and good morning. 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. we've got another jam-packed news hour for you coming up starting with the dangers winter storm that's bringing strong winds and a plunging swath of the u.s. into life-threatening cold. more than 120 million americans are under some kind of alert this morning from washington state to new york. think about this, temperatures are dropping so fast, that denver just set a new record for the mercury dropping 37 degrees in just one hour. it's leading to an all-out travel nightmare. millions of people projected to hit the road and sky for the holiday. already, there are more than 1,000 flights canceled as passengers rush to flee the storm. president biden being briefed on the massive storm and its potential impacts. >> please, take this storm

extremely seriously. i don't know whether you're -- if you have travel plans, leave now. not a joke. >> ahead, we'll have an update on which areas are getting hit the hardest and how long it could last. also this morning, alive and kicking. that's how ukraine president zelenskyy described his country in a historic speech greeted with thunderous applause. his emotional appeal and what he's facing at home after both he and president biden acknowledged the war is entering a new phase. plus, we have a deal. the senate reaches a crucial agreement on the massive government funding bill ahead of a hard friday deadline to avert a government shutdown. how this came together and how soon could it reach the president's desk. and while this plays out, we're still keeping our eyes out for that highly anticipated january 6th report.

and we begin with that extreme weather bringing dangerous conditions who the central and eastern u.s. just as millions of people are set to travel for the holidays. i want to bring in meteorologist bill karins along with shaquille brewster on the road. bill, we've been paying close attention to your updates. you warmed of winds, storms, power outages, flood watches across the country. what's the latest right now? >> we're tracking the leading edge of this arctic outbreak. it's going through the dallas area and approaching chicago. we're going to track this all across the country. one of the maps that tells the story is our 24-hour temperature change. it's 58 degrees colder than at this exact time yesterday in denver. this helps us track where the cold air is. the leading edge of the cold air is moving in. here's the windchill values that

are alive right now. it feels like negative 45 degrees in sioux city, iowa. notice chicago. not yet. you still feel like 29 degrees. that's a 75 degree difference between iowa and chicago. that's what they're going to expect in the chicago area. notice dallas, windchill is down to 4 as this cold air is about to surge all the way through central texas, even into south texas. and for that reason, that's why we have these windchill warnings up, 112 million people included in those. we've been watching the snow breaking out this in areas north of d.c., pennsylvania. and back where the windy conditions are, snow in kansas city, that will approach chicago and st. louis too. blizzard warnings in eight different states. right now the worst of it, south dakota, minnesota and areas of minnesota. there's a rapidly developing storm as it heads through the

great lakes. we're going to see the winds howling. it's going to be an incredible scene. dangerous to be traveling in. these wind gusts are predicted 40 to 70 miles per hour. we could be up to 63 miles per hour in buffalo with heavy snow at the same exact time. that's like unheard of. you're not going to measure the snow. we're not going to have no clue how much fell on the ground. but we'll have snow drifts in areas. we're most concerned with areas northern ohio, michigan, heading through northern new england, the buffalo area. also some areas in colorado and oklahoma. there's not many regions, jose, i didn't mention. there's something going on almost everywhere. >> that's true. i want to take you back -- i was looking to texas. you were saying that amarillo the windchills are minus 15 or something. but el paso looks to be less cold. that's going to change as well? >> they're not going to get hit with the core of the cold air. they'll be brushed by it.

temperatures will be very cold tonight and tomorrow. but not like they're seeing in the -- up in the panhandle area in north texas. >> just thinking there are thousands and thousands of people on the other side of el paso and coming in towards the el paso area with very little winter preparations. bill, thanks. shaq, chicago is bracing for some of the worst conditions. what are you seeing there? you're just outside chicago. >> right now we're seeing the first few flurries in the chicago area. we're about 45 minutes outside of chicago right now. we're under that winter storm warning. this is in the chicago area, it starts at exactly noon. these are the conditions that you're seeing on the road right now. you see it's fairly empty. people are heeding those warnings. they're staying off the roads. that's what officials are warning people to do. not just the snow that we're expecting and that's going to be coming in once we get to the afternoon.

officials warning for snowfall, that can reach an inch an hour. what you're seeing are the temperatures that are going to plunge as we get into those overnight and -- afternoon and overnight hours. what they're saying and officials are telling us, they're preparing for the worst to come. illinois, already, state police, warning drivers to stay off the road saying only travel if it's necessary and in indiana, the national guard has been activated and positioned through the state to protect some of those stranded drivers. what officials are looking at is what we have already seen out west. places like south dakota, montana, you see those images of those whiteout conditions. again, while the snowfall and projections have dropped in the chicago area, now expecting about 3 to 6 inches, we know that the temperatures are going to continue to fall dramatically and the wind is going to pick up. it could be deceiving and that is what officials are saying, don't just look -- don't just go by the snowfall totals that you're expecting. prepare for those whiteout

conditions and treacherous conditions out on the road. from what we're seeing, the good news at this point is that roads do appear to be a little bit light right now. we're seeing those first few flurries. we'll continue to monitor as we're in the chicago area, jose. >> and airlines have waived change fees to encourage travelers to get out earlier than today before the weather starts hitting that area. does this appear to have made a difference? >> reporter: yeah, i think passengers here in d.c. are sighing relief when they look at that departure board. most of the flights here are still on time. very few delays and cancellations at this point. we don't know how long that's going to last, especially as that weather moves into the midwest and the temperatures drop. that's going to affect airports and hubs all across the country. more than 7 million people are going to be traveling between now and the first of the year. that is a ton of air travel affected by this massive storm. the two busiest days are

supposed to be today and tomorrow. and as i said right now, things appear to be on time. but how long is that going to last? it's hard to say. we did interview one couple who had moved their flight up. they were headed to chicago. they said they moved the flight up in hopes that they could beat that weather on the way to chicago. they say they may be one of the lucky ones. >> my dad texted me and he was, like, i don't think you'll make it if you come on friday. we're like, yeah, maybe we should change our flight. we did. otherwise we wouldn't be able to be in chicago with our family for the holidays. >> reporter: airport officials are urging everybody to check their flight status before you head to the airport. don't waste your time showing up if it's canceled or delays. they're also saying pack extra clothes, snacks, pack your patience and be prepared to wait because there are going to be significant delays and cancellations thanks to all this weather. jose? >> i thank you all for being

with us this morning. we're also following breaking news on capitol hill. the senate has finally reached an agreement on a government funding bill just ahead of tomorrow's deadline to avert a shutdown. right now, senators are voting on a series of amendments ahead of a vote on the $1.7 trillion government funding bill. negotiations hit a major sticking point over a last-minute push by republicans to add an amendment to reinstate the trump era immigration policy known as title 42. senior national political reporter joins us from capitol hill, josh lederman is standing by at the white house. do we know how lawmakers were able to finally reach a deal? >> we do, jose. after a 2:00 a.m. impasse, the senate has reached agreement to hold a potpourri of amendments and votes. it is expected to pass, the

legislation moved forward with 70 votes. and the snag last night was about protecting the coalition behind this bill. so republicans demanded an amendment pushed by senator mike lee of utah relating to title 44. assuring that it would stay in place and defunding the office of the homeland security secretary unless it wasn't. that was obviously not going to fly with a lot of democrats, particularly in the house. they feared that was a poison pill that would doom the entire piece of legislation. what democrats did, was they created a side by side amendment that would temporarily keep title 42 in place and provide extra funding for immigration courts, border enforcement and that sort of thing. that amendment is expected to fail. so what you have are two amendments that are expected to fail and the bill is likely to move as is to the house of representatives with some minor changes but no poison pills.

they appear for the moment, appear, to have achieved that, this bill is likely to achieve final passengers sometime in the next few hours. let's not forget what it does, $1.7 trillion, 45 billion in aid to ukraine. it's not a coincidence that volodymyr zelenskyy was in congress last night making his case for the importance of u.s. assistance. it would include a rewrite of legislation laws by closing the loopholes that president trump and his allies tried to use to stay in power. it would give the justice department another $200 million for u.s. attorneys that they can use to prosecute january 6th cases. finally, it would ban tiktok on government devices for national security reasons. after this, it goes to the house of representatives, jose, where the bill is also likely to pass. president biden has said he will sign it into law. >> any idea what the process as far as timing is on this? now you're saying, just within

hours, the senate could deal with it and it would go to the house and finally to the president's desk. how long would that process take? >> well, in the senate it's likely to happen over the next few hours. some of these amendments will -- if they're agreed upon by lee will happen by a voice vote. the senate is trying to hold members to ten minutes per amendment. that tends to be more of a hope than a reality. after this, jose, it goes to the house where it can be processed very quickly. they don't need unanimous consent to do things. within a matter of hours on the floor itself, a brief debate and a finally vote after that. they can get it done before the friday midnight deadline if the senate holds to its schedule. >> josh, any reaction from the president yet? >> reporter: not yet. we've asked the white house how they feel about this deal as well as how quickly the president will sign it into law. presumably, very quickly. after the initial text was released, the u.s. budget office called it a compromise.

nonetheless, they urged senators to pass it without delay. and so we do expect the president will sign this legislation pretty much as soon as he receives it not only because of the importance of keeping the government funding, because as was mentioned, the $45 billion in this package that is for ukraine and our nato allies critical to president biden's ability to deliver on the long-term commitment to ukraine that he made during that visit yesterday with president zelenskyy. >> i guess, it would total -- when you add these 45 billion, almost a hundred billion dollar that ukraine has been given. >> it's a huge amount of money. we're well north of $20 billion as president biden mentioned several times as he hosted president zelenskyy yesterday. those numbers are only expected to increase which is a part of what the u.s. hopes will hope to

spur it's allies in europe to continue spending money as well. the fact that the u.s. is continuing to put skin in the game, president biden hoping that will continue to be the case even next year when republicans are in control of the house. >> thank you both for being with us this morning. coming up, a heroes welcome for president zelenskyy in his historic speech to congress last night. but what is he facing now back in ukraine? we'll take a look at the new phase of the war. and it could come any moment now. we're expecting to see from the january 6th report when it's released sometime today. why has it taken so long? tide pods ultra oxi one ups the cleaning power of liquid. can it one up whatever they're doing? for sure. seriously? one up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. any further questions? uh uh! one up the power of liquid with tide pods ultra oxi.

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internet customers. so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. 18 past the hour. this morning, ukrainian president zelenskyy is back in europe after his historic trip to washington. he landed in poland this morning and quickly met with the president of poland. that meeting coming hours after his speech to a joint session of congress making it clear his

country is, quote, alive and kicking. >> your money is not charity. it's an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way. [ applause ] >> ahead of his speech, zelenskyy also met with president biden who vowed, quote, unequivocal and unbending support for ukraine for as long as it takes. joining me now, nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley and admiral. what's the reaction been on the ground in ukraine in his speech to the u.s.? >> what we're hearing here is gratitude. it's exactly mirroring the same message that president zelenskyy delivered to congress and to the american people and really to the whole world in that speech. gratitude for all of the money

and weapons that the u.s. has provided and will be providing and also tinged with more requests. just as president zelenskyy did saying thank you, but also asking for more. and one of the things that they're asking for, they got the patriot missiles. they're defensive weapons. that's important. while the ukrainians have been asking for those since the beginning of the war since before the russian invasion began, they want more offensive we said. when you speak to ukrainians, they don't make a distinction between offensive and defensive because they say that any offensive weapons used by the ukrainians are fundamentally defensive because they say they were the ones who were attacked. they want surface to surface missiles, those patriots that they're getting. they can defend against missiles flying very -- very high attitudes overhead and they can really stop missiles from very far away. what they want are surface to surface weapons that would allow

them to project their power into russia proper and into crimea which vladimir putin illegally annexed back in 2014. those atacms, the kind of weapons that will allow them to project power much further and take their battle on the offensive. that's because really if you're looking at the battle lines right now, they're especially frozen. they haven't moved in the last several weeks. there's been a couple of advances around where president zelenskyy was in the day he arrived in washington with that message of gratitude. this fight, as far as the ukrainians are concerned, really needs a game changer. and so they want even more advanced weapons, even more advanced than the ones they're getting. jose? >> admiral, the visit no doubt was significant, right, to washington? but as the "new york times" notes, the reality he will return to after a heroes welcome in washington where he was greeted with standing ovations

and a pledge from president biden to stand with ukraine for as long as it takes is a frigid winter. and the prospect that the war will grind to a costly stalemate. matt bradley has told us how there's been little movement in the last couple of weeks. where do you see things going forward? >> indeed, there are two combatants on the battlefield but the third is about to enter. and it is in fact winter. it will not discriminate between neither side of the firing line. it makes operations on the ground very, very difficult. the effect, jose, is to shift the momentum toward the air war which russia is winning simply because the ukrainians, at least at this point, don't have the means in a wonderful turn of phrase that president zelenskyy often uses, to close the skies over ukraine. one patriot battery is good. but it is not a full answer.

it's going to take more surface-to-air missiles. it's also going to take weapons like the joint direction act munition which is an offensive capability that can be used in a precision-guided way to go after russian logistics and russian positions on the ground. but i think ultimately the u.s. is going to have to provide additional surface to surface missiles in order to push back on the russians. final thought here, jose, worth noting, it's not just the united states. yes, we are in this for north of 50 billion right now. but the europeans have contributed about 30 to 40 billion. and that reflects the fact that the u.s. and european economies together in defense budgets together vastly overmatch vladimir putin. so i think over time, this is going to favor the ukrainians.

what we can do and you heard our president talk about it, put the cools in the hands of the ukrainians. they will get this job done. >> the fact is, there are some concern that maybe there is a line by which the russians or putin would react differently if the ukrainians receive some offensive capabilities. >> yeah, i am of the mind that we are past the point where we ought to worry about whether a particular weapons systems is provocative to the russians. they really have thrown the kitchen sink to use a professional military term at this invasion. putin doesn't have any other cards to play other than continuing with this air war and threatening a nuclear weapon which, in my view, highly unlikely he will use it. so the tools to put in the hands of the ukrainians are cyber

capability, intelligence, precision-guided strike weapons, surface-to-surface anticruise ship missiles, patriot batteries and i would add to that christmas shopping list fighter jets, either mid-29s from poland or f-16s from the united states. those are the tools they need. the only line we got to worry about in terms of the ukrainians use of these weapons, jose, is to keep it on the ukrainian side of the border, the original ukrainian border. crimea is a fair target, zaporizhzhia is a fair target. but strikes into russia, i think, we would say to the ukrainians, that's a bridge too far. that's the only line we are worried about. other than that, give him the tools. >> admiral and matt bradley, thank you very much for being with us. up next the january 6th

committee could release its final report at any minute now. what the chairman told nbc exclusively about what's next. up next here, disgraced crypto ceo sam bankman-fried is back on u.s. soil today where his legal case continues. we'll talk about that after two of his business partners pleaded guilty to fraud. pleaded guilty to fraud. (vo) 'tis the season to switch to verizon. it's your last chance to get our best deal of the year. (scrooge) 'tis? (cecily) 'tis! (vo) this holiday season verizon gives you the new iphone 14 pro that's in stock now. plus apple watch se, ipad and beats fit pro. all on us. don't miss out. verizon. ♪ what will you do? ♪ what will you change? ♪ will you make something better? ♪ will you create something entirely new? ♪

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whatever comes next, we will respond fiercely. like family. ♪ 117th congress began with a violent assault on our democracy and now we're -- we have a vital road map in insuring that justice will be done and that this won't happen again. >> house speaker nancy pelosi confirming moments ago that we will see this highly anticipated january 6th report today. it was originally supposed to be made public yesterday. but the committee has released transcripts from dozens of witnesses, including these key names many of whom pleaded the fifth to most, if not all questions.

bennie thompson spoke to symone sanders townsend about what they were able to unearth that the justice department wasn't. >> there were people that we deposed that justice had not deposed. there were electors in various states that justice couldn't find. we found them -- >> you found them? >> we found them, we deposed them. >> joining us now, ryan nobles and carol leonnig. ryan, this report could release -- be released literally at any moment. but we've been saying that for nearly 24 hours. what's been the holdup? >> reporter: there's no one clear reason i think for this report not to have been released yet. part of it is just the logistics of the printing getting all wrapped up. it's close to 1,000 page report, maybe more than 1,000 pages. that requires quite a bit of time to get through. but also, i think we would be

naive to think that they did not want the report to get caught up in the coverage of volodymyr zelenskyy's visit to washington yesterday. there's probably a bit of logistics, a bit of just the timing of everything that led to the report being delayed until today. it has no real tangible impact on the results of their findings. they had already adopted the report on monday. so it's basically just a process issue at this point. to your point, jose, they have already begun the process of releasing some of the transcripts. you point out, all of those individuals who they released yesterday, most of which pled the fifth. they just in the last few minutes released the transcript of star witness cassidy hutchinson who did the exact opposite of pleading the fifth. we're pouring through the transcript right now. we already know a lot of the revelations that she provided the committee, much of it in public under oath. but there's more information that we have not yet learned about her role in this investigation and the role that

she was in many ways a link between the different theories that the committee had in terms of what led up to the insurrection on january 6th. >> yeah, and i mean, carol, among -- in the transcripts what we're seeing is that some witnesses simply pled the fifth for everything. what's your name, where do you live, for everything. it's obviously well within their rights to plead the fifth. is there anything that strikes out at you at the frequency of these pleadings in these transcripts? >> well, i mean, one of them you've seen, jose, which was to me the most striking. there was a real political point that liz cheney was trying to make when she helped broadcast an interview that she had with former national security adviser michael flynn, now disgraced former defense intelligence official. he had the interesting idea of declaring martial law and encouraging then president trump

to seize a voting machine in swing states and, quote/unquote, rerun the election. liz cheney made a point of interviewing and questioning flynn and asking him, do you, general flynn, support the peaceful transfer of power? when asked that, he declared his fifth amendment rights to avoid self-incrimination. you know, it's important to note that that is -- as shocking as that is, there's no privilege there, there's no incriminating answer potential. yes, i do agree with the peaceful transfer of power, or, no, i think there's some -- it's not a criminal belief to say what you believe. it highlighted how much some of these witnessed did not want to answer the most basic of questions. claiming the fifth does not mean you're guilty. but it does give the impression for sure if you can't answer a question as simple and

straightforward as that. >> and, carol, i want to ask you about your reporting -- your latest reporting in "the washington post." you learned the fbi was initially reluctant to investigate trump's possession of classified documents? >> that's right. behind the scenes there's a wonderful team at "the washington post" that i want to give a shout-out to that i joined, that team has been working for quite a long time looking behind the scenes at a case that is viewed as the most jeopardy -- the largest jeopardy for donald trump facing criminal charges in the near future. and that is his attempt to keep and potentially with hold and mislead the government about him holding top secret records that are some of our greatest crown jewels. things that would put american lives and american spies' lives in danger. he kept these for a long time. the fbi, we learned, was extremely resistant to searching

mar-a-lago. they needed a lot of convincing. and what we learned in our reporting was the reason for this was the fbi had multiple concerns, but in the backdrop, always, was this fear of their previous interactions with donald trump in the russia probe and their crossfire hurricane experience with him had led to a series of fbi officials being tarnished, mr. mccabe, the deputy director of fbi was fired before his -- essentially his retirement benefits kicked in. although he later was able to restore them. people's internal emails and texts were revealed from the fbi in an effort to sully them. the fbi was extremely weary of dancing with donald trump. >> carol leonnig and ryan nobles, thank you so much. appreciate it. disgraced crypto ceo sam

bankman-fried is back in the u.s. to face fraud charges. bankman-fried arrived in new york overnight. authorities hope to put him in front of a judge as soon as possible following his extradition from the bahamas. his charges connected to the spectacular collapse of his crypto company. here's more on today's news. it's good to see you. >> nice to see you, jose. >> how soon do you think we could be seeing bankman-fried before a judge? >> well, it's a great question. we saw that plane arrive last night. there's nothing like dark video of a plane landing on a runway. we expect bankman-fried to be in federal court in southern manhattan today. we don't have exact timing details on that. we did see his mother arriving at the courthouse. i was just there in and around

the courthouse complex and i can tell you there's a heavier than normal nypd police presence around the courthouse and then outside, hundreds of photographers and reporters have gathered to document this. inside the -- for the initial public hearing, we'll expect to hear what the charges are, again, some eight charges that he defrauded investors, customers, creditors, but we also may get a sense of whether there's any chance for sam bankman-fried to get out on bail. remember when he was in the bahamas, he applied to be released on bail and that application had been denied, jose. >> so this defrauding of customers and folks, this is massive, contessa. >> it is probably going to end up in as the largest corporate fraud in history. what we know right now is that sam bankman-fried appears to be standing alone because his

co-founder gary wang, his ceo of alameda research who at times has been romantically linked with him, carolyn ellison, both of them are cooperating with federal authorities and we know that they're out on bail. they have pled -- they are expected to plead guilty to charges of wire fraud and defrauding customers. carolyn ellison, the former ceo of alameda research, it appears that she may face charges that she actually manipulated that cryptocurrency and that gary wang, the chief technical officer for ftx may have written programs that allowed ftx customers' funds to be diverted without their being detection of that. both of those people, high-level executives, cooperating with federal authorities and planning to plead guilty and presumably have fewer charges, fewer

sentences, more leniency in exchange for that cooperation. >> great seeing you. appreciate your time. >> nice to see you. up next, almost the entire country is bracing for a massive winter storm. i'll talk to an emergency management official in chicago about how people there should prepare. plus the fight over our border policy held up in courts. people who just arrived in the u.s. are on the streets in bitter cold. we're live from el paso next. if you still have symptoms of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or active psoriatic arthritis after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. stand up to your symptoms with rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that tackles pain, stiffness, swelling. for some, rinvoq significantly reduces ra and psa fatigue. it can stop further irreversible joint damage. and rinvoq can leave skin clear or almost clear in psa. that's rinvoq relief.

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the world. we're expected to learn more once the secretary begins his comments there. and we're also continuing to follow the massive winter storm that's bringing blizzard conditions and dangerous cold to much of the country. it's creating a nightmare for travelers trying to get home for christmas. more on the situation in the chicago area, we're joined by the executive director ted burger. thank you for being with us this morning. your area could be in for a full-blown blizzard. there are potential for power outages and flooding. what with do we know about what you can be expecting. >> i'm grateful for the opportunity to chat with you today. we are facing a significant weather event here in cook county, illinois, and chicagoland. for those of you that are less aware, cook county is the county which chicago is located, home to 5.2 million residents and 135

municipalities. the high winds and extreme windchills that follow is what gives us the greatest concern here in cook county. >> you're not strangers to snow. maybe not as big of a snow problem as it would be these high winds. what do you say to folks that are just going to say, you know what, this is just another storm system. we've lived through this storm problems for years. what would you say to them? >> you know, that is always a challenge and certainly for this particular weather event, it represents our first significant snow event of this winter season. the forecast has shifted as your map is indicating, the heaviest snow is moving east of us. but we want to caution everyone to recognize that the story isn't the snow. we're expecting winds up to 55-mile-per-hour gusts and then it will be followed by extreme

fold temperatures. so, you know, we have three messages for our residents and visitors. first and foremost, be prepared. we want you to fill prescriptions and your gas tanks right away. second, we want you to be cautious. we want you to revisit your travel plans and understand if those plans need to adjust. third, we obviously recommend that you have this preparedness attitude that says, if i need to change my plans based on the existing conditions in my community or my destination, that you're willing and able to do so. >> and, ted, i mean, i think it's so important what you're saying, it's not necessarily going to be a -- you know a snow problem, but that doesn't mean it's not extremely dangerous. thank you, ted, for being with us this morning. ted berger from the chicago area. appreciate it. >> thank you. as thousands of migrants continue coming into the u.s. speaking asylum, they're now having to face, well, these conditions as well. bitter cold, temperatures in el paso are forecasted to drop as

much as 20 degrees tonight. city officials say they're working to find solutions to the growing number of people entering the city. guad venegas is live in el paso this morning. what are you seeing? what are you finding and the situation -- if it hits 20 or below tonight, that's really kind of life-threatening conditions. >> reporter: the national weather service indicated these are dangerously cold conditions. with the windchill, it might feel even colder than to degrees. it's less than 24 hours until the temperatures are expected to drop into those numbers. meanwhile, here in downtown el paso, there's still people on the streets as you can see. this is the area next to the bus station where we've been visiting the area for days. just a few blocks away, we went to walk around to see if there were other groups of migrants and there's groups larger than these, just a few blocks away, with their beds set up outside.

it seems like still sleeping on the street. jose, a few more blocks we arrived at the border wall where there's hundreds of migrants right now lined up at the wall being processed. in less than 24 hours, the temperature is going to drop into the 20s and it's going to be difficult to be standing outside. we've been reporting standing outside when the temperature drops into the 30s and it's really difficult. we have the jackets, gloves and we have to run into the cars. what are authorities doing here in el paso? local and city county authorities are opening up shelters. they've opened up one of the bigger shelters. they have hundreds of beds available where migrants can come and get away from this cold. they've also indicated that they have some schools that could be used and if necessary, also hotels. but right now, we still see people that slept on the street, once again, jose, less than 24 hours before those temperatures begin to drop into the 20s. and it will be dangerous for people to be sleeping on the street, jose. >> and i'm just saying, you have

been going between el paso and juarez so much in these past couple days. there are thousands of people in juarez that are waiting for their opportunity to cross into the united states and not in very good conditions as far as places they could find shelter. >> reporter: jose, this is difficult. the people here are sleeping on the street but they are receiving a lot of clothing. there's people that will bring them hot food. you can imagine on the mexican side it's even more difficult because there isn't as much help. and i think one of the things that worries me is that a lot of those migrants that are arriving in juarez right now, they have no idea that the temperature is about to drop into the 20s. we were standing out there and we had to cover our heads when the wind hits, it's just very difficult to be outside. it's almost too much to be able to stand it. it's going to drop 10 degrees colder so yesterday as i spoke with a lot of the migrants, i

asked them if they had a plan for today and saturday, they said, no, why do i need a plan? we had to tell them, find a place where you can take shelter because the temperatures are going to drop. >> men, women and children. guad venegas, across the countr finding empty shelves where there should be cold medicine for their children. what doctors are recommending today and how parents are coping. >> it's food, it's water, it's medicine. i feel like we should be beyond this. with our two-year-old. so naturally, we doubled down with a new puppy. thankfully, we also have tide ultra-oxi with odor eliminators. between stains and odors, it can handle double trouble. for the #1 stain fighter and odor remover, it's got to be tide. my a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. ray's a1c is down for with rybelsus®.ghter and odor remover, i'm down with rybelsus®. my a1c is down with rybelsus®.

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how are families and pharmacies coping with this? >> reporter: we know the families and parents are literally going store to store to look right now for things like tylenol and ibuprofen for their kids and for themselves. this pharmacy tells me parents have been asking for medications that simply are not available. they are expecting reinforcements, tylenol, specifically, in two to three weeks. so many are wondering, what am i supposed do? here is what doctors say you should and should not be doing. with rows of pharmacy shelves empty, frustrations nationwide are mounting, along with cases of covid, the flu and rsv. >> it resulted in a bunch of sleepless nights. >> reporter: this woman is one of the lucky ones, having the time and resources to scour stores for medicine to give her 15-month-old son. what do you think it says that so many parents have to check

three or four or five places just to find a normal over-the-counter drug? >> it's shocking. it feels really wild to have to go to multiple stores to find something that is really, really just like a household item. >> reporter: america is quickly confronting the shortfall of flu and fever fighting medicines. national pharmacy chains as well as supermarket mainstays have placed restrictions on how many products consumers can buy at one time. it's not just kids impacted. the shore shortage affecting pef all ages. this doctor who runs a pharmacy for jackson health in miami, one of the largest health care systems in the country, had tips for families. are there alternatives if you can't find kid's tylenoltylenol? >> talk to your doctor. a pharmacist can recommend other

therapies. if the doctor is okay with it, the doctor can write a different prescription. >> reporter: generic versions of drugs, which contain the same active ingredients, are equally effective. if your child has a mild fever, let it ride out with a lukewarm bath. do not give kids adult medication without consulting a doctor. the federal government just announcing plans to unlock fresh supplies of tamiflu from the national strategic stockpile. congress making it clear the medication shortage is on its radar. many parents expect better. >> i don't understand why we don't make sure that we collectively all have access to these very basic things that we all need. it's food. it's water. it's medicine. i feel like we should be beyond this. >> reporter: as we wait to see whether or not the federal government does step in to try to stabilize the situation.

a lot of people will be asking, what about expired medication? can i use those in a pinch? it's not a good idea. the problem is, there's other things in there like coloring and fillers, those can become dangerous over time. >> sam brock, thank you so very much. that wraps up the hour for me. reach me on twitter and instagram. follow the show online. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell is next. ♪ what will you do? ♪ what will you change? ♪ will you make something better? ♪ will you create something entirely new? ♪ our dell technologies advisors provide you with the tools and expertise you need to do incredible things.

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," let's make a deal. democratic senate leader chuck schumer announcing an agreement to fund the government after republicans had stalled negotiations last night over a renegade amendment to make article 42 permanent. new transcripts just releases before the final report of the january 6 committee. transcripts released last night show key witnesses not cooperating and pleading the fifth to basic questions. volodymyr zelenskyy in poland thanking americans last night for their support in his impassioned address to congress. the vice president and the