midnight. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is friday, december 30th. new year s eve on this final morning, joe, of the year. and this morning, there is more heat on new york congressman-elect george santos, who also now is under federal investigation after it was revealed that he lied about his resume while campaigning for congress. we ll have new reporting on what these charges could be. plus, newly released transcripts from the january 6th committee, showing the struggle within the trump white house to keep bad information, conspiracy theories, away from the president and the failure to do that in many cases. we ll take a closer look at former white house chief of staff, mark meadows, in his failed role as presidential gatekeeper. plus, after thousands of canceled flights and a reputation now in tarts, southwest airline says it finally expects to resume normal operations today. we ll tell you what the company is saying it plans to do to somehow make things right.
deadly winter weather still wreaking havoc across the country. travel is still a nightmare. unless one of those passengers get a wild hair and decides with a group of other passengers to rent a car and drive 20 hours to their destination together. that s exactly what some of our guests tonight did. in a little while i ll introduce you to this group of intrep travellers, total strangers, who had quite the adventure. they recorded their trip, and it went viral. meanwhile, 10 million people across the south are under freeze alerts. and the death toll from this storm is rising. at least 49 people have died across the country. 27 of those are in the buffalo area. and authorities fear that they ll find more bodies in cars, as they begin to dig out from what s being called the worst storm in the region s history. you can see some of it there. and while police have their hands full with rescues, stores are being looted. so, i ll talk to a supermarket manager who spent christmas eve
followening dangerous conditions in new york as night falls and the governor is appealing for federal help. miguel marquez is joining us not far from buffalo. miguel, what is happening on the ground? reporter: just a nightmare. buffalo is a city used to big storms. this is something they have never seen before. 27 people inn erie county new york dead from this storm and authorities are concerned going through homes and cars abandoned and start to clear the snow. massive amounts of snow they will find more people who are dead. the airport is shut down. they re not expected to open until wednesday. it is just an absolute disaster that officials there are only beginning to grapple with. the ability to clear the roads, this is a no drive zone in buffalo in many surrounding communities. thousands of people without power and the governors of new york say it is not over yet. the storm is coming back. we re expecting another six to 12 inches and in the south towns of southern par
some dying in snow buried cars, others in homes with no power. conditions so bad rescuers needed rescuing. and the travel nightmare continues for thousands of americans, so far more than 3,000 flights have been canceled today, the majority are southwest flights. plus, how a toy and a car led police to find a kidnapped baby. welcome to the lead i m phil mattingly in today for jake tapper. we begin with the rising death toll from the vicious winter weather across the country. at least 49 people across nine states have died from storms, at least 27 of those deaths are centered in buffalo, new york, and surrounding erie county which were hit with a blizzard, winds so fierce they reached hurricane strength, rescuers had to be sent out to help stranded rescue crews facing, quote, some of the worst conditions that any of us have ever seen. many roads around buffalo remain impassable, driving bans still in place in some areas as crews try to clear the streets to restore power
of the state. buffalo and other cities are struggling to dig out of 43 inches of snow and freezing temperatures and power outages. i ll talk with the buffalo police commissioner this hour. many americans are still feeling the effects of the arctic blast, including millions of air travelers. southwest airlines experiencing massive disruptions, with more than 65% of its flights canceled just today, adding to the holiday travel chaos. also tonight, vladimir putin claims he s ready to negotiate a solution to the ukraine war, but a key ukrainian official says the russian president needs to get back to reality, as moscow continues to slaughter innocent civilians. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin this hour with the deadly weather emergency in western new york. governor kathy hochul is calling it, and i m quoting her, the blizzard of the century and she is warning it is far from over.