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Tornadoes Hit South; Line of Major Winter Storms Across U.S.; Lawmakers Announce Bipartisan Framework Agreement; Alayna Treene is Interviewed about the Bipartisan Deal; DOJ Seeks Access to Rep. Perry's Text Messages; FTZ Founder Denied Bail. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 14, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:31]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good Wednesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Erica Hill.

We are following several stories at this hour.

First, a major threat, a weather threat, across the U.S. We just continue to follow this as it makes its way across the country. More than a dozen states right now under winter weather warnings as this severe storm system is also sparking more tornadoes, deadly tornadoes, and blizzard conditions. At least a dozen tornadoes hit the southeast yesterday, from Oklahoma and Louisiana to Mississippi. We know that at least two people were killed, a child and his mother, in Louisiana.

SCIUTTO: Also, overnight on Capitol Hill, some good news. Top congressional negotiators have announced a bipartisan framework to avoid a shutdown. And, crucially, not just for a week, perhaps for the long term. A sweeping package that would fund the government for a full year. Party leaders still must get everyone on board, some vote counting to do, but major progress.

And the Justice Department is pushing forward with its criminal investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election, targeting text messages by Republican Congressman Scott Perry, also sending subpoenas to officials in three more battleground states in that election.

HILL: We'll be following up on all of that.

We do want to begin, though, with this deadly line of storms fueling the severe weather across much of this country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY SEPULDAEO, RESIDENT: We got in the shower, like I said, and then all of a sudden, by the time we got hunkered down here, it was gone - the roof was gone. And, you know, they always say, did you hear a train coming? Well, this was a big train that come through here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in Farmerville, Louisiana. Twenty people injured from a tornado there. Chad Myers, our CNN meteorologist, he's live in the Weather Center.

If I could begin with you first, Derek, I'm curious what you've seen in the aftermath of all this.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Jim, you know, it's heartbreaking to see what we've witnessed on the grounds here. It must be so heartbreaking for the people who call this home, especially with the damage right before the holidays.

And you know, as meteorologists who has covered many of these natural disasters and events, you know, it never ceases to amaze me the pure power of what the wind can do. Look at this complete SUV, fully flipped on its side.

Walking around this area, we're in the Union Villa Apartment Complex. This is in Union Parish. It's just north and west of Monroe, Louisiana. And you can see just some of the damaged roofs behind me, some of the shrapnel on the ground. We saw children's toys earlier that were strewn across the area. Very typical of what we would expect to see with a powerful tornado that came through here last night at about 8:30.

But I really think that this puts it into perspective for our viewers at home. This is just absolutely incredible. This is about 70 or 80 feet of pure iron, and it is strewn across the parking lot here. And it has literally been lofted in the sky from the mobile home park that was destroyed about 100 yards over my right.

And I want to take you there because I was able to walk around this vicinity a few minutes ago, get some first-hand accounts of what happened. But I want you to see what people are grappling with this morning as they wake up to the destruction that was left behind by this tornado. It really shows you that these people are going to have months, if not years of recovery ahead of them.

The apartment complexes -- or rather the mobile homes were ripped off their foundations completely. We spoke to an eyewitness who didn't want to go on camera but told us that he came across individuals staggering, disoriented, coming out of the woods next to the mobile home park, and their home had literally been lifted or lofted into the forest along with them. So, they rode out this terrifying experience.

I mean, if I can just give kind of a guess at how heavy this is, this is - this is several, several tons of pure iron. So that really gives you an idea of what people are dealing with.

The police here are still calling this an active search and rescue scene. There are canines coming to the scene. Obviously, this is typical with tornado and hurricane damage as well, after the fact, to see if there are indeed any survivors. Although they do not believe that there are people here, they need to still check and assess the ground here. [09:05:04]

Back to you.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. I mean those pictures are just stunning. And the story of those folks who were lifted up with their home walking out of the woods, it is really something.

SCIUTTO: Chad, give us a sense, as we look at what has played out over the last couple of days there in the south, where are the severe weather spots you're keeping a really close eye on today?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right now, Mississippi is basically the ground zero for where the storms are spinning the most. There is another storm there to just in part -- just in the southwestern part of Louisiana. It doesn't appear it has that much spin, but let me zoom in to show you what we have here.

These are the storms and this red box here is the tornado watch that's going to be in effect until 1:00 local time. There are the storms to the southeast of Jackson. Two tornado warnings going on right now, one just to the west of Mount Olive in Mississippi and one just to -- between Forest and Lake, right along the I-20 corridor. All of this is going to slide to the east with very heavy rainfall and flash flood warnings in effect now for parts of Louisiana.

Let me push this ahead. Where does this go? Well, by 2:00, you're going to get some big storms, Baton Rouge, all the way down toward New Orleans as well. And then we move toward, our Nick Valencia is station here, down toward Biloxi, Mississippi. Also storms in Atlanta by tonight. Many of those will not rotate, but there will be a lot of lightning with some of these storms.

And then it moves to the east, and then it moves to the northeast. Farther north than that we start to see where the snow. The snow is still coming down. It is still blowing 30 or 40 miles per hour in places. Visibility in Fargo is a mile and a half. Grand Forks, just a half a mile. There's Duluth, at a quarter mile visibility, heavy snow, heavy wind.

There's your blizzard warning, still in effect, back out to the west. But here's something new. We haven't been focusing on this because we've been focused on the severe weather. There will be snow and ice in the northeast. Ice storm warning in effect. And there will be significant icing here along the Appalachian Mountains. Ice, mountains, you don't want those two to go together for sure. And also, some snow, likely not in the big cities, but certainly for upstate New York and into New England.

HILL: All right, lots to keep an eye on. We are keeping you especially busy this week.

Chad, Derek, thank you both.

SCIUTTO: All right, now to Capitol Hill. Some good news. This doesn't often happen up there. Lawmakers say they have reached a bipartisan framework for a one-year spending deal. That's key, right? We've been talking the last few days about how they might just be able to manage a week. They got something -- they got together on something bigger.

HILL: They certainly did.

CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox with us now with some of the details here.

So the threat of a government shutdown does appear to be over. We know, though, we are not officially at the finish line, if you will.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: So, Lauren, what else can we expect?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a couple of things had to happen on Capitol Hill. They are going to need a little bit of time to actually write this bill. Yes, they have an agreement in principle. They have a framework. They have an outline. But it takes time, of course, to incorporate billions of dollars to every agency across the U.S. government. So, they're going to need a couple of days to do that. We expect they are going to pass a short-term spending bill to give them a couple of extra days. That will move through the House tonight. We expect the Senate will take it up before they leave town tomorrow at some point.

After that, we expect that we will get some kind of bill legislation in the next few days. Again, it's going to take a little bit of time. And there could be some hiccups in that process. But after that, lawmakers are feeling very optimistic that they will be able to get this full year spending deal, make sure that they get some of their Democratic priorities in this bill before they lose one lever of Congress, the House of Representatives, to Republicans. There's a lot of optimism that they're going to be able to get this all done before the Christmas holiday. And Republican leaders have been warning, they don't want to be here the week after Christmas, and they really needed to finish this up. We think that they're going to at this point.

SCIUTTO: Holidays are a powerful driving force on The Hill. We've seen that before. And if that's what it takes, fine.

Lauren Fox, thanks so much.

HILL: Joining us now to discuss, Alayna Treene, congressional reporter for "Axios."

So, Alayna, as we look at all of this, I mean this could be quite a lovely gift for the country as we move into the holidays. Is it your sense, too, based on lawmakers you're speaking with and folks, that that - that optimism extends and that this could, in fact, get done?

ALAYNA TREENE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, "AXIOS": It does. I think the fact that Republicans and Democrats, apart from House Republican leaders, have come to an agreement on the top line number for this omnibus package, the longer full-term spending bill, I think they can get it done. Of course, the time is ticking, as Lauren pointed out. They want to leave by December 22nd or December 23rd. We heard Mitch McConnell say yesterday that if they did not have a deal in place, and they were not able to pass a longer term funding bill by the 22nd, he wants to send Republican senators home.

I do think, though, that now that we know that this is an agreement that can happen, I think leaders are willing to work a little, there's more leeway now to get this finished.

[09:10:08]

But, as always, they leave these big bills and big measures to be passed up until the deadline. It's in part a motivation but in part really frustrating to a lot of people who want to wrap this up and get home for the year and then enter the new year with a clean slate so that they can hand over, you know, change up the majority in the House and also get to new business in the Senate.

SCIUTTO: Now, there's an additional piece of this legislation. Chuck Schumer has said that he intends -- and that there appears to be agreement to include reform of the Electoral Count Act in this omnibus spending bill. And that's no small thing, right, because that would prevent what we saw in 2020, was attempts at least to have the vice president somehow magically wave his wand and overturn the electoral count vote -- count of electoral votes from the states. Is that likely to get in based on your understanding at this point?

TREENE: I think there's a good chance, Jim. I've talked to a lot of lawmakers about this. House Republicans and Kevin McCarthy have said, you know, he's absolutely against including this ECA bill in a larger term spending bill. But, as of now, because Republicans do not have the House majority just yet, that doesn't come until January, they could still get this done. They could still include it. We saw Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who's been a key leader on the bill, saying they need to pass this by the end of the year. And also before, really, the 2024 election cycle starts to ramp up, they want to clarify the vice president's role in this and try to prevent, just as you said, another potential January 6th from happening.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

TREENE: And so I think there is a good chance. I think they also do have the numbers in the Senate and that's really - you know, they need at least 10 Republicans to give you that 60 number to get this past. I think they have it.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

TREENE: That working group has Republicans and Democrats who have supported this. So I think there's a good chance this can happen.

HILL: When we look at what is playing out in terms of the speakership come January, it is - it is fascinating, not only how much of this is playing out publicly. That's something that Republicans don't tend to do in the same way that Democrats do. But also what we're hearing about all these potential compromises on the part of Kevin McCarthy, is he going to end up compromising his power if in fact he does win that speaker vote because of everything he's had to agree to behind the scenes?

TREENE: Well, that's exactly kind of what we're looking at with this top issue that he's really grappling with, which is whether to agree to a motion to vacate the chair. This is something that they had in the Boehner years and ended up really being what defeated and thrust John Boehner from power. This is something that some of the really -- the fiercest and most far right people within the House Republican Conference want him to agree to in order to secure their vote. At the same time, though, I mean, the majority, I'd say 90 percent of House Republicans do not want McCarthy to cave on this.

And so it's -- you're right, it's -- he might get power, but then he could also really see that taken away quickly, if he does agree to something like this, because it's not just Republicans that can, you know, push for a motion to vacate the chair. Democrats would have that power, too.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

TREENE: And so, no, it's something Kevin McCarthy doesn't want to agree to, but he might need to in order to secure, you know, those couple extra votes that he really does need to get to 218 to become speaker of the House.

HILL: Quite a process.

Alayna Treene, always good to see you. Thank you.

TREENE: Thank you both.

HILL: Overnight, CNN learned the Justice Department is seeking access to House Republican Scott Perry's text messages. You may recall his phone was seized back in August. It's a significant development here given that Perry and other Republican lawmakers were pushing former President Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in text messages to pursue baseless conspiracy theories as part of an effort, of course, to overturn the 2020 election.

SCIUTTO: We're also learning that the special council, Jack Smith, has issued more subpoenas in battleground states. That, of course, key to 2020 election interference because that's where you had Republicans and Trump allies trying to push, including state officials, to overturn results.

CNN senior crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz is here.

Let's look at the DOJ. It's - listen, it's a lot for folks to digest because there are developments like this every day, subpoena, et cetera. Can you help us understand the significance of these latest moves?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, every day, Jim, there's something new. So, what we're seeing here, what we're learning now, we're learning about what's happening now, and also some of the things that have been happening over the course of a couple of months. So, what's happening right now is that there are these grand jury subpoenas from special counsel Jack Smith's office looking into the battleground states. We know and have confirmed that local election officials in Nevada, New Mexico, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, they have all received requests for information for what appears to be a pretty comprehensive investigation. And what they're being asked for is any communications that they may have had with a series of people close to Donald Trump, close his campaign, private lawyers that were pushing this election fraud idea.

SCIUTTO: Right.

[09:15:10]

POLANTZ: So, Smith is gathering information there right now.

And the other thing that we're learning is about Representative Scott Perry, this congressman from Pennsylvania, who was so integral in being one of the conduits, trying to get information around election security, possibly election fraud, what he believed were voting inconsistencies. And we were able to confirm yesterday that after he publicly announced that his phone had been seized by the FBI back in August, the Justice Department had a private court fight with him, confidentially, where they're trying to get access to the phone -- data on his phone.

Now, the reason that's important is because we've seen a couple of his text messages before to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the time where he was really trying to get Meadows to pass on a message to all kinds of people, and Perry was asking for contacts.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

POLANTZ: So, if the Justice Department does ultimately get access to the data on Perry's phone --

SCIUTTO: Right.

POLANTZ: They could be finding a lot of connections where he was trying to make with people around Donald Trump (INAUDIBLE).

SCIUTTO: And just to be clear, one of those battleground states is Georgia that the DOJ is looking into.

POLANTZ: It is indeed.

SCIUTTO: (INAUDIBLE) that because, of course, there's a state investigation about interference there as well.

POLANTZ: Absolutely.

SCIUTTO: Katelyn Polantz, thanks very much.

HILL: Up next, the former FTX CEO denied bail in the Bahamas, as federal prosecutors accuse him of one of the biggest financial frauds in American history. More details on how that scheme allegedly worked, and additional charges that may be coming. SCIUTTO: Ukraine is sharing images this morning of more than a dozen

drones Ukrainian forces say they shot down, this over the capital of Kyiv. Russia escalating its air war as the U.S. is finalizing plans to send powerful patriot missiles to that battlefield to help Ukraine defend its air space.

And later, more border patrol agents are on their way to Texas. This as more than 2,000 migrants are crossing the southern border daily. Hear how the Biden administration is preparing for what could be an even bigger influx of people.

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[09:21:19]

HILL: This morning, FTX founder and its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, is still in a jail in the Bahamas. A judge denied his bail, emphasizing he was a flight risk because of his access to substantial finances. The 30-year-old former crypto celebrity currently faces eight criminal charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy.

SCIUTTO: This is a remarkable story. It involves not just him, but many big and small investors and savers. Bankman-Fried did not waive his right to an extradition hearing. His next court hearing will come on February 8th.

CNN correspondent Carlos Suarez, he's in the Bahamas outside the congressional facility where Bankman-Fried is being held.

I wonder how this hearing went and what this might mean for his extradition. I mean is this a sign that he might fight extradition here in the U.S.

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim and Erica, good morning.

The 30-year-old was really quite clear, quite adamant that he is going to fight extradition to the U.S. Right after yesterday's hearing, where the judge denied him bail, the 30-year-old was brought to this Bahamas prison where he spent his first full night as an inmate. It's expected that he will be here through at least February when he has another court hearing that is scheduled for February 2nd around 10:00 in the morning.

He did tell the judge that he is not only going to fight the extradition hearing, but he also told the judge that he is also taking several medications for a number of health issues, from insomnia, to attention deficit disorder, as well as depression. His attorney told the court that he's been battling some of these health issues for some time now. There had been some concern from his attorney that some of these prescription drugs would not be made available to him should he be remanded to prison. Right after the judge's ruling, the judge told Bankman-Fried that the drugs would be made available to him.

Both his parents were also in court. They sat just behind me in a row. We're told that they were able to spend a few minutes with him, along with their attorneys. And of course the parents, were now being told, are also being investigated for the possibility that they played some sort of role in the FTX company.

Guys.

HILL: Carlos Suarez with the latest for us. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Let's discuss with former federal prosecutor, former deputy assistant attorney general, Elliot Williams.

Elliot, good to see you this morning.

I am, I have to say, I'm fascinated by the timing on all of this. The fact that he was talking for weeks, did plenty of interviews, talking about how he didn't think he did anything wrong. Then he says he's going to testify before Congress. An then, boom, the day before that is set to happen, he gets arrested in the Bahamas. You say federal officials knew that they had to essentially swoop in here before that congressional testimony. Why? Why did they have to get ahead of it?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Because, you know, believe it or not, Erica, the branches of our government don't always get along with each other and aren't always aligned. And you can see a scenario where members of Congress would have put things on the record that might have jeopardized the prosecution. Think about it, imagine if a member of Congress were to come out and blast Mr. Bankman-Fried at the hearing and say, you know, the Justice Department hasn't moved quickly enough, you've got to go to jail, right? If the Justice Department came out with charges the next day, it would appear that they were political in nature or spurred by Congress.

So, this allows the Justice Department to sort of not have that taint of politics hanging over everything. And also it would have given him an opportunity to explain himself away and that would have probably messed up the Justice Department's case a bit.

[09:25:04]

HILL: You know, it's interesting, too, when we look about - when we look at the D.C. angle to it, not necessarily that testimony, but the fact that the allegations here are that he also violated federal campaign laws by donating more than $90,000 to -- $900,000 to candidates, nearly $39 million to outside groups. That makes him the sixth largest individual donor of the 2022 election cycle. I know a number of lawmakers have said they've given that money back, or they've, you know, transferred it to perhaps other organizations. Where do you think the investigation goes, though, when it comes specifically to campaign finance?

WILLIAMS: Yes, absolutely, it - look, any case like this shines a light on our system's campaign finance and brings to the public the fact that campaigns are funded often by very wealthy individuals, right? And I think members of Congress wanted nothing to do with this, to suggest that they were, you know, somehow supportive of the aims or the goals of what Mr. Bankman-Fried was engaged in here.

Look, we have this campaign finance system. You know, it has flaws, but it certainly works. But this is the dark side of it, right? And I think members (INAUDIBLE) just didn't want any part of it.

HILL: Yes. Yet another reminder of how the sausage is made. It is certainly not pretty most of the time.

Eight criminal charges here, including wire fraud, conspiracy. And these filings allege that he's basically been doing this since the company's inception. Could more charges be coming, do you think, and if so, for whom?

WILLIAMS: Well, it appears, based on, you know, you read the indictment and just the statements that are publicly available, that other individuals at FTX are cooperating with investigators here. So, folks who might have been charged certainly, you know, are assisting (INAUDIBLE).

Now, look, prosecutors can add additional securities charges, fraud charges, campaign fines charges once that additional - once that initial document is filed. But to be clear, you know, there's plenty of jail time and very, very serious offenses and (INAUDIBLE) millions if not billions of dollars at stake in this case. The charges, as they're filed now, are already quite serious.

HILL: Yes, they are, and a whole lot of outrage too.

Elliot, always appreciate it. Thank you.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, and this a first on CNN, Ukraine could soon receive U.S. patriot missile defense systems. What the Biden administration is considering as it finalizes plans to share what could be critical weapons for Ukraine, still facing a brutal Russian onslaught from the air. We're going to be live from the Pentagon, next.

HILL: Just a few moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. U.S. stock futures mixed, as you can see there. This, of course, ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's expected announcement, raising interest rate, anticipating a half a point increase. That would be a step back from the more aggressive approach we've seen in previous months of three quarters of a percentage point. Stocks rallying early on Tuesday before returning to sort of normal at the latest gauge on consumer inflation hit the lowest level since December of last year.

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