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All Four Hostages In A Texas Synagogue Have Been Released Unharmed; Australian Court Hearing Novak Djokovic's Appeal Of Visa Revocation; Thousands Protest France's Proposed Vaccine Pass; British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Under Pressure To Quit Over Lockdown Violations; Millions In U.S. In Path Of Severe Winter Weather. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 16, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

And we are tracking breaking news out of Texas, where hostages were held for hours at a Ft. Worth area synagogue. A little under two hours ago, a loud bang and gunfire were heard in Colleyville in Texas. Minutes later, Governor Abbott tweeted prayers had been answered and all hostages were out alive and safe.

Now we know the hostage taker is dead. It's believed the gunman stormed into the synagogue on Saturday during a live streamed worship service. Now one of the hostages was released earlier in the day before law enforcement went in to save the others. Here's how a police official described how the final hostages were rescued.

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CHIEF MICHAEL MILLER, COLLEYVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: The FBI called out the hostage rescue team, which is an elite hostage rescue force, out of Quantico, Virginia. They immediately, when the SAC called, they got on a plane and flew out here. I think they brought 60 or 70 people from Washington, D.C., to come and help with this situation.

Some time around 9:00 pm today, this evening, the HR team, the hostage rescue team breached the synagogue. They rescued the three hostages and the subject is deceased.

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HOLMES: Well, President Biden has just released a statement and I'll read it to you now.

"Thanks to the courageous work of state, local and federal law enforcement, four Americans, who were held hostage at a Texas synagogue, will soon be home with their families.

The president goes on, "I'm grateful to the tireless work of law enforcement at all levels, who acted cooperatively fearlessly to rescue the hostages. We are sending love and strength to the members of the Congregation Beth Israel, Colleyville and the Jewish community.

The president finishes by saying, "There is more we will learn in the days ahead about the motivations of the hostage taker. But let me be clear to anyone who intends to spread hate, we will stand against anti-Semitism and against the rise of extremism in this country.

"That is who we are and, tonight, the men and women of law enforcement made us all proud."

That statement from the president, Joe Biden. CNN's Ed Lavandera on the scene for us in Texas.

You've been there for hour upon hour, Ed. You were at that news conference we heard, with the local police and the FBI. Give us a sense of what we learned from that.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you mentioned, we learned the suspect is dead. Law enforcement says they know the identity of the person. There's been a great deal of confusion throughout the course of the day as to who exactly this suspect is and this hostage taker is.

But law enforcement here saying they are not ready to announce who the person is, as they continue investigative work. And that work now, into the overnight hours, will include going through what was essentially a crime scene inside the synagogue, where all of this unfolded about two hours ago, and the shootout, that started with a loud bang.

And then, from our distance, which is just about a quarter mile away, we heard that rapid fire of gun -- rapid gunfire. And that alerted us to the fact all of this was quickly starting to develop.

Law enforcement says they are not going to divulge the identity of the suspect. And they credited the tireless work of hostage negotiators, that dealt with the suspect for hours and hours.

They said -- the head of the FBI here in the Dallas area said that it was the work of the negotiators that really determined the outcome and perhaps saved the lives of all four hostages in this situation.

The FBI says that the hostage negotiators, in the relationship with the suspect, ebbed and flowed, that there were long periods of communication and then, at some points, the communication would kind of end.

So it sounded kind of, reading between the lines here, a very volatile situation throughout the day, as hostage negotiators tried to prolong their conversations with the suspect.

[00:05:00] LAVANDERA: And essentially what that did, Michael, is give a hostage rescue team, that flew in from Virginia, time to get onto the ground here. There were 60 of them that flew in from Virginia.

And those were the ones that led the assault inside the synagogue to save the lives of the three remaining hostages. There had been one hostage who was released around 5:00 Central time. So in the end, there were three hostages, along with the suspect, inside that synagogue.

HOLMES: Yes, and we lost you last hour just before we were going to talk about this, because I found that interesting, that the FBI said he was singularly focused on one issue not specifically related to the Jewish community.

Well, he was in a synagogue, of course, but he also had specifically referred to Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of terror charges in 2010 and was fiercely anti-Semitic and talked about that anti-Semitism all the time. So there does seem to be a connection of sorts.

LAVANDERA: Yes, there is. And I suspect, in the weeks ahead, that more, a better understanding of true motive behind this suspect will come to light. And a lot of this was based on, remember, there were a number of people, especially the congregants of the synagogue, who were watching Sabbath services over the live stream.

And they listened and watched what was going on inside that synagogue for more than an hour, in what was described to us as, at times, hysterical screaming, ranting and raving and kind of vacillating between these ups and downs, of these mood swings, that was reported to us that this suspect had.

So a lot of the details we have at this point is coming from people, who were watching this live stream and really kind of, you know, piecing together the bits and pieces that they were hearing in these rants on that live stream.

So clearly much more work will be done here in the coming weeks, so more on the motive, as they dig deeper into who this suspect is and what connections he might have to other people around the world or here in the Texas area. You know, a lot of unanswered questions on that front tonight.

HOLMES: Yes. And I guess one of them is, you know, why that synagogue. Give us a sense of the place, Colleyville, where you are now. The police chief there, Michael Miller, he said one of safest cities in Texas. This is just not the sort of thing you would expect to see. Give us a sense of the place.

LAVANDERA: You know, what strikes me is, this a small synagogue; about 150 families are members of this church. This is not a prominent synagogue, you know, one of the more preeminent synagogues here in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

And on top of that, it is tucked away, kind of hidden in a residential neighborhood, surrounded by residential homes. It's not out on full display on a major boulevard here in the city of Colleyville or anything like that.

If you're not from here, you really have to go searching for this synagogue to find it. It's in very close proximity to Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. As several congregation members described it to me today, there are not a lot of members of the Jewish faith here in this northeast Tarrant County.

But it was a synagogue that was really making its mark, according to the members we spoke with today, and specifically the rabbi, who was held hostage here throughout the entire day.

And they described the rabbi here of this synagogue as someone who has spent much of his tenure reaching out to other denominations, other faiths.

We heard from Muslim community members, who had developed a strong friendship with this rabbi and said this rabbi was someone who had opened up their hearts and homes to members of the Muslim faith here in northeast Tarrant County.

And that was one of the reasons why they were so shocked and stunned that he would be targeted in this way. So as I mentioned, just not -- really not the place you'd expect something like this to happen, especially when you kind of consider and you look around the area we're in.

HOLMES: Ed Lavandera, who's been on this story from the beginning for hours now, appreciate your reporting. Ed, thanks so much.

I want to turn now to CNN's national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. She served as an assistant secretary at U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Juliette, let's talk a bit about, in your experience -- we heard from the news conference that the negotiators seemed to have been the heroes of the day, according to the FBI spokesman there.

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HOLMES: And talked about how it ebbed and flowed and got intense sometimes.

What sorts of things, in your experience, would predicate a decision to go in?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So just going back, from the beginning of the day, there was this sort of caricature of how law enforcement works or at least professional law enforcement.

They're just going to run in and everything has to be fast and resolved. And the truth is, for a hostage negotiator, in most instances, because it's not an active shooter situation -- those are two different situations -- in a hostage situation you're really trying to buy times.

We call it you're trying to extend the runway and give more time. Why are you buying time?

The hostage may give up, he may release -- the hostage taker may give up, he may release a hostage as we saw earlier today. He may tire or he may become more agitated.

But even if he becomes more agitated, that's giving the FBI -- basically they were on the ground for about 8 hours or 9 hours -- a lot of time to figure out how to get into the building and get the hostages out safely, because those are precision operations, right?

The boom, the entry and the protection of the hostages and, as we know now, the killing of the perpetrator, so that's basically what happened behind closed doors, rightfully so.

You have the continuing negotiation, the buying of a long period of time and then the entry. What triggers it may either be -- it's either the hostage has exposed a vulnerability and they're going to come in or they've lost contact with the hostage taker and want to get in relatively quickly.

HOLMES: We also heard they're going to be having an investigation, of course, a global investigation,, according to the FBI.

What sorts of things are investigators going to be looking for?

KAYYEM: So it's -- if he was animated by the Siddiqui aura, let's say, the sort of radicalization that comes from supporting Siddiqui, who's a female Al Qaeda member, someone who is in jail in Texas -- so we don't know if there's a relation there, the fact she happens to be in jail there.

So was he radicalized because of just her cult-like status?

Or was he radicalized to do this, to sort of operationalize her sort of anti-Semitism?

Because, like you, I don't see how you separate her from the anti- Semitism of targeting a synagogue or whether he was targeted or told to do something like this.

I have to say, just based on the evidence so far and my experience, I can tell you -- so he does not seem terribly sophisticated visually, from what we're told from congregants. He's apologizing, animated, doesn't seem in control.

He appears to have no exit strategy, chooses a synagogue that -- that he claims was because it was near an airport. So there was no reason to have chosen it except for geography. So they may believe he was both radicalized alone and acted alone.

That is not to negate the radicalization that is occurring within terrorist organizations or within the jihadist organizations to target synagogues globally, which we're just seeing throughout the United States and the world. HOLMES: Yes. And there's a lot we're going to learn, a lot we don't

know yet. But it doesn't seem massively so sophisticated. As you say, a small synagogue in the suburbs, as Ed Lavandera was saying. You know, that just doesn't sound like it was particularly well thought out. And I guess that points to the difficulty of stopping such things as well.

KAYYEM: Yes. And also to the fear.

In other words, you do things in your life you know are sort of higher profile, right?

You go to a big Super Bowl, you sort of -- there's some expectation you might be increasing your vulnerability. But you know, you join a small synagogue in the suburbs in Texas, with 100 members or families.

And it's that vulnerability that terror actually sort of breeds off of, that, as a Jewish American, you're not safe anywhere. And we hear this through the Jewish community. I work with many synagogues in terms of their safety and security, in terms of ensuring that they are safer.

And the challenge or the horror of this for the community and those I speak to -- and my children are Jewish -- is synagogues are meant to be open. In other words, most religious institutions are. They want people of their own faith to feel welcome. But they also want people of other faiths to be welcome and understand them.

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KAYYEM: So the more you are forcing synagogues or any religious entity to become hard targets, right, you're also denying them their ability to practice their faith. And I think that's what you're hearing, much more eloquently than me, from members of the Jewish community.

But certainly, from a security perspective, there is a loss of going from being a soft target to a hard target that you can't measure in security terms, right?

And I think that's what you're hearing today.

HOLMES: Yes, great analysis. I mean, they said they were processing the scene now.

What are they going to be looking for?

KAYYEM: So a couple -- so I think the most important thing is, who was he?

What is his social media or internet access?

How did he get there?

How did he choose that synagogue?

So just basically -- in weird ways, these are such elevated events. But then they become quite traditional in their investigation. So you're going to have both the social media review, who was he in contact with as well as family, friends and others.

Throughout the day, there was speculation about who he was and his relationship to Siddiqui. We're not -- we don't know anything yet. Remember she -- it's hard to explain her status in radicalization circles, because she's both a woman and there's so few women and she's an educated woman.

She's viewed as a -- Siddiqui is the woman jailed in Texas, who -- this perpetrator alleges he wanted her free. She's viewed as being unfairly or not accurately convicted and has become sort of a galvanizing force for a lot of the radical elements within -- not within Islam but within violent Islam, that would do something like this.

HOLMES: Yes. Great analysis, Juliette.

Thanks, my friends. I appreciate it. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, more of CNN's continuing coverage of the hostage situation at the Texas synagogue.

And also the case of Novak Djokovic, we'll talk about that, too, after the break.

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HOLMES: Welcome back.

The Australian Open tennis tournament starts Monday. We're still waiting to hear whether the top seeded player, Novak Djokovic, is going to be allowed to play.

At this hour, federal judges in Australia, who are hearing his appeal of his canceled visa, are deliberating. It's Djokovic's last attempt to stay in the country after that visa was canceled a second time over concerns the unvaccinated star's presence could stir a rise in anti- vaccine sentiment.

Let's bring in Ben Rothenberg. He's the senior editor of "Racquet" magazine and host of the "No Challenges Remaining" podcast.

Good to see you again, Ben.

OK, so what's the latest on what the judges heard?

And when might there be a decision?

BEN ROTHENBERG, SENIOR EDITOR, "RACQUET": So we're waiting any minute now for a decision. The judges are deliberating after long arguments this morning and into the afternoon from both Djokovic's lawyers and government lawyers.

Basically the real onus is on the Djokovic lawyers to overturn the existing recancellation of his visa. And they're running out of time. He's obviously just gotten scheduled just now. His first match is tomorrow night. Time is of the essence here.

And deliberations are still going. On the legal side they need to prove that the minister was unjust in trying to say that Djokovic's presence will excite further anti-vax sentiment or protests or unrest in the country.

That sense of further unrest further fertilizing the seeds of the anti-vax movement here really at the crux of this. And the government's argument is he's an influential guy and there's already more traction of vaccine hesitancy in Serbia and maybe more of that will come in Australia as well.

There was actually a pretty substantial anti-vax protest outside the Australian Open yesterday. But that was because after the decision made on Friday that was not brought up in the arguments.

HOLMES: Pretty hard to prove Djokovic's influence on anti-vaccine movements in Melbourne.

What are the concerns -- and you and have talked about this before -- concerns about a potential Djokovic appearance on court at the Open after all that's happened could be really heated or even volatile?

ROTHENBERG: Absolutely. No, I definitely have concerns, as many other people do. Just the security situation there and after all the emotion that's been poured into this, the back and forth, the legal strife, the Serbian nationalism that ties into it for many fans, who see Djokovic as a symbol for their country.

And they put him in the last night sessions match, which could mean things will calm down but more likely means that fans will be there, will have time to imbibe (ph) potentially on both sides of the argument. And it could be a pretty volatile situation.

It's definitely something the Australian Open needs to be aware of if Djokovic takes the court and we don't know if he will. He'd still need to win a ruling today in order to be able to play. But if he does, hopefully the security is ready to really contain things, because it could be, like you said, a very volatile situation, absolutely.

HOLMES: Yes, indeed. Ben, appreciate the analysis.

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HOLMES: All right, still to come, more of CNN's continuing coverage of the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue. Do stay with us. We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

And we want to recap our breaking news out of Texas, where hostages, held for hours at a Ft. Worth area synagogue, have been rescued alive and safe. A little more than two hours ago a loud bang and then gunfire were heard in Colleyville, Texas.

Minutes later governor Greg Abbott tweeting, prayers had been answered and all hostages were out. Now we know the hostage taker is dead. It's believed he stormed into the synagogue on Saturday during a live streamed worship service.

One of the hostages was released earlier in the day before law enforcement went in to save the others. A little over an hour ago, law enforcement officials gave an update on how the entire standoff played out. This is what they said.

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MILLER: I'm going to give you just some -- an update on what happened today. We've been out here all day. This morning at about 10:41 we received a 9-1-1 call regarding a disturbance at the 6100 block of Pleasant Run, which is Congregation Beth Israel. It's our local Jewish synagogue.

At that time, they were having services being broadcast across Facebook and Zoom. We began to get information that a gunman had entered the synagogue and taken four individual hostages.

At that time, patrol resources responded to the area. We called out our SWAT team, our North Tarrant regional SWAT team, who responded. We set up a perimeter and we began to evacuate the houses that were in the local area.

We really appreciate all the people who were inconvenienced by us asking them to stay away from the area. But it was important for their safety.

At some point in time, immediately after that, we received some backup support from North Richland Hills SWAT team. I immediately, once we heard there was a hostage situation, I called the FBI. FBI special agent in charge, Matt DeSarno, came out immediately. FBI, ATF, HSI, Texas Department of Public Safety and all of our local partners all responded as well.

We've had nothing but phenomenal support from our state and local law enforcement and federal partners.

At some point in time, during the times we were negotiating with the subject for a period of time, all day, constant communication with him, he did release one hostage in the middle of the incident.

That hostage was not harmed and he's doing well now.

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MILLER: The FBI called out the hostage rescue team, which is an elite hostage rescue force, out of Quantico, Virginia. They immediately, when the SAC called, they got on a plane and flew out here. I think they brought 60 or 70 people from Washington, D.C., to come and help with this situation.

Some time around 9:00 pm today, this evening, the HR team, the hostage rescue team breached the synagogue. They rescued the three hostages and the subject is deceased.

I'd like to thank -- this is a success, due to the partnerships that we have with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners. It has been an incredible operation. We've had at least 200 law enforcement personnel here pretty much all day today. We could not have done it without them. And we thank them.

We thank the community as well. I am going to turn it over to SAC DeSarno, who's going to talk a little bit about -- more about the incident specifically and then we'll be here to take any questions you may have. Thank you very much.

MATTHEW DESARNO, FBI DALLAS SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Thank you, Chief Miller.

Again, my name is Matt DeSarno. I am the special agent in charge FBI Dallas. I am flanked today by my federal partners from ATF, HSI, DHS Headquarters, Texas DPS and Colleyville Police Department.

So today's results, which was four safe hostages and the situation resolved, was really a result of a long day of hard work by nearly 200 law enforcement officers from across this region, local officers across this region.

As the chief mentioned, North Richland Hills trophy club, Colleyville obviously, the FBI, ATF, HSI and Texas DPS, who you see all over this town today.

I would like to highlight a couple of things. We used the North Tarrant regional SWAT team, who started the engagement here in the morning, transitioning to Dallas FBI SWAT team and then ultimately to the hostage rescue team and the Dallas FBI SWAT team holding the perimeter.

As Chief Miller said, the FBI's hostage rescue team I consider one of the crown jewels of our organization. Their mission is to conduct deliberate hostage rescues when necessary. In this case, we had a necessity for that. And they were successful, very proud of that.

I am also extremely proud of the team and negotiators, FBI agents and local police officers, who worked all day long and engaging the subject and likely saved the lives of the subjects just through their engagement. It's very likely that this situation would end very badly early on in the day had we not had professional, consistent negotiation with the subject.

I do not have any information right now to indicates that this is any part of an ongoing threat. We obviously will continue to investigate the hostage taker and his contacts. Our investigation will have global reach. We have been in contact already with multiple FBI legates to include Tel Aviv in London.

We have been working closely with Security Community Network and the Jewish Federation. And I want to continue to do that and we will, throughout the country.

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HOLMES: Now Bob Baer is CNN intelligence and security analyst and joins me now. He's also a former CIA operative and author of the book, "The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins."

Bob, first of all, in your experience, what sort of things would have triggered the hostage rescue team to go in when they did?

Who makes that call and what would have precipitated it?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the negotiators would have -- and the SAC on the ground there; it's not something you defer to Washington -- I think what they realized probably fairly on is who this guy was and he was unstable.

Let's not forget the FBI would prefer not to kill anybody because a hostage rescue can never be 100 percent assured. You just don't know what's going on. The hostages could be moved at the last second before they go in.

If they're using flashbang grenades and if he's moved to a different room and he hasn't been stunned, he could kill all the hostages, which is the last thing the SWAT teams want.

So I think they were probably getting very nervous toward the end. And they could have outwaited this guy until he -- as amazing as it sounds, until he fell asleep. But they decided he was so unstable they had to go in and use weapons.

HOLMES: We heard the FBI say it's very likely this situation would have ended badly if not for the skills of negotiators. Speak about their role. They're on the phone with this guy for hours.

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HOLMES: And according the to the FBI, it was high frequency in duration. It stopped from time to time. The relationship ebbed and flowed, was intense at times.

What are these negotiators trying to do?

BAER: Well, they want to know what he wants, first of all. And if he wants Siddiqui released -- we don't know that for sure -- the hostage negotiator is going to say, well, what's going to happen if we do?

What will happen to her?

And they'll carry this on so there's some hope in his mind, so he doesn't start shooting the hostages. And they do -- they practice this so much and do it so well. And that's sort of what they devote their careers, to is talking to people on the phone who are --

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HOLMES: It's a career, isn't it?

BAER: They're just -- and it's the same way with the shooters, the assaulters go in. It's amazing the amount of training they go through to act quickly because when you're firing assault weapons in a closed- in area, the chances of hitting a hostage, unless you're very well trained are very high. And they know that.

HOLMES: Yes, it's a pretty specialist job. And the other thing he said too they're going to be obviously investigating his contacts and said it's going to be a global effort.

How do you see that playing out?

What are they going to be looking for?

BAER: Well, it's the international calls, first of all. And they're going to be getting into his Facebook. Earlier I said that, you know, there's probably no sign that he was violent on Facebook. But since then people have told me, probably they'll come up with something.

But let's not forget Facebook is a fire hose so he may have a record on, you know, social media. But what they really want to look is if he were recruited by somebody overseas. And so the first thing they're going to do is look at international calls to Pakistan.

If, in fact -- we actually don't know for sure that he was a radical Islamist at this point. So they're going to look into that.

And who does he follow?

Is it somebody in Afghanistan, central Asia?

We just don't know at this point. If he was encouraged to attack this synagogue, that's what they're looking for.

HOLMES: It's interesting, too; when you look at it, a small synagogue in a suburb in a quiet part of town or city in Texas, it doesn't seem terribly well organized, does it?

I mean, what were your thoughts on that?

Did you get that sense?

And the other thing, too, when it comes to someone like this and looking into his Facebook or whatever, how hard is it to actually ID someone before they do something?

BAER: It's very hard because there's so many crazy people on the internet, Michael. It's amazing. And, you know, you're just going through them all the time and you run these people down and it turns out they're sort of harmless.

And, you know, unless this guy has committed an act of violence in the past, it's not something they can put together at the last minute -- and especially if he did it at the spur of the moment.

And you're absolutely right; it was not well organized. It was -- I wouldn't be surprised if he's from somewhere in that area. I doubt that he traveled there. You know, he could have hit another target. So he wakes up one morning and says, this is a great act of justice and I've got to do it now. Of course, there's something wrong in his head.

HOLMES: Yes, Bob Baer, always good to have your expertise in situations like this. Appreciate your time. Thanks, Bob.

BAER: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right, we will take a quick break here. We will be back with more after this.

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HOLMES: The vaccine pass continues to be a lightning rod in France. Thousands marching in opposition to it on Saturday in Paris. The French parliament began debating the bill last week, that would require most people to be vaccinated in order to enter public spaces, such as bars, restaurants and long distance public transport.

In China, a neighborhood in Beijing was locked down after a local -- after the city reported its first case of Omicron on Saturday. Authorities have begun mass testing people living in that neighborhood. This coming as Beijing, of course, is set to host the Winter Olympics in less than three weeks.

In Britain, a new poll for "The Observer" newspaper shows 63 percent of voters want prime minister Boris Johnson to quit -- 63 percent. Now that follows allegations that 10 Downing Street held a series of office parties during COVID lockdowns and possibly broke the pandemic rules the rest of the country had to follow. Salma Abdelaziz reports for us.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More allegations of partying and more problems for prime minister Boris Johnson. The latest coming from a British newspaper, reporting that "wine time Fridays" were held during coronavirus lockdown periods.

Essentially Downing Street staff were having drinking sessions despite lockdown rules being in place on a regular basis. It's the latest in a string of allegations, stretching from the summer of 2020 to the spring of 2021, that Downing Street staff, those in government, those in power, who were setting the rules, were not following the rules.

The allegation is coronavirus restrictions were being broken at 10 Downing Street itself. The latest "I'm sorry" came on Friday to the queen herself to Buckingham Palace after "The Telegraph" newspaper reported that two parties were held inside Downing Street the night before Prince Philip's funeral.

It really struck at the heart of the matter. There's this iconic image of the queen, sitting alone, in the chapel, following the rules, that really resonated with everyone at the time, with people who were making great sacrifices, even in their most tragic moments.

Apparently, those very rules were being broken by those who set them. Of course, the hypocrisy has caused outrage across the country and calls for the prime minister to resign. One Conservative lawmaker saying the prime minister's position is untenable.

And the nightmare isn't over yet for prime minister Boris Johnson. There is an investigation underway right now, looking into all of these allegations of partying by Downing Street.

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ABDELAZIZ: And we expect the results of that in the coming days. But reputationally, the damage is done here. Overwhelmingly, critics of prime minister Boris Johnson feels like he's the party prime minister of Britain -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

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HOLMES: All right, we're going to take a quick break here. We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: Heavy snow, ice and rain are plowing across parts of the U.S. We're tracking a winter storm moving through the southern U.S. at the moment and heading toward the northeast.

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HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes. Stay with us. I'll be back with more news in a moment.