was, right, speaking in front of congress. everyone is going to be watching this moment today, i think all cameras, all eyes will be on zelenskyy. it reminded me of the moment, you were there covering it, do you remember when -- when boris johnson went to kyiv and they were calling that sort of a churchill moment because they were walking around the capital as the war was raging around them and i think kyiv had just been -- ukraine had just taken back kyiv from the russians, so we will see what these moments play out, how they look with the current president of the united states meeting with zelenskyy. >> yeah, just the historical parallels. they say history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes, but to see a u.s. president concerned about him coming across to address congress and now zelenskyy is doing the same. >> the security that this visit -- >> yeah. >> that's going to be a study and a big story that we are going to talk b thanks, everybody, for joining us, we appreciate it. >> we have a busy day -- >> we forgot. special guest. >> we replaced anderson cooper as the barista on set, my sister

kelsey who is her visiting. >> hi. where are we going for breakfast? >> "cnn newsroom" starts right now. very good wednesday morning to you, i'm jim sciutto. we are following several major stories this morning. there's lots of news. right now the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is en route to washington for his first foreign trip since russia invaded the country nearly ten months ago. zelenskyy expected to meet with president biden at the white house this afternoon and later deliver critical remarks to a joint session of congress on capitol hill. that is quite an honor. the visit ties the u.s. and ukraine together more indelibly than ever, they are now very public allies. the war in ukraine super power versus super power, we will discuss ahead. plus, across this country governors are activating emergency plans ahead of the

massive winter storm crossing central and midwestern states. an arctic blast bringing bitterly cold temperatures to much of the u.s. by the end of the week. a so-called bomb cyclone set to bring blizzard conditions as well. we will have more on what you need to expect. and former president donald trump's tax returns will be made public in just days. this after the house ways and means committee on a party line vote decided to make public six years' worth of returns, claiming the irs failed to properly audit trump while he was in office. we begin, though, in washington where preparations are under way at both the white house and on capitol hill for the visit from the ukrainian president zelenskyy. let's begin with cnn's senior white house correspondent mj lee. this was quite an announcement yesterday. what more are we learning about what's expected to be accomplished beyond the grand symbolism in zelenskyy's meeting

with biden. >> reporter: in just a matter of hours we do expect to see volodymyr zelenskyy on u.s. soil. this is the wartime president who really more than anybody else has come to singularly represent the ukrainian resistance to russian aggression and this really marks the first time that the ukrainian president has left his country since that invasion began back in february and what we learned overnight is that the planning has been under way for this secret visit for the last ten days or so, that the two sides have been really working together to make sure that certain security parameters that zelenskyy thought were necessary were met and cnn reported this morning that a u.s. military aircraft was used to bring zelenskyy to washington and that the u.s. really was closely involved in both getting him out of ukraine and will be involved in getting him eventually back to ukraine this evening. he's really not going to be staying long, jim. he comes to the white house, this afternoon, and then in the evening he heads over to capitol

hill to deliver an address to u.s. lawmakers. i just want you to take a listen to what nes spokesperson john kirby said on our air this morning about the overall purpose and timing of this visit. >> the president really believed that as we approach winter, as we enter clearly and have been in a 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 not 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. >> reporter: and what exactly does "just peace" look like? that is the huge unanswered questions. u.s. officials do not feel like diplomacy is on the table, at least not right now in the short term. i will also just quickly note that president biden is set to unveil a new ukraine aid package of $1.8 billion. that of course involves a patriot missile system that

ukrainians have been asking for so long. jim? >> and they're asking for more as well. mj lee at the white house, thanks so much. zelenskyy's trip here to washington comes at a critical time. winter is impacting the battlefield, speed of the movement of troops and continuing russian missile strikes are targeting ukrainian power infrastructure truly impacting the ukrainian people every day. cnn's will ripley is in western ukraine with more on the considerations behind this trip. i wonder, will, what is the reaction there? >> reporter: jim, within hours of ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy tweeting that he was on his way to the united states air raid sirens sounded across ukraine. now, that's pretty much commonplace every single day here in this war torn country, but what makes today different sths the first time zelenskyy has left ukraine since the start of the full scale invasion on february 24. the conversation is supportive of zelenskyy's trip to washington at a time when president joe biden is set to announce billions more in

defense spending, including the coveted patriot defense system that ukraine has been asking for for years. zelenskyy will be meeting with lawmakers, holding bilateral meetings and then that prime time address with congress where he is expected to make his case for ukraine's support for the long maul. he faces a quandary going into 2023, analysts say. there is pressure from the west, from the united states and nato at least some -- some factions in the u.s. and nato to try to find a resolution to this con conflict, to end the conflict next year, to start having peace talks with russian president volodymyr zelenskyy who he has met with face-to-face before in paris, for example, however, in the ukrainian population people here feel like they have invested so much in terms of blood and sweat and tears and sacrifice for this war. they will not be satisfied unless there is a return to pre 2014 boundaries. in other words, all of the territory that russia took before 2014 including illegally annex crimea, the ukrainians say

they must retake before they're willing to see this war come to an end. that might be different from the view held by some u.s. lawmakers and other western leaders. so that is going to be zelenskyy's challenge as a negotiator to try to convince washington that support for ukraine needs to include an end to the war on ukraine's terms, even though it was russia that started this. jim? >> russia invaded. will ripley, thanks so much. joining us to discuss susan page and retired air force colonel cedric leighton. cedric, this pits the u.s. and russia even more clearly than it was already clear against each other in this war. this is super power versus super power. >> it really is, jim. yeah. >> how does russia respond and does the u.s. need to prepare for some potential retaliation? >> i think it does because when you look at how the russians have matched their rhetoric with the actions of the west, you see kind of an interesting dance that the russians are doing. what they're moving into is

doing things like cementing their alliance with belarus, for example. one possibility is they could even go as far as potentially annexing the country. i mean, it looks like things are moving kind of in that direction. it might be not a de facto annexation -- >> annexing belarus. >> belarus as an actual part of the russian federation. if they go that way, that of course really ups the ante. that would be an extreme measure for the russian toss take. they will probably go a little bit less than that, but they will certainly from a military standpoint they will clearly use as many cruise missiles against ukrainian targets as they can before the patriot missile system gets in place in ukraine. >> susan page, there had been concern and still is concern with republicans taking over congress and the possible next speaker of the house saying there will be no more blank checks for ukraine that u.s. support for ukraine would waiver in terms of how much money, how

much arms -- how many arms are sent there. how important is this visit to push back against that? >> i think the terrain is going to get more complicated in washington when it comes to aid to ukraine once republicans take over the house. i mean, remember, 57 house republicans voted against the may aid package to ukraine, that number would be bigger we think in the new congress. but this visit can help get over the finish line that giant spending bill which includes $45 billion in aid to ukraine. that needs to pass by friday to keep the government open. and support for this aid package, military assistance that the president is expected to announce at his meeting at the white house today. i think one reason that democrats have been so eager to get this additional aid on its way, approved, is because they know it's going to be harder in the new year to get this kind of massive amounts of aid approved, jim. >> it's a great point before the omnibus, perhaps harder to vote against that bill given all the

ukraine aid in there after the ukrainian president leaves a war zone to address a giant session of congress. senator clayton, this is a massive security operation we should note to fly the ukrainian president from a war zone, his bunker in a war zone right here to the u.s. on a military jet. would there have been direct communication with russia from the u.s. side to say don't mess with us? >> i think there almost would have to have been communication of that type because what the united states wants to make sure of is that zelenskyy is protected at all costs and there had to have been a back channel to tell the russians not to touch anything that zelenskyy does in his travels or to do anything to him as he moves from place to place. he was at bakhmut right on the front lines just yesterday and now he's flying over here to d.c. that is an amazing logistical feat in and of itself and the russians have to have been kept at bay in order to keep them from doing what they wanted to do. >> a good note. from the front lines in the east

all the way to the other side of the planet to address congress. it's quite remarkable. susan, with he hear this phrase "just peace" repeated and u.s. officials will always be careful whenever they discuss an end to this war to say nothing without ukraine. in other words, ukraine has to be on board. when zelenskyy and biden speak about that in the white house today will biden be pushing ukraine or discussing or suggesting how to end this war in any way? >> you know, jim, there are a couple points of conflict actually between president biden and president zelenskyy. although they're careful to keep them in private. one is providing even more sophisticated military assistance, the united states has declined to provide some of the weapon systems that ukraine would like to see. another is how does this war end and the assumption by american officials is that if you're going to end a war you're going to to make some compromises even if the war wasn't your fault to begin with. that is a very hard message for president zelenskyy to deliver to the ukrainian people, but,

yes, the united states does not want this war to go on forever. we've been surprised in fact that it's gone on for these 300 days that the ukrainians have managed to hold the russians at bay this long. that can't last forever and is something i'm sure will be discussed privately between the two presidents today, jim. >> no question. the initial u.s. intel read was a kyiv would fall in 72 hours. that did not happen. thanks so much to both of you. >> thank you. all right. back home cities across the u.s. bracing for a massive winter storm, just as millions of people are traveling for the holidays. right now more than 25 states are under winter weather and windchill alerts. god knows, we are feeling it here in washington. it is shaping up to be a frigid christmas. out west in seattle snow already on the ground. every state in the lower 48 is expecting below freezing weather at some point this week. one major concern across the country of course flight delays and cancellations. cnn's omar jimenez is at

chicago's o'hair airport, meteorologist jennifer gray is at the cnn weather center. omar, first, i wonder what you are seeing there. are you seeing cancellations in advance of this? >> reporter: so far things have looked pretty good as far as delays, cancellations here. so thankfully nothing there. but the fear is once we get into tomorrow and the day after, as this weather really starts to take grip here, that that could be the reality for a lot of these passengers and it's gwhy lot of the folks we have been talking to today are people who have moved up their flights to try to get ahead of some of those winter-like conditions. for example, here at o'hair tomorrow is expected to be the busiest day o'hair anticipates over the course of this christmas holiday travel period and it's why -- it's also coincidentally the time when some of these winter conditions are coming in. we talked to a passenger a little earlier and he told us why he switched his travel. >> we were actually supposed to fly out to orlando tomorrow,

looking for the sun. then our agent he called up and said we are probably better off to leave early because they predict add snowstorm and cold temperatures the next few days. so we are on a 7:00 flight, a very "early start," but so be it. >> reporter: and, look, it's chicago, it's not like chicago doesn't know how to deal with snow or winter-like conditions but really it's going to be the combination of some snowfall, 3 to 5 inches is what's being forecast right now, but also winds, extremely low temperatures as you get around negative 30 at points this week, and when you combine all of those, not just here at airports, but for people trying to get out on the roads, those whiteout conditions can really create a dangerous situation for people just trying to make it home for christmas. >> no question. it's one of those holidays i'm glad i'm not flying. omar jimenez, thanks so much. let's go to the cnn weather center and meteorologist jennifer gray who is there. jennifer, i feel like every time

we look at this map the whole country is going to be affected. tell us who is going to be affected today. >> hey, jim. i can't hear you but i will tell you that the weather is going to get nasty by the time we get into tomorrow. the national weather service is saying this is a once in a generation event. so those are big words coming from the weather service. snow is getting going today across the dakotas, western minnesota. we will see blizzard-like conditions most likely by the time we get into tomorrow. those conditions could extend even into chicago thursday evening into friday. winter weather alerts stretching across nearly every state in the lower 48. looking at the potential for a foot of snow across the midwest, portions of michigan could see 12 to 18 inches of snow thursday into friday. chicago on into the eastern seaboard we will see a ripple effect there. also heavy rain across the i-95 corridor, but the windchill alerts are stretching all the way down to south texas, the florida panhandle.

look at these wind chills, 50 degrees below zero in casper, wyoming. these will be temperatures that people will never forget, jim. >> ouch. and you answered my question anyway. jennifer gray, thanks so much. >> thanks. still to come, americans will get a look at six years of donald trump's tax returns in the coming days. why a house committee is now releasing them and crucially where they said the irs made a big mistake. omission during his time in the white house and why. plus a cnn exclusive, which key witness was urged by trump's ethics lawyer to distort her testimony to the january 6th committee. it's notable. plus, you haven't bought that gift yet? time is running out. we will look at how the economy has impacted your shopping and just what that means for americans' wallets in the new year. oh man..

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two new ihop lunch and dinner menu items for twice the goodness, twice the flavor, and twice the choice. sirloin salisbury steak and all-natural salmon. perfect for lunch or dinner. only at ihop. download the app and earn free food with every purchase. after years of legal wrangling as well as misdirection from the man who signed them we are days away from seeing former president donald trump's tax returns. the ways and means committee voted to release six years of trump's taxes to the public, those expected to be redacted to take out any personal information released within a matter of days. lauren fox joins me live now. so, lauren, trump said couldn't release them because they're being audited. irs has a policy to do mandatory

audits for sitting presidents. does not believe that either of those things were true. >> reporter: well, i think one important caveat here is that the mandatory audit program, and let me just remind people what that does, they are supposed to every time a president and vice president comes into office look into those individuals' tax returns when they get into office. that program is, you know, really centralized within irs. are there other audits that could have been going on? i don't think that that's what the ways and means committee is referring to here, but their argument is they needed trump's tax returns because they needed to understand whether or not that mandatory audit program was working efficiency and what the chairman of the committee is saying is that it was not really working how it was supposed to. and that the first two years of his presidency that program never audited the former president's tax returns. in fact, what neil argued in that report last night that was released was that instead they did not begin that process of

auditing the returns until 2019, when neil sent a letter to treasury requesting six years of the former president's tax returns and asking for them because he said he needed to understand if the mandatory audit program was working effectively and efficiently. that obviously was not occurring according to house democrats. there's also just going to be a lot more fallout from this. like you've said, it's going to take a couple of days to do the redactions needed to release the tax returns in their raw form, but once we get them we're going to get a better sense of how the former president operated in terms of paying those taxes and what he was paying. >> exactly. crucially what he was paying, what rate. lauren fox, thanks so much. now to a cnn exclusive this morning. a disturbing allegation from the house january 6th committee. cnn has learned that the committee says the top ethics attorney in the trump white house urged a key witness to give misleading testimony. sources say the lawyer advised former trump white house aide

cassidy hutchinson to tell the committee she did not recall details even if she did recall details. joining me with more on this exclusive reporting cnn's paula reid. goodness. okay. what exactly did the lawyer tell cassidy hutchinson and what's the legal significance of that. >> it's incredibly significant. the just i'm team has learned that the top ethics attorney at the trump white house allegedly advised his then client to tell the committee she did not recall details that she actually did. this is one of several instances in which the committee has accused members of trump's orbit of trying to obstruct the panel's investigation. interestingly, trump's save america political action committee funded the attorney and his law firm including paying for his representation of hutchinson. in a statement to cnn he said he did not advice hutchinson to mislead the committee saying, quote, i represented ms.

hutchinson honorably, ethically and fully consistent with her sole interesting as she communicated them to me. before her public testimony she dropped him and got a new lawyer and she wound up being, of course, a blockbuster witness for the committee. now, two sources familiar with the situation tell cnn that hutchinson has discussed this episode with the justice department. look, that was just one of the bigger bombshells from monday's hearing. today the committee will release its full and final report. likely more to come. >> paula reid, thanks so much. joining me to discuss legal implications of all of this elliot williams. you know the law better than me. so a lawyer tells a witness in an investigation -- regarding sworn testimony -- you can say i don't recall events even if you do recall events. is that perjury? >> you know, jim, it was charitable to say i know the lawyer better than you because you were spot on right there

with your legal assessment which is that you cannot direct a witness to not tell the truth which is what? effect seems to have happened here. look, witnesses often don't recall information specifically that they are asked and that's okay, human memories are fragile sometimes and you tell a witness if you don't remember say i don't recall but you do not tell a witness to say they don't recall the facts if they actually can, and that absolutely might be perjury or false statements, that in itself is a crime directing somebody to give a false statement under oath. >> the lawyer's statement says that he represented his client in, quote, her sole interest. can the lawyer make an argument that he was advising her so she doesn't potentially incriminate herself? >> both things can be true, you can advise someone not to incriminate themselves but also not advise them to fabricate facts or conceal facts that themselves are material, right? he was in effect based on the information that we seem to have

here, directing her to provide information that just wasn't accurate under oath. both of those things can coexist. now, look, you can say you may be in trouble with your statements here, but lying is itself an act of perjury so be careful. >> let's talk about trump's taxes here. first of all, to the justification for accessing these returns and now releasing them. the committee their argument from the beginning had been we're doing this not to expose trump's dirty laundry, in effect, we're doing this because we want to assess whether mandatory auditing of presidential tax returns was actually happening. is that -- are they following that, right? given that, yes, they are looking into that, they say it didn't work and that seems to be important, but they are also going to release the other information. >> right. they are following it because the law allows them to have access to individual tax returns and work with them toward legislation and so on, right?

now, they are also congress and they have the right to release something publicly. the problem is that they didn't quite say that that's what the plan was. now, look, any viewer watching probably could have anticipated this outcome, given the extreme public interest in the former president's tax returns, but they sort of spoke out of both sides of their mouth here, claiming as was their right that they can legislate around this but also then turning around and immediately releasing them which the law does not obligate them to do. they did not have to publicly release the tax returns. >> okay. i remember republican criticisms of the irs and you the obama administration that it was being weaponized. here you have an irs in the trump administration that did not, it appears, follow irs policy and audit the sitting president's records and then it did only after the committee commented, but then they assigned one person to do it. i wonder is there the appearance at least of undue influence over the operations of the irs? >> there's absolutely at least

the appearance, jim, and this would be a perfect avenue for congressional oversight next year for congress to look into what exactly happened under the trump administration when he was in charge and had control of the irs. the problem is that that's highly unlikely given the partisan makeup of congress. >> good political predictions, even from a lawyer, right? we're all going beyond what we know. i'm just kidding. a smart point. elliot williams, thanks so much. >> thanks, jim. still ahead, cnn is live on both sides of the u.s. southern border as a surge of migrants waits to cross and the biden administration asks the supreme court to let title 42 end, but not just yet. we are minutes away from the opening bell. stock futures pointing higher this morning ahead of the release of some key economic data today. investors expecting numbers from existing home sales and consumer confidence data. markets broke a four-day losing

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the biden administration wants the supreme court to allow a policy restricting migrants from entering the u.s. due to covid concerns to end, but not for at least another week. it was the trump administration that originally put title 42 into place because of the pandemic. that policy was set to end

today, until chief justice john roberts hit a pause on that deadline. the administration says it needs more time due to ongoing preparations for an influx of migrants in the upcoming days. during this limbo migrants are facing new uncertainty as well as freezing temperatures in the days ahead. for more cnn, again, on both sides of the border in the south david culver in ciudad juarez, mexico, rosa flores in brownsville, texas. rosa, i wonder what the preparations look like now as this influx may have had delayed but is still expected. >> reporter: you know, let me set the scene for you. i'm in brownsville, texas, what you see here this is the border wall. i want you to look through this border wall because that is mexico and that is where migrants were hoping to turn themselves in today. the scheduled day that title 42 was to end. now, i want to give you a bird's eye view because we have a mass

cam by cnn engineer michael humphrey. the reason i want to give you this bigger picture is because you're able to see the rio grande and this bridge. this is where migrants were hoping and expecting to be lining up today, the day that title 42 was scheduled to lift. they were hoping to turn themselves in to border authorities because that's how they see that they can come to the united states legally, but instead they are yards away. let's please take the drone shot from our cnn drone pilot al meshberg. he is just yards from where we are and he has eyes in the sky in mexico. that what you're seeing is a migrant camp. there are thousands of migrants that are sleeping under tents or under tarps. i've been in contact with migrants there, they are tired, they are hungry, they are cold and the anticipation and the anxiety is building because they are still there waiting. so much so they have been

purchasing inflatable rafts to cross the river. i want to show you this video now that we've obtained from a migrant there at that camp. that shows migrants are losing patience, they are getting more anxious and they are actually crossing the river. that's what that video shows. if you look closely you will see that there's a group of individuals gathered on the mexican side and they're actually providing commentary. you can hear them say that they're tired, that the process is too long, and then they point to the other side of the river, on the u.s. side, and they say, look, u.s. immigration authorities are watching all of this happen and, jim, if you look at that video, i mean, this is in broad daylight. that is what is happening right now, and, again, this is the buildup and the anticipation that migrants on that side of the border are feeling right now because of this limbo. they're hoping to enter the united states legally, but they're losing their patience. jim? >> rosa flores understandably. thanks so much.

cnn's david culver is on the mexican side of the border in ciudad juarez. david, you've been speaking to migrants there as well. do they tell you what exactly they're seeking in the u.s. and what is their case for asylum? >> reporter: a better life is what most will tell you here. they are having come from many miles away from many countries away, jim, and having made a trek that was many months long, going through jungles, gang infested countries and so for them to see barbed wire and a few national guardsmen blocking it's not going to dissuade them from that entrance. just in the past few hours overnight we saw major changes here at this portion. what you see behind me are hundreds of migrants who are lined up, that is the u.s. side so they have already crossed illegally over the rio grande but are hoping to turn themselves in to then begin the processing. this is different from where the

texas national guards members as well as the texas state troopers were setd up with that barricade that rolled out yesterday. let me show you this video that one of our colleagues captured overnight. you will see a rush of migrants leaving that bare raided area and rushing a mile to this direction. why are they doing that? it seems customs and border patrol were having conversations ands they really had been the only agency to have that comfortable dialogue with the migrants over the barricade and said come to this gate and we will begin the processing. little by little you've seen groups of five to ten people being allowed in to then start the processing. those who are staying out are trying to keep warm in these freezing really very difficult witness and they're hoping that that will continue through the next few hours and days and that they will be able to seek their case for asylum, jim. >> and the many weeks, months, perhaps years before those cases are adjudicated. david culver in ciudad juarez, thanks so much. still ahead as americans

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( ♪ ) sixt. rent the car. this may be the most wonderful time of the year, but, boy, is it expensive this time around, hanukkah already had, christmas a few days away, with rampant inflation and a tough economic outlook for 2023 some aren't spending like in years past. kayla, good to have you on this morning. listen, we've been covering inflation for some time, this is a time of year when people like to spend, right? they want to do nice things for the family and friends.

are we seeing inflation impacting the way people are spending these holidays? >> good morning. and, yeah, we absolutely are. i think the biggest evidence we've seen so far was in last week's retail sales report where we saw that spending declined compared to october in both real and nominal terms. i think really what we're seeing is that inflation is putting a lot more pressure on consumer budgets, making them a lot more price sensitive, maybe looking for more discounts and the ability to trade down and that's really -- having this high inflation has just sort of eaten away at purchasing power and made it harder for consumers to spend as much as they would like to around the holidays. >> let's look to next year. we've seen the pace of inflation slow, pricing still going up but a slower rate month to month in recent months. and we've seen the fed at least ratchet down the size of their interest rate increases from 75 basis points to r50 basis

points. where do economic analysts yourself included see next year going in terms of the chance of a soft landing or hard landing and a recession? >> there is a lot of uncertainty and there's a lot of room for error in both directions. i do still see a path towards potentially a softer landing. a lot of sectors of the economy really have held up to date pretty well, specifically the labor market, it has really been a source of stability and strength, despite the very large increases we've seen already in interest rates. we haven't had a huge uptick in unemployment. we've had these high profile layoffs but not necessarily high impact at the aggregate level for unemployment. so if the labor market continues to hold up that could really help support spending and enable this softer landing. >> so we just put up a graph there i want to put up again which is wage increases versus price increases and the directions are good there, if we

could put it up on the screen again. you do see the cpi coming down and average earnings going up just a little bit. you want those to meet, right? you want the dark line to cross the green line. is that where it's going, where pay increases will outpace price increases? >> it's a good question and especially after what we've seen all year. wage growth, it doesn't account for all income but it's a pretty good proxy for income and the fact that for 2022 it has not been keeping up with price growth that basically key kwats to declining purchasing power all year. that's what's gotten us to where we are. inflation slowing is a good sign and definitely essential for us to avoid any major crisis next year. absolutely inflation does seem to be heading in the right direction and there's reasons to think that will continue. wage growth, though, if unemployment does pick up, which is likely with more rate increases, wage growth could be

likely to slow as well. so it's a bit of a question how much that gap will narrow and how quickly. >> yeah. lots of uncertainty. some hopeful signs, but still lots of uncertainty. kayla bruun, thanks so much. >> thank you. all right. so the latest, elon musk says he will step down as twitter's ceo with a catch. musk says he first needs to find his successor or as he put it someone foolish enough to take the job. quite an advertisement. the announcement is the result, he says, of a twitter poll he created where 57% of more than 17 million users who took part voted for him to resign. musk also tweeted that he will continue to run twitter's software and server teams, by the way, he will still own the company. since acquiring twitter less than two months ago musk has faced backlash over a few things, mass layoffs, the suspension of journalists, and a variety of unpopular policy changes. still ahead, a cnn exclusive

on a biden administration investigation. how did u.s. components get into iranian drones that russia is now firing at ukraine? that report coming up. every year we try to exercise more, to be momore social, to just relax. and eating healthy .. .. .. lily! welcome to our third bark-ery. oh, i can tell business is going through the “woof”. buseriously we need a reliable way to help keep everyone connected from wherevewe go. well at at&t we'll lp you find the righwireless plan for you. so, you can st connected to all your drivers anstores on america's most reliable 5g network. that sounds just paw-fect. terrier-iffic

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policies. they were-to-women can also no longer work in most sectors, and they've been ordered to cover their faces in public. turning back the clock. now to a cnn exclusive -- the biden administration is trying to figure out how western technology is getting into the iranian drones. they're now being used by russia to devastating effect. they're launching them by the hundreds into the country, according to officials. natasha bertrand is here with more reporting. how is this happening? does the white house know? >> this is really an all hands on deck effort by the administration. they have tasked this massive task force across the agencies from the pea to the state department to treasury, commerce to try to figure out how the

u.s. components of ending of in the iranian-made drones. really what they've been doing is just notifying all of the american companies that they're products are being found in these drones. those drones are being shot down by ukrainian forces, that are then dismantling them. processors, microchips are actually being used as part of the iranian drones. it's important to note that the u.s. has imposed very tough sanctions on iranian firms who are believed to be involved in manufacturing these drones. they have also sanctioned russian entities who are purchasing them. ultimately it's so easy to get these components that it is very difficult for these american companies to track down every single middle man and distributor who may be giving them to bad entities. >> that's the focus of the administration, not that the u.s. manufacturers are selling

directly, but selling to the open market and somehow a middle man gets them to iran. >> exactly. actually, tuft companies whose products have been found in the drone, texas instruments, has said we're not selling to any of these bad entities making these drones, but the problem is the supply chain. that is what critics are saying, these companies need to have a better eye on, better control over. >> you also have new reporting on a new decidingation that congress is weighing when it comes to russia, what is that? >> really interesting. the administration has been working with congress to try to draft this proposal that would designate russia as an aggressor state. this is a step down from the designation that ukrainians have been wanting. it allows new sanctions on senior russian officials, but, according to say critics, it also could be easier to rescind.

it's an interesting di234578ic. ultimately we waiting to see whether president zelenskyy, when in congress tonight, addresses this idea. still ahead, the immense preparations for the ukrainian president volodymyr zezelenskyy arrival at the white house. we'll have the details, next. me? ♪ our dell technologies advisors provide you with the tools and expertise you need to do incredible things. because we believe there's an innovator in all of us. get refunds.com powered by innovation refunds can help your business get a payroll tax refund, even if you got ppp

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top of the hour, a significant day here in the nation's capital. i'm gym scuitto. president zelenskyy is now on his way to washington, his first trip outside of hi