after crushing a republican-led recall attempt. newsome's tough coronavirus policies validated by the state's democratic voters who said, no to the recall by a nearly 2-1 margin. the governor thanking his supporters and sounding a warning about attempts to undermine democracy. >> i think about just in the last, you know, few days, the former president put out saying this election was rigged. a democracy is not a football. you don't throw it around. it's more like, i don't know, an antique vase. you can drop it and smash it in a million different pieces, and that's what we're capable of doing if we don't stand up to meet the moment and push back. >> republican front runner larry elder took a page from the trump playbook in the last few days. he has suggested the outcome of the election will be affected by

shenanigans. last night after the fact, he did let go of the big lie strategy. this is what he said. >> my opponent, governor gavin newsom -- [ booing ] come on, let's be gracious. let's be gracious in defeat. and, by the way, we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war. >> now, elder is already hinting at a run for governor in 2022, so let's bring in cnn white house correspondent phil mattingly for more on the results. walk us through this. >> brianna, look, going into the night there were a couple things that were very clear. democrats hold a major registration advantage in the state and, therefore, republicans who wanted to recall gavin newsom needed a bunch of things to happen all at the same time in a rather momentous manner. none of those things happened. take a look at where things stand right now. 70% reporting, obviously this

race has been called. gavin newsom will remain governor. he's 2.5 million votes ahead. but look at the percentage. 63.9%. track back to, say, last year. joe biden won the state very handlily, gavin newsom percentage above what joe biden's was in a nearly 30-point victory. in 2018, 61.9%. obviously there are still more votes to come in. it underscores the big concern. democratic apathy, perhaps a surge in independent reporters, breaking hard towards recalling the governor. none of those things happened near the scale that would have been necessary in this very blue state to knock off gavin newsom. in fact, when you actually dig in on a few of the counties -- we won't go too deep here. this i thought was rather telling. you look at counties where newsome under performed his 2018 results. you have one, a very small county which had no impact whatsoever on this race. what about where he overperformed? six counties where he's over performing up to five points.

that tells you everything you need know about how gavin newsom is still governor of the state of california. here's another thing. we saw very clearly over the course of the last come of weeks in the race a significant focus on the pandemic. a significant focus on combatting the pandemic. let's pull out of the voter data and into the exit poll data. in that exit poll data you understand what the newsome campaign was seeing and why that message was so effective. most important issues facing california, covid, number one. 31%. above homelessness, the economy, wildfires and crime. now, what about newsome's covid policies? he's actually put into place? 45% of those in the exit poll said it was about right. not strict enough 18%. too strict 32%. again, very much so on the side of newsome. now moving to those specific policies, how did californians in the exit polls view vaccinations? 63% say a public health responsibility. only 34% say a personal choice. what about mask mandates? obviously a huge issue,

contentious throughout the country. not in california. school mask requirement in california, the support level 70% compared to 25% oppose. if you want to know why the newsome campaign went all-in on this issue, well, they were looking at numbers and those numbers absolutely translated come election night, guys. >> all right, phil mattingly, thank you so much for taking us through that. and joining us now to discuss the california recall election results, former presidential candidate and former vermont governor and former dnc chairman howard dean. you know, just top line for us, what is the big take away for you? i think what sort of looking forward, because this is a race obviously very important to california, but nationally democrats we're watching this as well. what's the takeaway? >> the takeaway for me the democrats finally figured out what the strategy is to win. if you had said that eight weeks ago that gavin newsom was going to win by 30 points, people would have thought you would

have been out of your mind. you would have been out of your mind. what they did was make this election about donald trump. it's very clear. republicans have dug themselves a deep hole. despite a fantastic campaign of raphael warnock and jon ossoff would not have won in georgia. the texas abortion decision has galvanized american women. this is what you get when you vote for the republican party. that message was incredibly well honed by the newsome people and by national democrats in the last six weeks, and it lifted newsome, who was really pretty close to a dead heat in this race. and some people thought he was going to lose to a 30-point win. that was about turnout. the reason that your polls show what they show is because democrats aren't indifferent. it was a lot more than gavin newsom on the ballot in california last night. >> it works in california with a

2-1 democratic voter registration advantage over republicans there. the question going forward is how well can it work, say, in virginia in two months, terri mcauliff -- >> virginia is a blue state at this point. he's got the same -- the guy who is running in virginia has got the same problem. terry mcauliffe is a known quantity. people thought he did a good job as governor, but he's not an inspiring figure. he's going to win because he has successfully helped to, with help from the other candidate, connected his opponent with donald trump. so donald trump is on the ballot in virginia and we're going to win that one, too. the governor's race. >> does it fly in 2022? does it fly in the midterms? >> it certainly does. it's not going to fly in the deep conservative alabama. people don't like the authoritarian turn the republic kparn ti has taken. they don't like the anti-women stuff. most don't like the anti-gay stuff.

most don't like the anti-race stuff. trump and the republican party have thrown in their lot. it's too bad for the country and it's going to be too good for them with the old days. we're not about the old days in this country. we never have been. >> can we talk about the big role about the big lie in this race? you saw larry elder in the waning days raise the spectre of talking about this was a rigged election. in the end he conceded. that didn't happen. but at the same time, i wonder, as we saw the polls for what he wanted someone recalled or not, that sort of lined up with the vote, not too far off of it. i wonder what kind of fire republicans are playing with, with potentially, you know, sort of making the, you know, their outreach to republicans -- they don't want to come out and vote. maybe they don't believe it's really an election that's worth voting in. >> i think the big why has scared americans in the middle of the road. elections are about the middle

of the road. that's why georgia senators, we had a democratic senator from georgia which we haven't had for generations. what the big lie means is do you want more january 6th in this country. do you think armed insurrection and invasion of the capitol by people who believe the election was stolen when there's no evidence for it, is that a good thing for america? and i think the vast majority of americans think it isn't, and i think these things, january 6th, the texas abortion decision which is essentially affirmed by a group of political hacks that have gotten themselves out of the supreme court. these things have alarmed americans. and, yeah, the republicans will carry really right-wing states like mississippi and alabama, but they're not going to carry a lot of reasonable thoughtful middle of the road people. i think we'll pickup a seat in ohio because of this kind of stuff and '22. >> can i ask you quickly, because we have other news we have to get to. another guest said the revenge of the vaccinated.

gavin newsom campaigned on some stricter covid measures, vaccine mandates and the like. is that something democrats should lean into? >> that's absolutely true. and look at alabama, one of the most conservative states in the country where the governor of alabama kaye ivey came out and blamed unvaccinated people for what's going on in their south which is devastating their hospitals. when that happens, you know that the republicans are in deep, deep trouble. >> it's a very good point. thank you so much, governor dean, for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me on. so, we are learning more revelations about this new book about the trump presidency, including fears at the highest level of the u.s. military and congress, that the nuclear arsenal was not safe from the commander in chief. joining us now, cnn special correspondent jamie gangel. she got an early copy of this book called "peril" by "washington post" bob woodward and robert kosta. talk to us about some of what you are seeing here. >> so, just to set the stage,

the headline from this is that on january 8th, two days after the insurrection, general milley is shaken. woodward and costa write president trump is in serious mental decline, unstable, and unpredictable. then nancy pelosi, speaker of the house, calls him. and woodward and costa have obtained in the book -- have in the book an exclusive transcript of that call. and pelosi is worried about nuclear weapons. she says, pelosi to milley, quote, you know he's crazy. he's been crazy for a long time. milley: madam speaker, i agree with you on everything. milley gets off that call. he's putting this all together. he knows that china -- we have intelligence reports he's had conversations with his counterpart, the top general in china.

and he realizes that we're in a vulnerable situation, and he goes in. he calls together the generals and colonels who run the pentagon war room and he reinforces, let's understand, process and procedure. he says, you're going to follow the process. you're going to follow the procedure. and i'm part of that procedure. some people, as you've been reporting, have been criticizing that perhaps he overstepped his authority. i think it's important, two things. read the book. understand the context of what was going on. the second thing is, let's not forget that even though the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is not technically in the chain of command. he is the top military official. he is the president's top adviser on defense issues. and he had seen donald trump pull an end run, signing a rogue

memo to withdraw from afghanistan. so he had reason to worry that trump in his state of mind and what he had done before might try to do something else. >> telling his advisers, other military, there's no end runs here. >> correct. >> no end runs, follow the procedures in place, i'm part of it. >> correct. >> you have new details, jaime. there's been reporting on the back and forth between donald trump and mike pence prior to january 6, and how donald trump told mike pence, incorrectly, unconstitutionally, that mike pence basically could refuse the electoral college results. it is now a new conversation. >> so, in this conversation, first donald trump says in the oval office to mike pence that if he doesn't do it -- and by the way, this is the night of january 5th. it's a remarkable scene. there are maga supporters right outside the white house and they can hear them. trump points to them and says, wouldn't it be cool, wouldn't you want to do it for them?

and then eventually what trump says when pence says no over and over again, is, quote, i don't want to be your friend any more if you don't do this. the next morning he says to him, i know you're going to wimp out. it's just an extraordinary exchange between a president and a vice president, but there's a hero in all of this. it turns out, according to woodward and costa's reporting, that there is a critical adviser to mike pence, and that is former vice president dan quayle. and pence, in the book, is quoted calling quayle for advice. pence seems to be struggling. is there a way to help trump? and i just want to show you, he asked dan quayle over and over again, is there anything i can do? and dan quayle shuts him down.

"mike, you have no flexibility on this, none, zero, forget it." pence says, "he really thinks i can. there are other guys in there saying i've got the power." quayle interrupts him, stop it. pence presses him again. he says, mike, don't even talk about it. pence: you don't know the position i'm in. quay quayle: i do know the position you're in. you have no power in this. just forget it >> wow. pence is really looking for an out and quayle isn't giving it to him. >> he's practicing for the vote of the senate parliamentarian. he says, can i make a sympathetic comment during this about trump? and she says, basically, no.

she's very curt. stick to the script. count the votes. >> dan quayle, who would have known. not great a spelling, but very good at reading the law. and maybe that's really what matters, right? >> basic constitution, it turns out. jamie, stick around. there's a lot more here, including what trump said about house minority leader kevin mccarthy. and ahead, an insurance scheme. a botched shooting, an embattled prominent lawyer. we'll have the details behind an alleged murder plot in south carolina.

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it can open eyes with a cup of coffee and change minds on what makes a business, a business. and it is working to connect everyone, everywhere. so, meet visa. a network working for everyone. ♪ revelations about what the top u.s. general thought about the trump presidency and the risk he believed the former president posed to u.s. national security. the details laid out in the new book "peril" by "washington post" journalists bob woodward and robert kosta. we're back with jamie who received a copy of the book and is helping us break these details. joining us now, jim sciutto, chief national anchor and correspondent. i want to talk about what jamie brought up before, the conversation between general milley and china where he had to calm china down because china

was very worried about what was going on in the united states, but also in the process gave china a warning or a statement that some people think is controversial, saying, look, if we were going to attack you, i'd tell you beforehand. >> listen, here's the thing with trump and the military and communications with adversaries. it's part of a pattern. this is not the first time. when i was reporting out my book, at the tensest times with iran, there were back communications with iranian officials, don't listen to the tweets, we're not going to war. between the tensest times, there were back channel communications between u.s. and north korean diplomats, we're not going to war here. they were concerned about the commander in chief doing just that, right. so sadly, this period post january 6, when it was clearly more acute, by the way, the president just tried to steal an election and their concerns were more acute, it was not the first time that u.s. officials felt the need to communicate with adversaries to prevent a war. and that is alarming.

now, milley telegraphing -- first, i don't believe milley would tell china we're going to attack them, right. we do have means of communicating with adversaries to avoid unwanted wars so you don't escalate to degrees you don't want to escalate to. i don't believe that that was the essence of what he was trying to say there. i mean, you can take issue with him communicating with adversaries. all i'm saying is it wasn't the first time they felt the need not to. >> this wasn't a rogue phone call. general milley isn't picking up the phone. there were translations involved, other intelligence people involved. i spoke with a senior republican official who said to me last night, quote, no one should be criticizing milley. they all knew trump was bonkers. that's a quote. milley stood up and took precaution to make sure nothing dangerous or illegal happened. he was just making sure that all the procedures were in place, and that in the book milley also says about this time, quote, half the friggin'world was

nervous. everyone was on edge. >> the question is why was milley worried about a potential military conflict with china? why was gina haspel worried about one with iran? and part of the context of all of this is milley had watched after the election donald trump sign a military memo that would have withdrawn troops from afghanistan very quickly, by january 15th, which is a weird move to do it five days before you're leaving office. >> belies all the b.s. you heard donald trump would have done afghanistan differently. he wanted to do it earlier and possibly more precipitously. and probably without welcoming a single afghan refugee to the u.s. he wanted to do it after he lost an election, five days before he leaves office on an gaff stan. the other issues, the reason you have those communications with iran and china, there is genuine concern now about hostilities between those countries. i mean, we are very concerned about the state of relations

between those two. so you throw an unpredictable donald trump into that mix in the midst of a stolen election and that further amps up that ner nervousness. >> jamie, i want to ask you about something i don't think there was knowledge about before, which was a january 5th meeting if i have the timing right. >> right. >> rudy giuliani, jason miller, steve bannon as depicted in this book, and also new information about the role bannon played egging trump on. you have to make it back from mar-a-lago to make a dramatic appearance. this is a crisis, the moment for reckoning. people are going to go what is the f is going on here? we're going to bury biden january 6. f-ing bury him. >> bannon once fired is back in the fold. he appears, according to woodward and costa's reporting, a svengali like figure january 6. donald trump is down in

mar-a-lago. he was playing golf. he wanted to go to his new year's eve party the next night. bannon says you have to come back. then there is a scene where he is there, you say, with rudy giuliani, jason miller. it's a war room like setting. they're talking to trump the night of the 5th. and saying very inflammatory things to say the least. i think the january 6 select committee is going to be taking a very close look at the entire book, and at steve bannon's role. >> we came closer to stealing an election than we knew. it was pretty darn close. when you have pence calling dan quayle to find out if he can deny certification, two-thirds voted not to. it's remarkable when you look at the accounts. even closer than we realized. >> jim sciutto, you have a show in 36 minutes. we'll let you get ready for

that. jamie, thank you for your reporting on this. speaking of, better call quayle. how the fate of democracy came down to that phone call between two indiana vice presidents. and the plot thickens for a prominent lawyer in south carolina. why police are alleging he went to extremes to plan his own botched shooting next. [slow electronic notes fade in] [fast upbeat music begins] [music stops] and release. [deep exhale] [fast upbeat music resumes] [music stops] ♪ you probably think visa is a credit card company, huh? ♪ but it's actually a network. ♪

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the new book "peril" by bob woodward and mike costa detail the events mike pence faced in overturning the election. what helped him make the decision was talking to dan quayle. joining us to discuss the former chief of staff to dan quayle, bill crystal. this has taken many people by surprise. what do you think about this? >> i didn't know about it until the rest of us did, but i'm not surprised dan quayle said what he said. you know, he was -- is an honorable man and was an honorable vice president. he presided, i was with him, i

remember, on january 6, i think it was the same date, 1993, when he announced the electoral college victory of bill clinton and al gore over george h.w. bush and himself, dan quayle. never even occurred to us that he would do anything to disrupt those proceedings. i was thinking also, al gore succeeded dan quayle as vice president. al gore behaved very honorably in december of 2000 when he accepted the bush v. gore decision and urged national unity and we had to support george w. bush as the the president. quite a contrast with donald trump. >> you know, our friend crystal lizza said dan quayle may have saved democracy in that phone call with mike pence, maybe. but it is such an unbelievably low bar. don't overthrow the results of an election here. >> it's a low bar, john. two-thirds of house republicans 0 voted to overthrow one state,

or two states. who knows if they would have voted for other states. it's a low bar but an important bar. it reminds us character matters. the laws are not self-executing. the constitution is not self-executing. people have to obey the law and support the law when there are temptations to break it in important ways. and as i say, vice president quail did a service to the country here and a few months ago as vice president gore did in 2000. it reminds us of the character of people in public office really does matter. >> what does it tell you, bill, they went back and forth? if you read the actual exchange in the book, it's like over and over pence is asking dan quayle kind of a, well, what can i maybe just do a little -- and dan quayle is unequivocal. he's like, no, no, how many different ways can i say no is basically what you read between the lines there. but the fact that pence -- does that trouble you that he was looking for some kind of fig leaf? >> of course. and i think what it tells us,

brianna, is that he was under -- he felt he was under a lot of pressure. i don't know how much pressure is it really? but it shows what the mood must have been in the trump white house, the degree, as jim sciutto said a few minutes ago with you, the degree to which there really was an attempt to overturn the results. a combination of mob force and intimidation on the one hand, and bending and going around the law on the other, first at the state level when he pressured the state legislators and state officials, like brad hrafsanjan, and obviously what he tried to do with the defense department and justice department. it's a funny and interesting story, an important one. remember the letter from the secretaries of defense, just two or three days before january 6. every living former secretary of defense, republican and democrat, signed a letter reminding the military, this is very consistent with general milley incidentally, reminding the military of their duties, reminding defense department civilians of their duties to

obey the law. the degree of alarm, i was slightly involved in this is not the right word. i was sort of aware of what was happening at the time. the degree of alarm of very serious senior people, leon pau net a, bob gates. these are not people on twitter getting hysterical because of one tweet. they knew what was happening. they were talking to people at senior levels. the degree of alarm trump was going to do something really reckless, irresponsible, that was not appreciated at the time. i think we now see more in a fuller way that that alarm was justified. >> that's the context as we evaluate some of the exchanges we see in this book as well. great to see you this morning, bill crystal. coming up -- >> great to he sue you. >> coming up, his wife and son were murdered. then someone tried to take his life. who shot him? the scheme, the motive next. >> great to see you. [humming]

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a suspect has been charged

in the shooting of prominent south carolina lawyer alex murdock and law enforcement officials are now calling this a case of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. martin savage joins us now. martin, we were talking the other day and i said i'm exhausted by all the twists and turns in the case. here's a new one. >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly what i was saying. that time we talked monday night, there's no way the case could get any more involved. what do you know, it has significantly as a result of an arrest that was made overnight. first of all, a little background here. alex murdock, very powerful lawyer came from a very legally prominent family that was the district attorney for decades in a very rural part of south carolina. they have a lot of money. and then comes the revelation of his wife and son were murdered, brutally, on their property back in june. the question was, well, who could have done it and why? was there a connection to the law past of that family? next thing you know, alex murdock had been let go from his

own family law firm under allegations he had stolen millions of dollars and on top of that he also admit tted to a long-time battle with opioid. he said he was changing a tire due to a leak and someone drives up in a pickup truck and the man shoots him in the head. all of that attempted murder was actually a conspir citacy and a murdock admitted it was a plan for hiring this man to shoot him in the head to kill him so that then he could have his family collect on the life insurance. i'll just read this brief statement from the arrest warrant. they say mr. murdock provided a statement admitting to the scheme of having mr. smith, that's curtis smith, murder him for the purpose of his son collecting a life insurance policy valued at approximately $10 million. the plan unraveled, of course, because alex murdock did not

die. he wasn't killed by being shot in the head. instead, he was taken to the hospital and he was released two days later. so he is now apparently admitted the insurance fraud scheme to law enforcement, but the question on everyone's minds is if he lied about something like this, could he also be lying about something as important and as tragic as the death of his wife and son. >> have to say every day, some new bombshell in this story. you've been all over it, martin. thanks so much for joining us today. new details this morning about the white supremacist arrested near the dnc. after u.s. capitol police caught him with multiple knives, a bayonet and machete, he asked the officers, quote, why are you pulling me over when there are brown people hurting white people? and he added the words, death to others, white power.

let's talk now with arizona secretary of state katy hobbs. you know, secretary, important to note here. look, we don't know all the details, but it's clear that potential threats against elected officials are continuing here. something you know all too well, unfortunately. president trump is continuing to lie about the 2020 election and, you know, we have this other rally coming up this weekend which is something that you have officials worried about armed folks at. are you concerned about this lie leading to continuing violence? >> absolutely. you know, election officials around the country did our jobs in 2020 overseeing a secure election, saw historic participation. and time and time again the results have proven accurate. so these continued allegations of fraud, these conspiracy theories are dangerous because they're continuing to promulgate these threats against not just elected election officials like

myself, but the workers that work in our offices. and it is, it is really dangerous. and despite that, we're going to keep doing our jobs and making sure that we're overseeing elections that have integrity. >> you've seen the big lie play out in arizona, the sham audit there, the challenge to your authority over oversight of the election. then we saw the spectre of the big lie raised in the california recall election this last week by larry elder. look, in the end he conceded. but he was playing with the possibility that he wasn't going to. how persistent do you think the big lie is going to be in multiple elections moving forward? >> i mean, absolutely this is a challenge that's going to be faced by election officials around the country. and i think one thing that's really concerning is that we have elected leaders who, many of whom i might say won in the

election, the very election that they're contesting or trying to contest in 2020, who are continuing to promote these conspiracies. and then we have elected leaders who are allowing them to continue by remaining silent. you know, arizona really is in the grip of these conspiracy theorists leading the state and that's part of the reason i'm running for governor because arizonians are tired of these partisan games and they want leaders who are going to tackle the real issues they're facing. if folks want to join me in that they can go to katyhobbs.org. i think these conspiracies are going to continue as long as they continue to allow a political agenda to move forward. >> i want to thank you for being with us this morning, arizona secretary of state, katy hobbs. >> thanks. so, next a new report suggesting that hospitals in michigan are allowing employees to be exempt from the vaccine if they have proof of one thing. what is it?

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>> hey, john. well, first, great news. another 3 million americans who have the peace of mind that they can take their child to the hospital and not go bankrupt because they did. >> and the impact to the system, what will this do to premium ands costs going forward? >> well, i'd rather talk about the impact for americans because what we ended up seeing was that these 3 million americans who joined the other 10 or so million americans who had insurance under the obamacare program, guess what. half of those new enrollees are paying $10 or less a month in their premium payments. that's probably less than you spend in three days of coffee, and so think about that. a month of coverage for you, for your family, for less than what it cost to have coffee for a week. that's tremendously good. for the system it's great because that means you're using the system early, preventing health incidents from becoming really bad and costing everyone a lot more money. good all around. >> to be fair, i wake up at 3:00

a.m. so i drink a lot of coffee. that bill is expensive. listen a hospital system in michigan says it's going to exempt employees with natural immunity, those with previous covid infections from their vaccine requirements. does that fall outside the administration's vaccine mandate for all health care providers who participate in medicare and medicaid? >> well, we're going to make sure everyone understands that getting vaccinated is the way to go. it's the way to stay safest when 99% of the people who are dying of covid today don't have a vaccine, that's perfect proof that you need to be vaccinated. when employers tell their employees to get vaccinated, we support that. when health care workers, as the president said, are not vaccinated, they're a danger to their patients and to their fellow employees. we'll take a look to make sure that everyone who is supposed to be vaccinated is, and that every employer that is supposed to make sure their workers are vaccinated does. >> a previous infection, that is not something you intend to

count for this or other aspects of vaccine requirements around the federal government or elsewhere? >> well, we'll make sure that they are vaccinated, and we'll make sure that there is protection. we'll take a look and the science as always will guide us how we handle these situations. but no employer should try to play games because this is too serious. it's not about trying to skirt the law, skirt the government's requirements. it's about not protecting the american people. >> can i ask you, eight months into this presidency and there is still no permanent fda commissioner, no nominee. why not at this point? >> listen, we've got an acting commissioner who has done a tremendous job, dr. janet woodcock has been a member of the fshlda work force at the highest levels. we've continued to see the leadership at the fda not only perform, but keep america safe. we'd like to have a permanent person as commissioner, and we hope that congress will help us

move fast once we put that name forward to make sure that we do. all i can tell you, john, is congress has been busy. everyone at fda is continuing to do their work and that includes acting commissioner woodcock. >> this isn't on congress. there's no nominee at this point. what could be more important given that covid is the priority for this administration? booster shots, other things. there are so many issues at play here. >> well, again, first, there's not been a heartbeat missed here in trying to make sure the fda is working. the fact that we have seen the different vaccines out, the fact that we've gone down to 12 and over to get vaccines. the fact that we're on the verge of probably calling for boosts and allowing children under 12 to get vaccinated is all because the fda continues to be on the clock 24/7. and so we have to give them credit for that. but you're right, there is a dance that takes place to get confirm. it took me several months to get confirmed. we'll get through the process and make sure fda continues to

move forward without missing a beat. >> health and human services secretary, xavier becerra, we thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. all next week on cnn's, our champion for change series will spotlight people who don't make headlines all the time, but they still smash barriers and inspire others to do the same. here's a quick preview. >> join your vafavorite cnn anchors for a special night. >> they're proving it. >> join change makers. >> this is one of the most devastating and preventable issues of our day. >> he hopes the defenseless learn to defend themselves. >> he teaches courage, confidence, trust. >> she saw a need and every day she sets out to fulfill that need. >> he is using scuba diving for empowerment. >> she is a trail blazing black woman. >> preserving the ocean for our children. >> empowering women for

financial independence. >> no one should drown because they don't know how to swim. very good. >> small steps can lead to a big impact. >> we are hope and help kids in school and beyond. >> she's a champion. >> a champion. >> for change. >> change. >> change. >> champions for change, saturday at 8:00 on cnn. or necessity. we can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster, with better outcomes. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change-- meeting them where they are, and getting them where they want to be. faster. vmware. welcome change. in the race to succeed, does somebody always have to fail? let's give everybody a fair shot.

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in its boldest move yet, the justice department is asking a federal judge for a temporary halt to the new texas law that bans essentially abortions. abortions past six weeks. the department argues that texas adopted the law to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights. cnn's aryan da vogue is joining us now. explain to us what's happening here and what this means. >> right, this is the most aggressive move we've seen so far. they're asking them to halt this law immediately. they've already, department of justice, sued texas. but now they want these clinics to be able to resume doing this procedure after six weeks while the legal challenges play out. and remember, this law was expressly written to make it really hard to challenge, right. anybody can bring suit against anyone who they think might be assisting in abortion. so the department of justice is moving aggressively calling this

law a scheme. this is what it said in the court papers last night. there can be no dispute ssb-8 i banning abortions before fetal viability. they are laying out harms on the ground. out of state clinics are getting panic calls. women who have the means to travel are worried about traveling because of covid. now everything can move quickly here. there is a scenario where it could go, again, to that appeals court, again to the supreme court on its emergency docket, and the supreme court did allow this law to go into effect, but that was a different challenge that was brought by the clinics. this one might have more heft in the eyes of the justices because it's brought by the department of justice. >> so the supreme court decision to allow it to go into effect on the previous suit doesn't stop this suit necessarily? >> not necessarily. that one was brought by the clinics. the majority there said we're not ruling on whether this law is unconstitutional. we're just not sure you can bring this particular challenge.

now, of course, it's the department of justice bringing the challenge. >> it will be a heck of a thing if the supreme court steps in now and stops it after allowing it to go forward. bears watching to be sure. thank you so much. and cnn's coverage continues righ good wednesday morning, i'm erica hill. and r >> and i'm jim sciutto. breaking overnight, california governor gavin newsom fended off a recall in a landslide election. just wasn't close. the democratic governor defeated a gop-led recall. could have removed him from office. it was newsome's strict coronavirus policies that pushed him into political uncertainty. but when the votes were counted, democratic voters validated those policies by great margin, voting no to the recall by a nearly 2-1 margin. newsome emphasized this vote was

not