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The Lead with Jake Tapper

AG Garland Names Special Counsel To Oversee Trump Probes; Trump Lashes Out At Special Counsel, Calls Appointment "Unfair"; Deadly Snowstorm Hitting Western New York; Japan: North Korean Missile Had Potential To Reach U.S. Mainland; Title 42 Immigrant Policy Set To End Late December. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 18, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:06]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: All eight stadiums hosting world cup matches, alcohol sales and usage are tightly regulated in Qatar. Some, of course, the problem here is for the major World Cup sponsor Budweiser. The company initially put out a tweet that said, "Well, this is awkward". But its parent company issued a formal statement saying that changes are due to circumstances beyond their control.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Have a great weekend.

THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Brianna Keilar. Jake Tapper is on assignment.

We begin today with a big development in the investigations into former President Donald Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland announcing he's appointing a special council to oversee the criminal investigation of Trump's role in the January 6 insurrection and attempts to overturn the 2020 election as well as the probe of the classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Here is Garland explaining this extraordinary move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The attorney general is naming former acting U.S. Attorney Jack Smith as special counsel. Smith is a career prosecutor who currently serves as the chief prosecutor for the special court of The Hague where he investigated war crimes.

Garland says Smith's appointment will not slow down the pace of the investigations which CNN has learned have ramped up here in recent weeks with prosecutors in both cases sending out multiple new subpoenas to witnesses.

Donald Trump is also dismissing the appointment of the special counsel, just moments ago, called the move unfair and political.

CNN's senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid reports on what would expect from the new special counsel and what his appointment means for the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARLAND: In certain extraordinary cases it's in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently manage an investigation and prosecution.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Attorney General Merrick Garland naming former Justice Department official Jack Smith to independently head up two major criminal investigations focused on former President Donald Trump. The move coming days after Trump announced his third run for president. Underscoring the legal jeopardy the former president faces as CNN has learned prosecutors recently sent out a fresh round of subpoenas in both probes.

GARLAND: Based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for the next election and sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.

REID: Jack Smith has previously served in multiple roles at the Justice Department and since 2018, he has been the chief prosecutor for the special court of The Hague, investigating war crimes in Kosovo. He will now see the investigation into whether Mr. Trump mishandled national secrets after the FBI seized thousands of documents from his Mar-a-Lago residence in August, including some marked classified that were taken from the White House.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: They should give me immediately back everything that they've taken from me, because it's mine. It's mine.

REID: The special counsel will also now oversee aspects of the investigation into the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. And what Trump's role may have been leading up to that day.

TRUMP: And we're going to the Capitol.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID (on camera): Justice officials had hoped to appoint a special counsel will insolate the department from political blowback while investigating and possibly charging a presidential candidate. But tonight, Trump's spokesperson called the appointment a political stunt and as we've seen in previous investigations, it will likely be impossible to shield this work from political attacks.

KEILAR: Yeah, it certainly will be. Paula, thank you for that report. I do want to bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, Trump started this week announcing his presidential campaign. He's ending it here with a special counsel announcement. How is he reacting to this news?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the former president is lashing out at the special counsel announcement. He just did an interview moments after the appointment of the special counsel and here is what he said.

He said, I have been proven innocent for six years on everything from fake impeachments to Mueller who found no collusion and now I have to do it more. It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. This was politicization of justice. The Republican Party has to stand up and fight. He also going on to say he's not going to partake in any of this.

We know that his legal team had been dreading this prospect, that they did not want to this prolong the investigation but I talked to people around his campaign that said they were prepared for this.

[16:05:01]

That they believed that this could be a possibility and they were ready and clearly here we could see from Donald Trump, dismissing this and playing the victim.

KEILAR: Yeah, you can hear how he's going to play this on the campaign trail. He always takes what is a legal negative and tries to often successfully make it into a political positive, at least with his base.

HOLMES: Well, that's absolutely right. And there is a hope among those around him who particularly saw his announcement, thought he was subdued and that maybe he doesn't have the magnetism, doesn't have the energy, that incidences like this, like anything involving his investigation will actually rally his base, rally Republicans and you hear it in the final line. The Republican Party has to stand up and fight. It is not a coincidence that he's talking about this at a time when Republicans are turning their back on the former president saying it is time to move on from him.

He's bringing party into this after he made an announcement and it is not surprising. Because we know that Trump wants to have that support from the party particularly going into 2024 as part of this announcement was to freeze the field any way ant put himself in is front.

KEILAR: Yeah. It will so telling if this is animating or not. Kristen Holmes, thank you.

Let's bring in CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's at the White House. So, Jeremy, did President Biden have any idea that this was coming because this was kept separate historically from the White House. JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right,

Brianna. Well, news of the appointment of the special counsel broke as President Biden was walking into a room with business executives and labor leaders. And as soon as the president finished speaking, I and other reporters in the room shouted at the president to ask him for his reaction to this special counsel.

Now, he didn't answer but it also appears that he didn't know at the time, and that's because I'm told by multiple White House officials that the White House did not get any heads up from the Justice Department about the decision or the planned announcement of the appointment of this special counsel. Another White House official said that the Department of Justice makes the decisions about its criminal investigations independently, saying we are not involved.

And that is all very intentional, of course. We've seen that President Biden, he succeeded a president who really blurred those lines, who sought to repeatedly interfere with the Justice Department's independence and its investigations. And so President Biden, one of his first tasks coming into office was to try and re-establish that bright red line between the Justice Department and the White House, particularly as it relates to ongoing criminal investigations.

And that has been the White House's motto here as they've been asked questions about various criminal investigations, including those into the former president or the criminal investigation into the president's son. They have repeatedly given the same line, which is that they do not comment on active investigations and they respect the Justice Department's independence -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Jeremy Diamond, live for us at the White House, thank you so much.

And let's talk about all of this now with our legal experts. We have Elie Honig and Jennifer Rodgers with us.

Jennifer, does this special counsel announcement indicate anything about Trump's chances of being indicted?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Brianna, I think that it means that their ramping this thing up. You wouldn't bother appointing a special counsel if they had determined that they weren't going to charge him and they were just going to wind it down over the next weeks and months. So it is certainly not a hundred percent certain that they will charge him.

But they're pushing ahead. They're issuing subpoenas and this definitely means that there is at least a good chance that ultimately there will be charges filed.

KEILAR: Elie, Trump's response to this was to say I announced or I announce that I'm running and then they announce that they're going to do this with the special counsel. You heard the attorney general making it clear that, yes, that was the consideration, but in a way it was to take it out of this political mix. What do you think of the timing here? ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the whole point of doing

this, of appointing a special counsel is to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. And according to the attorney general, Donald Trump's official announcement that we heard earlier this week, that was the trigger and he said that we can't have a scenario where you have me, Merrick Garland as Joe Biden's attorney general, investigating somebody who is likely or potentially going to be running against Joe Biden in 2024.

But the response is exactly what we could have expected. We're starting to hear from Donald Trump which is essentially, if this is a conflict of interest now, why wasn't it a year ago. It's not some surprise that Donald Trump is running. He's long been considered a front-runner. And so, I think we're hearing from Trump and we'll hear from others who support him essentially, DOJ is almost admitting that what's been done has been subject to a conflict of interest and only addressing it now but they may argue it is too late.

KEILAR: Jennifer, what do you think?

RODGERS: Well, I don't know. I mean, listen, I don't think you could expect a special counsel to be appointed at the outset of an investigation before you really know what you have as your gathering facts. The point is well-taken. We're certainly going to hear the arguments from the Trump team.

But I think that Merrick Garland has been so deliberate about everything that he's done and so thoughtful and they have bent over backwards to be fair to the president, to give him more process than anyone else would have gotten.

[16:10:12]

Look at the how the search at Mar-a-Lago was handled. So, you know, this is another step in Merrick Garland's attempts to be more than fair to the former president and I think the special counsel is part and parcel of that practice. So, I think after all is said and done, it should be said that he is treating this about as carefully and as he can.

KEILAR: You know, when Robert Mueller was announced, everybody was announced and when Jack Smith is announced, it's interesting, Elie, a lot of people don't know who he is. He's not a very well-known figure. And I wonder if that was maybe on purpose?

HONIG: Oh, I'm sure it had to be deliberate. The special counsel regulations say that the person has to be somebody from outside of the federal government, now which Jack Smith is and somebody with a strong reputation for independence. If this was somebody who was already well-known, there would be a book on the person one way or another.

Now, I'm quite certain that Donald Trump and his lawyers are digging into Jack Smith right now and looking to see if he donated $5 to either political party or went to a fundraiser or anything like that. But I think it is a smart move. The whole point here is to create at least an appearance of independence. So, if you could get someone who is both essentially anonymous, not well-known in the public, but also has the background, the resume, a state and federal prosecutors and a war crimes prosecutor over many decades, I think this is exactly what you should be looking for in a special counsel.

KEILAR: And we know the CNN reporting on this and the CNN reporting on this, sources have been telling our reporters, Jennifer, that Trump's legal team has been dreading this. And I wonder, you know, if you were a Trump lawyer, besides digging up oppo on Jack Smith, what is your next course of action here?

RODGERS: No, that is a great question. This obviously has been ongoing for some time. This investigation and all of its various tentacles. So I don't know what they're going to do specific. I think they want to see who joins the team if smith brings in other people from outside or adopts the prosecutors already working on this.

But they're going to have to shift their focus a little bit because he's going to come in and it will take a little time for him to get up to speed and then he said he's full steam ahead without some of the same concerns and ideas toward deference maybe that Merrick Garland and his team has have. So I see why they're worried about.

KEILAR: Elie, what would you do if you were a Trump lawyer right now?

KEILAR: I would handle this like any other criminal prosecution. Jack Smith now as special counsel has the same powers that any assistant U.S. attorney or any DOJ prosecutor has. I would tell my client to be quiet, to stop talking, to make no public statements. We know lawyers have tried that. We know that is not going to work with Donald Trump.

One thing I would try to do, though, is establish contact with the special counsel. This happens quite a bit. People who are in the cross-hairs of an investigation establish working relationships with the prosecutors who are investigating them. You could try -- with the ultimate goal of trying to convince the prosecutor it is not a good idea to charge me. That happens all of the time. So I look to do it that way as well.

KEILAR: Elie and Jennifer, thank you so much for helping us make sense of what is a very big development today.

HONIG: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: So how is this new special counsel going to effect the 2024 presidential race. We're going to get into that next.

Plus, a historic storm is crippling parts of New York, and so powerful, it is producing thunder snow.

And new today, police releasing information about where four college students went before they were stabbed to death in their off-campus apartment. But will it lead to their killer or killers?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:17:43]

KEILAR: And we're back with our politics lead. Donald Trump already lashing out at the special counsel, declaring he won't participate in the investigation and calling the appointment unfair and political. So let's talk about this.

Jonah, you know, Trump has a well rehearsed playbook. I don't think it is any surprise. What I'm curious about is how you think other Republicans who are considering a primary run might be looking at this and how this may or may not effect them?

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. You know, I think that's right. And Trump's response is a soppy and the scorpion has to sting the frog, Trump has to save it, the deep state and it's rigged and all that. It seems to me that this, particularly after the midterms creates even more of an opportunity for Republicans to say this just proves that we need to urn it the page, we need a fresh start, we don't want four more years of this and we don't need the baggage. Donald Trump was great, blah, blah, blah.

Whether they jump on that or not, it's sort of too soon to tell. I would guess that -- that Ron DeSantis will practice his long-standing policy of not saying anything and letting the events color everything. But I don't think that you're going to see a rally around Trump like you did after the Mar-a-Lago search.

NAYYERA HAQ, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE SENIOR DIRECTOR: And Republicans in Congress, now that they have control are indicating they're going after Biden directly, or Hunter Biden's laptop, Alejandro Mayorkas at the Department of Homeland Security, so this announcement from Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice gives the Biden administration an opportunity to keep the insurrection, to keep the fragile narrative front and center and have that be focused on Trump who is now a candidate for president again.

KEILAR: Do you think Trump, Nayyera, is more vulnerable because of this politically?

HAQ: He's certainly more vulnerable legally than in a long time. But the challenge on the left that we're seeing as far as Democrats and their unity is that it might be too little too late, right? That this was something that Democrats would have hoped would have been resolved as part of the follow-up in Congress, the congressional hearings and now they've lost control, having a special counsel does not necessarily get them the wins that they need or the points on the board in time for the presidential.

KEILAR: What do you think of Jack Smith as the pick here for special counsel?

HEIDI PRZYBYLA, NATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Like I said in the break, it is completely political, according to Donald Trump's statement.

[16:20:02]

He just hasn't figured out how yes. Jack Smith seems to be really by all accounts completely separated from American politics. He's not even on this continent. He's prosecuting war crimes at The Hague.

Apparently, he has a very hard charging, nonpartisan record. He's prosecuted both Democrats and Republicans. But Donald Trump was always going to make this political. In fact, there are some who think that part of his campaign motivation was to try and say that this investigation is political because I'm running for president.

But here are the facts. Prior to this, Republicans are making no bones about it. They're going to haul Merrick Garland up before Congress and they've sent him a letter saying preserve documents and he would have become the punching bag. He's still becoming the punching bag.

Does that mean he allows that to happen and try to do everything that he can to prevent that? Yeah. And that's what this is.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't know how you prevent that. I mean, just because someone is unknown doesn't mean they'll come to be defined. In fact, in that vacuum, it's a little bit worse.

I think we saw what happened with Mueller's reputation. It is very hard to kind of skate through Trump's world and not come out reputationally damaged. But this is also interesting because we're in the era of the sort of semi-independent special counsel. This is not the Ken Starr independent counsel, this is -- that means if you're spending a lot of time brothering Merrick Garland and messing with his reputation, you could also then say this is tainted this investigation.

One other thing, as you talk about, whether it would hurt him politically, it's one of five investigations going on. He's lived his life in a legal cloud. So how he punches his way through in this particular environment -- yes, it will be interesting to watch how Republicans deal with it.

GOLDBERG: He's a little bulletproof, at least from first blush. When he was the head of the public integrity unit, he closed down without filing charges investigations into Tom DeLay, Doolittle, and other Republicans. There's a lot of people on the left saying my god, this is not the right -- on Twitter at least, saying this does not look like the kind of special counsel that we want because he let other Republicans skate.

I think that is a really hard talking point for Trump defenders to get around given that he did something that was sort of in the partisan interest of Republicans in the past.

HAQ: The scope of the investigation is going to be interesting, right? Now that it is independent and it could continue potentially past the Biden administration, the attorney general hinted that he would like the special prosecutor to look at beyond Mar-a-Lago and beyond national security documents but looked others who may have been involved in supporting the January 6 insurrection. That could include Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice.

KEILAR: We'll see where else this goes certainly.

Nayyera, you mentioned before, Republican control of the House and the investigations that could ensue here. James Comer, who's the incoming chairman of the oversight committee actually spoke with CNN's Pamela Brown about what that could look like as it pertains to President Biden's son Hunter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): There is no plans to subpoena Joe Biden. There are plans to subpoena Hunter Biden. If he were Hunter Biden, Pam, I would want to come before my committee and prove my innocence.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Why then would you not subpoena Joe Biden if this is all about Joe Biden?

COMER: Well, it is complicated to subpoena a president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It is complicated, Audie. It's not unprecedented though. So I wonder what it tells you that he's ruling out doing it at this point.

CORNISH: I think basically they have messed around with their oversight responsibilities so much over the last couple of years, that they've undermined it as a tool of governance and now these accusations of being weaponized are -- they resonate to the public to some extent. So, one thing to look out for, are they going to flood the zone with so many random investigations that who knows where Trump's investigation is in the mix. Hunter is being investigated, Joe is being investigated. What does it all mean? I think part of it is to create a fog of war for the voter.

PRZYBYLA: That tells me they don't have the connective tissue to what Hunter did to anything that the president did when he was vice president or president.

CORNISH: But did you need it or just doing it out in the air.

PRZYBYLA: They'll still do it.

GOLDBERG: There is a DOJ investigation into Hunter as well.

PRZYBYLA: There is a DOJ investigation into Hunter. But the connective tissue to Joe Biden is what they're promising. And it and it tells me, let me finish, that they don't have it because it is a couple of years looking into Hunter and his laptop. Now, there'd be a lot of investigations and the reason why they'd be a lot of investigations is because investigations are the agenda.

What they ran on was crime and inflation. But now that they're in power, McCarthy is going to have such a narrow, narrow majority, I cannot -- I test everyone at this table to come up with what is going to be the bipartisan deal that Kevin McCarthy is going to deliver that a Louie Gohmert or Marjorie Taylor Greene is going to support and it's going to get through the Senate.

[16:25:02]

It's not going to happen. So, the agenda is the investigation.

HAQ: And to Heidi's point, that's exactly the challenge Republicans are going to face. If they're already at this moment, their victory talking about conspiracy theories and investigations into the current president, they're missing an opportunity for an affirmative agenda that conceivably they were just given a mandate to execute.

KEILAR: Certainly, there may be efforts to pull the Biden White House floor this, right. And when we saw efforts in congressional oversight with the Trump administration, there was so much stonewalling. I asked all of you, is the Biden White House going to be any different in that regard, do you think?

GOLDBERG: I think rhetorically they'll be different to be sure. I want to say, I think there is a colorful argument for investigating Hunter Biden. I think there's a colorful argument into investigating the origins of COVID. I think there are a lot of the investigations that Democrats didn't want to do when they controlled the House.

I have very little confidence for the reasons Heidi was getting at, that this Congress will do anything other than throw out a lot of performative nonsense rather than getting to the heart of this.

HAQ: The Biden administration has staked its reputation on the rule of law and democracy. So, rhetorically, we'll have honor that but also based on past Democratic administrations, they have not been in contempt of Congress in order to be able to give testimony. There are ways to comply that were not taken by Trump officials.

KEILAR: And we'll see how this all plays out. It is going to be a very interesting next couple of two years. Thank you all for the conversation.

And a note, Audie, you have an excellent new podcast that is just out. It is called "The Assignment with Audie Cornish", and it is available right now wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you all for coming on.

And ahead, the brutal reality this winter with heating bills skyrocketing and homeowners who say they're forced to choose now between heating their homes and feeding their families.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:24]

KEILAR: Our national lead, winter's grand entrance, right now a fire hose of lake-effect snow is slamming the Great Lakes. Six states are under winter weather alerts after white outs and several feet of snow expected over the course of a few hours. Police in Buffalo, New York, even issued a driving ban for part of the city. That is where Polo Sandoval is with what is now a deadly storm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Heavy snowfall and thunder and lightning, a potential historic snowstorm is pummeling areas surrounding the Great Lakes with western New York state in the bull's eye.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is coming down very hard right now.

SANDOVAL: The storm expected to dump more than four feet in and around the city of Buffalo. It prompted the NFL to move the Buffalo Bills Sunday game to Detroit. Highmark Stadium, their usual home, left completely covered in white. The national weather service and New York officials warning that the snowfall will produce life-threatening conditions into the weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could turn very quickly. This is a very unpredictable storm.

SANDOVAL: Even with a warning, some people in Buffalo don't seem too worried.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We live in Buffalo. It's expected. That is all I could say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been through this before. To me, it is not big deal. But any family wants everything done.

SANDOVAL: Officials reminding people to stay inside and off the road saying there is a travel ban in South Buffalo, with many flights in and out of the region canceled.

CHRISTOPHER SCANLON, BUFFALO CITY COUNCIL: Please stay indoors. Do not go out unless it is an absolute emergency.

SANDOVAL: National Weather Service forecasters explained lake-effect snow is fuelling this extraordinary storm. That occurs when cold air blows over warmer lake water picking up more moisture and leading to higher snow amounts downstream.

Climate experts warn water temperatures in the great lakes grow warmer each year shortening the length of time ice covers the surface during the winter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to remind everybody that there is a lake effect warning still in effect. So this is still moving. So we need to still take this serious.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL (on camera): And officials here in Erie County, New York, have confirmed two storm related deaths today. These were two individuals that according to officials suffered a cardiac event while they were snow -- at least clearing that snow and officials here Brianna reminding authorities this is the wet snow that takes extra effort to actually clear out. So they're reminding those people, especially those that have a pre-existing heart condition, if they have everything they need at home to stay home and let it pile up and once the threat for more snow passes and then they could help getting it cleared up.

Back to you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah, take it easy if you can.

Polo Sandoval in Buffalo, thank you for that.

As the winter months set in, many Americans are worried will they be able to stay warm. Home heating prices are rising across the country, as Americans are already struggling to make ends meet because of inflation.

CNN's Gabe Cohen went to Pennsylvania where heating costs are so high a mother told us she's waiting until her kids come home for the holiday to turn on the heat.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anxious calls pour into Philadelphia's heater hotline.

Families worried for winter on these first frigid days.

And Charmaine Johnson can relate. The 63-year-old works at this nonprofit, but she's also struggling to afford heat. She just paid more than a thousand dollars to fill her oil tank.

CHARMAINE JOHNSON, STRUGGLING TO AFFORD HEAT: I didn't even fill it. It is not even full.

[16:35:01]

COHEN: And how long will that last?

JOHNSON: Probably about February, January or February.

COHEN: It's just another brutal price hike.

Are you getting assistance?

JOHNSON: No, I don't qualify.

COHEN: So she's bundling up to keep the heat turned down.

JOHNSON: It's like you're living in an igloo.

COHEN: Home heating costs are skyrocketing yet again this winter, up 18 percent nationally on top of last year's 17 percent spike. Largely driven by the war in Ukraine, OPEC cuts and a surge in energy exports and high demand for natural gas in the electricity sector. Heating a home with natural gas could cost an extra 25 percent and

electric 11 percent. But the steepest hike is on heating oil, expected to rise 45 percent, squeezing roughly 5 million households, mostly in the northeast.

Are you not cold?

TIM WISELEY, STRAINING TO COVER EXPENSES: I am.

COHEN: The heat is off at Tim Wiseley's home near Philadelphia. And somehow he's in short sleeves.

WISELEY: It is 50, 55 in here. So me that is not unbearable yet.

COHEN: And what point do you turn the heat on?

WISELEY: When my teeth chatter.

COHEN: The 67-year-old is retired, living month to month on Social Security. He lost his wife last year. And his medical bills are adding to a long list of straining expenses.

WISELEY: You can't go food shopping and get oil. It is one or other.

COHEN: Are you worried about running out of oil.

WISELEY: Absolutely. And it's going to happen. It is a horrible feeling. It is a feeling I wouldn't wish on anyone.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm working like hell to deal with energy prices.

COHEN: This winter, the federal government is distributing $4.5 billion to help families pay their bills through the low income home energy assistance program.

Annette Thomas said she and her husband received $500 from the program but it was only enough to fill a third of their oil tank.

How long will that last?

ANNETTE THOMAS, STRUGGLING TO PAY ELECTRIC BILL: Maybe two weeks. Two or three weeks.

COHEN: They're trying to pay off their electric bill to avoid a shutoff so they're losing space heaters and electric blankets hoping to save that heating oil for when their kids come home for Thanksgiving.

I can see the emotion in your eyes.

THOMAS: Yeah. Try not to cry. These aren't luxuries. They're necessities and it's a struggle. So, yeah, it's upsetting. It is.

COHEN: Gabe Cohen, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Thank you, Gabe.

And next the U.S. response after North Korea tests one of most powerful missiles yet and Vice President Kamala Harris arriving in the region.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:41:45]

KEILAR: Topping our world lead today, North Korea launching two missiles in two days and latest had the potential to reach the United States.

CNN's Paula Hancocks has more on this latest provocation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korea launching a second missile in two days. Drawing the attention of world leaders including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, attending the Asian Pacific Cooperation Summit in Thailand.

Japan's defense minister believes this intercontinental ballistic missile could theoretically travel more than 9,300 miles, meaning it could hit mainland United States, potentially fitted with a nuclear warhead.

Forces at the U.S. Misawa air base in Japan were ordered to shelter in place shortly after the launch.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This conduct by North Korea most recently is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. security resolutions. It destabilizes security in the region, and unnecessarily raises tension.

HANCOCKS: Harris met with allied leaders at side lines of the summit, all condemned the launch and vowed to work closely together.

Physical responses were swift, Japan dispatched aircraft and F-15 filming this, what they believe to be the con trails or vapor trails of the missile. The U.S. and South Korea air forces took to the air in a joint thrill, simulating aerial strikes on mobile missile launches.

ANKIT PANDA, SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: I don't think this is necessarily representing a game changer. We've known that North Korea has the ability to range the continental United States for more than five years now. So the basic picture between the United States and North Korea remains the same.

HANCOCKS: The launch follows strong words from North Korea's foreign minister, Choe Son-hui, who warned the U.S. of a fearsome military counter action and condemned Joe Biden's discussions about the Kim Jong-un missile program at the G20 summit this week.

BIDEN: I'm confident China is not looking for North Korea to engage in further escalatory means.

HANCOCKS: But North Korea continues to break its own record for firing missiles with 34 days of launches this year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS (on camera): The state-run media showing that Kim Jong-un led this launch. We're hearing from KCNA that it was a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17, also quoting Kim Jong-un as saying it the us and hostile forces which makes it necessary to bolster their nuclear deterrence -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Paula Hancocks following this from South Korea, thank you for that report.

Also in our world lead, in response to the announcement that the Title 42 immigration policy would come to an end next month, aide workers at just one part of the U.S./Mexico border estimate that about 2,000 migrants are mobilizing to cross over.

CNN's David Culver reports fro the Mexican side of the border with Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We start early, only to realize they're already on the move. From the Mexico side of the border, we watch these migrant families nearing closer to their final destination, or so they hope.

You can see these folks have already gone across the river. Technically, they're already in the U.S.

[16:45:01]

They'll continue along the wall here until they get an entrance where they'll likely be detained and start their process in entering the U.S.

We continue further down along the Rio Grande and find this camp city. It sits in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, opposite El Paso, Texas.

This is the second time.

Joribel, her husband, and their 5-year-old son motivated to try again after learning this week a judge struck down what is called Title 42. A Trump era policy allows border agents to turn away migrants crossing illegally in the name of COVID prevention. Since it took effect in March of 2020 there have been 2.5 million expulsions most under the Biden administration.

What do you know of Title 42?

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

CULVER: They said two days ago, they heard that they got rid of it. Not exactly. The order remains in effect until December 31st.

Are you scared?

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

CULVER: He said he's a little scared, because it is hard because you don't know what's going to happen.

After a tearful hug with a friend, they cautiously inch closer. Dozens do the same over the course of just a few hours.

We also meet Rafael Rojas, about to follow in their footsteps.

That is not your clothes?

Wearing clothes donated by Americans, he recounted the painful journey from Venezuela walking through treacherous jungles and witnessing death and a lot of death. But for some, like 9-year-old Ruby Mota, it was an adventure. That is how her innocent mind remembers it. She narrates the trek that most in the cam took starting in Venezuela and then --

RUBY MOTA, 9-YEAR-OLD: Columbia, Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico.

CULVER: Her dream destination, Ruby can't remember the last time she was in a classroom. But she hopes to go to school in New York.

One month here.

Ruby's family wants to cross immediately, if they could find a loving home for Linda, part of the family. But pets aren't allowed in.

Back at the crossing site, this man's mother crying over FaceTime not knowing the next time she'll see his face. Others forge ahead, a seemingly endless stream, one that continues uphill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CULVER (on camera): Brianna, just over my shoulder here, this is the Venezuela flag here in Mexico. And that is because the vast majority of these folks are from Venezuela. The Department of Homeland Security, they realized that. They allowed now 24,000 Venezuelans to enter under a pathway program. The issue is, Brianna, but we're talking about one of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world and you've got millions who are hoping to get into the U.S.

KEILAR: Yeah, so many.

David Culver, thank you for that report.

Next, the new time line into the stabbing deaths of four Idaho college students as we also learn at least one victim tried to fight back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:52:40]

KEILAR: New information about the murders of four college students in Idaho. We now know more about the final hours of all of the victims, as well as the surviving roommates who police say could be key to the investigation.

CNN's Veronica Miracle has a look at what we're learning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A bar, fraternity house and a taco truck, all locations the victims visited the night of their murders. Police releasing a map showing those exact locations for the first time, hoping new leads will break the case.

AARON SNELL, IDAHO STATE POLICE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: We're looking for additional tips and leads and we believe that releasing information about the location of the victims throughout the night might generate some information that we can follow up on.

MIRACLE: The timeline showing the precise movements of all four victims, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, in the hours before their deaths. Police say all of the victims were home by 1:45 a.m. and that their bodies were found on the second and third floors of the home.

Is the first floor where the roommates were sleeping?

SNELL: Yeah, we have not identified where the roommates were.

MIRACLE: But the biggest question who killed them and why. There are still no suspects.

SNELL: We still contend that this was targeted. We cannot divulge the information of why we believe that or how. That is integral to this investigation.

MIRACLE: Police are clarifying why they're not releasing more information about the victim's roommates who were at home during the attacks.

SNELL: In a case, someone may potentially be a victim, they may be a witness or they may be a suspect. In this case, we don't know what the roommates are exactly at this time.

MIRACLE: Xana Kernodle's father saying he talked to his daughter the night before she died.

JEFFREY KERNODLE, VICTIM'S FATHER: I heard from her before he went out. I think midnight is the last time I heard from her and she was fine. They were just hanging out at home.

MIRACLE: Her father too distraught to be interviewed on camera saying he has learned his daughter had defensive wounds, showing she fought her attacker. KERNODLE: Bruises, you know, maybe occurred by the knife or whatever.

She's a tough kid. Whatever she wanted to do, she could do it.

MIRACLE: The county coroner confirmed to CNN that some of the students likely had defensive stab wounds to the hands and there were no signs of sexual assault or an issue of drugs or alcohol.

But each student had multiple stab wounds?

CATHY MABBUTT, LATAH COUNTY CORONER: That's correct. That's really the main thing that I saw was a lot of blood.

MIRACLE: Is there any indication that had somebody found these people earlier than when they were discovered that they could have been saved?

MABBUTT: No, I haven't seen anything that would lead me to think they could have been saved if somebody had called in earlier.

MIRACLE: As for the investigation there's no weapon recovered and no motive, and for the parents no answers about why their children aren't coming home this Thanksgiving.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MIRACLE (on camera): This crime scene here still very active. Investigators taking photographs behind me in this bedroom on the third floor, where we know those victims were found -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Let's hope they found out more soon. Veronica Miracle, thank you for that report.

This Sunday on "STATE OF THE UNION," Congressman Hakeem Jeffries launches a bid for Democratic leadership. Also, outgoing Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Sunday morning 9:00 Eastern and again at noon.

Up next in "THE SITUATION ROOM", the potential impact of this new special counsel on the 2024 presidential race.