the trump administration under trump, donald trump. trump at the time said they would do that. donald trump. donald trump. donald trump. so when he gets off the teleprompter, you don't know what he's going to say. >> a whole lot of trumps from ron desantis. >> he knows he's the number one front-runner. >> ron desantis goes after, you guessed it, donald trump. why the florida governor showed new urgency in attacking the front runner after months of pulling his punches. plus losing support over indiscriminate bombing of gaza. how the israeli prime minister is reacting as we learn the idf has started flooding some hamas tunnels. breaking overnight, a done deal. nearly 200 countries sign on to a historic climate deal to move away from fossil fuels. hear what happens next. "cnn this morning" starts right now. here is where we begin. witnessing a very tenuous moment in the history of u.s./israel relations. the public rift over the war in gaza is growing with president biden delivering his sharpest public criticism yet of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his hard line right government. biden told donors at a fund-raiser israel is losing international support because of the indiscriminate bombings. more than 18,000 people have now been killed in gaza, according to the health control ministry. benjamin netanyahu is openly admitting he has disagreements with biden what should be done with the gaza strip. several of americans' closest allies broke with the united states at the united nations general assembly in a vote that overwhelmingly demanded an immediate ceasefire. canada, australia and japan were among the 153 nations to vote yes after previously abstaining. in gaza the military suffered one of its biggest losses yet in their ground offensive. at least nine israeli soldiers including a commander, killed in a single incident in northern gaza. this is a firsthand look at how intense the urban combat has been in the gaza strip, new video released by the israeli military, and it was released this morning and it is troops sprinting to the ruins as gunfire rings out. let's begin in tel aviv on the news of the nine idf soldiers who were killed. is that an indication the battle is more challenging or at least different than what was expected? >> well, poppy and phil, it's an indication of how there are still these hamas and other militant strongholds in the north, of how fierce the fighting is in the northern part of the gaza strip as the idf tries to focus and move into the south. they still haven't secured the north. and so we saw one of the deadliest days for the idf since the war began back on october 7th. there were actually ten soldiers killed on tuesday. one was by himself and nine, as you mentioned, in the single incident. those nine were from the famed golani brigade. one was a young battalion commander who was a lieutenant colonel. this brings the idf death toll to 115. and, phil and poppy, there have been some fairly notable deaths among those 115 including the son and the nephew of a current minister who used to run -- who used to be the top general in the idf. in terms of a bit more context, the idf says they have killed some 7,000 militants overall, but, as you noted, poppy, at the top of the show, the staggering death toll continues to grow, the health ministry saying some 18,400 palestinians have now been killed in gaza. >> alex, for weeks you and our security team have been reporting the difference between u.s. and israeli officials. those differences spilling into public view. prime minister netanyahu firing back a little bit on his position. the question is given israel's reliance on the u.s. on just about all fronts of this war, how does this impact the war? >> reporter: well, phil, you're still seeing the biden administration's full throated support for israel's right to defend itself but you are hearing growing discomfort from biden and top officials about how israel is prosecuting this war, how they're carrying out the war in gaza and netanyahu is admitting there are disagreements with the u.s. you have these very pointed comments. i would say some of the starkest yet from president biden yesterday to donors in which he said prime minister netanyahu needs to change, insinuating he needs to change tactics but it's difficult, he says, because of the far-right government he is in control of. he also went on to say israel is losing this international support because of what he called the indiscriminate bombing campaign in gaza. at the same time netanyahu, while thanking the u.s. for their support, said there are disagreements with the biden administration over the question of governance for palestinians, who and how palestinians are going to be governed both in gaza and the west bank going forward. but i think it's really interesting to see the u.s. becoming increasingly isolated on the international stage. they really are, we saw the u.n. security council last week, the only ones rejecting the calls for an immediate ceasefire, and now you have this growing list of very close u.s. allies who are calling for a ceasefire while the u.s. continues to reject that. phil, poppy? >> alex, what the u.s. has said is we want language directly in these u.n. resolutions condemning hamas, but is it clear the u.s. would sign it if that was in there? >> reporter: no, it's certainly not clear, but you're absolutely right. that is the excuse, essentially, they're making for rejecting this calls for a ceasefire. the u.s. is saying, what we're hearing from israel, hamas needs to be eradicated, their infrastructure and their fighters and leadership need to be taken out, and that that is not done yet. biden and officials say we will continue to support both politically and militarily until that mission has been completed. what is not clear, however, what exactly that means, what is eradicating and getting rid of hamas actually look like? >> alex, thank you. some negotiators report progress is being made on a deal that would include border security and then aid to ukraine and israel but this is far from a done deal. volodymyr zelenskyy had an in-person plea for president biden and congressional leaders yesterday. some republicans seemed unmoved by the visit, and biden seemed to acknowledge the current climate in congress. >> the american people can be and should be incredibly proud of the support in ukraine's success. we will continue to supply ukraine with critical weapons and equipment as long as we can. >> as long as we cannot as long as it takes, which is what he was saying before, and that is a big difference. overnight the mayor of kyiv says 34 people were injured in what is being called a russian missile attack on the capital, most from falling glass and from blown-out windows from the blast. we'll keep you updated on the talks. ron desantis changing tactics antond tone on teflon donald trump to see if it sticks. he turned questions about issues into a straight rebuke of trump. >> donald trump, so he's -- when he gets off the teleprompter, you don't know what he's going to say. donald trump has refused to debate throughout this campaign. when donald trump ran in '16, he was going to repeal and replace obama care. i'm the only one running that can beat trump one-on-one. >> but the newest poll shows this. trump with a 32-point lead over desantis in iowa, where the caucus will happen almost a month from today. jessica dean joins us again this morning in des moines at grand view university. quite a night, quite a tone change from ron desantis on a number of fronts. i thought it was really interesting. what's your read? >> reporter: good morning, poppy and phil. when i was talking to people close to the campaign, they were very excited for him to have this opportunity to talk directly to iowan voters. this has been their message, their strategy, to go all in on iowa. they really saw this as a big platform at a time a lot of people are tuning in and what we heard, to poppy's point, from the florida governor, a much more direct attack on the front-runner, former president donald trump. >> thank you. >> reporter: republican presidential candidate ron desantis answering questions from iowa voters and taking aim at the gop front-runner. >> donald trump, so he's -- when he gets off the teleprompter now, you don't know what he's going to say. i went to the rallies with donald trump. he said he was going to build the wall and have mexico pay for it. that didn't happen. the last year with covid, i think was mishandled dramatically. shutting down the country was a huge mistake. one thing in this case i think is important to point out is donald trump flip-flopping on the right to life. trump tweeting and attacking people, i think that created division we didn't need. >> reporter: desantis, feeling the pressure to gain support in iowa after disappointing poll numbers from the "des moines register" earlier this week, showed trump still has a commanding lead in the state. he down played the polls though touting his ground organization in the hawkeye state. >> iowa voters will choose, not pundits and polls. we have the best organization in iowa. we have tens of thousands of iowans who have committed to caucus for us. >> reporter: fielding questions on foreign policy, saying he feels israel over ukraine has the most need for u.s. assistance. >> it's the state of israel because they are our strongest ally in the middle east. we have a relationship with them that's like no other, and they have the whole world against us. they require the united states to be there, to stand with them as a friend. ukraine has all of europe. these european countries need to start pulling their weight. >> reporter: he's also supporting congressional republicans who are refusing to authorize further military aid to ukraine unless more is done to secure the u.s. southern border. >> what they are seeing is you've got to defend our own country's borders before you start sending money all across this world. as president, i'll do the border on day one. day one we're going to declare it a national emergency. i'm sending the mailitary to th southern border. >> reporter: california governor gavin newsom criticizing desantis' performance calling it, quote, his signature rant and scare tactics that offer no solutions to the real issues that matter to americans across the country. >> we are all in on nikki haley! >> reporter: former south carolina governor nikki haley winning out against desantis and others to get a highly sought endorsement from that state's governor, chris sununu. >> it doesn't get any better than this. to go and get endorsed by the live free or die governor is about as rock solid of an endorsement as we could hope for. >> reporter: so we are now in the last sprint until voting begins. that's going to happen january 15th. it starts here in iowa, of course, with the iowa caucuses and in the hawkeye state today, former president donald trump will be here giving some remarks and also, phil and poppy, just a note for everyone, another town hall behind me vivek ramaswamy will be taking the stage with abby phillip at 9:00 p.m. >> you will hear directly from nikki haley and governor chris sununu joining dana bash at 12:00, noon, eastern time. a landmark moment in the fight against climate change, a really big deal, the united nations climate summit ended with a call to transition away from fossil fuels. critics say, though, it has cavernous loopholes. >> we are just hours away from a possible vote to formalize the house gop impeachment inquiry into president biden. that's next. there is the u.s. capitol. a big day in the u.s. capitol as we are just a few hours away from a possible vote to formalize the house republican impeachment inquiry into president biden. democrats have been calling it baseless as investigations have yielded zero evidence of any crime from the current president. >> lauren fox on capitol hill, good morning. speaker johnson continuing to say republicans are taking the next step, but do we even know about what hunter biden, for example, is going to do today? set the stage for what's going to happen today. >> reporter: this is a major day for republicans as they move forward with their pledge to move forward with this impeachment inquiry. we expect a possible vote today on the floor and leadership has been working really hard to ensure they have republican unity later today. there have been skeptical republicans over the course of the last several months and the argument leadership is making at this point is that just because we formally vote on an impeachment inquiry does not mean we have to move forward, it is not inevitable we have to do an impeachment of the current president, joe biden. you heard from mike johnson yesterday his argument this is just about getting more information, bolstering your case in court. meanwhile, the house oversight and judiciary committees have requested a deposition with hunter biden. they are threatening if he doesn't show up, they may hold hunter biden in contempt of congress. what we know right now from our justice team is that hunter biden is in washington, d.c. we know, however, his lawyer has made crystal clear to these committees they want to make sure if hunter biden testifies that he does so publicly. what they don't want to happen is him go in a closed door meeting with the republicans and have selective pieces of this leak to the public without the full transcript, without the full testimony being released at one time. so that is why they've argued that should be public. we're going to be watching on the hill to see whether or not hunter biden shows up. again, that threat of potentially holding him in contempt of congress is a real threat from house republicans. we're going to be watching very closely today. but obviously this is a momentous day and it also is a day that matters because they are about to go on their holiday break, and this is sort of the last opportunity that they're going to have to talk about this for the next several weeks. phil, poppy? >> lauren fox, i hope you get a holiday break, too. you've been working around the clock. thank you, my friend. the racist, vile and threatening voice mail sent to election workers in georgia have been sent to court, real people, real impact. two women suing rudy giuliani for defamation. coast guard cadets opening up after being assaulted. this all comes after cnn first uncovered how their reports were completely mishandled. what those survivors want to see changed next. loving this pay bump in our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck? maybe they heard that xfinity customers can save hundreds when they buy one unlimted line and get one free. now i can buy that electric scooter! i'm starting a private-equity fund that specializes in midcap. you do you. visit xfinitymobile.com today. really big deal for the world, planet, the fate of our environment. we're all waking up to a landmark agreement that could curb the use of fossil fuels that science proves contribute to the climate crisis. this new deal was hammered out in dubai at the united nations climate summit. those are cheers from attendees. there's already pushback about whether it will work. >> covering cop28, live in johannesburg, south africa. david, there's a lot of skepticism they could reach an outcome here. what does this all mean? >> reporter: good morning, phil and poppy. this is a big deal, historic, say many people, because they have managed to explicitly put in this climate deal transitioning away from fossil fuels. now that means oil, gas, coal. for many years that was never part of these agreements explicitly. this is important because the world is heating up this will be the hottest year on record. if you look at some of these achievements this deal came through, triple the renewable capacity by 2030 and help poorer nations and developing nations to finance all of this. these are not concrete goals necessarily and there are many loopholes say critics. the u.s. climate envoy john kerry said it's important particularly with the other crises that are going on in the world right now. >> everybody here should be pleased that in a world of ukraine and the middle east, war and all the other challenges of a planet is floundering, multilateralism has come together and people have taken individual interests and attempted to find the common good. >> reporter: well, almost 200 countries have a consensus on this deal, so it is important they come up with the language. the question is whether people will put their money and actions where they were. >> a big step for sure. you're right, what's the action to follow? david, thanks so much for the reporting. israel's strongest ally said it's losing international support for its war against hamas. how u.s./israeli relations could be impacted. also, abortion rights and the race for the white house. ron desantis says donald trump is flip-flopping on the issue. a look at whether his new attack line will work for gop voters. i think that we have made it clear to the israelis, and they're aware, that the safety of innocent palestinians is still of great concern. and so the actions they're taking must be consistent with attempt to go do everything possible to prevent innocent palestinian civilians from being hurt, murdered, killed, lost, et cetera. this morning those are the strongest words of warning yet from president biden and other world leaders to israel saying benjamin netanyahu has to change his approach on the war against hamas in gaza telling donors in washington and israel is, quote, losing international support for the war. biden called netanyahu's government the most conservative in israeli history and added, quote, it doesn't want a two-state solution. and several key u.s. allies are going a step further. several prime ministers say they support urgent international efforts toward a sustainable ceasefire. >> netanyahu admitted he and biden disagree on what should happen but he hopes they will reach an agreement. netanyahu also rejected the president's call to have the palestinian authority play a role in gaza's future because, according to the prime minister, they support terrorism. joining us to discuss all of this, david sanger, a white house national security correspondent for "the new york times." david, this is episode 7,000 of what the president says at fund-raisers, tells you what the president is thinking right now, the assessment of the warnings in the closed door fund-raiser. were you surprised? >> not surprised in that we have seen a ramping up of the public commentary about a really tense set of conversations between the president and prime minister netanyahu. what is remarkable the president is out there making the case for $14 billion for israel, for the military actions that need to follow the october 7 events, and yet the prime minister is out openly saying we are not going to go along with the u.s. policy suggestions. and let's delineate what they are. they have been repeatedly told, you have to be extraordinarily careful about preserving civilian lives as you go about the operations. the israelis say they have been, but very few administration officials believe that has been really the number one priority. the second thing is that prime minister netanyahu has never been in favor of a two-state solution. that has been the president's explicit goal, and to come out as strongly as he did is remarkable. this really tells you about the limits of even a president's infl influence. >> you put it so well when we were chatting in the break that netanyahu is asking for $14 billion in aid and, i'm not going to do what you're telling me to do. they are not going to condition aid to israel, but there are conditions on u.s. aid to ukraine right now. why the difference? >> there are conditions on most u.s. aid, legislative about human practices. there are conditions there including on the israeli aid. ukraine's case, the president has said you cannot use american weapons to fire into russia. there could be similar restrictions on how to use american weapons in gaza but politically no one wants to go down that road. i think that gets to israel's special status and a sense that the october 7th attacks were particularly horrific and the u.s. is onboard with the idea of trying to eliminate hamas. it's the how. and you remember when the president was in israel, he said after 9/11, out of our rage, we made a lot of mistakes. i think what he's essentially arguing is israel is doing the same thing. >> david, as we've watched this all play out, the underpinning strategy led by the president very clearly is hug them close to ensure you'll be in the room, you'll have voices, you can have influence. what is the u.s. getting out of their asks, out of their asks? >> the hug in close has never worked with benjamin netanyahu. remember the poisonous relationship between president obama and so the only moments it's worked has been during the trump administration when he was willing to give him everything he wanted. >> and yet obama approved so much aid to israel. the current package is under obama. >> he did. there's a long relationship. harry truman recognized israel. the other place where this is fascinating is the hug in close of zelenskyy who we saw sitting in the oval office yesterday. they have behind the scenes, as i reported with several of my colleagues earlier this week, been trying to push zelenskyy to a different strategy, one that doesn't require he fight the russians for every inch of territory but focus on a pathway to get grain out, on securing kyiv and yesterday in the brief joint press conference we heard zelenskyy say it would be insane to give up any land and the president say we need a stable democrat ukraine, never mentioned borders. >> that's interesting the tone change between zelenskyy, biden and netanyahu all at the same time. thank you, david. great reporting on that this week. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. >> from america's mayor to disgraced lawyer and admitted lawyer. one of the women reveals how it turned her life, her mom's life, upside-down. >> and new voice mails underscore why she feared for her life. >> die you [ bleep ] racist [ bleep ] -- >> we're going to burn your store down. florida governor ron desantis ramped up his attacks on several fronts last night against trump. he did it at cnn's town hall in iowa. listen to this. >> i think the first three, the economy is better than it has been, but that last year with covid, i think was mishandled dramatically. shutting down the country was a huge mistake, printing trillions and trillions of dollars was a huge mistake. that set the foundation for the inflation that we see. i went to the rallies with donald trump. he said he was going to build the wall and have mexico pay for it. and that didn't happen. i think, though, one thing that's important to point out is donald trump flip-flopping on the right to life. republicans are divided over a new satanic temple holiday display in the state capitol building. what do you think? >> so it's interesting. i heard this and i was like, how did it get there? is that even a religion? and lo and behold, the trump administration gave them approval to be under the irs as a religion. >> there's that. desantis traveled to all 99 counties in iowa. what's that called, phil? >> the full grassley. >> trying to elevate his chances of winning the caucuses in just over a month. >> polls like this one from the "des moines register" show desantis trailing trump by more than 30 points. not great a month out. senior political analyst john avlon is with us. tessa, when you watched there was a tonal shift established for the last couple of days. mad props for being prepared for the satanic question, good research operation there. what was striking, it took this long. is it too late? >> on desantis' part? >> yes. >> that is what the polls in iowa are showing, it is too late. he's down 30 points. he has the governor's endorsement there. he's visited all 99 counties, but he's really not able to catch trump. >> when he says i have the best ground operation and iowa voters decide late in the caucus is a different beast? the primary? >> it's tough going up against someone who has as much support as donald trump has right now. >> let's play the moment where he talked about abortion, which is so front and center given what the texas supreme court ruled this week. here it is. >> in florida the legislature passed the heartbeat bill that contained exceptions for things like rape, incest, life of the mother, fatal fetal defect and victim of human trafficking. signed that bill. those are difficult cases. they made a prudential judgment those exceptions were things that made sense. i have signs legislation that included that and i understand they're very difficult. >> the texas supreme court decision showed us exceptions have exceptions, and, by the way, desantis didn't talk about a year ago he signed a 15-week ban that didn't have a lot of those exceptions. he's trying to walk a thin tightrope. >> i don't think this is a thing you finesse. the laws he has advocated and signed into law don't evidence that. as you point out, the exceptions to the exceptions, have a sinister overtone. this is not the kind of thing a lot of the republican field is in a position with the exception of nikki haley. >> can we listen to her? let's listen to nikki haley on this. >> this is exactly why i said you have to show compassion and humanize the situation. we don't want any woman to sit there and deal with a rare situation and have to deliver a baby in that circumstance any more than we want women getting an abortion at 37, 38, 39 weeks. >> directly talking about what the texas supreme court did there. >> consistent with what she's been saying. she has credibility. >> what she said she would sign, though. >> she has been focused on finding a way to come together and find that common ground that looks more like 15 weeks in many cases with exceptions which itself is not -- >> i'm not sure they thought it was the common ground. i'm not giving you a hard time but the question that came out of virginia, that came out of the off year elections, maybe it's not the message. maybe it's the issue to some degree and while haley clearly has taken it on and addressed the issue more than other candidates are, do you think her way is a way to -- to john's point -- find a middle ground? >> i think she is doing a better job than anyone else in the gop field. trying to reach where voters are. we've seen in election after election this is a motivating issue for them. they really are not onboard with the republican position here. >> i thought it was interesting talking about foreign policy, your expertise, when desantis was asked, yukraine/israel and e chose israel talking about that special relationship. >> first of all, what struck me about this fascinating conversation and town hall they had was that he's continued to try to outtrump trump even on the foreign policy issues. across the board, i'm going to build a wall that will really work, on the abortion issue where trump has been all over the map, and then here. so he basically said, i'm not interested in ukraine. it's the europeans' problem. a late 1930s view of how you would think about the development of conflict in europe and, of course, we got drawn in at that time. on israel, he said i'm all in. he cited the fact he sent a plane to get floridians out of israel, so he's basically saying i was acting as a president would act to get my citizens back home, and he said nothing about what we were discussing before, putting conditions on the aid so that there are some limits on what israel can do in gaza given the deaths of the civilians. that topic did not come up at all. it was the full embrace of netanyahu. >> what's great about the town halls is they are averagely voters' questions. stick with us. we'll talk about something else that is crucial in this defamation case against rudy giuliani brought by former georgia election workers freeman and moss. giuliani lied repeatedly. >> and continues to do so. >> jurors weigh how much money the mother and daughter will get from giuliani, if he has any. this is what they heard from moss as she describes the impact of the threats against her. >> quote, i am most scared of my son finding me or my mom hanging outside my house on a tree or having to get the news at school that his mom -- that's a quote. listen to the voice mails they received. this is part of why. >> eat [ bleep ] and die you [ bleep ]. >> we're going to burn your store down. >> john, you were closer to rudy giuliani than anyone at this table, his speechwriter, key to how he ran new york, he was america's mayor. he's continuing, to phil's point, continuing with these lies that are so dangerous and you just heard why. >> that's the point, the unhinged hate that follows in the wake of these lies, these election lies he was peddling for donald trump. he is a very different man than when he was mayor. you see the persistent presence of no filter, the impulse to dig himself in the hole. and the tragedy is this is a man once a respected federal prosecutor, the law was a search for truth. he is in deep personal and financial trouble at the behest of donald trump, because he pursued the law not in advancing the truth without any facts. and he unleashed this kind of pan pandora's box. >> we keep doing this story every day, even on days where it's not, these are real people doing the right thing, who did nothing wrong and with very clear racist overtones and complete lies have been put in an awful situation. david, you've covered washington and these situations for so long, have you ever seen the collapse of a human like with rudy giuliani? >> it is the most vivid public, of a respected figure we've ever seen. the question is, what happened to him, at what point, and was it simply he felt his own way to relevance was to get so close to donald trump he would give him whatever he wanted? what he wanted the most, of course, after the time around the election was a way to verify that this was a faked election, and rudy giuliani was all in on this. it's amazing today when you look at the polling how many people still believe this was a rigged election. >> it's a lie. they believe a lie. >> john avlon, david sanger, thank you. using floodwater to flood tunnels in gaza is next. we have new information this morning about sexual assaults and harassment at the u.s. coast guard academy that only came to light because of cnn reporting. >> four women testified at a bipartisan senate hearing about how they were silenced, retaliated against and left battling severe mental trauma while alleged perpetrators continued to thrive within the service. here's more from our pamela brown who first uncovered how their cases were extremely mishandled. >> nothing but the truth, so help you god. >> reporter: these four women say they were all sexually assaulted in the coast guard in different eras. >> i was groped several times, sometimes with 30 laughing witnesses. over the course of three days, he repeatedly raped me in that room. >> two first-class cadets broke down my roommate's and my locked door, entered our room and jumped to our beds on top of us. >> reporter: including a current cadet at the coast guard academy. >> what i thought was an innocent ice cream date on campus turned into a sexual assault that has haunted me ever since. >> reporter: a rare bipartisan hearing on how the coast guard handles sexual abuse. >> this is some of the most powerful, important and on point testimony i've heard. >> we learned about the filed report only because cnn found out about it, reported on it. >> reporter: cnn uncovered a history of sexual assaults in the agency that were ignored or mishandled. the coast guard substantiated dozens of rapes in an investigation called operation fouled anchor but the results were covered up for years. >> the status quo can no longer continue. >> reporter: the survivors spoke of having their roreports of assaults mishandled. >> he admitted he didn't start an investigation because, quote, he figured that it happened on a date. you do have blond hair and you wear makeup. >> reporter: and while a current cadet says cover-ups are no longer a problem at the coast guard academy from her experience, there are still damaging missteps. >> and then i got to talk to a chaplin. and when i went to talk to that chaplin, he asked me who assaulted me, and i told him, and he said, oh, no, he's such a good guy. >> reporter: the women spoke of the pain and feeling of betrayal that still lingers, some even decades later. >> so this, in many ways, has been a blessing for me because i finally have a diagnosis for the things i thought were just personality quirks these last 20 years was actually, in fact, ptsd. >> reporter: last week the coast guard released the results of an internal review admitting it failed to keep our people safe and change is necessary. but the report doesn't include any punishment of assailants from the past. >> it's insulting, it's patronizing. >> reporter: we sat down with three of the survivors. >> i love that they want to help future cadets, but then they just left this mass carnage in their wake. >> and what does this look like for you personally? >> looks like a lot of expensive therapy. it looks like broken relationships, lost family, suicide attempts. >> reporter: melissa mccafferty attempted suicide six years ago. >> the level this organization pushed me to, and i am beyond lucky to be here today. i am beyond lucky. i do not know how i survived. i flat lined in the ambulance and at the hospital yet here i am. >> reporter: what do you say to the women and the men who have been sexually assaulted and who haven't told anyone? >> i feel stronger today than i did yesterday. you made me feel weak, no. now i'm stronger. >> reporter: pamela brown, cnn, washington. >> our thanks to pamela and the investigative team for that report. "cnn this morning" continues now. >> was he not being honen