donald trump's legal team responds, accusing the special counsel of going after trump's first amendment rights. and now both sides are facing a new deadline. brand new exclusive reporting. u.s. officials just briefed on the ukrainian counteroffensive are now calling the progress being made against russia, sobering. not in a good way. the challenges that ukraine is facing. and a violent brawl in alabama goes viral. a group of white boaters accused of jumping a black security guard and then a full-blown fight escalated on the river front. warrants are now filed as demands for justice grow. i'm omar jimenez with kate bolduan and john berman. "cnn news central" starts right now. ♪ special counsel jack smith and donald trump's legal team now face a 3:00 p.m. deadline today to respond to the judge over seeing the 2020 election case. at issue now is how much and under what conditions evidence can be publicly disclosed ahead of this historic trial. trump's legal team not surprisingly is fighting for looser rules around that than what the prosecutors are requesting. trump's team now claim in a new filing that prosecutors are on a politically motivated campaign to restrict trump's first amendment rights. now the judge appears to want to put this to bed asap, saying she wants to hold a hearing to settle the issue before the end of the day friday. adding to this now, cnn has learned that this man, trump ally, bernie kerik, has now met with jack smith's team as well. the former new york city police commissioner, long-time associate of rudy giuliani, he coordinated with giuliani during the contentious post-election period trying to investigate election fraud. and now he's speaking to the special counsel. let's get to it. cnn's katelyn polantz is outside the federal courthouse in washington with the very latest, of course. walk us through this new deadline today. >> reporter: well, kate, there's a dispute in this case early on, january 6th, federal criminal case against donald trump and the judge over top of it. she wants to get this dispute settled fast. so what's happening here is donald trump and his team, they're going to get evidence that they've never seen before that the justice department has collected, things like grand jury transcripts, other things that the justice department may have learned in this january 6th investigation. that's all going to get handed over to donald trump's team to prepare for trial. and the dispute is over that information and what donald trump can do with it before trial. so, trump's team, they don't want any restrictions on that information when ever they're getting it. they are saying that if there are things in there that the justice department believe are highly sensitive, those things, those could be locked down. but donald trump and his lawyers have been out there quite publicly saying they don't want anything that would curtail donald trump's ability to have free speech about this case before the trial. now, the justice department, they want to lock down all of that information that trump and his team have never seen before, that they've collected and they're going to give to him and make sure that it's not disclosed publicly to anyone really that the documents aren't shared, that trump isn't speaking about them. and they're saying that donald trump has no right to be sharing these sorts of things legally before he goes to trial. that it could hurt his ability to have a fair trial if he's out there and speaking about these things. so where the line is drawn on how sensitive the information has to be for it to be locked down, that's what's at issue here. and the judge does want to have a hearing by friday, so we should hear by the end of the day today at least when both sides, justice department and donald trump's team, are available to have that hearing and there should be something on the calendar pretty soon as well. >> look, it's the rules of the road f you will. and this is going to be very important for the extent of the pretrial -- everything that's going to happen pretrial. the rules of the road and what people can talk about and can't. this will be very important what comes out by the end of this week. the control room told me in my ear also that the grand jury who handed down the indictment, they are once again meeting today for the first time since then. what does this mean? >> reporter: well, the investigation continues. that is what it means when the grand jury is assembled after an indictment has already been filed. and we have gotten some hints on what the grand jury still may be investigating. first and foremost, we did see at cnn my colleagues were able to get on camera bernie kerik and his lawyer yesterday leaving the special counsel's office. he's a very close associate of rudy giuliani who was working to try and find election fraud, which they never were able to get proof of after the 2020 election. but bernie kerik yesterday, he spoke to the special counsel's office for about five hours. and upon leaving, his attorney said they have a lot of questions about what the giuliani team was doing. giuliani is a coconspirator in that indictment against donald trump. he's not charged at this time, but clearly the special counsel still has questions and a reason to be convening that grand jury today in the courthouse behind me. kate? >> katelyn polantz, glad you're there. thank you. omar? and to georgia now, where this morning the grand jury is weighing whether trump will be indicted for a fourth time this year. they are seeking more testimony. former lieutenant governor jeff duncan said he was subpoenaed last week by the jury and will testify this month. just last knight the republican called trump's current attacks on the legal system erratic and unmoored from the truth. that's for trump's 2020 find the votes call to georgia secretary of state, duncan describes it as dangerous and pathetic. cnn's nick valencia is live outside the courthouse in atlanta. nick, i think it's no secret duncan isn't the biggest fan of trump. he's testified in this case before. but what could this grand jury be hoping to soon learn from duncan? >> reporter: that's right, omar. duncan did testify in front of the special purpose grand jury. now the fulton county grand jury wants to hear from him. the republican has been a harsh critic of former president trump. and while he was lieutenant governor, he was the president of the georgia state senate, the same state senate where former trump attorney rudy giuliani appeared in front of three times to spread election conspiracy theories and election interference lies. duncan has called those meetings unofficial and said they were unsanctioned and even gone so far to call them an embarrassment. listen to him last night on cnn. >> yeah. i'll be there to answer the facts as i know them and to continue this process of trying to discover what actually happened during that post-election period of time. certainly we can never repeat that as a country. certainly i never want to see that happen in my home state of georgia. a lot of good people's lives were uprooted. a lot of people's reputations have been soiled. >> reporter: duncan now one of three people to be subpoenaed by the fulton county grand jury. remember, omar, this is not just about trump's infamous phone call with georgia secretary of state raffensperger after he lost the 2020 election here in georgia. this is also about the illegal accessing of voting equipment in coffee county by trump operatives as well as the slate of fake electors. two others have been subpoenaed independent george cheatty, who stumbled upon that meeting of fake electors in the state capitol and also former democratic state senator who was at the hearings and meetings with former trump attorney rudy giuliani. omar? >> and this is just of course, one of a number of cases swirling around in the trump world as well. this one of course we'll keep a close eye on. nick valencia, thank you as always. with us now cnn senior legal analyst, elie honig, who was a mob prosecutor which pertains to what i'm about to ask you. we're getting word out of georgia where nick valencia is just there that fani willis, is fulton county da may ruse racketeering charges to go after donald trump. >> yeah. >> i know rico because i follow mob trials and listen to your podcast. how does that apply here? >> so, rico stands for racketeer influence corrupt organizations started as a federal law passed in 1970 designed to fight organized crime and now used -- first of all, various states passed their own version including georgia. now it's used to prosecute any type of organized criminal group. can be a political group. can be a street gang, drug trafficking organization. it's being used more and more broadly. generally speaking under rico laws as a prosecutor you have to show two things. first of all the existence of racketeering enterprise. meaning a group, doesn't have to have an official name, a group that gets together to do the second thing, which is commit a pattern of racketeering. two or more crimes for some sort of common purpose. we'll see if prosecutors can fit donald trump and his organization into that legal definition. >> in theory, could it be trump, the six coconspirators in the multiple crimes in theory could be the seven states for which they submitted fake electors? >> absolutely. your group does not have to have a formal name or initiation right. sometimes groups do. called such and such gang or such and such organization but also can be a group that is an informal association, just people working together for a common purpose. we had reporting, nick just talked about it there, that fani willis is looking at those charges. they exist under georgia state law. one huge difference, though. under georgia state law, somebody is convicted of rico, five-year mandatory minimum. have to do five years. even the federal law doesn't have that. >> stunning development. remember, trump if he wins the election, he can't pardon himself in georgia if he's convicted there. we're a long way from that. i do want to ask, all the things we're seeing this week, and by the end of the week we'll figure out how important they are or not, but one of the things that has come out are the statements that trump is making on social media, including the one where he said if you come after me, i will come after you. "the washington post," aaron blake raised this question. it seemed like a good one. what constitutes witness tampering? if you come after me, i'll come after you. trump also went after mike pence on social media. pence is going to be a witness. >> this is art not science. this is one of those areas ultimately it's in the eye of a judge or if there's an official charge of witness tampering a jury. the rule is or a witness. you can't say something that is intended to influence or intimidate a witness against you. of course, that has to be counterbalanced against the first amendment statement. and this particular statement, if you go after , i'll come after you is a perfect sort of roar shark test. you can look from either way. donald trump's team argued that's political speech. that's a general statement. that means politically i'll come after you or if you take the stand you'll be cross-examined vigorously. prosecutors are of a different view that the meaning there is well understood and is potential witness who sees that likely to feel intimidated or threatened? probably. ultimately this may come to a head if prosecutors ask for a next step which would be a gag order restricting what donald trump can say. >> it's an art which means it's the judge who will ultimately have to decide if trump has gone too far. >> absolutely. prosecutors in the first instance have to decide if they want to ask the judge to take action. ultimately whether it's too far is a judge. if there ever is a witness tampering charge, there's not right now, that's a question for the jury. >> witness tampering is different than tainting a jury pool, although a little in the same continuum. what's the difference? >> you see a lot of concern in doj's briefs going on right now these public statements could influence a jury pool because ultimately your jury will be drawn from civilians, 12 randomly chosen. and what's so unique about donald trump, really singular about donald trump, is everybody knows him. we've had that scenario before. o.j. simpson, martha stewart. everybody is privy to everything he says. his social media posts goes out to tens of millions of people. when you're picking a jury, you have to work your way through that. you're not looking for 12 jurors who never heard of donald trump. that's not the rule. but you're looking for 12 jurors who are not unduly influenced by statements and who say and the lawyers believe can put aside whatever their political or personal believes are. jury selection in this trial will be unlike anything we have ever seen. >> i was going to say. that will be fascinating. >> it's already difficult enough in a normal case. now you throw in this element and who knows how that's going to play out. >> elie honig, great to see you as always. coming up still for us, new cnn reporting this morning on ukraine's counteroffensive. the sobering new assessment coming in. that is next. plus, severe weather across the country really today. it's dangerous, of course. it's also once again throwing air travel into chaos. we have the outlook for you. and former vice president mike pence welcomed to the stage. pence met a key requirement to be allowed on the gop primary debate stage and not a moment too soon as debate is now a couple weeks away. we'll be right back. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv with new scope squeez mouthwash concentrate, just add water. squeez to control the strength of your mouthwash. and find a zone all your own. ♪ ♪ scope squeez. ♪ with fastsigns, create striking custom visuals that inspire pride district-wide. ♪ fastsigns. make your statement. what's the subway series? it's the perfect sub roster. just give us a number we got the rest. four. supreme meats. six. the boss. fifteen. titan turkey. ninety-nine. grand slam ham. i'm gonna need twenty-three of those, it's my turn to bring the snacks. ( ♪ ♪ ) we all need fiber for our digestive health, but less than 10% of us get enough each day. good thing metamucil gummies are an easy way to get prebiotic, plant-based fiber. with the same amount of fiber as 2 cups of broccoli. metamucil gummies the easy way to get your daily fiber. our ears connect us to the moments that matter. give them the nutrients they need with lipo. it's formulated with ingredients clinically shown to protect your ears from dizziness, ear ringing, and even hearing loss. never miss a moment with lipo flavonoid. y. utter devastation. this is an apartment building in the eastern ukrainian city. russia launched two missiles targeting a residential area. here is the thing, the second strike hit a hotel, just as first responders were trying to rescue victims from the first attack next door. so far we have heard at least seven people were killed. 81 people have been wounded. and we're told that includes children and rescue workers. cnn's nick paton walsh is in ukraine for us this morning. >> reporter: that's the reason why this strike was so damaging, that it's particularly chilling. yes, we see strikes against civilian targets almost nightly in ukraine. two dead in kharkiv in a similar 24-hour period, but here, the first missile according to ukrainian officials hit the hotel initially causing, of course, significant amount of damage, windows taken out. in all the neighboring buildings, 2,000 according to ukrainian officials. but it was then that rescuers as usual rushed in to start searching through the rubble, to get people out. to bring essential first aid. then 40 minutes later the second missile hit the same target. now that's not really an accident. that is calculated. it's a tactic known as a double tap after sort of two bullets fired sometimes in the military and it's used to increase casualties because the second missile is designed to kill the first responders. and of course here the same target showing perhaps that the russians knew what they were hitting and chose to hit it twice. this part of frankly bar barism we have seen on russian tactic, the syrian regime used perhaps with their assistance during the syrian civil war and just adds to the growing anger and loss and grief amongst ukrainian civilians. in the same period, we heard unusual outcomes from peace summit, peace talks without russia in saudi arabia in which china, who unexpectedly turned up to that particular meeting. a bit i think to bring many countries that once had sympathies for russia closer to ukraine's position in the event there is some kind of peace negotiation. farfetched for now. china emerged saying that the meetings had, in fact, consolidated the international consensus. unexpected outcome certainly for moscow who must have hoped it would still see international opinion fractured. but that is a sign as the counteroffensive rumbles on here and the civilian death toll mounts, there is still some degree of international consensus about russia's behavior in ukraine. nick paton walsh, cnn, zaporizhzhia, ukraine. >> nick, thank you so much for that. omar? new cnn reporting this morning on how the war is going. ukraine's western allies are receiving what they say are increasingly sobering assessments about ukraine's counteroffensive, specifically the ukrainian force's ability to retake significant territory from russian troops. so let's talk about this with retired army major mike lions. good to see you this morning, major. so i want to start with that latest reporting that western allies are receiving increasingly sobering updates on the counteroffensive here, which is of course, very different than maybe some of the optimism we saw leading into this. plainly, where does ukraine go from here? >> so we're two months into their counteroffensive to the day actually today. and right now their counteroffensive has not gained the kind of land back it thought it was going to. frontal attacks on fortified positions that are surrounded by mines without air superiority does not have any historical context to be successful. in some ways they overset expectations that they thought they were going to be in a different place by now. they have not been able to threaten crimea on any level. until they get air superiority and more crew protection in some of these western equipment, their reserves have not been committed yet. that's kind of the issue here. they have not decided to commit to one specific avenue of approach here. maybe that would change the situation on the ground. we have to see. >> well, obviously this is a situation where, yes, two countries are fighting but a lot of interested parties, of course, western allies supplying a lot of funding, of course to the ukrainian side. when something like this either is highly touted as it was, doesn't go either as planned or as well as initially thought, what does the fallout look like there? will it contribute to fatigue among western supporters and support here? >> that's possible. that's vladimir putin's plan. he holds out as long as he can in the defense right now. they don't have to go into offensive operations. we're getting into the fall shortly and rainy season will make some of those roads impassable. it will make military operations much more difficult. next you know it's winter. now it's springtime. in the united states, we're full on with the presidential election. we'll have politicians arguing whether or not we should support this. right now ukraine needs probably two to three years of commitment from western allies if they're going to have any success with regard to trying to take some of their land back. their commitment right now has been six to eight months at a time. >> yeah. i want to look forward a little bit here because we have the first batch of u.s. abrams tanks approved to go over there. they won't get until the fall of course. to set context for our viewers, how much of a difference does that actually make when it arrives? >> well, they need 400, first of all. took a while to get 31 there. where those 31 are going to go will be the focus of where their attack has to be. the russians will know that, too. they'll concentrate troops there as well. but those tanks will still be exposed to being the tracks blown off from mines. they're not game changers on any level. they will provide more crew survivability from the ukraine crews they've been training in germany for. they'll jump in. they might provide a little bit of a difference. until you can combine the air with the ground and all those assets together, air defense platforms, combined arms is how you win a counteroffensive. and right now the ukraine military still fights one dimensionally. >> and, of course, you know, throughout this how long it's been developing of course over now years at this point for many allies that have been supporting, you've been looking for marginal progress, the counteroffensive was talked about so much going into it. now of course this is concerning in some circles as our reporting shows sobering in other circles. you bring up a good point. when we get to the election, there will be a lot of fighting over where this funding from the united states side goes. police in pennsylvania say a driver is facing charges after he crashed his car into a house, the second floor of said house. authorities say the driver was speeding when he veered off the road and went airborne. he was taken to the hospital. three people were inside the house but none of them were hurt. maryland state police say they have rescued almost four dozen people who were trapped in their vehicles for hours by downed power lines. storms knocked down several electric poles. crews had to deactivate to get the trapped passengers out. 33 adults, 14 children and 1 dog were rescued. so this morning, an explanation of sorts for why orioles fans cannot have nice things. the sports world is agas this morning after the ore yol's tv announcer appears to be taken off the air by the team. kevin brown has not announced a game since he basically noted how much better the first place orioles are this season than the last few. that's pretty much all he said. now the site awful announcing noticed he was off the air. the orioles claimed they don't comment on personnel moves. he hasn't been on the air. if that's enough to take off the air because he noted how good they are now and how bad they were, maybe we need to get sanjay on the line to talk about chronic thin skinnedness. kate? >> this is what happens when i forget to read what you're about to say before you say it. >> he was taken off the air for saying how good they are -- >> i will leave open one possibility and you can debate me. could there be more to this story? >> maybe, but all the sports sites that have done their reporting on this say that all the sources confirm it was the statement he made about how good they are now but how bad they were that upset the owners. >> so you're saying you can be taken off the air for speaking the truth? >> for speaking the truth, kate. >> hm. okay. let's move on. clearly have to dig deep into that one later. coming up still for us, a massive brawl breaks out on a river front dock in alabama. the whole mess caught on video as everything is these days. and now serious charges could be coming. we got more on this coming up. and the cousin of the uvalde killer, the cousin of the man who killed 19 children and two teachers in that school massacre, that cousin is now under arrest, accused of threatening to carry out a similar attack. we'll be back. ♪ food to the farmer's dog, the effects can seem like magic. but there's no magic involved. 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-i'm ready! alright. xfinity rewards creates experiences big and small, and once-in-a-lifetime. so, later today we expect an update from officials on the brawl at montgomery, alabama's, river front park. the police issued four warrants and more could be on the way after the fight between a group of white boaters and a black dock worker. the mayor of montgomery says justice should be served to the boaters, quote, for attacking a man who was doing his job. cnn's ryan young has the latest. >> reporter: an altercation on a montgomery, alabama, boat dock over the weekend between a group of white boaters and a black employee escalated into a massive brawl that resulted in multiple arrest warrants. montgomery mayor steven reed is calling for justice to be served for attacking a man who was doing his job. >> it's unfortunate incident. and it's something that we're investigating right now. we'll continue to go through that process before we take any additional steps. >> reporter: it all began when the black employee was trying to clear the dock space where the riverside cruise, the harriett ii normally docks. the cruiser was about to return to shore and needed its space to dock. >> you know, just doing his job. and for some reason they didn't like it. they didn't want to move the boat. and he decided to get physical with him. >> reporter: you can see in the video the black employee on the dock arguing with one of the men from the pontoon boat and then another shirtless white man charging at the employee and hitting him in the face. soon after that, you can see several others join in on the attack of the dock employee. in some of the video, which has gone viral, with millions of views, people on the boat can be heard yelling for someone to go help the employee. and at one point, you can see a young man who jumped off the boat, swimming ashore to help the man who was being attacked. >> the boat got closer. the guys and the crew members and everybody got off and that's when it happened. that's the reason why when they got off the boat, they came right to that smaller boat. >> reporter: that's when more fighting ensues. turning into an all-out brawl that included several people getting hit over the head with a folding chair. soon after, officers started trying to take control, handcuffing people in the fight. >> you know, they were the antagonists of the whole situation. arrest them because unfortunately when things happen, people of color are the first to be put in handcuffs. >> reporter: many questions remain about the melee that appeared to be very much split across racial lines. >> we are fully engaged and we are doing all of our due diligence to find out exactly what took place. >> reporter: yeah. talk about a story that's really taken social media by storm. there's a lot of people who analyzed this video from every angle. talking to that witness, though, she believes it's pretty clear that the man who was working was the one who was attacked. and police, of course, are investigating, they're asking anyone with video of this incident to come forward. hopefully today at the 2:00 p.m. news conference we'll learn much, much more about what police have been able to find out and who those people who are charged and what they are facing. guys. back to you. >> all right. our thanks to ss to ryan young that. again, update later today. kate? >> absolutely. let's turn to this. former vice president mike pence will be on the debate stage in milwaukee. an aide to his campaign tells cnn that as of this morning he has passed the final hurdle, if you will, to participate in the first republican presidential debate, hitting the key donor requirement threshold. reminder, there are several requirements that have been set by the rnc in order to participate, including the candidates must have 40,000 unique donors. and at least 200 individual donors from at least 20 states or territories. that is in addition to polling threshold of at least 1% in a handful of polls and pledge to support the eventual nominee. that said, welcome to the debate stage, mike pence, and welcome to the table, cnn senior political analyst john avlon and host of pbs firing line, margaret hoover. so mike pence is on the debate stage. how important is this that he made that threshold two weeks out? >> it's vitally important. not only of course to mike pence's campaign because it would be such an insult to the former vice president as the courage of his convictions calling out donald trump to not make the debate stage. but it's good for the debate. it's good to have mike pence's voice represented not because of his unique position in history and credibility when it comes to donald trump because evangelical voters motivated by faith-based politics should give the man another look. so far he can't get arrested. but this is a critical threshold. >> margaret, the pence campaign spokesperson gave this statement to fox news. mike pence madquick and easy work of the nor threshold and looking forward to a substantive debate about the issues important to the american people. hopefully former president trump has the courage to show up. how does this work if trump doesn't show up? who are they -- who are they debating? >> well, they're obviously debating the front-runner. if the front-runner doesn't show up, they're going to still draw contrasts with the front-runner. and mike pence is an important contrast with donald trump. when you think about who will be on that stage right now, mike pence is the next -- probably the second -- only the second person that's on the stage who will draw a stark contrast between himself and donald trump especially around his willingness to support the constitution, given his direct role in january 6th. seems pretty important. i mean, chris christie is the only other person on that stage willing to do it. so the more voices that represent the variety of defenses for the constitution on the right, the better in my view. >> you sat down with another republican candidate, vivek ramaswamy, he is polling above mike pence in the latest "new york times" poll, polling above mike pence in iowa, 5% among republicans versus 3% in this "new york times" poll. he had a lot to say to you, including yet again that he would pardon donald trump if he wins, which encapsulate to me something that is fascinating to so many, which is the strangest of tight ropes that these guys are trying to walk. >> you've said it so well. they're each innovating their own strange tight rope that in vivek's situation, he's very clearly decided that he -- he has this line which captures it all. he says, i'm not running against donald trump. i'm running next to donald trump. right? >> i never heard of such a thing. >> it's a little too clever by half. we're not that dumb. don't undermine the intelligence of the voters by trying to sound too smart. we all get the joke. but it is, to your point, his own reading of what's going to be acceptable to primary voters. by the way, he was at the lincoln dinner in iowa ten years ago where will hurd was booed from the stage. donald trump is running to stay out of jail. okay. so something that many of us believe to be true. you know, we all certainly understand that none of these cases will continue against the president if he is re-elected. so, it's to your point, another approach to trying to court trump-based voters while still differentiating one self subtly. >> it is a fascinating -- i want to see what this looks like on the debate stage. i really do. can i ask you about side-related all kind of wrapped up into the same thing mo brooks absolutely going off on donald trump. if you followed what happened in '22, how trump endorsed who he was running against. >> the arc of mo brooks. >> that may not be surprising. but it is surprising to see he went off on trump on -- it was on twitter. we can put up one example of it. this is a former republican congressman who stood at the ellipse with trump on january 6th, spoke at the rally on january 6th and now this. what thoughts? >> mo brooks was hip deep in the, quote unquote, ironically name stop the steal movement. he spoke at january 6th. trump turned on him because he showed a little bit of daylight. now brooks endorsing pence apparently saying that trump has no character, right? no character. look, any reading of the american history says character is the single most important quality in a president. what's significant is so many folks who used to be hard core trump allies, members of his cabinet are now trying to warn the american people and republican primary voters that this man is a threat to the republican unfit to serve office. that's extraordinary. and the question is whether those hard core trump supporters will take a note from people who actually know the man who worked alongside the man or whether they will remain totally fixated on their fantasy version of the man. >> look, we're constantly watching history happen and breaking with precedent and blah blah blah. >> blah blah blah technical term. >> technical term in my world. one republican candidate is polling broadly speaking 50 points ahead, how do you -- how do they catch up. >> i think it's really important to remember that this is not a national primary. this is 50 individual state primaries. frankly, it's not that many because somebody will take winner take all before then. you have iowa. mo brooks, by the way, is endorsing vice president pence. evangelical leader in iowa has decided not to support donald trump. to break with donald trump, to support other evangelical leaders. looking at tim scott and mike pence. there is a possibility, there is a long way to go that people slowly at first and then maybe more rapidly later can fall away from donald trump in iowa. he is still far and away the leader. but there is a -- i just spent ten days in iowa. there's a very strong sense in iowa, especially around political elites, that they take their role very seriously in the caucuses first in the nation. they want to ensure that their role is relevant in not nating who will be the next nominee. you go new hampshire where somebody other than trump could pull away. >> guys, thank you for being here. good to see you. omar? >> kate, these boards are,000s of travelers have been looking at. sometimes in fear of what they might hold. just ahead, hundreds of flights delayed or cancelled this morning after extreme storms. what to expect coming up. a man, his family, and his tractor, penny. these are the upshaws. and this is their playground. there's a story in every piece of land, run with us on a john deere tractor and start telling yours. using the finest materials, like indulgent memory foam, and ultra-conforming innersprings, for a beautiful mattress, and indescribable comfort. for a limited time, save $400 on select stearns & foster mattresses. having triplets is... -amazing -expensive. so, we switched to the bargain detergent, but we ended up using three times as much and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back with tide, and the clothes are clean again. do 3x the laundry and get a tide clean. it's got to be tide. this morning, we're getting a look at the damage caused by powerful storms that slammed several states in the east. >> oh my god. oh my god. >> see how fast that can happen. trees were literally snapped in half as you just saw. some of them even landing on homes. the storms produced softball size hail and hurricane-force wind gusts. a tornado touched down in a town in southern indiana, ripping roofs off homes and buildings. in westminster, maryland, close to 50 people were trapped in their cars for hours on a highway after downed power lines fell on to their vehicles. at least two people were killed by the storms. hundreds of thousands are still without power. and hundreds of flights have been cancelled or delayed this morning. parts of the country, as parts of the country prepare for another round of severe weather. so cnn's pete muntean has been tracking the delays and joins us from d.c.'s ronald reagan airport. pete, the thousands we talked about, or i should say the hundreds we're talking about, is an improvement from the thousands we were talking about. but as i can see behind you, i don't think people are satisfied with even just hundreds. >> reporter: still a lot of misery, clearly here, omar. in fact a lot of people, no doubt, got bumped on the flights today. we're not totally out of the woods just yet. the faa just implemented a ground stop for flights going to boston because of thunderstorms there. it's going to be in place for another 45 minutes until about 10:30 today. just checked flight aware. the numbers today are looking a little bit better than yesterday, but it's still pretty early. we have seen about 337 cancellations nationwide. about 1,700 or so delays. compare that to the numbers we saw yesterday which were huge. the cancellations put the numbers in the top five we have seen since memorial day. we have seen about 1,700 cancellations yesterday. the delay number, though, is the really big one. 8,800 flights delayed yesterday. that's a third of all flights in the u.s. arriving on average, according to flight aware, about an hour and ten minutes late. the worst airports -- and this is really key -- atlanta was the worst for cancellations yesterday laguardia and newark, new jersey, charlotte. the big headline is atlanta because that is the world's busiest airport. it's also the worldwide headquarters for delta airlines which is now apologizing to its customers, saying it's working to get its schedule back on track after a delayed about 1,300 flights yesterday. a third of all of its flights scheduled. so, we will see as the day develops here. the faa warning not only of that ground stop in new england, but also we're going to see it says in florida. and miami n orlando, palm beach, ft. lauderdale and we could see atlanta once again on the list. so if you're flying delta today, maybe pack a little extra patience. it should be a tough one. >> wow. pete f we're talking misery at the airport the only consolation is you're on top of it all for us. pete, thank you so much. john? >> a third of the flights in the country delayed an average of an hour or more. that's crazy. so teenage cousin of the uvalde gunman accused of threatening to, quote, do the same thing. ♪ that new neighbor is hot! that's my husband... it's the inspire implant. he's not struggling with cpap anymore. all that rest is working wonders for him. inspire. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com. they're off from school, but not really home. images and videos. social media, fine-tuned to suck them in. . . alone you can't stop it. together we will. we have a plan. join us. ( ♪ ) with new scope squeez mouthwash concentrate, just add water. squeez to control the strength of your mouthwash. and find a zone all your own. ♪ ♪ scope squeez. - [female narrator] they line up by the thousands. each one with a story that breaks your heart. like ravette... every step, brought her pain. their only hope: mercy ships. the largest floating civilian hospital in the world. bringing free surgeries to people who have no other hope. $19 a month will help provide urgently needed surgery for so many still suffering. so don't wait, call the number on your screen. or donate at mercyships.org. subway refreshed everything and now they're slicing their deli meats fresh. that's why this qb profers the new five meat beast. and this qb profers it. and if we profer it. we know you'll profer it too. are you trying to outspokesperson me? maybe. john, extremely disturbing that coming to light after all of these court documents, it was the mother and sister who reached out to the investigators about these warnings after james nathan cruz was taken into custody yesterday in san antonio and the arrest affidavit, the mother tells investigators that the shooter of the uvalde shooter was planning to do the same thing that his cousin had done in robb elementary school in may of 12022 where 19 schoolchildren and three teachers were killed. and he was on the phone trying to make arrangements for the illegal arrangements for the purchase of an ar handgun. and now with the school documents the school shooter was not identified because the cousin denied making the statements to investigators, but right now the 17-year-old is being held on the charges of making a terroristic threat to a public place and held on a $160,000 bond. john. >> thank you, ed lavandera. truly disturbing. kate. >> yes. and now, out of ukraine, a sobering new assessment out of the counteroffensive. new details ahead. the high interest... i felt trapped. debt! debt! debt! debt! so i broke up with my credit card debt and consolidated it into a low rate personal loan from sofi. i finally feel like a grown-up. break up with bad credit card debt. get a personal loan with low fixed rates and borrow up to $100k. go to sofi.com to view your rate. sofi get your money right. rsv is in for a surprise. meet arexvy. 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