Good morning, everyone. Welcome to cnn this morning. Im amara walker. Im victor blackwell. Good to be with you. We begin this morning with the historic United Auto Workers strike against the big three u. S. Automakers, ford, General Motors and stellantis. Union members say they had reasonably productive talks with ford saturday. But the union and throw Major Companies are far apart on wages and benefits. The companies are essentially offering half of what at unions are demanding as it relates to pay increases. Hundreds of workers walked off walked the picket lines, i should say. They are prepared to wait in order to get an agreement that suits them. Gabe cohen is in ohio with more. Reporter saturday we saw the first small signs of any progress in these negotiations between the union and the big three automakers. This after the union met with ford, a source with the union telling cnn we had reasonably productive conversations with ford today. Certainly no deal. But a big step in the right direction after days tv this hostile back and forth between the sides. Ford saying in a statement that they are committed to reaching an agreement with uaw that rewards our workers and allows ford to invest in the future. But we are also starting to see the Ripple Effect from these three plants that are shut down. General motors and ford announcing at least 2,600 workers will be laid off in the days ahead because their facilities cant operate while these three factories are on strike. Still, so many of the workers i have spoken with on the picket line right now making 500 a week in strike pay tell me they are ready to strike for as long as they need to. Their 20 proposal is ridiculous. Six years and i have not had a raise in almost two years now. I cap out at 19. 28. Trying to raise a family. With inflation, its hard. It makes me hopeful that they are getting the message that we are on strike and we are ready for this and we have been preparing. You know, bringing a good offer to the table. Why did you want your daughter to be here . So she knows whats going on with dad at work. Reporter the head of the Auto Workers Union said more factories could go on strike in the days ahead depending how the negotiations play out. Victor, amara. Gabe, thank you. With roughly four months to the Iowa Caucuses, advocates courting the states conservative evangelicaling activists. The major candidates address the iowa faith and Freedom Coalition led. Former President Trump confident in his poll numbers, is not show up for this event. It gave more Breathing Room for the other candidates to address key issues for social conservatives. Jeff zeleny has more. Reporter four months before the Iowa Caucuses open the republican president ial nominating contest the field of candidates were in iowa on saturday evening with the exception of frontrunner donald trump. The candidates were reaching out to evangellecal voters here. But there were several distinctions made on key issues. Most notably on military promotions. Of course, one issue on capitol hill In Washington has been alabama senator Tommy Tubervilles blockade of military promotions. Well, Florida Governor ron desantis, the only veteran in the race, said he supports the senators actions. Yes. I support what he is doing. First of all, what the Defense Department is doing is outside the law. They are breaking, violating the law by Funding Abortion Tourism with tax dollars. Reporter former South Carolina governor nikki haley, whose Husband Michael is currently serveong a tour of duty, disagreed. And she said military members should not be used as political pawns. So why go and create all of this and hold those who sacrificed so much for our freedoms . Why hold them as political pawns . When all you have to do is get in there and ask for an Up Or Down Vote in the house or senate. Reporter those differences underscore an increasing sense of competition between desantis and nikki haley. They try to reach out to undecided Iowa Republican voters. Later in the evening, former President Trump former Vice President mike pence said he supported the house Impeachment Inquiry against President Biden. I dont want to jump to conclusions, but where there is smoke there is usually fire In Washington, d. C. , and the American People deserve the facts and i am going to be out there championing and defending House Republicans as they bring the facts to the American People and hold joe biden and his family accountable. Reporter President Biden, of course, the center of much of the criticism. Former President Trump not on hand and rarely spoken about. His supporters were here in force and say he will be campaigning aggressively. He is coming back to iowa on wednesday. The question is can any of three rivals catch him or is this a Race Por Second Place . Jeff zeleny, that is the question, can any of trumps rivals catch him. Shelly, thank you for joining us this morning. I cant believe the time goes by so fast. The Iowa Caucuses four months away. The faith and Freedom Coalition fall blanket is a Marquee Event for the republican primary. As you saw there, in jeffs report, abortion was a big topic. Any big takeaways from this event for you . Yeah, i think the Abortion Issue is still making republican candidates nervous. So almost all, as you just saw, were asked about supporting a federal ban. Each supported a ban at 15 weeks of pregnancy, if not sooner, but they were split on passing some sort of federal ban. And mike pence gave the clearest only the issue. A lot of others are wishywashy. Desantis was a little bit unclear. Haley broke from the group on the topic. Its clear . Is a topic they would prefer not to address. The second thing that stood out trump didnt show up. He believes that his support among evangelical voters is firm and all of the other candidates right now are essentially fighting for second place. To that question that jeff zelie put, can trumps opponents catch him, is there a window, a timeline as to when the window closes for when, you know, these republican, you know, hopefuls can catch up to trump . Yeah. I mean, i think the window is closing. Its certainly not, you know, its a never say never situation. We never know whats going to happen. Trump, obviously, has multiple indictments against him. He isnt campaigning as hard but they are incredibly far away from him. So he need to be working on the ground, which they are, and start catching up soon in order to really have a chance. Now, desantis, while in iowa, also brought up the issue of age. Listen to this sound bite from him. I dont think the presidency can be successfully discharged by somebody thats 80 years owed. You will get eight years out of me where im in the prime. Im rocking and rolling and we are going to get the job done and you are going to see that in the campaign. I think you have already seen turkey know, im the one here for 56 counties. I will do more counties today than some of these other guys will do next month. All right. So desantis is going to, i think, be 45 years old this week, just a reminder, President Biden is 80. Trump 77. I mean, we know that desantis faces a lot of headwinds right now even know he may be, you know, in his prime, as he says. Polls show that age is something on the voters minds. Is that something thats really going to make an impact when people head to the polls . I dont think its going to be the number one or two thing that voters are going to ultimately decide who we aring this go vote for on. Its certainly in their minds. Its going be top three or four. When im out on the Campaign Trail i am hearing more and more the argument from voters that, listen, we want somebody new. We want somebody a little bit holder. Our leadership is aging. For them, thats a president. You see some of these president ial candidates going after the age issue . A way they havent before. Ron desantis is ramping up his attack and argument against trump on this particular issue. The question is, is it a big enough issue for it to ultimately work . I have not seen it is a top one or two issue for voters just yet. It definitely is a big issue anecdotally. When im talking to people i know and with they talk about the upcoming president ial election, obviously, the question is, dont we have other alternatives than, you know, these elderly candidates . Lets turn to some of your reporting, shelby. You wrote a piece recently about ron desantis, i guess, turning back to his Culture War Topics and hoping that it will gain traction nationally, even though it hasnt just yet. Yeah. So his big things have been refocus on the covid issue, which is, obviously, the topic that ron desantis became extremely well known for within the conservative movement. His handling of covid during the pandemic in florida. And the problem is, it didnt work when he launched his president ial run. Now, part of this was because covid at that point was so far away in voters minds. We have seen this kind of scattered mandates pop back up throughout the country. I think the key word there is scattered. But ron desantis is trying to capitalize on those scattered mandates and say, hey guys, listen, these scattered Mortgage Rates suggest that, you know, the left could be bringing down mass lockdowns. There is no evidence of that, but it is something that is a big concern for republican voters. Now, will it continue to be a concern if we dont see mass mandates . I dont know. The second issue that he has been really big on is the lgbtq issue, and he has been very strong with his stance on transgender issues. And so his super pac is trying to hit trump on trumps past support over some comments he made when during his first president ial run on transgender topics. Now, again, that hasnt hit what it normally hits against a republican candidate. But for whatever reason, the topics normally dont hit against trump. Thats remarkable, the dynamics this time around. Shelby, appreciate you waking up this early. Thank you. And for more political news, State Of The Union will be on at 9 00 a. M. Eastern here on cnn this morning. Former Vice President mike pence and senator bernie sanders. The number of those killed from floods in libya is rising. The u. N. Reports now that 11,3 0 were killed in derna. They expect to find more victims as the search conditions. Workers pulled dozens of bodies from the sea on the derna coast. Search crews say most of the bodies were swept out to sea. And without proper equipment, it could become impossible to retrieve them. Reporter efforts here in derna right now are focused on the search and recover operations to try to find the bodies of those who were killed in that catastrophic event last week. But hope is fading. Rescuers dont believe that they will be able to find anyone alive right now, so they are focused mostly on trying to retrieve these bodies, and this is an operation that has been make taking place here on land and also at sea. In city, around the city, you see different teams at different sites digging through the rubble, trying to find bodies. Weve seen libyans volunteers using their hands and whatever they could find to try and dig through the rubble, these devastated buildings. You also have International Teams that are also working with them. We heard from these International Teams tonight from different countries, from the uae, egypt, algeria, georgia, tunisia, others, they say that the main focus right now is on the sea. That is where they believe most of the bodies have ended up. And it is a very difficult operation to try and recover these bodies, they say, most of them that ended up in hardtoreach areas, in coves, on rocks, and they just dont have enough manpower, enough equipment to deal with that right now. They need more choppers, more boats, more people to help them with these operations, and its also another challenge, they say that, a lot of these bodies right now have are severely decomposed. And this is something that we have heard as well from libyan volunteer working at the main staging area where they bring bodies recovered from different places, and this volunteer prepares them for burial. She says over the past few days these bodies what that are being recovered from the sea are looking at same right now. It is very difficult, if not impossible to identify people by just looking at them. And this is devastating news for so many derna residents who are still searching for their loved ones or their bodies to try to give them a proper burial. Cnn, derna, libya. Thank you. And if you like to help those impacted by the flooding in libya cnn. Com impact. Still to come, in ukraine fierce fighting on the front lines near bakhmut. Plus, Texas Attorney general ken paxton survives the Impeachment Trial and is reinstated, but his legal troubles are far from over. Also, Airport Workers responsible for loading bags are facing a key problem. Details ahead. Was not letting me run the show. So, we switched to Verizon Business internet. They have business grarade internet, nationwide. vo make the switch. Its your business. Its your verizon. 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