politico reporting that includes a draft executive order that would have seized all voting machines and election records. plus another blow to president biden. a federal judge in texas blocking his vaccine mandate for federal employees, and the battle over masks in schools reaching a new low. >> my children will not come to school on monday with a mask on, all right? that's not happening. and i will bring every single gun loaded and ready. >> that virginia parent charged after threatening to bring a loaded gun into school -- loaded guns to school all because she's against masks. so i want to bring in now cnn senior analyst laura coates to talk about this. laura is the author of the new book "just pursuit." so much to talk about. good evening to you. let's talk about this politico reporting that january 6th investigators are in possession of a draft executive order from december 2020 that would have seized voting machines as part of trump's plan to overturn the election. it said in part, effective immediately, the secretary of defense shall seize, collect, retain, and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention. laura, crazy seems like an understate here. i mean thankfully this order was never issued, but what could the document mean for the select committee's investigation? >> well, it means there was really no ceiling or end to the absurdity of trying to use the power of the presidency in this way. i mean imagine this. secretary of defense, we're going to use the military in order to seize voting machines and there's no basis to do so? there's no widespread fraud, let alone any fraud that would have overturned the election in any way. you heard that from the former attorney general bill barr. the idea we'd be using the military for that, let alone the idea that you're going to go to this extent to try to prove that you were not a defeated president is really what tests the democracy of our system right now and the idea that here we are in a nation that's supposed to be really a role model for a political system, and the president of the united states potentially is trying to put his thumb on the scale and overturn the will of the people? it seems to be shock upon shock upon shock. >> you know, the draft executive order also called for -- and i quote here -- the appointment of a special counsel to oversee this operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate. according to axios, sidney powell -- remember her, kraken, right -- was pushing for this role. this is a reminder of her crazy lies after the election. watch this. >> what we are really dealing with here and uncovering more by the day is the massive influence of communist money through venezuela, cuba, and likely china and the interference with our elections here in the united states. so we have mathematical evidence in a number of states of massive quantities of trump votes being trashed, just simply put in the trash like you would on your computer with any file, and biden votes being injected. that's in addition to the flipping. president trump won by a landslide. we are going to prove it, and we are going to reclaim the united states of america for the people who vote for freedom. >> i mean these are wild, baseless conspiracy theories. it is terrifying, laura, to think she could have been appointed special counsel. what kind of authority would she have had in that particular role? >> even in iota would have been too much authority for somebody who made those statements. i mean remember this is the same person when she was sued civilly over her statements regarding dominion voting and other instances, said that people would have been crazy or not in their right mind -- i'm paraphrasing her -- to even believe anything she had to say. so she already acknowledges to some extent that was all foolishness. but then the idea of talking about when the courts of law were asking, probably salivating because they were asking them to prove it. give us something. you've asked something about wanting to get the court's relief. do you have any proof whatsoever, anything that would allow the court to issue whatever injunction or relief you actually want? and remember it was just crickets, crickets who didn't have, as my mother would say, a pot to pee or a window to throw it out of when it comes to evidence. there was nothing there, and yet this is the person who is then going to come out and be overseeing in a position of authority over any part of our elections? think about the idea of a democracy and the future of the democracy, the ability to call it a strong democracy, and then be so focused on one's own vain pursuit to not have been defeated that you're going to go to this length. unfortunately, you know, educated people in the sense of looking at the information, not in terms of where educational attainment, but taking the time to educate one self on the actual facts as presented. because of our echo chambers, because of our silos of information and then misinformation, people are not going to have heard the truth, which is she herself has already acknowledged that it was not truthful what she said when she talked about the absurdity of even even believing her. and that's who would be in charge of any form of our elections? that's outrageous for anyone who believes that your vote should count and our democracy should be strong. >> very well stated, especially what your mom said. my mom had a very similar one, and it went "a hole to pour it in". >> i like that one too. i think it's a mother's chorus. here are the things you're going to say. it will all hit home, and your kids will then quote them on cnn on a friday night. sorry, mom. >> thanks, laura. have a great weekend. >> it's still not as bad as misinformation, okay? not as bad as that. >> thanks, laura. joining me now, ron brownstein and mark mckinnon. gentlemen, good evening to you. so good to see you. let's see, marx mckinnon, congressman james may raskin, a member of the january 6th select committee, hasn't personally seen this draft executive order, but this is what he said about that tonight. >> it indicates that there was one more line of possible attack, which was something like a military coup that was being planned before january 6th, a military seizure of ballot boxes and essentially a military takeover of the election process. it seems to me that, you know, president trump was trying to, you know, let a thousand flowers bloom in terms of, you know, paramilitary and extra-constitutional attacks on the election result, and all of it of course culminated on january 6th. >> okay. so, mark, seizing voting machines because you lost? this is the kind of thing that really stops you right in your tracks. this is -- this is crazy. >> it is, don, and it shows the extent to which they are willing to go, and they were willing to go to the sort of things that we see in third-world countries. as i heard you and laura talking about in the last segment, i just -- i thought about reading those sort of headlines 20, 30 years ago about autocrats and dictators. i mean the notion that we're talking about executive orders that are mandating a military takeover to take over the election machinery of the country to flip the election, this is america. this is the sort of thing we're talking about. it's humiliating. it's embarrassing, and i can't believe we're talking about this in the united states of america. >> you know, ron, i want to bring you in now because congressman raskin also says that the committee expects to get the outtakes of trump's rose garden video from the 6th. according to the committee, the committee's letter to ivanka trump, the outtakes didn't ask rioters to leave the capitol. look, you got the voting machine. then you have this. this is astounding. i mean trump believed that this insurrection was going to work? >> look, i wouldn't use the word "crazy." i would use the word "calculated." as this goes forward, what we see from the incredible work of the committee is the extent to which this was not just kind of a rag-tag, you know, last-minute kind of loose screws in the drawer that he's sending toward capitol hill. there were, as congressman raskin said, a thousand flowers bloomed, meaning there were multiple pathways he was using to try to overturn the will of the voters. and it was much more serious and focused on it than, you know, seemed from the outside chaos of january 6th. and i do think that's why this committee is so important and potential public hearings are so important because right now, there is not, i think, a clear awareness in the public of the magnitude of what happened and thus the risks that would be inherent in allowing that same person to have control of the federal government again. there is a lot that the public needs to learn about this and once the committee learns, there's a lot they need to impress on that broader audience. >> i have to tell you, listen, i want to move on to other stuff, these documents they're going to get, right, the archives. but when i read this, i couldn't believe it. i thought it was, you know -- >> yeah. seven days in may, you know? >> i can't even explain what i thought it was. i thought it was like, okay, is this the onion? is this -- are they being sarcastic? i mean, like, it is too crazy to even believe. am i the only one who felt that way when they read it, mark? >> well, i like ron's point, which is that it's crazy but it's also calculated. and that particular measure, talking about a thousand flowers blooming, that's like 1,001. that's the ultimate step, right? it's like if this doesn't work, screw democracy. we're just going to -- we're going to pull the poison pill and let it all go to hell and just take over. we're just going to deploy the military and take over. >> but isn't that what the big lie is about, ron? i mean that's basically the same thing. the big lie is, we don't care that it's a legitimate election. we should be able to take over. trump should be reinstated. i mean all of it is just wacky. >> look, the big lie is rooted in the belief that, quote, our voters are the, quote, real americans. and that by definition, if we lose, it's illegitimate because the people who are ostensibly outvoting us don't represent the real america, the traditional american values. and all of this -- i think i'm going to take a step back. all of this is exactly what republicans in congress have been working so hard to prevent from surfacing. you know, filibustering the independent commission, voting against the congressional committee. this is critical information. i think not only looking back about how close we came and whether there need to be changes in laws to kind of reinforce more safeguards, but also this is someone in donald trump who may seek once again to have the power of the presidency. and his behavior at this moment, which was probably all the evidence suggests the greatest threat to the functioning of american democracy since at least the civil war and maybe ever, is very relevant to the question voters will face. it's not likely to be a big issue in 2022. but for 2024, i would think voters deserve a full understanding of how far he was willing to go to try to undermine the pillars of american democracy. >> yeah. listen, not just him. >> not just him. >> the 700 trump white house documents they received according to representative elaine luria, they had written down in the briefing books, actually written down in the books how to steal the election. it's just unbelievable. thank you, gentlemen. i appreciate it. i'll see you soon. now to the mounting evidence showing the influence of the right-wing media in the days leading up to the january 6th insurrection. cnn's chief media correspondent brian stelter has the story. >> reporter: in the weeks leading up to january 6th -- >> congress will decide in january, so we will see what happens. >> reporter: -- kayleigh mcenany said donald trump was fighting to stay in office. >> this president's a fighter. he's not giving up. >> reporter: fight, fight, fight. that was the right-wing tv narrative until insurrection day. >> i think it's not an understatement to say we're in a constitutional tinderbox right now. >> reporter: these shows supplied the firewood and the matches. but behind the scenes, some claimed to fear a fire. >> multiple fox news hosts knew the president needed to act immediately. >> reporter: the house's 1/6 committee keeps sharing text messages that show how two-faced some of these stars are. on december 31st, 2020, sean hannity wrote to chief of staff mark meadows saying, i do not see january 6th happening the way he is being told. and on january 5th, hannity wrote that he was, quote, very worried about the next 48 hours according to the panel. but he never told viewers about his concerns. >> tomorrow's massive pro-trump march in washington -- >> reporter: and his colleagues were pumped about january 6th. >> we have hundreds of thousands of people pouring into washington tonight. >> pouring. >> reporter: it is as if they saw it coming. >> we have a lot of people who are really angry. >> reporter: but ignored their own roles in ramping up the rage. and then during the riot, laura ingraham texted meadows, the president needs to tell people in the capitol to go home. this is hurting all of us. he is destroying his legacy. yet on tv that night, she tried to shift some blame to left-wing agitators. >> there are some reports that antifa sim tpa thighers may hav been sprinkled throughout the crowd. >> hannity texted mcenany with a plan for dealing with trump. one, hannity reportedly wrote, no more stolen election talk. then he added a warning, quote, yes, many people will quit. >> love that, mcenany replied. thank you. that is the playbook i will help reinforce. but on the air, they stayed loyal, never disclosing their private chats about trying to, in hannity's words to others, land the plane without anyone else getting hurt. ingraham a few days later texted meadows about fears of further violence and said, according to the committee, everyone needs to calm down. they went from fight, fight, fight to hush, hush, hush. and they were rewarded for it. mcenany is now a fox host, and hannity is using trump to juice his ratings. hannity's advice from back then, no more stolen election talk, that's been completely ignored. this was trump just last night, talking about january 6th in happy terms, defending his speech on the ellipse that day. >> this was a protest rally against the election, which they considered to be totally rigged. >> reporter: so the same fox stars who in private were trying to act like guardrails and trying to guard against trump's worst behavior, in public they were helping to crash the car. now one year later, they have forgotten the lessons of january 6th. they are in denial about what happened. but this house committee, they are forcing everyone to remember, and they still have a lot more text messages that we don't know about, don. >> all right. brian stelter, thank you so much. i appreciate that, brian. a federal judge in texas handing another defeat to the biden administration's efforts to enforce vaccine mandates. that as new studies show that getting boosted is the best way to stay safe from omicron. and why is the nfl changing covid testing protocols for unvaccinated players right in the middle of the playoffs? what makes febreze air effects different? while cheaper aerosols rely on artificial propellants... febreze uses a 100% natural propellant. check it out! pressure created by what's in your air makes the bottle spray. which means freshness everyone will love. febreze. psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff,... ...swollen, painful. emerge tremfyant®. tremfya® is approved to help reduce joint symptoms in 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for people to get their booster shots. i want to discuss now with cnn medical analyst dr. jonathan reiner. hello, doctor. thanks for joining us this evening. this order from a texas judge comes just days after the supreme court blocked the administration's vaccine rules for large businesses. what is the impact on public health, do you think? >> probably not a lot. about 98% of federal employees now are vaccinated. this mandate has been in place since the president issued it in november, so just about everyone who works for the federal government has complied. so i'm not sure it's going to have a practical impact. but it continues to amaze me. you know, mandates for vaccines are not new. we've lived with these for a long time. kids can't go to school in any state in this country without getting vaccinated. the military has had a vaccine mandate, you know, forever. so there's all this precedent. this is not some new government overreach to try and vaccinate people. we've lived with this for a long time. this is just a ginned up political thing right now, but i don't think this judge's ruling will have any practical impact. >> i want to talk about the new cdc study of what it shows, doctor, that being boosted has never been more important. it says they looked at close to 88,000 hospitalizations across ten states in december and found that getting boosted was 90% effective at preventing hospitalizations. but if your second shot was more than six months ago, that dropped to 57%. break down this new data for us, please. >> basically what the data says, don, is that the efficacy of our two-shot regimen waned over that six-month period. but the booster could substantially restore the efficacy of the vaccines to prevent hospitalization and death for both delta and omicron. very, very effective. and also quite effective at preventing infection. so basically what the studies published today by the cdc have shown pretty clearly now is that a three-dose strategy of the two prime shots plus a booster for the rna or j&j plus one really restores quite good efficacy at preventing infection and hospitalization and death and really should be the standard for the definition of fully vaccinated in this country. >> i've got to talk about this story. the nfl has told the remaining playoff teams in a new memo that unvaccinated players will no longer face daily covid testing, okay? saying they'll test players or staff who show symptoms. it sounds like perhaps they don't want to risk players testing positive during the playoffs or before the super bowl. am i wrong here? >> yeah, it's show time now. you can't take the stars out of the show, right, as the show is getting going. and there are only about 12 players now who are still in the playoffs who remain unvaccinated, and who might one of them be? aaron rodgers, and his 90-day infection exemption is coming due. so one wonders how much is timed to simply protect the biggest unvaccinated star in the show. it's really cynical and unfortunate. you would hope that most of these professional sports leagues would understand that what's good for their business is to protect the health of their players rather than just, you know, hope for high ratings. so unfortunate. >> yeah. thank you, doctor. i appreciate it. >> good night, don. a school board debate over a mask mandate resulting in charges for one mom who made this threat. >> i will bring every single gun loaded and ready. ld's #1 selling nerve care company. nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief. 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that's not happening. and i will bring every single gun loaded and ready to -- i will call every -- >> that's three minutes. you've gone past your time. it's a policy. thank you. >> i'll see y'all on monday. >> school board member later reading amelia king's apology for the threat. >> i in no way meant to imply all guns loaded as in actual firearms but rather all resources i can muster to make sure my children get to attend school without masks. my sincere apologies for a poor choice in words. i'm absolutely mortified. i would never do such a thing. i was only speaking figu figuratively. nonetheless, i'm beside myself. i've already contacted the sheriff's office, explained myself. i never meant to imply i would show up with actual firearms. i'm not a dangerous person. i'm so sorry for the way it came across. >> people in the room shaking their heads in disbelief there. i want to talk about this with cnn national security analyst juliette kayyem. juliette, wow. hello to you. this is a serious charge that could land her in jail for up to a year. do you think this is a correct response from law enforcement and the school? >> yes. the harm is the statement, not whether she was serious or whether she would do it on monday, she would go with guns. >> say that again. the harm is the statement? >> is the statement. it's brought violence into a debate about masking, and it's brought violence to the school district, and the threat of violence so much so that the school district's going to respond with a heavier police presence on monday. her intent, her apology -- and i'll give her the benefit of the doubt -- does not, one, excuse the behavior, or, two, mean that it doesn't have consequences. people get drunk and get into their cars. they don't mean to. they don't intend to do any harm, but they do it. and there are consequences for doing that. and i think a heavy hand -- you know, she doesn't have to serve time in jail. she's going to pay $5,000 bail, maybe get community service if she doesn't have a previous record. we don't know. but let's assume she doesn't. she doesn't have to go to jail. but, yeah, the full force of whatever they can bring to her now, and she'll have a defense, is appropriate because as we've seen over the last five years where we're supposed to laugh at all this stuff, unless you actually say there are consequences for it, it just festers. and so the damage is already done. her apology has to do more with her and her intent than it does with what happened. >> you know, we have seen anger, juliette, over covid protection measures bubbling up for the last two years. sometimes amounting to melees in the streets. is this what happens when public health gets politicized? >> yes, and it happens when the issue of public health becomes like a team sport. you're either with me or against me. i'm sort of done with emotions because the truth is as a vaccinated, boosted mother of three children, i've got feelings too. i mean why the non-vaxxers and the non-maskers are allowed to assert their feelings everywhere they go, and we're supposed to sit back and just say, oh, well, it's a high-emotion stakes game, it's ridiculous at this stage. we're the majority. the majority of the american population is vaccinated, and so, you know, anger just -- i just take emotion out of everything. she said something that was violent. it was threatening. it was at a school board. it takes a lot to drive to a school board and speak and wait in line to speak at a meeting. and i don't -- i never understand by people what they mean by, i just meant guns figuratively. like what does that even mean? i mean kids are killed until sk schools every three days or four days. i don't know the defense i meant that figuratively. if she just spoke out of turn, there are consequences for doing that at a school board meeting about schools and about our children. the other parents have feelings too. >> you said you gave her the -- you'll give her the benefit of the doubt about her statement, you know, being metaphorically she was speaking. but i should note that cnn has reached out to king for comment. we have not heard back from her. >> yeah. >> it's also worth pointing out kids have been through so much already, i mean trying to learn through this pandemic, right? remember they had the school closures with virtual learning and all of that, and some schools still have that. now a parent is getting arrested for making threats on school property, and there will be increased police presence at the school. how is all this chaos affecting kids, juliette? that's really the question, right? >> it really is. the long-term psychological impact of this we know both from the fact that kids are home, and then the sort of increased radicalization of some of these issues at schools, that schools have become this sort of fighting ground over masking and over vaccination mandates is having an impact on kids as well. their stress level, we've noted -- i think "the times" today had a story on the psychological impact of masking on kids in terms of their own fears. so every which way you look at it, the pandemic has had an impact on our kids whether you're for masks or against masks. as adults, so this is where, you know what, you have some responsibility as a mother or father. as adults, our job is to try to take that fear and that anger out of a situation that a 5-year-old kid or a 7-year-old kid can't understand right now. and so, yeah, i mean i sound a little -- look, everyone wrong with america shouldn't fall on this woman who said something at a school district. on the other hand, the idea that an apology for that kind of action is suitable does not strike me as the right response by law enforcement. she should pay a fine. she should maybe have, you know, public service because once again, she's brought violence to the school district whether she intended to or not over an issue that we know across america is increasing the threats against public figures and school districts. so it's time we start saying, you know, there's no such thing as figurative violence. it's like it's literal at this stage. >> yeah. juliette kayyem, thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> thank you. a statue of theodore roosevelt coming down after criticism it's depictions of black and indigenous people. what his own family is saying about it. that's next. try finish dishwasher cleaner its dual action formula hygienically cleans hidden limescale and grease in your dishwasher. finish. clean dishwasher. clean dishes. did you know that even after you sanitize a surface, every touch can leave new bacteria behind? 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[sfx: voice relief] a controversial monument to president theodore roosevelt removed after decades of sitting outside the american natural history museum. joining me now, the author of "theodore roosevelt's ghost: the history and memory of an american icon." michael, so good to have you. i find this story fascinating and i'm so happy to have you here. thanks for joining us. i understand that theodore roosevelt wasn't much in favor of having statues of himself. and as the family told us, even they don't think it should represent his legacy. what is his legacy? okay. apparently we don't have michael. well, we'll try to get him back. but anyways, again, his family told us tonight and telling athena jones he didn't really like statues erected of himself, and they didn't think this should represent his legacy. so, listen, we're going to take a break and we'll be back. are we coming back or no? we'll try to come back. we'll be right back. don't go anywhere. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. as a business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind. so start saving by switching to the mobile service designed for small business: comcast business mobile. flexible data plans mean you can get unlimited data or pay by the gig. all on the most reliable nationwide network. with no line activation fees or term contracts... saving you up to $500 a year. and it's only available to comcast business internet customers. so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business: powering possibilities. okay. so we're back now. michael cullinane is here. he's the author of theodore roosevelt's ghost. there's some sort of ghost or glitch in the system because we lost you just as soon as we were coming to you. i'll ask you what is teddy roosevelt's legacy? >> well, it's many sided. theodore roosevelt was a complicated person as other people have said. he was a number of things. but at that site, his legacy is really about conservation. the museum really is talking about his legacy as an environmentalist, america's greatest environmentalist president. so that statue really seemed out of place. >> the story that aired before this, this isn't about any old, you know, theodore roosevelt statue. this is the story about this particular statue. the native american on the left, the black man on the right with teddy roosevelt above them on horseback. what does this statue represent, you think? >> well, it's really a depiction of racial hierarchies today. as one of your guests was saying earlier, this is a memorial that's changed over time. people might not have thought about this memorial in those sort of terms 80 years ago. but today that's front and center. that just goes to show that memorials are really living objects in a way, that they show how our proclivities and our relationship to the past is ever changing and so important. and so, you know, i think it's right that we revise our view of the past, and in this case moving the statue to somewhere where we can curate it, think about it, and understand race relations in the late 19th, early 20th century is essential. >> listen, i understand that it's being removed. hey, i've got ten seconds here seriously. there are people who say it was at a museum. that's the exact right place for it. >> they tried to curate the statue. they did it inside. they've done talks outside of it to explain it. it's not -- it's not the right statue at the right place. the rest of the museum has so many other parts of it that are dedicated to t.r.'s memory. i think those are the ones we should really focus on in the future and let's hope what goes out in front of the museum of natural history is something that's more palatable to the community that it's really serving. >> michael, thank you so much. i appreciate it. and thank you for watching, everyone. our coverage continues. hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. ahead on "cnn newsroom," the u.s. delivers a blunt warning to russia. >> if any russian military forces move across ukraine's border, it will be met with swift, severe, and a united response. >> tensions between ukraine and russia are at the highest in years. but did that meeting between washington and moscow's top diplomats do anything to defuse fears of an