And the cdc now warning if you get it once, you can get it again. And olympic opener. The global gathering gets underway. The pomp and pageantry at the Opening Ceremony. American athletes ready to do their country proud. Drones front and center this year. Also a critical moment behind the scenes and that flag bearer is back and heating up the games. Good morning. Lets take a live look at the Olympic Village in pyeongchang. It is cold out there. Check out the u. S. Womens bobsled team dancing to stay warm. I think thats the dougie or the stanky leg. What are they doing . A little bit of a dab in the beginning, dan. That might be the stanky leg. I apparently dont know whats going on. This is really cool. I cant figure out how to do it. Backpack kid. What is it called . Backpack kid. Well, they can bobsled and they can dance. Amy robach will have the latest olympic news coming up but before we get to the rest of the days news, an announcement, our ginger zee gave birth to a healthy baby boy overnight. A huge congratulations to ginger. Huge. Absolutely. While ginger is on Maternity Leave rob will fill in on the weekday gma and took a chance on an obscure weatherman by the name of sam champion. Sam, that laugh. I know. Irreplaceable. Filling the halls once again. Are you laughing because we actually duped you back into coming back . Hes laughing at us. No. We know that you have been enjoying your time and have seen your photos on instagram. Dan is particularly jealous of these photos. Someplace warmer but its so great to have you. Its great to be here, by the way. What is this . Hes getting a massage. Thats the ohio river in paducah. That shot is photoshopped. Thats not. Come on. I didnt know we would see a shirtless sam champion. I had no idea we were going to do all of this. All right. Thats lovely. Lets go live. Sam, we love you. Thank you for being here. Nice to be here. No more of those pictures. You made be very jealous. Much more from sam coming up. Not the pictures, the actual weather. We do want to start with two big headlines out of the white house this morning including another staffer stepping down amidst allegations of Domestic Abuse and a provocative move by the president overnight. He announced he will not be releasing the democratic response to the republican memo alleging the fbi abused its power. We do have Team Coverage this saturday morning and we start with abcs Stephanie Ramos who is in washington. Stephanie, good morning. Reporter paula and dan, good morning. Yeah, a stunner here in washington. The Trump Administration is not immediately releasing the tenpage memo crafted by democrats on the house intel committee. The memo is a response to the republican memo claiming the fbi and doj were biased and improperly requested surveillance of former Trump Campaign adviser carter page. Now, in the democrats memo they describe why Law Enforcement officials wanted to surveil page. Democrats also say the republican memo led by house intelligence chairman devin nunes of california is misleading and omits key facts. The fbi and doj did raise security concerns to the white house over both the republican and democratic memo s. The president releasing the republican memo despite those concerns but citing them as the reason why he refuses to declassify the democratic rebuttal. Paula. Stephanie, what are the democrats saying about all this . Reporter well, there have been quite a few tweets over this. Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein said one week after he released the misleading and incomplete nunes memo, President Trump tonight blocked the release of the schiff memo that sought to fill in the holes. This is hypocrisy at its worst. Now, the White House Counsel Don Mcgahn told those on the House Intelligence Committee they could revise it to address National Security concerns. Congress could vote to overrule the president s decision. But the chances of that happening are very low. Back over to you guys. All right, stephanie, reporting from washington. The other big headline, word of a new resignation in the white house, a speech writer stepping down after Domestic Abuse allegations were made by his former wife. And this comes on the heels of an extraordinary moment in the oval office on friday. The president sending well wishes to another top staffer accused of domestic violence, sources now tell abc news that the chief of staff john kelly has expressed to the president his willingless to resign over his handling of this whole matter so lets go straight to abcs david wright at the white house this morning. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning, dan and paula. The departure of one highprofile aide amid allegations of Domestic Abuse was already big news here at the white house. Now comes this other resignation overnight for similar reasons, this time speech writer David Sorensen. Suffice to say, this morning the west wing is in turmoil. 45yearold David Sorensen resigned as a president ial speech writer after his exwife accused him of being violent and emotionally abusive during their 2 1 2year marriage. Sorensen denies the allegations but according to the washington post, which broke the story, he says he stepped down because he didnt want the white house to have to deal with this distraction. The president was already struggling to absorb the resignation of former staff secretary rob porter amid allegations he abused both his former wives. We certainly wish him well. Its an obviously tough time for him. He did a very good job when he was in the white house. And we hope he has a wonderful career and hopefully he will have a great career ahead of him but it was very sad when we heard about it and certainly hes also very sad. Now he also, as you probably know, he says hes innocent and i think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that hes innocent. Reporter the president expressed his sympathies for porter, who vehemently denies the allegations but made no mention of the two women. Both of porters exwives went public. One, colbie holderness, released this photo of a black eye she says porter caused. The other, jennie willoughby, told cnn yeah, i was scared. And you called the police. And i did call the police. Reporter sources tell abc news the president is furious about how his senior staff handled the situation. Chief of staff john kelly reportedly knew about the allegations for months, but continued to defend porter. Sources tell abc news kelly has told the president hes willing to resign. This isnt the first time President Trump has come to the defense of a man accused of Sexual Misconduct, whether its broadcaster bill oreilly or Alabama Senate candidate roy moore. What do you say to women . Let me just tell you roy moore denies it. Thats all i can say. He denies it and, by the way, he totally denies it. Reporter even himself when more than a dozen women accused him of misconduct after what he said on that access hollywood bus now, sources tell abc news the president has that chief of staff john kelly was already on thin ice with the president and now on even thinner ice. The president has even reached out to several confidants about possibly replacing kelly, but no announcements expected just yet. Dan and paula. David wright at the white house, thank you. For more lets bring in abc news political analyst matthew dowd. Matt, good morning. Lets talk about the political consequences to this story about the allegations of Domestic Abuse. Do you think that the president is going to be forced to part ways with his chief of staff . Do you also think maybe this could inflame female voters as we head into the midterms at a time when female voters are expected to play a big role . Reporter well, dan, i think the question becomes is this is becoming a cultural problem at the white house, which seems to have infected everybody starting from the top down. When you have a president that uses he and him and never says she and her in a statement on this, its obviously widespread in the middle of this. I think its going to have harm and its going to harm the republicans in the general election. But its not only women voters, its men voters look at this and say, this is not how we ought to conduct ourselves as a society. Lets switch gears a little bit. We might need a flowchart for all of this. So i trust you have this handy white board behind you, erase board. What is your take on how the president is handling this . Well, as reported coming into this segment, how hes treated the one memo is so different than how he treated the other memo. When the fbi and Justice Department objected to one, he went ahead and did it and they object to this one and he decides not to. Its as if, if you print it on red paper its fine, blue paper, its not and shows this white houses goal was not transparency, it was not transparency, it was how do i get a document out there which will help me politically. Yeah, even though theyve said publicly that transparency was the goal of releasing that republican memo. Matt dowd from texas this morning. Matt, hope its a lot warmer than it is in new york. Its nice here. Thanks. All right, thank you, matt. We do want to move on to a Dangerous New Development overnight in the syrian war. Yeah, israel is now getting involved and abcs Jennifer Eccleston is live in london with news of a fighter jet crash. Jennifer, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, dan and paula. This is, indeed, a dangerous escalation in syrias sevenyearold war. What could be israels direct engagement, israeli jet taken down by antiaircraft fire from government sources in syria. That f16 jet then crashing back into northern israel. The pilots ejected and are in the hospital. One is seriously injured. Now, israeli officials are confirming that jet along with others carried out raids in syria after a drone was shot down over israel earlier this morning. They say it was iranian and launched from iranian linked bases supporting the syrian regime. Just hours ago, more israeli strikes hitting syrian air defenses and iranian targets, 12 in total, and an Israeli Military spokesman said iran is playing with fire. The syrians deny that and called todays air strikes a terrorist attack. Dan and paula. All right, jennifer, thank you. A lot to worry about in that region. Back at home a lot to worry about when it comes to the flu. New numbers from the cdc saying at least 63 children have died from the flu so far this season and now theres word of another threat. Yeah, there are reports of people this morning who have recovered from the flu getting sick with a different strain of the virus, and abcs eva pilgrim has more. Reporter flu season is raging and its getting worse. One in ten deaths in the u. S. Last week due to flu or pneumonia. So far this season 63 children have also died from flurelated illnesses. 14yearold gabriella chabo of california dying this week. Ers across the country including this one in new york packed. The number of flu patients surging almost doubling in recent weeks. The number of severe cases also up. Weve had a lot more patients admitted in the hospital who weve diagnosed with influenza. Reporter already more than 17,000 hospitalizations nationwide on track to break records. One group hit hard this year, 55 to 64yearolds. Angie barwise from texas got the flu around christmas. She got better, but a month later she was in the er with a different strain of the virus. I left for just a few minutes, thought everything was going to be okay and got a phone call that she had just passed. Reporter her family says she never got the flu shot. The cdc urging even those who have had the flu and recovered to get a flu shot as soon as they are better. The cdc saying multiple strains are active, and they are seeing an uptick in the b strain of the flu. Its possible to get more than one flu infection in a season, and weve been hearing reports of that recently. Reporter and here in new york, a third childs death now connected to the flu. Officials are telling us even if you have a mild case of the flu, stay home so that you dont infect anyone else. Guys. Yeah, thats really important. Eva, thank you. Were going to turn now to the winter games, and there is news both off and on the field. Of course, thats after a rousing Opening Ceremony. Amy robach has been covering all the action for us from pyeongchang. Amy, good morning or should i say good evening where you are in south korea . Yes, it is, indeed, evening here, dan and paula, but great to be with you nonetheless. The Opening Ceremony in pyeongchang kicking off what will be the biggest Winter Olympics game ever. Nearly 3,000 athletes competing from 92 different countries, both the spotlight at the Opening Ceremony on the unexpected show of unity between north and south korea. As the games begin in pyeongchang, this groundbreaking moment, kim jongun extending an invitation presented by his sister to south korean president moon jaein to visit the north korea capital pyongyang potentially setting up the first major meeting between Korean Leaders in over ten years. Its a powerful moment. Reporter revolutionary signs of unity bringing together the divided peninsula. Athletes from north and south korea marching out under one unified flag to a korean folk song about longing and reunification running side by side for the much anticipated lighting of the torch. Leaders even shaking hands in the stands. But no such interaction from Vice President mike pence who was sitting just a few feet away directly in front of north Korean Leader kim jonguns sister. Back on the slopes, the athletes breaking the ice, so far team usa emptyhanded, not winning any medals. American snowboarder kyle mack fully executing his runs during the slopestyle qualifier but then crashing on his final jump. On friday, the open ceremony highlighting the heart and soul of south korea setting the stage for the stars to shine. Team usa, the biggest in Winter Olympics history with 242 athletes. Russian athletes entering under the olympic flag carried by a volunteer. The russian team, its flag and colors banned from these games as punishment for the governments doping scandal, but the spotlight was on tongas flag bearer, the guy known for going shirtless in the summer games doing it again even in the frigid cold. The show ran 2 hours and 18 minutes. That is relatively short by olympic standards. Rio went nearly four hours. Events today include mens Alpine Skiing and snowboarding, ski jumping and the figure skating team event. But, guys, i got to say, looking at that tongan flag bearer, i thought i was looking at sam champion. Just going to say that. Amy, you read my mind. Sam doesnt use as much oil. He should, though. You can really get sunburn out there wherever sam lives his life these days. Hey, aim great job out there we will take over, sam, here. Okay, great. And we will return to the weather as a matter of fact perfect segway midwest digging out from a snowstorm roads a mass Chain Reaction crashes, and turns deadly. Brace yourself for possibility of some cancellations even delays as we have sam here filling in for rob this morning, hi there , sam. Why are you wearing a shirt i want to give everybody a leather another big push of arctic air for 23rd of the country and comes with winter storm gusty winds and very heavy flooding rain as well but concentrate on the blue areas you can see wind chills will be from 35 below so be prepared for that and then look at the pink zone, purple zones there, from kansas into missouri, oklahoma, this is freezing drizzle, freezing rain, it looks wet, it is not incredibly difficult to drive. Blank airports in chicago and detroit are hit the hardest. We have been through this a couple times this winter but this is going to be a really, rough next couple days. So heres the plan, one thing to let you guys know there will be a lot of heavy flooding rain throughout south e areas that got snow will get a little bit more snow today and that snow continues to move and fall apart. For those areas like chicago, already 7 inches this is a big deal because we have not had snow except for this week and detroit 8 inches of snow and then somewhere in the middle there about 4 inches a little bit west of it. This heavy rain will be flooding, flooding rain we have to be prepared for that street flooding that is weather around nation heres what you can expect this morning. Thanks, sam. Good morning im meteorologist chris sowers this accu weather update radar clear for now, lets get you outside rain knocking on the door though dont go too far to the southwest just beyond d. C. To pick up first rain drops here and you can see low level cloud beginning to cover up the sky scrapers here so cloud continue to lower and thicken rain developing shortly after lunchtime, 53 degrees and we have issued an accu weather alert tomorrow for possibility of flooding and more heavy rain highs around 60. We concentrate on the west coast, San Francisco, a run of record highs, does that end today . So that means youre coming back the next half hour . Dan didnt scare you off. Im right here. Ron, lets check in with you. Whats going on . Good morning to all the crew. Good morning, everyone. Well begin with las vegas, nevada, with the autopsy report on stephen paddock, the gunman who opened fire on a crowded concert killing 58 people last october. The report says paddock had antianxiety drugs in his system but says he was not under their influence at the time of that shooting. The autopsy also finding that paddock was healthy and sober when he carried out the deadliest shooting in u. S. History. In georgia one officer was killed and two d