hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom" and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, right now millions of people are still without power in texas as freezing, frustrated families are forced to make incredibly difficult choices. also ahead, the devastating storm adds to the worries of an already stretched nation and is slowing down the covid-19 vaccination efforts in several states. and brittain's prince philip

is in the hospital. the husband of queen elizabeth was admitted after not feeling well. good to have you with us. it's just past 3 in the morning in texas where millions of people are spending another night without electricity or heat. days after the state was slammed by a powerful winter storm. some residents are even sleeping in their cars to try to keep warm. the storm and continued cold snap have crippled power facilities causing widespread out outages. the cold temperatures remain. more than 21 million people across texas are under some kind of winter weather alert and all this is happening as officials in the state trade blame for the crisis. cnn's camila vanell reports from

dallas. >> reporter: unlivable conditions in texas. frozen pipes bursting. flooding homes in bitter temperatures. >> the fact is every source of pow power the state of texas has access to has been compromised because of the ultracold temperature or because of equipment failures. >> reporter: utility companies are shut down unable to generate electricity. >> we knew for weeks this was coming. we knew for weeks this was coming. why weren't we ready. our house is 32 degrees inside. we're worried about the pipes. >> reporter: linda shoe maker was forced to take her 101-year-old mother to this warming shelter overnight. >> you can freeze in the middle of the night so we had to find someplace to go. >> reporter: the mayor of hard-hit austin said texas should have been better prepared. >> i have a community that is scared, frustrated, confused,

angry. i am too. >> reporter: governor greg abbott said the dangerous lack of power is not the state government's fault but a failure by ercot. >> ercot stands for electric reliability council of texas. they showed they were not reliable. >> reporter: some 90% of the lone star state's power is managed by ercot. they operate mostly independent of other federal power grids and, thus, mostly alone in its efforts to restore power quickly and safely. >> the operators acted with judgment based on their training to prevent an event that would have been even more catastrophic than the terrible things we've seen this week. >> reporter: ercot said the bulk of the blackouts are due to plants shutting down during the cold. >> the gas powered generation is still offline because of either

mechanical issues or the lack of the supply of gas. >> reporter: but abbott isn't letting the state's lucrative fossil fuel industry taking the blame and now facing backlash for green energy facilities. >> our wind and solar got shut down and they were collectively more than 10% of our power grid. it shows fossil fuel is necessary for the state of texas as well as other states. >> reporter: just to give you the big picture, 70% of the population here in the state of texas is still under a winter weather alert. people are cold, they're frustrated and they want answers as to when this situation is going to get better. both the white house and fema say they're tracking this situation. fema already providing generators. they say they're bringing diesel to support the infrastructure here, things like hospitals and water supply. and also at the request of the state of texas they're bringing

water and blankets, but texans say that is not enough. what they want is the state and officials to really figure out how to get their power back, how to get it back as soon as possible. in dallas, texas. while so many wait for the power to be restored, they want to know what's going on. i spoke with jasmine smith about her efforts to help the most vulnerable in her state. >> it's been extremely difficult. from, you know, building trust with individuals that have historically been oppressed, even building that trust for them to leave their em campments. it was a hurdle we have to face.

once we built that trust and were able to move people, the very transportation because our vehicles were not equipped. we were not equipped to be doing this. that was a huge issue. finding shelters and warming stations to a point was an issue. finding temporary shelters and hotels was an issue. literally everything you could think of was an issue, and that was only when it was just a freeze, when we were just worried about the freeze. then the power went. then the water was jeopardized. and so even curveball after curveball really dealing with this boots on the ground and community led and driven. >> yasmin, while you're dealing with that you're in your office where you do have power, but at home you lost power and heating

and how have you been coping with that? and knowing that there's no time line here for when power might be restored? >> i actually had to be rescued by some of the same individuals i had been coordinating to rescue others. it's very traumatic to be boots on ground in this manner and also be very afraid for your own safety. in my home it was below 30 degrees. i did not have power and it was a very scary place to be. >> totally understand that. of course, texas governor greg abbott is blaming everyone but himself pointing the finger at ercot, the company that runs most of the state's power grid, even trying to score political points by attacking renewable

energy when we all know it's the frozen equipment at oil and gas plants that's the main reason for this power loss. what is your reaction to the governor not taking responsibility for this and why do you think texas was not better prepared for this winter storm? >> this is not the time to be pointing fingers. this is a time to be looking at what you have around you and making sure your neighbors are okay. and it would be a -- such a disappointing failure if we as texas did not grow and learn from this experience so it should not happen again in the future. >> i was talking to yasmin smith earlier. many thanks to her. right now more than 100 million people are under a winter storm warning or winter weather advisory from texas to massachusetts. cnn meteorologist derek van dam joins me now with the latest. so, derek, are you saying when

this deep freeze is going to come to an end? >> yeah, well we've still got a couple more days of below average temperatures for the state of texas and much of the gulf coast. the storm has its eye set on the northeast. i have to show you this video that's just been sent to us here from cnn. this is coming out of a bayou just a few miles away from the gulf coast of louisiana. it points to the depth of this arctic blast as it's traversed across much of the gulf coast this region. very large expanse, long duration cold event that now has impacted energy supplies, covid vaccine distributions, water supplies. it's creating what's pointing towards an ecological disaster as well. we're seeing images of what is called cold, stunned sea turtles. they have literally almost been quote, unquote, frozen in place because of the arctic temperatures from some of these

channels and shipping lanes and along the immediate coast lines. you can imagine the ramifications will be felt from a human impact and animal impact as well. something we're monitoring this week alone. we're talking over 2.5 thousand record lows. if you don't have power, you can't run generators. you can't run power to bring water to your home. so, in fact, over 141 counties within 254 counties in the state of texas have some sort of water disruption supply issue as we speak. so that is a concern for people. lining up at some of the department stores here trying to secure some fresh water for their families and also some provisions just to keep going through this long duration cold spell. there it is. talking about 30 to 40 degrees fahrenheit colder than what it

normally is this time of year. the cold air is spreading across the mid-atlantic, northeast. good news for houston and dallas. temperatures on the rebound. you can see it dropping below freezing overnight. this is going to allow for that expansion for the water pipes as well. potential here for burst pipes continues and as we work our way towards the mid-atlantic, there goes the winter storm. you can see it on the radar. very active towards the deep south. the real concern here is an ice storm that is potentially forming across parts of north carolina, virginia, into the nation's capitol. half an inch of ice on top of several inches of snow. we'll see travel headaches across the weekend. >> unbelievable. derek van dam, many thanks. appreciate it. well, as derek pointed out, the deep freeze is forcing many states across the u.s. to delay covid vaccinations and

distribution. in the largest county in texas the health department had to redistribute more than 8,000 doses to hospitals, universities, jails after their backup generator failed. these were some of the lines to receive the shots before they expired. meantime, other counties have had to close down vaccination sites and postpone appointments for several days. now despite the setback, there is promising news that several vaccines are effective against the more transmissible variants. new studies suggest the pfizer and moderna vaccines offer some protection against them, including the variant first identified in south africa. and the vaccines appear particularly effective in warding off severe illness, but they come as health experts warn the spread of the variants still could lead to a rapid surge in cases. while the johnson & johnson vaccine awaits approval in many

countries, including the united states, south africa is launching its rollout. health care workers there will be first to get the single dose vaccine. let's go straight to cnn's david mckenzie who's out of hospital in south africa. david, people have started to receive this single dose vaccine from johnson & johnson. talk to us about the rollout. >> reporter: that's right, rosemary. the first lucky few of those most vulnerable in the way to this virus. the health care workers in south africa have received the johnson & johnson vaccine, single dose. it has brought a sense of relief to health care workers across south africa. as you say, they are awaiting emergency approval of this vaccine. but in this way they're having this very large scale implementation trial which means tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of health care workers can get the vaccine and they'll monitor their progress. it is a way to at least start

vaccinating those who need it most. just a short time ago i spoke to one of the top vaccine experts here in south africa. he was in charge of the astrazeneca vaccine trial. they have now sent millions of doses or will be sending it. he says it's a race between the variants discovered all over the world now and vaccine development. >> yeah. no one believed that the variant will disseminate into many other countries. the demand between south africa and others is dispersing. the same thing holds true, it's in 5 countries, mainly in the northern hemisphere. many of these countries including in the united states there is community transmission and it might well be that we

start experiencing many outbreaks related to the variant, which is resistant to most vaccines, or at least what we have. >> reporter: rosemary, public health officials seem to be adjusting their expectations. they're saying the key here is to find vaccines effective against severe disease. they say it's probably unrealistic to get rid of covid-19 entirely, that's why there's a race to get a vaccine to work as quickly as possible throughout the continent. rosemary. >> dachd mcken si is bringing us the very latest on that. many thanks. the biden administration is scrambling to clarify the somewhat muddled message on reopening public schools during the pandemic. the president says he hopes by the end of april to have most students back in the classroom five days a week, not one day a week as the white house said earlier. while mr. biden strongly

advocates that teachers be vaccinated, he said it shouldn't stop schools from reopening if not all teachers have had the shots. the country's top disease expert said vaccinating all teachers first probably isn't realistic. >> i think if you were going to say that every single teacher needs to be vaccinated before you get back to school, i believe quite frankly, tony, that's a non-workable situation. and still to come, the u.s. says these three north korean men tried to steal more than $1 billion. find out how they allegedly did it and what it says about the cyber threat pyongyang poses. then a royal health update. we are live outside the hospital where prince philip is staying for observation and rest. that is according to buckingham palace. we'll be back with that in just a moment.

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well, a day after north korea was accused of trying to hack covid vaccine developers, the country is facing new cyber crime allegations. on wednesday the u.s. charged

three north korean hackers with conspiring to steal more than $1 billion from banks and other companies around the world. cnn's will ripley is following the developments from hong kong. good to see you, will. what more are you learning about this? >> reporter: hi, rosemary. eye popping amount of money. the u.s. justice department giving us a hint of what the biden administration approach on north korea may be. the u.s. continuing to put pressure on north korea's military program. the cyber army which as of 2016 was asked to number some 6,000 strong, though it's hard to get some figures in a secretive nation. it's significant that you now have these three men named in a 33 page federal indictment. they are all, the u.s. justice department says, essentially modern day bank robbers.

instead of using guns they used keyboards. instead of stealing wallets they stole cryptocurrency like bitcoin. virtual currency is untraceable once it's taken online. when you talk about the amount of money they are accused of stealing. the united nations stealing with cnn a report that they stole $316 million over the span of a year. to have these individuals who are likely inside north korea named by the u.s. justice department, it is a very important and symbolic step in laying out in a factual way the charges so that the united states can gain cooperation from other united nations member states not only in prosecution but also in sanctions and enforcement, even if they don't actually expect they will be able to bring these individuals into custody. but to have the u.s. justice department calling the north korean regime basically one of the most malicious nation states in the world when it comes to cyber activity, calling them almost like a criminal syndicate

bearing a state flag, it's very, very strong wording, rosemary. these charges laid out in the indictment say so much. >> will ripley joining us live from hong kong. many thanks. buckingham palace says prince philip is in the hospital as a precaution, not an emergency. let's get an update on the 99 duke of edinboro's condition. max foster is outside his hospital in london. he joins me live. good to see you, max. what is the latest on prince philip's condition and any new details on why he's in the hospital at this time? >> reporter: well, the update is they don't want to give any update. they don't want to give any running commentaries. there may be some updates if something changes later on, but they're not giving us sort of details on his latest condition as it were. all we know is that he came to the hospital on tuesday. this was his second night in

hospital and he went into the building and it wasn't an emergency admission. they're saying he's in forest really and to be watched really by the medical staff. so his household doctor advised him to move from windsor where he spent most of the pandemic with the queen to come here to london. we're not being told what his condition is, only that he felt unwell for a period of time, a number of days we understand, but he's been in and out of this hospital over the years and he tends to spend a few days here. they watch him and then they allow him to go home. he's 99 years old so any sort of treatments he does have, they need to check on whilst he's in hospital, make sure he's recovering okay before they let him go back to windsor where the queen is staying. she didn't come up to london. they're trying to sort of calm nerves in the nation as they say the prince is going into hospital. >> the queen hasn't gone there. any other members of the royal

family come to visit prince philip? >> reporter: again, we've asked that and we're not hearing anything. the optics of that would suggest some level of concern so where a normal family might have members of family coming to visit them and friends is not always the case with the royal family because they know the optics might suggest something else. i'm sure he's take zwren some calls. we know it's not covid related as well, rosemary. there's been lots of questions about that. >> that's a very important point. as you mentioned last hour, both he and the queen received their vaccination. max foster joining us live from london, many thanks. just ahead, how did a massive winter storm have such a devastating effect on the texas power grid? we will take a look at the information coming up.

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we are continuing to follow the desperate and dangerous situation in texas where at this hour millions of people are still without electricity or heat days after a severe winter storm. the power outages have been widespread and it's expected that power will remain an issue as cold temperatures are forecast to linger through the end of the week. and that's not welcome news, of course, for so mano stay warm and safe as this new crisis puts extra stress on families, and that includes these parents who have been rationing oxygen for their five-month-old son born with premature lungs since the power went out on monday. the family made a make shift

heater and had to resort to burning another child's baby blocks as they ran out of wood. and then there was another mother who described her desperate situation. >> as an adult, i can manage, but when you have little ones that are looking at you, i have a little boy who's autistic and he keeps flicking the switches waiting for the lights to turn on and he doesn't understand. i think it's just -- it's just overwhelming in so many more ways. it's horrible. we live 15 minutes away from mexico and i called -- i called hotels that were right there and they're all -- they have no vacancies, nothing. nothing is available. we considered -- i literally told my husband, i said, let's just drive to mexico and we'll get a hotel over there.

we called and there's nothing. >> this is the united states of america, and it is happening here. a lot of finger pointing going on, but the winter storm gripping much of the u.s. forced president joe biden to visit michigan in the coming day. cnn's kaitlyn collins has more on the white house response. >> reporter: well, the winter storms in texas have been so devastating even the white house is weighing in after president biden called the governors of several states, not just texas, several others that were affected by this. it's a subject that came up at the white house briefing on wednesday when the white house press secretary jen psaki was asked about this, she said she believes this is another point to why they need to build new infrastructure, create parts that are based on renewable energy so you do not have a situation like we are seeing so many texans live through. she pushed back on the idea that you've seen some people in texas, republican lawmakers,

frozen wind turbines are to blame for what's going on. she disputed that, pointed to it's more with coal and gas and less with the wind turbines and talked about that matter as well. you can see just how far reaching this crisis is given what is going on and what the people of texas are living through. even the white house is weighing in, and fema is sending supplies to the state. we'll wait to see just how extensive the white house response to this is going to be given we expect it to last for several more days. kaitlyn collins, cnn, the white house. so the first order of business, of course, is to get the power back on and get help to those who have suffered from this, but then you can be sure the search for why this happened and who's responsible, well, that will intensify. cnn's global energy challenge anchor john defterios joins us. texas has the reputation of the energy capitol of the united

states. lots of wind and solar power as well. what went wrong and who's to blame? because at this point governor abbott is making it -- he's pointing the finger at everybody else and not taking any responsibility at all. >> reporter: yeah, you are correct about that. that's not abnormal for a governor during a crisis, right, rosemary? this boils down to supply and demand and planning. they had planned for basically a surge of above 70 giga watts of power maximum during the wintertime. because of that arctic blast it surged above it. half of it came offline. as kaitlyn was saying in the report, contrary to the naysayers, particularly the conservative commentators, the bulk was not the renewable sector though the wind turbines did freeze up and solar panels had challenges as well. they were not built in with heaters for the extreme weather. it was the thermal energy, the nuclear that did freeze up

completely. that was 60% of the supplies that went offline. now the regulators suggested because of the extreme weather that we're seeing right now, they're going to have to go to rolling blackouts. they won't get full power over the next few days as they try to restore the capacity going forward. as a result of that, rosemary, without the power and the heating, the oil and gas production and the number one producer in the united states has collapsed. it's lost about 4 million barrels, around 6 million barrels it produces on a daily basis. 4 million barrels is 40% of u.s. supplies. as a result we see a spike in energy prices not only in america but worldwide. well above $61 for west texas intermediate. we spiked above $65 just below that at $64.50. that will mean higher gas prices for the united states as well. the one lesson we learned here, texas is very independent. they took that approach to energy as well. they need to tap into the national grid and invest in

energy. >> john defterios, many thanks for explaining all of that. shocking news statistics show the impact of the pandemic on health in the united states. the centers for disease control and prevention says life expectancy dropped a full year in the first half of 2020. it now stands at 77.8 years across the board. that's how long people were expected to live on average back in 2006. and when you look at minority populations, the data is even worse. life expectancy for hispanic people fell by almost 2 years. and for black americans it dropped by a staggering 2.7 years. the u.s. is administering an average of 1.6 million vaccine

doses a day. more than 56 million shots have been given out. and while new daily cases are declining nationwide, health officials warn the variants could spark another surge. cnn's nick watt has more. >> reporter: that faster spreading variant first found in south africa now detected in nine states, probably in many more. the cdc director points to what happened when that variant arrived in zambia. average daily case counts went up 16 fold. >> i know these variants are concerning, especially as we're seeing signs of progress. in talking about them today, i'm concerned too. >> reporter: pfizer and moderna say their vaccines work against the south african variant. that's great. how is the vaccine rollout going? >> that entire shipment is still yet to come. >> we're going to run out. today, tomorrow, we're going to run out. >> reporter: terrible weather is

slowing vaccine shipments across the country. >> because of where the distribution centers for both vaccine manufacturers are located in the southern part of the u.s. >> reporter: across the heartland, some vaccine locations are closed. >> we should across the state start getting above freezing on saturday. >> reporter: but this weather, the tip of an iceberg-sized supply issue. >> this ridiculous situation, we have massive ability to give people vaccinations. we could be doing hundreds of thousands more each week. >> we've acted aggressively to increase the supply. >> reporter: the pace is picking up but only 5% of the u.s. population has been vaccinated more than nine weeks in. the president's time line, enough doses available for 300 million americans by end of july. >> by next christmas i think we'll be in a very different circumstance, god willing, than we are today. >> they're hedging here because they know that the variants

could really mess up a lot of our best-laid plans. >> reporter: the cdc in the united states warning these variants could cause a rapid rise in cases reiterating that now more than ever it's important to follow those measures that we know work, like masks. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. and up to 90 young, healthy volunteers will be deliberately exposed to the coronavirus in the world's first human challenge study. it's taking place this month in brittain after ethics approval was granted this week. the government department involved said the participants aged 18 to 30 will be exposed to covid-19 in a safe and controlled environment to increase understanding of how the virus affects people. earlier i spoke to andrew

catchpole, the chief scientific officer of hvivo. he's part of the clinical company involved in the trials, and i asked him what they're looking for exactly. >> what we're trying to achieve with this very first study is to identify the smallest amount of virus possible to cause an infection. if we see no infection in the 30 subjects, we will increase that virus until we're able to establish an infection. once we've done that, we then have the models ready to use the model testing for vaccines. we'll vaccinate subjects, bring them into our quarantine unit and challenge them with the virus and see if the vaccines can prevent the infection. very important key for this demographic, the 18 to 30-year-olds are, what we know is we are expecting many of them to have asymptomatic infections. they will be infected, have the virus but no symptoms. this is the key part of the

pandemic. if people don't know they're ill, they're still walking around and communicating with others and therefore transmitsing the virus. if we can make sure the vaccines, we can make sure vaccines are preventing the transmission. >> how difficult was it to overcome the ethical issues and get approval for this world first trial? >> the studies themselves are not new. we've been conducting these challenge studies for over 20 years in other experimental viruses. the platform in the u.k. is well understood in general, but of course as it is right and appropriate to do so, there was long discussions with the ethics review board to approve this study because, of course, what is the world's first of doing a challenge study with a pandemic with the pandemic virus. we're very delighted to be able to have deep discussions with the ethics review board because

we feel that is definitely the most appropriate thing to do. >> and that was andrew catchpole, the chief scientific officer of the clinical company involved in these trials. and this is "cnn newsroom." coming up, the showdown between a tech giant and the australian government. we are live in sydney to get the details.

joe biden has finally called israel's prime minister almost a month after his inauguration. the u.s. president said he had a good conversation with benjamin netanyahu on wednesday. a source close to the white house says the delay in calling the israeli leader may have been pay back for the prime minister's cold treatment of president obama, slow acknowledgment of biden's election win and close ties to

donald trump. cnn's sam kiley is covering this for us from jerusalem. he joins us now. sam, what were you learning about this? >> reporter: well, talking of the frictions between joe biden and benjamin netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, they're also out of step on the continued expansion of the israeli jewish settlements onto the west bank which is considered occupied territory under international law and from the israeli perspective, what they characterize is very dangerous intent by the biden administration to return to some kind of nuclear deal with iran which currently the israelis consider an existential threat. this is also part of a reset of relationships across the middle east from the romance relationship between donald trump and benjamin netanyahu here in jerusalem. the trump administration had warm relations with saudi arabia

and indeed with the president of turkey, mr. erdogan. in all of those cases there were direct communications man to man. in the case of saudi arabia, the biden administration has already said the only communication will be between the president and the king cutting out mohamed bin salman, the crown prince of saudi arabia. there's yet to be a call between biden and the turkish president. clearly he's trying to reset the policies and the structure of the relationship with middle eastern leaders but not perhaps back to the rather chaotic period of the obama administration where there was a sense of the americans withdrawing interest and influence in the middle east nor to the chaotic activist structures and policies that we saw under donald trump, rosemary. >> many thanks to sam kiley joining us live from jerusalem. protestors are out on the streets of myanmar despite growing fears of a violent

crackdown. police have significantly hardened their stance and reportedly fired on protesting railway workers in mandolay. in a move at shutting down the demonstrations, myanmar's military is encouraging protests against the military coup. wednesday's anti-coup demonstrations were the largest yet in weeks of public demonstrations and protests. now to big changes on how you get your news if you're living in australia. if you want to read or share a news article on facebook there, well, that is not going to happen anymore. social media giant is now blocking news content after the government proposed a law that would force tech platforms to pay for it. angus watson is covering this live for us. he joins us live from sydney. good to see you, angus. facebook appears to have won the first battle. australians are furious.

what is likely the next move here and how did they get to this point? >> reporter: well, rosemary, as in many other countries around the world, facebook is almost like an internet within the internet for its users in australia. they woke up on thursday morning with no news on their profiles, and that comes back to this war at the moment between facebook and the australian government. the australian government is pushing through legislation demanding that tech companies such as facebook and google pay news organizations for the news content that lives on their sites. google has responded by signing deals with australian news organizations. facebook says it won't do that. the news isn't an important part of its product and the users will come to facebook regardless of news is there or not. facebook has varied differently than google pulling down news content from its site leaving serious concerns, rosemary, about the nature of information that will exist on facebook if

those credible news sources don't have a presence there anymore. >> angus watson, thanks for bringing us up to date on that issue. appreciate it. rush limbaugh was many things, but he was never dull. coming up, the college dropout who became the loudest and most popular voice on the far right.

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so what adjective best describes rush limbaugh? there are too many to choose from. the undisputed dean of right wing radio in america died wednesday of lung cancer. his influence over those 70 years was mind boggling. cnn's randi kaye looks back at a most unorthodox career. >> you don't have to worry about staying informed. >> reporter: he was the king of conservative radio and controversy. on the rush limbaugh show everyone was fair game, whether you were a u.s. president. >> god does not have a birth certificate. neither does obama. not that we've seen. >> reporter: or the president of china, whom he mocked during his

2011 visit to the u.s. >> he was going -- >> reporter: for decades limbaugh filled the air waves with lies and conspiracy theories, racist and misogynistic comments. one of the most outlandish was in 2007 when he aired this racist parody barack the magic negro to the tune of "puff the magic dragon." he often mocked women saying this when nancy pelosi became the first female speaker of the house. >> i wonder when she loses next if she'll go back to the kitchen. >> reporter: last year he floated the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was being weaponized to bring down donald trump and it was nothing to fear. >> the coronavirus is the common cold, folks. >> reporter: instead of knocking him off the air waives, his commentary turned him into a national hero for the right and made him a very rich man.

"the new york times" reports limbaugh earned $85 million a year, lived in a 24,000 square foot ocean front mansion in palm beach and owned a $54 million gulf stream jet. ronald regan called him the number one voice for conservatism in the country and last year limbaugh was awarded the medal of freedom at donald trump's state of the union address. >> rush limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country. >> reporter: limbaugh was a trump supporter early on. he spread the falsehood that the election had been stolen. >> you didn't win this thing fair and square and we are not just going to be docile like we've been in the past and go away and wait until the next election. >> reporter: but on his final radio show of 2020, all that bravado was no more.

limbaugh's usual sarcasm replaced by solemnity and a feeling that the end was near. >> i can't be self-absorbed about it when that is the tendency when you are told that you've got a due date. you have an expiration date. >> reporter: now after more than 30 years, the chair at rush limbaugh's trademark golden microphone sits empty. randi kaye, cnn, palm beach, florida. and thanks so much for your company. i'm rosemary church. you can connect with me on twitter @rosemarycnn. "new day" is up next. with mucinex nightshift you've got powerful relief

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can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ ♪ good morning. welcome to our viewers in the united states, all around the world. this is ea"early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm laura jarrett. thursday, february 18th. 5 a.m. here in new york. 4 a.m. in texas where we begin this morning. with a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the united states. millions of people in texas waking up to day four of freezing weather, but this is about way more than just the weather. they're facing brutal conditions, no power, no water. in some places no heat and no one fully accepting responsibility. one family north o