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Zelenskyy to Visit D.C. for First Foreign Trip Since Russia's Invasion; Democratic-Led House Committee Votes to Release Trump's Tax Returns Within Days; Snow and Ice Alerts in Effect for 25 States, Over 90 Million People. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 21, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, a significant day here in the nation's capital. I'm Jim Sciutto.

First, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy now on his way to Washington, his first trip outside his country since Russia invaded it nearly ten months ago. He will meet with President Biden at the White House this afternoon. Later, he'll deliver remarks to a joint meeting of Congress.

This morning, President Biden sent a tweet to Zelenskyy saying, I hope you're having a good flight, Volodymyr. I'm thrilled to have you here, much to discuss. He's flying, by the way, on a U.S. military plane. That's involved in his trip here.

Plus, former President Donald Trump's tax returns will be made public in just days, after the House Ways and Means Committee, on a party- line vote, decided to release six years worth of returns. It claims the IRS failed to properly audit Trump at all while he was in office, as is their policy.

And the January 6th committee is set to release its final full report today, as well as roll out thousands of pages of witness transcripts, many have been eager to see. We'll have more in a moment, there's a lot to cover.

We're going to begin with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's high-stakes visit to Washington today. CNN's M.J. Lee is at the White House. Our Will Ripley is in Ukraine.

M.J., first to you, tell us what we expect beyond the significant moment of the U.S. president meeting the Ukrainians president, what do we expect in terms of deliverables, as they're called, from his meeting and his trip to Capitol Hill?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, first of all, this visit was a tightly health secret basically until the very last minute. Of course, we expect it to be very heavy on symbolism, as the war on Ukraine continues to say grind on and really enters the winter months. We know that this is the first time the Ukrainian president has left really his country since the invasion began back in February and that the details of this trip really came together in a matter of days, that once he had accepted the invitation to come to the U.S., the two sides really had to figure out very sensitive travel arrangements to make sure that certain security parameters that he felt were necessary were met.

And as a part of that, we are reporting this morning that a U.S. military aircraft was used to bring him to Washington and that the U.S. really was closely involved in all of the logistical details involved in getting him out of Ukraine and ultimately, of course, bringing him back to his home country.

We know that Zelenskyy is going to make an appeal not just to U.S. lawmakers but also just generally to the American public, trying to send a message that the war is still continuing to go on and that the Ukrainian people continue to need as much help as they can get.

And to that end, of course, President Biden is set to announce a new aid package that amounts to some $1.8 billion. A part of that is this new Patriot U.S. missile system, excuse me, that is something that the Ukrainians have been asking for so long.

And I want you to take a listen to what NSC Spokesman John Kirby said on our air this morning about the significance of that and the context of how much the war as changed over the course of months.

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JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: You know, the capabilities that we have been providing since the beginning of the war have evolved over time. When it first started, we were all talking about the Javelin antitank missile. Now, we're talking about advanced air defense because the war has changed and the ways in which the Ukrainians are being attacked by the Russians have changed.

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LEE: Now, President Zelenskyy is really going to be on U.S. soil just for a matter of hours. He will first be here at the White House in the afternoon. In the evening, he, of course, heads over to Capitol Hill to address lawmakers. That is going to be a significant moment. It will be very interesting to see how the two leaders talk about this just peace that Zelenskyy has been talking about. U.S. officials have made very clear that they don't think that diplomacy is on the table, at least in the short-term. Jim?

SCIUTTO: M.J. Lee, thank you.

Let's go now to Will Ripley. He is in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. I wonder, as you speak to Ukrainians as this news comes out, they're about to see their president standing on the floor of the U.S. Congress in the midst of a horrible campaign of Russian missiles impacting civilians. How important is this to the Ukrainian people to see this moment?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very important moment at a crucial time and they're making a big announcement about these Patriots that Ukraine has been banging its fist on the desk. President Zelenskyy was asking years ago for this. And now, they're going to finally be coming.

Do the Ukrainians think that this one weapons system is going to solve the problem for them? Obviously not. They're living with the reality on the ground that every day Russian airstrikes are pummeling the civilian infrastructure.

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In fact, after President Zelenskyy tweeted that he was on his way to the United States, it was within just a few hours that a nationwide air raid alert was sounded out, and this is a daily occurrence here.

People are living -- we were in Central Ukraine earlier. We stopped off and we were chatting with a woman who said she has power for a couple of hours and then it shut off for fours, then she has power for a couple of hours. And this is how people are living their lives, how they're scheduling their day.

And so they are counting on their president, President Zelenskyy, to not only accept this new U.S. aid but to have conversations and negotiations with the United States lawmakers to convince them that they need to support Ukraine for the long haul.

There might be some skepticism amongst some NATO members or Washington, that even though these billions of dollars and weapon systems are being pumped in here, the lines are essentially holding at this stage. Ukraine is not gaining ground, they're not losing much ground.

But, Jim, the real concern is that, in Moscow, at the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin talked about the modernization of his own military, essentially moving Russia towards more of a military state stance, talking about Ukraine as just one of potentially many fronts. That's why the war here matters so much, to NATO, to the United States and to the world. Because Russia is putting everything they have into this and they're going to be putting in more, Jim.

SCIUTTO: No question. Will Ripley, thanks so much, M.J. Lee at the White House.

Joining me now to discuss more broadly, Ambassador Richard Haass, he is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. We also have CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny and CNN International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh.

First to you, Ambassador Haass, this ties the U.S. and Ukraine together more indelibly, more publicly than ever. This is very clear. It already was, but, boy, one way to demonstrate it, a superpower versus superpower conflict in Ukraine. I wonder, has this increased the chances of the war escalating into at least a the danger of the war escalating into open conflict between the U.S. and Russia?

RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: I don't really think so. If Russia cannot defeat Ukraine, why in the world would Russia want to take on NATO and the United States? I just don't see the logic of that. I think there's a big question not simply as to whether the United States continues to help Ukraine.

Obviously, it will economically and militarily. But the quality of the systems we provide and particularly do we give certain offensive systems to Ukraine that would help them reach more, say, into Russian territory? That some people believe could raise the risk of escalation. Putin always has the threat of nuclear weapons.

But, bottom line is, no, I don't think this changes the fundamentals of either the war or the calculations around it.

SCIUTTO: Nick Paton Walsh, you have spent a lot of time in Ukraine. Ukrainians are getting some of what they have been pushing for for months, let's be frank, in terms of ways to defend themselves. They're getting Patriot missiles. They're not getting other offensive systems with long ranges, like the ATACMS, as they're known. Will there be satisfaction with the deliverables from this visit?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: I mean, they should be, frankly. They are getting essentially the gold standard of NATO-U.S. air defense here, the Patriots, which often are handed out to particularly close or precious allies. So, it's remarkable, frankly, that the United States is willing to take, frankly, the logistical leap here. This isn't easy. You can't just suddenly drop of them off next week. There's going to have to be training, logistics, backup, maintenance, potentially targeting intelligence to make these actually effective. So, it's a big leap of faith, frankly, in Ukraine's armed forces from the United States and the United States' own ability to deliver as well.

But there's an important thing here, I think, that possibly has become the abiding logic in the minds of western officials over the past months. They always thought there might be some kind of red line for Russia in terms of what they would and would not accept NATO doing to back up Ukraine. There doesn't appear to have been one yet. And as NATO continues to escalate, provide better weaponry, more of it, and essentially puts the unlimited budget of the U.S. government, it seemed, at this point, behind Ukraine, well, that certainly, I think, makes Russia get the message that this is not going to be something they can out-patience or out-wait the west over. And there also potentially, too, the west sees them as week and doesn't see them suddenly as stronger because of that weakness.

SCIUTTO: I want to get the ambassador's thoughts on your very point there, Nick Paton Walsh. But, first, Jeff Zeleny, if I can, this is a remarkable trip, just purely from a security perspective, to take him from the warzone, first trip outside of the country since this invasion all the way here, but also, one, he's going to stand on the floor of Congress, address Congress live. He's going to meet with the president at the White House. That has enormous significance for a country and has for Ukraine for a number of years. How did it all come together?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, it's just awaited with history and symbolism. And it came together actually in a phone call, December 11th, we're told, between President Biden and President Zelenskyy. The White House first suggested this. There were many details that had to be worked out. But he's coming at a time to the end of Speaker Pelosi's time in Congress. This is a big sort of swan song (ph) for her as well, but he's coming at a time when there really is a need for more unity around the assistance for Ukraine.

[10:10:08]

So, that has actually -- this is much more than symbolism. He's coming as the Congress is voting on more aid, and will there be for the appetite vote for more in the new Congress. So, it came together with the idea of sort of a closing message for the White House and President Biden as he ends this year. But, really, it's about the beginning. Is this the end of the aid or the beginning of the aid? Will they actually get more? So, of course this is not going to be like Winston Churchill's historic ten-day or so visit back in World War II. This will be only a matter of hours. But it is so important in terms of the history and symbolism. But what does that divided Republican Congress that takes over in just a couple of weeks, what do they do going forward? That is, too, he's also trying to address.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Is it hard for them to say no to Zelenskyy after he comes to the House, addresses them face to face?

Ambassador Haass, to Nick's point there about is there a red line for Russia, I mean, does Russia respond to this in any way, beyond rhetoric and saying, hey, this is a bad idea? I mean, is there a substantive response from Russia that the U.S. should be concerned about?

HAASS: I expect we'll see more of what we have seen. I expect we'll see the Russians attack the Ukrainian population centers, maybe some power generation stations, some water facilities, that's their strategy. Their strategy is to try to break the back of Ukrainian society, to weaken Europe through energy limits, to play for time, hoping that the United States or Europe or Ukraine all lose heart, it's not working. Russia can't compete on the actually battlefield, military on military. So, this is their strategy.

And what's good about this trip, it sends the message time isn't necessarily on your side, Mr. Putin. And I think that's a useful message for us to transmit.

SCIUTTO: You've made that point for some time, is that Putin's strategy now is to wait out the U.S. and west. Can it, right? Given the economic cost, its military seems to be in disarray, can it wait for months, years?

HAASS: Russia can do this for years. It's selling oil, it's selling gas to China, India and other countries. Putin controls the political narrative for the most part within his country. If there's any pressure, it's from his right, not from his left. So, sure, Russia can do this for months, for years, as long as it takes, I would think.

The one thing they can't handle is a collapse. And that's the question, what would Putin do if Russian forces ever face collapse. I'm not suggesting they will. They certainly don't do it now. But at the moment, he can play the long game. And I think, again, the real question is whether we can play the long game. And I think the good news is we can.

SCIUTTO: And perhaps this visit and attempt to demonstrate that. Ambassador Richard Haass, Jeff Zeleny, Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much to all three of you.

All right, we're now just days away as a country to finally seeing former President Donald Trump's tax returns. Of course, it had been normal for presidential candidates to do so, going back to a number decades.

The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee voted yesterday to release six years of Trump's taxes to the public. Those documents are expected to be redacted to some degree, though they should be released within a matter of days.

We are already learning more about how the former president used huge losses to lighten his tax bill, and this is key, that the IRS did not audit him at is the IRS policy for a sitting president.

CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju joins me now. So, this is quite a moment here at the House Ways and Means Committee. How is it going to play out in the coming days?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We do expect the full set of six years of tax returns, as well as individual returns and returns for several of his businesses to be released within a matter of days. And we have already seen some information that has come out from the committee. Last night two reports came out from the committee, one, investigation into how the IRS conducts mandatory presidential audits, how it did that under Donald Trump, and also of a separate report from the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation about those tax returns, a top line summary of sorts.

Now, on that IRS audit investigation, it found in just one year that the audits did not take place in the first two years of the Trump administration, I should say. And it wasn't until 2019 when the audit actually took place. And that was the result of the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Richard Neal, sending a letter to the IRS inquiring about those tax returns, later spawning the IRS to conduct a review and audit of Donald Trump's taxes. So, they had not been done for the first two years of Donald Trump's presidency.

I asked Richard Neal about that. He said he didn't know why the IRS didn't do that. And you mentioned, too, Jim, that Donald Trump had huge losses that he reported, meant of which were to defray his tax liability and even reporting zero dollars in federal taxes owed in 2020.

[10:15:02] SCIUTTO: Zero dollars for a self-proclaimed billionaire.

All right, turning now to the omnibus bill, the Senate adjourned for the night without a time agreed to for when to pass that bill. Any doubt as to whether they get it done or is it just really a matter of time before they go for the holidays?

RAJU: It's just a matter of time, even though Republicans are badly divided over this issue. You're seeing Republicans in the House trying to urge Senate Republicans to block this measure. Senate Republican leaders, including Mitch McConnell, are supporting this.

Now, this comes as the potential next speaker, Kevin McCarthy, warned that he would block any bills that Republican senators support if they back the omnibus spending package that is barreling through the Senate. And when I asked Senator Kevin Cramer about that threat from Kevin McCarthy, he pushed back.

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SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): Kevin is in a tough sport, but I don't it's the type of rhetoric that further endears the public to the process or to the institution of Congress. In fact, I think it probably -- you know, statements like that and statements coming from House Republicans is the very reason that some Senate Republicans feel they probably should spare them from the burden of having to govern.

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RAJU: Probably should spare them from the burden of having to govern. That's the word from Kevin Cramer, who, by the way, opposes this omnibus spending bill. But a lot of Republican senators believe it is better to just clear the desk for the incoming Republican majority in the House, even though they want to punt this into next year, where they will have a stronger to negotiate spending. But just a disagreement over tactics, over policy, as Republicans and Democrats head to the end of this Congress, this bill could pass the Senate today and over to the House as early as tomorrow. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Remarkable stuff. Manu Raju on the Hill, thank so much.

And still to come, multiple states under some sort of severe winter weather alert, this as temperatures begin to plunge. Boy, look at that big purple area over the whole country. And the snow starts to fall. The impact this is already having on people trying to get to their holiday destinations, that's next.

Plus, it's been now more than five weeks since four University of Idaho students were murdered in their off-campus home. With no new information or suspect, we're going to hear from one of the victim's parents on where things stand.

And later, the people have spoken, Elon Musk will step down as CEO of Twitter, though not immediately, what he says has to happen first.

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SCIUTTO: Right now, more than 25 states are under winter weather and wind chill alerts. This week, every single lower 48 state is expected to reach temperatures below freezing. And in cities such as Seattle, the first snow has already fallen.

A major concern for Americans is will the weather affect holiday travel plans? It's an understandable concern. We are already long lines at airports as fears of delays and cancelations grow.

Our team of reporters following this from across the country. We begin with CNN's Lucy Kavanov in Denver. Its bracing for its coldest day in 32 years. I've got to say it's cold here in D.C., but, man, if Denver is going to have one of its coldest days in years, it's got to be cold there.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, it doesn't feel like it right now, Jim. In fact, this afternoon, we're expecting temperatures to reach as high as 50 degrees. But all of that is going to drop dramatically this evening, potentially in the span of an hour when this major storm brings what the National Weather Service is describing as life threatening cold to the Front Range.

Denver, as you point out, is expecting its coldest day in 32 years tomorrow. Starting tonight highs in Colorado will stay within single digits, lows dropping below zero, the deep freeze expected to last through Friday morning.

And the forecast, Jim, don't necessarily reflect just how cold it's going to feel. We're going to have wind gusts and snow. And so in some parts of the plains, the wind chill is going to be as low as minus 60 degrees. Frostbite could be caused within minutes due to prolonged exposure. Folks are being warned to stay indoors.

Colorado's Governor Jared Polis has activated 100 National Guard members to help with these extreme cold preparations. And the Denver Coliseum behind me is actually going to be used as a 24-hour warming shelter for anyone that needs a warm place to stay. Denver also coincidentally under a state of emergency due to the unexpected influx of migrants in recent weeks, and so some of these migrant families will be bussed here to this coliseum to have a warm place to stay during this unexpected and extreme weather front.

Again, tomorrow is going to be the most dangerous day. We are expecting the temperatures to increase in time for Christmas. But, again, this is unprecedented and extremely cold, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Understood, it looks like it will be.

CNN's Omar Jimenez, he is at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Omar, you said last hour you're not seeing much delays yet, but I wonder, are airlines and passenger think it's just a matter of time before the weather starts impacting flights?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's just a matter of time before essentially we see the mass impact on delays. But on some of those flights, we took a look at some of the FlightAware data, the misery map, of course, that they post. And O'Hare, where we are right now, is actually leading the country in delays, right around 40. So, it's definitely a significant amount, but no real significant number of cancelations at this point, which is what most people would be concerned about heading into these holidays.

And right now, while it is cold, it's about 10 degrees outside, it feels even colder, it's really tomorrow and into the weekend where the combination of snow, wind gusts up to 50 miles an hour and temperatures dropping as low as negative 30 with wind chill, that combination is what officials fear for people trying to either fly or get on the road for Christmas. And we have people who know or believe that that is coming, and they adjusted, like this passenger we spoke to a little bit earlier.

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SHARON BASKIN, CHICAGO TRAVELER: The native Chicagoan knows we have three terrible months a year, and we're coming into them now.

CHRISTINA ROMEO, CHICAGO TRAVELER: We were planning to travel on Saturday. When we saw the storm growing, we decided it would be better to leave before the storm hits because we didn't know what we'd be facing on Saturday. So, we got online to see if we could actually make it work on Monday, and we did.

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JIMENEZ: Yes. And as the first one talked about, I mean, look, it is Chicago. A lot of these places can deal with snow and extreme cold. But, again, it's the coming together of all of those factors ahead of what is typically among the busiest travel periods of the year. AAA expecting this holiday travel period to be their third busiest since 2000. So, you have a lot of people with the demand to get places, but with this weather, it could make it difficult to do so. And in those factors lie the danger.

SCIUTTO: All right. Thanks so much, Omar.

CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Gray, she is at the Weather Center. So, Jennifer, who exactly is going to be affected today, or maybe I should say who is not going to be affected given how big this is?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It was easier to count the states that aren't included in the winter weather alerts and wind chill alerts than the states that were. It's going to affect a large chunk of the country. All the lower 48 states will be below freezing at some point, but the Midwest will really be hit the hardest as well as the northern plains, especially with that cold.

We're talking about a foot of snow potentially developing across portions of the Midwest. Of course, Michigan could pick up a foot to a foot-and-a-half of snow. We're going to see blizzard conditions stretching from Western Minnesota and possibly including places like Chicago by the time we get into tomorrow, so a very good idea to change your travel, especially if you're in those areas.

Chicago will see major delays tomorrow, and then that will have a trickle effect across the eastern seaboard where we'll see delays in some of the big cities, also seeing some very heavy rainfall there. The I-95 corridor will be all rain and not as much snow.

But if you escape the snow, you will not escape the cold. Look at this, those wind chills down to 32 below zero in Casper, some areas getting as low as 55 to 60 degrees below zero, and even as far south as Texas, we are going to see temperatures below freezing.

This is the hours below freezing for some of our southern cities. Jackson, Mississippi could spend 84 below freezing, Birmingham, 80, in Houston 46. So, we could see pipes burst across the south. And as we mentioned, look at that, Denver, temperature changed 47 to 14 below zero just between this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

SCIUTTO: Wow, just what Lucy was talking about. Lucy Kafanov, Omar Jimenez, Jennifer Gray, thanks so much to all of you.

Well, five weeks, still no answers. Next, I'm going to speak with the Goncalves, whose daughter, Kaylee, was one of the four University of Idaho students murdered in their off-campus home, that's coming up.

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