getting media training for months now to try to fix the problem. cnn's chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins broke the story. so ckaitlan, how is she responding to the criticism. >> we heard from her today. it is the first time the cdc has held its own independent briefing since the summer of 2021. normally they do it once a week and dr. fauci is often on the briefings but today it is just the cdc director, and some other scientists at the cdc taking questions from reporters and we're told by sources that is a decision that dr. walensky made this week pretty abruptly wanted to take the incoming questions given there are many generated by guidance head on. and she took the questions. a lot of questions that came up during today's briefing had to do not just with the new guidance coming out of the cdc, but the credibility overall because there is so much confusion over the changes to the guidance, the updates to the changes and she defended it as saying the science is moving quick and so are we. >> we're in an unprecedented time with the speed of omicron cases rising. and we are working really hard to get information to the american public and balancing that with the realities that we're all living with. this is hard and i'm committed to continue to improve as we learn more about the science and to communicate that with all of you. >> so of course there is no doubt that it is an unprecedented time and there are factors facing the cdc. but or reporting shows that the criticism and the frustration with the cdc is not just coming from outside of the administration. it is also coming from within the federal agency. with scientists at the cdc expressing that frustration to season saying sometimes when the guide sns adrafting, it is a small level of advisers surrounding the cdc adviser and there is the always a ton of input where others could say this is an argument that is more reasonable or digestible and easier for the public to understand. we should note that we have learned that dr. walensky has started doing media training to help her improve her communication skills, victor. >> thank you so much. dr. walensky also said that there is a chance that the omicron will look like an ice pick, rather than a wave. much like south africa. it refers to a rapid rise and fall in cases. but as it plays out, omicron is impacting schools across this country. here is alexander field. >> reporter: most chicago schools closed for a third day. the city still fighting for in-person learning with the teachers union that voted to go remote. >> it is our kids who are being effected by it and parents need to be at the table as well. >> reporter: in california's bay area, teachers protesting current protocols staging a sick-out. >> some people just want to be safe. it is a surge that we're concerned about. >> reporter: but a major push to keep kids in class now coming from one of the nation's most prominent hospitals. given the milder cases of covid it is seeing, children's hospital of philadelphia said even in times of significant community transmission, kids should stay in school. the hospital supports putting more exposed but asymptomatic student and staff back in class with masks and calls for less testing of asymptomatic individuals. their stance more aggressive than the cdc guidance for schools which called for five days of isolation in line with the recommendations for the general public. >> so our new normal will look like a future with sars cov 2 but it is not a panic or a crisis or devastating or public health infrastructure and our economy the way we see it today. >> reporter: six former advisers to joe biden are now calling for new measures from the white house to move americans more quickly toward a new normal. among the suggestions, quicker updates to vaccines to keep pace with the changing virus. >> covid is going to be around us just like the flu is around us and we're going to have to live with that and we're going to have to bring the mortality rates down to make it so we could go back to our normal everyday lives. >> reporter: moderna ceo the latest to say a fourth dose could be needed by some before fall as hospitalizations approach an all-time high and the average number of daily cases topped 600,000. the governor of west virginia said the time for a fourth shot is already here. governor jim justice requesting permission from the cdc and the fda to give an extra booster to people who need them most. and new york's governor announcing that she will require all health care workers to get a booster shot within two weeks of eligibility. the governor saying there will be no exemptions except for medical and no way to test out of the requirement. she said this is about preventing health care workers from getting sick and stopping the further spread of omicron. victor. >> alexander field, thank you so much. dr. paul offit is the director at the children's hospital of philadelphia. he's also a member of the fda vaccine advisory committee. dr. offit, good to have you back. and wearing to start with the new guidance that came out from your hospital. six simple recommendations to get kids back into the classroom, quote, even in times of significant community transmission. far simpler than what we're hearing from the cdc and from the fda. just talk us through the critical points and why are you able, you as in the children's hospital of philadelphia, able to go further than the cdc? >> well, i think the question is when are you really contagious. and the way that this virus works is it initially, you're exposed and the virus reproduced itself hundreds and thousands of time ands you have no symptoms. that is when you're the most contagious, before you ever develop symptoms. and then you start to develop symptoms and then the virus reproduction becomes less and less. and then as your symptoms abate, meaning decrease, then the virus replication is no longer part of the disease process any more. so i think it is perfectly reasonable that when people are asymptomatic after having an infection, they could go back to school, you know, wear a mask, preferably, then having to constantly test because testing is often not available and it could be misleading. the pcr test could be positive when you're no longer contagious. so i think what the children's hospital of philadelphia has done is come up with a more practical and usable system. >> practical and usable. it is not what we're hearing out of the cdc. a lot of criticism as kaitlan collins talked about specifically of the cdc director. i wonder your view of the messages coming out. we know dr. walensky is going through media training and the impact of confusing and sometimes couldn't raw diktory guidance from the cdc. >> the country is lucky to have rochelle walensky, and i think the good thing that will come out of this is that the cdc will step out from the shadows of the national institutes of health or the shadows of the white house. most of these recommendations, if not all of the recommendations, are coming out of the cdc. so what i would love to see happen is that for example when you hear the booster dose recommendation, you have millions of people in this country who have received say two doses of an mrna vaccine and millions who have received three doses. this is a premier organization of doing the kind of studies where you look at those two groups and compare them and show that a third dose significantly decreased your risk of serious illness, or doesn't. in which case maybe that wasn't the best recommendation. but lead with the science and the cdc does that science. so this is all good and shows dr. walensky as circumstapect. >> and let me ask you about the biden administration advisers who published these three pieces which they say there has to be a new normal now as there is a move to an endemic phase of the pandemic. without a strategic plan now the new plan, more people in the u.s. will unnecessarily experience morbid ate and mortality, and health inequities will widen and trillions abwille linked to the economy. and the take home tests are too expensive and hard to find. what is the transition that needs to happen at this phase? >> right so i think we learned a lot from last winter. when we didn't have a vaccine or much population immunity because most people weren't naturally infected. but you saw a clear decline in hospitalizations and deaths starting around mid-february. now fast forward a year. where are we this winter? this winter at least 60 plus percent of people have been vaccinated. and you probably have about 80 plus percent population immunity at this point. what will happen with omicron, i think you're likely to see a clear decrease in hospitalizations and deaths by the end of january, mid-february. we should focus on the severe cases because that is what we care about. that is what we care about with flu. flu, every year the flu vaccine presents hospitalizations and deaths but not preventing asymptomatic infection, if we did to flu what we do with covid, you would find there is a mountain of milder asymptomatic infection which we largely ignore and that is the new normal. being able to accept mild infections and get ready when the winter comes, do we want to give a boost in the winter and, if so, where is the evidence that supports that. >> speaking of the flu, rick wright, hhs, from the last administration said that like the flu, that there should be variant specific vaccines that he points out that people receiving the same vaccine that was administered two years ago, or a year ago now, what do you say to that? >> i disagree. if you take a look at beginning, when all of the vaccines that were made, mrna and johnson & johnson, they were made to the wuhan strain. that is not the strain that left china. it was the first variant that doesn't have a greek letter. it was d-614-g and swept across the united states and killed a couple hundred thousand people and replaced by the alpha and delta variant and the omicron variant. with all of those variants have in common is that protection against severe disease is mediated by the original vaccine against the ancestoral change. until that changes and you see that despite vaccination, you're still seeing a fairly high percentage of people who have serious illness, then you reasonably could have variant specific vaccine. but until that happens, it doesn't make sense to do it. >> dr. paul offit, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> another mixed job report for december ended up being the month with the fewer number of jobs added in 2021. but wages grew and the unemployment level dropped. how the president is responding. that is next. and we're watching the georgia courtroom where judge is set to sentence the three men convicted of murdering mahmaud arbery. we have a live report ahead. zicam. zinc that cold! hello? gordon ramsay? ♪ this is a cold call! ♪ nfl teams are 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however you make it, make your home a place like no other. with less moderate-to-severe eczema, why hide your skin if you can help heal your skin from within? dupixent helps keep you one step ahead of eczema with clearer skin and less itch. hide my skin? not me. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent. we have the december jobs report today. the unemployment rate fell to a pandemic era low of 3.9% in december but jobs fell short of economists expectations again. the u.s. economy added 199,000 jobs in december. the fewest jobs added in any month of 2021. now economists had forecast jobs growth of double that number. even so, 2021 saw record-breaking job growth and lower than expected gains from previous months that were revised upward. the u.s. averaged 6.4 million jobs last year the most since the records began in 1939. and this morning the president addressed the record number of workers who quit their jobs in november. >> there has been a lot of press coverage about people quitting their jobs. well today's report tells you why. americans are moving up to better jobs, with better pay, with better benefits. that is why they're quitting their jobs. >> leaders of the january 6 house select committee tell cnn that they are not ruling out the possibility that former president trump's actions surrounding january 6 amounted to a crime. let's go to ryan nobles. what is congresswoman liz cheney first saying about the former president's role? >> reporter: i don't think there is any doubt that this seems to have become a special focus for the january 6 committee. the conduct of the former president donald trump in the days leading up to and on january 6 is the fact that he did not move quickly enough or was not engaged enough in attempting to get his supporters to leave the capitol on that day and an example of at the very least a dereliction of duty or all the way up to a crime. liz cheney, the vice chair of the committee, talked about the thinking the committee has on that topic in our special event that we held last night. take a listen. >> the president of the united states is responsible for ensuring that laws are faithfully executed. he's responsible for the security of the branches. so for a president to, through either his action or inaction, for example, attempt to impede or obstruct the counting of electoral votes, which is an official proceeding of congress, is -- the committee is looking at that, looking at whether what he did constitutes that kind of a crime. >> reporter: so obviously what the committee needs to do if they think this is a crime is they would have to compile all of the evidence, the record as to why they think it constitutes a crime and then hand that over to the department of justice who would ultimately decide if they would prosecute. victor, there is a long way to go until that point. we still to see what they are finding to draw any conclusion if they could determine whether or not the president's action constitute a crime. >> ryan nobles on capitol hill. thank you. well president biden was direct and forceful when it came to the former president's role as he forcefully vowed to defend democracy. and joining me now to discuss, chairman jaime harrison. mr. chairman, good to see you again. thank you for being with me. can you hear me, because i think your shot was frozen? you got me, sir. >> yeah, i got you. can you hear me? >> i got you now. all right. >> happy new year. >> happy new year to you. so the president, this speech was pretty passionate. he said that the organizers instigators rioters held a dagger to the throat of democracy, it is a message for the moment and prosperity -- post ert, i should say. but i wonder from a political perspective, does the 1/6 investigation, this line move voters? the man who is tasked with getting the republican control of the senate said that, rick scott, he said look at what people are focused on. it is focused on what impacts their family, their inflation and schools an public safety and stuff like that. what do you say? >> if our democracy does not hold, then none of that stuff will happen. right. we saw, and we saw -- we just had the anniversary of something that we have never thought that we would see in american history. the capitol was under siege and the president of the united states, a man who has pledged an oath to defend and protect this great nation sat in the white house with a bucket of popcorn watching it like it was some movie. that can never happen again. we need to make sure that we investigate who was involved, why they did it, what was the motivation behind it and hold anybody accountable for their actions on that day. and so this isn't about politics. this is about the rule of law. this is about making sure that we protect our great democracy. because we can never let january 6, or an event like january 6 ever happen again. >> yeah. the president and the vice president also referenced the need to get some progress on protecting voting rights as well. it is been about six months since the president gave as passionate a speech about that at the national constitution center. there is a vote coming up on the filibuster before the king holiday. we understand the urgency. let's stipulate that. what can get done, do you believe, with senator manchin still not on board with changing the filibuster. >> well, victor, i've been on the hill talking with senators, had a lot of conversations over the past few months and just before the holidays and i know that there are a lot of discussions happening within the senate conference. the sad part is that if things get done and i'm hoping and praying that we could get it all across the finish line, it will happen only because of democrats. and that is a sad testament. >> well what can you get done with only democrats? >> i understand republicans aren't on board. you have two democrats holding out. senators manchin and sinema. can something get done? are you any closer to convincing them. >> those conversations have being had and senator manchin is involving in the group led by senator tester and kane. so there are many times in which i worked on the floor of the house, we could take legislation to the floor and still working out, making sure that we have all of the votes. but had you to take it to the floor because it was significant. and this is going to be one of those pieces of legislation that i think, when history looks back on it, people will want to be on the right side of history. we know that voting rights is always been a struggle in this country. but we've made a lot of gain. and that this is not like any other issue. victor, as you know, as i know, this is personal for so many of us. because our forefathers and foremothers didn't have that right to vote. and now we do. and we got to do everything within our power to make sure that we secure it. i wish it was wasn't a bipartisan effort, but the ones who voted for the last voting rights act authorization, when they have a republican house and senate and john lewis was there and helped to shepard that. all of these people, many of members who are still there, voted for the last voting rights reauthorization on the republican side. and now these folks are ---less and they only want political power and they see this is the way that they get it, by crook and so they are not going to stand on the right side of democracy in this country. and so that is sad. if only democrats have to do it, then we have to do all that we can to make sure we bring this over the finish line. >> so you talked about political power. let me ask you about some of the retirements from the house. 25 house democrats have now said that they will not be running for re-election. more than twice the number of republicans for a myriad of reasons. six of them are running for other offices. statewide offices. double this pace in 2020 of democrats. what is the message to democratic voters when you've got 25 members of house caucus who are not going to run for re-election? >> well many of the retirements are coming from some of our senior democrats who have been in the house for ten, 15, 20 years. some even more than that. and they run in what you call traditionally secure democratic seat. and those who are not, the dccc and our state parties are working hard to recute some of the best candidates out there to run for some of the districts. >> is this an acknowledgment that you won't have the majority next time around? >> no. it is an acknowledgment that some people have been on the hill for a while and they're ready to transition to do some other things. but we have a lot of great candidatesute there. i mean here in south carolina we have dr. annie andrews who is running. so many great candidates and i'm looking forward to hitting the campaign trail with them. >> jaime harrison, good to talk to you again. thank you. >> thank you, victor. take care. >> you too. >> now join far he'd zachary as he invites the fight to save american democracy sunday night at 9:00 right here on cnn. a georgia judge is about to sentence the three men convicted of murdering ahmaud arbery as he was jogging. ahmaud arbery's mother and brother and sister have told the judge how they've been impacted by the crime. we'll go live to the courthouse next. move your student loan debt to sofi. earn a $1,000 bonus when you refi- and feel what it's like to get your money right. better skin from your body wash? try olay body wash with skincare super ingredient collagen! olay body wash hydrates to improve skin 3x better, from dry and dull to firm and radiant. with olay body, i feel fearless in my 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daughter's life. the loss of a maude has devastated me and my family. these men deserve the maximum sentence for the crimes. ahmaud arbery never said a word to them. he never threatened them, he just wanted to be left alone. >> a jury convicted the men just before thanksgiving for chasing down and shooting arbery who was jogging in the neighborhood. we are in brunswick, georgia. in the victim pact statement, his mother gave a rebuttal of sorts to comments made about her son during the trial. tell us about those. >> reporter: yeah, victor, if you watched this trial in november, if you read about it or heard about it, chances are you remember a line that was widely condemned by just about everyone in the closing arguments of one of the defense attorneys in which she was speaking about the body of ahmaud arbery and she referenced his, quote, long, dirty toe nails. there was an audible gasp when she said that back in november. and wanda cooper jones, his mother indicated how upset she was hearing that, that day. it is obviously something that she has spent the 40-plus days thinking about because she referenced exactly that in her impact statement. take a listen. >> he was messy, he sometimes refused to wear socks, or take care of his good clothing. i wish he would have cut and cleaned his toe nails before he went out for that jog that day. i guess he would have if he knew he would be murdered. >> reporter: and just really hard to listen to ahmaud arbery's parents and sister during the impact statements, requesting that the judge give that maximum sentence of life without parole. now we've also listened to the attorneys for each of the three defendants, victor. they are asking for leniency, and they are asking for the option of parole after they have served 30 years, of course the parole board wove to grant that. but that this would be giving them the option. the attorneys have argued it does not appear that we're going to hear from the defendants at this point as the judge said that he will be giving his sentence within -- after this break which we're expected to take about ten to 15 minutes. >> diane, thank you so much. let's bring in now cnn legal analyst and attorney reeva martin and criminal defense attorney page pate. page, let me start with you. and i read at the top here that there are some minimum sentencing laws there in georgia that require them to be in prison for a very long time. what is and is not this judge deciding? >> well, victor, as far as the murder counts, there is really own one decision. will he allow the defendants the possibility to seek parole after they've served 30 years in prison. it is a life sentence that is required for both malice murder, which is what travis mcmichael is convicted, and felony murder which is what the other two were convicted of. the only discretion that the judge has over the murder sentences is whether it is life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, or life without the possibility of parole. so that is the big issue here today. >> and is it also for the lesser charges, whether they're concurrent and at the end of that there will be parole? >> well, yes, although really given the way that this particular case was structured, several of those underlying felony counts were merged into the murder counts. and the additional ones would be for the most part con current to both each other and the murder sentence. so at the end of the day the question is really life, you're going to serve 30 years and be considered for parole or serve the rest of your life in prison. >> areva, we heard from ahmaud arbery's brother and sister offering the rebuttal to the st statement from one of the defense attorneys from the trial. i want to hear from ahmaud arbery's father. his victim pact statement. >> a man who killed my son has sat in this courtroom every single day next to his father. i never get that chance. to sit next to my son ever again. not only did they -- my son in broad daylight, but they killed him while he was doing what he loved than anything. running. that is when he felt most alive. most free. >> and no question that the parents and the family have lost so much here. they deserve to be heard there in that courtroom. but how much does a judge take these statements into consideration? >> i think the judge will, victor, take into consideration the comments from the parents and we have not heard a powerful victim pact statements than the ones that we heard this morning. the one you played of ahmaud arbery's dad and his mother and powerful state statements from his sister, talking about his dark skin and his curly hair, debunking this myth that somehow his blackness made him dangerous. letting the world know that his blackness was his superpower. that is what made the special man and brother and son that he was. so i think that the judge will take them into consideration. this is -- ahmaud arbery died under the most heinous circumstances you could imagine. as his dad said, he was running, he was doing what made him feel most alive and while doing that his life was taken from him. so i think at least for the mcmichaels, i wouldn't be surprised if the judge did sentence them to the harshest sentence which is 30 years, life without parole. >> yeah, so page, areva did something there that is a great segue into the separation of mcmichaels from william bryan and we heard from him attorney trying to do the same thing. let's hear that. >> roddy bryan was not a vij lantsy and not a party to fight crime in sat illa shores. roddy bryan had no idea what was going on or why until after the tragic death of mr. arbery. >> two questions, significant point and do you think it will be reflected in the sentencing? >> yes and yes. the judge has to treat each defendant separately and individually. and so even though this was an obvious horrible crime, the jury convicted them all of murder, in different ways, the judge has to impose a sentence that is reflective of what happened but each defendant's relative culpability and i think it is clear from the evidence here and from the prosecution's recommendation of a lower sentence that mr. bryan did not play as big of a role in this case as the mcmichaels did. now the judge certainly has a discretion to give mr. bryan the same sentence, life without the possibility of parole, despite his lawyers arguments at the beginning of the hearing but i certainly think especially with the prosecutor's recommendation, many bryan is the most likely to get some chance at parole at the end of day. >> according to the judge in this case, this break that he's taking should end in about five minutes and we'll learn the sentence. areva, let me come back to you for one more question here. would you have expected to have heard from the mcmichaels and from bryan today? they have not spoken on their own behalf? >> well the lawyers made the point, victor, that they couldn't speak because they are facing federal hate crime and that trial -- that trial is slated to start in february. so they leaned heavily on the argument as good defense lawyers they couldn't allow their clients to take the stand. but what we saw in the derek chauvin case was he was also charged in federal -- with federal hate crimes and he reversed niz not guilty plea to guilty. so they could have done the same. so the notion that they could not take the stand and express remorse, that is a tactical decision on the part of their lawyers. there is nothing preventing them from doing that. >> understood. areva and page, stay with us. we're going to take a quick break. i think we have a couple of minutes here before we get that sentence from the judge. we'll bring that to you live as it happens and i want you to be with us back after it. so stay with us. let's talk about this winter storm that is mixing with coronavirus outbreaks. it is adding up to thousands of canceled flights. big nightmare for passengers and the 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sentencing live as it happens. let's turn now to the weather and more than 40 million people under winter weather alerts today. and more snow is expected in the northeast over the weekend. and an entire season's worth of know fell across parts of the southeast and the ohio valley yesterday. a 20-car pile-up on the western kentucky parkway left drivers stranded for hours. look at that. airlines also canceling thousands of flights, again today. amid the weather woes. pete muntean is at reagan national airport in arlington. pete, you have to stay nimble because i might have to take us back to brunswick. but how bad is it today? sflfrnl well flight cancellations today have already exceeding the total number of cancellations for the full day yesterday. these are the number as cording to flight aware. 2500 flight cancellations today alone. 2700 flights delayed. you know, travelers just can't catch a break here buzz the airlines can't catch a break. winter weather a huge issue. places like la guardia and boston and in denver where the temperatures were bitterly cold. but there is another layer to this. a ton of airline workers calling out sick because they've been exposed to coronavirus or they've become infected with coronavirus. southwest airlines have canceled one in every five of the flights for last few days in a row. the solution trying to get more people to work. it is incentivized flight at attendants to pay them double pay. alaska airlines is cutting back the schedule by about 10% for the rest of the month. it simply needs to hit re-set on the operation because it is canceling about 16% for all flights for the last few weeks. this is a problem for weeks, victor. 27,000 flights, can you believe it. >> we have to jump in here. i have to take us back to the courtroom in brunswick for the sentencing of the men who killed ahmaud arbery. >> all right. we are back on. the defendant is represented by counsel. the way the court's going to address this. i'm going to make a few remarks and then address each one of the defendants with regard to sentencing and the remarks are intended to be general but also taken into consideration in the individual sentencing portion of the court's statement. this is how we intend to proceed, so the court has heard the evidence in the case, has accepted the jury's verdict, listened to the presentations here today in aggravation and mitigation, and candidly have spent a lot of time thinking about this. this is a case that has taken a lot of time and energy on a lot of people's parts. and has been a case of no, not just in this community but really in a lot of communities, but we're here today to determine is what an appropriate sentence is quite separate from the notoriety of the case and any other outside influence that may exist, and so the court is going to be very careful in explaining that the court has considered just the evidence and what is appropriate under the circumstances of this case to consider in the superior court. so that all being said i'll start with this statement. as we all now know based upon the verdict that was rendered in this court in november, ahmaud arbery was murdered. it's a tragedy. it's a tragedy on many many levels. i'm sorry, on february 23rd of 2020, almost two years ago, a resident of glynn county, a graduate of brunswick high, a sun, a brother, a young man with dreams was gunned down in this community. as we understand it, he left his home apparently to go for a run and he ended up running for his life. he entered the english home at approximately 1:4 p.m. and left that home at 1:08 that day. at 1:14 greg mcmichael calls 911 to let them know thatthere's a black male running down the street, and within moments, ahmaud arbery is shot and killed. the three men that are before this court chased him in a residential neighborhood for at least five minutes in pickup trucks, armed with a shot gown and a .357 revolver. the state mentioned this today about the time period, but i do want to put that time period in context, and the only way i could think to do so may be a little theoretical but i think it's appropriate. i want us to all get a concept of time. what i'm going to do is i'm going to sit silently for one minute. and that one minute represents a fraction of the time that ahmaud arbery was running in satilla shores. that's approximately a minute. again, the chase that occurred in satilla shores occurred over about a five-minute period. and when i thought about this, i thought from a lot of different angles, and i kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of the young man running through satilla shores. the jury heard the evidence and returned a verdict. and what a difficult job they had under the circumstances. without any comment on the verdict itself, i think all counsel will agree and accept that this was a very difficult case to even get a jury impanelled on, and there are issues out there with regard to the jury that were brought up in the press and elsewhere. but i want to give credit to those members of the panel not because of their verdict, just because of the fact that they were willing to go through the process that they went through with the state, with the defense, and with this court. we're here today to sentence the defendants in discharging the duty, this court is required to consider all mitigating and aggravating circumstances. the court has considered those circumstances, including but not limited to all aspects of the crimes charged, the past criminal record or the lack thereof of the defendants, and lawful evidence which tends to show the motive of the defendants, their lack of remorse, their general moral character, and any predisposition to commit other crimes. now, i think in this case, the record speaks for itself, and the defendant's own words, i think, guide this court with regard to sentencing. i went back through my notes and other resources to pull some of the quotes that we have in this case. i'll start with greg mcmichael. in my opinion, greg mcmichael very early on in this tried to establish a narrative. he made comments like ahmaud arbery was trapped like a rat, stop or i'll blow your and i won't repeat it again, head off. effectively admitted that he wasn't sure what ahmaud arbery had done wrong. quote, i don't think the guy has actually stolen anything out there, or if he did, it was early in the process. but he keeps going back over and over again into this damn house. again, back to the narrative, told travis, you have no choice. he told another individual at the scene, this guy ain't no sl shuffler, this guy is an asshole, commented that he wanted him, ahmaud arbery to know that we weren't playing. if i could have gotten a shot at the guy, i would have shot him. travis mcmichael claims he was in shock, but it's interesting because he talks about his concern for his child and his own well being. part of this was while the victim was actually laying there in the street. he commented this is the worst day of my life. well, i think it's been touched on here today, there were other individuals that were impacted. i look at the video of this incident, when i say the video, i think everybody knows what we're talking about, but there was one part of it that struck me as absolutely chilling, and that is, i believe it's in the enhanced video provided by the gbi. there's a frame where i believe ahmaud arbery, it looks to be, if he's 20 yards out, that may be close, 30 yards out, and it's frame of travis mcmichael lifting the shotgun to fire at ahmaud arbery, and you watch that with context, and when i say context, after hearing the evidence in this case, again, thinking about a young man that had been running at that point for almost five minutes, and it is a chilling, truly disturbing scene. and we got there because travis mcmichael's father saw ahmaud arbery hauling down the street and calls out, let's go. at that point, travis mcmichael, despite whatever may have been going on in his life at that time with regard to family or otherwise, just goes, grabs a shotgun, and goes because he assumes that it is the right thing to do. ahmaud arbery was then hunted down and shot. and he was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands. mr. bryant, he joined in after calling out to the mcmichaels, you all got him, claimed he didn't know what was going on. but obviously wanted to know if this individual who was running through the neighborhood who he didn't know had been caught in some way. said quote, i figured he'd done something wrong but i didn't know for sure. or it wasn't actually the quote. those are two separate quotes. didn't know for sure. i thought he would get away. and this is the part that is disturbing to me with roddie bryan, if the guy would have stopped, this would have never happened. all of these quotes give context, i think, to the video that we saw during the case. and ms. wanda cooper jones this morning made a statement that i think when you look at the statements and you see the videos is very true, and that is she said when they could not scare or intimidate him, they killed him. there's been discussion about remorse. and i agree with counsel that it is dangerous for defendants who have multiple prosecutions against them to make statements of remorse, but remorse isn't something that is simply a statement of regret. remorse, i think, can be determined by looking at somebody's reaction to difficult circumstances and the reality of the situation that they're in. again, it doesn't require an apology, and quite honestly, sometimes apologies are made simply to get past problems. remorse is something that's felt