by running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives. i was the texas governor, turned out to be falsely said that he was misled. so did this. the shooting began, we had uvalde police officers arrived on scene along with the consolidated independent school officers. immediately breached. long forsman was there. they did engage immediately. again, not true. as the body and security cameras clearly show that nobody immediately breached the classroom. nobody engaged the shooter. was there for 77 minutes before he was killed. and during that time dozens of please coming and going. hundreds outside of the school and not one of them are routinely and had been trained for years. in these situations to. do another misleading statement repeatedly made by texas officials was that the shooter was somehow barricaded inside of the classroom. he was not and in fact the classroom door might not have even been locked. but according to reports from the texas stat
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
i m not the governor who attacked walt disney world because they expressed their point of view. i m not the governor who attacked the cruise industry because they wanted to make sure they weren t sick before they got on the boat. you re the most ant-business governor i have seen. a baseball team for send ago tweet saying that they were sorry that children were gunned down in uvalde, suddenly the governor of florida decided to actually penalize a baseball team for expressing sympathy with the parents of dead children. culture wars were a major topic in last night s debate between the two candidates for governor of florida. we re going to have more from that show down this morning, including the big question ron desantis would not answer. plus, the latest from eastern europe as there are growing fears that vladimir putin is planning a new type of attack as a justification for escalating the war with ukraine. also ahead, adidas finally appears to be taking action on its
i am josé diaz-balart, and you can reach me on twitter and instagram @jdbalart. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on a special two-hour edition of andrea mitchell reports live at dnc park in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and the key state showdown, and john fetterman and mehmet oz hours away from the debate, and then we will show you the action-packed debate between ron desantis and charlie crist. and then king charles telling the new prime minister, sunak, to start forming his government. good day, everybody. i am andrea mitchell live in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. tonight democrat, john fetterman, and republican, mehmet oz, facing off in their only debate for control of a seat in the senate. and fetterman s memo says the tv studio is oz s comfort zone. this guy is a media savvy performer that literally built his career and fortune by playing to the cameras as a daytime tv host. john is going to win this rac
for votes. kevin pmccarthy huddling with those to become speaker of the house. one doubling down on his opposition just moments ago. plus new details of the idaho murder. how the spektrct was tracked do and putin suffer ing on the battlefield. losses growing inside russia. let s go outfront. good evening. i m erica hill in for erin burnett. house leader kevin mccarthy still on the hill at this hour, still meeting with members of his party with just hours to go for that critical vote of speaker of the house. dozens of republicans seen going in and out of mccarthy s office. among them congressman matt gaetz. significant, one of the republicans who s been a hard no on his gavel. moments ago leaving mccarthy s office, gaetz offered this update. give in to your demands? might vote for him tomorrow? i don t know. i m a no. i m a no. tomorrow the entire conference gathers to hear mccarthy make his final case for the speakership. shortly after that, if he doesn t get su