Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

January 6 Committee Report Released; Winter Storm Slams Country. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 23, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:30]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone, I'm Jessica Dean in Washington.

There are winter storms, and then there's this, an historic coast-to- coast arctic blast that is packing the power of a Category 2 hurricane. And whether it's blinding snow or the subzero temperatures, just about everyone out there is feeling it, more than 200 million Americans right now under winter warnings or advisories.

And looking at that map, the more purple you see, the colder it is. And the timing of this is simply terrible. Holiday travel, where it's even possible, is a mess as you would guess. Thousands of flights are canceled right now. And you can forget about driving in a lot of parts of the country.

In New York, the snow and flooding are so bad, all nonessential travel is banned right now. And, in Rhode Island, massive waves hammering the coast, street flooding there a big concern. And blizzard conditions are also making for some white-knuckle driving in Ohio and Cleveland. It's going to feel like minus-27 all day.

And in the South, well, that's where you will find a lot of ice. And it is catching Memphis drivers off guard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY PIERRE, WHBQ REPORTER: We have seen four cars spin out of control. That car right there, that vehicle, that SUV is the long one that is just stuck. It can't move because of the ice.

Not only is this ice on this road, hard to drive, but it's absolutely impossible to walk on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: It is so dangerous, the Memphis mayor just telling CNN that the city will begin rolling blackouts because power companies there struggling to keep up with demand.

And we're going to get a forecast for you in just a moment.

But, first, we want to go to Polo Sandoval in Buffalo, New York. Just for everyone watching, we were going to get the forecast first,

but, Polo, this shot is so awful and it looks so brutal, we wanted to get to you first mostly so we could get you back inside.

So, tell us the latest, and then let's get you back inside.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jessica.

It's important to tell our viewers here and around the world, talking about the visibility and -- or the lack thereof here in the city of Buffalo right now, just for some perspective, I'm about 40 yards away from our colleague Tom Jurick's (ph) camera.

You may not be able to see me because of these blinding conditions. What has happened over the last -- and I will slowly make my way towards the camera. We will see when you can actually spot me.

But what we have seen here over the last six hours, Jessica, are these conditions that have been deteriorating just by the minute. Earlier this morning, we started with temperatures in the upper 30s with barely a drizzle. And then it was a matter of time that the system would continue to make its way east. And just a few hours ago is when we really began to feel it.

And this is the result. And this is why authorities here in Erie County, New York, say that it's gotten -- the visibility has been gotten so bad, that they're actually pulling the massive plow trucks off the streets.

I'm going to make sure, obviously, that there are no vehicles coming. We made sure that there's nothing that could actually -- that's actually flying around to be able to show you this, to make sure that we're safe.

But just to tell our viewers and to remind our viewers just how bad it is, I mean, these are -- I have stood in hurricanes. I have stood in tropical storms. I have stood in winter storms. This really is a combination of both.

And so the concerns here for authorities are not just the blinding conditions, but also the potential for flooding in some of the coastal communities as well. And so that's why the authorities are telling people who live in those parts of the community here near Lake Erie to simply stay home, and those who are thinking about actually braving the roads to stay in place, at least for the rest of the day.

These conditions are going to continue into tomorrow -- Jessica, back to you.

DEAN: Absolutely incredible images there. And then you really paint the picture of just how dangerous and severe this weather is.

Polo, you guys take care of there on the ground. Thanks so much.

Let's go out West now to Denver, Colorado. Lucy Kafanov is there.

And, Lucy, the windchill in Denver today, we're told, is hovering around minus-20. So how is it going there?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I hate to be a disappointment to you and our viewers, Jessica, because, about 24 hours ago, it was so cold that we were tossing boiling water into the air to make snow. We were making popsicles out of wine.

There was an incident with a frozen banana that we won't go into the details of. I don't have props for you right now because the temperature has finally climbed above zero to a sweltering two degrees Fahrenheit. This is after nearly 40 consecutive hours of freezing temperatures.

But you can see behind me folks are walking around on the streets. Things are slowly getting back to normal. It feels a lot colder, of course, than the temperature on the thermometer because of those windchills. So, you still need the layers.

[13:05:10]

But we will walk around and I will show you what it looks like in Denver after the crazy snowstorm passes us. It looks like life returning back to normal. Now, the one big issue, of course, was, it was so cold, again, the coldest day in 32 years here in Denver, that folks needed to find a warm place to stay.

We're talking about homeless people, as well as this massive influx of migrants that we have seen here in Denver in the past month, nearly 2,000 people arriving from Central and South America. And so Denver had opened this massive Coliseum to be used as a 24 hour warming center. The demand last night was so strong, they had to open two more emergency shelters.

Those will be closed by Saturday afternoon, again, because we are returning to warmer, more normal temperatures. We might even hit 50 around Christmas, which is great news for us, unfortunately, not very good news for you on your side of the country, as that snowstorm, the arctic blast, pummels the East Coast -- Jessica.

DEAN: That's right. We're looking at what comes after what Polo was just showing us.

All right, Lucy, thanks so much.

And let's bring in meteorologist Derek Van Dam for the latest forecast now.

Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Jessica, while Polo's shot is absolutely mind-boggling, he's receiving what are considered blizzard conditions, reduced visibility under a quarter-mile for three hours, winds of over 35 miles per hour. Doesn't necessarily have to snow, but, clearly, it is.

They are getting pounded by the worst of the storm. Conditions are going to deteriorate for them. But here where I am, in Atlanta, the emperor of the north has come in and really dropped our temperatures. We're monitoring it. It's about 20 degrees here. Hard for you to see at home. So I think we -- our best way to explain just how cold it is, we brought a wet towel out here earlier today, and it froze almost instantaneously.

So if this gives you any indication about what the roads are like in and around Atlanta, in the general Georgia area, if there's water on the ground, it has certainly froze with this flash freeze that occurred overnight as temperatures dropped a staggering 30 to 40 degrees in a matter of six hours.

Our Christmas Eve tomorrow forecast has high expected of 25 degrees. That will be the coldest Christmas Eve in Atlanta's history. The wind is whipping around the state of Georgia in the southeast. It has brought down trees. It has taken down electrical poles. And, unfortunately, just in the state of Georgia alone, there are around 100,000 customers without power right now.

And you can think about the ramifications there with that. People do not have the ability to heat their homes, keep their selves warms, but also the pipes inside of their home at threat of being frozen.

Get to the radar really quickly. This is my graphic. I want to show you where this storm is headed, the cold front right now located over the East Coast. New York, you're in the rain belt, so the warm air, but that cold air is coming. So, you're going to get a thump of snow very quickly. It won't last very long. It won't accumulate, likely, but you will see the dramatic drop in our temperatures.

And then as we look a little bit closer into the downwind area of Lake Erie, where Polo is currently right now, we know they are going to be in whiteout conditions at least for the next 24 hours minimum, but some improvements expected a little bit further to the west. The Great Lakes, you have got it tough for the next several days -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes. We are certainly thinking about them.

And as someone who grew up in Arkansas, Derek, I certainly know, in the South, those cold temperatures and ice like that can make a big impact. They're just not used to it. So, stay safe out there, everyone.

VAN DAM: Yes, they're not used to it.

DEAN: Yes.

VAN DAM: Thanks.

DEAN: Thanks to everyone in the field for us helping us really see how this storm is impacting so much of the country right now.

And, as you can imagine, it is snarling travel plans at simply the worst time, as people are trying to travel for the holidays. A Spirit Airlines flight just made an emergency landing after the crew reported the plane was struck by lightning twice after it took off from Philadelphia. Alaska Airlines has canceled morning departures from Seattle and Portland because of icy runways there. And the FAA says ground stops are affecting airports from coast to coast.

Let's check in with Omar Jimenez. He's at one of the nation's busiest airports.

What are you seeing there, Omar?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it definitely is busy.

And in between the negative temperatures outside and what's going on inside, I would much rather prefer to be inside. I don't have a jacket on or anything like that.

But if you look at the board up here, as you see people walking through, you can get an idea of what we're looking at here. I mean, countrywide, we have seen more than 4,000 cancellations, over 4,600 delays as well. But just here at O'Hare, the airport has told me there's been about 420 or so, a little bit more, cancellations, but that the average delay in arrival time is around 35 minutes or so.

So, we have been seeing people over the course of the morning and the day come up here, check to see what the status of their flights have been. We know that a lot of the people that are here yesterday were people that were -- that are here today, I should say, were people who tried to get out yesterday and have now returned because their flights were canceled.

[13:10:15]

One traveler told me their flight was supposed to take off at 7:00. Then it was delayed to 9:0, to 11:30. And then around midnight, it was canceled. And so now they're coming back here to try again. And, again, all of this is happening with just a few days to Christmas. And that, of course, is driving a lot of the people that are here, at the very least people trying to get either to warmer places or to see families for this holiday season, Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, the stakes really high for everybody traveling right now trying to get home for holiday celebrations.

All right, Omar Jimenez, thanks so much for that update from Chicago.

And this massive winter storm is not just inconvenient. It is truly dangerous for a lot of people in a lot of different ways.

CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is joining us.

Elizabeth, hi. Good to see you.

Walk us through some of the health concerns that people should be watching out for in these extremely cold conditions, like where we Polo saw earlier.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Jessica, in those places where we saw Polo or other colleagues -- and I'm wishing them a lot of warmth -- is that certain groups of people are more at risk. So let's talk about that and talk about what we can do about that.

Infants and elderly are most at risk when it's extreme cold. They just don't maintain their body heat as well as other people do. Also, it's important to remember, if you know someone with heart disease, cold weather puts stress on the heart, so you need to be careful there.

Also, cold weather aggravates asthma and other lung diseases. So even if your asthma is under control, and you're doing fine, the cold weather could make it much worse. Make sure you have your medicines at hand. So, what can we do about this?

So, first of all, dress infants warmly, a little warmer than you would dress yourself, for example. Also, check in on older people. If you know some older people who are at home alone, check in on them. Make sure they have heat. Make sure they're OK.

Also, avoid alcohol and caffeine. I know that's kind of disappointing, because those can be two very nice types of warm drinks. But the alcohol and the caffeine inhibits your body's ability to deal with the cold -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, some good things to keep in mind.

Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

And, of course, we will stay on top of all the headlines around the dangerous storm that is sweeping the nation.

Plus, the January 6 Committee says Donald Trump should never hold office again. Their full and final report is in. We're going to break down those headlines for you.

Also, down to the wire. Hours before a government shutdown kicks in, the House is expected to vote on a massive spending bill. We are following the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:03]

DEAN: A once-in-a-generation winter storm is gripping the nation. And we're going to, of course, bring you the latest update on that in just a few minutes.

But, right now, we want to turn to the other big news here in Washington. The long-awaited final report from the January 6 Committee dropped overnight. And this 845-page document is based on more than 1,000 interviews and stacks of phone records.

But the panel summed it up in these two simple lines that I will read to you -- quote -- "The central cause of January 6 was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him."

Let's talk more about this with CNN's Paula Reid and former assistant special Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman. Great to see you both. Thanks for being here.

Paula, let's start with you.

A lot of these bombshells that are in here were already presented by the Select Committee during the hearings that we all watched. But walk us through the new tidbits that are in this final report.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Jess, I was surprised by how much new information they included in this report.

Their big conclusion is, of course, they were laying the blame for January 6 squarely at the feet of the former president. And then they use this nearly 850-page report to make the case. And they begin their presentation before Election Day. They argued that this attempt to falsely declare victory was premeditated.

They said this started before Election Day. And they present evidence, including e-mails from a conservative group, saying that, yes, Trump should just declare victory no matter what the outcome of the election was. Then they move forward past Election Day, showing this pressure campaign on different states where Trump lost, but where they still had GOP-led legislatures.

And they reveal, from their investigation, they have learned that the former president and his associates engaged in over 200 attempts to pressure state officials to change the election outcome. And the committee lays out how they believe these false claims that were being pushed by the former president and his associates are part of what spurred his supporters to the Capitol, where violence, of course, broke out.

And then they detail what was happening at the White House as the Capitol was under attack. They say the president watched this on TV and resisted calls from his own staffers to call off his supporters.

And some of his own aides testified that they were appalled that, while the Capitol was under attack, he was tweeting against his own vice president, so just really a stunning picture that they lay out here, really directly attacking one of the former president's key defenses, which has always been he's not responsible, he was relying on the advice of his advisers.

DEAN: Right. Exactly.

And just that number of over 200 calls to pressure state officials, I mean, that's just absolutely incredible.

Nick, as a historic document, this is pretty momentous. It's on the level of Watergate, the 9/11 Commission. I'm curious, with your background, what stands out to you about it.

NICK AKERMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: Well, I think what really stands out to me is how much evidence there is on Donald Trump.

[13:20:00]

Now, when people read through this report, keep in mind a couple legal principles. One is that an admission is admissible against an individual if it's his own statement, that a conspiracy is just an agreement with other people to commit a crime, and you can use statements by co-conspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy, on the theory that they are acting as agents.

So, if you read through this, you see that, in every single instance, there are lots and lots of admissions by Donald Trump, direct statements by him. And then you have got situations where they cite to people who would arguably be co-conspirators with him in this who also make admissions. And those would come in, in furtherance of the conspiracy and be used against Donald Trump in a criminal prosecution.

So, this is not just a historical document, but it's really a road map to a criminal prosecution against Donald Trump. And to give you an example, there is the recitation of that famous January 2 telephone call between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state for Georgia, where Trump pressures Raffensperger to come up with 11,780 votes, so he can win the state, and essentially threatens him and his attorney with criminal prosecution.

Now, that's all an admission against Trump. And what's really interesting about that is, Donald Trump didn't know he was being tape- recorded. So a lot of the same lies that he raised with Mr. Raffensperger, for example, the idea that over 10,000 dead people voted in the election in Georgia, Raffensperger comes back and says, no, there was only one. We did a thorough investigation.

But yet, four days later, Donald Trump is out there saying there were over 10,000 people that were dead that voted in the election. Now, you have got other statements, like John Eastman, who sent an e-mail three days -- two days earlier than the call with Raffensperger, where he basically acknowledges that Donald Trump was about to lie in a filing that was going to be put in Georgia federal court on these same issues.

DEAN: Right.

AKERMAN: And that kind of statement comes in against Donald Trump. It's admissible against him.

DEAN: Right.

AKERMAN: I mean, certain things in this report are not, like judge -- the judge's decision in California finding that there was a conspiracy.

But I would urge your viewers who are reading through this report to basically look at, what statements are made by Donald Trump and what statements are made by others who are in cahoots with Donald Trump?

DEAN: Yes. And it really sounds like a road map and a way for prosecutors.

Paula, the report concludes that Trump should be barred from holding public office ever again. Walk us through those recommendations.

REID: Exactly.

Well, Jess, is one of their key recommendations of the nearly dozen that they made. And they rely on the section of the Constitution that states that an individual who has taken an oath to support the Constitution, but has engaged in an insurrection or given aid or comfort to the enemies of the Constitution, can be disqualified from office.

We heard the vice chairwoman of the committee, Liz Cheney, touch on this too in the committee's hearing on Monday. She believes that, based on their year-and-a-half-long investigation, the evidence that they have uncovered, that she believes there should not only be legal consequences -- they have made criminal referrals -- but also political ones.

And we can see that here in one of their recommendations. They're also asking for some legislative reforms to the Electoral Count Act. That is actually, Jess, something that could potentially happen. There is support for that. They also want the lawyers who were advising the former president and who are involved in this to be held accountable.

DEAN: Yes. And the good news is, that Electoral Count Act overhaul is in this massive spending package that's likely to pass the House later this afternoon. So, they will likely get that done.

Nick, we're almost out of time. I simply just want to know if Trump could be barred from office even without an insurrection conviction.

AKERMAN: He could, but I think, practically speaking, Congress is not going to do that.

You have got a Republican House coming in. So, I think you would have to have a conviction for insurrection in this particular situation. And the ultimate jury and the ultimate verdict is obviously going to be rendered by the voters and the public.

DEAN: That is certainly true.

All right, Paula Reid, Nick Akerman, thank you both for your analysis there. We appreciate it.

Coming up next, we are tracking the latest on this dangerous storm and, in Texas, a desperate situation growing more dire, migrants fighting to keep warm as the temperatures there drop and shelters run out of room.

We're going to go there live when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:29:37]

DEAN: And you are looking live at the House floor, where voting is under way to pass this sweeping $1.7 trillion spending plan. We do expect it to pass. It's already passed through the Senate. So,

once the House passes this, it will go to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature. This will avert any government shutdown. And a reminder, it also includes about $45 billion in aid for Ukraine, as well as disaster emergency relief money.

And worth noting as well this is likely the last time we will see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presiding over a vote as House speaker.