amount is under way in d.c. president biden is headed this morning to one place key to his victory in 2020, pennsylvania, and just as he is facing rough polling in battlegrounds georgia and michigan and why the team is brushing it off this morning. and he is ordered to pay hundreds of millions about the smears of the sandy hook shootings, and spreads hate speech, but thanks to twitter, alex jones is back on twitter. with fredricka whitfield and kate whitfield, i'm john berman and this is cnn "news central." >> all right. this morning, rudy giuliani is in a federal courtroom in washington, d.c., as his hearing is under way in a defamation trial. donald trump's former attorney has been sued by shea moss and donna freeman because they say that rudy giuliani spread false lies about them of ballot tampering, and this is what they told the january 6th committee last year. >> i have lost my name. vi lost my reputation. i have lost my sense of security all because of a group of people starting with number 45 and his ally rudy giuliani decided to scapegoat me and my daughter, shea, to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen. >> i second-guess everything that i do. it has affected my life in a major way, all because of lies. >> you remember them, right? and that emotional account. the judge has found them liable of defamation, and so this trial is to determine how much money and damages he is going to have to pay freeman and moss. cnn's zachary cohen is joining me now. so, zach, will rudy giuliani testify? >> yes, fred, that is what we are expecting him to take the stand at some point to testify in his own defense in the four-day trial, and it is not clear if he plans to plead the 5th when he does so, but that is something that we will be watching for. this trial is about how much money and damaging that rudy giuliani is going to have to pay the two former election workers in georgia, rudy and shaye, because it is between 15 to $43 million and that is just reputational damages that the judge has said that giuliani and the trump campaign lies said about them did to them in the case. and she is asking, both of the electoral workers are asking for punitive damages to deter people from singling out election workers in way, and having them to go through the same pain that they went through after the 2020 election, so we will have to see if rudy giuliani takes the stand, because this is the first time in d.c. that a jury is going to be hearing about the actions of the trump campaign and the trump legal team after the election. this is of course, a civil trial, and then there isis a criminal trial to start next year that is going to be tackling some of the same issue, and this may be a preview of what is to come in the criminal trial. >> thank you, zachary cohen. thank you so much. someone who is not in court this morning is donald trump. in a surprise move, the former president says that he will not testify today as the final star witness at his civil fraud trial in new york city. he put out a message saying that essentially, quote, already testified to everything and nothing more to say. the chief legal analyst laura coates is with us for more on this, and so, why do you think that -- why the surprise move? everyone is left to kind of conjecture on this a little bit, but why do you think that since he talked about it so much saying that he would testify, and why not now? >> well, bluster, and a little bit of the chest beating to say, i am going to show up and i'm not scared, but it is not surprising that he would not show up, because he had said a lot of things in the initial case for the prosecution's case, and step back, this case is not about whether or not they committed fraud, but it is how expensive if they did, and the defense has to preserve on appeal, and if you don't bring it up on trial, you can't preserve it for trial, and so likely the gag order, and the money is very low, 5,000 or $10,000 for him, and the opportunity for other prosecution to be perhaps vocal about how he feels about it a more broader witch hunt that he claims is going to be a problem. >> and speaking of a judge already determining that something happened, and rudy giuliani, the defamation trial for him begins today, but the trial about the damages, because the judge says that rudy giuliani did defame freeman and shaye, and so i wanted to play this for people. >> how can they say there is no fraud. look at the woman taking ballots out, and scurrying around with the ballots, and nobody in the room scurrying around. they look like they are passing out dope, and not just ballots. it is quite clear that they are stealing votes. quite obviously surreptitiously passing around ballots as if it is vials of dope or cocaine. it is quite obvious to anyone who is a prosecutor that they are surreptitiously passing around ballots like cocaine or dope. >> so what happens if he takes the stand to talk about that? >> well, what he said was so innuendo racially about the discussions of the drug use, and they were passing ginger mints is what they were doing. instead, their lives were passed upside down, because it was convenient for them to be used as pawns in a political game. because of that, they were defamed, and the judge said so, and they testified about the idea for that, and for him to testify, what can he say to defend his behavior, and the whole point of what he was basing the information on, and a way of suggesting that a 10-foot pole should extend, and i did not know everything that you know now, and hindsight is 20/20, but it is not excusing statements that are defamatory in nature, and that one is actually afraid to have her name said in public to this day, because people know her so well as this person, and there is not a single element of truth to what was said, and again, this is matter of convenience, and the courts have been coming down on that notion, and neither ruby freeman and shaye moss as they are well known here are public figure, so they don't have to have a higher standard to say it occurred, but they are normal people and regular election workers and we need them for the democracy and to have this happen deters otherwise willing and able people to be a part of what is so necessary and the courts will acknowledge that. >> and now, a jury is going to be going through the jury selection to decide how much he has to pay for that. he says or has shown that he does not basically have any money, and when you have the figures that these women are asking for in terms of the reputational damage, emotional stress, punitive damage, how does that weigh on what is actually going to be the end result of this jury trial? >> well, there is what you have, and what will actually be ordered against you. the two don't really cross paths immediately. talking about whether you can pay an attempt, that is coming after the judgment has been entered and for his purposes to say that i don't have anything to give, that doesn't mean there is nothing given against you, and alex jones said that i don't have that money, but it is differently found. and whether you can pay in long run is a different story, but at the end of the day, and the look of jury cases, there is another big case coming in washington, d.c., and how this is going to be looking in election subversion, and how does the jury selection go, and what about the voir dire questions, and what will they be, and the jack smith case, and how will it go? >> and this is about facts that are not true, and so it is going to be fascinating to watch. >> yes. >> good to see you both. >> fredricka? >> new this morning, donald trump makes polling history in the new "des moines register" polling, donald trump now holds a 32-point lead at 51%, the biggest ever at this point. jeff zeleny is joining us now, and the former president is gaining support despite the multiple criminal cases against him. >> good morning, fredricka, and look, five weeks before the iowa caucuses opened up this nominating process, donald trump is stronger than ever, and you can see the numbers at 51%, and crossing threshold for a majority of the support, and nikki haley who has been rising in other states, she has been stable or flatlining in iowa and the florida governor ron desantis is decreasing a touch. when you are looking inside of why this might be, take a look at this number. i am focused on this, this morning. 36% of the first-time iowa caucusgoers are supporting the president, and that means that the campaign is in a stronger position than eight years ago when they were struggling to organize. now they are going out to find the donald trump supporters who may not have participated in the iowa caucuses before, and it is a series of processes and series of neighborhood meeting on a monday night in iowa, and going after the first-time caucusgoers and contributing to the rise in support, which is contributing to the rivals who are looking to expand to the electorate, but so far, it is expanding to donald trump. >> trump's lead, and what is the belief of the factors that seem to be contributing to it? >> one of the reasons there is because of the first-time iowa caucusgoers, and also, ideologically, his positions on the issues are resonating with the iowa voters there, and the other candidates even as the field has really contracted and gotten smaller, he has been the beneficiary of that, and that is why he has a commanding lead, but we should say that nearly half of the voters there say they could still change their mind. among the trump supporters, 70% say they are locked in with him, but overall, half of the voters are saying they could change their mind, and no one has voted in this, but the polls show that donald trump has a commanding, commanding lead. >> commanding indeed. looking at michigan, and could third-party candidates be a game-changer here? >> well, we have new polls out in michigan and georgia. they are central battlegrounds in the general election race. interesting that donald trump is leading joe biden by 10% overall, but factoring in third-party candidates and looking at the numbers, both of them fall significantly. robert kennedy jr. 10%, and cornel west with 5%, and that is why it is a blinking red sign for the biden campaign, because that is one of the states that he won that was so essential, and georgia is the same way, fred. >> thank you, jeff zeleny. this is cnn breaking news. all right. there is breaking news. we are learning that jailed russian opposition leader alexei navalny is missing from prisonment his team just posted his whereabouts are not known, they can't find him at penal colonies, and he has been missing for six days, and fredrick pleitgen is joining us with the latest details. what are you learning? >> yes, very few details at this point in time, but we are working on it, and we are getting some as the things going on, and it is turning out that alexei navalny is supposed to show up from the penal colony that is ip-6 from moscow, and he did not show up for that, and apparently, the originally the penal colony said that there was a power failure there, but it turns out that simply they don't know whether or not he is there. the lawyers say that he is not listed as being there in that penal colony, and they went around and asked about other colonies in that region, and he is not listed there, and that is why they are saying that he is missing. you are right, it has been six days since they have known the whereabouts of alexei navalny, and also, the lawyers went to the jail friday where he is supposed to be, and he was not there as well, and a big concern for alexei navalny, and one of the things that we are hearing from the lawyers is that he was supposed to be transferred to a different jail and different penal colony with a stricter regime than the one he has been in, which is of course hard for him. he has been in isolation, and solitary confinement several times, and obviously reprimanded by the authorities there. he has been on hunger strike, and health issues and now the lawyers say simply that they don't know where he is. they don't know whether or not there is foul play involved. however, one of the things, john, that we have seen over the past couple of days is that folks associated with the anti-corruption foundation of alexei navalny which is deemed the extremist group in russia started a guerrilla campaign against vladimir putin re-elected as president. it is a political campaign, and unclear whether or not all of this is related. of course, we know that a couple of days ago, vladimir putin did announce he will be running for re-election on march 17th, and now navalny is missing from prison and whether that is connected we do not know. we are trying to get details of where he is going to b and with those who are associated with him, and his backers ss are sa is happening here. >> and to be clear, what we are talking about here is alexei navalny is a russian leader who has opposed the putin regime and he is a democracy leader, and he has been targeted by poison attacks, and that is why there is so much concern of why he cannot be found here. >> and severe poison attacks, and looking at it, he is vladimir putin's enemy number one aside from volodymyr zelenskyy of ukraine. but certainly as far as russia is concerned and inside of russia opposition is concerned, volodymyr zelenskyy is far and above far above anyone else who is a challenge to putin, but he was allegedly, and the backer say poisoned by the russian federation inside of russia in 2020. he was then treated right here where i am in berlin, flown to berlin and then recovered and then decided to go back to russia which a lot of people said that it was a daring move, and certainly controversial move on his part. he was arrested immediately, and since then, he has had one sentence after another, and been imposed against him. he says all of it is political, but of course, if it does continue in this way, he is set to spend about 30 years in jail, a little more or less, and one of the things that he has said is that as long as vladimir putin is alive, he is not going to be allowed to leave prison, and whether or not anything else is at play because he has been missing for several days is unknown, but again, he has had an extremely rough time in jail. a lot time in solitary confinement, john. >> that is just showing you how dangerous vladimir putin finds dissent within his country. kate. and coming up for us, as a deadly storm system has proven, it is now threatening tens of the millions in the northeast. six people killed over the weekend by the tornadoes, and we have an update on all of that for you. and why does elon musk want to bring back to x, or twitter, the man who called the sandy hook shooting a hoax? alex jones is back on twitter, and elon musk is explaining. we will be back. what i remember is, is that we got into our safe place, and the next thing i know is that all you hear is stuff started flying, glass was breaking, and it seemed like it lasted forever, but it was probably maybe 30 seconds. >> it sure does feel forever. terrifying stories that we are hearing people lived through in tennessee over the weekend. communities are just ripped apart from a series of monster tornadoes, and families now this morning of course mourning the loss of their loved ones. six people were killed in the state, and three in clarksville, tennessee, and among those that we have now learned was a 10-year-old boy. the storm was just huge. look at the devastation left behind. one tornado carved a path of destruction that stretched over a space of 42 miles leaving nearly 100 structures in clarksville, and that city is one of the hardest hit areas by the storm. joining us is the mayor of clarksville joe pitts, and thank you for coming in. we have just learned about the 10-year-old boy arlen burnham, and such a sweet face that his family put out his picture. can you tell us more about him if you knew him and the family and the others killed in this. >> well, thank you, kate. good morning, everyone. tragically, we lost three of our citizens on december 9th, a day that none of us expected or wanted, and so our hearts are broken and our prayers with the families and especially the families of that 10-year-old boy. i did not know him, but we are family, and i am sure that we have connections somehow. but our city, we are proud, and we are patriotic, and we are resilient and strong, and we will recover. >> we even heard that arlen's father spoke to cnn and he even said that, for everyone who knows, that this is a family who is dealing with so much as so many families are in your community, that arlen and their daughter ella were pulled out of the carnage, the wreckage by a family friend, and the father saying that ella may not be with us as well had that family friend not stepped in to help. we are showing the pictures here, mayor, of what happened in clarksville, and you are calling it devastating, but how can you describe what happened this weekend? >> well, it is indescribable, and there is no word in the diction to describe what we saw yesterday morning early as the county mayor doldin and i toured the city, and talking to family after family and story after story as you have shared. one man said that a couple and their young child was in a trailer, mobile home, hit, and they, and a couple of folks rushed to their aid and pulled them out, and they were taken for medical care and doing okay now. but, again, neighbor helping neighbor is what clarksville does best. >> what is, your most immediate focus right now? what is your top priority as it going to be taking a very long time for people to pick up the pieces here? >> well, our people is my first priority and only priority right now. we have crews on the ground at daylight this morning and the hardest-hit neighborhoods cleaning up now. cleaning the roadways and the right-of-ways of debris and brush and trees so that emergency traffic can get through as well as the construction traffic, and then we will come back to those neighborhoods, and help to clean up the debris and help to put the neighborhoods together. so my first priority is the people, and then secondly getting them safe. if they need help, they know to reach out to us, because we have shelters set up, and food trucks ready and clothing and a shower facility if they need a hot shower and a place to lay their head or hot chocolate or a place to go. we have all of that in place, and just to let us know if you need anything. >> well, i am thinking that if you are talking about the people and the needs they have, and they are so basic and important right now, and this destruction at any time of this natural disaster is horrible for a community. coming really days in the middle of the holiday, and it is extra painful to see it happen for everyone. mayor, thank you for coming on, and we have the entire community pulling for you. thank you. >> thank you. god bless clarksville. >> john. donald trump breaks a polling record in iowa, but new polls in michigan and georgia are showing what could be the achilles' heel. all right. brand-new this morning, a record leap for donald trump in iowa. a poll just released from the des moines "register" showing him at 51% among the likely caucusgoers and no candidate has led by this much before caucus day. now, with us is cnn republican analyst frank avalon and also with us is david with this look at the desantis only up 3%, and hrl is about the same, and so what do you make of this? >> well, it is not really what it matters for the leadership of any state, the rank of file out there in the endorsements whether it is the governor or the senators or whoever, it is not helpful for nikki haley or ron desantis or donald trump for that matter. >> and what w