jurisdiction and hopefully be able to apprehend those folks more effectively. >> reporter: as elections draw near, states are doing what congress has not. last year ohio passed a law making swatting a felony, and georgia has drafted similar legislation. it's not just high profile political figures falling victim to swatting, it runs the gamut from jewish and other religious institutions, government buildings, schools, to election workers and members of the military. now, law enforcement stresses that this is a dangerous hoax. they point to a 28-year-old kansas man who was actually killed after someone called in a fake 911 emergency about a hostage situation at his home. rene marsh, cnn, washington. >> so scary. "cnn this morning" continues right now. white house confirming that the u.s. and a handful of its allies including the united kingdom have carried out military strikes against multiple houthi targets in

yemen. >> they're intended to degrade the houthis ability to target shipping in the red sea. >> the potential for escalation is very real. >> we've conducted this significant multination operation in order to send a clear message to the houthis that the attacks will not be tolerated. >> more than a dozen targets hit, including radar and storage systems and launch sites. >> president biden making clear he will not hesitate to direct further measures. >> he certainly should have come to congress, kuconcerned about retaliation in iraq and whether it could draw us into a middle east war. >> good friday morning, everyone, i'm phil mattingly with erica hill in new york. poppy is off today. a u.s. led coalition watching retaliatory strikes against multiple houthi targets in yemen. this is new video roeeleased by

the uk defense ministry overnight. five people were killed, six injured according to a houthi military spokesperson. u.s. military officials say a significant percentage of houthi assets were destroyed in the strikes. 16 locations were hit including command centers, weapons depots and launching systems that were targeted. >> president biden says the strikes are a response to drone strikes by the iran-backed houthis on commercial ships in the red sea. those attacks have forced 2,000 ships to divert thousands of miles around the red sea. that's causing major delays and directly impacting the global economy. the u.s. spent a number of weeks to prevent the israel-hamas war from spreading. the houthis have ignore the warnings of retaliation. >> unfortunately it hasn't stopped but we want to make sure it does, and we're prepared to do that. >> so now president biden saying he quote, will not hesitate to direct further measures to

protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary. >> the strikes not only raising tensions globally but also having an economic impact. oil prices rising, 4.2%, to $75 a barrel. brent crude jumped 4% and crossed over the $80 a barrel mark. let's bring in priscilla alvarez. the warnings were coming for weeks. it has happened, do officials know what's going to happen next? >> that's right. the white house has been saying for some time that these attacks in the southern red sea were intolerable, going so far as to give a final warning. but the last straw here, according to administration officials came on tuesday when there were additional houthi attacks in the red sea targeting u.s. commercial vessel as well as u.s. military vessels alongside it. that prompted president biden to convene his national security team for military options and

then the president went on direct defense secretary austin to carry out a response. the president said, quote, these targeted strikes are a clear message that the united states and our partners will not tolerate acts on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world's most critical commercial routes. now, the houthis have condemned this. this is an iran-backed rebel group. they control most of northern yemen and they say that they're ready to retaliate, saying in a statement, quote, this is a massive aggressive attack and warning that america and britain will, quote, pay a heavy price. what is clear here is these strikes were part of growing international alarm as this very critical waterway was coming under threat. as you mentioned there earlier, major shipping companies were having to go around the continent of africa, and that risked or threatened the global economy, and that's what senior administration officials said they had to respond to. now, of course the concern here

is that this would escalate tensions in the region. this came of course on the heels of secretary of state antony blinken in the middle east. his message, according to officials when he was there is that if there were strikes against the houthis that it was as a defense mechanism not to escalate any tensions. the question, though, is will that remain the case in the days to come. >> priscilla alvarez live at the white house. thank you. >> joining us to discuss is ian bremer, president of the eurasia group. this has been telegraphed by u.s. officials for several days. the scale is pretty significant. what do you make of what happened last night? >> when i put it in the biggest context, which is the iranians are now -- have several of their proxies in the region that are engaged in escalating war against the united states and israel. that's the big concern. oil prices up 4%, but they're still under 80 bucks. the concern for the united states is what happens if we end up in direct conflict with iran.

then we're talking about 150 or 200 and a global recession. then biden is going to lose. that's what's at stake, and we are on a path of military escalation against iranian proxies, and they are providing the weapons. they are very happy with the fact that these attacks are actually occurring. that's the broader context. yeah, as long as the houthis continue to engage in strikes against civilian tanker traffic, and they have been doing it for weeks and weeks now, the americans and allies are going to respond. >> is this in any way a deterrent? what we saw overnight, right, the hope is that in some way this is a deterrent. the language wasn't working so this will. >> the hope has been for weeks that the u.s. will be able to deter further escalation. at every step it failed. it started with nuisance strikes in response to what were seen as nuisance attacks, that's what the white house was privately saying. now we have more significant

target attacks against boat asks that killed a bunch of houthis, that didn't work. then there were some economic sanctions against countries that were helping to facilitate the financing that houthis were getting. then a multilateral alliance with the united states and others in the country, only one in the region, bahrain. >> and fifth fleet is important to point out. >> i understand. the americans are sort of not just -- they're not just kidding around in this region. and at every single step, deterrence has failed. there's no reason to believe -- >> right. >> despite the fact that this is a significant escalation that the houthis are going to put down their toys because the iranians are going to continue to provide the toys. i think this is a very dangerous situation and the likelihood that the war is going to escalate beyond the territory of gaza and beyond israel versus hamas is virtually certain. it's hard to see this as squirmishing. >> allies we haven't heard from,

saudi arabia, uae. you talk about bahrain where the secretary of state was. there were in support of the coalition that conducted the strikes last night. what are they saying behind the scenes that they won't say publicly? >> bahrain isn't exactly a sovereign actor in this environment. of course the saudis and em ra ties are involved in a civil war, and part of what the houthis are doing right now is not just a flex in response to the genocide as they call it against the palestinians but it is also because they want to improve their position in negotiations ongoing inside yemen. it's hard to make this stop. but again, the reason i started with iran is because this could end easily if the iranians were prepared to cut the houthis off. they're not. so this is a proxy war that the americans are fighting and the israelis are fighting against iran, and the question is how

much closer are those principle adversaries going to be. iranians don't want a direct fight against the americans, and yet if their proxies start getting blown up in large numbers, and this also includes hezbollah in the northern front and israel, the likelihood that the iranians get directly involved goes way up. >> to phil's point about allies in the region, saudi arabia putting out the statement in response that they're urging restraint as we look at this here behind the scenes, what is, give us a sense of what is the level of conversation and even in some cases, coordination on these moves with those other folks in the region who we're not hearing from as much publicly. >> the americans have certainly told gulf allies that these attacks were coming as the military plans were being put into place over the last several days. no question in my mind about that. and no one in the region would have expected the americans to sit on their hands given this. the fact it is not just the u.s.

and a multilateral condition has been put together reduces the tension somewhat and decreasings t -- decreases the level of deterrence against iran. the iranians have normalized their relationship with the saudis and emirates. the chinese facilitated it a year ago. you'll remember, it was eight days before october 7th and jake sullivan came out and said, hey, we have never seen the middle east so stable. he obviously jinxed it but the fact is that a lot of the underlying stability that he was talking about, the fact that the saudis, emirates, can talk together like the abraham accords meant the israelis have relations with the uae. that's in place, and frankly, we're glad for it. it does create a little stronger buffer and trip wires around headlong we're going to be at war with iran. but again, at every single one of these headlines, what we need

to be paying attention to is how much closer are we getting to the israelis striking the iranians directly. the americans striking iranians directly. how much closer are we getting to the iranians. they're not just a unified government, the irgc which occasionally acts autonomously, are they going to be involved in a direct strike or are we going to kill inadvertently actors engaged in a strike against houthi bases. all of that would change this game for the americans, domestically and internationally overnight. >> ian bremer, always good to see you. thank you. >> any pleasure. a group of congressional republicans are pressuring house speaker mike johnson to walk away from the spending deal that was struck with top democrats. why they're making that push. and what it could mean, especially as this partial government shut down looms. and senator joe manchin is in new hampshire at an event usually preserved for presidential candidates, could he make a third-party run. why is he in new hampshire?

we're going to ask him next. > "cnn this mornining" brou to you by alka-s-seltzer plulus.

a little over an hour, joe manchin is scheduled to speak in new hampshire politics egg series that's significant because this particular event has become a traditional stop along the campaign trail for presidential candidates, potential presidential candidates, the senator has yet to announce his intentions but his decision to retire at the end of the term, and his ties to the no labels organization have been fueling speculation that he could run on a third-party ticket. joining us now, senator joe manchin of west virginia. always good to see you sir. >> you too. >> going to be a good year. in terms of you're in new hampshire right now, doing politics, and covered the campaign trail to know what that tends to mean. are you planning to run for president? >> phil, i'm not up here as a candidate for any office. i'm up here promoting americans together. my daughter heather has started an organization which i very much support and appreciate this type of a movement for people

who feel homeless and helpless in the political arena. the democrat party and the republican party have gone to the extremes, pushing people to make a decision on what extreme party do you belong to, and there's so many that don't. there's not a better place than new hampshire to find out the people of the bellwether state to find out what they believe, and why they believe they feel homeless, and how we can bring this country together. it's all about the united states of america. it's not about a democrat or republican party, and we have lost that. and we've got to bring it back. >> you've spoken regularly, particularly in the last couple of months, about trying to, quote, mobilize the middle. see if you can mobilize the middle before deciding what to do next. do you view this group as a vehicle to do that, to give you na that gauge to make up your mind. >> we're trying to get good people involved. the character of the candidate means everything. if you can get somebody who looks at the country in the purpose of public service and

not self-service and not party identification, that's what we're looking for. those people are willing to serve for the purpose of service. not self-service. and they have nowhere to go right now because they have been driven to pick a side. there's only one side, the american side. with americans together, we're forming a vehicle, a purpose, and a movement that people can come together. they feel they have equality within the process. their voice will be heard. here in new hampshire, 40%, the majority of people who register are no party affiliation, and it's always been a bellwether state pretty much telling you where the country was going, what better place to be and to have that dialogue back and forth to find out. what moves them. where are they going, what are they looking for? when i was invited to come up, i accepted the invitation and look forward to sfl. >> chris christie was focused on the state in his run, certainly different than other republican

candidates. he decided he did not have a path forward, and he said this. >> i am going to make sure that in no way do i enable donald trump to ever be president of the united states again. and that's more important than my own personal ambition. i would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win. >> senator, i was struck in listening to his entire speech, a lot of the elements he was discussing reminded me of things you talk about on a regular basis. to that point, it looks like it's going to be a binary choice, a democrat and a republican. it looks like it will be donald trump as a republican, joe biden certainly as the democrat. where does that leave you? >> well, phil, first of all, chris christie and mary pat, his wife, are dear dear friends of mine and gayle's, and we have been friends ever since we were governors together. governors think alike. we don't pick sides, we can't. every day we have a problem from

our constituent. we can't say, oh, democrat or republican or independent. do you support me or not? we just try to fix problems. chris is a good man, and he's going to be involved one way or another i'm sure. i wish him the best. i just know there's a movement in the middle. is there enough of a movement to make a difference? is there enough of a lane for candidates to be involved? we're going to find out, but this is beyond the next election. we're building a platform that's going to go on beyond the next election, and even further to where people have a home, a political home. >> you have an interesting relationship with the biden administration because you and the president, i think, are actually fond of one another, understand one another, some of the senior advisers. others not so much. >> we know each other pretty well. >> i have been fascinated in covering the dynamic over the past several years, have you spoken to the president, his senior team recently. you raised very specific concerns. have they responded to you about those concerns? >> we have communications.

you have to have communications. you can agree to disagree. you can have a relationship and still find a pathway forward, that's what we work on all the time. joe biden, i have known for many many years, and we have worked together. we can agree to disagree, how we implement different things and what our differences are and have a dialogue that's really productive, and that's good. and i encourage that, and i welcome that. we're losing that because people are pushed to the side. well, if you're talking to that person, that must be the enemy on the other side. i've never seen a democrat or a republican politically that i have looked at as an enemy. i have looked at them as sometimes a competitor, but we can always collaborate, and find a pathway forward. and that's what joe biden with 36 years of experience in the senate understands. he says, i understand we disagree on this. can we work together. let's do it. if we disagree, i'm going to continue to call you out on it if i think you're wrong. there's nothing wrong with that.

it's not personal. >> i understand that, and it's why your dynamic and relationship has been affected legislatively over the course of the last two and a half, three years. and you aren't committed to seeing him back in the white house, why you're so resiticento back him as he runs for re election. >> i want to make sure the middle, where we run our lives from, where we're expected to make decisions that are sensible and reasonable. we're not doing that now. and i want to make sure that we can bring the democratic party that's gone so far to the left, the national party, back to the center, center left, if you will. and bring our republican party and our friends and colleagues back to the center right. and between the center left and the center right you're going to have a lot of good decisions that continue to keep the united states of america the super power of the world. that's my efforts. that's what i'm concerned about, and that's what i will continue

to be. >> i don't blame you for being in new hampshire, given the state on capitol hill, and why you might not want to run for reelection given the state of the current affairs -- >> let me just -- >> go ahead. >> let me say that. i know you're asking the question, why am i not running again, okay, and why did i not run again, and could you win or not win in a red state such as west virginia. i knew that i could win. it would be a tough race, but i knew i could win. i would be sentenced to six more years in washington in this senate that i know is not going to change from inside. that's why i'm doing what i'm doing outside with americans together, and we're going to create a movement that i think that the sensible, reasonable middle will have a home. >> a deliberate use of the word there. senator joe manchin, we appreciate your time. come back soon, please. >> thanks, phil, take care. >> and from the senate to the

house. in our next hour, former house speaker, nancy pelosi will join us. we'll get her reaction to the strikes in yemen overnight, and of course the state of the 2024 race. during the final day of his civil fraud trial, former president donald trump certainly found a way to be heard, multiple ways to be heard. how that trial itself is wrapping up ahead of his next one. >> and it's cold in iowa today because it's january, but it's historically cold in iowa today. the impact the brutal winter weather is having on candidates just days before the caucus.

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donald trump returning to iowa this weekend to hold his final campaign events before the caucuses on monday. this after of course he chose to spend yesterday attending his $370 million civil fraud trial here in new york bringing that campaign trail to another courthouse. on thursday, he ignored the judge's order to focus on the facts of the case, giving several speeches inside and outside the court with some very well worn familiar rhetoric. >> this is a political witch

pu hunt, the likes of which nobody has ever seen before. they owe me damages for what they have done. . we didn't have a jury. we had no rights to a jury. >> the judge forced trump to cut off the rant telling his legal team to control their client. letitia james reiterated that trump acted in fraud. what is the decision to launch into this monologue tell us about where trump is in this trial, how he thinks this is going to end? >> listen, in this monologue that happened inside the courtroom was allowed by the judge but it really was a condensed version of what we heard several times as you guys said, familiar rhetoric, both inside and outside the courtroom. listen, his brand is at stake here, the new york attorney general's office trying to basically get rid of the business certificates, prevent him and his sons from doing business inside new york, and so he even said, his reputation has been damaged by this trial, and

he wanted to take that opportunity to make that very clear. he also wanted to take that opportunity as we have been saying to make this a campaign stop, and he took the time also to attack the attorney general. i want you to hear more from him and the attorney general's response. >> we have a great company. we're a very innocent company. everything right. >> it's all a conspiracy to try and get biden who can't put two sentences together, trying to get him into office. >> this case has never been about politics, a personal vendetta or about name calling. this case is about the facts and the law. i trust that justice will be done. >> and look, trump's defense team also went after the attorney general in their closing arguments essentially saying that if the judge rules in her favor, then real estate isn't going to do business in new york. companies aren't going to do business. that was also part of their strategy, guys.

>> in terms of the closing arguments, what are we expected to hear from the judge. >> the judge says he's going to write a written ruling by january 31st, the end of this month. he has outstanding claims he needs to address. of course he's ruled in the summary judgment that trump and his sons are liable for fraud. that is in the appeals process, and we know that there is going to be multiple appeals. we have seen a record of that throughout this trial. listen, there's something before that. trump is going to be back in court for the e. jean carroll defamation trial next week. >> it never stops over there. let's bring in former obama official, sarah feinberg, and alyssa farah griffin. to that point, it never ends, there's something every week. he made clear to kristen holmes, he plans to attend the e. jean carroll proceedings as well. what's the durability of this from a political standpoint?

>> it's hard to measure. any other candidate if they were in the courtroom and not in iowa on the stump or new hampshire on the stump, that would affect them with voters. donald trump has been in iowa less than any of the top tier candidates by a mile. ron desantis has done the full grassley on to all counties. nikki haley has done over a hundred stops. he is prioritizing his court cases over running for president, and think about this, post super tuesday if he's the nominee, going into leading up to the convention, he's going to be spending that core campaigning time in courtrooms, and how that hasn't broken through to the republican electorate that wants to beat joe biden is beyond me. >> quick, this is a point that ron desantis has been making. take a listen to this. >> i think the reality is if trump is the candidate, the election will be about legal issues, criminal trials, maybe he's convicted. there's all kinds of stuff we don't know is going to happen. january 6th, all of this stuff.

the democrats, that's their terrain to fight on. they win with independent voters. my nomination makes it a referendum on biden and the democrats, which we will win. trump's nomination makes the election a referendum on donald trump. >> he's not wrong but it's also a little rich coming from ron desantis because he defended him after all of his prior indictments, including for mishandling classified documents. he even said that his one regret was that donald trump was indicted. had he litigated, you know, six, nine months ago that this makes him unfit, it's going to take him off the campaign trail, the race could be in a different place. >> he's not wrong. this is exactly what it's going to be about because this is what donald trump's campaign has been about. we know, too, this is part of the strategy, right, for him to choose to be in these courtrooms where he does not need to be, and then he gets all of this air time when ithe comes out afterwards and spews

misinformation, that we as media organizations are debunking. the reality is he's getting the air time. is he win-win for donald trump. there's tho no reason for him t otherwise. >> this is a man desperate to stay out of jail, and his only hope is to try to win the presidency again. this is someone who's going to do anything he can to get as much attention as he can to keep himself out of jail. ron desantis's message is correct. the problem is the messenger. he has not resonated with voters. we have seen months of him trying to get momentum and make progress, and he's not resonating. >> when it comes to the message, though, just, if you were advising the biden campaign, i ask you this every time. but over the course of the last ten days, trump has said he wants an economic collapse in the course of the next year. he talked about repealing obama care, talked about roe v. wade. there's 15 things he's talked about publicly from a policy political perspective, if you pulled them, dems would be like plus 30.

how do you decide what to attack and what to attack on if you're the biden team. it's like a fire hose. >> the stuff residenconating wie american people is health care and the economy. i'm going to fight for you. i'm not only going to preserve what i have done, i'm not going to win an election based on what i have done. i'm going to fight for you, improve the economy. this is what i have done on health care. i have seen biden improve on the last couple of days, last couple of months or weeks but the issue is there's so much else in the news. even for the president of the united states to get attention on what he's saying in health care. we have trump in a press conference outside his courtroom. >> i am fascinated going back to trump. chri wolf blitzer pushed him on that. take a listen to this exchange. >> why should anyone take either of your criticisms of trump

seriously? >> look, the issue around the voting as a convicted felon, that's a complete hypothetical, right, it's a complete hypothetical. i get that it's fodder and all that. my point is don't worry about long-term hypotheticals that you think may or may not affect the race. you got to win the votes here. if you want trump out, if you want to defeat trump, it that happens in iowa and new hampshire. >> quite a dodge there. it happens in iowa and new hampshire. that's a hypothetical, don't worry about it, if it impacts the race. it's already impacting the race. we spent the first part of the segment talking about what a critical part of the race and the message this is. is he really trying to have it both ways here? >> so listen, love chris sununu, he's always outperformed donald trump in his home state of new hampshire. he's also nikki haley's most vocal and visible surrogate. i have to imagine that they're testing this to say, like, for his voice to resonate with republicans he needs to turn out in new hampshire, he has to at least say he's going to be with

the nominee whoever it is. i disagree with the strategy. i know chris sununu, i would be stunned if he checks a box for donald trump on election day. >> that message is out there, you want all of these people. to your point, there are a lot of people who look at him, chris sununu, he seems a little bit more moderate. he's saying i will vote for a convicted felon. >> we're at a point in the primary, you have to reach the voters like me, the chris christie followers who want somebody who's going to take on trump and talk about his unfitness and his character. i understand the strategy perhaps of not doing that six months ago, while i disagree with it. there's no excuse for saying this is why you need nikki haley, she's fit, she has the character, the integrity, and they're not doing that . >> he's always so smooth and that wasn't smooth. that's the tell. alyssa farah griffin, sarah feinberg, appreciate it. the u.s. and uk carrying out strikes against iranian-n-backe

houthis s in yemenen.. the e press secrcretary, thehe secretarary of defenense will j us witith the latetest detailsl.

we are monitoring the escalating tensions in the middle east, just one day after the u.s., actually just hours, we should say, after the u.s. and united kingdom carried out strikes on houthi rebels in yemen. saying there are no more uk missions immediately planned following those giant strikes. according to that same british official, all 14 targets were successfully hit. 12 u.s. strikes, 2 british strikes against multiple houthi targets. the u.s. for its part claims 16 locations were hit. joining us from the pentagon, press secretary for the dod,

good to have you with us this morning. if we could clarify the numbers quickly. we're hearing 14 targets from the uk, 16 from the u.s. which is it? >> sure. so last night the u.s. and the united kingdom with support from australia, bahrain, canada and the netherlands conducted strikes at 16 locations with multiple targets at each of those locations. and those targets were things that included missile radar and uav capabilities that the houthis had been employing to attack commercial shipping in the red sea, and so the intent of those strikes last night was to disrupt and degrade their ability to conduct attacks going ahead in the future. >> so, but again, 14 or 16 totally? >> 16 locations with multiple targets at those 16 locations. >> got it. thanks for clearing that up for us. so there's a lot of talk this morning about whether this will in fact lead to further escalation. i know secretary blinken said not long ago he doesn't think

the conflict is escalating, there are just a lot of danger points. you said a short time ago to cbs, this is not part of the israel-hamas conflict, yet the houthis have been clear from the very beginning that this is. so how is this not an escalation at this point? >> well, it's a great point, right, and to secretary blinken's point and what we continue to see is that the conflict between israel and hamas does remain contained to gaza and really that's a major focus for us is to deter that conflict from broadening into a wider, regional conflict. and so what you have in the red sea is the houthis indiscriminately attacking mariners, transiting this vital waterway. over 50 countries have been affected by this. this is an international problem that required an international response. and so there had been multiple warnings to include early in january 14 countries plus the united states issuing a warning to the houthis that this action, this illegal, reckless dangerous

action must stop or there would be consequences, and last night there were consequences. no one wants to see a wider regional conflict, but again, we also cannot allow for this kind of dangerous, reckless and illegal behavior to continue. >> is it really possible to separate all of this? >> again, you know, if you take a step back mhere and look at what israel is doing and who they're fighting, they're fighting hamas, which represents an existential threat to their country. so again, that's primarily contained to gaza. the houthis can say whatever they want, the fact is since november they've conducted 27 attacks against countries from around the world. their vessels operating in international waterways. last night our message was clear and also more importantly intended to disrupt and degrade their ability to conduct these kinds of attacks going into the future. >> when we look at where things stand, my very wise colleague with us this morning stephen

collinson wrote that the credibility of u.s. power was on the line here, and it was imperative to reestablish some form of deterrence. what will be the message that this in fact is a deterrent. we haven't seen retaliation yet, but that's a big yet. >> that's exactly right. you know, our initial assessment is that we had good effects. we will continue to monitor and as the president and secretary austin have said, we will continue to take necessary action. the thing here is that the united states working very closely with the international community are taking very responsible, deliberate methods here to try to ensure that we can deter these kinds of attacks in the future but doing it in a way that prevents this from, you know, spiraling out of control into a broader regional conflict. one cannot say the same for groups like the houthis that are, again, indiscriminately targeting mariners affecting the global economy and putting mariners' lives at risk. >> there are thousands of u.s.

troops in the region right now. i think i know how this is going to go but i need to ask the question, are there plans to move more into the region as you look at these danger points as they were referred to by secretary blinken? >> we have nothing to announce right now in terms of additional u.s. forces going into the region. as you know, we did deploy some additional capabilities back in october to support our regional deterrence efforts, but one of the things about the u.s. military is that we are highly flexible organization, and we have the ability to surge forces anywhere in the world should we need them. right now, there's nothing new to announce in regard to additional forces. >> quickly, too, in terms of allies in the region, saudi arabia releasing a statement in response to the attacks, urging for restraint in the region, they're not part of this coalition. we know about the discussions that have been going on between saudi arabia and the houthis obviously. how much did they know prior to these strikes? >> yeah, i can't get into the specifics in terms of private conversations between us and

partners, you know, clearly saudi arabia is an important partner in the region. we do have u.s. forces that are deployed there. but, again, we're going to continue to work very closely as we have done all along with the international community, with our allies and partners to work together to ensure regional security and stability, and to your point about restraint, you know, this is exactly what we're telling the houthis that they need to do is they need to stop these attacks, and they need to stop putting innocent mariners' lives at risk. >> secretary austin is still recovering in the hospital. can you give us a sense of his level of involvement with these strikes and also an update on his health this morning? >> sure. absolutely. well, the secretary is in good condition. he's recovering well. he's in good spirits, and he's been actively engaged in overseeing and directing these strikes. on tuesday, when the houthis conducted their complex attack in the southern red sea, the

secretary participated in a meeting with the chairman of the joint chiefs, the u.s. central command commander to monitor that, and then over the course of the last two days, he's had two conversations with the president, multiple daily calls with the national security adviser, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the u.s. central command commander to look at response options and then execution once the president authorized those strikes, and then yesterday afternoon, the secretary gave the order to central command to initiate those strikes, and then monitored in realtime with a full communication, a full suite of secure communications, and then post strike, he conducted a phone call with the national security adviser, the chairman and the is sentcommander to do assessment. he has been actively engaged. >> major patrick ryder, appreciate it, thank you. >> thank you. a winter storm in chicago has the city scrambling. and a class action lawsuit

has been filed against boeing after a chunk of its plane ripped off mid flight. we have more on that, and the quality control investigation that's now underway. that's next.

new overnight, a class action lawsuit filed on boeing on behalf of the passengers on the flight that had part of it blow off midair as the faa is

investigating their quality control and pete muntean joins us now. what are you learning about what it will entail? >> it is significant. it means the probe of friday's in-flight blow-out is getting bigger now going beyond the incident itself asking what a lot of people want to know. is there a bigger problem at boeing. the faa is opening the investigation to see if their manufacturing and quality control meet safety standards. boeing has ten days to submit a response to the faa. this kind of investigation is pretty rare, and in the meantime, the max 9 remains grounded in the u.s. here is what the faa said in its announcement, this incident should have never happened, and it cannot happen again. boeing manufacturing processes need to apply to the high federal standards. it is the door plug that blew

out and alaska airlines and united both found issues with their door plugs. united said it found loose bolts related to the possible installation issues. now, the bolts are key, four bolts keep the door plug snug against 12 fittings and without those, the door can essentially shoot off like a rocket, exactly what happened last well. still a controlled message and ceo steve calhoun has done one incident and told cnbc the cause was a corpsable escape when it came to boeing's quality control and it will take a look at its own processes and possesses of its contractors. this lawsuit, this class action state filed in lawsuit, it alleges physical injuries, emotional trauma, passengers bruised and they were thrust into a walking nightmare. something the woman leading this investigation, ntsb chair says that passengers and flight crew were extremely traumatized by

this, even the cabin crew could not communicate with the flight crew in the cockpit, phil. >> how could you not be. pete, keep us posted. thank you. we're just three days away from the iowa caucuses and donald trump fresh out of the courtroom will be back in the hawkeye state today and his plans ahead of a big day on the trail.

this morning, chicago's o'hare experiencing a ground stop as the city braces for brutal winter storms that could bring eight inches of snow and 45-mile-per-hour winds. the city scrambling as well to shelter migrants as hundreds more have been forced to live on warming buses for days now. cnn's whitney wilde is live in chicago with more. this weather, also talking about some of the most vulnerable people in chicago, plus, a

political crisis. this is quite the friday. >> absolutely. it is just challenge after challenge after challenge for city officials here. let's first talk about the migrants who are at the landing zone here in the city. as of yesterday there were 239 migrants living at this landing zone. when the weather turns like this at night, chicago transit authority offers up warming buses for migrants to shelter overnight. it is certainly not ideal. but regardless there are dozens of chicago transit authority buses here to try to give these migrants some reprieve from this winter storm that has been rolling in. this is the second wave of that storm, erica. the expectation here in the city there will be at least today between three and four inches of snow. that's because the lake here has been unseasonably warm. the city of chicago has also been unseasonably warm. they have not had a high below freezing since november 28th. so that's the good news keeping a little bit warmer here in the