thank you for joining us this afternoon. in less than an hour, urgent questions may be answered about a shooting with multiple gunshot victims at perry high school in iowa. a press conference is set for 4:00 eastern.

earlier the local sheriff told reporters his team was still trying to figure out exactly how many people were hurt and he would not say whether any victim had been killed. honestly, the details are pretty scant at this time. a law enforcement source is telling cnn the shooter is dead. i was governor said in a statement, as a mother, my heart aches for the students and staff and she will be at the news conference. the sheriff said luckily, there were few students because classes had not started, the indication there that this could have been much worse but there's so much we don't know at this point >> reporter: that's right, they did mention that, the sheriff's office had a press conference earlier today. we do know that at 7:37, before classes started, local time, law enforcement was receiving a notice that there was a shooting at the school behind me, perry high school, and we know that multiple gunshot

victims were sustained, and those are being treated at des moines area hospitals, about 45 minutes away from here. law enforcement from all around central i is on the scene. we do know that the shooter is dead. we do not know the identity of the shooter although law enforcement did say they've identified the shooter. and we do hope to learn more about that later this afternoon. this is obviously causing great shock and distress in the community. our affiliate in iowa, spoke to the mother of a student who said that her stepson was grazed i a bullet at the high school and called it, absolutely a nightmare, take a listen to what she had to say. >> what happened here? >> reporter: i just know he got grazed by a bullet. >> is this your son? >> it's my stepson, basically.

>> did he show you the wound? >> i just saw it. and it started bleeding again and we just want to get him checked out. this is absolutely a nightmare. >> reporter: as you mentioned, we don't quite know all the details about what happened inside this high school. we expect to learn more at a briefing at 4:00 this afternoon here in perry, governor reynolds of iowa will be attending the briefing and speaking to reporters at the time. she put a tweet on social media earlier today, offering prayers to the community but obviously a lot of unanswered questions that we are hoping to bring you. >> hopefully we will learn more here in the next hour. thank you. of course, that shooting is

rocking the state of iowa as political candidates are blanketing the state and no doubt they will be asked about this that would be logical, on the trail, or at the cnn town halls tonight, just 11 days before iowa republicans make the pick for the 2024 presidential nominee. trump has a huge lead according to the latest polls but his central rivals, nikki haley and governor desantis are trying to chip away at his support and in a few hours, they will take questions from voters at dual town halls. >> one other thing we will watch to see if the address, new details about trump's business is making millions of dollars from foreign governments while he was president. documents obtained by house documents show the biggest member was china paying over $5.5 million to trump properties during his time at the white house. jessica schneider is here with more. what do these records show? >> i just got off a conversation with congressman

jamie raskin, he led this report and what he is telling me is he believes what this report shows is a fraction of what trump brought in from foreign governments. this report only documents two years and of course it was a four-year presidency and only looks into a handful of the trump businesses and what it's showing is that trump and his organization brought in nearly 8 alien dollars, $5.5 million of which came from china and state run companies. this is a problem according to congressional democrats because of two things, really, they are saying if from was worried about lining his pockets, maybe he didn't have the best public interest in mind when running the country and his business is simultaneous because remember he gave up the day-to-day control but he really was a part of these businesses, and they say it obviously also violates the emoluments clause, that says that a sitting president cannot bring in any sort of payment from foreign governments. you know, this report in general, talks about these two

years, and it does document 20 different countries that really paid trump businesses, not just china which was the bulk of it but also, saudi arabia, qatar, kuwait, india, and this report points to problems, they say that in particular, there was the industrial and commercial egg of china, saying that, you know, they had a lease at one of trump's property so paid numerous payments but trump didn't sanction the bank. the doj filed a complaint saying that they helped set up an account for a company that invaded north korea sanctions and then there was the fact that the former president signed an arms deal worth $100 billion with saudi arabia, and again, his business is taking in money from saudi arabia, about $600,000.

>> it's a big conflict of interest there. what are you hearing from trump, is he saying anything? >> he hasn't said anything but the organization said, look, the former president didn't take his yearly salary of about $400,000 and we cut a check to the u.s. treasury for about $450,000, eric trump has responded to this report, saying there is no president in the united states history who is tougher on china than donald trump. a president who has introduced millions and billions of dollars worth of tariffs on their goods and services but congressional democrats are saying, that's not enough, the fact that he took in any money front a foreign government should be in violations of the closet itself and they are trying to set some sort of mandatory check by congress which obviously wasn't done during the trump administration. >> the tariffs get pushed onto u.s. consumers, so we have to remember that as well. let's dig into all the political threads with des moines bureau chief aaron

murphy and also national political reporter mark tutor. the house republicans are pursuing this impeachment inquiry in part because of this, although they have yet to show evidence that biden was profiting while in office the way that these documents show that trump was profiting while in office. do you think that trump's rivals tonight are going to go after him on this issue? >> it's tough to predict, because one of the consistent things that is confounded political observers has been hot and cold nature of ron desantis and nikki haley, to actually directly and constantly take on donald trump. so it's an open question. my guess is, yeah, they will

probably mention it, why not? there is however, a republican primary, a risk because this is a report from congressional democrats, so you can see donald trump thing of course, of course they are using democratic attacks, et cetera, again, open question, i see it as being fair game for the republican rivals as well as democrats and certainly president joe biden. >> notably, haley and desantis have gone after each other over influence by trump. why? >> it's a huge issue here. aaron, what do you think? that's obviously a big topic for them. why not talk about donald trump, if it's such a big topic for them. >> you guys know, ron desantis and nikki haley, they've gone after each other on china, much more than trump, and i think it

just sort of kind of, it's the same as the other issues and ways that we talk about how ron desantis and nikki haley, all the candidates have had to deal with running against the former president, and they've had to walk a fine line between criticizing him and trying to distance themselves from him on certain issues. while being careful not to upset the republicans including especially those in i still like some of the things that the former president did while in office. so we will be seeing a balancing act sort of, and only recently are we starting to see an increase in those more pointed criticisms of the former president from candidates like desantis and

haley. >> aaron, i want to stay with you because obviously the news out of perry, iowa, the high school there, a shooting taking place. we don't have details over who the shooter was and whether anyone was killed but i imagine, knowing our colleagues here at cnn that these candidates will be asked about the issue of gun control legislation tonight. how do you anticipate this could factor in with the caucuses only 11 days away. >> it'll certainly be a story for a couple of days, and you're right, when these candidates appear at events, that question is certain to come up. it's interesting, ramaswamy actually had an event in perry this morning, he was there at 9:00 a.m., and from what i understand, they kept that low- key and maybe even canceled it but held a prayer at the event space they were at. but yeah, that is going to bring the conversation to the

forefront. making a prediction here, but i don't expect to hear anything different than what we've heard from republican candidates in other similar incidents, it's unlikely that we will see anything further on federal gun legislation but there will soon be a question i will be put to these candidates in the next day or two. >> jeff spoke with some iowa republicans recently and here's what one of them told him. >> i think it's bad that it has devolved into something where they both seem to be fighting for second. they are looking for the boost to come out of iowa. >> mark, what do you think, what you hear from voters, do they think that? is it strange to caucus goers that this is a bizarre caucus season with a clear front runner

? >> is not just limited tyler, you hear that in new hampshire and to a degree, south carolina because it does seem sort of over. donald trump's design was to hold himself above the other candidates, and force them to fight for second place. and they've obliged him in doing that. now nikki haley, perhaps stands out more than ron desantis in this regard and that, she barely criticizes him, former president trump, when compared to ron desantis but as i've said, the two of them have just not taken it to trump to the degree that a lot of republicans wanted to see. and i asked a top trump campaign advisor why do you think ron desantis is not doing so well against your candidate and this advisor told me in one simple phrase, desantis never

established dominance, and what you are hearing from that voter is they want to see someone who's going to leave and be in alpha, whether it's an alpha female or alpha male. right now the alpha is donald trump and the other two are fighting for the beta spot. >> we saw a back and forth between haley and desantis over whether new hampshire voters were going to correct what voters in iowa decided. i'm wondering what you make of that, is ron desantis right in saying that haley is kind of downplaying her odds in the hawkeye state? >> one of the best pieces of insight that i've been given and i about the caucuses, is it's not just about the results, it's about the results versus expectations. so, i'm not in the mind of nikki haley or campaign team but could there have been a little bit of lowering the bar and readjusting expectations so

whatever happens on january 15th doesn't look as bad? that's possible. you know, i think what remains true is one of those two candidates has to have some kind of surge in the next 11 to 12 days, to show voters in new hampshire, south carolina, that they have some kind of momentum coming out of iowa, and i think that is the key for those two people who were trying to make the case to be the alternative candidate to trump and we haven't seen them yet. they seem evenly matched and we are waiting to see if that changes. >> they don't have long here. thank you so much, we appreciate you being with us. desantis and haley, they

are both taking questions from iowa voters tonight in back to back cnn events. our town halls moderated by caitlin collins and aaron burnett and it starts in just a few hours at 9:00 eastern. it infamous terror group claims is responsible for two explosions in iran that killed more than 100 people. healthy involvement of isis could stoke more tensions in an already volatile region.

today the terror group isis is claiming responsibility for twin suicide bombings in iran that killed more than 80 people and injured nearly 300 more. >> the daily blast happen wednesday at a memorial, the four-year anniversary memorial for a military commander, soleimani, nick robertson is joining us now. what is isis saying about its reasoning for attacking iranian civilians?

>> they've actually put out quite a long discourse, over why they've done this. and one of the points that jumps out to me as they are saying, look, iran has set itself up here to be the savior of the palestinians, to be you know, a supporter of hamas. but when hamas needed them in the fight, they haven't entered the fight and really, it seems isis is calling iran out and it's because they haven't stood up to their word, and that is interesting that isis would do this at this time but of course, soleimani, they see him as being one of the leaders in iran that was part of a coalition trying to eradicate isis, they are picking soleimani's commemoration as a tame time and place to target people. perhaps, it really does fit with their ammo, and it certainly fits that they would target and kill innocent

civilians in large numbers. they use suicide bombers, that doesn't gel with what iran said yesterday, they settle at least one of the explosions was in a suitcase and detonated remotely. they said there would be a harsh response for this attack but at this stage, even though isis hasn't put forward credible evidence, most of the circumstantial evidence around this, what they've said, their rationale for it, their style of attacks, it does seem to indicate and support that this most likely seems like it was an isis attack. >> former deputy director of national intelligence is joining us to discuss these developments. >> to these attacks signal to you a resurgence in isis? >> i think it might be in fact, the idea that isis is worried

about losing even more of the ground in the narrative, that is expanding across the middle east, and the iranians are the sponsor of this axis of resistance. and was probably concerning to viewers is they've got this thing where, let's just understand that a lot of this has to do with this whole idea of the resistance against the west, pushing the united states out of the middle east, and who gets to run and own that mission, so this is, to me, a bit of a competition and isis is trying to grab back, if you will pay >> i want to see what you think about something that the israeli prime minister said, because he has told the u.s. that israel is committed to bringing fundamental change on its border with lebanon. his

goal is to obviously make that region safer for israelis to return but what is the application of this? >> so, i think what's really clear to me, especially following the head of hezbollah, his speech yesterday, it reinforces to me that neither iran nor hezbollah, once this war with israel. but israel has 80,000 citizens who have been evacuated from that northern region and cannot go home, because that threat, from hezbollah on the border is continuing and so, really across the spectrum, in israeli politics, they are saying, we have got to deal with this threat, so it's not just benjamin netanyahu, right, so the real risk here is that the political effort by the united states to find some political solution which is really about going back to a un resolution that is a decade ago, and

fulfilling that, if we can't figure out how to get that done, it's going to be israel that actually precipitates this, because they feel that they need to be able to live in that area of israel. >> there have been consistent visits by u.s. officials since october 7th, notably, the secretary of state is headed back again. he's had over a dozen meetings with officials but notably, the special coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security is joining lincoln. what do you make of them joining this trip? >> so he has been there, he's very today, and he's been one of the point people for this particular negotiation with lebanon, he knows all the players because there are energy issues related to lebanon and israel and they shared resources. i don't take too much from it,

in that, there are only so many people to go around in administration. it's all hands on deck and he has experience in the region. so he's the point person for this. maybe other people know more than i do about this and that's fine, send a text to me. but that's what i know. >> when you look at the bigger picture and these moments that we are looking at here, and i have to refer to my list because there are so many, isis claiming the bombing in iran, israeli strike on a leader in iran, of course you have the attacks on these shipping vessels by iranian backed rebels, and then at the heart of it, you have a war between israel and gaza. that is a lot happening right now. how do you see this moment? >> i see absolutely what you are talking about, and several

people talked about this, the several fronts, we face most of those fronts, too. today, we struck against a militant leader inside iraq, and inside baghdad, which is going to have ramifications. so we are deeply enmeshed in this and as this goes, it's going to be hard to keep us where we want to be. and we could very easily be dragged into things by what we feel like what we need to do to establish deterrence and also if the northern front goes, and that's a couple of weeks maybe from now, i don't know, could be tomorrow, could be never. but we are in a moment of danger, the good news is that the main actors don't want it to go there, but, you know what happens. i mean, so, a lot of

miscalculations, misunderstanding and some bad choices by some people who really want to push us out of the region, we are in a danger place. >> i appreciate your time. i'm sure more people are texting you for information then trying to give you information. thanks so much. ahead, florida's top doctor calling for people to stop using certain covid-19 vaccines. we are going to break down his reasoning and how it compares to what we've heard from federal health officials. to duckduckgo on all your devie

duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. florida's top doctor, the states surgeon general is calling on health professionals to stop using mrna covid vaccines. in a letter to the fda, the doctor raised concerns about

pfizer and moderna shot siding debunked claims, one in particular, that contaminants in them could integrate into dna, causing healthy cells to become cancerous, again, these claims are bunk, they've been debunked, the fda responded by saying, it is confident in the quality, safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, rebuking his claims as implausible and also misleading. let's talk about it now. clearly the person to talk with us about this, dr. offer, what you think about what he saying? >> it's nonsense, what he's arguing that the small quantities of fragments of dna,

i mean nanograms, which is containing many biological products are able to enter our nuclear's, integrate itself into dna and cause things like cancer and autoimmune diseases, that's impossible and here's why. if you think about a cell as like a sunny side up egg and the white part is the cytoplasm and the nucleus is the yoke, if these fragmented dm dnas get into the cytoplasm they would be instantly eliminated because our cytoplasm hates dna, even if it got that, enter the nuclear, which is impossible because it doesn't have a nuclear accessible and gets into the nuclear's, it would have to integrate into the dna, none of that is contained in the fragments and let's also

remember, assuming you live on this planet and you eat any food that's made from animal or plant, you are always ingesting foreign dna which can enter your circulation, so the notion that that hurts you, just shows how much i think this particular surgeon general doesn't understand how constantly we are exposed to fragments of dna, we have trillions of bacteria that are in our body that have foreign dna. so it's just, nonsense. >> when you explain it like that, it's so clear how nonsensical that is. and also want to point out, this isn't the first time that dr. ledepo has been associated with controversy. he personally changed some key findings in florida study on covid vaccines. he's known for supporting covid theories that have not been proven. he has criticized mask and vaccine mandates. and the last one is something where you actually have some people with differing opinions and different policy approaches, but the other ones are very clear. they are very clearly the

purview of a clear direction in science and he hasn't stuck to it. how harmful are these reticular comments? >> very harmful. is the florida state surgeon general and he has a platform and when you have a platform, people listen but consistently he's been on the wrong side of issues related to masks and vaccines and has been a purveyor of covid vaccine myths, this seems to be more sort of a phenomenon of right and left, and as they say when you mix politics with science, you get politics and i think that is what has happened here. >> you think this is all just politics. we should point out, he was appointed by governor desantis, ultimately it was pretty controversial because of his views. can you talk more about that, how you think politics are

coming out here ahead of science? >> the letter that dr. ledepo sent to the fda, had a comment from ron desantis where he said, we are not going to about down to washington edicts, we are going to do the things that we think are best for floridians while pushing back on things that come out of washington or through the cdc. basically we are not going be pushed around by institutions in the government and that is sort of his platform and i think dr. ledepo fits into that but it's a shame because i think what he's done, he's made science political and floridians will suffer that. the notion is, that ironically, he said, also don't use mrna vaccines, the only other license vaccine is novavax, which is also made using cells, and also, likely contains small fragments of dna, so it just shows, it's his lack of understanding on how the process works.

>> dr. offit, thank you for explaining that so clearly. >> thank you. a group of voters from illinois has just asked the state board of elections to remove donald trump from the 2024 ballot, that makes it the most recent state where the former president faces a challenge to his candidacy. we will speak with the legal director who filed that challenge, next.

at some point today, a records release may expose even more of the vips that had ties to the late serial sex offender jeffrey epstein. the first batch of court documents came out yesterday and confirmed early reports that epstein had contact with major power players like former presidents bill clinton and donald trump. none of them have been accused of wrongdoing in this case, and we need to make a correction from an earlier hour, bill gates was not mentioned in yesterday's documents release. we certainly regret that era. we are going to turn to cara,

what are we learning about epstein's encounters? >> we got the first 48 documents and what we learned from this release is a lot of the same names that we've known for some time including former presidents bill clinton and donald trump, the information in the release, this woman gave a deposition where she said she was paid to give massages and she was speaking about jeffrey epstein's encounters with numerous famous people including the former presidents and what she said in her testimony under oath was that she recalled being on a plane, flying with jeffrey epstein and the pilots said they needed to make a landing in atlantic city and she recalled, jeffrey said great, we will call up trump and we will go to, i don't

remember the name of the casino but will go to the casino. she said she never gave a massage to trump and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing and when asked about this, they just attacked the media but this gives a context about the world in which he circulated. he has relationships with bill clinton and his team did acknowledge that the former president took many trips on epstein's plane but he said that he did not know about jeffrey epstein's crimes with young women and she also said one time clinton likes them young and clinton's team said it's been nearly 20 years since president clinton last had contact with epstein and they also have said previously that he knew nothing of the financiers terrible crimes and again, clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

so it's going to be dribs and drabs of information that will be tacked into hundreds and hundreds of more pages of documents that are being unsealed. is coming in legal motions, depositions that are under oath and we are expecting to see other names being released as part of this group of some 150 to 200 names that will be unsealed. we are also expecting to see additional accusers who have spoken out publicly about jeffrey epstein as well as speaking privately in these depositions that have been held under seal for years. >> still a lot of questions to be answered. there is another challenge to former president trump's candidacy, this time in illinois. much more on that, next.

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the combat symptoms and boosts immunity. biovanta really works. here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. this just into cnn, a group of voters from illinois are asking the state or of elections to remove former president trump from the 2024

ballot. the filing says, quote, donald trump, through his words and actions after swearing in and out as the united states officer behind states to support the constitution engaged in rebellion. we are joined by the legal director of the group that filed this challenge. ron fine is with free speech for people. thank you for being with us. i want to cut straight to the core of the legal argument between your group and trump's team. in his appeal to the colorado decision, they say trump didn't engage in insurrection on the 14th amendment doesn't cover the presidency that he's not an officer. what is your response to those arguments?

>> in the colorado trial, it only adds what americans are able to see with their own eyes. they invited a crowd to washington, d.c. he told them to be wild. for the first time in our nations history, we disrupted the power. >> i want to step aside for the legal arguments. there are many. the 14th amendment is self

executing. i want to look at the big picture. what is like the way you wil l challenges state law. the time to challenge file additional challenges in additional states. until they look at the life, the about those that oppose 19? >> it is a good chance of winning the nomination >> our strategy is not a political entity.

the two forces coupled to trying to. partisan politics. her predecessor set to protect us against people like him. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you.

just a few minutes, we are going to get updates from law officials in iowa after a school shooting. stay with cnn.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today.

there has been a dramatic spike in thefts of hyundai and kia models. we are talking a 1000% increase in thefts. in just the past three years, this post showed how they are going through some of those models. >> we are bringing in a senior auto writer on this very day peter, what are these automakers doing to stop this? >> hyundai and kia, both of them are doing everything they

can, i think, to get people on top of this. they are giving people steering wheel locks. doing software updates. they have new software. it is going to make it harder to steal. they're trying to get people to come to dealers, or work with outside agents to distribute some of these more simple devices. we have owners of these high models that are particularly vulnerable. they have stolen usb cords like that one. >> peter, is there any fix for car owners? >> they have rolled out software that basically is harder for someone to steal a car this way. they can apply it to some of these older models. they can't take that software update. they have mechanical means that they can add to the car. this is to prevent the vehicle from being stolen quite so easily.

>> is that impacting sales? is this a selling point from the car if you're going to be dealing with this kind of thing? >> it is an embarrassment. newer models have some antitheft technology already in them. older models didn't have it. they have turnkey indications that didn't lack the immobilizer's. newer cars now have them. they are going quite well. people have gotten the message that this is a problem. >> peter valdes, thank you for the reporting period thank you so much for being with us today. always a pleasure. >> always a pleasure. we are bringing in this new year all week for us. >> the lead starts in about 10 seconds. thanks for being with us.