those are on southwest. the airline now apologizing, but as you can imagine that s little comfort for people who may miss out totally on seeing their loved ones this holiday season. i m beyond frustrated. and hurt. because i can t see my dad. my mom is in the hospital and i wanted to be there for her once she like got discharged. unfortunately because of the situation they are saying that the closest flight is the 29th. are you going to make it home today? no, likely not. i mean, i heard someone say over the intercom not to expect to get a flight within the next four days. that s definitely not what i wanted to hear. people just missing their family and loved ones. the log jam starting with the powerful winter storm that hit western new york the hardest. look at that. this morning people in buffalo struggling to get food, water, medicine, after days of driving bans and closed stores. we are going to take you live there in just a moment. let s go first to our team co
executives say they ll need to cancel many more tomorrow. then, breaking his silence did i embellish my resume, yes, i did. and i m sorry. but i m still the same guy, i m not a fraud. republican congressman-elect george santos admits he lied about major parts of his resume, but wait until he explains his jewish heritage claims. and miami dolphins quarterback tua tagovailoa has been placed in concussion protocol, hours after playing an entire game. welcome to the lead, i m phil mattingly, in for jake tapper. and we begin this hour with the winter travel meltdown plaguing a major u.s. airline. thousands of southwest airlines passengers are still stranded, unable to get to their destinations. some of those passengers is been trying to travel for five days or more, after a massive winter storm battered parts of the u.s. southwest canceled nearly 2,600 flights today, accounting for more than 85% of all flights canceled in the u.s. and the company s telling passengers
some dying in snow buried cars, others in homes with no power. conditions so bad rescuers needed rescuing. and the travel nightmare continues for thousands of americans, so far more than 3,000 flights have been canceled today, the majority are southwest flights. plus, how a toy and a car led police to find a kidnapped baby. welcome to the lead i m phil mattingly in today for jake tapper. we begin with the rising death toll from the vicious winter weather across the country. at least 49 people across nine states have died from storms, at least 27 of those deaths are centered in buffalo, new york, and surrounding erie county which were hit with a blizzard, winds so fierce they reached hurricane strength, rescuers had to be sent out to help stranded rescue crews facing, quote, some of the worst conditions that any of us have ever seen. many roads around buffalo remain impassable, driving bans still in place in some areas as crews try to clear the streets to restore power
of the state. buffalo and other cities are struggling to dig out of 43 inches of snow and freezing temperatures and power outages. i ll talk with the buffalo police commissioner this hour. many americans are still feeling the effects of the arctic blast, including millions of air travelers. southwest airlines experiencing massive disruptions, with more than 65% of its flights canceled just today, adding to the holiday travel chaos. also tonight, vladimir putin claims he s ready to negotiate a solution to the ukraine war, but a key ukrainian official says the russian president needs to get back to reality, as moscow continues to slaughter innocent civilians. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin this hour with the deadly weather emergency in western new york. governor kathy hochul is calling it, and i m quoting her, the blizzard of the century and she is warning it is far from over.
chuck rosenberg, matt miller joins us, former special advisor on communications for the nsa, and former chief spokesperson for the department of justice. and jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters. ryan, you had the very difficult challenge of speaking to us moments after this document dropped. you ve had a bit more time, tell us what else we ve learned. i mean, i think it s significant, especially in those photos that you discussed in the last hour, that show just how this was organized. i think the key part of this is essentially, them not trusting the trump team. because after they had that initial grand jury subpoenaed that was delivered, you had this filing that was signed by a trump reporter. so we don t know based on the filing what it was, but it s been reported publicly they said there is no responsive documents left. and lo and behold, when they when it s executed the search warrant, there were all these documents left. there s still information, and we