Winter storms from the Pacific Northwest to new england, texas to tallahassee, weve seen temperatures plunge in some places by tens of degrees an hour. Coastal flooding, gail forced winds, Blizzard Conditions, roads iced over causing massive pileups, including the one you see here on the Ohio Turnpike that took one life at least. Were also seeing more than a million homes without power tonight, more than 5,000 flights cancelled. C cnn Polo Sandoval is live for us and drivers are stranded on icy roads and omar jimenez is at ohare. We begin with Polo Sandoval. What can you tell us about the stranded drivers and what theyre facing tonight . Reporter it is going to be a very long frigid night, Jim For County officials as they will be out in these conditions going through hundreds of Stranded Cars Inn erie county and rescuig people inside. Officials said this is something they feared of happening so they implemented at 9 30 this morning a driving ban hoping people would stay home but sadly, we know there are many people out in these kinds of conditions, jim. Ill let you look at this for yourself. These Whipping Winds started early this morning and been relentless. They have not stopped and mark, the executive of erie county reporting it is very like ly these conditions will continue all night but the winds are likely to continue. Earlier today wind gusts of 79 miles an hour confirmed by the National Weather service in buffalo. That surpassed what they saw during a historic blizzard in 1977. So authorities certainly not kidding, jim, when they said this was going to be an extraordinary storm. Finally, authorities here are sending out as much advice as they can to folks that are str stranded. I know sometimes folks will listen to us on Satellite Radio in cars. The key advice if youre stranded to stay in the car and simply run it for ten minutes at a time for heat, make sure that exhaust is clear and then to make sure that authorities can see you if they pass by but again, the key to stay in the vehicle and finally, ill show you why as i make sure there is no traffic coming. If you step out of the car, its so easy to basically lose any visibility and become extremely disoriented and thats what authorities are worried about come tomorrow morning many people could at least they could wake up to horrible news and thats why authorities will be working all night long, braving this conditions to make sure that people are safe and really what ive heard time and time again here, jim, coming from even governor kathy hochul, people need to resist the urge in the area to leave their homes to spend christmas with their families if theyre not with them already. Yeah, theyd rather have you safe. Polo sandoval, credit to your team for showing us how bad it is out there. Please stay safe yourselves. Reporter thank you, jim. Buffalos mayor will be with us shortly. First, chicago and Ohare International airport, a major hub for united and American Airlines and home for the moment to our omar jimenez and omar, weve been watching things there and listen, as we can see behind you, folks are still out there trying to get where they want to go but i wonder what theyre facing tonight. Reporter yeah, you wonder how many people here are actually being successful in getting on their flights to get where they need to go. Weve been seeing the number of cancellations continue to tick up over the day. 500 just here at ohare alone, the airport announced. When you look nationwide, weve seen more than 5300 air Flight Cancellations across the u. S. , according to flight aware and that is on top of the more than 9200 delays we have seen at airports across the u. S. Today and all of that happening the day before Christmas Eve when the demand to maybe get to somewhere warm or even more importantly, to get to loved ones is as high as it would ever be and all of those factors, of course, with the Winter Conditions we are seeing have come together to create a bit of chaos here. 3,000 or so cancellations this morning and now already above 5,000. Chicago, this is the coldest christmas there, Christmas Eve since 1983. What are officials telling people about how to safely stay warm . Reporter look, chicago is a place thats no stranger to cold but this one in particular is a very, very difficult situation. I mean, were looking at wind chills negative 25 degrees outside right now. So officials are telling people who are likely with families or still trying to go out to eat places, youiously and layer up. The city opened multiple warming centers. There is a concern for those on the streets at night as well to try to give them at least some safety. So a lot of fact tors in bitter dangerous level of cold, jim . No question. Listen to that advice, folks. Its important. Omar jimenez, thanks so much. For a better idea how big, how bad and how much worse this could get, lets check in with cnn meteorologist derrick van dam. What is the latest forecast and how quickly this storm will move through the country and which areas should we be keeping an eye on . Yeah, look, its such a multi faceted storm. You heard about the arctic air that settled in across the eastern u. S. Youve heard about the wind and you saw popolos live shot in buffalo. When it comes to the dangers from this system, it is this bitter, bitter air that were all experiencing in places that dont normally experience these types of temperatures, as birmingham, alabama, jackson, mississippi, atlanta, georgia, were going to be below freezing for at least 48 hours. This is on the eve of Christmas Eve, that could be the coldest in the record books for atlanta going back 50 years. So get to my graphics because i want to show you the location of where this arctic blast of air is. The cold front is quite significant over the eastern u. S. And as we move into the i95 corridor, there is not a lot of precipitation going on but of course, the cold air reached you in new york, d. C. And boston. The cold front has moved through. Settling into buffalo, its the Wind Direction that makes this so potent because its carrying all that moisture from the relatively warm waters of lake erie and producing the snowfall on the opposite end where polo is located and that is where were going to be measuring snowfall in feet. We might not see buffalo for a couple of days because of how much snow will fall down wind from lake erie, Lake On Ttario D lake michigan. My hometown in grand rapids is getting hammered. The wind gusts are not typos, right . Were talking about near hurricane forced gusts for many locations as this cold front moves through with Wind Advisories and warnings in place, all along the eastern seaboard, jim. That combination is amazing and also can be deadly. Its dangerous. Derrick van dam, thank you. Joining us by phone, buffalos mayor biron brown. My mayor, we saw w Polo Sandoval o the streets. It looks like a freezing hurricane. Its cold and strong winds, as well. You have people stranded in their cars inner recounty. Whats the latest were he hear about them . Are you able to get to them . In the city proper we have 50 people stranded in cars and erie county could be as many as 200 people stranded in cars. We impose driving bans this morning at 9 30 a. M. Myself and Erie County Executive mark. We knew that this storm would get people caught up, that people would get stuck if they drove unnecessary and what we feared when we imposed the driving ban certainly is happening right now. We will be sending buffalo police, Buffalo Firefighters and erie county sheriffs out to rescue people that are stranded in their cars, those people that drove unnecessarily, they put themselves at risk and theyre putting First Responders at risk, as well. So for folks watching this right now, were couple days to christmas, they still want to see their family and see their friends. What do you say to them about what they should and should not do tomorrow and the next day . Well, nobody should have been driving today. The driving ban will extend into tomorrow and our major priority is Public Safety and the safety of First Responders and essential workers. We tried to put messages out because this storm was forecast in advance that people should get into buffalo, should get with families, their Family Members by thursday knowing that the storm would begin to hit friday morning at 7 00 a. M. And that it would not let up until sunday, monday. So right now, if youre not here, if youre not with family, its going to be very challenging. The roads are really bad. Were looking at between 36 to 48 inches of snow. Wow. Thats the latest projection if from meteorologists. As has been mentioned, wind gusts of 79 miles an hour so it this has been a very challenging storm. Weve also seen trees down, power lines down, poles down, visibility at zero for driving so we want people to put their safety ahead of their desire to travel right now. Well, as you mentioned, its their safety and First Responders safety, as well. Mayor biron brown, we wish you The Best Of Luck coming out. You got a lot on your plate and the people of buffalo, as well, thanks for joining us. Thank you very much, jim. Happy holidays. To you, too. Well have continuing live coverage of this throughout the hour including from the southern border where temperatures feel more like the northern border and thousands of My Gigrants Co be literally out in the cold tonight as shelters fill up and next, we have transcripts of Big Name Testimony From The January 6th Committee with the new revelations from the final report about just how organized, persistent, premeditated and wide ranging the former president s effort was to overturn the election he lost. Will you make Something Better . Create something new . Our Dell Technologies s advisors can provide you with the tools and expertise you need to bring out the innovator in you. Ugh, this rental car is so boring to drive. Lets be honest. The rentacar industry is the definiti of boring. And the reason can be und in the name itself. Rent a car . You dont nt a friend. You want the friend. You dont want a job. You want the job. The is always over a. Thats why we dont offer a car. 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Our team has been parsing through the pages and learned ivanka trump did hand over Text Messages to the committee but were not clear about the conat the present times contents of the text. Ivanka said she didnt exchange texts with trump on any device and the committee uncovered a White House Press released, get this, drafted but never sent that would have called for Firing Anyone that disagreed with trumps false claims of election fraud. So jim, the Committee Said the transcripts will keep coming out over the next few days through the end of this year, but really, the most riveting details are contained in the 845page report released last night. And we fight. We fight like hell. The January 6th Committee leaving no doubt former President Donald Trump was the one singularly responsible for the attack on the capitol. The 845page report says none of the events of january 6th would have happened without him drawing a line between election denials and events that unfolded that day. After sending four criminal referrals to the Justice Department for trump, the committee is recommending hes barred from Holding Government office again zeroing in saying any Office Holder that engage in an insurrection can be disqualified from serving again. No man what would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office. House investigators say trump and his inner circle engaged in 200 attempts to pressure State Officials to overturn the results including this call with georgias secretary of state. I just want to find 11,780 votes which is one more than we have because we won the state. The report also highlighting other key players in the alleged conspiracy identifying protrump lawyer kenneth as the architect of the fake electors plot and a 23minute call between trump and john eastman as the genesis of the Pressure Campaign against Vice President mike pence. If mike pence does the right thing, we win the election. This leading the committee to recommend an overhaul of the 1887 electoral count act thats close to becoming a reality as the house and Senate Passed their own reform bills. But back in 2020, trump did not agree with every outlandish theory his team presented. The massive influence of communist money through venezuela, cuba, and likely china in the interference with our elections here in the United States. Reporter when Snide Ydney P repeated these theories, hope hicks told the committee the president muted his Speaker Phone and laughed at powell telling others in the room this does sound crazy, doesnt it . The committee laying out trumps failure to act for 187 minutes during the riot writing President Trump did not contact a single Top National Security official during the day. Trump responding to the report Calling Ait A witch hunt and still falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Republicans will take over the house in short order. What is next for the committee . This is pretty much the end of the road. This is what they were aiming for. They issued the report. Were expecting the transcripts to trickle out as we head toward the end of the year and the change Overin Congress but of course, the real next thing that well keep an eye on are the on going criminal investigations. Weve been reporting a lot on the investigation out of fulton co county, georgia. The d. A. There is really going full speed ahead in the investigation into Election Interference and of course, the relatively newly named special counsel jack smith that took over a few weeks ago but already been going full steam ahead, as well. He issued a flurry of subpoenas that over the past few weeks to Election Officials ins so a lot into the new year, jim. Jessica schneider, thanks so much. Perspective from former deputy assistant, former Pennsylvania Republican congressman charlie dent and cnn Political Analyst at axios. Good to have all of you. Elliott, the committee made its case here. Of course to make such a case, you have to prove things beyond a reasonable doubt. Based on the evidence from the january ever 6th committee, did do so . Did they prove crimes . They alleged crimes and as youve said, its up to the Justice Department to establish what they can get into court and convince the jury of. They picture lets s