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Biden Admin Asks Supreme Court To End Title 42 But Not Yet; Attorney Questions Whether Moscow Police Should Lead Probe. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired December 21, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also, the Taliban has suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan. This is just the latest in a brutal clampdown on the rights of Afghan women. Girls were barred from secondary schools back in March, as you recall. Women there can no longer work in most sectors, and they've been ordered to cover their faces in public.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Who wants to run Twitter? Not Elon Musk. Musk confirmed that he will step down as the company's CEO as soon as he finds, quote, "someone foolish enough to take the job." Musk says that he would still run the software and server teams at the site.

COLLINS: Also this morning, much of the country preparing for a brutal arctic blast. Winter alerts for snow and ice are in effect in more than 25 states and covering more than 90 million of us. The south could see a life-threatening cold, but Midwest could see blizzard conditions, and the heaviest snow is expected on Thursday into Friday, which could affect what is expected to be two of the busiest travel days of this year.

LEMON: There's a state of emergency this morning in California after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit the northern part of the state. Two people died, 12 people were hurt after the earthquake struck Humboldt County. More than 14,000 customers are without power this morning. County officials are still checking infrastructure damage to make sure all pipes and houses are structurally sound.

COLLINS: But this hour we start with the surprise visit from Ukraine's President Zelenskyy set to meet with President Biden in just a matter of hours and to address a joint session of Congress. Earlier he was seen arriving in Poland before getting on a plane for Washington. U.S. officials say that an American military aircraft was involved in bringing him to the U.S. It is his first trip outside of Ukraine since Russia first invaded 10 months ago. It's a chance for him to rally support for a critical new package of military aid. CNN's M.J. Lee is at the White House. CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill. M.J., tell us more about what you're learning about obviously what was a really sensitive trip in actually getting President Zelenskyy to the United States?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Keep in mind that this was a visit that was kept tightly under wraps until the very last minute. and what we learned from a senior administration official overnight is that the planning has been under way for about the last 10 days or so that a potential visit was first raised on a phone call between President Biden and President Zelenskyy on December 11th. And once President Zelenskyy accepted the invitation, then the work really started to make sure that certain security parameters were met.

You can imagine how high the security risks are given that he is of course a wartime president. And my colleague Kevin Liptak and I can now report this morning that a U.S. military aircraft was involved in bringing President Zelenskyy to Washington and that the U.S. was very closely involved just in general in bringing him here and will be involved in getting him out of the U.S.

And he is not going to be staying long, Kaitlan. He is going to be here in the White House in the afternoon, and then in the evening, of course, he heads over to Capitol Hill to address members of Congress. And right after, we are told, he is going to be leaving the country.

And of course, I should mention this new Ukraine aid package that the president is going to be unveiling that amounts to some $1.8 billion. This includes that important patriot surface-to-air missile system. This is one of the most some sophisticated long-range missiles and something that Ukrainians have been asking for for a very long time. So Kaitlan, just setting up the day for a very, very important day here at the White House.

COLLINS: Thank you, M.J. And Lauren, I know House Speaker Pelosi, there weren't a lot of lawmakers in town. She actually had to call them back to come and be there for Zelenskyy to address Congress later today. What else are you learning about what that will actually look like when he's on Capitol Hill?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kaitlan, the House Speaker looked forward to this moment. She alerted members yesterday that this was coming. But one thing to keep in mind is, yes, lawmakers are not really up here on Capitol Hill. They're going to have to vote on that must-pass spending package, but a lot of lawmakers could have voted remotely. She wants to make sure that people are in the chamber for this historic moment.

She officially invited Zelenskyy last night in a formal letter inviting him to address a joining meeting of Congress. And I just want to read you part of that. She said, "The fight for Ukraine is the fight for democracy itself. We look forward to hearing your inspiring message of unity, resilience, and determination."

We should note that this comes at a critical moment in the House of Representatives because they are slated to vote on that huge spending package, which includes nearly $45 billion in assistance for Ukraine. Of course, a lot of Republicans who are going to be in the chamber are being asked to vote against that by their leadership, so it just shows you, is anything that Zelenskyy says tonight going the change the minds of some of those Republicans in the audience about that vote?

COLLINS: Lauren Fox, M.J. Lee, thank you both. LEMON: Zelenskyy finally will get the patriot missile system he has

been wanting as part of the package President Biden is expected to announce today.

[08:05:00]

Straight now to Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon. Oren, good morning to you. How will this help Ukraine defend itself from Russian missiles?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Don. Patriot missiles are one of the most advance U.S. aerial defense systems, and crucially, they are a long-range defense system. So they will sit almost like an extended range dome on top of the systems the U.S. already has provided.

Remember when the U.S. provided U.S. manufactured NASAMS. Those are medium range air defense systems that have proven very effective in taking out some of the Russian barrages we've seen targeting civilian and energy infrastructure. There's also the shorter range components of that, like stingers and other MANPADS that the U.S. and others have provided. But the patriots are a much longer range system that will enhance Ukraine's ability at air defense. It is meant to disrupt these constant Russian barrages we've seen, targeting civilian infrastructure, targeting military targets. This will help Ukraine defend its own territory.

But it comes, of course, with complications. These are complex systems that will take Ukraine some time to learn how to operate these, how to maintain them, how to sustain them. And that's part of the challenge here. It takes about 20 weeks to learn how a team of dozens operates a patriot missile systems. They'll have to learn that as quickly as possible. Don, Ukraine has shown an ability for their soldiers to learn complex U.S. systems quickly. This is one more system, a crucial system they'll have to learn as quickly as possible.

LEMON: Oren Liebermann joining us from the Pentagon this morning. Thank you, Oren.

COLLINS: And joining us now is National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House John Kirby. Good morning, John. Thanks for joining us. Tell me about why it's important for President Zelenskyy to visit Washington, visit the White House now.

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: There's a lot going on in the war in Ukraine, obviously. And we are in a new phase, if you will. The winter is coming. Mr. Putin has stepped up his attacks on civilian infrastructure, civilian targets. Air defense capabilities are now the most important capability that Ukraine needs and must have to help defend itself.

So the president really believed that as we approach winter, as we enter clearly and have been in sort of a new phase in this war, Mr. Putin's aggression, that this was a good time for the two leaders to sit down face to face and talk about now only what the United States is doing now and will continue to do going forward, but how we eventually try to work towards what President Zelenskyy has called a just peace.

COLLINS: So you do think that the two leaders today will be discussing what the end of this could look like.

KIRBY: I have no doubt that they're going to talk about President Zelenskyy's notion of a just peace and what that looks like, what are the components of that, and how do we help Ukraine get to that. But look, Kaitlan, no question about it, Mr. Putin is obviously not interested in diplomacy right now. Quite the contrary, he's interested in killing more Ukrainian citizens and knocking out the lights and knocking out the heat as winter approaches. So we have to make sure that we also stay focused on the security assistance that Ukraine is going to need going forward.

COLLINS: And what kind of risk assessment did the United States conduct to get Zelenskyy to Washington, and are you confident that you can get him safely back to Ukraine?

KIRBY: Obviously, I'm not going to talk too much about force protection requirements to get President Zelenskyy here. He obviously understands the risks he's taking when he travels inside his country and certainly as he travels outside. But we were working in lockstep with him and his staff to make sure that he can make this trip safely both coming to the United States and going back. And we will continue to support his travel requirements as best we can.

COLLINS: OK, and does this mean that President Biden himself will be rushing and visiting to Ukraine any time soon?

KIRBY: I don't have any travel for President Biden to announce. So we're focused today on this visit, face-to-face meeting with President Zelenskyy and, again, reaffirming our firm commitment to Ukraine's self- defense.

COLLINS: I know one thing you'll be discussing today are those Patriot missile defense systems, of course some of the most powerful in the U.S. arsenal. When you expect that they will be in Ukraine and be operational?

KIRBY: Again, I don't want to get ahead of the president or announcements that he's going to make, Kaitlan. The Patriot system, separate and distinct from that conversation. It is a self-defense mechanism. It's about air defense. It's a defensive system. It is fairly sophisticated and advanced. It takes a long time for our troops to get trained on how to operate them. So we'll have to factor all that in going forward.

COLLINS: But in order to send those to Ukraine, have you received assurances from the Ukrainians that they won't use them for targets inside of Russia?

KIRBY: Again, I'm not going to get ahead of decisions and announcements that the president is going to talk about later today. What I would tell you writ large is that everything that we have sent to Ukraine has really been designed to help them defend themselves, defensive systems so that they can eat gain back their territory or defend the territory that they have, in fact, re-liberated from Russia. And how they use those systems on the field, where, when, under what circumstances, that's really up for the Ukrainians to decide.

[08:10:01]

We give them the best information, the best training we can. We certainly help them with actionable intelligence. But how they use these systems, that's really up to them.

COLLINS: Since we are in what you are saying is a new phase of this war, do you expect that President Zelenskyy will say to President Biden today that he needs more than just the Patriot missile defense systems?

KIRBY: I'll let President Zelenskyy talk to himself and for what he wants to bring to the discussion today. Certainly the United States stands ready to continue to have discussions with the Ukrainians going forward about self-defense needs and about capabilities that they'll require going forward.

The capabilities that we've been providing since the beginning of the war have evolved over time. When it first started, we were all talking about the Javelin anti-tank 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. Air defenses is obviously of a prime importance right now. We'll see where this goes going forward. The president has said we're going to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, and he meant every word of that.

COLLINS: Will he announce any new sanctions today?

KIRBY: I'm not going to get ahead of the president's discussions with President Zelenskyy. There will be some announcements that the president will make, but again, I'll let him do that.

COLLINS: John Kirby, we'll stay tuned for those. Thank you for joining us this morning.

KIRBY: Thank you, appreciate it.

LEMON: And this is supposed to be a surprise and obviously the media got a hold of it last night and it started coming out, because obviously with the security concerns and everything that they need to get in place for this type of visit, that was --

COLLINS: You can't keep a secret in Washington. I called a lawmaker last night after we saw this was going to happen, and that's what they were -- when you tell lawmakers and they say there's a special session on democracy, which is what Pelosi said, I think everyone drew the conclusion.

LEMON: What is going on, what's happening. So this morning, a CNN exclusive. U.S. Capitol police chief Tom Manger

is speaking out for the first time since Paul Pelosi was attacked. He reveals that they never reassessed security after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi returned to leadership. So straight to CNN's Pamela Brown. She joins us now with this exclusive interview. Pamela, good morning to you. What does the Manger say Capitol police will do differently going forward?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I think it's fair to say a lot, right? Chief Manger, who came on to the job last year, said lessons have been learned since the Paul Pelosi attack in later October, including doing more frequent security assessments on the homes of new leadership, unlike what was done for Speaker Pelosi in the four years before the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BROWN: I'm told by house aides that for Speaker Pelosi, there hadn't been a security assessment at her residence in San Francisco since 2018. Is that true?

CHIEF THOMAS MANGER, UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE: Yes. And each, I think when -- as each person assumes a leadership position, it's important for us to do another assessment to make sure that we've got the latest information and we've -- if we've got additional recommendations, if we've got additional technology that we can employ to keep a member safer, we need to make sure that that gets done.

BROWN: So after she became speaker, was there a security assessment done?

MANGER: The last one that was done that I'm aware of was in 18. We've since have done another one --

BROWN: Since the attack.

MANGER: Recently, yes. But I think 2018 was the last one that was done.

BROWN: And so will you, now as a lesson learned, do more frequent assessments of leadership's residencies?

MANGER: Yes.

BROWN: How much more frequently?

MANGER: Well, I think any time that there's change in their status, if someone assumes a leadership position, we'll make sure that we do an updated assessment for them. And if -- and one of the things that we've tried to do to reach out to all the members is make sure that they're aware that these assessments are available to them. Some or a lot of members take advantage of it, some don't. But we're trying to remind everybody, if you want a security assessment of your home, we will, in fact, come out and do it.

BROWN: What do you say to the lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have come out since the Paul Pelosi attack and have questioned the vigilance of Capitol police or have questioned the competence Capitol police? What do you say to them?

MANGER: So I think I want to try and manage expectations. And this is where when I spoke earlier about the way we -- our security posture on the legislative branch is different than what's done in the executive and what is done in the judicial branch for the Supreme Court justices and judges around the country. And so I think that we've got to make sure that they understand what our capabilities are, what we're staffed to do, and if their expectations are different than what we can meet, then we've got to find a way to meet their expectations.

[08:15:00]

And so, this is one of the reasons that we -- that I'm trying to seek additional resources in the budget so that we can meet -- in fact meet their expectations about how we protect the members, how we protect their staff, their families, their homes, that sort of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And on that note, the Senate spending bill includes $132 million for Capitol Police, for a total of $735 million. But bottom line here, Kaitlan and Don, is that Chief Manger said there has never been a more dangerous time to be an elected official in America. The threats against them are more serious. They are increasing.

Speaker Pelosi alone in, I believe it was 2021, had more than six percent of the threats overseen by Capitol Police. But Chief Manger said his agency is doing everything it can to protect the lawmakers and what he calls a no-fail mission. Back to you.

COLLINS: Yes, those concerns are very clear and evident. Pamela Brown, thanks so much for that interview.

All right, no suspect, no motive, more than a month after those four Idaho college students were murdered. Now, the family is wondering and asking out loud if the police are even capable of solving this crime.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm David Culver on the Mexico side of the U.S. Mexico border. Over there, you can see a long line of migrants who have been waiting now for several weeks to get into the U.S. And in just the past few hours, a big change that is giving some renewed hope. We'll explain it to you coming up.

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LEMON: So, this morning, Homeland Security confirming its agents have moved more than 9000 migrants from El Paso, Texas in the last week. Meantime, the Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to keep Title 42 in place until Tuesday. Well, right now, that policy is on a temporary hold. Let's get to the border now. CNN is live there. David Culver, as a matter of fact, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Good morning to you. What are you hearing from migrants there. Look at the line behind you, by the way. CULVER: Yes, see that, Don? A big change in just the past few hours, too, because a lot of these migrants where we were, about 24 hours ago, when we were live with you and we showed the barricade situation going into place at that one very popular crossing into El Paso, Texas. Well, it seems to be that were that current setup is about a mile from where we are right now, that is the place where migrants are no longer going.

And it seems that there is some differing if not conflicting decisions being made from the different U.S. law enforcement agencies because you have Texas State Police, Texas National Guard, and the U.S. Border Patrol. Now, let me show you some video that was captured by one of our colleagues here just a short time ago. And you're going to see a rush of people. And those are the migrants who were near that barricaded area coming towards the direction where we are now. And it seems that Border Patrol had redirected them to another gate to start being processed.

[08:20:12]

Now, that is where we are. I'm coming back out here live and show you that's long line where you see about a dozen campfires being burned. People trying to keep warm and below-freezing temperatures as they've crossed the Rio Grande. A lot of them wet, then shedding their clothes, and then standing by to potentially be processed.

Now, we should point out, even if they're going to enter on this side here, which they have been little by little about five to 10 people in groups been allowed in over a period of time, then they're allowed to start the asylum process. But it does not guarantee, Don, that they're going to be allowed to enter and stay in the U.S. for a long period of time. They could still under Title 42 be immediately expelled.

LEMON: It's interesting because yesterday, it appeared like there were more members of the National Guard than actual migrants out there. But today, that's certainly -- that looks like it's obviously flipped. What happened?

CULVER: It is very interesting. And you see this tension almost between different law enforcement agencies even from a distance. And perhaps that's factoring into all of this, Don, because you have the U.S. Border Patrol side. Those agents are much more engaging and really interacting with the migrants, whereas the Texas National Guard and Texas State Police didn't interact with them beyond using a megaphone to tell them to go to the legal crossings.

It seems like Border Patrol is trying to facilitate some of this processing so as to keep the build-up on what is still the US side of the border and to have people camping out for several hours in these temperatures and conditions. It perhaps is that the Border Patrol is redirecting some of those migrants to a space where you don't have Texas National Guard and state troopers. And we're hearing they may not even have jurisdiction to this point. So, this is where the Border Patrol is then saying, all right, well, we're going to take this under our hands right now and start the processing at this hour. LEMON: But just one quick question for you because they're playing

this all by ear, right, because this happened suddenly. What happens if they --

CULVER: Right.

LEMON: You know, if it isn't lifted in the next week or so, what happens?

CULVER: And that's been the big focus, right? They all thought it was going to be today. A lot of these migrants have traveled for several months just to this point. They get the 21st, specially those from Venezuela had this idea in mind that it would be lifted. So, if it's not going to be lifted in the next few days, well, they're still hoping that they'll get processed and that they will be allowed to enter into the U.S. under their own claims of asylum.

But you're right, there's still this uncertainty and confusion that a lot of them are feeling not knowing if they'll actually be able to get through with Title 42 still in effect.

LEMON: All right, David Culver on the border for us, thank you very much. On the Mexico side as a matter of fact. I'm going to tell you that in just moments, we're going to be joined by El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser.

COLLINS: Also this morning, an attorney from one of the victims' families in the University of Idaho murders is questioning whether or not the local police department in the small town of Moscow should be leading this investigation. It isn't more than five weeks since four students were stabbed to death in their home but police still have no answers, at least not publicly.

CNN's Camila Bernal joins us live from Los Angeles. What are we hearing from this family and their attorney about what they want to see happen differently?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Kaitlan, good morning. Well, because it's been more than five weeks without a resolution, the attorney representing Kaylee Goncalves' family believes that it is fair to look into the Moscow Police Department to ask whether or not they should be handling this investigation.

He says that on the day-to-day, Moscow police is great, but it's questioning whether they have the experience to handle a quadruple homicide. Look, before this case, Moscow had not recorded a murder since 2015. But despite all of this, the chief of police in Moscow, James Fry, responding and saying that he is in charge, that he is leading this investigation, and that he believes his team is capable of moving forward and of solving this case, saying that combined, the team has more than 90 years of experience, also pointed to the help that they're getting from the state police and from the FBI. In fact, more FBI agents were added in recent days.

And the experts that I talked to telling me look behind the scenes. It is possible that those FBI agents and state police are leading the strategy here. And what experts say is that this is not a cold case, despite all of the time that has passed, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes. Those families want answers. Camila Bernal, thank you so much.

BERNAL: Thank you.

COLLINS: All right, Elon Musk says he's going to resign as Twitter's chief executive but not right away. CNN's Senior Media Reporter Oliver Darcy is here to discuss.

LEMON: And embattled NBA owner Robert Sarver has agreed to sell the NBA Phoenix suns and the WNBA's Mercury. We're going to break down the big money deal with Bomani Jones next.

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[08:25:00]

LEMON: Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING. Coming up, we've just learned that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be addressing the U.S. Congress tonight that's going to happen at 7:30 as part of his whirlwind visit to Washington today that will include a meeting with President Biden.

The Biden Administration says that it does want the Supreme Court to end title 42 border restrictions but not just yet. The mayor of El Paso, Texas was going to join us next.

Plus, it is going to get really, really cold this week. Could it be the coldest Christmas in recent history? I guess if I'm asking you the question, it could be.

COLLINS: But first, we'll start with Elon Musk this morning. After two days of silence, the Twitter CEO does say he'll be leaving his post as CEO, but only after he finds someone to take his place. It all started with that Twitter poll that he posted over the weekend where more than 57 percent of those who voted said he should resign as the head of the company.

On Tuesday, after some silence, he tweeted, I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job. After that, I will just run the software and servers teams. Musk has faced criticism for a number of the decisions that he's made since the takeover. Some of those like last week include abruptly suspending the account of journalists who cover him banning and subsequently unveiling links to other social media platforms, laying off the majority of his staff, and releasing internal communications.

So, for perspective on all of this, let's bring in CNN Senior Media Reporter Oliver Darcy. Wow, lots going on. Who -- do you think he already has someone in mind to take over? What's your sense of where this all stands?

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