Kevin mccarthys marching orders, the House Speaker directs his committees to open an Impeachment Inquiry of President Biden and the white house is already pushing back. Were going to tell you what the administration is saying. Also ahead, the manhunt in pennsylvania taking on a new sense of urgency with the fugitive now armed. Police say a homeowner fired shots at the escaped killer as he was stealing a rifle with a scope on it. Were live in chester county. And Fulton Countys District Attorney up against a deadline to explain how she plans to prosecute donald trump and his 18 codefendants all at the same time. Were following these major developing stories and many more coming in right here to cnn news central. House speaker Kevin Mccarthy just raised the political stakes in washington this morning. He officially kicked off the process to begin an Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden. Today, i am directing our House Committee to open a formal Impeachment Inquiry into president joe biden. This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the american public. Thats exactly what we want to know. The investigation is centered on the gops allegations that biden engaged in corruption while vice president. Some lawmakers to mccarthys right are threatening to strip him of his speakership if he diz not make this move. The white house is calling this extreme politics. Just about everyone in washington expected Something Like this to happen. Melanie, tell us about mccarthys timing here and also his decision to skip a vote. As i remember it, he pressured nancy pelosi to have a congresswide vote in 2019. Yeah, youre exactly right. The timing is notable. It comes as the house is returning after a sixweek recess, and pressure has been growing on Kevin Mccarthy from his right plank to begin impeachment proceedings. Theres also been renewed threats to his speakership, including from congressman matt gaetz. Hes making clear hes not completely satisfied. In fact, he took to the house floor just an hour after mccarthy made the announcement and had this to say. Moments ago, Speaker Mccarthy endorsed an Impeachment Inquiry. This is a baby step following weeks of pressure from house conservatives to do more. We must move faster. Reporter now, on the other end of the spectrum are a number of moderates in the party who are still not sold yet on the idea of impeachment. In fact, its important to remind viewers that the House Republican conference has not yet proved allegations that biden directly profited off his sons foreign Business Deals or that he made Policy Decisions because of them when he was vice president. And so that dynamic right there, jim, i think really explains the predicament Kevin Mccarthy is in and also why he is deciding to skip a floor vote on a formal inquiry. Hes moving ahead without getting buyin from his full conference, but hes not yet put a timeline on how the process is doing to play out. Hes skipping a floor vote because hes not certain he has the votes to win that vote . Exactly. Exactly. The votes are just not there yet, jim. Yeah, melanie zanona, thanks so much. Lets get white house reaction to this. Kayla tausche, the white house had some expectation it was coming, perhaps not today. So how are they responding and whats their plan to deal with this Going Forward . Reporter jim, the white house sees this as a stark about face by Speaker Mccarthy, whose own declaration just two weeks ago that he would seek that formal floorwide vote to move forward with in Impeachment Inquiry piqued their interest into whether or not he could generate votes. Now the change in position is seen by the administration as an admission by mccarthy that he doesnt have the votes or the evidence yet to get them. Ian sams is the spokesman for the white house on oversight and investigations, and earlier today, he posted this on social media. Writing, House Republicans have been investigating the president for nine months and they have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing. His own republican members have said so, he vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, now he flipflopped because he doesnt have support. This is extreme politics at its worst. Since republicans retook the house, the White House Counsels Office has amassed a team of two dozen experts in Legal Communications and legislative fields in advance of this expectation that there would be this growing move toward oversight and even impeachment that they expected would reach a fever pitch going into the 2024 election. But they are now unbowed in their work, based on this evolution in the house. And officials are pointing to some of the statements by mccarthys own conference, some members, moderate members from blue districts saying that House Republicans simply arent there yet. Jim, were just at this hour getting a new statement in from the Biden Reelection Campaign tying mccarthy even more closely to former President Donald Trump and saying that this latest move by mccarthy just cements his status as a trump supersurrogate. Jim. Perhaps those republicans in blue districts fear the same fate of republicans in moderate districts who lost their seats after voting to impeach trump. Thanks so much. On the run and now armed. The escaped murderer in pennsylvania who broke out of prison 13 days ago has a rifle with a scope and a flashlight on it, according to Pennsylvania State police. They say that Danelo Cavalcante got away with this weapon after he stole it from an open garage last night. Police say that the guns owner was actually nearby, was in the garage, and fired several shots at cavalcante with a handgun. They do not, though, think cavalcante was hit by any of those bullets. We have Danny Freeman who has been tracking every turn of this manhunt. Were getting a new view into cavalcantes mind from his sisters testimony in his murder trial as we see the new developments that hes armed. Reporter thats right, brianna. Let me just tell you about where i am right now and then ill get to the new information that cnn is reporting about his sister. Just to paint the scene here, were just outside of the main perimeter right now, right outside of South Coventry township. On route 123, and its a show of force out here. Nearly 500 Law Enforcement officers, we have seen many on horseback, others coming in armored vehicles. We see helicopters continuing to circle the sky. Thats the show of force ever since the news we got confirmed that cavalcante has become armed and is considered Armed And Dangerous now. To your point, we got some new information about elena cavalcante, the sister of danelo. She became an interesting player because we learned a new days ago immigrations and Customs Enforcement has detained her because she overstayed her visa, according to state police. They said she was not helpful at all to their investigation of Danelo Cavalcantes escape, her brother. Though they wouldnt say specifically if she was ever accused of helping him. However, she did testify as a Witness For The Prosecution in her brothers murder trial, which just happened about a month ago. Cnn was able to obtain the transcript of her testimony. I want to highlight it because like you said, it sheds some light on the mindset during or in the process of cavalcantes prior attempt to evade Law Enforcement. So this is Alena Cavalcante speaking on the stand, and she just said danelo her brother had told her he had indeed stabbed debra brandau. She responds, yes, however he did not know if she, the victim here, was dead or alive. The prosecutors then press, was he calm, was he angry, was he sad . How would you describe his demeanor . His sister responds, i couldnt really identify because hes always had a calm demeanor. He seemed okay to me. The question continues, so his demeanor was the same during this phone call that it has always been with you . Sister responds yes. Did he slur his words . It was very quick, i didnt have a chance to notice much. To be clear, he sounded the same as he had the other day . Yes, is the response that she gives. Again, thats a moment where Danelo Cavalcante is calling his sister, telling her he has just killed his stabbed his exgirlfriend, she testified under oath he was calm throughout that entire experience. Now hes escaped from prison, 13 days were in this manhunt. Hes Armed And Dangerous. And we learned from that trial, he stabbed her dozens of times, and yet it sounds like he was pretty matter of fact about it. Danny freeman with the very latest in the situation that has taken a more dangerous turn. Thank you. Boris. Were following Breaking News just in to cnn. Five former Memphis Police officers involved in the deadly beating of tyre nichols have just been indicted by a federal grand jury. Lets bring in cnns Nick Valencia following the story for us. These five officers are also facing State Charges in tennessee. Those were brought earlier this year. Now theyre indicted on federal charges as well. Reporter thats right. We just got our hands on this indictment, and it includes two charges, two counts of Witness Tampering and two counts of deprivation of civil rights, and excuse me while i go through this indictment which we just got printed out here. Count one, deprivation of civil rights, the doj goes on to say these five former officers unlawfully assaulted tyre nichols and willfully failed to intervene in the unlawful assault which led ultimately to his death. It goes on to say in count two that they failed to render medical aid to nichols, failing to advise the npd dispatcher and emergency medical personnel of the circumstances surrounding nichols serious medical need. In relation to those charges of Witness Tampering or obstructing justice, conspiracy to witness tamper from the department of justice, they allege that these five former officers deliberately and corruptly persuaded, their words, the intent to hinder or delay the truth by trying to corruptly persuade their supervisor as well as the individual who wrote the incident report and what happened with nichols. You remember, the Police Report was riddled with inconsistencies when we initially got it, after a fact, we saw a video of how it played out and it was riddled with inconsistencies. Two other counts in relation to the Witness Tampering goes on to say they withheld information and also deliberately misled information. Again, this is just coming out to thus, this indictment just released and were standing by for a Press Conference from the department of justice as well as the u. S. Attorney from the district of tennessee to formally announce these charges. As you mentioned, theyre still in state court, expected to appear in state court some time later this month. All of this happening as patterns and Practices Investigation was announced in july by the doj into the Memphis Police department. They allege black motorists were disproportionately targeted there in memphis. Boris. We should point out the officers in the state case have all pleaded not guilty. Nick valencia, please stand by, youll bring us the latest details as we get them. Lets go to cnns senior Law Enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey. Thanks for being with us. Your reaction now to these federal indictments of the five officers in memphis. Well, i mean, im not surprised. The only thing surprising is it took this long for them to actually indict them on federal charges. What they did was absolutely wrong. Whatever happens to them, believe me, they deserve it, both at the state and federal level. It is just tragic what they did to that individual, mr. Nichols. But its also tragic what they did to the entire profession of policing. It damaged all of us by just looking at that video. And they need to pay for it. I know youre innocent until proven guilty, but quite frankly, ill be shocked if theres anything other than a guilty verdict when it comes to trial. Incredibly difficult video to watch of tyre nichols final moments. Chief, lets take a step back and talk about the manhunt in pennsylvania. State police were answering questions from reporters today. There was one specific question that seemed to frustrate the Lieutenant Colonel that was speaking with reporters. Lets listen. I dont know why you would think something has gone wrong. Our Law Enforcement people have done an amazing job tracking him and locating him. That proverbial needle in the hay stack, and they have located that needle repeatedly. He was asked what has gone wrong in the search for that, again, proverbial needle. The problem is that needle keeps getting away. Its now armed with a rifle. So whats your assessment of how officials have handled the situation . Well, first of all, i understand why hes frustrated. I have had similar frustration on occasion with big cases and Press Conferences and so forth. You do the best you can with these things. This isnt television where everything gets solved in an hour with commercial breaks. I mean, this is real. And its very, very difficult to have a manhunt and actually search somewhere, especially search for someone, especially with the kind of terrain they have to deal with. Now, obviously, they wish they had caught him earlier. They wish a lot of things. But it doesnt mean that something went wrong. Theyre doing everything that they possibly can. Theyll debrief afterwards and take a look at the entire operation to see whether or not something could have been done differently, but i understand his trust frustration. He wants to catch this guy as much as anybody. All those officers that are out there combing the area now trying to find him, and i might add, do so at great personal risk. This guy now is armed, we know, with a rifle with a scope. He has absolutely nothing to lose. Hes killed twice, and he will not hesitate to kill again. And so these officers knowing that are still going to go in after him. And that takes an awful lot of courage. No question about that. Some 500 officers out there searching for someone who is Armed And Dangerous and who we should note has killed before. Chief, you mentioned the terrain. And its terrain youre somewhat familiar with. You were the commissioner of police in philadelphia not that far from where theyre searching for Danelo Cavalcante. The terrain specifically, theres a network of underground tunnels, large drainage ditches, thick vegetation, a lot of places to hide. Talk to us about those challenges. Well, its very challenging because he has got the upper hand in terms of, you know, where he goes. Youre guessing whenever youre trying to find someone. I have been to Longwood Gardens on multiple occasions, certainly not in the tunnels and some of the areas he would be in, but it is very heavily wooded. In some areas. Its just very difficult to do a search. And then when you have that undergrowth of brush and so forth, real thick, hes a small guy. Easy to hide. Even if dogs werent able to really pick him up. So it was very tedious, it was very difficult. He moves mostly at night. So he was able to slip through, and when people think about a perimeter, youre talking about an eightsquaremile area. Thats a huge area to search. And even if you have 400 people, youre not Standing Shoulder to shoulder. He finds one weakness somewhere, one gap thats all it took for him to be able to get out. Again, the public needs to be careful too. Hes been able to steal a car because someone left the keys in it. Hes able to go into a garage and now hes got his hands on a rifle. You know, people need to lock their stuff up. This guy is dangerous. And he is desperate right now, and hell do anything to get away. He has absolutely nothing to lose. In fact, you know, now that hes got a firearm, i wouldnt be a bit surprised if he decided to try to take somebody with him. Wow, an important warning from chief Charles Ramsey on day 13 of this manhunt. Chief, always great to see you. Thanks so much. Brianna. Its deadline day for the Fulton County d. A. Fani willis has to tell the judge how she plans on trying all 19 defendants together. Plus, during a 9 11 memorial speech yesterday, President Biden claimed he was at ground zero the day after the attack. But was he . Daniel d