good morning to you. it is saturday, july 1st. the official halfway mark of the year. as victor has been repeating. i'm amara walker. >> i'm victor blackwell. good to be with you. you're in the cnn newsroom. president biden has laid out plan b to provide student loan relief to millions of borrowers. the supreme court ended the term yesterday with two highly controversial rulings one was seen as a major setback for gay rights and the other was forgiving billions of students loans. the ruling came as a blow to millions of americans counting on it. and give $20,000 to relief with those struggling with outstanding debt. cnn white house reporter jasmine wright joining us with more. jasmine, what do we know about this alternate plan that president biden is laying out? >> reporter: president biden made it clear yesterday that he believed that the supreme court misinterpreted the constitution

when they struck down the signature student debt forgiveness program and frankly he believes they got it wrong and president biden says while friday's decision closes one path, he will seek another. now the new path is grounded in the higher education act of 1965, and a different law that the white house believes provides president biden with authority to do that widespread student debt cancellation that he has promised as a campaign promise. but they say that it will take a long time. it will take months, really, to get it off the ground, and they wouldn't say whether or not the 40 million estimated to be impacted by the struckdown law would also be impacted by this new path. still though, in the interim, for president biden to get this new pathway off the ground, he says he is doing two things. first of all, when it comes to repayment, he will focus on income-based repayment and secondly, he is going to provide a 12-month repayment program as you see on your screen here. that is really designed to give borrowers the ability to be ready to pay down student debt.

it is expected to start again in october. and while interest will incur over the 12-month program the theory is if you miss a payment or you're in the able to pay, you will not be penalized or default or credit will not be impacted for the 12-month grace period. another thing going on that we saw president biden do on friday, he slammed the republican talking point that it was actually him who misstated what his ability and what his authority would be to actually provide that widespread debt relief. take a listen. >> i didn't give any false hope. the question was, whether or not i would do even more than was requested. what i did, i felt, was appropriate, and able to be done, and would get done. i didn't give false hope. but the republicans snatched away the hope that they were given, and it's real. real hope. >> now, that last line where president biden said that republicans snatched away real hope of americans that is going

to be important going forward, because he believes that republicans snatched away that hope and it made voters and borrowers downright angry and he hopes to harness that anger about the supreme court's decision and also other supreme court decisions made in the last week, asking about the 2024 re-election season and saying that republicans are trying strip away individual rights and that's why americans should put him in office for one more term. >> thank you very much. joining me is arnie duncan, former education secretary under president obama. mr. secretary, thank you for joining us. let's start with what we learned there, and go over the higher education act of 1965, which gives the secretary of education authority to compromise, waive, or release any right, title, lien, or demand, do you think the white house has a better shot of canceling student debt through this law than they did through the heroes act? >> i think obviously we have to

pursue every possible avenue, and it is just heartbreaking, to be very clear, the supreme court delivered two gut punches to the american people this week, by not allowing that debt for over 40 million people to be reduced, and also what they did with affirmative action. so president biden had no choice, he's got to look at every possible path, every everybody to provide that debt relief. what happens to the american public this week, there's no upside there. everybody loses. >> i want to talk about affirmative action in just a moment. but one more here on cancellation of student debt. there was some democrats who told the president upfront that if you wanted to do this, to use the higher education act of 1965, and do not go through the heroes act, of course, we all know that former speaker pelosi said that she didn't believe the president had this authority through the heroes act. do you think it was a mistake to use the heroes act to try to forgive the $400 billion worth of student loan debt? >> i don't think it was a

mistake, just let me give you two very concrete reasons why this is so important to happen, and there are many hundreds of reasons, but first, as you know, we have a massive black/white wealth gap in this country, white families have six, seven, eight times as much money as black families and we know that black families have less resources, they take out more debt, so going forward, the cost of going to college, that debt actually exacerbates the divide between black and white families. it is very unfair. the second thing, we have a massive teacher shortage, that is going to get worse as we move forward, particularly as so many teachers are retiring due to age and due to the challenges of the pandemic. teaching is not a lucrative profession. many young people want to go into teaching, that's where their heart and passion is but they can't afford that debt. and had we relieved that debt, we would give them more hope, but with that option going away for now, that has a really chilling effect on young people thinking about going into education so we're really

cutting off our noses deto spite our faces here. i truly don't understand it. >> let's turn what to what you call the second punch from the supreme court and that is ending race as a consideration in admissions to colleges and universities. they didn't outlaw trying to reach diversity at these universities, but they say that schools need to move to race neutral standards. are you having difficulty hearing me? now we got a frozen shot here. secretary duncan, you got me now? all right, so we'll try to figure that out, if we can get the secretary back up, then we'll of course continue the conversation, just when we're getting to the affirmative action portion, but if we cannot, our thanks to former secretary of education arne duncan. turning now to another story new this morning, according to the "washington post," in late 2020, former president trump called then arizona governor doug doocy in an attempt to

pressure him in overturning the state's presidential election results citing multiple people familiar with the call, the former president claimed if enough fraudulent votes were found it would overcome the narrow loss in the state. the post reporting that trump repeatedly asked then vice president mike pence to pressure doocy as well, into helping him stay in power. of course, governor doocy did not go through with that plan and certify president biden win in arizona. here with me now is "washington post" investigative reporter josh dawsey, thanks for joining us here. tell us more about what you learned because there is so much focus on the one call in january of 2021, when trump called the georgia secretary of state but now we know about another phone call that trump apparently made, who did you talk to for the story and what do we know about the details of the call? >> we know in that frenzied period right after the election,

former president trump was trying to pressure officials in multiple states, brad raffensperger in georgia being the most famous of the calls but there was a campaign call with the governor of arizona that was elaborate and at the time he certified the results and the former president wasn't happy and he called him and laid out a whole range of unsubstantiated fraud theories and asked mike pence to call several times as well to try to convince him to go along with his effort to overthrow the 2020 election. governor doocy did not do that. if you remember, former president trump was quite nasty to him on twitter and on social media and you know, live on television, called him all sorts of names and attacking his integrity. >> and what do we know about mike pence's role in this? >> so what we know is the former president trump asked mike pence to keep calming on doocy to look

for evidence. pence and doocy have a close relationship, knew each other before the white house, and mike pence made several calls to the governor of arizona asking him, do we have any fraud, have you found anything, and every time, governor doosy said no, and mike pence went back to former president trump and reported back, and he would not going to overturn the election in arizona, the governor wasn't. >> do we know about the special counsel looking into president trump's interference in the 020 election, if he is look nook the specific call that trump made to the then arizona governor? >> we know that he's been asking witnesses about various calls to state officials, like we reported in the story, we don't know if governor doocy has had any sort of outreach from the special counsel's office himself. but one of the things that the special counsel's office has repeatedly asked witnesses for is any evidence of former president trump pressuring folks, governors, lawmakers, and

others, to overturn the election in 2020. >> you know what i found interesting, too, in your reporting is that this phone call from trump to then governor doocy came during a live stream throughout the state in the middle of him signing these documents, certifying biden's win in the state. >> governor doocy didn't answer that phone call to be clear. he called him back later. he called as the governor was on live stream, at a podium about, to sign biden's win, obviously the former president did not want him to do that call at that time. >> you report that according to one republican donor, doocy did talk to him about the quote-unquote pressure that he was under from trump. >> yes, governor doocy never publicly outlined what was said in this call, but since he left office, he has been telling donors, political associates, people that he meets with, about the sort of elaborate campaign,

and he said to his donor, over in arizona earlier this year, he was surprised that the special counsel's office has not reached out to him yet, and that the pressure campaign from the former president was pretty extensive. >> really appreciate your reporting and you coming on, josh dawsey, thank you. holiday weekend is here. millions of people are hitting the roads and going to airports. severe weather could impact travel. if you're still planning to get to your destination, we've got the forecast, next. rgy in just . uh... here i'll take thahat. -everyone: woo hoo! ensure max p protein with 30 grams of protein, one gram of sugar. enter the nourishing moments giveaway for a chance to win $10,000. our ears connect u us to the moments that matter. give them the nutrients they need with lipo. it's formulated with ingredients clinically shown to protect your ears from dizziness, it' ear ringing,with in and even hearing loss.own never miss a moment with lipflavonoid. - [female narrator] five billion people

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and there he is. chaz. the rec league's self-crowned pickleball king. do you just bow down? no you de-thrown the king. pedialyte. 3x the electrolytes. secretary of education under president obama arne duncan is back with us now. we have fixed the technical issue. we were just getting to the affirmative action decision from the supreme court this week. they set this goal, this requirement, standard, i should say, of race neutral admissions, when considering applicants. what does that mean practically?

>> well, obviously, you can look at other things, you can look at adversity and challenges that folks have faced growing up, you can look at whether you're coming from a low income family, first generation family, but i never want to be cynical, but the fact, as you know, they carved out the military academy to make them an exception, somehow saying that adversity matters in the military, but making no acknowledgment that diversity matters in our corporations, in our board rooms, in our law offices, in our hospitals, in our classrooms, diversity makes all of us better, so to carve out that small exception to what they're saying for me just undermines any, any theoretical credibility they might have and makes no sense whatsoever. >> so we have a hin at least, or a forha doe of what this means, california in 1996, through the adoption of prop 209, they ended

affirmative action in public universities and colleges. there was a study completed in 2020, and i want to read some of the findings from the university of california system they conducted, underrepresented minorities applicants became at least 40% less likely to be admitted to uc's more selective berkeley and ucla campuses, and the average underrepresented minority, uc ap pant, wages declined by 5% annually, between ages 24 and 34. and by the mid 2010s, there was a cumulative decline in the number of early career underrepresented california minorities overall earning by $100,000 by at least 3%. so when we see the impact of these policies, extrapolate from those what this means on a national scale for a societally. >> we can't afford to let that happen again. and so we have to fight that in terms of how we look at

populations that may be more disconnected and underrepresented and challenge universities to do that. let me sort of step back, bigger picture, why this is so ludicrous and so disheartening. if you look at the percent of black students at harvard or yale or prince tons, 6, 7, 8%, small numbers but we've had affirmative action for a long time, it has just been for the white and wealthy and if you look at the universities and the number of leg since family members who have gone there, or relationships to donors, those numbers are much higher, so if you were really trying to challenge, quote-unquote, privilege, a level playing field, that's the fight you would have taken on. not the small percent of black students. and then if you look at some of the major flag ship universities, particularly go down south, the university of tennessee, the university of alabama, the university of mississippi, those states are 25, 30, 35% african american, but those universities, the population of black students is often 8, 9, 10%, vastly

underrepresented. so if you really wanted to challenge, you know, unfairness and privilege, that is where you would have gone, instead, the supreme court took on the most vulnerable population, and again, it is not just about more diversity, for african americans, that diversity makes all of us better, makes our businesses better, makes our schools better, makes our law firms better, makes our hospitals better, and that's only possible, that's only possible if the doors of the universities remain open for all. >> former secretary of education under president obama arne duncan, thank you. holiday weekend travel is in full swing this morning, and aaa expects 50 million americans to travel on the road ors in the skies through wednesday. if you're traveling by car, we do have some good news for you at the pump. the average gas price is now $3.50. which is $1 cheaper than prices at this time last year. if you are flying this weekend, make sure to get to the airport early. you can see there's long lines and they've been forming already

this morning, at atlanta's hartsfield jackson airport. so far today, over 1,000 flights have been delayed across the country but only 100 have been ultimately canceled. as for the weather, it is a mixed bag, from extreme heat, with feels-like temperatures reaching 115 degrees, to severe weather producing hail and each some tornadoes. cnn meteorologist allison chinchar is joining us to break down the biggest risks this morning. tell us what we need to know. >> right now, we have rain that is making its way through the midwest, as we speak. storms already occurring, a live look at cincinnati, you can see the heavy rain coming down on this camera. temperature right now 74. two rounds across the midwest. the first cluster in indianapolis, and cincinnati and making its way through fort wayne and you have other areas with some showers and showers popping up, mississippi, texas, and even areas of the carolinas, and then the secondary wave will

move through later on this afternoon, and we have another potential for some strong to severe storms, damaging winds, large hail and a few tornadoes possible, any where you see the colors possible and the secondary area located on the portion of texas, western texas and eastern new mexico. the first round, the second round behind it, this afternoon, and into the evening, and then when we push forward into sunday, the bulk of that begins to spread into the mid atlantic, the northeast, but we also have more showers and thunderstorms across the southeast as well. so a lot of areas here, if you're dealing with travel, you are likely going to experience some delays, mostly on the roads, but even in the air, you could start to see some delays and cancellations, especially as those severe thunderstorms fire up. two separate areas here dealing with heat, we're talking about excessive heat warnings and heat advisories across much of the south, especially the gulf coast region and then to the west, pretty expansive heat starting to take shape there. across the gulf coast, most of the temperatures still ahead,

but we're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, dallas today, still in the triple digits, but finally back down into only double digits, and for the rest of the week, we'll get there too, for new orleans and mobile but likely an extra day or two before we see that drop. the opposite is going to happen out into the west where the numbers are going to keep going up. salt lake, las vegas, those numbers going back into the mid 110s, over the next few day, and likely to stay there this week. >> allison chinchar, thank you. the tsa projects that it will screen more than 17.7 million people over the long holiday weekend. cnn has more from newark airport in new jersey. we checked in a little earlier today, maybe people are up, and getting later in the morning flight, how is it looking around you? >> well, if you want to avoid problems, certainly the experts recommend getting to the airport as early as possible. and some of the passengers i've been speaking to have done

exactly that. this is newark airport, one of the busiest in the entire country, and also a hub for united airlines which has had a really hard time recovering after all of though massive delays and cancellations from last week. now, more about united airlines in just a minute. first, let's talk about what we are expecting, you guys mentioned it at the top, aaa estimated at least 50 million people will take to the roads, and travel by air, during this busy holiday weekend. by the time it is all said and done, the tsa estimates they will have screened 17 million passengers. now, i spoke to some of those passengers here this morning, they have told me despite last week's meltdowns, so far, things are going well for them. >> we're here about three hours early, and then it was delayed 45 minutes, so i think we're in good timing. >> delayed. it's delayed about 30 minutes. >> zero problems whatsoever. i've seen a bunch of stuff on social media, people in airports for days, but, no i got lucky.

>> reporter: so victor, amara, perhaps it is because it is still early in the day and things are in a good mood and things haven't melted down just yet. let's talk about united airlines, as i mentioned, they have struggled to recover after last week, weather delay, staffing shortages caused a lot of cancellations and delays and left passengers stranded, all around the country. now, as of last night, they were still dealing with at least 1300 delays, and 251 cancellations. and adding insult to injury here, the ceo of united airlines, forced to issue an apology to customers and his employees, after it was revealed that he flew on a private jet from peter broe airport, which is not far from where we are right now, as that meltdown was unfolding right here at newark airport. he issued the following statement, taking a private jet

was a wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home. i sincerely apologize to our customers and our team members who have been working around the clock for several days, often through severe weather, to take care of our customers. so certainly not the optics that united airlines was hoping for, and here you have thousands of passengers stranded, lost luggage, people trying to get to where they're going, and a ceo flying on a private jet, not what you want to see, but so far, it appears like what is expected to be a record-breaking weekend is off to a good start. victor, amara? >> hope it ends well as well. thank you. july 1st means hundreds if not thousands of new laws passed early this year. across the country, going into effect, today. >> well, among the new laws that will start being enforced today, prohibiting marriage licenses for kids in connecticut and making it easier to sue firearms

manufacturers in california. cnn's isabel rosales joining us with more. and major changes nationwide especially in florida where the gop-controlled legislature that pushed through bills that are big win force governor desantis. >> over 200 for the governor to sign off on. and these bills have gained national attention. some of them have been the focus of lawsuits. supporters say that these laws make florida safer. and that they protect justice and individual rights. but critics, they're arguing that this is actually attacking already marginalized communities. three major laws, starting with immigration, senate bill 1718, governor desantis signing a sweeping crackdown designed to carve illegal immigration. so companies that have 25 employees or more, are now required to verify that, using federal software, to check the immigration status of new employees. the law also repeals, allowing

undocumented people to become attorneys. also driving, impacting out on the roads, undocumented people are no longer allowed to drive in florida. even if they have a license from a different state, allowing that. hospitals, too now required to ask about immigration status on admissions forms and we've seen protests across the state for the last couple of weeks about this particular bill, 1718, now law, and critics arguing that this is going to take a toll on the economy of florida, specifically florida's agricultural, construction, and hospitality issues. let's move on now to guns. permitless carery. house bill 543. a permit is no longer required to take a concealed weapon, carry a concealed weapon, in public. it also ends current florida requirements undergoing training before carrying a concealed weapon outside of the home. however, this is not open carrying. we've seen sheriffs across the

state including pinellas county putting out psas warning about fact and fiction and it is still illegal to carry a gun in gun-free zones, courthouses, police stations schools and polling places. and a series of new restrictions impacting the lbgtq community. starting with gender affirming treatment for minors. gender affirming treatments, including hormone blockers, and sex reassignment surgery, now prohibited for trans gender minors. bathrooms also impacted. you now have to, in florida, use the bathroom that matches not your identity, but rather, you must use the bathroom matching your sex assigned at birth. pronouns also being signed off here in the law. which pronouns are used in school? they must match the sex assigned to you that's part of your birth certificate, so it is not, no longer the choice of the teachers, staff members, or the students. and finally, drag shows, this is something that you've been

covering here in the state of florida, no minors in adult live performances and many critics say this is a target on drag shows, we've recently seen with a federal judge temporarily blocking that law, it is now under, undergoing court in a lawsuit. and now many advocates are saying that these laws are really an attack on the lbgtq community attempting to erase them from not only schools but society in general in florida. >> important information, thank you so much. protests break out for a fourth night in france, after a fatal shooting of a teenager sparks outrage. we will have the latest from paris, next. e finest materials, like indulgent memory foam, and ultra-conforming innersprings, for a beautiful mattress, and indescribable comfort. for a limited time, sasave $400 on select stearns & fosterer mattresses.

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hundreds of people gathered outside a mosque in france, for the funeral of a 17-year-old boy killed by police after a traffic stop. >> the somber scene there is in stark contrast to the violent

protests that have gripped france of the interior minister says more than 300 people have been detained in four nights of unrest. cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson joins us now. what is the latest? >> reporter: well, what you're seeing here, we're in the center of the city, and not far from where the funeral is happening. you've got firefighters here dealing with a small fire that broke out in the bushes back there, in the center of the city here. no one is really clear what happened and what started the fire. we got on it pretty quickly. we happened to be in the neighborhood. the first security forces to arrive were the military, they secured the area, kept people back, and firefighters got on the scene, police have showed up, it is a very, very small incident here, but the fact that the response from the military was so fast, the firefighters on the scene so quickly, shows you just how concerned security services here are about tensions in the neighborhood. and of course, all around this area, over the past few nights,

you've had shops burned, train stations burned, cars burned, everyone here in the security services is on high alert. across the country last night however, there was less violence than the previous night. there were police, less police injured, the police had more armored vehicles, so the overall trend thursday night into friday night was a reduction in violence, but to give you some of the figures, it was still 1350 vehicles set on fire, more than 2560 fires total, 26 town halls attacked, 24 schools attacked, so the numbers are by no means insignificant. this is still a massive security operation that is going on around the country, and two police officers were shot and injured in the central city here, in the country, and the government stepped up the security there by sending an elite unit of the police anti-riot squad. so this is the sort of escalating response the

government has been talking about. >> nic robertson, appreciate it. thank you. the biden administration is expected to decide soon whether to send controversial cluster munitions to ukraine. the white house has been reluctant because of the risk they could pose to civilians. >> but the administration is now seriously considering it, as ukraine's counter-offensive is off to a slow start. cnn national security reporter natasha bertrand has details. >> reporter: cnn has learned that the biden administration is strongly considering sending controversial cluster munitions to ukraine as the counter-offensive kind of drags on there with no real notable progress. now, we are told that this has really intensified over the last several weeks, these conversations about the cluster munitions, because of the battlefield conditions inside ukraine. apparently, according to u.s. official, the ukrainians have been using a heavy amount of artillery ammunition, in order to prosecute their counter offensive in a way that u.s.

officials are unsure whether it's actually sustainable. and so providing them with these cluster munitions could provide a way for ukraine to keep up that offensive, without having to potentially run short of really important ammunition here. now the u.s. has a lot of cluster ammunitions in the stockpiles because they started fazing them out in 2016 following an assessment by the the u.s. that they could pose a risk to civilians. essentially what happens with cluster munitions, they explode, when the cluster munitions explode, it scatters bomb-lets over a large area and some of those bomb-lets sometimes don't actually explode, so they could pose a long-term risk to civilians similar to land mines and so the administration had not necessarily been considering strongly over the last several months giving these to ukraine, because they are so controversial, and because, importantly, many u.s. allies, including france, germany, and

the u.k., actually decided to ban on these cluster munitions and the biden administration didn't want to seem out of step with allies and reluctant to provide ukraine with the munitions despite ukraine asking the nation for several months to provide them. now, we're told u.s. officials have had extensive conversations with allies about providing these munitions and they do believe that they have managed to alleviate these allies' concerns, in a way that will then allow the u.s. to move forward with providing these very controversial weapons. but this will really be welcome news to the ukrainians who have been asking the u.s. for these cluster munitions, for quite some time, arguing that they will allow the ukrainians to target russian forces and equipment, over a very large area, and essentially allow them to break through those fortified russian defensive lines that they have had so much trouble breaching over the last several weeks of their counter-offensive. >> victor? amara? >> thank you very much. you want to stick around for this remarkable story a

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stranded in the middle of the pacific ocean, left to fend for himself, for over a month, against the rough current, and circling sharks. against all odds, he survived. known as adventure aaron on social media, he was attempting to sail around the world when weeks into his journey the battery on his row boat lost power, and of course, making matters worse, a giant wave capsized his boat leaving aaron in a small life raft desperate for help. >> days went by. and his phone battery was dying, he was running out of clean drinking water and battling the cold temperatures, when thankfully, he was rescued by a passing merchant ship.

here to share more about his story is karen, good to see you on -- is aaron, good to see you on land, after so long awaiting rescue. start with where i would have panicked, i think, when i lose battery power, on the row boat, and at that time, you obviously didn't know lhow long you would still be out there, were you nervous, were you uncertain about what would happen next? for sure. i was on a spiritual pilgrimage at the time and was doing philanthropy for humanity and when i cal clayed how long i would be -- calculated how long i would be rowing in the ocean, was gees and the wilderness and david and goliath, 40 days on average to go before i reach the next point of land and i heard the words brave, i'm in a row

boat, i'm brave but when you think it is the higher being telling you to be brave, you better brace up because it is going to be unlike something you have been prepared for before, but probably nothing you can't handle and that's exactly what happened. >> tell us what happened once your row boat, i think it was 23 feet, it capsized, and then you had this leaky life raft, how did you get it to inflate, and once you did get it inflated, tell us about the threat of sharks and these huge currents and these waves that you had to face while you were out there. >> conditions were really actually pretty good, but on day 33, it was a different kind of wind, it was 30 knots, there were, from my understanding, another vessel that went missing that they still unfortunately haven't found, but i was making fish and harnessing to the deck, catching my breakfast, basically, and i looked to my right, i felt a presence that was just very different, and it was silent, and the sets of

waves had coming in at 13, and they increased by the time they got to 13, and this one had to be a 13th one, and the crest, the base of the wave was four meters, and i jumped in the hatch, and braced for impact, and unfortunately, my ocean row boat rolled, and they do self-right, but i was strapped to the hatch, the deck, and everything went up over and into -- in two seconds, and by that point, it was all survival mode and quick thinking, and i swam out to the side of the boat and saw my roll up side down, bobbing up and down and raft and personal beacon and ditch bag, raft, beacon, ditch bag and those are the things that i had to worry about for the next minute. >> and you are now on this leaky raft, obviously, you couldn't stay there long, what was the

next move? what did you decide next? >> so i assessed the situation, i pulled the panner, which is a line that goes to the raft, it inflate, jumped into that with only my bathing suit and the personal beacon at the time and had to make a quick decision to detach from the vessel because if it goes down, it would take the raft with me and try to assess the new boat and the waves were strong and i started to realize i had a few options in this raft, i had water, and it had a bailer and the bailer was really important because now i had a leak in this raft, and at the time, this journey was something that was making use of everything i had to my name at the time. so unfortunately, the secondhand raft worked, but it had a leak, and so i was bailing every five minutes, for the remaining 30 hours that i was in the raft. >> it sounds like you were counting the days when you were out there. exactly how many days were you out adrift at sea and how did you keep going, did you have

moments where like okay, i surrender myself, i can't do this anymore? >> yeah, it was day 33, and i promised to god i would go 40 days, and that just gave me something to believe in and test personally, but you get into a routine, and for me, it was really just eat, pray, row. and it actually, it actually was going well, really well. i was on track, but i was missing and i didn't know that at the time, and if it wasn't for the facebook group that got together on social media, 3,000 people, who were strangers, who came together, and worked with the rcc, and just provided different feedback and expert advice, that plane and that ship really would have been in a different position at that time, and i believe that that was the end result, that the humanity of strangers ended up actually saving me when it was my effort to save the world and show the humanity of other people. so you never know what your

effort is going to do when you lead by action but it has been pretty good. >> well, we are so grateful that you spent time with us, and that you were rescued, all the quick thinking that you employed to survive all that time out there, and i'm sure you learned much more than you expected you would when you started this pilgrimage, as you described it. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. coming up, what length would you go to, in order to score taylor swift tickets? what about merchandise? the story of a fan who took extreme measures to get some swag. next.

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so a taylor swift fan gives an iconic interview under both a blanket to conceal her identity? >> i'll tell you why. because she obviously took time off work, probably didn't tell the boss why she was leaving work for that day, to get her hands on some swag. >> what are you hoping to snag at the merc truck? >> i want the gray quarter zip. >> we have one question here. >> why are you going gray quarter zip instead of blue crew neck which seems to be what everyone is after here? >> i have the blue crew neck. >> she already has it. so did you go to another show? because it can only be found at the merch truck? >> yes i had to go to another show. >> which one? >> nashville. they're talking about a t-shirt or something? >> apparently these are the styles of t-shirts that are available at the concert. >> and only specific types of shirts available at specific locations or concerts, where

tayl taylor swift has her concerts. in downtown cincinnati, the merchandise truck, some waiting in line for ten hours, swift has several shows this weekend in the city. >> there are people waiting ten hours for the t-shirts. >> i don't like anyone or anything enough to wait that long. sorry. from covid-19 to the death of george floyd and the presidential election, 2020, was a year that changed everything. going inside the memorable 12 months in the new episode of the cnn original series, the 2010s, tomorrow night here at 9:00 eastern here on cnn. >> thanks for watching. >> much more ahead in the next hour of cnn newsroom. fredricka whitfield is up next. e sweating all night... ...no kicking off the covers... ...or blblasting the air conditioning. because only the tempur-pedic breeze is mamade with our one-of-a-kind cooling technologygy- that pulls heat awayay from your body. so, the mattress feels up to 10° cooler all ninight long. for a limited time, save $500 on all-new tempur-breeze mattresses...

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