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good morning, everyone. so glad you're with us. it's the top of the hour. hilary is now a post-tropical cyclone. that actually means it has slowed a bit after slamming southern california with historic rainfall and huge mud slides. and the threat isn't over yet, as the storm races north. we have a momentous week ahead. >> there's a lot going on. donald trump is expected to surrender in fulton county, joi georgia, on thursday or friday, according to a senior law enforcement source. we're live at the courthouse with what to expect. >> this morning, a new poll out of iowa shows trump completely dominating his republican rivals five months before the caucuses. we'll break down the numbers. this hour of "cnn this morning" starts right now. here's where we begin. glad you're with us right now. millions of people across the southwest are at risk of dangerous flash flooding after

tropical storm hilary unleashed record-shattering rarely and catastrophic floods in southern california. it left desert towns under water. this is new video into cnn of cathedral city being overtaken by floodwaters overnight. the storm has been dumping a year's worth of rain in some areas. hilary has weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, but the threat is not over. >> holy [ bleep ]! go! >> forecasters warning this morning there could be more mud slides today, more life-threatening flooding throughout the day. this was the scene in san bernardino county. you can see trees and boulders rushing by. >> up in the mountains, firefighters had to run for safety when a mud slide came crashing down around their station. so first they heard a rumbling noise and they went outside to check it out, and that's when they saw a big wall of mud and rocks flowing down the hill towards them. and right as the storm was hitting, then a 5.1 magnitude

earthquake rocked southern california. thankfully, no significant damages, no injuries reported. now to ventura county, california, where overnight, ventura county firefighters helped rescue two people who are trapped in these floodwaters in the santa clara river. officials are now warning everyone stay out of river bottoms, stay out of the canals. joining us now is a public information officer for the ventura fire department captain mcgrath. thank you for being with us. just seeing these images is so striking. to have a storm like this hit southern california in the summer, especially. people there are not prepared for this. they're not used to it. what is the danger level this morning as you wait for the sun to come up? >> yes, good morning. luckily, the bulk of the rain has passed through ventura county. so now, as the sun comes up and people get back on the roads, it's going to be, was there extra damage that was done to the area, trees being down, as well as if there was anything from that earthquake that we

haven't been able to see just yet. >> you say get back on the roads. can people get up and drive to work this morning. >> oh, yeah, we do not have any significant road closures here in ventura county. some of the little neighborhood roads may have some closures, but no -- all main roads are open. >> okay, so no shelter in place, everyone can sort of operate as normal. no danger this morning. >> yeah, that's what we're seeing, yes. >> what about the earthquake? it's so striking that in the middle of all of this yesterday afternoon, there's 5.1 magnitude earthquake. did that complicate efforts? >> i wouldn't say it complicated efforts, but it definitely opened our eyes to that anything can happen at any time. kind of gave us a little reminder. and luckily, there was no significant damage that we found. we are still out surveying the areas and geologists will be getting back us to. >> captain brian mcgrath, glad things are better than you expected.

we appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you for having us. i really appreciate it. and like you said earlier, stay out of those rivers and canals. they are made for moving water quickly. >> great reminder. thank you. >> let's take a look at the fulton county jail this morning, just days from now, former president trump is expected to turn himself in for the fourth time in under five months. that's according to a senior law enforcement source with knowledge of the surrender. this time, the former president set to appear in georgia where he's facing charges related to 2020 election interference there. the fulton county district attorney has set a deadline of friday for trump and 18 co-defendants to surrender at the county jail. senior crime and justice reporter kaitlan polantz is live outside -- at the jail. what are we expecting there? >> well, victor, we are expecting donald trump's lawyers at some point to come to this location so that they can have a

negotiation with the district attorney that is now bringing this case against donald trump. that negotiation is important to them, because this is a different situation than when donald trump had to appear and be arrested and processed into the system in the federal cases, when he was charged twice by the special counsel's office related to documents to his presidency as well as january 6th. now in georgia that he's facing these state charges, he has to go to the physical jail atom point and his lawyers will want to make that as smooth as possible. they don't want him to be sitting inside that jail for an elongated period of time. it is not a pleasant place to be and they have a large amount of people coming in every day. there's already dozens of people that have been booked at that jail just this morning. and it's monday morning, overnight and into the morning. trump is not going to want to spend a lot of time there as he's being arrested in responding to this warrant here. so his lawyers are very likely

going to be coming over here first, so that they can get everything negotiated, set, his bail time approved by the judge so they can be on their way to the arrest. we'll have to see if donald trump will be treated differently than any other criminal defendant and how much time he spends in the jail as opposed to the 18 other defendants in this case, who are also going to have to go through this process, very likely also going to want to negotiate their bail terms, and then head over later this week, to be processed, arrested, fingerprinted, potentially even searched and mug shotted. >> one of those other 18, mark meadows, is asking a federal court to throw out the charges he's facing in georgia. explain his argument. >> yeah, mark meadows has moved really fast to try and derail this state criminal case against him. he is one of the other defendants next to trump. but what he's done is two-fold.

one, he went to the federal court and said, i'm a federal official, i want my case to be in federal court. that's something that the law allows. he did that very soon, like, within two days after being indicted. and now over the weekend, his lawyers came back to the federal judge and said, we're asking to dismiss these charges, because everything mark meadows did after the 2020 election, he would not have done if he had not been the chief of staff to donald trump in the white house at that time. someone who was carrying out their official duties, even if what trump was going does have some level of criminality around it. meadows is trying to argue that he does not, in the federal case against trump, he's not even named as a co-conspirator. he's another person, very likely a witness there, talking about what trump and others were doing after the election. so his lawyers are trying to move fast, get rid of these charges. we'll see if they're successful, but the thing to watch, victor and poppy, as we head into this week and into a hearing for mark

meadows next monday is whether this case will move differently for him than donald trump and how much mark meadows wants to push himself away from his former boss. >> kaitlan polantz, thank you. >> joining us now for all of these headlines and a bit more, ely honig who joins us now. he served as senior investigative council for the january 6th committee. he's currently a partner. thank you for being with us, gentlemen. let me start with you on the mark meadows of it all. politically, it's totally fascinating that he's moving independently of trump, that he's moving fast, trying to get this into federal court and then dismissed. also fascinating that he's not part of jack smith's indictment on these grounds. what do you see here? do you think he could get it dismissed? i think he certainly has a shot. what it's really going to come down to is whether or not the actions he took in that georgia indictment are seen as acting

under the -- his responsibilities as chief of staff. and i think what fani willis would say is that he happened to have been a chief of staff, but what he was doing was something distinct from that. he was act effectively in a political landscape. >> and part of a conspiracy, she said. >> part of a conspiracy. and i think the fact that he may try to narrow it down and say, i was acting, i was making phone calls, i was doing kind of logistical aspects, she would say, no, you were acting and interfering in a georgia political process. and the president of the united states has no role in georgia election law. the president of the united states has no role in georgia results. if the president has no official role, what official role as chief of staff could mark meadows have been acting on? that's what they're focusing on. >> just days ago, mark meadows asked for this to be removed to federal court. now the request is to throw the charges out. is this an extension of the first request or is it a change in strategy? >> it's an extension of the

first request. they really go hand in hand. if you're mark meadows. by the way, expect to see very similar motions from donald trump, from jeffrey clark, who worked at doj. it's sort of a two-step. first is, well, i was acting as a federal official, therefore i need to be over in federal court. and then you say, i was acting within the scope of my job, in this case, as white house chief of staff. therefore, i have immunity throw it out. there's actually very little daylight in between those two things. that's why it's so important to see, once they get into federal court, they are an inch away from a dismissal. that's why it's so high-stakes with these motions. >> you are both former assistant u.s. attorneys, eastern district, southern district, and there is a bombshell report out from "the new york times"s over the weekend, about david weiss, the now special counsel prosecuting hunter biden, what he wanted to do and what he did do. let me read this relevant graph for people. earlier this year, "the times" found mr. weiss appeared willing to forego any prosecution of hunter biden at all and his

office came close to agreeing to the end of an investigation without requiring a guilty plea on any charmges. but around the time a pair of irs officials on the case accused the justice department of happened springing the investigation, mr. weiss suddenly demanded mr. biden pled guilty to committing tax offenses. what is the takeaway for everyone this morning? >> the twaiakeaway is the doj h made an unholy mess of this whole situation. david weiss, i've spoken about positively, but first he was willing to let this thing go altogether. political pressure ramped up, he backtracks and says, we're going to need to take misdemeanor pleas. then they go into court, ready to take misdemeanor pleas, more pressure from the irs, now this deal falls apart, and then he says, now i need to be called special counsel, i need expanded powers. but it seems like all of this is only happening in a reactionary posture. it seems like he's now twice tried to make this case go away cheaply, twice been called out

on it, and twice backtracked, only in response to the whistle-blowers. >> and i read that you think that there is a legitimate question as to whether hunter biden is being treated you be fairly. >> i think 100%. i think what we're seeing is that hunter biden appears to be getting a harsher result because of his proximity to president biden. and frankly, that's unfair, right? this entire process should always be about equal treatment for equally situated people. and here, hunter biden, more and more appear as if his last name were smith, he would be out of this mess already. but because it's biden, it's going deeper and deeper, and that's a problem. >> this investigation is five years old. what more, what else does the now special counsel think he's going to learn? >> it's a great question and goes to one of the great issues that the whistle-blowers have raised. they have claimed that there were certain investigative avenues that were cut off. that were prematurely stopped. no, you can't go down that road. normally as a prosecutor, you're supposed to be able to investigate whatever you need. what have they been doing for

five years? i can't even begin to answer. hunter biden, look, we learned during that brief court appearance that he had failed to pay over $1 million in taxes owed. to get a misdemeanor when you get over $1 million in taxes, yes, you paid later, that's a decent deal for a defendant. >> you're saying he's being more treated more leniently and you think he's being treated more harshly. can david weiss continue as special counsel right now? a lot of republicans are saying, no, because he bungled this leading up to this. >> i'll leave that question to the doj. what i'm saying is that after five years and this level of resources spent, the idea that they have not overturned and all the stones are to be overturned is just not believable. the idea that they would be ramping up and considering harsher charges than a trial, that's troubling. >> can i ask you why it's not believable when we have two irs whistle-blowers who testified before congress, one came on this program, one was a

self-proclaimed liberal. say there are avenues that weren't even explored. so if dwryou don't go down the avenue, you won't have a stone to turn over. >> i won't have any visibility into the investigation, right? but the suggestion, i believe, that they were getting at is whether there were avenues into president biden. now, if there's evidence that -- >> i'm just talking about hunter here. >> is there evidence that there were examples to president biden, sure. but i have not seen anything to support that. i think what's important tos to zoom out on hunter biden. with most white color defendants, investigation goes forward, you find a wider field of misconduct. you find tax issues here, a lie on a form here, that's pretty common for federal prosecutors. but after five years,

prosecutors decide , how do we get rid of this case? do david weiss' team did that. which suggests they're being influenced by something extrnl and not by the facts in the law. >> all of this raises the question, why is being made special counsel now? why two weeks ago, five plus years in. but you're exactly right in your take on the investigation. david weiss, merrick garland will have to explain this at some point, because they have been all over the map on this. they're not doing doj new favors or hunter biden any favors or the whistle-blower any favors. you need to -- sometimes at doj, we were just talking about this, you just need to pick the right course of action and stick with it, whatever the political winds may be. >> pick a direction and go. >> thank you. >> thanks, guys. new polls show former president trump with a commanding lead in the republican primary. will anything change if he skips first debate, skipped the second debate, and then sits down with tucker carlson instead. we'll discuss. of listerine to your routine. new science shows listerine is 5x more effective thanan floss at reducing plaque

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when you finance through cadillac financial. ♪ in two days, republican presidential hopefuls are set to take the stage in the first primary debate. this one's in milwaukee. but the front-runner, former president trump, he will not be there. trump made the announcement on social media yesterday afternoon, writing, the public knows who i am and what successful presidency i had. i will therefore not be doing the debates, plural. sources tell cnn the former president plans to sit down for an interview with former fox host, tucker carlson instead. the interview is set to air on "x," formerly known as twitter,

around the same time as the debate. oliver darcy is here. so the debate is wednesday. and then you've got the debate, you've got the former president. if he's trying to upstage them, putting a video on "x," does that do it? >> that's probably not going to do much. but not going to the debate, that's going to hurt fox news and the ratings. if you look at the 2015 primaries, the first debate that fox news hosted with donald trump taking on the rest of the gop field, that averaged about 24 million viewers. people wanted the see trump in that environment. and i think him not going to this debate, it's really going to put a dent in fox news' ratings, which is why the executives were basically pleading with him, you know, they went to his bedminster club and asked him to participate in this debate. we know that on-air, the host of it encouraging him to participate. it would be very beneficial for the ratings. of course, he actually is feuding with rupert murdoch. i think he's very happy to take a sledge harhammer to this. >> aside from fox ratings, i'm

not too concerned about that, but i am concerned about americans getting direct answers to important questions. and they're not going to get that if he doesn't go to this debate or any other debate. that is a key thing. is that he's not forced to answer any of those. aside from kaitlan's interview in the cnn town hall, he doesn't really do tough interviews. >> he really comes out the winner in not going to this debate. you have to wonder why he would go, potentially, because he would be faced with hard questions, not only from the moderators, but from some of his rivals, like chris christie, right? so him not going, he doesn't have to deal with that. he also gets to hurt rupert murdoch and go on tucker carlson, who's obviously going to lob softballs to him. so he get that benefit, as well. politically, he's probably benefiting quite a bit from this. obviously, mpeveryone else, may not so much. >> we saw how much of a challenge announcing a candidacy was when he did it live with

elon musk on what was twitter then. but if he's putting this video, we'll take pieces, but it's not going to be something that the whole world shifts from the debate. it's just his absence that is the point for him. >> oliver darcy, thanks. >> he'll up late with us wednesday night. >> and up early morning. back with us now, national politics reporter for bloomberg, kristin hall and cnn political analyst and white house correspondent for pbs "newshour," laura barone lopez. so not only is the former president skipping the first debate, it's plural, but i want to talk about his kind of sitting back from going to speak with the people of iowa. the governor, kim reynolds says that there will be a cost to pay likely, for that. let's listen to what she has to say. >> he's skipped a lot of the big stuff. he didn't do the fair side chat. are iowans sort of giving him a pass from some of those roles? >> no, i think they still expect him to be here. they want to interact with all

of the kacandidates. we had great turnout at the fairside chats. i had a lot of iowans and people outside of the state come up and say, thank you for doing that. it was a great opportunity to hear from the candidates. so iowans take it very seriously. they're very knowledgeable. and they want to interact with the candidates. >> a new poll out in iowa shows donald trump at 42. closest competitor, 19. ron desantis. is that true? is he paying a cost? >> so far, he's not. and actually, that same poll shows that post the fourth indictment, the georgia indictment, he got a seven-point increase from iowa voters. so it shows that right now, even though he went in, you know, not for the big events, not for the big fair or the fireside chat, but he still went to iowa, and he's able to draw a much larger crowd than the rest of the candidates are, and that's all that he really needs to do. and that's what his campaign thinks he needs to do. that he can campaign from out of state and still keep the lead that he's maintaining. >> our steven collinson, as he often does, in his pieces, in

his analysis writes this. that i just think encapsulates what we're looking at. just as no other candidate facing nearly 100 criminal charges across four cases could even think about running for president, no other gop leader could confidently snub a prime-time television debate and turn his no-show into an argument for his inevitability. what do you make of that, christian? >> it's a really unique situation. you know, a lot of the other candidates who are going to be on the debate stage, they're really there to introduce themselves to voters, introduce their campaign messaging. donald trump is in a unique position. he was a former president. these voterses know who donald trump is. i think donald trump is not new to media. he was a media personality before being president. he understands that he can go on with this interview, with tucker carlson, it's a much friend her environment for him. so he doesn't have to answer those tough questions. >> he doesn't have to go to any debates, does he?

primary, general if he gets there. >> and he seems to be right, if that first line, there were a lot of lice ies in the rest of post people know who he is, and they're not voting for him because he has a big new policy proposal. >> in spite of that stuff. >> a lot of voters vote based on emotion, we look at the economy and abortion may be a motivator for them to get to the polls. but i think if that he doesn't show up in the primary debates, there's little evidence that it would necessarily hurt him. could it help the other candidates try to make inroads in iowa or in other states? sure. is it enough to catch donald trump? i'm skeptical that it is. in the general, if he doesn't show up to those debates, i think that's a different calculation and that could potentially hurt him. because general election voters are a whole different ball game than primary voters. >> so you're in your final days/hours of debate prep,

you're chris christie, what do you do now? ron desantis says he plans, expects to be the quote, center of attacks. how does this affect -- what do they do? the ones that will be on the stage now? >> i think even if donald trump isn't physically there -- >> he's there. >> he's still there. there are definitely going to be questions about donald trump and the candidates may also pivot to the second front-runner, ron desantis, who is going to be on the stage. even though trump isn't physically there, he's still there. they're going to be talking about trump. and i think the candidates are prepping very hard to kind of go after the former president's record, as president. go after the mounting legal challenges against him. >> but, okay, so, the desantis campaign says that he is prepared for a pile-on, right? he's the highest polling person on the stage. but you take a great hit at the guy who's polling at 16%, right? what does that get you when the person who's not there is at 50,

62% in the cbs poll? >> it gets you to second place, maybe you knock out desantis, who's in second place, and you become the one right behind the former -- >> who's 30% behind. >> right, right. that's exactly what i was just saying, which is that -- a debate can help make moments and we've seen where it's helped some of the democrats in the democratic primary last go-around, but it wasn't enough to take out the top guy. it wasn't enough to take out jjoe biden when he was the candidate. and again, historically, a candidate has never had this significant of a lead and lost it, and lost the nomination. >> people keep pointing to mccain, but that analogy doesn't really hold, because the lead is so much wider here. and this is why chris sununu, who a lot of people thought was going to run for the ticket of new hampshire writes in his op-ed this morning, in "the times," at a minimum, any candidate who does not make the debate stage for the first two debates must drop out. anyone who is polling in the low single digits by christmas must acknowledge their efforts have fallen short.

but is anyone listening? >> yeah. >> who's going to be on that stage? >> i was talking to a strategist and they were telling me, you know, if these candidates don't make it to the debate stage, it's really a campaign ender. but to speak a little bit on trump not being there and that strategy, i think he has to be cautious. you know, we have seen the importance of debates in the past and especially primaries. they have become very national in scope. if any of candidates can make a compelling argument to viewers, there are voters looking for a trump alternative. granted, there are a arrange contingent of voters stick by the former president. there are voters who think, we should move on. i think he has to be really careful about the strategy. >> but ron desantis isn't making an argument to be an anti-trump oar big trump alternative, so his ability -- he's even said

that he has -- he is not necessarily going to attack the former president. his campaign says that they're going to defend the former president during this debate. >> that's a great point. thank you. christian hall, appreciate it. president biden and the first lady will be in maui later today. they are there to pay their respects, to survey the damage also from these devastating deadly wildfires. we're live from the white house with a preview of that trip. >> we're so honored to have the president coming on monday to both mourn with us and also so that he can see, you know, see the damage, see what it's going to take to rebuild maui. okay. i'll work on that. save 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed. plus, free home delivevery when you add a base. shop now only at slsleep number. ♪ don't let student loan debt hold you back. refi at sofi.com. and get to yougoals faster. sofi. get your money right. ♪ hit it ♪ ♪ it takes two to mak a thing go right ♪

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biden and the first lady will head to maui where they will meet with survivors, first responders, and get a firsthand look at the devastating wildfires that have killed at least 114 people. new this morning, maui's mayor says 850 people are still unaccounted for. >> when this process began, the missing person list contained over 2,000 names. through the tireless work of the fbi and the maui police department, over 1,285 individuals have been located safe. we are both saddened and relieved about these numbers >> rescue teams with cadaver dogs have been digging through lahaina's incinerated wasteland looking for victims. hawaii's governor says some remains may never be found, despite the dedicated search. jeremy diamond joins us live. give us a little bit more about what the president and first lady will do once they arrive.

>> this death toll already makes this the deadliest wildfire in more than a hundred years of u.s. history. and it is likely donate to rise. and so, president biden today is going to be on the ground to meet not only with survivors and victims' families, but to tour the devastation that side been wrought on maui. the president will be arriving in maui later today, where he will initially get a helicopter tour of the island, to see some of the devastation. he will then land near lahaina, where he will go and see that area that is one of the most devastated areas on the island, firsthand to view some of the damage. he will meet with first responders and local responders to get a briefing on the situation as well as on the federal spresponse. he is expected to deliver remarks, which he is expected to announce that bob fenton, the regional director will be named the chief responder, a designation that is intended to signal this is going to be a long-term recovery process, and one for which the federal

government will indeed be on scene. the president in a statement saying, quote, i will do everything in my power to help maui recover. and rebuild from this tragedy. and throughout our efforts, we are focused on respecting sacred lands, cultures, and traditions. the president could hear some criticism of the federal response. some local residents have been saying that they felt the federal response was too slow. the president also faced criticism from republicans for the nearly five days of silence on this matter while he was at his rehoboth beach delaware home. but most importantly, today will be an opportunity for the president to display that signature empathy, that while it may have been missing for a handful of days last week, it has been a hallmark of his political life and of his presidency as well. certainly a moment for him to present that front today. >> a needed moment. jeremy diamond for us there at the white house. thank you. coming up, post-tropical cyclone hilary slamming the los angeles area with intense rain,

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welcome back. post-tropical cyclone hillary slamming the southwest, bringing intense rain, widespread flash flooding this morning. and when it made landfall, it was a tropical storm. the first to hit that area in over 80 years. on sunday, just as hilary triggered flood warnings across los angeles, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck. millions of -- millions of become-to-back emergency alerts were sent out to residents across southern california. what are officials doing? joining us with an update, los angeles county sheriff, robert luna. sheriff, it's good to have you. the last thing you need is an earthquake in the middle of all of this. how extensive and dangerous is the plflooding now? >> well, good morning. and thank you for having me on

the show. right now, it's still dark here on the west coast. so as light comes up, we'll see the extent of the damage, but we are getting wide reports of flooding throughout the county of los angeles. >> so when i had a conversation with the mayor of palm springs up in riverside county, earlier, she said that the 911 system there was out. are your communications in tact, if there are needs for rescue or some help that they can get to you? >> yes, thank god that our 911 system throughout the county as far as we know now, has been fully operational. we have had intermittently outages at some of our substations, but we have contingencies in place, and then they get placed to another station so there are though interruptions where community members cannot call in and ask

for the assistance they may need. >> as i understand a particular concern to you this morning is the unhoused population there. is that right? what kind of danger are they in? >> yeah, obviously, one of the biggest concerns we have in this area, typically, on an everyday basis, is dealing with our unhoused population. for those of you who are no familiar with the l.a. region, we have a lot of man-made rivers that are made of concrete. and we have a lot of unhoused people. so when it starts to flood, again, if you're not familiar with the area, when the water starts rushing through, it becomes very dangerous, and we consistently, whether it's us or our fire department, pull people out of the rivers. so what we did as soon as -- as part of our preparation efforts, was to go out with our homeless outreach teams and then other

county department personnel to engage, warn our community members there, things like putting out public address announcements with our helicopters. really trying to get people to safe ground. and then working with other partners to find them shelter for the next several days. and we have done that. i believe that we made close to 200 contacts and many of those people were offered services and shelter at least through the duration of this significant storm. >> yeah, we look at some of this video, and to be pretty candid, folks who live in the southeast, in florida and georgia, they have lived through this. the reason that this is so dire where you are, it's because l.a. county, riverside county, orange county, they're not used to this type of rainfall. they're getting a year's worth of rain in some areas, in a day. talk to us about just the -- how overwhelming this is, the amount of rain that's coming in for

first responders and residents who are not used to this much water? >> yeah, it's -- you know, for us here in los angeles county, our employees, the people who do emergency response are amazing people. and we prepare all the time, we are used to fires, we're used to earthquakes, it doesn't rain here all the time, but when it does, it's like we get it all at one time. so unfortunately, we are used to dealing with flooding and mud slides and things of that nature. as you said in your teaser, this is the first time this significant amount of rain has fallen in a short period of time, so it causes additional challenges. it looks like at this early stage, that all of our planning and training has worked, but when we get daylight and we're able to assess everything with the flooding and mud slides that we're seeing not only in our county, but our adjacent

counties, we'll see how well we handled it. but it is not something that we're used to dealing with every day. but i'm really proud of the entire county team and the work that they did in preparing for this. and there will always be lessoned learned. but like you also said in your teaser, how many times do people around the country are dealing with either a hurricane or a significant storm like this, and then they get a 5.1 earthquake in the middle of it. earthquakes are something we're used to, and that happened in ventura county, which is just north of us, but many of us here in los angeles felt that shaker. and it does, you shake your head and go, what else is coming our way? some thought we better head to church. >> i'm sure a lot of folks should head to church. >> hopefully there is nothing else coming your way. thank you for your time. los angeles county sheriff robert luna, thanks so much.

>> thank you. we do have new polling out of iowa this morning. it gives us a look at the state of the republican presidential field. harry enten here with the latest numbers. ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ please don't go ♪ ♪ p please don't go ♪ ♪ please don't go ♪ ♪ please don't t go ♪ ♪ don't goooooo! ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ don't go away ♪ ( ♪ ♪ ) ♪ please don't go ♪

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only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ new polling out of iowa this morning it shows, not a surprise, president trump holding a dominant lead with five months to go until the first in the nation caucuses. our senior data reporter harry enten here this morning. good morning. what's the number? >> all right. so i just want to give you an understanding that donald trump is up big league in the state of iowa. this is obviously the des moines register poll which is the marquis poll in that state. he's got an over 20-point advantage over ron desantis, his rearest challenger. this is the largest lead in an iowa gop caucus poll at this point since george w. bush in 2000. hillary clinton on the democratic side, it had already shrunk by this point. the fact that trump is up by over 20 points gives you an understanding of how large his

lead is in the state of iowa and i think this gives you an understanding of just how strong the trump base is. mind is made up about the top choice for the gop nominee. look at this, 66% of trump voters say their mind is made up. that is significantly larger than the overall likely caucusgoers at just 40% and significantly larger than ron desantis supporters who just 31% say their mind is made up about their top choice for the gop nominee. >> the state polls, especially iowa are important, these are state by state contests. how does this compare to the national. >> nationally trump's lead is even larger. these are three polls that were out over the last week. look at these leads for donald trump, he is at 62% in the cbs news yougov poll, 67% quinnipiac university, 63% in the fox news poll. look at where desantis is in all these polls, look how far back he is, he doesn't crack 20% in any of them. in iowa you have that 20 plus

point lead for donald trump, that's actually smaller than the lead we see nationally where we see these leads of 35, 40, near 50 points in this particular case. of course, the primary is one thing. if trump wins the primary can he go on and win the general election. ? we have had three polls that have come out over the last week here and i want you to take a look at how close this race is at this particular point. granted the general election is over a year away. the largest lead for joe biden is just three points, within the margin of error. no clear leader. look at these, one point, one point, if you go back where we were at this point four years ago, joe biden's lead was high single digits to low double digits. this is significantly closer than where we were four years ago. so this idea that donald trump can't win the general election, i want you to lose that idea. this race is very, very close and donald trump is polling better right now than basically at any point during the entire 2020 cycle.

>> after four indictments. >> after four indictments. it just doesn't really seem to matter. >> that's fascinating. >> harry enten. thank you. >> thank you. >> still ahead on cnn, coverage of post-tropical cyclone hillary continues. our crews are live in southern california as communities out on the west coast wake up to serious flooding. over the weekend stand up to cancer honored the progress the organization helped achieve over the last 15 years and its mission to fund more life-saving break through treatments. our morning moment is next. thi. and profererred by this football pro who actually u uses her feet. and if we profer it, we know you'll prefer it too. i use my feet. have you seen me scramble? - [narrator] we just shipped our millionth monthly coffee subscription box so we're sending custom thank you gifts to our team. our custom ink rep is just as excited as we are celebrate your milestones with ctom gear. and knows what great quality products to get. get started toda at customink.com.

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to cancer just celebrated its 15th anniversary with an hour-long telecast on saturday and the night was a celebration of how far that organization has come. over the years it has brought together more than 3,000 of the best scientists to collaborate toward ending cancer's reign as the leading cause of death worldwide and through their work they have done a lot. it is far from over and they wanted to honor the success and advancements of the organization because every one of those successes leads to survival. >> you see some of the faces, star-studded show included special appearances by president joe biden, first lady jill biden, justin timberlake, jessica beal, queen latifah, julie ann moore, katie couric who shared how the disease has personally impacted her life. >> how it started was how it starts for so many americans, every 30 seconds someone in this country is told they have cancer. in april of 1997 that someone

was my 41-year-old husband jay. nine brutal and terrifying months later i became a widow and our daughters, elie and carrie, fatherless. >> there still is an opportunity for you to donate, just go to stand up to cancer.org. >> please do, if you can make a donation. this work that katie has led in honor of her late husband is remarkable and in 15 years look at how much they've done. that aired all over the place on saturday night. good for her. >> it was good to see so much support for the organization and still obviously so much work to do. >> we will see you back here tomorrow morning. have a great day. "cnn news central" starts now. ♪ heavy rain, severe wind, flooding and