♪ ♪ love is all you need ♪ love is all you need ♪ ♪ oh yeah ♪ she loves you yeah yeah yeah ♪ she loves you yeah yeah yeah ♪ love is all you need the details of the closed door meeting now public. the transcript of the interview with the fired fbi director james comey. plus, the revolving door at the white house keeps on spinning. this time the chief of staff john kelly on his way out the door. also ahead this hour, the yellow vest protesters demand the french president step down and now emmanuel macron appears to address the nation. live from cnn headquarters in atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm george howell. the "cnn newsroom" starts right now.

at 4:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast, we start with the man who once led the fbi and was fired by the u.s. president grilled by republicans on capitol hill. and now transcripts show exactly what james comey had to say and whether republicans were able to poke holes into his testimony.

an audio issue off the top there, but we are back. welcome back to viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm george howell at cnn world headquarters in atlanta. again, we start with the man who once led the fbi, inspired by the u.s. president, grilled by republicans on capitol hill, and now transcripts show exactly what james comey had to say. our laura jarrett has details for you. >> reporter: in over six hours of testimony, the former fbi director went over familiar territory about the beginnings of the fbi's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election, saying he bet his life the special council robert mueller's handling the right way

and suggesting you would have to almost fire everyone in the fbi and the justice department to derail the relevant investigations at this point. but comey also fact checked the president on this claim that he somehow best friends with robert mueller saying, quote, i have never hugged or kissed the man and, quote, i admire the heck out of the man, but i don't know his phone number, i've never been to his house, i don't know his children's names. and while comey's testimony did not shed new light about his views on whether the president obstructed justice, in his firing last year, the testimony from another senior official at the fbi, former general counsel james baker describes how those at the highest level of the fbi were seriously concerned about comey's firing and finally comey was also asked to weigh in on bill barr, president trump's pick for the next attorney general. and he said he thinks very highly of him, joking that, quote, i probably just dammed him by saying he's a friend of mine but i respect him and i think he certainly is fit to be

attorney general. laura jarrett, cnn, washington. >> laura, thank you. now as for mr. trump, he is now looking for chief of staff number three. his current one being shown the door. general john kelly out of the job by the end of the year. kelly first worked for the president as secretary of homeland security, then became chief of staff and he moved into that role to add discipline and order to the white house. his relationship with the president steadily deteriorated. on saturday, mr. trump said kelly is a great guy and thanked him for his service. listen. >> john kelly will be leaving at the end of the year. we'll be announcing who will be taking john's place. it might be on an interim basis. i'll be announcing that over the next day or two. but john will be leaving at the end of the year. he's been with me almost two years now as you know, between the two positions. so we're probably fgoing to see him in a little while.

>> kelly's time as chief of staff had its fair share of controversy. ryan nobles looks back at kelly's embattled tenure. >> reporter: john kelly, the former marine corps general, was expected to bring a military style sense of order to the white house. >> as chief of staff. >> that's right, sir. >> reporter: kelly quickly reined in access to the president, tried to control who could call trump directly and played a big role in staffing. as evidence of his quick disposal of former communications director anthony scaramucci. something scaramucci is still sore over as evidence from this interview on nbc's "meet the press". >> he hurt the president. he has hissy fits. >> reporter: within weeks, kelly had to confront a series of controversial moves by president trump that left the white house reeling. in the wake of the racially charged riots in charlottesville, kelly was photographed in the background of trump tower looking dower as trump spoke. >> i think there is blame on both sides and i have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it either.

>> reporter: kelly had urged the president to offer a more forceful condemnation of the white supremacists involved, but trump did not take the advice. the relationship really started to unravel during the public relations disaster following rob porter. porter was accused of abuse by two ex-wives. kelly initially defended him. the president perm lpersonally blamed the chief of staff. president repeatedly sang kelly's praises on twitter and pushed back on reports he was unhappy with his work. >> he's doing a great job. he will be here in my opinion for the entire seven remaining years. >> reporter: behind the scenes, it was a different story. and bob woodward's book fear, the veteran journalist quotes kelly as describing trump as a, quote, idiot and also said, we're in crazy town, i don't even know why any of us are here, this is the worst job i've ever had. kelly later called that quote bs

and trump said publicly he believed him. there are public pronouncements aside, the tension inside the west wing was obvious. kelly recently got into a heated shouting match with national security adviser john bolton and now that it may be finally the end of his tenure, kelly and the president are no longer speaking. for kelly, leaving this job may actually come as a welcome relief. >> the last thing i wanted to do is walk away from one of the great honors of my life being the secretary of homeland security, but i did something wrong and god punished me, i guess. >> reporter: ryan nobles, cnn, washington. let's talk more about this now with peter matthews. pet peter joining us via skype at this hour. thank you for your time. >> you're welcome. >> let's start with the former fbi director james comey's testimony. how much impact do you believe it will have and did we really learn anything new there? >> nothing new, but it was reiteration of it was very good because it showed that the rule

of law is extremely important, not just for comey, but for all of us. and comey warned us about getting numb on the rule of attack on the rule of law. president is interested in just going after hillary clinton's e-mails once again, quite a contrast there between comey's approach and the republican leadership on the committees. >> with regards, though, to comey's comments about robert mueller, that if mueller were fired, that it wouldn't derail the investigations, or would the impact in your view be more significant? >> i think he's got a point because mr. mueller has farmed out a lot of the work to places that can't be touched, the southern district of new york, they have got a lot of information he's already given to them, they're already acting on it. if he were to be fired, there are other avenues that have been opened and institutions that are working forward on this issue and investigation will not stop and i think that mr. trump is still -- will still be in jeopardy for what he's done. i'm not worried about comey

getting -- i mean mueller getting fired. >> another big headline out of the trump white house is that the chief of staff, john kelly, is on his way out the door. this revolving door out of the trump white house. the two reportedly are not even speaking to each other, peter. how big of an impact will this have on the trump white house in your view? >> well, it is going to have an impact because he was brought in, the chief of staff was brought in to bring stability to the white house and for a while he did that. he was able to make sure that people coming in to meet the president were cleared for it and it was all organized but the president had a freestyle winging it type of mannemanner, didn't like that type of organization and that's why they clashed, they clashed on the process and procedures of this. i think it can happen again, even with a new chief of staff, the president's personality is such that he is not into having an organized, methodical way of doing things.

that can be a problem, completely unsettled white house once again, no matter who is in the chief of staff position. >> you talk about the various investigations being farmed out into different places. let's focus on those core filings. and the new insight we get into the investigations. it shows there is a lot of smoke for sure and goes as far as implicating individual number one as the alleged mastermind that led criminal activity, individual one, we understand, is the president of the united states. but a lot of smoke, peter, but is there a smoking gun from what you see? >> i think we have come the closest to having a smoking gun at this point. as the term unindicted co-conspirator comes to mind because that what happened at watergate, the watergate grand jury labeled president nixon as an unindicted co-speakconspirat which means someone with someone else to commit a crime or achieve a legal end, he directed

cohen, according to cohen, and i think that the southern district of new york attorneys would not even put this forth in the terminology if they didn't have corroborating evidence. it is very serious right now because if he conspired with cohen to pay off stormy daniels, and to pay off miss mcdouscdoug that's a serious crime, as close as we come to a smoking gun. >> we appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you, george. we now know that the president's son-in-law and senior adviser jared kushner has reportedly been advising the saudi crown prince privately since the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. all of this according to "the new york times reporting." the saudis deny the crown prince played any role in khashoggi's

murder, but last week u.s. senators came out a classified briefing saying the crown prince was behind it. ana cabrera spoke with one of the reporters who broke the khashoggi story. listen. >> since khashoggi's killing, we report that he's continued these messaging conversations with mohammed bin salman and some of the advice he's given is unclear, but it is our understanding that he has been advising him to settle some of his problems in the region, within the kingdom, avoiding mistakes, that clearly the killing of khashoggi was more than a mistake, but he's trying -- he sees mbs as someone who is the future and i think an important ally of the united states. >> the reported one on one conversations and text messages between kushner and the crown prince were an apparent disregard of white house protocols that require a member of the national security staff

to be included in any communications with foreign officials. the white house did not respond to cnn's request for comment, but a spokesperson told the new york times this, jared has always meticulously followed protocols and guidelines regarding the relationship with mohammed bin salman and all of the other foreign officials with whom he interacts, end quote. the saudis have offered varying and sometimes contradictory accounts of khashoggi's killing from the day he disappeared after he went into the saudi consulate in istanb istanbul. they further denied he was missing. only later did they admit he was dead, the white house and u.s. state department say the u.s. has not reached a conclusion, but last month the cia assessed khashoggi's murder that it was personally ordered by the crown prince, mohammed bin salman. we're following the story in paris, the streets there open for business this day. a day after thousands of yellow vest protesters took over the

city center. some clashed with police and were met with tear gas, met with water cannons and rubber bullets. protesters are angry with the french president and his economic policies and they have been demanding his resignation. let's go live to the french capital, melissa bell standing by on the story. what a difference a day makes. businesses there open today. >> reporter: that's right. we're over here on the champs-elysees, beneath me the shops that had all their fronts boarded up, taking the boards down, businesses are opening once again in paris and a cleanup operation is under way. but, of course, this is also a moment for the government to reflect on what went on for the yellow vest movement also to take stock of what happened yesterday. and i think a few important points. we just have been listening to the french government spokesman say violence was down last saturday, the tension was down, and that certainly is what we saw in the streets, cars were torched, tear gas and rubber

bulleted used by the police to disperse protesters. we saw several skirmishes but nothing like the violence of the week before. that speaks to that difference in the police strategy. much more proactive, many more arrests, fwtwice as many as las saturday. a definite attempt on the part of the authorities to keep that violence down to minimum levels. and yet the yellow vest protesters faced this question, would they manage to keep the momentum up in terms of the numbers, the answer is yes, 136,000 protested nationwide, the same figure as last week. so still they have managed to keep this pressure up on the government. we await to hear now what the french president emmanuel macron will have to announce tomorrow in terms of measures that might go some way to answering that key demand, what has become their crucial demand, which is the problem with the cost of living. they want measures from the government, the yellow vest protesters, to help them make ends meet. and that is what we're looking

to the french president to announce tomorrow and interesting to see how far in their direction he's willing to go. >> melissa, you're touching on this, but, again, we expect to hear from the french president soon, but is there a sense that emmanuel macron is reactive, that he is open to hearing what these protesters have to say. >> i think definitely these last few days the tone from the government has changed and until last week there had been this very definitive sort of we will not bow down to this pressure message from the authorities. that changed this week when the french prime minister in the front line of this until now announced for us the suspension of the controversial fuel tax hike that had been at the start of all this, on november 17th and then its cancellation all together. he then met with some yellow vest protesters on friday afternoon. but there has been a deliberate strategy on the part of the government to leave the french president to after all this had finished so he could speak to

the french people without making things worse. and trying to improve things going forward. it is going to be important that he speaks at all, he's been accused of not having heard the protesters enough, not having found the right tone so far or indeed of having addressed the issue enough, certainly not enough from the point of view of the yellow vest protesters. so will he find the words tomorrow? will he find the tone, will he find the measures to appease them. the fact is he's beginning at least to try to do some of that. >> melissa, the other question, will he find even a representative to stand for the protesters because it seems that there is no organized central representative, so the french government certainly focused on trying to understand, respond and react to what these protesters have to say. melas w melissa bell, live for us in paris, thank you for the reporting. let's talk more about this with bruno catret, joining us via skype, from tunisia.

thank you for being on the show today. >> thank you. >> bruno, given what we saw on the streets of paris the other day, where do you see this movement going from here? >> it is pretty difficult to predict exactly, we know that the mobilization level is still very large. the level of violence on yesterday was much weaker than a week before, but the level of mobilization remains quite high. if you hear what those people are saying, they continue to ask emmanuel macron not only -- not only the question of the cost of living, now it is much more political. they would like to talk about the decision-making of emmanuel macron, would like to talk about social inequalities, social justice. so it start to be much, much, more political perspective than in the beginnings. >> let's talk about how this started, again, these protesters pushing back against a fuel tax

which would have effectively helped to support france's goals on climate change. we even saw the u.s. president throwing some water on this, on twitter. he essentially said people don't want to pay large sums of money in order to maybe, he says, protect the environment. but what does this say about the will of working people to pay for the clean economy and if not through tax, how can governments adjust to reach these goals? >> you know, it is not like -- it is not like only france. i think that in most industrial societies and countries we have exactly the same conflict. the basic conflict is economy, ecology. emmanuel macron decided to do ecology first, but ignoring the cost, the question of the cost. people are ready to face that, the ordinary citizens don't want to be the only one to pay. and then you have the question

of taxing the rich, emmanuel macron, the beginnings, decided to remove special tax on the rich and yellow vests are claiming macron do it back. tax the rich, not us first. >> so the french president, of course, he did back down from this fuel tax. the protests though continue. here is the question, is there a sense that emmanuel macron is handling this situation effectively? is he listening to what these protesters have to say, or does he find himself in a very vulnerable position now? >> you know, emmanuel macron would say his back to the wall. if he wants to set a mandate, it is just that, saving the mandate of emmanuel macron, big question today, i think that emmanuel macron must show himself to be more modest, to eventually recognize communication, but also in policy choices.

i would say maybe that emmanuel macron is probably back to second mandate. first mandate is probably something over. emmanuel macron needs to reinvent himself. going to be a very tough task because the image of emmanuel macron is clearly damaged by this situation, by this amazing crisis that we have seen in france in more than three weeks. >> help our viewers understand the composition of the protests that we're seeing. again, these yell yow vests and they're required, french people to keep them within their cars in the event of an emergency, the yellow vests represent this movement and bruno what we're seeing, it seems to be the far right getting involved, far left getting involved, working class people getting involved, talking about economic, talking about social issues, help us to understand the composition.

>> the composition is probably far left than far right but not only. not only. you need to go back to the first round of the presidential election if you want to understand what is going on. just remember on the first round of the presidential election, the far left got 20, le pen got 21, so 41% of the french vote for extreme choices on the first round of the election. and emmanuel macron probably made a mistake in ignoring the first round, just concentrating on the second round against marie le pen. it has gone from the far left, the far right, but not only. you have much more citizens than the far left and the far right. and it is basically the question of inequalities, social justice, the cost of living, typically left issues actually -- the level of left demand the french

public is amazingly high, actually. >> thank you again for your time and perspective. we'll keep in touch with you. >> thanks. 1.5 degrees, if the earth's average temperature rises any more than that, the results could be disastrous. nations are coming together in poland, working to keep global warming under 2 degrees, but experts warn that target may be tough to reach. not ambitious enough. above 1.5 degrees over preindustrial levels, the impact of climate change grows exponentially. cnn is exploring the consequences of past inaction and how what comes next could be much worse if warming doesn't stop at that critical threshold. cnn investigates a key and often

overlooked cause of greenhouse gases that contributes to global warming. our senior international correspondent nick paton walsh went to my home state, texas, to the world's beef capital, with this report. >> what do you eat? what does it cost you? the planet, your children's future, how does it affect our struggle to limit global warming to just 1.5 degrees celsius. texas is the beef capital of america. the world. meat was once a luxury but now the core of life here, a tribal symbol. meet the steer, the mascot. the grill out, burger, sausage, steak, ribs, excess is the point. this amphitheater of teenage dreams glows now, but it is for a generation who may see the excesses, these heights of

everything being everywhere and cheap end in their lifetime. >> i'll think about it this way, half a pound of beef causes as much green house gas to be emitted as driving 55 of these cars for one mile. if mankind were on this planet, for the length of this football game, it would have this much time left at the game to fix it. >> the backdrop there, the university of texas, fascinating report from our nick paton walsh. we'll continue to follow this very important story. it is a familiar line from the u.s. president. donald trump says new court documents prove he didn't conspire with russia, but the filings, well, they tell a different story. we'll have details on that ahead for you. plus, a brexit cliffhanger at the cliffs of dover. why the port town is feeling anxious about leaving the eu.

welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. you're watching "cnn newsroom" live from atlanta. i'm george howell with the headlines we're following for you this hour. the u.s. congress has released the transcript of the tense closed door meeting between lawmakers and the fired fbi director james comey. while he refused to answer some questions on the russia probe, he did say if special counsel robert mueller was fired, the investigation would go on. the u.s. president says chief of staff john kelly is out of a job by the end of the year. the retired general was brought in to restore order and discipline at the white house nearly two years ago. mr. trump says he will name kelly's successor in the coming

days. the new york times reports president trump's son-in-law jared kushner has been privately communicating with the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman since the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi, reportedly telling the crown prince one on one conversations how to weather the storm caused by the killing. in france, yellow vest protesters say the french president emmanuel macron isn't doing enough to tackle economic inequality for the country. more than 130,000 people marched in a fourth straight weekend of demonstrations on saturday. in paris, some protesters clashed with police, they were met with tear gas and rubber bullets there. now back to the various investigations around the trump white house. u.s. president says he's done nothing illegal. this after court filings that implicate him in two felonies before the 2016 presidential election. according to those documents filed on friday, mr. trump's former attorney michael cohen broke campaign finance laws when

he paid off two women who each claimed that they had affairs with mr. trump. here's the important part, the filings say that cohen paid the women at the direction of donald trump. the president says he never directed cohen to commit any election related crimes, he also spoke about special counsel robert mueller's investigation. listen. >> on the mueller situation, we're very happy with what we are reading because there was no collusion whatsoever. there never has been. the last thing i want is help from russia on a campaign, very one sided situation, but i think it is all turning around very nicely. but as far as the report that we see, according to everybody i've spoken to, i have not read it, there is absolutely no collusion, which is very important. >> legally there is a lot to parse through here and to do so let's bring in former u.s. attorney harry litman joining us

via skype from san diego this hour. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me, george. >> i would like to focus in on the op-ed you wrote in "usa today" shaying the information learned, it casts a long shadow from the u.s. president, one key item, the issue of campaign finance violations. how serious are they? mr. trump claimed they are not a crime. is it likely congress would try to remove a president over this alone? >> well, two separate questions. are they a crime and would congress try to remove a president over it? as to the first, they're not only a crime, they're a serious crime, and the southern district of new york memorandum took some pains to spell that out. you could try to construe it as a mere bureaucratic oversight failure to file. but as the prosecutors spell out, this really undermined the

vital goal of transparency in the electoral system, kept the american people from knowing what they were buying, so to speak. and we know that both cohen and the president or then the nominee -- the candidate thought it was going to be very problematic for the candidacy and that's why they did it. so as to the crime itself, does it fit elements of campaign finance? yes. and is it a serious crime? yes. the crime itself for cohen, it has been recommended he get several years in prison. >> we know less about whether any criminal activity occurred involving the trump tower moscow project. some have argued quid pro quo, collusion, could be impossible to prove. how likely is it that any smoking gun could be found here? >> well, again, i think that's not so unlikely. and, remember, what we have from the memo from robert mueller was

simply a kind of bland and brief recitation that is a summary and an elliptical summary at that of many, many hours of full bodied testimony from michael cohen. it seems now clear that deep into the campaign, almost to the point of the convention, both cohen and the then candidate trump were avidly pursuing what had been a many years dream of trump to put a trump tower in moscow. and the overall scheme was to try to elect trump, have him ease the sanctions, something that the russians dearly wanted, and then have trump get the moscow tower something that he dearly wanted. even though they abandoned it

before it came to fruition, that would state under law a bribery conspiracy at least, and that is an illegal objective. >> one other thing i would like to talk about, the president saying the last thing that he would want is help from russia, but there was a moment that a lot of people remember where it shows that is not exactly true. listen. >> there was no collusion whatsoever. there never has been. the last thing i want is help from russia on a campaign. russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> remember that? besides mr. trump asking for e-mails, we also know his campaign was willing to accept help from russia because of the trump tower meeting. what do you make of the president's claim there is no evidence of collusion?

>> you know, by now, it is sort of like a wind up doll and it just -- just says it. i just don't think there is much to credit here, even after this week's revelations, which to any trump fanatic were damaging to the president, he just said yesterday, well, that clears me, thank you very much. really that was the tenor of his tweet. i think he's opted for a kind of political strategy of just pretending nothing is there. and hopes sort of emperor's new clothes, like, if he says it enough and with enough brazenness and confidence it will take with a sufficient slice of the american electorate and the senate to keep him out of hot water. >> harry litman, thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me, george.

now to the united kingdom where it is like that show deal or no deal. the british prime minister theresa may facing a key vote on tuesday as she tries to get parliament on board to approve her brexit plan. let's go live to london. cnn's hadas gold following the story in our london bureau. it seems she does not have the votes right now. >> no, george, it seems more and more theresa may is on her own as she tries to convince more members of parliament to get on board with her plan and vote in favor of that deal on tuesday. but not only does she seem on her own here in london, i went to dover, a beautiful part of southeast england which voted heavily in favor of brexit and the public there seemed just as skeptical of her deal. take a listen. the white cliffs of dover, the symbol of britain's frontier with europe, today battered by a storm. just as theresa may tries to weather political turbulence back in london. this vital port, which handled a

record 2.6 million trucks last year, could be approaching a no deal cliff's edge if parliament votes down the prime minister's deal. at a town, dock workers gather for a traditional english breakfast. and like the 62% of people who here who voted for brexit in 2016, many of them just want to leave, no matter the terms. >> there should be no revote. we stay out. >> i think theresa may's deal is a very poor one. it doesn't mean leaving. no one can understand. and we should leave, no deal. >> if the traffic is held up at dover, it will also be held up at -- how long do you think the french will put up with that. >> reporter: government officials and businesses warned of chaos, for miles of freight waiting for customs checks to bodies piling up in morgues if there is no brexit deal. no matter the outcome in london, this area will bare the brunt of

that result. but for the majority here who voted to leave the european union, just 22 miles across the channel, they just want the politicians to get on with it. out of the rain and up the road at the aster community center in deal, the monthly tea dance attracts a mix of remainers and leavers. what unites them aside from taechi in teaching newcomers how to dance, the frustrations with the brexit process. >> no deal at all. and that's fine. it is absolute nonsense because i'm old enough to remember what about nearly 40 years when we weren't in europe. we just go back to that. just go back to square one. >> unfortunately we have got the wrong prime minister, though i voted for her, but doing i think whatever happens next week, i don't think she'll get through, i think we're going to end up with a mess. >> reporter: little confidence here in theresa may's plan, remain or leave, deal or no

deal, foxtrot or the waltz, the people of southeast england are feeling out of step with the politicians. and, george, theresa may today continuing to ratchet up the alarm bells about what would happen if her deal does not pass on tuesday. she said it would cause a lot of uncertainty for the country and warned members of her own party and other members of parliament for something they might see as even worse, a labor leader like jeremy corbyn taking over as prime minister. >> a great deal of uncertainty, but, hey, at least you picked up the foxtrot. thank you for that. >> tried to. >> still ahead here on "cnn newsroom," the long wait is over for atlanta sports fans. for the first time in 23 years, they get to celebrate a championship victory. a recap of the mls title game ahead. stay with us. do i use a toothpaste that whitens my teeth or one that's good for my teeth? now i don't have to choose! from crest 3d white the whitening therapy collection with new spearmint and peppermint oil. it gently whitens,

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atlanta, a game being played at mercedes-benz stadium that everyone here was watching. atlanta united captured its first ever mls cup, the team has only been around now for two seasons, but on saturday, they beat the portland timbers ending the city of atlanta's 23 year title drought. cnn's patrick snell was there and has the story. >> in 1998, the chicago fire won the mls cup in the very first season. atlanta united have done it in just the second season and here in the home team's locker room, one very big party is just getting started. >> it is incredible. what a night here tonight. you can't say enough about it. the support that we get is incredible. it is such an awesome place to play. the facilities, the staff, the fans, everything is just top notch and hopefully it is take g

i mls to the next level. it is good for the league and we're enjoying it. >> i think when you leave england, the home of football, you think you're not quite sure how to step into it. when you come over here and see the way it is set up and attend be as and crowd every week day you're going to get, you knew it was going to be something special. it worked out well. it has been an incredible journey. hopefully the first of many to come. >> miguel, he's done so much for us. he gets us out of so much trouble. he puts the other team on their heels and joseph is the guy that finishes it off. you saw tonight. a half chance, he dribbles around the goalkeeper and finishes it off. they have done that over and over and over for two years and a culmination of all of that. >> this is up there. not every day you get to win a title, to win a championship. to be part of this, it is truly special. >> these are the celebrations and what a sendoff for martino, the club's head coach, he's

confirmed he's leaving the club at the end of the current season. and you can see why the celebrations are huge. this is also the city's first championship since 1995 and a very happy home dressing room. i'm patrick snell. >> patrick, thank you. something atlanta needed for sure. certainly after that super bowl that we just don't need to talk about. powerful winter storm is sweeping across the southern u.s. it is already dropping large amounts of snow in parts of texas, panhandle there, and threatening other states east. more on the forecast as "newsroom" continues.

welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell. a major winter storm is creating dangerous conditions for millions of people across the southern and central u.s. take a look here at the texas panhandle. this is what people in lubbock, texas, are waking up to this weekend. the city blanketed in nor than ten inches or 25 centimeters of snow in one day. that's more than lubbock usually gets in an entire year. let's talk more about all of this with karen maginnis. a lot of snow and it is moving this way. >> and when you see pictures like that, some people say, oh, i want my children to see the

snow fall. if you're planning on driving and letting kids look at the snowfall, it is going to be crazy dangerous. let's show you the pictures out of lubbock and this is the sixth time since 1911 that they have seen double digit snowfall totals for one day. and you can imagine just how treacherous this was and state troopers all across the carolinas are looking at the road conditions there. charlotte being one of those areas, want to show you how res forecast and what we anticipate that radar will look like. storm system is going to move moderately slowly. but in its wake, the rainfall and the warm sector of this system, plenty of cold air. this diving to the south on the ridge of high pressure, that low pressure system further to the south, a complex conglomeration of events taking place here. we have overrunning moisture as well as some cold air that is going to be digging in

underneath that. boone, north carolina, that 41 centimeters could translate to 16 inches of snowfall. for charlotte, i looked at it earlier, it looked like it was going to be significant snowfall. right now we're expecting maybe 3 to 5 centimeters of snowfall there. asheville, one of those areas, tucked into the piedmont, the mountains of north carolina, if you are traveling across the southern appalachians, up into the central appalachians, that's the area that will be hardest hit. power outages could be for days because this isn't just a snow event, it is a wind event. and it is also a sleet, ice, wintry mix event. and it has delayed flights to the tune of about 1300 out of the charlotte, douglas international airport. but we have seen just widespread areas where the rain has been very heavy as well. and charleston, south carolina, they're saying because of the high tide, and the heavy rainfall, downtown area of

charleston could be significantly flooded. so not just a snow event. that's the big part. but it is also a rain and wind and ice event as well, george. >> all right, we'll stay in touch with you, karen, thank you. now coming up on cnn, you'll meet ten remarkable trailblazers who have truly changed the world. the cnn heroes, their efforts will be celebrated during cnn heroes, an all-star tribute, it airs live this sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, that's monday morning, in asia, only here on cnn. and, again, thank you for being with us for "cnn newsroom" this hour. i'm george howell at the cnn center in atlanta. let's do it again. another hour of news after the break. stay with us.

did you arrest michael cohen -- >> no, no. >> denials and distractions. president trump trying to create a narrative of his oeb own. the clouds of the russia investigation are getting thicker. plus, lawmakers release the trance cry transcripts from james comey's latest hearing. what he told them in a tense closed door meeting. also hundreds of protesters detained in france as security forces try to contain the anti-government rallies across that nation. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm george howell. the "cnn newsroom" starts right w.