indicating there are non-jews celebrating the festival of lights. by the way, you're all wrong. hanukkah is spelled with a c. >> my synagogues have it right. >> i agree. >> just real quick before i let you go. i light my menorah every year, tomorrow i can start. >> you can start and you can have me over and we can light the menorah together. >> thank you, harry. c h a n. i don't care what the polling shows. >> cnn this morning continues right now. good morning everyone. so glad you can wake up with us. welcome to cnn this morning. our poppy harlow is off this

morning. hopefully she's in a warm beach somewhere enjoying her time off. kaitlan and i are live in washington, d.c. ahead of the january 6th committee's final public meeting. we'll catch you up on the five big stories on cnn this morning. in just a few hours the january 6th committee is set to make announcements about criminal referrals to the justice department, the referrals would recommend that the department of justice investigate and look at charging some individuals for their role in the insurrection. we'll talk about who those people are in just a moment. also, the trump-era immigration policy known as title 42 that allows officials to turn away migrants at the u.s. southern border is set to expire this week. the administration and border officials are bracing for a surge as more government officials have been hired to process the migrants. the question is will he or won't he.

elon musk asking if he should step down. they said yes. nearly 58% of those users voted yes, that he should step down. musk said that he will abide by the results. he has not responded this morning. also, five people were killed in a shooting at a condo in toronto last night. another person shot was taken to the hospital in serious condition as police say the male gunman was shot and killed by an officer during the confrontation. it's not clear what the motive was. police have not shared what led up to the shooting. 31 crew members are still missing after a thai navy ship sinks in the gulf of mexico. of the 106 crew members on board, 75 have been rescued. strong winds pushed the ship to tilt over. water flowed into the ship's electrical system, causing it to shut down. the main story, the house january 6th committee holding its final public meeting to consider at least three criminal

referrals against former president trump. the panel is expected to vote on asking the justice department to pursue charges including in inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the government. cnn's katelyn polantz joins us now. what are we expecting today in addition to these findings? >> we know since we saw all of those hearings into the summer and the beginning of the fall, the committee continued its work. they brought more people in, got access to more and more text messages. we're waiting the see if they have anything new. there's the big moment of what they do with these possible criminal referrals they are expecting to want to ask the justice department to pursue. we know where the committee stands on a lot of this. they showed their cards in federal court when they were pursuing john eastman's emails, the election attorney for donald

trump. 245i bthey basically said they believed donald trump was working on a conspiracy to defraud the united states. that's sort of the disinformation campaign, and then obstruction of a congressional proceeding. that's the sort of stuff where the people around trump, trump himself would have been trying to put pressure on mike pence. insurrection, of course, that would be a big and new thing if the committee chose to make a criminal referral on that. that we would expect to see them trying to connect trump to the rioters themselves, the people that broke into congress. remember this is congress investigating themself. they probably have a lot to say as a body about what it felt like to be attacked. >> we're waiting for the criminal referrals. it doesn't mean the justice department has to act on those. we'll get a ton of information. they say the justice department doesn't even have this information. we'll get the transcripts of ginni thomas, ivanka trump, bill barr, all of whom testified behind closed doors. >> we'll see if we get those

transcripts, exactly when we're going to be seeing them. you're right. there are a lot of things that the committee has been doing that maybe the criminal investigation didn't get into yet. and the other thing that's so different about this is that we're going sort of backwards. there was the impeachment right after the riot of donald trump, those proceedings where he was acquitted by the senate. now we have a congressional proceeding that did a lot of work, really dug in and is going to be releasing their report, and the justice department is going to continue on. we don't actually know what point right now the justice department is in their investigation. we know they're looking at many of the same things. they're talking to many of the same people, but they either may be taking cues from the committee and we may be learning things that become important later on. let's bring in gloria borger and analyst and correspondent paula reid. let's talk about the legal

aspect of this. we're going to hear exactly why they're recommending, doesn't necessarily have any teeth legally, but it is a strong sugg suggestion, we should say, to the department of justice. >> that's a great way to describe it, a strong suggestion. this is symbolic. we know the justice department is already investigating former president trump and his associates before their role in january 6th and, of course, appointed a special counsel to take over that investigation. i guess you could say this applies additional political pressure. merrick garland will tell you, and i think jack smith will, too, they have plenty of political pressure when it comes to these trump related investigations. speaking to attorneys for the former president, they're not terribly concerned about this particular investigation. they believe even if he is charged related to this vase, they believe they could put on a successful defense. >> did you say political pressure on jack smith? >> let's be real about it. he's been brought into something really high profile.

the country has -- trump supporters believe he's political, and the rest of the country wants to see what he's going to do. donald trump is running for president, and he believes that in some way, and i think he's wrong about this, that this is going to insulate him from whatever the justice department may or may not do. i think what's going to happen today is sort of historically significant and meaningful. think about it. take a step back. this committee after months and months of voluminous research, interviewing a thousand witnesses or more, is telling the united states public that we believe we need to criminally refer a former president for trying to obstruct a free and fair election, effectively orchestrating a coup. that is remarkable when you think about it. he was trying to keep himself in office, and it has already affected the public i believe to

a certain degree. it's already affected republicans i believe to a certain degree when you look at our polling. >> kaitlyn, when we talk about the significance of this and what the criminal referrals mean, there was the federal judge who said it was more likely than not that trump and eastman have committed a crime here. that's significant in the scope of viewing the committee's work, too. >> right. the thing i'm always thinking about as somebody covering the courts, we're watching this in federal court. that's on paper. much of the american people don't get to see that in the same real way where you're seeing people like bill barr on camera commenting about what he knew versus what trump was saying. you're seeing people that the committee captured -- >> his own daughter. >> so the way they're presenting this is just so different than we've seen even from congress in the past, the way they conduct hearings. it certainly isn't the way that the justice department is able to spell out a case if they do

end upbringing a case like this. >> gloria, the timing is crucial, right? there's going to be a changing of the guard soon. if they don't get this done, what are the odds that it's going to continue into the next -- >> there are no odds. the republicans are going to control the house and the tanls are going to turn. they're going to say we're going to want to subpoena you democrats to find out how you mishandled this committee. in the meantime, there's a handful of republicans who are subpoenaed who never showed up. today they're probably going to tell us what they're going to do about those republicans who never showed up to testify. are they going to criminally refer them? are they going to send them to the ethics committee? what are they going to do about them, because they know they're going to be subpoenaed at one time or another themselves. >> the whole thing is what are the odds. lawmaker -- republican lawmaker after lawmaker, former republican lawmakers say i think

there's a strong chance, he should be indicted, meaning the former president. do you think there's the political and legal appetite in washington to indict a former president of the united states. >> that's a political question. legally speaking i will say merrick garland and jack smith, they're not going to weigh the political wins here. the whole reason they have jack smith is whatever decision he makes -- special counsel -- he can take the blowback one way or the other. if you look at merrick garland's career historically, this is not a political animal. he's a judge, the consummate attorney. jack smith will look at those same facts and make the decision regardless of where the political winds are. the political ramifications will likely happen on the campaign trail, not necessarily in jack smith's office, wherever he is sitting right now in europe. >> i'm not a lawyer here. i think it depends on what they can prove. can they prove insurrection? that's really tough.

can they prove obstruction of a congressional proceeding? >> to don's point, important to view it through all that is happening to trump this week. this is not the only thing. he's got all these other investigations we've been covering. lawmakers have his tax returns. all of that when we look at a broader scope, what does it mean for someone like trump who is not just a former president but is also running again. >> it puts the focus on him. i believe the weighs and means committee is also planning to meet this week. they have access to several years of his tax returns when he was in office. sogrs is going to put the spotlight. but whatever they're doing right now, that continues on. just last week there were arguments in the federal court system about whether or not he has absolute immunity over the capitol riot on a civil side of things. remember, at the end of the impeachment proceedings i believe it was mitch mcconnell who was saying, well, maybe there's a way he can have civil

liability. there's a lot of things that continue on, a lot of questions where trump is still going to be facing legal issues, whether it's a charge or not. >> all that he's going to say it's a political witch hunt. >> i'm the victim. >> i'm the victim. i knew your were going to say that. >> did you know that? >> thank you all, appreciate it. also this morning, more than half of the 17.5 million people who voted in elon's poll say yes, he should step down from running the site. earlier musk faced serious backlash claiming they posted links to an account that shared information about his private plane. twitter implemented a new policy from sharing links and user names from other social platforms like facebook, instagram. less than 24 hours later, an aboutface as twitter deleted that policy. before he asked his twitter policies to decide his future,

which he does say he will abide by, he was spotted at the world cup with jared kushner. here to talk about the results of this is cnn media analyst and axios reporter sara fischer. what do you think about this, given it says he should step down and will abide by it. do you think he actually will? >> i do think he will for two reasons. he's been suggesting for a while they need a new ceo of twitter. part of that comes from tesla investors who think he's asleep at the wheel when it comes to running that company. this isn't the first time he used a poll to govern twitter. he put out a poll to ask whether or not he should bring donald trump back. he did, in fact, say donald trump could return. i think elon musk is eventually going to step down as the ceo of twitter. it's worth remembering he's still the owner, still going to be just as involved as he wants to be even if they doesn't have the technical title of ceo.

>> do you think this has more to do with the backlash he's facing over the changes or because he's stretched too thin when it comes comes to tesla and spacex. >> if you look at the people who use twitter, i think it's people exhausted from these platform changes happening all the time and people exhausted from being in the headlines. it could be some people are looking at elon musk and saying we want to see this guy succeed, to innovate. i think overwhelmingly the people who voted in the poll are exhausted from this platform having no consistent rules or content moderation policies. >> sara fischer, thank you so much. >> thank you. we have some very sad news to tell you today. our colleague and friend and longtime distinguished cnn journalist drew griffin has passed away. drew was with the investigative

unit of cnn based in at any time since 2004. his wide-ranging expertise included politics, sports, government and corporate investigations. in 2015 drew earned a peabody award for his probe into delays at veterans affairs hospitals. he won three national emmys for his reporting exposing corporate and congressional corruption. prior to joining cnn he was an investigative reporter at cbs in los angeles for ten years, and we honor -- we're going to honor him a little bit later on this hour. i'm sorry. >> this is tough for you. he said he was one of the first people you met at cnn. >> i'm sorry. >> drew was such a gifted storyteller. we'll have more for you next. back in a moment. >> sorry.

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what we are seeing happening is many people are taking advantage of the fact that title 42 may go away this week. we see many people exploiting migrants, saying come now or you lose your ability to come at all. that's simply not the case. >> the biden administration responding to concerns as the democratic mayor of el paso has declared a state of emergency. migrants are setting up camp waiting for the official end that's coming this week to title 42. title 42 is the trump-era border policy that allowed agents to

expel migrants at the border. they're bracing for the huge wave of people. texas governor greg abbott says if title 52 is lifted there will be, quote, total chaos. joe manchin adding his voice to the push for a white house intervention. ed lavandera is live in el paso. what are the implications of it? >> reporter: one of the initial things we've been able to see, kate land, if you remember for the last week or so, hundreds of migrants sleeping on the streets of el paso. since that emergency declaration was made over the weekend, crews have been able to come through here and essentially move a lot of these migrants who haven't been able to find room in shelters to other shelters opening up or into hotels. there has been a push to try to alleviate the scenes we've been seeing here on the streets of el paso. they say it also creates the ability for them to get more

resources as far as food and shelter. really this is a logistical nightmare challenge that the cities in many of these border communities will be facing. they say the best way to avert a total humanitarian breakdown here is to really move people through these border communities as quickly as possible so once they get processed out of border patrol, they're not just sitting in border communities. many of these people are not trying to stay in border communities anyway. they're trying to get to other destinations in the u.s. while they await their immigration court process. what they're trying to do is alleviate that logistical nightmare to get people moving as quickly as possible. that means getting them on buses or flights or other kinds of transportation to get them out of these border communities, and that would help the backlog of people that will be in these cities. that's really the main challenge that many of these people have, but the clock is ticking. we're two days away. title 42 ends on wednesday.

>> ed, do officials there feel like they have the resources they need to deal with this? >> reporter: no. the fact of the matter is they don't. they say we cannot get enough funding to spend our way out of this, whatever they're doing, they're basically kind of hanging on by a thread and doing the bare minimum that they possibly can to do this. this is a great deal of pressure not just on border patrol officials in these border communities, but as well as non-government organizations, like charities and shelters and churches that are helping with this. it really is -- they're trying to open up more space. there are efforts to either contract hotel rooms or open up other waiting areas where people can wait in safe places so they can catch their bus rides and flights out of town. but all of that stuff is not quite online yet from what we can tell in el paso.

officials here say that they're just basically reacting to what is going to be a very difficult situation, perhaps one of the biggest challenges the city has ever seen. >> thank you, ed. also happening right now, more asylum-seekers are arriving in new york city. up to 15 more buses carrying migrants are expected over the next several days. city officials say they're stretched very thin, not dissimilar to what you heard from ed there. they have a shelter system that's already at capacity, and tens of thousands are still waiting to be processed. the numbers surging at the southern border as title 42 is set to expire on wednesday is not just having impacts -- polo sandoval, it's not just at the southern border, but we're seeing it as far as new york. >> reporter: that's because those families don't remain at the border. many of them bring themselves or are brought to cities like new york city. we first began to cover the

scorery of these families in manhattan, i remember one of the ngo telling me, just wait for the lifting of title 42. short of any supreme court action as we get closer to that date, there certainly is some concern coming from mayor eric adams who over the weekend saying the city needs that crucial funding, not just from the state, but also from the federal government as they expect the number of migrants to sharply increase. many of them likely to consider new york city as a place where they want their asylum proceedings to play out. the mayor saying we could see at least another 1,000 asylum-seekers arriving in new york city a week. that's on top of the numbers we've been seeing lately which is still a decrease from what we saw earlier this morning. this morning a couple of buses arriving here with a few hu hundred, a couple more buses expected later today. really to give you a sense of the situation on the ground,

with city officials recognizing the numbers are only going to increase and the spending for the city is likely to increase over a billion dollars. back to you. >> polo sandoval, thank you. there are renewed calls for stronger weaponry after overnight more drone strikes happened against critical infrastructure in kyiv. what the ukrainian air force is saying. our next guest traveled the country and got quite close-up at the division that led up to the attack on january 6th. the director, producer and star of the new hbo documentary is going to join us live to talk about what he saw. there's something going around the gordon home. good thing gertrude found delsym. now what's going around is 12-hour cou relief.

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this morning. we're live here in washington, d.c. ahead of the january 6th committee's final public meeting. we have new cnn reporting on the white house and how they're keeping an eye on the committee's work. plus russia is increasing its assault on ukraine's critical infrastructure. new message from president

zelenskyy. jury selection set to be begin for trial of former proud boys leader theriot. he's charged with seditious conspiracy. he denies the charges. >> our next guest spent time with him. it's all on camera as well for a new hbo documentary. >> 2020 got super serious, protests, pandemics. remember that? >> freedom! >> we think they're trying to steal our election. >> all you have are personal attacks. >> info war, not physical wore. >> my name is andrew callaghan. this is the story that led up to the january 6th capitol riot. you ever feel like you've gone too far down the rabbit hole? >> joining us is director, producer and stars in this documentary, quote, called "this place rules" which debuts on hbo december 30th.

andrew callaghan. andrew, this is a lot. this is a deep dive into this documentary. there's so much to talk about here when it comes to who you spent time with, what you saw. when it comes to what's happening today, enrico theriot, he was not at the capitol on the 6th but still played a role in this, facing some of the most serious charges stemming from that day. what did you see from him as you were shooting this? >> i talked to him in the lead-up to the january 6th capitol riot, hung out with him a little bit in d.c., miami and elsewhere. >> what did you learn about him? >> ah, he sells t-shirts, he's the chairman of the proud boys. yeah. >> so no details about his involvement, his state of mind or anything? >> i don't think -- the movie is not just about the capitol riot and all that.

it's also about like media echo chambers. you know what i mean? the dangers of the 24-hour news cycle and how i think mainstream media like fox and even cnn competes for views by running constant 24-hour news cycle based on fear, division, outrage and panic, probably to, like, sell ads. it's not just about the capitol riot. >> i'm not exactly sure -- first of all, i don't agree with what you're saying, but i'm not exactly sure of how that played into people going into the capitol and rioting on january 6th. there's no fake about cnn. >> i'm not saying fake news. i'm saying ramping people up and increasing division during that period of time. watch people fall down the rabbit hole and be pushed into action and just, yeah, falling down the conspiracy rabbit hole. >> i think more people would consider what's happening online

and what happened with the former president and the messaging he was putting out there, qanon. >> i definitely agree 100% with that as well. >> there are literally so many jaw dropping moments including a weightlifting theme with conspiracy theorist alex jones. >> he can bench press a lot actually. >> why did you put that? why is he such a big part of this film? >> whenever we were filming for the documentary there were certain moments that were super surreal that just kind of happened. i felt like we had to leave the footage in. the alex jones weightlifting, whiskey drinking scene is one of the moments i couldn't leave out of the moment for sure. >> one thing that also stood out is what you heard from people when it comes to conspiracy theories. there were parts were children were shouting conspiracy theories. i wondered as you talked to these people, if you got the sense that they actually believed what they were saying. what your takeaway was.

>> i think a lot of people believe what they're saying. the echo chambers, the media, more fringe media these people are consuming is all encompassing. the mythology of qanon consumed many people's lives and it became everything they wanted to fight for up until the capitol riot. that particular scene where i spoke with that family in georgia, the structure and whole basis of their family was based upon q and following that kind of lore was definitely un unsettling for sure. it's interesting to see where it is now. i guess hard qanon stuff has diss dissipated, in terms of nobody posting on the q boards anymore. but it's bled into mainstream conservative thought. >> we should point out, a lot of those conspiracy theories are not from legitimate media, but social media and dark corners of the internet. >> absolutely. people spend all their time in these dark corners. i think the biggest problem is maybe media literacy and taking

a lot of this information that's false instead of fact. >> andrew callaghan, thank you very much. best of luck with this. "this place rules" debuts on hbo and streams on hbo max on december 30th. russia is ramping up attacks in ukraine. kerr nell cedric leighton is standing by with the state of this war.

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overnight ukrainian officials say russian drone attacks damaged kcritical infrastructure areas in kyiv. we have new images that show crews battling a fire at one of the attack sites. two people were hurt. homes were damaged we are learning. these attacks on infrastructure have knocked out power across ukraine, leaving millions in the dark during what is setting in to be a very brutal winter with incredibly low temperatures. president zelenskyy says this will not deter his country from fighting back. >> translator: whatever the rocket worshippers from moscow are counting for, it still won't change the balance of power in this war. they still have enough missiles for several such massive strikes. we will have enough determination and self-belief to return what is ours after these strikes. >> joining us now is cnn military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton.

the point of this is to basically destroy morale across ukraine. zelenskyy is trying to make the argument that it's not working. >> that's right, kaitlyn. i think he's got a real point there, on an individual basis you're going to find a lot of people who are affected personally, people that they know are wounded or have been killed in the war. they're personally suffering shortages of electricity and water and things like that. but there's this resilience within ukraine that is really amazing to behold, zelenskyy is reflect that in the way he's actually talking about this. he's also -- by doing this, he's furthering the whole idea of resistance and making it a resilient society, something you would never expect to have happened in a country like ukrainian. >> let's be realistic about this. we're in the waning days of december, waning days of 2022. you and i started reporting this in february. almost a year. the conditions are horrific.

i've been there in the winter. it is cold. give us the conditions of the war right now. >> so you've got this bone-chilling cold that everybody is dealing with on both sides. the russians are woefully unprepared for this cold, which is kind of surprising because they train in the arctic, they've got large areas of territory that are within the arctic circle, but they don't have the supplies that they need to in order to sustain this kind of a force. on the ukrainian side, they're getting a lot more from the west that will help them on a personal basis for each individual soldier, take care of the cold aspect of this, but they also are getting weapon supplies. their supply line is much better serviced than that of the russians. it's really making a big difference in the way in which the ukrainians can prosecute this war. it doesn't mean the ukrainians are going to be able to win this war outright, but it means they can at least at this point sustain what they've been able to do and keep what they've been able to regain from the russians

at this point. >> obviously, you're no stranger to war. did you expect it to go on this long? there's no end in sight. >> there's no end in sight right now. i did not expect it to go on this long, but i also think it's really up to president putin of russia to decide at which point he's going to withdraw these forces. that's going to be the critical element here. when does he decide to do it? how does he decide to do it? he's obviously going to try to save face. there's going to be some kind of a settlement at some point, but we're not there yet. and the ukrainians are not going to want to give up any territory. >> it's having massive impacts on the u.s. "the new york times" had a comprehensive look at military spending and what the war in ukraine has done when it comes to all the private companies making all this, and the timelines of what it looks like and how speeding it up is not something they can do in the near future. >> that points to the defense industrial base in this country. we are not prepared, we were not

prepared to sustain a war of this type for somebody ems, and we were certainly not prepared for something that isn't a quick war like we had, say, in the first stages of operation iraqi freedom or in desert storm. we kind of focused our military on those kinds of wars and fighting counterterrorism-type operations. in this particular case we are not seeing that. >> i thought vladimir putin thought it would be ten days or so, right? >> oh, yeah, much less than that. he thought he would be marching his troops down the main streets of kyiv in three days. they had their parade uniforms in their tanks. >> that's fas 245e9ing. they brought their parade uniforms and medals, they didn't pack enough food or weapons, but they brought their uniforms thinking they were going to have a celebration within days. >> all the tanks parked along the way that ukrainians had taken out, much of a surprise to russia. >> absolutely. they thought they were going to go on parade in those three days. obviously didn't happen. that 40-mile-long corn voi that

had a lot of troops in there, total disaster for the russians. it shows you can never predict how quickly these wars are going to end when you start them. >> colonel, thank you. always a pleasure to see you. >> same here, don. also this morning, the white house expected to watch as the january 6th committee is holding its final public meeting and its investigation into what happened at the capitol. the panel is expected to vote on at least three criminal referrals against trump. cnn's m.j. lee is live on the white house lawn. m.j., how do they handle this? obviously they will be watching. they want to handle this carefully if there are these referrals to the justice department i imagine. >> reporter: that's absolutely right. we can expect the white house to handle all of this carefully and largely quietly. white house officials telling me that the white house is not going to weigh in on at least any specific referrals or actions that the committee might

make this week and the final week. one official saying this basically reflects how all year long the white house has been careful to not offer any pu punditry on the commit tooes tea's work. for months and months we've seen the white house take these painstaking efforts to not weigh in specifically on the january 6th committee's work, but also the doj's investigation into what happened on january 6th as well. what has been really important for this white house is to avoid any perception that it has tried to influence the work of the doj and that there has been any sort of political influence that it has tried to exert. those efforts might, kaitlan, become just as important if, in fact, the committee does end up making several criminal referrals to the doj against donald trump that cnn has expected that it is expected to do. >> we'll all be watching closely today. m.j. lee, thank you. another major trump investigation is wrapping up. sources telling cnn that the special grand jury investigating efforts by trump and his allies

to overturn the election results in georgia is largely finished hearing from witnesses and is now working on writing its final report. this is a sign that prosecutors could decide pretty soon whether to seek criminal charges. fulton county district attorney willis has been digging into trump and his associates since early 2021 soon after his phone call became public. >> all i want to do is this, i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have -- >> that was trump obviously pressuring georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger to, what he still claims was a perfect phone call as trump has insisted he didn't do anything wrong. this investigation has been big and has included false election fraud claims made to state lawmakers and the fake elector scheme. willis has already informed the

16 republican fake electors they are targets of her probe along with rudy giuliani. a long list of trump allies have testified despite trying hard not to including lindsey graham, rudy giuliani and former national security adviser michael flynn. in georgia a special grand jury -- special grand juries have no authorities to issue indictments. they make recommendations. it will be up to willis and a new grand jury to decide whether to move forward on criminal charges. some legal experts have cautioned that any case against trump would be far from a slam dunk, but this is a significant step. here is what a former u.s. attorney in georgia told cnn just yesterday. >> i think it's likely you'll see a recommendation come out from the special grand jury to pursue or at least recommend criminal charges against people involved, and i think you'll likely see trump in that because he's essentially given a confession on tape.

>> today all eyes are are on the january 6th committee. join cnn's jake tapper and erin burnett for special live coverage of the hearing starting today at noon eastern time. ♪ ♪ this... is a glimpse into the no-too-distant future of lincoln. ♪ el like... sound like... even smell like. more on that sn. ♪ ♪ the best part?

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our cnn family here because there is no one we would rather have sitting with us right now than our award winning senior investigative correspondent and that is drew griffin. drew died this weekend after battling cancer. we wish he was here because he is he's not just a colleague but he is a very dear friend. >> you said he was one of the first people you ever worked with. >> one of the first people i met when i came to cnn was him and k kiyra phillips and i can't believe he is gone. >> he was a tenacious insightful reporter. here is anderson with a look back at his remarkable career. >> it was so hot -- >> reporter: do you recall his nearly two decades at cnn drew griffin was known for his tenacious reporting. his interviews were unwavering. >> i don't think you really understand how votes are cast, collected and tabulated in this cou country. >> reporter: and he gave a voice to those who didn't have one. >> we don't expect it to be

easy. we don't expect the truth to be easy. >> reporter: drew was a gifted storyteller, dedicated to seeking the truth and holding the powerful accountable. >> why do you continue to push the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. >> it's not a lie. >> it's a lie. you have no proof. he have' looked at all the facts. you don't have the facts. >> reporter: andrew's stories had real world impact. >> well, if uber doesn't release the number of drivers accused of sexual assault so cnn decided to count up ourselves. >> reporter: after cnn questioned uber about a string of sexual assaults by drivers the company made major safety changes to its app and revised its policies. >> excellent reporting, thanks to you and your team. >> reporter: drew exposed serious issues at va hospitals across the country, revealing a broken system, veterans dying while waiting for care. >> this particular veteran was screaming, please, do whatever you can, don't let the va do this to another patient or another veteran. we do not deserve this type of treatment. >> reporter: that led to the resignation of the va secretary and an overhaul of the va's

scheduling system. >> gas here -- >> reporter: he covered business and terrorism, the environment and politics. >> mr. birch, mr. birch -- >> reporter: and there were many people over the years who didn't want to answer his questions. >> please talk to us, director. director -- >> did the background checks of those companies not reveal the fact that you are accused of torture and murder? >> do you know alex ferdman a convicted felon who apparently runs one of these clinics and has been billing the state of california for several years? >> reporter: drew won most of journalism's big awards but that's not what motivated him, he cared about people and how they were impacted. while he was covering the aftermath of hurricane harvey he ended up rescuing a man from floodwaters. >> all right, sir. are you all right? all right. hold on. hold on. >> reporter: his job as a correspondent took him all across the country. >> it wasn't that long ago these

wild grass lands were just that, wild. now almost everywhere you look is a gas rig. >> reporter: and to different parts of the world. but his favorite place was home. he was deeply devoted to his family, his wife marget and his three children ella, louie and myles, as well as two grandchildren. drew griffin will be missed by all of us. >> so i want to apologize for breaking down earlier. we had known that drew had passed, but it just became real to me in that moment and just saying it on the air. listen, not about me. drew -- when i came drew was the he heartbeat of the network, was in atlanta then and i came to atlanta and it was drew and kyra phillips and sanjay gupta and a bunch of other folks down in atlanta and we were all on air together and we were -- he just felt like -- you know, we were

keeping the network going, maybe it was made up in our minds, but i could not have met someone who was more kind to me, more welcoming to everyone. the person that you saw on the air, like the dogged reporter was actually not who he was in-person, he was this kind, gentle soul. >> yeah. >> that just was just very sweet to everyone. he was an amazing guy and loved his ella, louie and myles. i will never forget, i think i was on the air with him when he rescued the person, i think that was a live shot with me and maybe it was heidi collins, i don't remember, but we were on the air. i remembered during covid just talking to him in the break because he would find different places in his house to do the live shots at home to make it interesting, but he was an amazing guy, amazing guy. drew and marget, we love you guys so much and you will be missed and i hope you're smiling

down on us from heaven and whatever you need, marget and family, we are here for you. we love you. we love you. we love you. >> yeah. ♪ ♪ mercedes-benz is turning electric... completely on its head. bringing legendary design... and state-of-the-art technology... to a fully-electric suv. the all-new, all-electric eqb from mercedes-benz. see your dealer for exceptional offers on mercedes-benz electric vehicles. i'm feeling better. body pain? headache? nope. all in one and done. cuh-congestion? better. cough? fever? better. mucinex l in one relieves 9 symptoms in 1 dose. celebrate your comeback with $5 sh back. what should the future deliver? (music) progress...

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