the breaking news just moments ago. donald trump's legal team in georgia filing a motion to dismiss the case saying trump should be immune for actions he took on january 6th. this is the same type of argument a federal appeals court will hear tomorrow. plus, an explosive decompression. the door plug of an alaska airlines flight blows off mid flight leaving a refrigerator-size hole in the plane. that missing piece has now been found. new details on the aircraft and the investigation. it is the final week before the iowa caucuses, and one new and late addition to the campaign trail -- severe winter weather. campaign events already being canceled.

i'm kate bolduan with john berman and sara sidner. this is "cnn news central." h now this morning, donald trump is asking a judge to throw out the case against him in georgia. attorneys for trump have filed a motion seeking to have the entire case dismissed, arguing that he's protected from prosecution by presidential immunity. that should, of course, sound familiar. he's made similar claims in the federal election subversion case against him. nick valencia has much more from outside the fulton county courthouse in atlanta. nick, what are you learning about this new move from trump's legal team? >> reporter: good morning, kate. this is a significant filing, but frankly one that we had been anticipating him to do here in his georgia case. as you mentioned, very similar to the legal argument that he's making in his federal case. a hearing will be held tomorrow, and he is expected to be there in person. but this is what he's saying in

part of this 140-page legal filing in georgia. his attorney writing here that the indictment in this case charges president trump for acts that lie at the heart of his official responsibilities as president. he goes on to say the indictment is barred by presidential immunity and should be dismissed with prejudice. they're also going on to say that a state -- the state does not reserve the right to charge a president, that is something that should be delegated to them. this filing, we're still going through it, over 140 pages. frankly, as i mentioned, one that we had been anticipating him to argue here. it comes among a slew of motions that he's presenting today. they're also compelling the da to try to get evidence from the january 6th select committee that they believe is out there, and that they would like to see. but the most significant filing, of course, is this dismissal or push to dismiss his case here in georgia because of presidential immunity. kate? >> nick, thank you so much for the update. we've now learned that the plane that had a door plug blown out mid flight leaving behind a

gigantic hole in the aircraft was barred from doing long-haul flights over water. the ntsb has confirmed that alaska airlines set up certain flight restrictions for the boeing 737 max 9 jet because of warning lights in the days leading up to this terrifying flight. a pressurization warning light lit up three separate times on this particular aircraft. now it is important to note the ntsb says this may not in the end be related, but they are certainly looking into it. we lead off with aviation correspondent pete muontene and mike valero. i want to start with pete. what is the latest on the investigation as they have now found this huge piece of the plane that has fallen into someone's backyard? >> reporter: a mixed bag, sara. good news balance. the good news, we -- bad news. the good news, we found the piece that ripped off has been located, discovered in the

backyard of a portland teacher named bob. the part is known as a door plug. it fills a spot where an optional door could be installed at the boeing factory. the ntsb is chiefing it right now. they -- retrieving it right now. they will match it up with the plane and send it to ntsb's metallurgicy lab in d.c. finding this is key. it will hold major clues. was this a mechanical failure? was this a manufacturing defect by boeing or its contractors? one thing that is missing from this investigation -- the audio from the cockpit voice recorder. -- automatically overwrites ever ever two hours. the circuit breaker that would have stopped that override simply was not pulled by alaska airlines in time to keep anything good. the communications between the pilots, the noise of the explosion, the alerts on the flight decks, all of that sound is now lost. and ntsb chair jennifer homendy tells me that is a really disappointing development. >> if that communication is not

recorded, that is unfortunately a loss for us and a loss for faa and a loss for safety because that information is key not just for our investigation but for improving aviation safety. >> reporter: there is a proposed faa rule to change how long information is retained on cvrs from two hours to 25 hours, but only on new airplanes. pilots' unions chafe at the thought. this has come up repeatedly, though, especially in recent incidents. the close calls last year. homendy says the latest incident once again proves that the recording rules needed to be changed yesterday. sara? >> it's terrifying the thought of what what happened on that plane. and thank goodness nobody was injured or killed. i want to go to you now, mike. you were there when the ntsb got word, is that right, of the discovery of this piece of evidence? what was that like? >> yeah. sara, it was an amazing moment.

it was an instant of joy, wrapping up the news conference before 9:00 p.m. local time. everyone's packing up lop taps. then the chair of the -- laptops. then the chair of the ntsb, the sound bite we heard from, she comes back and says, nobody move, we have breaking news. and then i asked her, you found the door plug, didn't you? no response. cameras come back on, two minutes later she announces we have found the door plug, and later says blessings to bob, the hero of the hour, finding that 63-pound portion of the aircraft. but also there were two other individuals who managed to find other items that were sucked out of the cabin friday evening when this accident took place. we're talking about one person who found an iphone that fell 16,000 feet in their yard. then a second person, our new friend sean bates, who heard the ntsb and the news conferences we've been covering over the weekend saying they needed the

member's help to find this -- the public's help to find this missing door plug. sean decides to take a lovely sunday afternoon walk in the search zone of cedar hills, oregon, about 15 minutes from where we're standing right now. looks on the side of the road, finds a phone. thought it was tossed out of some guy's car. opens it up, and he sees a notification from alaska airlines. he financial -- he filmed a tiktok. this is part of it. watch. >> i found a phone sitting on the side of the road that had apparently fallen 16,000 feet. it was still pretty clean, no scratches on it. sitting under a bush. and it didn't have a screen lock on it. so i opened it up, and it was in airplane mode with a travel confirmation and baggage claim for alaska 1282. >> reporter: so an extraordinary human dimension wrapping up quickly what else is happening here in portland. the right-hand side of the door plug, which is on the aircraft right now, that's going to be

removed so they can compare the two. the one that blew off compared to the one that is still in the aircraft. and also, two of the flight attendants in the for part of the aircraft were interviewed over the weekend. the remaining two flight attendants who were in the aft section are going to be interviewed here in portland, as well. just two of the main items in this huge too-do list that investigators need to complete leer in oregon. >> -- here in oregon. >> so much of this is incredible, first of all that nobody was injured which is the number-one most important thing, but that they found a cellphone and -- the bob who is, by the way, a school teacher in portland, is the hero of the story, finding that piece of evidence. this is pretty incredible. and we'll be watching. i know, pete, you'll be watching, as well, to find out exactly what happened here and the -- the sort of stopping of the 737 max 9. that's a big deal. there's a lot of flights canceled. we will be watching this. i know you'll be on it. thank you to both of you. john? >> all right. with me, safety analyst, formula faa safety inspector david sussie.

they recovered the door. this is -- the plug i should say, this is what it looks like when it's on the plane. there is what it looks like when it's missing. now that they have that plug, we understand they're going to take it back to the plane, try to fit it back into the missing hole that you saw there. and one other thing they're going to do is compare it to the plug on the other side of the plane. what will they be looking for there, david? >> any disruption to the metal structure at all. there's fittings that are attached, and you can see in the one pictures with it missing, the upper left-hand corner there's a pin. and you can see that it's a stainless steel pin that sticks out, have to look closely, but you can see it's been twisted and broken in some manner. i'm excited to see what they find out here. >> and we also are hearing that they're looking into or continuing to look into these warning lights that had been going on including the day before. how likely is it that that's totally unrelated to what happened? >> well, you can see that -- in

the announcement by chairwoman homendy, you can see that she's hedging on this. she's saying, well, the lights went on, we have no indication that they had anything to do with this. but it -- it would be strange if it had nothing to do with it because it is about pressurization. and so the fact is that once she looks into those maintenance records she's going to look for two things. one is how did they respond to that warning. did they just simply say, hey, it was probably an indication light, did the mechanics just reset that indication light? or did they do what they're supposed to do which as a previous mechanic myself i know it what you have to do is not just assume it's an indication, you have to take the aircraft in, repressure rise it on the ground and see if there's leaks and test before you return it to service. she'll be looking closely to see in they did that properly. >> as we look again at what went on as this plug blew out of the blaine. what are the big questions -- the plane. what are the big questions you have? >> who touched it last, john?

that's what i want to know. who tornad-- who touched that d last. we can't assume it came from the factory this week because it flew for weeks without any problems whatsoever. in addition, sometimes aircraft are delivered without the interiors, and when you install those new interiors with all the seats and that sort of thing, that door does come off. and it's used as a service access so you can use that to move seats in and out and that sort of thing. so it's highly possible that someone else touched this before or after it was delivered. i don't know that. i'm speculating. but that's a possibility that needs to be looked into with the ntsb. >> you want to know when the last time it was touched and who touched it. how often these door plugs that go in, how often are they manipulated? can they go weeks, months, years without ever being disturbed at all? >> they can go for months for sure. depends on hours, there's a required inspection to remove -- to loosen the door, to have it drop back. it drops back about 15 degrees, and then you can inspect all the

fittings, all the alignment pins and the mounts and the stops and all of that. so you can inspect it. and it does get inspected routinely. i don't know if it would have been inspected within this eight or ten-week period. we'll find out when it was inspected and last looked at. >> again, this is a diagram of what this plug looks like. basically like a door that goes this there full time. but you can see it's not totally simple. there are all different pieces and parts right here. david, where are you on the cockpit voice recorder that will not be helpful in any way in this investigation? >> well, you know, i've been a proponent of extending that time for a long time, as well. however, here's the problem -- the faa only talks -- only can mandate safety-critical items. so this is a post-accident item. the cockpit voice recorder is not required for safe flight. the faa publishes minimum standards. that's what they're there for. to make this a minimum standard when it's not a safety critical

item is a hard sell. >> i get it. it's maybe not safety critical for this flight but maybe the next one and the hundreds of thousands after that it could be helpful for. david, as always, great to see you. thank you so much. kate? new this morning, the president's son, president biden's son, is at risk of being held in contempt of congress now. the new move by house republicans against hunter biden. plus, donald trump's balancing act. facing voters and charges at the same time. this week alone, it's really on display. planning to split time between the campaign trail and the courtroom. and an israeli drone strike kills a senior hezbollah commander in southern lebanon today. what this means for fears of a new front opening up in israel's war to take out hamas.

a senior hezbollah commander killed in a drone strike in lebanon according to a security sauce and hezbollah. he is the most senior militant to be killed by israel since they began exchanging fire on the border after the attack on israel. we have more from beirut on this. what more are you learning, what more details are coming in about this strike and militant? >> reporter: look, this is certainly raising concerns over the escalation of tensions

between israel and hezbollah, particularly around lebanon's southern border. we have seen an escalation of exchanges of fire on either side of the border from the outset of the war in gaza. of course as you mentioned, this is perhaps the most mother nature is member of hezbollah -- most senior member of hezbollah to be targeted and killed since the beginning of the war. we of course learned from lebanese security that he was struck, his car targeted by an israeli drone strike in a part of southern lebanon where, of course, hezbollah is known to operate. cnn has reached out to the israeli military. no comment yet. this comes off the back of weeks of escalating tensions and, in fact, over the weekend and in the last 24 hours, we have seen that exchange intensifying with either side targeting military positions, including hezbollah targeting a military surveillance site of the israeli military, a key and primary target for hezbollah. the idf in return saying it had

targeted a hezbollah military compound in the southern area of lebanon near that border region. this comes off the back of that apparent israeli strike in the suburbs of southern beirut here where we did see a senior hamas leader killed in that strike, a moment that was described by hamas as a cowardly assassination and one that has triggered a response by hezbollah. a preliminary response, however, has to be said. the secretary general of hezbollah speaking just last week saying if israel seeks to wage war on lebanon, the response from hezbollah would be, in his words, limitless. >> nada, thank you. joining me is retired brigadier general mark kimmet. thank you so much for being here. you heard from nada. the response limitless after a source telling us that a senior member of hezbollah has been killed in an israeli strike. what's your reaction to this,

and what might this mean for the region? >> well, first of all, i think it's surprising that israel has gone into lebanon not only to kill a hamas senior leader, but in this case a hezbollah leader, but hasan nasralla remains the canary in the coal mine. he at this point continues to talk about solidarity with gaza. he now is using words like limitless which seems to be more propaganda than reality. i think as long as iran is hol holding hezbollah back, we'll probably sigh this tit-for-tat exchange. this is what the u.s. has asked israel to do. quit doing the large scale, conventional operations, and star low-scale targeting operations. that's what the israelis have shifted their operations in the north to do. >> when you consider that, though, that if they are starting to be targeted but targeted not in the israeli territories, not in, for

example, you know, places where -- that israel has governance over but in other countries, is that going to send the signal that there is going to be a larger conflagration that keeps happening here? >> no, int the -- i think the signal they're sending is the signal that the united states has sent. we will go after terrorists anywhere in the world without regard to geography. yes, there is a risk that this might enflame the situation, escalate the situation, but if you ask me today i'd say probably not. but things could change. >> all right. we know that antony blinken is back in the region again. he has touched base with arab and gulf leaders to send a similar message about fears of an expanding conflict. i'm curious what you think he might achieve as he talks to the leaders of these countries including jordan. >> i think his public statements are going to be that we're trying to reduce the violence,

we're trying to come to a cease-fire, we're trying to get the hostages back. what i actually think probably nonpublic conversations are even more important. and i think his most important message is going to be, look, when this is all over, let's get back to the process of the israeli consolidation, israeli recognition, because that's the only way the pre-october 7th situation was going well, let's try to get back to that. whether he can achieve that or not is yet to be seen. >> i want to ask you about something that's just come out frommal al jazz ear a a-- accus israel of systematically targeting journalists. there are, of course, two wars going on here. there is the horror of the physical war that has taken so many lives, and then there is

the information war. what do you see in all this, in this accusation, what might that mean for israel? >> well, again, this is part of the information war. but everybody knows that al jazeera has been claiming purposeful attacks on journalists for years. the u.s. in 2003 -- heck, i was accused of specifically ordering a strike against occupant mansour in fallujah. i think everybody recognizes and is saddened by the fact that journalists are casualties of war, but i don't think that any reasonable force would actually be targeting journalists. >> general mark kimmitt, upthan you so much for your analysis. the new resolution to hold hunter biden in contempt of congress. the process this sets off. and is donald trump immune from the actions he took on january 6th? this is what a federal appeals court will hear arguments on tomorrow and is the focus of a brand-new filing in georgia, as well.

get over here kids. time for today's lesson.

wow. -whoa. what are those? these are humans. they rely on something called the internet to survive. huh, powers out. [ gasp ] are they gonna to die? worse, they are gonna get bored. [ gasp ] wait look! they figured out a way to keep the internet on. yeah! -nature finds a way. [ grunt ] stay connected when the power goes out, with storm ready wifi from xfinity. and see migration in theaters now. new this morning a first look at the contempt of congress resolution targeting the president's son hunter biden. this was just released by house oversight committee chair james comer. i understand -- manu raju with us, chief congressional correspondent. manu raju is here. i understand this is a 19-page document. what's inside? >> reporter: yeah, detailing why the republicans on the committee believe that the president's son

should be held in contempt of congress. recall that he had faced a subpoena to appear behind closed doors in mid september, asking for him to appear before a deposition. he did not do that. in fact, dhhe demanded if he we to testify it would be publicly. instead he went before cameras and said he would not sit down behind closed doors, accusing republicans of cherry picking his testimony, providing a misleading narrative about what he intended to say. the republicans believe his testimony will be key to their impeachment investigation against his father, president joe biden. they've been trying to show some links between hunter biden's overseas business activities and joe biden's actions in office, links that they have yet to prove but believe that hunter biden can provide some light and shed light on that matter. in this 19-page report, republicans detail why they believe he should be held in contempt of the house. comer says this, mr. biden's flagrant defiance of the committee's deposition subpoenas while choosing to appear nearby on the capitol hill ground to

read a prepared statement on the same matters is contemptuous, and he must be held accountable for his unlawful actions. now the committee plans to vote on wednesday along with the house judiciary committee to hold him in contempt. floor action expected soon after that. we expect the republicans to have the votes in the narrowly divided house to move ahead on this. still questions, though, about whether they would have the votes ultimately to impeach joe biden because a number of republicans, especially ones in swing districts, simply believe that they have yet to prove that joe biden should be charged with high crimes or misdemeanors. but they do believe that hunter biden should be held accountable for not complying with the gop-led subpoena. so all that will play out here, john, starting on wednesday. now the official release of the report detailing why the republicans believe that hunter biden broke the law, should be held accountable, and then be held in contempt of the house which could refer this matter to the d.c. attorney to investigate this further and potentially bring charges. >> just really the next step in

what will be a long process. watching every twist and tune, manu raju, thank you so much. we also have a new filing out of georgia this morning. attorneys for donald trump have filed a motion seeking to have the entire case dismissed there, arguing that he's protected from prosecution by presidential immunity. joining us now is michael moore, former u.s. attorney and cnn legal analyst. michael, the filing in georgia making a similar argument of presidential immunity that his team is making, the federal case against him that we're watching for this big moment this appeals court -- this appeals court taking up that question tomorrow. but is this georgia filing different than the question now before this federal appeals court? >> good morning. i'm glad to be with all of you. it really is the same thing. we expected to see this filing. the filing is coming not because it's some new matter before the court but because there's a motion deadline. so the defendants had to file these types of motions in the case today to get this out and

to have some consideration, the judge could at least know what motions were pending. we expecto this has been raised in the arguments, trump's new lawyer in georgia has talked about this extensively. really the issue in the motion is whether or not a former president can be liable for acts he committed while he was president of the united states. and they argue that, in fact, because he was acquitted in his impeachment trial that that then bars him from further prosecution during -- because of those acts that occurred while he was president. that's always been a little bit of a different linchpin and maybe a kink if you will in the district attorney's case in georgia. that is that she focused her conduct on things that happened while he was president. not on witness intimidation after he was president. not on other acts, but on actual things that happened during his presidency. so as we know the president's vested with a lot of power, one of those things is, in fact, to have involved in elections. the fbi's involved. dhs is involved. the u.s. attorneys' offices all

involved. those are federal functions. as head of federal agencies the question is whether or not any acts he took might be arguably in support of those functions, and that may ultimately be the question that the appeals court addresses this week. >> that is what the appeals court is addressing this week, exactly. the scope of donald trump's presidential immunities. in what you've seen and the arguments that jack smith, the special counsel, says -- his case is entirely based on the fact that he does not think trump has presidential immunity. donald trump's team arguing the opposite. how strong or weak do you think trump's argument is for absolute immunity at this point? >> i think both sides have sort of pushed the boundaries of rationality. jack smith argues that, well, you can't give absolute immunity because a president might order that the minority party members in congress be killed during the state of the union address or something. that seems to be such a ridiculous stretch that i think that defies some incredibleuality. at the same time, trump says i'm immune from anything, i can do

anything i want to, which presumably would mean he could collude with russia or he could do other things that we might say no, that pushes the boundaries, too, so the needle that has to be threaded i think is what are really presidential functions, what are the things we expect from a president. this case, though, because he has not been charged in jack smith's case with the insurrection, you begin to question, well, will the appeals court look at that as some indication that there's not enough evidence that he was criminally responsible for the insurrection and those things? and instead try to focus on these issues dealing with the election counting and the vote counting and that kind of stuff. and that seems to be a little bit stronger. i think at the end of the day he's not going to win simply on presidential immunity. i just don't -- it just seems to me one of his weaker arguments as he goes forward. but -- we all knew, and i think this is expected on both sides of the aisle, and that is that the supreme court is going to have to weigh into this. this case and this issue is not just about trump.

it's about the president 50 years from now and 100 years from now, and what presidential power and presidential immunity will mean going forward, not just as we look sort of at the past of the oddities of the trump administration. >> yeah. and from, you know, district court to -- in one state to federal case against him -- i mean, you're making an excellent point. great to see you, michael. thank you so much. a special programming note for all of you -- cnn will bring you special coverage as donald trump appears in court tomorrow. that all begins at 9:00 a.m. eastern. the iowa caucuses just seven days away now. the first big test in the republican race for the presidency and some campaign moments you're not going to want to miss. that's ahead.

all right, just in mother nature weighing in on the iowa caucuses. this is iowa right there. you can see right in the middle of the snowstorm there. they're getting 8 to 12 inches in some places. nikki haley was forced to cancel a campaign event in sioux city this morning because of the weather. the caucuses themselves, rain or shine, they are next week. not the only thing nikki haley's worried about. she's also the focus of a new attack ad out this morning paid for by a super pac backing donald trump. cnn is in snowy des moines, iowa, at least cold des moines, iowa, for us. eva, what are you hearing? >> reporter: john, there is an added sense of urgency from these candidates in these closing days here. what we saw over the weekend from both governor ron desantis, nikki haley, was them sharpening

their attacks against former president donald trump. take a listen. >> i think if we're relitigating the past elections, if it's about donald trump or his legal issues or criminal trials or all that stuff, you know, i think it's going to be a really nasty election. i don't think that puts republicans in a good position to win. >> he was really good at breaking things. he just wasn't good at fixing them. and now we look at the fact rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. you know i'm right. chaos follows him. and we can't have a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. we won't survive it. >> reporter: now for his part, trump campaigning over the weekend here in iowa, as well. telling his supporters don't pay attention to these holes. act like he's behind. you have to remember, in 2016 he

lost the iowa caucus to ted cruz. he doesn't want a repeat episode. we see him aggressively campaigning here and really telling his supporters to take nothing for granted. john? >> so eva, you're in the center of the stay in des moines, one of the few places not getting snow now. but either end of iowa, they're getting a bunch of it. how are the candidates adjusting? >> reporter: we know that trump's surrogates had to cancel their event. nikki haley, you mentioned, had to cancel her event earlier this morning. i just got off the phone with a member of vivek ramaswamy's team. he usually goes from stop to stop by private plane. but he is doing the long -- long three-hour drive right now to get from one stop to the other. so that just tells you how it is impacting these candidates. you know, in these closing days, what's really important is for them to shake every hand, meet as many iowans as possible. and this impending storm, this snow that is expected even here in des moines in the next

several hours, that really, really complicates things for them, john. >> yeah. you canceled an event right now with a week left, you don't get to reschedule. there's not enough time. thank you so much. sara? all right, with us acoxio a straft gist of the podcast group sara rockwell. let's start it someone comes in second in iowa, let's just say desantis or haley, does that help them later on? does that make a difference, does second matter in iowa? i'll start with you, sarah. >> yeah, well, look, it's different for desantis and haley. desantis has set expectations that he is definitely going to come in second. he's talked about this vaunted ground game that he has, and if he comes in third, i'm not saying his political career is over forever, but man is it kind of in a deep freeze coma. for nikki haley on the other hand, if she comes in second,

she's beating expectations for what people think she's going to do in iowa. and that's going to give her real momentum going into new hampshire which is easily the best state on the map for somebody like nikki haley. because there are so many undeclared voters in that state, she can have all of these independents, these sort of soft gop, right-leaning independents, these are the people who nikki haley performs really well with. she does not do nearly as well with two-time trump voters. so for her, if she can break those expectations, if she can win in new hampshire, that is the only way for her to have the narrowest path to making this a real race over the long term because she goes from new hampshire into her home state of south carolina. and look, any analyst is going to tell you, she's going to have a tough time winning her home state. but that's the stakes in iowa. you know, for desantis, it's over. for nikki if she wins it, you know, that would put her in a good position to move forward.

>> all right. let's listen to something that nikki haley has to say about the frontrunner and why she doesn't attack donald trump and on the other end, sophia, i'll get your comments. here's what she said -- >> for those that want me to hit trump more, i just am not going to do it. i told you that i'm not going to do it. [ applause ] if he lies about me, i'll call him out on it. if he's done something wrong, whether it's the economy or how he talks about dictators and those things, i'll call him out on every one of those issues. but i just think politics is personal enough, and i think let's focus on the issues in getting america back on track. >> is that going to work? because they just started in the last debate really, really going after donald trump. and you hear her saying i'm not going to do it, and the crowd clapped. what do you think? >> yeah, i think for her that's been working, that's a strategy where you see her saying, hey,

look, trump was the right person at the right time, and now we need someone else. and you see that in the ads that she's been putting out, she's been saying we need a new generation of republican leaders, and that would be her. and you know, that's a strategy that is a very fine line between both differentiating herself from trump but also not turning off those trump voters in iowa where trump does very well with evangelicals. she is trying to peel off some of those voters, as well, as well as the moderate suburban voters that she's counting on and those counties that she's been campaigning in. >> sophia, i want to quickly turn to what we're hearing from the biden campaign or from former president obama who has expressed to some of those around biden high-level folks in the campaign that he's worried about president biden's re-election chances. what does a campaign need do as we're going into the caucuses where all the focus is going to

be on the republicans, what does the biden campaign need to be doing now? >> i mean, right now, the biden campaign is counting on president biden using the platform of the white house as well as of air force one to go to those swing states, to go to south carolina. he's traveling there. to go to the states including iowa, new hampshire. the biden campaign has also been having a presence at all of the primary gop debates, and they've had their surrogates including some key governors including governor pritzker in illinois, governor newsom in california, to also kind of carry the message about the dangers of another trump presidency. and you see president biden himself saying that, as well. >> sara, sophia. thank you so much. we don't have enough time. i've got more questions. but we will be talking to you throughout the next few days. and just five days before the

iowa caucuses, a make-or-break night for republican presidential hopefuls. the cnn republican presidential debate live from iowa. moderatesed by our jake tapper and dana bash. that is wednesday, 9:00 p.m. eastern. coming up still for us, the white house coming to the defense of the defense secretary this morning. lloyd austin failed to alert the president for days that he was being hospitalized. the new statement just in now from the white house. that's next. to duckduckgo on all your devie

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we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. as we end our broadcast today, i have a personal note that i would like to share with you. i want to start by doing this and asking you a big favor.

just take a second to recall the names of eight women who you love and know in your life. just eight. count them on your fingers. statistically, one of them will get or have breast cancer. i am that one in eight in my friend group. i have never been sick a day of my life. i don't smoke, i rarely drink. breast cancer does not run in my family. yet here i am with stage three breast cancer. it is hard to say outloud. i am in my second month of chemo treatments and will do radiation and a double mastectomy. stage three is not a death sentence anymore for the vast majority of women. but here's the reality whthat shocked my system before i started to research this.

if you happen to be a black woman you are 41% more likely to dry from breast cancer than your white counter parts. 41%. so to all my sisters, black and white and brown out there, please, for the love of god get your mammograms every single year. do your self-exams. try to catch it before i did. here's something that i could never have predicted. i have thanked cancer for choosing me. i'm learning no matter how we go through in life that i am still madly in love with this life and just being alive feels really different for me now. i am happier because i don't stress about foolish little things that anow me. and now every day that i breathe another breath i can celebrate that i am still here with you. i am here with my co-anchors, my

colleagues, my family. and i can love and cry and laugh and hope and that my dear friends is enough.

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