Thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these truly extraordinary times. We are grateful. The beat with katie phang in for ari starts right now. Hi, katie. Hi, nicolle. Thank you so much. Welcome to the beat for the rest offuous. I am katie phang in for ari melber. We start with flashing Warning Signs for american democracy at a Pivotal Moment in the American Campaign season. As of tonight President Biden and former President Trump have clenched the threshold for meeting they primaries. Its the earliest matchup in nearly a quarter of a century. In 2000 al gore and george w. Bush clenched their nominations just four days earlier than joe biden and donald trump. Of course, that election ended at the United States Supreme Court. And this election starts there. Trump set to make the unprecedented argument for total president ial immunity in his coup case next month, as accountability for january 6th rioters dpriends forward. Just today a federal judge ordering that a trump
heavily armed left wing militia group, the guys dressed likeft storm troopers in black masks, you remember them, of course. well, from a summer of 2020, they burned our cities thatcitis year. churches and police stations and courthouses. thw, the point of the violence they committed, the extensive violence and the killings they committed was to defeat donald they cos donald trump, make the country so chaotic thatc voters would want to change. ero they were effective in doing that. so effective.tive t the kamalahat harris herselfjal raised money to bail them out e of jail.nd a the end. antifa played a pivotal role in our presidential election that more so than any other organized bloc of voters. thepresidn the moment joe bin was inaugurated antifa seemed to disappear, nobody asked any questions about where they went, much less about who they were or who was paying them. they d serve their purpose. and then they left. so in retrospect, it s very clear who antifa was and i
the world. i m whitney wild. the death toll from that huge winter storm keeps rising. it is now up to 62 deaths across 11 states. of those by far the greatest share were in erie county, new york, where at least 37 people died. a horrible storm with too many deaths. we know without the work of these first responders and others, more people would have died. first responders are still checking on callers they couldn t reach in buffalo which was buried under nearly 52 inches of snow. overnight buffalo lifted a driving ban. cnn s miguel marquez has more on the digout. reporter: buffalo digging out. officials here responding to criticism they should have done more. 35-mile-an-hour wind gusts for three hours straight with less than a quarter mile visibility. monique alexander died in the storm on christmas eve. a buffalo native who had been through many snowstorms here thought this one was the same. we were waiting for her to come home. i knew something was wrong right a
hello. i m pamela brown. welcome to cnn newsroom. the historic storm the new york governor called the blizzard of the century has now killed 25 people in the buffalo area. and a top erie county official says that number is likely to rise. he said the conditions have been so severe, their own rescuers needed rescuing. intense winds created whiteout conditions as 43 inches of snow dropped in just 24 hours. listen to what one family with four young kids faced, after they lost power and went in search of a heated hotel room. it was very intense. we tried to keep it together for as long as possible. because we didn t want to fight. it was like looking at a white piece of construction paper. you couldn t see anything at all. like absolutely nothing until you were probably about a foot away from even cars. with their bright lights on. you just couldn t see anything. not yellow traffic signs, not traffic. you couldn t see anything. you couldn t see a traffic light. you have t
holiday. freeze warnings still in effect in several states at this hour. blizzard conditions, at least 26 people have died in the actic blast, across eight state. in a hard-hit erie county, new york, roads remain impassable. still, a very dangerous situation. driving bans are still in place. this was the first time in buffalo fire history that they were unable to respond to calls. we want to remind everybody, there was a period hours straight in which we could not send out emergency service crews, because it was too dangerous. we will talk to that official in just a few minutes. plus, bitter-cold icing over the christmas celebrations in the midwest, east coast and southeast, even florida is feeling the chill, much of the state experiencing its coldest christmas since 1983. let s start in buffalo, new york. polo sandoval is braving is the cold temperatures there. merry christmas. reporter: merry christmas. it is in a recovery process right now, the sun finally came o