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Contents of House Committee Report Under Fire; Battle to Ban Assault Weapons Heats Up After Mass Shootings; Retired U.S. Astronaut Scott Kelly Visits Kyiv Region; Russian Mothers Launch Petition to Bring Soldiers Home. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 28, 2022 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Bianca Nobilo. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up-to-date with our top stories this hour.
Anti-COVID protests erupted in China on Sunday. Demonstrators are calling for Chinese leadership to change their zero-COVID policy and even want President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party to step down.
And severe weather will impact more than 25 million people from eastern Texas to southern Indiana on Tuesday. Forecasters say that heavy rain, tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail are all possible.
Turning to American politics now, and the much-anticipated report from the House Select Committee on the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that scheduled to release next month. Committee member Adam Schiff is rebuffing a new "Washington Post" piece that says the contents of the final report could potentially leave out other investigations and focus solely on former President Donald Trump.
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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I would like to see our report be as broad and inclusive as possible. We are discussing as a committee among the members what belong in the body of the report, what belongs in the appendixes of the report. What is beyond the scope of our investigation. And we'll reach those decisions, you know, In a collaborative manner.
You know, I think that one of the things that has made our committee so successful is we have worked extremely well together. That doesn't mean we always agree on everything, but it does mean we have a lot of respect for each other and we get to the goal, which is providing the American people with a full accounting of what took place on January 6th.
We're also going to be releasing the evidence, which may be the most important thing. The voluminous transcripts, the documents and emails. We want to make sure that's put before the American people. We certainly don't want the Jim Jordans of the world to cherry pick anything not disclosed and make a false or misleading narrative out of it.
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So, the country is going to have the evidence. They're going to have our report. And I'm enormously proud of what we've done.
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NOBILO: Schiff didn't comment on allegations from Congresswoman Liz Cheney's spokesperson who accused staffers of trying to slip, quote, liberal biases into the report.
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DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: There does seem to be tension surrounding the vice chair of the committee Liz Cheney. One former staffer told "The Washington Post" that people working for the committee became, quote, discouraged when they felt it had become a, quote, Cheney 2024 campaign. That fair?
SCHIFF: I've never viewed it that way. And I think her role on the committee has been indispensable. I have tremendous respect for her and for Adam Kinzinger. They've shown a lot of courage and backbone, something in very short supply in the GOP these days. So, the committee would not have been the same without both of their participation. And I have nothing but respect for both of them.
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NOBILO: Congressman Schiff also slammed Kevin McCarthy after he promised to strip Schiff of his committee positions if he becomes Speaker of the House.
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SCHIFF: McCarthy's problem is not with what I said about Russia. McCarthy's problem is he can't get to 218 without Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz and so, he will do whatever they ask. And right now, they're asking me to be removed from my committees and he's willing to do it. He's willing to do anything they ask and that's the problem. Kevin McCarthy has no ideology. He has no core set of beliefs. He's very hard not only to get to 218 that way, is even more difficult to keep 218. That's his problem. So, he will misrepresent my record. He'll misrepresent Derek Swalwell or Ilhan Omar, whatever he needs to do to get the votes of the QAnon caucus within his conference.
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NOBILO: The January 6th report on the Capitol attack is expected to come out at the end of the year.
U.S. President Joe Biden has a packed schedule this week, including a state visit, an uphill fight to ban assault weapons and battle over the federal budget. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the story.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden returning to Washington on Sunday evening after spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Nantucket, Massachusetts. The president returning to a Washington that will be very busy for him over this next week.
The president is expected to host French President Emmanuel Macron for the first official state visit of Biden's presidency. It's going to be a visit full of pomp and circumstance and also an honor to the French president to give him the first state visit, a symbol of the closeness between these two countries, an alliance that has been forged for hundreds of years but also, of course, become stronger through the crisis in Ukraine. France playing a key leadership role in Europe and the United States, of course, President Biden working to keep that global alliance together.
The president also has a lot of work to do on Capitol Hill. Recently he floated the idea of trying to get an assault weapons ban through in the lame duck session of Congress. That is unlikely to happen, but a slew of other items still on the agenda. The president needs to get the government funded over the next several weeks. And that is going to be priority number one as the president prepares for a Republican takeover of the House next year. Needs to get that funding bill through before that happens.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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NOBILO: As we just heard, President Biden has vowed to work on getting support to pass an assault weapons ban through Congress. This, after a spate of recent deadly shootings across the U.S. In Virginia, where a Walmart employee shot and killed six co-workers before killing himself last Tuesday, the Chesapeake city council will hold a special meeting on Monday to confirm an emergency declaration to help fund recovery efforts. The mayor will lead a candle light vigil for the victims after the meeting. And despite the recent shootings, one Democratic Senator says his party doesn't have enough votes to pass an assault weapons ban.
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SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): If you pass an assault weapons ban, you are not going to magically eliminate mass shootings in this country, but it is true that that AR-15 or AR-15 style weapon is generally the choice of mass shooters. And what you saw in 1994, when we passed an assault weapons ban was a dramatic decline in mass shootings that remained in place for a decade until the expiration of the assault weapons ban when mass shootings started to spiral out again.
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NOBILO: Meantime in Colorado Springs, Colorado, people are still struggling to cope after the mass shooting at an LBGTQ club where a gunman opened fire with a rifle and killed five people. The governor, who is gay, says he is open to passing better laws to improve gun safety as well as laws to limit so-called ghost guns and semiautomatic weapons.
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Up next, Ukraine says that there are signs that Russians may leave Europe's largest nuclear power plant. A report that Russia disputes. We'll have the details on that coming up.
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NOBILO: Retired U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly travelled to Ukraine to visit one hard-hit city and meet with those affected by the ongoing war. Kelly, who is an ambassador for Ukraine's United 24 fundraising platform, visited the country's largest pediatric hospital in Kyiv where he met with children and their parent. He spoke later about the young Ukrainians that he met.
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SCOTT KELLY, RETIRED U.S. ASTRONAUT: It was also heartwarming to see their resilience and, you know, like the resilience I think that all the Ukrainian people are demonstrating in this, you know, horrific war. But also, you know, like I said, just very, very sad to see and it's just hard to understand, you know, how Russia could attack this country and knowingly attack and kill and wound and maim children. It's really horrific.
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NOBILO: Kelly also visited Irpin in the Kyiv region, a city devastated by heavy shelling earlier this year.
Ukrainian officials are reporting more Russian shelling overnight south of the city of Dnipro. This comes after officials on Sunday said at least seven people were killed and 19 injured in attacks. Mostly in the south and the east where Russia is ramping up its strikes.
Since the start of the war in February, Russian attacks have damaged about 32,000 civilian targets and more than 700 critical infrastructure facilities. That's according to Ukraine's first deputy interior minister who said only 3 percent of recorded attacks have been on military facilities.
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Meantime, the head of Ukraine's nuclear agency company now says that there are signs the Russians may be preparing to leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, but Russian officials deny that account.
A Russian feminist anti-war resistance movement along with mothers of Russian soldiers have launched a petition demanding the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine. It was introduced on Sunday, the same day that Russia celebrates Mother's Day and has now gained more than 4,500 signatures. The petition says the group is united by one desire, to live in peace and not be afraid for their children's future. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is following these developments from Moscow and our Clare Sebastian is standing by live here in London. Fred, is this petition continuing to gain support? And how might the government respond to this?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's gaining some support and I think Vladimir Putin has already realized that the issue of the soldier's mothers is certainly one that he does need to tend to, regardless of this particular petition. There certainly have been some complaints by soldier's mothers coming up here in Russia, especially on telegram channels. There's been some video messages as well complaining about poor conditions for those who are mobilized.
For the Russians more than 300,000s who have been mobilized since September saying that in many places adequate gear was very difficult to come by. But also, that they had to buy their own food and their own medicine in certain areas as well. That's also something that this particular petition does mention.
And it certainly seems to us, Bianca, as though the Kremlin identified this as an area where Vladimir Putin needs to take action. He met on Friday with soldier's mothers. There was some criticism of that meeting saying that this was a group of hand-picked people rather than the big mother's organizations who for a very long time have been criticizing the way the special military operation has been conducted. Talking about that poor gear, talking about soldiers or newly mobilized being sent to the front way too early.
If we look at this particular petition now, they also say that obviously if the breadwinner in many cases in the house is killed or severely wounded, then it will be up to the mothers once again to try to feed their families and to get by. And they certainly definitely say they want support for that as well.
One of the most important things of that meeting, though, that Vladimir Putin had on Friday, was some of the other things that he said. He obviously tried to show empathy. But he also certainly did not look like someone who is willing and ready to back down in this at all in the conflict with Ukraine. He said he believes that the annexation of Donbas or the reunification, as he put it, with Russia is something that should have happened much earlier. He also claimed that Russia is not actually at war with the Ukrainians but with those who are equipping them and financing them. Obviously trying to stylize this sort of as a confrontation, a direct confrontation with the West.
Again, Vladimir Putin in that meeting with the soldier's mothers certainly looked as someone who is in it for the long run and definitely not someone who is ready to back down at any time -- Bianca.
NOBILO: It sounds like a potentially ominous rhetorical escalation there, Fred. We'll have to speak more about that. Thank you so much, Fred Pleitgen for us there in Moscow.
Clare, turning now to what we were talking about with regard to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, a lot of concern has been focused on this, justifiably over the last months. Naturally because it is getting more difficult to get more information from the ground. We now have these conflicting reports. Ukraine is suggesting that maybe Russia is making plans to withdraw, but Russia denying this.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we don't have evidence -- we haven't been able to verify any claims Russia is planning to withdraw. This comes from the head of the Ukrainian nuclear power company who said over the weekend that he has received information that Russia -- although it hasn't started yet -- might be preparing to withdraw from the nuclear plant. He cited sort of information that's come out in the Russian media. For example, military bloggers have been speculating about this.
But you know, I think without evidence you can assume that this may be sort of tactical by Ukraine, that so much focus is on this nuclear plant and so much concern around it that talking about it Russian withdrawal might raise further doubt on that. Russia, although the authorities in Enerhodar, which is the city just adjacent to the plant, they are denying this, they're saying this is fake.
And of course, it is somewhat implausible that they would withdraw. This was such a big prize for Russia, something they took over in the very early weeks of the war. Putin has now signed a decree essentially annexing the nuclear plant taking it under Russian law. Even though course, we know that Ukrainian staff are still essentially running the plant. So, I think, you know, conflicting information at this stage.
NOBILO: And when we look at what's happening on the battlefield and obviously from the air, after the liberation of Kherson which was a huge strategic gain and moral boost for the Ukrainians, what does the current picture of Russian attacks and air strikes tell you?
SEBASTIAN: Well, sort of steady, steady flow of air strikes continue.
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There seems to be a lot of concentration in the Dnipropetrovsk region which is just sort of north across the river from Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and of course, in the Zaporizhzhia regions as well. Obviously, this is now essentially the southern front. We know that Ukraine has had some success with Kherson. It seems that Russia in the absence of an ability to actually take more territory is at least trying to defend against more Ukrainian gains. And of course, fighting still continues pretty intensively in the east as well.
NOBILO: Clare Sebastian, thank you so much.
Just ahead, Super Bowl winning NFL player is removed from a cross- country flight. We'll tell you why the airline asked him to leave and why his lawyer says it's unnecessary.
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NOBILO: Comedian Jay Leno has returned to the stage just two weeks after he was severely burned. The former Tonight Show host appeared at a comedy club near L.A. Sunday night where he performed for a sold out crowd. Leno, who is an avid car collector, was burned on his face and hands while working on one of his classic cars earlier this month. He need two surgeries to treat the injuries.
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Leno has three more shows scheduled at the club next month.
NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was removed from a Los Angeles- bound flight Sunday morning for refusing to comply with safety protocol. According to a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WSVN, Miami-Dade police officers were dispatched when the flight crew expressed concern for Beckham's wellbeing after he would not comply with requests to fasten his seat belt. Beckham's attorney said that the football star didn't respond because he was asleep and he called the incident, quote, completely unnecessary.
In the NFL, running back Josh Jacobs was a one-man wreck wrecking crew for the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. Facing the Seahawks in Seattle, Jacobs ran for 229 yards and 2 touchdowns, including this 86 yard score in overtime to win the game. Final score, Las Vegas 40, Seattle 34.
And the quarterback carousel continues for the New York Jets. But on Sunday, they found some success with backup Mike White who took over for the struggling Zach Wilson. White threw 315 yards and 3 touchdowns, leading the jets to a 31-10 victory over the Chicago Bears. New York improves to 7-4 with the win.
The man personified as Zorro in the '90s thinks that Tom Holland should be the next to wear the mask. I guess he's used to wearing masks. Antonio Banderas who starred in the "Mask of Zorro" and sequel the "Legend of Zorro" thinks his co-star in his latest movie "Uncharted" should pick up the mask. Banderas says that if he was called to do another Zorro movie, he would pass the torch to Tom Holland.
And that does it here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is coming up for you next.
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