Intro

Tonight breaking news on several fronts as we come on the air. On COVID, this new variant and what they’re seeing already in the US.

Also breaking, the contempt of Congress vote tonight on Capitol Hill. The text messages from Donald Trump jr.―what he wanted his father to do during the attack on the capitol.

And now the new storm after those tornadoes.

First tonight the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreading across the US, in at least 34 states now, and what Dr. Anthony Fauci warned today about this new variant how quickly they’re seeing it multiply. We have news on the vaccines if they work against this, and the Pfizer COVID pill, the new data just in.

Also that vote on Capitol Hill tonight. Former President Trump’s former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, now facing the possibility of being found in criminal contempt of Congress. And the text messages revealed from members of Congress, from Donald Trump Jr., from key Fox News hosts, all urging Mark Meadows to tell the president to do something to stop the attack on the capitol.

We’re tracking that new and dangerous storm moving across the country tonight, already rescues in California, then headed for some of the same States hit by those tornadoes. Ginger Zee timing it out. All of this as the death toll from the devastating tornadoes rises tonight: at least seventy four dead in Kentucky alone, including at least 12 children.

News tonight about the former football player, who, Police say, shot and killed a prominent doctor and his wife and four others before taking his own life. What tests on his brain now show.

Tonight the FBI now investigating the disappearance of a cruise ship passenger, who fell overboard on a Carnival cruise.

And America Strong tonight. We are back from Kentucky and so many of you asking how to help and what we witnessed there already.

From ABC News World headquarters in New York. This is World News Tonight with David Muir.