this is all so disturbing. good morning, everyone. thank you so much for joining us this morning. the memphis officer who said that he wanted to stomp tyre nichols off the streets along with another officer and several emts. we re going to have more on the firings and the fallouts continue to grow here. millions of americans across the south waking up to a brutal ice storm. we ll tell you when and where to expect treacherous conditions, including sub zero temps. and former president trump facing the real possibility of criminal charges over hush money payments to the adult film actress stormy daniels. we re going to begin with what poppy told you about, dangerous ice, the governor of arkansas declaring a state of emergency. a live look near fayetteville, arkansas, 40 million americans from texas to virginia are under winter weather alerts this morning. dallas preparing for another round of freezing rain and sleet, and nearly a thousand flights have already been cancel
Force another Prominent School to cancel its main graduation ceremony. We will take you there. House Speaker Mike Johnson meets with the republican lawmakers seeking to kick him out of his job. We have the behind the scenes of that meeting and who will former President Trump pick to be his running mate . A look at the contenders tonight. But, first, breaking tonight, israel has begun striking targets in the gaza strip city of rafah. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that a ceasefire proposal agreed to by hamas is far from his countrys essential demands. However, israel will send negotiators to continue talks to try find a solution. But, in the meantime, they are not letting up. Correspondent jeff paul is in tel aviv with the very latest tonight. Good evening, jeff. Jeff yeah, good evening, bret. We are learning the israeli war cabinet has than newly decided to continue its operations in rafah saying that it wants to keep pressure on hamas to eventually release all of the
Special counsel. Is he hoping for a pardon from President Trump . Not only is he not hoping for, he would not accept a pardon. We all knew that this was going to be used as a hush money kind of payment from Campaign Finances. You knew at the time . We knew. The conviction of Paul Manafort is another blow to President Trump and a boost for Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Mr. Manafort is disappointed of not getting acquittals all the way through or a complete hung jury on all counts. He is evaluating all of his options at this point. Its a bad day for the president and im sure he understands that. It looks like manafort and cohen only have more to say, only may cooperate more. This could get worse. I dont think he can be indicted while sitting in office, but well just have to see where this all works out. The heart and soul of this is about collusion with the russians and obstruction of justice. First of all, the House Of Representatives draws up articles of impeachment. Think of the hou
Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Potential payment to Kathleen Mcdougal before it took place. So that is obviously at odds with the president saying that he learned about it later. Still lots of questions here, lots of unresolved issues, and the white house, a stressful day at the lectern for sarah sanders, i think, given the number of questions which she really did not have anything that she could go to beyond the prepared statement of he has done nothing wrong, there are no charges against him. Kelly, thanks very much for that. Kelly odonnell at the white house. Michael cohens guilty plea sheds light on the timeline of Hush Money Payments made to women who President Trump is accused of having affairs with before the campaign. This Isnt The Salacious Gossip it once was, this is part of a pattern of trump. According to the new yorker, Playboy Model Karen Mcdougal signed a Nondisclosure Agreement with American Media incorporated, the parent compan
cohen pleaded guilty to finance charges related to the payments cohen facilitated while working for then candidate trump. let s bring in cnn correspondent kara scannell. we thought the hush money payment wasn t going anywhere, the broader look into trump s business practices. what s old is new again. the hush money payment, that s how they started the investigation back in 2019, looking into the hush money payments, and then it expanded, and they took this broader look at the business practices. you know, there s been a change in the district attorney. alvin bragg is now the d.a., he paused that previous investigation because he didn t believe they had enough evidence to bring a criminal case against trump. the burden of proof so much higher. they had the big conviction of two entities for tax fraud. they seem to be emboldened and have picked up the pace with the focus on hush moneys again. we reported that michael cohen went in two weeks ago, and david pecker, the former chairman of