the partial u.s. government shutdown, yeah, it's still a thing. and no sympathy from the u.s. president who claims without proof, it's mainly democrats affected. we'll explain or try to. plus, wall street goes for another wild ride despite thursday's late day rally. there is still plenty of reason for investors to be concerned. worried there. also ahead, a top trump official is headed back to the border, this after a second migrant child dies in u.s. custody. we are live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta and we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm george howell. the cnn newsroom starts now.

at 2:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast, we are seven days in now, and no end in sight. the partial u.s. government shutdown drags on. the u.s. president continues to dig in, and congress has gone home for the year. in the middle of it all, some 800,000 government workers unsure of when they will be paid next. cnn's abbey philip picks it up from here. >> reporter: with the government still partially shutdown and no end in sight, president trump was back at the white house and tweeting after his surprise trip to iraq. after claiming this week the federal employees supported the shutdown -- >> many of those workers have said to me and communicated, stay out until you get the funding for the wall. these federal workers want the wall. >> reporter: the president is now taunting democrats in a tweet by claiming, without evidence, that most of the 800,000 federal workers affected by the shutdown are democrats.

that comment prompted backlash from one of the largest unions representing federal employees. the head of the american federation of government employees writing in a statement, a government shutdown doesn't hurt any one political party or any one federal employee more than another. it hurts all of them. it hurts their families and it hurts all of our communities. the president doesn't appear to be budging from his starting position l. >> whatever it takes. i mean, we're going to have a wall, we're going to have safety. >> reporter: today white house press secretary sarah sanders doubled down in a statement saying, the president does not want the government to remain shutdown, but he will not sign a proposal that does not first prioritize our country's safety and security. yet while in iraq, trump repeatedly refused to say if he'll compromise and accept less than $5 billion in wall funding. >> mr. president, will you go down to 5 billion to 2 billion for border security and the conversation with democrats? >> you know, as you know, we've already built a lot of wall. we're building a lot more. >> it is a matter of

negotiation, sir, you've come down from the 5 billion and ask for 2 billion? >> here's the problem we have. we have a problem with the democrats because nancy pelosi is calling the shots, not chuck. >> will you accept 2 billion instead of 5 billion? >> i'm not going to talk about it now, butly say this. we have been building a lot of wall. >> reporter: even as his first trip as president to the u.s. combat zone, trump's politicizing continued. as soldiers looked on, he once again attacked democrats and pitched his border wall. >> we want to have strong borders in the united states. the democrats don't want to let us have strong borders. only for one reason. you know why? because i want it. >> reporter: the president also drawing criticism for rallying troops with a lie about their salaries. >> they just got one of the biggest pay raises you've ever received. they said, we can make it smaller, we can make it 3%, we can make it 2%, we can make it 4%. i said no, make it 10%. make it more than 10%. because it's been a long time --

it's been more than ten years. >> reporter: the facts, mill frid military pay has increased every year the last 30 years. not anywhere near the 10% he claims. still, the president keeps repeating it over -- >> in 2019 we want to give you your largest pay raise in over a decade. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: and over. >> that also includes raises for our military. so -- [ cheers and applause ] >> first time in ten years. >> reporter: and the white house also accused democrats of leaving town while the government was shut down. but it should also be said that republicans have also left town, including the president's negotiator jared kushner who has been working with vice-president mike pence on negotiating with democrats these last few days. meanwhile, president trump does remain here in washington and there's no indication that he plans to return to florida where the rest of his family is spending the holidays. at the end of the day, there

does not seem to be much urgency here in washington to resolve this problem, and the shutdown could last for many more days to come. abby philip, cnn, the white house. >> abby, thank you for the reporting. let's bring in james davis, dean of political science at the university of saint gallen. this hour fliefrm us in live for us in munich, germany. >> good morning, george. >> this shutdown, the word now, james, this could go for several weeks into the new year. and neither side really having the motivation to move toward the middle. lawmakers even seem less optimistic. listen. >> if the democrats are not willing to put up even 2.5 or 2.6 billion, they were never serious about it. they were wanting the amnesty portion, but not the border security portion. when you look at that, that's one of the tragedies of today. >> james, how do you see this

playing out? >> well, let's remember that there is about 1.7 billion in the budget this year for border wall -- for a border wall. and about 1.7 billion, the administration has spent something like 6%. so they haven't even spent the money that's been allocated already for them. the president could have had more money had he gone for daca, the deferred action for childhood arrivals program. that was the deal that the democrats were offering him a year ago. he did get money for the border wall. he hasn't spent it. so the question now going forward is who is going to swerve in this game of chicken that we're playing? who is going to blink first? and i think at the end it's going to be whoever the public begins to blame for an ongoing shutdown. right now it looks like the public is blaming the president more than they are the congress, but that could change. >> let's talk about the more than 800,000 people, though, affected by the shutdown from the state department, homeland security, the justice department. this list goes on and on. but the president recently

categorizing people affected or furloughed as mainly democrats. how he reached that conclusion, it's anybody's guess. but what does it mean for these people that are caught in the middle, people who don't know when they will be paid next? >> well, i think anybody that is expecting a paycheck and doesn't get it knows what that means. that means you're not going to be paying the bills, your rent or mortgage payment is going to be late. payment for your children's education is going to be -- are going to be late. this is not going to help matters. but i don't think we should take the president's remarks on this too seriously. remember it was just a week ago he was saying the majority of the federal employees were in favor of a shutdown because they wanted border security. so one week he thinks 800,000 federal employees are supporting his policies, the next week he thinks it's a bunch of democrats who are getting punished by this. it's really hard to take any of this seriously. but again, at the end of the day it's going to be a question of who does the american people begin to blame for the shutdown.

right now, we know 56% of the american people do not approve of the building of the wall and a plurality of them are blaming the president. if that momentum continues, the president is the one who is going to have to back down on this. >> let's talk, james, about the president in iraq, spending time with the troops, telling them that they were getting this pay raise for the first time in ten years, and more than ten years. james, that is an outright lie. it is simply not true, not true at all. but the president is getting a lot of pushback for it. >> yeah, i mean, the president here is again using the military as a backdrop for political campaign-style statement. the president is going against really, really two centuries worth of norms in the united states where we try to keep the military out of politics, out of active politics. by going there, raising this issue of a pay raise in a very partisan way, lying about it in

the first place, but also signing all kinds of red caps that may or may not have been make america great again caps. but it sure looked like it to me. signing caps, turning a visit to the troops into a campaign-style rally is really against the norms of this country. but it's part of a strategy that he seems to be employing across the institutions of government. he's tried to make the judiciary a prize that you win by winning the white house when our judiciary is one of our prized neutral ar bbiters of the law i the united states. he's trying to make the federal reserve a kind of foot ball when the federal reserve bank's independence is a very important part of the stability of our economy. and now it's the military that's being used as a kind of a political prop for a president that's facing all kinds of

domestic and foreign challenges. and i think the american people, but also the servicemen and women who are fighting for our freedom will see through this. >> you know, it is tradition, it is customary for presidents of the united states to visit troops in war theaters. we're seeing this president follow that tradition here in iraq. but to your point, he's also being criticized, even in conservative media, for making the trip more about him, more about the campaign, than the troops themselves. let's listen. >> i would never consider us as a country as the united states suckers. we have always led the fight in every single major war. our military men and women, i believe, deserve way more respect than that. >> if the president had gone and made this trip, which he absolutely should have done and not used it as a campaign rally, because when you use language like that and the word suckers -- >> we talked about the border wall as well which didn't have a place. >> of course. >> that back and forth on a conservative talk show here in the united states. what are your thoughts about the

optics of this trip? >> i think the optics are bad. it speaks to the bad optics that the conservative media that has traditionally been the supporter of this president is beginning to turn on him and criticizing this kind of behavior. in fact, it is right for the commander in chief to visit the troops. i applaud him for doing so. but it should be about the troops and not about the commander in chief. and this commander in chief has turned it into something that's all about him, all about what he's done, all about what he wants to do, instead of thanking those troops for the service that they have provided to the country in a time when, you know, most of them are wishing they were back home with their families. >> james davis. and, james, if i don't see you before, happy new year to you. >> happy new year to you, george. >> thanks for being with us. now to the markets and what a ride with a side of whiplash, you could say, after plunging more than 600 points on thursday. the dow bounced back in the final minutes, closing up more

than 260 points, gaining more than 1%. asian markets appeared to take it all in stride. the nikkei closed down. the shanghai and hang seng were both up slightly. so clearly there is volatility in play. our alison kosik has more on what to look for down the road. >> reporter: hey there. stocks staged a huge comeback. the dow erased a 611-point decline, closing up 260 points. it is an almost 900-point swing, a day after the dow made history, jumping more than 1,000 points. the trading session was marked by heavy volatility as has been the month of december. the dow has made triple digit moves in 12 of the months' 18 trading sessions. the year-end gyrations come after heavy stock losses in the market overall. the dow was down thousands of points from its october peak. the nasdaq is not far from a bear market. that's a 20% drop from a recent high. year-end positioning is responsible for a lot of the

volatility that we're seeing, but once the calendar changes from 2018 to 2019, investors will be looking for clarity and certainty on a number of issues, including how many times the federal reserve is expected to raise rates and whether the trade situation between the u.s. and china will be resolved. back to you. >> to talk more about this let's bring in ryan patel, ryan a global executive joining us this hour from los angeles with his experience and knowledge. thank you again, ryan, for your time. >> my pleasure. >> let's talk about where things stand right now, because obviously we saw this course reverse, the dow jones rallying more than a thousand points. great news on the surface, but people are still jittery about a slow-down and even a recession. how would you categorize the markets? >> listen if you have to say great news from being down so much in the morning and barely getting to the top, i guess that's great news on a day it should have been in the red. the thing i learned about this today, we live in a global economy now. what's different from the depression and the recession,

we're a lot more intertwined. so things like china and the u.s. trade war, news that would come out, affect the market. things like brexit will affect the market depending how it ends. even the saudi blockade to qatar and regional things like italy and even turkey you saw this year became issues in the market. so those kind of things come into 2019 will have an affect that is not baked into this market. those kind of fears will cause this kind of extreme days up and down because you don't know what's going to be ahead. >> okay. so, we talk about the gains. but let's talk about the losses, because clearly we've seen volatility in play. there are the downward pressures, as you point out, of global slow down. the trade tensions between the u.s. and china. what do you make of the losses that we've seen here in recent weeks? >> yeah, let's talk about what just happened today. i think what happened today was the market was trying to figure out the volatility. is this the bottom? and the answer to that question is, no. it may take a month, it may take a few months to see where the

volatility will keep going until we find what the rock bottom looks like. and that's what we've seen, these kind of -- when you start to see the extreme pressures from up and down, it's obviously people buying and selling, but also people are trying to figure out is this the time to get in or not. and right now the sentiment is still not ready to buy on these kind of dips. >> this rally certainly welcomed by the u.s. president who, unlike his predecessors, donald trump enjoys hanging his hat on the stock market as he has done many times in the past. let's listen. >> >> we're doing record business, record stock market, record everything. they're all doing well. 401(k) is doing well, stocks doing well. since i took office, the value of america's mutual funds and pension funds has increased by $2.7 trillion. [ cheers and applause ] >> that's good money. >> so, it's a great one, mum is the word when it's not. in fact, we know president trump phoned his advisors from air

force one on his way back from iraq to talk about that thousand-point gain. we know the market can be unpredictable as we know this president takes pride in unpredictability as well. how predictable would you say this strategy is of his to continue hanging his hat on the markets? >> well, you know, i think he knows no difference. you saw last year, too, we went through this situation where he went up -- the market was up and even when it had bad days, he would just ignore it. so for him, you know, i think he is one -- this is going to be his legacy. when he's done with his term and his presidency, he's going to look back and he's going to look at his legacy and he's going to think the market is his one. he's the business guy. hence he came after the fed. he was blaming the fed on why this market was going to go toward down. need to have actually a point he needed to push across. again, we've known in the history that presidencies, presidents don't dictate and put their hand on the economy -- the

stock market, per se, because it is a different animal. >> okay. so heading into 2019, do you see us heading into a strong economy, or do you expect more ups and downs like we've seen? >> list tone this, i think you need to bring your seat belt, george, because it's going to be a roller coaster ride the first two quarters. earnings season is right around the corner, one, and we don't know where it's going to go positive or plus. we know the u.s. economy is still 2 to 3% gdp. it's still healthy. you don't know what's going to -- the china u.s. trade piece is a big deal. deadlines for march 1st, fed meeting date for march 30th is all on the calendar and the market is watching. what's going to happen these days, you cannot ignore this when they are put that far in advance behind it. so, you know, i feel people have been using the word recession freely as to 2019, 2020. when is it? i think the first two quarters, let's get through that first and see how it will play. i think the federal reserve is watching this now, no longer quarterly, but once a month.

that's going to be a big deal here. it's got everybody's attention. >> it's got everybody jittery, everybody for sure. ryan patel, thank you so much for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> up next here on newsroom, there is a search for answers after a second migrant child dies in u.s. custody. and now the homeland security secretary will travel to the u.s./mexico border to see the situation for herself. plus, the new york city skyline. the night lit up, brilliant shade of blue as you see there. we'll explain why and what happened as newsroom pushes ahead. stay with us. ♪ -we have the power -to make a difference, right now. we have the power to make sure everyone has clean water. to provide access to education for all. -to rid the world of aids, -once and for all. we have the power. to choose to include. to create clean energy. to raise capital. and be fearless entrepreneurs. to understand different perspectives. we stand behind all our partners working to make a difference.

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after the tragic death of another migrant child in u.s. custody, the head of u.s. department of homeland security plans to visit the southern u.s. border on friday. kristen nielsen planned a visit after a boy died in el paso, texas. it is the second time a child died in u.s. custody this month alone. cnn's nick valencia has this report for you. >> reporter: this is 8-year-old migrant felipe gomez alonzo who died in border patrol custody on christmas eve. he had been brought to the hospital, released and brought to the hospital again.

felipe's mother inconsolable as she waits to find out how her young son died. >> translator: i want them to bring my son here. i need to see him soon. i'm very sad that he died. >> reporter: the family now pleading with the u.s. government to return his body to be laid to rest back home in guatemala. >> translator: they told us they were doing what they can to get him back. we just want them toer hurry. >> reporter: homeland secretary saying it is heart breaking. it's been ten years since a child died in their custody. in el paso, one of the places flee faye was held, many migrants are being released this week in part because the government can't handle the influx. more than 500 migrants in the last 24 hours, sent to a network of nonprofits. inside this makeshift shelter, huddled around a table, a handful of migrants just released from border patrol custody. most of them don't want to talk on camera about what they've been through, but one of the migrants agrees only if we don't show his face.

you paid to get out. how much of a bond did you pay? he shows us the paperwork they gave him as a receipt for his $10,000 bond to get out after three months in custody. he said he had to mortgage his home in nicaragua to pay for t. what do you say to people who think you're a criminal, you don't have business in this country? you have values and you have morals and you're not here to -- you're not here to do bad, you're not a criminal. >> reporter: throughout the day here at this bus station in el paso, we continue to see migrants dropped off by i.c.e. they are dumped on the streets of el paso with no resource ands no place to go. the charities volunteering are overwhelmed calling this a crisis with no end in sight. nick valencia, cnn, el paso, texas. >> let's talk more about this now with dylan correspond bet, the director of the hope border institute in el paso, texas.

joining via skype this hour. dylan, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> your group focused on bringing religious and secular communities together around issues on the border, and now with the deaths of two children, what are people telling you about the government's approach given these latest tragedies? >> you know, i think it's simply tragic that it had to come to this. what has been going on in the border for all of 2018 with policies like zero tolerance, with policies like family separation, with policies like coaxing them on the bridge denying people asylum forcing them into more danger and remote parts of the border, deaths like this were to be expected. they militarize the border. in response to what's going on, the problem and phenomenon of immigration at the border. and the military's response, deploying troops, deploying extra resources to secure the border and militarize the border

has resulted unfortunately in -- unfortunately we've had deaths as a result of this. >> groups like the aclu place blame with customs andrd bore patrol. the department of homeland security side steps the blame and instead points the finger at migrants themselves as we see in this statement from the secretary of homeland security. our system has been pushed to a breaking point by those who seek open borders, smugglers, traffickers and their own parents put these minors at risk by embarking on the dangerous and arduous journey north. your thoughts on that statement? >> you know, i read the secretary nielsen's statement yesterday on the death of felipe alonzo gomez. what shocked me was she blamed congress, she blamed immigration judges, she blamed activists and advocates, she blamed the migrants and the parents of migrants themselves. but she never took responsibility. she never took responsibility as the secretary for the department of homeland security.

when jacqueline died in december, cbp were obliged within 24 hours to inform congress as per the law. effectively, they broke the law by not informing congress of the young girl's death. by not taking responsibility for the children in their custody, this is troubling because dhs and cpb have a responsibility to guarantee the safety of the families in their custody, guarantee the safety and health and well-being of the children in their custody. both of these children were in the custody of border patrol when they expired. so this is troubling that the secretary doesn't seem to think that she needs to take any responsibility for this. >> you talk about the migrants fleeing these various countries. and as they flee, as they are detained by customs and border patrol in these different facilities, we're hearing more about the conditions there, more and more these agents are seeing

families together with children crossing the border. and we heard the commissioner for customs and border patrol say they're just not ready for it. listen. >> what we're seeing with these flows is huge numbers of families with lots of children, young children as well as unaccompanied minors coming into border patrol custody after crossing the border unlawfully. that our stations are not built for that group that's crossing today. they were built 30 40rks yea, 4o for single adult male. we need help from congress, we need to budge for mental care and health care for children in our facilities. >> you touched on this. these facilities as they are presently, how crowded are they and what does it mean for children? >> very crowded. i agree with the commissioner on this. these facilities are not adequate for families. they're not adequate for children. when i.c.e. began releasing people into the streets in el paso over the christmas holiday here, downtown, and we encountered them, we greeted

them, we gave them food and we provided medical attention when necessary. we saw that they had not bathed in several days, that they were not being given adequate nutrition. many of them were sick. one of the children we actually had to send to the hospital because he exhibited the same symptoms that jacqueline did. he had a fever and he was dehydrated. they are in these cells for a reason because they're like ice boxes, like sardines. it's difficult to even go to the bathroom with any degree of privacy. there are no place for children. they are no place for families. >> dylan core bet, we appreciate your time. thank you. >> you're welcome. thank you. >> still ahead here on newsroom, stuck in the snow, plenty of people are at this point as blizzard conditions threaten large parts of the united states. we'll have the latest on the forecast. stay with us. shield℠ annuities from brighthouse financial

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a warm welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching cnn newsroom live from the a.t.l. i'm george howell with the headlines for you this hour. the headline this day, we are watching weather conditions, storms that have proven deadly across the united states. at least two people have died in a storm that has caused heavy rain and snow in parts of the country. in the midwest, about 1 million people are under blizzard warnings. in the meantime, 50 million people are under flood watches in the eastern u.s. this because of the same storm system. our meteorologist ivan cabrera is here. ivan, you are a busy man. >> indeed. although for the east coast this time around, this is going to be a rain maker here. still going to cause delays at the airport, but it's not going

to be a massive snow piling kind of storm. it has been across the midwest. let's talk about that. as you mentioned, george, my goodness, blowing snow, we continue with that. 30, 40, 50 mile an hour winds in the upper midwest. the snow that's fall not has fallen with very cold temperatures. it's going to get blown around so you basically have blizzard conditions despite the fact additional snow won't be falling. rain will across the east, and not only that, but severe storms. take a look at the radar. this thing extends all the way from the gulf coast into canada. this is how wide and huge the storm is. i'll focus on the south. this area here, particularly heading into new orleans, the northeastern parishes, heading into mississippi as well, we had torrential downpours u the likes of which accumulated 6 to 10 inches. can you imagine that? in some areas we're getting report of a foot of rain already in the last 24 hours. that's incredible stuff. so obviously you would expect the flood warnings. they are in effect for many areas here. that's a particularly dangerous

situation there, flash flood warning in effect. and then the reftd of the area is under a flood watch, which means conditions are favorable for flooding to occur. not from this additional rain. we're not just from it, because we've had so much rain across the region here. the soils are saturated. it's not going to take much to get flooding going. 50 million of us under a threat here. if you're traveling to the eastern u.s., keep in mind we may have some delays. i'll show you that in a second. there comes the storm. you can see it doesn't make that much progress. by even friday into saturday, we continue with some rainfall. here's what we're thinking as far as the airport delays. anywhere from, as george likes to say, the a.t.l. down south all the way into new york, all the metros, a red plain, that is not good. we have the potential hereof one to two-hour delays. that is exactly what you want as you're flying home from christmas, isn't it, george? it's what we had on the way there. it's one of those things where at least, again, we don't have to be shoveling snow. it's going to be a rain maker.

>> you caught me on the a.t.l. thing. ivan, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> the actor kevin spacey, new details coming to light about sexual assault allegations against himment our miguel marques has this story for you. >> reporter: well, despite what is described as a heavy night of drinking between spacey and the accuser, the accuser was in the frame of mind to, while the actual alleged incident was occurring, the sexual assault was occurring, to actually take video of it and send it to his then girlfriend via snapchat. the accuser told police that he had told spacey that he was 23 the night of the alleged assault. he was, in fact, 18 years old. all of this happening in the late night hours at the club carr restaurant on nantucket. after his shift as a busboy there, it is something that the accuser's mother spoke out about last year. >> the victim, my son, was a

star struck straight 18-year-old young man who had no idea that the famous actor was an alleged sexual predator. >> cnn has tried to contact mr. spacey and his representatives for their side of the story. they have not gotten back to us. but shortly after news broke of these charges against the 59-year-old actor, kevin spacey posted a video to his twitter account. the tone, the style, the substance of it jarring given the charges that had just been made public. >> i know what you want. you want me back. of course, some believed everything and have just been waiting with baited breath to hear me confess it all. they're just dying to have me declare everything said is true and i got what i deserved. wouldn't that be easy if it was all so simple? only you and i both know it's never that simple, not in politics and not in life.

but you wouldn't believe the worst without evidence, would you? you wouldn't rush to judgments without facts, would you? did you? >> so clearly he uses the frank underwood character in that video with a santa claus apron on in a kitchen. all of it coming at a strange time, and just the way in which he does it was remarked upon by many across hollywood and around the world. the arraignment for mr. spacey on these charges is set right now for january 7th. back to you. >> miguel marques. thank you. it's not every man who gets to live on a street named after himself, but if anyone deserved it, it was this man, richard overton, america's oldest world war ii veteran who died thursday. remembering his long life in austin, texas. stay with us. during our lowest prices of the season.

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russia's vladimir putin is boasting about a new advance in that nation's nuclear arsenal, the hypersonic missile. it has the u.s. working over time on a program to match it. cnn's pentagon correspondent barbara starr has this report. >> reporter: u.s. defense officials say this is the real deal. russia test firing its new high-speed hypersonic missile, a missile that the u.s. military currently cannot defend against. russian president vladimir putin pulling no punches on his intent. >> translator: the new avann guard is defensible against today's and future air systems of the potential enemy. this is a big success and great achievement. >> if the weapons work as advertised, there is no current defense against them. >> reporter: the russian missile has captured the attention of patrick shanahan, the deputy defense secretary who will take

over as acting pentagon chief when secretary james mattis leaves next week. >> we have a number of options going on with hypersonic missiles. >> reporter: shanahan warns the u.s. needs to be able to detect the fast-flying missile much further away than current radar systems can handle. the u.s. has to detect it thousands, not hundreds of miles away because of its high-speed approach. the pentagon may spend more than $1 billion trying to develop and field its own capabilities. the russians are making significant yet unproven claims about their missile, saying it's capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. it flies up to 20 times faster than the speed of sound. it can adjust altitude and direction to avoid detection. putin says it's invincible. >> we're going to need a different set of sensors to see the hyper threats. our adversary knows that. >> reporter: the challenges are political for president trump,

whose relationship with russian president putin has been rocky since july's helsinki summit. >> putin feels incredibly emboldened. he feels it's time to press his advantage. he put his forces in ukraine, he's taken over crimea. he's now gaining ground in syria. this is russia's time in his view. >> u.s. defense officials are taking no chances on whether the russian system works or it does not. they say they are proceeding with a u.s. program to try and match and over-match whatever the russians may be up to. barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. >> america's oldest world war ii veteran has died. richard overton, a long-time resident of austin, texas, he was also the oldest man living in the united states and he lived on a street that bore his name. here you see hem with the former president barack obama. overton died at the age of 112 years old.

the governor of texas calling him an american icon and a texas legend. with more on his life and legacy, let's bring in veteran news anchor robert hadlock joining us from austin, texas. robert, my old station affiliate, kxet. thank you for being with us. >> good to see you again, george. you know mr. overton's story in austin, growing up here, he was an austin legend. he was born down the road from here in 1906. lived his whole life in austin, went to serve our country in world war ii, came back and lived out of the spotlight, worked for the state of texas for many, many years, retired in 1985, and then began to get on the radar of everyone around the country about five years ago when he attended a service in washington, d.c. honoring african-american veterans from world war ii. it was a life well lived. six years before the titanic sank and nearly a decade before

world war i began. >> 1906. >> reporter: richard overton was born in bastrop county. when overton was 35 years old -- >> yesterday, december 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. >> reporter: the japanese attacked pearl harbor, throwing the united states into world war ii. overton enlisted nine months later. he joined an all-black military unit in 1942. becoming a skilled sharp shooter. overton rose to the rank of corporal, serving in places like pearl harbor, okinawa, and ee woe j iwojima where he came under fire.

after the war ended, overton retired and built his east austin home when the city had just 100,000 people. >> big buildings, these highways, these trees. i seen all of this austin go up. >> reporter: 70 years after fighting in world war ii, president barack obama invited overton to spend veteran's day 2013 in washington. >> today richard still lives in the house that he built all those years ago, rakes his own lawn, and every sunday he hops in his 1971 ford truck and drives one of the nice ladies in his neighborhood to church. >> reporter: and the attention didn't stop there. in the same year he was congratulated on his birthday by former governor rick perry. rotc members from the university of texas and austin community college painted his house and landscaped his yard. >> i appreciate it. >> reporter: at 109, he spent veteran's day in the hospital battling pneumonia. >> he wants everybody to know that he'll be just fine.

>> reporter: and he was, ringing in 110 with hundreds of family and friends a few months later. >> i feel that i made a record. that's a record that nobody have made yet. >> reporter: his secret? not an apple a day. >> i started smoking cigars when i was 18 years old and still smoking cigars. but i don't inhale the smoke. that's the reason my heart and everything is so perfect. >> reporter: his advice for living a healthy long life? >> stay busy and talk to the lord and live with the lord. don't live with the people, live with the lord. let him take care of you. >> reporter: two years ago, mr. overton needed round the clock care in his home. he couldn't afford it and the v.a. benefits did not pay for it. word got out, a fund-raiser was held, $450,000 was raised by almost 9,000 people from around the country. quite a story. and, george, i want to thank you and cnn for getting the word out

about mr. overton. he is an awesome icon and he will be missed here. >> a hometown icon for sure, robert. again, his story of service and longevity known around the world. and i want to add this quote also. when he spoke with cnn, this was when he was 107 years old, robert. he said, i drink whiskey in my coffee, sometimes i drink it straight. robert, what a life indeed. >> what a life, and he liked hearing from the ladies, too. he was quite a gentleman. >> indeed. robert hanlok at kxan. our condolences to overton's family and mine as well. we'll be back after the break. gentle means everything, so we improved everything. we used 50% fewer ingredients added one handed pumps and beat the top safety standards the new johnson's® choose gentle

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behind the new york city skyline thursday an electric glow lit up the night sky. take a look at this video. that brilliant blue that you see in the background, it's the result of a transformer explosion, which led to a brief electrical fire. no one was hurt. authorities blame it on an equipment malfunction. the explosion closed laguardia airport for about an hour. things did get back to normal eventually, after the airport switched to a backup generator.

residents reported temporary power outages in the area. the explosion even shook some buildings in queens. it certainly caught a lot of people by surprise. but my goodness, what a sight there. and finally, we end this hour with a story about a phrase the u.s. president uses an awful lot. it's what he calls the investigations around russian interference, a witch hunt. you may be surprised which group takes the most offense to that. cnn's jeanne moos tells us it's literally witches. >> reporter: they don't fly on broomsticks. ♪ they tend not to be bewitched. but donald trump -- >> you know i call it a witch hunt. and it is a witch hunt. >> reporter: modern-day witches are hard to categorize. >> are you a good witch or a bad witch? >> are you a witch? >> i'm a practicing witch. that's how i make my living, yes. >> and which kind of witch are you? >> i'm initiated into wicca,

which is the religious side of things. >> reporter: witches tend to side with liberals. and you know what they wish president trump would stop saying about the mueller investigation? >> it's a witch hunt. that's all it is. >> a witch hunt, as i call it. >> russian witch hunt. >> this is a witch hunt like nobody's ever seen before. >> reporter: the author of "witchcraft activism" calls the president's use of the term -- >> really disgraceful. i mean, thousands of people were executed in europe on suspicion of witchcraft. >> reporter: closer to home, there was the salem witch trial 19 supposed witches were hanged. >> there's a lot to be offended by by donald trump, and i think his use of the term "witch hunt" is very low on that list of priorities for most witches. but nevertheless, it does demonstrate his ignorance, as usual. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> reporter: but if the president stopped saying witch hunt, he'd have to hunt for a new term. tweeted someone, "i guess he'll have to start referring to it as a wild goose chase.

but then that might offend geese." the last time witches got mixed up in politics, a losing tea party candidate for the senate had to proclaim -- >> i'm not a witch. >> reporter: after having said she'd dabbled in witchcraft in high school. if there's one demographic president trump hasn't put a spell on, it's witches. they'd rather put a spell on him. >> i'll get you, my pretty. and your little dog too! ha, ha, ha! >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. >> and it is a witch hunt. >> reporter: new york. >> look what you've done! >> thank you for watching "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell at the cnn center in atlanta. let's do it again. another hour of news right after the break. stay with us. my name is jeff sheldon, and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly

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the u.s. government shutdown partially, it drags on and there are fears it could last longer than anyone expected. the u.s. president, though, somehow claims it's mainly democrats who are impacted. we'll explain or try to explain that ahead. plus, another roller coaster day on wall street. stocks did finish up. that's not helping investors sleep any easier. also ahead this hour, just days after a second migrant child dies in u.s. custody, a top trump official is headed back to the border. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm george howell. the "cnn newsroom" starts now. at 3:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast thank you for being with us this day. ju