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did you take any classified documents with you from the white house? >> i did not. >> yes, he did. poppy and i are here -- >> without classified documents. >> more classified documents have been discovered at the home of former vice president, mike pence. it's the former vice president this time leaving lawmakers stunned. breaking overnight, a significant development for the war on ukraine. the german government agreeing to deliver leopard two tanks to ukraine. >> this is a big story we're following from the southwest to new england. more than 80 million people are facing winter weather alerts. some cities are expected to get hit by nearly a foot of snow. plus this.

it could have been my son. it could have been you. don't gavel me. i'm here to let you know i can speak whenever i want. we want the tape. we want the tape and we want it now. >> tensions running high after the beating death of tyre nichols at the hands of memphis police what a new autopsy is revealing. we begin with the massive and dangerous winter storm on the move after pummelling texas with a tornado. officials in the houston area calling the destruction catastrophic. it flattened buildings and ripped off roofs but amazingly, so far no reported deaths at this hour. the tornado was so powerful it picked up huge trailers and rvs and tossed them through the air. one survivor came outside to find this giant rv on top of her pickup truck in the driveway. look at that, crazy. this morning alabama and the

florida panhandle are on high alert for more tornados and from the southwest to new england, more than 80 million americans are under winter storm alerts. adrian broaddus is in chicago covering it for us. some of the heaviest snow expected to hit the midwest. >> it is. it's a sight to behold but it can be dangerous. in chicago i want to show you, we are expected to get 2 to 4 inches. i hope you appreciate my handwriting in the snow. this is something we haven't been able to do that much in chicago. but across the country the snowfalls have been predicted. for example, in arkansas, for those of you who are able to see, i want you to take a look at your screen. in arkansas, at least 12 inches. and some parts of texas up to 10 inches. also, in new mexico, 8 inches. and this as a result of that winter weather advisory that is blanketing much of the midwest. for example, i told you how much

snow we're expected to get here in chicago. but that winter weather advisory is taking place for the next 14 hours, it's in effect, at least, in kansas, chicago, columbus, there's also a winter storm warning in st. louis, missouri, indianapolis, detroit, and cincinnati don. >> adrian broad deuce. thank you. a major development in the war in ukraine. germany announced it will send the leopard two tanks to the war zone. huge news for ukraine, natasha. >> reporter: this is huge, with russia planning to launch an offensive in the spring. we're told the log jam between the u.s. and germany has broken. it comes as a result of a week of negotiations between the u.s.

and germany how to get to this point where germany would send the leopard tanks and allow other european countries to send their stocks of leopard tanks to ukraine as well as sending our own abram tanks to ukraine. we're told the u.s. came to an agreement with germany here. germany had said they would not send their tanks unless the u.s. also sent them because they did not want to be seen with out of lock step with their allies and particularly with the united states. so we're seeing germany, after months of diplomatic pressure from international allies, european countries who want to send their own tanks, they're agreeing to send around 14 leopard tanks to ukraine. ukraine of course grateful for these because given our reporting that russia is going to be launching their own offensive in the spring these tanks could be game changing for the ukrainians in terms of breaking through the russian defensive lines and taking back

a lot of their territory. >> natasha bertrand reporting from washington, thank you. a call for justice in memphis, tennessee over the death of tyre nichols. at a city council meeting, tensions running high demanding for the release of the body camera video. he was beaten by officers for three minutes on january 7th after they stopped him for reckless driving. shimon prokupecz is live in memphis this morning with more. shimon, good morning. preliminary results of an autopsy were released. what are we learning now? >> reporter: the autopsy was done at the request of the family. the family did their own independent autopsy. and what they found, according to their attorney ben crumb, was that tyre nichols died from severe bleeding as a result of a beating. don, i want to take you out here to the scene. this is where it all started. this is the intersection that

police say that tyre nichols was first stopped by police. and then he ran. there was a pursuit. along this road here. all the way -- just about under a mile near where his mother lives and that is where ultimately he would die. where investigators say police caught up to him and then something happened. and according to the family which has viewed body camera footage, they say he was beaten in that location, ultimately was taken to the hospital where he died. most of what we know about what happened here is not coming from the police. they have refused to release any information. basic questions to the police about were these officers in uniform? what time exactly was tyre nichols taken to the hospital. all those questions have remained unanswered by the police as we know five officers were fired, two emts here were placed on leave as a result of this incident.

and now we wait. we wait for the district attorney to make his decision on whether or not he's going to pursue charges. and, of course, ultimately that video. the body camera footage and other footage that police have, don. >> can we talk about that emotional, fiery community meeting that happened last night. what are residents saying about the body cam not being released. they want it out there. >> reporter: absolutely. absolutely they want it out. they want more information because the police have been refusing to give any information. so they want the body camera footage released. they want other information released. listen to some of the community members who spoke at a city council meeting. >> as you know, there was a murder that took place here on january the 7th, i believe, mr. tyre nichols, he was murdered at the hands of the memphis police. i'm very upset with everybody on this city council because you are our representatives, you are our checks and balances.

and not one of you have come out publically and demanded that that tape that we pay $3 million, correct me if i'm wrong, mr. wade, when we paid for the body cams, we the taxpayers paid for. this is about transparency and damnit we gonna have it or we need a refund on our tax dollars that we play. the public want to see what happened. we want to know are we really employing people that think it's okay to beat the shit out of folks. >> what we heard before, we pay for the cameras, we want to see what is going on. do i want to see the video? i don't know. i'm a mama too. so many of us are. we're brothers, sisters, and children, sons and daughters. but what we want to see is justice for tyre and everyone else like him walking these streets. >> reporter: and so, don, now this is all in the hands of the

district attorney here. we're waiting to hear more from him. he says the video will come out once his investigation is complete. once they're done interviewing witnesses. he said the reason they don't want to release is because they don't want to in any way, sway witness testimony if they see this video, they may change their testimony and that is the reason why this video has not been released. but i can tell you, community members certainly are not buying that. they want the information. they want the transparency that they certainly feel they're not getting. so now, don, we wait for the da and ultimately what he decides in terms of charges for these officers. >> and shimon will be following this for us. thank you very much. more classified documents have been discovered. now these at the home of former vice president mike pence. not in wilmington, delaware but in caramel, indiana where his home is. an attorney for the former vice president discovering about 12 classified documents in the home. they were immediately turned

over to the fbi. the revelation reported late yesterday on cnn. and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle shaking their heads. lauren fox on capitol hill for us this morning. lauren, another former vice president, another set of classified documents. >> reporter: yeah, lawmakers both surprised and stunned yesterday at this news. lisa murkowski telling me just wow when she heard the revelations. mark warner, the chairman of the senate intelligence committee, he reacted holy heck and then told reporters, quote, i would have thought a year ago when this started coming that anyone who had one of these jobs would go back and check. check your cl closets he implor folks who have held these jobs as the president, vice president. lawmakers are now weighing is there something they need to do? is there an investigation that needs to happen? is there some kind of legislative solution? you heard lindsey graham yesterday talking about the fact

that perhaps this country has an over classification problem. here's what he said. >> i don't know how this happened, we need to get to the bottom of it. i don't believe for a minute that mike pence is intentionally trying to compromise national security. i think that about biden and trump but clearly we have a problem here. hopefully when this is all said and done maybe we're over classifying things, that may be part of the problem. but count me in for getting this fixed. >> one of the concerns that lawmakers have here on capitol hill is the fact when they look at classified documents they do so in a skiff. mark warner telling me he has never never looked at a classified document outside of a skiff. i think that's one of the reasons why lawmakers are so stunned about how this could be happening. >> i think we all are, lauren. thank you very much for the reporting. so there's a new poll out, it shows the majority of the americans approve of the

appointment of a special counsel to investigate documents found at joe biden's residence. we want to note this poll was conducted before the revelations of mike pence and his classified documents. so joining us now with the numbers, cnn political director and host of cnn political briefing podcast mr. david challon. good morning. >> good morning. >> what do americans think here? >> you showed the first top line number, just huge. the vast majority of americans, 84% approve of the appointment of a special counsel looking into the biden classified documents situation. only 16% disapprove. look at that broken out by party. this is something you don't see in american politics often. broad agreement, 88% of republicans approve of the appointment of a special counsel, 84% of independents, 80% of democrats. so that's broad agreement across party lines. we ask people how serious of a problem do you think this is?

30% of americans say very serious, 38%, somewhat serious. 27% not too serious. 6% -- so you have two thirds of americans think this is a serious problem. a third say not so. and look at that broken down by party. among those who think it is a serious problem, this you might expect. republicans 89% of them think the biden classified documents situation is serious. 68% of independents. look here. democrats, 54% say this is not serious. 46% of democrats say it is a serious situation. >> i'm just wondering, quick question, do republicans feel the same way about the trump documents? >> we'll get there. why are you getting ahead of our thinking? >> he wants to get you out of order on your slides. >> what are you doing to me, don? >> i'm sorry. we don't have to go ahead. >> dave can do it. >> i'll show you ahead here.

we asked folks if indeed they think either president was dealing with illegal behavior? if you ask the country, a majority of americans, 52% say trump's situation with the documents he behaved illegally, only 37% of americans say that about biden. to your question, look at this by party. you see here of course 79% of democrats think trump did something illegal. go to the other side, 64% of republicans down here think biden did something illegal. i think what is really fascinating. look at their own partisans. only 8% of democrats think biden has done something illegal. you might expect that. but a quarter of republicans, 25%, think that trump did something illegal. so there is more belief that trump did something illegal here across the board than the did biden. >> that is fascinating. i'm going to get you back on track in your slide deck. >> that's okay. i can jump around however you

want. >> we know you can. i wonder, david, what you showed us has to do a lot with how americans feel the biden white house has responded to this versus how the trump team, no longer the white house, but the trump team, lack of immediate response, shall we say? >> let's look at the biden situation. how is this white house handled this? 57% of americans disapprove of the handling of this situation from the biden white house. when you look at that by party, as you would expect, 85% of republicans disapprove of the way biden has handled it. 62% of independents. but only 26% of democrats. it's not an insignificant chunk of his own party, it's a quarter of his own party that disapproves with his handling but the vast majority of democrats think biden has handled it well. in terms of impact on biden's overall standing we're not seeing much of it. his approval rating overall, 45%. that's about where it was in

december before any of this came to light. so we're not seeing an actual political damaging moment necessarily for him. look at where biden sizes up among his modern era preses s predecessors, right here between clinton, got elected for a second term, carter we know he did not get elected to a second term. biden sitting between them. >> are you in my text messages? i was going back and forth yesterday this isn't going to affect his approval rating the die hard biden supporters my mom is one of them, i want to find out what happened, he shouldn't have had them. but it doesn't affect support for him. >> maybe she's a respondent in our poll, don? >> you never know. >> david chalian, that was very good information. thank you. ahead for us, the district attorney in georgia has revealed

she's weighing whether to press charges against former president trump. audie cornish and jeff duncan arare here to talk about it.

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welcome back to "cnn this morning." this morning, the atlanta area district attorney says possible charges on former president trump and his associates is, quote, imminent. she's saying the grand jury is recommending multiple indictments against trump after his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. sa sarah murray is live in atlanta. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. we don't know if the district attorney is going to pursue charges or who she'll pursue charges against. but she did appear to signal the special grand jury did recommend charges for someone. she was talking about how the report should be kept under wraps and referring to how important it is to protect the

rights of future defendants especially the right of future defendants to get a fair trial. she said decisions are imminent on whether or not she brings the charges. we don't know what imminent means, it probably doesn't mean overnight but it means she's working towards making a decision on whether the former president or any other his associates should face charges for efforts to overturn the 2020 election here in georgia. >> thank you so much. let's bring in the former lieutenant governor of georgia, jeff duncan now a cnn correspondent and audie cornish, podcaster. thank you for joining us. i want to ask you because you're a witness in the grand jury probe. i want to talk to you about that and what's going to happen. let me ask you about the documents that we have been reporting about. what is your take on this? we had the former defense

secretary on and everyone is saying, you know, different things about different folks. what do you think about mike pence? >> the system is broken for checking documents out. that's obvious. we need to figure out a way to tighten that up. it's krinch worthy i'm sure mike pence believed he didn't have documents in his possession when he answered that. unfortunately he did, now he has to unwind those statements. i think from a political standpoint it's negated the issue of having the documents. the reaction, that's the visceral response that trump had versus president biden and now vice president pence who works with the authorities who is quick to say i'm sorry i shouldn't have had those and who isn't. is in the public eye's to judge. >> you think the public sees a difference and they're able to calculate the difference? >> to some extent but i think political partisan corners are going to take sides and defend one another. that's where we're at.

everyone is chasing 10 second sound bites to pick on the other team instead of talking about the fact futures are down again today. more people in america are worried about having a job tomorrow than they are about these documents. that's where i think the leadership and opportunity for republicans going forward is to tackle these big, tough issues. >> so let's talk about what's going on here, because you were one of, what, 75 witnesses that testified over seven months to this georgia grand jury and the district attorney is saying don't put this out there, media organizations, including cnn want it out there for public transparency. you have an interesting take on the da's tone and what it indicates about how soon we'll see indictments. >> i listened to her reaction in the courtroom yesterday, her wanting to keep the report sealed for the time being to preserve the integrity of her investigation. she was serious. i read that as the indictments that are going to come down are going to be measured in days and

not weeks. i think it's imminent. this grand jury worked hard, 75 witnesses that came forward when i sat in the room, there were 23 jurors well prepared to ask questions. i felt like i had honest answers and i was on the right side of history but they did their work. >> everyone is looking for this. saying this may be the one thing finally that holds the former president accountable. where do you stand on that? >> i understand there is a hunger for that sim ymbolism. is it possible to prosecute a former president, what is the standard, what are the venues where that is possible? we don't have an answer to that yet. we know that georgia is important to watch because there's specific crime, statutes you can look at and say this was violated. we have the phone call the president made that was very straightforward and they were able to do things that the january 6th committee couldn't do. the people who blew off testimony they had to sit in

that room in front of the grand jury. it's a different ball game. i don't know if we need to see the report before they hand down indictments but this is a different case to look at. >> brookings, which is bipartisan, laid out, took a deep dive on this investigation, laid out some of the possible charges we could see, solicitation to commit election fraud, interference with election duties, interference with primaries and elections. and conspiracy to commit election fraud. and the way she's used racketeering to go after a number of people in the state of georgia in terms of enterprise engaging in criminal conduct, in terms of the big standardized test in school take down she did. they're saying she could bring racketeering charges potentially. >> you know better -- racketeering charges can be used in many many different context. it will be interesting to see if that is a potential charge here. but it does speak to the idea

that the former president did not act alone in his activities around the 2020 election. and i think one other thing i want to mention is the atmosphere in georgia is different, the lieutenant governor can speak to this. brian kemp was not going down the road of election denialism so i think there's this leeway if someone is doing an objective, it's a not political process, it's like the criminal process that i think the public will have a slightly different view of it. maybe you can tell me if that's right or wrong -- >> i think you're spot on. the political climate is to be on a fact finding mission and as well as willis continues to be on that journey of finding facts. there's three lanes being investigated. most focus on the dreaded phone call that was cringe worthy with brad raffensperger. but there's this basket of conspiracy theories and deluge of misinformation. if they're going to use the racketeering charge they'll see was it a coordinated effort to mislead the population.

then there's a third lane of the fake electorate crowd. >> and how involved was trump in soliciting them. >> he was involved and is there enough facts to get over the hump. >> did you get the sense the january 6th committee information was informing this investigation? i don't know from your testimony experience. >> i think it validated the lanes to pursue. there were 75 witnesses that ranged from lieutenant governors like me up through folks that worked in the white house every day living and breathing inside the oval office. >> do you think the former president will be dieted? indicted? >> there's enough information for him to be indicted. >> are you concerned about violence? >> i'm always concerned about violence. but the tone and tenor in georgia is most folks don't believe the election was rigged, they believe he overstepped boundaries and i don't think there will be violence. ahead a former new york gynecologist has been convicted,

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welcome back, everyone, to "cnn this morning." coming up the country's largest private employer is raising wages but some say it is not enough. and what the superintendent of fairfax county schools is now saying about the commendations being withheld for students. and in california governor gavin newsom speaks out about three mass shootings in three days in his state. prosecutors call him a predator in a white coat now a disgraced former gynecologist is convicted of luring four women to his office to assault them. but the accusations go beyond those four victims. dozens of others accused him of sexual abuse. including minors and pregnant women. but he cut a plea deal on those years ago. cnn reported on him in 2020, including this from our late

investigative correspondent drew griffin. >> reporter: dr. robert hadden, served no jail time for his crimes cutting a deal. >> patients weren't told the obgyn they were seeing had been accused of sex crimes. and in the weeks that followed, two of those patients would become his next alleged victims. >> reporter: evelyn yang was one of them. >> you saw evelyn yang there, the wife of former presidential candidate andrew yang. she gave an interview to dana bash about what she endured at the hands of hadden. brace yourself it is very hard to hear. >> i was in the exam room and i was dressed and ready to go. and then at the last minute he kind of made an excuse. he said something about i think you might need a c section. and he proceeded to grab me over

to him. and undress me. and examine me internally ungloved. and at first i was a little bit like, what's going on here? and there was no one else in the room? >> no. no. in fact, i think back to most of our exams, i don't think there was anybody in the room. >> you thought to yourself, this isn't just inappropriate banter, this is much different? >> oh, he -- at that moment, i knew that was -- i knew it was wrong. i knew. i said, i knew i was being assaulted. >> he'll be sentenced in april. he was convicted on four counts and each carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. and evelyn yang is here now

along with dana bash who with drew brought this to light. all three of you guys. thank you for being here. evelyn is the author of a kid's book about sexual abuse. thank you. >> thanks so much for having me. >> i know you barely slept. it's almost three years to the day that you sat down with dana and that we were all stunned watching your story. to see the conviction, what does it mean? >> my gosh, i've been waiting for this day for a really long time. and i think it was such a victory for every woman involved. every hadden survivor i think now can rest easier knowing that finally this man has been brought to justice. >> you were sitting in the courtroom when the investigator came down and you were sitting alongside other victims. the reporting from the courtroom is there were quiet sobs. >> some loud. a lot of tears. and i think we were all just

holding it in. holding it in for the duration of the trial. certainly. but even for longer. it was just this weight that we've all been carrying for a long time. >> this was a long fight for you because you worked really closely with what was cy vance's da's office in new york. you were told we're going to take this guy down and then there was this plea deal and you weren't part of the plea deal. >> right. >> so to see this. >> we had no say in what kind of plea deal he was taking. in fact, didn't know about it until after the fact. until it was all done. and it was a disappointment for sure. and i think this is why we were all a little cautiously optimistic that the verdict would be positive in this case. and so we were all gripping each other, literally, very tightly as the jury came back in and

when we heard the words guilty, we all let out this collective sigh of relief. and a lot of tears, yeah. >> dana, let me bring new, because it's the work you and our dear friend drew griffin, who we lost a month ago, it's the work you did to bring this to the world. >> well, it's the work that evelyn and her attorney and all of the women who came out afterwards did. i can now say, evelyn, i hope i'm not breaching any confide confidentiality. but how this happened, i think it was christmas eve, 2019 i met you in iowa on the campaign trail and you called me and said i texted you a story. i read the story about this plea deal that you're referring to and you said, i am one of those anonymous women.

i was assaulted by this man when i was pregnant. and we talked for a while and you said you wanted to come forward. but it was understandably very hard. and i was taking the train to new york to do the interview and it was touch and go, again understandably because it was so emotional. and it was one of the hardest things that i have witnessed somebody do, which is to go there and bring back all of the trauma, really trauma that you experienced. and you did it. and you did it because you knew that this was important. not just for you but for so many other women. and then, i mean, you -- correct me if i'm wrong, but since then that was about three years ago, with drew griffins amazing reporting our team nellie black and patricia de-carlo we saw woman after woman come out how many that we know of? >> upwards of 350. 350 women. >> hundreds of survivors.

>> and we believe there are more. a lot of women actually still don't know, his former patients to this day don't know that he's now twice-convicted sex felon. and there's still work to be done on that front. columbia and the hospital still has some work to do in terms of notifying previous patients. and, you know, every time i do an interview, more women come forward and one of the first questions they ask is how did i not know about this? because he's been a known predator for many years. i really credit, i want to say thank you, dana, and to your team, for creating the space for me to come forward. as you mentioned, it was an agonizing decision. and i think you probably recall me cancelling and rescheduling. >> i may remember that. but that's okay.

i understand. >> but i have no regrets. the reason why i agonized over the decision is, you know, you just can't predict how the public opinion will treat you, especially women and minority women, in cases of sexual assault. but i don't have any regrets because soon i came forward, hundreds of women felt at ease to come forward as well. and that, in itself, was a big deal. but the journey that led to this day and this verdict, i think, was a collective effort. you know, so many of the women who came forward after me became incredible self-advocates and advocates for others and we were able to pass the adult survivors act in may, which actually opens up the window for all survivors

of sexual assault in the state of new york to file a case in court no matter when the assault happened. so this will affect not just had den survivors but sexual assault survivors everywhere. >> can i say one more thing briefly. this is a testament to the notion of sharing stories even when they're hard and what an impact they can have. that certainly happened with evelyn. it's also a testimony to shoe leather reporting. i hope our late colleague, drew griffin is smiling from heaven that one of the many, many stories that he worked on has had such an impact to bring what we do -- what we want to do at the end of the day in our jobs, which is shine a light on things

and in this case justice. and his reporting brought justice to evelyn and hundreds of other women. >> it really did. it is, as you know, so well dana, the core of who drew was to this world and to all of us. and we are every day grateful for what he did. dana, your reporting too. you told it in a way only you could. so thank you, dana. >> thank you, evelyn. you are brave beyond words your kids are going to be so proud of mom for doing this and getting the adult survivor's act passed was huge. thank you. >> thank you for sharing that really important story. in the meantime let's talk about what's happening when it comes to the economy. and walmart raising its minimum wage but some employees say it's too little too late. and virginia's governor wages a new battle in the

culture war. schools failing to notify students of prestigious recognitions as they apply for college. the fairfax county school superintendent responds exclusively on cnn. >> this idea of a golden ticket as it is called was withheld from them. >> to characterize that as a golden ticket would not be accurate. ♪ i've got symptom rel♪ ♪ control of my crohn's memeans everything to me. ♪ ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ feel significant symptom relief with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements at 4 weeks. skyrizi is the first and only il-23 inhibitor for crohn's that can deliver both clinical remission and endoscopic improvement. the majority of people on skyrizi achieved long lasting remission at 1 year. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to.

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so america's largest private employer raising its minimum wage. walmart which has long been criticized by labor groups for low pay announced tuesday that it is bumping its starting pay rate to $14 an hour. interesting, joining us now, cnn business correspondent ra held

s thank you for being here. >> this is about demand for workers, for these type of hourly workers. the company saying in its memo, this is to make sure we have attractive pay in the markets we operate. we talk about layoffs practically every week but that is pretty specific to industries to technology, banks, media companies as well. for the largest economy, it's still a very strong labor market, and demand for these type of hourly workers is still very strong. andy challenger who runs the firm, challenger grand christmas, the labor market remains competitive, particularly at this level. hourly workers are hard to find and companies are continuing to compete for them by raising wages. >> federal minimum wages are about to go up to a little over 9 bucks an hour soon. this would be above that. target, amazon, they have all already done this, right? >> we can show you how this compares to other competitors. walmart is on the lower end of the starting range. walmart saying 14 bucks, that works out to 14 to 19 for most

workers, you can see how that compares to other competitors. this is why some are still saying this isn't far enough. one statement sent from a nonprofit group. executives are listening to what walmart associates have been saying for years, we need higher wages to make ends meet in today's economy. a higher poverty wage isn't enough. an announcement is a step forward, late by a few years, short by at least 10 bucks. >> look, any amount more is important for these workers, let's see what this means. >> they will see this in their march 2nd paycheck. they'll see this soon. >> thank you very much. for the first time since the national merit awards controversy began in virginia, the fairfax school superintendent is speaking out to cnn. multiple high schools delayed announcements to students about their merit scholarships but called it human error.

others say the lapse was intentional, and the state attorney general is investigating the matter. for that we turn to cnn's athena jones. good morning to you. what's the latest? >> you mentioned the state attorney general mentioning the matter. he's having a press conference this afternoon about investigations. we're going to be asking his office if this is coming up. meanwhile, we sat down with superintendent reid who wanted to set the record straight about what happened, and ensure the company they are making changes to ensure this doesn't happen again. a battle over national merit honors is shaking up a virginia school district. fairfax public school superintendent michelle reid in her first media interview responding to criticism from governor glenn youngkin, slamming dozens of high schools for failing to notify students of psat scores, as part of the national merit scholarship

program. >> it impacts their ability to ply for scholarship, and this idea of a golden ticket as it was called was withheld from them. >> we didn't receive it until november 31st. after the deadline passed for early admissions and early acceptance. we don't know. we're waiting to hear back from colleges. we have gotten a few rejections. >> reporter: the governor arguing the accommodations were withheld intentional to avoid hurting the feelings of those who didn't win recognition. >> they have a me aniacal focusn equal outcomes. >> the opportunity for each student to achieve their unique potential. >> part of the thing that has parents up in arms, this idea that this wasn't human error, that this was an intentional effort. what is your response to that accusation? >> we celebrate each and every one of our students' unique contributions and achievements and there is absolutely no division wide effort to withhold recognition or not to honor hard

work and achievement . >> virginia's attorney general, thomas jefferson high school for science and technology. >> we did initiate a third party external review into the situation. >> in a letter to the community, she said the delay was likely due to human error. >> we committed to contacting all of the colleges and universities of the early action, early decision schools that otherwise are commended scholars might not have had the information to notify. >> reporter: lost in the war of words, students who were recognized with accommodation are actually out of the competition for national merit scholarships. >> i think i might have even thrown it away because i didn't really think much of it. i didn't put it like anywhere in my honors section for college apps. >> now, governor glenn youngkin has proposed legislation in the general assembly to require that

schools notify commended students immediately. they're also going to try to work with the national merit scholarship corporation to implement a layered notification strategy, e-mails, some kind of system to make sure the information gets to students. >> they're trying figure it all out. thank you, appreciate that. straight ahead, what we're learning about the moment actor jeremy renner was crushed by a snowplow and the attempt to save his nephew. >> and we all know, i feel this way sometimes, flying can be scarey. one flight attendant has gone viral for going above and beyond to calm one passenger's nerves, and he joins us live next hour. try this robitussin hohoney. the real honey you love, plus thehe powerful cough relief you need. mimind if i root through your trash? robitussin.. the only brand with real honeneyand elderberry.

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three mass shootings in three days governor insome calling out republicans with guns in a new interview. >> this is about transparency, and we're going to have it or we need a refund on our tax dollars. >> sir, we provided the opportunity to talk. >> tensions high in memphis where a black man died after a beating by five police officers. the community demanding to see the tape, which the family's lawyer compares to rodney king. and new evidence that the most powerful people in government apparently have a habit of taking their work home. what the classified discoveries inside of former vice president mike pence's home mean for the investigation of two presidents. and breaking this morning, germany will join the u.s. in sending tanks to ukraine, and russia is warning those tanks will burn. cnn this morning starts right

now. as you can see, it's a very very busy news day here. we're going to start, though, with that massive and dangerous winter storm barrelling east after unleashing a powerful tornado near houston. no reported deaths but local officials are calling the destruction catastrophic. the tornado flattened buildings and homes. it was so powerful, it picked up rvs and threw them. we're hearing harrowing stories from survivors. >> we just all ran to the restrooms and just watched the whole building fall. luckily the restrooms didn't fall. that was the only thing that kept us alive. i don't get scared much but that's probably the scariest thing i have been through in my whole life. >> she got the notice on her phone, looked at it, said a tornado hit the house. let's see what's going on, and we round the corner and the house is gone, so the whole top section o. house was completely ruined, so it's toast. the house will be torn down now, so, kind of hard to take, but hey, we're alive. that's the main thing. >> you want to