rchlt hi there you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. why andrew mccabe says he was fired and why president trump's own words led him to launch counter intelligence and obstruction investigations into the president of the united states. before the president fired fbi director james comey, mccabe details a private conversation he had with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. >> rod was concerned by his interactions with the president who seemed to be very focussed on firing the director and saying things like make sure you put russia in your memo. that concerned rod in the same way that it concerned me and the fbi investigators on the russia case. >> he didn't want to put russia in his memo. >> he did not. he explained to the president that he did not need russia in his memo, and the president responded, i understand that. i'm asking you to put russia in the memo anyway. >> so let's start there with our

cnn crime and justice reporter, shimon prokupecz. i mean, there had been reporting on this alleged conversation in the past so what more did andy mccabe reveal in that 60 minutes interview. >> you're right. there had been reporting on this in the past concerning that there was a memo that was written where rod rosenstein said that the president wanted him to put in russia -- put russia in writing in this memo that was put together in the firing of the former fbi director, but it was really about more that the president wanted him to say that the fbi had cleared him, that the president was not under investigation and the russia investigation and obviously rod rosenstein according to andrew mccabe did not feel there was any needed to that. it was not necessary to put that in the memo. what's really not ultimately clear, i think, even from this interview is why rod rosenstein was having this conversation with andrew mccabe about this.

certainly it put some things into andrew mccabe's mind. obviously they were already heightened after the former fbi director, after james comey was fired and then hearing this, i'm sure, heightened him even more into launching ultimately an obstruction investigation and a counter intelligence investigation. but i'm not entirely clear why rod rosenstein felt the need to have this conversation with andrew mccabe, and it's not clear from that interview. >> the other clip that i want to play is mccabe talking about what he and rosenstein did discuss after james comey was fired. >> we talked about why the president had insisted on firing the director and whether or not he was thinking about the russia investigation and did that impact his decision and in the context of that conversation, the deputy attorney general offered to wear a wire into the

white house. he said, i never get searched when i go into the white house, i could easily wear a recording device. they wouldn't know it was there. now, he was not joking. he was absolutely serious and in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had. >> we're going to dive into the legality of the whole wearing the wire in the president's for just a second, but can you imagine trump hearing this? >> yeah, obviously trump is not happy. you know, this is one of the probably biggest revelations in all of this in this interview from what andrew mccabe has to say and the president is not happy. you know, he is reverting to his old tactics concerning andrew mccain a mccain -- mccabe and other people who launched this information and he tweeted. here's what the president said, wow, so many lies now by the disgraced acting fbi director andrew mccabe. he was fired for lying and now the story gets even more deranged and then he goes on to say that there's a lot of

explaining to do to millions of people who thad just elected a president they really liked and who has done a dpragreat job fo them. finally he says this was illegal and treason. and senator graham said he was going to hold hearings on this or wanted to talk to the folks that were involved in this discussion. we'll see, and we're seeing exactly the response we would expect from the president in this. the one thing i do want to note is that we have seen, you know, a lot of leadership change now over obviously at the fbi, but now also at the department of justice and that could be why the president is not taking further action, rod rosenstein is expected to leave quite shortly, actually. the current attorney general, william barr, already has someone in mind that he wants to put in his job, so the president knows that rosenstein is leaving, so it could be wi wehy

we're not going to see further action in firing rod or trying to get him out. >> sure. >> because he's on his way. >> i think there's still a lot more to come in all of this, obviously! you think? >> i think so. you're right on the moaney, shimon prokupecz. cnn legal analyst, ellie honig is a former federal and state prosecutor and cnn contributor garrett gra garrett graff is with us. ellie on the bid about wearing a wire, listening to andrew mccabe discussing with the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein about wearing a wire to catch something perhaps that the president would say, and they didn't do it, but even discussing it, is that illegal? >> no, it's not illegal. it actually would have been perfectly legal for rod rosenstein to wear a wire into the white house. it would have been wildly unprecedented. it would have been something that never would have occurred to me or anyone else in the position, but on the one hand,

perhaps it shows you something about the extremity the president was doing or saying to get the reaction out of veteran officials. they discussed it. they didn't do it. that's what you do sometimes, sit around and sketch things out. should we do that, no, that's too much. let's nknock it down a notch. i don't know where lindsey graham thinks he's going with a hearing. nor would there have been anything illegal about doing it. >> garrett, here's my question for you, mccain says he took meticulous notes as folks in the inbound are trained to do. mccabe says mueller has his memos, how much credence do you think mueller will put into those notes? >> i think a great deal. and that's been true of the notes that we have seen various fbi officials turn over to the special counsel's investigation straight through up to and including fbi director jim comey's contemporaneous notes about his meetings with president trump, as elie would

know, federal prosecutors are trained to put a great deal of cree dance in contemporaneous notes and particularly notes taken in extreme circumstances here. i mean, remember, these are not typical behaviors for fbi directors or fbi deputy directors or acting directors to feel like they have to memorialize a conversation with the president or the deputy attorney general or acting attorney general. but that's just how big of a crisis moment this was, and i think that there is a lot more that we have to learn and understand about this really 10-day period where you saw rod rosenstein draft this memo justifying the firing of director comey, then the series of events that led to the appointment by rosenstein of special counsel robert mueller. and one of the things that is

really clear from mccain's interview and his book and all of the interviews that he has done is that this sort of, as president trump has led us to believe, was a unified cabal between jim comey, andy mccain, and rod rosenstein was anything but, that these were sort of three people each dealing with their own crises and their own institutional equities and fears in a time of unprecedented stress inside both the fbi and the department of justice. >> we were on sort of the same question, we were saying before the show started that they really had found andrew mccabe to be not credible. would, if you were mueller, how closely of attention, garrett says a lot of attention you put into his notes. >> mccabe san interesting case -- is an interesting case. he was found by the inspector general to have lied about whether he leaked or not. they found him not credible. it's rarely one thing or the

other. those contemporaneous notes are important. they're the second best evidence to a recording because they're made at the time, you can't go back after the fact and fake it, so the fact that someone took extemporaneous notes, you can fake them on the spot, but it's harder to do. i would also be looking at what are the habits, patterns of conduct and one thing we have seen from the day he took office all the way until now is the president cannot keep his hands off the doj, the fbi, he has been constantly trying to interfere with them. when andy mccabe says that's what happened, it rings true to our sources. >> he revealed conversations intel officers had specifically about russian president vladimir putin. watch this. >> the president launched into several unrelated diatribes, one of those was commenting on the recent missile launches by the government of north korea. essentially the president said he did not believe that the

north koreans had the capability to hit us here with ballistic missiles in the united states, and he did not believe that because president putin had told him they did not. president putin had told him that the north koreans don't actually have those missiles. >> and u.s. intelligence was telling the president what? >> intelligence officials in the briefing responded that that was not consistent with any of the intelligence our government possesses to which the president replied, i don't care, i believe putin. >> wow, so andrew mccabe is saying, well, if trump is basically believing vladimir putin over his own intel officers and garrett, just remind us why putin would even want the u.s. to think north korea is less of a threat. >> yeah, brooke, this is an incredible comment, but again, as elie was just saying, it's actually part of a pattern of behavior, where we see in

numerous instances behind closed doors as well as in public settings like that helsinki summit with vladimir putin where the president came right out and said i trust vladimir putin over u.s. intelligence, in terms of vladimir putin told me he didn't hack the 2016 election, and i trust him, even though that is definitely not the consensus of the u.s. intelligence community and is belied by the indictments that robert mueller has brought. and i think that that's just the thing to really underline that this is incredible behavior and also dangerous decision making by a president of the united states. i mean, remember, just to take one step back from this, the entire purpose of the entire u.s. intelligence apparatus is to ensure that the president of the united states is in every conversation that he participates in, the most informed, most knowledgeable person in the room, that we

spend $60 billion a year on 17 intelligence agencies, hundreds of thousands of personnel, feeding information from around the globe, the president on a daily basis knows more than any other human on the planet and the fact that the president is sitting there and saying, on the one hand, i've got all of this, and on the other hand, i've got vladimir putin, and i'll trust vladimir putin, is an incredibly dangerous decision making matrix for the president. >> that was garrett graff mike drop moment. garrett graff, elie honig, thank you so much. we'll talk about how the white house is preparing for the legal and political battles ahead. and then another dramatic turn in the jussie smollett case, what the actor's pr firm has to say today about plans to meet

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we are back. you are watching cnn, i'm brooke ba baldwin. after president trump's declaration of a national emergency, does the president or congress have access to the nation's wallet. trump declared the emergency to get nearly half, 3.5 billion of the $8 billion he wants to build that border wall. democrats and republicans are preparing for what is expected to be a fierce fight, a fight that will play out on two tracks. first, just in court, and then in congress. there are signs that the courts offer the bigger threat to the

emergency declaration and here is why. democrats, of course in control of the house of representatives plan to pass a resolution to block the declaration when they come back from recess. it goes over to the senate where it could pass, in which case, the president can veto it, the first veto of his administration, as the senior adviser suggested over the weekend would take place. what happens if the president vetoes? the house and senate will need to get 2/3 of lawmakers to vote to block the emergency declaration, effectively shutting down the national emergency. there you go through congress. reportedly five organizations have filed or will file lawsuits against trump's national emergency, including one from landowners who don't want their property seized for the border wall, but the largest lawsuit is expected it come out of california. the attorney general there says about a dozen states plan to join his state in opposing trump's national emergency. >> we're going to try to halt

the president from violating the constitution, the separation of powers from stealing money from americans and states that has been allocated by congress lawfully, and we're going to try to make sure we keep the president from continuing to play this theater by manipulating the office of the president to do his bidding simply because i think he's trying to essentially send a message to his base, a shrinking base that he fulfills his promises. >> all right, let's go to cnn's kristen holmes, live following the president, what is the white house doing to prepare for the legal and congressional challenges to his declaration? >> reporter: well, brooke, white house officials tell us that president trump and his team are gearing up for battle on all fronts. let's start with the legal system and the courts, we know that this litany of lawsuits being filed is really no surprise to president trump or his team. first of all, we have been reporting for weeks that aides were warning president trump if

he were to declare a national emergency, he would likely get caught up in the courts and on top of that, we know president trump himself made that remark in the rose garden. so they have had a little bit of time to prepare, but one thing his legal team might not have been prepared for was something president trump said in the rose garden and that was, i didn't need to do this. i have spoken to so many lawyers over the weekend who keep pointing this out to me. they say that this is likely going to be at the heart of every lawsuit. president trump in his own words saying he didn't need to declare a national emergency. so you saw a little bit of clean up over the weekend, steven miller address this in that same interview where he talked about the veto, and he said the president was simply saying that he could choose to ignore this crisis like other presidents have but that he wasn't going to do so. whether or not that defense will hold up in court is obviously yet to be seen. now, let's look at the congressional side. you, of course, again, mentioned steven miller and that veto at the very end of the day, that's

the end game. what's going to be so important to watch here is going to be the process. make no mistake, that if that bill does pass the senate, if republicans do approve this, and it lands on president trump's desk, it's going to be embarrassing to president trump. he will have to go around his party once again and this is not inspiring to the american people. they do not want that situation to happen. so what you're likely going to see is a lot of president trump's allies on capitol hill trying to persuade these republicans, particularly senators to vote in favor of the president. and this is going to cause an enormously awkward position for several of these senators, particularly those who are in vulnerable seats running for reelection in 2020. it is going to force them to say whether or not they support the president in this endeavor. and whether or not they do, either vote is going to have huge political ramifications. this is going to weigh heavily on a lot of senators and while we have heard these republicans say many of them that they don't

approve of a national emergency, as we have seen time and time again during this presidency, just because you don't approve of something doesn't mean you're going to vote against it. brooke. >> exactly right. exactly right, and to your point on the reverberations well into 2020. so true. kristen, thank you so much in west palm beach. let's analyze that, elie honig, is back, also with us, senior cnn political analyst, mark preston. mark, i want to start with you. as we have been outlining, the politics and the legal piece of this. on politics, so right now, democrats are preparing this joint resolution to repeal this national emergency. what are the chances it actually passes both chambers and lands on the president's desk, first of all? >> i think the case is very good. i mean, what you have right now is a very difficult situation for the likes of kevin mccarthy who leads the house republicans

and mitch mcconnell who's the senate majority leader. they are trying to protect the president from himself but we have heard time and time again as we have just heard from kristen there about how many republicans have come out and have already said that this is not an emergency. and in fact, we have heard the president himself say that, so now, they have to go and either vote against this or have to try to protect them. if anything happens, and this does get to his desk, we have heard that he's going to veto this. this is an incredibly embarrassing thing for the president to have to do. not only is he at odds with democrats, which is fine politically but at odds with republicans in the house and senate, which could be the sign of a deteriorating relationship, brooke, as we head into the next election. >> i'm going to get to the next election in a second, but on the whole will he veto it, this is how his policy adviser steven miller put it yesterday. >> if they pass a resolution of disapproval, will the president veto that, which would be the first veto of his presidency? >> well, obviously the president

is going to protect his national emergency declaration, chris. >> yes, he will veto? >> he's going to protect his national emergency declaration guaranteed. >> okay. so if the president vetoes it and to your point, that would be massively embarrassing for a multitude of reasons, then it gets kicked back to congress, what are the odds that there will be enough, you know, republicans in the senate to then, you need 2/3, right, to override the veto? >> i think that's going to be hard in the united states senate. you might have a better chance in the u.s. house of representatives, but i do think the senate will be a little more difficult because those reasons aren't up every two years. republicans over in the house, they have to face the voters every two years, it's a little bit more cover for senate republicans on this one. >> okay. on the legal piece of this, and i thought kristen really nailed it on the phrase that we heard from the president on friday, at the rose garden, i didn't need to do this, which will likely be the crux of so many lawsuits. steven miller over the weekend trying to clarify what the

president said. here was the president frid aay and miller's explanation. >> i could do the wall over a longer period of time. i didn't need to do this but i would rather do it much faster. >> i didn't need to do this, how does that justify a national emergency? >> what the president is saying is that like past presidents, he could choose to ignore this crisis, choose to ignore this emergency as others have but that's not what he's going to do. >> so what's your response to steven miller there, and the whole i didn't need to do this? why might that be troublesome. >> his lawyers all just did a move. if i'm writing the brief for the plaintiff, that is the first sentence, quote, i didn't need to do this. forget about the introductory table of contents, i'm doing that right away, and making the argument, this is a pretext, this is a sham. the data is not there. i'll tell you what the other side is going to say, the people who are defending this are going to say, this is a political question. that's a phrase the courts use

when they don't want to get involved in something. they will do this. they will punt, basically. this is not for us and the judges of the courts to make a decision. it is a political decision. it's up to the president and unless it's outrageous, we'll defer to it. that's going to be the battlefield. >> what about the battlefield politically, mark, and looking into 2020, not just members of congress who will be up, but just the parties in general. obviously each will try to make it a winning issue for them and with top spin, which party do you think will have the upper hand? >> well, certainly democrats are going to use this to try to mobilize more support behind his panics and latinos to try to get them to come out and vote. and louis gutierrez, his goal was to go to two states, ohio, florida, as well as two others to try and get latinos to come out and vote. this is going to be such a political football heading into

2020. it's all about getting voters out to the polls and for democrats, it's getting latinos out. >> got it. mark and elie thank you, mark is in new hampshire head of the big town hall with amy klobuchar, taking voters' questions at this presidential town hall. don moderates live from new hampshire, 10:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. thank you, guys, very much. another presidential hopeful hitting the campaign trail. live pictures of senator kamala harris. she is in new hampshire. we'll take you there and tell wrou what's on her -- you what is on her agenda. days after apparent new evidence. what we have learned about a grand jury investigation involving singer r. kelly. from the first loving touch

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even more confusion now swirling around this alleged hate crime involving actor jussie smollett, and now his pr firm says he has no plans to meet with chicago police today to talk about it. sources tell cnn that police believe smollett may have been behind his own attack, but the far of fox's empire denies he paid men to assault him. these cast ago shadow of doubt on his story. chicago police aren't saying if smollett is considered a victim but the executive producer of his show "empire" tweeting his support writing this, i believe and stand by jussie smollett. keep your head up. cnn's ryan young has been on this from the get go there in chicago, and so ryan, what are you learning? >> reporter: well, so much, brooke, you remember we did this story for the first time on your show. we were talking about the details here, shocking details,

the fact that the actor had his manager call 911 and say someone attacked him, put a noose around his neck and poured a chemical on him, and the chemical they believe is bleach, and since then the story was out there. then the next day, police put out an image of two persons of interest. we have seen how this spiralled out of control since then. the two men taken into custody last wednesday after they arrived back from nigeria were with police until friday when they were released. now we're told they're actually working with the police department. they have given over their cell phones to the police department. there's a data dump going on right now, brooke, you know what that means. they're going to be able to go through their messages and everything that happened in the days leading to this. we're also told one of the men's financial records proves that apparently they went to a store, a hardware store in chicago and purchased the rope that was put around his neck. now there are all of these questions and of course they have reached out to jussie's attorney to figure out when they can come in and talk to him

again. the attorneys saying there are no plans for jussie smollett to meet with chicago police today. any reports suggesting otherwise are inaccurate. smollett's attorneys will keep an active dialogue going with the chicago police department on his behalf. the real question here right now, brooke, is when will he come in to talk with them because apparently in one statement from the attorneys this weekend, they said he paid these two men to get him trained up for a video. and they were going to be personal trainers. the two men are body builders, they were on the set of "empire" and one of the then who was an extra in one of the shows. you have to put this all together, but how much was this conversation going on before the attack or whatever happened because of course now it's an alleged attack. just think about this also, as well. police use ride share technology and taxicab receipts with the excellent surveillance system, they were able to track the movements for several minutes after and before the attack. so far from what we are told, no attack on video so of course

you're going to want to talk to the actor, put the pieces together, and figure out what actually happened. >> i know the story has been a punch in the gut for so many, if in fact, it turns out to just be a story. we're going to have that entire story next hour. ryan young, thank you so much for some of the facts there. thank you. coming up next, democrats who would like to be the next president are out and about on this president's day on the campaign trail. we're live in new hampshire where senator amy klobuchar will be just a couple hours away from our big presidential town hall here on cnn but she's not the only candidate in new hampshire today, also just in, could dan coats future be in limbo. what a close friend of president trump told cnn about the current director of national intelligence. we'll be right back.

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focussing on new hampshire, a key early battle ground state and that includes amy klobuchar who will be in the hot seat for cnn's town hall. cnn will be hosting that, and cnn, is in portsmouth, new hampshire, where senator kamala harris will host her own town hall, i follow you, and i know you were with her in south carolina over the weekend. new hampshire is a very different story, and i want you to talk to me a little bit about what's on her agenda today, and i understand she asked if she was a democratic socialist, and she said no. give me some context there. >> reporter: she was asked. it was a very direct question, and that's a nod to bernie sanders winning here in new hampshire being extremely popular during 2016, and i'm sorry, i'm keeping my voice quite low because i want to give you a look at what's happening just right over my shoulder. we have a second camera there, and it's kamala harris, senator harris actually talking with people inside this bookstore.

she's meeting a small group, trying to get out and shake hands, and that question that you're asking about, brooke, the question was are you a democratic socialist and she said unequivocally, i am not a democratic socialist, that she does want to talk about issues like medicare for all and a path forward and issues that will appeal to the left, but she did delineate that she's not going to go as far as senator sanders who remains popular in this state and should he jump in could be a force here in new hampshire. so what she is talking about today, she did take a couple of other topical questions in regards to medicare for all, but also on jussie smollett, she did say after pausing for the question, she didn't appear to be quite expecting the question, but then she did say she was going to allow law enforcement to do their work, and that these types of hate crimes are very serious and need to be taken seriously when they are brought up, brooke. >> kyung, thank you, in the

library with senator kamala harris. let's go over to manchester, new hampshire, where jeff zeleny is standing by where senator amy klobuchar will be part of our cnn town hall. i want to ask you, i had this republican on writing this op-ed, make the argument that if all democrats who have declared, it's amy klobuchar who he believes could give trump a run for his money. she's from minnesota, she's more moderate, appeals to democrats and anti-trump republicans. would you agree? >> reporter: brooke, there definitely is that sense, and this is why, look at the geography of this. senator klobuchar, and i was with her in iowa yesterday, she was talking about how she has appealed to voters in trump country. she is going essentially county by county, congressional district by congressional district how she has essentially won over red counties. she made the point of saying i even won michele bachmann's congressional district, she is a former presidential candidate, a

former minnesota member of congress, very very conservative. that is one of the arguments that senator klobuchar is making as she is beginning her presidential candidacy. i can speak to voters in the middle of the country. brooke, no coincidence, no accident that she went to wisconsin over the weekend. of course it's right next to minnesota, but it's also a state the democrats lost in 2016. one of the reasons hillary clinton did not go there at all in the general election in 2016, but i caught up with senator klobuchar in iowa yesterday afternoon and talked about this test between purity and prag pragmatism. >> i consider myself a progressive because i believe in progress, and i believe in standing our ground, and i have done that repeatedly on things like climate change, on things like going forward on the affordable care act, but i also believe in finding common ground when you can, and that's why, for instance, 34 of the bills where i've been the lead democrat have passed and have been signed into law by

president trump. >> reporter: so that is one of the balances there that you're going to hear these candidates talk about. common ground versus, you know, essentially lining up with every idea that some democrats want, you know, like the green new deal and other matters, so she is taking a pragmatic approach, if you will, she still calls herself a progressive and she is, but that is the balance here as we start, you know, a year out from the new hampshire primary what these candidates are striking, brooke. >> we will watch for the town hall tonight on cnn, 10:00 eastern, where you are, jeff zeleny, thank you, and kyung thank you as well. both in new hampshire, on this president's day. coming up next, last week another video tape surfaced allegedly showing r. kelly engaged in sex acts with an underage girl. could this week bring an indictment? we have new details in the investigation live from chicago. isn't what goes into your soup... just as important as what you get out of it? our broccoli cheddar is made with aged melted cheddar, simmered broccoli, and no artificial flavors. enjoy 100% clean soup today.

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sources tell cnn a grand jury has been convened in connection with r. kelly, and new potential evidence that may link the r and b singer to alleged sexual acts involving a minor. the alleged evidence is a tape cnn reported on last week. sarah si sarah is with me now on the investigation side, so sarah, what can you share? >> reporter: brooke, we know from two sources i have spoken with that indeed a grand jury has been convened. they are looking into this tape and potentially other witnesses when it comes to r. kelly, and potentially illegal acts with a minor. we have seen the tape. it is disturbing, i do want to warn people that the details i'm about to share are disturbing.

i will not get into a lot of the details. the tape, 42: 45 long. it was on vhs. that gives you some sense of the likely timing that it's not from recent times. that it may be quite old. but on that tape, there is as being 14 years old and a man who appears to be r. kelly walks into frame. you see him clearly. you see him adjusting the camera at times trying to get the best angles for the video that he clearly is making and the man that appears to be r. kelly then repeats what the girl is saying about her 14-year-old genitalia. that's how she put it and then he repeats that. there are other scenes in the tape that mirror some of the accusations against him in 2008 when he went to trial. he was put on trial on 14 counts of child pornography but he was acquitted. there was a tape in that trial, a different tape than the one that's been unearthed. attorney michael avenatti said

he unearthed it after a nine-month investigation. he is now the attorney for a person he calls a whistleblower who says he can also speak to obstruction of justice. he has told me there is a second person who he is now going to have as a client and that person he says is also a whistleblower. so now you have two people, he says, are whistleblowers who can speak to obstruction of justice not just on r. kelly's part but on the part of those around him, as well as several other people that he is representing at this point that have something to do with this potential case. the state's attorney's office has not confirmed or denied that there is an investigation but we do have something from r. kelly's attorney, steven greenberg. he told us today that he knows nothing about this, that he has not been contacted by anyone, he has not been contacted by authorities and nor has his client, and he has no knowledge of any kind of new tape. he said this, grand jury proceedings are by law supposed to be secret, so to the extent

people are commenting on what may or may not be going on today are possibly violating the law. still, he says, i can tell you that i am unaware of any proceedings. brooke. >> okay. 14, huh? all these allegations -- >> that's how she refers to yourself. >> sarah, thank you very much on the investigation into r. kelly in chicago, thank you. right now we are awaiting for president trump to deliver his speech on the political situation in venezuela. he'll be speaking from south florida. the president arrived there friday after declaring a state of emergency and the backlash and in doing so came fast and furious. we'll have both the latest on the legal and political battles currently under way. and could dan coats' future be in jeopardy? what a close friend to president trump just told cnn about the director of national intelligence. ♪

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a florida school district at the center of this controversy after a middle school student was arrested following a dispute over his refusal to stand for the pledge of allegiance. they are now clairifying what they say occurred, saying the student was not arrested for refusing to stand but says this boy was arrested for disrupting the class and making threats after he refused to stand up during the pledge of allegiance. diane gal decemblagher can helpt this out. what happened? >> the school district actually chose to address this today. this is two weeks after the incident, brooke, so according to paperwork from police, the district and the child's mother, this sixth grader had a

substitute teacher that day. they were supposed to do the pledge of allegiance to begin their day and he did not stand up. the substitute teacher kind eof went after him on that. the kid said he didn't want to stand because it was racist. according to one of our affiliates, she told him, if you feel that way you can go back to wherever you came from, you don't have to live here. after that she called an administrator, the school resource officer came and at some point that's when the police say the sixth grader became disruptive. he wouldn't leave, refused to leave the classroom and he was taken to a juvenile assessment facility and charged with misdemeanor of nonviolently resisting arrest and also basically -- you know, disrupting a school day. so the mother, as you can understand, is upset. she says that my child has gone

through quite a bit and she would like to see the charges dropped. >> and what is the school saying? >> i'm upset, i'm angry, i'm hurt, more so for my son. my son has never been through anything like this and i feel like they should have handled it differently. i want the charges dropped and i want the school to be held accountable and the officer for what happened because it shouldn't have been handled the way that it was handled. >> the school district says that that substitute teacher was not aware that children were not required to stand for the pledge of allegiance, that constitutionally they don't have to do that, and that she will not be working there ever again. they're talking with the agency that placed her there about going over some of the rules and regulations and guidelines with further substitutes and they also point out that they did not ask for any charges to be presented against this 11-year-old, but he is due no court, according to bay news 9, our cnn affiliate, tomorrow.

so we will see what happens from that point. >> okay, we'll cover it tomorrow. thank you very much. . we roll on. i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me. you're watching cnn. the powers of the executive branch will be put to the true test over president trump's emergency decoratilaration to b his border wall. it will provide $6 billion of the $8 billion that trump wants to build this barrier and democrats and republicans are digging in for what is expected to be a fierce fight. just this afternoon protestors took to the streets but even bigger signs are going to play out, that the courts will be posing the larger threat to the emergency declaration. let me turn to