canceled. is that the correct reaction to what we've learned over just the last few days? >> well, i mean, we're still very much in the midst of a delta surge, anderson. obviously, omicron's getting a lot of attention in the news. but if you look at the map and see just how much virus is still transmitting in various places, i mean, we're still in a significant shower of virus. at some point if the numbers come down low enough, then i think you may be able to have a little pullback on some of these mitigation measures. but when you have this much virus still circulating, you have 120,000 roughly new cases per day, 1,300 people dying per day, hospitals starting to become overwhelmed, 67,000 people in the hospital now in the country, i think for the time being we're still sort of very much in a significant surge. it's on fire. so yeah, you have to do everything you can to try and control it. >> do you think more shutdowns, for lack of a better word, may be coming? >> i think it will be very hard to implement those. i mean, i think the country has sort of reacted to these in the past. but i think what we have learned over the past couple of years is you've got to see what's happening with hospitals. when hospitals do start to become overwhelmed, they cannot take care of all the patients that are coming in, they can't take care of patients who are coming in who do not have covid, that are totally unrelated to covid. that's when hospital administrators raise their hand and they say, you know, we need to put the brakes on here, we cannot handle all this anymore. so if it gets to that point in various places around the country, it may be targeted areas that have these shutdowns but you know, we'll see. we're in the winter months now where virus is spread more easily regardless. >> dr. wen, the philadelphia health commissioner is asking residents not to get together with other households for the holidays. just yesterday dr. fauci said if family members are vaccinated they should feel comfortable gathering at home. you have young kids. what would you do? do you have friends, family come over? and when you say if they're vaccinated, like is just two vaccinations enough or if somebody's not boosted you know, should they be in that circle of people who can come in? >> i think different families are going to make very different choices for the upcoming holidays. i would urge people to be extremely cautious, especially because we already had a surge of delta and now we have a surge of omicron on top of that and we really don't know what's going to happen with omicron. we have not yet seen omicron, for example, ripping through our nursing homes. we don't know what's going to happen with these very vulnerable populations. i think it's time that we implement the tools that we have, not have a shutdown, don't tell people not to get together over the holidays, but let's really use the tools that we have. and here is a helpful two out of every three rule that i like to use. which is you need three -- two out of these three things in order to get together safely indoors. vaccination, testing, or masking. so you could have everybody who is vaccinated and boosted, you also test them the day of, that you don't need masks. but if you don't have testing, you should ideally have vaccination and masking. if not everybody is known to be vaccinated and you want to get together, ideally you have testing and masking. so two out of every three. vaccination, testing, masking can help us to be extra safe come this holiday season. >> and when you say vaccinations, you mean vaccinations and boosting? >> i would certainly feel a lot more comfortable getting together with somebody who i know to be both vaccinated and boosted. and that's because with omicron we know that with two doses of the vaccine it doesn't protect you very well against symptomatic infection. and if i'm getting together with other people, i would want to make sure that those around me don't have symptomatic covid. >> sanjay, why aren't state and federal officials on the same page here? or are they? >> well, i mean, if you look at the cdc's guidelines, i think they've been pretty clear on this. but let me show you i think as you have data emerging on this in terms of the protectiveness, and we're still learning, we can look at how well these vaccines alone without the booster protect and then see what the booster sort of does. initially when you look at the up to nine weeks you do get good protection against delta and omicron. but clearly as leana was talking about it does sort of start to diminish significantly for omicron by week 20 or so. but then if you get the boosters you get a pretty significant, within two weeks return of some protection. still a little diminished, but it's a lot better than at 20 weeks. i think this data's emerging, anderson, which i think is part of why you're feeling like there's a little bit of dissonance in terms of the messages people are giving. they're trying to figure it out. but i think it's pretty clear that we're still in a very significant surge as much as we'd like to believe that we were starting to look at this in the rearview mirror. >> it's all well and good to talk about this stuff kind of theoretically, but for everybody at home, and i mean all of us, you know, it gets down to like these annoying -- hard to figure out questions, like if somebody wants to come over to your house tomorrow, you know, to hang out with your kids or whatever it is or it's somebody you know well and you're friends and you want to see hthem, do you insist tha they have a booster or do you ask? do you ask if they've been tested or when they -- you know, if they were tested three days ago, does that even matter? not that anyone wants to come over to my house. but i'm just kind of curious. >> people definitely want to come over and visit, anderson. and it's the holidays. people do want to get together. i do think that the idea of testing as close to the time as you may visit somebody is very effective. i mean, we have these tests. we've been ordering them. these antigen tests, what they can help answer is what you're trying to address is are you contagious? obviously, if you're sick you should stay home. you should not be visiting anybody. and people who are sick should not be visiting you. but let's say somebody is vaccinated and still wants to figure out to make sure, i think testing offers a significant benefit. we also keep a co2 monitor. this is sort of a poor man's indication of ventilation. measures the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. if it's starting to go up, it's an indication to me there's not enough ventilation. i open doors and windows. i get this seems? what thrown together. but basically, you have to think of the virus as being this airborne thing that moves around like smoke. people who are vaccinated are less likely to get infected but if they do get infected they can spread it. you have to assume that. it sometimes can feel like a hodgepodge but i think there are ways to get together safely. >> but quickly to be clear, if somebody's vaccinated are they less able to spread? are they less likely to spread it? if they're vaccinated and positive, are they less likely to spread it? >> first of all, if someone is vaccinated i think they are less likely to become infected, but they can still become infected. if they do become infected, they can get a high viral load, high enough that they could spread it. but the window of time that that occurs is going to be narrower. so again, that's a lot. you're less likely to get infected, narrower window of time of spread. but yeah, you have to think, especially with that map that i've shown you, as much virus as we're being showered in right now, you have to assume that people could potentially be spreading, which is why the testing, the ventilation, all of of these other things help. >> sanjay, dr. wen, appreciate it. thank you. coming up next, the republican congressman who wanted to serve on the january 6th committee and everything we've learned this week that makes him look more like a potential witness. keeping them honesty, ahead. and later, breaking news in the dominion voting lawsuit against fox news. a court ruling that fox's coverage of election fraud may have been inaccurate. fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast heartburn relief in every bite. crunchy outside, chewy inside. ♪ tums, tums, tums, tums ♪ tums chewy bites >> man: what's my safelite story? 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>> i'd have to go -- i -- i spoke with him that day after. i think after. i don't know if i spoke with him in the morning or -- i just don't know. i'd have to go back and -- i don't -- i don't know that -- when those conversations happened. but -- what i know is i spoke to him all the time. >> well, you take that, his continued embrace of the election lie, and yesterday's revelation about him pushing that justification for overthrowing a free and fair election, and you've got all the makings of a potential witness for the select committee. amazingly, however, he wanted to be on the committee. house speaker pelosi said no. and ever since including at this week's contempt vote against mark meadows, house republicans have been calling foul. >> i understand pelosi didn't want jim jordan, for example, on the committee. but i can assure you republicans didn't want adam schiff or jamie raskins on the committee. >> we have a january 6th committee that nancy pelosi is leading that is nothing but a political witch hunt on republicans and trump supporters. >> did she set the committee itself to be one-sided? yes. more so than any select committee before? yes, she did. >> the vote would have possibly been different if it would have been more legitimate of a committee. >> we warned you from that moment in time she was playing politics. >> as they've proven yet again today over and over again, they only care about attacking their political enemies. >> it really has turned out to be nothing more than a partisan committee just to investigate the former president. >> i think it's very clear to the american public, this is a sham. >> keeping them honest, it's not. but it might have been so far from what we know of the committee, it's been diligently focused on facts, not tangents, and seems to have bent over backwards to accommodate witnesses even when they're trying to obstruct or delay the committee's work, like mark meadows. the two republicans who do serve on the committee have distinguished themselves across party lines. joining us now is "washington post" opinion columnist dana milbank. his latest piece is titled "meadows texts show trump did what gop falsely claimed clinton did in benghazi." "jordan in his addendum to the benghazi report wrote that the obama administration, quote, so blinded by politics and its desire to win an election, disregarded a basic duty of government, tell the people the truth." it continues, "five years later, with democracy itself on the line, jordan and his colleagues are fighting the truth as if their very survival depends on it." thanks for joining us. when you see jim jordan now compared to the jim jordan of the benghazi investigation, i mean, how do you explain the difference? >> well, you can't explain it. i mean, look, your viewers are not going to be shocked to know that there's hypocrisy in politics and there's always been some element of where you stand depends on where you sit, on which side of the aisle. but there's something more going on here and i think this really reveals the sickness because not only have people like jordan sort of forsaken their professed principles to the truth and to the importance of the executive and cooperating with legitimate committees of congress, but he's doing so in order to sabotage democracy itself. look, it is absolutely essential to get to the bottom of what happened on january 6th so that we don't have another coup attempt because you can be sure the people who attempted it the first time are trying to learn so they can get it right the next time. so you have jim jordan and the others who are basically using a campaign of lies to destroy the investigation into january 6th. of course in service of the big lie of the election itself. i think we need to call this sort of thing out. we have democracy basically on a knife's edge right now. it really could go either way. and this just can't be allowed to stand. >> i want to read something else you wrote. you said, "the differing responses to the two tragedies shoi rank hypocrisy in the republican party and the sickness that has taken hold of it." essentially you're saying that what they were arguing when the republicans were arguing -- or trying to say happened in benghazi is what actually happened -- is what president trump actually did during the insurrection. can you just explain that? >> well, sure. there werers all we heard about was benghazi, benghazi, benghazi, at least until we found out about hillary's e-mails. but the whole idea was, you'll recall, there was supposedly this stand down order, the republicans alleged that the military could have come to the rescue of the americans at the consulate in benghazi but somebody gave a stand down order and it wasn't allowed to happen. in fact, that was not the case. there was no stand down order. and certainly hillary clinton had nothing to do with assigning the military to do anything. but here you have a case where even more people died and it wasn't just a diplomatic outpost, it was the capitol of the united states being attacked. we know that the president was being called upon to do something to stop the attack by his own supporters. and talk about a stand down order. he waited three hours or something before even saying they should go home. and we know the pentagon was slow-walking these desperate pleas to have the national guard come out there. so basically, what was alleged to have -- falsely alleged to have happened in benghazi is exactly what happened on january 6th. so where is the outrage? >> what would have happened if jim jordan was on the january 6th select committee? i mean, obviously he's big on trying to grab attention, derail things. what do you think would have happened? >> well, look, as you illustrated there, he was very clearly all about sabotaging the committee, as was jim banks, the other member that nancy pelosi objected to. look, jim jordan participated in a stop the steal rally. how can you have somebody like that investigating january 6th? i think it was a tactical mistake of kevin mccarthy to boycott the committee entirely because now you have legitimate serious people like cheney and kinzinger joining with the democrats to actually get to the bottom of it and even though we're seeing a whole lot of stonewalling in terms of the testimony they are getting a hold of the documents, as we see from these -- the meadows text messages. so it appears they will be able to put together the story, and this needs to be told in full accuracy. >> dana milbank, i appreciate it. thank you. really fascinating. up next, breaking news, dominion voting wins a key decision in a lawsuit against fox news. details on that ahead. to help block out food particles. so he can enjoy the game. super poligrip. 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[ chantell ] clearchoice dental implants changed everything. my digestive health is much better now. i feel more energetic. the person that i've always been has shown up to the party again. small businesses like yours make gift-giving possible. now, comcast business has an exclusive gift for you. introducing the gift of savings sale. for a limited time, ask how to get a great deal for your business. and get up to a $500 prepaid card with select bundles when you switch to the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses. or get started with internet and voice for $64.99 per month with a 2-year price guarantee. give your business the gift of savings today. comcast business. powering possibilities. more breaking news tonight. a delaware judge is allowing dominion voting to press forward in a major defamation case against fox news after finding the network's coverage of election fraud may have been inaccurate. delaware superior court judge eric davis writes in his ruling, "given that fox apparently refused to report contrary evidence including evidence from the department of justice, the complaint's allegations support the reasonable inference that fox intended to keep dominion's side of the story out of the narrative." now, that ruling's going to now allow dominion to attempt to uncover extensive communications within fox news and interview the network's top people under oath. this comes just days after the january 6th committee released text messages from some fox news hosts to then white house chief of staff mark meadows urging the former president to stop the capitol insurrection. joining us now, former nixon white house counsel and cnn contributor john dean and former federal prosecutor and cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin. jeff, this is a big deal? >> it's a very big deal, but it's not a surprise. it's a basic principle of libel law, is if cnn puts mr. a on the air and mr. a says mr. b is a child molester, mr. b sues us, we can't say oh, well, it was just mr. a who said that, we were just the transmission. that's what this case is about. fox said no, we didn't say that dominion is corrupt, the people we interviewed said that. the judge said first of all, some of these people, tucker carlson, maria bartiromo, lou dobbs among others, some of those did say that dominion was corrupt. but by putting rudy giuliani, sidney powell, making these outrageous false allegations on the air without allowing dominion to refute them, that's libel. and that's what fox is going to have to defend. and i don't know how they're going to defend it it. i think it's a very good case for the plaintiffs. >> john, legally how difficult is it to prove individuals knew their statements were false or that they were intentionally leaving out relevant information? >> it's not easy. in fact, it's very surprising. most of these cases get dismissed at this very early stage with a motion to dismiss. i think that probably handles overwhelming number of defamation cases. because the standard is very unique. they have to show actual malice that was employed, meaning that they either knew it was false and went ahead with it or they did it with reckless disregard, they had some indication but yet they still went ahead. and these -- this case has not been decided on any substance yet. just on the pleadings. and it made the basic bar and got over that, which is going to be a nightmare for fox, as jeffrey says. they're going to now dig in deep and it's not going to be easy. >> but john, this case is the definition, so it appears, of reckless disregard. most cases you're right gets dismissed because most competent, ethical journalistic entities put the other side of the story out. that's what fox didn't do. and you have giuliani saying, he's admitted already, that he didn't check out these allegations. so that means fox didn't check out the allegations. and you can't just put libelous false information out without allowing the other people to return, and plus dominion says that they lost all kinds of business because of this, which is certainly understandable given the fact that a lot of republican, you know, will never hire them again. i mean, it's a very good case for the plaintiffs. >> so are the people who said those things, who were fox personalities, who were fox employees, are they personally liable? >> not in this case. there are other cases percolating through the system. certainly there are cases against giuliani and sidney powell. they have incredibly difficult cases to defend because they were putting all this stuff out here -- >> wild things. >> totally wild things. and you know, reckless disregard for the truth, as john said, is the standard. but i don't see how you can look at what giuliani and powell did and now what fox did without concluding it was reckless disregard. >> john, now that mark meadows has been officially referred to the justice department for criminal contempt of congress, his fate is essentially in the hands of attorney general merrick garland. what do you think the justice department's next move is? because they haven't been exactly quick in all of this. >> well, you know, after the steve bannon case it's very difficult to believe that they're not going to proceed with a criminal prosecution. there really is no difference between what bannon did and what's happening right here with meadows. meadows has got this fuzzy connection of executive privilege. that isn't what they held him in contempt over. they held him in contempt over information that there is no executive privilege. and he just defied them. he played with them. he didn't show up. he was very contemptuous in his behavior. so i think -- i would weigh it very heavily in terms of justice going forward and prosecuting. >> in many respects meadows' case is weaker than bannon's because meadows actually gave over some material and then pulled back. >> and wrote a book. >> and wrote a book. that's what's known as waiver in the law. you can't write a book about conversations with the president or about a set of circumstances and then say oh, well, i'm not going to answer a subpoena on the same subject. >> jeff tookin, john dean, thanks very much. up next, the moms group bringing the mask wars and other so-called parents' issues to communities across the country. layla santiago reports next. ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ ♪ baby got back by sir mix-a-lot ♪ unlimited cashback match... only from discover. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list event. earn about covid-19, the more questions we have. the biggest question now, what's next? what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪, ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ as we've been reporting, school boards have become flash points in the culture wars gripping the country with angry parents facing off over everything from critical race theory to mask mandates. >> i'm going to tell you that your time is up. the people of this state and this district are rising up and you have awakened a sleeping beast. >> maybe the reason why we have people in the hospitals, all this mask wearing. did we ever think of that? did we ever think of that? >> they don't care about your children. as a matter of fact, they hate them. they hate your kids. they hate my kids. they hate your kids, they hate my kids. get it? >> what was once a scattershot operation is becoming much more organized. one example is a group moms for liberty. according to its website, the group "welcomes all that have a desire to stand up for parental rights at all levels of government." now, it started in brevard county, florida but its chapters have spread nationwide. cnn's legal leila santiago take closer look. >> paper and cloth masks do not work. >> parents beware of terms like social justice, diversity and inclusion. >> if they ignore our input we will vote them out. >> reporter: at rallies and school board meetings across the country heated debates on everything from masks to critical race theory to book banning are being hashed out. >> i think covid has allowed all of america to see behind the education curtain. >> reporter: turns out one of the driving forces behind many of those debates stems from a group founded by these two florida moms. tiffany justice and tina deskovic. they launched moms for liberty in january, a group they say is designed to fight for parental rights in schools and in government. >> we just thought we could take the skills that we had learned and the inside information we had learned about the public education system to help parents advocate more effectively. >> reporter: the founders say the group is conservative but non-partisan. yet many of the issues they're fighting for align with beliefs of republican lawmakers like florida governor ron desantis including eliminating mask mandates in schools. >> i don't think they -- >> 520 counties and they looked at schools that had mask mandates and didn't, and it showed that the masks did work. >> there are multiple studies that show this. happy to let you look at them if you like. they're right here. but when moms for liberty are going into the school board meetings to voice their frustration and citing things like masks don't work -- >> because they don't. >> that's not what the science shows. >> okay. i'm going to have to disagree with you on that. masks don't stop transmission. >> but later deskovic did acknowledge certain masks do worng to a degree. >> we all know n95 masks do have a level of protection. >> another cdc study in arizona showed schools without mask mandates were about 3 1/2 times more likely to have a covid-19 outbreak over schools with a mask mandate. another big concern for moms for liberty, critical race theory. a concept typically taught in law school that seeks to understand and address inequality and racism in the u.s. the moms for liberty new hampshire chapter offering a $500 bounty for anyone who turns in a teacher using crt in the classroom. the governor of new hampshire signed a law in june banning crt in the k through 12 curriculum. >> you support or do not support the $500 reward? >> do i think it was the best way to handle the situation? personally, probably not. >> reporter: but ultimately they say they stand by the moms fighting against crt. >> where is this actually being taught? >> mecklenburg, north carolina. >> yeah. >> i hear in the news all the time it's not being taught, it's not in k through 12 schools. >> i had a hard time finding it. did you? i'll help you after this interview. >> we did follow up after the interview. they told us they'd get back to us today. we're still waiting. but in a statement to cnn the ceo of charlotte mecklenburg schools told us, "our schools do not teach and do not promote a doctrine of critical race theory." >> my name is tiffany justice and i represent moms for liberty. >> so what is moms for liberty's goal? a chapter in every school district showing up at every school board meeting across the country. and in 11 short months they're on their way. they say they're now is in more than 30 states with 160 chapters mobilizing 70,000-plus members. do you consider your organization a force to be reckoned with for the next election? >> yes. >> yes. >> reporter: would you consider yourselves a political machine? >> no. >> reporter: as for funding, they'll tell you t-shirt sales. >> at this point it's about half of our funding. >> reporter: and small donations. because their organization is so new, tax records still are not available. >> it's truly just organic word of mouth and some gentle marketing with the t-shirts. >> reporter: but word of mouth will only get you so far. i mean, this does take money. where does the money come from? >> what do you think we're spending money on? >> reporter: you tell me. >> you're saying this takes money. we're telling you that this is word of mouth. >> reporter: to meet the financial needs the organization has been open about its need to raise money. they've established three political action committees, and at one of their major fund-raising events sponsors included florida republicans running for office. still, they insist they're not pushing the republican agenda, rather a parent agenda. one that's against mask and vaccine mandates as well as crt. >> i liken it back to the growth of the tea party movement. >> reporter: political commentator paprika farro. >> it is possible an organization like moms for liberty could have an impact on the midterm elections and even going into 2024 particularly because it is encapsulating a very important demographic in the electorate, which you know, are women and mothers. >> reporter: support our sk schools, a new group of parents in florida, call moms for liberty a danger to democracy. >> the disinformation they have been putting out and the vitriol toward marginalized groups is a true danger to society because we need to -- we need to work together. >> reporter: the moms for liberty arguing they're not alone, it's an entire movement of parents organizing, with eyes on election day. >> 2022 is going to be the year of the parent at the ballot box. so if legislators are watching this, hopefuls are watching this, start paying attention to parents. >> reporter: and anderson, the moms for liberty are now joining other organizations. they recently joined forces with a new organization out of california that calls itself a coalition as they fight vaccine mandates in california. and if the issues that they raise are an indicator of where the conservatives will have their focus next, i should note that during our interview they repeatedly brought up literacy rates in the united states. anderson? >> leyla santiago, thanks very much. it is a busy night. in more breaking news a search warrant is issued for alec baldwin's phone nearly two months after the fatal shooting on the "rust" movie set. what investigators are looking for, flex. is the first liquid-filled aspirin capsule clinically shown to cause fewer ulcers than plain aspirin. try new vazalore. aspirin made amazing! ho ho ho! not again. oh no. for the gifts you won't forget. the mercedes-benz winter event. get a credit toward your first month's payment on select models. xfinity rewards are our way of thanking you just for being with us. enjoy rewards like sing family fun nights! rent sing for $1, then belt out all your favorite tunes from the movie with sing karaoke. plus, see sing 2 in theaters with buy-one-get-one free fandango tickets. join over a million members by signing up for free on the xfinity app. our thanks. your rewards. breaking news on the investigation into the "rust" movie set shooting. according to santa fe, new mexico, court documents, a search warrant has been issued for alec baldwin's cell phone. officials are looking to obtain messages, call logs, videos, and social media messages in relation to the movie's production as well as any evidence related to the death of sinning to fer halyna hutchins. earlier this month, baldwin describes what he says happened the moment the gun went off. >> i'm showing you, how about that? does that work? do you see that? she goes that looks good. i let go of the hammer, bang, the gun goes off. everyone is horrified. they're shocked. it's loud, they don't have their ear plugs in. the gun was supposed to be empty. i was told i was handed an empty gun. if there were cosmetic rounds, nothing with a charge at all, a flash round, nothing. she goes down. i thought to myself did she faint. the notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me until probably 45 minutes to an hour later. >> joining us now criminal defense attorney sarah azar ree. what are investigators likely looking for in these phone messages? >> yeah, anderson, good to be with you. they could be looking for everything that alec baldwin denied in that interview, right? that's what was my concern a few weeks ago when we unpacked this interview. you know, the idea that he didn't pull the trigger, the idea that he doesn't have any knowledge of how the live ammunition ended up on set. you know, all of those things could be in communications he's had with other crew members and text messages and emails that they're looking for, and of course, you know, he knew that they're looking for this information because right after the incident when he was interviewed, they asked for consent to search his phone, and of course he said take a hike and come back with a warrant. so you know, it's unclear exactly what they're looking for, anderson, but i think, you know, of course they're looking to see if he had knowledge of how the live ammunition ended up on set and also there might be an admission that he did pull the trigger, contrary to what he said on that interview. >> you have to get a warrant in order to get the phone, just for the inconvenience to try to see if they aren't that serious about getting it? >> i mean, no, you know, obviously this is a person who carries exposure both civilly and criminally. i mean, typically i'm the girl that says take a hike and get a warrant, but this is a different case, anderson, because there's inevitable discovery here. there are so many individuals involved who may be cooperative with the police, who have turned over the their phones and communications. there's also the idea that the emails, for example, can be subpoenaed independently from the domain host companies like google, like microsoft exchange, et cetera. so this is a little bit difficult. what i would have done, i would have said, look, you know, this is my client's phone. he's an actor. there's private information, contacts on his phone. let's agree to a forensic expert who can go through the period of time you're interested in, the types of information you're interested in, and we'll just extract those. instead he said come back with a warrant. the of course they're going to get a warrant. the bigger question is why they've taken so long to get the warrant. now he's been given the opportunity to delete some things, which is also a concern. >> is there a way to find out if somebody has deleted something. what if somebody had attempted to delete something. if there's no warrant, are they allowed to do that? >> well, he knew that this potentially his phone carries evidence, and so he had that knowledge right after the incident. so anything that he's deleted after that point in time is problematic, especially if it can be proven that the content is material to this investigation and relevant to this investigation. so it really depends on when and what he deleted, but yeah, it shows -- >> we should point out there's no information about any deletions at this point, this is just hypothetical. >> correct, typically when they do a forensic search of the phone they can tell that there's a deletion, what date the files were deleted and potentially what types of files, were they photographs, messages, emails, et cetera. emails are encrypted so it's a different story. if it can be later what those things were and they are to material to this investigation given that he knew this evidence was something authorities wanted it's problematic for him. >> it could be helpful if it backs up what he's been saying. >> 100%. >> sarah azari, appreciate it, we'll be right back. >> thanks, anderson. er season. ace your immune support with centrum. now with a new look! ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? 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