heard the name george santos. oh, we do know him now, though. a wild scene today as the republican congressman caught in lie after lie is arrested and charged on 13 criminal counts. will george santos, aka anthony devulder stay in congress, go on his own or will he be pushed out? plus, taking the stage, donald trump now hours away from facing questions at a cnn town hall one day after a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. and following the money. republicans flagging what they call shady deals as they lay out their case against president biden s family, including son hunter. is there evidence behind these allegations? welcome to the lead. we start with our politics lead, and a defiant congressman george santos saying he has no plans to resign despite facie ing 13 criminal charges. santos pleaded not guilty in a new york courtroom this afternoon before facing the news media where he insisted he is innocent. this is the beginning of the ability for
you re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in new york. much of california is under a state of emergency this afternoon, and mandatory evacuations are under way in parts of monterrey county on the central coast. a short time ago we received drone video of a levee that failed this morning. as you can see, the waters rushed through the breach and into a nearby neighborhood. the floodwaters have washed away roads and bridges and cut off some communities in the area. this is new video. we also have coming in from springville, where many have lost their homes and belongings in that area. california s reeling from its tenth atmospheric river of the winter in the central and northern parts of the state. it s dumping huge amounts of rain and snow on the ground that is already saturated. cnn s mike valerio joins us. you spoke to a county supervisor a short time ago there. what have you learned? reporter: well, he told us, jim, that there are hundreds of people now in shelters
they re trying to hold every inch of territory in that city. how has that changed the way they re fighting this side? reporter: it s made it on the russian side, dirtier. on the ukrainian, more desperate. the last few days as the offensive gains in intensity, as the conditions on the ground worsen, those images geolocated by cnn that showed the conditions around bakhmut pretty grim with mud, making the roads pretty much impassable. what ukrainian authorities and president sens has said tonight is things are getting more and more challengichallenging. what we re seeing are a series of intense attacks, but it is the battle for the town of bakhmut that gets worse and more intense by the day with ukrainian officials describing it as the epicenter. there have been today hundreds of artillery barrages and rocket strikes by the russians as they try and encircle the town, and specifically the areas of settlements to the west of it. desperate pleas on the part of the ukrainians once
reason and basic decency are on the ballot. plus, an important cnn exclusive. an interview with the man in line to replace nancy pelosi as speaker of the house. kevin mccarthy outlining the house republican agenda. i think the first thing you ll see is a a bill to control the border. first thing we re going to do is make sure an economy that s strong. and donald trump reminds mccarthy and every other republican who s on first in the gop. trump stops in ohio, pennsylvania, florida, in the final days to make clear he sees the midterm closed as his 2024 opening act. we re winning big, big, big in the republican party for the nomination like nobody s ever seen before. there it is, thank yorump at 71. ron desanktimonious. at first, election eve and a crossroads for the presidency. already had 1 million ballots cast 41 million ballots cast. the final count will determine which party controls the house. which party controls the senate. also which controls the governor
miles per hour, gusting up around 60 miles per hour. with this storm, you have tropical storm watches in effect for jamaica and hurricane watches for cayman islands. that s because looking at the frarsz we anticipate that this storm will become a category 1 storm maybe even as high as a category 2 storm as it s crossing over the cayman islands. it is then expected to intensify further as it makes its way up towards cuba and crosses into the eastern portion of the gulf of mexico. at that point, perhaps, it could get into that major hurricane strength. here s the thing, though. a lot of that has to do with sea surface temperatures that are in the mid and upper 80s for the area in which it s expected to travel through. that sea surface temperature is a big fuel for these storms. it s not just at the surface but going down tens of feet, talking about the ocean heat content, even down there that water is warm, and that s what these storms need to strengthen and intensify as they c