christi paul. >> good morning. we are so grateful to have you with us. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. happy new years' eve and new zealand seconds away from welcome being in 2018. let's listen to the count. >> 7-6-5-4-3-2-1! >> the pictures are beautiful through the screen but can you imagine being there? that would be something to see.

that is half a ton of fireworks light up the sky there in auckland. it took five months to prepare for this sight. happy new year to them as they have beat us to it this morning. hopefully, you all will have your own good celebrations a little bit later tonight. now to the breaking news happening right now. anti-government protests in iran now widespread. also violent. deadly in several cases. >> we do want to warn you that you are about to see some imagines that are disturbing. there are bodies lying in the streets after a burst of gunfire. we don't want you taken aback, but here you go. this is video that was tweeted by human rights organization.

now, i want to get you caught up on what we know at this moment. two anti-government protesters were killed overnight and at least five were shot. iranian officials say their security officials had nothing to do with that. >> there are videos on social media that appear to show large groups of anti-government protesters fighting with police. cnn cannot independently confirm the videos but in some of the crowds appear to be chanting we don't want an islamic republic and death to the dictator. this is one of the dozens of protests happening right now. these demonstrations, they began thursday and have since spread across iran. you see the locations where some of these videos and reports are coming from.

a top iranian official issuing this stern warning to protesters this morning. saying they will pay the price for disorder. our report from bloomberg, based in tehran, spoke with cnn a short time ago. >> reporter: they are having reports on official and semiofficial media in onand some of the news agencies here, they have made references to overnight skirmishes and what they call vandalism by protesters on bus stops and some public property. the fact that some of these news sites, some aligned for conservative in their establishment is addressing its in their report itself is interesting and not necessarily, you know, expected, but it shows there is something definitely going on and that some official media sources, though not all, are addressing the protests that

happened yesterday. >> is this mainly about the economy or is there something more here? >> reporter: well i think it's a very implicated picture and a couple of analysts that i've spoken to here, even though can't simplify or fully define what is going on. they say, themselves, there are various things that they think have contributed to what happened. i know your correspondent just now referred to a statement from the first vice president, referring to as a warning against people who are trying to stir resentment against the government, but i think what is actually to provide some context there, i wouldn't say that is a chilling warning. i would say that is actually the first, you know, the vice president sending some kind of signal to the opponents that the

president about a hard line party, factions within the iranian politics here and what he meant when he said that. the government right now, two different narratives, i think, emerging within iranian domestic media. one is the government and the rouhani saying that these protests were started by hardline opponents who were protesting and voicing their grievances about the situation in the economy, and they have something that is more broadly about the wider state system here. the other narrative is being explained in more kind of hard line aligned news agencies in iran which is these are protests by people that are angry at the government, at the mismanagement of the economy and that the government needs to be accountable and president

rouhani's cabinet needs to be more accountable to those grievances. >> thank you to golnar m, tevalli in iran there. >> there are not stopping protesters from trying to get the world's attention. >> we are getting several images from social media users. we want to point out, again, these are images we cannot independently confirm but a woman standing in a busy street without her head scarf waving a white shawl. this is called white wednesdays and protests a law forcing women to wear hijabs and latest symbol of the iranian women struggle. >> joining us is frederik pleitgen who has been to iran about a dozen times. also with us is amazi who was jailed by the iranian government back in 2009. good morning to both of you.

>> good morning. >> first, i want to pick up where goldnar left off, fred. the protests of the government. is this focused on president rouhani? is this focused on the ayatollah and the islamic revolutionary guard? where is there consensus of the dissatisfaction? >> reporter: look. i think one of the interesting things about this protest, victor, it seems to be focused on the entire power structure. if you can say it's focused at all. because this seems to have more from something as goldnar saying it might have been started by hardliners to criticize the president rouhani but seems to have turned into something that is a lot more than that. two things really stand out. the protests, themselves, aren't necessarily large but they are widespread in many areas of iran, not only in the large cities, but also in smaller towns as well. that seems to indicate that there is wider discontent in many places in the entire

country that certainly has a root and economic factors but seems to go beyond that as well. the other interesting thing is what we were also pointing out is that it doesn't only seem to be directed at one or the other political group. this is not fighting between the political groups we know in iran, the hard liners and reformers but seems to be aimed at the entire power structure itself. the protests president rouhani seems to indicate part of it which is very young and highly educated does not feel that either the government or the existing clerical and revolutionary guard power structure seems to be delivering to them what they want and that is more than about economic factors but getting the possibility to unfold their potential which many iranians don't feel they are able to do. >> iran's interior minister promises that the country will definitely -- i'm quoting,

definitely confront disorder. what does confront disorder mean in iran? >> confronted disorder most probably mean they are going to imprison the protesters, they are going to shot down the media and shut down the mobile internet and things that the regime knows how to do. this is the manifestation of people's frustration with four decades of corrupt rule of clerics and why your correspondent said it's targeted at the power structure at the system as a whole and not one faction of the government against another. >> i want to focus on something that you highlighted in "the washington post," and it's about what we are hearing from the iran government and what we are not. they are responding to claims that the two people have been killed at their hand and they deny that. they are discussing violence and

responding to the president of the united states, but they are not responding to the concerns of the people. you highlight that early on that this was going to be a likelihood they will blame this on some imperial foreign power and not discuss exactly what the people are frustrated about. >> the problem is even if they want to, they cannot. they are not able to solve the economic problems of iran because of corruption, because of mismanagement that has been going on for the past four decades, and because of the different monopolies. for example the revolutionary guards are not only in military force in iran but also they have the biggest industrial complex in the country. the supreme leader supervises over some of the biggest industries and factories and commercial centers in iran, so even if the president, president rouhani wants to solve the problem, even if the supreme leader wants to solve the

problem, they are not able to do that because of nepotism, because of cronyism, because of corruption of the system. >> fred, representative will herd yesterday said the folks who ever stood up against the ayatollahs have been killed. help us understand the risk people are taking when they stand in front of a pliveolice officer and say we don't want death to the dictator. >> reporter: that is certainly a big risk a lot of the protesters are taking in light of the fact you take every demonstration going on by themselves, they aren't really that big and certainly are very, very tough security forces known as the besiege militia in place in tehran and other places as well that do crack down really hard. so this is definitely a big risk that a lot of these people are taking but now gotten to where

people in many towns are willing to take that risk. if you look overnight a lot of it was more than people chanting in the streets. government buildings that were apparently attacked and posters were torn down and something where the government says it's going to confront all this. i think one of the big issues that we also have to look at is the nuclear agreement between iran and world powers which many, many iranians are put a lot of hope into, a lot of hope in iran not only opening up economically, but in general opening up to the world. i think that that is one of the things where a lot of people feel that president rouhani hasn't necessarily delivered what he promised and the u.s. is remaining tough on that as well, but also where they see that a lot of the economic benefits simply haven't trickled down yet. >> soon after that iran deal was cemented, president rouhani said that this would be the golden page in the history of iran. that is two years on now, the people in iran clearly do not believe that. frederik pleitgen, mazahi, thank

you both. >> thank you both. mike pence is reacting to the unrest in iran now. >> dan merica, what is vice president pence saying? >> reporter: the trump administration is saying they support the protests in iran. mike pence is tweeting as well. here is what he said. what omany expert took trump's remarks to mean the world, including the united states, will punish iran if these crackdowns continue. that remains to be seen, however. >> dan, thank you so much. a new report from "the new

york times" that identifies a former trump aide as the person possibly responsible, the reason why the fbi started its entire investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election. we have got details next. you're gaining something from meeting mr. adderley. it's a calling to not only everybody in this neighborhood in miami, but to the nation how great we are. and how great we can be. ♪ ♪ i'll stand by you. ♪ i'll stand by you. ♪ and i'll never desert you. ♪ i'll stand by you.

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this morning, a "the new york times" report is adding to the pieces of the russian investigation even pointing out why the fbi started that investigation in the first place. >> according to the report, campaign aide george papadopoulos knew russia are thousands of emails that could damage hillary clinton months before the information was public. cnn's sarah murray has more. >> reporter: on the another sleepy day on the president's vacation in mar-a-lago, the white house was left grappling another "the new york times" bombshell and centered around george papadopoulos who was a former aide to trump when he was in his campaign and revelations

telling people he was aware moscow had damaging emails about hillary clinton and may have attracted law enforcement to this information whether any collusion between trump campaign officials to meddle in the election. the white house went out of their way before this report was out to downplay papadopoulos position. >> it was a volunteer position and no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign in that regard. >> reporter: now the white house took a cautious role in its response to this bombshell report over the weekend. ty cobb, who is the president's counsel within the house, put out a statement that said the following. if you dig into the "the new york times" report a couple of

things could be troubling for the trump white house including the notion that papadopoulos weighed in on candidate trump's foreign policy speeches as well as helping to facilitate a meeting between candidate trump and the egyptian president and both things seem out of the speck truck of a low-level volunteer. let's talk about this with deputy managing editor of "the weekly standard" kelly jane torrance. good to see you. >> good to be here. >> we just heard there from sarah sanders. being a volunteer for a campaign doesn't necessarily equate to being di connected from it. put into context papadopoulos role in all of this. >> when sarah sanders says he was a volunteer for the campaign, i think she is trying to give people the idea that he was some kind of youngster that came in and answered phones or went door-to-door handing out leaflets because i think what a

lot of americans think of when they hear the words campaign volunteer. let's keep in mind that paul manafort, who was trump's campaign chairman could have been considered a volunteer because he did that position unpaid and he volunteered his services unpaid. it's clear he thought he was going to get something else out of it, of course. so calling this guy a volunteer, i think, is misleading at best. it's clear that he had a lot to do with the campaign. you see him as you pictured him in meetings with the trump foreign policy team, pretty close to jeff sessions who was the head of then trump's foreign policy team. he was in communication constantly we learned, especially from that "the new york times" over email with stephen mill who erwho is a par the white house. and encouraged him to go to russia to meet with people but he said the campaign would not

pay for it and that is apparently why mr. papadopoulos decided not to go. sarah sanders i think is being misleading at best here in trying to portray him as some low-level copy boy volunteer. he had more to do with the campaign than that. >> errol louis is up earlier with us. good morning to you. i want to read to you this "the new york times" piece that we are talking about. it seems significant. they say the hacking, meaning of democratic emails and a revelation of the trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the fbi to open an investigation in july 2016 into russia's attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of president trump's associates conspired. now that statement doesn't it contradict the theory from many on the gop side, congressmen who said the dossier was the catalyst for the fbi investigation?

>> that is exactly right. there is information coming from multiple angles that all led to the same conclusion. that is why incidentally you have an independent department of justice, while the president appoints an attorney general and while the president names the fbi director, both are substantially independent of the president for exactly just this reason. you have information coming from the dossier floating around for a while and the actual hacking that leads to the justice department to say we are not sitting on our hand, we have to start looking. this has been known all along and when you hear, as we heard just the other day, the president saying, no collusion, no pollution, that is not what this was always about, not simply collusion in some kind of hollywood sense, but the fact there is clearly something wrong here that the sworn officers of the fbi and the justice department had to look into. >> kelly jane, we know that pap

l papadopoulos has plead not guilty to the fbi. is there something he knows and what he is sharing and what he is getting to do so? >> i mean, we know more than we did a few days ago, thanks to the "the new york times" report. that makes me wonder is there more we don't know? "the new york times" got a hold of quite a lot of emails that went back and forth between papadopoulos and people in the campaign and he does not mention in any of these emails to people in the campaign the specific details of the emails he knows that the russians have, you know, that the supposed dirt on hillary clinton which, you know, sounds to me not so much dirt on hillary clinton but some embarrassing emails from the democratic national committee which hackers were soon to release after a few months, a couple of months after mr. papadopoulos talked about them. it seems like they have a lot of information already but given we had known about the existence of these emails until now, you have to wonder what else is out

there. i have to say, i mean, this guy, at the time, was a 28-year-old and, obviously, poorly vetted. this guy listed that he was a fellow at the hudson institute and turned out he was an unpaid intern. he had model un on his equalifications and they are saying he had nothing to do with them. you have to wonder what the vetting the trump campaign did with a low level guy. this guy was in high listen helpful meetings and a surrogate for the campaign and talking to media throughout the campaign. >> errol, with that said, how critical do you think papadopoulos, himself, is going to be to the end of this, whatever that maybe? >> look. he is extraordinarily important. you have to keep in mind a puzzle with a lot of pieces to and this is somebody who sat in high-level meetings soon to be vice president and something he said to his own admittance he

pled guilty that is in trouble the rest of his life. this is something i think will help the mueller investigation and others get their tick tock together. the day-by-day sort of development of a case. and in papadopoulos case they can dismiss him as coffee boy and i think something that was hung around his neck but he doesn't have to provide all of the information. he can provide just enough with credibility to cause some real problems for a lot of other people. >> errol louis and kelly jane torrance, good to see you and happy new year to you. >> you too. speaking of happy new year. a look at times square in new york city. they have cleared the streets and there will be a security sweep but later it will be packed with hundreds of thousands and maybe more than a million, stretching down the streets to ring in 2018. the woman who will push the button to start the ball to drop

right before midnight, founder of the #me too movement will be on with us this morning so stay with us for that. we are about 25 minutes into the new year in new zealand. the party has started. you see the fireworks here. massive display in the sky. the sky tower here took reportedly five months to prepare this show. this year's laser light show was double the size of the show last year. happy new year, auckland.

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i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. it flies by every year. it's cold. very cold. >> breaking news. it's cold. >> new yorkers are still going to flood the streets to celebrate the new year. >> of course, they are! officials are gearing up for one big celebration in times square. take a look at the pictures now. i know nobody is there but that is going to be packed within the next few hours and that is a good thing because maybe all of that body heat will help keep people warm from the frigid temperatures that they are expecting. third coldest new year's eve ball drop in times square since the event started in 1907. >> the folks in new york are not the only ones dealing with frigid temperatures. 140 million people are under windchill alerts. >> that is nearly, apparently, every state east of the rockies and reaching nearly to the gulf coast. we are talking about texas, mississippi, alabama. meteorologist allison chinchar is here with the details. give us the heads-up. how bad is it going to be?

>> florida and south carolina are the only states you're missing east of the rockies. take a look at the map. you have pretty much everything. the windchill alerts on the u.s./canada board and u.s./mexico border. brownsville, texas, is also under a windchill advisory. this is important to note for folks in the south under these. we expect precipitation to move through there today and tonight and that is going to cause problems tonight when the temperatures change. we actually have winter weather advisories for mississippi and texas. here is a look at the radar. it's going to start off as rain because we will be warm enough during the day. it's at night tonight those temperatures drop off. that is when we are going to start to see a changeover and there could be ice accumulations for areas of texas, south texas, all the way over towards mississippi and alabama. look at the map. this is showing the morning low temperatures tomorrow. look at how far apart from average. 26 degrees below average for international falls. 26 degrees below average for

chicago. even new york is going to be about 20 degrees below average. but what does that mean for the folks, say, in new york that are planning to celebrate new year's eve tonight? here is a look at the forecast. it is going to be chilly. at 8:00, we know there is still going to be plenty of people standing out there at 8:00, the temperature is going to be 15 with that windchill hovering around that zero mark. by the time you get to midnight, that windchill is going to be definitely maybe, say, about minus 5 to minus 10 for that feels like temperature. >> you know what i bought for the first time yesterday in a while? >> oh, no. >> mittens! >> as you should! >> i feel like it was going to be that cold, my fingers should be together. there is strength more in numbers. >> they say keep you warmer than gloves. >> can't use my cell phone. >> it's all right. you'll be fine. allison chinchar, thank you very much. >> thanks, allison. >> don't forget to celebrate the new year with us.

two best friends and epic night and i predict fun shenanigans. >> i wondered where that was going. >> anderson cooper and andy cohen, you know it. it begins tonight at 8:00. as the world ushers in the new year we are reliving the biggest stories of a hectic 12 months. >> slinging mud at journalists and crying foul about fake news. president trump's complicated relationship with the press continues. >> here is cnn's senior media correspondent brian stelter with his top media story picks of 2017. >> reporter: scoops, falsehoods and few days and firings. and a cultural reckoning. here are the top seven media stories in 2017. number seven. late night in the age of trump. from jimmy kimmel's emotional

obamacare appeal. >> if your baby is going to die and it doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter how much money you make. >> reporter: to the outcry after charlottesville. >> the fact it took the president two days to come out and clearly denounce racist and supremacist is shameful. >> reporter: so "snl's" satire. >> sorry, kelly ann i'm in pouty mode. >> reporter: late night became an anti-trump force. number six, the anti-trust battle of the decade. >> on breaking news, the justice department is suing to block at&t's takeover of time warner, the parent company of cnn. >> reporter: the d.o.j. argues that the deal would harm competition. but some wonder if this is really about president trump's vendetta against cnn. after all, there is another deal. this one involving conservative leaning sinclair that is making far less noise.

sinclair purchasing tribune media and now disney bidding for a big chunk of ruptert murdoch' entity. at a time when facebook and google's domination of the out market is already causing anxiety. that brings us to number five. russian ads on social media. tech giants finally admitting that russia used their platforms to meddle in the 2016 next. >> facebook told congressional investigators today it sold about a hundred thousand dollars worth of political ads to a so-called russian troll farm targeting american voters. >> reporter: similar disclosures from twitter and google followed. all before congress, the companies were shamed for missing russian interference. >> i must say i don't think you get it. you've created these platforms and now they are being misused. >> reporter: facebook, google, and twitter have all pledged changes, but can they be trusted

to police their platforms? number four, the white house credibility crisis. it started with sean spicer's very first statement from the podium. >> this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. >> sean spicer gave alternative facts. >> reporter: the president's tribute crumbled. >> they came out here to punch you. >> reporter: spicer left. >> sarah huckabee-sanders pretends to know something he said but she pretends to know nothing else. >> reporter: fact checkers in overdrive this year and it is another stain on the white house's credibility but, at the same time, there is more pressure than ever on us in the press to be careful and get it right. number three. the power of investigative reporting. it created the conditions for

michael flynn's firing as national security adviser. it led to the ouster of health and human services secretary tom price following a story about his use of private planes. and it drove the withdrawal of president trump's drug czar nominee. >> this was something was an explosive report by "60 minutes" and "the washington post." >> reporter: viewership and readership way up in 2017 as the reporter held the powerful to account and saw that in the top media story of the year coming up. number two is donald trump versus the media still. this time last year, we wondered if the new president would tone down his attacks on the estate but no. >> you are fake news. >> reporter: soon after tag office, trump called the media the enemy of the people and tried to redefine the term fake news to any media' didn't like. >> all i can tell you it's totally fake news.

>> reporter: trump rah lashed out with verbal attacks. >> the press write what they want to write and people should look into it. >> reporter: trump's media bashing has sent a chill through newsroom across the country but the champions of the first amendment are not backing down. and the number one story in media this year, the sexual harassment reckoning. it was a moment foreshadowed by the april ouster of fox news star bill o'reilly following secret harassment settlements. it explode with the publication of two stories about movie producer harvey weinstein and expo says by "the new york times" and new yorker sparked a me too movement that reverberated through every corner of industry and politics. as the flood gates opened, mead media tumbled. >> mark halpern is leaving nbc news after cnn uncovered accusations of sexual harassment

by five women. >> reporter: breaking news. charlie rose fired and now three more women are coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against the veteran journalist. >> shocking new details about the sexual harassment allegations against matt lauer who was fired by nbc today. >> reporter: the weinstein effect is a watershed moment in american culture but will it usher in real, systemic change? let's see how the media covers that story in 2018. >> join cnn's tom foreman for a look at some of the biggest moments of the year. all the best, all the worst 2017 airs tonight at 7:00. (avo) help control cravings

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i use herpecin l.re, it penetrates deep to treat. it soothes, moisturizes, and creates an spf 30 barrier, to protect against flare-ups caused by the sun. herpecin l. 2018 will test the power of former white house chief strategist steve bannon. the breitbart executive chairman helped but donald trump in the white house and declared war on the republican establishment and he hit the campaign trail to promote far right challenges to gop lawmakers. several of those candidates lost their races. will that trend continue in 2018 in the mid terms or will he be able to turn it around? joining us is oliver darcy. good morning to you. let's start broadly here. almost comical pull vote from the "vanity fair" story a couple

of weeks that steve bannon declared i have power! does he have and how much? >> since he ushered trump into office he is hyped as a guy who is very powerful and a master strategist and can, you know, lead this great war against the gop establishment. i don't know if he has the record, though, to really support that if you look at what has happened this year. ed gillespie, he rallied around that candidate in virginia and that person ended up losing. you look at roy moore in alabama. he went down there and champions and campaigned for and roy moore ended ups althou losing. and then paul nailon in wisconsin who is running against speaker ryan and is challenging him again in 2018, he had to distance himself after has candidate tweeted a number of

inflammatory things. >> paul nailon, as you said, used a hash tag it's okay to be white. this is a man who runs the website that prides itself on being the platform for the alt right. why was paul nailon a bridge too far? >> i don't know. i think that bannon one time said that, you know, they are a platform for the altright. i'm not sure that breitbart would make that comment. it is remarkable that they are distancing themselves from this far right candidate because particularly if you look at the

previous coverage from nailon they did everything to prop him up. they ran story after story about his candidacy against speaker ryan and simultaneously did everything to tear down ryan in that race. the immediate severing of ties really says something and it says a lot about, i guess, paul nehlen he went to the far right that breitbart didn't support him. >> the country was introduced to steve bannon as part of the trump campaign coming in i call it third trimester there. i call at the time end of the campaign. back to roy moore who lost and gillespie lost in virginia. if we look pre-trump, how is bannon's record? >> it doesn't get much better pre-trump. he hasn't been able to usher in candidate in his own into congress if you look, for instance, like in alabama -- or mississippi, sorry. thad cochran versus mcdaniel.

mcdaniel lost and i think he might run again. you look at the candidates that bannon support in the past, they certainly have been those who campaign against gop establishments. they haven't necessarily been able to take that fire and really marshal it into office. >> all right. we will see what becomes of steve bannon as we head toward the mid terms in 2018. oliver darcy, thanks so much. >> thank you. college football playoffs tomorrow. big question? andy scholes, will the heisman trophy winner be there to lead the sooners? >> baker mayfield is battling flu-like symptoms. what he is saying about his status for the rose bowl. have that for you next. it's all pop-culture trivia, but it gets pretty intense.

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whfight back fastts, with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum -tum -tum -tum smoothies! only from tums the heisman trophy winner says it will take more than the flu to keep him from playing in the rose bowl tomorrow. >> andy scholes has more on this morning's "bleacher report." down but not out, right? >> baker mayfield's condition is in a great mystery in the lead-up to the big bowl games tomorrow. mayfield has been absent from all team activities other than practice. he didn't even attend any of the interview sessions. that was until a surprise late arrival yesterday. mayfield said he felt bad his

illness was becoming the story of the rose bowl so he showed up to end all of the speculation about his condition. >> this whole thing is not about me. oklahoma is here to play a playoff game. it's not about any sickness that i have. we are here to win and game and what it needs to be about. my teammates don't need to answer questions on my what have. i'm not dying and i'll be playing and we are focusing on our goal. >> certainly doesn't sound good. oklahoma take on georgia. then alabama takes on clemson in the sugar bowl. winners meet january 8th for the national titles. wisconsin taking on miami in the orange bowl. not a great night for hurricanes coach mark richt. he was flagged for a personal foul for grabbing the official and he apologized after the game. wisconsin's quarterback throwing four touchdown passes in this one. wisconsin wins over miami.

in the fiesta bowl, penn state taking on washington. the catch of the game coming from the nittany lions mascot. check him out. he goes down and grabs the ball. solid catch, considering he has paws for hands! penn state, they beat washington 35-28 but you wouldn't have known it if you watched the nittany lions coach james franklin after he gets the gatorade bath. he looks furious and even going after the player that caught him with it. maybe he was mad his glasses got knocked off. franklin was probably just joking around but it looks serious, though. steph curry returning from his injury with a bang last night. the two-time nba mvp back in the lineup against the grizzlies after an 11-game absence. he was on fire and season high ten three-pointers in the win. curry was supposed to play only half of the game but pleaded with his coaches to stay in. >> i mean, i was excited. it felt like the first day of school again, for real. and just wanted that feeling

again. it was pretty special. >> good to have steph curry back since it's fun watching him on the court. >> absolutely. >> thanks, andy. happy new year. >> you too. in today's inspiring people, we introduce you to a law enforcement officer in ohio who has turned around the lives of dozens of opioid addicts. >> for 19 years i wore this uniform. >> charles johnson has hung up this uniform for this uniform because of the opioid epidemic. as a deputy sheriff in lucas county, ohio, it's johnson's job to visit overdose survivors in the hospital and try to save them. you're not there to arrest them? >> no. >> reporter: what are you there to do? >> i'm there to convince them to live. >> reporter: every day on average, six people overdose in his county. >> they are your mailman, they are your neighbors. they are your friends. >> reporter: more counsel than cop. since 2014, johnson and his team

have convinced 80% of overdose survivors to go into detox. you stick around in these people's lives? >> you know what? i remember every one of theirs names. i stop in to visit their families and their homes and their families. i visit them in detail. i am a parent to hundred addicts. >> he was staying in touch to make sure i'm doing the right thing. are you working today? yeah, i'm working and nice to hear. >> reporter: does it take a toll? >> oh, absolutely. you can get burned out doing this. my phone never stops ringing. i will not answer that phone because someone's life depends on it.

good morning to you, everybody. welcome to the last day of 2017. we are glad to spend it with you. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. good morning to you. breaking news. anti-government protesters in iran now spreading across the country. they are now viole