♪ chaos on capitol hill. as republican hard-liners get their wish. kevin mccarthy losing his gavel. now the house is without a speaker amid a slew of contentious issues including another potential government shutdown. plus donald trump back in court, this time under a new gag order. but he is still attacking prosecutors as his former accountant gets grilled on the witness stand. we are live at the courthouse. and a historic new strike. thousands of health care workers walking off the job. what they're asking for and what it means for patients. we are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "cnn news central." divided and searching for a new speaker. right now on capitol hill the race to replace kevin mccarthy is heating up. this morning judiciary chairman jim jordan became the first to throw his hat into the ring, publicly announcing he will run for the speakership. and republican sources tell us there are currently at least two others considering running. majority leader steve scalise and oklahoma's kevin hearn. right now candidates are vying for support behind closed doors. and they'll make their case before the full conference a the republican forum next tuesday with a full house vote for speaker expected by wednesday. let's take you now live to capitol hill and cnn's lauren fox, who joins us live. so lauren, while jim jordan jockeys for support, he's downplaying concerns that he may be too far to the right to win over the moderates in his conference. >> reporter: yeah, the maneuvering well under way, boris. and one thing that became very clear as some of these potential candidates and jim jordan, an official candidate can, spoke with members of the texas delegation is that this race for speaker is very much alive right now as many republicans are hoping and arguing that it is important for the republican conference to unite quickly. that in fact was the message from jim jordan. but he is already warning that on some issues he is still going to be fighting for conservatives. here he is on the issue of ukraine funding. >> what about ukraine? are you willing to move forward with an aid package for ukraine if you're speaker? >> i'm against that. what i understand is at some point we're going to have to deal with this appropriation process in the right way and we're going to try to do that in the next -- what are we down to? 41 days. the most pressing issue on menz' minds is not ukraine. it is the bod yes situation and it is crime on the streets. >> reporter: there are also a lot of eyes on the number two republican in the house of representatives, steve scalise, the majority leader, and whether or not he is going to get in this race. we know he's been gauging support from colleagues. he also spoke with the texas delegation, and our colleague manu raju just spoke with kevin hern and asked him if he is officially throwing his name in the hat to be the next speaker of the house. kevin hern, the leader of the republican study committee. he said right now he's just looking at this, that no, he is not officially a candidate. but obviously it's still early. but you want to start making those asks. you want to start making those moves if you're really serious about trying to get this top job in the house. boris? >> yeah, a busy week for these potential next speakers before the full vote, potentially as soon as next wednesday. lauren fox, thank you so much. pamela? >> i'll take it from here. i want to talk more about this with republican strategist alice stewart and democratic strategist maria cardona. they co-host the podcast "hot mics from left to right." so i want to game this out. alice, would jim jordan, a hard right strong ally of donald trump, have enough votes for moderates to be speaker in your view? >> many of the republicans i'm talking with feel as though he would not. and the reason being look, he is very strong and committed on issues that he fights hard for. he's fought really hard for this impeachment not against joe biden. he's fought really hard for reducing government spending. but he has -- given the fact he's super passionate about some of these issues alienated some of the more middle of the road republicans. many i speak with say steve scalise would actually have a better shot given that he is appealing to more people, he has a biggerer staff, he has more oa ability to -- you really have to kind of campaign for this. the problem is with him -- his health concerns are a factor with him moving forward but he really has the steam to move forward. people are frustrated. they're really frustrated with what matt gaetz did. and that in and of itself may unify people. they're frustrated that we have one person that came in after all the work republicans have done to gain the majority, one person bulldozed the entire thing. and we have manchild matt gaetz telling his seven dwarfs hold my beer while i go beat up kevin mcfathery because i don't like him. now it's destroyed our chance to talk about the gop agenda, it's destroyed our chance to take the fight to biden and his failed policies. >> and the reality is democrats could now get a less moderate speaker than mccarthy like jim jordan, for example. do you think democrats are going to come to regret not stepping in to save mccarthy? >> no. absolutely not, pam. it was not the democrats' job to save the chaotic gop. that is exactly what they were hired to do by the american people. they were hired to govern. but we all knew from the very beginning that that was going to be next to impossible for them to achieve. mccarthy sold his soul back in january as he went into a corrupt bargain that now was the one who isolated him and essentially delivered his debacle because what he did was he agreed to this ridiculous rule that anybody could come in and, you know, do a motion to vacate to kick him out. and everyone knew it was going to be matt gaetz. right? we all knew that this day was going to happen as historic and frankly tragic as it is for the whole country. no one is celebrating this. no one on the democratic side is celebrating this. this is horrific. it's embarrassing on the international stage. and it does not do any good for the american people. but it does give democrats a chance to demonstrate how the extremists on the republican side are the ones who are running their part of the party, and it does no good for the american people, and that they then in fact don't deserve to be given the power to governor as the majority. >> and there's no expectation, right? that these extremists will give up on those demands for the next speaker. and what will happen then? will republicans all come on board to vote for another potential speaker who makes all these concessions in order to become speaker? >> well, i can guarantee in the conversations i've had one of the aspects that will not be included in the horse trading for the next speaker, they are not going to agree to have one person that can come forward with the motion to vacate. because they know that they would be in the same situation kevin mccarthy has been in ever since he took over the gavel. someone like matt gaetz running around the capitol with a motion to vacate. that's just not going to happen. and the irony here is gaetz has been so frustrated with mccarthy for doing what you're supposed to do, work across the aisle, find bipartisan deals, which is what mccarthy did to keep the government open, working with democrats to get a bipartisan deal. gaetz is frustrated with him for working with democrats. he only got this done because he worked with it democrats to get it done. and so that's the frustration. we need to look at the fact that bipartisanship is not a bad word and we need someone that leads the republicans that can can work with democrats, a, to keep the government open and to work to in my view reduce spending, focus on securing the border as well as providing the necessary aid to ukraine, which is top of mind. >> but here's another problem with what kevin mccarthy did. yes, matt gaetz was his undoing, but kevin mccarthy put himself in that situation. he can't be trusted clearly by either side, right? that's one of the reasons why democrats did not feel like they had to in any way come to his rescue. he lied. he went back on his word. back in may he agreed to a deal with the white house, with president biden and with democrats when we raised the debt ceiling to keep the spending where it was so that there would be no threat of a government shutdown. he lied to the democrats' faces. then he made some other deals with gaetz, and gaetz said that he lied to him. this is somebody who the democrats could not trust. not just on that. but then we saw on january 6th when he first came out to say donald trump is guilty, donald trump did this and that, you know, for january 6th and he should be held accountable. what does he do three days later? he goes to mar-a-lago to kiss the ring. and then he focuses on bringing an impeachment of joe biden based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever. so kevin mccarthy built his own -- dug his own grave, but then the next one who's going to come along, we don't know whether he's going to be able to be trusted or not and i don't know that he, that person is going to be able to walk that line of placating the maga extremists because it is more than matt gaetz, and also making sure that he can deal with the moderates in his party. >> all right. maria cardona. alice stewart. we shall see how this all plays out. thank you so much. boris? >> any minute now president biden is set to speak from the white house after announcing another $9 billion in student loan debt relief. cnn's m.j. lee is live for us at the white house with more. so m.j., what are we anticipating to hear from president biden? >> well, boris, as you know he have well, student loan debt relief has been a huge focus for this white house. and you're right that the administration today announced additional cancellation for some 125,000 borrowers totaling according to the administration some $9 billion, and it really falls into several categories including cancellation for borrowers who are public servants, debt relief for folks who have been making their payments for 20 years or more, and then there's another category of cancellation for borrowers who have disabilities. now, the timing of this announcement is pretty interesting because do keep in mind it was several days ago that a pause on federal student loan payments that had been in place since march of 2020, so really we are talking about the onset of the pandemic, that ended up being lifted. so we are looking at millions of borrowers across the country who haven't had to make these payments in a number of years. they are now having to foot the bill and having to make these payments that they haven't had to pay for a number of years now. an additional piece of context that is very important too, of course, is that over the summer president biden's student loan forgiveness program that was going to offer up to $20,000 in student loan debt relief, that ended up being struck down by the supreme court. so we are seeing sort of a continuation of a patchwork of actions that the administration is trying to take to give some relief to people across the country. and according to the administration, so far some $127 billion of loans have been canceled for some 3.6 million people and officials here at the white house say they will continue to look for different ways to try to offer more relief. of course after the summer when the supreme court ended up again striking down this program that was a huge priority for this administration. >> we are anticipating the president's remarks coming soon. we'll be watching them. we'll bring them to you live. so m.j. lee at the white house, please stand by. still plenty more news to come on "cnn news central" including donald trump back in a manhattan courtroom, this time with a gag order in place over his social media posts. but he hasn't stopped posting about the case. so what happens next? plus, more than 75,000 people have walked off the job in what is now the largest health care worker strike in american history. what it could mean for millions of patients across america. stay with us. speaking about student loan relief at the white house. let's listen. >> i'll remind everyone, we have a lot of work to do and the american people expect us to get it done. the argument we reached was about what comes next. but we had an agreement. we reached an agreement over the weekend. funds for the government only another 40 days. we cannot and should not again be faced with 11th hour decision, brinksmanship that threatens to shut down the government. and we know what we have to do. and we've got to -- we have to get it done in a timely fashion. more than anything we need to change the poisonous atmosphere in washington. you know, we have strong disagreements, but we need to stop seeing each other as enemies. we need to talk to one another, listen to one another, work with one another. and we can do that. i join with minority leader jeffers -- jeffries in saying that our republican colleagues remain committed to working in a bipartisan fashion. we are prepared to do it as well. for the good of the american people. twice in the last six months both houses came together on a bipartisan basis. once to avoid default, once to keep the government open. and while we should never have been in the situation in the first place i'm grateful that leaders on both sides came together, including former speaker mccarthy, to do the right thing. now turning to student debt relief. when i ran for president, i vowed to fix our broken student loan program because while a college degree is still the ticket to a better life, that ticket has become excessively expensive. americans who are saddled with unsustainable debt in exchange for a college degree has become the norm. since my administration has taken significant action to provide student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible. that starts with making sure the existing system works in the way it was supposed to work for student borrowers. we fixed what was called the public service loan forgiveness program, which was designed originally to make sure school teachers, firefighters, social workers and other public servants can get their student loans forgiven if they make ten years of payments and can do ten years of public service. by the time i took office that program had been in place for nearly 15 years. but because of red tape only 7,000 borrowers had been helped. well, today thanks to reforms more than 700,000 borrowers have had their debts forgiven. just the other day i spoke with tanya and chad, a married couple in their 50s who both work at a public high school in milwaukee. for years they paid over $800 a month toward their student loans. it meant they couldn't pay -- put away any money for retirement. and this summer thanks to fixes we made to the debt relief program for people in public service chad and tanya's remaining balance was forgiven. tanya said, "the amount of relief this gives us is indescribable." now they can finally start savings for retirement. next we fixed what's called the income-driven payment -- repayment program. here's how that works. if you have an undergraduate loan after 20 years of straight paying, not missing paying a debt on a monthly basis, whatever's left in your loan is forgiven after 20 years. but because of administrative failures some people who did pay their loans for 20 years or more did not get the debt relief they had earned. we fixed that. and made sure borrowers got credit for every single payment they made. as a result of these changes today i'm announcing my administration has approved an additional $9 billion in relief for 125,000 borrowers in just the past few weeks under that program. with the latest debt cancellation in total my administration has canceled $127 billion in student debts for nearly 3.6 million americans. this kind of relief is life-changing for individuals and their families. but it's good for our economy as a whole as well. by freeing millions of americans from the crushing burden of student debt it means they can go and get their lives in order. they can think about buying a house. they can start a business. they can be starting a family. this matters. this matters to their daily lives. this latest progress builds on other steps we've taken. we made the largest increase in pell grants in over a decade, helping students whose families make less than $60,000 a year get to college. we made additional improvements in income-driven repayment program. before i took office student borrowers would pay no more than 10% of their discretionary income on a monthly basis if they wanted to do it that way. but under my administration's plan, which is called save plan, we reduced that to 5% for undergraduate borrowers. it's now the most generous repayment program ever. under this plan no one with an undergraduate loan today or in the future, whether at a community college or a four-year college, will have to pay more than 5% of their discretionary income can to repay these loans. that's income after you pay for necessities like housing and food and other necessities. you can sign up for the save plan at studentaid.gov/save. studentaid -- gov -- studentaid dash -- studentaid.gov/save. and remember, if you keep up your payments after 20 years whatever's left on those loans is forgiven. and we're still not done. as you might remember last year i announced a major proposal for student debt relief. we're on the verge of providing more than 40 million americans with real relief from their student debt. the money was literally about to go out the door. but republicanses and can -- republican elected officials and special interests stepped up and sued us. the supreme court sided with them, snatching from the hands of millions of americans thousands of dollars in student debt relief that was about to change their lives. as i said at the time, i believe the court's decision to strike down my student debt relief program was wrong. but i promised i wouldn't give up. since then my administration has been pursuing a new approach and under a different law. the higher education act. this act allows the secretary of education to compromise, waive or release loans under certain circumstances. last week the department of education took a critical step in this process by identifying specific challenges that borrowers face in the current system. so we can move forward with a new rule to address these changes. for example, there are many borrowers who have made payments for many years. but because of interest they still owe more than they originally borrowed. my administration is doing everything it can to deliver student debt relief to as many as we can as fast as we can. this is in contrast to house republicans who helped block the previous debt relief plan and nearly shut down the government over the extreme demands, which would have hurt hard-working families. but they had no problem with the paycheck protection program. you remember that? the ppp program during the last several years. which was designed to help business owners who lost money, which is legitimate, because of the pandemic. members of congress got over hundreds of thousands of dollars in order -- because they lost -- their businesses lost money. that was a worthy program. let's be clear. some of the same elected republicans and members of congress were strongly opposed giving relief to students got hundreds of thousands in relief for themselves to keep their businesses open. several members of congress got over a million dollars. and all those loans were forgiven. the hypocrisy of this i find stunning. i supported that program and i support the student debt program. my administration will continue to use every tool at our disposal to help ease the burden of student debt so more americans can be free to achieve their dreams. it's good for our economy. it's good for our country. and it's going to change their lives. thank you very much. >> mr. president on speaker mccarthy if i can. speaker mccarthy, then speaker mccarthy said the two of you hadn't spoken directly in a long time. why is that, and are you committed to engaging more regularly with the next house speaker? >> we had two agreements. we shook hands on. and i assume he was working with -- i knew he was working with the democrats in the house and senate. it wasn't for me to do anything. if he wanted to talk to me, i was available. i'm available to whomever wants to talk to me. but the idea that i was going to somehow convince mccarthy to change his view was not reasonable. >> the disarray on capitol hill after your conversation with allies yesterday worry you won't be able to deliver the aid that the u.s. has promised to ukraine? >> it does worry me. but i know there are a majority of members of the house and senate in both parties who have said that they support funding ukraine. with your -- i'm going to be announcing very shortly a major speech i'm going to make on this issue and why it's critically important for the united states and our allies that we keep our commitment. >> mr. president, are you also concerned about the rest of your domestic and foreign policy initiatives being in peril because of what we saw happen yesterday, the dysfunction in congress, the chaos that we saw on the house side? does that concern you in any way? >> the dysfunction always concerns me. the programs that we have argued over, we passed bipartisanly, i'm not concerned that they're going to all of a sudden come in and try to undo them. although there will be some. there will be some i'm sure. there's half a dozen or more extreme maga republicans who would like to eliminate just about everything i've done. but i don't think that's going to get there. >> if i may, without additional funding how long will the united states be able to support ukraine? >> we can support ukraine in the next tranche that we need. and there is another means by which we may be able to find funding for that. but i'm not going to get into that now. >> -- president zelenskyy other -- >> say it again. >> have you promised president zelenskyy during his visit in the white house that you would provide attacas, the long-range missiles for ukraine? >> i have spoken to zelenskyy and everything he's asked for we have worked out. >> more about the speech you're going to give. what argument are you going to make? >> why don't you wait and listen to it? >> i' i'm going to make the argument that it's overwhelmingly in the interest of the united states of america that ukraine succeed, and it's overwhelmingly in our interest -- i've spent 2 1/2 years putting together coalitions that no one thought could be put together. and they've strengthened us across the board, not just as it relates to ukraine, whether it's japan and south korea, whether it's what's happening in europe itself. and so i think it's clear to the vast majority of the foreign policy community on both left and right that this has been a valuable exercise for the united states of america, to increase the support we have around the world. and what i don't want to do is we've put together over 50 nations. 50 nations. supporting ukraine. and we are the organizer of that. i met with -- don't hold me to the exact number. 16 or 17 yesterday. we had a long conversation. and made the case that i knew that the majority of the american people still supported ukraine and the majority of the members of congress both democrat and republican support it. so i don't think we should let the gamesmanship get in the way of blocking it. >> what's your advice to the next house speaker? >> that's above my pay grade. >> hard to hear what he said there. that was president biden speaking at the white house answering reporters' questions about the ouster of former house speaker kevin mccarthy. and you heard there he talked about his concern about what this could mean for the u.s. commitment to give aid to ukraine, although he said that there are potential other means to provide the funding for ukraine and that he is going to give a major speech on the issue saying that there is overwhelming -- it is overwhelmingly in our interest to provide that funding for ukraine. so let's go back to capitol hill, where house majority leader steve scalise officially entered the speaker's race. manu raju joins us. what are you hearing there, manu? >> reporter: yeah, he did announce that he plans to run here, but he will not be running this unopposed. in fact, he will have an opponent. jim jordan, the house judiciary committee chairman, running. both at the moment running to become the next speaker of the house. now, scalise is the current number two and among the view of a lot of republicans potentially the heir apparent here to this seat. but that doesn't mean that he'll have the votes to necessarily become the next speaker of the house. this is an effort -- leadership races often happen behind the scenes. they're relationship driven. they have to talk to their colleagues. and they have to make sure that they can fulfill promises in order for some members to get their votes. as we saw with kevin mccarthy. he had to make a whole slew of promises in the january speaker's race in order to get some of the hard-liners behind him in that race. so some of those discussions are already taking place behind the scenes. in fact, steve scalise and jim jordan both met with the largest state delegation within the house gop earlier today, the texas delegation. they made their pitch to discuss their policy priorities. and they also talked about how they wanted to book -- in their words unify the republican conference. that is a message that both jordan and scalise are saying in letters that they have sent to their conference. they want to provide some unity and try to figure out a way forward because this is a badly divided house gop. this is -- we saw it all play out yesterday on the house floor. he's hearing a lot of republicans furious at those eight members led by matt gaetz who pushed for kevin mccarthy's ouster. first time we've ever seen that in american history. but a lot of members simply aren't going to just get behind one candidate, particularly one candidate who may be embraced by those holdouts on the far right. we'll see how this ultimately plays out. but one key question too, there's a big contingent of more moderate members who may be a little nervous about the more conservative politics of the -- of steve scalise and jim jordan. so we'll see how the moderate members react to this and if any other candidates also jump in. kevin hern, who's actually the chairman of the largest conservative group within the house gop, he told me earlier that he is still considering a run for speaker as well. so there are still lots of steps here in the process. first the house gop needs to nominate someone that needs to get a majority of the house gop vote, and then a vote in the full house next week, and that is going to be the real challenge. 218 votes, more than four republicans can scuttle a republican speaker candidate. as we saw with kevin mccarthy, the question now is will it happen again? >> yeah, we saw those 15 rourngsds right? with kevin mccarthy. as you say, lots of hurdles ahead. but right now we have reps steve scalise and jim jordan throwing their hats in the ring in the run for house speaker. thanks, manu. we'll be right back. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. for the third straight day former president donald trump was in court, attending his civil fraud trial, and for the third straight day he railed against the judge and prosecution when entering and exiting the courtroom. even though there is a new gag order in place issued after trump went after a court clerk on social media yesterday. now, inside the courtroom his company's financials were under the microscope as his former accountant was cross-examined. now, notably trump won't be back after a lunch break. he's set to fly to florida. cnn's kara scannell was inside the courtroom for this morning's testimony. kara, walk us through what you heard. >> reporter: so trump's lawyers were on the offensive trying to land some blows at the credibility of the government's first witness, donald bender, trump's long-time accountant. and so when bender was on the stand, you know, the issue in this case is the financial statements. he compiled them. so trump's attorneys were hitting at him saying did he follow accounting guidance and did he ever notice any obviously inappropriate values for financial statements over this decade period of time. and bender testified nothing jumped out. they were asking him repeatedly questions going through these financial statements year by year, property by property. that got the judge really frustrated. it became testy in there. the judge had warned them to move on, that they could just do this in a summary type of quest. trump's lawyers pushed back. they started cross again. the judge got frustrated. he slammed his hands on the bench and he said, this is ridiculous. i made an order. so things got a little heated in there today. now, the cross-examination will continue after the lunch break, but trump won't be there, as you said, because he's left court. but his attorneys will continue to cross-examine bender. and one of the lawyers said that this could continue for the rest of today. boris? >> and kara, there was also a moment when trump himself was visibly frustrated. tell us about that. >> reporter: yeah, so the judge had also been instructing trump's lawyers on their cross of bender earlier in the day, and he said to them, you know, this is not a jury trial because there are certain things that is more allowed when there's a jury there to try to undercut the credibility but the judge is a skilled lawyer, he can see what they're doing. so he was trying to get them to move things along. and when he said this isn't a jury trial trump threw his hands up. he was visibly annoyed. he was looking at his lawyers as though they should do something about it. and he then crossed his arms and he was sitting there looking very frustrated by this. this has been one of the issues that he has raised repeatedly, that it's not a jury trial. but even his attorneys have acknowledged that it couldn't be a jury trial because the way that this law -- the way that this case was brought under the law that it was brought requires a judge to make the ultimate determination because it has to do with money damages and it has to do with business restrictions potentially if trump is found liable on this. but it's been a very animated day. it's been a lot of reaction. you know, the judge trying to get a handle on this, trying to move the case along because we're still on the first witness, now in the third day, and there's still 28 -- or 27 of them left to go, boris. >> yeah, we'll see if things remain as animated without the former president in the courtroom. -car cana scannell outside manhattan courthouse. thanks so much. pam? >> thanks very much. let's brick in former deputy assistant attorney general harry litman. so harry, trump attacked the judge again today while entering and exiting court. tell us what that means. do you think that violates the gag order put in place by this judge or does it not go far enough to actually violate it? >> yeah, i don't think it does because the gag order itself is extraordinarily narrow. it said don't attack court staff. you could say the judge is a member of court staff, but you could say that he's not. on the other hand, it's skating on extraordinarily thin ice and this judge has shown that he will be unafraid to impose a broader gag order and to enforce it with very punitive action should trump continue to avoid it. so it's significant that just -- we've crossed that line, someone has imposed an order on trump, who by the way complied immediately, took down the offending message. so it's something to monitor. but you're right, he came out and he's still insulting the a.g., the judge, et cetera. and i don't think he'll stop until and unless he's forced. >> quickly, just to follow up on that, because as you said he's skating on extraordinarily thin ice here. if he does violate the gag order, what penalty could there be against him? >> the ultimate one? 30 days in jail under new york law. now, there's also the possibility of jail in the d.c. case, which the stakes are higher, and can it just seems sometimes that trump is actually flirting with it on purpose for political reasons. other times it seems, for instance, yesterday he did immediately comply. but we'll see. leaving the courtroom he made it clear he's not going to be shutting up completely anytime soon. >> and as you said, this gag order is pretty narrow. so we'll see if it expands. in the meantime as kara laid out trump has been harping on the fact that this is not a jury trial. help us better understand why that is. >> sure. under the very broad law here in new york because the ultimate remedy is not damages per se but giving up the ill-gotten gains, that means usually it goes to a judge. it could have -- there could have been and the judge made a point of saying at the beginning, there could have been a movement to try to make it a jury trial and the trump team didn't do it. so on the one hand the law would have made it difficult but on the other they didn't make the effort and obviously trump wishes they were in front of a jury. >> meantime, trump's former accountant took the stand again. he already testified that his duty was to compile the information he was given by the trump org and that the onus was on the trump org to make sure that information was accurate. how do you view this testimony? do you view it as critical? >> it's one of a piece. so look, this trial is at once very complicated and very simple. the complicated part is these clauses and contracts and generally accepted accounting principles. the simple part to which the a.g. always returns is four words. "it's the lie, stupid." so in a sense, what the justice engoron will say and already has ruled is all this stuff about did the accountant do his job perfectly really is beside the point. trump told whoppers. they show fraud. and they may show intent on the remaining issues. this is going to be a long forensic slog on the one hand. on the other, the a.g. will always bring it back to what's really the offending conduct, which is of course you can lie about valuations and of course based on the evidence it appears that trump did not just once but as a sort of ongoing m.o. of his business. >> and he says he'll take the stand. could that work for him or against him? quickly. >> yeah, well, so quickly, he can still take the fifth for things. he's taken the fifth before. in general it's a disastrous idea but he's already waived a little because of the deposition. it's not good, but he may have to do it, at least somewhat. >> all right. harry litman, thanks for offering your expertise on this. appreciate it. and still ahead, a new jersey man caught on camera deliberately driving his car into a police station. what's even wilder, the song that was blasting from his stereo. details next on "cnn news central." ♪ happening right now, the largest health care strike in american history is under way. more than 75,000 kaiser permanente employees are on the picket lines including nursing staff, receptionists, pharmacists and more. roughly about 40% of kaiser's workforce in all. their top concerns are better pay and fixing chronic short-staffing that they say means worse care for patients. right now, most doctors and registered care nurses are not on strike, but nevertheless, many patients are going to feel the effects of this, cnn's natasha bertrand is in los angeles with us. kaiser says they'll negotiate with unions, where do things stand right now? >> reporter: boris, they were negotiating all throughout the night, overnight, into this morning, hoping they could avoid the strike. but it did start at 6:00 a.m. hundreds of people here behind us at this los angeles kaiser location, as you mentioned, a lot of them are technicians, some of them nurses. they're talking to me a lot about this frustration with understaffing, severe understaffing. to the point where people are not aible to take their breaks, this is affecting patients so they're out here walking for the patients' care they said. here's one person who is on the bargaining team who explained to us why some nurses are even sleeping in their cars. >> there are nurses that are sleeping in the cars because of two reasons, one, they can't afford possibly moving here, so they have to be here two or three hours, short-staffed, mare working 14, 15 hours so they're tired. the best choice is to be monday through friday in their cars. >> reporter: and the kaiser health system did put out a statement this morning, saying they felt they had come to an agreement with the union on several key points late last night. but that person you just heard from she's on the bargaining team and says it's still not enough. this strike in particular lasts through the end of this week. they are expected to go back to work on saturday morning, if there's still no agreement at this time, they plan to strike for a longer number of days in november. and because of the industry that they're in, they actually give a few days' warning ahead of time so that kaiser can make arrangements so that patients don't feel too much effect from having all of these people walk out. boris. >> quite a loud crowd behind you, natasha chen thank you for the update. we should point out kaiser permanente provides health care for 13 million people. let's get perspective from medical correspondent meg tirrell. meg, how are patients going to be feeling this strike? >> well, boris, just looking at the kinds of folks on the picket lines. it doesn't include many doctors and nurses, but it does include some nurses. the people who have walked out on the picket lions are crucial to keeping thing running. people like pharmacists, optometrists, emergency technicians, people answer the phones, people who clean the room. people who draw blood. kaiser tells us it does have contingency plans in place. it's keeping emergency centers and emergency departments open. this is 40% of the workforce, and they are potentially bringing in more staff to keep things running but they say they may need to schedule nonurgent appointments. they're urging folks to use the mail order pharmacy, for example, they may have to recommend folks go to other places that are not at kaiser in order to fill prescriptions, potentially. so, we don't expect there to be drastic impacts but it could be disruptive, boris. >> meg tirrell, thank you for that. for the headlines we're following at this hour, nfl hall of fame quarterback brett favre now has a court date. he's set to be questioned under oath on october 26th as part of mississippi's largest corruption case in which tens of millions of dollars earmarked for families were diverted to the rich and powerful. favre who has not officially been charged is more than one of the 3,000 people and entities named in the civil suit. take a look at this video. the moment an suv comes yashing into a new jersey police station. the driver identified as john hargreaves, come jumping up with his hands up, police say the guns n' roses' song "welcome to the jungle" was blaring on the stereo. he's charged with domestic charges along with aggravated assault and harassment. he remains behind bars. and smoke from canadian wildfires are seen as far south as downtown miami. florida's department of health is advising people sensitive to smoke, especially those with respiratory and heart issues to limit outdoor activities. officials say there are nearly 800 active fires burning in canada right now. well, it is game-on in washington. multiple big names weighing a run at becoming the next speaker of the house. we are live on the hill with the latest, up next. ♪ is it possible my network could take my business to the next level? 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