the report clears him legally but could damage him, obviously, politically, which mr. biden would likely present himself to a jury as he did during our interview with him as a sympathetic, well meaning elderly man with a poor memory. joining us now is kate bedingfield, who served as communications director in the biden white house, david axelrod who worked within vice president biden, and former trump communications director alyssa farah griffin, all three are now cnn political commentators. also with us jeffrey toobin. david axelrod, i will start with you. is that the press conference the president should have had? , look i understand the concept of why he had the press conference, because this thing was red hot. and it was out there, and he felt he needed to, and his people felt, he needed to respond to it. whether the response was adequate, or whether it creates more problems, i think, is another question. he did contradict elements of the special counsel s report. an
my memory look at what i have done since i ve been president. facing criminal charges in his classified documents case, donald trump with no major challengers celebrates a victory in the nevada caucuses last night and enjoys the supreme court s skepticism about the ballot challenge to him in colorado. i think they had a very, very interesting day and a very beautiful day. beautiful sight to watch. former cia director and defense secretary leon panetta will join me for his take on the classified documents. the struggle over aid to ukraine, as well as the rift between the white house and prime minister netanyahu. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in washington. president biden will not face charges for mishandling classified documents. the special counsel s report delivered a major political blow, intention aleally or not, focusing on his hazy memory. in a press conference last night, a furious mr. biden lashed out at the special counsel for his assessment. the
but now there s news of this damning tape that s put more focus on a different jurisdiction on that federal probe in washington where trump was caught on tape admitting key parts of a crime, including stealing documents after leaving office. the tape is from after he was in the white house, 2021, and that s bad for him based on what he appears to admit, because prosecutors are already using it while gathering their grand jury testimony, and it s showing jurors how trump acknowledges and admits himself on the tape that he had classified materials. this is a total breakthrough in the evidence in this case. real talk some people might say, all right, ari we already know trump took the documents down to mar-a-lago and the feds seized them and took them back. didn t we know all that? yes, but in court to win a case like this, prosecutors must prove, one, the documents were classified. two, trump willfully took or directed action to take the documents. and three, he intended to kee
thanks very much. to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, terror as air sirens blair. russian rockets raining down across ukraine. more than 100 in the past day. we re going to show you new video of the moment ukraine intercepts some of these lethal missiles that we ve obtained today. plus, president biden orders another high-altitude object flying over the united states at 40,000 feet about the size of a car making it a threat to commercial aircraft. what was it, and was it from china? as senator kyrsten sinema accuses george santos of another like, we re going to look at what work, if any, the congressman has been doing on capitol hill. let s go outfront. good evening. i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, under attack. putin tonight in the midst of an all-out air assault. officials warning that there is now a threat of drone strikes in and around the capital of kyiv. now explosions also right now a
paid to those materials when you are in office and after you leave office, and clearly that did not take place in this case. but the unequal treatment before the law was deeply troubling to me early this week. well, well, well. that was mike pence two weeks ago talking about president biden s classified documents. but now it s pence s lawyers who are explaining how classified material ended up at the former vice president s home. also ahead, kevin mccarthy makes food on his promises for committee assignments, procking high-profile democrats from one and adding fringe members of the gop to others. plus, the pentagon now appears to be ready to send tanks to ukraine after all. we ll explain why the move is as much about putting pressure on allies as it is about arming the ukrainians. good morning. welcome to way too early on this wednesday, january 25th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. we have a packed show and we begin in washington where c