of the american people. but make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the american people, i will take it down. president joe biden addresses the chinese surveillance balloon and other objects shot down by the military in recent days. more of his comments and his message to beijing in just a moment. plus former president trump claims total exoneration following the partial release of a grand jury report on election interference in georgia. we ll explain why that s not even close to being true. and also ahead the latest update from the epa on the major ohio train derailment which is now a focus of many conspiracy theorists. good morning and welcome to way too early on this friday, folks. we made it. friday, february 17th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. we ll begin this morning in washington where president joe biden spoke extensively for the first time yesterday about his administration s decision to shoo
over the skies over asheville, north carolina. now it s possible one of the latest known tracks of the balloon as it flows eastward heading towards the atlantic ocean. more video into our newsroom just a short time ago shows that over clover south carolina, that is a neighboring city of charlotte north carolina, and this is international drama playing out in realtime as u.s. officials ponder their next move. just moments ago, president biden responded to a question about it. listen closely. mister president [inaudible] balloons [inaudible] we re going to take care of it. joining me now is it mr. bce vest of gated reporter dan. dan, what is taking care of it mean? any words from the u.s. officials about these ladies reported sightings? based on what the pentagon has said before right, they said that they were not ready to shoot down when it was overland because they were worried that this really large balloon would break up into debris, and dangerous piece of of debris
white. we didn t even have time to get anywhere. it was right on top of us. the house was shaking. we were all close together in the middle room of the house. wow. it s the craziest thing i ve ever been involved in. more than 20 million people are under high wind alerts in the mid atlantic, northeast and western u.s. meteorologist alilison chinchar is keeping an eye on all of this. this storm is heading out into the open atlantic, hopefully giving folks a break 24 hours from now. we still have heavy bands of snow across maine, new hampshire. you re getting a little bit of wraparound in upstate new york, places like watertown new york continuing to see snow. when you factor in the snow and wind component, it can lead to whiteout conditions. travel going to be very dicey in some spots. even farther south away from the snow, you still have wind advisories in place, looking at wind gusts of 50 to 60 miles per hour. that could lead to trees down and additional power outages.
happening now, dangerous whiteout conditions as a huge and deadly winter storm strikes the northeast. we are tracking this epic weather system as it unleashes record cold, heavy snow, freezing rain, and flooding across the country and creates holiday travel chaos. the other major story that we re following, the january 6th committee s final report laying the blame for the insurrection squarely on former president donald trump. we are breaking down all the top lines from the massive report and whether it paved the way for trump to be indicted. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i m brianna keilar, and you are in the situation room. we are following these blizzard conditions, life-threatening record low temperatures, and treacherous travel all just two days before christmas as a massive winter storm is slamming much of the eastern u.s. we are covering all of the extreme and dangerous weather with our correspondents in
nightmare before christmas, snow, ice and a dangerous winter blast sweeping across the u.s.. as thousands of flights are canceled, we are live in the cnn weather center with what s coming next. plus, the january 6th committee releases its final report on the deadly attack on the u.s. capitol. laying out the case against former president, donald trump. and for the first time, vladimir putin uses the word, war, to describe his invasion of ukraine. we begin this hour in washington, where the house committee investigating january 6th has released its final report. without specifically mentioning donald trump, the panel concludes, anyone responsible for an insurrection should be barred from holding public office. the report goes on to detail a concerted effort by trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. chapter titles include the big lie, i just want to find 11,680 votes, and a coup in search of a legal theory. the committee outlined a scheme to submit fake electors fro