and finally tonight, new video of the four americans taken in mexico just hours before they were kidnapped. the video shows the four shortly after crossing the border. we believe this video was taken around 9:18 a.m. at 11:45 a.m. on that disturbing video that you've seen the cartel confronts the americans and begins shooting. two americans died during the kidnapping, and tonight mexican authorities announced they've arrested five more people in connection with the deadly kidnapping. thanks for joining us, "ac 360" starts now. good evening, this was a good week for people who lie being revealed as people who lie who then go on lying or

distorting the truth. it began with court documents revealing fox's tucker carlson was privately skeptical of election lies, contempt youts yous of the former president, texting someone saying i hate him passionately even as he indicated to viewers the opposite. a dominion voting systems lawsuit, carlson was on the air lying about january 6th. >> reporter: the crowd was enormous, a small percentage of them were hooligans, they committed vandalism. you've seen their pictures again and again, but the overwhelming majority weren't. they were peaceful. they were orderly and meek. these were not insurrectionists. they were sight seers. >> that spectacle using cherry picked footage house speaker mccarthy released only to him was just the beginning. the former president claimed that city, state and federal prosecutors are practicing good old election interference, all caps, and then there was

something else that happened that didn't get as much attention, but is important, it involves lies told by jenna ellis, one of the former president's 2020 lawyers. she's the one next to sidney powell in this video behind rudy giuliani. the press conference, you may remember, where his head seemed to be leaking motor oil. what follows is a sampling of the lies she told about the 2020 election that she is now admitting were lies. >> hillary clinton still has not conceded the 2016 election. >> we have affidavits from witnesses, we have voter intimidation. we have the ballots that were manipulated. we have all kinds of statistics that show that this was a coordinated effort in all of these states to transfer votes either from trump to biden to manipulate the ballots, to count them in secret. >> the election was stolen and president trump won by a landslide. >> president trump is right that there was widespread fraud in this election. we have at least six states that were corrupted, if not more through the voting systems. we know that president trump won

in a sllandslide. the outcome of this election is actually fraudulent. it's wrong. and we understand that when we subtract all of the illegal ballots, you can see that president trump actually won in a landslide. >> we have over 500,000 ballots that were cast illegally. >> so we knew those were lies then, but now under pressure, she's admitted it. take a look, this is a court document that she herself signed, jenna lynn ellis in the colorado disciplinary action against her, a sworn statement. in it she admits that she knowingly misrepresented the facts in those specific clips that we just played. they were part of a stipulation she made as part of an agreement to accept censure and pay a small fine in a disciplinary proceduring brought against her in colorado. and what did she do afterwards, after she admitted quoting from the document now, quote, made the following misrepresentations while serving as counsel for the trump campaign and personal counsel to president trump. she went on twitter right after that signing that and misrepresented what she'd just sworn to tweet ing, quote, i would never lie.

lying requires intentionally making a false statement. i never e did that nor did i stipulate to or admit that. which is splitting hairs at best. in that same document, the one she signed she agreed that the sanctions she got is merited when lawyers, quote, knowingly engage in, quote, conduct that involves dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation. unless knowingly lying is in any way meaningful, different than intentionally lying in a meaningful way, then for all intents and purposes, she's now intentionally lying about being disciplined for knowingly lying. you get that? the man she used to work for is campaigning in iowa on monday. today his potential rival florida governor ron desantis in the state. steve con tor know joins us now from des moines. desantis sort of gave iowans what look at what his presidential stump speech might look like or what he's practicing. what did he have to say? >> reporter: governor desantis made the case that he is willing

to go further and harder than any other republican leader to push a conservative agenda. it is an agenda that is focused on finding and fighting wokeness in all aspects of society from business to the workplace to higher education, and especially k through 12 schools. take a listen to what he said. >> we're not teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other with your tax dollars. no way. but you know what we are doing? we're putting out a positive vision. we are emphasizing and reintroducing american civics into the schools in a very big way. people need to be taught what it means to be an american. >> reporter: now, this was ron desantis's first ever visit to iowa, and he spoke at two events today, introducing himself to these iowa caucus voters that in the coming months will make a decision about who they believe should be the nominee for the republican party in 2024. >> how have the appearances been

going? have they been received by iowa republicans? >> reporter: well, he had two events today, and they were both standing room only crowds. as you can see behind me now, they are breaking down his second event where governor desantis stayed for about 30 minutes afterwards signing autographs and taking pictures with people in line. so this was obviously a very friendly crowd, a lot of people were very open to governor desantis and the message he has, but there are still a lot of people in this state that are loyal to trump. i talked to one woman today who said that she remains loyal to trufr. she says she was willing to listen to governor desantis, but she also was concerned that he was, quote, bought and sold by the big money people who are already funding his campaign. so clearly he still has some work to do going into the c caucuses to win over some of those people who voted for trump in 2016 and 2020. >> has he given any indication when he may announce? >> reporter: he has been pretty coy over the course of the past six months about what he intends to do, but more recently he has said he will wait until after the legislative session meets in

his state of tallahassee. they just began last week. they will continue for the next 60 days, and at the end of those 60 days, he is likely to make a decision, although i am told by my sources that it could be as late as june before he officially jumps into the race. >> i appreciate it. thanks so much. governor desantis certainly got a rise from the former president who posted on his social network, quote, very small crowds for ron desangt moan yus in iowa. uasa, columnist, kirstjen powers, senior commentator scott jennings, former assistant to president george w. bush. we heard the governor take a thinly veiled shots when he talked about how there's no drama in his administration, something he said before. how long do you think it is before the tension between the two of them actually becomes direct? >> well, i mean, obviously donald trump has been openly attacking him and the question is how much ron desantis wants to really seriously engage with that. i don't think it's really in his

interests to do that because i think we've seen in the past what happens to people who get in the mud with donald trump. you know, they ended up -- they end up usually not coming out looking that great, and he's smarter, i think, to stay focused on whatever issues it is that he thinks are going to help him win the nomination, which is the -- if he decides to run, which let's face it he's in iowa in early march, and he lives in florida. he's probably pretty seriously thinking about running for president. that's what he's going to do, then he should just focus more on the issues that he has that excite the base. >> scott, there was reporting today by "politico" about how many of the other republican presidential candidate both declared and undeclared are focused on attacking trump and desantis. they're thinking importantly that there's only one viable lane for the anti-trump vote, and therefore they need to take the fight to desantis. do you agree with that? >> i do. i think in this primary you've got trump, and then there's going to be one other person that emerges, and right now if

you look at desantis's favorability ratings and really look at the fact that he has virtually no detractors inside the republican party, every other republican candidate who wants this thing is going to have to find a way to drag him down. i don't know how they're going to be able to do it to be honest. i'm sure they're going to try, but he is in a different universe really than every other person that's not trump that's seeking this nomination. desantis has the right emotional sort of attachment to the republican base, and what you see in his favorability numbers is not only good numbers among people who voted for trump, but also those college educated republican voters that drifted away from the republican party and drifted away from trump, they love desantis, and so of everybody in this thing right now, he looks like the one that has the capability of putting together the coalition that could possibly, possibly i say topple the former president. >> he's obviously never run in a national campaign, desantis's allies argue his success is not because of how he campaigns, but how he governs.

i don't know if that's laying groundwork saying he's not a great national campaigner. is that going to be enough in a state like iowa where retail politics are so important? >> well, we don't really know whether he's going to be a good -- good at national politics or not. obviously there are plenty of people who haven't done it before and have been successful. so i mean, donald trump had never had -- never held office at all. so i think we have to wait and see, you know, how he does on a national stage, and the fact is i think if the vote was taken today, most of the party is with donald trump, but his numbers are on the down swing. i mean, they're definitely not what they used to be, so there's an opening for a trump plus, not a -- you know, i think there's this idea of also the people who are a little bit less of the trump piness, i don't think there's much appetite for that in the republican party. they're looking for either a trump or a trump plus. a desantis is a trump plus. >> you know, i think democrats are kind of betting that governor desantis's focus on culture wars will turn off women, working class voters.

do you think moderate swing state voters care very much when he boasts that florida is where woke goes to die? do you think that plays well? >> i mean, the only evidence i have to lack at on this is what happened in his re-election campaign in florida that he won by 20 points, urban, suburban, rural, ex-urban, people with college degrees, people without college degrees, independents, women, men, any way you slice and dice humanity, ron desantis did a pretty darn good job of racking up votes in florida. so i think the message he's been running on -- you know, we've had one test case for it and it seemed to work. i'll tell you, anderson, the average republican feels surrounded right now. they feel like every large information distribution information hub in our society is really at odds with their world view, whether it's corporations, universities, media, you name it, politicians, government, institutions, and they feel like desantis is the person who does more than just complain about it. he actually finishes the fights. i think that's the line of demarcation for him.

everybody in this field can complain. i can finish it. >> i asked this to kirstjen, i wanted to ask you, scott, do you think these candidates know, do you think the world knows how to campaign against donald trump from a republican standpoint? because i mean, mhere we are al these years later and we're still talking about should ron desantis directly attack him or not? we have a whole field of defeated candidates, jeb bush among them, marco rubio, who tried all different ways and none of them worked. >> no, i think all the republicans from 2016 forward are like the will smith character in "i am legend kwtsz they're in the lab and testing all the serums out, and the rats keep dying. maybe, maybe ron desantis is the one to solve it, but we don't know yet. the theory he's going to test out is to put results up against rhetoric and put a younger generation up against an older generation. we haven't seen this particular

concoction yet, maybe we'll put it in the lab in iowa and other places and it will work. no one has successfully campaigned against him yet, except one person, and that was joe biden who defeated donald trump, and we know what will happen -- i know what will happen if we nominate donald trump again. >> my memory of the ending of "i am legend," but it doesn't end well for will smith at the end of the movie. is there a right way for desantis to respond to donald trump when he decides to? >> i don't think it's a good idea to get into it with donald trump. i think, you know, let donald trump say what he's going to say, but trying to get -- like i said, trying to get into the mud with him is not ever going to work well for nanybody. i think it's better for him to -- you know, to respond based on the issues that concern him, but not get into these petty little name games and all these other things, which even the people who like donald trump say they don't really like that much, right? a lot of times they're like we don't really need this. this is not really adding a lot, all the little nicknames you

give everybody. so but he's going to -- you know, he's already going after him. he needs a better nickname, let's be honest. i don't think de-sanctimonious is probably going to do it. he's going to continue to go after him. i do think that ron desantis is qualitatively different than the other people, and i don't know what scott thinks about this, but from the other people that ran the last time. i think he's a different kind of politician and it is a little more connected with the base. >> yeah. scott jennings -- >> yeah, totally agree with that. what she just said, anderson, 100% correct. people are trying to compare him to the candidates in 2016. his numbers and his connection with republicans is vastly different than anybody trump faced before. that's why trump, i think, is already in sort of mini freakout mode about it. >> it's going to be fascinating. appreciate it. coming up next, the biggest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis, and a question, will this shock to the system be followed by more aftershocks, more bank.

any video of the kidnapping of four americans in mexico taken before the ambush that killed two of ththem.

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business correspondent christine romans. how large is silicon valley bank and why did it collapse? >> look, this happened so fast, the doors are locked tonight, anderson. there's an fdic notice on the front door, and there are a lot of really unhappy people who are trying to figure out how they're going to make their payroll next week. it was a 48-hour collapse essentially, and so the context here, the biggest failure since the financial crisis, the second biggest in history, and this is a big part of the silicon valley economy. i mean, this is the bank for, you know, like life science companies and fintech startups, and all kinds of tech startups. so they really relied on this bank as their bank of record here, and it is closed. they cannot get access to their money. so you asked the question why? a couple of things here, they took on a lot of deposits in the pandemic, you know, billions of dollars of deposits in the pandemic, and then they invested those in safe securities,

treasury securities, government-backed debt, and that was all safe and fine until there was a little bit of a slowdown in tech, and these startups were burning cash. and so they started withdrawing those deposits and not putting new deposits in. at the very same time, interest rates were going up making all of those treasury securities less valuable, and if they want to sell them to get cash, they could take a loss, all of that happening in the past few days. >> so how concerned should people be their bank might fail for similar? >> they went to startups and venture capitalists and the tech world, so it was very hyper focused. earlier this week we saw another bank that lends mostly crypto kind of lending, and it's unwinding on its own because it was facing some problems. so they had a very specific profile. we saw a lot of other banks lose stock market value yesterday but bounced back today, and what we're hearing mostly from analysts and from bank regulators is this was a specific -- a specific event, a

specific kind of profile of this bank that doesn't match most otherb banks out there, probabl your bank. >> after the collapse in 2008, there were a lot of federal regulations put on banks to avoid that happening again. would any of those regulations help stop this from spreading or is this so unique that it doesn't apply? >> and that's one of the thinks. the banking system is a lot different than it was in 2008. you and i both covered those awful days in the very beginning of that financial crisis we kept hearing, this is contained. this is a subprime mortgage problem. this won't feed into the rest of the financial system. certainly it did. now we know banks have much more stringent capital requirements, there are bigger regulations to make sure they can't just fail, hundreds of them, like we saw during the financial crisis. but you know, a lot of people today are saying contagion, it's hard to measure contagion, and when you see the loss of confidence, this run on deposits essentially at this bank over the past just 48 hours, you know, it happened so quickly and

caught so many people offguard. a lot of folks are looking around the financial system are trying to see where are the cracks and trying to make sure those get shored up. >> christine romans, i appreciate it, thank you, scary. congressman george santos' comments since allegations of a new financial crime surfaced, this time involving credit card and debit card skimming operation in 2017. our randi kaye has the details, and a republican congressman we'll talk to him from new york, who's previously said santos must resign. h he'll join us. with nature ma. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin n and supplement brand.

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. congressman george santos says he has innocent of the latest reported allegation against him. the finances of the long island congressman are under federal

and local nchgs. he's also the subject of a house ethics investigation as you know. now he's accused of orchestrating a credit and debit card skimming operation in seattle involving atms back in 2017. randi kaye has details. >> i was an asset in helping take down a grade of criminals. >> reporter: new york congressman george santos denying allegations from a man from brazil painting him as the mastermind of a credit card scheme. >> i'm innocent, never did anything of criminal activity, and i am no mastermind. >> reporter: santos' claims of innocence are in response to this sworn statement by the man gustavo trela in his declaration first published by "politico," trela alleges that santos taught him how to clone atms and credit cards and that the two had agreed to a 50/50 submit of praeds. trelo wrote in the declaration, santos gave me at his warehouse some of the parts to illegally skim credit card information.

right after he gave me the cloning machines, he taught me how to use them. trela has reportedly submitted his declaration to the fbi and other federal law enforcement officials. santos meanwhile told reporters today he wasn't the organizer but the guy who helped crack the case. >> and then i cooperated with secret service, fbi, everybody that asked for my help, got information for them, got everybody arrested and deported. i'm not the the mastermind of the story. >> reporter: this all goes back to 2017 when trela pleaded guilty to access device fraud in seattle federal records show. trela had been arrested after yauzing a credit card skimming device and electronic camera on atms to steal credit and debit card numbers as well as atm pin numbers according to court documents. "politico" reports that in 2016, a year earlier, trela had rented a room in santos' winter park, florida, apartment. when asked about this, santos quickly distanced himself from trela. >> he was never my roommate, never lived with me. >> reporter: yet, back in 2017

according to audio obtained by cnn, santos appeared in court on trela's behalf. at that court hearing, santos described trela as a family friend. in court santos also lied to the judge about where he worked. >> what do you do for work? >> i'm an aspiring politician. i work for goldman sachs. >> you work for goldman sachs in new york? >> yep. >> reporter: the congressman has since acknowledged he never worked directly for goldman sachs, the investment giant. cnn has not verified the authenticity of trela's declaration, and trela's attorney has not responded to cnn's repeated phone calls and emails. cnn has also reached out to the fbi and the department of justice for comment. the allegation against santos comes as the freshman congressman is already facing intense scrutiny over fabrications about his biography and resume. local and federal prosecutors are also investigating his finances. the house ethics committee is also looking into whether santos may have engaged in unlawful activity during his successful

2022 campaign. >> i'm very confident i can fight this one. it's very easy. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn. a group of new york republican congressman recently introduced a bill that would ban house members like santos from profiting off book, movie, or tv deals if indicted or convicted of certain crimes like financial and campaign finance fraud. just before air time i spoke to congressman brandon williams who has also called for mr. santos to step down. congressman williams, i appreciate you joining us. i'm wondering what your reaction was to these allegations that congressman santos was involved in this credit card scheme? >> well, i tell you, you know, i guess it was an atm scheme. >> atm. >> yeah, he's been using the -- you know, it looks like he's been using nassau county donors as atms and he just upped his game. i think it's a continuation of, frankly, of a confidence scheme very much like bernie madoff,

and it's all being exposed. so the fact that his deception goes much farther back doesn't surprise me at all. >> if the allegations were true, they were made in a sworn statement by the person who was actually prosecuted for involvement in this atm scheme. it's a pretty complex operation. i mean, it involved, according to again to this person who was convicted, you know, a warehouse in florida, being taught by santos how to use the equipment, sending him to seattle where they would split the proceeds 50/50. >> can you imagine how excited, you know, mr. santos must be or must have been to realize that he could, you know, do something on a larger scale even running for congress not once, but twice. you know, remember that bernie madoff cheated a lot of very sophisticated people out of their money, and i think that george santos has cheated a whole lot of sophisticated voters out of their vote. >> do -- do you have much confidence in the ethics process

in the house? obviously this has been for forwarded to the ethics committee. i don't know if they'll look at these additional allegations as well or wait to see if law enforcement does anything. >> i'm confident of a couple of things, anderson. i'm confident that leadership has taken the steps to initiate this ethics investigation, that it will be thorough. i'm actually confident that the fec similarly will do its investigation. it appears like there's a lot to look at there. i know that nassau county prosecutors are also looking, and i guarantee you that they will do a very exceptional job, and i'm confident that we're going to see george santos in handcuffs in front of a judge hopefully not in the too distant future. >> wow, you really believe that? >> i do, absolutely. >> do you think he's getting any work done? i mean you know how difficult it is being a congressperson, alt things going on, all the

responsibilities you have if you care about the people in your district. can he actually get anything done? >> well, i think that i know that his neighbors like anthony d'esposito, nicole mall yan ta kis, they've all opened up their offices for constituents, you know, on long island and in the vicinity to use their offices for whatever services are needed. so i think there's been a lot of help offered. and in terms of his role, he's not on any committees. he's not very popular, i can tell you that, and i'm not sure what, you know, what work that he might be getting done. what concerns me, anderson, is that he still has a security clearance, and therefore, as a member of congress is actually entitled to briefings that involve top secret information. that concerns me a lot, and i think that needs to be looked at. >> it's also the last thing republicans need distracting people from what, you know,

everybody in congress is supposed to be doing. >> well, i would say the issue that i'm most concerned with is that the people of nassau county are the victims here, and they're victims because they were defrauded out of the right to be represented. i think the house is also the victim, and so those are the things that are sort of top of mind when i think about what's happened with george santos. >> do you run into him at all? have you said anything to him ever? >> i bumped into him on the floor, and i have to tell you, it's awkward because -- because he was part of the new york delegation, i'd never met him in person until -- until we were at orientation. my wiefe and i e exend itted a hand of friendship as we did with always new members. it was within probably a week or two that the wheels started coming off, and i found that pris disappointing. >> yeah, congressman williams, i really appreciate your time tonight, thank you. >> yes, sir, thank you.

still ahead, new video obtained by cnn providing more insight into the hours leading up to that deadly kidnapping of four americanss in mexico. also new arrests in the kidnappings. we'll have details on both next. at the invitation to lexuxus sales event. also new arrests in the kidnappings. we'll have details on both next. you know, there's a thousand billionaires in america, it■s up from about 600 at the beginning of my term. but no billionaire should be e than schoolteacher or a firefighter. i mean it! think aboutt. doors can take us to new adventures and long-term goals. your dedicated fidelity advisor can help you open those doors. by helping you create a comprehensive wealth plan, with the right balance of risk and reward. doors were meant to be opened. moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch.

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there's always a fresh deal on the subway app. like this one! 50% off?! that deal's so good we don't even need an eight-time all-star to tell you about it. wait what? get it before it's gone on the subway app! tonight new developments in the investigation into the deadly kidnapping of four americans in mexico. mexican authorities say they

arrested five more people linked to those kidnappings. it's unclear whether these were the same five people the mexican cartel handed over to local authorities on thursday. this also comes after the cartel issued a hand-written letter apologizing to the community, the americans, and their families, and to a mexican woman who was also killed by a stray bullet during the attack. we're going to talk about all that in just a moment, with two experts familiar with the cartel and these investigations. but first, new video showing the americans just hours before they were kidnapped. cnn's josh campbell has more. >> reporter: new video obtained by cnn from inside the vehicle of four americans just prior to their kidnapping in mexico. >> hola. >> reporter: the americans shown and heard on facebook live just after they crossed into mexico from the united states. a government source told cnn the purpose for the visit was for latavia washington mcgee to obtain a medical procedure, but they never made it. about two hours after entering

the country, a gray volkswagen jetta starts to tail the americans' van, followed by several more vehicles. at 11:45 a.m., their vehicle is attacked by suspected members of the gulf cartel. bystander video of the aftermath shows the victims being loaded into a truck. the bodies of the two deceased americans are now in the united states, awaiting an autopsy. as the fbi continues to work with mexican authorities to investigate, the u.s. ambassador to mexico is calling for authorities to aggressively combat the cartels. >> translator: they have to be dism dismantled. we have to do this work together with the mexican government. >> cnn's security correspondent and former fbi special agent josh campbell joins me now. do investigators know what the americans were doing in the two hours between entering the country and when they were kidnapped? >> they don't. that remains under investigation, anderson. i know in talking with a u.s. official familiar with this investigation, the medical appointment for latavia washington mcgee was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on friday.

they apparently called the clinic and said that they were running late. as they swrd entered mexico around 9:1020 it appears they drove around for two hours, they were tailed and engaged by members of this cartel. it is worth pointing out that a source tells me that there's no indication that they were doing anything wrong, that they were there for criminal purposes. authorities still want to piece together this time line. >> josh, stay with us, i want to bring in the executive director of the ontick center for protective intelligence and author of the book "ghost confessions of a counterterrorism agent" fred burden. in your experience, is it unusual for the cartel to not only apologize for an attack like this but also turn over five people? >> yeah, it's very odd anderson. i know you and i have followed these incidents for quite some time, and if you look back, this is one of these interesting inflection points, you know, going back to 1985 with the kidnapping of the dea agent and then look at t2010 at the falco

lake incident involving david and tiffany heartily, and thousand here we are in 2023. i think what the cartel at least specifically the gulf cartel is trying to do now is a little bit of pr spin. they recognize the power of the media, and they understand how this has resonated inside the united states, and like i said earlier, the skrucrutiny i havet seen since the 2010 incident at falcon lake. >> josh, what do you think was the motivation behind releasing this apology letter? >> well, i think it's just that, in talking with officials that were on the american side, they lie aez with their mexican counterparts. they said exactly what fred just said, fred is one of the foremost security experts in the world who has done a lot of work in trying to combat some of these very dangerous groups, and in this case, you have a cartel that is obviously very violent. they routinely engage in brutality, and yet here they are saying we apologize to the people of mexico, to the americans, to the mexican citizen that was killed. it's worth pointing out that sources that i talked to say

that they do not believe that this is sincere, that this is exactly what fred was mentioning. perhaps a way to try to diffuse a lot of the scrutiny that has come upon this group. we know that there have been a number of u.s. officials saying that the american government should be sending troops over into mexico to combat this cartel. that has obviously caused widespread condemnation from mexican officials nlkd d including the mexican president. they're causing all of this widespread attention, i think they're trying to make that go away. >> there have been calls, lindsey graham and others for getting -- having u.s. troops involved in one way or another. is any of that realistic at all? i mean, that's just something that the mexicans are not going to allow, is it? >> no, not at all, anderson. i think that's a lot of posturing on the u.s. side. i mean, look, this is a big deal. this is one of these inflection points, and obviously we're going to try to put pressure on the government of mexico, but this is a sovereign nation. at the end of the day, this is a mexican problem to resolve.

it's also incumbent upon all of us and especially in the business community too, anderson, with travels and so forth of executives going down into mexico and the manufacturing environment there, we really need to pay attention to the state department travel alerts. look, there's 32 states in mexico and six are no-go areas that the state department says to stay out of, and this was one of them. >> yeah, josh campbell, fred burden, i really appreciate you being on tonight. thank you. coming up now, intense fighting continuing in eastern ukraine. we're going to get you an update on that, and we want to tell you about one ukrainian soldier who has been called. plus the latest on heavy winter weather that has millions under flood watch tonight in california. heading on a family trip? nah, sorry son, prices are crazy,

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it hurts to lose our heroes, those are the words that ukrainian president zelenskyy at the funeral of a 27-year-old soldier who went by the call sign of da vinci. he joined the fight to defend ukraine when he was 18 years old and rose to become a battalion

sergeant. thousands were in kyiv's independence square to pay tribute today, cnn's ivan watson has more. >> reporter: funeral for a fallen warrior, an honor guard and thousands of mourners gathered to remember junior lieutenant dmytro kotsyubaylo, better known by his code name, da vinci. he was the youngest battalion commander in the ukrainian army, killed this week in the battle for bakhmut. a months' long deadly test of wills between the russian and ukrainian militaries over a small city of questionable strategic value. >> this is how ukraine is honoring one of its fallen heroes and also proof of the terrible cost that the ukrainian military is paying in the battle for bakhmut. >> reporter: in 2021, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy officially declared da vinci a

hero of ukraine. on friday, the president paid his respects to da vinci's surviving family members, accompanied by the prime minister of finland. mourners gathered on their knees around da vinci's coffin in the may don, the square in central kyiv where in 2014 da vinci, then just a teenager, joined thousands of demonstrators in a bloody battle against ukrainian security forces. they ultimately sent the country's pro-russian president fleeing to russia. soon after, da vinci joined a nationalist militia and fought for years against pro-russian separatists in the donbas region before formally joining the ukrainian armed forces. many of the people attending da vinci's memorial never met the young commander face-to-face. >> he lost his life for us, for me, for my children, for my family, and we want to live good life, and i am here to celebrate

his life and to say final respects to him. >> what did da vinci fight for? >> for ukraine, for freedom, for us. >> reporter: this woman knows the stakes all too well. >> your husband is fighting in bakhmut right now? >> yes, yes. there is a price for freedom she says, one life dies so that other lives may be born. though only 27, da vinci knew the risks he was taking. i'm ready go to victory with you he told his troops, and if need be, to give up my life for you. nearly everyone in since russia's invasion one year ago, a war in which far too many have made the ultimate sacrifice. >> i mean it's heart breaking and also extraordinary to see how unified the country is in this fight and so many people

who knew of this person but had never met him but wanted to be there to pay their respects. talk a little bit about bakhmut. as you said it's a questionable strategic significance, but it's become a key battlefield. >> reporter: well, it's a huge symbol now because both militaries lost so many lives fighting over it. the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy he's argued if bakhmut falls, that it could give russia an open road to drive deeper into ukrainian territory. ukrainian commanders have made the case that they can tie-down russian troops and bleed them out in the battle there, but there's another potential scenario. almost all of the roads around bakhmut and out of there for the ukrainians have been cut except for one dirt road, and there are still thousands of ukrainian troops believed to be inside defending parts of the city.

so there is the potential scenario and reality that they could be surrounded and stuck in there, and that is another reason to fight for those soldiers. >> i understand there was another memorial elsewhere in kyiv today. >> reporter: there was. and this is another grim reminder of the enormous cost of this war and of this specific battle. it's a father and son. they were both fighting side by side around bakhmut, both killed and given a final good-bye here in kyiv in the midan. >> father and son dying together. ivan watson from kyiv, thanks so much. now to the severe winter storms hitting california. millions under flood watch tonight, thousands under orders of evacuations a heavy rain and melting snow combine in the latest intense winter weather.

what are conditions like where you are? >> reporter: well, anderson, it started raining very heavily, biblical rain about 2:00 a.m. this morning. windshield wipers basically useless. since then i asked one resident if he ever remembered it being this bad, and he thought for a second and said 1982 was pretty bad, but it wasn't as bad as this. water everywhere causing chaos across central california, some 25 million are under flood warnings. the river usually runs about 6 feet. it's up over 17. snow is the issue up at altitude. >> it was a quick second we lost control. >> reporter: in socal they're rushing to rebuild some sort of road for 450 households. this is their only way out. springville's pleasantivaly road

now anything but. in my 40 years never seen it like that, said the man who shot these images. a major archery in oakland closed at rush hour, nearby a coffee warehouse roof collapsed killing one. >> a long time employee beloved by everyone. >> reporter: around 20 times volume the water that flows through the mississippi is flowing through the air and this is the tenth so-called atmospheric river. low pressure from the north meet moist air from hawaii. they call it a pineapple express, sounds fun, it's not. throw in a couple other winter storms that dumped a couple years worth of snow on some upland areas and this is the result. today's storm is a warm one so along with all this rain where, some of that snow melting. the residents of felton flooded

in january once more told to evacuate. here and elsewhere yet more upheaval. >> now we have to go home, pack our stuff and leave once again when we were just able to come back a couple weeks ago. >> reporter: good news all the water this winter is significantly rolling back the years long drought suffered in the west. bad news yet another atmospheric river is forecast to hit this snow early next week. >> the pictures are unbelievable. in the neighborhood you're at are people in the homes still, or do they have to leave? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, listen, there are evacuation orders all over the place. but here some people have decided to stay. a couple of hours ago a kid paddled past me in a kayak and she was pretty upbeat. she said there was some water in the home but, you know, it wasn't too bad. about an hour after that i saw her and her mom leaving carrying their dog. also for about an hour there was a man out here with, you know, a household broom basically trying to just get this water, get the

flow moving out of the neighborhood. about 20 minutes ago he just gave up. you know, this is a small farming town, watsonville, southeast of santa cruz, working class town. so far it's had about 6 inches of snow -- rain, i'm sorry. some other parts of the state double that. here, anderson, it's not over, not by a long shot. it's going to rain here on and off until the middle of next week, that 11th atmospheric river of the winter is going to bowl through here again monday, tuesday. i mean, it's just so sad to see peoples lives just washed away. i mean there are cars on the road and people are still -- i mean this road's supposed to be closed but people are trying to go about their business. it's tragic. anderson? >> unbelievable. nick watt, appreciate it. thank you. jake tapper sits down with

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