Kharkiv batra, reporting for duty his real name is mizuho kobayashi, but batra fits better with his online persona. He creates video blogs. The 31 year old previously served in the Japanese Armed forces, or the selfDefense Forces as theyre known here. He still feels a connection with the military and is voluntarily seeking to recruit more young people. His sign reads would you go to the selfDefense Forces . What have you heard about what its like in the army . Its really strict. Im not a morning person. I dont want to get up so early. Its hard work. They even have to go out when it snows, and sleep in a tent. The training is really tough. People rarely say yes. Young people often dont know much about the selfDefense Forces. And theyre not interested. Theyre mostly indifferent, neither positive nor negative. At the headquarters of the Armys First Division in tokyo, new recruits come to swear an oath of allegiance. But the chairs are largely empty. The army is especially short of ground
Bill. Good evening, everyone. Im kate baldwin in for erin burnett. Out front tonight breaking news. The president holding a meeting with members of congress at the white house this evening to promote his Election Fraud conspiracy further. The president s chief of staff tweeting moments ago this. Several members of Congress Just finished a meeting in the oval office with President Trump, preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud. Stay tuned. To be clear, there is no such evidence or it would have been presented in court. The president has tried and failed to present any evidence at dozens of court hearings. This is just the latest example of an unraveling situation at the white house, quite frankly. Multiple senior trump advisers and people close to the president telling cnn they fear trumps final days. One Administration Official saying very simply, quote, its scary. They say the president is no longer governing. Instead hes focused solely on his futile effort to
Subpoenas go, we must, we cant forget this, we cant say trump is out, we need to move on. This is way worse than 9 11, as you know. And damage that clyburn laid out in his letter today, explaining the subpoenas and explaining what he is looking at, i mean, some of is that is over because some of the worst actors are bad people who, people who had a Bad Influence on the cdc and are now gone. But not all of them are gone and some of this damage and undermining of the scientific response continues. And 30 days is a lot of lives at stake for this not to get fixed. And clyburn is putting more pressure on them than anybody else right now and god bless him for it. All the experts that warned us about this, said there will be others. There will be other pandemics. We need to have systems in we need to have systems in place that do not allow even the president of the United States to lie and ignore experts and diminish people who are trying to do the right thing. We shall see where it goes, rac
Way too early, the show that is way behind in its christmas shopping. Im Jonathan Lamire in for kasie hunt on this tuesday, december 22nd. And well start with the news. At a News Conference to announce new charges related to the 1988 bombing of pan am flight 103 over scotland, attorney general bill barr knocked down a series of President Trumps false claims and conspiracy theories. When questioned by reporters, barr broke with the president on everything from seizing Voting Machines to assigning blame for the hack of federal agencies. He began with this comment on the hunter biden investigation. I think to the extent that theres an investigation, i think that its being handled responsibly and professionally, currently, within the department. And to this point, i have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel, and i have no plan to do so before i leave. I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. Do you believe theres enough evidence to warrant a special coun
Edge and facing homelessness as the president holds up critical stimulus. Its one of his last minute actions before leaving washington in turmoil and his own party in an impossible position. Him or the bill. Also last night another wave of controversial president ial pardons to a direct dig at the russia probe. One a family member. Cnns Phil Mattingly is on capitol hill. Joe johns is outside maralago. Joe, first to you. Lets break down the latest round of pardons. Reporter a lot of this obviously in the 12 to 24 hours after the pardons is going to be about reactions of not just the political system, not just the judicial system, but also the players themselves. The people who actually got pardons, because remember the president was accused a few times of essentially dangling a get out of jail free card for people who wouldnt participate in the mueller investigation. That brings us to roger stone there has been reaction from him. He said last night on fox that he denied trading his sile