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D.C. Shooting Suspect Faces Assault With Intent to Kill Charges; Trump: Ukraine Talks "Making Progress", Witkoff to Visit Moscow; America Celebrates with Parades, Balloons and Festive Cheer. Aired 2:30-3 pm ET

Aired November 27, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

MARC ALLEN, CEO, ELECTRA: -- with munitions, supplies, food, spares? You can't. And if you're in the ocean, you can't take a helicopter hundreds of miles. This airplane flies like an airplane, arrives like a helicopter. That bombed-out runway? No problem.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF U.S. SECURITY ANALYST: The $10 million price tag for the larger commercial model means most of us can never dream of owning one. But for the military, airlines, and other transport companies, perhaps a new taxi for the skies.

ALLEN: That's the idea of direct aviation. That's the new era of air travel.

SCIUTTO: Jim Sciutto, CNN, somewhere over Manassas, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: All right.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Pretty cool plane. I mean, it's got the colors for an air taxi.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. Flying Prius.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

JIMENEZ: That's like, what's stuck in my head.

SANCHEZ: All right.

JIMENEZ: $10 million, though.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

JIMENEZ: You got that, right?

SANCHEZ: Yeah, I got you.

JIMENEZ: Let me know. Spot me a few.

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Jim Sciutto for that report. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:35:25]

JIMENEZ: Federal officials say they will charge the Afghan national accused of shooting two National Guard members with three counts of assault with intent to kill. But the charges could change depending on the well-being of the two victims who do remain in critical condition right now.

FBI Director Kash Patel says the attack is being treated as an act of terror, as investigators work to find a motive. Meanwhile, President Trump is requesting 500 additional guard troops be deployed to D.C. in response to the killing -- to the shooting, excuse me.

Steve Moore is a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent and a CNN Law Enforcement Contributor. Thank you for taking the time.

I just want to start with, look, these investigators are looking through a whole -- whole bunch of different factors right now as they try to hone in on a motive and other things as well. But from that investigative standpoint, what stands out to you based on what we know so far?

STEVE MOORE, CNN ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the main thing that besides the actual targeting of the shooting was the fact that this individual drove from Bellingham, Washington, all the way to Washington, D.C., to commit these murders. If he wanted to just commit a murder or a -- even a murder -- murder of a -- or commit these attacks, I apologize. If he wanted to do that just against any military person, he's got a lot of military bases right around Bellingham, Washington.

He wanted to make a point by shooting these individual service people who were in the United States or who were in Washington, D.C. because of the administration's policy of bringing guard troops into federal enclaves.

JIMENEZ: You know, one of the difficult things here that's come up -- obviously, this is an Afghan national we're talking about that came here sort of in the wake of the U.S. military pullout of Afghanistan, had his asylum granted this year, as we understand from law enforcement officials. But we did just learn one U.S. official, one senior U.S. official, said that this suspect was vetted by intel agencies and, quote, "clean on all checks." We're talking about vetting from the National Counterterrorism Center. The CIA would have pushed for some of that vetting as well.

But if you can still hear me, I'll just finish the thought that I was going to -- the thought that I was going to have there. Oh, do we have him back? All right.

MOORE: I have you.

JIMENEZ: All right, so you've been able to hear me. Basically, my question was going to be, you have a situation where a suspect does actually appear to have come up clean in some of the vetting processes that we have in place. But one of the difficulties is vetting sort of looks at what you've done in the past. It's hard to predict sort of what you'll do in the future.

Can you just tell me sort of what the pitfalls are to the current vetting processes that we have in place and why something like this -- again, we're still waiting for a motive, but something like this might not have shown up in any vetting processes we have in place?

MOORE: Well, Omar, you were very correct in saying that these things are -- are indicators of where you are now, not where you're going to be in several years.

I always view background investigations as snapshots, not videos. And so the way you can -- you can police this is literally to follow up with these people to determine background or to determine their current mental health, their current situation.

When I was in the FBI every few years, boom, an entire new background investigation, not because there's any indication you've gone sideways, but because they want to know how you are now, not how you were three years ago. So, I think this is probably going to be where we find the gap in this, the chink in the armor.

We brought him in at a certain time, in a certain culture, from his certain culture, dropped him in the United States, which is going to change every aspect of his life, and we think he's going to be the same in several years. That's not -- that's not logical.

JIMENEZ: And as we understand from that same senior U.S. official who spoke to our Zachary Cohen, that the U.S. government had been doing continuous annual vetting of individuals since the Afghans' arrival in the United States. And I just ask you, you know, from an FBI standpoint, as we understand from the director at this point, the agency is investigating this as an act of terrorism. Where exactly does an investigation like that start?

MOORE: Well, the investigation of terrorism is going to be different from the others in that you have to prove motive. You can prove a murder just by somebody killing somebody and being able to prove that.

[14:40:09]

Terrorism, you have to prove that the intent of the murder was to influence political policy by causing fear in the community or -- or violence against the government.

So, you have to go back and prove not just that it happened, but the why in how it happened. And so, they're going to go back and go back through all these annual reports, which I'm going to guess were not very exhaustive, and find out how he changed, what he was doing.

And the FBI this time will do an intensive, a criminal background on what has happened in his life between the time he arrived in the United States and the time he parked his car in D.C. And there we will find, or they will find some information on -- on what caused him to do this. What factors were in his life that created this?

Was he delusional or was he a political zealot, a cultural zealot? He had something in his mind that was causing him to drive 2,500, 3,000 miles to shoot two people he didn't know.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. Steve Moore, appreciate the insight. Thank you for being here on this Thanksgiving.

MOORE: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right. Meanwhile, new uncertainty over U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will bring the latest comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin that signal the conflict may be far from over. We're going to speak with former U.S. Ambassador to NATO next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:46:07]

SANCHEZ: Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is ready for a, quote, "serious discussion" as the U.S. prepares to send a delegation to Moscow. Speaking today, Putin said the original 28-point plan from the United States could form the basis for future agreements. The U.S. and Ukraine paired that plan to 19 key points with some of the most difficult issues stripped out. That's according to a senior Ukrainian official. President Trump is now sending U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia early next week for these negotiations.

Let's discuss with former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder. He's currently a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center.

Sir, thanks so much for being with us. Talk to us about what you imagine these meetings between Witkoff and Putin are going to be like next week, what the focus is there, given that there are some pretty clear red lines, not only for Ukraine but also for Russia.

IVO DAALDER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, if history is a guide, the meeting will be, one, where Vladimir Putin reiterates all of his red lines, perhaps in a positive way. He said, this is what I'm willing to do. And Steve Witkoff basically accepting those red lines.

The 28-point plan that President Putin now says could be a good basis for negotiations derived from discussions that Steve Witkoff had with Putin's own envoy, Kirill Dmitriev. In fact, many of those points were taken directly from the Russian position. So, I don't put a lot of faith in Steve Witkoff's ability to have a serious negotiation with Vladimir Putin since in the last six meetings that he's had with the Russian president, that hasn't happened.

Instead, Witkoff has generally taken the Russian position, made it his own, and tried to get the president to accept those as the American position and the basis for a negotiation. It's not going to work because the Ukrainians won't accept it.

SANCHEZ: Over the last few days, there has been added criticism of Witkoff, in part because of this lead conversation that "Bloomberg" first reported. They obtained a recording of a conversation between Witkoff and a Russian aide and published a transcript of it. And Witkoff essentially says that he believes the president will give him wide discretion over the contours of a deal.

And further, he sort of instructs the Russians on how to talk to President Trump about negotiations, about a deal, just how to approach Trump generally. I wonder if you think this leak impacts in any way the meetings that he's about to have, the conversations that are about to happen. Does it have any weight over talks at all?

DAALDER: So, I think it reduces the credibility that Steve Witkoff has as a mediator, as a negotiator in these conversations. So, far, he's spent most of his time talking to the Russians and very little to the Ukrainians. It's very hard to be a mediator if you only talk to one side.

And this phone call and the transcript, which was really amazing, both in its details and the fact that it was -- that it was leaked, demonstrates that what Steve Witkoff believes, which is pretty evident from what he has said so far, is that the way we get to an end to the war is to accept the Russian position and to force the Ukrainians to accept that position. Unfortunately, that's not how this war is going to end. This war will end one way and one way only, which is if Russia stops fighting and starts moving its troops out.

Russia started the war. Russia can end the war tomorrow. And the Ukrainians will fight for their sovereignty. They will fight for their territory, but particularly for their sovereignty, until the bitter end. They're the ones being attacked. And it would be much better if the United States returned to a position where we understood that the problem in this war is Russia having started it, not Ukraine being unwilling to accept some peace deal that the Russians are putting on the table. That just isn't going to work.

[14:50:14]

You can't expect a country to give up its sovereignty just because it has been attacked. If it loses the war, yes, but until it loses the war, it's going to maintain its sovereignty.

SANCHEZ: And quickly, Ambassador, on the other side, you have Army Secretary Dan Driscoll expected to head to Kyiv later this week for peace talks. What do you make of his role in these meetings?

DAALDER: Well, it's very strange. We've never had a mediator or somebody trying to get two sides to an agreement by having multiple people. Remember, when Henry Kissinger did this in the Middle East, he was the one shuttling back and forth.

And this idea that we have one mediator for Ukraine and another mediator for Russia gets you into the -- into the problems that we've seen this last week with plans that don't work for one side and do work for the other side, and then we have to redo them again. It just isn't very clean, and it shows that the administration is more interested in figuring out how to end the war than the details of actually getting to an agreement.

SANCHEZ: Ambassador Ivo Daalder, thank you so much for the time. Happy Thanksgiving.

DAALDER: My pleasure. Happy Thanksgiving.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, from turkey legs to giant balloons and marching bands, we're going to show you how Americans all across the country are celebrating the holiday. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:56:16]

JIMENEZ: Let's get you to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour. A panel of three judges has approved the use of a redrawn congressional map in North Carolina for next year's midterm elections. This will likely give Republicans an extra House seat.

SANCHEZ: The new map targets the state's first district held by an African-American representative for more than 30 years. Nationwide, the Trump administration has been pushing other Republican-led states to redraw their maps in an effort to retain control of Congress in the midterm elections.

Also, holiday travelers need a brace for disruptions as a storm system is expected to move into the Pacific Northwest today, tracking across the country into Monday. The storm could potentially dump heavy rain and snow across more than 1,000 miles this weekend and usher in a blast of Arctic air that will send temperatures plunging for millions.

JIMENEZ: No thank you.

An endangered baby giraffe has been born at a zoo in the U.K. Look at that. So, cute. Not only is the newborn important for the future of giraffes, she was born during a meteor shower. Members of the Whipsnade Zoo get to vote on a celestial-themed name to be announced next week on Instagram.

Newborn giraffes, by the way, about 6'5". All right, I don't even qualify to be a newborn giraffe. But the zoo says there are fewer than 16,000 reticulated giraffes in the wild. They are the tallest land animal in the world.

SANCHEZ: Very cool.

JIMENEZ: All right, across America, I don't know if you've heard, people are celebrating Thanksgiving today.

SANCHEZ: Some people here in the studio are celebrating.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, some people. This is how we do it here. But also CNN has been at many of the big city parades, including Nantucket Turkey Plunge.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, our teams were on the parade route, notably Buzz Lightyear returned to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade after a 12- year hiatus. Here's a look at some of the best moments from this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to "Thanksgiving in America." You're looking at the very beginning of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: I don't want you to feel left out, so.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Ooh.

BERMAN: Ooh.

HILL: This year I went with a headband. I'm just mixing it up a little bit this year. Yeah, I did.

BERMAN: That is fantastic.

SIDNER: That is really turkey-tastic.

Charlotte didn't wait to start the party. They celebrated their 79th Thanksgiving Eve Parade last night.

ARLEIGH: Hi. May name is Arleigh (ph). Is this on TV? Happy Thanksgiving.

SIDNER: What is your favorite part of being in the parade?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That I get to see some of my friends.

SIDNER: Look at Super Mario.

BERMAN: Mario is new this year --

SIDNER: Brand new.

BERMAN: -- and he's making quite a debut, I would say.

SIDNER: Dora.

BERMAN: Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer, walking down or floating down Central Park West here in New York City.

SIDNER: It's Spidey.

BERMAN: Yeah, Spider-Man. There's Spider-Man.

SIDNER: Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This huge balloon, 39 feet tall, 45 feet long, 23 feet wide.

BERMAN: Minnie Mouse.

SIDNER: Do you know how old Minnie Mouse is now?

BERMAN: Tell me.

SIDNER: 97. She looks good. You look good, girl. Let's go live to Brad Smith, who is in Philly for us this morning.

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about Phenomenal Philadelphian. It is the OG of all the Thanksgiving Day parades. Started in 1920 by gimbals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to the city of Houston, where the parade just started here moments ago. They expect 100,000 people lining the streets here in downtown Houston to see the 76th annual parade.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, guys. Detroit. Happy Thanksgiving. Here in Detroit for second oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States. Take a look at these floats. How amazing is this?

Look at this. Oh, my goodness. Detroiters know what they are doing.

[15:00:01]

SIDNER: The man, the myth, the legend, Santa finally made it. Always ends the parade. You're seeing the huge Believe balloon in front of Santa. And then you'll see those reindeer. They're making their way. Slowly, slowly, clip-clopping.

BERMAN: Just listen to the excitement.