then got on top of him and started punching and then yelling at him. reporter: so legally speaking, this is obviously pretty ugly for gianforte, the jacobs audio says one thing, the independence witnesses and his statement saying something all together. last night he was cited for misdemeanor assault. he has to come back to court for that at some point. whether or not he wins or loses today, politically that is the big question. he was leading in most of the polls by margins from 2 to 8 points depending on who you ask coming into today. lot of folks in montana vote early but today this is the top story in every newspaper, it s the top story on local tv. dems are buying ads on facebook to try to make sure this news and that audiotape gets in front of as many montana voters as possible as people head out into the rain and snow today to cast their votes in this special election. chris? all right, garrett, thank you so much for that.
a big spike and 61% increase in these types of killings that we are seeing, katy point. nbc s jacob rascon in san antonio, thank you very much. from the northern plain states in new york, the rain and snow. next, the fight for fresh leadership in the house, will nancy pelosi remains minority leader or can reince take the rank? if you have medicare
and zero first months payment on a new jetta and other select models. welcome back to weekends with alex witt as we hit 30 past the hour. we re getting new video of the damage in north texas have deadly tornadoes ripped through that area overnight. homes torn apart, roofs blown away. heavy snow moving down new mexico and western texas is creating some dangerous driving conditions. officials had to shut down a stretch of interstate 40 and literally turn people away. amarillo, texas is dealing with sustained winds of 35 miles per hour with gusts up to 45. before we get our meteorologist let s get to the weather channel s gary cooper where heavy rain is coming down in arkansas. gary what is it like out there other than a mess? reporter: very wet and very cold mess. now it s been like this for the better part of 12 hours. i want to show you just how hard
southwest arkansas isolated tornadoes, damaging winds and hail with those downpours. looking on further for the entire day we still run the risk of severe weather as far east as gulfport, mississippi and new orleans and northward into shreveport. but look at this. incredible. we have ice right now. bit 31 degrees in oklahoma city. ice, freezing rain coming into that region and then very heavy snow just to the west and heavy rain to the east. tulsa getting a little bit of a wintry mix as well. this is dangerous across a good portion of oklahoma and texas. in fact travel not advised in some locations. other areas saw complete road closures this morning from eastern areas of east amarillo all the way to the new mexico border in texas. blizzard warning remains. we re getting snow drifts up to ten feet already reported. very dangerous wind. 60 miles per hour and wind chills that are below zero. so treacherous on a day we re seeing so much travel. we re also looking at snow. if you re drivin
as high as eight feet. so still plenty more snow to come through, several more inches up to higher amounts. we had blowing and drifting snow. winds gusted to 60 miles per hour. that will create white out conditions. you can t travel when it s like that. if you are traveling and millions of you are we re looking at more snow over the next 48 hours from minneapolis to la crosse and green bay and milwaukee. chicago you ll get a little bit of sleet mixing in possibly with snow but more of a rain event. not so great to be out there walking or driving. omaha, lincoln more substantial snow. where we have yet to see snow is new england. this is your chance. monday into tuesday first measurable snow of the season even boston getting in on the action, see a little bit of snow before it mixes to rain. not a big snow event. look what s happening to vermont, new hampshire and even into upstate new york. albany has not seen any snow so far this season. it is late. late in december and late in the ye