tonight, clashes on capitol hill. at the so-called weaponization hearing, republicans spent the day questioning questionable witnesses. democrats called it a clearinghouse for testing conspiracy theories for donald trump. then, disney raising the stakes in the feud with ron desantis, scrapping a billion dollar development in florida. the impact it could have on his upcoming presidential run. a major settlement between deutsche bank and jeffrey epstein s victims. we will break down what it all means and who could be paying, next, as the 11th hour gets underway on this thursday night. good evening, once again, i m stephanie ruhle. partisan fireworks erupted on capitol hill earlier today, in a hearing for the so-called weaponization of government committee, which of course is led by ohio republican jim jordan. the witnesses were three self-described fbi whistleblowers who jordan and his fellow republicans said would show that the fbi was biased against the right. and we see re
what we know about his condition and what his family is saying is behind the decision. plus, a candid conversation. secretary of state antony blinken meeting with his chinese counterpart face to face for the first time since the u.s. shot down that suspected chinese spy balloon. what each side is now saying about the sitdown. treating the injured. parking lots have been turned into makeshift hospitals in turkey following that powerful earthquake. our dr. gupta has an inside look. and surveillance video capturing a woman fleeing from her alleged kidnapper. she locks herself inside a gas station. one of the people who helped her get away joins us live with her dramatic and daring escape. hello, everyone. sunday, february 19th. thank you so much for waking up with us. always good to be with you. i feel like spring is around the corner. it s been a warm winter, at least for us here in georgia. what about you? it has. it s barely gotten frosty here in d.c. a couple o
doubts today. about whether they could accomplish that invasion. as china, russia, united states reached a critical point in the ukraine war. the cia says beijing s having second thoughts about potentially invading taiwan. and a significant from the head of fox move. rupert murdoch acknowledging the hosts on his network promoted election lies. what this means for the billion dollar lawsuit against fox news. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the. world i m wolf blitzer and this is a special edition of the situation room. tonight, major new questions right at the center of a deadly coronavirus pandemic. that may change so many lives. where did covid-19 come from? the white house weighing in the same thing on the u.s. energy departments assessment. that the lethal virus most likely came from a lab leak in china. emphasis on the caveat here. cnn sources tell us that the assessment comes with quote, low confidence. tonight they say withi
deadline right now. hi there, everyone. it s 4:00 in new york. the gop is entrenched in another civil war today, this one intrastate, not intrachamber, but gop versus gop all the same. in one corner the talented mr. ripley of kevin mccarthy s house republican conference, and in the other his hometown republican detractors who say he should resign for telling, quote, lie after lie. the second political thrilla in manila political-style duel isn t at all how the republicans planned to roll out their new grip on power, but it was happens when a party lowers the bar to subterranean levels. here are the fireworks from new york republicans today. george santos campaign last year was a campaign of deceit, lies, fabrication. he s not welcome here at republican headquarters for meetings or at any of our events. as i said, he s disgraced the house of representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople. today on behalf of the nassau county republican committe
it s tight for sure. and today some signs that the momentum is shifting toward republican voters pushing lee zeldin closer to the line. maybe even over it. the hot issue here crime. and democrat governor kathy hochul appears to be in trouble. fox power rankings show houck hochul s lead is shrinking mightily. as that is happening, the race projection has moved from a solid win for democrats to a likely win. you don t get any bluer than the blue state of new york. republicans and democrats across america are both paying attention to this race. and the u.s. house of representatives republicans are projected to win 233 seats. a 16-seat majority. that actually is a pickup of a seat from just a week ago with four races in the northeast moving closer to favoring republicans. karl rove says the president is not helping his party. since we created american political parties between the years of 1818 and 1824 two first mid-term elections which the white house party gained seats in