new threats of retaliation after the u.s.-led airstrikes in yemen and a new assessment of how much damage the strikes really did. every single state in the

country right now under a weather aert letter. blizzards in the midwest, severe storms in the south, tornado watches in five states. how many layers do iowans need to weather this weather. what could be the coldest caucuses in hiss ri. access denied, homeland security official says they were shocked after texas blocked border patrol agents from part of southern border. what does this mean for enforcement? i'm sara sidner with john berman and kate bolduan. this is "cnn news central." just three days from the iowa caucuses. three cold, snowy days. how cold is it projected to be? i got to show you some of these temperatures. look at water loo, iowa, minus 14 degrees. cedar rapids, minus 17 degrees.

in des moines, minus 15 degrees. so cold on caucus night. how do you get voters out there? some of the candidates have to deal with that even today. both nikki haley and ron desantis have had events cancelled because today not as cold a yet, but snow. a lot of snow. 8 to 12 inches in the des moines area right here. it's covering the entire state. jessica dean is in des moines this morning inside the des moines snow globe this morning. what are the candidates doing about this? >> reporter: well, a couple things. so you mentioned that nikki haley and ron desantis have cancelled or postponed events. nikki haley is doing some events over the phone like a town hall type thing. ron desantis was a able to get one of his events done earlier this morning before the conditions really deteriorated here. i'll let you listen to him talking to some potential caucus goers.

>> i view the choice on monday as boiling down to this. donald trump is running for his issues. nikki haley is running for the donors' issues i'm running solely for your issues, your family's issues, and to turn this country around. that's the sole focus. that's the sole mission. . >> reporter: so here we are days before the iowa caucuses, when really you would have candidates going all across the state meeting with as many potential caucus goers as they possibly could. it's really hard to do that, nearly impossible, especially tonight, to get people all in the same room to travel. now the snow is supposed to stop. and then it's going to get absolutely frigid here. and the campaigns are already looking to monday to see how they might manage that. it's iowa it snows in the winter. but we're talking record-breaking cold. this is forecast to be the

coldest caugcus day ever in iowa's history. windchills of negative 40. so really extreme temperatures. so you have the trump campaign that's starting to down play expectations saying in all of these polls, we have such a commanding lead. people might stay home. we have seen the former president telling his supporters, i need you out there. so we're hearing that from the trump campaign. on the desantis front, they have hyped this ground game that they have for months now. with their aligned superpac and then within the campaign as well. it's going to be really put to the test on monday to see how effective it will be if they can get their supporters to those caucus sites. nikki haley last night saying it's going to be unthinkably cold. i'm gong to be out there. i need you to be out there. they are going to convince people it's worth getting out. in iowa especially, it's about organization and it's about ground game and who shows up. when you throw in extreme weather like this, we're just

going to have to see how that all shakes out on monday. >> with temperatures like these, it's not so much of a ground game as a tundra game. jessica dean in snowy iowa, thank you so much. donald trump is heading back to the campaign trail this weekend after spending much of this past week focused on his legal trouble. elena treene has new reporting on the trump campaign's approach now in iowa. >> that's right, we do have some new reporting out today. from my conversations with trump's advisers, they are growing increasingly concerned about how the weather could impact turnout on monday for many of the their supporters. and if you look at the ground game strategy that they have implemented over -- >> house speaker mike johnson speaking to reporters. >> to complete the appropriations process. this is an important part of keeping the government running. the top line agreement includes

hard concessions to cut more billions, as you know, from the irs give away and the covid-era splush funds. it replacess gimmicks from the prior agreement and it brings congress much closer to regular order, which is our big commitment here. in keeping with my commitment to bring members into the legislative process, i have received feedback from many members across the republican conference. that's an important part of this. i committed to decentralizing the speaker's office and making this a member-driven process. our top line agreement remains. we are getting next steps together and, woing tord a robust appropriations process. so stay tuned for all that to develop. >> just giving a speech. i missed the top, but what we herd from mike johnson when he

says the topline agreement remains, that means we're going to get our correspondents up to discuss this further, but that to me says that when he talked about the agreement, the last agreement was a top line agreement with the senate democratic leader chuck schumer, a top-line agreement on funding the government. they are up against a first of two deadlines next week to come to a funding agreement, to avoid a series of step that lead to a shutdown. it would set in next week and then a full government shutdown. this has been another moment where mike johnson is up against a challenge and a real test and he's really facing it from the right flank of the the party, who are balking over that topline agreement, some of them over moving forward with any government funding without serious cuts other things brought in. >> lauren fox has been covering

all this. you were standing right there. that's where the speaker was. what more does this mean? >> speaker johnson making it clrystal clear moments ago he sticking to the topline spending agreement that he reached with majority leader chuck schumer and was announced on sunday. there had been some question whether that deal maybe in j jeopardy given the fact there were hardline conservatives pushing johnson to back away from the agreement that he reached with chuck schumer. he just said he believes that agreement is the best one he could have gotten. he also made it clear he was talking to the hardline conservatives yesterday because his approach to the speakership was always going to be he wanted to hear from all siends of the republican conference. but the reality here is that republicans are divided on the best path forward. and he has to make a call. the call he's making is that sticking with the topline agreement. he did not answer questions on

whether or not he believes they need to have a short-term spending deal in order to give themselves more time to negotiate those fuller bills at that topline spending agreement. that is something that schumer has made clear he believes is necessary. he took procedural steps yesterday to make sure that the senate is ready with a short-term spending bill. so that still remains to be a major question right now. but the underlying news is that johnson is not walking away from the deal that he reached and anonsed on sunday with majority leader chuck schumer. >> not giving into that pressure right now from the right flank, which also means it looks increasingly likely he's going to need more and more democrats no matter how they move forward on this. lauren fox all over it for us. thank you so much. >> let us go back to iowa to the campaign trail now. political director david chalian is with us here. david, the weather is a serious factor right now because it is

insanely cold. how are you doing? how is this going to impact the candidates? they must be worried. >> in the immediate term, obviously, the impact is some events get pulled down today. some move events to remote events, virtual events, not in person. obviously, the desire for any candidate and campaign right now in these closing hours is to get in front of people, get them to sign that commit to caucus card that they are going to show up on monday night and support your candidacy. that's not happening. desantis had some events postponed as well. so it's not a great day for the candidates, but the snow will hopefully be gone by monday. it will be frigid here. and for the campaigns that have knocked on doors and have a robust ground game, the hope is

that they are going to be able to get their people out even in the cold. as the time develops here, we're going to start sensing which campaigns fear that the weather is going to impact them negative negatively the most. whether it's they are dependent on first-time caucus dpoers who may decide not to show up in the cold. so all of that in the next 24 to 48 hours will be starting to be gamed out by each campaign. >> i know iowans are used to cold temperatures. there's some strong people, but this is unusually cold. i want the to ask you when you look for it and look ing at the field, away you'd consider a successful caucus for the two people who are really vying for second, according to the polls. unless something major changes, donald trump is still the front runner, but you have haley and desantis battling it out. >> first, i think we are going to look most closely at margin if donald trump does come in

first as many people expect, between him and who is in second place. that margin is going to be important because he in the polling has been 30 points ahead. so if that shrinks to something like 15 points or 10 points come caucus night, that will be taken note of that his performance may not be as dominant as the polling suggest iseses. we are going to get a final "des moines register" poll to set expectations going into monday. but to your point about that battle for second place, if ron desantis after all he's invested here, if it has been all about iowa for him, ends up in second place and comes in third, that's going to be devastating for his campaign and its ability to have enough money and support to move forward. otherwise, if he comes in second and does have a closer than expected finish to donald trump, you can imagine the reverse is true. some money will come in and sol ability to move on to new hampshire where he has not been in the game much at all.

>> he's spent a lot of time going to all 99 counties. so spending his time trying to get people to come out. i want to ask you about whether or not -- we kl call it an october surprise, but it would be a january surprise. there's anything that might topple donald trump's lead, and you talked about the 30 points, which is insanely hard to beat, but could anything change by monday? >> reporter: i don't know the an answer. the way it has been described to me by republican political professionals in the state is something so out of the ordinary would have to occur to so dramatically change the trajectory of the race at that point. it doesn't mean it can't happen. i do think monday is a really important moment for the republican party. this is going to be the first time since donald trump left office, since january 6th that the republican party is going to

start weigh ing in on this big question of whether or not they want him to be their standard barer for a rematch against joe biden or if they want someone else. we know where all the polls are. we see how ahead he is, but voters actually start weighing in to answer that question on monday. that will define much of 2024 going forward. >> david chalian, thank you for braving the temperatures, to your crew as well. and we'll be back with you in iowa. the u.s. leads airstrikes on targets in yem. we have new reporting on how the iranian-backed militia group might respond. alaska airline passengers now suing boeing after a door plug flies off an airplane. that's happening as a federal officials are launching a new investigation.

new this morning, threats of retaliation after the u.s. led airstrikes in yemen overnight responding to weeks of attacks on commercial ships here in the red sea. oren liebermann is at the pentagon with the latest. >> now it's a question of how do the houthis expect to respond and how does the u.s. prepare for that response. the houthis in yemen promised they would respond to any sort of u.s. aggression. we haven't seen that yet. but there's every expect thags

this is more than just bluster on part of the houthis. this will go to some attack on u.s. forces. whether that's u.s. navy vessels in the red sea or u.s. forces elsewhere in the middle east or allies in the region, that remains to be seen. the houthis with the assistance of iran have the ability for any of these different options. in internships of the u.s. attack, this came from a number of different assets. fighter jets, we saw video of teams launching a off the red sea. there were tomahawk launches. the targets, 60 different targets at 16 different houthi sites. the u.s. wasn't trying to start a war here or this would have been a broader attack. this was specifically designed to try to degrade or disrupt the ability of the houthis to target international shipping in the red set. one of the most critical waterways. so the u.s. and the uk went after command and control as well as going after storage and

launch sites. those are the the types of weapons the houthis have used to try to attack commercial shipping. part of the goal here for the u.s. is to make sure that the companies feel safe in what should be one of the world's safest and most krit waterways. that's why it was so important to not only was this done in the uk, but several nations backing this and you saw the u.n. security council resolution before that. the statement before that, there's international support to effectively force the houthis or attempt to force the houthis to stop attack shipping in the red sea. it's not just the u.s. here. the houthis have a say in how this plays out and that's what we're closely watching. >> commercial shipping has to pass yemen at this check point if it wants to travel north and out to the atlantic.

that's why it's such an important location. that's why we're seeing all this activity there. oren liebermann, thank you so much. let's get the view from the state department on this. joining us from the state department is spokesperson from the state department. we have heard from the pentagon and the white house on these strikes. i'd like to hear from the state department what is the word from the state department and the secretary today after these strikes in yemen? how does this further u.s. diplomatic efforts or at least in the very least impact them? >> thank you for having me. really what this is about is we need to take a step back. we're talking about one of the world's most vital waterways. we're talking about 15% of all global trade pass ing through these waters. about 30% of global container shipping, so the president, secretary blinken were quite clear that the united states is not going to hesitate to take

steps to protect international vessels and protect international commerce in one of our most vital waterways. this is about degrading the ability of the houthis to be a able to conduct these kinds of attacks on international vessels that have put impact on u.s. personnel, on civilians, on sailors and has impacted a number of nations as well. >> with these strikes, is the united states on a path of military escalation with iran proxies? >> look, nobody is interested in seeing any kind of etc. ka ligs in the region, but also there is absolutely no acceptable reason for bad actors to be conducting these kinds of strikes that put our personnel, that put legitimate international commerce, that put freedom of navigation in harm's way. >> do you think we're on a path now of escalation? >> the united states is not

going to hesitate to take steps to protect personnel and lawful trid. the president and secretary made that clear yesterday. we also have to make sure that we're taking step ss to hold malign actors accountable for actions that put our personnel and put our interests in harms's way. >> the houthis have not been designated as a terrorist organization by the u.s. government since 2012. that's when that was revoked on february 129 of that year. does the secretary believe they should be resdez designated as a foreign terrorist organization? >> more than any designation of any one group or another, the most important thing is the actions of the united states. and yesterday as well as previous actions that the u.s. has taken in terms of sanctions and other measures to hold them accountable have made quite clear we will not hesitate to

hold actors to justice when they take provocative actions like this. >> make no mistake, these dez ui guess nations do matter. designations matter. why remove it if they don't? is this under discussion of redez i guess nating as a foreign terrorist organization? >> certainly these matter. we are not trying to indicate the otherwise. i'm not going to get into continued ongoing deliberative processes, butt point i was making is when it comes to holding malign actors accountable, the united states and this administration has a track record of doing so when actions have been talk taken. >> i wanted to ask you about what we heard from the houthis. they have vowed retribution issuing a warning, we will confront america, make it kneel down, burn its battle theships, all its bases and everyone who cooperates with it, no matter

the cost. how does the state department interpret that statement? >> i think president biden put it best last night in his statement. when that the united states isn't going to hesitate to take further action if needed to hold these kinds of activities account to ensure that things like freedom of navigation and legitimate international commerce and international vessels are protected. >> thank you so much. coming up, an extraordinary step in the migrant crisis. the military department doubles ouncen efforts to block federal law enforcement by accessing miles of the u.s. mexico border. the biden administration is taking their complaint to the supreme court. that's ahead.

i think he's having a midlife crisis i'm not. you got us t-mobile home internet lite. after a week of streaming they knocked us down... ...to dial up speeds. like from the 90s. great times. all i can do say is that my life is pre--

i like watching the puddles gather rain. -hey, your mom and i procreated to that song. oh, ew! i think you've said enough. why don't we just switch to xfinity like everyone else? then you would know what year it was. i know what year it is. he's holding firm to a deal he made with democratic majority leader of the senate chuck schumer. this having to do with keeping the government funded avoiding a shutdown that could be starting next week, despite the moungt pressure that johnson has been getting from house conservatives for him to ditch that deal. manu raju just spoke with oneover the reports and speaking to house republicans about all of this. what are you hearing now? >> i just spoke to the house freedom caugcus chairman.

that's the far right bloc that has been a persistent thorn in the pseudoof the leadership team. now with speaker johnson. they tended to try to scuttle this deal that johnson cut with chuck schumer. they believe d it spent too muc money and demanded for severe restrictions on the southern border with mexico. things that the the kras would not accept. johnson try ining to kut a deal tout some conservative victories. he was open to discussing the concerns of the far right members, but just moments ago, say that he would not side with those concerns and would stick to the agreement he cut with chuck schumer. when i asked bob good a about this, one of the eight members that kevin mccarthy was oust ed by. he made clear he was opposed to what johnson is doing, but he was not going to try to push johnson out of the speakership. >> how kiss adisappointed are yu

in his leadership? >> i don't agree with the announcement deal between the house that came from the weekend. i'm opposed. >> have you lost confidence in him as speaker? >> that's a silly question. >> you voted to oust the last speaker over a similar agreement. would you vote to oust him now? >> it's a ridiculous supposition that someone who has been a speaker for two and a half months would be treated the same as someone who was in that position for years and is the reason why we needed new leadership. >> the deal that was cut is essentially the same. some differences with kevin mccarthy. that's what caused a lot of concerns on the far right. not move ing to push out speake johnson. >> good questions though. thank you so much. right now, homeland security officials tell cnn they were taken by surprise of after the military department blocked border patrol agents from

accessing miles of the u.s. and mexico border. you can see the pictures just here. this is from a court filing this morning asking the supreme court to intervene. in a statement to cnn, the texas military department says it's preparing for future surges and is restricting access to anyone helping people cross illegally. this comes as the number of migrant encounters in eagle pass has dropped to about 500 per day. a far cry from the thousands seen in mid-december. but texas is taking a very hardline stance. joining us is rosa flores. what's the latest update? this is a real conundrum between these two huge powers, one a state power and the other the federal government. >> your you're right. you have to process this with me. this is an exordinary step taken by the state of texas to block

border patrol agents from miles of the rio grand from a public park that the federal government uses to launch their boats to patrol the rio grand to a staging area that the federal government uses during migrant surges and also they use that area to manage transportation assets so they can move migrants from that area for prors ing. from talking to a law enforcement source on the ground, this person tells me this puts border patrol in a bind. and the texas military department doubling down on their efforts to block border patrol sending a stumt to cnn saying, quote, the current posture is to prepare for future illegal immigrant searches, giving strict access to organizations that perpetuate illegal crossings in a city park a at the reese owe grand and

greater eagle pass area. the key words there, and i want to repeat them because these are important, this is the texas military department saying they are keeping organizations out. organizations that perpetuate illegal immigrant crossings in a city. governor abbott has not responded for our request for comment. but governor abbott did take to twitter yesterday to say, quote, we are making clear that texas will be a tough place to cross. now the white house has condemned these efforts and the backdrop of how this is happening and where this is happening is important because the number of migrant apprehensions at the border has plummeted in recent weeks. yes, there were about 10,000 migrant apprehensions on the southern border in mid-december. that dropped to about 3,000 in january. and the scene is very similar in eagle pass, texas, which was the epicenter of the migrant crisis in mud december when thousands of migrants were cross into the

area. as of this week, about 500 migrants are crossing into the eagle pass area. the biden administration has also taken the extra ordinary step to go to the supreme court asking the highest court to intervene so border the patrol can have access to patrol the rio grand. this is one of many disputes between texas and the united states. you have the controversial border buoys and the razor wire and not having access to this. i want to leave you with this. this is important context. in my experience, it's common to see state authorities and federal authorities working together. they do that all the time. i talked to law enforcement sources who say that's what's happening in other parts of fnks so this is unique to this area of eatgle pass. it's not normally they work together in partnership to keep the border safe. >> it's extremely political, so

we'll be watching what happens because there's a huge legal component here. thank you so much live from houston. join account us now is congressman gonzales, a democrat from texas. congressman, thank you for being with us. how do you feel about these texas officers keeping federal officials away from certain border regions? >> i can begin by saying we have a problem on our border that needs to be addressed much more aggressively by the president. but having said that, this is a continuation of the political theater that that last ed for a few weeks. then he was building a a wall. then there was razor wire in the middle. and he put countless national guard troops. so it has zoo row impact at

border. we need to raise our standards and do more on the southern border. >> the president and the administration needs to do a lot more. what do you mean? >> well, i think we need to figure out how to raise the fear standards all the the border. put more judges on border to have expedited hearings. we need to start removing folks who come into the country illegally. we need to enforce immigration laws. we have had a problem that i think have been complaining about for years. now it's impacting places around the country. i hope that the white house has broukt attention, but we need to stop this massive migration that over 70% of them never qualify for asylum. >> are you saying the administration is not getting the job done? >> don't think this administration or the past administration have done enough on our southern border.

i think we need to enforce the laws that we have in the books now. we need to send a message to the world that if we show up to the southern board ir, you don't get to commit. >> it sounds like you're saying the administration needs to do more than just enforce the laws or the southern border now. it sounds lake what you're saying, raise the fear standard. it sounds like you'd like to change asylum laws, correct? >> change asylum laws and the law is interpreted now. at the end of the day, we have asylum officers on our border. we have a massive migration, which the vast majority is showing up and give agents a laundry list of things to alu them in under the asylum laws i think we need to raise the standard and need to raise the scrutiny level that they are using on the southern border. these laws have been on the books for decades. and never have i ever seen the mass migration to our southern

border the way we have recently. this is not a democratic or republican problem. this is an american problem that needs to be addressed in a bipartisan way. >> it is, though, changing asylum laws, which would make it harder for people to get asylum as i they cross the border, raising the standards making it harder is something that a lot of democrats are against. so what pushback are you getting when you bring that either to the democratic leadership in the house or the white house? >> we need to have common sense solutions. and i have a lot of pushback within my party. i think they are wrong on this issue. i proposed safe zones that creates safe zones in guatemala and panama and costa rica where asylum claims could be at that juncture 1,500 miles away from the southern border and we deal with it at that juncture. >> do you think that impeaching

homeland security secretary, as some republicans want to do, would fix this? >> no, that's ridiculous. we need to continue working with secretary mayor cuss to cows to finding solutions. he's an engaged secretary. he's doing everything he can, but he's under a lot of pressure as well from some of these migrant groups, some of the more progressives in my party. we need to come to terms with the fact that we have a problem that needs a resolution. this shouldn't be a political issue. we have always enforced immigration lawsen opt our southern border. my entire life, i have lived around the southern border. i have seen laws enforced. what we're seeing now is no different than what we saw during the administration. we're not going to go at it the same way he did. we're not going to rip children out of mother's arms and separate families but we need to enforce laws on the southern border. we need to have expet dielted

hearings and removals and send a message to the world that we want you to come, but we need to do it in an orderly way. >> congressman, thank you so much. coming up for us, a triple weather threat. severe storms in the south, blizzard conditions in the midwest, and big rain across the northeast. essentially, everyone needs to prepare for another hit of weather this weekend. that is next.

every state in the united states is under some type of weather alert today. blizzard warnings to tornado warnings are in effect at a huge

storm is working its way across the eastern half of country at the moment. heavy, wet snow hitting chicago. you see it there causing major travel delays as o'hare international airport ordered a full ground stop early this morning because of those absolutely frigid temperatures. whitney wild is in chicago out in those frigid temperatures. i don't know. can you feel your face? what's it like out there? >> reporter: it's not that bad. it's above freezing. that's been the story of chicago because we have not seen a high of below freezing since november 28th. so what that means is the water here at the lake michigan is very warm, as is the ground. so the snow that's falling here isn't accumulate ing that much the street in chicago. it's turning to water very quickly. it's pushing down the snow accumulation. we're thinking between 4 to 8 inches from the start of the

storm. which is around 1:00 eastern tomorrow. but let me just give you a sense of what it looks like. you look to the skyline and that's the most visible place. that box is the willis tower. people outside chicago might know that as the seres tower. that's one of the most striking buildings in the chicago skyline because you have the two iconic spires at the top, but you can't see any of that. it's not nearly as striking as it normally is. across illinois, this is a bigger problem. up to a foot in some places. 1800 vehicles are out. challenge after challenge after challenge because there are migrants still pouring into the city. another bus is expected today. i'll show you what the city is trying to do. they have warming buss here at the landing zone where 141 migrants are staying. >> thank you to your crew for staying out there for us us.

we appreciate you. a waking nightmare. alaska airlines passengers now suing boeing after a plane's door plug blew out forcing an emergency landing.g. a wawaking nighthtmare. alalaskan airlrlines passesenge susuing boeieing after a plane' door plulug blew out, forcrcing emergency y landing.

all right. today the faa announced he it

audit boeing's production lines and suppliers for its 737 max 9 planes. it steps from an incident where a door plug blew out of a passenger flight. now passengers are suing boeing for injuries, both physical and emotional. let's get to cnn's pete muntean for more on this. talk to us first about the review from the faa. >> two rare announcements from the faa and significant. they mean the probe getting bigger, going way beyond the incident itself and asking what a lot of people want to know. is there a bigger problem at boeing? the faa just announced it will audit the 737 max 9 production line that was the plane involved in last friday's incident. all 171 of the planes grounded in the u.s. the audit it focus on boeing and the suppliers because spirit air

systems is the one that builds the fuselage. this in addition to what the faa announced yesterday. here is what the faa said about announcing the investigation. this incident should have never happened and it cannot happen again. boeing's manufacturing practices need to comply with the high-safety standards. they're legally accountable to meet. remember, this investigation focusing on the max 9 door plug part of the alaska flight that blew out. since then united and alaska found issues with the door plug. united found loose bolts related to the installation issue. without ththem it would blow ou with incredible forcrce, j john. >> those bolts seem m very impoportant, petete. pete m muntean, ththank you fof that. thank k you for jojoining u totoday. thisis is s cnn news centrtral. "i"inside popolitics" up next. >> have a a good weekekend.