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President Zelenskyy to Meet with Biden, Address Congress; House Committee to Release Trump's Tax Returns; 70+ Million Under Alerts as Storms Threaten Holiday Travel. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 21, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: That sounds totally disgusting. Too disgusting just this shy of 6 a.m. Nice to see you, Andy. Have a great day.

[06:00:05]

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Bye.

ROMANS: Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (voice-over): It is a complicated situation. The enemy increases the number of its troops. Our boys are braver, and we need more sophisticated weapons. We will pass on gratitude from our boys to the U.S. Congress and U.S. president for their support, but it is not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It is Wednesday, December 21. Poppy is off. Kaitlan, I can't imagine a busier news day. We haven't had in a while this --

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: I know. Since the show started, I think this is it.

LEMON: Yes. It is. So get ready, everyone. We've got a lot to tell you about, including this.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy en route to Washington, D.C., this morning, where he'll meet with President Joe Biden and Congress. What he plans to say to the world and the reaction from Russia, just said moments ago.

COLLINS: Also, a CNN exclusive. A former Trump ethics lawyer has now been accused of telling January 6th witness Cassidy Hutchinson to give misleading testimony. What the attorney allegedly wanted her to say and to the committee, instead.

LEMON: And if you're foolish enough to want to run Twitter, the job may be yours. That from Elon Musk as he plans to step down. COLLINS: But we begin in Washington this morning, where just hours

from now, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is going to address the American people, a divided Congress and President Biden, hoping to rally support for Ukraine and his people as they brace for a harsh winter under constant bombardment from Russia.

Zelenskyy's visit today is incredibly significant. It is his first trip outside of Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February. This as the U.S. is about to send Ukraine the most advanced air weapon in its arsenal: the Patriot defense system.

And Zelenskyy is not coming to the United States empty-handed.

Those were soldiers surrounding Zelenskyy on the front lines yesterday. They handed him a flag that was signed by Ukrainian troops. They said they wanted him to give it as a gift to President Biden and Congress.

For more on the breaking news this morning, let's bring in M.J. Lee, who is outside the White House. M.J., what time do we expect President Zelenskyy to arrive there?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kaitlan, within hours, we expect to see Volodymyr Zelenskyy on U.S. soil. This is, of course, the war-time president who, more than anybody else, has come to singularly represent Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression, has become such a heroic figure to so many people around the world.

And this is, as you said, his first time leaving the country since the invasion began some 300 days ago.

We expect that he will be in and out of the United States in a matter of hours. And a senior administration official telling reporters overnight that this is a trip that came together, really, in the last ten days or so, that the invitation and discussion about this possible trip was first raised between President Biden and Zelenskyy in a phone call on December 11.

And once President Zelenskyy accepted that invitation, then the work really started between the two sides to set up this top-secret visit. Obviously, given the high security concerns, it was really important that this trip remain under wraps until the last minute.

And just to quickly give you a sense of what the day will look like, we expect Zelenskyy to arrive at the White House at around 2 p.m. or so. And then, there will be a lengthy bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, followed by a press conference here at the White House -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: OK. So they will be taking questions from reporters.

Then we know later today Zelenskyy is going to go up to Capitol Hill.

Is the White House hoping that his address to Congress can maybe change the mind or the views of some of those Republicans who have been skeptical about how much support the U.S. has put behind Ukraine? LEE: You know, it seems incredibly clear that Zelenskyy wants to make

an appeal, yes, to Republican lawmakers but also just generally to the American public as we head into these winter months. He wants to send a message that, basically Ukraine continues to need help from allies like the United States.

So certainly that is a message we expect to hear from him when he addresses members of Congress on Capitol Hill tonight.

And do keep in mind that President Biden is set to announce another aid package that amounts to some $1.8 billion and a part of that includes a Patriot surface-to-air missile system. This is one of the most sophisticated long-range missiles and something that the Ukrainians have been asking for for a long time.

And the training for this is going to take months. And U.S. personnel are expected to be involved in training Ukrainian personnel. Again, this would happen in a third country.

And I just want to leave you with one thing that a senior administration official said. They said obviously, this visit will show the U.S.'s continued support for Ukraine.

[06:05:08]

But they also said, we are not seeking to engage in a direct war with Russia, and nothing about that will change with today's visit from Zelenskyy -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Though its clear Russia could retaliate for those Patriot missile systems.

M.J. Lee, thank you.

LEMON: How did this all come about and why? Now let's bring in now Sergii Leshchenko, a senior adviser to President Zelenskyy's chief of staff.

It's good to have you on again. Thank you so much. We've been speaking for a while here, for months since this the invasion began. And this is going to mark the president's first trip outside of Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Tell us about the decision to make this trip. Why now, Sergii?

SERGII LESHCHENKO, SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY'S CHIEF OF STAFF: It's certainly important. It's symbolic, and it's crucial moment for Ukraine to win this war. We're looking forward to get better assistance to defend our skies, to defend our citizens.

Because last two months was very dramatic in Ukraine when Putin started attack of our critical infrastructure.

You know, it's really nightmare in Kyiv, in big cities, when people have no electricity for 24 hours, for 60 -- for 36 hours, for 48 hours. It's really problem. And to keep Ukrainian economy working it's also a big deal, because

without electricity it doesn't work.

So we expect to have Patriot supply after this trip, and we expect bilateral, bipartisan and Congress support, as well. And we're also looking forward to get ATACMS, the system which can let us defend our territory and to de-occupy what Putin took under control since 28 of 24th of February this year.

So 50 percent of our territory is re-occupied thanks to our army, our president and your support, but we still have a lot of things to do and really looking forward to get the support.

LEMON: Well, let's talk about what this is going to do. And you mentioned the aid package. President Biden is set to announce another $1.8 billion in security assistance. That will include Patriot missiles, missile defense system within the package. How do you think this air defense system is going to make a difference there on the ground?

LESHCHENKO: The Patriot will let us to survive. It's really important. By the way, the president promised -- he promised a few months ago in one of his addresses to Americans -- I believe it was in Yale University or somewhere. He said that, if American government provide us Patriots, I'm going to -- I'm going to come personally to visit U.S. and to take this around the world. So he keep his word.

And at the same time, it's really important for our state to survive. Because cruise missiles and drones destroyed our electricity infrastructure, like for 50 percent, even more, and without the electricity we cannot work.

And at the same time, we are not ready to accept ultimatum of Putin, who wants us to accept this territory occupied by Russians is going to be part of Russia. We don't -- we don't want to do this. We're going to fight for victory.

And I believe it's in the best interest of U.S. citizens, as well, to keep democracy working and to show dictators that they cannot dictate their will to another nations, independent nations, what to do.

LEMON: Listen, this is quite a bold move. I'm sure there are many security and safety concerns, for not only President Zelenskyy, but also President Biden and what have you, and all of the folks around him.

You think it is a smart move for Zelenskyy to visit at this point? Considering, you know, Vladimir Putin and what's happening?

LESHCHENKO: First of all, he promise to come and he's coming. Second, he was yesterday in Bakhmut. This is frontline area. Not just the frontline area. It's a battlefield area, when the president was, let's say, under the shelling of Russians.

But he wanted to show our soldiers that they're not alone there. Together with our leadership, he provide them awards. He provide them best words from our civilians, with big appreciations what they're doing to defend not only Ukraine but Europe from this dictator.

And of course, for president is -- I think, the best moment to travel, because this is the end of the year, when you're going to have some political (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

So I believe his address to Congress is really important to show both political parities that we are looking forward to getting support, because we are fighting for values shared by American citizens 200 years ago when you established your state, your country.

LEMON: Just real quickly, do you believe that this latest round of U.S. assistance is going to bring this war any closer to an end, Sergii?

LESHCHENKO: Of course, indeed. It will not only make it. It will let Ukrainians to come back. Because with all the Ukrainians leaving Ukraine, it's difficult to restore our economy. To keep our factories, our industry working.

[06:10:05]

And people are really leaving Ukraine now, just because they cannot survive without electricity, 60 -- like, 36 hours without electricity is a big deal, you know? When people have no access to water supply, as well. Because electricity caused the problem with water supply.

So this is crucial. It will stop people suffering. It will stop people dying, but it will also make us closer to victory. It will let our security system work properly and our weapons supply properly working, as well.

But it's also important for our civilians to live in Ukraine, to stay in Ukraine. Not to make Ukraine failing state.

But to be on the front line, we're really looking forward for your support, not only in Patriot but in other weapons to be provided to Ukraine. Because we -- you know, we demonstrated on the front line in Kharkiv region, in Kherson region last three, four months, that the Ukrainian army is able to deoccupy.

Ukrainian army is one of the strongest in the world now. By the way, it's really important to NATO to ask Ukraine to join NATO, because it will make NATO stronger.

LEMON: OK.

LESHCHENKO: When NATO face -- face challenges in the current future.

LEMON: Sergii Leshchenko, senior adviser to President Zelenskyy's chief of staff, thank you. Appreciate you appearing.

LESHCHENKO: I appreciate your interest.

COLLINS: So for more perspective on that, let's bring in CNN's national security analyst, David Sanger.

David, this visit of President Zelenskyy to Washington was almost unthinkable ten months ago.

DAVID SANGER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, ten months ago, Kaitlan, he wasn't supposed to be alive to make this visit. You know, the Russian plan was to decapitate the leadership, install their own friendly leader of Ukraine, and that President Zelenskyy would be forgotten by now.

So the first thing that's happening in this is that it's just a giant warning to Putin that his plan had completely failed, that he'd been humiliated on the battlefield. That's the good news.

And I think you'll see -- you'll see Zelenskyy try to do a very Churchillian kind of speech. In fact, Churchill himself came to Congress shortly after December 7, 1941. He came the day after Christmas to sort of rally the United States, the way Zelenskyy is hoping to do.

I think that the other side of this, though, is Zelenskyy knows he's headed not only into a long, hard winter but into what could well be years of conflict. And he's got to begin to get Washington thinking about what long-term support for Ukraine looks like.

LEMON: You said -- and you said years of conflict. That was my last question, then. Do you think it's going to be any closer to an end. But you understood what I was getting at when I said do you think it was a smart move for him to do this, considering the security around this? It's kind of in your face to Vladimir Putin. Will the Kremlin view this as provocative is the question?

SANGER: I think that they will -- they have viewed everything about the fact that Zelenskyy is up talking to the Ukrainian people and to the American people and to the West every night on the Internet to be a provocative move. This will also be provocative.

And we're expecting, actually, to hear from Putin today. He's supposed to be giving a speech, as well, to a Russian defense ministry group. Whether they're talking past each other or to each other is a little bit hard to tell.

But I think that, for Zelenskyy, it's a little bit tricky. First of all, there's the logistics, as you suggest, Don. And I'm sure the U.S. Air Force is helping with this. They did the last time he left the country, which was to go to the Munich security conference the weekend before the war.

But the bigger trick, I think, at this point is to sustain American interest. Zelenskyy understands that the U.S. enters these kinds of conflicts, particularly one with this kind of moral clarity, with great enthusiasm and then frequently loses interest.

COLLINS: And you heard Don ask Sergii about the Patriot missile systems, what he told you about how Zelenskyy said if the U.S. would give them to him, that he would come --

SANGER: Yes. COLLINS: -- to the U.S. to thank them, essentially. That is part of what's happening today. President Biden is going to be talking about that at the White House.

Russia, though, has promised to retaliate, basically, if the United States does install those. And you said you believe that they'll likely be installed in Kyiv.

SANGER: I think it will be installed around Kyiv, some place around Kyiv. This is a significant step forward but a limited one.

We don't have very many of these systems. They had to scrounge around to just find a Patriot battery that could go to Kyiv.

And I think what you'll probably see is that this is announced along with announcements from other Western allies of similar systems that would go elsewhere.

It's a pretty expensive way to be defending your electric power plants and your water supplies. These are really made for big strategic missiles that might come in to destroy the capital.

[06:15:03]

And, of course, there's concern, which you've heard from the administration, that Iran may move from providing drones to providing these larger strategic missiles.

LEMON: You know, it's interesting that this is happening. This meeting is happening in the United States, and then you have Xi Jinping and Dmitry Medvedev meeting in Beijing, as well. So it's kind of -- it's interesting to see what's happening on the two sides here.

SANGER: You know, Don, I think when we look back at this year, obviously, the war will be our biggest single thing.

But the other element that has really reordered the world here is what's the nature of the relationship between China and Russia?

Obviously, you've seen Putin and President Xi speak frequently. Putin went to the Olympics in the early days just before the war. The Chinese have been careful in what they're giving him. They're not giving him weaponry directly after the U.S. has warned them.

But clearly, there is a deepening relationship there. And that's the bigger challenge for President Biden, because we are now in confrontation, if not direct conflict, with the two major nuclear superpowers. And I can't remember the last time in our lifetimes that's happened.

LEMON: It's a frightening moment.

COLLINS: Yes. Historical moment.

David Sanger, no one better to talk about this with, so thank you for joining us this morning. SANGER Thank you, guys.

LEMON: Now on to the former president and his tax returns. Six years are set to be released in the coming days. The House Ways and Means Committee voting along party lines to make that happen.

This is a years'-long fight between the former president and congressional Democrats coming to a head. And we're learning some new details about what could be in those documents.

Straight to CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill for us this morning.

Good morning, Lauren. One of the revelations to come out of this was that Trump was not properly audited by the IRS during his time as president. I mean, he has had some very lucky moments. How big of a deal is that?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's such a significant revelation, Don. Because if you remember Richard Neal, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, when he requested Trump's tax returns, the whole reason he wanted them, he argued in court, was because he needed to see if this mandatory audit program at IRS was working properly.

What's supposed to happen is, when a new president or vice president comes into office, the IRS is supposed to review their tax returns. But according to Democrats' report that they just released last night, one thing that was clear is them is that this program just was not functioning as it was supposed to.

Richard Neal argued it was basically nonexistent. The IRS did not review Trump's returns until 2019, according to Democrats, when Richard Neal sent a request for Trump's taxes, arguing he needed them because he wanted to see if this program was working.

The argument from Democrats is that this program just was not acting as it was supposed to. And as part of the effort to shore this up, they are revealing that they're going to move forward with some kind of legislation, Nancy Pelosi vowing that she's going to try to advance it in upcoming days.

But we should note, there's just a couple days left of this session. In a couple of weeks, Republicans are going to gain control of the House of Representatives. And there's really no chance this would pass in the U.S. Senate, even if the House could have a vote in the next couple of days -- Don.

LEMON: Well, I'm interested in his -- you know, his payment history. Because it says that he -- you know, he was being -- what it shows is he's generated huge net operating losses and then carrying them forward for years afterward to zero out his tax liability.

So what is the deal here? I mean, some years he paid nothing. And people may be surprised. It may be eye-popping to see how little taxes he paid. FOX: Yes, we're definitely going to get a lot more information once we

see the returns that the Ways and Means Committee voted to release. They have to do some redactions on those.

But one thing we did get last night was the Joint Committee on Taxation released their own report. Now, these are sort of the nonpartisan number crunchers up here on Capitol Hill. They don't have any investigation power.

But a couple observations they made are that, yes, one of the patterns that they noticed was that Donald Trump carried forward a lot of losses, millions in losses.

This isn't something that other businessmen and women don't do, but it is something that, you know, raises some questions about what should be done in the future and whether or not this needs some further investigation.

Again, the Joint Committee on Taxation not saying it was wrong but just raising some questions about what exactly was deducted and whether it was deducted properly. Again, we have to get those fuller returns to get a sense of what exactly is inside those.

LEMON: All right. Lauren, thank you very much. We're learning about that, and then we're going to get the full report from the January 6th Committee. So there's a lot.

COLLINS: A lot of paper, reading.

LEMON: A lot of reading for us today. So a lot of news. So stay tuned.

Including this. A winter bomb cyclone about to drop on a big chunk of the country, and it couldn't come as a worse time. How airlines and travelers are getting ready.

COLLINS: Plus, the White House says it's OK for Title 42 to expire, but maybe just not yet. And while the legal fight is dragging on in the courts, people at the border are the ones who are caught in the middle. We'll take you there live.

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[06:23:0]

COLLINS: All right. This morning we have some terrible timing for terrible weather, just four days out from Christmas when everyone obviously is traveling. More than 70 million Americans find themselves under winter weather alerts as a storm system known as a bomb cyclone is set to cripple travel in the Plains and the Midwest this week.

Multiple airlines are already issuing travel waivers ahead of blizzard conditions, flash freezes and a sharp drop in temperatures.

Where it's the worst, visibility may be reduced to near zero, as wind chills on the back side of the storm as low as minus 40 may promote frostbite in as little as 10 minutes. CNN has the storm covered all over the United States. Omar Jimenez is

live in Chicago's O'Hare airport. And our meteorologist, Jennifer Gray, is standing by in the weather center.

Omar, let's get to you first, because this is going to be the impact of this storm, is for the travelers who are going to be at airports like the one that you're standing in right now. So how are people bracing for it?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kaitlan. I mean, the travelers we've been talking to this morning have really been people who have moved their flights to today to try and get ahead of those blizzard- like conditions expected tomorrow and through Friday evening.

We just talked to one just a few moments ago who told us about how his travel plans completely changed so that they could make the most out of their holiday vacation. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYHAN AKTAAR, TRAVELER: I think my dad just saw on the news that there's going to be a huge blizzard Thursday, and my brother only has a few days off while he's -- while we visit him. So we didn't want our flight to get delayed and miss out on some of that time. So we thought we'd just move it up two days just to avoid that altogether.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And it's not just here in Chicago, obviously. Throughout this entire region, there are places that are expecting to see blizzard- like conditions, wind chill going down as low as negative 35.

And these are places that obviously fly to each other frequently, and so you see how the issues are starting to develop. And this recipe for -- for potential disaster for a lot of flyers when, at least here in O'Hare, tomorrow is expected to be the busiest travel day, coinciding with the beginning of some of these conditions.

[06:25:11]

COLLINS: Yes, Omar. And I'm looking at the major cities that are going to be impacted. This is where all the major airports are that people are connecting in and out of. In Chicago, on Minneapolis.

And so are people saying that -- that they're nervous they may not make it home if they're not able to move their flights up or change their plans?

JIMENEZ: Well, and that's -- that exact sense is what we're getting. A lot of people here in Chicago travel to Minneapolis; have family in Buffalo.

And it's not like these aren't places that could deal with snow or cold. But once you start seeing the combination of snow, wind, extreme cold, that is the recipe that the National Weather Service here in Chicago is saying that people should be watching out for. And that even if the snow totals don't end up like what we saw in Buffalo a few weeks ago, or earlier this season, that that is not the full story. It's really a combination of these elements that will create nasty conditions. Not just for flights but for the many people that are going to be driving tomorrow and into Friday, as well.

COLLINS: Yes. A lot of tough travel ahead for people. Omar, thank you.

LEMON: I spent many a days in Chicago O'Hare, waiting and waiting.

COLLINS: Delayed?

LEMON: Delayed, and waiting.

So what do you need to know if you are hitting the roads for the holiday? Let's bring in now meteorologist Jennifer Gray in the Weather Center to get the latest on those storm warnings. I think the technical term for this is damn.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think that's a good one. I think that's -- that's an accurate description of this storm.

This is going to be a Christmas week people are not going to forget. This is going to be huge. And tomorrow is going to be the biggest impact day for travel by far.

You can see the storm is getting going in the Northern Plains. We're going to continue to see this intensify throughout the next 24 hours. We have winter weather advisories, winter storm warnings, blizzard warning in effect across Western Minnesota. This is for tomorrow through Friday, as we will see visibility down to nothing. Blowing snow, winds of 50 miles per hour or more.

And then the storm will really intensify over the Great Lakes. That's where we could see a foot to a foot and a half of snow.

So your biggest travel delays for Thursday are going to be Chicago and then up and down the I-95 Corridor, because we're going to have very heavy rain ahead of this system.

We have wind chill warnings stretching all the way down to Oklahoma, wind chill watches all the way to the Texas/Mexico border. This chill is going to be felt.

If you don't get the snow, you will get the cold. Look at some of these Southern cities; spending 80 hours below zero in Birmingham.

Guys, we're going to have travel issues, wind chill issues. We're going to have pipes burst. People could see frostbite set in in as little as five minutes across the Northern Plains. It's going to be huge.

COLLINS: I'm flying to Birmingham on Thursday. So I'm looking very closely at that second point there.

LEMON: What does that say? Eighty hours of -- GRAY: Yes, it's going to be cold even that far South.

LEMON: Ooh. Wow.

GRAY: Yes, it's rough.

COLLINS: We don't have coats in Alabama.

LEMON: Better you than me. Thanks, Jennifer. We'll check back. We appreciate it.

GRAY: Thanks.

LEMON: Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, what CNN exclusive just uncovered -- a CNN exclusive just uncovered about a Trump-backed attorney who allegedly told Cassidy Hutchinson to mislead the January 6th Committee.

COLLINS: Plus, Elon Musk says he will resign as Twitter's chief executive, but not right away. What he's looking for in his successor, and who's willing to take that job, coming up.

LEMON: What is happening to Tesla as he's doing all this is the question.

COLLINS: I know. That's -- I love that.

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