>> wow. >> they also said that there was pain and suffering, women marrying into this institution, harry continues to say that he didn't want history to repeat itself. >> obviously -- well, history of losing his mother, diana and all that she faced. >> people are so interested in them. i think they -- obviously i know they garner more attention -- >> than. >> -- than william and kate. >> it's brave to put yourself out there like that. i can't wait to see t okay. thanks. >> good to see. >> you we will be back here with kaitlan, we feel like we're missing an appendage. >> tomorrow. >> see you all tomorrow. >> she will be on the air tomorrow. you guys have a great day. >> "cnn newsroom" is now. ♪ very good monday morning to you, i'm jim sciutto. >> and i'm erica hill. the countdown is on, less than 24 hours from now voters in

georgia will head to the polls if they haven't been there already for early voting. it's the second time in two years voters in this key state will choose their senator in a runoff election. incumbent democratic senator rafael warnock facing off against republican she are she will walker. both candidates making their final pitch to voters over the weekend. some 1.8 million plus ballots have been cast in early voting. live for you this morning in atlanta. plus the fbi is now investigating a massive power outage in north carolina. this morning crews out working trying to restore electricity, this is more than 35,000 people remain in the dark, unusual attack. two power substations damaged by gunfire this weekend. officials expect costly repairs to continue through thursday this week. >> i can say this, this individual that done this, it was targeted, it wasn't random. no group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept that they are the ones that done it, so,

yeah, i call them cowards. >> cnn's whitney wild is on the scene in moore county, north carolina, joining us on the phone with the very latest. whitney, any further news this morning about a potential motive in terms of this attack? >> reporter: not yet. it's really the big question here. there have been some discussion on social media that this was possibly tied to a drag show and the reason that people were saying that are just not clear at this time, but the timing, though, would seem to match up, i guess, with the theory on social media. that drag show was set to take place here in moore county at 7:00 on saturday evening, it was shortly after 7:00 that the power went out. so a lot of questions remain on the motive, but law enforcement stressing at this point that they have no information to tie this outage to that drag show. >> also joining us chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller.

john, we have seen attacks on power plants before and this is something of a vulnerable spot in our country's infrastructure here, many of them run, you know, by private companies. i wonder given that, the collection of threats and this attack we've seen in the last 24 hours, what is the situation with security and anything been done? >> jim, if you go back to the attack that kind of set all of these security measures into motion, that was in 2013, the metcalf power station in coyote, california, snipers fired over 100 rounds causing $15 million worth of damage into that power plant and before they did that they entered two underground vaults and cut the fiberoptic cables for at&t to disable phones and alarms. that took a real holistic look at security after that nationwide and said power companies need to identify what are the power stations and the substations that have the

greatest danger in terms of fai failure, in terms of power supply to those areas, and how to increase cameras, motion sensors, physical security, personnel on the scene. all of that has happened over the last seven or eight years, but the challenge is most of these places are outdoors, most are in remote areas and most of them are available for attack from a long distance. so we see our second sniper attack here. >> so even though, as you point out, those measures were put in place, the challenges still exist. just put into perspective for us, too, john, if you could, why would a group, potentially, want to go after a power station? what could that do in terms of the local population and even the national population in terms of fear? >> well, it's really interesting that you ask that in that form because since 2020 we've seen a real uptick in chatter by accelerationist groups, those who want to topple the u.s.

government, by eco terrorist groups but particularly by the right wing neo-nazi movement saying the power grid is the way to cause chaos and their theory is that if you identify the key nodes and you knock out one and they divert power to the next one and you knock out the next one and the next one, a domino effect can actually start to topple the national grid and plunge the nation into darkness and chaos and so on, but this isn't a passing phase. i mean, we've seen documents posted, we've seen instructions posted, we've seen, you know, models posted about the power grid being this key vulnerability. >> and that is why there is such a focus i'm sure from law enforcement and other security officials. john, thank you. well, this morning nearly 2 million ballots have already been cast in georgia's senate runoff election, today both candidates making a final plea to voters ahead of tomorrow's election. dianne gallagher is in atlanta

with more. senator warnock he is ahead in the most recent polls we've seen, especially among black voters, but, listen, this is a very tight state, it's proven tight in recent elections, both senate elections and national elections. what are the candidates' campaigns telling you? >> reporter: so, jim, senator warnock has been telling his supporters not to spike the football before they get into the end zone, but i can tell you that his campaign feels good going into tomorrow. there's definitely been a bit of a vibe and enthusiasm switch in the past few days. we can see that they do feel they have momentum and some of that is likely due to those more than 1.85 million early votes that have been cast during that abbreviated early voting period. some of that due to the fact that around one-third of those were cast by black voters, and to give you an idea of this, when you look back at 2020-2021,

the runoff that first put senator warnock in the senate, that's a higher percentage than we saw by a few points in that original race two years ago. they feel good because when that cnn poll that you mentioned, they asked black voters who they were likely to vote to in the senate, warnock dominated that, we're talking 96% to 3% over herschel walker there. i spoke with the walker campaign as well throughout this period, they seem to think that, look, they don't feel like they've done a terrible job here in early voting and they also have been adamant that they are going to see many of their supporters show up on election day. herschel walker himself imploring his voters yesterday at a stop to make sure they go out, make sure if they don't have any friends they make some and take them to go vote. we've also noticed a change, though, in the walker campaign just in the past 24 hours. we've talked about the difference in the warnock and walker campaign stop schedules, warnock has been pretty aggressive and ambitious

throughout the entire four-week period. walker has had a much lighter campaign schedule. but today to close out, five different stops around the state showing that the walker campaign trying to get that message out in the final hours of this runoff election. warnock having several events throughout the atlanta area, jim, erica. >> and we will see if those pay off when we eventually get the outcome. may not be tomorrow night as we know. thank you. joining us now to discuss cnn political analyst -- and white house francesca chambers. good to see you both this morning. if we pick up where diane left off this 11th hour push by the walker campaign, francesca, is there any indication that that will provide the momentum needed? >> well, republicans tend to turn out on election day and so we will have to see tomorrow. i know that sounds very, very

trite, but in this case it is the truth. national democrats are feeling very good. i have also seen a difference before they were not feeling super great about it, they thought it would go into a runoff election prior to the november election and in the last few days they say that they're very happy with turnout numbers, particularly among black democrats and that they're feeling quite good about this. also they're feeling very strong, they think that their voters understand if they give this seat to rafael warnock that it will help democrats in washington, it will give them that 51st vote which could be the difference maker. >> that number we just put it up on the screen, cnn polling of black voters in georgia, if we could put it up again, but 96% to 3, that is quite -- that's quite a margin given the makeup of voters, particularly what we've seen from these early voting numbers. do we know how indicative that might be for the final outcome? >> well, certainly reason for

why you are seeing particularly those close to senator warnock's campaign excited here. those -- those numbers showing the demographics for early turnout. look, this election really does cut to the center of race and power in georgia. talking about just the last point, i think it's also interesting today where herschel walker will be going for his bus tours, going to some of the more northern rural areas in the state. those close to his campaign do think that if he can also get white residents to trek across the state that he could have more of a chance of winning. now, that is also a part of -- or a reason for that is the turnout numbers for early voting thus far and how much excitement that's caused for the warnock campaign. at this point you have both candidates taking different strategies. the walker campaign has somewhat slowed down in recent days in terms of their pace. he does have events today, but

there has been some consternation that he hasn't done enough to appeal to both moderate republicans and plaque voters. at the same time you have the warnock campaign building that diverse coalition. one thing to watch out for is are you going to see residents from across the state including rural areas coming in as well on election day. that will be a prime factor. >> it's interesting in terms of going after folks outside of perhaps your traditional electorate who you would expect to vote for either candidate. as you noted, francesca, if warnock were to retain that seat and have that 51st vote what a difference that could make. what's interesting is how much bipartisan work he has done while in his short time in the senate. how important could that be, not needing the vice president to cast that tie-breaking vote to have warnock in there who has reached across the aisle? >> well, and then democrats would not have to be overly

reliant on one senator and having to change their agenda to meet one senator. they also wouldn't have to have a power sharing agreement with republicans on the committees and that would also be very important to democrats and of course you mentioned the vice president who constantly has to run across town to cast that vote sometimes. so that would also put her in a position of not having to stay in washington as often and heading into the 2024 presidential election that might be very useful for president biden and vice president harris. there is a lot wrapped up into why this is important for democrats. >> before we go on another topic, a pretty remarkable impactful change to the schedule of primaries for the 2024 presidential election. iowa out, i mean, it's outsized role it's had for decades, south carolina in with enormous implications as to the influence black voters will have on this election of democratic candidates going forward. can you place this into context for people at home what a

difference this kind of change will make. >> well, president biden runs again in 2024 and, by the way, the democratic national committee members i've been speaking to to do think he's planning to do that this might not have much of an impact in the immediate term. it could have a long term impact for democrats. they do say that they're planning to relook at the calendar heading into 2028. at the same time they don't often make changes to their calendar. so as you move beyond 2024 even this is going to, as the president has said, give black voters more of a say, not just in south carolina, but also in places like georgia and also michigan. >> zolan, quick thought before we go. >> it is worth noting, though, as well, let's remember that once upon a time there was a little known politician named jimmy carter who came in and used iowa really to rise his national profile. so this change of order could be significant here, particularly when you talk about a president in president biden here who many

in the national party around the national democratic party do think he is going to run again, you do have an advantage here in terms of not only fending off maybe a competitor but also let's remember 2020 south carolina is when things turned around. yes, absolutely a reflection of a growing diversity of the democratic party and the voter base but also it would be an advantage for president biden. >> listen, you can argue south carolina and jim clyburn made the way for joe biden to be the candidate in 2020. zolan kanno-youngs, francesca chambers, u.s. correspondent for "usa today" we should say, thanks very much to both of you. >> cnn programming note, special live coverage of the georgia runoff election determining the final makeup of the senate, that will start tomorrow at 4:00 eastern time. still to come, the former president is not legally tied to the trump organization tax fraud trial, the target here is the company. prosecutors have been trying to connect him, though. will the judge address that

question as deliberations begin soon? live outside the court. plus a former fedex delivery driver behind bars, officials say he confessed to abducting and killing this 7-year-old girl in texas. her mother is now speaking out. and ahead later this hour, nasa's moon mission rocket artemis i begins the trek home after nearly 20 days in space. what you want to watch out for this morning as the rocket flies by the moon one more time. oh, i can tell business is going through the “woof”. but seriously we need a reliable way to help keep everyone connected from wherever we go. wellll at at&t we'll help you find the right wireless plan for you. so, you can stay connected to all your drdrivers and stores on america's most reliable 5g network. that sounds just paw-fect. terrier-iffic i labra-dore you round of a-paws at&t 5g is fast, reliable and secure for your business.

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former president is not a defendant in this case. prosecutors, though, kara, have argued that he approved part of this scheme, an argument that wasn't always perhaps going the way they wanted it to, kara. what more do we know? >> reporter: yeah, good morning, jim and erica. that's right, on friday in closing arguments prosecutors aimed squarely at the former president telling the jury that he explicitly sanctioned part of this tax fraud scheme. they also said that the defense's argument that he was blissfully ignorant of what was going on over the past 15 years was just not true. and the prosecutors pointed to one document an internal memo that was initialed by the former president that had reduced the salary of one of the top executives this top executive had received a company apartment, rent-free in that very same amount that was reducing his salary. prosecutors want the jury to draw the link because they need to prove as you said not that any individual had committed the crime but that the company should be held liable.

the former president has not been charged with wrongdoing and the defense attorneys from the companies objected to this, asked the judge to declare a mistrial. their argument is that the former chief financial officer allen weisselberg who has pleaded guilty and testified as part of his plea deal was a rogue employee, motivated by his personal greed and was not looking to benefit the company. the judge did not declare a mistrial though he did say when he addresses the jury about the law the prosecutors need to prove in order for the jury to find guilt he may issue a limiting instruction to inform the jury to not put as much weight on what prosecutors said about his former president and his role because he is not on trial here. after the jury gets this instruction the case will be in their hands and deliberations will begin. erica, jim? >> kara scannell, thanks so much. defense attorney shan wu, a former federal prosecutors, good to have you on. >> good to see you. >> you made the point that the jury don't love to convict organizations that aren't human beings that don't have a human

face, on the other hand given what we know about how trump, it seems, runs his businesses, his administration, et cetera, quite hands on does the defense argument that this happened via a rogue employee hold water in your view? is it likely something to convince a jury? >> i think they will have a good chance of convincing the jury, particularly because they have weisselberg pleading guilty and testifying and he seems more than happy to take all the blame. i think you will see a little bit of a hint of the prosecutors' frustration with this situation because alvin bragg the da cut the legs out from under the case by removing trump himself. they are trying to bring up trump in the closing as kara reported despite the judge's admonition shows a little bit of frustration and if they get a conviction could come back to haunt them on appeal for having mentioned that. >> it will be interesting to see how that turns out. while we wait on that we do want to get your take. so later this week the supreme court is set to hear oral

arguments in moore v. harper, this is a case that hinges on this independent legislature theory, it essentially would give unchecked power to state legislatures on how congressional elections are conducted. you wrote a piece in the "daily beast" out this morning where you note the decision to hear the case raises the likelihoods that the conservatives may again be looking to overturn precedent. if i understand this correctly as the person who is not a lawyer, this could essentially do away with all checks and balances and that means the ramifications go far beyond congressional elections and gerrymandering. >> that's exactly right. i mean, first of all, the chaos that could result just in gerrymandering is enormous and you're exactly right, there would be no checks and balances because the prove nents of this theory read the constitution as giving sole power over elections along the states to the legislature. what that means is not only can state courts not review that

matter, even if it violates the state constitution, it would mean that things like independent commissions set up to look at redistricting, governors' vetoes, all that would be out the window, and, of course, very famously john eastman, one of the theorists behind the overturning the election effort by trump, tried to rely on this by saying that the state legislatures could come up with their own slate of electors to effect the electoral college decision. the ramifications are enormous. >> we don't know how the supreme court will decide but if they do decide to accept this theory how it would have played out in 2020. one of the stops, one of the checks we saw in action there was that state courts often with judges and in even other federal courts but with judges appointed by president trump that they stood in the way of some of the excesses of partisan legislatures. would that check be removed

going forward? >> it would be removed in theory and in actual operational status what would happen is more litigation. so let's say a state court was asked to step in, the court probably would not say hands off, we can't do anything, they probably would give their decision, which would then immediately be brought to federal court. what this would do is it would transform all of these state issues into what they call federal question jurisdictions because all of the arguments would be that whenever the state legislature acts if you interfere with it that violates the u.s. constitution. >> right. >> and that of course means everything ultimately ends up in the hands of the supreme court. >> so just so we're clear here, if the court, though, accepts this theory, would that then indicate that when those cases do make it to the court, even if, say, a state court objects that this court would be predisposed to grant the leeway

to the partisan legislature? >> it would. i mean, adopting this theory by the court indicates that they would be agreeing with this reading that according to the u.s. constitution state legislatures have unrevealable power when it comes to state elections. now, they would be hit by a flood of cases but it seems as if they were going to follow that theory they would be ruling in favor of those who say hands off to the state legislatures, which of course could be either democratic or republican folks could be saying that. >> there is a lot riding on this. shan wu, really appreciate it. thank you. >> good to see you. still ahead, every parents nightmare, this is just a heartbreak e. breaking store. officials say 7-year-old athena strand was abducted from her front yard and then killed. what we're learning about the former fedex driver who is now charged in that case. the details coming up. subway® is refreshing their catering with easy-order platters

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a preliminary hearing is scheduled for a fedex contract driver who is charged with aggravated kidnapping and capital murder in the death of a 7-year-old girl. authorities in wise county, texas, sataner lin horner was allegedly making a delivery to athena strand's home, that's athena pictured there, when she disappeared. the sheriff says they received a

tip which led them to horner who then admitted what had happened. >> we do have a confession. one of the toughest investigations that i've been involved in because it's a child. >> lord, those poor parents and that little girl. several school districts across texas are encouraging students to wear pink today in honor of athena. extra counselors will be there for students to help them try to deal with this loss. ed lavandera is in texas this morning. ed, jesus, what a story for you to cover, the details are harrowing, tell us how the family is remembering athena. >> reporter: her mother has written in a long facebook post talked about all the different things that little athena liked and enjoyed in her life and the amount of joy that she brought her family. she wrote, my princess was taken from me by a sick, cruel

monster. absolutely for no reason. athena is innocent, beautiful, kind, intelligence and just the brightest, happiest soul you could ever meet. you can imagine the anguish and the heartbreak that this family is dealing with. there were for several days little athena went missing last wednesday, her body wasn't found until friday. hundreds of volunteers combed through the area trying to help the family search for her, but obviously this is not the ending anyone there in wise county was praying for. as you mentioned, nearly two dozen school districts across wise county are urging their students to wear pink today in honor of athena strand, it was her favorite color. investigators had said that there was a tip that led them to the fedex delivery driver. the real specifics about who was behind that tip and how that all came to be has not been shared

by investigators at this point. the suspect is expected to make, as you mentioned, a court appearance here this morning at some point in wise county. we hope to learn more about how this investigation played out at some point throughout the day, but, you know, right now really the focus on this little girl and her family that is dealing with just unspeakable anguish. jim and erica? >> goodness. horrendous. ed lavandera, thanks so much. well, on a somber anniversary a group you may remember the dancing grannies they made their return to the streets of waukesha, wisconsin, overnight. smiles, bittersweet joy and their first christmas parade since last year's deadly and horrible shooting there -- sorry, attack there. a man intentionally drove an suv on to the parade route killing six people, including four affiliated with the dancing grannies. >> several family members of those killed did join in this year's parade carrying pictures

of their loved ones. cnn spoke this weekend with one of the surviving dancers. >> there were many ups and downs, challenges, you know, trying to deal with what did happen to the group, you know, the four that we lost, the injured, are we going to keep this group going? you know, just everything. >> darrell brooks was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences last month plus an additional 700 years in prison for that attack. still to come here our colleagues on the ground in ukraine forced into bunkers deep underground as russian missiles starting infrastructure, we will bring the latest from the capital of kyiv next.

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christine, or a -- i don't know if it's a map or a timeline or what it is. >> i actually made one. >> see, this is why i love it when you're here because i knew you would have that. there are a lot of steps to this. so if we start out with -- let's start out with these so-called twitter files that were released over the weekend which were supposed to show what? >> they were released to a writer who then had a long tweet thread about them. so they weren't released to the public so everyone could see exactly what this was, but these are documents related to the internal discussions at twitter in 2020 around a laptop that was found at a laptop repair shop that contained all kinds of really outrageous stuff from the now president's son. inside twitter what you can see are all of these people who worked there saying is this real? this feels like russian disinformation, maybe it is real. real arguments about how they should treat this material in an election year. now, what some want you to think

is that this was secensorship b big tech, that's why the isn't is saying you should throw out the constitution because big tech is in cahoots with american democracy, that's what the president thinks. what it shows is a struggle at an important platform for how to deal with something so outrageous, so explosive and what to actually do with it. what pointer said, which is a media watchdog group, they said file this one -- file the twitter files under m for meh and the "washington post" said there are no smoking gun here, we've known a lot of this, that twitter really struggled with how to handle this explosive story that was published in the new york post. >> also because they couldn't verify a lot of it at the time. >> exactly. >> which was a major issue. >> exactly. they couldn't verify it. >> the essential argument here from musk if you read this thread is that there was undue political influence that folks connected to then candidate biden were pushing at which time tore remove this for political

reasons, right? so help with the 2020 election. is there any evidence of that? >> so what you see in these files are republicans and democrats at times going to twitter and saying, hey, we don't know if this is true. hey, you shouldn't elevate this. there were both parties although more democrats than republicans from what we've seen in this thread, but both parties would go and say, hey this, isn't fair, this is tilting the scale, there's a lot of misinformation, disinformation on this platform and we don't like this or that. this, again, shows the struggle, i think, twitter had at the time to being a real arbiter of real information. we know that all of the social media sites have had difficulty with that. you know, elon musk is teasing, i guess, that there's going to be even more that will be coming from these so-called twitter files via this writer who has disdained frankly the mainstream media before. we will see what comes next but he's not releasing it to the public, he's releasing it to

another voice to distill it to see what was going on behind the scenes at twitter at the time. >> christine romans, thanks so much. >> you're welcome. this morning another following we're following, two people dead, to others injured in the city of zaporizhzhia following yet another wave of russian missiles launched often towards civilian targets in ukraine. at least two ukrainian cities now reporting no water or electricity. erica, as we often note this is deliberate, russian attacks designed to inflict pain on the civilian population. >> in the city of kyiv will hiply and team forced to safety this morning as more air raid sirens rang over over the report of potentially dozens of russian missiles targeting the city. will is with us now, we're happy to see you are out of that bunker now, will, you and your team. give us a sense of not only what happened this morning and or nighttime where you are, but also as we look at all of this, this continued effort to really go after the infrastructure.

we know winter has already set in there. is it having an impact? >> reporter: yeah, winter temperatures for sure, erica, even though the official start is well over a week ago and you have subzero on a nightly basis and a large number you're talking millions of people in ukraine who maybe have power for an hour or two a day. you mentioned now after this latest russian missile attack that set off the air raid sirens here, some four hours ago, we were, you know, had just finished a live shot, with he heard the sirens and then got these reports of dozens of incoming russian missiles. we went down to this underground bunker, we've been down there for the last several hours, very safe location to broadcast from and getting updates in realtime about missiles that were reportedly intercepted, either shot down by ukrainian fighter jets or by the air defense systems that are in place throughout the capital city here in kyiv.

some missiles, though, apparently did hit their targets, there are videos emerging of a power station in odesa, ukraine, that was hit. you mentioned zaporizhzhia where at least two people were killed, others injured and cities -- entire cities now essentially as night falls here no electricity, in some cases that also means that their heating system is cut off. we've been talking to people as we've been covering this issue of the power grid and these -- this race to repair the power grid and people are soldering through it as best they can, but they say this kind of russian attack is precisely why the united states needs to make a decision on pa treat defense missile systems as soon as possible because they need nor capability to shoot these things down and also need generators which the u.s. is providing. a lot of power stations rely on old soviet era parts that are not easy to replace, you can see the problem here. if they keep destroying these things and they have to rebuild, they might not necessarily have the tools and parts to rebuild

them. >> it's an important note. will, appreciate the reports as always, thank you. still ahead, nasa's moon mission rocket artemis i is now beginning its return to earth, the critical maneuver to watch for in the sky this morning. you can see it. it's coming up. oh, i can tell business is going through the “woof”. but seriously we need a reliable way to help keep everyone connected from wherever we go. well at at&t we'll help you find the right wireless plan for you. so, you can stay connected to all youour drivers and stores on america's most reliable 5g network. that sounds just paw-fect. terrier-iffic i labra-dore you round of a-paws at&t 5g is fast, reliable and secure for your business. i see an amazing place. feels like a dream. place of many wonders - and full of life.

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right now the orion spacecraft getting ready for the final swing around the moon before splashing down this sunday. so we're expecting to see the fly by burn, that is where oryan will use the moon's gravity to assist the trip back too other.

it is the first leg of the artemis mission aimed to bring people back to the moon. >> the pictures are pretty cool. you saw the spaceship and how small the little blue marble is in space. joining us now, kristin fisher. this is all about showing that artemis could do this safely with people with nasa plans to bring man and women back to the moon. so how critical is this particular maneuver we're seeing today. >> this is the last critical burn of this mission. a burn being when the spacecraft fires its engine or thursters to move to wherever it wants to go. so in about an hour and a half we're going to see the orion spacecraft get 80 miles off the surface of the moon. and this comes, this total mission will be about 26 days since that launch right there that you're seeing. it was a long mission. they really wanted to test out these systems on orion as jim said to make sure it is safe for

people, whenever they put them on board. but there are still one even bigger test ahead, aside from the burn that we're going to see in about an hour and a half and that is testing of the orion heat shield. it is so important, that is what is going to protect the astronauts when there are astronauts on board as this spacecraft barrels back into the earth's atmosphere and protects it from the high temperatures and that should happen on sunday with splash down in the pacific ocean and if that is a success, then this artemis 1 success fly have been a success. they've had some minor issues but nothing big. >> and that reminds me of the apollo 13, the heat shield. thank you so much. >> thanks. experts say the risk down here on earth from the mauna loa volcano is low in hawaii but the lava flow is active and huge and just breathtaking to watch. it is threatening a major

highway connecting the east and west sides of the big island. the highway is still open, but sight seers are coming in droves to see and that is adding to the traffic. >> joining us now with more, david culver who is there on the ground for us. every time i see your live shot, david, these pictures behind you, it is just remarkable. >> reporter: it really is, erica and jim. and that glow. and that is why thousands have been coming in the overnight hours here it is 4:50 in the morning or so and people are still coming in, families pulling kids out of bed to see this. but to give you an even better view, let's go a little bit higher. we go up in the morning dark. paradise helicopters darren hampton our pilot and guide giving us rare access. >> as you well know, when we see the volcano, it is just about

the eastern side there. about at the 1:00 position. >> reporter: having flown in military hot zones, darren sad mitts this is fire power like no other. >> what was it like the first time you flew over lava? >> it was a blast. >> reporter: it could also be challenging, especially with heavy fog or volcanic smog. >> there you could see the gases from fissure three. >> reporter: those gases dangerous at the concentration levels that are too high. >> that is 2,000 to 3,000 degrees farenheit. >> which was also crossed one volcano road, power lines and all. >> as soon as you get close to it, you could feel it and you look at rushing flow, it is a river river, you see the current of lava. >> they estimated it is moving

30 to 40 miles per hour. >> there is nothing like this. >> reporter: moving really quickly up there. that is that 30 to 40 miles per hour, though as it comes closer to where we are, and we're near that main highway, jim and erica, slowing down to 50 feet an hour. but still it is over two with miles away and officials are watching it closely. >> understandably. incredible view there that you gave us, david, appreciate it. thank you. till to come here, the final push in georgia as democrats look to keep their senate seat. how republican herschel walker is making his final pitch to voters, next.

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