hi, welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you're watching cnn. i'm robyn curnow. just ahead. you heard donald trump's claims about the election being stolen but never like this. hear the jaw-dropping phone call the u.s. president made to officials here in georgia and what he was seeking. we'll also look at the impact on georgia's crucial elections, that will decide who controls the senate.

and the u.s. vaccine rollout is criticized for being too slow. what experts say must be done to speed it up. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. audio of an astonishing conversation between the u.s. president donald trump and georgia state officials is sending shock waves across u.s. politics. in the phone call, mr. trump pushes georgia's secretary of state to "find votes that would overturn joe biden's election victory." i want to you listen to this exchange with raffensperger's general counsel, ryan germany. >> all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state, and flipping the state is a great testament to our country, because you know, there's just a

testament that they could admit to a mistake, or whatever you want to call it, if it was a mistake, i don't know. a lot of people think it was t wasn't a mistake. it was much more criminal than that but it's a big problem in georgia and it's not a problem that's going away, i mean, you know, it's not a problem that's going away, and we got to -- >> we're looking into every one of those things that you mentioned and our investigators -- >> you find it, you got say it. they're there. ryan, if -- >> let me tell you what we are seeing. >> go ahead. >> what we're seeing is not at all what you're describing. and these are investigators from our office, these are investigators from gdi, and they're looking and they're good, and that's not what they're seeing and we'll keep looking at all these things. >> well, that wasn't the only argument in the call. in this next clip, mr. trump

repeats false accusations and conspiracy theorys that have been disproven and he dismisses raffensperger and germany as they explain the facts. >> do you think it's possible that they shredded ballots in fulton county? that's what the rumor is dominion took out machines, that dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their machinery? do you know anything about that? because that's illegal. >> this is ryan germany. no, dominion has not moved any machinery out of fulton county. >> but have they moved the inner parts of the machines, and replaced them with other parts? >> no. >> are you sure? ryan? >> i'm sure. i'm sure, mr. president. >> what about the ballots, the shredding of the ballots?

have they been shredding ballots? >> no, the only investigation we have in the vat they have not been this shredding. an issue in cobb county office shredding getting rid of old stuff. this was stuff from past elections. >> i don't know. >> that's what it -- >> it doesn't pass the smell test though, because we hear they're shredding thousands and thousands of ballots, and now what they're saying oh, we're just cleaning up the office, you know. i don't think that plays. >> mr. president, the problem you have with social media, people can say anything. >> no, this isn't social. this is trump media. this is not social media. it's really not. it's not social media. i don't care about social. i couldn't care less. social media is big tech. big tech is on your side. i don't know why you have a side, because you should want to have an accurate election. and you're a republican. >> we believe we do have an

accurate election. >> no, i know you don't. no, you don't. you don't have it, not even close. you got, you're out by hundreds of thousands of votes and just on these small numbers, they can't be just -- why don't. you send us to cobb county for signature verification, right? you send us into cobb county which we didn't want to go into and said it would be open to the public. so we had our experts there. they weren't allowed into the room. we wanted fulton county. you wouldn't give it to us. why can't it be open to the public and why can't we have professionals do it instead of rank amateurs that will never find anything and don't want to find anything? you know they don't want to find anything. someday you'll tell me the reason why, because i don't understand your reasoning but someday you'll tell me the reason why.

what? >> sorry, go ahead. >> so why did you do cobb county? we requested fulton county, not cobb county? >> mr. president, we have an electoral process. >> go ahead, please. >> we chose cobb county that was the only county where there's been any evidence submitted that the sigification procedure was not properly done. >> but we're not saying that. we are -- >> slet let me just say that. >> fulton county, stacey, in my opinion stacey is as dishonest as she come. she has outplayed you at every thing. got to you sign a totally unconstitutional agreement which is a disastrous agreement. you can't check signatures. i can't imagine you're allowed to do harvesting i guess, that agreement is a disaster for this country. but she got you somehow so sign

that thing, and she has outsmarted you at every step and i hate to imagine what's going to happen on monday or tuesday, but it's very scary to people. >> so raffensperger's office recorded that call, a source says, advisers were told not to release the tape unless mr. trump attacked him or misrespected what happened. on sunday morning the president did that, prompting this response from raffensperger. "rmtfully, president trump, what you're saying is not true. the truth will come out." "the washington post" reported the call a few huours later. it is the latest attempt by the president to overturn the results that took place nine years ago and before georgia's pivot ol runoff election on tuesday. here's john harwood with more. >> with a little over two weeks left in donald trump's presidency the bomb shells keep

dropping. sunday it was "the washington post" audiotape of a phone call in which president trump pressures the republican secretary of state of georgia to find extra votes to overturn joe biden's victory there. never mind the electoral college tally has been certified in all 50 states, never mind that joe biden does not need georgia's 16 electoral votes to win. he's got 306 which is well over the 270 you need. never mind there is no evidence of widespread fraud or ireegularity in georgia voting or vote counting. the president was repeating fantasies about shredded ballots and altered voting machine. brad raffensperger resisted even though president trump appealed to him to act as a fellow republican. the white house is not commenting on this tape. hard to know what's they'd say but the biden campaign was quick to say the tape affirms

president trump's assault on democracy since the election. vice president elect kamala harris said that this was a boldface abuse of power. the irony is that this could end up strengthening joe biden's presidency, if it tilts at all the very close races for two georgia senate seats that take place on tuesday, if democrats win both, democrat also control the senate and that would give joe biden a lot freer hand in terms of legislation. john harwood, cnn, washington. >> cnn's kyung lah is in georgia gauging more reaction to the call with brad raffensperger and has a look at how this could impact tuesday' runoff. >> reporter: democrats are seizing on that call between president trump and georgia's secretary of state, calling it undemocratic. we heard from vice president-elect kamala harris, who is here in savannah, stumping for the two democratic

challengers hoping to flip those two senate seats on tuesday. >> have you all heard about that recorded conversation? [ horns honking ] well it was, yes, certainly the voice of desperation, most certainly that, and it was a bald, bald faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the united states. >> when the president of united states calls up georgia's election officials and tries to intimidate them, to change the result of the election, to disenfranchise georgia voters, to disenfranchise black voters in georgia, who delivered this date for joe biden and kamala

harris. [ horns honking ] that is a direct attack on our democracy, and if david perdue and kelly loeffler had one piece of steel in their spines, one shred of integrity, they would be out here defending georgia voters from that kind of assault. >> reporter: it's hard to miss what this image means, raphael warnock and jon josoff flip the two seats, kamala harris becomes a tiebreaker and democrats control the senate, that was on tuesday. we reached out to senators loeffler and perdue for comment on the call. neither of them returned our calls. kyung lah, cnn, savannah, georgia. >> i want to discuss this further with less ein london. head of the u.s. and americas program at chatham house. hi, good to see you.

>> thank you, robyn. >> the u.s. president asking electoral officials to find votes. what was your reaction listening to that? >> well, extraordinary, deeply upsetting. we've become accustomed to seeing the president of the united states of america chipping away at democratic norms but i think this takes it to another level. after an election that's been very legitimately conducted but fraught with allegations of itsiits illegitimacy by the president and those surrounding him and in the runupup to the january 6 vote it's distressing and an abuse of power. were it not for an election that already voted the president out of power we'd see cause for an investigation, and for a potential impeachment on the basis of this. >> yes, i mean, you heard kamala harris say this was an abuse of power. people said this is authoritarian instincts laid bare, the edges of extortion,

this is about stealing an election, those are just some of the comments i've picked up from folks today and some of them have been republican. what are the implications of this? is it just political potentially, or could there be some legal questions that the president will have to deal with or at least answer to? >> the time something of course very significant, the fact that we've had an election that on january 6th, probably be quite tumultuous but we should see that confirmation and inauguration in a couple of weeks. people want to move on. the deep concern is some people, robyn, will listen to that call and because america is very divided, some people will believe what the president is saying. it makes it very difficult to bring the country back together, to get the legitimacy needed by the biden administration to govern, a majority of americans

see this as a legitimate election but far fewer than we would normally expect, so it's very deeply disturbing simply for the norms and for the american electorate. >> does this strengthen the democrats in their race for these senate runoff seats? will voters listen to that here in georgia and will they be coming out in greater numbers? will this create momentum against republicans, do you think, or do you think voters have got far beyond that, they've made their minds up already? >> some voters have clearly made up their minds already and what it will do is drive turnout. this is becoming every single hour a very intense election and i think that it will drive people to the polls, i would expect a greater turnout on election day than we might have seen before those tapes. there will be voters i think that might have just been deep to their core republicans who might not prefer the current

politics, but would have voted republican that might listen to these tapes and say we're in trouble. we need to be very careful, and perhaps you know, those who are willing to swing, might swing away from the republican party on the basis of these votes but i think many people will remain where they were and it's more likely to drive turnout and the intensity around tomorrow's elections in georgia. >> there's also talk about these defense secretaries, the ten living defense secretaries, they've bring an op-ed together in "the washington post" and called on president trump and his allies and people who support him to accept mr. biden's victory. this came out before the audio was broadcast and they talk in this op-ed about the necessity for a smooth transition, and they also interestingly warn against the military getting involved in mr. trump's efforts to overturn the election. is that a pretty blatant subtext that they are concerned that the

president might actually try to use the military. >> well, clearly they are concerned, robyn. this is highly unusual. we use the word "unprecedented" a lot but this is unprecedented to have ten living secretaries of defense make such a public statement of this kind. they're clearly deeply concerned. they're looking back to what happened over the summer in lafayette square, the desire of the president to use the military on the streets of america, at a time when even his then sitting secretary of defense said it was entirely inappropriate and unnecessary. they're looking back. they're looking forward. they're speaking to those individuals in the pentagon, they're saying you are accountable. you have and an oath to uphold the constitution. the time for challenging the election has been passed. it is legitimate. we must secure a peaceful transition. this is a very important statement. it is across the board on all sides support, so one cannot

underestimate the significance of that. >> thank you very much for joining us. it's early monday "morning express" in the uk at chatham house, leslie, appreciate you sharing your expertise with us. thank you. >> thank you. we will of course have much more on that stunning phone call coming up in a few moments' time. also here on cnn, president trump falsely claims america's staggering coronavirus death toll is overstated. we'll tell you how dr. anthony fauci responded. that's also next. of vitamins, zinc, other minerals, and herbs. take on your day with airborne. robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood.

welcome back. i'm robyn curnow. it is 21 minutes past the hour. the u.s. is racing to get ahead of the coronavirus pandemic, and the halls of overburdened hospitals and a push to pick up the pace of vaccinations across the country, but it is not having much success on either front. the number, take a look at this, the number of u.s. covid patients hit a record high on sunday. the coronavirus tracking project reports more than 125,000 people are in hospital with the virus right now. this as the pace of vaccinations

lags behind, just over 4 million doses administered across the country, far below the trump administration's targets. >> 20 million doses of vaccines as we had promised would be made available to the american people to be immunized, have been made available, 17.5 million have been shipped. >> but only a third of them have actually been used. so that's where the rubber meets the road. >> we need to improve. >> meanwhile, president trump took to twitter sunday and falsely claimed the u.s. death toll was overstated. dr. anthony fauci had this to reply. . >> the deaths are real deaths. go out into the trenches, go to the hospitals, see what the health care workers are dealing with. they are under very stressed situations, in many areas of the country. the hospital beds are stretched. people are running out of beds, running out of trained personnel who are exhausted right now. that's real.

that's not fake. that's real. >> and in the uk an 828-year-old british man has become the first person to receive the recently approved oxford/ast zha zen ka vacci astrazeneca vaccine. it puts another weapon in the arsenal of health care workers facing this serious spike in covid cases. salma abdulaziz joins me from london. you're at the royal free hospital where many people expect to get the vaccine. has that started yet where you are? >> reporter: we don't know that that started but the first vaccinations, so brian pinkard the 82-year-old man you spoke of got his vaccine, got his injection a short time ago. we expect them to start behind me at royal free hospital. brian is so excited to get the vaccine, it means he can celebrate his 48th wedding

anniversary with his wife shirley. the health secretary is a pivotal moment in this country's fight against coronavirus and a lot of national pride around this vaccine, developed here at oxford university in the uk and a lot of advantages to it. it's cheap and doesn't need to be stored at extra cold temperature. it can be held in a normal fridge, it can reach more people. it's easier to disthem nate and it dunt couldn't come soon enough, robyn. this country is plagued by a virus that is more trance missible. more patients with coronavirus in hospital than before. record-breaking number of infections rates across the country recorded last week. it is vital to get this vaccine in people's arms. there's been credit schl of its vaccination program with some calling it the wild west of vaccine programs. the uk was the first country to

use the pfizer/biontech. they have to wait three months to get the second tows. during trials it was three to four weeks. why do this? you ask the british government, look, we need to do everything we can to contain this variant, to stop the spread of this disease. hospitals are simply at breaking points so methods like this, delaying the second injection, delaying the second dose of the vaccine means that you can spread this thin resource over a greater number of people, potentially vaccinate twice as many people and keep less people from going into these hospitals, when they are simply teetering on the edge. robyn? >> thanks for that update there, salma abdulaziz. outrage from democrats and republicans alike after president trump's stunning effort all caught on tape to

pressure a georgia state official to flip the election results in his favor. hear more of those remarks from the president, that's also next.

great to have you along. welcome back to cnn. it's 29 minutes past the hour. i'm robyn curnow coming to you live from cnn studios here in atlanta and definitely more on our top story this hour. president trump pressuring a state official to overturn joe biden's election victory here in georgia. it's a shocking hour-long phone call. the president is heard strongarming georgia secretarying of state brad raffensperger to "find more votes" to help him win.

the president and his chief of staff mark meadows tried to highlight debunked claims of election fraud during the call. mr. secretary, obviously there are allegations where we believe that not every vote or fair vote and legal vote was counted, that's at odds with the representation from the secretary of state's office. what i'm hopeful for, is there some way that we can find some kind of an agreement to look at this a little bit more fully, as the president mentioned fulton county, but in some of these areas where there seems to be a difference where the facts seem to lead and so mr. secretary, i was hopeful that in a spirit of

cooperation and compromise, is there something that we can at least have a discussion to look at some of these allegations to find a path forward that's less letigious? >> well, i listened to what the president has just said. president trump, we've had several lawsuits, and we've had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. we don't agree that you have one. i didn't agree about the 200,000 number that you had mentioned and i could go through that point by point. what we have done is, we gave our state senate about one and a half hours of our time going through the election issue by issue, and then on the state house, the government affairs committee, we gave them about two and a half hours of our time, going back point by point on all the issues of contention,

and then just a few days ago, we met with our u.s. congressmen, republican congressmen, and we gave them about two hours of our time, talking about this past election. going back, primarily what you've talked about here, folks, on primarily i believe is the dot process. i don't believe you're really questioning the dominion machines because we did a hand re-tally, 100% re-tally of all the ballots and compared that to what the machine said and it came up with virtually the same result. we did the recount. we got virtually the same result. so i guess we could probably take that off the table. i don't think there's an issue about that. i think -- >> well, brad, not that there's not an issue, but -- because we have a big issue with dominion in other states and perhaps in yours, but we haven't felt we

needed to go there, and just to maybe put a little different spin on what mark me gadows is saying we'd like to go further but we have all the votes we need. we won the state. if you took -- these are the most minimal numbers, the numbers that i gave you, those are numbers that are certified. your absentee ballots sent to vacant addresses, out of state voters. when you add them up, it's many more time the 11,779 number. so we could go through -- we have not gone through your dominion so we can't give them blessing. in other states we think we found tremendous corruption with dominion machines but we have to see. but we only lost the state by that number, 11,000 votes, and 779. so with that being said, with

just what we have and you know, with just what we have, we're giving you minimal numbers. we're doing the most conservative numbers possible. we're many, many times above the marg margin, so we don't really have to, mark, i don't think we have to go through this. >> right. >> what is the difference between winning the election by two votes and winning it by a half a million? >> now there is no evidence widespread election fraud in georgia or anywhere else, but clearly president trump isn't giving up on his effort to look for it. officials in raffensperger's office legally recorded the call. it was legal to do what they did. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are slamming the president for the false claims and requests made during that call. vice president-elect kamala harris spoke about it at a drive-in democratic campaign rally on sunday in savannah, georgia, and this is what she had to say.

take a listen. >> have y'all heard about that recorded conversation? [ horns honking ] well it was, yes, certainly the voice of desperation, most certainly that, and it was a bald, bald faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the united states. >> congressman adam kinzinger of illinois, who is a republican, weighed in on a call earlier withen cen. he condemned the president in the strongest terms. take a listen to that. >> you see, you know, threats made, threatening in essence a crime to the secretary of state. you see the repeating of conspiracy theories. it's disgusting and quite honestly, it's going to be interesting, you know, all these members of congress that have come out and said they're going

to object to the election, i don't know how you can do that with a clear conscience. this is so obviously beyond the pale is probably not the way even to describe it. >> cnn political analyst carl better th bernstein was highly critical of president trump's actions on that call. take a listen to this. >> what we have just heard is in any other conceivable moment in our history, this tape would result in the leadership of both parties calling for the resignation of the president of the united states immediately. there would be a run in the republican and democratic parties to call for his resignation. what we're listening to is the president proposing a conspiracy to steal the election. >> we'll continue to monitor the story of course here on cnn in the coming hours. meanwhile, nancy pelosi is

starting her father term as speaker of the house of representatives. now she kept the post as the new u.s. congress was officially sworn in on sunday. pelosi and democrats now have a slim margin of control, after republicans actually gained seats in november's election. in her remark, pelosi said the most urgent priority is to defeat the coronavirus pandemic. >> we accept a responsibility as daunting and demanding as any previous generation of leadership has ever faced. we begin this new congress during a time of extraordinary difficulty. each of our communities has been drastically, drastically affected by the pandemic, and its economic crisis. 350,000 tragic deaths. we sadly carry them in our hearts. >> this new congress is now the most diverse in history.

there are a record number of women, black and latina members, as well as lawmakers who identify as lgbtq. so coming up, health care workers across the u.s. are treating more covid patients now than at any other point in the pandemic. they are exhausted, and tired, and angry. i'll talk with one icu nurse at the front lines of the crisis, and hear her story, next. even hanging with yoyour dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood.

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welcome back. i'm robyn curnow. as countries roll out vaccine, scientists look to see whether a variant found in south africa could affect how well some vaccines work. david mckenzie, hi, good to see you. we know that it's normal for viruses to mutate. what do we know about the so-called south african variant?

>> reporter: it's called the south african variant because it was discovered here and the lead scientist who has been part of the team that initially sequenced the new genome of the variant extremely concerned. a few days ago he said they are getting more worried about the study of this variant. one of the reasons, it seemed to dominant new infections in south africa, as you came into the end of 2020 and one region the vast majority, more than 90% of people who they tested for the virus positive were in fact of this variant. it's kind of taken over in the south african context. we don't know where the variant originated but it was first identified here in south africa. it's different from the uk variant, but there are some similarities and one is they believe that this could be more infectious. it could spread quicker, but authorities here are really trying to stress that also the

opening up of the country and traveling during the holiday period had a significant if not more significant role in the spike of cases we're seeing in south africa for the second wave. the most worrying thing they say is whether this variant will impact the efficacy of a vaccine that has been rolled out around the world. robyn? >> you mentioned the spike, the surge in the christmas holidays, a lot of raves after the end of the school year, pushing up the number of people infected. this coinciding with the surge and variant. what does that mean then for the health systems and for the impact on the population? >> well, i've spoke on it several doctors and administrators over the last few days, robyn, and they're very much feeling the strain. you've seen record numbers of new infections equally dis disturbing. a third of the people who test for covid-19 are positive which indicates a great number of

people who aren't getting tested, who are slipping through the cracks and we are very much in south africa in the second wave, which is proving more significant peak than the first one at around july. the vaccine issue with the new strain, given that at least seven countries already identified the so-called south african strain in people in their localities, could mean that they need to find out of course if these at least three vaccines that have seen some level of authorization around the world are effective against it. now, initially, the south africans say they believe that it should still be effective, but they are studying that. now, the head of the uk, one of the heads of the uk vaccine development team of the oxford vaccine said even if it doesn't show efficacy t could be a relatively short period to adjust the vaccine to then combat this virus, but it isn't

clear. it means yet again that they need to find this out quickly and also that it's a critical time in combating the virus here in south africa. robyn? >> certainly is dangerous times indeed. david mckenzie, good to see you, thanks so much, live from johannesburg. the coronavirus pandemic is pushing the health care systems in many countries to the brink especially here also in the united states. take a look at images on sunday, the u.s. reported a record high number of hospitalizations and cases have skyrocketed since the holidays and the impact is unfolding. california is seeing the worst of it, more than 45,000 new cases of the virus there were reported on sunday, making matters worse, the vaccine rollout is going much, much slower than expected, just slightly more than 4 million doses have been administered nationwide so far. i want to talk now kelsey

van der stein, hi, lovely to see you. thanks for being on the show >> thanks. >> i'd like to read out that tweet that you wrote. you said you were taking a covid patient off a ventilator, and then allowing them to pass away, and you say "we pull up the ipad and the family appears, 30-plus people had gathered together, no masks, squished together in one screen. if they didn't get the severity and consequences of covid" you write, "no one will." talk us through that moment. >> it's hard to kind of understand how they can see someone that they love so much who clearly they want to be with. we wish they could be with their loved one and still take the risks that increase your likelihood of catching covid or sharing it among their loved ones.

we have these ipad end of life conversations, situations with patients not infrequently and oftentimes many different screens from many different places and this was the first time i had seen so many people together all in one room. >> the reaction to your tweet you got death threats. >> a number of people who said some pretty cruel things, recommending, they said they were going to meet me in the parking garage of the hospital, that i was being cruel and heartless and it's not my job so shame anyone. i think it conveyed sadness that a lot of nurses say if more people could see what they see they'd change mare behavior. they do see what they see and yet there continues to be non-odd eerns to mask wearing and not keeping social distance. 7 j how many people have you had

to help say good-bye in the past few months? >> many, 20-plus i would say. >> how difficult has that been? >> it's extremely difficult. i've been a nurse for 30 13 years and seen and helped many patients when they passed away, always family and loved ones to talk to them and who they were. we don't get that this time. when they first come in until they pass away they don't see anyone they love except through a screen and often they're too sick, unconscious to see the screen. >> kelsey, thank you for your work. >> thank you. you are watching cnn. still to come, after evading the u.s. justice system for more than a decade, the fate of wikileaks founder julian assange could be determined in the next hour. we'll go live to the scene, coming up.

julian assange will face charges under the extradition act, there's activity outside the court in london as assange awaits hits fate. nina dos santos is live on the scene and can talk us through what is to be expected. hi, good to see you. chilly day, though. >> reporter: absolutely. as you can see many of julian assange's supporters have been braving the frigid temperatures for many an hour here, gathering outside the court. not a huge amount of social distancing i have to say but hey. we're expecting this decision to come quite quickly. it will take place probably within the next hour. the hearing is set to start within about five to ten minutes' time and already in the last 15 minutes we've seen various members of julian assange's family, and stella morris, his partner with whom he

has two young sons arrived to lend their support here as the decision is awaited and the ceo of wikileaks. they didn't say much but we know the closing arguments of the legal team have been. they filed them at the end of last year and consistently tried to argue julian assange is facing a politically motivated case against himself but really acted as a journalist when he encouraged chelsea manning to share classified information with him and disseminated reals of very sensitive defense information over the last ten years. in 2010 a leak that covered afghanistan and later military missions in iraq. the defense team has also argued that julian assange faces some health issues, that he is clinically depressed and they say that he could run the risk of committing suicide. they also say that extraditing him to the united states would infringe his human rights because he now has a family in

the united kingdom. the lawyers representing the u.s. department of justice say julian assange has to answer to a number of counts, 18 counts in total as you pointed out include elements of the espionage essentially he disseminated classified national defense information, put people's lives at risk, including u.s. citizens and informants at risk. we're expecting the decision in the next hour. assange's team can appeal thereafter. that could take some time. it's also possible the uk home secretary may make a statement on the matter. she will also have a final decision on that. >> thanks for that update, no doubt we will be coming back to you throughout the coming hours as this story develops. nina dos santos, good to see you, life in london. finally, a professional surfer in hawaii is being labeled a hero. mikey wright was filming the

ocean and he saw a woman get swept off the rocks into the ocean. he jumped into action, grabbing onto the woman and pulling her through the waves until they were safely back onshore. he says the ocean can be unpredictable. >> it was good having my sister on the beach directing us which way to go. she actually warned us there was a double-up coming, a double-up is where two waves meet on each other, and instead of the force of one wave, it's actually two waves hitting us at once. her son came running down the beach and latched a hold of me and started fully crying and was just a very emotional and just kept saying "thank you. you saved my mother. i thought she was gone." so it was a very special moment. >> special indeed. we all need a little bit of that. thanks for joining me. i'm robyn curnow. appreciate you being me with the last two hours. i'll hand you over to the team at "early start."

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this is cnn breaking news. welcome to our view nertz united states and around the world. this is eye early start." happy new year. >> you, too. it's monday, january 4th. 5:00 a.m. in new york. and we begin this morning with the big breaking news. the president of the united states pressuringing to steal the election he lost. the president pressured the georgia secretary of states to help him steal a