good monday morning, everyone. so glad you're with us. it is 8:00 on the east coast. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york. republican presidential candidates delivering their final pitches with one week to go before the iowa caucuses, but the front-runner donald trump will be juggling his campaign with a hectic schedule in

courtrooms. that's multiple skcourtrooms th week. he's also been busy ramping up his lies about january 6th. he's calling for the jailed rioters to be released and referring to them as hostages. he's also pivoting his attacks on the trail to nikki haley. >> nikki haley and ron aren't working for your interests. they're working for the interests of other nations and themselves, and so are those two. nikki would sell you out just like she sold me out. >> while trump's campaign are clashing with courtroom appearances, the rest of them will be out meeting with voters and we'll bring you full coverage with arlette saenz and our david chalian is with us as well. let's lead off with kristen holmes. how does the trump team plan to juggle the courtroom appearances and campaign events that are running into each other this week? >> reporter: good morning, phil and poppy, but the one thing to point out here is this is all by choice. donald trump will be ping-pongen between iowa and courtrooms this week, or at least is expected

to, but he doesn't actually have to make these appearances. he is choosing to do so. what we know from the schedule so far, and i'll do this week because if we take it any further, it'll be confusing. if you look at this week, tonight he's supposed to come into d.c. so tomorrow he can be present when his legal team presents their arguments about presidential immunity in front of the d.c. appeals court. then off to iowa with a town hall for fox news, back to new york where he's expected to sit in on the closing arguments of his civil fraud case there, and then for the weekend back in iowa, campaign events back to back until those caucuses on monday. now part of the decision to do this is donald trump's, and part of it is about the fact that he does care about these two particular cases. we know that he has been more invested in the new york civil fraud case than almost every other case and he is fixated on this idea of presidential immunity, but this is a secondary part of this. donald trump watches media coverage, and he follows media

coverage very closely. he knows and his team knows that the fastest way to take all the oxygen out of the room and away from other candidates is to go to these court appearances, to stack his schedule like this. that takes the attention away from these other candidates who are trying to gain traction ahead of those caucuses. this is something that we have seen in a strategy. we know that he's going to be using these courtroom appearances as campaign stops, but this idea that he could be or couldn't be on the ground in iowa this week because he has to be in court, that's just simply not true. he could be on the campaign trail if he wanted to be. >> great point. kristen, thanks for the reporting as always. >> president biden heads to charleston, south carolina this morning with plans for an emotional to black voters in the state that saved his 2020 g campaign. he's set to speak at mother emanuel church today where a man shot and killed nine black people in 2015. he's expected to highlight the importance of fighting hateand m

>> according to the washington post, obama had a bunch in the last couple months with biden and post, "-- arlette saenz joins us. good morning to you. i wonder if there's anything on that lunch with former president obama, and also what we expect today. >> no, not quite yet, but president biden is expected to head down to south carolina today. really to give this speech that's an extension of the arguments he laid out on friday when he warned that democracy is under threat. political violence needs to be condemned in this country, and really issued his most forceful condemnation of former president donald trump. yet this campaign cycle, but the fact that biden is traveling to mother emanuel ame church to deliver this speech is important. the campaign says that the president plans to remind voters

that when nine black worshippers were gunned down, that hate still exists in the country and it's incumbent to try to condemn and root out hate, violence, and extremism in this country, but the fact -- the campaign really believes that these arguments about democracy and pushing back on political violence are something that will resonate with voters head sboog november. one point that they're stet st stressing today and highlighting is that they raised more than $1 million $24 million. they're highlight these issues, but another reason why this trip town to south carolina is important, is because who biden will be speaking to there. black voters were a critical part of the president's coalition, and they will need that turnout to also be up in this 2024 election. if you take a look at polling, there's about a 62% approval

rating among black voters. that's slightly higher than the general voting electorate in their approval ratings of president biden, but there are signs of narrowing in his support. the exit polls from 2020 found that biden won black voters by 87%, but then if you look at that quinnipiac poll, he's now 80% of support from black voters and 17% support for former president trump. now one of the president's campaign co-chairs jim clyburn expressed concerns to the president directly saying so far they have been unable to break through the maga wall, but this primary will be a key test of whether joe biden can turn out and test his enthusiasm among voters heading into the 2024 election. >> the cornerstone of any democratic coalition, but most certainly joe biden's. arlette saenz, thank you. >> let's bring in david chalian, our political director for more. let's start with those concerns.

and abigail spanberger just echoed those concerns. she's also a bit worried. what do you think this all portends? >> i think the concerns are why we are seeing what we're seeing from president biden on friday and today. i think these two things go hand in hand. in talking to senior biden campaign officials, guys, they believe -- they're targeted universes of voters. voter that is dropped off after 2020, and dropped off, that may be natural pieces of their base, young voters, voters of color. they need an awakening to remind them that this is political season, and that as the biden team sees it, this threat is very real not just to democracy as a theory, but to what democracy protects, your freedom to vote, your freedom for choice. all those things. that's the argument. the other universe of voters are

the more traditional swing voters. people are not of the mind that donald trump is not on the scene in a real way. they don't believe he'll be the nominee despite us covering this daina and day out knowing he's very much the likely republican nominee. part of what friday was not just setting the stakes and the message, but also sort of grabbing the country by the lapels and saying, it's 2024. it is happening now, and it's time to get engaged. >> this year, it's happening. this year. >> yeah. >> david, it's such a good point. i dispute the idea we follow politics closer than other people. especially david chalian. if there was ever a weekend that demonstrated that trump is back and trump is what democrats feared in 2016 and 2020, and why they won in 2018, and did better than expected in 2022, it was this weekend. it was his remarks on saturday kind of playing the old to some degree, deeply offensive hits to

a p.o.w. in john mccain, and talking about the civil war. do you think this breaks through and does the shaking of the lapels like biden's team wants? >> personally i don't think this has any impact in terms of the republican electorate as we head out to the caucuses, phil, but i think the biden campaign at least welcomes donald trump back into the spotlight in this way, and using this kind of rhetoric, whether it's the continued lies about the 2020 election and focused on the past or whether it is saying things like abraham lincoln could have negotiated his way out of civil war which just raises a whole host of questions about what that means actually. this is exactly the kind of stuff that kept independents at bay in 2020 after they were with him in 2016 and helped deliver biden the white house, and as you noted, kept those folks away from the republicans in '18 and '22 in the mid terms as well. it is exactly this kind of

rhetoric that the biden team believes is their best shot at highlighting so that those folks in the middle don't swing back to donald trump's direction the way they were in 2016. >> let's talk about iowa. we are one week away from the iowa caucuses. you spent a lot of time in iowa. you were at the state fair. you go back quite often. listen to what ron desantis said on cbs yesterday morning about his chances in iowa. >> you have never lost a political race before in your career. you are a second in the cbs iowa projections. is that victory enough for you? >> well, we got to win a majority of the delegates. this is a long process. we're doing really well in iowa. you know, i kind of like being understoo unde underestimated. we'll do well in iowa, but we have to compete in all these other states. >> it was that he kind of likes being underestimated. what does ron desantis need to

do in iowa to show people who have seen a deflated campaign that they are wrong? >> well, you could hear in his answer there, poppy, right? that no matter what his result is in iowa, he's going to define it as doing well in iowa, right? and what i think the political world at this point is going to be looking for a week from tonight is when voters actually get involved and the first voters in this process are these iowa republican caucus-goers. do the results end up looking like that polling with donald trump holding such a domestic nanl -- dominant lead or do they look different? where his polling is right now, he's going to make an argument to be able to get some funding to move this campaign forward. if it looks worse than the public polling, i think ron desantis will be in a real world of hurt. >> thank you, david. talk to you soon. >> sure. this wednesday night, 9:00 p.m. eastern, jake tapper and dana bash will moderate cnn's republican presidential debate live, of course, from iowa. there's new information on

why part of an alaska airlines plane blew off mid-flight. investigators recovering a critical clue overnight and revealing the other issues before the midair emergency. also this morning, lloyd austin is still in the hospital. we have new insight into why the white house didn't know for days.

this morning, defense secretary lloyd austin remains in the hospital with complications tied to an elective procedure. we're told austin is doing okay, but there are serious questions

about lhis decision to keep his hospitalization secret for days. the white house did not know he was hospitalized until days after he was admitted and according to the pentagon, he had the elective procedure on december 22nd and went home the next day, and then on january 1st, he was taken to walter reed after, quote, severe pain. he was admitted to the, icu. the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff was notified the next day. u au austin's deputy took some of his responsibilities the next day, and biden learned a day later, as did the rest of the public. >> he resumed his duties while invest hospital. the white house says they spoke to austin on saturday and has complete confidence in him. others not as much. >> the handling of this by the secretary of defense is totally unacceptable. i think it was a dereliction of

duty, and the secretary and the administration frankly need to step forward and give the american people the facts. >> that's former vice president mike pence. with us now, a former military general, and we just heard abigail stanberger say it's not appropriate how this was handled. do you agree? >> i do agree with that. i think secretary austin did make a mistake or his staff made a mistake in not notifying the correct people, but i think we'll learn more about this when he is released and he's allegedly going to be released today. what happened on the 23rd and he was on leave during that period. he took leave specifically to do a medical procedure and then came back and was readmitted due to from my understanding, pain. i fault them for that.

any commander knows they have to notify their boss when something serious is going on that might take them out of the loop, but it appear that is the right procedures were put in place. he named his deputy kathy hicks, to take over for him, and from what i understand, and i've talked to senior administration officials, he was always in communications with the people at the defense department and the white house. >> general, i think what i'm struck by, public disclosure. i'm a member of the media and i have my own issues with, that and we can talk about that at length any time you want, but it's the chain of command point that you were making both up and down in the sense that the national security adviser, not finding out his secretary of defense at a moment of extreme tension throughout the world where u.s. forces are coming under increasing attack by iranian proxies on a daily basis at this point, that the national security adviser wouldn't be informed, the president wouldn't be informed, how that's possible? >> well, phil, what i would

suggest is the communication was intact. i know from a senior leader's perspective even as a three-star general, i had a commo team with me every day. there are no days off. you're working 24/7. secretary austin has a much more intense schedule than i ever had. that's wherever he is. his staff knew where he was. as i understand it, he was constantly communicating with the right people, but he was in pain, and he was being treated for that, and what i think is he knows he made a mistake. he admitted that, but at the same time, phil, one of the things that's important in the department of defense, and in the u.s. medical system is the privacy, a balancing for telling the public what's going on with you. now it's one thing to tell your boss, and he admitted that he was mistaken in not doing that, but he also reminded people, hey. this is my procedure. it's my personal privacy that is

at stake here, and i would bet that sometime this week when he's released, he's going to -- he's going to bring the pentagon press corps together and explain what happened, but i would almost bet he's not going to discuss what the issue was, the physical issue that he was getting treatment for. >> general mark hertling, thank you. obviously we wish him the best. we hope he makes a full recovery and he gets out of the hospital very soon. >> same here. yeah, thanks. >> of course. new this morning, a crucial missing piece of an alaska airlines plane has been found as investigators try to figure out why a gaping hole blew open on the side of the jet in midair. the ntsb says boeing's 737 max door plug has been discovered in someone's backyard in portland, oregon. these are some new images this morning from investigators. what they show is headrests and seat cushions ripped off by the force of the depressurization, and we're now learning that the plane's cabin pressure warning light had gone off three times

including the day before the flight. alaska airlines had actually restricted this same specific plane from flying over the ocean to hawaii in case it needed to land quickly. i asked the head of the ntsb about that when she joined us. >> but if there's a precaution on where a plane can fly, should that plane be flying anywhere? >> and that's what we're looking at. it is something that is a concern for us so we're going to look, but again, i would just caution it may have absolutely nothing to do -- >> fair. >> -- with what occurred on that day. >> the ntsb also says two cell phones that were likely flown from the plane were found in a yard on the side of the road. one of them was still working and had an alaska airlines baggage receipt email. also this morning, the first lunar lander in the u.s. has launched in more than five decades, on its way to the moon. >> five, four, three, we have ignition.

and liftoff of the first united launch ix vulcan rocket launching a new era in space flight to the moon and beyond. >> if all goes to plan, the peregrine will touch down on the 23rd after taking off from cape canaveral. it's expected to be the first commercial mission to land on moon. kristen fisher joins us now, and tell us about this because i wasn't really aware of it until all of a sudden i saw amazing pictures this morning, and this is history. >> reporter: yeah, phil. this was such a significant launch. so many firsts. i mean, first of all, if successful, this will be the first time that an american spacecraft has landed on the surface of the moon since the end of the apollo program back in 1972. that is how long it's been, but the big difference here is back then that was a u.s. government nasa mission. this is not. this spacecraft was designed,

built, operated by a private company called astrobotic, and if successful, it'll be the first private company to land on the surface of the moon, something that only very few countries have been able to do, and then the other big first here, phil, is not just the spacecraft on top of the rocket, but the rocket itself. the vulcan centaur rocket. it was a joint venture between boeing and lockheed martin, and it is counting on this rocket to launch national security payloads and spy satellites in the future, phil. >> it's a huge. moment, and one of the most fascinating elements in addition to what you would expect delivering nasa scientific equipment, it's taking mementos and the ashes of several people to the moon? what can you tell us about this?

>> reporter: this has been controversial. two of the customers that are paying to have cargo or payloads on this rocket or spacecraft are two companies, and they do what's called lunar memorials. the first of its kind. they're carrying little capsules containing cremated human remains for a lunar burial, and the navajo nation, the largest group of native americans in the united states is very upset about this. when they found out about this a few weeks ago, they say this amounts to desecration of a sacred space to their culture and navajo kcosmology. the moon is sacred. they appealed to the white house, to see if they could address the navajo nation's concerns, but it was not enough to delay this flight because it was a successful launch. in the wee hours of this morning, phil, had to be up at 2:00 a.m. >> i have no doubt you probably

were knowing how you do with space. kristen fisher, we appreciate it. thank you, my friend. well, the supreme court reinstates the idaho's abortion ban that prevents the procedure even in medical emergencies. one ob/gyn here to talking with us about what that actually means for their practice.

this morning, doctors in idaho could face criminal charges for performing an abortion in almost all cases and that includes emergency room doctors. here's why. the supreme court is allowing the state's near total abortion ban to take effect on friday. idaho law says physicians can only perform an abortion if it will prevent the death of the mother. that's the law in idaho. the biden administration is arguing that federal law requires emergency room doctors to provide what's known as

stabilizing care, and that includes abortions if a patient's health is in serious jeopardy. those are different standards and the supreme court will hear this case in full in april, but until then, doctors and their patients have to abide by state law. >> joining us now is about obstetrician, gynecologist, and specialist in fetal medicine. we appreciate your time. i want a start there. the tension between what you feel you're bound by based on federal law versus what you are now grappling with based on state law, and what that does in your approach to the job. >> well, the emergency medical triage and labor act is nationwide. any hospitals who receive cms money, medicare, medicaid, et cetera, must abide by this law which basically protects and makes sure that hospitals will take care of patients who present either in labor or a

medical condition regardless of payment, et cetera, et cetera, and they either have to be taken care of there or sent to a referring hospital that has a higher level of care. now what we're trying to do is trying to figure out the types of things that we can treat as physicians when it comes to abortion-type care, and medical emergencies in pregnancy. i think there are a lot of things that can happen especially infection, bleeding, that are very life-threatening to women before a pregnancy is viable, and we want to make sure we're able to treat those without the fear of being prosecuted. we've asked the state to try to clarify through their laws, you know, what are these exceptions, and so far we haven't gotten any response on that, and instead, you know, we've tried to use as

a place to make sure we can treat our patients. >> are you facing the potential of criminal charges if you follow the federal guidelines? that could put you in violation of the state law. >> well, i'm not sure that that necessarily -- yes. i mean, it could to a certain extent. it's not the first thing that i worry about. i worry about the health of the patients. >> right. >> i worry about, you know, one of the things that we have to do is we have to make sure we end up transferring a lot more patients out of state which is a huge inconvenience and expense to the patient and their families. >> when you talk to your lawyers, what do they tell you? do they have more concrete guidance? do they have a better sense of kind of what the line is for you? o >> oh, not at all. not at all. i mean, this line is really

something that is medically driven, and i think, you know, we as providers have not had any say whatsoever really in helping define what these boundaries are. >> every second counts, right? as an er physician, as an ob-gyn, et cetera. >> it can. >> yeah, it can. how is this playing out for example in emergency rooms? right? if you even have to second guess yourself as a physician and even not just be thinking about the health of the patient as you said as your first priority, but also think about any jeopardy to you. how does that impact potential health and safety for patients? >> oh, i think -- i think it delays treatment. i think things that would have been, you know, addressed earlier are being delayed. people trying to find out, okay. especially if it's someone who doesn't deal with it on a regular basis.

as a referral center, we see this a fair amount, but at the same time, other people are calling around trying to get advice, et cetera, and very afraid, you know? i think, you know, providers are between a rock and a hard spot. we've got, you know, the possibility of jail time on one hand, and the other is if we don't act quick enough, are we medically liable? >> right. you take the hippocratic oath as physicians and what a predicament to be in. >> just one quick one before i let you go. is the view right now that you have to wait until somebody is dying? and i understand there's probably some ambiguity on how you would define that, before you can act? >> yeah, i think -- i do think that somebody has to be really on the doorstep of being severely ill, and/or already possibly have long-term damage to their body, their fertility, or other things like that. >> dr. stacy seyb, thank you for

being with us. really helpful. >> thanks for having me. well, there's new reporting that takes us inside the mindset of donald trump on january 6th. trump's own inner circle revealing his two-word response after learning mike pence was evacuated from the capitol. and one of the officers who defended the capitol, there you see him. harry dunn joins us live. we'll ask him about that report, and his decision to quit the force and run for congress.

they ought to release the j6 hostages. they've suffered enough. they ought to release them.

i call them hostages. >> i have concerns about the treatment of january 6th hostages. i have concerns. we have a role in congress of oversight over our treatments of prisoners, and i believe that we're seeing the weaponization of the federal government. >> those comments first from former president trump and then from republican congresswoman elise stefanik drawing intense backlash calling them hostages and not defendants in the january 6th cases. one of the officer whs who defed the capitol that day is running for congress. he's run to replace john sarbans. he was front and center of the attack. he retired from the police force in december after receiving the congressional gold medal, and the presidential citizens medal for lawmakers. this comes as this new reporting from abc news reveals special counsel jack smith uncovered new details about donald trump's

actions and attitude on january 6th. now according to action, former deputy chief of staff dan scavino told investigators his violence intensified. trump, quote, was just not interested in doing more to stop it. when trump was told then-vice president mike pence was evacuated to safety inside the capitol, trump told him, quote, so what? joining us now is harry dunn. sir, i appreciate your time this morning. starting with the comments that you heard at the top from the former president and elise stefanik who if you were to win your primary and win your general election would be a colleague of yours inside the united states house referring to january 6th rioters as hostages. how do you respond to that? >> hey. good morning, phil. no. that's right on course for them. i expected nothing less from, you know, those individuals making those statements. i am glad that they do want to look into prison reform, you know, that's an issue that a lot

of individuals have been complaining about for a long time. so we'd be happy to look into that, but these individuals, a lot of them -- i don't even need to say the defendants -- the accused -- excuse me. the prosecuted individuals have taken plea deals. they've pled guilty so they acknowledged their crimes. so it's right on par for trump to make those comments, and elise stefanik to parrot them. >> i was curious once you announced having covered hill, having watched kind of the last three years play out, your presence and your efforts to make sure the people didn't forget or whitewash what happened. what did you decide you wanted to make a run for congress? >> well, you know, phil, as the last 15, 16 years of my adult life, i dedicated it to public service. so if you would have asked me before january 6th if i would have decided to run for office, the answer was maybe, you know, after a full career and being able to retire, you know, you

said earlier, i retired. no. i resigned so, you know, being able to fully retire, and then maybe we'll have that discussion, but, you know, in the events of january 6th and honestly everything that's happened afterwards like you said the attempted whitewashing and the flatout lying and deny w denying what we went through. the backtracking of the body of congress who refused to fully acknowledge what happened. they did on january 6th that night and on january 7th, but sure after donald trump got their ear, their tune changed a lot. >> to that point, it was fascinating. while there's a new video released over the weekend by the justice department that shows what was happening on the house floor during those moments, i want to play that real quick. >> okay. >> i have been a law enforcement officer for 30 years. >> talk a little louder. >> that's because you've never seen corruption like we have seen. >> i'm ashamed. >> and i'm ashamed of my congresspeople. >> mike pence is a [ bleep ] traitor, man. he could have done the right

thing and certified those legislators -- and we wovnuldn' be standing here with a 9-millimeter pointed at me right now. >> what goes through your head when you see that again? >> i'm glad you said again because i was there. that's exactly what we saw that day, and exactly from the lawmakers. i think that was troy nells in that video who said he's ashamed. i wish he would have said that publicly and not just on his cell phone footage that, you know, i'm sure he hoped never got released, but those members, they knew how bad it was. they know and they knew then. you know, it's par for the course for them. they know the truth, but they refuse to say anything out loud that'll make the republican front-runner their leader look bad. >> you're in a crowded democratic field. when you look through kind of the dynamics of your race, what do you think will set you apart?

obviously your experience, what you have been through over the course of the last three years. that's the central pitch that president biden has in running for re-election, but in this race specifically that you are looking at, what do you think sets you apart? >> just my experience right now, like, i'm not a career politician. i'm not, but i am a servant of the people. i have been a public servant. i'm a kcareer public servant, ad i think that's what people in congress need. they need someone to continue to demonstrate they are listening to them and they will go to the floor and the halls of congress and fight for them, and that's just what i'm about, and this moment that we're in, like i said, if january 6th didn't happen, maybe we're not even having this conversation, but it did happen, and we -- i don't think it's an xiexaggeration to say we are one election cycle away from our democracy as we know it, and, you know, that -- that goes with all the issues that fall under the umbrella of democracy. a woman's right to choose just like you just showed in your last segment, you know, we need

to make sure that -- politicians don't have any business in, you know, the doctor's office when it comes to that. common sense gun reform. all of those issues to me fall under the umbrella of democracy, and if we have a dictator on day one, what does it even matter when it comes to those other issues? >> former capitol hill police officer, now democratic candidate in maryland's third district, harry dunn. we appreciate your time, sir. >> thanks, phil. harry dunn for congress. find out more. thank you. star-studded golden globes returned after a year of hollywood strikes. the winners, losers and biggest moments. we've got that ahead. also rescue workers in japan pulled a woman from the rubble 120 hours after the earthquake last week. the two-story building collapsed and she was inside. you can see the first responders shield the woman from cameras as she was being taken to the hospital saturday night. a doctor told reporters her legs are injured, but she is well enough to have conversations.

>> live in los angeles with more. up early, tell us, movies. we're going to through this a little bit. start with movies. was it what we expected in terms of who won? >> his first golden globe win ever which is really shocking, then big wins for actors, robert downey jr., and cillian murphy and they walked away with the bag ward, best drama film. this is the shocking part, phil. they only walked away from billie eilish from her song and the new category of the box office and cinematic acheechlt.

even though this wuchbt predicted that it would, it's not just a huge success at the box office. i spoke the helen mirren who is the narrator of "barbie", and she spoke about that film's success. >> what does it mean that "barbie" is getting so much recognition tonight? >> it's great. it's great for greta, great for women, great for filmmaking in general. it broke so many rules. >> and she's absolutely right, you know? regardless of the wins and the trophies you bring home, this was a huge win for female filmmaking. greta gerwig. there's so many wins afrom these awards, and margot robbie being not only the star, but a key part in having purchased the rights to even have it made.

>> in tv, the big winner of the night was succession. this is a farewell season. typically voters like to bid adieu to shows that are going away and "succession" walked away with four awards, and also "beef," ali wong making the first actor of asian descent winning in her category. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> well, this just in, a senior hezbollah militant was killed by an israeli drone strike in his car in southern benlebanon. that's according to a lebanese security source. since the onset of daily cross fire between israeli forces on octoberongoing crossfire. we will keep you updated throughout the day as we learn more. >> we'll keep you posted on that. thanks so much for joining us. we'll see you right back here tomorrow. "cnn news central is on right

after this.

♪ a violent explosive event. that is how the lead investigator is describing what happened in the air when a piece of the alaska airlines night just blew off. the pieces the ntsb has now recovered and the new questions about earlier warning lights on this very same plane. >> gird your loins. the/with a caucuses are next week, so he has a big lead in the polls, but what does donald trump fear most this morning? a, nikki haley, b, expectations, or, c, the long arm of the law? >> plus, questions and scrutiny at the pentagon after to fence secreta -- defense secretary lloyd