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Denver Temperatures Plunge; Travel Delays for Millions; Blizzard Conditions Hit Parts of U.S.; Biden Administration on Zelenskyy Speech; Proxy War Against Russia; David Petraeus is Interviewed about Ukraine; No Agreement Yet on Spending Bill; January 6th Committee Releases Report. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 22, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:34]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Thursday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

And we are following several stories this morning.

Right now, across the country, a massive bomb cyclone, as it's known, winter storm, plowing a dangerous path across central and midwestern states, bringing life-threatening cold and wind chills as low as negative 70 degrees. You heard that, negative 70. Snow and frigid temperatures disrupting holiday travel, forcing airlines to cancel more than 1,300 flights this morning across the U.S. This according to Flight Aware.

Plus, overnight, a remarkable show of unity on Capitol Hill. If you missed it, it was quite a moment to see. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy handing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris a Ukrainian flag bearing signatures of Ukrainian soldiers from the battlefield. Zelenskyy's mission on his historic visit and speech to Congress to make the case directly to the American public, as well as to lawmakers, about the need for sustained aid to Ukraine and that this is a war, not just for Ukraine, but for the free world, in his words. Did he succeed? We're going to discuss.

Also, on Capitol Hill right now, senators are working to reach a final vote on that critical government spending bill to once again beat tomorrow's deadline and avoid a government shutdown. We're getting some positive signs this morning. Please do stay with us. We are following it all.

First, our team of reporters covering the dangerous weather across the country. Two of the cities facing the brunt of the storm, Denver and Chicago. We're also live in Atlanta at the CNN Weather Center.

We begin with CNN's Lucy Kafanov. She's in Denver, where temperatures now plunging at a record-breaking pace.

You know, we were speaking yesterday, Lucy, and you were saying, hey, you know, it's warm for now but the temperatures are going to drop. Here we are, 24 hours later, it looks like the temperature has dropped.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's pretty safe to say that, Jim. This is the glory and glamor of TV news. It's pretty hard to think. I's pretty hard to stand out here and it's quite painfully difficult to just be outside. And that's because the temperatures dropped from nearly 50 degrees, when I was outdoors yesterday predicting the bad weather, to below 11 right now. And with the wind chill it feels like minus 26 or worse.

It was snowing all night. That, at least, slowed down. We got about four inches here.

What I and my team are doing at this moment, Jim, talking to you is precisely what authorities are asking people in Colorado not to do. They're asking folks to stay indoors, to stay warm, to get out of this cold. Once in a lifetime, once in a generation storm this is being described as.

Denver, today, is experiencing its coldest day in 32 years. And this is no joke. It is dangerously cold. Prolonged exposure in some parts of the state where windchills are 60 below zero could cause frostbite within minutes.

I, obviously, am lucky enough to be able to get out of the street after this, go indoors and warm up. A lot of folks here in Denver and in Colorado are less lucky. That's why we have recreation centers, libraries, public libraries open as warm areas for people to get out of these frigid temperatures. The Denver Coliseum, where we were talking to you yesterday in front of, is now active as a 24-hour warming center. The temperatures not expected to increase until Friday. So this is going to be another 24 hours of bitter pain, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Goodness, keep yourself and your team warm.

Lucy Kafanov, thanks so much.

CNN's Pete Muntean is at Chicago's international airport.

Pete, we're seeing more than 1,300 cancellations nationwide especially where you are now. I've been through that airport. I mean a lot of folks watching have. It's a key hub.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

SCIUTTO: What are you seeing now and are there going to be more cancellations?

MUNTEAN: One in five flights have been canceled here at Chicago O'Hare. Let me just give you an idea of how busy it is right now. These are the folks who have the right idea, get out early before it starts snowing here.

This is the start of the security line. It snakes hundreds of feet behind me. Things are really, really busy right here right now. In fact, the FAA said today was going to be the busiest in terms of flights scheduled. Forty-seven thousand flights scheduled before Christmas.

[09:05:01]

The key word there though is was. As the cancellations just keep climbing, we're above 1,300 nationwide now. I've been checking the cancellations board here at Chicago O'Hare. Pittsburgh, San Francisco, LaGuardia.

You mention the fact that this is a key hub. Not only for American Airlines. It is the biggest hub for United Airlines.

And I went behind the scenes at its network operations center to talk about the nationwide ripple effect that this is going to have. There they have customer solutions folks trying to reroute passengers. They are scrambling to find them other connections so their trips just don't crumble and fall apart.

I want you to listen now to Joe Heins, the VP of network operations for United. He says, sure, the snow is going to be a problem here, but it is really the biting cold that is coming. Tomorrow, the high temperature here is forecasted to be 2 degrees Fahrenheit.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE HEINS, VP OF NETWORK OPERATIONS, UNITED AIRLINES: Cold temperatures are going to stay through Friday, and that's what's going to present challenges. People who have gone on the ramp and experienced the high winds and subzero temperatures really are going to be challenged to work safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Here's is a really big tip from airlines. Download their app. That is the way you get up-to-date, up to the minute information about delays and cancelations. In fact, you might see some of those customer service desk lines inside the terminal snake really long. And at United they may hand you a QR code. You can scan that with your phone. And instead of talking to the agent there live face-to-face, you can talk to somebody over a video call in a place that might not be as busy with cancellations, like L.A., where the weather is good. Just one innovation that they're trying to put in place here to alleviate all these cancellations and delays. It's going to be a big one, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, your private pilot's license may come in handy. That might be your customer solution, flying yourself home, you know.

MUNTEAN: Not in weather like this.

SCIUTTO: Keep a plane at the ready. Pete Muntean, in Chicago, thanks so much.

CNN's Allison Chinchar, she's live from the CNN Weather Center. Every time I've spoken to you guys this week, I look at that map and

I'm like, oh, the whole country is covered in cold and snow. It looks like that's still the case.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think that's the thing that we really want to drive home. The message is, this isn't just impacting people in the upper Midwest or in the high plains, this is really going to be a very widespread concern over the next 48 to 72 hours. Yes, some of the coldest temperatures exist off to the north. But even when you talk about places like Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia, these areas are going to be well below what they normally would be. But, yes, the temperatures are peaking.

For states like Montana and South Dakota, look at some of these windchill numbers. Minus 70. Minus 59. Again, the concern there is that frostbite sets in, in just five to ten minutes when you're dealing with numbers like that.

Here, again, not much better. Denver currently, the windchill, minus 37. Des Moines, minus 34. Even Amarillo, Texas, minus 26. So, again, even places you don't normally think about being cold are dealing with this same blast of cold air.

We also have the same system that's now sliding its way off towards the Midwest and into the northeast. This has a lot of snow for some midwestern states. Over towards the east, you still have some little bit of warmer air. So, we're dealing with that rain-snow mix for a lot of cities before the bulk of that snow on the backside begins to make its way into the northeast for tomorrow.

So, you've got a lot of areas here that are dealing with blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings and watches. For today, most of the heavy snow will be into the Midwest. Places like Chicago and St. Louis, Boston and Washington, D.C., even tomorrow morning though, Jim, still looking at some pretty good rain showers.

SCIUTTO: We'll be waiting for them here. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

Well, back here in Washington, we are getting new details this morning from the White House on how effective it believes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in making his impassioned case to the American people and to Congress.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins me now.

Jeremy, this is quite a moment last night in Washington to watch these comments live. Does the White House believe he was able to move some of the more skeptical folks about continuing Ukrainian aid?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, they certainly believe that this was a powerful moment, an effective case that President Zelenskyy made. And, frankly, this was going to be a powerful speech regardless of the timing. Because of the symbolism of the Ukrainian president making his first trip outside of his country since the beginning of that Russian invasion 301 days ago. But the timing was also critical because the president - President

Zelenskyy's visit comes at an inflection point, not only in Ukraine, where they are dealing with a very hard winter ahead as Russia continues to cripple their energy infrastructure system, but also with the timing here in the United States, the political landscape about to change with House Republicans, some of whom have cast doubt on the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine, coming into power next month.

A senior White House official telling me that as it relates to all of that, they feel like President Zelenskyy made a, quote, very compelling case. One that the White House hopes will help them in the funding fight ahead, particularly as it relates to additional aid to Ukraine.

[09:10:07]

Zelenskyy, of course, he made that case to lawmakers for additional aid going forward. But he also made a case directly to the American public. Something that the White House hopes will help pressure those lawmakers who are unsure about the future of aid to Ukraine. And Zelenskyy was extending -- expressing gratitude to Americans, but he also made clear that he needs more aid ahead, including when he was talking about those patriot missile systems here at the White House yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): What's going to happen after patriots are installed? After that, we will send another signal to President Biden that we would like to get more patriots.

ZELENSKYY: Your money is not charity. It's an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And we also heard President Zelenskyy, in that speech to Congress, making that same claim about, look, we're appreciative of the artillery. Is it enough? No. And it prompted some laughter. And the reality is that while Zelenskyy is maybe leaning on some of his comedic chops here, it was joking but not joking at all at the same time as he is trying to make the case that, yes, he is grateful for all of the U.S. support and aid, but he still needs much, much more if he's going to beat back this brutal Russian invasion of his country.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, he said he hoped that his message would resonate in the hearts of the American people as well.

Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much.

CNN's Will Ripley, he's live in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

You know, watching it here, it was quite a moment to watch and witness. I wonder, of course it was the middle of the night there in Ukraine, but were Ukrainians, those with power, watching? What's been the reaction there?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The problem, Jim, is that very few Ukrainians had power or -- and were awake. You know, you do combine middle of the night with widespread blackouts across much of the country.

Here in Kyiv, where for much of this war the situation has felt relatively normal until recently because of the unstable power grid and the dramatically crippled power generation capacity, there are people that we've met and that we've spoken with who have electricity in the capital city for 40 minutes a day. We have to go to the tents to warm up to charge their phones, to connect to Wi-Fi. People who have to line up to get a hot meal that's cooked over a wood stove because they don't have the ability to cook in their own homes. This is the reality in the capital city. In, you know, arguably the area that is best protected in Ukraine.

You get to some of these other cities where it being without power for days and days on end is a regular occurrence. And you have the dead of winter, you know, plunging temperatures and all of the associated risks and dangers that come with that, you know, they're having a hard time in some places keeping the lights on in hospitals, at critical infrastructure. That's how bad things are here.

And yet you have Russia now, you know, after -- after, yes, a triumphant moment for Zelenskyy. Ukrainians absolutely proud of their president and glad that he's coming back with more money, with more weapons and more pledges for deliverables for this war effort. You have people dying on the front lines every single day here. They're holding the lines, but they're not making offensive gains. And the Kremlin is saying that bringing patriots in will only prolong people's suffering. They say they didn't hear anything from Zelenskyy's visit, from Zelenskyy or Biden supporting, you know - you know, or addressing Russia's safety concerns. Whether they're legitimate or not I guess depends on your point of view.

And then they say that the west, the collective west, is basically bracing, Jim, for a prolonged confrontation with Russia. That could be the most alarming thing we're hearing out of the Kremlin. Although, frankly, not surprising.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and we should always note those Russian strikes, they're deliberate. They want to take the power and the heat away from the Ukrainian people to spread the pain, in effect.

Will Ripley, thanks so much.

Joining me now is retired four-star Army General David Petraeus, former commander of U.S. Central Command.

General, always good to have you on.

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. CENTCOM: Thank you, Jim. SCIUTTO: As I was watching the speech yesterday, as well as the visit

in general, it struck me that the U.S. and Ukraine are, even more so than they already were, joined at the hip here in this war as allies.

Is the Ukraine war now more obviously and more openly a proxy war in effect between the U.S. and Russia, and should Americans then be concerned that the chances for escalation beyond Ukraine have now increased?

PETRAEUS: Well, I think that's correct in large measure. But it's not just the U.S. and Ukraine, it's the NATO countries, it's the west and Ukraine. And I thought that President Zelenskyy was quite persuasive in making that very point. Again, that this is not just charity for Ukraine, this is investment in western security, U.S. national security to be sure. In fact, I thought it was very compelling and a very skillful speech. You know, if you recall, he is, of course, a former actor.

[09:15:02]

He played the president. That's part of how he got elected. This is the part of a lifetime, and he deserves an Academy Award for this.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

PETRAEUS: He's been positively Churchillian in his leadership and so fitting that here he would address the Congress some not quite 81 years after Winston Churchill addressed Congress on the 26th of December back in 1941.

But, certainly, there is an element to that. They are fighting our war. And, of course, that's true.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

PETRAEUS: The more that Russia sends (ph) on Ukraine, the less it has to expend on NATO and the western world. And I would not subscribe to the idea though that the escalation is increased. I think the last thing Russia needs now, despite the nuclear saber rattling and all the rest of this that Putin does ((INAUDIBLE) just did it again the other day. Despite all of that, the last thing he needs is a war with NATO. And he knows that. He's just trying -- he's reaching for anything. He is quite desperate. All of his measures have largely failed. The battle right now is really stalled on both sides as both sides try to conduct additional force generation. I think the Ukrainians would fair (ph) better than the Russians once again.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

PETRAEUS: But it's very clear that there are months, if not years, of tough fighting ahead before the very crucial calculation is made in the Kremlin, which is the realization that this war is unsustainable for Russia in the same way that Afghanistan was unsustainable for the Soviet Union.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Let me ask you this, because there are still some, and it's a minority, opposition here to the amount of money and weapons that the U.S. is sending there. Is there a way to look at this war, from a U.S. perspective, beyond helping Ukraine in -- defend itself against an unjustified invasion, but for purely selfish reasons, that the U.S. has invested a tiny percentage of its defense budgets and, in effect, decimated the Russian military? You know, disabled it for many years to come. Is that a way, an alternative way to look at this war?

PETRAEUS: Well, I think there are many ways to look at it. One is just so you're enabling the independence of a free democratic country in the face of a brutal, unprovoked invasion by a autocracy, a kleptocracy, really a dictatorship is the way to characterize Russia at this point in time. And that matters for the entire world.

It also matters for the U.S. in a larger sense because deterrence anywhere in the world, read the Indo-Pacific, depends on a potential adversaries assessment of your capabilities on the one hand and your willingness to employ them on the other.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

PETRAEUS: And, frankly, in the wake of the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, which, as you know, I agreed with, and then the conduct of that withdrawal, that did not help deter it. This very much does. This shows the United States once again leading the world, doing more really than all the others put together. And we can be frustrated about that. But that's a reality that we've dealt with throughout our time as the superpower of the west. And indeed this is very much an investment in our security and the security of like-minded nations around the world, but especially, obviously, in NATO Europe.

SCIUTTO: And perhaps a message to China regarding Taiwan as well.

General David Petraeus, thanks so much and a happy holidays to you and your family.

PETRAEUS: Thanks. And best to you and yours, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Still to come this hour, senators still hashing out the details over the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. Will they get that done before tomorrow's deadline? We're hearing some optimism on Capitol Hill. We'll be there live.

Also today, we are expecting the highly anticipated full report from the January 6th select committee with never before seen insights into the attack on the Capitol. What we might learn, that's coming up.

And you're looking at live pictures as astronauts take a seven hour space walk. It was supposed to happen yesterday but a danger in space forced a delay. What was it?

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[09:22:51] SCIUTTO: A live look at Capitol Hill this morning where at any moment final voting could begin on a massive $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. The clock ticking down for lawmakers to avert a partial government shutdown midnight Friday. Also, the clock ticking down to them leaving for their vacations. But negotiations hit a sticking point amid Republican efforts to extend the Title 42 border restrictions. Have they overcome that all? CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju joins me now.

It sounds like both Schumer and McConnell are optimistic.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. I mean the challenge in the United States Senate is the process. Now, we - there's always the policy and the process. The policy was agreed to by a handful of key senior members, including the leadership, earlier this week. They unveiled this $1.7 trillion bill in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. They're trying to jam this through the Senate in just a few days. But the United States Senate requires all 100 members to reach an agreement to have a vote. They do not have that agreement yet because there's a dispute over what amendments can be offered as votes, even though those amendments are likely to fail.

But one amendment in particular, the Title 42 amendment that you mentioned, created an issue. Has over the last day or so. Mike Lee of Utah has pushed that amendment. And there's concern among Democratic leaders that that could actually pass and that could scuttle his chances in the House. So, Democrats furiously have been working behind the scenes to try to stave that off, offer their own alternative amendment on Title 42, to give their members something else to vote for. Not the Mike Lee amendment. And assuming then that both measures will fail.

So, all these negotiations happening behind the scene. But it appears they are moving closer to locking this down. Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell both indicating optimism that they can get this done. And if they do, it would have to go over to the House tomorrow. But that big snowstorm, Jim, scaring members. They want to get out of town, adding urgency to get this done in just a matter of hours.

SCIUTTO: Yes. There's nothing like a flight to catch to push a vote on Capitol Hill, right?

RAJU: That's right.

SCIUTTO: Manu Raju, thanks so much.

RAJU: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, sometime today, possibly at any moment, the January 6th committee could release its full report, final report, on the attack on the Capitol. Yesterday, they released the first set of interview transcripts. Those include interviews with members of Trump's inner circle, including long-time operative Roger Stone, former lawyer John Eastman, central to the efforts to overturn the election, and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

[09:25:10]

Joining me now, CNN's senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid.

So, a lot of transcripts yesterday. And they were fighting some news, right? I mean there's a lot going on.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

SCIUTTO: You had the Ukrainian president here. But help folks at home who weren't following, what were the highlights from what we learned yesterday.

REID: Well, it was interesting. From these transcripts you can really see the committee had a lot of difficulty getting any kind of information out of a lot of these key Trump allies. They made very liberal use of their Fifth Amendment right.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REID: Now, typically, when you invoke the Fifth Amendment right, you at least answer biographical questions, right? But, for example, Roger Stone, he wouldn't even answer a question about his age. And it's interesting, for example, like John Eastman, there are memos about the election, how to overturn it, that his name is on. And he wouldn't even acknowledge that he wrote that.

Another former justice official, Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump wanted to install as attorney general, he really stonewalled the committee in two different interviews. In fact, Jim, in his second interview, he invoked the Fifth 120 times. And it's also notable that in these transcripts you see both Eastman and Flynn, who, of course, pushed these baseless theories that the election was fraudulent, they didn't provide any substantive information to support those allegations to the committee.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REID: Now, they have conducted over 1,000 interviews. They've said that they will release hundreds of transcripts. So, they are going to withhold some transcripts where they say there is sensitive material. This is going to be of considerable interest to the special council, Jack Smith. He's asked the committee for all the information that they've gathered. Even Trump's defense attorneys, they, too, want to pour over these transcripts over the next few days as they're released.

SCIUTTO: Fair enough, and that might be the most significant effect, handing it to DOJ investigators.

OK, so the final report is going to come out sometime today. What do we expect from the report as opposed to just the transcripts?

REID: I want to put a huge caveat on this. The committee told us the report was going to come out yesterday and, of course, it didn't.

SCIUTTO: OK. REID: But we're expecting it to come out today. And what we'll be looking for is anything new because, of course, they've put out a lot of big headlines in their high-profile hearings over the summer. They released an executive summary earlier this week. So, we're looking for evidence of this pattern of obstruction that they've alleged from Trump allies or if there's any other high profile White House officials or people in Trump's orbit who they got to reveal that they had told him that the election wasn't stolen. So, we're just looking for anything new that hasn't already been highlighted by the committee.

SCIUTTO: All right. We know you'll be watching.

Paula Reid, thanks very much.

Still ahead this hour, disgraced FTX crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried is now headed to New York to a court there after he was extradited overnight from the Bahamas. We're going to be live outside that courthouse as he now faces a litany of criminal charges. That's coming up.

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