♪ >> isn't it just great. it's so catchy. >> it is catchy. it's probably in a lot of ads, but would you go to the concert. >> yes, i loved the super bowl when he was the half-time show. i loved it. i know he got grief for it. i thought it was great. >> what's yours? >> i'm going with "smoking out the window" by silk sonic. ♪ smoking out the window singing how she do this to me ♪ >> i love that too because bruno mars is so charismatic. >> we had 13 more seconds of that, actually. the show is almost over. it's so rich, so beautiful. >> i'm not going to argue with you. breaking news, the senate has just passed legislation to prevent a nationwide rail strike that would cripple the economy if that happened. "the lead" takes it over with jake tapper right now.

breaking news, a deal passed to avert what would have been, could have been, a crippling rail strike. "the lead" starts right now. the final vote in the u.s. senate called just moments ago. i'm going to speak with the secretary of transportation, pete buttigieg, fresh off his visit to fast track and preserve today's deal. and a letter bomb sent to america's ambassador. security has been stepped up after a series of suspicious deliveries. plus, the manipulative man behind the abrupt collapse between the crypto company, ftx. >> i mean, look, i screwed up. >> you think? what else, the quote monster says about scamming customers and watching their life savings evaporate. welcome to "the lead," i'm jake tapper. moments ago the senate passed a

bill that would help avoid a catastrophic rail strike. now the legislation which had passed the house of representatives heads to president biden's resolute desk for signing. just a few hours ago, it looked as though the agreement could be derailed with members of both parties demanding paid sick leave for the union rail workers. manu raju starts off our coverage from capitol hill with an inside look at how this deal came together just minutes ago. >> reporter: the senate averting a devastating blow to the u.s. economy, voting to prevent a railway strike after a tense week of negotiations. >> on one hand, we don't want to shut down the economy. on the other, we don't want to to say to rail workers, if you have a heart attack or you break your leg, you either show up to work or you're going to lose your job. >> reporter: lawmakers recognizing that a strike could have disrupted food supplies and intensified inten

intensified sky high inflation. tentative deal now enforced by congress was brokered by the biden administration. major railways in eight of 12 labor unions. that plan lacks paid sick leave for workers. progressives on capitol hill demanded that the senate guarantee at least seven days for rail workers. >> it would be an absolute outrage if these workers do not get at least seven days sick leave. >> this is a small number of dollars to their bottom line to take care of their workers the way they should. >> reporter: president biden defended the deal at the white house today when questioned on paid sick leave. >> i made it really clear is what was gonegotiated was so mu better than anything they had. >> reporter: the amendment to mandate sick leave fell eight votes shy of the 60 needed for passage. opposition from most republicans who say that congress should not dictate the terms of the negotiations. moderate democrat joe manchin agreed. >> concerned about us jumping into that when you have eight

unions who have agreed to the package they negotiated with the department of labor and with the president. i'm very reluctant for us to jump in and set a precedent. >> reporter: behind the scenes, the lobbying campaign intensified. labor secretary marty walsh, transportation secretary pete buttigieg joining a private luncheon with democrats and demanding action. >> the senate cannot leave until we get the jobs done. >> reporter: republicans have been skeptical, the plan winning the support of gop mitch mcconnell, and kevin mccarthy opposed the deal when it passed the house on wednesday. the vote was a bipartisan one in the senate that just closed minutes ago. the vote was 80-15. 80 voting yes, 15 voting against us it. five no votes were democrats. ten were republicans. senator rand paul, after a week of back and forth, a bipartisan

vote in the senate gets -- essentially moves faorward on this tentative agreement without the sick leave. joining us now to discuss transportation secretary pete buttigieg. the bill just passed the senate despite objections from members of both parties who wanted paid sick leave to be included. why are you okay passing a deal that does not guarantee paid sick leave for these union workers? >> first of all, the importance of the deal is that a rail shut down is being avoided. if that were to happen we would have seen hundreds of thousands of american workers laid off, energy prices shooting up once refineries were unable to continue operating. issues getting chlorine to water treatment plants. auto industry factories getting shut down within hours, if not days of that happening. what we have been able to avoid is a major blow to workers, farms, families across country.

not everybody got what they wanted in this deal, but what was enacted is something that mirrors what was reached in the tentative agreement at the negotiating table between union leaders and railroad companies. what that includes is a 24% pay increase for railroad workers. they are essential workers who deserve to be paid well, on average, $100,000 or so in pay. it includes adjustments to their health care, an additional day of paid personal leave, but, again, not a perfect deal. and every side had to give in something in those negotiations to reach that deal. i think there's an ongoing conversation in this country about how to make sure workers in this sector and every sector get the support they need. right now, what you have is a deal improving pay and working conditions for american railroad workers and crucially avoiding a shut down that would have been devastating to the american economy.

>> without question, the shut down would have been devastating to the american economy, and i think everybody out there is glad that it has been avoided. but, the question is, these rail lines, they're making billions of dollars, profits are up for all of them. quite a lot in some cases. you and i have paid sick leave. my crew has paid sick leave. why don't these railway workers deserve paid sick leave? >> let me remind you, the position of our administration is that every american worker ought to have paid leave, whether you're a railroad worker, a journalist, a federal government employee, or whether you work at burger king. we believe every american worker, every full-time american worker ought to have paid leave. the president has prominposed t, has advanced that in proposed legislation, and so far it has been unable to get past what has been unified senate republican opposition. we are going to continue to press for that. not just picking and choosing

one sector over another, but based on the basic idea that every single american workers ought to have paid leave, just like you have in pretty much every country in the world. right now, a tentative agreement reached at the bargaining table between union leaders and companies contains provisions like the pay raise and improvements. >> i get it, but saying that they ought to have paid sick leave and then getting in there and saying to the warren buffet's of the world, give these guys paid sick leave or the white house is going to make you guys out to be the bad guys and you'll be forced to blink after your reputations take a number of hits, that's a different matter. we have heard from a number of union workers who feel like the biden administration has let him down. he told cnn quote, here we have someone who has touted himself as the most labor friendly president for many decades and basically just betrayed us. there's no difference between democrats and republicans

anymore, they're feeding corporate greed, unquote. what do you say to gabe christianson? >> if you don't think there's any difference, you should look at the difference between this president who has advanced good paying jobs, who has made sure the national labor relations board is able to do its job, who has put in the first card carrying union member to be labor secretary in a generation, who has upheld everything from wages to working conditions to make sure that unions can thrive because he believes strongly in american unions, in organized labor, and is proud to be the most actively pro union president in a generation. again, that doesn't mean everybody got everything that they wanted. we need to have a broader conversation about the labor models and the business practices of transportation companies in this country, and i think that conversation is going to continue, and will reach a new phase as soon as the ink is dry on this bill. in the meantime, what you have is a tentative agreement that was reached by union leaders and

company leaders at the bargaining table, and there simply were not votes. as we saw, not the votes in the senate for sure to go in and change the terms of what was reached at that table, and this is not a situation where you can play around, where you can allow things to come to the brink, even before the date of a potential shut down. several days before that you would have seen shipments begin to wind down, hazardous materials, potentially including chlorine for water treatment in this country, not able to get to where it needed to go. this is a situation where we couldn't allow brinksmanship to override the economic and national security of this country, but we are far from done as an administration, doing our continued work to create good paying jobs, to support union jobs, and again, continuing to press the case for paid leave for every single american in every single job in this country. >> what does it mean to press the case if you're not willing to actually go to these billionaires and say how on

earth can you sleep at night, not letting your railway workers have paid sick leave, i mean, that's not an extravagant benefit, paid sick leave, you get sick, you get to take a few days off. they don't have that. so i guess these lofty aspirations are one thing, but i didn't hear any language coming from the administration saying these rail companies need to get serious about offering basic, basic benefits like paid sick leave. i didn't hear that, so i understand where gabe christianson is coming from. >> well, again, what this administration supported was what the union leaders and the company leaders agreed to. and did not insert changes into the agreement because that would have likely added time and complication to a process that would have taken us off the cliff economically. but let me be clear, very specific legislative proposals have come from this administration advancing paid leave, and if friends on the

other side of the aisle would work with us, we could have had that. we could have that in the future, and that's going to be something we continue to work on. in the meantime, what we have now is millions of americans who can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that everything from baby formula to milk to petroleum products that affect the price of gasoline to treatment materials for water to all fof the other things we cout on will continue moving and the essential workers who get them where they need to go not only have an additional day of paid personal leave per the agreement that was reached but also a 24% pay increase. >> yeah, obviously not every labor leader was on board with that plan, but there were some that were, transportation secretary pete buttigieg, thanks, and congratulations on averting the major crisis, but i think there's still some work to be done on the paid sick leave that we talked about. thank you so much for being with us. i appreciate it. >> thank you. the red carpet laid out for

french president emmanuel macron today. what he and president biden discussed at length in the three-hour meeting and the controversial item on the menu at tonight's state dinner. and the message for police in idaho creating more confusion after the killings of four college students. and just in, a supreme court decision impacting president biden's plan to cancel student loans. stay with us. if ♪ subway's drafting 12 new subs for the all-new subway series menu the new monster has juicy steak and cris bacon. but what abo the new boss? it looks so good it makes me hangry! settle down there, big guy the new subway series. what's your pick?

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we're back with our worldly president biden hosting french president emmanuel macron today for his first state visit since moving into the west wing. the two say they discussed the russian invasion of ukraine at length, and how to further support the ukrainians fighting back against putin. as cnn's phil mattingly reports for us now, president biden says he is willing to meet with putin, but only under certain circumstances. >> reporter: on a day carefully calibrated to elevate a critical alliance. >> mr. putin is, choose my words very carefully. >> reporter: president biden singling a willingness to open a line of communication with russian president vladimir putin. >> i'm prepared to speak with

mr. putin, if, in fact, there is an interesting in him deciding he's looking for a way to end the war. >> reporter: with clear preconditions. >> he hasn't done that yet. if that's the case, in consultation with my french and nato friends, i'll be happy to sit down with putin to see what he wants -- has in mind. he hasn't done that yet. >> reporter: the brutal war in its ninth month at the center of a three-hour sit down emmanuel macron. after wards, ma -- >> we will never urge the ukrainians to make a compromise that will not be acceptable to them. >> reporter: biden's first state visit underscored, the value and durability white house officials see with america's longest running ally, with two leaders going to great lengths to demonstrate their unity, and iron out clear cut differences. >> i make no apology.

>> reporter: biden looking to address french concerns with sweeping subsidies in corner stone with his climate legislation. >> there are occasions when you write a massive piece of legislation, and that has almost $368 billion for the largest investment in climate change on all of history. and so there's obviously going to be glitches in it. >> reporter: and providing assurances that issue would be addressed. >> i'm confident. that's my answer. >> reporter: for macron, a day and a dinner underscoring a white house view of a relationship that has only grown in its importance in biden's first two years, one driven, officials say, by a genuine personal connection. >> i began to refer to him privately as my closer. >> reporter: a connection that has become critical in a moment when threats have rattled alliances worldwide. >> france someone of our strongest partners and historically, but one of our

strongest partners and most capable allies, and emanuel has also become a friend in addition to being the president of that great country. >> reporter: jake, that three-hour meeting behind closed doors certainly at the center of the visit, but obviously the main event is the dinner in just a couple of hours, several hundred guests are expected to arrive for the first state dinner for president biden, there will be dancing. there will be dinner a real comingling of french and american traditions and colors. john baptiste, is scheduled to perform. >> there's a controversial about one of the main dishes being served at the state dinner, tell us about that. >> reporter: main dish, it's lobster. 200 live lobsters sent down from the state of maine, you would think it would thrill maine fo polit politicians. it's at the center of a regulatory and legislative battle ongoing for some time

from conservationists who would like the lobster men to stop getting the lobsters they do. there's frustration that regulatory actions by the administration run counter to the idea of wanting to support or bring down those lobsters. as for the moment, officials aren't weighing in on the matter, but maine politicians making it clear, if it's good enough for the white house, it should be good enough for any grocery store or certainly regulators. >> congressman jared golden, the democrat from maine's very competitive second district weighing in against his fellow democrat joe biden there. phil mattingly, thank you very much, appreciate it. the confusion three weeks after four college students were tragically stabbed to death there, stay with us.

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topping our national lead today, contradictory statements from idaho police are creating confusion 18 days after four universities of idaho students were found dead in their apartment. hundreds came together in a moving vigil last night where families of the slain students shared memories and moments of silence. cnn's veronica is in idaho, scrutinizing for not only a lack of progress in solving the case but confusing a grieving public. >> we still believe it's a targeted attack. >> reporter: from the beginning, police repeatedly calling the stabbing deaths of four university of idaho students a targeted attack, even issuing a statement saying evidence indicates that this was a targeted attack. >> somebody targeted these individuals for some reason. >> reporter: but last night, a new statement led to confusion about whether the police stood by that theory.

the department posting detectives do not currently know if the residents or any occupants were specifically targeted but continued to investigate. that statement brought a flurry of headlines suggesting police were doing an about face. they tell cnn their post was in response to comments made by prosecutor bill thompson who said in an interview that the home of the victims and specifically one or two of the roommates may have been targeted. that alone is what police say they are clarifying, telling cnn we remain consistent in our bleach that this was indeed a targeted attack but have not concluded if the target was the residents or its occupants. the police chief confirming that this morning. >> why you believe it was targeted or the reasons are so crucial to the investigation that they cannot be revealed? >> we are not going to reveal that. that's part of the investigation. trying to pull the pieces in that will help give us the before, the during and the after. >> reporter: police have told

all of the cars from in front of the home, and confirmed they received some lab tests back from the crime scene though they won't say what they are. meanwhile, the moscow community is in mourning as they gathered at a candlelight vigil wednesday night. several of the victims' families spoke about their tremendous loss. >> the circumstances that bring us here tonight, they're terrible. the hardest part, we cannot change the outcome. >> reporter: and they also spoke about what comforts them during this difficult time. >> they shared everything. they eventually get into the same apartment together. and in the end, they died together. in the same room, in the same bed. >> reporter: and jake, the heavy police presence continues here in the community of moscow and on campus, but for how much longer at the university of idaho, that is unclear. students get out next week for

the rest of the smemester and they don't come back until mid january. the university of idaho tells me they are going to be revisiting their security plans as invest unfolds. jake. >> let's bring in cnn counter terrorism analyst, and former fbi senior intelligence officer phil mudd, we know that dna test results are starting to come in. do you have any confidence that a suspect could be identified in the next few days as a result of that? >> i would not say confidence. hope might be a better term. look, there's going to be a lot of data you have to look through. we know there's six residents there. there's also reports there's a lot of social activity at the house. how much dna, for example, hairs from other people picked up. can you determine whether those hairs were from visitors at a party two weeks ago or whether those hairs who are not from the people in the house might be related to the killer. i think that's going to take some time. on the reverse, jake, i would say if you have four physical attacks with interaction,

including defensive wounds on the murder victims, the chance that the killer thought enough ahead to leave no evidence that police could find, i'm hoping they find something because that's a lot of physical interaction to leave nothing behind, jake. >> that's what i'm wondering. are you surprised that 18 days later, there's been, as far as we can tell no suspect named, no weapon found? it's almost three weeks. maybe the public has been spoiled from entertainment versions of investigations and maybe 18 days is actually not that long, but give us your take. >> i would say beyond surprised. very surprised because you're not just talking about the many interviews with friends and family, you're talking about a relatively small community. but in the digital age, you can track everything or a lot of what these young people were doing in the previous week through things like text messages. we've seen a lot of video from the locations they were at before, which not only allows us to look at the time line of where they were, but who they talked to. you know every person they took a class with in the last year, two years.

you know every neighbor they have had for years, so in the digital age, you can get a trail. you can get a pattern of life far different than you could have 20 years ago, and with the amount of investigation on this, to not have a significant advance. i'm not criticizing the police. i am saying that's pretty surprising. >> the fbi has been investigating alongside the local idaho police mostly helping gathering tips, we're told. do you think the fbi should have a bigger role in this case, perhaps a more public role, perhaps even the primary role, considering, a, how little apparent progress there has been made almost three weeks into this, and b, the fact that the police have been making some inconsistent statements? >> i don't think the fbi should have a more significant role unless the state and locals ask for a more significant role. the fbi has relationships with 10,000 police departments across the country. that has everything to do with things like abductions to bank robberies to support in this

case, for murders. the typically role for the fbi, if there's a local case and they want assistance, we provide assistance. if the fbi got in position of telling police departments we're taking over because we think you're incompetent, i don't want to see that world because the cooperation with local police departments would decline dramatically. >> is it true that the longer this goes on, the tougher it will be to find the killer? >> yeah, that's going to be true. i mean, you look at the case resolution rates and everything in the data will show you that. there's a flip side of this, and that is if you look at things like the fbi's most wanted category of people, anybody who did this who thinks they can cover their track for a year or five years or ten years, the data don't bare that out. if there's a high end investigation where investigators hunt for years, the chance, even if we have the tragedy of someone escaping for a month or three months or six months, the chance they escape forever, not that high, i think. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. coming up next, a series of

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somebody sign this kid! we start this world lead in spain which is on high alert after the discovery of six letter bombs. police in spain say the targets included the united states and the ukrainian embassies in madrid, as well as spain's prime minister, spain's defense minister, and arms manufacturer and a spanish air force base. a staffer at the ukrainian embassy in spain was hurt when an envelope exploded. the rest of the bombs were intercepted or deactivated before they reached their intended targets. let's bring in cnn's kylie at wood at the state department. investigators believe some of these letters may have originated in ukraine. yeah, a senior spanish official said that they believed that this letter bomb that arrived at the weapons manufacturer in northern spain apparently originated in ukraine. but that's not definitive, and

we've also heard from other spanish officials that some of these mysterious packages were likely to have originated in spain. so the question as to whether they originated, what the motivation is an ongoing question. of course we should know that the mysterious package sent to the u.s. embassy in spain today was detonated in a controlled environment. no one in that situation was hurt. >> let's turn to another story we have been following. today the spokesperson for the kremlin, dmitry peskov said that russia is not going to engage with the united states on a proposed prisoner swap before the end of 2022. that sounds like unwelcome news for the families of and detained americans, brittney griner and paul whelan. >> reporter: definitely unwelcome news, but it is challenging, as you well know, to parse through the statements of russian officials

particularly when they are at times, at odds with one another because just a few days ago, we heard from the deputy russian foreign minister saying that it wasn't all together off the table, that there could be a prisoner swap before the end of the year. of course the thing that is of the front and foremost concern to u.s. officials right now is paul whelan because his whereabouts in russia right now is unclear. his family has been told that he has been moved to a hospital at the prison. but russian authorities have not definitively told the u.s. embassy that as far as we know, and he has not called his home. he usually talks to his family just about every single day. they haven't heard from him in a week, and that includes not calling home on thanksgiving and not on his father's own birthday, so raising some concerns there. jake. >> kylie atwood at the state it want for us. thank you so much r. now to ukraine, officials --

that deal would include training 2,500 ukrainian soldiers every month at a u.s. base in germany. while ukraine's army has made some remarkable recent gains, russia is clawing back some ground on the eastern front of donetsk. cnn's sam kiley is in kramatorsk and sam, your team heard heavy artillery fire throughout the day. what is going on there? how are russian forces faring? >> reporter: well, jake, we can still hear it going on in the distance, the distant rumble of detonations, out going and incoming, i would imagine. possibly air strikes, too. it has been by any standards, and we have only got the verbal communications from ukrainian troops, but we've seen the postings made by russian troops that this is a very very bitter battle, indeed. i spoke to a foreign fighter, foreign volunteer today. he lost a friend. he said he had a friend die on

him today, and that is the patte pattern i'm afraid from the ukrainian troops. they are killing more than they are loseing and they can't understand why it represents such a pride, why they would invest it with so much blood, n energy and violence when it doesn't from a ukrainian perspective represent a particularly important strategic site. they're only explanations from the ukrainians is the russians need a victory after their losses in the northeast around kharkiv in particular, but also more recently in kherson. there's also suggestions coming from ukrainian commanders here that possibly the wagner group which is known to be fighting there, the mercenaries, the russian mercenaries, they are able to buy more sophisticated equipment, which might give them an edge particularly at night, they are seeing slight changes in russian tactics, and there

have been small gains by the russians as they seek to encircle that city. but it's about 25, 30 kilometers from where i'm standing right now and there have been an awfully lot, a terrific amount of fighting ahead of the russians even if they were to capture that town because where i'm standing here is the ultimate prize, and they're a very long way from that, jake. >> sam kiley in ukraine. the man who created a crypto nightmare, he's been called a monster, how he's trying to fess up to the mess he made. that's nexext. and juicy steak. let's get some more analysis on that, chuck. mmm. pepper jack. tender steak. very insightful, guys. the new subway series. what's your pick? up to 300 miles of range on a full charge. and a starting price ound $30,000. evs for everne, everywhere. chevrolet.

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we're back with our money lead and this admission, a lot of people got hurt and that's on me. those comments from sam bankman-fried, the disgraced ex-ceo of the now collapsed cryptocurrency exchange ftx, much to his lawyers' likely dismay, bankman-fried will not stop talking. he talked about what he knew about transfers from ftx to a separate hedge fund that he owned. here's more now from cnn's mark stewart. >> look, i screwed up. >> reporter: sam bankman-fried was once seen as the wonder kid on the crypto scene. now he's the face of a massive failure. he claims his billion dollar empire has now been whittled down to about 100 k in a bank account. >> i'm a ceo. i was a ceo of ftx, and, i mean, i say this again and again that that means i had a responsibility. >> reporter: customers around the world are scrambling to recover funds following the

collapse of the one-time multibillion dollar business. bankman-fried shrugged off the comparison to bernie madoff, the man behind one of the biggest financial fraud schemes. >> a lot of people look at you and see bernie madoff. >> yeah, i mean, i don't think that's who i am at all. but i understand why they're saying that. people lost money. and people lost a lot of money, and, i mean, at the end of the day, look, there's a question of what happened and why and who did what. what caused the melt down, and i think that is -- reads very differently, right, when you look at the classic bernie madoff story, there was no real business. ftx, that was a real business. >> reporter: ftx used celebrity endorsements from super stars like tom brady, naomi osaka, steph curry, even a super bowl

ad featuring larry david, but the big names can't cloud questions as to whether ftx improperly used investors' money to make loans to his mhedge fun. >> i do not know there was improper use of customer funds. >> you also took out a $1 billion loan. what was that for? >> that was generally for reinvesting in the company. >> reporter: as investors ponder what's next, bankman-fried admits he didn't pay attention in a business that's based on trust. >> i wasn't spending any time or effort trying to manage risk on ftx, like, and that obviously -- >> that's a stunning admission. >> what? >> that's a pretty stunning admission. >> yeah, i mean, i don't know what to say. like, what happened happened. i think i stopped working as hard for a bit, you know, honestly, if i look back on myself, i think i got a little cocky, maybe more than a little bit, and i think part of me, like, felt like we'd made it.

>> mark stewart joins us now, and mark, the collapse of ftx is capturing the attention of some lawmakers including democratic senators jon tester of montana, and elizabeth warren of massachusetts who in interviews with semafore's are calling out crypto as all bullshit, end quote. this is still a very unregulated industry. >> i think it remains to be seen if there's going to be more regulation, if this is going to serve as a water shed moment. if we look back at history, 2007, 2008 financial crisis, the bernie madoff scandal, all of those events did lead to reform on wall street. take a listen now to michigan >> congress must act to pass legislation that will hold this industry to the same rules as traditional financial institutions and close gaps, gaping holes in our regulations.

if we fail to meet this responsibility, consumers will continue to be harmed and hard-working americans will continue to lose billions of dollars at the hands of bad actors like ftx. >> reporter: and jake, these concerns are far from novel. this is something that the head of the securities and exchange commission has been talking about now for months. >> all right, mark stewart, thanks so much. really appreciate it. coming up, controversy over the treatment of a black woman, a british citizen, inside buckingham palace, threatening to overshadow the royal visit to boston by the prince and princess of wales, william and kate. our royal correspondent max foster is live for us in boston right now. max, cnn is now hearing from that woman about her experience. >> yeah. and she's basically continuing to talk about it because she said this is an issue that needs to be talked about. she was at an engagement at buckingham palace. she was there in her -- she founded a domestic violence

charity. it was a reception recognizing the blight of domestic violence. she was there in that capacity. but she got approached by a senior palace aide and she was repeatedly asked where she was from, where in africa she was from, where her people were from, and she felt very uncomfortable. she wanted to leave. but she said she wanted to stay in the end because she realized she shouldn't have to feel uncomfortable in that situation. the aide has resigned, and investigation is under way. and today ngozi fulani went on cnn to try to educate people effectively about her experience so others could learn from it. >> i'm standing next to two other black women, and the look on their faces shows me that this is not my imagination. i'm not being -- she's really going at it hard here. then she said, "i can see i'm going to have a challenge to get where you come from out of you." so then she says, "what's your

nationality?" "lady, i'm british." >> reporter: buckingham palace saying to remind themselves of their diversity policy. this was a policy that was updated, jake, after the duchess of sussex, meghan, complained about racism within the royal establishment as well. so there's certainly, you know, a huge amount of upset within the palace about this incident. and they acted very quickly. but at the same time a lot of people outside the palace are saying, well, you're not doing enough, you're not making enough progress and there needs to be more diversity in the palace. even prince william saying this is -- racism shouldn't be tolerated in any situation and it's good that this aide stepped down immediately. as we understand it, according to uk media, this aide was in fact his godmother. so that shows how strongly he feels about it. >> and what's next for prince william and princess kate as they continue their visit to boston? >> reporter: well, the palace has made a statement about this

incident, but they are doing as royals do and they're keeping calm and carrying on, as i understand it. they don't want to be distracted from their core mission here, which is promoting solutions to the climate crisis. they're here on the coast of boston looking at coastal erosion, seeing what's being done to prevent that. they just left. tomorrow's their big night really. it's the earthshot prize. it's where -- it's something that he's worked towards for months. he says it is his super bowl. it's about finding solutions to the climate crisis and trying to help them become a reality. the big prize winners get a million dollars each. he's utterly focused on that. hoping that these other stories won't necessarily go away but they can do enough to resolve them long term, frankly. >> all right, max foster in boston, traveling with the prince and princess. thank you so much. coming up, the supreme court decision this afternoon having a direct impact on president biden's plans to cancel millions of dollars in student loan debt. how might this affect you?

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welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. in this hour former president obama headed to georgia to help democratic senator raphael warnock. can obama's closing message make a difference? only five days out from this competitive senate runoff election. this as an ex-girlfriend of herschel walker comes forward with new claims against him. plus an anonymous protester in china putting his or hef liar on the line to try to explain why the demonstrations across the country had to happen. how far they had to go to keep their identity protected.

and signs that the communist nation may be getting the message. but we start with news just in to cnn. the top two lawyers from the trump white house have been ordered to testify again as part of the justice department's investigation into trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. a federal judge just handing down the order for former white house counsel pat cipollone and patrick philbin. we're going to start our coverage with cnn's evan perez. evan, these two men have already testified. so why do they have to do it again? >> reporter: that's right, jake. they have testified. but the former president has been making these claims of executive and attorney-client privilege, which means that behind the scenes in the federal courthouse a judge has been having to hear this litigation between the justice department, which has been asking for these men to come back in and answer questions that they had declined to answer as a result of the former president's privilege claims. so now what we understand has happened is a judge has given a ruling, which means that they have to come back and answer