♪ he's called perfect, this is

a not so perfect phone call, former president trump recorded pressuring michigan canvassers to not certify the vote in 2020. what he said and the new details according to the detroit news, just moments from now, we'll get to that. and new video from the southern border of the united states, a mother and her crying child struggling to cross the rio grande river, the texas national guard this morning is denying claims that it ignored her calls for help. and the peak holiday travel rush is under way. i don't have to tell you, millions of americans hitting the road for the holidays, and the airports, what you must know to save yourself. i'm sara sidner -- >> run. >> as fast as you can. with kate bolduan, john berman, hopefully loving life right now, this is "cnn news central." ♪

we begin with this, new reporting have surfaced of former president donald trump pressuring election workers, this time in michigan, a swing state, as you know, in his bid to overturn legitimate results of the 2020 vote. the recordings are from november 17th, 2020, 14 days after the election, and just hours after this meeting where canvassers in wayne county, michigan voted not to certify the election. they were then chastised by their fellow election workers and changed their votes to yes. that's where donald trump steps in. later that night then president trump called them personally and continued to claim that the vote was with rigged, and a newly released transcript of that call from the detroit news, trump told the workers, quote, we can't let these people take our country away from us. he then went on to say everybody knows detroit is crooked as hell. the newspaper reported what after that call the canvassers refused to come back in to sign

the certification. it was ultimately determined their signatures weren't needed in the first place. cnn has not independently listened to the recordings, but we did report at the time that this call between trump and the two canvassers happened, we just didn't know what happened in the conversations. one of those workers named to the detroit news article spoke to reporters a few days after the call. listen. >> i received a call from the president. it was after the meeting. and he thanked me for my service, asked me how i was doing, there was a genuine concern for my safety with what he had heard, the threats that were coming in. >> are you saying the president's call had no influence on you recanting your vote? >> absolutely. >> trump's campaign is now reacting to the report claiming the call was part of his duty as president, not one that you hear any other president saying, let's get straight to cnn's jessica schneider, what else was said on that call and do we

expect to finally hear all of the audio? >> it's unclear if that call will actually get released to the broader public because this is a call, sara, that reporters from the detroit news, they've heard it themselves, but they're not releasing the audio. they say they've listened to portions of the call amounting to about four minutes but the people who shared this call, they say, don't want it released, at least not right now. here's what the reporter for the detroit news who broke this story said. >> reporter: there's a whistle-blower that possesses the audio of these recordings, and the timing of the release, and the ultimate decision on whether to release these recordings publicly is up to that person. >> all right, so what's new about this call? you know, cnn did previously report that trump had, in fact, called these two michigan canvassing officials, but now what we're seeing is the details of this call, that trump was, in fact, pressuring these county canvassers not to sign the certification, that eventually

certified the vote for joe biden in wayne county, wayne county, of course, home to detroit. so, the way the timeline played out, these two canvassers, they initially said no to certifying the coat, after outrage by the fellow canvassers, they said yes. after that is when they got this call from trump and rnc chair ronna mcdaniel urging them not to sign the certification. in that phone call, according to the detroit news, trump did apparently say how can anyone sign something when you have more votes than people? his statement was false. it was alluding to some claims that the vote count in detroit was rigged, it was not. and, you know, the emergence of this audio is really important because efforts to prevent certification in michigan, they are all part of special counsel jack smith's case right here in d.c. so this recording, this audio, if it's released, or if jack smith and his team get their hands on it, it really could be part of the case in this election subversion case out of d.c., the federal case, sara?

>> and certainly, because there are so many people that are involved in that case, this doesn't just implicate donald trump, has there been a response from ronna mcdaniel, the head of the rnc? >> yeah, head of rnc, also calls michigan home, and, you know, according to the detroit news, mcdaniel said on the call, apparently urging those canvassers not to sign the certification, she said this, she said if you can go home tonight, do not sign it. we'll get you attorneys, and then trump said, yes, we'll take care of that. so mcdaniel did respond to the detroit news, sara, and she said what i said publicly and repeatedly at the time is referenced in my letter on november 21st, 2020 is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit. so ronna mcdaniel defending some of her statements so it remains to be seen whether or not we'll ever hear that audio recording and whether or not the people who possess it might at some point release it, sara. >> you've got to wonder if jack smith has it or is going after it. there are a lot of questions there, but that could certainly be used, potentially, in court

if the judge allows it in. jessica schneider, thank you so much for all of that reporting this morning and thank you to the detroit news, great job on that one. >> absolutely. the world from trump world today is essentially nothing to see here. though his campaign in the next breath continues to push the false narrative about a stolen election in 2020. and in washington, what else are we hearing from donald trump's campaign and team now that this -- in light of this new reporting? >> reporter: i spoke with the trump team last night shortly after this story was published. they're clearly frustrated. this is definitely just another piece of critical evidence that special counsel jack smith can use potentially in the federal election subversion trial against donald trump, which is currently slated to take place during the height of primary season in march, it's unclear if that timeline will hold. look, donald trump's team is pushing back pretty hard on this. we got a statement from a trump campaign spokesman, it reads,

quote, all of trump's actions were taken in furtherance of his duty as president of the united states to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity. now, kate, this audio, which we have not obtained here at cnn, but the detroit news has, it's really critical because it fits into a broader pattern of donald trump calling up election officials across the country and pressuring them to try and block the certification of the election results. i know we have a graphic just showing some of these other calls that donald trump had made in the lead-up to, and after, you know, january 6th when the election was certified on capitol hill. perhaps most notoriously, trump pressured georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger on january 2nd, 2021, asking them to overturn the state's election results, a second call in georgia made in december 2020 to then georgia house speaker david ralston attempting to get him to

call a special legislative session to overturn biden's victory in the state. there's a couple other calls there, as you can see. and now this call in michigan with these -- with these local county officials. and it's unclear, kate, if the special counsel is, you know, has this audio himself, if he doesn't, i think there's no question that he wants to get it. and it's still unclear if they'll use this in the trial. this is just another piece of evidence against donald trump that they could potentially use. >> alayna, great to see you, thank you so much. >> thank you. i'm joined by senior legal analyst and u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, elie honig, ladies and gentlemen, he is back again with more for you. this tape is -- says a lot. it is evidence that is sort of a pattern by donald trump. the fact that he was willing, as president, to reach out to people who were really at a ground level, not -- he was already talking to the high-level folks but he trickled down to those making the

decision to sign something or not. what does this say about the level of -- for lack of a better word -- desperation on his part? >> well, sara, i think this is exactly why this is such compelling evidence, potentially, for prosecutors. first of all, prosecutors love tapes, there's nothing better than a tape. you get to play the jury exactly what happened. they can hear the exact words, they don't have to rely on somebody else's memory or characterization of it. they can hear the tonality of the people speaking, in this case in particular it sounds like based on the reporting the tape is actually going to sort of undermine what the witnesses have said, the canvassers who received these calls because it sounds like they tried to shade things in trump's favor, based on the reporting it was not so innocuous. it shows this was a pattern, not just a bad day, a one-off, a spur of the moment type of incident. he was calling people consistently throughout those desperate weeks after he lost

the election. the sec tond thing, it shows ho deep he's willing to go. one thing to call up the secretary of state of georgia, to pressure the vice president. when you're on the phone with canvassers directly as president, i think that speaks to a real level of desperation. so, prosecutors are going to be very interested in this. >> it will be interesting because it seems like it goes beyond the scope of what a president is supposed to be doing. again, that's for the courts to decide. we're going to go back and let you put your prosecutor hat on. say, you got this information, you saw this in the detroit news, who did a great job breaking this story, what would you do with it? >> so, first of all, prosecutors absolutely do read the newspapers, they do look at the media. it's a great source of leads. i used to do it quite a bit. the first thing i do if i see this story in the newspaper in detroit is pump my fist because it's great news. then i issue three subpoenas. if they haven't already done this. two, to each of the canvassers, one each, because they're now witnesses. and then the third subpoena, you can subpoena evidence as well to both of them, to get the actual

recording. that recording is admissible against trump, assuming his voice is on it, the way you would put it in evidence at a jury trial is you call under the subpoena, if necessary, one of the canvassers or both, and you say, is this your voice? is this a phone call that you had? do you know who the other person was? and there you go, it's in evidence. so, if prosecutors have not already done this, i assure you they're knocking out subpoenas right now. >> i was going to ask you the admissibility of it, we're having a conversation, would this be hearsay? but it's donald trump's own voice on tape, and he is a defendant. so that makes it much easier for the judge to bring it in if they can get the cooperation of the witness. we are waiting on the supreme court to decide about what they're going to do on the colorado case, whether they take that up, and there are so many cases affecting the presidency right now that are really worth keeping a close eye on. when do you think we'll hear from the supreme court on whether or not they're going to take the case in the first place, and how that might progress? >> so, the one that we're

watching for today is the immunity defense that donald trump has raised in jack smith's federal indictment of him, just to refresh everyone's memory donald trump claimed he had presidential immunity. he lost at the trial court level and he asked jack smith to take it to the supreme court directly, to skip the middle layer, the court of appeals. all of the briefing is now in. the next words we will hear will be from the u.s. supreme court telling us whether they're going to take the case directly or whether it's going to go through the court of appeals. that matters a lot because of the trial date and the calendar and the schedule. as for when the supreme court could do that, any moment. let's just say, i'm going to be at the airport today, i'm going to have my phone on me and every time i get one of those push notifications, i'm going to look at it with my heartbeating, could this be it? could be today. you can't promise when the supreme court will do anything, but stay close. >> we know it's got going march 4th or 5th.

thank you for coming in this morning. coming up, video released of a migrant woman carrying her child pleading for help as she was trying to cross the rio grande river. how the texas national guard is now responding to accusations that they stood by and watched, and should have done more. plus, as israel pushes forward to take out hamas terrorists with their military operation, the staggering human toll in gaza, the u.n. warning the entire population is now on the verge of famine. and police in prague are releasing new body camera footage as they responded to that campus mass shooting yesterday that killed 14 people. we'll be right back.

new we have learned this morning, an israeli american man who was kidnapped by hamas on october 7th, he has died while in captivity in gaza. 73-year-old gadi hagai was on a walk with his wife on the morning of october 7th when he was shot and then abducted by hamas terrorists. his wife was also wounded in the terror attack, and also a hostage, being held by hamas still. according to a statement from the missing persons families forum his body is still being held. it's been 11 weeks of war in gaza now, according to the hamas controlled health ministry more than 20,000 palestinians have been killed since october 7th. these scenes of people mourning over the bodies of their loved ones played out over and over again and has played out over these many weeks. just look at how it compares to past israel-palestinian conflicts in gaza, the historic death toll now ten times more than anytime in the last 15

years. and part of that is because benjamin netanyahu declared war that has not been done many times before. it's part of the result of the types of weapons that israel's using there in gaza, new analysis by cnn found in the first month of the war the idf dropped hundreds of 2,000 pound bombs on gaza, this is, of course, after the october 7th attack in which 1,200 israelis were killed as well as some people who are from outside of the country. those bombs, though, that israel's dropping, capable of wounding or killing people more than a thousand feet from where the bomb lands, and they are four times heavier than the largest bombs the united states dropped on isis in mosul, iraq. experts say the use of those munitions in a such densely populated area, as one of the most populated areas in the world means it could take decades to recover from all of this. the u.n. says those who have survived in gaza, more than 2 million people are now all

facing acute hunger. parents choosing to go without food so their children can have what little there is to eat and officials warn the entire population is on the verge of a famine. joining me now is sean casey, an emergency medical teams coordinator with the w.h.o. who visited the makeshift hospitals in northern gaza this week. we have seen some of the pictures which are extremely disturbing, we've seen some of the fighting around hospitals as well, both from israel trying to, you know, root out hamas, and hamas responding with rockets. can you give us a sense of what you saw when you went into those hospitals a the this stage in the war where this has gone on for a very long time, and taken now, about 20,000 lives according to authorities there? >> yeah, i've been here for a few weeks now and i visited hospitals across gaza every few days. this week i was in al shifa hospital in northern gaza which

is the largest hospital here, as well as alatli hospital, which is a smaller hospital that last week was functional, and this week has about 80 patients who appear to be waiting to die. they have no power, they have no water, they have no food, most of the doctors and nurses have gone. it's a horrific scene, al shifa hospital was the biggest hospital here and it's just a trauma stabilization point. they can't perform surgery. they can barely care for the hundreds of patients who come through their door every day, and both of these facilities, key hospitals here in gaza, were attacked within the last week. and people were killed on the grounds in al shifa hospital earlier this week. it's a horrifying scene, we see that no hospital is functioning effectively in northern gaza, and here in southern gaza where i am at the moment the hospitals are running at 200 or 300%

capacity with 25% of their staff in some cases. people are not able to caccess care. a million displaced people in rafah. people are moving all over gaza with white flags trying to flee to some kind of safety. and there's not enough food, there's not enough water, and there's makeshift shelters popping up all over. it's a really horrifying scene. >> i want to ask you about the makeshift shelters, some of those makeshift shelters are actually the hospitals where people have come in feeling that is the safest place to be. when you look at those pictures of people just covering the floor in the hospitals who are not sick, but are seeking shelter, what kind of difficulty does that create for the teams who are still there trying to work on people who are very badly injured from some of these munitions or are on the verge of dying? >> the hospitals are very, very densely packed with people, so al shifa was a 750-bed hospital, it's currently getting hundreds of new cases every day but it

has thousands, tens of thousands, most likely, internally displaced persons on site, in its surgical building, in its wards, camping out in the yard of the hospital. and it's the same situation in european gaza hospital, which is one of the biggest hospitals here in the south, which is -- has idt camps within the hospitals. as i walk through the corridors and walk up and down the stairs, there are people living there, there are people living in every free space and they do seek safety there. hospitals should be a safe place, unfortunately they're still not here in gaza. >> yeah, we've seen some of the -- we've seen at least one reason why the israeli military is showing that they found munitions and tunnels under some of them, or near some of them as well, but when you look at the amount of damage that has happened in gaza, and we're looking at some of the pictures that getty has taken, but also that the w.h.o. has taken while you were there, you gave us kind of a look inside of just the enormous amounts of damage, how

difficult is it for getting aid into gaza? because the rafah border has been sort of the point in which all of it's been coming in, there is talk from israel of opening kerem shalom, where they've been checking trucks first and then sending them back to the rafah border. if that opens, if it is available, if you're able to get things through there, will that change things in any noticeable way for people who are hungry and thirsty and need medicine. >> we need aid coming across. prior to the conflict there were hundreds of commercial truck that is would come across rafah every day and our aid trucks are not even close to matching those numbers. so, there's very few commercial trucks coming across, there's not enough aid coming across, it's a slow process. and we do have challenges once it comes in. there's still fighting all over the gaza strip, nowhere here is safe. there's massive destruction. i mean, our trucks just this week, when we were driving up to northern gaza, blew out tires,

we have to cross fallen cables, go across roads that are covered in rubble. so it's challenging to move. everybody here is desperate. everybody's looking for food. and, actually, even when i'm in a convoy transporting medicines to hospitals, people rush our trucks and run up and we have to say, on a loud speaker, this is not food. people are so desperate they would jump on a moving truck trying to grab food. there are many challenges moving aid but we're moving it almost on a daily basis. we're providing medicines to the hospitals, we're going to be providing fuel and food in a convoy this weekend to northern gaza. so we're advancing it, we're moving it out as quickly as it comes in, but we definitely need more. and we need the access to be able to deliver it. we need to have safety to be able to move, and to be able to deliver the aid to the people who need it the most. >> and that is one of the hardest things to create right now because there is an official war going on. i've been in many of these conflict zones watching

humanitarian aid come in around the world, and it's always a danger to you and your team, to those trying to bring things, not only from bombs falling from the sky, and rockets coming from the ground, but also because you look like someone that can help and people will flock to you to try and get that help no matter the consequences, they're just simply desperate. sean casey, thank you for the work that you're doing, thank you to your team for taking chances to try to help as many people as they can, appreciate it. >> thank you, sara. now, we are also expecting new numbers to be released today on what's happening at the u.s. southern border. border authorities apprehended about 192,000 migrants between ports of entry in november. and amid this surge in crossings, the texas national guard is responding this morning to video released showing a woman with her child in her arms struggling to cross the rio grande river. now, the guard denies allegations that it ignored the woman's pleas for help.

here's video of the encounter. >> now, this video was taken by an immigration activist who was in the area at the time who also said that the woman eventually did make it safely to the mexican side of the border. now, in a statement to cnn the texas national guard says this, quote, soldiers apprehended -- sorry, apologies, soldiers approached by boat and determined that there was no signs of medical distress, injury or incapacitation, and they had the ability to return the short distance back to the mexican shore. this also comes at a time when republican house speaker mike johnson is making a renewed push for a crackdown on border security, publishing a letter to president biden calling on him to take executive action on the

matter. let's get over to cnn's priscilla alvarez, at the white house for us. what is speaker johnson pushing for in this letter as we've displayed what a real crisis there still is at the border. >> reporter: the speaker here is digging in his heels and saying that more needs to be done on the u.s.-mexico border, and proposing a return of a series of trump-era policies, but kate, there are limits to what the white house can do in a situation like this, and they have floated some of those stricter border measures in those border talks to try to get a supplemental request through congress. and in a statement the white house is reminding republicans of just that, saying, quote, when president biden presented congress with another supplemental request for border security in october, house republicans refused to take it up. it goes on to say, and speaker johnson and house republicans want real solutions, they should provide dhs the resources it needs, not seek to defund it.

that supplemental request, kate, includes $14 billion for border security. but there's no doubt that the situation along the u.s.-mexico border currently is untenable, current and former homeland security officials telling me that it's at a breaking point as they see consecutive days of 10,000 migrants crossing the u.s.-mexico border. now, to give you context i have new numbers here, the seven-day average reported on november 28th was around 6,800 migrant encounters. in december, the seven-day average is over 9,600 daily encounter. so that goes to show, this is one of the highest recorded totals that we've seen when it comes to these averages in the month. and, the challenge here, the unique challenge, is that multiple regions of the u.s. southern border are being slammed by the number of arrivals, which makes it all the more difficult to navigate logistically, and the president

seeking to put more pressure on his neighbor mexico to do more to stem the flow. >> priscilla alva vrez. >> new details about the pivotal phone call from donald trump to michigan state electors in 2020, and his effort to change the 2020 election outcome. there, especially. and american airlines, the country's largest carrier, expects today to be its busiest. i say this again, its busiest holiday travel weekend, oh, please be prepared, bring snacks, live at laguardia, as passengers are lining up there, doesn't look too terrible just yet.

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donald trump recordings revealed for the first time publicly, again, recordings of the former president and the head of the rnc pressuring local canvassers in michigan to not back down, and not sign the certification of the 2020 election. now, these audio recordings are from november 17th of 2020, they've been reviewed by the detroit news, they've not been reviewed by cnn. but in them the detroit news reports that donald trump is speaking directly to workers in wayne county, the most populous county in michigan. trump telling the two canvassers in these calls, in these segments that it would look, quote, terrible if they signed off on the election results. rnc chairwoman ronna mcdaniel saying, quote, do not sign it, we will get you attorneys, to which trump added, we'll take care of that. joining us now, cnn political commentator, former trump white house communications director

alyssa griffin, and analyst and anchor john aflan. alyssa, we have talked for years about donald trump getting on phone calls and pressuring hemoi people in phone calls from the president of ukraine to the georgia secretary of state more related to this. what do you hear, if you will, in what is being reported of this phone call? >> it's the classic mob boss tactics that donald trump uses, he goes for more junior officials, like the canvasser, this isn't the secretary of state of michigan, it's a more senior official who would feel a little more probably strong to push back or whatever. he also then three days after this call went after some michigan state representatives to further push his sort of pressure campaign against them. he does this. we've seen it play out in nearly every one of the indictments that have come down. i think of someone like a cassidy hutchinson 23 years old at the time, he made sure his people were pressuring her, rather than going after the more senior officials, classic donald trump. but also the effort here, you can't overstate this, it was to set a precedent of pennsylvania,

one of the key battleground states, throwing out these results so that other states would come and follow suit. >> hearing ronna mcdaniel, john, lean into this one, this is the new bit, a kind of -- if that's -- if that's the donald trump that people knew, the new bit is, ronna mcdaniel saying do not sign it, we'll get you attorneys. what do you hear in that? >> that's a protection racket. it's, do our bidding, and we'll make sure you don't get sued. it's also an admission of what they're being asked to do, could be seen as at least unethical if not illegal. and charged. so, the idea that this was simply a concern about election integrity is self-evidently nonsense, we need to say that clearly and that detail is one of prime evidence. >> can i mention, when i saw this news break, i went back and looked at the statement the white house put out at the time following the november 20th meeting, the michigan state reps, i was there at the time, the statement was saying the former president engaged in no

political efforts that this was purely about him meeting with local officials. we certainly learned that that was not the case. >> you're saying it was a lie? >> stunning, of course. >> but also, so i think we can smartly avoid the trappings of wondering what the political impact of this being revealed is as we know that donald trump's core support has not budged, no matter what phone call is revealed, or what criminal charge is levied. but even before all of this came out, ron desantis offered an interesting -- offered something interesting that i think gets to what is happening now with this latest thing. in an interview with david brody, let me play this. >> i wish trump hadn't been indicted on any of this stuff. the start of the primary. >>s helped him, is that what you're saying? >> it's crowded out so much other stuff and sucked out a lot of oxygen. >> trump's rivals -- trump's legal problems making it

impossible for his rivals to break through, hearing one of his rivals acknowledge that in an interview, i thought that was really interesting. >> it's interesting, but counter -- >> but not. >> shouldn't he have hoped that trump never engaged in this behavior that led to multiple indictments? >> right. >> not the indictments themselves. but i think, listen, i think that's actually true for desantis. i think he was someone who thought he could be the heir apparent to trump and take the oxygen in his direction, that didn't work, the core base stayed with donald trump. but i think it's helped nikki haley. she has kind of leaned into the trump fatigue and the chaos that surrounds him. >> what do you -- desantis has -- in another breath desantis has tried to do that. i've heard him on the trail saying, when it comes to the latest and greatest, i think it was after the colorado supreme court, saying this is -- i don't agree with the colorado supreme court, but this is another reason why we need to turn the page and move on. is that -- >> yes. >> is that the way to do it? i mean, if trump is sucking

energy out of the primary with every bad thing that comes out about him, what should they do? this is like a kind of weird, damned if you do, damned if you don't. >> donald trump is unfit for office and the thing he's doing that have led to these indictments and court cases are disqualifying -- >> don't do it if you clearly think the political strategy, in iowa that is not going to help you. >> people respond to certain trumpets. people respond to clear h leadership, and that requires conscience and the courage of your convictions, if the core argument in most elections are not only the contrast between the other candidates but electability. if you say, look, donald trump -- yeah, news flash, he sucks the oxygen out of the room. he's going to do that if he's not indicted. the fact he's indicted, and his candidacy is in question because of the supreme court is more evidence of how much of a chaos agent he is and that drags down the republican party as we've seen in every election since 2016. >> and that was said better than

any candidate on the field, though. >> have you written speeches before? >> maybe. >> i agree with you that nikki haley seems to be -- i'll call thread the needle. handling this better than ron desantis. why do you think she's handling this better than ron desantis? >> she's carved out a new -- taking the good of trump and leaving some behind. desantis kind of positioned himself to the right of trump. >> he's not conservative enough. >> with the people he was going for it was never going to work to do much of a distance act from donald trump. we all recognize nikki haley is threading a needle. the only way to do what john said, you would have had to do that a year ago, or about three c years ago, to say he's unfit, has lost across the board for republicans. it's harder when you wait until a month out from iowa. >> 24 days was the last on my countdown. >> magical is okay, but not in politics.

>> on that note -- >> i love you, thanks, guys, thanks for coming in. coming up for us, police are releasing body camera footage showing the urgent moments of a police response after a gunman opened fire at a prague university. and also this morning, czech authorities are making a new plea to the public. we have the new details coming in. we'll bring that to you.

the it is the leddiest mass shooting. terrifying fashion yesterday, now police this morning are making a plea to the public, don't give the perpetrator publicity, and don't give them a chance to inspire others.

the shooter killed 14 students, and staff, at charles university in the heart of prague yesterday. 25 other people were wounded. before he died, that gunman, by suicide. cnn's melissa bell is following the latest here, joining us now. melissa, police are also releasing body camera footage from the response and those chaotic moments people were trying to figure out what was happening, and get to safety. what are you learning from it? >> reporter: these images really give you an opportunity, kate, to see what -- get a sense, really, of what the chaos inside this campus university of would have been yesterday afternoon in the very heart of prague. you follow the first responders, the police men and women comes through the chaos, the gunman is still active. the students are trying to head for cover. perhaps one of the most chilling and harrowing parts of this body camera footage that was released as you say in a press conference earlier today by the police is when the first responders arrive in some of the classrooms, kate,

where tragically all of those bodies were found, now, you see them going about the initial triage, trying to save who they can save, we now know, of course, that in the end 14 people lost their lives, most of them were students who are just a couple more days to go for their term before their end of year exams and before they went back to their families for the holidays. a couple of them were staff members. but this -- we learned from the body camera footage of the immediate chaos, but we also learned that press conference from the policemen, the police chief who delivered it, that they had been surprised to see the amount of ammunition, weaponry, the young man had with him. and what this suggested was that this could have been far, far worse if the police hadn't been as effective as they had been. now, to put it into context these are exceedingly rare here in europe compared to in the u.s. yet, what czech police are saying thai been preparing for

this for years, ever since what happened in 2011, when an extremist killed 77 people. they've been running drills and this is what allowed them to prevent this massacre being even worse than it was. as you said a moment ago, i think this is important, they've also said that they are not naming the killer, we know he was a 24-year-old philosophy student. we know he killed his father before killing himself, killing all those students and staff members in between. they're not naming him to deprive him of the oxygen of publicity. they don't want some sort of desire for fame to prompt anymore of these students from going on the rampage, to prevent also any kind of copycat killing, for now, we don't know his name and they've urged people to avoid any kind of speculation, kate. >> it's good to not give that publicity, not name him while the investigation is into how best d -- best to prevent this hopefully from ever happening again, though, as we know it's happened here in the united states.

melissa, thank you for continuing to follow the investigation, really appreciate it. and are you ready to take off as american airlines are warning today, and get there early, because guess what, they believe it is the busiest holiday they have seen yet.

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holiday travel crush is in full swing. and millions of americans are planning to travel through the full year, and yesterday's rush seemed to go smoothie despite the weather forecast and this is the good news, and today's traveler, will they have the same good fortune? well, polo sandoval, and that is his photographer there at laguardia, and polo, what are you seeing so far? >> things are looking like they are moving? that tsa line is looking pretty good? >> well, there was a lovely lady wheeling by a short while ago and she used the word smooth to describe the passenger experience, and this is one woman in one airport and part of the larger system, so difference is that the passenger experience

may differ from one person to another. but largely, looking at the map, and looking at the statistics from flight aware, you will see the flight cancellations and delays, but certainly not what you would expect. in terms of laguardia here, you would know it is one of the busiest travel seasons in recent times, and you would not know it, because we have seen a steady flow of the outbound passengers coming in, checking the bags and rolling into tsa and compared to yesterday, some 2.64 million passengers using tsa checkpoints in the u.s. which is a telling figure as it was slightly higher than expected. the number is expected to be higher today. in terms of what we saw last year, you recall the 10-day nightmare of southwest airlines canceling close to 70,000 flights. and so the tsa are making sure

that they can handle any factors sent their way. of course, the airlines cannot control the weather, but there is an expectation from the federal government that the airlines will be able to handle and minimize the potential impact that we might see this travel holiday season, because people are certainly going to be out there, some 115 people, some 115 million people according to aaa expected to travel this holiday season, sara. >> that is a whole lot of humans trying to get somewhere. brace yourselves. i'm staying here. i am not going to lie. i am grinning ching it out, and staying here in my grinch suit drinking hot cocoa, and i hope you do the same, polo. that is laguardia and hope everyone is the same. >> not grinching, but just hanging. >> okay. >> coming up for us --

[ laughter ] donald trump on tape, and what he said to officials on tape and trying to stop them from certifying the election and what this could mean for his criminal cases.