$965 million to the victims of the sandy hook school shooting massacre. we re getting reaction about the verdict and impact of jones lies about the shooting. also tonight, russia launches mass casualty missile strikes in ukraine. as the u.s. and nato scramble to beef up ukrainian air defenses. i ll ask white house national security official john kirby about administration s response to vladimir putin s provocation and learning more about tomorrow s january 6th hearing and new evidence that will be presented. the select committee poised to argue that former president trump remains a clear and present danger to democracy in america. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re the situation room. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. let s get right to the top story. a connecticut s jury massive judgment against alex jones for spreading lies and conspiracies about the sandy hook elementary school shooting. for more on
the meaning of it. is the transcript going to be released? is there any way to tell what whitaker actually said? well, unfortunately for us, this was behind closed doors today. there is no transcript. so like most things in life, it will come down to credibility determination and whose side you believe and which one sounds more like the facts. laura jarrett, thank you. you ll recall the question of whether the president asked him acting attorney general to take action against the southern district. it has come up before. such as this moment not long after whitaker s testimony. did you ask acting attorney general matthew whitaker to change the leadership of the investigation into your former personal attorney michael cohen? no. not at all. i don t know who gave you that that is more fake news. a lot of there is a lot of fake news out there. so does the president still believe that? seeing as kaitlin colins joins
the white house is given all kinds ever answers as to why this is happening. what is the truth? cnn kaitlin colins is live at the white house. and kaitlin, the administration seems to have so many different explanations and stories about this. why can t they get the stories straight. reporter: jake, they have so many here. we ve seen them play out from officials from the policy doesn t exist and it does exist but not as bad as the media is making it sound and it is the democrats fault and it deteres people from crossing the board illegally. none of those things are true but the white house is continuing to insist that they are. president trump not backing down on his false claim that democrats are to blame for his administration s zero tolerance immigration policy leading to the separation of parents from children on the border. it s very strongly the democrats fault. the united states will not be say migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility.
testifying that kim jong-un loves the people that he imprisons and brutallio presses and seemingly justifying that treatment as what kim has seen done before by his father and grandfather. kaitlin colins is live in singapore. before the summit pompeo said the goal was complete and verifiable and irreversible denuclearization, was that goal met? if not, is there a path to it? reporter: well, jake, that language wasn t included in that agreement that president trump signed his name to alongside kim jong-un but neither was a lot else that we haven t seen from former presidents during past agreements with the north koreans. now to be clear, this summit was flashy. had a lot of pageantry and fanfare but now this agreement is going to come down to the substance and it is going to face the first test as mike pompeo is getting on the road and going to have to sell this idea to key u.s. allies explaining how what happened
as the white house today deals with another mess over a staffer s cruel joke about john mccain s health, the chief of staff john kelly is trying to clean up his own comments after telling npr that president trump is, quote, embarrassed by the russia investigation and that it lacks, quote, real meat on the bone in his words. retired marine general saying he meant the president is distracted, not embarrassed by special counsel robert mueller probe but the tape seems to say otherwise. kaitlin colins is back from the white house. really a remarkable shift on some very important words there, kaitlin. reporter: jim, i believe the phrase is damage control. now we don t often here from the chief of staff john kelly and the last time he did an interview he said that the president s views on immigration had evolved and the president quickly rebuked him for saying as much. so it seems like john kelly is trying to steer clear of something like that happening