days before republicans assume the majority in the house and likely dissolve the january 6th committee, members asked 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 his testimony by donald trump jr.. and remarks about what he believed was a, quote, sophisticated legal rationale to overturn the election. as an overturn the will of the people. one nearly identical to what his father's allies would soon attempt. and there is also some rather unflattering testimony involving first lady millennia trump's opinion of trump junior and others in her husband's inner circle. also tonight, new details of a reported conversation involving senator lindsey graham who said he would become a champion of the most baseless are election fraud claims if the presidents allies could, quote, just give me five dead voters. it is a lot to unpack, so let's start with cnn political correspondent sara murray who has been digging through these transcripts all week for us. sarah, what more can you tell us about these new details from donald trump jr.'s testimony to the committee? >> well, pam, i mean this is interesting because we have of course previously reported on the mark meadows texts. the former trump white house chief of staff who was so important to this investigation. and donald trump's testimony

really digs into this. we previously reported that donald trump junior 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 just said. so the committee is asking donald trump jr. essentially why did you send this text. and this is what he says. he says, perhaps in reading it was the most sophisticated, you know, and detailed. again, about things that are necessarily even 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. knows in his interview with the committee that he thought this was like a copy and paste job. he was not the one eroded. that is what is attorney had told cnn originally when we reported on these mark better texts, pam. >> and you are also learning, perry -- senator lindsey graham's offer to support than president trump's election fraud claims, what more can you tell us about that? >> yeah, i mean obviously we know the south carolina senator, 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 his transcript in an interview with christina bobb who was a member of trump's legal team at the time. she is rounding a conversation she had with the senator. and the senator says, you know, just give me five dead votes, give me an example of a legal voting. just give me a very small snapshot that i can take and champion. this is of course interesting because you didn't need five votes to overturn the election, you need a whole lot more votes for donald trump to be the victor in this. but what lindsey graham is essentially saying is, you know, give me something symbolic that i can go out there and talk about and houston donald trump's favor. >> yeah, so i can continue to sow doubt about the election results. all, right sarah murray, stay with us, i'm gonna bring in cnn contributor john dean, former white house counsel for president nixon. and cnn political contributor david urban, a republican strategist and former trump campaign advisor. all right, so david, you heard sarah laid out. we all know the former

president and his allies were obsessed with finding voter fraud. but now we are learning more about what it 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? >> yeah, what i think lindsey graham is saying is give me something credible, give me something possible that i can go out and take to people, not just some hearsay, not some scattered rain and, you know, notions that are being flown around the internet. lindsey graham is looking for proof. whether people were looking for to. can be some proof and i will go out and talk about it. and i think later in that testimony it appears that lindsay khoramabad is said, hey, there is no proof here, i'm not going, for an average of anything with it. there was no there there. so there is a lot of testimony to read here. if you are tonight looking to spend the next couple of weeks reading through things, there is doing yeoman's job reading through these transcripts.

but there are hundreds and hundreds of pages. i was going through some of it today and it is very interesting. there is acknowledgment on the capitol police as far as african televisions failures. i mean, things that i think a lot of viewers -- the guy who was kind of an fbi plant, allegedly. so lots of interesting things to read in their. but i think cassidy hutchinson was high point of this whole, you know, hearings. should i know my trump she testified. >> right, but i want to go back to what we learned today in this testimony. because, you know, david, you are saying, look, he was just trying to, say give me something credible that i can go out and -- but, five dead voters? it is not enough to go out and celebrate if they found that. >> no, no. >> he wasn't asking to find voter fraud on the scale that would impact the election results he was -- it appears, according to this testimony from christian and bob, that he wanted to be able to use that to sow doubt about the election results. i am wondering what you think about, this john dean? what kind of window does this

offer do you think? >> well i think dave 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. but i, this is so much information that is coming at us from -- it's actually like drinking out of several water houses simultaneously. i look forward to studying graham in an interview. because he wasn't particularly cooperative. and this wasn't really a session. this is hearsay that we are dealing with. so you really don't know all the details at this moment. someone was actually called to give more detailed testimony. >> that's why we are emphasizing. this was a testimony given by someone else. it also operates when i am told

by sources, many republicans on both sides of the house and the senate, they were trying, they were asking trump's team, look, give us something. to verify the claims you're making publicly. there were motivations for doing, so they could have varied. but that certainly is in line with what was going on behind the scenes. sarah, we also learned that former first lady melania trump didn't trust her husband's inner circle. and it was quite angry about the former president taking meetings at all hours, and the residents towards the end of his presidency. what more can you tell us about that? >> yeah, i mean this is interesting,, again does not testimony from melania trump. it is testimony from stephanie brigitte who is 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 junior, his, son kimberly guilfoyle, and donald trump jr.'s fiancée sydney powell. rudy giuliani, a whole bunch of people at that point. bologna trump just felt like her husband was not getting

good advice. and according to stephanie grisham testimony, she was also a little bit peeped because people kept showing up in the residence unannounced at all hours. and, you know, melania is up in the residents trying to live her life, stephanie grisham says, at one point, you, know she might be on a road. and all of a sudden, one of donald trump's advisers would show up totally unannounced. so you could see, perhaps, why that would be a little bit annoying? >> yeah, i can understand that. all right, so john, when you put the latest piece of the puzzle in place along with other pieces that we learned this week, like chief of staff mark meadows telling the white house staff to keep a, quote, close hold on over office meetings. what my picture is emerging to you? >> well i am surprised at how much testimony they actually have accumulated. and i think what facilitated it was the process they used of using things like zoom and other media devices to enable them to take countless testimony and with some of

these. so that is one of the reasons we have so much. they were able, and we gotta quietly. no one saw witnesses scraping in and out of executive sessions for all of this. so i think what is coming together is how much support they have. and it is largely republican testimony for the report, which i am plowing through the 820 some pages of it. and it is extremely well documented. so i am now reading the documentation as well. >> yeah, it is. and think goodness for sara for highlighting some of the key parts. it is a lot to absorb. but it's important to absorb, to get the context. david, i know 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. because you used to advise the former president. i mean, what is your reaction? >> yeah, my takeaway is not surprisingly that the center of all of this kind of surrounds mark meadows, the chief of staff to the president of the

united states, right? he is the gatekeeper. he is the person who is supposed to make sure that bad people don't get into meetings. that rudy giuliani and sidney powell don't come in with half baked ideas. that bill stepien and justin clark and putin baloney are listened to. and kind of all comes down to mark meadows is not a good gatekeeper. not hoping the president make good decisions. i think at the end of the day he is gonna be facing the most legal jeopardy of this whole thing. obviously i'm not a prosecutor here but it seems to me is facing problems in georgia, the federal front, floats of different areas. he is the chief of staff. they can't get the president of the united states, which they are not gonna get. they're gonna get someone pretty high up in that would be shocked if they weren't gunning for mark meadows, department of justice and state of georgia at this point. >> what do you say to a viewer who might say, you are putting all the blame on marquette's new are absolving trump. doesn't trump take the blame here, you put mark meadows in that role as well?

what do you say? >> i am not absolving. listen, i am not absolving the president or the miranda. i'm just making more of a realistic statement of fact. the president is not going to end up going down on this here. i mean, they withdrew the subpoena. >> the committee did. >> all the outstanding subpoenas. its committee did, right, not the doj. they withdrew all the outstanding subpoenas. i don't think proving criminal culpability is a much tougher thing and proving that somebody, or suggesting that somebody did something more reprehensible. and there is a big difference between those two. i think what the department of justice is gonna try and do is get convictions. they are not gonna be able to do that with the president, they will do with other people. >> really quick, john, do you agree with that? >> i don't necessarily agree with that. i think that an overwhelming case, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is out there against trump. it is really gonna be a question of, do we prosecute a former president? not whether we can, and have it

nailed. which i think they do. they are blowing away all of 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. a different game in from the grand jury. >> all right, sara murray, john, jean david irving, great to have you on. thank you. and still to come tonight, congressman-elect john santos's latest conflicting statements. this time about one when his mother died. was it after 9/11 as he has said? or some time much later? we are gonna have list on, that and the federal investigation into his finance. later, we speak to a good samaritan in buffalo delivering food and other essentials to those stranded by that deadly winter storm.

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into santos's finances, with big questions over how the republican made his money, and a $700,000 [inaudible] nassau county district attorney's office, calling the numerous fabrications and inconsistencies nothing short of stunning. >> did i embellishment resume? yes i did. and i am sorry. and it shouldn't be done. >> tonight, new questions over santos's statement about 9/11 having a role in his mother's death. >> in this tweet last year, santos writes, 9/11 claim to my mother's life. >> she was in the south tower, and she made it out, she got caught up in the ash, my mom for cancer tell her death. >> his mother died 15 years after 9/11 in 2016. santos's 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 kfile. >> they sent me to a good prep school which was in the bronx. >> including sanders's claim to have attended an elite private school in new york. when he did not. that he represented goldman sachs and spoke out against them at a financial conference that he never attended. that he used his mother's jewish name zabrovsky when there was no evidence of that name in his family tree. and claimed his mother immigrated from europe when she was born in brazil. >> now it is gonna be a comment upon me to deliver on those results. and i look forward to serving my people and district. >> as santos attempts to move forward to capitol hill. >> i am not a criminal, i committed absolutely no crimes. >> legal road ahead for him could be treacherous. >> where and how did he get this money?

>> as the federal probe zeroes in on his finances. >> if you intentionally make a false statement about your assets or anything else that matters, that too could be a federal fall statements crime. >> cnn, washington. >> perspective now from cnn's senior political cormontae, or former government -- a republican who was a congressman from ohio from eight years. chamois, 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 are 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 has been uncovered about congressman-elect santos? >> of course we should, pamela. he ought to be condemning how this guy was basically lie his way into office.

people say he won't do it because it could jeopardize him the speakers job. well that is 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 behavioral problems, pamela, no one is talking about that. i wonder about that. but what mccarthy ought to say is, it is 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, you know, sometimes you need to put the institution and principles ahead of your own personal gain. and if he did i think he would be admired for and will probably get to be speaker if he were to win. and so of course he should be out condemning. it is absolutely outrageous. and the party should do it. there is no reason to be hiding behind 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 throughout leased -- a republican leader. this person feels duped and really disappointed that they donated to santos's campaign under false promises. and i am wondering, shannon, is there any legal recourse for those folks? >> probably not. i mean i would love to see some creative lawyering come up with some various ones like a consumer fraud kind of nation. but it is mostly political recourse. now 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 to. but this is the governors bailey wait. but if all these big donors began lining up publicly and

saying they want to refund, even though they may have no legal mechanism, that could have some effect. >> here, so 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 has to be returned to the ethics committee. first of, all you think what -- should they not see him. the crossed my mind. i've had discussions of people. the problem with that, pamela, is the people did vote for him. and if you were to begin to say, well, we will not see him because he misled people. i mean, think of how politicians and at times 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, there are a number of investigations going on. did he violate some law in the process of this? look, he is not gonna be there for a long. there is gonna be so much

pressure on him to leave. and at some point, i think he will leave. i just hope when all that happens, that he is able to leave cleanly. and hopefully not harm him self in the process. when you think about all the things that he is saying? it is a very disturbed individual. a very disturbed man. and i think we have to keep that in mind. but that doesn't mean we don't go forward. we have to go forward and that ethics committee, which is a bipartisan committee. if they can act once in a bipartisan way, it could be able to resolve this inside the house of representatives. >> you mentioned the investigation, shanley, no scientist facing investigations into his finances. i am told by a source familiar that the doj is looking into that. also, looking into his fabrications. in your view where is the most vulnerable legally from what we know? >> it was in the finances, pam. that is where he would be vulnerable, legally. because the big question, the seven and 50,000 dollar question is where does that

money come from. and ironically for him, that probably would've escaped any scrutiny if it wasn't for all of these apparent lies he told about his biography. and among those is turns out he maybe didn't graduate from college, didn't graduate from -- it really work for goldman sachs. how does he get this money? that is what raises the issue. and if it turns out that the source of that money is questionable. that was an improper loan to him and then channeled into the campaign, that is going to be a fairly clear path to criminal liability for him. >> pamela let me say -- >> go ahead. >> let me just say one other thing. that is, look, if there is any thing this country needs, it is leadership. and it is leadership across many different sectors of our country works. whether it is 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 are not gonna die the house of representatives, we will let the process go forward, but frankly, at the end of, today

to jeopardize me, that is 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, shannon woo, thank you so much. coming up tonight, explosions shock to ukraine today, in what kyiv is calling one of the most massive missile attacks from russia since the war began. we are gonna have the latest on that of next. for people who are a little intense about hydration. neutrogena® hydro boost lightweight. clinically proven. 48-hour hydration. for that healthy skin glow. neutrogena®. for people with skin. it's nice to unwind after a long week of telling people how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance

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tonight, several cities across ukraine are left with limited power supply after a massive barrage of russian strikes today. the attacks damaged key powers of 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 senior international correspondent ben wedeman has all the details. >> dawn breaks and the strikes begin. phone video captures a russian cruise missile heading towards kyiv. russia fired nearly 70 missiles plus drones that targets across ukraine. air defenses managed to take down most of them. but this kyiv suburb did not escape unarmed.

the mayor of kyiv says that all 60 missiles fired in the direction of the capitol were successfully intercepted. but as a result of those interceptions, they brief l to the ground in this location, massive destruction, a 14-year-old girl was injured, as well as her mother and a man nearby. >> that llano sound work, that girl her granddaughter ethylene a calder desperate for help. [speaking non-english] >> she was really scared in hysterics, tatiana says. she cried, grandmother, house was hit, it is on fire. she told me, my mother is unconscious under the rubble. not for the first time, the crews worked to clear the rubble of homes and lives shattered by ward. serhiy lives just down the street. >> [speaking non-english]

>> how is it possible that we do this to each other, he asks. i understand that the rocket didn't target this place. how is it possible to shell peaceful people? >> in another part of kyiv, 79 year old -- 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. >> [speaking non-english] >> i was born in world war ii, so i am very calm about explosions, he says. today was only worried about my son. his son is fine. ukrainian officials insist russians target yet again was the countries energy infrastructure. kyiv mayor vitali klitschko office blunt. >> the russians want to bring depression. especially right now, christmas

time, new year, the russians want to bring us to black time. to without lighting. to without heating. >> for now, ukrainians just clear away the wreckage and carry on. 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, odessa, kherson, and elsewhere. but he says that 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 for that. well perspective now from cnn military analyst and retired army lieutenant general mark hertling. general hertling you heard with the mayor of kyiv said as to

why he thinks russia is doing this. i am curious what your thoughts are? why do you think russia is launching such an aggressive wide scale attack right now? >> we have talked about this from the very beginning, pam. it is because they are attacking the infrastructure of the country, because they are having difficulty attacking the ukrainian military. this is their strategic goal. to cause as much terrorist possible within the civilian population of ukraine. to attempt to affect the will of the population and cause presidents ellen's key to give up. but what we have seen from the very beginning, it is causing just the opposite reaction in terms of the resilience of the ukrainian population and standing up to this. you are seeing, you know, you are seeing an old lady in a 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 is attempting to attempt affect the ukrainian

people. and it is failing miserably because as the man with a cigarette was saying, i have seen this before, and it is just the horror of the way the russians can direct warfare. >> how much do you think all the weaponry that the u.s. has given to ukraine helped in this duration 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, my understanding is that it will be awhile until they are trained up and can actually use them. so tell us about your perspective on that. >> yeah, the patriot went beyond -- even presidents lynskey said. that in his address the other day. which is something we have been talking about. but what we have seen is small arms weapons shooting at drones. we have seen shoulder fire stingers shooting at ballistic missiles like the film just showed, we have seen a short and long, excuse me, short and medium range air defense going after. targets that are shooting both

the she had joan coming in here 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, you, know 70 to 80% in terms of their kill rate in terms of incoming missile. but what you are talking about is a system that truthfully is an integrated in ukraine. these are individual actions. as ben wedeman talked about, missiles are going after odessa, kharkiv, kherson. when you bought those areas on a map, it is 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 russians aren't even amassing the missiles. they are going after targets to affect the infrastructure, and it's not having the effect that i think it should be having. >> the washington post today had an extraordinary look at the offenses from kharkiv in

kherson, how the ukrainians were able to take back some of the land. it was interesting because it reinforced western support and helped make the case for western support. every time there is something that happens. a battle like this where ukrainians were able to -- not a successful. i imagine it continues to do so. mark hertling, thank you so much. we appreciate it. and coming up tonight, ten southwest airlines get grounded passengers back in the air tomorrow after thousands of canceled flights? we are gonna go live to denver for a report up next.

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>> tonight, the transportation secretary warned 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. >> 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 is still chaos for southwest passengers. >> the anxiety level has become crazy. >> one of the country's biggest carrier is canceling nearly 2400 flights thursday, capping a week of travel misery that stranded thousands more. >> it is very devastating, southwest book me on a flight for january seconds. my wedding is tomorrow, december 30th. >> soon to be married, katie was scheduled to fly out of st. louis with her family for her own wedding. southwest cancellations meant she had to miss meeting her fiancée at the altar in belize. but for some customers, the most emotional reunions cnet airports have been between people and their bags. >> i haven't had this bag in a week. i've been wearing other peoples clothes. >> southwest first placed the blame for stranded flyers, the lost bags, and its inability to get people of these --

airline ceo bob jordan said the company systems were too outdated to deal with any big disruption. >> the tools we used to recover from disruptions service, well, 99% of the time, clearly we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances, so that we never again face what is happening right now. >> southwest fly and flight attendants union says they've been running the alarm about the updated system for years. >> we've been harping on them since 2015-ish, every year we've seen some sort of meltdown happen. >> committed to ensuring that our i. t. infrastructure would be able to handle growth and change -- >> southwest has promised to reimburse customers but good luck reaching an agent on the phone, let alone in person. >> and nobody is giving us any direction. >> southwest is buzzing 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. i'm upset and stressed and tired. i hate them. >> pam, while the airline is operating roughly at a third of capacity today, they are promising to get back to normal more or less tomorrow. take a look behind me. this sea of luggage, this mountain of suitcases it is just one symbol of the cascading effects of all these cancellations and delays. i will say, some of the folks you see on their phones behind me, and 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. they are here trying to help folks get their suitcases back. again, probably will be a bunch of days before people get reunited with their bags. the flights should be continuing as normal tomorrow, pam. >> wow, that is a sea of bags

behind you there, lucy. thanks so much for your reporting there. the death toll from that winter storm in the hard-hit buffalo region of new york has risen once again. it is now at 39. officials expect it to rise further. cnn's miguel marquez has more on the trauma in this tight-knit community. >> 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's. they are missing. we do have still john does. those family members will eventually find out the worst news possible. >> -- lost his nephew, abdul. >> it's a big congolese family here, what have you lost? >> an angel. we lost an angel. we lost an angel. >> he was married last year, his wife, due to give birth to

their first child next week, a sign, he was working two jobs, saving up to buy a house. his uncle overcome with grief. >> i'm sorry. >> he says he went out in the storm to help the family. the 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 a helper in our community. >> -- died after shoveling snow. >> he walked to the bathroom and that was when he collapsed. >> emergency crews were not able to immediately help, says cnn affiliate w kvew. >> i called the police! i called the national guard. i called everybody to try to help me. nobody show up. >> in buffalo neighborhoods where stores were looted, the community handing out food and making do until grocery stores can reopen.

>> they crippled 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, they don't have that anymore. that is the fallout from all of that. that's trauma on top of trauma taking place. >> buffalo is a city that is getting back on its feet now. the driving band across the entire area has been lifted. the flooding they were concerned about, the temperatures have really come up. it's a really nice evening now, it's going to get hotter in the next couple days as well. the snow is going to melt. that is not going to be as bad as they were concerned. right now, it's a matter of identifying those last individuals in the morgue and letting families know that their loved ones are there. pamela. >> miguel marquez, thank you. still ahead tonight, you meet a man who put his own life at risk to help others stranded in buffalo, just a great story of selflessness and heroism. i bet you will be inspired. we will be right back.

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mark johnson. mark, thank you so much for joining us. what was it that made you decide to start helping people after the storm? >> it was a number of things. i would say, like, the number one thing was that i lost a friend who was very close to me. we called him iota. i lost him. i knew how scary he was. i could imagine how scared he was. he was actually murdered. and there was a couple things that made me think, i never want to have anybody that scared or that alone by themselves. if i could help anybody, that's what i want to do. that type of spirit he had, he'd want to help everybody. that's exactly what i wanted to do. i wanted to channel my emotions and put it in that way. because buffalo is a city of love. >> it's incredible what you've been doing and all their

generosity you've shown. tell us a little bit more about what supplies you've been handing out and how you've been able to get these donations as well. >> as far as supplies, it ranges from peanut butter too inhalers, to driving people to dialysis, digging out their yards so they can get to their other family members who have been trapped or they have not heard from. we have diapers, what i've learned so much about diapers. another thing we did was, yesterday, i decided, you know what, everybody that wanted to contribute, everybody was like start a gofundme, do this, we want to help you, it's not about monetary gain. it's not about getting $1 of somebody's desperation, you know? that's not what it's about. i wanted to try and push that. everybody that wanted to contribute, i just said, colin a pizza, call in and say you want to donate to the dream, or

you will buy a piece of pizza, a slice of pizza, whatever you can afford for somebody else. we donated maybe over 200 pieces. >> i see a lot of baby supplies there. 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 for 72 plus hours, switching on and off with her husband, to keep her baby alive in such deplorable conditions, it was freezing cold, you could see her breath. you can see how they didn't have anything available to them. the snow is probably waist deep for a quarter of a mile walk. just to get to a road. why would you take that chance, you? no 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 tack while she's walking her baby through waist deep snow with no shoes on because they fell in the snow. she just kept going. that's when i was like, you know what, gather your breath, give me the baby, i will handle the baby while we get there. i probably walked the baby maybe seven minutes through the snow. when she gathered her breath, she went right back to handling her baby. i'm still gathering my breath. that's what really drove me. i'm like, if she can do this, i am in a situation where i'm fortunate enough to help other people, 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 is actually a group that i would like to emphasize called the buffalo blizzard group 22. it saved a lot of lives. the only reason why i knew is

because they would post this inside this group, you will be able to find more people to help. i'm like, all right, send me the link. they added me, they invited me to it. it had 15,000 people and in their there's people saying, hey, my neighbor can't get out, i can't get out, can somebody please get 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 were the things i'm reading. it was god's will. it's like, driving through this, no i didn't get hurt, i didn't get into any accidents, i didn't get stuck. this group was, like, pushing me and pushing me to just say, hey, if i have a warm house, if i have something that i can donate, why am i not donating? this is life or death. nobody is going to help us right now. it's really just us. it's a community. >> wow! such a remarkable way, the way you have impacted so many of these families in need. just the fact that you are 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, pelã©.

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>> young player has a 20 recap some play in four and the youngest ever to score in a rock up. at the age of 18. he will forever be remembered in his native brazil as a national treasure and he'll be remembered around the world as the king of supper, perhaps the greatest ever to play the game. the news continues, so let's hand it over to us and caro and cnn tonight. >> thank you so much, great to see you, good evening everyone, this is cnn tonight, i'm alison camerota, there are new and shocking details from january six committee transcripts. you'll hear how senator lindsey graham vowed -- if only the white house would find him, quote, five dead