serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®. ask your doctor about tremfya® today. i think we'll find a way to get there. this is a healthy debate. might not happen on the day we wanted, but it's going to happen. >> if you want to drain the swamp, you can't put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise. >> a tale of two sides of republican party. good morning everyone.

poppy and i in new york. kaitlan live on capitol hill for day two. maybe there's a day three. unprecedented speaker election it's happening. >> see how many days it goes down. the republican leadership drama will again be center stage. kevin mccarthy thus far has failed to win enough votes. how long will the gop power struggle last? that's the question many republicans have. are there any plans for a concession candidate? we're learning now damar hamlin had to be resuscitated twice after suffering a cardiac arrest during monday football. wolf blitzer spoke to buffalo bills' teammate. he'll join us in a moment. also, an update on jeremy renner on the road to recovery after a traumatic snow plowing

accident. first, we want to talk about the new republican majority in the house marked by party rebellion that has kept kevin mccarthy from achieving his dream of becoming the speaker of the house. >> no persons having received a majority of the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected. a speaker has not been elected. a speaker has not been elected. >> with emphasis, a speaker has not been elected. kevin mccarthy failing on three separate ballots. it's the first time in a century members of congress have needed multiple votes to choose a speaker. right now it's paralyzed the entire chamber. there's no speaker. there's no sworn in members. there's no house of representatives right now. in a few hours we expect the voting to resume on the house floor.

20 republicans have defected from the kevin mccarthy camp. the question remains, is there still a path for mccarthy to become speaker? straight to capitol hill and cnn's jessica dean. is there a path? >> reporter: that's the big question. is there a path? you talk to kevin mccarthy publicly he says i'm not dropping out. privately we know there are talks this may not work for kevin mccarthy. it's a simple math game right now. i was in that chamber when they did that three failed votes. no speaker as we heard over and over. it became very clear this is a stalemate. those 20 members, a lot of them were sitting together, talking to each other. they remained quite united. today we know they'll convene again at noon. the question is what happens now. we saw the first two votes 19 people voting against kevin mccarthy. it then increased to 20.

that's not the direction he wanted to go in. he's not dropping out. he's staying in. here's what he said. >> i think at the end of the day we'll get everybody together. >> you failed three times. how do you possibly pull this off? >> get to 218. >> how do you do it? >> you come back and continue what you're doing, talking and solve the small problems. >> reporter: the fact remains the reality is, don, that he's been talking to these members for weeks now trying to wheel and deal and get them on board and they're unmoved. they don't want to see kevin mccarthy as speaker. do we see a new candidate emerge? what kind of conversations happen today? don, it's possible when they convene at noon they adjourn to have more conversations. that's what we're watching. >> thank you very much, jessica. kaitlan, drama, drama, drama all around. >> absolutely.

we'll see how it continues. we heard from president trump calling on those hold-outs to vote kevin mccarthy. he's warning them to avoid embarrassing defeat. joining us now is florida congressman brian mass who voted in support of kevin mccarthy. good morning. >> good morning. >> is that enough from trump to get those 20 republicans over the line? >> i don't think that's the end all. in the opening you talked about a power struggle. i don't think the power struggle is what people think. it's about decentralizing the speaker's office. this happened under both parties. under republican in the majority and democrats in the majority, rank and file members like myself or matt gaetz or others, we got to be part of the process procedurally. did we get change like we wanted

with open floor debates? that's how nancy pelosi kept republicans out of the process by keeping this iron grip. that's what the republican party is getting rid of. >> you're saying regardless of who becomes speaker it will be a weakened position? >> 100%. it will be kevin mccarthy. when that takes place -- you can't say it's weakened. it's an empowering position for members of the caucus. that makes it difficult for republicans because it empowers the democrat members in the way that republicans when we were in the minority we weren't empowered. it's going to make it a messy two years. that's the real power struggle. >> you still think kevin mccarthy gets there? >> i know he gets there. >> how? >> by speaking behind closed doors with individuals about what has to take place in this struggle to make sure that members feel empowered enough to know if we're dealing with

border issues, they can get their voice not just heard where people are barely on the floor listening to them, but heard in a way that amendments get to move forward, be part of the bill text and affect change in america or on energy policy or on whatever. that's the assurances people are looking for. they're not going to be blocked by a centralized power in the speaker's office when they're elected like everyone else. >> part of that would be getting republicans who didn't vote for you to vote for you. i talked to byron donalds who switched his vote and he said he hasn't heard from kevin mccarthy. >> i can't say where that relationship is. if i'm putting this in a matter of fact way, when people are whipping, hey will you vote for me for speaker, understanding these can go to multiple ballots. a lot of time the whip count is

the first ballot, after the second ballot. people will say you have me on the first two ballots, but on the ballot i've got something else. >> you're still committed to kevin mccarthy? >> i'm committed to kevin mccarthy. he's done the work in helping republicans get elected, in laying out a path forward for republicans to go forward. >> does he have a strategy? >> in dealing with becoming speaker of the house ? >> yes. >> to continue the dialogue, to continue the debate. as you said the power struggle of decentralizing the power out of the speaker's office. >> was it smart to adjourn yesterday? i heard kevin mccarthy didn't want to adjourn. should they have adjourned or

was it a mistake? >> the adjournment goes to what happened at christmas time. timing and people wanting to be somewhere else in many cases is unfortunately what affects policy. there's a $1.7 trillion spending package that went through that mcconnell and others pushed through in the senate. i was absolutely pissed off about that especially with republicans in the majority. why did they do it? because they wanted to go home for christmas. as much as i wanted to be with my family yesterday, there was work that needed done. that was why there was an adjournment. >> basically they got tired of being in the room. kevin mccarthy and republicans had this closed-door meeting yesterday morning where he had this aggressive tone saying he deserved the speakership, he worked for it. there were criticisms of that that it was too aggressive. do you think he took the right

tone yesterday? >> i think he took the exact right tone. it was a tone where sometimes when you're debating with people, it's confrontational. we're still part of the same family. we sit down at thanksgiving together. sometimes it gets heated. in the end we're a team and we'll work through this and get the job done for america. >> what does yesterday say about what happens when republicans are in charge? >> it shows we're reflective. it's going to be an incredibly messy two years because we're allowing the process in washington, in the capitol, to play out the way the founders designed it in a messy way where everybody gets to be a part of it. that's going to make it more difficult to get the things done we want to get done. we're reflective enough to say that's the way things should be done, not the way speaker pelosi

did it. >> what you're saying is we'll see more of yesterday on repeat? >> yes. you'll see a messy two years in washington because everybody is going to get a say so. >> thank you so much for joining us. we'll see if you still vote for kevin mccarthy. >> you just asked the question of the morning. what does it say about republican leadership? a lot still to happen. also this morning, on damar hamlin, we have new details about the buffalo bills safety how he's doing. his uncle told cnn his nephew had been resuscitated twice. that's something we didn't know. he was resuscitated on the field and at the hospital. he's currently sedated and on a ventilator. doctors had to flip him over on his chest in a prone position to try to ease breathing. the next step in hamlin's

recovery is to get him to breathe on his own. overall his uncle says he's trending upward. listen. >> man, we were all in tears. i'm not a cryer, but i never cried so hard in my life, man, just to know my nephew basically died on the field and they brought him back to life. it's just heart breaking. i'm just glad he's still alive and able to fight and trying to get better and recover. >> tributes pouring out, so many messages of support, teams across the league have changed their social media profile pictures to pray for damar with his jersey number 3 there. >> a high ranking official with buffalo bills telling cnn that half night long meetings on tuesday they broke down crying, sobbing because of the heaviness of the current situation.

the incident having a huge impact on the team. in an interview with wolf blitzer, dion dawkins talking about what it was like to watch hamlin collapse on the field. >> you realize you can't take anything for granted. looking at a teammate, a brother on the ground, it's just -- it's just a drastic state to see a brother laying down and everyone else kind of just -- you know, come on, come on, come on, get up, get up. all those emotions pouring out, just seeing him, not one second of our life is promised. with this play, it is showing that. one play later it took damar, a 24-year-old man to his knee and

he's fighting. for everybody that thinks that, oh, it's about a fantasy point or, you know, my draft whatever, like, this is real life. this is real life. >> well, our very own colleague wolf blitzer joins us now. wolf, good morning. doesn't get more real than that. those guys were right there when it happened and witnessed all of it. >> you know, he's 6'5" about 350 pounds dion dawkins and to think like everybody else he started crying as soon as he saw damar stand up and collapse on the ground and all the medical personnel came out. i was watching monday night football like everybody else and it was so shocking to me. i've seen players get injured. but to see someone collapse and learn it was cardiac arrest, it was so awful and heart breaking especially for us who are life

long buffalo bills fans and see what's going on. >> this interview, i hope people watch the whole thing, wolf. at the end -- you're such a life long bills fan. he said to you, i love you, wolf, you mean so much to us. i know he and the whole team mean so much to you. i was struck by this part, wolf, that i want to play about how grateful they were they didn't have to go back on the field and finish that game. here's what he told you. >> i'm truly blessed that we didn't have to keep playing. the fact that we didn't have to go back out there on that field and play, it just shows that there is care and that's all that we can ever ask for is that, you know, we get treated as people. most people just treat us as athletes and as superstars. some people like celebrities. in that moment they treated us like people.

>> what did you think when you heard that, wolf? >> you know, it's true because those of us who are life long football fans -- i'm a buffalo bills fan since my dad used to take me to game ns in buffalo. to see something like this, a life and death situation, it's so heart wrenching to think about it and we're not used to it. i've never seen anything like this, where a player was on the ground in a life threatening situation as was unfolding for damar. it was awful. it was an awful situation, not just for me, but for millions of people who were watching and later watched those clips. it's heart breaking. people who aren't even interested in football were so moved. if you look at dion dawkins hat, it's a special gofundme page that damar created to help poor

kids in his hometown outside of pittsburgh. originally when he created it, he was hoping to raise about $2,500. you see him there with the hat. it's now raised almost 5 or $6 million. >> $6 million. >> as a result of that, it's an amazing thing. i'm so proud of all these guys for doing what they're doing. dion dawkins has a foundation that's raised a lot of money for the families of the top supermarket massacre where a killer went into that supermarket and started killing grandmothers for no reason. to see these players doing what they're doing, doing for the community what they're doing is so meaningful. >> wolf, they're announcing they wouldn't resume the game and

possibly do it later. what did dawkins say about that? >> he was pleased that the nfl decided to do that. there's no way these players could have gone out and played a regular game after seeing one of their friends, one of their brothers lying on the ground in cardiac arrest like that, a life and death situation. how do you go back and play aggressive football in a situation like that? i'm glad they decided to postpone the bengals/bills game. the bills at least scheduled this weekend to play the new england patriots. we'll see if that unfolds. >> dion dawkins speaks for a lot of us, wolf. we love you. we know how much of a fan you are and how much this hurt your heart. thank you, wolf blitzer. >> thank you. >> tune in to wolf on the situation room at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn.

straight ahead we'll be joined by an nhl athletic trainer who saved two hockey players' lives when they suffered the same injury. also, we're live in san francisco where they're getting ready for a dangerous storm system. it has long-lasting light scent, no heavy perfumes, and no dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day. downy light!

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>> that's former nfl player benjamin watson. damar hamlin did not have a pulse after he collapsed on the field. staff used cpr and a defibrillator to revive him. in 1998 st. louis blues athletic trainer ran on to the ice of a player was hit square in the chest by a puck which stopped his heart. in a tweet thread about hamlin yesterday, he credited the detroit red wings for his survival. in 2020 he did it again. he revived another player who collapsed on the bench due to a cardiac episode. he also survived. >> i just wanted to say thank you to the training staff of our

team and anaheim and the doctors and all the paramedics. >> that trainer joins us now. thank you for joining us. it's a very important subject and a very sensitive one. when you saw what happened on the field in cincinnati to damar hamlin, what did you think? >> good morning, don and poppy. i had flashbacks. i thought of the situation on the ice immediately and i thought about the buffalo bills staff, thought about the physicians on the field, is cincinnati bengals staff who were there to help him. definitely had some flashbacks. >> first of all, you're a life saver two times over. you're humble and don't like to take credit. you say it's the whole team around you. i'm sure that's true, but it's

you. things really changed. in '98 you had to use a risky maneuver and in 2020 you could use this defibrillator. >> medical advances, as we've all seen, are incredible. in '98 we didn't have a defibr defibrillator. there wasn't even a defibrillator in the ambulance. when i learned cpr, they taught a thump where you take your fist and pound on the sternum and that's supposed to restart the heart. you do it quickly. it has to be seen. the fact that i saw a player go down with this injury, it made sense. we didn't have a defibrillator and the doctor was on the ice with me. i looked at him and said you're doing compressions and i'm starting breaths. we gave him a good hit on the

chest and thankfully for us he converted on the ice and we were very, very fortunate in that situation. >> everyone is wondering what damar hamlin is -- what's next for him. you can judge by other people's recovery. what were their recoveries like? >> i can't speak to damar's situation personally. i'm not -- i don't have that information. i can tell you with our player we -- he went through a bunch of cardiology test with our cardiologist at washington university school of medicine. our team physicians cleared him. he returned to play. finished a 12-year career, hall of fame and won a stanley cup. the jay it was slightly different in the fact that jay had an you arrhythmia not from a contusion or direct blow and had

to retire because of these arrhythmia that he had. i know how the buffalo bills medical staff must feel and also cincinnati. we practice this. the professional hockey athletic trainer society and the nhl team physician society we met every summer and go over the protocols, the latest equipment and the protocols in detail and we practice them. we're prepared hopefully never to have to use these techniques and protocols. i'm sure the bills staff and bengals staff feel the same way as i did after those ininstance. you're replaying it in your head, trying to figure out what you could have done differently. in my situation we had two excellent outcomes. that's what i'm most proud of. >> professional sports has folks like you. there are not a lot of folks

like you, but they hope to have folks like you. they have these teams and prep and defibrillators and ambulances on stand by, but kids teams don't. dr. lena wen has a piece in the "washington post" and says this shows the need for aeds to be readily accessible in all sports facilities, especially youth sports facilities. do you think she's right? >> totally concur with that. being a youth hockey parent, couple things i would do when i got to the rink. i always look for the exit and look for the defibrillator. fortunately because of my job i'm able to have defibrillators and would carry one with me. this was after '98.

so, yes, i concur with that statement. i think if you're a youth hockey or youth parent and your son or daughter plays sports, you need to locate the defibrillator wherever they're practicing playing. it's not just games. it's also at practice these incidents can happen. you need to make sure that facility had that. if they don't, push to make sure they do. >> such good advice. i never thought to think about that or ask about that. >> i called my doctor yesterday and -- >> to get one at home? >> i asked him if i should have one. >> what did he say? >> he didn't think it was necessarily. you can get one on the market. getting back to what poppy said and dr. wen -- i want to encourage everyone to read the op-ed in the "washington post."

i'm sure you agree with that, sir. >> as a hockey dad. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> good luck to you. an update since yesterday, we heard from actor jeremy renner. he's opening up about the snow plow accident that landed him in intensive care. back here on capitol hill, what we can expect on day two of the speakership vote. dana bash is going to join us. this is cnn's special live coverage.

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the republican ranks. >> 19 republicans decided to blow up the speaker's race. so we can't pursue our agenda that our voters support. i'm hoping to see more conversations and hopefully things will change. >> cnn's chief political correspondent dana bash is joining us now to talk about the pure chaos. it's hard to really overstate what's happening. this hasn't happened in a century to where all these defects and all the ramifications of not having a speaker are on full display. >> it's really true. even though going into yesterday we were told over and over again there was no plan b, i kind of in the back of my mind was wondering, well, maybe there is some plan for when, not if, but when kevin mccarthy lost. there really wasn't. his plan is just to stick it out. that's what's happening fascinating in talking to so many members of congress,

particularly those who are in the only kevin camp. that is they are as entrenched and dug in as those are against him, maybe even more so. the determination is, yes, for mccarthy, but it seems to me in talking to these members, it's more against the chaos caucus. it's more against those now 20 rebels to say, enough is enough. >> because basically they feel like they would be giving in. >> yes. >> don bacon from nebraska was referring to them as the taliban 19. that was something some thought was irresponsible to language. to those still faithful to kevin mccarthy, brian mass is one of them, do they have a strategy for today? >> no. they were meeting late into the night. mccarthy and the people trying

to figure out that strategy, but the answer is no. one of the things that's possible, possible not probable, is some kind of math jujitsu which is trying to lower the threshold of votes needed. right now it's 218. if there are fewer people there voting, that means the threshold is lower. it could mean that they could get mccarthy. the only problem with that is that you have to have democrats not voting because if you lower the threshold enough by republicans, it means you have more democrats voting and hakeem jeffries is the speaker. these are the things that nobody thought would be considered or talked about in any other way, shape or form because any other potential speaker coming into a mess like this would have seen the writing on the wall and said

i'm out and kevin mccarthy won't. >> if democrats don't vote, that's helping kevin mccarthy. >> i don't see that. do you? >> i don't. a alexandria cortez said that's not in their playbook. >> my guess is they want the chaos to continue. the democrats -- i don't want to overstate the idea that the democrats don't want to govern here, but politically watching the mess on the republican side, what's the number one rule in politics? if your opponent is messing up, get out of the way. >> just let them continue. when it comes to the republican chaos, brian mass said something so interesting. what happened yesterday they think is the new normal. >> i heard him say that to you. i don't even know that it's the new normal. it's the normal. we've been seeing this chaos. it just hasn't been as prominent

because they haven't been in charge for two years. if you think about even when you were covering the white house under donald trump and they had at least the white house, there was definitely chaos. it was masked a bit because there was so much focus on him and he sucked up so much of the oxygen, but this is very much what has been going on in the gop for 10, 12 years. it's just heightened and it almost is at -- where our conversation started, people who are pro kevin are trying to break the fever. we'll see if they can. >> see if they succeed. trump came out telling them to vote for kevin mccarthy. see if that works. dana, another long day on capitol hill. i'll be back later for today's special coverage. don and poppy, it's hard to

predict what's going to happen. >> dana, you're right. the camera is now trained on him. >> when you said that, don was like, there you go, dana. >> i wasn't surprised. here we go. it's playing out for everyone to see. >> thank you, guys. >> we'll watch you all day, all night. >> happy new year to you and jonah. >> thank you, i don't too and tim and the doggies. >> and the pups. thank you. we're getting new details about exactly how actor jeremy renner hurt himself on that snow plow and how he's doing this morning. the sheriff who rescued him joins us next.

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so this mornin morning jere renner is speaking out of his snow plow accident. he posted this on instagram thanking fans for kind words.

the sheriff's office said the actor was helping a family member near reno, nevada, when his own snow plow which weighs more than 14,000 pounds ran over him. the sheriff joins us now whose deputies responded to the emergency. we're so glad you're here. good morning to you. can you walk us through this accident scene? when you and your team arrived, what was happening? >> approximately 8:55 we received a call to 911 of a snow plow versus pedestrian. for us, we just got that major storm on the west coast. there was about three feet of snow and the highway going up was closed. when we got there, what we saw was mr. renner and his snow cat. he had been plowing his neighbor, his private road. he unstuck one of his family members and he noticed the

piston bully started to move. he went to go back into the snow plow to stop it. a family member and witnesses saw him get into the cab and then he disappears. later he's found on the middle of the road as the snow plow passed him and ran him over. the family member quickly ran to a neighbor's house. asked for help. those neighbors came out with some towels and then fire from the fire protection came down and we care flighted him. he was speaking when our deputies arrived on scene. for what just occurred, he was in good spirits. >> what was he saying? >> you know, i didn't get what he was saying to the deputies or the fire, but i know he was conversing with them when i talked to them. if i had to assume, he was

probably in a bit of shock, but he was awake and speaking to them. >> one thing i love about -- that i learned about him since this happened is what a big part he is and big fan he is of the community. he's called a reno-knight. he's such an advocate. >> he is. he's one of our honorary deputies at the sheriff's office and he helps us do shop with a sheriff where they donate $50,000. he's one of those members. he does a lot for the community. when i took office in 2019, he showed up for shop with a sheriff. he signed autographs, shopped with kids. what i truly enjoy about mr. renner, a lot of times he does it and no one knows. it's out of the kindness of his heart he wants to make an

impact. we're glad he's okay and on a speedy recovery. he loves our community. >> if not for that cushion of snow, there was a big cushion of snow there and i'm sure that helped. am i wrong? >> it did. it was just one of those tragic events. that's why we did the press conference yesterday because there was a lot of misinformation. it was just a tragic accident. thank goodness everyone was watching out for him and he's on the mend. >> amen. >> amen. >> thank you, sheriff. >> thank you guys. have a great day. >> take care. parts of california bracing for a possible life-threatening powerful storm. the area s expected to be hit worse, we'll tell you straight ahead. 're an owner. we got this, babe. that means that your dreams are oursrs too. and our financncial planning tools can help you reach them.

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about this severe weather across the south all morning and a tornado watch has been issued for florida, georgia, south carolina. yeah, as storms move across the southeast there are over 4 million people under the watch. we will stay on top of this. this as parts of kl also bracing for the onslaught of another powerful storm over the next few days. flood watches in effect for 15 million people even after catastrophic flooding in the past week. the storm is expected to bring high winds that could priger power outages across the state. stephanie elam joins us this morning. not a nice sight. >> reporter: i mean, it depends on how you look at it, right, when you look at the brought that we've been in, poppy, but it's definitely colorful right now because of the fact that on new year's eve there were massive storms that really terrorized this area as far as flooding. as far as roads being washed out. and now we've got this bomb cyclone off the coast over the pacific ocean that is streamlining all of this moisture in here. you can see it's already

raining, it started about 4:00 a.m. local here today. because of the amount of moisture that's going to come in, we have seen people putting up sandbags, making sure roads are passable. we've seen other parts of the state where they are opening up some places for people to come and take shelter. they were telling them to evacuate early because of the amount of water we're going to get here, guys. >> you mentioned the drought, stephanie. how people are reacting because you need the rain. >> reporter: yeah, we definitely need the rain. we're in like a 1200 year historic drought, that's how bad this has been and we need the water. some of the smaller reservoirs are filling up with all of this precipitation but just to put this into perspective, last year we saw a very wet beginning to the rainy season and we were like, yes, we're association sighted and then it was followed up by the driest beginning of a year ever on record for the first three months of the year. so where we saw these record numbers in january, by april we were at record lows.

so we need it to stay cold and we need the precipitation to come not so much at one time but here we go for this storm. >> speaking of perspective, the last time i spoke to you you were in the bahamas. >> at atlantis on new year's. >> sorry, i didn't mean to laugh. >> reporter: quite the different look. quite the different look. >> thank you, steph. >> be well. take care. so let's talk about damar hamlin, he had that terrifying collapse on the football field, touched a nerve in all of us and there has been a tremendous response to the online gofundme campaign that hamlin launched in 2020 to provide toys for children in need in pennsylvania in the community there where he grew up. as of this morning it has crossed the $6 million mark. there have been more than 200,000 donations to the site. they were only expecting $2,500, $2800 which was the goal. the fundraising team says the

donations will support hamlin's foundation which holds toy drives, back to school drives, kids camps and much more. >> wait until he wakes up because he's going to wake up to that news. >> yeah, and -- yes. right? something positive. we are rooting for him, our thoughts and our prayers are with him and his family. >> all of them. >> and especially mom. mom, we're thinking about you. >> we're thinking about you. okay. we will see you here with kaitlan tomorrow morning. >> maybe. we don't know. >> she will be on the show. she might just be in d.c. if there is no speaker. she's in d.c. again i've just been told. okay. we'll see you. bye. >> bye.