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U.S. Winter Storm Rapidly Intensifies, Becomes a Bomb Cyclone; Violence Erupts Across Mexico After Death of El Mencho; Armed Man Shot and Killed After Entering Mar-a-Lago Property. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired February 23, 2026 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:00]

AUDIE CORNISH, ANCHOR, EARLY START: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and around the world, I'm Audie Cornish, and it's Monday, February 23rd, it's 5:00 a.m. here in Washington D.C. We're going to talk about this bomb cyclone now battering the northeastern U.S. with heavy snow and strong, gusty winds.

Weather conditions are actually expected to worsen in the hours ahead, and so, this is what it looks like from space. More than a foot of snow has fallen in some parts of the New York Metro area, and forecasters expect Boston to see a full day of snow.

Some heavy bands could dump up to 2 inches of snow per hour. Now, along with the snow, we're seeing an increase in winds, gusting over 50-60 miles per hour. That's from New York to Massachusetts. And power outages also on the rise, with about 250,000 customers now affected as snow and winds knocked down trees and utility lines in New Jersey.

They're reporting roughly a 100,000 homes and businesses without electricity. Now, as these blizzard conditions threaten the region, there are some cities, for instance, Philadelphia where they're actually having to ramp down public transit service. So, we're going to head to Philly now, where CNN's Brian Todd is standing by live.

Brian, thanks for standing out there for us. What are you seeing on the ground there in Philadelphia?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Audie, conditions here are pretty bad and getting worse, and they've been getting worse for about the last 13 hours or so. You know, they put in the snow emergency in effect at about 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, and things have been pretty much deteriorating here in Philadelphia since then.

Even though, it is a pretty scene, you see these sideways bands of snow whipping around here. It's going to continue that way for hours here in Philadelphia. This is -- we're at Eakins Oval here at the end of Benjamin Franklin Parkway. That's Benjamin Franklin Parkway there.

As you can see, they've already had the plows out, they've been having them out for several hours now, but visibility is an issue, and it's going to get worse here. Coming over here to the famous Rocky steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I talked to a gentleman here who was running a plow, he just left a few minutes ago.

He was plowing this area at the foot of the steps, he said that he's been plowing since about 3:00 a.m., and they were doing this area of Benjamin Franklin Parkway over here, this flat area below -- beneath the Rocky steps here. He said they expect sledders to start coming down the Rocky steps later this morning.

You see Rocky up there at the top. There's another Rocky statue over there. You know, part of the treachery here, Audie, is that, this is what they call heart attack snow. It's a heavy, wet snow. It's great for, you know, making snowballs and snowmen, but it's -- you know, they call it heart attack snow for the obvious reason that what -- very easy to over exert yourself when you try to shovel it.

So, they're warning people in this area they do want people to shovel their walks and everything, but they're saying, you know, be careful. Another thing that they're warning about is all over this area. They're telling motorists, get your cars off the roads and they're not messing around.

When my team and I pulled into town last night, we went into a neighborhood of west Philadelphia over that way called Manayunk. It's a very hilly and treacherous neighborhood. In conditions like that. We have some video that we shot from last night. The police were already marking cars to be towed from that neighborhood.

They were really not messing around. They've got to get people off the streets. You see some plows that have just come through here. So, that is something that they're warning about. They don't want people on the roads. In neighboring New Jersey, you know, they instituted a total ban on the roadways.

Now, that's pretty much not enforceable, but it's there to send a message. They just don't want anyone to get on the roadways at all. Here, it's not a total ban in Philadelphia, but they're warning people, it's just going to get worse here. It's going to get very heavy and wet and treacherous.

Stay off the roads and do not park your cars on these streets because they're going to be towed. We saw that last night. So, that's kind of the way it's developing here, Audie, and we have probably at least, another eight hours of these conditions.

The snow is not supposed to really taper off in this Philadelphia area until about 1:00 or maybe even after 1:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Audie.

CORNISH: Yes, Brian, we can see those horizontal winds there. You know, after the deaths in New York, I'm wondering if what you're hearing from Philadelphia emergency officials -- are there warming shelters? What efforts are they making to try and protect people?

[05:05:00]

TODD: They do have several warming shelters, and they are going around and kind of checking on people as they go here. One other thing I can tell you is that city officials here are going to be under a bit of a spotlight, because the shoveling in the last big snowstorm they had, which was about almost exactly a month ago, there were complaints after that, that they were just too slow to shovel out the streets.

And so, there are -- people here are going to be kind of keeping a watchful eye on that. I can tell you though, that we've seen several plows out early this morning already. So, they're being very vigilant about it. But yes, you mentioned that, that is an issue with the homeless people in this city and in cities up and down the east coast.

They do have warming shelters, they do say that they will go around and check on people, and I remember in D.C. last month, they said that they were going to forcibly remove homeless people from the streets and get them into the warming shelters if they had to. We're going to see if they have to do that here in Philadelphia.

CORNISH: Yes, Brian, thank you for that update. We'll be checking with you throughout the day. I want to turn now to a storm chaser, Brandon Clement's live from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Thank you for joining us. Can you tell us where -- what you're seeing at this point in Massachusetts?

BRANDON CLEMENT, STORM CHASER (via telephone): Yes, right now, we're -- wind-gusting 65 mile an hour gusts pushing in, of course, large, very large waves crashing over the seawall. Some of the water from the -- from the waves is now starting to run down into town. Got some flooding starting.

It's not completely unusual for this area, but this being the first tide cycle where we got water pushing in, it accumulates over multiple tide cycles and continues to get higher, you know, each tide cycle you go.

CORNISH: Now, I'm from Massachusetts, we're used to the snow, but bomb cyclone is sort of a different thing. So, can you talk about the difference in what that means for the snowfall or even the winds?

CLEMENT: Well, it really just depends on where you are when these Nor'easters bomb out like this and the temperatures. So, I've been down here before where it stayed completely on the rain side, and we've had massive waves and storm-surge flooding.

And then I've also been on some where we've had temperatures that got down to single digits and all these waves completely iced over all the homes along the oceanfront. So, it really just depends on -- each system is a little bit different. But any time you get these cyclones bombing out, these massive pressure balls, it's just like a tropical storm.

Maybe Cat one hurricane, but much larger wind field. So, it affects a lot bigger area. And then of course, when it's cold enough, you have a snow impact and you have wave impacts and coastal flooding. So, there's a lot of different impacts.

And when you're talking about, you know, basically a third of the country's population being impacted in the northeast corridor. They've shut down a lot of air travel and highways, I mean, just very disruptive.

CORNISH: Are you seeing any residents who are out, trying to get ahead of it with a little bit of shoveling. Like what's -- how are people handling it on the street?

CLEMENT: Well, the coast, the ocean is doing all the shoveling. It's washing all the -- all the snow away. But you go just a little couple of blocks inland, and it looks like full-on blizzard conditions. The snow is just starting here. The heavy snow just a few hours ago.

So, it hasn't really started to pile up yet, but I'm expecting that to start up. But we haven't had the sun come up yet either, so, I'm expecting people to try and get a little head-start later on. But these winds are going to really fight the people on that.

CORNISH: OK, well, Brandon, stay safe out there. Brandon Clement, storm chaser talking to us from Massachusetts. Now, I want to turn to Mexico for a moment because some violence has erupted in areas around the country. This is following the killing of the country's most wanted drug lord.

He was known as El Mencho, and this happened in a military operation on Sunday. Now, you can see, there are some fires raging in this resort town. This is on Mexico's Pacific Coast. And earlier, an American tourist actually was stranded in Puerto Vallarta, described seeing, quote, "chaos".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS DAGENAIS, AMERICAN TOURIST: I'm on the third floor of a building unit that's in the middle of the romantic zone, which is the neighborhood of the city that's been under siege or part of the city that's been under siege. And I was able to see quite directly, a little too visibly, you know, some of the tactics and some of the cars that were being set on fire, some of the looting that was taking place as local stores and buildings were being attacked.

So, it was a combination of a lot of loud noise, a lot of chaos in the streets. There was a lot of uncertainty in terms of what will happen next, both in terms of what happens next in the next day or two, but also what happens next in the next few weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And then there was panic at an international airport in southwest Mexico. After several airlines, including Air Canada and United Airlines actually canceled flights. So, the U.S. has urged Americans in several Mexican states to basically shelter in place, while Canada has told its citizens there to keep a low profile.

[05:10:00]

Now, Mexico's security cabinet says that most roadblocks have now been cleared and main roads reopened. Officials say suspected members of the organized crime groups unleashed this wave of violence after the death of El Mencho. He was a former police officer who was one of the world's most wanted traffickers.

And he had led the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG. Now, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico has praised Mexican authorities for their professionalism and resolve in the operation targeting El Mencho. We're going to hear from CNN's Valeria Leon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIA LEON, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Fire, smoke and chaos across several Mexican states, cities brought to a standstill as criminal groups retaliate after Mexico's most wanted drug leader died following a military operation Sunday, blocked highways drivers, forced out of their cars at gunpoint, trucks and buses set on fire.

Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a former police officer known to most as El Mencho, was the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, wounded during a Mexican military operation, and later died while being transported to Mexico City. The U.S. played a role in Sunday's operation, according to U.S. defense officials, though it's unclear to what extent. As fears spread, many Mexicans spoke out calling for an end to the violence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): People are aware of this violence, and what they want is peace to live in harmony and justice, not in war.

LEON: Blockades were reported across various states and classes were suspended in at least three states as officials try to contain the violence and keep civilians off the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm tired of seeing this continue every single day.

LEON: Under El Mencho's command, the cartel expanded rapidly, challenging rivals like the Sinaloa Cartel for control of territory and trafficking routes according to U.S. and Mexican officials. El Mencho managed to avoid capture for years. His detention and death is one of the most significant blows to organized crime in recent years, and the first high profile operation under President Claudia Sheinbaum.

The fall of El Mencho may mark a major security milestone, but with tourism, foreign investment and security for the 2026 World Cup at stake, the world is watching how Mexico handles what comes next. Valeria Leon, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: The FBI investigating after an armed man was shot and killed on the property of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The Secret Service says the man entered the secured perimeter early Sunday morning. Neither the President nor the first lady were there at the time. CNN's Julia Benbrook has details from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): A White House official tells me President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident Sunday morning. It's important to note that both the President and first lady, Melania Trump were here at the White House when this took place.

But they do often go to their Mar-a-Lago estate there in Florida. In fact, he has been there a lot in recent weeks. Now, during a press briefing, the Palm Beach County Sheriff, Ric Bradshaw, standing with representatives from the FBI and the Secret Service outlined what they know, saying that a man around 1:30 a.m. entered the perimeter of Mar- a-Lago, and a deputy and two Secret Service agents went to investigate. Take a listen.

RIC BRADSHAW, SHERIFF, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: They confronted a white male that was carrying a gas can and a shotgun. He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him, at which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position.

At that point in time, the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons and neutralized the threat. He is deceased at the scene.

BENBROOK: Authorities say this man was in his early 20s. He was from North Carolina, and that he had recently been reported missing by a family member. The FBI is taking the lead on this investigation, they are analyzing, they are also looking into this man's background as well as for a potential motive.

Shortly after news of the incident broke, FBI Director Kash Patel put out a statement, he said this. He said "the FBI is dedicating all necessary resources in the investigation of this morning's incident at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago, where an armed individual was shot and killed after unlawfully entering the perimeter.

We will continue working closely with Secret Service as well as our state and federal partners, and we'll provide updates as we are able. Officials have asked people in the area that if they have any video footage, doorbell footage that looks suspicious and could be related to this, that they reach out to authorities. Julia Benbrook, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[05:15:00]

CORNISH: Right now, EU Foreign Ministers are meeting in Brussels and Russia's war in Ukraine tops the agenda. This comes the day before the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The bloc's foreign policy chief says it is unlikely that they will reach an agreement on new sanctions against Moscow.

CNN's Clare Sebastian joins me now from London. Clare, can you talk about where they are in this sort of attempt at a peace process?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think -- look, Europe is not where it wanted to be going into this Foreign Affairs Council just one day before the fourth anniversary, Audie, they had wanted to be able to adopt a 20th package of sanctions, the 20th since the full- scale invasion.

This was a very hard-hitting sanctions plan that's on the table. It includes a full ban on Maritime shipping services to any vessels carrying Russian oil. Up until now, of course, they have been able to provide services like insurance and other things to any vessels carrying Russian oil that was sold under the price cap.

So, this would supersede that. It would be another very tough measure, a step towards choking off Russia's oil revenues, which is of course, the biggest funder of this war. But now, they are going into this meeting facing opposition to this, a threat from Hungary to veto these sanctions package because of an entirely separate dispute.

Hungary accusing Ukraine of blocking Russian oil supplies that transit through Ukrainian territory to Hungary. Ukraine says that they can -- they aren't supplying this oil because of a drone strike on that pipeline infrastructure. Russia, essentially, they say, striking their own transit infrastructure.

And Hungary is now threatening not only to veto the sanctions package, but a double veto to threaten an EU loan of 90 billion euros that was painstakingly negotiated for Ukraine in December. So, the feeling going into this is one of immense frustration among many European countries, and not least, of course, Europe's top diplomat. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAJA KALLAS, FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF, EUROPEAN UNION: We are, of course, doing our utmost to have this sanctions package to push this through. And I've talked to the member states who are also going to, you know, raise this and convince the countries who are -- who are blocking.

And we are also looking at ways how we can do it. But as we have heard some very strong statements from Hungary, that's why I don't really, you know, see that they are going to change this unfortunately, today, this position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: Europe has managed to find workarounds in the past when Hungary has expressed opposition to any kind of aid for Ukraine. Orban is fighting a knife-edge election campaign at the moment, which of course, may not help the situation. But for Ukraine, I think another potentially bleak moment.

President Zelenskyy having said in his speech in Munich last week that our unity is the best interceptor against Russia's aggressive plans. These are not the optics that he would be looking for.

CORNISH: OK, that's Clare Sebastian. We're going to be checking in on that today. Now, here in the U.S., lawmakers in a stalemate over funding the Department of Homeland Security. And still to come, the latest on the behind the scenes negotiations to end the partial government shutdown.

Plus, new protests across Tehran ahead of the latest round of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. We're going to have details of the unrest ahead.

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[05:20:00]

CORNISH: We're continuing to track this major Winter storm in the northeastern U.S., this is a live look at the Statue of Liberty right now, that's courtesy of Earth Cam. More than 40 million people are under blizzard warnings along the east coast. That means from Delaware up to Maine, the storm prediction center warns that blizzard conditions will ramp up in the coming hours especially near the coast.

In fact, radars show intense bands of snow rolling back and forth over New York City and Philadelphia, with another band headed for Boston. Now, as this Winter storm pummels the northeast, the U.S. House and Senate are postponing their first vote series to Tuesday.

That's according to Republican sources. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has reversed its decision to suspend TSA pre- check program. The announcement comes as the DHS carries on operating without funding. Camila DeChalus has the latest from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, at this point in time, there's still no deal that has been reached in order to end this partial government shutdown. We're still hearing that both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are working behind the scenes in order to try to strike some type of deal that both parties can move forward and pass in order to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

But those details are still being ironed out. Now, we know that this really started the partial government shutdown when a few hours before funding for the Department of Homeland Security was going to lapse, Democrats put out their list of reforms that they wanted to see made to several departments and agencies under the Department of Homeland Security.

And Republicans basically responded to it, saying that it was a nonstarter. And they said that it just -- this list went on too long, and they said that they would only respond and really put out a list of their own concessions that they were willing to make.

But Democrats took a look at it and said that it simply was not enough. And so, they sent a counterproposal back to Republicans in the White House. And at this point in time, we know that, that counterproposal was sent on Monday night, and they still haven't heard anything from them yet.

[05:25:00] And Republican leaders haven't really vocally responded as of that

date. And so, this is where things stand now in the week upcoming. We know that President Trump is expected to make several remarks at his State of the Union address to members of Congress, and we're -- they're hoping that he's going to address the elephant in the room.

And that is that, this partial government shutdown is still continuing, and that both sides still have not found any common ground. But we're hearing that those details are still working out. Democrats want to see the Trump administration, especially these federal agencies held accountable.

And they don't like seeing what immigration enforcement actions have taken place in this country. So, they want to see something that changed. And Republicans on their end, they're saying they're willing to make some concessions, but not give in to all the demands that Democrats are making.

And so, that is something that we are actively monitoring in real time. But we know that the date of February 27th, when it comes to the hundreds and thousands of federal employees under this department, they're going to start feeling the financial impact of this partial government shutdown.

And that is something that we're hearing from both sides, both Democrats and Republicans, that they want to avoid them. Employees just feeling the financial impact of it. And so, they know that they need to make a deal soon. Camila DeChalus, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: In Iran, students launched a new round of protests as Tehran faces mounting pressure from the U.S. to curb its nuclear program. Protesters held a march at a university campus in Tehran in honor of the students killed during the anti-government protests a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the U.S. special envoy told "Fox News" that President Trump is wondering why a deal still has not happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO RUSSIA-UKRAINE & MIDDLE EAST: He's curious as to why they haven't -- I don't want to use the word "capitulated", but why they haven't capitulated. Why aren't there this sort of pressure with the amount of sea power, Naval power that we have over there, why they haven't come to us and said, we profess that we don't want to be -- we don't want a weapon. So, here's what we're prepared to do. And yet, it's hard to sort of get them to that place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now, Iranian and U.S. officials do expect a third round of talks to take place in Geneva on Thursday. And Iran's Foreign Minister says he is optimistic that a diplomatic solution will be reached on Tehran's nuclear program. CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now live from Abu Dhabi.

This new round of rallies again at universities. But in the meantime, is Iranian leaders -- are they feeling pressure heading into these talks?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Audie, when it comes to those protests we've seen at a number of universities over the weekend, it was really a combination of the beginning of a new semester at these universities, and also the 40-day mourning period in Iran of some of their friends and loved ones who had been killed during the protests at the beginning of the year, killed by Iranian security forces.

So, what we're seeing from Iranian officials at this point is, we are hearing positive sounds from the Iranian side. We have been hearing over the weekend from the Foreign Minister, he's done a number of U.S. media interviews, saying that he is hopeful that a deal can be struck when it comes to the nuclear program with the United States.

Saying that they're working on a counterproposal at this point. That was the end of last week, saying it would be ready within days. So, potentially, we could hear something on that very soon. But let's listen to what he said over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, FOREIGN MINISTER, IRAN: And I believe that when we meet, probably this Thursday in Geneva again, we can work on those elements and prepare a good text and come to a fast deal. This is my understanding. I see it quite possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Now, one of the key stumbling blocks is the highly-enriched uranium, the -- that the U.N. nuclear watchdog estimated last year that Iran still has some 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium they estimate. We did hear from an Iranian official speaking to "Reuters", saying that they believed a deal could be done with some kind of a combination of exporting part of that HEU, and then diluting another part of the most highly enriched uranium.

But what they want, it appears, is that there has to be an acceptance of Iran's right to enrich something which President Trump has said in the past is a red line. Audie?

CORNISH: That's Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, thank you. And a serious blast of Winter weather gives school kids in New York their second snow day of the year, adults, of course, are not so thrilled. The latest on how the Big Apple is coping with the big storm just ahead.

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