Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Winter Storm Puts Millions Under Weather Alerts Across U.S.; Jan 6 Committee: Trump Should be Barred from Office; Record-Breaking Low Temperatures Could Cause Health Concerns. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 23, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty icy and very slick. Like, even in the areas that have been plowed really well, if you get above 40 miles per hour, you start sliding around.

[06:00:46]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We rented a cabin for the week this week, but we had to cancel it; because we were worried we wouldn't to either get out of there later or get up their driveway. And so, yes, we actually stayed home this week instead of going on a trip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: That's the perils of winter, but I mean, this is something else.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Wrong.

LEMON: Look at us. Hey!

SIDNER: Hey!

LEMON: This is going to be trouble. Sara and I --

SIDNER: It's about to be on.

LEMON: -- have known each other forever. I'm so happy to have you here. Poppy and Kaitlan are off. Sara Sidner is with us. Are you ready for this weather?

SIDNER: No.

LEMON: Are you ready for the --

SIDNER: That's why I'm in here.

LEMON: -- corduroy suit.

SIDNER: No, this is hot. LEMON: Thank you.

SIDNER: It's hot.

LEMON: So is that, but we won't get there. We won't get in trouble.

Millions of Americans coast to coast bracing for extremely low temperatures, dangerous wind chills and power outages. It is really serious out there. We have reporters all across the country, covering this storm.

SIDNER: Plus, the January 6th Committee releasing its final report and placing the blame on one man. The new evidence just revealed overnight.

LEMON: And CNN's David Culver speaking with two migrants who were stuck at the border after making a dangerous journey. Their incredible story is straight ahead here on CNN this morning.

But we're going to begin with more than 200 million Americans -- that's right, I said it right -- 200 million Americans spending the holiday weekend under wind-chill alerts as a major arctic blast plunges temperatures to dangerous levels all across the country, like in Cleveland, where the wind chill is 8 degrees and it is falling there.

In Chicago, it is minus 32 with the wind chill. Can you imagine?

SIDNER: Come on!

LEMON: I used to live there. Man, oh man.

And the storm causing extreme cold is expected to unleash more heavy snow and blizzard conditions in parts of the country.

So look at that. You're looking at body cam video from a state trooper. That's in Nebraska, walking back to his vehicle after helping a stranded driver. Road conditions there, his department says, have deteriorated.

Strong winds causing poor visibility. Authorities urging people to stay off the roads.

More than 250,000 customers across several states are without power right now, that number expected to rise.

And the storm also creating travel chaos ahead of Christmas. This morning more than 3,000 flights have been already canceled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They canceled the flight as everyone got boarded, because the wings froze is what they said.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know what's going to happen, whether or not they have extra flights tonight. Or they're saying maybe they won't even have flights tomorrow. So it's Christmas. It sucks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw that it was supposed to be changed, and it was changed for 10:30 tonight. And then about an hour or two ago, I looked again, and it was changed again to 11:15 tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It is not fun to spend your holiday in the airport. Let's go straight to CNN's Pete Muntean live at Chicago airport. Unless you're working like Pete Muntean, and it is OK, because you're not stranded there.

But Pete, what are you hearing from travelers who are desperately trying to get home to their families?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, yesterday travelers told me they were just trying to get out ahead of the storm. Today, things -- you put it perfectly, Don -- they're going to get a lot more desperate as this storm moves to the East.

Look at the numbers, the latest cancellation numbers from FlightAware. We just hit the 3,000 cancellation mark nationwide. That is way worse than what we saw yesterday; 5,400 delays so far yesterday [SIC]. Yesterday we saw 2,600 cancellations nationwide. So way, way worse today than yesterday.

Passengers are in for a really hard one. Topping the cancellations right now, New York LaGuardia. About a third of all flights have been canceled or delayed. At Seattle, that's in the No. 2 spot. Detroit, which is a huge hub for Delta, 42 percent of all flights there have been canceled.

Passengers are just scrambling to try and re-put together their plans. I talked to one woman last night here at O'Hare who had three flights canceled, ultimately left Midway nearby and took an Uber here. Listen to her now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:00]

MICHELLE DAWSON, RETURNING HOME TO FLORIDA: It's really frustrating, but I'm just glad that I was able to get here. The Uber ride took me an hour and 45 minutes to get here from -- from Midway to O'Hare. And you've just got to do what you got to do just to get home for the holidays.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: I got a behind-the-scenes look at United Airlines Operations Center, where they're scrambling to try and keep these trips together and reroute passengers to other major connecting airports.

O'Hare here is the biggest hub for United Airlines, so they're trying to get folks to other airports so their trips simply stay together. The big issue now, United says, is not necessarily the snow but the

cold. That makes it especially hard for ground crews to work. Simply getting the airplane pushed back from the gate will be difficult. And temperatures here in Chicago right now, it is negative 8 degrees Fahrenheit. The high today, 1 degree Fahrenheit -- Don.

LEMON: My gosh. Look at all the people behind you. It's 5 a.m., and that place --

MUNTEAN: Yes.

LEMON: -- is packed. Five a.m. In Chicago, 6 a.m. here. All right, Pete.

MUNTEAN: Yes. All right.

LEMON: Good luck to you. We'll check back. Thank you very much.

You know, the storm is hitting Cleveland, Ohio, really hard right now. Tiarra Braddock from CNN's affiliate, WOIO, just filed this report for us. Check it out.

No Tiarra? OK. Well, why don't we go to Polo Sandoval? What do you think?

SIDNER: Sounds like a good idea, because he's in Buffalo, New York, where the wind chill is --

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIARRA BRADDOCK, WOIO REPORTER: Good morning. I'm Tiarra Braddock from 19 News in Cleveland, Ohio.

I want to give you an update on the conditions that we're seeing out here this morning.

We are on 480, one of the main highways in the Cleveland area. As you can see, it is snow covered out here. People have been taking it slow, as they should.

What we are worried about right now at this time and throughout the day is the ice and the wind. With the wind comes a lot of snow blowing onto the highway, which will also make it very hard for you to see.

And it's very, very cold, and the temperatures will keep dropping throughout the day, making those roads slicker and harder for you to stop.

So as we've been saying throughout the day and out the morning, please be careful out here.

I'm going to send it back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. SIDNER: All right. Let's bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval, live from Buffalo, New York, where the wind chill, 26 degrees; and a state of emergency is set to go into effect in the next hour.

Polo, I'm sorry you're out there. What's it like?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is actually a balmy 38 degrees right now. That forecast that you mentioned, that's what people here are getting ready for.

And I'm glad we can kind of show viewers their official before picture. That's because the core of the system. It's still about 80 miles West of where we are, not far from the waterfront there on Lake Erie in Buffalo, New York. But it is closing in.

So the conditions here, the streets quite drivable, a light drizzle. All of that going to change dramatically. That's because authorities here on the ground are stressing the wind factor here. It's just going to be a freezing and a flooding threat.

And that's why there are some communities not far from where I'm standing this morning where people have been asked to evacuate, with lake levels expected to be some of the highest they've been in over 30 years.

So that gives you a sense of that state of emergency that is just kicking this very hour. So this is really the very first -- not even the very first act. It's 38 degrees here in Buffalo. We're going to end, Don and Sara, with about 16, 18 degrees. And that's not even factoring the wind chill.

The timing of all this is critical here. This is going to be before Christmas Eve. Governor Kathy Hochul recognizing that this is typically when people are going to be traveling out, at least by land.

So the governor, Sara and Don, asking New Yorkers, especially here in Western New York, to resist that urge and simply stay in place.

Back to you.

SIDNER: It's always hard, and people always do it, but man, that is truly cold. Polo Sandoval, I don't feel so guilty now that I know it's 38 degrees. Thanks a lot.

LEMON: So Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, has declared a state of emergency as frigid temperatures descend on his state. The city of Atlanta opening up two warming centers ahead of the historic chill this weekend, helping those living on the streets.

So let's head right over to meteorologist Allison Chinchar in Atlanta this morning.

Allison, good morning to you. This is pretty cold for Atlanta. How low will the temperatures get?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So temperatures here are going to get down into the single digits. Then you have to factor in the wind on top of that, so that feels like temperature will get down into negative numbers.

The thing is, this is cold for people in Atlanta. We're not used to this type of weather. And it's going to get even colder. The temperatures begin to drop today. They will bottom out tomorrow. This could end up being the coldest Christmas Eve on record for Atlanta, certainly the coldest we've had in about 30 years.

And just to kind of show you, this is a towel. It is rock solid, frozen, because of how much the temperatures have dropped. But also we had rain overnight last night, so that's going to be a concern along the -- along the roads for cars. Sidewalks, things like that.

[06:10:08]

Because anywhere there is standing water, that will have frozen overnight tonight. So any travelers coming through the city are going to have to give themselves some extra time on the roadways so that they don't end up having any accidents with some of that black ice.

Again, we talked about how cold it is here, but it's also cold elsewhere. Taking a look across the country. Again, you can see this map showing all the places where you have the wind-chill alerts. And it stretches pretty much across much of this -- much of the country.

Again, as we take a look through the rest of it, you'll notice that, again, this is going to continue to spread off to the East. The cold temperatures we're talking about. But also the potential for snow, that is also going to be there, too.

So that's going to be another concern, too. Is it's the combination of the cold air and then the snow that's coming down. Polo talked about the snow that's going to be coming across Buffalo. But it's not the only location.

Wind is also going to be a factor. So any of that snow that comes down, it's going to be blowing across the roadways, things like that, reducing visibility even more.

And then here's a look at where we anticipate a lot of that snow to come. So still, even places like New York, Washington D.C., a lot of interior New England also looking at some areas of snow over the next 24 to 48 hours.

LEMON: So don't go outside unless you really have to. Thank you, Allison Chinchar. We'll check back in.

CHINCHAR: Yes.

LEMON: Appreciate it -- Sara.

SIDNER: Now to some other news. New this morning, the final January 6th report is out. I'm holding it up, because it's massive. We're talking 845 pages. It's like a weight.

And the conclusion: only one man is ultimately responsible for the January 6th attack. That person, former President Donald Trump.

CNN's Paula Reid joins me now.

There's a lot in this report. I know that lots of people are going through and trying to get all of the details. Can you give us some details on some of the new things that maybe we hadn't heard during the -- while the committee was still going?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, let's start with what was happening at the state level, because what's so important about this report is it goes well beyond what happened on January 6th.

And it looks at efforts by former President Trump and his associates leading up to the Capitol attack.

So the report concludes that, in an effort to overturn election results in key states, Trump and his inner circle engaged in at least 200 attempts to pressure state officials.

And it concludes that Trump spearheaded outreach in states where he'd lost but where there were GOP legislatures, including in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

And of course, we've report on the January 2nd call between Trump and Georgia's secretary of state, where Trump went through a litany of false election claims and then asked the secretary to deliver him a second term by finding just enough votes to ensure a victory.

Now, a Georgia special grand jury is looking into Trump's efforts to interfere in that state's election. So it's really significant, because there could have criminal consequences for that aspect on a state level.

SIDNER: So Paula, the report sheds new light on communication between the White House and Trump attorney John Eastman. What more did you learn there?

REID: It's a great question, Sara. Because in addition to the states, you're also looking at these efforts to pressure his own vice president to overturn the overall results ahead of January 6th.

And Eastman, John Eastman is a key figure in all of this. He is the conservative attorney who authored a now-infamous memo, detailing step for step how then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 election results.

And the report reveals that Eastman actually reached out to speak to Trump on December 23rd, and that's the same day he drafted his initial memo on this Pence theory.

And at the time, according to evidence uncovered by the committee, Eastman told a Trump assistant that he just wanted to update the president on "our" overall strategic thinking.

And the committee wrote that Eastman received a call from the White House switch board. That call lasted about 23 minutes.

And Sara, you may remember, Trump really latched onto Eastman's theory as he pressured Pence to block the certification of the electoral results.

Now, in addition to the criminal referrals that the committee made earlier this week, the committee is also calling for lawyers involved in these efforts to overturn the election to be held accountable.

SIDNER: Now, the report also zeros in on Trump's failure to -- to act during the riot. We know there was a long time before he said anything. What can you tell us about that?

REID: Yes. They lay out how he watched the riot on television and made no calls for security assistance. And resisted efforts by staffers asking him to call off his supporters.

And White House staffers described to the committee just being appalled that, as the Capitol under attack, Trump fired off a tweet criticizing his own vice president.

SIDNER: So what happens next? What kind of teeth does this committee have? What happens to all of the recommendations that they made?

REID: So among the recommendations, the committee says that Trump should be barred from ever holding office again.

[06:15:00]

Now, something else that they have also recommended: they're calling on Congress to pass an overhaul of the 1887 Electoral Count Act. That's aimed at making it harder to overturn a certified presidential election.

And that, Sara, that actually could happen. The House and Senate have each passed their own version of that legislation.

Now, going forward, the committee will continue to release transcripts, witness interviews that they've been conducting behind closed doors.

Then all this really lands in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith as he continues his investigation. But there's so much more in that massive report that you held up earlier. Everyone should go and read our full story on the web. There's so much more in our report.

But Sara, as you know, it takes a village to cover a historic report like this. So I want to give a shout-out to our team: Zachary Cohen, Annie Grayer, Jeremy Herb, Tierney Sneed, Devan Cole, Geneva Sands, Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Marshall Cohen, Dan Berman, and of course, our fearless leader, Adam Levine.

They have been working for the past several days around the clock, waiting for this report, which didn't come in on time, to make sure that we had accurate reporting. And all their great reporting over that past year and a half helped them pull out the highlights for us so we could share them with you this morning.

SIDNER: I know those folks well, and I know they do a good job. This is why it took that many people to go through this report.

REID: Yes.

SIDNER: It's no joke. It's like a Tolstoy novel. Thank you so much, Paula Reid.

LEMON: I read every single bit of it.

SIDNER: You did? You stayed up all night and you read it?

LEMON: Yes.

SIDNER: OK. Well, I'll ask you some of the details. I'll get -- I'll get the Cliff Notes.

LEMON: You know I'm lying. I read the highlights.

SIDNER: You were hiding from this.

LEMON: Yes, I was.

SIDNER: You were hiding from the blizzard conditions --

LEMON: Yes.

SIDNER: -- and subzero temperatures that are making clearing the roads a herculean task. Look at that gentleman out there. We'll discuss with an Iowa snow administrator trying to keep drivers safe.

Plus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people altogether are usually in here at night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Altogether, 135 has been our greatest number. We don't have the capacity for the demand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And the crisis on the Southern border, migrants packing into shelters on the border, waiting for the end of Title 42 and the opportunity to cross into the U.S. A CNN report on their long and dangerous journey, that's straight ahead this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not like a snow day, you know, when you're a kid. This is serious stuff. Please, take this storm extremely seriously. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:20:01]

LEMON: He is right. Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING.

Strong warnings coming from the president of the United States and officials all across the nation as a once-in-a-generation storm delivers snow, wind, ice and frigid temperatures this Christmas weekend.

And my next guest knows the challenges of snow removal and subzero temperatures. He says stay off the road and stay home. That is good advice.

His name is Steve Johnson. There he is. He's the snow administrator for the city of Des Moines, Iowa, where it's now 9 degrees below zero, and the wind chill is 37 below zero this morning.

Oh, my gosh. Steve, good morning to you. I'm glad that you're inside.

STEVE JOHNSON, SNOW ADMINISTRATOR, CITY OF DES MOINES, IOWA: Good morning.

LEMON: I hope everybody is inside like you.

JOHNSON: Yes.

LEMON: These are blizzard warnings. They're in effect for most of Iowa, and the weather is going to make travel nearly impossible. Can you just -- I'm sure you can't even underscore just how dangerous the roads are right now?

JOHNSON: It's crazy. And the challenges we have right now is normal -- normally during snow operations, you can put salt down and melts a lot of -- and it will clean off the road for you.

But when it's this cold, you can't do that. So basically, we -- we do the best we can to keep the snow off, keep the drifts -- keep the drifts down, and provide the safest opportunity for people to drive. But basically, it would be best if you stay home right now.

SIDNER: You know, there are a lot of people who do have to go to work. They are going to take to the roads.

JOHNSON: Yes.

SIDNER: I know it happens every time. Is there anything you can tell folks about going out into the roads and what they should be doing to try and be as safe as possible, if they do have to go out there?

JOHNSON: Well, definitely you know, in Iowa, we're used to driving in conditions like this. But sometimes you have to you know, go slow, follow the laws of -- laws and rules of the road, but also just take your time. If it normally takes you 15 minutes, then take -- allow for half an hour. Like, even this morning, it took me -- took me a little longer to get

in this morning than it normally does. But just budget more time, stay back from vehicles in front of you farther. If you see a stop sign coming up, start braking a little earlier.

Most importantly, though, when you're out in weather like this, and I was telling my son last night, you know, bring clothes with you, bring additional stuff with you, bring the safety supplies with you. Because you never know what's going to happen. And you're going to be on -- you may be on the road for a lot longer than you -- you wanted to be.

LEMON: Yes. Listen, I think it's a perfect excuse. It's -- I couldn't get you a present -- I'm serious -- because of the conditions. That is a legitimate excuse.

I mean, look, the officials in Iowa, they are bracing for -- the conditions are there are wind gusts of 50 miles per hour, the wind chill's about to 40 below freezing.

SIDNER: Horrible.

JOHNSON: Yes.

LEMON: And just frostbite in that condition. Just say your car does stop, right, and you know, you lose power, whatever.

JOHNSON: Yes.

LEMON: You can get frostbite within a matter of minutes.

JOHNSON: Yes. Any exposed skin. You know, it can become a very serious situation very quickly. People don't understand that.

But when it's this cold, any exposed skin won't take long before you do have a very serious situation, and then it's hard to recover from that.

So I tell my boys when they go outside, I say, Hey, guys, it's pants weather. When you get negative, you have to wear pants. You can't wear your shorts to the bus stop any more.

LEMON: Right on.

SIDNER: I don't know. Iowans are pretty tough, though. I have seen some scenes where I'm surprised.

JOHNSON: Yes, we are.

LEMON: Forty below, though.

JOHNSON: Yes.

LEMON: That's --

SIDNER: No, you don't mess with that.

LEMON: So Steve Johnson. Steve is the snow administrator for the city of Des Moines.

JOHNSON: Yes, sir.

LEMON: We appreciate it. Hey, Merry Christmas to you.

JOHNSON: Yes, sir.

LEMON: You and your family.

JOHNSON: And you. Merry Christmas to you. Take care.

SIDNER: Almost every part of the country, by the way, is bracing for those below-freezing temperatures, putting a lot of people at risk for things like hypothermia, obviously, catching a cold, and other health problems.

Joining us now with medical advice to stay safe and healthy is CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Good morning, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Sara.

In this kind of extreme cold, you really do need to be careful. So let's talk about who is most vulnerable.

So infants and elderly, they are the most at risk. They have the hardest time keeping their temperature up when the temperature -- when the temperatures outside are going -- are getting cold.

Also, remember, that cold can put stress on the heart. So people with heart conditions need to be especially careful with this kind of weather.

Also extreme cold aggravates asthma and other lung diseases. So even people where it's very much in control most of the time, need to be thinking, where's my inhaler; where are my emergency medications; what am I going to do if I get stuck in this cold -- Sara, Don.

LEMON: So here's the thing. I've often been told you don't get a cold from being cold. You didn't -- I said I got sick because I slept on the floor in the draft or whatever.

But now there's a recent study, Elizabeth, that helps explain why being cold gives us colds. Because I was always told, you know, for the entire 35 years that I've been on this earth --

[06:25:00]

SIDNER: OK, Don.

LEMON: -- that that was a myth; you don't get colds from being cold. So what's up with that?

SIDNER: You know your mom is watching, so be careful.

LEMON: I know. My fingers are crossed. But that's not true. COHEN: Don -- Don, I will tell you that you're right. No, you're

right, and those myths are wrong. And there's a study recently that came out. It was really fascinated -- fascinating what these researchers did.

They looked at what happens to the cells inside your nose when the temperature goes down. The cells inside your nose, you can think of them as sort of like the first line of defense against germs. These are highly-specialized cells that know what to do when germs arrive.

And they don't -- they don't perform very well when it's cold. When it's cold, they just don't do their jobs as well.

And so it really is true that, when it gets really cold outside, your body cannot handle things quite as well; and you are more vulnerable to getting colds and other kinds of upper respiratory diseases.

LEMON: All right. Happy holidays to you, Elizabeth Cohen. We'll see you soon. Thank you very much.

A former Trump White House aide says that she felt pressured by Trump's allies to lie to the January 6th panel. Why she considered risking contempt.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Santos is -- had too much mail (ph) to the Republicans in Congress. It's up to them to decide what to do now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighing on incoming Republican Congressman George Santos after numerous inconsistencies discovered on his resume. Now he says he plans to set the record straight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)