>> i became very, very vocal and very public with the aids issue based on the fact that we were losing so many people. ♪ that i do believe i love you ♪ >> something had to be done. ♪ keep smiling, keep shining ♪ . >> she was definitely a hero of mine and a hero to a lot of people. she was the first person in the music business to speak up about it. ♪ that's what friends or for ♪ >> the royalties for "that's what friends are for" changed the trajectory of the epidemic in america. >> i did what i could do, and that's the way i moved to this very day. ♪ that's what friends are for. >> that's going to be good. don't miss dionne warwick, "don't make me over" at nine p.m. new year's day. thanks for joining us. "ac 360" starts right now.

days before republicans assume the majority in the house and likely dissolve the january 6th committee, members released a new batch of testimony involving efforts of those closest to the former president and their attempts to overturn the election. i'm pamela brown in for anderson tonight. and included in the new transcripts is testimony by donald trump jr. and remarks about what he believed was a, quote, sophisticated legal rationale to overturn the election, as in overturn the will of the people. one nearly identical to what his fathers allies would soon attempt. and there is also some rather unflattering testimony involving first lady melania trump's opinion of trump jr. and others in her husband's inner circle. also tonight, new details of a purported conversation involving senator lindsey graham who said he would become a champion of these baseless election fraud claims if the president's allies could, quote, just give me five

dead voters. it is a lot to unpack. let's start with sara murray, who has been digging through these transcripts all week for us. sara, what more can you tell us about the new details from donald trump jr.'s testimony to the committee? >> pam, this is interesting because we have of course previously reported on the mark meadows text, the former trump white house chief of staff who was so important to this investigation. and donald trump's testimony really digs into those. we previously reported that donald trump jr. had sent a text to mark meadows essentially laying out a way to keep donald trump in power, keep him in the white house. it was very similar to the strategy that his allies actually put forward, as you said. so the committee is asking donald trump jr. essentially why did you send this text. this is what he says. he says perhaps in reading it, it was the most sophisticated and detailed again about things i don't necessarily know too much about. but it sounded plausible. and i wanted to make sure that we were looking into the issues brought up in the text. now donald trump jr. notes in

his interview with the committee that he thought this was a copy and paste job. he was not the one who wrote it. and that's what his attorney had told cnn originally when we reported on the mark meadows text. >> you're also learning about senator lindsey graham's offer to support then president trumps election fraud claims. >> we know the south carolina senator, a republican has been a close ally of the former president. this really gives us an indication of how much he wanted to be out there supporting donald trump as he was trying to challenge the election. this is from a transcript with an interview with christina bobb who is a member of trump's legal time at the time. she is recounting a conversation she had with the senator. and the senator says just give me five dead votes. give me, you know, an example of illegals voting. just give me a very small snapshot that i can take and champion. and this of course interesting because you didn't need five dead votes to overturn the election. you needed a whole lot more votes for donald trump to be the victor in this. but what lindsey graham is essentially saying is give me

something symbolic that i can go out there and talk about and use in donald trump's favor. >> yeah so, i can continue to sow doubt about the election results. sara murray, stay with us. i want to bring in cnn contributor john dean, former white house council for president nixon and cnn political contributor david urban, a republican strategist and former trump campaign adviser. all right, so david, you heard sara lay it out. we all know the former president and his allies were obsessed with finding voter fraud. but now we're learning more about what was conspiring behind the scenes with a sitting senator lindsey graham saying according to this testimony, give me five dead voters that i can go out and champion. your reaction. >> so what i think lindsey graham is saying is give me something credible. give me something plausible that i can go out and take to people. not some scatter brained notions that are being flown around the internet. lindsey graham is looking for proof, what other people are looking for too. he said give me some proof, and

i'll go out and talk about it. i think later in that system it appears lindsey graham said hey, there is no proof here. i'm not going forward. i never did anything with it. there is no there there. there is a lot of testimony to read here. if the viewers tonight are looking to spend the next couple of weeks reading through things, sara is doing yeoman's job reading through all the transcripts. but there are hundreds and hundreds of pages. i was reading through some of them today. it's very interesting. there is acknowledgment on the capitol police epic failures. ray epps' deposition, a guy who is kind of an fbi plant. lots of interesting things to read in there. but i think cassidy hutchinson was high point of this whole hearings. should have done a mike job after she testified. >> i want to go back to what we learned today in this testimony because, david, you're saying, look, he was just trying to say give me something credible that i can go out. but five, you know, dead voters

is not enough to go it and celebrate, as he said he would do if they found that. >> well, no. >> he wasn't asking to find voter fraud on a scale that would impact the election results. it appears, according to:00 according to this testimony from christina bobb that he wanted to be able to use that to sow doubt about the election results. i'm wondering what you think about this, john dean? what kind of window does this offer? >> i think david is right on this one. graham was toying with this, not sure what to do. he had no solid evidence to go public with, and he was looking -- he wanted to help the cause. and he did help the cause. he didn't actually get what he needed, but he still started pounding the drum. this is so much information that's coming at us from these. it's actually like drinking out of several water hoses simultaneously. i look forward to studying the

gram interview because he wasn't particularly cooperative, and this wasn't really a session. this is hearsay that we're dealing with. somebody that was called to give much more detailed testimony. >> that's why we're emphasizing this was testimony given by someone else. but i will say it also corroborates what i'm told by sources that many republicans on both sides on the house and in the senate, they were trying to -- they were asking trump's team, look, give us something to verify the claims that you're making publicly. now, their motivations for doing so, they could have scattered. but that was certainly in line with what was going on behind the scenes. we also learned former first lady melania trump didn't trust the people in her husband's circle and what more can you tell us about that? >> this is interesting. again, it's not testimony from melania trump, but it is

testimony from stephanie grisham, who was a top aide to melania trump while they were in the white house. and she was recounting that, you know, melania trump really sort of began to distrust advice that her husband was getting from donald trump jr., his son, kimberly guilfoyle, junior's fiancee, sidney powell, rudy giuliani. she just felt like her husband was not getting good advise. according to the stephanie grisham testimony, she was also getting a little peeved. people kept showing up in the residence at all hours. melania is up in the residence trying to live her life. at one point she might be in a robe and all of the sudden one of trump's advisers would show up totally unannounced. you could see why perhaps that would be a little bit annoying. >> can understand that. so john, when you put the latest piece of the puzzle in place along with other pieces we learned this week, like chief of staff mark meadows telling the white house staff to keep a, close hold on oval office meetings, what picture is

emerging to you? >> well, i'm surprised at how much testimony they actually have accumulated. i think what facilitated it was the process they used of using things like zoom and other media devices that enable them to take countless testimony and with some ease. so that's one of the reasons we have so much. we got it so quietly. no one saw witnesses traipsing in and out of executive sessions for all this. so i think what's coming together is how much support they have, and it's largely republican testimony for the report, which i'm plowing through, the 820 some pages of it. and it's extremely well documented. so i'm now reading the documentation as well. >> yeah, it is. and thank godness for sara for highlighting some of the key parts. it's a lot to absorb, but it is

important to absorb to get the context. you've been reading through it as well. as you take a step back, i want to know what your observation is of all of this. you used to advise the former president. >> sure. >> what is your reaction? >> my takeaway is not surprisingly that the center of this all surrounds mark meadows, the chief of staff to the president of the united states. he is the gatekeeper. he is the person who is supposed to make sure that bad people don't get into the meetings, that rudy giuliani and sidney powell don't come in with half-baked ideas that justin cipollone and pat clark are listening to. it comes down to mark meadows is not a good gatekeeper, not helping the president make good decisions. i think at the end of the day, he is going to be facing the most legal jeopardy out of this whole thing. i'm not obviously a prosecutor. seems he is facing problems in

georgia. they can't get the president of the united states, which they're not going get. they're going get somebody pretty high up. i would be shocked if they weren't gunning for mark meadows, the department of justice and state of georgia at this point. >> what do you say to a viewer who might say that and say it sound like you might be putting all the blame on mark meadows. doesn't trump take the blame here? he put mark meadows in that role as well. >> i'm not absolving the president or blaming mark meadows. i'm making more of a realistic statement of fact. the president is not going to end up going down on this here. they withdrew the subpoenas. >> the committee today. >> yeah, the committee did. not doj. they withdrew all the outstanding subpoenas. proving criminal culpability is a much tougher thing than suggesting that somebody did something morally represent sensible there is a big difference between those two.

i think what the department of justice is going to try to do is get convictions. they're not going to be able to do that with the president. they're going to do that with other people. >> really quick, john, do you agree with that? >> i don't necessarily agree with that. i think an overwhelming case, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is out there against trump. it's really going to be a question of do we prosecute a former president, not whether we can and have it nailed, which i think they do they're blowing away all the privileges that are appearing in this report, people like cipollone and others who now have had to testify in front of the grand jury. different game in front of the grand jury. >> all right, sara murray, john dean, david urban, great to have you on. thank you. still to come tonight, congressman-elect george santos' latest conflicting statement, this time about when his mother died. was it after 9/11, as he has said? or some time much later. we're going have the latest on that and the federal investigation into his finances. and then later, we're going

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has told about his mother and 9/11. cnn's sunlen serfaty has the details. >> shame, shame, shame! >> reporter: scrutiny is intensifying around congressman-elect george santos. >> watching this slow george santos train wreck take place. >> reporter: federal prosecutors in new york opening an investigation into santos' finances, with big questions over how the republican made his money and the $700,000 he loaned to his 2022 campaign. locally, santos is facing another probe from the nassau county district attorney's office, calling the numerous fabrications and inconsistencies nothing short of stunning. >> did i embellish my resume, yes, i did, and i'm sorry. and it shouldn't be done. >> reporter: and tonight, new questions about santos' statement about 9/11 having a role in his mother's death.

in a tweet last year, he writes 9/11 claim my mother's life. >> she was in the south tower. she made it out. she got caught up in the ash cloud. my mom fought cancer until she died. >> his mom died in 2016. santos' campaign says she passed away when she lost her battle with cancer. many first responders and survivors developed health conditions after the terror attack. but it is not clear if his mother was in the world trade center during the attack, and representatives for santos have not yet clarified. this just adding to the whole slew of new fabrications unearthed by cnn's k file. >> they sent me to prep school, which was horace mann prep in the bronx. >> reporter: but that claim is false, according to the school, she had not and goldman sachs spoke out against him at a financial conference he never attended. he used his mother's jewish name when there is no evidence of

that name in his family tree and his claim his mother emigrated from europe when she was born in brazil. >> now it's going to be on me to deliver those results. >> you're exactly right. >> i look forward to serving my district. >> reporter: as santos' attempts to move forward to capitol hill. >> i'm not a criminal. i committed no crime. >> reporter: the legal road ahead for him could be treacherous. >> where and how did he get this money? >> as the federal probe zeros in on hiss finances. >> if you intentionally make a false statement about your assets or anything else that matters, that too could be a federal false statements crime. >> reporter: sunlen serfaty, cnn, washington. >> and perspective now from cnn senior political commentator, former governor john kasich, a republican who was a congressman from ohio for 18 years. and chan wu, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. governor kasich, starting with you, republican lawmakers i've spoken to privately have been quick to pounce on santos, saying this is a really bad look for the gop. but they're reluctant to do so

publicly, in large part because house republican leader kevin mccarthy hasn't said anything publicly. do you think he needs to address all that's been uncovered about congressman-elect santos? >> of course he should, pamela. he ought to be condemning how this guy was able to basically lie his way into office. you know, people say he won't do it because it could jeopardize the speaker's job for him. well, that's kind of nonsense actually. if kevin mccarthy were to come out and say look, what this guy did was reprehensible, assuming that he doesn't have deep, deep behavioral problems, pamela, nobody is talking about that, i wonder about that, but what mccarthy ought to say, it's reprehensible, and he is going to be immediately referred to the ethics committee. and through that process, he could face expulsion. and then people would take another look at mccarthy and say

sometimes you need to put the institution and principles ahead of your own personal gain. and if he did it, i think he would be admired for it. probably still get to be speaker. so of course he should be out condemning it. it's absolutely outrageous. and the party should do it. there is no reason to be hiding on things like this. the country needs leadership. and sometimes leadership demands that you take risks you make a sacrifice for the good of the republic. >> yeah. you know, it was interesting, though, because i was speaking to a donor tonight before the show who was introduced to santos through elise stefanik who is in republican leadership. this person feels duped and really disappointed that they donated to santos' campaign under false premises. and i'm wondering, is there any legal recourse for those folks? >> probably not. i mean, i would love to see some creative lawyering come up with some theories like a consumer

fraud kind of notion. but it's mostly political recourse. there are instances where campaigns returned contributions, but those are usually, for example, the donor is exceeding their limit, or if the donor is kind of questionable or shady, then that donation gets returned too. but this is the governor's bailiwick. but if all these big donors began lining up publicly saying they want refunds, even though they i know mai have no legal mechanism, that could have some effect. >> yeah. governor kasich, when you look at the options here, as someone who served in the house for nearly two decades, tell us more about the recourse for members to potentially hold santos accountable. >> well, i think he's got to be referred to the ethics committee. first of all, you think about the facts. should they not seat him? it crossed my mind, and i've had discussions with people. the problem with that, pamela, is the people did vote for him. and if you were to begin to say well, we're not going to seat him because he misled people, i

mean, think of how politicians at times in elections mislead people, where does it stop? so the best process is to let the process work. and that is to refer him to the ethics committee. and at the same time, either there are a number of investigations going on. and did he violate some law in the process of this. look, he is not going to be there for long. there is going to be so much pressure on him to leave, and i think at some point he will leave. i hope when that happens, he is able to leave cleanly and hopefully not harm himself in the process. when you think about all the things he's saying, it's a very disturbed individual. very disturbed man. and i think we have to keep that in mind. that doesn't mean we don't go forward. we have to go forward in that ethics committee, which is a bipartisan committee, if they can once act in a bipartisan way, could be able to resolve this, you know, inside the house of representatives. >> you mention the

investigation. we know santos is facing investigations into his finances. i'm told by a source familiar that doj is looking into that. also looking into his fabrications. in your view, where is he most vulnerable legally for from what we know? >> it is in the finances, pam. that's where he would be vulnerable legally, because the big question, the $750,000 question is where did that money come from. and ironically for him, that probably would have escaped any scrutiny if it wasn't for all these apparent lies he told about his biography. and among those is it turns out maybe he didn't graduate from college, didn't graduate from horace mann, didn't really work for goldman sachs. how did he get this money? that's what raises the issue. if it turns out that the source of that money is questionable, that it was an improper loan to him and channeled into the campaign, that's going to be a fairly clear path to criminal liable for him. >> and of course -- go ahead. >> just say one other thing and that is, look, if there is

anything this country needs, it's leadership. it's leadership across many different sectors of how our country works, whether it's business or sports. but in politics, this is a golden opportunity for somebody like kevin mccarthy to be a real leader and to say we're not going to deface the house of representatives. we'll let the process go forward, but frankly, at the end of the day, if it jeopardizes me, that's frankly okay if i don't have the votes because there is something more important than just winning. and i think we all have to reflect on that as we move forward into a brand-new year in 2023. >> john kasich, shan wu, thank you so much. coming up tonight, explosions shocked ukraine today in what kyiv is calling one of the most massive missile attacks from russia since the war began. we'll have the latest on that up next.

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to have a voice and equal justice. and we will never stop because we the people, means all of us. so please call or go online to myaclu.org to become a guardian of liberty today. tonight, several cities across ukraine are left with limited power supply after a massive barrage of russian strikes today. the attacks damaged key power facilities just before the new year and in the dead of winter. at least three people have been killed in what ukraine is calling one of the largest attacks since the invasion began. cnn's international correspondent ben wedeman has all the details.

>> reporter: dawn breaks and the strikes begin. phone video captures a russian cruise missile heading toward kyiv. russia fired nearly 70 missiles, plus drones at targets across ukraine. air defenses managed to take down most of them. but this kyiv suburb did not escape unharmed. the mayor of kyiv says that all 16 missiles fired in the direction of the capital were successfully intercepted, but as a result of those interceptions, debris fell to the ground in this location massive destruction. a 14-year-old girl was injured as well as her mother and a man nearby. tatiana was at work. that girl her granddaughter, called her desperate for help. "she was really scared and in

hysterics," she said. "she cried the house is on fire. my mother is unconscious under the rubble." not for the first time the crews worked to clear the rubble of homes and lives destroyed by war. sergei lives just down the street. "how is it possible that we do this to each other," he asks? "i understand that this rocket didn't target this place, but how is it possible to shell peaceful people?" in another part of kyiv, 79-year-old leonid is still in his bathrobe. he was jarred awake when missile debris smashed into the ground next to his house. setting his son alexander's car on fire, shattering windows and walls, ripping trees out by the roots. yet he remains stoic. "i was born in world war ii, so i'm very calm about explosions," leonid says.

"today i was only worried about my son." his son is fine. ukrainian officials insist russia's target yet again was the country's energy infrastructure. kyiv mayor vitali klitschko is blunt. >> the russians want to bring depression, especially right now, christmas time, new year. the russians want to bring us to black time, without lighting, without heating. >> reporter: for now, ukrainians just clear away the wreckage and carrying on. and in his nightly address, president zelenskyy conceded that thursday's russian strikes have caused problems in the supply of electricity to the regions of kyiv, lviv, odesa,

kherson, and elsewhere, but he said that was nothing compared to what could have happened if ukrainian air defenses hadn't been able to intercept so many incoming drones and missiles. pamela? >> all right, ben wedeman, thank you so much for that. more perspective from cnn military analyst and retired army lieutenant general mark hertling. general hertling, you heard what the mayor in kyiv said as to why he thinks russia is doing this. i'm curious what your thoughts are. why do you think russia is launching such an aggressive, wide scale attack right now? >> we've talked about this from the very beginning, pamela. it's because they are attacking the infrastructure of the country because they are having difficulty attacking the ukrainian military. this is their attempt. this is their strategic goal to cause as much terror as possible within the civilian population of ukraine to attempt to affect the will of the population and cause president zelenskyy to give up. but what we've seen from the

very beginning, it's causing just the opposite reaction in terms of the resilience of the ukrainian population and standing up to this. you're seeing -- you're seeing an old lady in the film that ben wedeman just showed talking about her home that has been attacked. these are not military targets. there are no military targets around here. and yet it's attempting to affect the ukrainian people. and it's failing miserably, because as the man with the cigarette was saying, i've seen this before, and it's just the horror of the way the russians conduct warfare. >> how much do you think all the weaponry that the u.s. has given to ukraine helped in this situation in terms of it not being as bad as it could have? because we know the u.s. has given over the patriot defense system. but my understanding is it will be a while until they're trained up and can actually use them. so tell us about your perspective on that. >> the patriot won't be up and operational for monday. pam lap. even president zelenskyy said that in his address the other

day, which is something we've been talking about. but what we have seen is small arms weapons, shooting at drones. we've seen shoulder-fired stingers shooting at ballistic missiles like the film just showed. you see a short and long -- or excuse me, short and medium range air defense going after targets that are shooting both the drone coming into the theater but also missiles being shot from airplanes and the caspian sea, as far away as that. the ukrainians have become very effective at knocking those targets down. phenomenally, 70 to 80% in terms of their kill rate in terms of incoming missile. but what you're talking about is a system that truthfully isn't integrated within ukrainian. these are individual actions. and as ben wedeman talked about, missiles are going after odesa, kharkiv, kherson. when you plot those areas on a

map, it's all the four corners, all the four quadrants of ukraine, a country the size of the state of texas, where missiles are going everywhere. so the russians aren't even massing the missiles. they were just going after targets to try and affect the infrastructure. and it's not having the affect that they think should it be having. >> "the washington post" today had an extraordinary look at just the offenses from kharkiv and kherson, how the ukrainians were able to take back some of the land. and it really was interesting in that it reinforced western support and helped make the case for western support. and every time there is something like this that happens, a battle like this when ukrainians are able to use the weaponry they've been given to push the russians back so they're not as successful. i imagine it continues to do. so mark hertling, thank you so much. we appreciate it. and coming up tonight, can southwest airlines get grounded passengers back in the air tomorrow after thousands of canceled flights? we're going to go live to denver for a report, up next.

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tonight, the transportation secretary warns southwest airlines about substantial fines, perhaps tens of thousands of dollars per violation, per passenger if it doesn't quickly remedy the chaos surrounding its thousands of grounded flights. last night at this time, southwest had already canceled more than 2300 flights for

today. tonight, only 39 flights are canceled for tomorrow, according to flightaware. cnn's lucy kafanov has the latest. >> reporter: eight days in, and finally southwest is planning to return to normal operations friday, issuing a statement saying with another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued customers and employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy. but today it's still chaos for southwest passengers. >> the anxiety level is -- has become crazy. >> reporter: one of the country's biggest carriers canceling nearly 2400 flights thursday, capping a week of travel misery that stranded thousands more. >> that is very devastating. southwest booked me on a flight for january 2nd. my wedding is tomorrow, december 30th. >> reporter: soon to be married, katie demco was scheduled to fly out of st. louis with family for her own wedding. but southwest's cancellations meant she had to miss meeting her fiance at the altar in belize.

but for some customers, the most emotional reunions seen at airports have been between people and their bags. >> i just haven't had this bag in a week. i've been wearing other people's clothes. >> reporter: southwest first placed all the blames for stranded flyers, lost bags and inability to get people new flights on bad weather. but the ceo admitted the company's systems were too outdated to deal with any major disruption. >> southwest should have >> the tools we use work well 9% of the time. but clearly we need to double down on our already existing times to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so we never again face what's happening right now. >> reporter: southwest's pilot and flight attendants union say they've been ringing the alarm about the updated system for years. >> we've been harping on them since 2015ish. every year we've seen some sort of meltdown happen. >> executives should have committed to ensuring that our

i.t. infrastructure would be able to handle that growth and change in the way we operate our flights. >> reporter: southwest has promised to reimburse customers, but good luck reaching an agent on the phone, let alone in person. >> we're still in line, and nobody is giving us any direction. >> reporter: southwest is bussing some passengers from airport to airport in order to bring some relief amidst a total meltdown. >> i'm still stranded. i need to drive nine more hours. my feet are swollen, i'm upset. i'm stressed. i'm tired, and i hate them. >> while the airline is operating at roughly a third capacity today, they are promising to get back to norm more or less tomorrow. but take a look behind me. the sea of luggage, this mountain of suitcases is just one symbol of the cascading effects of all these cancellations and delays. i will say some of the folks you see on the phones behind me, those are some of the unsung heroes at southwest. these are employees who are not necessarily getting paid any

extra to be here to be on the phone helping passengers reunite with their luggage, but they are here trying to help folks get their suitcases back. again, it's probably going to be a bunch of days before people get reunited with their bags. but the flights at least should be continuing as normal tomorrow. pam? >> wow, that is a sea of bags behind you there, lucy. thank you so much for your reporting there. well, the death toll from that winter storm in the hard hit buffalo region of new york state has risen once again. it is now at 39. and officials expect it to rise further. cnn's miguel marquez has more on the trauma in this tight knit community. >> reporter: the death toll rising as buffalo continues digging out. the scope of this disaster still coming into focus. >> unfortunately, there are families in this community who still have not been able to identify where a loved one is. they're missing. and we do have still john does.

and eventually those family members are going to find out the worst news possible. >> reporter: he lost his nephew, abdul. >> there is a big congolese community here. what have you lost? >> an angel. we lost an angel. in our community. lost an angel. >> reporter: he was married last year. his wife due to give birth to their first child next week, a son. he was working two jobs, saving up to buy a house. his uncle overcome with grief. >> i'm sorry. >> reporter: he says he went out in the storm to help another family. his car got stuck. his body found over a mile from it. it appears he was trying to walk home and got disoriented. >> abdul was known as helper in our community. >> reporter: violeta quinones' husband died after shoveling snow. >> he walked to the bathroom, and at that point he collapsed.

>> reporter: but emergency crews were not able to immediately help, says cnn affiliate wkbw. >> i call the police. i call national guard. i call everybody to try me. help me. nobody show up. >> reporter: in buffalo neighborhoods where stores were looted -- >> another two brush. >> thank you. >> reporter: the community handing out food, making due until grocery stores reopen. >> they cripple the community in doing that. now the people that could walk around the corner or walk across the street to a store to get services much needed food items and those kind of things, they don't have that anymore. that is the fallout from all of that. trauma on top of trauma that's taken place in our community. >> so buffalo is a city that is getting back on its feet now. the driving ban across the entire area has been lifted. the flooding that they were concerned about, the temperatures have really come up. it's actually a really nice

evening. now it's going to get hotter in the next couple of days as well. the snow is going to melt that is not going to be as bad as they concerned. it's a matter of identifying the last individuals in the morgue and letting families know that their loved ones are there. pamela? >> miguel marquez, thank you. still ahead tonight, meet a man who put his own life at risk to help others who were stranded in buffalo. just a great story of selflessness and heroism, and i bet you'll be inspired. we'll be right back.

as stories of survival and rescue emerge from the holiday weekend's deadly storm, so are stories of selflessness and community. one man in buffalo dedicated his time and his resources to help hundreds of people who were stuck in their homes. some in the cold with no food or power, and he is here with us now, mark johnson. well, mark, thank you so much for joining us. what was it that made you decide to start helping people after the storm? >> there was a number of things, but i'd say the number one thing was that i lost a friend who was very close to me. and we called him yoda. but i lost him, and i knew how scared he was. i just could imagine how scared he was. he was actually murdered.

so, there was a couple of things that made me just think, i would never want anybody that scared or that alone by themselves. so, if i could help anybody, that's what i want to do. and the type of spirit that he had, he'd want to help everybody. so, that's exactly what i wanted to do. i wanted to channel my emotions and put it in that way because buffalo, it's a city of love. >> it's just incredible what you've been doing and all the generosity you've shown. tell us a little bit more about what supplies you've been handing out, how you've been able to get these donations, as well. >> so, as far as supplies, it honestly ranges from peanut butter to inhalers to driving people to dialysis, to digging out their yards so that they can get to all their family members who have been trapped or they haven't heard from. we have diapers. we have -- i've learned so much about diapers.

and another thing that we did was yesterday, i decided, you know what? everybody that wanted to contribute -- everybody is like, start a gofundme or do this. we want to help you. thank you for -- it's not about monetary gain. it's not about trying to get a dollar off somebody's desperation. that's not what it's about. so, i wanted to try and push that. so, everybody that wanted to contribute, i just said, call into to kensington pizza, say you want to donate to the dream, and you'll buy a slice of pizza or whatever you can afford for somebody else. we donated i think maybe over 200 pizzas. >> i see a lot of baby supplies there. and you actually helped a mother and her baby, right? >> that's correct. it had a huge impact on me specifically because when i got there and i seen that a mother was handling her baby 72-plus

hours, switching on and off with her husband, to keep her baby alive in the deplorable conditions. it was freezing cold. you could see their breath. you could see how they didn't have anything available to them. the snow was probably waist deep for a quarter of a mile walk just to get to a road. so, there was no -- why would you take that chance? it was better for her. i applaud her 100%. the strength and the will of a mother, i could never, ever doubt, ever again. she was having an asthma attack while she was walking her baby through waist deep snow with no shoes on because they fell in the snow, so she just kept going. i'm like, give me the baby, i'll handle the baby while we get there. i probably walked the baby maybe seven minutes through the snow. as soon as he gathered her breath, he went right back to her baby. and i'm still gathering my

breath. i'm like, you know what? if she can do this and i'm in a situation or i'm fortunate enough to help other people, then i should be doing that. >> how do you know where to go, what to do, every moment of the day, where to find these families in need? >> so, there's actually a group that i'd like to emphasize called the buffalo blizzard group '22. and it's saved a lot of lives. and the only reason why i knew is because somebody said, hey, post this inside this group. you'll be able to find more people to help. and i'm like, all right, send me the link. they added me, they invited me to it. and it had 15,000 people. and in there is people saying, hey, my neighbor can't get out. i can't get out. can somebody please dig me out? i'm losing electricity? people are like, i'm freezing cold. my battery is going to die. i feel like my kids are going to die. can somebody help me? these are the things i'm reading. it was god's will. getting through the snow, i didn't get hurt, i didn't get into any accidents, i didn't get

stuck. this group was pushing me and pushing me to say, hey, if i have a warm house, if i have something i can donate, why am i not donating? this is life or death. nobody's going to help us right now. it's really just us. it's the community. >> wow. and such a remarkable way, the way that you have just impacted so many of these families in need, and just the fact that you're doing this from your car says everything. thank you for your time, mark. >> thank you. i really appreciate it. up next, we remember brazilian soccer legend and global sports icon, pele.

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a global sports icon is gone tonight. brazilian soccer legend, pele, has passed away at the age of 82. he died from complications relating to colon cancer. pele transformed the world of futbol, as its known outside the united states, the youngest player ever to score in the world cup at age 17. he'll forever be remembered as a national treasure and remembered around the world as the king of