data, having the law clerks sign affidavits. so far no culprit. >> excellent reporting, joan. thank you very much. thank you for joining us. to our viewers, that's for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next trump's former acting defense secretary directly contradicting a claim from trump about national guard troops ahead of january 6th. plus, a new cnn poll finds 75% of democrats do not want biden to be the democratic nominee in the next election. wow. why? new details about what the white house is doing behind the scenes to get house speaker nancy pelosi to nix the trip to taiwan she says she's taking. let's go "outfront."

i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight caught in a lie. new video from the january 6th select committee, sworn testimony from trump's acting defense secretary chris miller contradicts a statement from president trump. he said he personally asked for 20,000 national guard troops to be at the ready ahead of january 6th. this is what the defense secretary told the committee exactly happened. >> to be crystal clear there was no direct order from president trump to put 20,000 troops on the ready for january 6th, correct? >> you're correct. there was no order from the president. >> that shutting down a statement from trump who on june 9th said the unselect committee learned that i as president offered up to 20,000 national guard troops be deployed in d.c. because it was felt the crowd

was going to be very large. well, you heard the secretary of defense say he did no such thing. whether 10 or 20,000, he never ordered any. this blatant lie exposed as we learn more from attorney general merrick garland. garland said he'll hold trump accountable criminally if that's where the evidence leads. >> we pursue justice without fear or favor. we intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding january 6th, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power, accountable. >> anyone. garland's investigation is now deep inside trump's white house. i spoke to marc short, the former chief of staff to vice president pence. he confirmed he testified under subpoena in front of a federal grand jury investigating january 6th.

he said it was his one and only time before the grand jury. we also learned greg jacob testified before the grand jury in that criminal investigation. according to the chairman of the january 6th committee, garland's investigators at the doj are focusing on trump lec ele electors. the breadth of that scheme is being laid out. there are newly disclosed emails obtained by "the new york times." this is an email send to trump adviser boris epstein from a phoenix-based lawyer. the phoenix lawyer writes, quote, we would be sending in fact electoral votes to pence so that someone in congress can make an objection when they start counting votes and argue the fake votes should be counted. team trump saying the quiet part out loud, admitting their plot

was fake. in a follow up email, the lawyer follows up, pps alternative votes is probably a better term that fake votes, smiley face. now the january 6th committee is showing how wide ranging the plot was involving fake electors from 12 states. even the president was aware of the fact elector scheme. today the former president returning to washington to distract that his plan to cling on to power was hatched there. tonight still spouting the lie. >> i ran for president and i won. i won the second time. did much better the second time. >> doesn't matter how many times you say it, it's still a lie. even though he didn't mention the january 6th attacks in his speech, it's important to

mention what he spent most of his speech on, talking about law enforcement. >> they have to become our heros. they are mine, but some people they don't feel that way. they're going to have to feel that way if we're going to have a great country. >> the fact that he could say that given his actions around law enforcement on january 6th. in those three hours when law enforcement was under fire, capitol police, secret service in the line of fire, trump did nothing as this happened. >> i couldn't believe my eyes. there were officers on the ground, you know, they were bleeding. they were throwing up. they were -- they had -- i mean, i saw friends with blood all over their faces. i was slipping in people's blood.

you know, i was catching people as they fell. you know, i was -- it was carnage. it was chaos. >> actions of course speak louder than words. we learn that as young children. trump's actions were nothing. he watched that live. he just described law enforcement he watched and refused again and again and again to tell the attackers to stop. ignoring pleadings from his own children. then the next day the former president refused to call for the rioters who did those things to law enforcement to be prosecuted. he crossed out a crucial line from a speech he gave that day. here's the line he crossed out. i'm directing the department of justice to ensure all law breakers are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. he deleted it. evan perez is in washington. evan, the attorney general merrick garland says criminal referrals from the january 6th

committee won't necessary influence the force of his investigation. he's got an investigation. they have all their work. he's asked for a lot of information from them. he's saying what they do doesn't influence him. is that semantics or significant? >> reporter: wihe's trying to g at the justice department -- he wants to let people foe they're doing their own thing. they're doing their own investigation. he's trying to tell people we're a lot further along than you might know or think. he chooses his words carefully. i've covered this man for sometime. you can tell that he weighs every word. one of the most important things he said today in that interview with nbc, he said that this is an investigation that is looking into people who might have interfered with the peaceful transfer of power. really, that broadens the scope of this investigation to include dozens of people. we're talking about the dozens

of people who were part of that fact elector scheme in that seven battle ground states. we're talking about the seven lawyers who were involved in not only encouraging the former vice president mike pence to stop the certification of the electors, of the election results. we know, erin, from sources that greg jacob who appeared before the grand jury in recent weeks was asked about john eastman and the involvement of rudy giuliani in this larger plot. what the attorney general is trying to do, is trying to send out a warning call to all those people. we're talking about dozens. obviously if they have something to tell, they should come forward to the justice department. i would compare it to what happened right after the attack when the fbi let all of the people who went into the building come forward. it's better for you to come forward instead of us coming

after you. >> evan, thank you very much for explaining that. i want to bring in congressman jamie raskin, a member of the january 6th committee. i appreciate your time. when you hear the attorney general merrick garland say that a criminal referral from your committee wouldn't necessarily affect his department's criminal investigation one way or another, does that encourage you or discourage you? >> that encourages me. it solidifies the understanding i've operated with, which is that the department of justice has a vast arsenal of resources at their disposal. these are extremely effective lawyers. they know what they're doing. they're engaged in the largest criminal investigation in american history examining both the violent insurrection and the attempted political coup that it was surrounding. you know, merrick garland is a constituent of mine. i was never into the idea of

people brow beating him and pressuring him. he's perfectly capable of doing his job. we need to restore the tradition of respect for the independence of law enforcement. i've got confidence that they're going to find their way to render justice for the american people. they've got very specific guidelines at the doj about when to bring a case. it depends on if they've got probable cause. they know how to do it. >> what we understand is that the doj was focussed on the fact elector scheme. there were developments on that front today. that scheme we're learning more and more how broad it was, as, of course, you have revealed as part of your committee. has the focus of the doj, such that you understand it, gone beyond the fact elector scheme criminally or not? >> i don't know anything more than you do, but, of course, it has. they charged people with lots of offenses in terms of the

insurrection, interference with a federal proceeding and a -- >> as far as the key inner players, these 12 players, is it going beyond fake electors such that you understand it? >> well, the entire plot to overthrow the election of 2020 was inter-braided. you can only understand the plot as part of the effort to bring this before mike pence and coerce him to step outside of his constitutional role and declare an exercise unlawful and unprecedented power to nullify electoral college votes. all the parts are connected. i would feel certain, although i have no idea, i would feel certain they're viewing the whole thing as an interwoven series of events. >> marc short was skeptical of something specific i wanted to ask you about.

he was skeptical about the testimony your committee highlighted from the anonymous white house official. you had to modulate his voice. talked about how members of pence's security feared for their lives. i played that to him to get his reaction. i wanted to play for you what he said. >> to be honest, erin, i was skeptical. i think it would have been the rioters that the secret service fired on. it wasn't secret service agents fearing for their lives. i didn't witness that. >> what do you say to him? obviously you stand by your witness, but he's saying they were not scared or afraid for their lives in any way. >> to be clear, i don't think he's taking issue with the credibility of the testimony we

put on. that clearly was from a witness. he's disputing the substance of what the witness testified. >> that's right. >> you know, all i would say about that is having been somebody who was there in the room that day, and there were some officers who were armed, it was an objectively terrifying situation where lots of people were calling their spouses. lots of members were calling their children, their parents to say good-bye. you know, nobody's looking forward to a gun fight and if hundreds and hundreds of people entered the capitol without going through the metal detecters or any kind of background check people could have got in with ar-15s. as we showed in the hearing, there were people on january 6th who had ar-15s. there were people with rifles, handguns and other weapons. >> i want to ask you something else. congressman, you have interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses. the scope of what you've done is

frankly staggering by any measure. you held eight public hearings. there's been an indication that you're going to hold more in september. i'm curious. since your last public hearing which is not even one week ago, has anyone come forward that has made you feel this merits firing it all up again? somebody who is really going to make people's jaws drop? >> well, let's just say that, you know, these investigations have a momentum of their own because people watch and they realize that they are in possession of evidence that may be relevant and of interest to the committee. they're also people who cannot tolerate or endorse the lying anymore. obviously a lot of lying has been going on as recently today with president trump claiming he won an election he lost by more than 7 million votes and the same margin in the electoral

college he beat hillary by which he proclaimed a landslide. people are coming forward on a daily basis. all of it is filling in details. the basic elements of the plot to destroy joe biden's lawful victory are very well-known at this point. >> i want to ask you one final point. this is something i know you focussed a lot on. that's the text messages from the secret service your committee subpoenaed, the text messages sent january 5th and 6th. the secret service has only produced one text. they said the others may have been erased because some phones were going through a software migration. agents had to take action to make sure their texts were saved and they didn't do so. sort of a technical glitch. you expressed skepticism last night over the agency's explanation. do you think the secret service is covering something up? >> i don't know.

i want to get to the bottom of it. when texts are destroyed from january 6th and january 5th, that raises everybody's eyebrows. that seems like an awfully striking coincidence. we want to find out exactly what was the genesis of the decision to get rid of these texts. are they really missing? what happened there? we will get to the bottom of it. i'll tell you what i feel strongly. anybody who has tried to cover up any aspect of these events has been refuted and superceded by other witnesses who are willing to come forward and tell the truth. they get their comeuppance in the end. no one is going to be able to lie their way through this or hide from subpoenas or deny the integrity of this investigation. >> congressman raskin, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thanks for having me. want to go to ellie honig

and stephanie grisham. ellie, let me start with you. some new questioning from the "washington post" reporting that doj investigators have asked grand jury witnesses, people like marc short, about president trump's actions as part of its criminal probe, about president trump's actions. we knew they were interested in the people around him. they're specifically saying the questions were about the president himself. >> we have people who might be able to answer those questions, people like marc short and potentially greg jacob. merrick garland, when he says nobody is off the table, he means it. let's understand that statement. he's saying i'm not placing donald trump beyond our reach, but what's notable is the doj is inside the white house for first

time. that's a big change. >> stephanie, right there asking questions, the reporting is talking about the former president. they're asking about criminal questions about the president of the united states. marc short, a former chief of staff for mike pence, testified in front of the grand jury. the georgia criminal case obviously is moving quickly. you have a lot of things moving quickly here that now are touching trump himself. how does this affect him right now? >> that's a tough question. you know, he has dodged so many different inquiries, lawsuits, et cetera. if i'm being honest, i think he's seeing this as a challenge. he's seeing it as a loyalty test. i worked for an attorney general in arizona. i know how methodical you have to be to build a winning case. i believe that's what they're doing. i believe something will come of this, but right now i think he thinks he's going to retain his

teflon don moniker and nothing will happen. today he kept hinting at his latest speech that he was going to run. i think that's continuing to be a distraction and continuing to keep his base riled up so he feels he has people fighting for him. >> fighting for him and distracted from all these developments that are coming out fast and furiously. "the new york times" is part of this things are moving more quickly. they published some undisclosed emails. emails between trump advisers and lawyers, outside lawyers involved in the fake elector scheme. one of them -- the aides that helped organize the effort called the electors fake and follows up in another email saying, quote, alternative votes is probably a better term than fake, smiley face. how damning is that? >> that's a bad email for the person who sent that and the

person who received it. here's why the fact elector scheme is jumping off the page. we have a whole series of interlocking pressure campaigns here. the submission of false slates of electors, it's tangible. there's a tangibility about that that makes it more appealing investigatively. >> in an email like that you contact say it was just in case. it doesn't get any more clear than that. >> right. >> trump had claimed he requested, he offered national guard troops to be ready january 6th. his acting defense secretary, the person who would have received that order says it's not true according to newly released testimony he gave to the january 6th committee. i should emphasize under oath.

take a listen. >> to be crystal clear there was no direct order from president trump to have 20,000 national guard troops right, correct? >> that's right. there was no order from the president. >> stephanie, under oath loud and clear exposing what the former president said as untrue. how damaging is it? >> i hate to be a debby downer here. it's very damaging in a regular situation, but how many people now, how many aides who worked for him, how many republicans said that's not true. that's not true. how many things have been proven not true that the president has said? i believe this adds to the case that the president lies all the time, the former president i want to say. i don't know how damaging it is until the doj or the case in georgia, something happens to him. at this point for our country -- this is no pressure.

again, i understand how hard it is to build a winning case. until something actually happens i don't know how damaging it is. >> well, it's fair and it's important that you state it like you see it. t thanks to both of you. next, georgia prosecutors they're at a pivotal moment in their case investigating trump's efforts to overturn the election. details about who is about to appear before that grand jury. ukraine launching one of its most significant counter offenses. could it be a turning point? historic flooding. the latest weather disaster to occur in the united states. record rain in st. louis. homes destroyed. people fleeing. we have the story. and a fresh batch of wireframes. and you can find her, and millions of other talented pros, right now on upwork.com

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anywhere. even here. that's because nobody... and i mean nobody... makes hybrid work, work better. tonight georgia's fact electors who tried to overturn the state's 2020 election results in favor of president trump are set to testify in the coming days. 11 of the 16 republicans are expected to appear. their scheme is laid out in emails obtained by "the new york times." one of them sent by boris epstein talks about an idea proposed by a lawyer working with the trump campaign. this email reads in part, his idea is basically that all of us, georgia, wisconsin, arizona, pennsylvania have our electors

turn in our socievotes. nick valencia is "outfront." >> reporter: a significant leak for georgia prosecutors investigation the alleged interference by donald trump and his advisers. there's 11 republicans are expected to p aappear in the special grand jury. among them is the state's gop party chair david shaffer. >> most of these folks could walk right into the courthouse and those cameras wouldn't even pivot on them. >> reporter: the so-called fake electors are targets of an investigation for participating in a plan to subvert the electoral college and assert trump was the winner in georgia

in the 2020 election. even as the fulton county district attorney appears poised to charge criminally, this week a major misstep. >> the optics are horrific. >> reporter: a judge on monday blocking willis from pursuing a case against burt jones, a republican state senator who is running to be georgia's lt. governor. >> it's not a lower case "a" appearance. it's like a capital "a" with flashing lights. fundraiser for an opponent of someone i've targeted in my investigation. >> reporter: it could now impact the overall case. a new district attorney could be assigned to question jones, if needed, which could create problems. the prosecuting attorney's counsel of georgia who could appoint the special d.a. says no

decision has been made. >> while it matters whenever there's a disqualification, in this case the grand jury review moves forward and it does not affect the most important target of all, potentially, donald trump. >> the people of georgia are angry. the people in the country are angry. there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, you recalculated. >> mr. president, the challenge you have is the data you have is wrong. >> reporter: a case sparked by an infamous phone call by trump and georgia's secretary of state brad raffensperger. now at least seven key trump allies have been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, including five of the trump campaign's legal counselors, as well as the president's attorney rudy giuliani and south carolina republican senator lindsey graham. erin, we learned according to a

spokesperson with the georgia state bar that two republican attorneys who participated in the fake elector scheme are having their law licenses investigated. a complaint was filed by a group of lawyers earlier this year. now not only are the two republican lawyers being investigated in the criminal probe, they're also having their law licenses investigate for their role as fake electors. next, new poll numbers tonight. 3 out of 4 democrats don't want biden to be the nominee. the divide among republicans is getting wider over who should run. new reporting that the biden administration is working behind the scenes to warn speaker nancy pelosi -- to stop her from going to taiwan. (fisher investments) in this market, you'll find fisher investments

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david, three quarters of democrats don't want the incumbent president to run again? how worried should biden be right now about that? >> well, i mean, obviously this is a very unhappy bit of data for him. i'm sure, you know, it's concerning, but we should point out that he's got two and a half years before the next election. so you can get overly focussed on one number. there are a series of numbers that are not good for him. his overall approval rating is hovering between 37 and 38%. that isn't deadly. we were 15 months out when barack obama got 38% approval rating and won in a landslide. you know, the time will come when these numbers have to be accounted for and he has to make a decision.

that time is not now. >> in between now and that time, is the big elephant in the room, the economy. americans are upset and anxious. president obama said -- president biden said this about the state of the economy. >> my hope is we go from this rapid growth to steady growth and we'll see some coming down. i don't think we're going to, god willing, i don't think we'll see a recession. >> put semantics aside. is framing the experience so many americans are having of surging costs, weakening job market in some crucial sectors, is that the way to frame it? is it effective? >> it is difficult because on the one hand he's looking at numbers that show progress in a lot of other areas, including employment in this country, that he considers, to his credit, to

his policy's credit, and he wants people to see it that way. he doesn't want to talk the economy down. you have to link up to where people live. right now people are -- gas prices are coming down. they're still high. they're going to grocery stores and are watching those numbers climb and there's general unhappiness. that's reflected all over the poling. people think the country is headed in the wrong direction. consumer confidence has gone down again. these are all concerning. he needs them to turn around. there's no doubt about it. he needs improvement on inflation. he needs public attitudes to improve and he needs to be careful about not getting out of sync with people's experience as he talks about it. >> we talk about 75% of democrats right now saying they don't want him to be the nominee. that's bad. on the republican side it's bad. there's a schism over there and it's getting worse. exhibit a, trump ally and

sycophant matt gaetz said mike pence will never be president. this is how marc short, pence's chief of staff, responded last night. >> i don't know if mike pence will run for president in 2024, but i don't think matt gaetz will have an i am mpact on that. it's likely he'll be in prison for child sex trafficking in 2022. i'm surprised florida law enforcement allows him to speak at conferences. i'm not worried about what matt gaetz says. >> matt gaetz denies this and hasn't been charged with a crime, but wow. >> that was a tough punch. look, you know, today the focus was on pence and on trump because they both were speaking in washington. they were kind of speaking alt each other a little bit. pence was about trump when he said we've got to be about the future and not the past. they're not going to be the only players on the field in 2024.

you know, if you look at poling right now, the race is more between trump and governor desantis of florida than between trump and pence. i think what pence is hoping and betting is trump will fade and that he may not be in the race come the spring of 2023 and that then pence will have a race perhaps with desantis and other players who aren't poling as well. look, trump is taking on water. one of the things that biden is thinking about is trump. he said it many times. you know, i don't want him to be president again. i'm the guy who can beat him. you know, races are comparative. they're not referendums. as trump's numbers erodes, biden's hopes climb. i don't know if the two lines will intersect and encourage him to run. we have a dynamic situation.

>> david axelrod, thank you. next nancy pelosi aware for weeks of the administration's concerns about her trip to taiwan, but he's not backing down. now china is upping the ante. plus the major move by ukraine, one that could up the coururse of putin's invasionon. we'll take you there live. nsult. step up. prep up. to help keep you free from the risk of hiv. descovy for prep, the smallest prep pill available, is a once-daily prescription medicine that helps lower thehances of getting hivhrough sex. it's not for everyone. descovy for prep h not been studied in people assigned female birth. talk to your doctor to find out if it's right for you. descovy is another way to prep. descovy does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections, so it's important to use safer sex practices and get tested regularly. you must be hiv-negative to take descovy for prep. so, you need to get tested for hiv immediately before and at least every 3 months while taking it. if you think you were exposed to hiv or have

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biden administration is working behind the scenes to convince speaker pelosi of the risks of her potential trip to taiwan amidst a tense moment in china. china's defense ministry doubling down on his rhetoric saying the military is prepared to defend national sovereignty. josh rogan is "outfront" on this. general milley has been trying to get pelosi not to go for weeks. then it seems she's pushing ahead with it. what more do you know? >> reporter: tonight's headline is the white house is trying to convince her not to go. for several weeks officials including jake sullivan, kurt

cameron, general milley has been briefing pelosi and her staff laying out intelligence assessments, military plans to impress upon her the risks of visiting taiwan are so high they would have to mount a massive military operation to protect her which could spark the conflict everyone is trying to avoid. everyone agrees the chinese shouldn't be able to tell americans whether or not they can travel to taiwan. that's not under dispute. the biden administration is saying there's a risk here. the pelosi response is, well, that's a risk i'm willing to take. there's the stalemate. which branch of government gets to decide on foreign policy when they disagree? are the chinese bluffing? when they test our resolve, maybe the best thing is to show resolve. >> pretty incredible when the pentagon tells you it would mount a massive military operation to protect you and she

goes ahead with it. they've been working as you reported to get her not to go and it spills into the public in the most undignified way. the president of the united states is confirming reports of the trip itself and shows that the administration doesn't want her to go. here's president biden. >> mr. president, do you think it's a good idea for speaker pelosi to travel to taiwan? >> well, i think that the military thinks it's not a good idea right now, but i don't know what the status of it is. >> so, josh, was that planned, that he decided i'm going to say that, the military doesn't think it's a good idea? >> reporter: i'm sure it was not planned. it was biden being biden. he was being honest although not correct. it's not the military. it's a white house-driven effort. they're making the policy. they're engaged in a delicate

dance with beijing. they're having this chess game with the chinese authorities and they never invited pelosi to make a move. they don't like the move she chose and she doesn't care. the chinese can't believe the president of the united states can't tell the speaker of the house not to go to china. if a law maker went to taiwan against the chinese president's wi wishes, they would disappear. there was a leak too in the "times" that she was going to go. pelosi can't talk about it. it's a secret trip for a reason because she wants to arrive without a lot of fanfare so she can get in and get out. biden's comments brought it out into public and that has the effect of making the pelosi team think we're going to take the hit if we back down. that makes them more determined to go. >> pretty amazing.

look at history. how many things happen from these sorts of ego reasons on every side? thank you, josh. next, ukraine planning a major counteroffensive that could give them back a crucial city. it's an important development tonight. and historic flooding in the st. louis region. more than n 100 rescued and at least one person dead. is it on the green? [goose squawks] i was just looking for my ball. 19th hole, sam adams summer ale. [goose squawks] (here you go.) (cheers guys!)

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tonight ukrainian forces planning one of the most significant counteroffensives since the war began. ivan watson is out front. scenes from ukraine's

southern front during the first months of the war. footage shared exclusively with cnn shows ukraa senior ukrainia lieutenant, calling in a drone for artillery strikes on russian positions. once after filming these videos, he is still fighting on the southern front. were the russians in this village before? >> yes. the ukrainians describes this as well-prepared russians. >> artillery systems, we do

that. >> reporter: this month, my team and i traveled the length of the southern front from the critical port of odesa to the edge of the donbas region. i spoke to people willing to risk their lives against the russian war machine. in this city, ukrainian forces storm a building. it's a training exercise to prepare these men for one of the most dangerous forms of modern warfare, urban combat. the commander here was gravely wounded pushing russian-backed separatists out of cities in the eastern donbas region in 2014. we have a duty to liberate our territories, he says. this is our land and we will not give it to anyone. that confidence shared by a regiment of front line troops in eastern ukraine. they show off recently

british-made land rovers. >> i just noticed something. take a look here at this tire. made in russia. >> this was russian. >> it was russian car, but our soldiers fight him and take this car. >> they captured -- >> reporter: but the war is taking a dreadful toll here. day and night, russian rockets and surface-to-air missiles repurposed to strike ground targets and more appear to be on the way. ukrainian resistance groups shared this exclusive footage with cnn taken just days ago, showing the arrival of a train full of missiles in the occupied southern kherson region, later provided these images provided to cnn.

ukraine has been targeting russian ammunition depots. this senior lieutenant says he noticed a difference on the front lines. >> we have about two, three weeks when they have enough ammunition to fight us. >> reporter: still, who predict it is will take a long time for ukraine to win the war in the south. >> i'm not sure that we will win this year. >> reporter: before i go he shows me captured russian passports and drivers licenses. russian men ranging from 22 to 41 years old, who he speculates are now dead. they look like you. >> they look like me. >> reporter: they have similar names? >> yeah. and i'm staying in my territory. they came to me to capture, to

kill maybe my parents. >> reporter: this is what ukrainians are fighting for. now, erin, if the ukrainians were able to push the russians further back, it would be a huge symbolic and strategic blow, but as we've heard, it is a hard grind. that's what ukrainian commanders are predicting to try to push the russian troops back. we are probably seeing more signs of these efforts, though. there are reports tonight of rocket attacks on the key bridge that the russians would use for reinforcing and resupplying their troops in these occupied parts of southern ukraine. erin. >> ivan, thank you very much live from odesa tonight. next, a state of emergency in the st. louis, missouri area tonight after record-shatterini rain. (g(gasps) dude - why??

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this is xfinity rewards. our way of showing our appreciation. with rewards of all shapes and sizes. [ cheers ] are we actually going? yes!! and once in a lifetime moments. two tickets to nascar! yes! find rewards like these and so many more in the xfinity app. the st. louis area reeling from an historic downpour. flash floods swallowing cars. it's not a once off but a look

what the we may she a lot more of. >> you can see nobody's cars. >> reporter: roads turned into rivers. >> that is the only road out of this area and it is impassability at the moment. >> reporter: an interstate shut down. >> interstate 70. >> reporter: and firefighters forced to make dozens of rescues, all as a record amount of rain full in the st. louis area in just a matter of hours. >> we had approximately 8 1/2 foot of water and we were told by a civilian there was a possibility of someone in a car. we pulled a civilian out of a vehicle that has passed. >> reporter: others went scrambling for shelter. >> i heard some thunder early this morning, didn't think much of it, went back to sleep and a couple hours later, i just heard some water coming to the apartment. it was a couple feet in and kept

coming up. >> reporter: st. louis got more than eight inches of rain. the previous record for one day was less than seven, which happened all the way back in 1915. the surrounding st. louis area saw anywhere from six to ten inches overnight, according to the national weather service. area officials urged everyone to avoid travel as they say they were getting 911 calls are multiple people stuck. >> you don't know how deep it is. it's simply not safe, it's not worth the risk. >> reporter: torrential rain left parts of the area almost unrecognizable, trapping cars on streets, flooding train tracks and homes. climate scientists say such turbulent weather is becoming more familiar as rising temperatures mean the atmosphere can hold more moisture, leading to more rain and more extreme conditions, from deadly heat to destructive fires, dangerous floods. it's a dynamic officials are increasingly trying to be prepared for across the country.

whether it's the extreme heat affecting tens of millions of americans or the hurricanes or the drought, this is the new normal. this is a climate emergency. >> reporter: in st. louis the floodwaters are receding, but scientists say the chances of this happening again are only going up. omar jimenez, cnn. >> thanks for joining us. " "ac "ac360" start now. >> we begin with breaking news. the attorney general called the highest reaching appropriation. there's new reporting in "the washington post" this evening citing four familiar with the investigation. the headline, "justice department investigating trump's actions in january 6 criminal probe." the prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings trump led in december