Secret location. Well take a rare official tour with forest rangers who are struggling to protect the trees from visitors. But we begin this morning with a look at todays eye opener, your world in 90 seconds. Ive never seen anything like this. This is absurd. My heart was racing. That was a nightmare. A massive power outage cripples atlantas airport. Power has been restored but the trouble is not over. The president s lawyers are accusing muellers team of improperly obtaining thousands of emails from the president s Transition Team. Is he settinghe stage for firing robert mueller. No way. Hes not going to fire him. Were on the verge of getting this done the single biggest change to the tax system ever that President Trump is going to sign this week. Massive tack breaks for the rich cuts in social security. This is a grossly unfair tax bill. Wildfires in southern california, growing to the largest in the nations history. The flames are like three stories high. Theyre scary to look at. The owner of the Panthers Team is selling the team. All that he blew out candles on a pizza. And all that matters. An explosion of love for ryan shazier after the horrific injury. They didnt know he was coming. That was as loud as ive heard it. That was rocking. On cbs this morning. Two sisters found dance partner at southwest airlines. The air Traffic Controller waving at them and keeping up with them. There goes the chicken dance. I knew it was coming. Announcer this mornings eye opener presented by toyota. Lets go places. Welcome to cbs this morning. Thats a good way to start the morning, right . I think so too. A good sense of humor mr. Southwest man on the tarmac. Absolutely. Im Norah Odonnell with gayle king and Anthony Mason whos with us all week. Great to have you. Great to be here. Thousands are still stuck in atlantas airport as a power outage shut down the worlds busiest fire knocked out power for nearly 11 hours. Power was restored just before midnight. More than 1,100 flights were canceled yesterday andmore more than 300 today. Some were stuck on the tarmac for at least seven hours with no food and water. Officials are still evaluating the cause. Kris van cleave is at hartsfieldjackson with the major disruption at the key hub. Kris, good morning. Reporter good morning. Many of those 30,000 travelers are going to be trying to get out of here today. Let me show you what the airport looks like as we take a view here. This really came at an awful time. The Airlines Look at sunday as the start of the Christmas Travel rush. This is an airport thats busy on a good day. 275,000 passengers on average, 2,500 planes coming and going. So today really becomes about recovery. Tears of joy late sunday night at hartsfieldjackson when the lights finally came back on. It was great when the lights came back on. That was exciting. Backout in atlanta. Reporter but for much of the day, this is what the inside of the nations Busiest Airport looked like. Thousands of passengers stranded inside as the airport ground to a standstill. We were literally carrying old people down the escalators and up escalators and carrying wheelchairs and my heart was racing because im scared for these peoples lives. We had to walk down the escalator, which is a nightmare and then we had to go through the tunnels that are pitch black. It was scary. That was a nightmare. Reporter hundreds more were stuck inside airplanes waiting for a gate. We sat on the plane for six hours. I have my 5monthold with me. Were trying to get to florida. All flights are canceled. Reporter a fire in the underground hub took out the power station. I want to be very clear. We do have a redundant system but it was impacted by the intensity of the fire. Reporter the power outage hit delta the hardest. Atlanta is its main hub. Continued issues monday in atlanta could mean problems at airports across the country. As a result you have this terrible mess with airplanes not where they should be crews not where they should be, and passengers not where they should be. Reporter thats why delta canceled more than 300 flights mainly this morning as they try to restart normal operations midday. Of course, the big question now is how does a your primary system take out the redundant system. Thats going to be a question flyers are going to want answers to. Thank you. President trump says he will not fire special counsel robert mueller. He spoke out last night after accused mueller of improperly obtained tens of thousands of emails prior to the time mr. Trump took office. Paula reid good morning. Reporter good morning. A lawyer for mr. Trumps Transition Team says some of the emails that mueller has obtained with obtained illegally. He quashed capitol hill rumors that he was poised to fire special counsel robert mueller. No, im not. No. What else . What . Are you surprised . Reporter democrats and others agree on muellers integrity. I have confidence in director mueller. I do not at all believe mr. Mueller has been compromised or his investigation. Reproach. Reporter but the president said he was troubled by allegations made by hisgu that mueller unauthorized access to thousands of emails. Its not looking good. Its not looking good. Its quite sad to see that. My people are very upset about it. Reporter mueller is pushing back and said the emails were obtained legally. In a rare statement his spokesman said when we have obtained email we have secured, consent, or appropriate process. I cant imagine it, frankly. As we said theres no collusion, no collusion whatsoever. But a lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad. Reporter the Mueller Probe faces increasing attacks from republicans over a top fbi investigator who was dismissed from the investigation. Lets get all the documents, lets bring them in for depositions. Reporter now republicans say they will s p fbi counterintelligence agent peter strzok and senior fbi agent page who campaigned throughoup3t campaign. White House Press SecretarySarah Sanders says the white house continues to fullyate with the special counsels probe and they expect it to wrap up soon but sources close to the case say this investigation will go well into next year. All right, paula. Thank you. President trump will unveil his National Security strategy in a speech today and hell singing out china and russias threat to americas interest. Mr. Putin thanked mr. Trump for sharing information from the cia that allowed russia to intercept a terror attack in st. Petersburg. Russia made an arrest and found bomb materials. Margaret brennan is at the white house. Margaret good morning. Good morning. The two president s spoke for the second time in four days. In rare statement Vladimir Putin thanked mr. Trump and the cia for providing that information that helped to thwart the potential terrorist attack on russian soil. He said quote, the positive things that can happen when our countries work together. Mr. Trump did praise the cia in light of his own past criticism of the agency. In this case he thanked, quote, the entire Intelligence Community on a job well done. But this afternoon when mr. Trump unveils his National Security strategy hell call out china and russia. Hell call them quote, revisionist powers attempting to erode prosperity. It is clear, anthony, from the National Security counsels point of view here they see mr. Putin as an adversary despite the administrations attempts to broker friendlier relations. Margaret brennan. Thanks margaret. Congressional republicans say their landmark tax reform bill will be on the president s desk this week. The house of representatives intends to vote on the plan tomorrow. The senate is intending to vote no later than wednesday. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill with the approaching end of a long quest for republicans. Nancy, good morning. Good morning. There is no more tinkering. The tax bill is set, and the republicans insist they have the votes to pass it. Now they need to prove to the American People the tax cuts are worth the cost. This is a historic event. Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin says the traction plan will primarily benefit the middle class. This will be very large tax cuts for working families. Working families may need some convincing. A recent cbs news poll found almost 70 of americans think the plan will help the wealthy. Its a huge giveaway to big corporations. Democrats pointed to a lastminute deductiontax bill benefiting those with Real Estate Income like President Trump and former holdout senator bob corker. Is that how you got senator corker, with this provision . The provision youre talking about, honestly, is just one piece of a thousandpage bill. In a Statement Last night corker said he had no knowledge of the passthrough bill in question and asked how it made it into the final conference report. The bill thats planned to be passed tomorrow will reduce rates. This is something thats designed to energize the economy. It should work. The question, will it boost the economy enough to justify the price tag. This bill is not going to pay for itself. Everybody knows that. Battling brain cancer will not be here to vote for i understandcw hell come if we ever needed his vote which i believe we wont. Ccains soninlaw told journalists mccain was flown home sunday to spend the holidays with his family. He remains one of the toughest men on the earth. The fact that theyre moving ahead without mccain shows they dont believe theyll need his vote at the end and the handful of gop holdouts will end up voting yes when push comes to shove, anthony. Nancy, have we seen anything . There could be something there that gives lawmakers cold feet. That will show us who wins and who loses from this tax plan. I have to tell you even democrats i have spoken to think at this point republicans have this in the bag even though they believe it will hurt them plitt ukly in the long run. Nancy cordes thank ss. At 270,000 acres, the thomas fire is the Third Largest wildfire in history. A funeral procession for a firefighter crossed five First Responders saluted as it pasted. Carter carter evans is in month see area. Firefighters say yesterday was one of the most productive days theyve had on this twoweekold fire. There are some 8,500 firefighters working right now to stop the flames. The thomas fire roared back to life over the weekend as wind gusts hitting 70 Miles Per Hour pushed the flames into the wealthy community of montecito near santa barbara. This is what her home looked like on friday, but this is the devastation she returned to on sunday night. Its hard. Weve had our moments. Weve been crying until we got here. Reporter on saturday more than 3,000 in and around montecito were forced to evacuate. These flames are high. Theyre scary to look at. Reporter firefighters were able to keep the number damage order destroyed to 15. The fear storm destroyed this home. When that wind was blowing, theres nothing you could do. Theres no way to stop a fire front like that. Reporter its now scorched over 2,400 square miles. If it was to place the fire over new york city 40 miles wide it would reach from new jersey into long island. Over 700 homes have been destroyed and over 18,000 include 3g 2yearold firefighter cory iverson who died thursday from burns and smoke inhalation. Firefighters and other mourner lined the streets foression. Hes survivedearold daughter. Mandatory still in place and there theres no wind right now. That is great news. Theyre fighting to get a containment line all the way around the fire winds are forced to return. Cant say enough about the job that the firefighters are doing there. Thank you so much carter. Carolina panthers owner Jerry Richardson says he will sell the nfl franchise after he was accused of workplace misconduct. Sports illustrated reports that richardson or the team has paid confidential payouts to employees. Bianna golodryga has more. Good morning. Good morning, gayle. Theyre investigating the allegations and despite a long release yesterday by richardson the former nfl player turned team owner has yet to address the arcizations directly but the new report reveals a pattern of behavior that created a hostile work environment. Since the panthers arrival in North Carolina more than two decades ago, billionaire owner Jerry Richardson has been at the helm, and during that time according to sports illustrated, at least four female employees received financial settlements from either richardson or the team. Misconduct allegations range from sexual to racial. There was the seatbelt maneuver. Inviting female employees to lunch and when seating them in his car, hes brushed their breasts. Hes asked to shave their legs barefoot massages and wentz too low down the spine and he made racial slurs againsthings theyve done in the past. Reporter quarterback cam newton says despite the allegation richardsons impact on the team has been positive. Hes had asuch a fatherlike role in the present and the past. Reporter in an open letter richardson told fans said i its time to turn the franchise over to new ownership. I will put the team up for sale at the conclusion of this nfl season. I will be the best nfl owner you can imagine. Reporter highprofile potential buyers are already showing interest including sean combs and Golden State Warrior steph curry. That would be something. Richardson purchased the panthers back in 1993 for some 200 million. Its net worth is now 2. 3 billion. The panthers released a statement saying the entire organization is committed to providing a safe comfortable, and diverse vieshtenvironment. A lot of people are comparing this to don sterling of the l. A. Chargers. Thats creepy. Thats jaw dropping to hear. These are some interesting buyers there though. Bianna thanks. For the first time the pentagon admits it conducted secret ufo research. Ahead, one apparent encounter caught on camera and how the rtd rtd. The u. S. Air force academy is investigating how to handle Sexual Assault. Why one survivor says the changes dont do enough to protect victims from retaliation after reporting assaults. Youre watching cbs this morning. Announcer this portion of cbs this morning sponsored by toyota. Lets go places. So your folks took it pretty hard, huh. They loved that tree. It really meant a lot to them. This is our tree. Lets bring everyone closer this holiday. Toyota. Lets go places. Parodontax the toothpaste that helps prevent bleeding gums. 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Plus prince harry and barack obama show good morning, im rahel solomon, live at our cbs3 studios parking lot for our joy of sharing toyfest weve been checking toys for weeks now at several events around the region, todays the big day where we will fill up the truck and then actually get those to kids in need. Joining me now with Price Waterhouse pwc good morning thank you so much. This is something that pwc has been a part of for a long time thousand guys collect the toys . Good morning, we collect the toys this weekend at our Holiday Party we had over 1500 people at the please tou muse fantastic i couldnt be prouder of the number of folks that brought toys for the Salvation Army. It is really important faust us to support the community and the Salvation Army, such great work. Talk about, that because i think that i actually interviewed two guys last year as well for our joy of sharing toyfest why is this such a commitment for pwc . Real important for our people want to give back, we look at different communities the Salvation Army, and this time of work does such fantastic work for the children. We thank you for your continued support all of these years, come on down, 1555 hamilton street in the citys Spring Garden section next to pcp. Matt i send it out to you lot of good happening in the parking lot but i hear you have a pretty good forecast too . Great day for folks to c