1,000 points. it's enough to make your head spin. even if or maybe especially if you are the president. despite covid, growing tensions over ukraine, a stalled agenda, it's a question about inflation that appeared to hit a major nerve with president biden yesterday. >> will you take questions on inflation then? >> thank you. thank you all. >> you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms? >> more inflation. what a stupid son of a [ bleep ]. >> by the way, the president later called and apologized to fox's peter ducey who asked the question. ducey said it was a nice call. whether it's the white house or your house, the frustration and concern over higher prices is real. you feel it firsthand. maybe in transactions you make every day. so it's, you know, tough for a good headline like low unemployment, stock market rebounds to outweigh that direct effect. let's bring in justin wolvers. the stock market gets all the headlines but it's just a piece of the economy. explain why this market roller coaster, what it means for main street. >> well, the markets are really volatile right now but that volatility is just a reflection of reality which is it's hard to know what the future holds right now. so on the one hand, large parts of the economy seem to be getting back to normal for the first time in two years. on the other hand, omicron has caused massive disruption and dislocation over the past few months and none of us really know how much that's hurt the economy and how much it will turn out to be a hindrance through 2022. >> so do you expect more volatility in the coming weeks, months and what's your advice? >> look, the real volatility is about the volatility each of us is feeling in our lives. so the anxiety you are feeling in your heart is the same thing driving anxiety on wall street. in terms of thinking about your financial future, my advice to your viewers is just tune out. you don't need to follow stocks over the next month or two unless you have a couple million you need to manage. have another look in a couple of months because riding every up and down over the next few weeks is going to cause you nothing but heart palpitations. what your trying to do? for most families, that's save for retirement. >> let's talk about mortgage rates because this really impacts a lot of people, right? whether you are buying or selling. right now rates are the highest in two years. first-time home buyers already contending with a seller's market. supply extremely tight. where is the housing market headed? >> well, so mortgage rates are tough right now. they are going to be on the way up as the fed starts to tighten interest rates. but realize mortgage rates and interest rates more generally are going to rise because inflation is rising. think about inflation as a two-edged sword. on the one hand, inflation undermines your purchasing power. but on the other hand we have many decades of experience. when prices rise, wages tend to rise in order to keep up and so hopefully at the end of the day if your wages manage to keep up with prices, then there's not going to be too many effects for most families. >> will the rate hikes eventually help cool off demand? >> well, that's -- there are two reasons you might hike rates. one is you want to cool off demand. that's part of what's going on. the other is what really matters is the real interest rate, which is the interest rate after inflation. now because inflation has gone up, if we want to keep the real interest rate where it's at, then that means the fed has to hike nominal interest rates. the ones you read about in the newspaper, just to make sure we get the same real effect at the end of the day. >> so what key economic indicators more broadly are you watching to determine how much pain we're in for? >> the difficult thing is that over the next few weeks we're going to be getting economic data which is backward looking. it's going to tell us about december and january and we know december and january, well, they are pretty terrible months because of omicron. so hold your breath because you want to wait a month or two to see how the economy is turning out at the other side. now here's something you'll not often hear from an economist. a little bit of optimism. remember, unemployment is low. most people who want a job can find a job. those are really the important things for most families' finances. so there are real risks around things like inflation and mortgage rates and the like, but if you can find a job, at least that's going to help you keep on keeping on. >> absolutely. justin wolfers, really appreciate your expertise. thanks. to the pandemic now and some big vaccine news today. pfizer saying a clinical trial of their omicron specific vaccine is officially under way. this announcement comes as new daily cases in the u.s. hover over 700,000. also in israel, health advisers are recommending a fourth vaccine dose for all adults there. this is a significant move when you consider the u.s. relied heavily on israeli data to support the need for that initial booster dose. let's bring in cnn's elizabeth cohen for the latest on both. first elizabeth, what is pfizer saying about this new trial? >> right. pfizer is saying they're conducting a trial of their omicron specific vaccine. in fact, they've already started manufacturing the vaccine. now this trial won't last as long as the ones we saw in 2020 because they are going to be looking for different things. let's take a look at what they are doing. so they're going to have, they said up to 1400 participants. one group of them, they've already had two doses of pfizer before this trial. they'll give those folks either one or two omicron doses. so a vaccine specifically tailored to omicron. the second group, they've already had three doses. in other words, two doses and a booster. they'll give those folks one regular dose, a fourth dose, or give them an omicron dose and see what happens. a third group, unvaccinated. they've never had any shots and they're going to give those folks three regular omicron doses to see what happens to them. they'll be looking at immune responses, whether it's safe, whether it's tolerable. it's a little unclear how useful this vaccine will be. by the time they get it out, it's likely that omicron will have sort of done its damage through most of the country so the question remains, well, maybe it will come back and then the vaccine could be useful for that. no you also talked about israel. a group of israeli vaccine advisers and the ministry of health usually listens to them closely. they're recommending fourth doses for all adults in israel. they say this is based on data for israelis 60 and older who have been getting fourth doses for a number of weeks now. let's look at what they found for this older group. they looked at more than 400,000 people ages 60 and over and they found the fourth dose provides more than three times the protection against serious illness compared to people who didn't get a fourth dose and doubles the protection against infection. now the health ministry in industrial has not yet said let's do it. so this is the -- the israelis are not getting their fourth doses yet unless they're over 60. there are some questions. just because it looks like the fourth doses helped older people, will it help younger people or younger people fine without it? in israel, they often just sort of move ahead with these things and then analyze the data in retrospect. >> different than what happens here in terms of the process in the u.s. elizabeth cohen, thank you for that. joining us is dr. jorge rodriguez, board certified inte internal medical. we may be past this omicron surge in the next few weeks. is a specific vaccine for omicron going to be too late? >> you know, ana, it may. it may be a day late and a dollar short because this surge is already passing. but just like the flu vaccines, you can only work with the data that you have. and the most changed variant is the omicron. so you have to sort of plan for that one and hope that just making a vaccine against that one will give you a large protection against the future variant. remember, it's already changed to omicron. so the changes that could happen may only be very small. again, this is, and i hate to say it, not a guessing game, but, you know, a smart, scientific data game and we can only work with the data that we have today. >> so do you think if this vaccine is then authorized, the omicron specific vaccine that that would then be the new booster shot? >> probably. it probably will be the next new booster shot. but again, you know, we don't know. this happens again every year, for example, with the flu. you have the best scientific information of what may be coming. and sometimes you get it at 80%. sometimes the virus is much smarter than us and it mutates to something that the vaccine doesn't work very well against. >> health advisers in israel say they have this data that shows a fourth vaccine dose provided people with more than three times the level of protection against serious illness and it also doubled the protection against infection. dr. fauci told me yesterday here in the u.s. we're still waiting for more data to determine if and when a fourth dose is necessary. why would these countries be on such different timelines? >> well, you know, first of all, we need to take a deep breath about this. one thing about the israeli government and what they've been doing with covid, they have been ahead of the curve. so, you know, have to give them kudos for that. one thing that we know right now in the united states, if you get the three vaccinations, your chances of dying, going to the hospital is vastly removed. so we have to work -- decreased. so we have to work with that information. again, israel right now is seeing a huge surge. i think they have around 200,000 new cases per day. so i think they are at high alert and trying to sort of head off, you know, the avalanche before it gets critical. so they are in that critical position, and i think that's causing them to move a lot more quickly. i think right now, the data that -- from the information the people need is three vaccines and you're going to be highly protected against getting sick and dying from covid. >> dr. jorge rodriguez, always good to have you here. thank you. >> thank you. let's take a step back right now because the average number of people with covid is dying every day is on the rise again. surpassing the peak from the delta surge. nearly 2200 americans right now are dying from covid every day. adding to more than 850,000 total covid-related deaths in the u.s. since the start of the pandemic. and, according to the cdc, roughly 3 out of 4 deaths are people who are 65 or older. and something we've known, the vast majority of these deaths are entirely preventable. here's what we've learned. unvaccinated people are 68 times more likely to die from covid than those with three doses of an mrna vaccine. pfizer or moderna vaccine. so two doses and that booster. this is important. 68 times is not the same as 68%. for example if you took your yearly salary and multiplied it by 68, think about how much of a difference that would make in your life. the average american makes $51,000 a year. multiply that by 68. you're a millionaire three times over over. multiply it by just 68%, that's a nice 36k bonus. i think everyone would rather have seven digits in the bank. new warnings, more weapons and not a lot of budging. the tensions between russia and ukraine are rising as the united states commits more american troops and weapons to help ukraine defend a potential invasion. how does this end? plus, conspiracy theorists and far right radio shock jock alex jones just revealed that he spoke with the january 6th committee. and he says they had a lot of his text messages. >> vo: so when my windshield broke... i found the experts at safelite autoglass. they have exclusive technology and service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ for people who could use a lift new neutrogena® rapid firming. a triple-lift serum with pure collagen. 92% saw visibly firmer skin in just 4 weeks. neutrogena® for people with skin. let me tell you... you want to be successful? you gotta hustle. you gotta go the extra mile. make a name for yourself. have a firm grip. always dress for success. and you gotta show 'em who's boss. thanks for coming in. we'll get back to you. hustle, sure, but for what matters. when you do, it leads to amazing. welcome to the next level. the all-new lexus nx. ♪ we gotta tell people that liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need, and we gotta do it fast. 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hmm. can't think of anyone! subway keeps refreshing and re... living with diabetes? glucerna protein smart has your number with 30 grams of protein. scientifically designed with carbsteady to help you manage your blood sugar. and more protein to keep you moving with diabetes. glucerna live every moment the u.s. is placing up to 8,500 troops on heightened alert for possible deployment to eastern europe. concerns remain high that a russian invasion of ukraine may be imminent. the pentagon says they're notifying troops and their families about the potential move but no final decision has been made yet. president biden met with allies for more than an hour yesterday to discuss options. ukraine's foreign minister warned ukraine needs to be at the table when any big decisions are made. >> if anyone makes a concession on ukraine behind ukraine's back, first, we will not accept that. we will -- we will not be in a position of a country that picks up the phone. here's the instruction of the big power. no. >> let's get to cnn senior international correspondent sam kiley in ukraine and nic robertson in moscow. what more are you hearing from ukrainian leaders today? >> ana, it's very interesting. as cla rrissa ward was interviewing the foreign minister of ukraine here in kyiv, just a few hours ago, it was about diplomacy, about trying to talk their way out of it. not quite appeasement, but definitely indicating whilst they were in lockstep with nato, perhaps yet more of this french idea that they want an independent european foreign policy from nato. not perhaps the time to be doing it. and this is also very much a position of the ukrainians. you heard from the ukrainian foreign minister there and he insisted in that interview that appeasement was not the way to go. this is how he put it. >> if we learned anything since 2014 is that it's a flawed logic to handle president putin from the perspective that, let's do nothing in order not to make him angry. no, this is not how it works. strength, resolve, deterrence. >> one of the indications of perhaps a lack of strength coming from ukraine's allies is the united kingdom, united states, germany and australia all ordering -- and canada, all ordering a downsizing of their embassies here sending home nonessential staff, families being allowed to leave, indicating a degree of nervousness among those countries, and this was counteracted, if you like, by president zelensky and many of his ministers coming out saying, calm down. saying to their own people here in ukraine, now is not the time to worry. we don't think invasion is imminent. everybody needs to calm down. they also have just taken another consignment of u.s. weapons, which militarily, which given that they include the javelin anti-tank weapon will be reassuring to them, ana. >> nic, is there any sense that putin's options are narrowing and that he may actually back down? >> this is a situation where it seems that putin intended to be the last one to blink. that russia is willing to hold out. that they are willing to go all the way and create a maximum pressure so that european nations and the united states along with them, partners at nato, would say, okay. what's more important to us? our lives to get committed into a fight over ukraine or a nato principle that ukraine shouldn't be allowed to join nato. this seems to be the direction that putin is headed in. certainly that's what you -- that's what you hear from russian analysts who perhaps are closer to the kremlin than analysts elsewhere in the world. putin wants to be the last one to blink. we heard from dmitri peskov saying the door to diplomacy is still open. they're just waiting for these written responses from the united states and nato to russia's security proposals or demands, depending which way you look at them. russia calls them proposals. and then they can keep talking. from russia's perspective, it's nato and the united states increasing the tensions by the talk of deploying 8,500 or the possibility of deploying 8,500 u.s. troops to bolster nato's eastern allies. so, you know, this is a situation at the moment where from the kremlin's perspective, they are just going to sit tight and continue their military build-up and wait for the other side to back down. >> this is a situation where every move matters. we're all watching very closely. thank you, nic robertson, sam kiley for your reporting. joining us is max boot, a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations and columnist for "the washington post." max, you have a new op-ed in "the post" arguing the u.s. can't afford to leave ukraine and europe at putin's mercy. i think some americans are wondering, but how does this impact my life? max, make the case for why the average american should care about the outcome of this international crisis. >> well, we've cared about the fate of europe for a long time, ana. ever since world war ii. and we did not care enough about the fate of europe in the '20s and '30s and you can see where that got us. i think u.s. presidents going back decades, have recognized we have a major take keeping it as free as possible. it's the largest economy in the world, one of our major trade partners and largest concentration of democracies in the world and ukraine sothe outer edge of europe, a pro-western democracy that wants to be part of the west. we justice allow putin to get awiwei with invading ukraine that's going to be bad news for other countries in europe and bad news for the united states and international rule of law more generally. other countries like china are watching what's going on, and if we want to deter china from attacking taiwan, we had better make sure that putin pays a massive, massive price for any attack on ukraine. >> members of congress are actually getting phone calls encouraging them to side with russia because they are watching right wing media and people like tucker carlson saying this. >> all of them are promoting war against russia on behalf of our new and deeply beloved ally, the government of ukraine. vladimir putin is our most dangerous enemy they scream. we can't let him hurt ukraine. so it turns out russiagate was more effective than we realized. the steele dossier has been debunked, but in washington, the theme remains in force. russia, russia, russia is bad. >> my district director came to me and said i just spent an hour on the phone with like four people telling me that they had watched tucker carlson last night and why are we going to be going to war for ukraine, russia is making reasonable proposals for peace and we should just do what russia wants. >> max, your response? >> tucker is utterly shameless. if he had any capacity to feel any shame, he should be embarrassed by what he just said because he is basically repeating rank russian propaganda. you know, why are we standing up for ukraine against russia? because ukraine is a pro-western democracy. russia is an anti-western, anti-american dictatorship which has attacked its neighbors, including previously invading both georgia and ukraine. they've committed heinous human rights abuses in syria and have attacked the united states. they attacked the 2016 election and helped to get donald trump elected president. so russia is working to undermine american power whereas all ukraine wants to do is to be left alone to live in peace and freedom and security. so that, to my mind, that's really a no-brainer that the united states would support the victim of aggression rather than the aggressor. >> max boot, thank you so much. appreciate your perspective. >> thank you. just in to cnn, right wing conspiracy theorist alex jones says he met with the january 6th committee. what he is revealing about that interview and the evidence they showed him, next. kitchen becamet of our financial plan. ♪ ♪ find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com liz, you nerd, cough if you're in here! shh! i took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. what about rob's dry cough? 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>> right now or maybe some time this afternoon, eastman's lawyers should be getting access to those nearly 19,000 emails that john eastman wrote from this university account. chapman university. the legal team, eastman's legal team, will then sort through all these emails, identify which emails they think should stay confidential because they'll claim that they're legal advice between eastman and then president trump. and then a third party likely the judge in this case will take those emails and determine which of them can officially stay secret. but either way here, house investigators, they will be getting an array of emails. could be fairly soon. and it could detail how eastman allegedly plotted with trump and others to stop the certification of the election and even how eastman reportedly told a group of 300 state legislators that they needed to stop the electors from putting joe biden in the white house. so, ana, once the committee, maybe soon, gets a lot of these emails, it will be another big step for the committee to decide -- determine exactly how this plot unfolded. this one in particular from john eastman. >> jessica schneider, thanks. for more, let's bring in cnn legal analyst carrie cordero. let's stick with the eastman case first. eastman's lawyer telling the judge that eastman was working pursuant to representation of the president during some controversial moments before the capitol attack, including his work in that willard hotel war room on january 6th. is this the most direct line yet showing trump's potential involvement or is he still insulated from the key players? >> i think it's important that professor eastman was actually representing the former president as an attorney. and because if we look at the memo that eastman wrote, it is marked privileged and confidential. that's the memo that lays out the strategy for subverting the election and undermining the proper way that the electoral count act would work. so it does show that if, in fact, that memo was drafted by eastman for the president, it showed a more direct involvement of advice that the president was seeking to actually subvert the election outcome. >> so does that put trump in more legal jeopardy? >> well, this is in the context of the january 6th committee investigation. so the committee is not necessarily looking for criminal prosecution. what they are trying to do is establish the historical fact. who was involved. how did this plot develop? that's different from the charges of individuals who engaged in violence and have been charged with seditious conspiracy. but i think it is an important part of developing the factual narrative for how january 6th, the events leading up to it and how it unfolded. >> as jessica reported, the judge instructed eastman's lawyers to go through some 19,000 emails and flag which ones may have that attorney/client privilege, then a third party, perhaps a judge or team of reviewers will decide whether those emails will stay secret. how long could that process take? obviously the committee is up against the clock here, and that's a lot of emails. >> right. so it's interesting. the former employer of mr. eastman, chapman university, got stuck in the middle of this where the committee then came to the university and said to produce these emails that mr. eastman was, obviously, using his chapman account. that's a high volume of emails to review. but these things, if teams are dedicated to do it they can get through it. his lawyers will look at it, and then it will be whether or not there is an independent body to review them. so it can take a little more time, but, obviously, the judge thinks in this particular case that timeliness is important to the committee's work. >> are we talking days, weeks, months? >> it's hard to predict. it just depends on how quickly this unfolds. how quickly the judge orders these reviews to be done and then what teams are applied to be able to review them. >> let's turn to the alex jones news. it sounds like he was pretty unhelpful, pleading the fifth about 1 helpe00 times. but we did learn about these text messages and emails. >> it sounds like he was saying that definitely this means the committee had access to his phone. that's not necessarily the case. the committee, the january 6th committee of congress has had hundreds of people provide information to them. so it could be, we don't know, and it will be interesting how the reporting fleshes this out, but it could be that other witnesses provided communications that they had with alex jones and so the committee then had the basis for that information to be able to ask him questions. >> it gives us a little peek behind the scenes in terms of their investigatory process. carrie cordero, thank you. moments ago, a judge approved michael abnaughty's request to represent himself in his criminal trial. he's charged with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from an adult film actress stormy daniels. cnn is live outside the courtroom, next. like pulsing, electric shocks, sharp, stabbing pains, or an intense burning sensation. what is this nightmare? 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>> michael avenatti had hinted at this before the lunch break, but immediately after the lunch break, he asked to address the judge. he told him that there had been a breakdown in the relationship between me and my counsel that goes to the heart of my ability to mount a defense. he asked the judge if he could represent himself in this case going forward and he noted that he had previously represented himself this past summer in another criminal trial that avenatti was facing in california. that case ended in a mistrial. avenatti telling the judge he was prepared to represent himself saying that some significant questions related to the cross-examination of the witness that currently is on the stand. that's his office manager. so the judge, after asking avenatti if he really understood the risk he'd be taking by doing this noting he faced significant prison time if convicted of the one count of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. he ran avenatti through the different scenarios saying he'd have to be prepared to handle the rules of evidence and to question and cross-examine these witnesses. avenatti said he was prepared to do it. so the judge granted that request. he brought back in the jury and instructed them that avenatti was using his constitutional rights to defend himself. saying that the jury should not draw any conclusions from that, either way. and the prosecutors had finished their direct examination of avenatti's office manager. she was testifying about the dire financial straits avenatti's law firm was in saying they had been evicted from their offices. they couldn't make payroll. that their health insurance was canceled. and she also said how a bank had closed their accounts because they had extended too much money and didn't pay it back. so really getting into the financial issues at stake for avenatti. cross-examination just began and stormy daniels takes the stand. avenatti will be the one cross-examining her. ana? >> kara, lots of interesting details and developments to discuss now with cnn legal analyst and criminal defense attorney joeg joey jackson. you're an accomplished attorney. would you ever represent yourself? >> i would not. good to be with you. good afternoon. i would hope there would not be a reason to but should that purpose arise, i think it's a mistake. a lawyer who represents themselves has a fool for the client. there's a reason for that. you need to really, when you're analyzing a case, not look at it from a personal point of view but look at the long view. and sometimes you can't do that when you're in the trenches really trying to fend for yourself. but i think that he is of the view that he can do it better, that he's a lawyer himself, that no one could represent himself better than he could. and, therefore, he's taking the chance. and i think the breakdown relates to being told what to do. listen, every lawyer, ana, does things differently. none of us have a monopoly on wisdom. i might want to approach a problem with respect to getting to the truth one way and another lawyer may do it another way. both could be equally effective. when you have a lawyer bearing down their back telling you what you should do and how to do it i think there would be an easy breakdown in communications. i don't have any personal knowledge as to what that breakdown was but i have to believe there's some sense of, hey if it relates to cross-examination, you should do this, that or the other thing. his lawyer saying, let me do this. i'm representing you. it didn't work. >> he's going to be able to cross-examine the woman he's accused of stealing from? >> so, no, apparently the woman who was testifying was the office manager. just to back up. he's accused of fraud. he's also accused of identity theft. and that relates to what he's alleged to have done with stormy daniels. and so -- >> but stormy daniels is also expected to testify. >> yes, exact -- oh, yes, when it comes to that. so just a couple of things. what he's accused of, he's accused of defrauding stormy daniels, diverting payments made for her apparently going to a literary agent and sending that literary agent allegedly at this point a fraudulent document for monthly installments, two coming to him in the amount of about $300,000 that really belonged to her. when she asked about them, him lying and saying, hey, what are you talking about? i haven't gotten them yet. so when she testifies to be clear, he will indeed, to your question, be the one who cross-examines her and there's a lot of fodder that he's going to use based upon her beliefs in paranormal activity, perhaps her other activities that she's engaged in. they all go to credibility. and just backing up real quickly, the woman on the stand now being his office manager is talking about dire straits, why he would have a motivation based on not making payroll and other things that were happening in his office to steal the money. but i think when he comes to attack stormy daniels we have to be clear this case, you can attack credibility but this is largely, was the literary agent sent a fraudulent document? can the government produce that? was it stormy daniels' signature or fraudulent. you can question someone all day but if that document exists and it's not her signature, you have some explaining to do. >> this will be one to watch and i'll be curious to see if michael avenatti puts himself on the stand as well in this. joey jackson, thank you, sir. >> always. good to see you, ana. the beijing olympics are less than two weeks away and covid cases there are rising, even inside the olympics bubble. how china is trying to stop the surge, next. okay everyone, our mission to provide complete balanced nutrition for strength and energy. woo hoo! ensure, complete balanced nutrition with 27 vitamins and minerals. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. ♪ ♪ >> woman: what's my safelite story? >> vo: my car is more than four wheels. it's my after-work decompression zone. so when my windshield broke... >> woman: what?! >> vo: ...i searched for someone who really knew my car. i found the experts at safelite autoglass. with their exclusive technology, they fixed my windshield... then recalibrated the camera attached to my glass so my safety systems still work. who knew that was a thing?! >> woman: safelite has service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? 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