right now on ana cabrera reports, breaking news from capitol hill, two house committees meeting this hour on whether to hold hunter biden in contempt of congress. what it means for the president s son. plus, countdown to the caucus, nikki haley and ron desantis preparing to go head to head this evening with just five days to go. this as donald trump aims to play spoiler tonight and siphon attention. and there s a new twist in his appearance in a new york courtroom tomorrow. also ahead, extreme weather, millions impacted by a winter storm system that brought everything from snow to floods to tornados. thanks so much for joining us on this busy wednesday. it is 10:00 eastern. i m ana cabrera reporting from new york. we begin with breaking news on capitol hill where two house committees are kicking off meetings right now to consider whether to hotel hunter biden in contempt of congress. the house judiciary and oversight panels both expected to vote on whether to proceed
they continue to push towards their january, excuse me, there september hearing. joining me now cnn congressional correspondent ryan nobles, and karen cordero, and cnn global affairs global analysis susan glasser. good evening one and all, first, rhino both. cnn reported earlier today that marc short, greg jacobs testimony shows how the investigation inside the trump white house. but the post tonight going even further with that, ryan, give me some details on conversations with trump. how does this all fit together, sir? well, you know, don, for a long time there has been at least some criticism of merrick garland and the attorney generals office that they have not done enough to specifically linked the events of january six to donald trump. but their actions over the past two weeks or so show that garland s investigation is getting increasingly closer to trump itself. and the post reporting tonight, coupled with what we have reported about the grand jury testimony and the
president trump, partly out of concern it would give the appearance of pressure on the attorney general. politico argues that the first three hearings essentially did that for them, laying out stark evidence that trump and his allying now the election was not rig, but they pushed the big lie anyway. there s new evidence that the department of justice may be growing frustrated against the committee as well. we learned of a strongly worded letter by the doj, in which the department accuses committee members of complicating investigations by withholding transcripts of witness interviews, it says, quote, are not just potentially relevant to the overall communications, but likely relevant to specific prosecutions that have already commenced. however, committee chairman bennie thompson made it clear he is not rushing to help out. we ve interviewed over 1,000 witnesses, that would mean we have to stop what we re doing to then work with the department of justice. we will eventually
8.6%. americans, you, we, are feeling this nearly everywhere, nearly everything is more expensive, including the cost of gas which remains at historic highs. the biden administration taking new steps to lower those gas prices. this morning presidentiesident calling on energy companies to do more. also this morning, the january 6th committee is teasing ahead to its next hearing, tomorrow, they released a portion of a taped deposition with a former white house lawyer. now the committee is saying that thursday s hearing will focus on president trump s effort to pressure then vice president mike pence to block the certification of the election. we will have much more on that, in just a moment. let s begin this morning with cnn white house correspondent arlette saenz. arlette, president biden is making strong demands from oil companies, this morning, as he tries to do something about the soaring gas prices. reporter: yeah, president biden is trying to ramp up the pressure on
six committee. former chief of staff mark meadows and deputy. the justice department, this week, letting these trump associates off the hook, declining to charge them with contempt of congress. scavino and meadows cooperated with the committee at first, but trump s former chief of staff, turning over more than 2000 text messages. consulting to the january six committee, even describing meadows as the mvp of witnesses. starting november 3rd, november 4th, in a middlesex messages, all the way to the end, it is a roadmap. and i would have to say at this point, i think mark meadows is the mvp for the committee. i think they should pay him. the data that we got from there actually allowed us to really structure and effective investigation. well, the committee now calling the doj s decision on meadows and scavino, quote, puzzling. while praising the swift indictment of former trump advisor, peter navarro. navarro was arrested friday for defying the january 6th committee subpoen