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Millions On Alert As Powerful Storm Marches East; Lockerbie Bombing Suspect To Appear In D.C. Federal Court; Pressure Building In Congress With 5 Days Left Until Government Shutdown; Biden Officials Meet Virtually With Paul Whelan's Sister; New Poll Looks Into Public Expectations On Next Year's Divided Congress; January 6th Committee Meeting On Criminal Referrals A Success; New Special Counsel Speeds Ahead On Trump Criminal Probes. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 12, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:26]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hi, there. I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: And I'm Bianna Golodryga.

Right now there is a powerful winter storm moving east threatening more than 10 million people across more than a dozen states.

Now depending on where in the country you are right now you may face blizzard conditions, possible tornados or flooding in the next few days.

BLACKWELL: Now this storm has already pummeled the Western U.S. It blanketed parts of Northern California with snow. Look at this. This is Soda Springs. Got five feet of snow in just 48 hours.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is tracking this for us.

Five feet in 48 hours is remarkable, but which areas are seeing the biggest threat right now?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right now we're talking Central Rockies. So Utah, Colorado, up into Wyoming, parts of Arizona and New Mexico. But the storm is kind of running out of moisture. Kind of like a hurricane that runs on land. You don't have the moisture from the ocean anymore. But all that's going to change when that storm gets there and starts to tap the Gulf of Mexico.

When it was coming onshore in California, it was putting down a lot of snow. And not just snow, but inches of rain or water that will eventually melt and get into the reservoirs that they so desperately need out there in California. Really, really good news. The snow that has fallen here, will get into the Colorado River and eventually into Lake Mead, which we've seen pictures of it being 180 feet below where it's supposed to be.

There is the low. It goes all the way -- the clouds, all the way from Des Moines back into Nevada. This is a big storm with a lot of fingers in it. A lot of things going on here from blizzard warnings in the ranching properties up here in South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming, and also when it gets to that moisture in the Gulf of Mexico, it's going to get a lot stronger. All the winds you see in orange, 30 miles per hour or greater. This is Nebraska right there.

But you're also going to see winds 25 to 30 in Chicago. Here is where we go from here. 6:00 tonight showers begin to pop here in the warm sector, in the humid sector that's dragging this moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. By overnight tonight a very dangerous situation could occur because we're going to see the potential for tornados after dark. Tomorrow, it moves farther to the east and so will the severe weather. And even by Tuesday and into Wednesday, it moves even into parts of the Gulf Coast.

Guys, a big storm with so many things going on with it that it really depends where you are compared to what you're going to get.

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll watch it over the next several days. Chad, thank you.

Next hour, a Libyan man accused of being involved in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 will make his first U.S. court appearance. Authorities charged him two years ago for allegedly making the bomb that destroyed the jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland but he was finally taken into custody over the weekend.

GOLODRYGA: The attack killed all 259 people onboard the flight and 11 on the ground in Lockerbie where the plane crashed just minutes into its flight from London to New York.

CNN's Evan Perez is outside that D.C. courthouse and CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is live in London.

So, Evan, just the significance of this case. I believe this is the first suspect who would be prosecuted in the United States. Two were prosecuted in Europe. Tell us the charges that he is facing.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna and Victor, at this hour we still have not seen the unsealed federal charges that he's facing. The only thing we know is from a criminal complaint that was filed a couple of years ago, which listed destruction of an aircraft that resulted in death as well as some explosive charges. We are expecting that those, perhaps, in addition to others, will be unsealed at the federal court here at a hearing at his first appearance in the next hour.

Obviously, this is something that the FBI, along with Scottish investigators have been working at for so, so long. We know that a big part of this case, certainly the evidence that we're going to hear as he faces trial here in Washington is a 2012 confession that he allegedly gave to a Libyan interrogator. Now we don't know, you know, whether that interrogator is here in the country yet.

We know that the FBI went to Libya, or rather to Tunisia, to North Africa, back in 2020 to do an interview with him and that is part of what is used as part of evidence to bring these charges against Abu Agila Masud. Now we're expecting to hear a lot more once he appears in court in the next hour.

BLACKWELL: All right, Nic, to you now. Of course it's been almost 35 years since the bombing and then of course Evan just mentioned this 2012 alleged confession two years since the charges.

[14:05:09]

How has he evaded capture for so long?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Probably because the country was being run by Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator until he was overthrown in 2011. Gadhafi had been persuaded by the international community to give up two previous suspects, both intelligence officers, and according to the evidence that the FBI has in that affidavit that's been information taken from that interview with Masud in captivity in Libya.

He knew these two men and was present with them in Molta when the bomb was allegedly placed on the plane. Going back to why he has evaded capture, the sort of awareness that he was involved in this just wasn't there, it seems, because the Libyan government wasn't opening up. They put forward these two other suspects, and they'd gone for trial in what was a Scottish court, but it was a compromise because it wasn't located in Scotland. It was actually located in the Netherlands.

One of them was found guilty. One of them was found not to be guilty. The guilty one did eight years in a Scottish jail, was released in 2008. This is al-Megrahi, and he was released after eight years because he was found to be suffering from terminal cancer. I met him in 2011. He was still -- his family was still professing his innocence. He did die not long after, but there was no discussion around that time of the bombmaker, and that is who Masud is alleged to be.

And this has come out because there's no dictator keeping a lid on all the information and the secret deals and dirty affairs that his intelligence agents were getting up to.

GOLODRYGA: And, Evan, of course families of the victims have been waiting and seeking justice now for decades. We know that the widow of one of the passengers aboard the plane held a press conference today. What did she say?

PEREZ: The families here have been key. They've been relentless in trying to make sure that everyone faces justice for what happened. Victoria Cummock spoke at that press conference in Miami. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISS VICTORIA CUMMOCK, LOST HUSBAND IN PAN AM 103 BOMBING: This was the love of my life and I had promised him that I would make sure until my dying breath that I was going to do what I could to pursue justice, as have many of the other family members, because this has not been my quest alone. Our hope is that we'll be able to find out what he knows and hopefully

he'll be able to identify other co-conspirators so we can also bring them to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: Victor and Bianna, we know that this is still an open case for the FBI. They said they're still investigating obviously and we're going to learn more once Masud appears here in court and once that trial finally gets going.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. A significant development over the weekend.

Evan Perez and Nic Robertson, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Now to that spending showdown on Capitol Hill. In fewer than five days the government will shut down if lawmakers do not pass a spending agreement.

GOLODRYGA: If this sounds familiar, it's because we've been here before. And nearly every year. Now they are running out of time once again to close a $26 billion gap between the Democrats and the Republicans.

CNN's Phil Mattingly is at the White House and CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill.

Well, Manu, both sides say a shutdown is unlikely, but where do negotiations stand right now?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they almost have been certainly punted again. The only question is for how long. This, of course, is a problem of Congress' own making. They were supposed to have finished all 12 appropriations bills that fund the entire federal government by September 30th. When they couldn't get a deal, they punted that to this Friday, December 16th, to try to get a deal.

A deal seems not within reach at the moment. They may have to extend government funding for another week and at that point they'll have to decide whether they can put all these bills together in one massive proposal, maybe roughly $1.75 trillion, and try to pass it within a matter of days, but if they cannot get agreement on that larger package they may have to punt this into the new Congress and that would have huge ramifications for the incoming House Republican majority.

Kevin McCarthy hopes to become the Republican speaker and if it is punted into early next year that will be one of the first big issues that he will have to confront in the new Congress, and having to get a deal not just within his own conference, but also on the Democratic and the Senate side, which will be led by Democrats and of course a Democrat in the White House, which is one big reason why there's a major push to resolve this year's funding provision this year.

So many key issues will ride along with it including $37 billion in aid to Ukraine as well as potential changes to the Electoral Count Act to prevent another January 6th. But it's still a big question about whether they can get there, guys.

[14:10:08]

BLACKWELL: So, Phil, what is the White House doing to get this done or at least avert a government shutdown?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think the former is the most important thing when you talk to White House officials particularly for dynamics that Manu just so eloquently laid out. There's a very keen recognition inside the White House about what not getting a full year spending package done would mean heading into divided government.

Not just because of the very pitched political battle that will play out whenever any new deadline would come, but also because of what it means should they have to punt. Basically maintain spending levels at the current levels for however long lawmakers agree. That is a significantly problem particularly on things like Ukraine aid, on Defense Department operations. And that's something the administration has tried to leverage over the course of the last several weeks having the secretary of Defense send letters to Capitol Hill talking about how bad it would be for the department's operational capabilities, having private classified briefings related to what not getting new Ukraine would mean.

They are pulling those leverage to some degree, but Manu knows this better than anybody. This is Capitol Hill's ball game. What the administration does is serve kind of an assistant role to some degree with their Office of Management and Budget director Shalonda Young. The president has had meetings both with the top four congressional leaders as well as the top Senate appropriators.

There is an expectation he will get involved as they get further along in this process. There's no question about it. The White House doesn't just want to punt this. They don't just want to avoid a government shutdown. They want a deal on an entire spending package, because that's what they're pushing toward right now.

GOLODRYGA: And it foreshadows another potential battle that is looming in the new year and that is raising the debt ceiling. But I do want to switch topics, Manu, because there's still plenty of talk and reaction to the news that Kyrsten Sinema will be leaving the Democratic Party. I know you caught up with Joe Manchin. What did he have to say about this move?

RAJU: Yes. There was a big question about what will Joe Manchin do? Whether he will do what his like-minded Democratic senator, once Democratic senator now independent Kyrsten Sinema will do, and leave the Democratic Party and become an independent. Now when I just asked moments ago about whether he would follow her and do the exact same thing, he did not shut the door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): I'll look at all of these things. I've always looked at these things. But I have no intention of doing anything right now. Whether I do something later I can't tell you what the future is going to bring. I can only tell you where I am in my mindset and what I want to accomplish, as long as I'm here with the Senate. I want to work with Kyrsten every day, the same as I have before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now Manchin like Sinema is also up for election in 2024. He told me that he has not yet made a decision about whether or not to run again and, of course, if he decided to run as an independent that would of course have a whole range of implications as well, but as you heard right there, signaling he does not plan to do it but certainly not saying that he won't do it, which of course would lead to many more questions in the weeks ahead.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Once that door opens, apparently.

Phil, one more for you. The administration, officials had a virtual meeting today with sister of Paul Whelan, he's detained in Russia, after Brittney Griner came home. What happened in this meeting?

MATTINGLY: Yes. Administration officials made clear they were going to remain intensely focused on Paul Whelan's case. They are playing that out now in the days after Brittney Griner was released. A 45-minute virtual meeting with Elizabeth Whelan, members of the National Security Council, as well as State Department staff on that call.

Our colleague Jennifer Hanser spoke to Elizabeth Whelan after that call. She said she appreciated the energy of the call. It was largely a reset, recognizing that they need to figure out new pathways forward given the fact they continuously tried to find a deal to get both of them home. They were not able to secure such a deal. What options might they be willing to put on the table going forward?

Now there were no specific details about those possible options, but, guys, one thing we have heard from administration officials in the days since Brittney Griner's release is that they believe there are still options, there are formulations that they think they can put on the table in the weeks or months ahead to try and secure Paul Whelan's release. One thing we know for sure they have maintained close contact with the family and that continued today in this virtual meeting.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. There seems to have been a concerted effort to continue to talk about Paul Whelan and the support for bringing him home, and all of the effort going into that.

Manu Raju and Phil Mattingly, thank you.

BLACKWELL: The special counsel is moving fast on a pair of criminal probe surrounding former President Trump. New CNN reporting on what investigators are focusing on now.

GOLODRYGA: And who would do a better job? President Biden or the Republicans taking over the House next month? Well, new polls show a country divided. Surprise, surprise. We'll have more details, up next.

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[14:19:06]

GOLODRYGA: Well, just released, CNN polling shows what people think about next year's divided Congress. For the first time since taking office President Biden will work with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

BLACKWELL: The polling also shows Americans are split on the outcome of the midterms. Surprise.

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten has the results of CNN's polls.

So how are people assessing the results?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, right? Surprise, surprise, surprise. So let's take a look, right? Feeling about the outcome of the midterm elections you might think because Republicans took control that Republican voters would be happy, but in fact what we find is that more Democrats say they were happy with the result. 43 percent of them were happy versus 45 percent of Republicans who are in fact disappointed.

I should note 37 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans were neither. But I guess when you're expecting something, you're expecting a big night and you don't get it, as in the case of Republicans, they're much more likely to be disappointed than Democrats.

GOLODRYGA: Right. Republicans, I would assume, are at least happy that they're taking control of the House. No?

[14:20:04]

ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, if we get this idea, right, which is on the major issues, are you more confident in the Republicans in Congress or President Biden? This is the split that we were talking about, right? Well within margin of error. 51 percent to 49 percent for Biden, and who you're more confident on the major issues.

There are some issues in which voters are more excited about the Republicans. So will the GOP control in the House have been positive, negative or no effect on the federal budget? What we see is 43 percent say it will have a positive effect versus just 33 percent who say -- 32 percent who say negative effect. On inflation, again, they think that the GOP will have more of a positive effect at 37 percent to 33 percent at a negative effect.

But there are some issues on which Americans are not necessarily so excited about the GOP having control. So will GOP control on the House have a positive, negative or no effect? The January 6th investigation, the plurality, 43 percent say a negative effect. And when it comes to cooperation in D.C., which we never can seem to quite get, 43 percent of Americans say that the GOP having control would in fact have a negative effect on that.

BLACKWELL: How about the new House leadership? What are their views on Kevin McCarthy, Hakeem Jeffries? What did they say?

ENTEN: Yes. So if we look at opinion of Kevin McCarthy, look at this number. Just 19 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Kevin McCarthy, 36 percent have an unfavorable rating. When it comes to Hakeem Jeffries, it's 17 percent and 19 percent. A lot of Americans just have no idea who they are which of course if you're paying attention to politics you would, perhaps gives you an idea that a lot of American, hey, it's the holiday season. Maybe we're not paying too much attention just quite yet.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And as people at least hear the name Kevin McCarthy more than they have Hakeem Jeffries just yet. So they'll be learning more and more about him in the weeks and months to come.

Harry Enten, always good to see you. Thank you.

ENTEN: Nice to see you.

BLACKWELL: The House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection received recommendations yesterday from some of its members on potential criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

GOLODRYGA: A source called the meeting successful. Now the panel is reportedly considering referrals for former President Trump and key allies including his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney John Eastman, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

CNN's Jessica Schneider joins us now with more.

So, Jessica, they met over the weekend. When can we expect a decision?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Probably soon, maybe not soon enough, Bianna. The clock is ticking for the committee. It does looks like everything will culminate next Wednesday. That's December 21st. That's when the committee is expecting to issue this final report, really summing up everything it's put together from its 1,000 plus interviews over the course of its investigation.

And next Wednesday we're expecting will also be when the committee could issue those criminal referrals to the Justice Department. You mentioned it, our team reported last week that the committee is weighing referrals for at least five people. That includes the former president Donald Trump, also his former chief of staff Mark Meadows who has somewhat cooperated with this committee. He previously handed over about 2,000 text messages where he discussed in those what Trump should do and say after the election and during the January 6th attack.

Then there are also Trump's former lawyers, John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani. Rudy Giuliani pressed basely election fraud claims. And John Eastman, he's really considered the architect of plans to push Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election. Of course that's something Mike Pence refused to do. The committee is also weighing a criminal referral of Jeffrey Clark. He was a top official at DOJ. He also pushed those false election fraud claims.

Buy, guys, any of these referrals that the committee makes to DOJ is in no way legally binding. It really carries no legal weight. So the Justice Department is not compelled to charge anyone after a congressional referral that we're expecting. It would largely be symbolic here, guys. Still significant, but the Justice Department does not need to act on any criminal prosecution as a result of what this committee says. But we'll still be looking out for it one week from Wednesday -- Bianna and Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yes. They had their own special counsel-led investigation.

Jessica Schneider, thank you for being with us.

GOLODRYGA: Well, Special Counsel Jack Smith has been on the job for just a few weeks but he is already speeding ahead on two criminal probes involving Donald Trump.

BLACKWELL: Sources tell CNN the probes are focused on the former president's state of mind after the 2020 election and what Trump might have known about plans to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz helped report this story out. So what are you learning?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Bianna, we had a team of reporters looking into the arc of the special counsel's office now that it has been in existence for three weeks. And Special Counsel Jack Smith is in charge, but what he's stepping in to manage is an investigation that has been going on for a long time and has really dug very, very -- in a focused way and very quickly into many, many things right around Donald Trump.

So that includes in recent weeks these teams of prosecutors have been working on both Mar-a-Lago and the January 6th investigations.

[14:25:02]

They've been asking a judge to hold Trump in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena related to the Mar-a-Lago documents and trying to get national security secrets back into the hands of the federal government. These prosecutors on the January 6th side and in the Mar- a-Lago investigation have been bringing lots of top former officials, advisers, aides, in before a grand jury in Washington, D.C. There's also been subpoenas going out in recent weeks especially on the January 6th side.

And the other thing we're learning about this is there are a lot of prosecutors at work here, Victor and Bianna. We know now from our reporting that there are more than 20 prosecutors on the January 6th side combined with the Mar-a-Lago team, working for Smith. That is essentially a double the Mueller investigation, the previous special counsel that would have been investigating Trump.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And I believe Jack Smith doing all of this work still from Europe, where he's recovering from an injury.

We also know, Katelyn, that there's been movement in that other case involving the removal of classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. Tell us more about that. A federal judge deciding not to hold Trump in contempt and a special master now having been dismissed?

POLANTZ: Right. So that contempt decision that we learned about on Friday after this sealed proceeding in the federal court in Washington, that was a bit of a hiccup for the Justice Department. But the other piece of this that is happening right now is that the Justice Department as of today, they are going to get access to thousands of pieces of evidence, documents, that were among documents marked at classified at Mar-a-Lago.

So whenever the FBI went into search Mar-a-Lago in August, they found lots of materials. They were able to pretty quickly get access for their investigation into the classified materials but Trump had gone to court and essentially cordoned off a lot more of the evidence there. What happened today was a federal judge that Trump had tried to enlist for help in Florida she dismissed the case before her.

She unrolled having a special master going through all of that evidence so the Justice Department investigation on those Mar-a-Lago documents, Victor and Bianna, it is going to be able to move ahead now.

GOLODRYGA: That is true. Katelyn Polantz, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Ukraine's defense minister speaks with CNN about the harsh winter there and why it may actually help their ongoing counteroffensive against Russia.

GOLODRYGA: And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen predicts a major inflation cool down while the country awaits a key Fed decision on interest rates. That's ahead.

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